Who is Magpie?

The first door to the bedroom was closed and three meals waited on the table, before the next door, for them. Ezekiel picked them all up and moved to the sitting area, followed by Jessamine and Bronx, who closed the doors.

Ezekiel and Jessamine took the two seater couch, where she put her foot in his lap and handed him the flashlight Bronx had passed her. Ezekiel’s eyebrows puckered together, but then he opened up the flashlight and saw it was full of an opaque substance.

He scooped a dolup onto his fingers and rubbed them together. “It’s not….?”

“Sanaberry gel?” Bronx finished, and they both looked at her.

She smiled and nodded. “Apparently Kay had snuck me some. I don’t know if she told me and I forgot, or forgot to tell me, but...” she scoffed a sudden laugh, “.. considering this is where I ended up with a broken flashlight, I’m okay with it.”

“Do I just rub it on the area?” Ezekiel asked, marvelling at the strange texture on his hand.

Again she nodded. “It won’t be able to heal it entirely, but it will do a lot more than my body could on it’s own before tonight.”

She pulled her nightgown up, dipping her fingers very slightly into the cylinder to gather a small amount of the gel for the bite on her thigh. Ezekiel worked to avert his eyes from her, knowing it wasn’t a good time, but remembering with dangerous accuracy what the area she revealed offered. She felt his pulsing lustrous urge in their emotional connection and smirked to herself but ignored it.

“You had this outside last night, but didn’t ask me to get it for you?” Bronx asked, a little hurt that he could have done more for her and she hadn’t been honest.

“Nothing was life threatening or I might have, but I already told you that I knew someone inside had helped them. I figured that something would happen while I was injured, and wanted to know who would act first.” She said like it should have been obvious. “I was honestly expecting them to drug Bronx with the breakfast and smuggle me out in a suitcase.”

“Jessa!” Bronx gasped, standing suddenly though he wasn’t sure why.

“In my defence I don’t know the wolven’s laws.. If I had known there was a limited-time-window death battle available I would have picked that for sure.” She didn’t pull her dress back down as she shrugged her sweater off and gestured towards Bronx. “Can I get your help on my back? But don’t use too much, I have a feeling Athena goes for the face.”

Since he was already standing he moved around the couch to begin gently rubbing the oddly textured substance into the marked skin. “You didn’t tell me you thought I was going to be drugged so you could be kidnapped this morning around the pleasant conversation.”

“I would have when the food arrived,” she assured, “but it was baseless, I had no proof, so why would I have brought it up sooner.”

He calmed himself in insisting that she was rational and would think steps ahead down every possible path battling to win. Ezekiel appeared to be doing the same thing but he was actually practising the sinful act of ignorance, ignoring them both entirely to focus on his task, or, rather, the view from his task.

He handed her a plate of food, which she gratefully accepted and began eating. For her the silence was comfortable, she had nothing more to say right now and she was enjoying the food. Ezekiel on the other hand wasn’t feeling particularly hungry.

Bronx had finished applying the cream and set to work rubbing her shoulders and neck, though he wasn’t sure if it was to release her stress or hiss. “How are you so calm?” He finally asked, not finding any tension in her muscles.

She shrugged under his hands. “Some things you can change, and some you can’t. She already demanded the challenge, I have more important thoughts than worrying about the fight.”

Ezekiel stopped rubbing her feet to looked at her. “Like what?”

“Like, she’s already an alpha, so if I kill her who takes over her pack? I get why they would blend if she killed me and became Luna for you, but are we really in a spot to take on a merger?” She pondered, eating some garlic toast dipped in her soup.

“She will never be my Luna.” Ezekiel muttered, reaching for his own plate. “And I wish you wouldn’t talk so casually about dying.”

She leant to kiss Ezekiel after Bronx let go to eat his own food. “I’m not afraid of death, I know the Goddess will judge me fairly and I will atone, or be, as she decides.”

