Who is Magpie?

Ezekiel woke up to the feeling of a scream. Bronx was already awake trying to wake Jessamine, unsuccessfully. Ezekiel sat up fully, bringing her with them as they continued to try and wake her.

Her face looked pained and when she finally woke up her silent scream gained volume. She threw her arms against those holding her but they didn’t let go. When her focus returned she pulled her arms in front of herself, feeling embarrassed.

“I’m sorry.” She looked down into her lap, wanting a way off the bed but not being able to easily get out passed either.

“Worry, or memory?” Bronx asked a little too knowingly.

She turned more toward Ezekiel to escape his prying eyes. “I don’t remember.”

“You’re lying, my love,” Ezekiel returned, both of them pulling her back into the bed to lay down.

“Please tell us,” Bronx urged, and she could never quite bring herself to say no to either of them with tones like that.

“Maybe both.” She admitted. “I didn’t always have a bedroom… there were.... kennels. That’s where I started.”

They laid on her chest and stomach so she couldn’t see their faces when they spoke, but she could feel emotions building.

“I thought the Fae didn’t take prisoners,” Bronx began.

“They don’t,” Jessamine confirmed.

He was confused. “But…?”

She interrupted, upset she had to repeat herself to make the distinction. “I said kennels.”

Ezekiel had already made the distinction, having heard a rumour about such a place, and was trying to remain calm. Bronx had his hand wrapped over her leg and it paused for a moment, flexing open, before returning to rub up and down the small area. He held his tongue against asking the rhetorical confirmation questions that Jessamine would answer anyway.

“Bronx, do you remember my first night out after the trial? We spoke outside,” she began, “I told you not to be angry about my stories because there were so many worse. They seemed like they wanted me dead so often, I didn’t think I mattered enough that anyone would fight to take me anywhere else. I thought I was strong, that I had overcome my fear… but places like the kennels.. I’m afraid.”

Neither of them thought they would hear the woman who had overcome what she had say she was afraid, and with the declaration they held her tighter. “Do you want to talk about it?” Ezekiel asked tentatively.

She stiffened beneath them. “If I say no, but tell you I will die before going back there, will you accept just knowing it was that bad?”

She could feel the emotions build around her and knew they wouldn’t push her but also that it was cruel to make them wonder. She wrapped her arms around them, closing her eyes and breathing slowly. When her mouth opened her lips felt instantly dry like her body was willing her to not speak.

“The Martin prides himself in offering all assortments of guilty pleasures to those willing to pay. The kennels were where clients could pick their pleasures,” she swallowed hard like it was a ball of cotton, “it was both a place for punishment and the fastest way to pay debts.” Her next breath grew more unsteady as she spoke. “I couldn’t choose how I was charged, and I think they made up debts whenever someone requested me.”

“Over my dead body will they ever put you back there” Ezekiel growled, his arm that curled up to hold her hand squeezing it tightly.

Bronx was growling lowly too, Jessamine could feel the rumble in his throat, but he didn’t speak. His hand curled around to the underside of her leg and gripped her firmly. She knew he did it protectively but the low rumble so low against her stomach and the arm around her thigh made her forget about the nervous lump in her throat.

Ezekiel noticed the way she shifted, and could hear vividly how her heart picked up. Her hand squeezed Ezekiel’s hand and then wriggled free to work up into his hair. He hated that he hadn’t been the one to change her mood, but somehow more than that he hated the feeling of turmoil that he got from her.

Her other hand slid up Bronx’s arm to touch his hair the same way but halted and returned to his arm. She imagined that she must be weird, wanting the three of them to stay like that always, but feeling more fear in losing them then in just going back. Jessamine wished she could return to sleeping where these thoughts didn’t exist but that brought back the nightmare.

A doorbell rang and Jessamine nearly jumped out of her skin. “It’s likely breakfast,” Bronx assured, moving to stand.

“It better only be breakfast, yesterday I was challenge to a death battle,” she muttered sarcastically and moved to get up.

“Where are you going?” Ezekiel asked.

She raised an eyebrow. “The bathroom?”

“Doctor Pon said nothing on that leg.” Bronx returned with their tray of food to back Ezekiel up.

“I’ll hop?” She offered.

Ezekiel shook his head and slid off the bed to pick her up. “I’ll get you some crutches after breakfast.”

“I don’t need your help to go to the bathroom.” She crossed her arms firmly but Ezekiel chuckled.

“You realize that I’ve seen you naked before right? And using the bathroom is a perfectly normal activity.” Ezekiel laughed but she remained firm and he conceded.

