Page 4 of Branches of the Willow (The Ancients #3)

4

Reunions

W hen we returned to the living room, Annabelle’s head was in her hands, and Leanna’s eyes were pleading with me silently. She didn’t wait for us to speak first, instead she jumped right in with her denials and pleas. “I didn’t know he was trying to destroy you, Jessica. I thought he was trying to see that you were mated to one of his sons in the hopes of swaying your decisions, if not controlling them through whichever son you chose.”

“Oh, I see. Then why did you high tail it out of here? Weren’t you at all concerned for your son?”

“What would you think? I knew everyone would assume we were in on Antoine’s plans, especially after we realized he hadn’t been working alone.” Leanna motioned between herself and Annabelle.

“Now that you bring it up, what of Malachi?” Mikael asked, watching both women like a hawk.

Annabelle began crying again, but she looked up towards Mikael as she spoke. “We found him.” She sobbed out the admission and became speechless as the room descended in an onslaught of questions. The noise of everyone trying to speak at once put my nerves on edge.

“STOP!” I shouted over everyone’s questions and Leanna and Annabelle’s hysterical attempts to explain themselves. “We will do this in an orderly fashion, because I am running thin on patience, and I can’t focus with everyone trying to out-shout one another. Annabelle and Leanna, you will shut your damn mouths. Not another word from either of you unless you are asked a direct question.” Even though I wasn’t fond of throwing my power around, I made it a mandate, using my magic, not just a simple suggestion. I turned to look around the room.

“There are only three people in this room asking questions. My father, Mikael, and me. The rest of you will remain watchful from the background only. When we are done here, I will get your input, but not a moment before.” I scanned the faces around me, noting that some of my father’s guards weren’t too happy about being ordered around by the pack leader’s daughter, but they were going to have to get with the program sooner or later.

“Leanna,” I turned to her because Annabelle was incapable of speaking coherently. “What was she saying about Malachi and do remember that we only want the truth. I do not want to hear lies, fabrications, partial truths, or your personal speculations.”

I watched as she swallowed hard in response to my command before speaking. “He denounced Annabelle as his mate when she couldn’t understand his actions.” Leanna reached over and patted Annabelle’s knee when the woman broke down into a disgusting, snot-laden, ugly crying fit.

I was about to ask when that occurred, but my father leaned over and whispered into my ear. “We need to know where they’ve been, why, and with whom, from the time they last saw Antoine and Malachi.” I nodded in agreement and stepped aside so that my father could question the women. I held a few of my questions in the back of my mind as he did so.

“Leanna, I need to know…” my father started to say, but Annabelle’s blubbering only increased in volume. Dad tossed an impatient look across the room to my mother, and she simply shrugged and shook her head in the negative. She had been attempting to subtly calm the women so they could speak coherently. It didn’t seem to have any effect at all on the younger woman. That was something of note, because I knew my mom’s strength, and I doubted Annabelle could ignore her influence. My mom’s magic had, after all, saved Sierra from her grief after Jack died. It made me wonder how much of Annabelle’s crying jag was an act or if she had some special resistance.

“When was the last time you saw Antoine?” My dad asked, voice growing sterner as Annabelle’s wails increased to a far more distracting level.

“He and Malachi left the house the day of the sending off for your man.” She concentrated, obviously trying to remember Jack’s name. “I’m sorry, I don’t recall his name.” A huge part of me wanted to jump across the room and rip that bitch’s throat out. Her mate had been the one to kill Jack, who had been a good man, a brother to me, and did not deserve his fate. I felt a hand placed firmly upon my shoulders and realized I had been moving forward without thought. When the weight of that hand caused the rage to subside some, I noticed the startled look in Leanna’s eyes. I had been growling as I moved.

“Jess…” my father warned.

“My apologies, Jessica…” Her face scrunched in pain as she attempted to fight the order that I had given for her to only speak when asked a direct question. I had not thrown a whole lot of weight behind it, but it was good to let her think she had any power here. If she underestimated me, then that meant she would let her guard down and show her true colors sooner. “I know…”

“You know what?” I asked directly so that she could answer without fighting through the pain.

“I know that he was someone special to you. I swear, we didn’t realize what they’d done.”

