Who is Magpie?

Ezekiel and Bronx strode in to the dining hall with the power of being from the Ashford family. Everyone turned toward the doors, excited to see their Luna after her victory, but the doors swung closed behind the men.

“Calm down, I told our Luna she should stay in bed and rest while she is still recovering,” Ezekiel announced, just inside the doors and faces fell in disappointment, but 2 seconds later the doors were booted open with a bare foot and Jessamine was walking in on her crutches. “Of course she never listens to me,” he continued.

“You fandan!” She cursed. “You couldn’t wait 5 s…”

Cheers erupted through the room, loud enough that Jessamine nearly dropped her crutches when covering her ears. The people at their tables began rising as they howled and shared their approval and acceptance. Bronx and Ezekiel had large grins on their faces as they looked at her, but her smile was more wary.

“You know what, maybe you’re right,” Jessamine muttered. “Our bed is so nice this time of year.”

Before she could back all of the way out the room, they moved in beside her and urged her to her seat. Once they sat so did everyone else, but they looked expectantly to their leaders. Jessamine placed her elbow on the table and her head in her hand as she stared at Ezekiel knowingly.

“This is up to you Alpha, I believe they have questions,” Jessamine teased, secretly testing him to see how honest he would be.

“Is Jessa right? Are there questions?” Ezekiel asked broadly.

Chey wisely stood first. “We need to start this off by saying,” she bowed deeply showing the back of her neck, “Luna we are glad you’re okay.”

Jessamine shook her head at the formality, even as she was aware that it was required. Chey had seen her get drunk enough to think five was above six for a second, and naked, beaten to shit, covered in dirt and blood nearly within 24 hours, but they still weren’t that close. People began to cheer again, not as unabashedly as they did before, but together in a way that Jessamine could feel in her heart.

“If only my ankle was as strong as my spirit,” Jessamine returned in mock sarcasm which garnished laughter throughout the room.

Another rose, Vinny, and asked. “Did you kill the Gilan’s alpha for our Alpha Ashford?”

Jessamine straightened up, removing her hand from her face when she realized the question was for her. “She challenged me yesterday around breakfast to a Luna challenge, and I wasn’t about to choose banishment over my mate, if that’s what you mean.” Her hand from her lap moved instinctively to Ezekiel’s hand on the table, even while she looked at Vinny.

“But you were already injured from the attack the night before.” Another stood up, Tania.

Jessamine turned to her and shook her head like she didn’t understand. “So?”

Kai stood as well. “We know our Alpha, we’ve followed him through enough shit to know when he’s happy, and he would rather start a war than risk losing you. So why did you accept the challenge?”

Amidst her being flattered she was embarrassed, seeing Chey, Delano and Kai looking at her like they expected her answer. She wanted to look down, to avoid meeting their eyes and seeing how they felt about her, but she couldn’t. She was Luna now to a very large and powerful pack, and she had learned about the hierarchy. If anyone else had encountered what she had, a war would have been expected, but it had happened to her.

“It was less steps,” she replied firmly.

The eyes from those who had been at the card game darted to Bronx who was trying to contain his anger at her answer. He had agreed with Ezekiel, enough not to tell Jessamine, that they should let her make her own choices but start a war if it was looking bad. But she hadn’t even considered that, prepared to die before asking the pack to fight for her.

Delano’s mind had returned to the first time she had hurt herself to save his life, and he didn’t even know it. “Were you trying to protect us?”

Jessamine turned to Ezekiel and something unspoken went between them, discussed entirely in small gestures and facial expressions before she spoke to everyone else. “The rogue’s alpha wants me,” she began, not pausing to allow their surprised sounds to gain the floor. “And he is working with the Fae. If we called for war against the Gilan’s, the chances are good that while we were strung out dealing with them that the others would make their move.” She made sure to look at Delano as she said, “cut off one finger and the hand can still make a fist.”

Bronx brushed her arm briefly with his fingers. “So, what? You figured if you lost you’d at least prevent the war with Athena and the fight with the rogues, but even winning…?”

She kept her one hand on Ezekiel’s when she turned to interrupt Bronx. “-One life is not worth hundreds of wolven.”

His face said more than his mouth that wouldn’t move, but she disagreed and shook her head in return. He moved to stand but she grabbed his hand in her other and held him down. “I went from where I was, to being a Luna. I have a lot to live up to, and I can’t ask people to put their lives on the line before I’ve even had a chance to prove if I’m worth it.”

He brushed hair behind her ear and she could see more words he wouldn’t say. She turned her face away, a sad pit in her stomach, and squeezed Ezekiel’s hand. Bronx finally looked away and settled back into his chair, but he wasn’t through thinking about it with her hand still wrapped around his.

Ezekiel raised her chin back to the room full of people that had moved to take a knee on the floor. “We all believe you’re worth it,” Ezekiel explained, turning her lips further to press his to hers.

When the kiss was through she turned back to the people, quickly wiping a couple of tears from her face. “Please, take your seats.” Everyone shuffled to their seats as commanded as she managed a small smile and bowed her head slightly. “I am truly honoured, and I will hold myself accountable to the highest standard in representing this pack. I began an orphaned only child, to having more family and brothers and sisters than I know what to do with. I am privileged to be of the Ashford pack.”

More hoots and hollers sounded, pushing Jessamine passed embarrassed into confident. She had a pack, a family that chose her, and wanted to back her up even if there was another way. Even her own mother had tried to protect her by taking a part of her, and here, after everything they knew about her, they would still fight for her to live.

Another tear rolled over her pink cheeks, smile brimming with the acceptance she felt. A soft rumbled came from Ezekiel in her direction, as he slipped his arm around her waist, and he leaned to kiss the tear away. She leant into his touch and perked her ear toward his lips to hear his explanation.

“If you keep feeling this much love towards people who aren’t me, I’m liable to get jealous,” he murmured into her ear.

Her eyes drifted from the crowd as they started settling down, returning to their drinks and plates, and her smile took Ezekiel’s breath away. The rounds of her eyes were fully visible, set in her oval face with her cheek bones high enough that they would ache when she stopped grinning. She didn’t show her teeth, but he felt like that was more of a choice to appear non-threatening than anything else.

The gold that swirled through her eyes swelled and pulsed in its intensity; her connection to the wolven Goddess growing. “I have a home,” she breathed, squeezing both of their hands that she held.

When Bronx squeezed back she realized that she had never let him go, and flashes of their last conversation and the shower zoomed through her head. She swung her head toward him, trying to maintain the smile but feeling her eye brows drift together when she imagine what expressions he could be wearing. But Bronx was smiling nearly as widely as she was, his other hand on his glass as he raised it.

“Welcome home,” he said warmly, squeezing her hand again.

She rubbed the back of his hand with her thumb and then let go, looking to the room of people who had returned to eating to say, just as warmly, “thank you, mo coille.”