— Kaden —

“Hey there,” I said to my mother.

“Hey, how are you doing?” she asked me as she kissed my cheeks. “What brings you here?”

“I’m fine, and I’d like to talk to Jasmine.”

I was in my parent’s house. They’ve been living here for over a decade and a half now. It’s one of the biggest house on the Blakemore packhouse land, other than the actual packhouse, but it was slowly growing empty.

I’ve never actually lived here, as I left home when we still lived in the packhouse, but Eva as left now that she has her mate and has a house near Blakeden. And now Jasmine will soon leave too, only for much farther than Eva and I did.

There was a bit of melancholia in my mother’s features today. There was Jasmine imminent departure lurking in the horizon, but there was also the tragedy at Stonewillow. I know my parents have grown really fond of Darren. My mother in particular made a lot of efforts to make him feel at home. She knows better than any of us what it is to leave your home and family for a mate.

“She’s upstairs,” she told me. “You’ll talk to her about her mate?”

“I haven’t had a chance to get to hear her side on this yet.”

She nodded, then sharply grabbed at my shoulder and twisted me around, her eyes wide.

It took me a second to realise what was going on, then I just let her.

“That’s a mark, Kade. An actual mark,” she said looking at my neck.

“I know,” I said.

“You marked her?”

“Obviously.”

She hugged me, I indulged her.

“What about the rest?” she asked grabbing me by the shoulders.

“Are you really asking about my sex life?” I grimaced.

She gave me an unamused look.

“Yeah, it’s all done,” I conceded.

She squealed in delight. “We have to celebrate this.”

“Maybe not now,” I said. “And it could be a little insensitive to Eva and Darren.”

“Of course,” she said sobering up.

“I’ll check on Jasmine,” I said.

“She’s really been all over the place lately, she will need to get on track if she wants this to work out.”

“I figured.”

I found Jasmine in her bedroom.

“Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?” I said peeking my head around the door of her bedroom. It was heavily decorated, and there were piles of discarded clothes on one of the chairs. Given that the domestics cleans every day, it’s the mess of the day.

“No,” she said looking away.

“And why is that?” I asked, leaning my shoulder on her doorframe. Good thing the doors are really high in this house or I’d have to dock every time I go through a doorway. Most of the buildings on packland were this way. I’m not the first tall man in this family.

I crossed my arms.

“I know you’re the one who told him to leave,” she said.

She was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed, looking at her phone.

“I didn’t order him. He’s an Alpha, he can do whatever he pleases.”

“You know what I mean,” she said. “You ‘suggested’,” she did air quotes with her fingers. “For him to leave, and he really likes you, and respects you, so, of course, he’d leave.”

“There are businesses that needs taking care of,”

“Business,” she spat. “Is that all you want to talk about?”

“Have the two of you talked yet?”

“You’re changing the subject.”

I quirked an eyebrow at her.

I moved inside the room. Most of her chairs were covered in something, so I dumbed a pile of dresses on top of what was on another chair and took the cleared chair in front of her bed, flipped it around and straddled it, with my arms on the backrest.

“There are a few things that need to be cleared up before this conversation devolve any further,” I said. “Firstly, I care about plenty of things other than business, and that includes you and your well-being, so don’t be a bitch about this, because you have no idea the length I go to for you, this family, and this pack.”

She closed her mouth suddenly ashamed and looked away.

“Secondly, Jean-Philippe is a free agent, and I don’t control him. I gave him facts, he asked for recommendations which I gave, but he could ignore anything he wanted. Ultimately he made his decision, and a large part of this decision was for you, more than himself.”

She snapped her eyes back to me, but I didn’t let her question me yet.

“Thirdly, your sister and brother-in-law are dealing with the murder of two family members at the dawn of a war, and you get pissed about not seeing your new boyfriend for a few weeks. The world does not revolve around you Jasmine.”

“I know this,” she muttered.

“And I know that you know. I know that what is happening here is not you being narcissistic, but you being controlled by your own emotions. That as always been the problem, which leads me to fourthly. Emotions. The mate bond is a powerful thing.”

“Eva and Mom already told me this,” she muttered a little more docile now.

“Well, let me tell you something else that you haven’t heard yet then. It’s a drug and the more you give in to it, the more it drives you, and it takes a while for your body and brain to adapt to this new input.”

She furrowed her brows. “You talk like it’s not even affecting you.”

“It is, and I’m trying to adapt. So is Elaeya, but it requires a lot of discipline and I haven’t always managed to control it.”

“You haven’t?” she asked surprised. I’ve always tried to show an image of someone in control to my little sisters, just like to the rest of the world, the image of someone reliable, and strong. But she’s slowly coming to an age when she needs to know what’s beneath that mask.

“When she was attacked in the hospital, I nearly attack the thing, knowing clearly that Elaeya was between us and could be hurt as collateral, just so I could stop it from getting to her again. I nearly hurt her to try to save her, when she was doing a much better job at saving herself. Mates affect a very irrational part of your brain. It pushes on your instincts, it drives your emotions to a heightened state.”

“And you just understood all this in weeks.”

I smirked. “I talk to a wizard, I cheat,” I said. “He knows a lot of things and help me sort out a lot about mates. In a way, this is a form of magic. An ancient, deep magic. Emotions are one of the greatest fuels to magic, so as you let your emotions go wild, so does that magic, responding to it accordingly, which makes it harder to control your emotions, which makes it go round and so on, snowballing.

