Chapter 89
1501words
"wow. Is this normal?"
"what do you mean by normal?"
"I mean, is this a normal occurrence? Has this happened before?"
Jean sighed, and turned away from me, "my pack members are a troublesome lot, to be honest. But I suppose this is the first time I'm hearing about them getting into trouble with William's pack. It sounds pretty bad, from what I hear."
"Is William aware of all this?"
"Apparently, he is there, and is holding them hostage."
I said nothing. I had a feeling William knew whose pack members he was dealing with and I couldn't break myself from saying anything on the matter just yet, because I needed all of the information of the entire story before I said anything, because I had a feeling that saying the wrong thing would be a recipe for disaster,
"we should go."
"I should go." he said, turning to face me, and I couldn't read his expression, "I don't want to drag you into this. If he is there, and I'm with you, I have reason to believe that it isn't going to bode well. Not that I care much what he thinks. But he's your friend, and I intend to respect this friendship."
"I care what he thinks, and I'm with you at the moment. I'm not going to just leave, just because it has something to do with William's pack. So, let's go."
He smiled, just the slightest upturning of his lips, but at least he was not trying to get me to leave.
"What is the situation anyway?" I asked when we arrived at the scene of the case. I saw William, standing with some men, and decided those were his pack members, because a group of men stood not too far off, looking angry and scandalized, and I had a good feeling those were Jean's pack members.
"truancy on a shared border. As I said, my members can be a stubborn lot. Left over from their forefathers who fought in the war." he smiled at me when he parked the car, "Let's go deal with this."
I got out of the car before he could come over to my side of the car, and slowly walked behind him. He went straight to his members who looked at him with equal parts of fear and relief when he got closer.
"You better have a good explanation for having me be dragged away from my room tonight," Jean said with the most authoritative Alpha voice, which made me almost smile. But I didn't, because I needed to let him do this thing.
"ah, sire, an explanation, oui. But perhaps not a good one." one of the men said, but Jean was turned away from me, so I could not see his expression,
"let's have it, Mick," he said blandly,
"Well, we were all on our own at the border, the one we share with the bloke's pack, and there were some vandals who they seemed to be tracking down. We saw the men pass through and rendered them some help because they asked for it, and we weren't aware they were hooligans."
"So you helped them," Jean stated with no emotions and the man named Mick nodded slowly,
"oui, we did. But we didn't know!"
"you didn't know, I get that part, but where are the problems coming from?"
"Well, those men met us here and tagged us as the vandals. We tried to explain that the men had passed through, but they weren't having it. I suppose some of the men didn't exactly enjoy being tagged as the bad guys and lost their edge. There was a bit of a brawl. A bit of blood here, and there…" the man named Mick trailed off, and scratched at his head,
"I see." Jean said, and turned to me, "my men were attacked," he said quietly to me, and I nodded slowly, and turned at the sound of footsteps to see William walking toward me,
"William," I said with a smile, and stepped forward to hug him,
"Why did this man drag you out of your home to witness this?"
I smiled and shook my head, "he didn't. I wanted to come."
"you wanted- were the both of you together earlier?"
I slowly nodded, "we were. He wasn't so pleased with the idea of me coming, since the both of us are friends, but I believed that was a good enough reason to be here actually."
"I'm not going to go on about what kind of people you should mix with. But as you can see, his lot only breeds trouble."
"Oh William, don't be like that. I heard what Mick said. It's all a misunderstanding, you should-"
"don’t bother with explaining, Ember. It seems to me like the man has already decided on 'my lot'"
I turned and found that I was stuck between two men, who stared at each other like they wanted to tear each other apart.
"It's all a misunderstanding," I said quietly, and looked from Jean, to William and back to Jean.
Jean placed a hand on my shoulder, "perhaps it is. But I'll need you to leave us to deal with this, as it pertains to both of us."
I looked at him helplessly, but he didn't budge, "please." he said quietly.
I sighed, before nodding and stepped backward, so that they were facing each other.
"explain to me why your men are attacking my men, even after they have explained to you men that they weren't the men they were looking for," Jean said, and I heard barely contained anger.
"Perhaps because your men are only good at gathering trouble. And I suppose your men were so quick to leave out the fact that they threw the first punch. My men were only defending themselves. And if based on the barbaric behavior of your pack members they were forced to see them as the vandals, or another group of vandals, you can't really blame them… can you?"
"You really believe yourselves to be the saints, don’t you?" jeans said, stepping forward with his fist rolled,
"Saints or not, we are always going to defend ourselves when we need to. And tonight, we needed to."
Jean simply ran a hand over his hair and shook his head, "I won't demand an apology, because we probably won't get one. And perhaps we don't need one to be okay. The real vandals have gotten away. So you can stay here and pamper your men, or you can gather more men to track the ones you lost. But let this be the last time you go after my men without enough information. I'll respect you tonight because of Ember, but next time, I won't be so peaceful." he said, and tilted his head, "after all, me and mine are boldly known for making trouble." and with that he turned away and went over to his men, leaving me alone with William,
"It really was a misunderstanding," I said softly, unsure of what else to say
"why are you even with such a kind of person anyway?" William said with some irritation,
"you forget that the man is actually my mate. One who should hate me, but doesn't."
"ex-mate. But you still seem to be in the same place with him. Standing up for him, even." he said, running a hand down my hair,
"Because he is making an effort to be in my life even when I tried to cut him off. He is a good person, underneath all of the mean, dark exterior." but William simply rolled his eyes,
"Tell me something, will. When you held his men here, were you aware he was their alpha?"
"yeah."
"and have you heard their side of the story?"
"maybe. But like I said they threw the first punch."
"I'm not picking sides, but your men accused them wrongly. You're a lawyer, William. You know how the balance tilts."
"oh just bloody screw it."
"don’t swear at me, William," I said softly and I took my hand, not at you, just at the situation. I squeezed the hand that held mine,
"did you forget to judge accurately because it's Jean? Because of my relationship with him?" I finally asked and he looked at me for a long time before he finally responded,
"I did what I felt was the right thing at the time. I needed to support the members of the pack."
"And you're allowed to do that, as well as remember that your pack members, as well as his, are both responsible for their actions, and you don't have to hold those actions so close to your heart."
"and maybe I was a little triggered because of whose pack members they were. And that wasn't so… morally correct of me."
I shrugged a bit, "how about we take that, and use it to build a bridge." I implored,
"Now… that might be the harder part."
