Chapters 26

Chapter 26: Happily Ever After

Jaxon

“There you are.”

Jaxon turned at Rawson’s voice. Jaxon felt as though he’d become obsolete since the argument in the woods with Cain. Rawson and Cain rarely talked to him, never mind acknowledged that he was there. Jaxon remained around, keeping close to Wrenley, but even she was distracted by everything else.

Everyone else.

He looked at Rawson for the first time in a week. Jaxon had kept his gaze from meeting any of theirs except Wrenley’s.

Rawson didn’t look at him in any particular way. Not as if they used to be best friends. Or lovers. Or something deeper than that; bears who’d wanted to be mates. It was as if Jaxon were any other person within Bear Tower Heights.

Sighing, sliding his hands in his pockets as he faced Rawson. “Yea, here I am.”

The corner of his lips quirked up as he turned to walk away. “Come with me. I have something for you.”

Jaxon raised a brow. Rawson didn’t wait to see if he planned to go along. Jaxon considered not following, but his curiosity won out.

He’d been sitting in the courtyard of the big house. That which belonged to the Primal where Rawson lived. Since they’d arrived back from the confrontation with the Women of Chaos, Cain had moved into Rawson’s room permanently. And although Raider hadn’t made any show of it, he was there, too. Of course, Wrenley had never had another room.

Jaxon wasn’t sure where he was supposed to be anymore.

Rawson led him to the jail house. Jaxon hesitated before stepping inside, trailing more slowly behind. Ahead, Rawson paused in front of a cell, waiting for Jaxon to catch up. As he approached, Rawson set the key into the lock and held up a hunting knife towards Jaxon, the handle towards him in offering.

Jaxon had already killed all the men that had hurt Wrenley. Those he hadn’t, Raider took care of. Quite spectacularly, too. Jaxon peered inside when he stopped in front of the door, his body immediately filling with fury.

Vienna was huddled on the floor, looking up with big, pleading eyes.

He didn’t ask questions. Taking the knife from Rawson, he swung the cell door open and moved quickly across the small space before Rawson could change his mind.

Raider had been too distracted with Wrenley shrieking at the decapitated hands still ringing her neck as she flailed under the spray of blood to truly lay into Vienna. After he’d sliced her arms off in the middle of her forearms, he’d turned away to look at Wrenley with concern. Vienna fell to the ground, screaming in agony and fear.

Jaxon had lost track of her after that, though he suspected that she’d been ‘dealt with’. Not in a way that he’d have been satisfied with, but he hadn’t gone looking for her either. There were too many other things on his mind that kept him occupied.

But right now, this was the best gift that anyone could give him.

He forced her to her feet by a handful of hair. Before she could do more than screech in pain, Jaxon plunged the knife deep into her chest. Not into her heart but her lung, making sure that her breathing was stunted and assuring that she’d also bleed out while suffocating from blood seeping into her lung.

Vienna gasped, trying to get a proper breath. Her eyes bulged, filled with terror, anguish, and pleading. Jaxon let her fall back to the ground. He remained there, watching her die. Ensuring that she did.

When she’d been dead for a solid minute, Jaxon turned to face Rawson. He’d watched with his hands clasped behind his back, a serene look upon his face.

“Feel better?” Rawson asked.

He wasn’t sure what that meant. Had Rawson thought he’d been quiet and distant because Vienna still lived?

Frowning, Jaxon headed for the door and exited the cell. “No,” he said. “But I appreciate the opportunity to kill her without having to do so when you would have stood in my way.”

Rawson nodded as Jaxon turned and left the jail house. It wasn’t long before Rawson caught up, falling into stride beside him. He didn’t speak as he followed Jaxon back to the courtyard and retook his perch against the wall.

Rawson looked around for a minute, studying the courtyard as if he were looking for something. Finally, he looked at Jaxon perplexed. “Okay, why are you out here?”

“Trying to figure out how my life fell apart,” Jaxon said.

Rawson raised a brow. “Are you?”

Jaxon shrugged. “Actually, no. But maybe the follow up to that. How do I build the life I want?”

“Maybe that’s not the question, either,” Rawson said quietly. He sat beside Jaxon, leaning against the wall with his knees bent. “I think first you need to determine what you want. And then you can decide how to build it.”

