Power & Fire
Chapter 37 Jason

I think I'm starting to understand why Castiel has so many secrets and opts to keep quiet about them. The figure watching me, I know who it was. I've felt that presence before, it's Castiel's father, 'Luci', she had called him, even though I'm almost certain that it was just one of her many lies.

I could end this secrecy, I really could, I asked Dean, my private investigator, to obtain information about Castiel before, and then regretted it and asked him to destroy those same evidences but it would only take a matter of minutes for him to get me that information back, especially since the research was already done.

It was a temptation, it really was.

Curiosity kept eating my insides slowly but surely. My mind kept swirling through the many possibilities, how easy it would be for me to understand everything, to know who she truly is. But what irked me the most was her father. His energy was frightening, everything around him seemed to turn to cold stone as his malicious waves rocketed against my bones creeping upon me, shaking and breaking me to the core, to make me quiver in fear. He could not be human.

She could not be human.

Her healing capacities, her knowledge, her secrets, everything pointed that she wasn't a human being, but oddly enough, that thought didn't scare me the slightest. It made curious, every little new thing that I learned about her life had me craving for more. Heavens, dear Goddess what game are you playing with me.

Thinking about the Goddess of the Moon had my train of thoughts changing their lane. Clarence was still hellbent on bringing her down onto earth, amongst the living, for the sole purpose of punishing my mate, for the most idiotic and unreasonable motive ever. Problem for later.

As of right now, my duty is to check on my people to make sure everyone is okay after the earthquake. I've already got men on the field, specially at school, to rebuild the destroyed buildings and grounds, the damage felt heavier in the moment rather than in reality, it's predicted for the school to be up and running again sometime next week. So far there were no deaths, just a few injured, but nothing major or worrisome.

Pulling up at the packhouse I quickly called everyone for a brief meeting. There were hundreds of teenagers living here so a gathering wasn't as quick as I had wished, but better late then never I guess. Nonetheless everyone managed to fill the meeting room as expected.

"Thank you everyone for coming." I started off my speech, my eyes searching through the crowd for more familiar faces.

"As all of you know, we've been unfortunately hit by an earthquake. Luckily enough, no one got severely hurt, and the damages are not as bad as they seemed to be. School and extracurricular activities will restart next week, so take this time off to relax and express your feelings about the whole situation. There's a team of specialized doctors and psychologists to accompany and assist you if you need any of their services at your disposal, their contacts will be dropped in your emails in the next few hours, the bills will be payed by pack funds, so don't fret about prices while seeking for help."

A murmur of conversations and opinions surged after I stopped talking. I locked eyes with Axel who was already watching me with a gleam of hope shining on his brown orbs.

"Alpha are you going to address the alpha command that you submitted us to, regarding your plans for your future mate and Queen?" Isabella fired back at me, addressing me as Alpha, fury shining bright on her face, showing her distaste and slight disgust towards my previous actions.

As soon as she spoke a louder murmur surged, everyone had mixed feelings towards the whole situation. Some even looked back in shock to Isabella due to her blant disrespect towards the crown and her malicious intentions behind her innocent curious question.

"Yes I will, thank you Isabella for your input. The alpha command was simply a routine exercise, the subject of my mate was somewhat a test, let's put in simpler words. I needed to know what my pack thought about my true mate, especially because she's not one of us, it was a loyalty test you could say. By imposing you with another female I could truly see who was in favor of having my mate, Castiel Jones, as their Queen. The results were rather pleasing seeing as so many of you rejected and tried to retaliate the command that was being dropped upon you. I would also like to clarify and celebrate the marking of the future Queen. I apologize for the pain and inconvenience brought to you, I just needed to be sure about your true feelings before officially marking my mate and bounding our lives together since it's the first time that a non-werewolf creature is being mated with an Alpha King." I tried to explain, praying that all of them had bought my made up lie.

I looked around the room once again, noticing Tiffany and Melinda hurrying out without anyone noticing. I'll talk with her later. I snapped my gaze back to my group of friends who were all incredibly shocked and still not completely convinced like the rest of the pack members in the room who were smiling and cheering at the news.

"Are there any other questions?" I asked to the crowd.

A few pack members had questions regarding school, others about how was Castiel doing and if she was injured during the earthquake, which made my beast rumble with appreciation for their concern.

"Alright if that's all, the meeting is over. Have a great day and thank you again for coming. Don't hesitate to talk with me regarding any other issue." I finished.

Everyone bowed down before exiting quietly and in order. Everyone except Axel, Isabella, Elijah, William and Ethan.

Soon enough the room was completely cleared except for the six of us. We stayed in silence simply staring at each others before Isabella finally snapped.

