Jace was still working on the barn house as dusk fell, the sun sinking in the sky and the trees casting long shadows across the cleared out grassy area around the house, and the few lights that were set up in the house were turned on, exposed bulbs hanging down low from the ceiling as Jace finished sanding down a door frame and straightened up, the pain that had been gathering in his lower back quickly disappearing. He could hear a car approaching, but the smell was familiar and he didn't bother going to the door to greet the other werewolf as he picked up his phone to look at the time, seeing that it was a little after seven and he had a couple of messages from Isabelle and Maia, telling him that dinner was going to be ready soon.

"Well," Will commented as he stepped into the house and looked around with an exaggerated sniff. "It smells good in here." Jace narrowed his eyes as he looked over at his uncle, and he saw the wolfish grin on his face, before he looked back down at his phone and sent off a quick response in the group chat, saying he would be heading back up to the house shortly. "So I'm guessing that means that Miss Clarissa came by."

"She prefers Clary," Jace said shortly as he wiped his hands down on his shorts and then reached out to pick up the hoodie that he had been wearing that morning, slipping it on even though his temperature regulated easily with the cooling evening air. Maybe he was putting it on because the smell of Clary was clinging to his shirt and he wanted to keep it close to his chest, trapped against him and as far away from Will as he could, even though logically he knew Clary's scent was in the house itself as well.

"I bet she does," Will grinned as he walked through the house and over to the kitchen, where the centre island was. It was all curved wood and elegant lines—the kitchen almost completely finished other than some painting and the finishing touches of the electricity and plumbing—and he lifted himself up, sitting on the island and swinging his legs.

"You're worse than Max," Jace huffed a little. "If Max was jumping up on the counter tops, he'd be getting a smack around the head." Will just wiggled his eyebrows and didn't say anything, adding to the reasons why he was the most frustrating member of Jace's pack. "What are you doing down here?"

"I can't check on my darling nephew?" Will asked with a tilt of his head and blinking his eyes in a way that was probably meant to come off as innocent but Jace just gave him a flat look because he knew Will better than that. "I knew that you were meeting with Clarissa today and I wanted to check in, see how it went."

"It went fine," Jace replied, words a bit clipped and Will didn't move from where he was sitting, other than swinging his legs a bit faster, and Jace sighed as he adjusted his hoodie and then walked over to his uncle, bracing his legs against the side of the wooden centre island, near Will. "It went really good, actually," he admitted quietly, and he couldn't help but smile, which got a huff of laughter from Will.

"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" Will laughed. "Come on, tell me about her." And Jace sighed, and acted as though this was difficult, even though if he was being honest, he really wanted to talk about her, about everything that he was feeling inside. With Alec and even Izzy, it might be difficult, because of how protective they were of Jace, and Alec had made no secret of how wary he was of Clary, and while Izzy was supportive, she was still nervous, and Jace could understand her reasons why. Maia was somewhere in the middle as well, wanting to support her Alpha, knowing how desperate the need to be with ones mate was, but she had also seen the way that Jace had struggled without Clary over the years and had heard how badly things had gone when they had first found each other.

"Right," Jace began and everything sort of just spilled out. How good it felt to be with her, how well their wolves smelt together, how perfect their bodies moved together when they had been running through the forest and then how natural it had been to sit down afterwards, both of them a little sweaty so that their scents were twining together, and just talk for hours. Surprisingly, Will actually let him talk, didn't interrupt to make sarcastic comments like he usually did, and there was a gentle smile on his face, completely different from the smirk that he had been wearing earlier.

"I'm happy for you," Will said softly and for a moment, Jace felt guilty about gushing about Clary, even though Will had been the one to prompt him to talk. Will's mate had been a human, someone that he had met when he was a teenager. Jace had been young when they had first met, only seven or eight, and at the time, there was a lot that he didn't understand. He knew that his uncle had met his mate, and he knew that she wasn't a wolf but he didn't know what was happening behind all of the closed doors and the whispered conversations with adults. Later on, he had learnt that Will had wanted to change her, that he had begged for Stephen, his Alpha, to turn her into a werewolf, and for his brother, Stephen had agreed, even though he had his doubts, but the girl had been determined. Her body had rejected the bite, and she had died a few days later, and it had taken a long time for Will to recover.

Maybe he never had, because Jace couldn't imagine surviving in a world where Clary was no longer living and breathing.

