Jane

“I can’t believe I’m really back here again,” I whispered, staring out of the passenger side window of Seth’s car. “I never thought this day would come.”

“I bet you also never expected to find yourself mated to this big lug,” Jared said from the back seat as he leaned forward to punch Seth in the shoulder. “But it’s a good thing you did, because it means you’ve got me here to keep you safe while we face down the bastards who hurt you.”

“Uh-huh,” I chuckled. “Because facing my former alpha and beta with the head of the shifter council at my side isn’t enough to scare the living daylights of out them?”

“I guess when you put it that way,” Jared drawled, sprawling against his seat again. “I can just stay in the car while our alpha takes care of business.”

“Stop being a dipshit,” Seth growled. “Jane has two enemies that we know of in this town. You’ll have her back, just like you do mine.”

The humor wiped from Jared’s face, and he turned serious. “Of course I will. I was just trying to lighten up the mood before your mate psyched herself out. She’s keyed up about this visit.”

“Hey, now,” I protested, twisting in my seat to glare at Jared. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll handle my shit. I’m not the same person who left here scared and alone. I’m Seth Bashar’s mate, a strong woman who can and will stand tall and proud beside her man.”

“I never doubted it, or you, baby.” Seth reached over and took my hand in his. He kept hold of it as he pulled into the driveway of the alpha’s house and parked the car. “You ready?”

I nodded. “No time like the present, right?”

“That’s my girl.”

Jared snorted as he climbed out of the car, but I beamed a smile at Seth. When Jared opened my door for me, I looked up at him. “See, my mate doesn’t need your help with flirting. He’s got his own particular brand of sweet.”

“Just for you. With the rest of us, he’s a hard ass.”

Seth came to stand next to me in the driveway, and I swore that I felt fur against my arm as he brushed against me. He glanced towards the house, and his eyes flashed wolf. “Harder with some than others.”

“Fuck, yeah.” Jared rubbed his hands together gleefully. “It’s been too long since we’ve had the chance to kick some ass together.”

“Oh, boy. This is going to be interesting.” And crazily enough, I felt an odd sense of excitement as we walked up the front steps and knocked on the door. It was amazing the difference less than a week had made in my life. When the alpha opened the door, I faced him straight-on, holding his gaze when it moved over Seth and Jared and landed on my face.

Startled recognition dawned. “Jane?” His brow wrinkled in confusion as he switched his attention back to Seth. “You didn’t mention that the business we needed to discuss had to do with one of my wolves.”

“As the head of the council, it’s my prerogative to demand a meeting with you without having to explain myself.” My mate’s voice rang loud and clearly, with an air of authority I hadn’t yet heard from him.

“Right.” My former alpha backed up a step, letting us into his house. “Yes, of course.”

Jared went first, with me behind him and Seth at my back. “And Jane isn’t one of your wolves. Not anymore,” my mate growled.

“Jane?” another male repeated from the living room. “She hasn’t been a member of this pack in years.”

I didn’t see the person speaking since Jared was blocking my view, but I recognized that voice. I’d heard that scorn from him before, on the night I’d left town. Oddly enough, though, my former alpha looked surprised by it. His mouth firmed and a worried light filled his eyes when he took in the forbidding expression on Seth’s face as we moved as a group to join John’s father in the living room.

“Don’t be disrespectful, James,” he snapped. “Not when the head of the council has brought Jane home after all these years.”

I stepped out from behind Jared just as my former beta jumped to his feet. His face reddened, and his eyes widened in shock. It was a feeling I shared since my former alpha’s reaction to seeing me was at odds with how he’d felt about me when I’d left. The beta’s response was more in line with what I was expecting from both of them.

“This will never be her home again,” Seth corrected.

“Thank fuck for that,” the beta muttered, but not quietly enough. We all heard what he said.

Seth held his hand up to stop the alpha from reprimanding his beta again. “Sit down. Both of you.”

There was no denying the thread of authority in his tone, or the overwhelming alpha vibes he was throwing around the room. The other two men didn’t even try. The alpha took a seat, still looking confused by what was happening. His beta seemed more clued in, albeit furious about it.

Seth, Jared, and I didn’t sit. We remained standing, lined up in a row with me in the middle as we faced off against the two men from a position of power. Seth turned his attention to my former alpha first.

