7) No Need to Argue

Mj locked eyes with Ace, and he quirked a half smile as the deadly gleam in her eyes matched his own. “We are going to play a little game, rabbit,” Mj began. Moxie and Jay high-fived one another at her use of their pet name for prey while Ed only folded his head into his hands and mumbled to himself. “Now that we can play in private, I'm gonna tell you the rules... I am going to ask you questions and if I don't like your answer, or you take too long to answer, I am going to bite off one of your fingers and swallow it...do you understand?” 

Honey nodded while she continued to sob, and Mj released the woman to stand on her own, if she could. “Why is the Triad taking wolves?” she urged and Honey whimpered, “they keep them for testing, sometimes they use us for work or just sterilize us, so we can’t breed.” Mj growled at the terrified woman, and she squealed in terror once more. “Why does Casper want me?” she ordered and suddenly Honey’s demeanor changed completely, she became frantic and grabbed Mj by the shoulder. “You can’t become involved with him...he will use you to reel in others or worse... auction you off for breeding, stay far away from Casper he is just as dangerous as the Triad if not more.” Mj huffed a heavy sigh and shot Ace an uncertain glance. “look… I want to believe you, but the Alpha wants your head for a hood ornament.” Mj tried to step back, but Honey desperately reached for her. “no, please! I can help you get to Casper, please!”  

Mj peeled the desperate woman’s hands away from herself and took a long breath. “You help us find the Triad, and I can guarantee that the Alpha will at least let you live.” The waitress licked her dry lips and nodded her head furiously, “I swear I will do whatever it takes to-” as Honey tried to relay her thanks and pledge her allegiance at the same time Mj cocked her fist back and cracked the still sniffling woman in the nose so hard blood squirted from the center of her face before turning and walking away without another word. Ace snapped his fingers, “Eddie, since you decided to bring her home with us, you get to take her to the guest room next to Pepper... Jay I want you to call one of the Pearls to check her out, make sure she can answer questions for us again tomorrow.” Jay and Ed lifted the groaning and bleeding woman from the ground and drug her away. Moxie stretched his arms above his head, “well if that’s all for the night I’m gone,” Ace opened his mouth to answer, but Moxie was already half shifted and running toward the blanket of trees. And as Ace stood there alone, mentally exhausted from the day, he heard the small unmistakable melody of a small voice from behind him, “Commander?” the sweet sultry sound of Sam’s voice cut through the tense silence and the normally Stoic Ace let his shoulder relax just slightly.  “Sam, thank the moon it’s you, I thought it would be someone who needed something from me.” The way Ace worded his sentence sent a pang of sadness into Sam’s chest, but she hid it with a cheerful smile. “No of course not Commander... I thought that you might be tired, so I prepared a meal for you to take in your room if you don’t feel like going to the-” Ace never let Sam finish her sentence, he just grabbed her by the wrist and stormed into the pack-house toward his chamber. 

Mj watched from around the corner as Ace held his door for a giggling Sam before he playfully pinched her rear and shut the two of them behind the door. She smiled at the fact that the two of them thought they had the entire pack fooled into thinking there was nothing going on between them, and Mj wondered if sometimes they were even trying to fool themselves into thinking the same. As Mj reached for the door to her room she stopped, just like most nights every time she saw the closed  door the ghosts of laughter rang through her broken heart, she could almost hear Dante laughing behind the door and when she would yank it open the thrust of air in her face still carried a small trace of his scent, but most days she couldn't even bring herself to open the door, so she turned and ran toward the only place she found silence, her garden.

As Azreal stormed back toward his room, he felt the sudden and unmistakable tug of hopelessness and even though she tried to keep them silent, he could even faintly hear her distressed sobs in his mind. The Alpha sighed heavily when his mate's silky voice floated through his mind, “help her, my love.” With four small words Azreal grumbled and turned toward the outer walls of the pack-house, searching for a small arched wooden door, and before long he found it covered by the thick vines she had let grow wild all around it. Azreal wanted to smile at the similarities between Mj and the way she kept her garden, but as he pushed the door open the heavy wave of heartache and emotional anguish hit him like a knife to the gut. Curled up on the lush ground under the cover of a cement bench was his fearless, unbreakable new hunter. Mj’s entire body shook with nausea and heartbreak, but when she heard the rustle of dirt she worked to sit up only to smack the back of her head on the bench and double over, cursing under her breath. “Better to rest on the seat than under it,” Azreal sang softly as he strode over and sat on the bench Mj had just been under with his back to her. Mj wiped the moisture from her face and scrambled to her feet.

