Three months later
Jana carried the tray carefully over to where her pack was gathered in its usual corner of the Kafe. It had taken a while to convince both her pack and Katrina's father that she was ok to start work again but the past week she had done her best to prove it to them and it all seemed to be going well.
Matei looked up at her with concerned eyes- of course, he wasn't going to stop panicking about her, after she'd collapsed in Norway he'd been by her side practically every day for a fortnight. It was lucky that Amanda and John were so understanding. But now that exam season was in full swing, Matei hadn't been around quite so much. He, Selina and TJ all had their heads buried in revision books as Jana carefully placed their drinks on the table.
"One coffee with no milk," Jana said, "One chai latte and two chocolate iced frappes with whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles and chocolate stars."
Matei smiled, and looked up at Jana with loving eyes, "Thank you. You know me too well."
"Well we are her pack," Selina said, "Thanks, Jana. Is everyone still up for pizza night at the den tomorrow night?"
"Totally," TJ said, "I'm going to need comfort food after tomorrow's chemistry mock exam."
"Chemistry's not that bad," Matei replied, "In fact, it's actually really interesting."
TJ rolled his eyes.
Jana sat down next to Emilia, "I never had you down as a nerd, Matei."
Matei smiled as he copied an equation from his textbook, "Well like I've said before, there's a lot you still don't know about me, Jana."
"You two seriously need to get a den," Emilia said before taking a sip of her frappé.
"And I need help getting this into my brain," TJ said, pointing at a bag in his textbook, "How comes it's all so easy for you two?"
"Well to start off," Selina answered, "We do actually pay attention in class."
Matei nodded, "And we do the homework."
"Hey!" TJ said, "Matei that only ever happened once. And you're not exactly straight laced yourself. Didn't you get lunch time detention the other day?"
"Hannah deserved it," Matei said glumly.
"I told you I don't need you to fight my battles," Emilia said, placing a hand on his arm, "I can already punch better than you."
Matei smiled, "I can't argue against that."
"So what did you do?" Jana asked. Surely Matei hadn't beaten up Hannah? He wasn't that kind of guy, but if Hannah had said something horrible about Emilia... Well Matei would go to any lengths to protect his sister.
"Nothing much," Matei said, "I swore at her and said that things would be much worse for her if she ever said what said to Emilia again."
"She said I ought to have died in the fire," Emilia admitted quietly, picking at her gloves, "You know sometimes I wish I'd gone to the wild pack with Meinir when they left."
Jana smiled sympathetically, placing a hand on Emilia's. It had been tough for her when her father and friends left. But Alric was right, any longer and he may well find the wild pack was no longer his, he'd been balancing on a knife edge and was about to fall off. As much as he loved Jana, he couldn't throw away everything. Of course her father hoped she would return to the wild one day. But he was happy to accept Jana living in Newcastle, so long as she visited at least every few months.
"You still write to her don't you?" Jana asked, "Maybe I could get Segolia to arrange a visit."
Emilia smiled, "Of course I do. Meinir's told me so much about fire walkers and she told me that there are people in the wild pack who know so much about the history of them and their powers and that might be able to teach me. I absolutely have to go back there soon, please tell Segolia that."
"I will," Jana promised, "The next time I get a chance, I'll make sure that we all go together."
BREAK_BREAK_BREAK_BREAK
"She lied to us!" Emilia exclaimed, "All that about being a pack and going to the wild pack together. It was just rubbish. "
Matei slammed his cup down on the table, "You don't know just how difficult a position I am in right now. You and TJ essentially blackmailed me. You knew I wouldn't just let you go off to the wild pack by yourself and then TJ took my phone when I tried to stall. Jana's going to go nuts when she finds out! And she's my enaid cymar alffa. I'm supposed to be loyal to her."
"And I'm your sister, Matei," Emilia said, "You used to say that I came first out of everyone."
"You and Jana come first," Matei answered, "I'm not going to have you two fighting each other. And Jana is our alpha so we should listen to what she says."
"And she should keep her promises," Emilia argued.
"This was a sudden thing," Matei explained, "Jana didn't know that Dr Whitewood wanted to check on Meinir so soon. There was no time for us to arrange to go. You know, I feel sick just even talking about this."
"Matei," Amanda said in a worried voice, "Aren't you joining us for dinner?"
Matei shook his head, "I've got too much revision."
BREAK_BREAK_BREAK_BREAK
"Wake up!" Emilia whispered to a tired Matei as his phone alarm beeped.
It was five in the morning and Matei had forgotten that he'd set his phone to wake him up so early. He hadn't got to bed until two that morning, he'd spent most of the night worrying and feeling queasy, so much that he'd had to rush to the bathroom twice. The second time Amanda had caught him, and thinking it was just exam nerves and nothing more, had spent a good thirty minutes telling Matei how great he was going to do on the mock. That only made Matei sicker, knowing he was going to disappoint his foster parents by bunking off and worse still, encouraging Emilia.
But he couldn't leave her to go alone. What is something happened? He had to protect her.
He was caught in a difficult situation trying to keep on the right side of Jana and his foster parents whilst trying to protect his sister.
Emilia shook him again, earning a tired grimace from him. Then she threw his scarf and coat at him and placed his bag down on the end of his bed.
"I thought Katrina was packing lunch?" Emilia asked.
"She is," Matei answered, rubbing his eyes, "But if I'm going to make it through a car journey with her I'm going to need books."