It might sound like not such a terrible thing, as it focuses on a, technically, positive thing—relationship, love—but anything can become too much. It can trigger jealousy, possessiveness, it can make any form of separation difficult if not painful—and do I have to remind you that he’s an Alpha, either him or you might have to travel separately given your positions, sooner or later. It can make the highs higher, but it can also make the lows, that much lower.

You have to learn to notice this, and control it. Most people who find their mates young generally see the bond grow slowly which make it easier to learn to deal with it, rather than facing all at once like you just did.

No one is perfect Jass, and everyone loses their shit at least a few times in the beginning, but most people are not dealing with rank. Your wolf is much stronger than your average werewolf and it exacerbates the problem, but your position makes everything you do to be scrutinized, and will lead to consequences far beyond just affecting you and him. Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”

She nodded.

“You’ve been a mess lately. That little drama show you pulled at the airport, what do you think the other member of Boisclair that saw you think? Do you think there are not rampant rumours about you in Boisclair right now circulating? How do you think it will affect your reception?”

She looked genuinely horrified.

“You have a lot to learn, a lot to master. Jean-Philippe wants you to go home with him.”

“I want that too,” she said, almost pleading.

I nodded. “I will not force a decision on you. If you want to go, you will.”

“But you said I have to stay here.”

“Until you’re eighteen, which is soon. I don’t want to force you anywhere as much as I want to give you time to clear your head until you can make this decision with your eyes open. I will not tell you who to date or marry, or if you should or not. You can go on the other side of the planet if you truly want to. But I want you to know what you’re about to get yourself into before you do. I want you to make this decision with your eyes open, and I want you safe and happy once you take the path you choose.”

A few tears started to fall on her cheek.

“See what I said with being overemotional. You’ve always had your emotions more on the surface than most. It has made you more passionate, but also more all over the place, and this is triggering your emotions in all new ways. I could have just let you be, but I want to make sure everything will be okay, when I’m not gonna be around to look after you. Boisclair is far from here.”

“I know,” she said. “I’m scared no one will like me there.”

“Well, I know of at least one who does, so it’s not no one.”

She laughed a little in between tears.

“If you want to do this, you will have a lot to learn. Elaeya as been studying all the time to catch up on what will be expected of her, but you already know more than her, you might not have too much practice, but you can dig in there. Mom can help you. Eva was in a similar situation a few years back, and she’s doing pretty well.”

“Everyone thinks Elaeya is perfect, that she’ll be a perfect Luna. No one is thinking this of me. I know she didn’t even know a thing about packs, like a month or two ago, but she’s already perfect, everything is perfect with her. She can even know the future. I’m just-just me.”

“First off, no one is perfect and she struggles too. But she has implemented discipline in her life since she was a toddler because doing otherwise could have led to her death. You have been sheltered and protected all your life. Do you remember one time when you actually realised that it could be different?”

She thought about it. “A few months back, when Eva ended up alone back there. I—,” she hesitated. “You’ve always been the only one to leave for battle, to come back covered in injuries, no one else, but you always came back. It’s just—.”

“It’s just that it never occurred to you that danger could reach further, or reach one of you. And no Devon has been put in danger in Blakemore, or Blakewoods for nearly a century. It’s only outside that this happened. I only got injured outside of our packland. Eva got attacked away from home. And now you’ll be leaving.”

She swallowed.

“There are a lot of things, politically that are happening right now. The position of Blakemore could be changing soon. The biggest safety net that werewolves have had so far was the Moonhunters Brotherhood, but they are struggling and that net is not as solid as it once was. We might have to rely on ourselves a lot more.”

“Haven’t we already been doing that?”

“To an extent, yes. But it could be different. Jean-Philippe is seeing this too, enough to consider making our packs, sisters.”

He eyes widened. “Do people still do that?”

“Rarely. It could solidify things, it could also ostracise us. It’s also why he’s worried about you. What happens with Blakemore, good, or bad, could be reflected on you and any who disapprove could decide to point the finger at you for it. He wants you safe. But that you want to get involved in politic or not, you will be.

Even those who approve of you within Boisclair, they could be expecting you to bring something to the pack, knowledge, expertise, something beyond just this alliance. Do you think you can deliver?”

“Oh, crap,” she said cowering in the corner, wrapping her arms around her legs as the weight of everything suddenly fell on her.

I rose from my chair and went to sit on the side of the bed.

“No one is expecting you to get everything right at first,” I said. “I didn’t say this to make you panic. But you really need to understand what is at stake. You can have resources here to help you, you can have resources at Boisclair too.”

“But I can’t get both at the same time.”

“I think you’re forgetting something important here.”

“What?” she said, trying to reel in the hope that tried to surface.

“This family is fucking rich. We can get you a plane at your disposal as much as you want, but regardless, we’re not even close to the wealth of your boyfriend. There are ways we can do this, from video chats to travelling back and forth, if that is what you want.”

She said nothing, thinking.

“It could be a very difficult thing to do, and it will take time to do it, and patience, but it doesn’t mean you can’t do it. And once you leave here, it doesn’t mean that you’re not part of this family anymore.”

She pressed herself against my back and wrapped her arms around me.

I extended a hand above my shoulder and ruffled her hair.

“Hey, stop that,” she complained. I remember a time when she didn’t care about her hairdo and loved that.

Time changes.