“She has a brother, Pirus, only a year younger who would take over her pack,” Bronx cut in biting off a piece of crust. “When she loses she will face the same banishment you would have, from both pack territories. Unless, of course, she refuses to yield. There’s a reason this challenge doesn’t come up frequently, to the point that most forget it exists.”

“Am I meant to believe she was one of the few who knew about it, or that someone informed her of this law recently?” Jessamine asked, her sharp words giving more than their reply.

“I don’t know,” Ezekiel admitted. “She isn’t, apparently, the woman I knew.”

Jessamine got up and went to the bathroom, giving Bronx time to speak. “Are you really going to let her take this challenge?” He demanded in a hush.

Ezekiel spoke just as softly. “I can’t control her, she has to be able to make her own decisions here.” He looked after her, and then lowered his voice more before saying, “but if it looks like Athena is going to kill her, you better believe I’m stepping in and declaring war.”

Bronx worked to hide his smile as Jessamine returned, thinking with some relief on how he would happily stand beside him to declare war for her.

She moved to the closet to put things away and, despite knowing they had discussed something while she was gone, she didn’t ask why their moods had changed. She noticed Bronx had hung her clothes by how they all smelt, his sent clinging to where he had touched each to smooth the material.

Jessamine brought her basket to the drawers on her side, and began dividing the articles into separate drawers accordingly until she found one particular negligée.

She would fully admit that she was being noisy opening and closing the drawers roughly, but in finding that one dress she stopped.

Ezekiel had his back to her, not intentionally but choosing not to move to watch her put her things away. He was enjoying the delight she was feeling going through everything again and tried not to pollute it with his own lingering worry. His brother had been telling him about something inconsequential that happened within their territory that had already been taken care of, but Ezekiel saw his eyes drift off and his mouth slightly drop before he worked to overcome it.

At that Ezekiel turned around, seeing Jessamine drop her dress to pool around her feet. Her back still looked sore, but it looked to be healing backwards from the outside in. All of the dead skin was healing back over the wounds to conceal the inner more sensitive layers, and he realized that was why they never scarred.

The dress slid over her ass with some assistance by way of a shimmy, and fell straight down from there. Bronx’s mouth fell when he discovered what Ezekiel had already been enjoying; Jessamine still wasn’t wearing any underwear. Jessamine was holding a piece of fabric with lace details, pressed against her skin, and completely unaware of those watching her in the reflection of a mirror on the closet door.

She leant forward to step into it, letting the material slide along her skin lightly. The back of the dress began just barely above her butt and the material ran to the floor. There was one slit that ran up over her right leg, ending near the top of her thigh. The thin straps did nothing but pray they were strong enough to contain her chest which pressed at the material, and the plunging neckline that reached her navel was held together by a piece of ribbon masquerading as a corset.

The bold crimson brought out the colour in her eyes, and against her pale skin she thought she looked both elegant and sultry. Jessamine turned to look into the mirrors within the closet to admire herself, even her scars that she was beginning to accept more as a part of her. She loved the way the fabric parted over her leg as she moved to expose the beginning of hip.

Lifting her leg onto a covered ottoman, she let the dress part to examine the bite on her thigh again. It didn’t hurt as much anymore and she didn’t think it would hinder her at all by the fight. Wringing her wrist earlier it had also felt fine, as did her fingers and toes, but the ankle concerned her. She put her foot down before stretching the other onto a shelf beside her for closer inspection.

“Jessa.” The moaned word brushed over her shoulder and Ezekiel’s hand wrapped around her to grip under her thigh.

She felt a slight ache in her chest before she felt his hand run up her leg towards her ankle. She moved her face to his, kissing him as he leant against her until her ankle nearly touched their cheeks, if her hips hadn’t gotten in the way. He growled approvingly and she giggled against his lips at the feeling.

“What is this?” He asked, running his fingers under the strap over her shoulder to her chest, and down the centre over the ribbons.

She smiled, meeting his gaze in the mirror. “This is what I had picked out for last night.”

He moaned lowly. “Can we pretend it’s last night now?”