He shook his head. “When do you plan to announce your mating to the clan?”

“Were you not there for that conversation?” Rawson asked. Jaxon glanced at him and shrugged. If he had been, he was clearly not paying attention. “Tomorrow evening. The clans are returning within the next twenty-four hours. I think, given the uniqueness in this situation, I’d like all clans to be present. I want to announce the larger picture. Encourage the idea that yes, the sky makes mistakes from time to time, but that doesn’t mean it's wrong all the time. Rejection is not an ostracizing event. We don’t want anyone to leave the clans. We will work better at putting programs in place to help those who are going through a rejection to cope, mentally, physically, and emotionally. And that the sky is also changing what it means to be given a mating assignment. It’s not always between two individuals anymore. The structure of a mate-bond can be had in many different configurations. My family is the example.”

Jaxon thought there’d be a more profound feeling within him regarding this. It was all the right things. All the ideas they’d talked about for years. Rawson was making it happen. And Jaxon was actually involved.

But, he also wasn’t. Though his bond to both Cain and Wrenley hadn’t changed at all, he felt like an outsider looking in. He felt intruding.

When Cain and Rawson exchanged bites, solidifying bonds between them as well, it added another layer of dynamics within the bond pool. He wasn’t even going to touch on the oddity that was Raider in there. He felt like a feral storm ready to eat them all from the inside. He didn’t even mean that figuratively. Jaxon definitely had the impression that Raider could physically eat them from the inside through his bond with Wrenley.

“Sounds good,” Jaxon said, turning his attention back to Rawson.

“Yea? You think that’s the right approach? Am I missing anything?”

Jaxon raised a brow. “Sounds like you and Cain have it all figured out.”

“The programs were Wren’s idea,” Rawson said. “Raider thought it best to address the whole Woman of Chaos thing at the same time, since it apparently started with a rejection, my rejection. In a way, it all falls together, coming full circle.”

“I have nothing to add,” Jaxon said.

Rawson nodded. He didn’t respond for a second before sighing. “What do you need from us, Jax?” he asked quietly.

“Me?”

Rawson shifted to look at him, leaning his shoulder and head against the wall. “I understand that maybe I went about dealing with becoming Deputy wrong and those decisions hurt you. I will apologize until I go hoarse if that’s what you need. I promise you, I spent every moment I had trying to find a way to have you and Cain as my mates. And… Cain’s right. We want you to be an active part of our family. We’ve never stopped loving you. Never stopped wanting to be with you. But we can’t allow your wall of hate to pollute our bonds with Wrenley.”

“She’s no longer something you’re settling for, hm?”

Rawson chuckled. “Again, not one of my finest moments, Jax. She’s coming around to trust me, but I work at that shit every single day.” He rested his hand on Jaxon’s arm a moment, squeezing it gently. “You were right. Wrenley was what we needed all along.”

Jaxon closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the wall. “I don’t know what I need. What I want is to be able to move past all this, but I’ve been angry for so long that I don’t know how to forgive you. Even if I believe you, how do I push it all aside long enough to allow myself to heal?”

“You know, Wrenley’s talked to a lot of the bears we brought back from the woods. We’ve accompanied her from time to time and listened to the reasons they left. How they felt. It sounds like maybe you experience some similar emotions, Jax. Similar trauma. It wasn’t a rejection from the sky’s fucked up assignments but maybe that makes it worse. That damage fades over time. And when the assignment is fully diminished, most of their emotional upset has also been washed away. Only the experience, the embarrassment, the humiliation remains. But maybe it was worse for you because this wasn’t handed to you by the sky and therefore, there was nothing to wash away. This remained every day because of what we were to each other.”

“You’re saying I could benefit from these programs that Wrenley suggested putting together?” Jaxon asked, raising a brow.

“Yes, probably. To help you do exactly what you don’t know how to do on your own. And when you can find that peace, then you can decide if you want to be with us.”

“I do,” Jaxon said, surprising himself by the admission. “But I don’t know how to… get there.”

Rawson sighed, smiling. “You have no idea how relieved I am to hear you want to be a part of us,” he whispered.

