Page 26 of Unforgivable

"Mom, Dad," I greet them.

"Alpha," dad glares at me. Fabulous. When he starts the conversation with 'alpha'...

"What brings you here?" I ask. I ease myself down onto a couch. I don't need to posture dominance to my dad. It goes to his head.

"We heard about the Shaming," mom says quietly. They sit opposite Jessi and me.

I jerk a little, unable to stop it. Mom is staring at me with dark, sad eyes.

"What were you thinking, Jax?" she asks.

"I-" I stumble over the explanation. It still enrages me. We came so close to losing everything to having the pack's future in disarray because of a rankwhore. It's unbelievable that it went as far as it did.

"Did you hear about the reasons?" I ask them, turning this sudden interrogation around on them.

"Daan slept with her?" my dad snaps out. "So, you punish her in a way that hasn't been used in over a century?"

"She nearly unbalanced the future-"

"You did that," dad growls.

Mom shushes him, gently patting his hand. The silver wolf backs off a little. "Jax," she starts slowly. "Does the punishment fit the crime? Could that punishment ever fit the crime?"

I pause before answering her. It's important to say this correctly because I've been over this more than once, and it’s still hard. "Mom, dad," I speak as carefully as mom did, "she seduced her alphason. Her alphason that has a truemate. She may have used heat scent to do it. I don't know. But neither she nor Daan denied having sex. Daan also told me..." I think about how to say it, "she's been aiming to be top female for a couple of years. Always upsetting Cloe, making her look bad deliberately."

"And?" dad scoffs. "Cloe can't take some heat from a teenager?"

"Cloe is also a teenager!" I snap out. "She and Daan needed to be protected. A message had to be sent!"

"The message you sent, Jax," mom says quietly, "is that females will be punished horrifically for transgressions while males get away with the same behavior. In fact, unless that female has a mate who she knowingly betrayed, Daan held more responsibility. He's the one who cheated on his mate. How did you punish Daan? He's the alphason, not just your son. He has to be held to a high standard. Where is the equality? Where is the justice?"

"Where is my pissant grandson?" dad interjects.

"Away at Blout’s pack, with Cloe," I murmur. Shit, I haven't thought this through, have I?

"Did Cloe want to leave with Daan, Jax?" mom asks. "Did you ask her how she felt? She must be devastated. Was being alone with Daan really what she needed?"

I shift, a little uncomfortable. I didn't ask Cloe. I let Daan tell his mate what he did. I expected her to leave with him, no arguments. And she did, as far as I am concerned.

"I'd like to meet with this female," dad says.

I frown. "She's with the males in Genom. I'd like her to stay up there." I'm the alpha, damnit. "No sense in rubbing her in the pack's faces."

"You mean in the face's of the males who raped her?" mom scoffs lightly.

"They are taking care of her up at the ranch," Jessi speaks up softly. "I spoke with Kylie the other day. She's friends with Tabby, that female's mother. It's best that a female like that not be here anymore."

"Does this female have a name?" mom's voice sounds frigid, disappointed in her daughter-in-law's attitude toward the rankwhore. But, Jessi loves Cloe. It's natural to defend a female that is like a daughter to us.

"Lyri Song," I supply.

Something flashes in mom's eyes. A little surprise, then worry. Dad has gone silent. "She's a strong female," he supplies quietly.

I feel my jaw clench. Jessi's hand tightens on my leg. Lyri Song. She's been a bit of a thorn for a while. Jessi can't stand her because Cloe would get so upset when Lyri beat her out of rank again and again. Jessi, I think, had started to undermine Lyri's chances, stopping her from moving forward when the female earned it. Slowing down her progression upwards so that Cloe could catch up.

I had told her to stop. What if Lyri was a mate to an alphason somewhere else? We don't want a pissed-off mate gunning for us for mistreating his mate.

Now, goddess, now what will her mate think? Will he reject his mate as a rankwhore, or be livid with us, with me, for what I've done?

---