"You marked Castiel?!" She asked incredulously.

"I did." I answered her shortly.

"Jason stop with the two worded answers already and start explaining, because if you think for a fraction of a second that we bought your little lie, you are badly mistaken." Axel confessed. "What did you do to her? Where is she?" Isabella kept on pushing.

"Who the hell do you take me for? A monster? As if I would ever hurt her." I snapped back getting slightly irritated at her constant accusations and hostility towards me. Not that I didn't deserve it though. "You have hurt her before. Now care to answer my question?" Isabella said heartlessly.

"Bella calm down." I heard Will whisper softly to her while pulling her towards him noticing my hurt expression and temper rising.

"She's back at home with her family and Aramazd, she needed a little time off to get herself together. She messaged me before the meeting if you want to check it for yourself." I answered while shoving my phone towards her direction, daring her to actually take my phone. We had a short stare down contest but, as predicted, she eventually backed down.

"Man please just tell us what's going on already. I'm not sure if you noticed but this is taking a huge toll on us, all of us." Elijah interrupted, desperation lacing his voice as he rested his hand against his forehead as if feeling an headache.

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I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose before looking back at them.

"Alright, but not here. Get in the car and meet me outside. I just need to check on something."

They looked at me suspiciously but did as I told them nonetheless.

When they finally left, I followed the path that Melinda and Tiffany had taken while slipping out of the meeting in hopes of replaceing Melinda and getting info about her situation with her mate and how we were going to deal with Clarence. My prayers had apparently been heard as I saw a flash of a redhead female near the bathrooms. I got closer but quickly took several steps back when I heard a high squealed voice screaming back at Mel.

"I'll never accept you as my mate. I'm not a fucking lesbian, I'm not, I refuse to accept you!!" My heart actually ached for Melinda but when I heard her furious voice replying to Tiffany I decided to step out of the scene before getting caught and let her handle it on her own, knowing that she would need some time to cool off on her own before meeting up with me. I texted her a small 'are you ok? meet up with me later.' for her to see after her fight with the blonde wolf was done just to make sure.

As promised I met with the rest of the group outside. They were all peacefully waiting for me inside the 8 seated Land Rover. I quickly hopped on the drivers seat and sped down the road watching as the sun begun to set. The ride wasn't long, but it was extremely uncomfortable as the music playing on the radio was the only sound that could be heard inside the car. Everyone was either staring out from the window or down to their hands.

A bifurcation between a grovel road and the continuation of the smooth tar was ahead in a mile distance, taking the right grovel side we continued our journey until we reached the outsides of the city and into another zone of dark woods. I pulled over and parked near a tall tree.

Getting out of the car, everyone followed my lead until we were deep into the woods. We sat down on top of a few smoothed down, due to the rain, dark grey colored rough rocks.

"Explain." Isabella said.

"Yeah spill the beans." Ethan said trying to look intimidating. The thought alone made me smile.

"Oi?" Isabella repeated gaining my full attention once again.

I cleared out my throat and started explaining s much as I could without telling them about Melinda's situation, which didn't make things any easier to try to explain it to them. But I told them everything nonetheless.

"Poor Castiel, she must be so shaken up right now." William said concerned to which the rest of the group agreed and murmured their empathy for my mate.

All of them except Axel who looked like he was deep in thought. He didn't look worried about Castiel condition per se, there was something else bothering him. My theory was proven correct when I saw him expertly whisk his phone out of his pocket and send a text to someone.

If you're loving the book, nel5s.org is where the adventure continues. Join us for the complete experience all for free. The next chapter is eagerly waiting for you! "What's wrong Axel?" I confronted him.

He looked startled before quickly putting his phone inside his pocket once again.

"I don't know, I feel like you are hiding something else from us." He said while slightly narrowing his eyes at me.

A ding sounded through the rather quiet forest.

Axel quickly checked his message before glaring back at me.

"And apparently hiding it from your mate as well." He threw the slight shade at me.

"You were texting Castiel?" I asked surprised, I knew that they had gotten closer, but how close.

"Answer my question Jason what is that you are hiding?" He asked with a serious expression painted on his face.

The rest of the group had quickly turned to his side and looked at me expectantly.

"It's not my place to tell. I can't tell you." I said in exasperation.

"You can't or you won't?" Isabella decided to add.

"Just tell us the whole truth already." Elijah said while shaking his head slightly in a disappointing manner.

"Yeah Jason tell them the truth." A feminine voice said behind me.

I turned around recognizing the voice and felt my face pale when I saw the girl now in front me covered in blood from head to toe. "Tell them the truth."

And who was I to deny her wish?