    

Instead of sitting down next to her Alpha, she busied herself tending to the now flourishing flower garden.  Azreal watched as she fussed over pruning some leaves, and he advanced from his seat to stand by her. The almost statuesque Alpha clasped his hands behind his back and cleared his throat, causing Mj to almost jump and peer at him like she did not know he had been standing there. “I uhh...didn’t hear you come in, was there something you needed Alpha?” Mj asked very clinically and Azreal sighed heavily as he reached up to stroke the soft green petals of a now thriving green rose bush, “You know I never wanted to give these to him...my green roses are special to me, and I wasn’t sure they would transplant... but just look at how beautifully they are doing here.” Mj twisted her face up into an expression of half confusion and half worry “it’s not that impressive Alpha, things move from one place to another all the time” and Azreal gave her a side glance before he continued, "yes but, just because you move it does not mean that it will thrive in its new home… Sometimes I wonder if you thrive here.” Mj shook her head and Azreal exhaled a long forlorn breath, “I made a mistake tonight little sister, I allowed my emotions to cloud my judgment, and it almost cost someone their life.” 

Mj snorted, and Azreal grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing them to face one another. “By the moon Mj you have to stop this… this self-torture!” Mj did not answer, she only let her head flop to the side and Azreal shook her “I MISS HIM TOO!'' The Alpha roared in her face, and Mj pushed herself away from Azreal with a threatening snarl. “He left us Alpha… he left me, so miss him or not, maybe you should let go... like I have.” Mj tried to raise her chin proudly and hide the tremble she could feel, causing a painful lump to form in her throat.

Azreal only laughed dryly and wiped a hand over his face. “you lie to me and fool yourself if you truly think anyone believes that stupid shit.” Mj clenched her jaw and Azreal sat down on the side of the raised garden bed, patting the stones next to him, he gestured for his pack member to join him and when she crossed her arms, he raised both of his eyebrows and dipped his chin with a wide-eyed stern look and with a huff Mj sat down underneath the blooming greenery and mindlessly stroked the leaves the same way she had so many times. “I don’t feel anything most days Alpha, I wake up numb, I work numb, and I fall asleep the same way,” Mj’s admission shocked Azreal, and he sat back in an almost slumped posture. “I have a mate who needs me, a daughter who is falling in love and four other children I am supposed to be consumed with… but most of the time I find my thoughts drifting to my friend, my brother.” Azreal took a ragged breath and when he stared into Mj’s eyes she almost swallowed her heart when the normally stoic and always put together man looked almost gaunt with worry and her chin trembled as large, thick tears streamed down his face. “Please Mj, I realize that this is not a fair thing I am asking you, but I need to know if he is alright… if he is still alive.”

Azreal’s words hit Mj like a title wave and all the feelings she had kept locked up just under the surface flooded forward and as she burst into tears. Throwing herself forward, Azreal grabbed her and they both sank back to the earth. Azreal held Mj tightly, pulling her shoulder into his chest he wrapped her arms around her and as she reached up and clutched his arm like a lifeline, she began to scream and cry so hard she eventually vomited into the dirt. After what seemed like an eternity Mj took a heavy breath and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, “he is alive Alpha,” she stated and Azreal shook her shoulders gently and made a low growling sound, “stop calling me that, I’m not in the office and neither are you… assassin.” Mj sucked in a breath and Azreal winked at her, but she just tucked her knees underneath her and twisted her fingers together until the knuckles turned white. “I dream about him all the time, Azz… I’m not sure if Theron is tormenting us both or if it's just me torturing myself, but they are almost always the same.” Azreal turned Mj to face him and held her at arm's length. “I want to be angry this is the first I am hearing of it, but I also need you to confide in me, so… please.” Mj pulled herself from her concerned Alpha’s grasp and hauled herself to her feet, looking around at all the various flowers before she took a long deep breath. “I am outside and Dante is squatted down on the ground… I always pull him up from the ground, and we walk for a while, sometimes we talk, and sometimes he just cries, but--” Mj stops and chews her lip as Azreal puts a supportive hand in the center of her back. “Please Mj we are family, do not suffer alone,” Mj smiled at him but never took her eyes off the different floral blooms, and she let a ragged laugh escape her throat. “I tried to bury the nightmares with pretty flowers, Azz, each one of them is another reminder that he left.” Azreal bumped her shoulder with his own, and she licked her lips again as an icy breeze whipped through the small, cramped walls of the garden. “Talia shows up and tries to take him from me but for some reason I know he is not strong enough to resist her  so I-I I try to fight her Azz I really do… I want him back so badly, but she is just too strong, and I always die.” Mj’s voice becomes almost a whisper and Azreal growls so furiously, Mj snaps her head and stumbles backwards as she watches his eyes flash from gold to black. “That hoe beast is no match for you Mj… You have the backbone of Quicksilver always, this pack is as loyal to you as you are to it, never forget that little sister.” In a purely physical act of emotion, Mj threw one arm around Azreal’s neck and buried her face in his chest as she began to breathe heavily. Azreal began to stroke the back of her head, much like an affectionate father, until Mj stepped away from her Alpha and turned her face to the sky. “We have to get him back Azz… even if she isn’t killing him, not being with his family is… and he’s not the only one, I can feel Theron fading and I’m scared, I can’t lose them both... we have to have him back.”