Even in a tone so low, Jaxon could hear the emotion in it. He was stunned to feel that Rawson’s tone actually hurt. There was an ache in Jaxon’s chest at the emotion that had filled Rawson’s voice.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to let go after all. Maybe it was more mental than anything. Maybe he was just so used to being angry, concentrating on how it felt like they chose something stupid over him and what they were building, that it was easy to keep going down that road.

But hearing that maybe his grief was similar to those who had been rejected, Jaxon was relieved that he hadn’t joined those idiots living in the woods. He’d never actually left Cain and Rawson because he’d always hoped that at some point, they’d finally get their heads out of their asses and choose Jaxon again.

Yet, when that time came, Jaxon was not prepared to let them back in. He needed to punish them first. In the meantime, he had lost Wrenley, too. They’d begun getting to know each other and then Jaxon had fucked that up with his anger.

“Want to go in?” Rawson asked. “Find Cain and Wrenley?”

“Where’s her fae?” It’s not that he hated Raider. It’s that Raider hadn’t been within the three mates meant for Wrenley. It felt like an intrusion that Jaxon was having a hard time wrapping his head around and accepting.

Rawson smirked. “With his family. They arrived early and he’s spending some time with his parents, sister, and sister’s newly mated.”

Jaxon nodded. “Yea, okay.”

“I don’t want to push you, but you really need to learn to get along with him. He and Cain are definitely Wrenley’s favorite people, Jax.”

Jaxon scowled. “I know. I can’t help but feel that we were jipped. She was meant for us and now we have to share her with someone that’s not even a bear!”

Rawson chuckled as he got to his feet. “He’s really not that bad. Besides, I think you two are going to get along. He’s got the same destructive tendencies you do, though I think his are based in a part that was awakened when he let his fae face out.”

“Oh yea?”

“I overheard him ask if he could take a bite out of someone for looking at Wrenley in a way he perceived as insulting. Of course, he didn’t actually say it quietly. He’d had every intention of being overheard, sending the bear running and almost wetting himself.”

Jaxon snorted.

“The most disturbing part was that I think he’d actually have done so,” Rawson said thoughtfully.

“Of course, he would have. You heard the Primals. Fae are violent and feral. And we’ve seen what he did to those bears who had Wrenley outside of the pit.” It was one of Jaxon’s favorite memories. Seeing Wrenley’s tormentors murdered in a brutal and bloody fashion for everyone to see. Even if not done by himself.

He followed Rawson into one of the dens on the far side of the house. Now that Vienna wasn’t trolling around, Rawson had been more apt to utilize other rooms outside of his own. Especially once Cain had argued that keeping Wrenley locked up in their room (yes, he said ‘their room’ as if it now belonged to all of them) was not how they should be treating their mate.

Wrenley was sitting curled in Cain’s lap as they read a book together. It was sickeningly sweet and something that Jaxon was immediately upset about. No, not upset. Jealous. But he wasn’t sure which of them he was jealous.

Rawson sat next to them, and Jaxon watched as Wrenley smiled at him. Warmly. Sweetly. He’d been right. She was learning to trust him.

Jaxon picked his gaze up to Cain to find the other man watching him. It had been a long time since he’d looked in Cain’s light eyes. He almost forgot how much he’d always loved staring in them.

Cain regarded him in the same way Rawson had when standing outside Vienna’s cell. Neutral. Serene.

Jaxon remained in the door, looking in at the little family he’d always wanted. Not imagining that it would include a beautiful woman but knowing it wouldn’t be right without her.

“Come here, Jax,” Cain said. His voice made Wrenley look up. First at Cain and then following his gaze to Jaxon. Her expression was guarded but it wasn’t closed.

Jaxon nodded, moving into the room, and sitting on Cain’s opposite side than Rawson. Wrenley shifted so she could see him. There still wasn’t a smile on her delicate lips but there wasn’t any hostility, either. Only caution. Uncertainty.

“You going to be a part of our family now?” Wrenley asked after a few long minutes had passed in which the three of them had studied Jaxon silently.

Jaxon sat there, trying to keep himself readable. To keep the constant pent-up emotion of the past five years from making him act like a bear’s tail.