I stared at her a moment and then leaned forward just a hair. Without raising my voice, but using the power I had inside of me just the same, I commanded her. “Stop stalling and answer my father’s questions as he asks them.” Once the command was given, I turned to Mikael as Leanna continued to explain how that morning had gone, as any other morning did. “You need to call Evan.” I whispered to Mikael. He glanced at me, questioningly. “This is his mother. I want his input, in the end, as to what we should do with her.”

Mikael nodded in understanding. “I’m going to step away from all the ears in the room. Will you be okay?” Concern mixed with the beautiful green of his eyes, etching tiny lines into the corners as he looked down at me. I inclined my head once and stepped to the side a bit. Mikael turned and left the room to make the call.

“…we didn’t see them again after that.” I tuned back into Leanna’s story. “Where is Mikael going?”

“That is none of your business.” I stated simply. Realizing that the minute I humored Leanna as she tried to push past my power, the suggestion that she only answer questions asked of her, the command had been negated and the woman was free to speak her mind again. I internally rolled my eyes at myself for forgetting how this shit worked and that there were always loopholes that could be played upon if the person making the demands didn’t choose their words and actions carefully.

“I would feel better if he were here.” Leanna pleaded.

“Let’s make this clear, right now. Your feelings mean absolutely nothing to me. If you’re scared, I’m perfectly okay with that. If you’re worried, that’s smart, because you should be. If you think for a minute that you are going to get out of here one second before we know everything we want to know, you are delusional. So,” I gestured back to my father, “pay attention, and answer the next damn question.” Something flashed across Leanna’s face in that moment that I was sure she didn’t want me, or anyone else, to see. There was a little defiance in there and it was wrapped up in a thick blanket of hatred for me too.

My father must have caught a glimpse of it too, because he growled at Leanna, bringing her attention fully back to him then. The mask went up, her face crumpled all over again, into the pained look she wanted everyone to see. Pain would get her sympathy, hatred would get her locked away, or worse. She understood how to play the game. Thankfully, so did my father. “Let me also get something straight,” my father warned, “you will look at me. You will address me. If I catch even the slightest hint that you are more concerned with anyone else in this room, or out of it, I will end these talks and have you taken straight to the locks.” Leanna’s eyes flew up in a very sincere showing of shocking surprise.

“Y-y-yes, Jameson.” Her answer came on the heels of her slight head bow, acknowledging that my father held position over her.

“Why did you and Annabelle leave the area? If you knew nothing about Malachi and Antoine’s plans, how did you know to leave?”

“We were already packed to go. Antoine was frustrated with the lack of progress between Mikael and Jessica. He had obviously been fooled because they had already been mated. Had he known we would have left days before. Well, at least I would have thought so. I didn’t realize at the time that he had other plans.” Her haughty tone as she spoke worked my nerves, and it took a lot to keep my place in the room. I was suddenly hoping Mikael would hurry up and get back inside, just in case.

“You’re saying that you already had plans to leave?” My father asked for clarification again. I wasn’t sure if it was legitimately to have her be more specific in her plans or if he was trying to trip her up and catch her in a lie. Some of our kind were built like human lie detectors. Others, like my father, were fairly good at sniffing out lies, but not quite up to snuff with the best of them.

“That morning, Antoine told Anna and me that he had already arranged a flight back home for us. He planned to send us ahead of time.” She sniffed and flinched as she got ready to look in my direction, before she remembered my father’s orders. “I argued with him because I didn’t want to miss the bonding ceremony during the solstice. I liked the idea of Jessica with Mikael. He may not be a son from my own womb, but he is family to me as if he were. I didn’t want to miss the festivities. Antoine said I was being silly, and then he ordered us to go, saying that he would make sure Jess and Mikael came home shortly after so Jess could become acquainted with his Kingdom.”

I nearly laughed at her attempt to make it sound as if the kingdom still belonged to Antoine, though he was now dead. No doubt, she was attempting to make sure she held a claim to the lands and the properties, as his mate. My father didn’t really get any solid details out of her about what took place before they took off for Romania, so I stepped in.

“When you got to Romania, what did you do?”

“I’m not sure I understand your question.” Leanna fidgeted as she looked up at me.