There had never been anyone else for Will, not even a fling or a one night stand that Jace had ever been able to smell on him.

"Don't do that," Will commented after the silence stretched between them, and Jace looked over at the older man, who was still looking at him with that same, gentle smile, one that actually looked a lot like his fathers, and Jace was surprised by how much the resemblance made his heart thud in his chest. "Don't feel bad about feeling happy."

"I don't," Jace said, even though he was lying, and Will definitely heard the lie, but he didn't call him out on it.

"The thing that you should be feeling bad about is Kaelie," Will's smile turned cheeky and Jace rolled his eyes, feeling steadier on his feet now that Will was back to being a jackass again, even though he was bringing up a good point. "Have you thought about what you're going to do with her?"

"What I'm going to do with her?" Jace grunted, pushing away from the centre island and moving around the kitchen area, cleaning up even though he was pretty pedantic about cleaning up after himself anyway.

"You're going to have to tell Clarissa about her, and you're obviously going to have to tell Kaelie that's she's back, if she doesn't already know," Will continued, and he was swinging his legs again, the backs of his heels hitting the sturdy wood of the bottom of the island, and Jace really wished that his glare worked as well on Will as it did on Max. "You can't go into this with any secrets, especially with the rocky road you and Clarissa have already been on since you two met, and Kaelie deserves an explanation, even though the girl isn't an idiot." Will tilted his head to the side and there was a glint in his eye that Jace never liked. "You're both adults, it's not as though Clary will have been completely celibate and not sleeping with anyone. It's not something you should be ashamed of."

"I know," Jace muttered as he put all of the smaller tools back into the black and red toolbox and closed it up, trying to ignore the way his uncle's gaze was following him knowingly, and could undoubtedly pick up on the slightly soured smell that his scent had taken on at the idea of someone touching his mate intimately, even though he knew that he had no right to be jealous. Then he started absently pushing around the sheets that were on the ground with his feet, avoiding Will's eyes, making him feel like a kid having some serious talk with his parents.

"Kaelie's probably already heard that Clary is back," Will pointed out. "It's not like anyone in your pack is known for their subtlety." Jace looked up at that, and he rolled his eyes, but there was a small smile on his face.

"Our pack," Jace corrected his uncle.

"Our pack," Will agreed, a put-upon expression on his face, as though it was so hard being a part of their pack, even though Jace knew that he loved them all. "Even though you're all children and make my life a living hell." Jace rolled his eyes again, because that statement was untrue, but he'd let him have it. "Anyway, I'm starving. You ready to stop moping around here and head up to the main house?"

"I wasn't moping," Jace sighed, because Will always made things into something that they weren't, but he snatched up his keys from where they were on the windowsill and lead the way out of the house, Will close behind him.

"You were, but that's okay, nephew," Will caught up with him easily and threw an arm around his shoulders, tugging him in close and ruffling his hair in a way that he always used to do when he was young. Jace struggled away from him, needing to use some of his superhuman strength given the grip that Will had on him, and moved over to where his Camaro was parked. He usually didn't bring it down with him from the house, since it only took him thirty seconds or so if he was running from the house to the barn house, but he'd gone into town this morning to pick up a few things, and had just ended up parking it there until he headed up to the main house. "Now let's go see what food Izzy has cooked up to kill us all for dinner."

It had been almost five o'clock when Clary left Jace's property, but instead of driving directly back home, she took a more scenic route, taking roads that she hadn't been on since she was a teenager. She turned a playlist on her Spotify up loud, Astrid S and Fletcher and AURORA playing through the speakers as she took side roads to get her close to the beach and then chose to take a road that wound up the mountains and pulled off the side so that she could get out and look down at the waves crashing down on the rocks below, breathing in the salty air. Night was falling and the sun was sinking, and she could still smell Jace on her skin in a way that made her wolf settle happily inside of her, and she closed her eyes as she breeze stroked through her hair.

Things were still confusing, because her life was in New York, and there was only so long that she could put off going back there and working through things. She had a full time job, and she had friends and while she had always known that coming back to California permanently was something that she had to do, it hadn't been something that she had planned for any time in the future. But now...Her and Jace seemed to have a real chance.

He was nothing like her father.

He was nothing like the Alpha she had feared he might be like.

And they'd already lost so much time, she didn't know if she could shoulder the responsibility of being the reason why they lost even more time.