Azreal simply hummed and once again straightened his posture into the straight-backed Alpha he usually was, “I agree with you… and as you know the full moon fire is close, Lila and I have decided to formally introduce the kids to the entire pack… along with any ally who attends, this is an announcement that we will make sure travels back to Talia and that rotten wolf of hers, they won’t pass up the chance to see my progeny, I can promise you that.”  Mj’s eyes grew wide as her Alpha’s words sank in. “Azreal how long have you two been planning this,” she almost whispered and Azreal chuckled. “Since the day Dante told us he would surrender himself to Talia… we will not lose him either Mj, don't forget he is not just your mate but also my brother.” 

Mj cocked her head and opened her mouth but Azreal only chortled, “no, before you ask Dante will no longer be the assassin when he comes back… he lost that right when he entered another pack, but I’m glad to see the other hunters have been rubbing off on you enough that you are worried about your position here.” Mj blushed slightly and shrugged, “what can I say Alpha, I never had a family and now that I do I don't want to let them go for anything.”  Azreal hummed and opened the door, motioning for her to exit first. “Then maybe we try spending more time with them instead of the flowers… also, I would appreciate your advice on what to make of our newest guest.” Mj rolled her eyes and glanced around, “ I guess I was done here anyway” she whispered and as Azreal shut the door behind her Mj felt something she hadn't  in almost a year, she felt like a a load had been lifted from her heart but as she looked at her Alpha, she noticed that he seemed to have taken the burden from her and was now carrying it along with his own. Mj took a long breath and stretched her arms high above her head. “Would it be alright if we did a debrief tomorrow? She isn’t going anywhere anyhow and seeing as how Ed brought her here with us straight from the club, I seriously doubt anyone will be looking for her.”  Azreal was silent for a while and Mj was afraid she had overstepped until he slapped her on the back and let a hefty laugh blast from deep in his gut. “You are as bad as our Beta little hunter… trying to manipulate your Alpha.” Mj opened her mouth to speak and Azreal simply held his hand up to stop her, “you are correct Mj… that bitch can wait, my sleep can not.” As Azreal picked up the pace and began to turn down the opposite corridor, Mj turned and yelled after him, “Alpha… I know it is not my place, but I was a kid on my own once and at the age she was— what I mean is… I would have done anything if it meant I could call someplace home… and I would like permission to work with John Pearl to find it if she might be telling the truth.” Azreal began to shake his head when Mj continued 

“I know Alpha, that is your job… but I think you are too close to this one… Azz, as your friend and someone who loves your wife and family.... Go home to your kids, kiss your mate and leave the bloody stuff to us, that’s what we are for Alpha.” Azreal grinned and chuckled under his breath as he nodded and turned to walk away, before she was out of ear shot he yelled over his shoulder, “you know… your wisdom makes me wonder what kind of Beta you might have made if Dante had taken his own pack.” Mj simply laughed out loud as she made her way toward the mess hall, where she knew Moxie and Jay would be either fighting over popcorn and movies or playing video games.//