“You left here, you went to Romania, and then what?”

“We didn’t go there first. We found out what happened to Antoine-”

I cut her off there. “What do you mean, you ‘found out what happened to Antoine’? You’re his mate. I would think that you would have felt what happened to him.”

“Yes, well, I felt no change.” She made a side-long glance toward Annabelle and squirmed in her seat a bit. “Antoine was my first mate, but I was not his,” she offered as explanation.

“And that means what?”

She huffed as if I were a petulant child she had to deal with. My father was standing in my peripheral vision and he tipped his head slightly forward encouraging my questions about the bond and how she hadn’t felt it being broken by Antoine’s death. “Annabelle once told me that she could feel things, occasionally an emotion that was not her own, often knowing when Malachi was close by before she could see or smell him, things of that nature that most mates know about one another. I have never felt those things. I questioned our bond several times over the years because there was never a link like that for us. Just as I wasn’t able to sense my mate, he had not been able to sense me either. Often he would ask about my whereabouts when I was in the next room and could hear him.” Red tinged her cheeks at that last admission, which meant she most likely made a habit of spying on the old king.

“I see. Who told you of the King’s demise then?”

“When we landed, the pilot was informed, he conveyed the message to me.”

“The pilot was a werewolf?” She nodded. “And he didn’t find it odd that you didn’t know of your own mate’s death?”

She huffed again, showing her frustration with me. “He already knew of our-”

“Of your weak bond?” I asked, knowing it would ruffle her further to be thought of as weak in any way.

“Our unusual bond,” she corrected. I smiled at her and then shifted directions again. “If you didn’t go to Romania, where did you go?”

“When we could not get a hold of Antoine or Malachi to confirm the rumors, we asked the pilot to take us to Paris instead.”

“And he just did it?”

“I am Queen, of course he did.”

“You were Queen,” I corrected. “No more though, unless you think you can offer challenge to Mikael, Evan, or me.”

“I would never challenge the boys,” she hissed at me.

“You would challenge me?” She took note of all the people standing around to witness if she screwed up and actually came out as challenging me. It would mean that we would have to physically fight to the death.

“No, of course not,” she adjusted her stance. I made a small sound in the back of my throat, sort of a hum of indifference. Then I chuckled.

“Look at that, we got off track again,” I taunted her. “How long did you stay in Paris?”

“Only a short time. The wolves there were,” she swallowed thickly, “not accommodating to our being in their space.”

“Imagine that,” I sighed. “Don’t make me have to keep pulling each piece of information from you like a child caught doing naughty things. What came next? Why did you think it was safe to return to Romania?”

“Quite frankly, I was tired of hiding. I figured we’d just get it over with. No one bothered us while we were there though.” She sighed as if she was put out by the fact that we hadn’t even considered them a threat of any kind.

“Malachi was there at some point?” I questioned.

Mikael came back into the house and stood there next to me with the phone in his hand. He had Evan on a video chat and held the phone so Evan could see Leanna as she answered.

Leanna took her time, watching Mikael, trying to figure out what he was up to. “Malachi showed up, and told us to gather our things, that he had a place for us to go.” She continued to fidget with her dress. “Annabelle was screaming at him, begging for answers. She accused him of ruining our lives by going along with his father.”

I was growing impatient with her slow storytelling. “And?”

“And I was packing while they yelled. I wanted nothing to do with Malachi’s plan to get away. That wasn’t why I was packing,” she was quick to add the last part. A little too quick, and a little pointed, considering she never took her eyes of Mikael and the phone in his hands. “I already had a plan to come back here.” She glanced between us beseechingly. “I couldn’t make Anna come with me though. For better or worse, she’s mated to Malachi.” Leanna huffed then. “When I told him that I wouldn’t be coming with him, he grew angry. Anna screaming at him continuously didn’t help matters, and finally he yelled that he was done with both of us and told Anna that he would find a way to break their bond.” With those words, the now calm Annabelle started up her simpering again. “It wasn’t long after Malachi left that a young wolf who worked in the house found us and helped us pack some things for our travels.”

“So, you packed, but I see there are only a couple bags sitting in the room. Where’s the rest of it?”