"Mr Jeffries book?" Emilia asked, "You've read it five times already."
"You wouldn't understand," Matei answered.
"I know, it's Jana's life story," Emilia answered, "Well at least her life in the human world. You feel like you're getting to know her better through Jeffries' book, it's as if it's filling in all the blanks. But it is wrong. You should just ask Jana if you want to know something."
"Emilia," Matei began angrily, "Jana's been through a lot too. Living in the wild, it's not all meadows and daisies. There are things that Jana can't talk about right now, but Jeffries book, it explains those things. And although it might be wrong in some people's eyes, I need to know how to keep Jana safe and that book is going to help me. Now let's get going. I just want this day to be over and done with."
BREAK_BREAK_BREAK_BREAK
Jana tried to call TJ's phone. Where was he? Imara seemed panicked. Surely TJ wasn't missing.
One day away from her pack and already everything was falling to pieces. She tried to call him twice but still no answer.
"I'm sure he's ok, Jana," Dr Whitewood said, "Whatever he's up to. Don't they have exams today?"
Jana nodded, "That's why he's not answering his phone. No phones in exam halls. But TJ should have really called Imara before, whatever she wanted to talk to him about, it sounds urgent. I don't know why she though he was with us. Oh and that reminds me..."
Jana text Matei:
Good luck fy enaid cymar alffa, I know you'll do amazingly xxx
Matei's phone beeped a second later, "I think we need to pull over. I feel sick."
"Yeah, and I need to pull over too," Katrina said shifting uncomfortably in her seat, "Too much mint tea."
Matei smiled to himself, maybe the experience of peeing behind a bush would get Katrina to change her mind. Then they'd all have to turn around. He might even be in time for the chemistry mock...
"Word of advice," Matei said, "Avoid ivy."
Katrina turned pale.
BREAK_BREAK_BREAK_BREAK
The wild pack picked up Jana's scent and that of another person and turned to each other with a look of both excitement and worry. The put down the baskets they were making and ran to make a relaxed half circle around the entrance to the camp.
Aran crawled groggily out of his shoddily built tent and sniffed the air around him. Jana... His alpha... She was back. But how?
The last time he'd seen her she couldn't even walk properly. It had been three months. Had three months really been a long enough time for her to get better enough for her to be able to make the journey to their territory? The trek was difficult for a healthy human, let alone an injured wolfblood. It was a good three hours uphill.
Aran joined the group and soon the red haired girl and the human doctor appeared. Not only was Jana walking, but she was walking effortlessly and carrying what appeared to be a very heavy silver case. But where was Matei? Where were the others? When he'd last seen Jana, Matei wouldn't leave her alone for two seconds.
Jana placed down the case and flung herself into his arms. He breathed in her scent. There was no long the taint of an injury, nor could he smell any antidepressants or mood stabilisers (they usually left a trace in a wolfblood's scent). His Jana was here, fully healed, and she looked happier than she had in a long time.
And he was about to ruin that.
She hugged the cubs quickly before turning back to him.
"Where's my father?"
BREAK_BREAK_BREAK_BREAK
Matei sniffed cautiously as they approached the clearing, something was off. They weren't going the wrong way, in fact they were nearly at the wild pack. He could tell that Emilia and TJ sensed it too. Even Katrina had an inkling that something was seriously wrong.
Suddenly the crows all fled from the trees.
Moments later the first wild wolfbloods appeared.
The wild and tame packs snarled and each other ferociously, veins and eyes all showing, no one caring about Katrina who looked on petrified.
Jana picked up on her pack's scent and with an irritated sigh began to run towards, then noticing how quiet it was around her, she came to the realising that the wild pack must have got there before. She picked up the speed, if they hurt any of them, if they hurt Matei... What was her pack doing there anyway?
Jana didn't have time to be angry right now, she was just worried.
Hopefully she would get there in time to save her pack.
BREAK_BREAK_BREAK_BREAK
Jana collapsed by the root of a tall oak tree and cried loudly. She didn't care that the wild pack might here and think it a sign of weakness. She didn't care at all.
Her father was dying and despite all of Madoc's efforts nothing seemed to be working at all. In fact in the few hours she'd been there he'd seemed to get sicker and sicker.
She sensed Matei tentatively approaching her.
"Go away!" she yelled between sobs.
"I know you're angry at me," Matei said calmly, "But Jana, please."
"You betrayed my trust!" Jana yelled "And put your sister in danger by bringing her here! What on earth were you thinking?"
"I didn't have a choice," Matei began feebly, "I tried. I really did. I tried to do whatever I could. But Emilia's been going on about the wild so much and then she asked Katrina to come with us. I came here to protect her."
"She's twelve, Matei," Jana said angrily, veining up, "She's still a cub. You could have stopped her. Don't you think I already have enough to worry about with you putting yourselves in danger? And you just had to bring Katrina along as well. Now she knows our secret. You should be lucky I got there in time. The wild pack would have ripped you all to shreds."
"Jana, I'm grateful for that," Matei said, sinking to his knees in submission, "And I swear I've learnt from my mistakes. Nothing like this will ever happen again."
"You can't talk your way out of this one," Jana answered, "I know you've helped me and that you love me and all of that but this was a betrayal. You might be fy enaid cymar alffa, but this is not how a soulmate alpha acts towards his alpha."
"Jana," Matei said, "Just let me help you."
Jana looked up at him miserably, and although it took all of her strength she chocked out the words, "Matei, just leave me alone."