Chapter 43: Their Cursed

I carried Remi into the pack house and to the kitchen. Cullen met us there. Lunch was already being served so there were not many people in the kitchen. I set Remi on the counter as Cullen joined us. When he saw the mark on her cheek he growled.

“Who?” he said sharply. She winced slightly making him reign himself in. “Remi, love, who hit you?” he asked more calmly.

“Jaime was walking away when I felt it,” I said.

“You left her alone?” he growled at me.

“Samantha called, repeatedly. I wasn’t far,” I said. I went over to the freezer and got some ice. I came back over, and Cullen was inspecting the mark on her cheek. He took the ice pack from my hand and gently placed it on her cheek.

“Love, what happened when Calder left to take his phone call?” he asked her softly. I knew he was exercising more restraint than he usually did. I am sure he was ready to rip Jaime’s head off at the moment. She reached up and rubbed the arm holding the ice pack to her face. She was trying to calm him down.

“Baby, I am so sorry. I should have been watching. Why did Jaime hit you?” I asked.

She shook her head. “It’s fine,” she said in a small voice.

“No, it isn’t. She assaulted the future Luna of this pack. She assaulted my mate. It is not fine,” Cullen said.

“I’m okay. It barely hurts now,” she said.

“Remi, we can’t allow this to go unpunished. You are going to be Luna and no pack member can treat you this way. No one should ever lay a hand on you,” Cullen said.

“I know. I remember the rule book. It's just…” She paused. We both waited for her to continue. “Jaime has to be really upset by all of this and I think I am just an easy target for her feelings. I think she really cared about you and then I came along. In an instant your focus changed, and I think she feels left behind. Plus, I cannot compare to her. She's so tall and pretty. She is way more like your mom than I am. It's hard to be mad at her when I know how it feels for someone to just walk away from you,” she said softly. She looked down at her hands in her lap, avoiding eye contact with both of us.

“What is she talking about?” Cullen linked me angrily.

“I don’t know. She has mentioned something about this before but has never told me,” I linked him. “It may have something to do with why her parents kicked her out.”

“Baby, no one compares to you,” I said gently. “We never loved Jaime, so any feelings were one sided.” I looked at Cullen so he could confirm this for her since he was the one that accepted her.

“It was a business arrangement, love. She was a suitable candidate so that we could take over as Alpha. You are miles better than her,” he reassured her.

“And mom likes you way more than Jaime. She never liked Jaime at all. She barely helped her with Luna training and never spent any time with her,” I told her. Cullen tilted her chin up so she was facing him. He kissed her lips softly then leaned his forehead against hers. I reached forward and grasped her hand.

“Do not doubt that you will be an astounding Luna. You already are the perfect mate,” he whispered. She nodded her head and we sat there for a moment. I finally broke the silence.

“This needs to be acknowledged with Jaime. We cannot let it lie,” I said.

“I agree,” Cullen said.

“Can’t you just warn her?” Remi asked dejectedly.

Cullen and I locked eyes. “I personally think she needs to be kicked out of the pack,” I said over link.

“Seeing as Remi is only minorly hurt and this will clear within a couple hours, this wasn’t serious. I don’t know that we have grounds to exile her from the pack,” Cullen said.

“Well, this is the last warning she gets. She lays a finger on Remi again, I will not hesitate to rip her to shreds,” I said.

“Fine. As you wish, love,” Cullen said, turning his attention to Remi. “We will allow her one final warning if she apologizes to you.” She smiled at him and nodded her head. He stepped aside and she wrapped her arms around me. I pulled her close.

“I am so sorry,” I said in her ear. “I should have just waited to take the call.”

“I’m okay, Calder. I promise,” she said. I squeezed her tighter.

“I have someone locating Jaime and bringing her to my office,” Cullen said next to us.

