Who is Magpie?

When Jessamine felt better, Bronx moved to adjust the shower but turned the faucet the wrong way and the cold stream landed on her. She nearly leapt out of Ezekiel’s arms, if he hadn’t been holding her so strongly.

Bronx moved to stand in front of it, chuckling, “careful Jessa, I’m sorry.” He kissed her thigh where the cold water had landed.

“I’m okaaaahyyy..” she shooed reassuringly.

Jessamine moved to stand but realized shortly after that it was a terrible idea. Her injuries were completely forgotten but her legs both felt like jello and she was soon sitting on the floor.

“Jessa!” Both men gasped, rushing to help her.

She sat plainly on the floor, both legs flopped out to either side, and blinked in momentary confusion. For the life of her she couldn’t remember sitting down and they both looked panicked but she felt absolutely fine. A smile crept across her face, even as they continually asked if she was okay and offered to help her stand. She shook her head, but then she was laughing. Absolute hysterics erupted from Jessamine’s chest; pure jubilation. She could not remember ever laughing so freely, and even as the fall ceased to be funny she couldn’t stop. She would start to recover and then start to giggle again. By the second time the other two were just infected with the laughter, sitting with her.

When they were finally able to catch their breath, Ezekiel couldn’t help but stare and smile. “I love your laugh,” he said gently.

Her hand moved to touch her lips where she was still smiling. “Me too, I’ve never heard it before.”

Ezekiel leant to kiss her head as Bronx lifted her hand to kiss the back.

“I hope you get many more laughs like that one,” Bronx prayed, hoping the Goddess was listening to this one.

And the sadness floated over them. It was weird for Jessamine to know the thought was sad, but feeling happiness instead of nothing. Her heart felt like it was made of warm butter, like this is the moment she would choose to remain in forever.

They all were washing up when Jessamine finally noticed, her hand moving to her mouth. “Oh Bronx, I’m sorry.”

Bronx followed her gaze to his chest where two small crescent bruises formed below his collar bone. Ezekiel emerged from the water and wiped his face to see what they did and laughed, “mines bigger,” while pointing to the wide mouthed bite mark at the base of his neck.

Jessamine barely turned when she swung her hand to smack his arm, more worried about what this might mean. Bronx was observing the small mark thoughtfully until he looked up and saw her overwhelming concern. She wished she could just lean over and erase it, except she kind of liked seeing her teeth marks on him.

“Oh Jessamine, it’s okay. I’m not mad, I’m not sure how my brother feels about it though.” He smirked and redirected the attention to Ezekiel.

He wrapped his arm possessively around Jessamine and pouted, “mines bigger.”

She turned toward him then, placing her hand gently on his chest. “Are you mad?”

He rubbed his face against her affectionately and cooed, “adorable.” She wrinkled her nose but he laughed. “No I’m not mad, you are forever my mate, besides you have a few marks of your own.”

She looked over her wrists, noticing how they had bruised slightly and figured her iron was likely low again from her injuries. Ezekiel directed her to look at the mirror and she saw everything else. Small blush coloured hickies lined either side of her neck and freckled her chest and shoulders.

“Oh,” she said with some surprise, turning and looking at all the marks.

Ezekiel chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her from behind again. “Was Bronx mean to you, my Luna?” Then he leaned down to her ear and whispered, “do you want to punish him?”

She elbowed him abruptly and he apologized, kissing her head several times before steering her toward getting cleaned up.

“Are you upset?” Bronx asked, standing behind her and seeing her face in the mirror.

She had momentarily forgotten what he was referencing, losing herself to the gentle massage that was Ezekiel washing her. Her legs ached a little from her previous position, making the feeling of his firm hands sliding down them quite welcome, but at this moment he was paying exceedingly close attention to her chest.

“Hmm? What? No,” she smiled at him, a smile so warm that it didn’t need to be big. “I’ve never felt so loved and wanted.”

Jessamine’s joy was infectious, soaking into the others, so when she was cleaned, dried, and wanted to return to bed, they easily agreed. She insisted on leaving the braces off since she would be lying down, and kicked them aside as she left the shower. She laid down in the bed naked without her own clothes nearby, but Ezekiel fluffed a light blanket over her, and she guided it around her injuries.

Moving to lay on Ezekiel she stroked small circles on his chest, and when Bronx laid down behind her she wrapped her cold feet around one of his ankles, bouncing her foot against his.

“Jessamine, your feet are like ice,” he commented, moving to grab the bottom of the blanket they were on top of and flicked it up over her feet.

“It’s fine,” she yawned.

The warmth of those surrounding her and the high from their activities wearing off reminded her body of all it had been through. Though her mind was ready for the day her muscles and tendons demanded more rest. With Ezekiel’s arm running under her neck and slid alongside her back, and Bronx idly playing with her hair, fighting sleep was a losing battle.

“We won’t leave you alone Jessa,” Ezekiel whispered. “One of us will stay with you so you can rest soundly.”

Her eyes closed but she couldn’t help arguing. “It’ll be… the day over,.. if I sleep now.”

“It’s ridiculously early Jessa, you still have lots of time to sleep.” Bronx felt her hair pull from his hand as she drifted off, and moved to continue playing with it. “Alpha,” he began firmly, “she was still attacked last night. Do you want to deal with that or stay here with her.”

Ezekiel growled lowly at the reminder, leaning over to kiss her head and remind himself that she was okay. “I need to deal with it,” he returned just as firmly. “The Goddess knows I would rather stay here with her, but it needs to be me. They will understand why I would send my Beta to watch her when someone close has already betrayed us.”

Bronx nodded thoughtfully. “I will go change now then and gather my things to work from here.”

Bronx moved to go, but Ezekiel followed behind him, stopping him in the space between the doors. “Is there something between you and Jessa?…”

“… No, you don’t…”

“Despite how skeptical you were off her, she has really grown to trusting you, and you are my brother, my best friend, my Beta…. I’m trusting you with someone incredibly important to me.. ssh I know you know, but this isn’t about me, what will you be for her?” His brother stared blankly waiting for clarification but Ezekiel clapped Bronx’s arm firmly. “Without you,… I don’t know that I would have found her in time….” Ezekiel barely looked him in the eyes.

Bronx could see his brother was having a hard time with this, almost feeling the wretch of his gut in his own, and clasped his arm in return. “She’s here,” he began plainly. “Right here, fast asleep, and safe.”

“I know but…”

“No, that girl has been through more shit than we will ever comprehend, and she almost died, we almost lost her… they played their first hand and thank the goddess they didn’t win, but they will try again and you need to be the Alpha I know you to be before that happens.” Bronx felt as though he could see the determination swelling where the self pity had been.

He pat his brother on the back. “Thank you, I needed that.” Clasping each other around the back of the head they touched their foreheads together. “I trust you, go get your shit and maybe stop in Jessa’s room and grab her some clothes for when she wakes up.”

Bronx nodded easily. “Anything for Jessa.”