Who is Magpie?

Hours later, Jessamine fought the boys for privacy to get dressed. It felt like the morning after the full moon, when every ache, every pain, every stress was forgotten. During their shower they took turns supporting Jessamine off her ankle, but that more accurately translated to taking turns making out while they cleaned up.

Jessamine locked herself in the closet to get dressed, searching through her things to find anything strapless. The only thing she had didn’t allow for a bra, but she didn’t see her mates complaining tonight. Pulling the dress over her head, she let the loose swaying material fall and tightened the ribbon around her waist at the back.

Her chest was the only asset you could see with the loose material beginning at the waist and falling to her ankles, but her main goal was to showcase her mating marks on either side. As the skin began to heal there was a slight gold sheen to the scars, showing everyone that this match was blessed by the Moon Goddess herself.

Using the only crutch she had left she came out of the closet to her waiting mates, watching their smiles grow to see her. They moved to their sides, kissing their marks lovingly. Ezekiel had already teased her about breaking a crutch and they had gotten her a forearm cane while she got ready.

With her mating complete she could feel their emotions more fully and deeply. It wasn’t quite telepathic, as it was in their woven forms, but it was pretty close with how well she could understand what they wanted to say. Her healing ability hadn’t yet recovered from the drugs as everything else had, but mates were meant to share their strength and with two they hoped she’d be free of her restrictions much sooner.

They entered the dining hall together, growing impatient with Jessamine on the stairs the men to her sides had bent her arms up at 90 degrees and carried her between them by her elbows. They walked through the open doors laughing and grinning, not even looking to the pack for reactions or approval. Once they sat down in their seats both men kissed their shimmering marks lovingly, silencing any questions with the proof of the answer.

Jessamine could still feel their questions, and a blush worked its way up her chest into her cheeks. “I’m not answering this time,” she whispered.

They both chuckled but before they could say anything the lights dimmed and the projector turned on. Jessamine’s name was projected onto the wall, opposite of the head table above the main door, in a large cursive font.

“What’s this?” She asked almost excited, believing it to be a cute surprise but no one else spoke.

The image changed, showing her walking up the main stairs in her original black clothes with the script at the bottom reading ‘from your first days in the pack house…’. Another shot showed her entering Ezekiel’s room, and then the camera inside showing pieces of the fight they had had, before another image showed him carrying her to the cells. ‘You’ve shown us what you’re capable of’ the script changed, showing clips of her working out in the cells, her superhero flip, and even shots of her being carried in bleeding on the full moon and killing Athena.

“… seriously, what is this?” She asked again, but the men were focused on the video with their twin angers brimming.

Bronx took off the the closet containing the audio and visual equipment, and Ezekiel moved in the other direction.

‘We know you miss the garden’, the script read, showing pictures taken of her outside all over the pack house with the flowers and plants. ‘He’s coming to take you where you belong’, she heard sounds through the speaker and knew with horrifying certainty that it was her. Short gasps and squeaks, and her calling a name out loud.

The nightmare continued when there was a video of her tied to a bed with a muscular man between her legs, his hand on her throat as she gasped his name through the breaths she could gather. Jessamine stood on her chair in a flash and jumped to yank every chord out of the projector mounted above her table, pulling the entire thing to the floor.

The images stopped but the sound still played until a voice spoke over them, “I miss you, my Magpie.”

Tears of anger, disappointment, and betrayal brimmed at her eyes, and she barely felt the pain at having just pulled a projector down onto herself. No one moved an inch in their seats, feeling the mood in the room shift from eager curiosity to dangerous. One wrong move now could incur the wrath of their leaders.

Ezekiel returned, dragging Prue and a boy from the kitchen named Cole kicking and screaming. Jessamine stood just as still as anyone else, Bronx had returned after pulling the plug on everything and was checking her head and shoulder for injury.

“They were in our room, looking for their cameras and bug,” Ezekiel informed, tossing them to the ground in front of everyone.

“Remind me,” Jessamine seethed, her breath raking through her teeth.

Bronx had moved he is hand around her waist to support her, trying to be the calm one so she could be angry. “Remind you of what my love?”

A long, loud breath left her but her chest didn’t fall with it. “Remind me of your judicial system here, and why I don’t tear their heads from their bodies after doing something as suicidal as this,” she demanded meeting their eyes like she could burn through them.

They stood by their choice, but at seeing her eyes shift to black, and her hair practically frizzing out around her head as she tried to resist shifting… they were sure they would die.

Ezekiel signalled for his guards to take charge of the prisoners as he moved to Jessamine’s other side.

“My moon,” he kissed the side of her head as she refused to look away from them, “they will go to the cells to await questioning, we will get what we can from them, and unless someone comes forward to defend them, for treason against their Luna, they will be sentenced to death.”

“There is nothing to ask except who their third accomplice is,” she announced, and before anyone could ask she pointed to where the images had been projected. “The hidden camera images of Ezekiel, me, and Azural were gathered through working with the Fae, the pictures they likely took themselves on their phones, but every other image and video would have been locked up in the security office. Even the counsel could only review the footage from within that room.”

“Stay with her,” Ezekiel barked, taking off again he shifted outside and told all of his guards that anyone leaving the pack house should be stopped and detained until further notice.

When he returned Jessamine had gone to her seat only to pick up her cane from the floor. Ezekiel noticed that her chair had been broken, claw marks snapping the back rest in half. She hadn’t noticed how they were keeping her calm until one of them moved even a short distance away and her control over her wolf lapsed. She waited for him to return to her side, none of her anger dissipating but the tears no longer threatening to fall.

She wrapped her arms around her mates, calming herself with their presence to speak. “Azural, he must be the rogue’s alpha. His uncle used to come to the kennels and pay for my time with his nephew. He was how I was invited to that fall party. I didn’t know he was wolven, though with how often he bit me I should have guessed.”

It was their turn to be angry as she had arranged herself between them to kiss her marks on them. Prue and Cole didn’t even try to deny what they were accused of, but while both were terrified Prue had a certain jut to her chin.

“Our mates are dead because of her,” Prue spat, “but you expect us to bow our heads to her and welcome her…”

“Silence.” Ezekiel’s voice was quiet, firm. He barely spoke above a talking volume but his Alpha tone had people cowering immediately. “You think you’ve made some grand statement, but all you’ve done is help the people who ordered your mate’s deaths to further harm your pack.”

“You’re wrong,” Cole almost whispered, but he was looking at Jessamine. “There was more than three of us.”

Jessamine’s face paled. “Who was posted at the forest gate tonight?”

Before anyone could answer there was an explosion in the kitchen. The doors that joined it to the dining room flew in and thick, dark smoke quickly filled the room. Breathing quickly became difficult and everyone quickly headed to the exit to the fresh air of the yard, where all hell was breaking loose.