“We should go wait up there,” I told her. “She owes you an apology.” Remi gave me a tentative nod. I released her and examined her cheek again. The swelling was going down, but you could still make out the pink handprint. My chest constricted looking at it. I helped her down from the counter and Cullen grabbed her hand. We all made our way upstairs. When we got to his office, Cullen sat down at his desk chair and pulled Remi onto his lap. He sat there stroking her cheek. I’m sure he was not only mad at me for leaving her alone but also at himself for not being with her.

I sat down on the small couch and pulled out my phone. I sent a message to our investigator telling him I needed the information on R. Voldigoad ASAP. Then I opened the text messages from Samantha. She was not thrilled that I had hung up mid conversation, but I could care less where Remi was concerned. I sent her a message telling her something else came to my attention and that we would speak tomorrow. I am sure my mother would be spending more time with Remi tomorrow for Luna training so Cullen and I could go over the information found about this author. It would give us an opportunity to discuss involving Samantha as well.

After I sent Samantha a message, there was a knock on the door. “Come in,” Cullen called. The door opened and a pack warrior escorted Jaime into the room. Cullen stood and placed Remi in his chair. He stood next to her facing Jaime. I stood and moved to the other side so that we were both standing next to Remi. Jamie stopped in front of the desk and stood there with her hands on her hips. Cullen nodded to the warrior, dismissing him from the room.

Remi

I sat in Cullen’s chair feeling nervous as Jaime entered the room. Cullen was giving Jaime a hard look. The guy that brought her in to the room looked nervous until Cullen dismissed him. Jaime cleared her throat before Calder and Cullen could say anything.

“You summoned me?” she said bitterly. She had to know what they called her here about.

“I believe you know why you are here,” Cullen said darkly.

“You know better than anyone that assaulting the future Luna is a punishable offense,” Calder said.

“But due to her compassion, she has asked us to not punish you. We are not so easily satisfied,” Cullen said.

“So?” she said expectantly.

“You are going to apologize to Remi. Right here, right now. And you will receive one final warning: touch her again and we will not be so nice,” Calder said coldly.

“And if I don’t?” she asked.

“There will be consequences,” Cullen replied. He sounded so cold. A muscle in Jaime’s jaw twitched. I could tell she was battling with herself. She stood up straight and squared her shoulders, looking me square in the eye. I stood up and met her glare.

“Remi, I apologize for my actions previously,” she said in a snide voice. I could feel Cullen tense next to me. He did not like her tone. I could feel rage from both of them.

“Thank you, Jaime,” I said quietly. She turned on her heel and made her way to the door.

“I mean it Jaime, do not touch her again,” Calder said in a stern voice. She continued out of the office and paid him no attention. When the door closed, Calder sighed and turned to me. “I don’t like how she spoke to you,” he said gently.

“It's over now. She has been given a final warning and she so much as thinks about touching Remi again, she will not be able to escape the consequences this time,” Cullen said resolutely.

“Let’s just forget about it,” I said, trying to calm both of them down. “It doesn’t even hurt anymore.” That was mostly true. There was a very mild, dull ache radiating from my cheek and it was warm to the touch, but it was not bothering me.

Calder traced his fingers over my cheek lightly and the pain was replaced by those wonderful sparks that ignited my skin every time they touched me. The feeling was addicting. I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch. “Would you like to go down and get some lunch, baby?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I’m not really hungry,” I told him.

“Why don’t we all just go upstairs and relax. I have some files to go over anyway. We can put on a movie or something,” Cullen suggested behind me. I turned to him and gave him a small smile.

“Sure,” I said.

We all went upstairs. Cullen planted himself on the couch and began going through a large stack of folders. Calder climbed onto the bed and turned the TV on. I went over to sit next to Cullen.

“What are those?” I asked genuinely curious.

“Some of these are patrol reports and some of these are dockets pulled together for the upcoming Summit. Current treaty lines, ones under negotiation, new laws being brought forth, that sort of thing,” he explained. He seemed far more relaxed than he was down in his office.

“Can I help at all?” I asked. He looked at me in surprise.

“I didn’t know you would be interested in any of this, love,” he said.