But right now, Clary's head felt...Pleasantly empty. It sounded a bit strange as she realized that that was what she was feeling, but for the first time in a long time, her thoughts were just at ease. While she knew that there were a lot of decisions that needed to be made, and a lot of things that her and Jace were going to need to talk about in the future, right now, in this moment, while staring out over the cliffs edge and down to the water that was crashing against the rocky cliff face.

She sat on the bonnet of her mums car for so long that when she reopened her eyes and focused properly, she realized that the sun had all but disappeared, and she must have been there for an hour or so. When she got back into the car, she had a message from Simon saying that he was back at the house, and he had thought that she would be back a while ago, one from her mother letting her know that dinner wasn't far away if she was going to be home for that, and then one from Jace, that had only come in about five minutes ago.

I really enjoyed today. I hope I can see you again soon.

Clary smiled down at her phone, taking in a deep breath that she felt through each of her limbs, and her fingers came up to brush over the cheekbone that she still felt the phantom touch of Jace's lips from his earlier kiss. Her wolf was purring and preening inside her, and Clary took one more moment to herself to just breathe and smile before she plugged her phone back into the audio jack of the car and turned the engine back on, pulling out of the look out that she was parked in, and accelerating back toward Luke and her mothers home.

She made one last stop, though.

She hadn't thought that she would be stopping by this part of the forest again so soon since she had come here the first time after so many years, but there was something about everything that they had talked about today that had drawn her back to the place where her old, childhood home was.

Clary pulled up the car outside where she had just been running a few mornings ago, taking in a deep breath and waiting to feel something wash over her that would send her stalking back to her car, but there wasn't anything. It wasn't like the times just after the incident with her father and Jace had happened, and it wasn't like the other morning, when she just felt resigned and grudgingly accepting to what this area was.

This time she saw it as something else.

Tears started spilling down her cheeks before she could even stop them, before she had even really processed what was happening, and by the time she realized that they were making tracks down her cheeks, she didn't bother to lift her hands and brush them away, just letting them fall. She ended up sitting down on the ground, leaning against a fallen, mossy log, ignoring the smell of ash and soot that her nose could still pick up, buried beneath the soil from all those years ago, and she just let herself cry.

It felt cathartic.

The sobs were for the father she had never really had and had then lost.

And for the mate that she had found, and then subsequently lost, for so long.

For her part in losing that mate, because of her own fears and insecurities, and the pain that she had caused not only to herself, but more importantly, to Jace.

Her wolf mourned with her, howling inside her chest, not bothering to try and muffle her sounds given she wasn't holed up in a tiny apartment with thin walls but instead in an open forest. When all the tears were gone, her shoulders felt lighter, and she was pretty sure if she was human, she would feel absolutely exhausted right now, rather than just slightly tired. Clary sat there for longer—long after the sun had completely gone down and the moon had lit up the sky—just breathing and staring up at the branches above her.

Okay, so my top songs this week are as follows;

1) Walls - Louis Tomlinson. 2) Alanis' Interlude - Halsey and Alanis Morissette. 3) Venice Bitch - Lana Del Rey. 4) Fake Love - BTS. 5) Too Young - Louis Tomlinson. 6) Always You - Louis Tomlinson. 7) Mikrokosmos - BTS. 8) Caught Up In Your Storm - Mickey Guyton. 9) 8TEEN - Khalid. 10) Heebiejeebies - Aminé and Kehlani.

The song that my husband hasn't stopped playing is Dionysus by BTS. We've been on a total BTS buzz lately, totally jumping on that train, even if we're a little late. My hubby's faves are Suga, Jungkook and Namjoon—he completely swoons everytime Suga comes on stage or starts rapping. Haha. Mine would be Namjoon, who I, admittedly, swoon over everytime he comes on screen, and then Jungkook, even if he's too pretty to even exist.

In one of my reviews, KnivesOut recomended Anne With An E which I have actually watched before although I haven't finished yet, and I definitely want to recommend to you guys! I remember reading the books when I was younger and loving them, and there's just something about this series that has brought it all back. I've also started watching Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood when me and my husband are high, and I'm super into it. Haha.

I think my weekly updates are going to slow down a bit for a few weeks, although I think I had a good run! So I'll be doing previews of the next chapter if you leave a review and let me know if you want one or not.

Also, feel free to hit me up on my socials;
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Twitter: CalamitySerene

xx