Leanna appeared to be confused for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“I mean you packed up most of the contents of an entire house. Where’s the rest of it?”

“We only grabbed some clothes and a few trinkets.” Her eyes were rounded in surprise that I might know more than I was letting on, and Annabelle began paying closer attention then too.

“Is that so?” I huffed, and then turned to look at Mikael. He knew what I was thinking. We’d already had confirmation from a wolf who said he helped them pack, that they weren’t packing light. “I will have zero mercy on you if you cannot be honest with me.”

“Jessica, we-”

Annabelle cut off whatever Leanna had been about to say. “We put it all in a storage facility. Leanna and I are left with nothing, considering what happened with our mates. The remaining boys were going to inherit everything, and we weren’t sure if we were going to have to keep running for our lives. Do you blame us for wanting a little security?”

I didn’t bother to answer. I just turned to Mikael and held my hand out for the phone. “Evan, Leanna is your blood. And I trust you know her best…” I looked over the phone at Mikael who nodded his approval and smiled. “What would you have us do with your mother?”

“Keep her there. Treat her well but keep her under guard.” Leanna flinched at her son’s words. Evan continued, “She’s my mother, but it was my father who caused all this chaos to begin with, so I’m not in the mood to take unnecessary chances. As for Annabelle, keep an even closer watch on her. She likes to play dramatic, just like her sister.” Annabelle shot him a reproachful glare, making her tear-stained face seem that much less genuine. “I don’t trust her at all. She’s Malachi’s mate through and through, whether he’s shunned her or not.” He scoffed into the phone, “And I don’t believe her anyway,” he added. “Mikael?”

“Yeah, Brother?”

“We need to talk as soon as you’re alone.” Evan looked beyond the camera again. “I’ve got to go for now. I’ll call later when we both have more privacy to speak freely.”

With that, Mikael hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket. I turned toward my father. “I’ll leave their arrangements to you. We haven’t learned everything from them yet. I can see that they are both holding plenty back. Can you try to find out what it is?”

“You know I will, Jess.” My father answered.

I turned to Annabelle for a moment and when I caught her eye, I made sure she didn’t attempt to look away. “I understand this has been an act. Your deception has been noted.” She attempted to say something, but I grinned and shushed her. “I forgot that I allowed the command to be somewhat lax earlier to test the two of you. Let me reiterate,” I told them both as I drew on the power of my wolf and the white wolves before me. “You are not to speak unless asked a direct question from Mikael, Jameson St. Marks, or myself. That rule will remain overnight. If you give anyone trouble, we can make it a power-infused, steadfast rule for the remainder of your stay, if you like? Just keep in mind that when that happens, I will make sure that you may only speak to three people. Period. That will mean no more conversations with Leanne either. You will effectively be a mute because those three people only want answers from you, not conversation.”

I turned back to my father then. “Be kind to them if you can, but if they don’t cooperate, do what needs to be done.”

My dad inclined his head to me, but I noticed how his eyebrow quirked up in surprise. My father’s men seemed to regard me differently as I said that too. They all stood, looking at me somewhat reverently, and then they each inclined their heads as my father had done. It was a sign of respect.

Mikael and I left the house and headed for my Jeep that was parked outside. “They didn’t think you’d sanction force on females,” he explained when I widened my eyes in question about what just happened.

“I’ll sanction force on anyone if it seems necessary. Trying to save my people doesn’t mean I’m not willing to get my hands dirty when we have to take out the trash.” Mikael laughed, and raised his hands in surrender.

“I’m fully on your side, love.”

“I know you are. I’m hungry, and cranky, and a little bit tired though. Let’s hurry home before someone else needs us, please!”

“You got it.”

“I’m going to call Angelique’s and have them deliver something.”

“They don’t deliver out to my house, Jess.”

I stuck my lip out in a pout. “I guess we have to stop by on the way then. I’ll go ahead and call it in. What do you want?”

“I just want you!” The grin that broke out across Mikael’s face seemed to light him up from the inside out. It was contagious.

“I’m already here, do you want anything that’s actually on their menu?” I laughed.

Mikael gave me his order, and I called in the food. Everything was ready by the time we got to Angelique’s, and I had to salivate the whole way home smelling the yummy goodness of the southern cuisine.