“Well, my job will be to help you run the pack, right? And this is part of what you do, so if you need help, I want to help,” I told him.

“Let her read through the treaty proposals. She might have some ideas,” Calder said from the bed. I looked to him and smiled, appreciating his confidence in me. I did not have the slightest clue about what was in treaties and how they worked but I was willing to learn.

“Okay. Read through this one,” Cullen said pulling a folder from the bottom of the stack. He handed it to me. It was thicker than I was expecting. “There should be summary descriptions or outlines of the current terms as well as proposals from both sides about changes and what each party is amenable to. These are all treaties that we are not a part of but at the Summit, the floor will open to discussion from outside perspectives.” I nodded my head. I opened the folder and got to work.

Everything in the folder was actually interesting. It gave me a much broader perspective on how the Supernatural Realm worked. To my surprise, there were quite a few different werewolf packs, all inhabiting various parts of the Supernatural Realm. By the various terms in these treaties, they were all different sizes with different strengths. Some of the treaties were a barter between a larger pack and smaller pack, promising protection and support from the larger to the smaller pack in exchange for some resource from the smaller to the larger pack. Some of the treaties outlined land usage. There was so much that went into these.

My nose was buried in the folder for a while before Cullen pushed it down, peaking at me over the pages. “You have been consumed in that for a while now,” he said.

“There is a lot in here. I wanted to read everything carefully,” I told him. He smiled at me. “What?” I asked.

“You are taking your role seriously. It is adorable, actually,” he said. That just made me blush. “So, what do you think?”

“All of this gets discussed at this Summit?” I asked.

He nodded. “The Summit is three days long. There is always much to accomplish and that is also why some of the work comes before hand,” he explained.

“Are we a part of any treaties?” I asked.

“Yes, actually. Quite a few. Although only one is up for dispute now. We are the second largest pack in the Realm, so we hold an important status,” he said.

“Second largest?”

He smiled proudly. “Yes, love.” I closed the folder and scooted closer to him. “It is almost dinner time,” he pointed out.

“Wow, I didn’t even realize.” I said.

“Would you like to go downstairs for dinner or stay in tonight?” he asked. I was really enjoying this little bubble with the two of them. I looked over at the bed to see Calder dozing. His soft snores were finally reaching my ears. It made me laugh a little.

“Can we stay in? I sort of like having you two to myself. I am sure it will be back to work for you Luna training for me tomorrow,” I said. I wanted to enjoy the last few hours of us time we had together.

He gave me a warm smile and nuzzled my face. “Whatever you want, love. We are all yours,” he said sweetly. I turned my head and kissed his cheek.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Why don’t you go wake Calder while I arrange someone to bring up some dinner for us,” he said. I nodded my head. I gave him one more kiss before hopping up and going over to the bed. Calder was sitting up slightly with his head leaning back against the wall. One of his arms was resting behind his head and the other across his stomach. The movie he was watching was long over now. I crawled up on the bed and carefully straddled his lap. I gently pushed my hand up under his shirt and began softly drawing patterns over his hard muscles. He stirred slightly.

I pushed his shirt up and began feathering kisses on his lower abdomen. A soft growl reverberated through his chest. “Mmmm,” he sighed. His head bent forward, and I looked up into his dazzling purple eyes. “Hi baby,” he said in a raspy, sleepy voice. I smiled and continued to kiss him lightly.

“What are you doing?” he asked. His eyes were starting to darken as he watched me kiss his abdomen. I peeked up at him through my eyelashes.

“Waking you up,” I said with a smirk.

He gave me a sexy smirk back. “I think I like waking up to you,” he said. He grabbed my arms and pulled me up to him, kissing me possessively. I loved being possessed by him. “How was your reading?” he asked.

“How was your nap?” I countered.

“Waking up was way better than the nap,” he said, giving me a devilish grin. I shook my head at him.

“Nope. None of that. Cullen is having dinner brought up,” I teased him.

“I think I am going to have you for dinner, instead,” he said. I giggled as he flipped us over and captured my mouth.