After he stood her in the bathroom by the toilet he left and closed the door. He was met by Bronx, walking in after retrieving his own meal from the table in his room, giving him a wry smile. He shook his head and laughed, before moving to the single chair beside where they would sit.

“How do you like your new home?” Bronx asked cheekily.

“New home?” Ezekiel stood outside the bathroom waiting for her to finish.

He chuckled. “You know, wrapped around her smallest finger?”

“Ha-ha,.. it’s cozy, she makes it an easy place to be.” He smiled, looking out the window in thought, and then looked back over to his brother. “What? You think you could tell her no?”

“Absolutely,” Bronx laughed. “Perks of being unmated.”

“That girl you were seeing in town not pan out?” Ezekiel asked, watching his reaction carefully and not at all surprised to see his gaze shift to the bathroom door and back.

He relaxed himself in the chair, taking a bite of food when they felt Jessamine hop to the sink through the floor. “It was fine for what it was, but that’s not where my mind is anymore.”

“Hmm,” Ezekiel murmured. “I was going to send you into town forJessamine’s crutches so you could get away for a bit and go see her, but if you have nothing in town I’ll go after my meetings at the end of the day.”

“It’s fine, you do your meetings, I can still go to town. Anything else she needs?” Bronx offered standing up.

Ezekiel felt Jessamine’s emotions shift, and as he clued into the change he could also sense her presence nearer to him then it had been. “Anything you can think of?” He asked, knocking on the bathroom door and causing her to startle back just on the other side.

She opened it slowly, smiling with a small amount of embarrassment at being caught eavesdropping so obviously. Ezekiel chuckled at her, but Bronx had also known she was there and was going to let it slide, so he just smiled. Distantly both realized that she had moved across the large bathroom, when she shouldn’t be, but both let that one slide with how her expression changed.

There was a slight heaviness in her chest when she asked. “So you’re both leaving?”

“Ezekiel will still be in the house,” Bronx offered. “You could go sit with mom, dad, and Gma during the meetings?”

She pouted, “yeah, that’s a good idea,” while not saying how she actually felt about missing their presence.

Ezekiel picked her up and carried her over to the couch as she continued to pout. “Adorable.”

She turned away from him. “Stop that.”

He nuzzled his nose into her neck with a smile. “Stop what?”

She scrunched up her face. “Trying to be cute when I’m unhappy with you,” Jessamine replied, but paused and stared at something above the fireplace. “Bronx, can you boost me on your shoulders?”

“Of course.” He stood up immediately and Ezekiel withheld asking him how he liked his new home.

Bronx lowered onto his knees and Ezekiel helped her onto his shoulders carefully. “To the fire place Jeeves,” she instructed and they laughed.

Once there she boosted herself further by standing in one of his hands. Her ill planned strategy had her underwear beneath the night dress warming the back of his neck, but he worked his brain to ignore it as he steadied her perch. She leant up against him to look at the top of the picture frame without touching it before finally removing a small device.

“Good news is that it’s not transmitting,” she murmured, sitting back on his shoulders.

Bronx moved to sit on the bed but before Ezekiel could help her off she tumbled back to examine the camera. She laid there, fiddling with it in her hands and taking each component apart carefully.

“What’s the bad news?” Ezekiel asked hesitantly, knowing she was being too quiet.

She looked up at him and sighed. “It’s been in this room longer than I have, so last night when I smelt someone they were coming to collect footage… They have footage of everything that happened from where we sit on the couches to the bed, including the closet doors.”

Ezekiel and Bronx didn’t know whether to be embarrassed or angry though Ezekiel was decidedly more upset.

“So they have…” Bronx began too uncomfortable to say the rest out loud.

Jessamine nodded. “Some lovely audio from my shower, a lot of me sleeping and us eating, and me riding Ezekiel before lunch.”

Ezekiel nearly choked on his breath but Bronx took it in strides. “What do they want that for?”

“What do I think? Or previously…” Jessamine stopped speaking when she realized she’d put her foot in her mouth again.

She sat up and moved to the edge of the bed, hating feeling like a burden at not being able to walk on her own. Straightening the dress over her hips she took a deep breath and ignored their impatience at her finishing the sentence.

“It was often blackmail, though I have doubts this time.” Ezekiel helped her to the couch to eat, but when she spoke again it was softer. “I think they mean to make the rogue alpha jealous, have him act first. No matter who wins they’ll have one less group of wolven to deal with.”

Ezekiel held her tightly before sitting himself, smooshing her face into his chest. “You are my mate, and I won’t let you go so easily.” He breathed in her hair, and though she wasn’t worried she relaxed a little in his arms.

Bronx still caught sight of something else in her expression. “What are you thinking?”

“This was sloppy, way too easy to find.” She hummed in thought. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there was more.”