“I’m sorry,” Jaxon murmured. “I don’t know how to get by the hurt I’ve been drowning in for so long that I no longer remember any other way to be. But yes, this is all I’ve ever wanted.”

“Raider isn’t here right this second but he’s very much a part of this family,” Wrenley said.

Sighing, Jaxon nodded. “Yea, I know. It’s not something that’s going to come quite as easily for me as it has to Rawson and Cain.”

She shrugged. “I don’t need you to be best friends overnight. Just stop being so growly and determined to keep him away from me. He’s mine.” Jaxon gave her a half-smile, but he could feel the sadness in it. Wrenley frowned at his expression. “Seriously, why are you so determined to hate him?”

“I don’t. I’m selfish enough that I don’t want to share you with him. That’s all.”

Wrenley rolled her eyes. “What’s one more?”

Rawson chuckled, shaking his head.

“From the moment I saw you, I knew inside me that you were going to be the reason we could be together. That doesn’t mean that you’re a byproduct or a bonus or anything stupid. You’re our heart. Our center. Raider never fit into that feeling. In my already aggressive mood, it just added to my anger and desperation.”

“I understand,” she said, making Jaxon look at her with question. “I spent every ounce of energy I had being pissed that I was here, believing that the Operators had just been asshats to me and wanted to guarantee my failure. I had no interest in this fairy tale. I’d spent so long on the other, studying everything I could about it, and then was thrust into this with no time to prepare. I carried that anger around with me like a shield. But also, a handicap. Even without realizing it, a friend of mine had provided me with the little nudge I needed to recognize that, while it was okay to be overwhelmed with emotion and make mistakes, it doesn’t mean you can’t grow and learn from them. It doesn’t mean you’re in the wrong place, either.”

“You all have these great insights while I’m over here just… flailing,” Jaxon said, leaning his head back on the couch and staring at the ceiling.

“No. I think you already had your moment of self-understanding. You just did so silently and on your own.”

“What makes you think that?” he asked, fearing she was giving him far too much credit. He glanced her way when he felt her gentle touch on his arm. His heart raced to find a small smile on her lips directed at him. “Because you’re here, ready to move on. Ready to be a part of us. Knowing that it’s not going to be as easy as just saying that that’s what you’re going to do but that you’re going to have to work on it, emotionally and mentally. Especially in accepting Raider as my freaky fae mate.”

“Freaky fae mate.” Raider’s amused drawl had them all looking towards the door. A pang of jealousy surged through Jaxon at the smile Wrenley flashed at Raider as he walked in the room. But now that he was paying attention, he felt that echo from Rawson, too. “I don’t think that’s the official term, Wren.”

He dropped to his knees in front of Cain, leaning in and kissing Wrenley. It was soft, thoroughly adoring as they filled the bonds with mushy affection that had Rawson and Jaxon both fought to hide their envy. Jaxon hadn’t noticed Rawson’s reactions were so like his own until now. He glanced towards him, and Rawson met his gaze. He gave Jaxon an abused smile, acknowledging that Jaxon felt his reaction.

It wasn’t hard to determine that Rawson was letting Jaxon feel it intentionally. Rawson was good about keeping everything in him under control. That’s what makes him the best candidate for Primal. That’s why Inyas had determined that he was the be Deputy of Aspen Clan.

Admitting that and liking it were two different things.

“Welcome home, Jaxon,” Raider said, drawing his attention back to the fae. Raider was smiling at him, leaning his head against Wrenley’s as he watched Jaxon. “Cain thinks he’s going to have to keep us apart or we’ll end up tearing this place apart.”

Jaxon looked at Cain. There was resignation in his sigh. “Don’t get any ideas, Jax. You’re so frequently in the cells that there’s one dedicated solely for you.”

Wrenley giggled.

Jaxon smiled. For the first time in years, he thought that maybe he was heading in a good place. With those he loved, the one he knew he’d love infinitely, and someone he was going to get along with just fine.

Probably.

At least the trees had stopped bleeding and their fairy tale was fixed. He had mates. And with everyone smiling at him, he found that maybe he was ready to heal.

Finally. He’d get a happily ever after even better than what he’d been fighting for. This one included a gorgeous woman and a fae who wanted to eat people. Life was going to be just fine.