Who is Magpie?

Everything ached like she had just been run over and she was exhausted, but she was also angry. She knew she had survived the attack because she had been trained on handling multiple assailants. ‘He knew what she is capable of’. The response after she had killed the first wolven echoed in her mind.

She had never been in a fight quite like that one, but she had gone straight for the kill without a seconds hesitation. She wondered greatly if the other women in the house would have thought so briefly before tearing out someone’s throat before she realized she didn’t care. Jessamine wanted them to regret what they did to her by using everything she learnt to bite them in the ass.

Her mind had completely wandered off, thinking about everything so deeply that everything else was just white noise. She didn’t even have the thought process to reject being sat down on the king bed with blood and dirt that remained on her. Instead she rest her head on the pillow facing the door, and stared through the other men as they spoke.

“What happened out there?” Bronx demanded, finally able to talk to him as a brother, in the privacy of the bedroom.

Ezekiel rubbed his neck. “I followed the two for a while, they had a camp set up where the mountains met, but it looked as though there had been a lot more there. At least 8-11 other wolven had been there not long ago, and I don’t think these two knew they were gone.”

“Like how recently though, a few days?… hours?…” Bronx asked, mind trying to catch up.

“I don’t know. It’s unclear if it was meant to be a trap as Jessa thought, or they never believed they would succeed.” Ezekiel admitted, looking back to Jessamine for her insight but seeing she wasn’t paying attention. “Regardless, I only got one. One of them fucked off through a cave system and I’m not stupid enough to shift back and follow him through that.” Bronx was nodding that that was understandable when he noticed Jessamine’s blank stare too.

“I need to tell you about her,” Bronx began, telling him other details about the attack that he and Jessamine had discussed.

Ezekiel’s mind started reeling as theirs did, realizing the Fae and rogues were working together was a game changer. Not only was this problem much worse, but there was so much to wonder about their plan and what arrangements had been made.

Jessamine was in no condition to answer their hundreds of questions, but they knew they couldn’t wait long to ask them. Her eyes looked straight through them, not even to the bathroom but at the second set of doors they had closed. They both moved to bracket her before either of them spoke.

“Jessa?” Ezekiel urged.

“Who is ‘he’?” She said suddenly. “It’s not the Martin, he sent me here… so it’s a ‘he’ wolven?” She pondered to herself rubbing the side of her head with the base of her hand where she could feel a headache starting. “He must have met me, seen me at least, to go through so much trouble and expect loss… right? But they’re working with the Fae, and there’s no way this deal is less than a month old. So did he fault on the deal?…”

Her mind kept rotating. “If they didn’t fault then this was their plan, if this was their plan they expected I’d live after breaking in here? Were they always going to break me out some how? But the drugs, so they expected I’d die, and now that I’m alive, so what? Do they want back an investment? But want back why?”

Both men tried to console her but it wouldn’t have helped if they had brought all the plants in the greenhouse inside. Her mind needed answers and she nearly felt sick with the possibilities.

“We’ll figure it out,” Ezekiel promised, but it didn’t do anything for her nerves.

“You need some sleep.” Bronx cut in, gently rubbing her forearm above her setting wrist.

She didn’t look at anyone as she spoke. “I don’t think I can.”

“What if we moved the bed into the closet?” Bronx asked, revealing her secret desire from weeks ago.

Still she denied it. “I don’t think feeling more secluded and alone will help right now.”

Ezekiel thought too. He was sure he had to know her better than this, but he had been too busy living minute to hour to remember anything. He started working backwards through every moment they had together, trying to think of everything she liked.

“Would you feel better if we shifted?” Ezekiel asked suddenly and she startled at him. “I know dogs are more comforting than people, and you did say we were more comfortable that way.”

She didn’t want to admit he was right. Even waking up with a hangover, sleeping in the dog pile had been her best sleep ever, but she couldn’t shift now, not while bones were healing. She had already done that once and knew the pain and complications it had caused her injuries.

Ezekiel nodded to Bronx who moved away from her. Behind her back where she couldn’t see he dropped his shorts and shifted, and for a reason she couldn’t describe she started to feel better. She wasn’t sure if it was a safer feeling with such a large animal standing guard, or because their smells were so much stronger like this.

Ezekiel could feel her starting to relax, her shoulders slid back and her next breath came with less thought. “Jessa it’s ok,” he assured. “We don’t mind.”

“How can you speak for Bronx like that?” She questioned. “Surely this hasn’t happened before.”

Bronx made a huffed laugh sound and Ezekiel chuckled while tossing pillows and blankets up against him. “It doesn’t need to have happened before for me to know my brother at least this much. Besides, he loves you almost as much as I do.”

“Wait, what?” Jessamine turned toward where he’d walked but he winked, already naked, and shifted. She scoffed at him, “pretty bold of you to assume I’m above rebreaking all my injuries to continue this conversation.”

Both of them huffed with frustratio,n and Bronx but his head against Ezekiel’s like he was scolding him. Jessamine laughed painfully, but it held more joy than she expected it to. Sliding off the bed carefully she moved to the floor between them, leaving the blanket that was meant to go over her at her feet, her back still stung with every move.

When her head hit that pillow between, them between the garden and the forest, she felt better. “You’re lucky I don’t want to wake up Dr.Pon.”

One of them huffed a relieved snort that ruffled her hair into her face. “You two are easy to please.”

She spooned the two of their front paws, petting the fur distractedly. She had to admit, with more than a little frustration, that she did feel better with them like this. Even though she wished that she could shift to sleep as well, with the three of them like this she could pretend there were easy answers right there just a shift away.

Ezekiel’s head gently rest on top of her, momentarily smooshing her and she laughed tiredly, “Goodnight Ezekiel.”

Bronx huffed a breath making her realize it had been him the first time and she laughed again. “Night Bronxy,” she teased and she heard a sort of gruff laugh from Ezekiel before drifting off.