“You’ve both said Jane’s name. I can only assume that means she wasn’t shunned after she left?”

“Shunned? What? Why the hell would you think I’d have done that to her after everything she’d been through?”

He sounded shocked and offended by the suggestion. I searched his face for any hint of deception, but I didn’t find any. It looked to me like he was truly surprised by Seth’s question. Even though I had no intention of coming back to the pack, my body sagged in relief. Seth’s arm snaked around my back, offering me support. It gave me the strength I needed to stand tall and answer the alpha’s questions.

“Because that’s what I was told.” My voice came out softly first, and I dug deep to speak up. To defend myself as I hadn’t done back then. To take back the power John’s father had stripped from me when I was vulnerable. “Your beta came to me and explained how my packmates wanted me to leave but were waiting until after the funeral, out of respect for my parents. You’d asked to meet with me, and I knew that was why. You were going to exile or shun me, as they wanted.”

“No! God, no, Jane. That’s the last thing I was going to do.” A pained look came into his eyes as he shook his head.

Jared shifted his body, turning to face the beta. Seth didn’t need to make a similar move since he was already standing directly across from him. They’d made the same judgment towards the alpha that I had. He hadn’t known what John’s father had been up to back then.

“When? When did he come to you and tell you this?”

“Right after my parents were buried.”

“James,” the alpha groaned, turning to his beta. “Tell me you didn’t do this. That somehow it’s all a big mistake. That you did not chase one of our pack members out to live her life alone, thinking she had no pack to protect her.”

“She didn’t deserve to have a pack after what she did to my son.”

“It wasn’t your decision to make!” the alpha roared, jumping to his feet. “And it’s one I never would have made. You couldn’t see the situation clearly enough because it was your son who would have been shunned if he hadn’t killed himself first. None of what happened was Jane’s fault.”

The beta stood to face off with him. “My son and her parents would still be alive if she’d accepted him as her mate.”

“Are you listening to the words that are coming out of your mouth? Do you hear how ridiculous you sound? You can’t force someone into a mating.”

“Especially not when the someone you’re referring to is my fated mate,” Seth interjected. I enjoyed the oh-shit looks on both men’s faces when they realized what he meant. “I would have been pissed the fuck off to discover that the woman who fate intended for me was pushed into mating a boy she didn’t want.” His voice was lethally soft. “Maybe even more furious than I already am to know that boy took her family from her and then his father abused his position as her beta to take her pack from her, just because he couldn’t man up and accept that he’d failed to raise his son right.”

“It was my failure, too. I didn’t choose my beta wisely, and Jane is the one who paid for my mistake. She spent all that time out there alone, thinking she’d been shunned.” The alpha’s eye’s filled with consideration. “It’s only fair that your punishment is to suffer the fate you intended for her.”

I thought about John’s mother. Although they didn’t have any more children, she had family in the pack. If her feelings were even half as strong as mine for Seth, then she’d stand by her mate and leave with him. I hated what her son had taken from me. What her mate had done to me. But I wouldn’t be the person my parents had raised if I didn’t have compassion for her circumstances in this whole mess. “Exile only. Not a shunning.”

“It’s—” the alpha started to object.

“I was the one harmed by his actions. If an exile is enough for me, then it should be for everyone.”

“An exile it is, then,” he conceded.

“It’s almost enough for me,” Seth added as he strode towards the beta. “But you need to understand the consequences, should you ever decide that you want to hurt my mate again.” He held the other man’s gaze as he stripped from his clothes and shifted, faster than I’d ever seen someone manage the change. His howls filled the room, and he prowled forward. He swiped out at the beta’s chest with his claws, ripping through the shirt and deep into his flesh. I thought he’d change back, since the scars from the gashes would be a permanent reminder of the danger of crossing him, but he wasn’t done yet. He huffed out a blast of hot air, and the beta shrank back from him, squeezing his eyes shut like the coward that he truly was. His muzzle opened wide, and he clamped down hard on the beta’s arm. I cringed at the snapping sound as his teeth broke through skin and bone.

The only sound in the room was of the beta’s muffled pants as Seth shifted back to human and dressed. We left the beta where he stood, blood dripping down the arm that dangled at his side. We didn’t give the alpha a chance to speak, and none of us looked back as we left the alpha’s house. The past was settled, and we only had the future to look forward to.