The mayor had left, sensing the tension and knowing it wouldn't do him any good to stick around. After several times of being sidelined by Lavina, Lola was now fed up with the whispers and the backhanded comments.
They stood face to face, Lola's hands coiled into fists and she glared at the girl who had caused nothing but problems since her arrival. She was reminded of every occasion where Lavina had shown up with a backhanded comment, an inappropriate touch, or that smile that swayed with Mrs. Blackwood in unison in a way that Lola never had. Perhaps it was jealousy, or maybe she was starting to see what she had been warned about by Melissa and Ash- that her true intentions weren't as honorable as Lola had defended them.
"I thought you were here because you needed to be among friends- but it's not like that is it?" Lola asked.
Lavina looked around the room, it looked like she needed time to think of a retort, she sucked in her lip and softly allowed her gaze to land back on Lola.
"What are you insinuating?" She asked, clasping her hands in her front. She ground her teeth and narrowed her eyes.
Jax entered with Ash beside him and their auras filled the room faster than anyone could comprehend and suddenly they were all on edge, even Lola. Mrs. Blackwood was gone, her footsteps were heard clicking down the corridor and stopped when she walked on the carpet which meant she was stepping around the stairs. Lola listened for a door or a voice but didn't hear anything and pulled herself back to Lavina.
"Ever since you came back you've been undermining me at every turn with everyone here-"
Lavina interrupted, sticking her chin out and dropping her hands.
"undermining you with who? Mrs Blackwood, Jax, or Michael? Or maybe with the pack members, all of whom people who wouldn't notice if you weren't here tomorrow. You can't undermine someone who is as irrelevant as you are so step out of your own ego and see that," she stopped and swallowed the air in her throat, choking on her words when Ash's yellow eyes stared her down and a growl rubbed against his lips.
"You'll want to use a nicer tone." He seethed.
Lavina's body was on high alert and her eyes wide in fear but she straightened her back as though it was nothing but an uncomfortable itch.
"Honestly, Lola, it doesn't seem like you've been very lonely in his absence," her eyes flicked between Ash and Lola with judgment dripping in her glossy orbs.
"Watch yourself," Ash ordered.
"Or what?"
"Enough!" everyone turned and looked at Jax who spoke up, Lola was taken aback, having almost forgotten what his voice sounded like.
She looked him up and down, like a slap to the face she remembered why she had woken up in Ash's bed- her hair smelling of smoke and the fact that her thoughts were a jumbled mess. She remembered the flames flickering on the candles and the candlelight illuminating Ash's face as he stood in the room. The papers in his hands, the pictures with Jax and Lavina, and the way that last, stamp-sized photo, fell on the fire.
She turned her head, something must've been made clear in her eyes because everyone waited for what would come next, nobody spoke- barely a breath was heard as Lola narrowed her eyes on Lavina.
"Why were you in New York?"
Lavina gulped.
She looked at Jax to get some help or an indication of what she should say as Lola waited for the answer but he was no help.
The shifting and tossing, jittering of hands that uncomfortably remembered details that Lola didn't know- it was everything except for answers.
She waited, nevertheless, because she knew that she needed the truth and couldn't trust the photos alone but in her mind- Lola already had them. She knew what she'd seen and as she scanned Jax's invisible armor she couldn't quite feel what she had for him.
Everything was changing more with each day and each truth that saw the light and it seemed like Jax had many more to share.
Mrs. Blackwood's voice rang out in a monotone answer when everyone else remained silent.
"I sent her."
Lola turned her head, gently gazing at Jax's mother who had had done nothing but look down at her since the first day they met.
Her heels clicked against the floor with each slow step, her hands cupped behind her back and she walked as proudly as a soldier marching on a mission.
"Jax was attending events to which he needed a date so I sent Lavina."
"Why not send his wife?" Lola spat. Her eyes narrowed to slits and stepped up in front of Mrs. Blackwood.
"Whoever was his escort needed to be aware of the way things worked, etiquette, and the social language- something that you have not even attempted to learn since becoming part of this family."
Lola drew a sharp breath, the air hissing between her teeth and she fell back while Mrs. Blackwood pulled her lip back in a snarl and she lifted her head. The styled hair sat poshly in place on her head, not a single strand out of place and a diamond pin casually holding her hair back.
"You have done nothing but denounce our ways ever since you arrived here-"
"Arrived?" Lola asked- her eyes widened frantically and she lifted her hand. "Is that what we're calling it? Because I remember it as you blackmailing me into marrying your son and then treating me like garbage!" Her cheeks turned red and her heart beat erratically against her chest. "Why would you even go through the trouble of all of this and put me through this crap for all these months when you could've just called Lavina to take my place?" Her voice rose so loud that it made even Lavina step back and hold her breath.
Nobody spoke with such disrespect to any Blackwood, ever, but Lola was fed up with their ways and her anger was taking over in explosive ways.
Mrs. Blackwood smiled, "Because her mate wasn't dead then."
Lavina covered a gasp with her hand and her head snapped to the side as she sought out Jax. Ash threw disbelieving glances at his cousin, waiting for a visceral reaction that nobody thought was coming.
Lola clutched her stomach as though she had taken a blow and took a defining step back.
Mrs. Blackwood, with a monotone voice and stoic expression, sneered, "You, Lola Graves, was a mistake."
The walls vibrated around them and the drape hanging safely against the ceiling fell in a wave of color down on the floor- everyone turned and shockingly looked at Jax, his chest swelled and his eyes were yellow with swirls of a deep sea of darkness.
"You dare speak to my wife like that?" He growled.
Lavina, her knees shaking and her head lowered submissively, backed away and looked at her feet.
Lola swallowed the anxiety in her throat and looked in shock as he finally spoke up, despite her preconception.
It seemed she wasn't the only one astounded by this act as his mother stepped back and raised her head, sticking her chin out and touching her pearls.
"Jax?" She gasped in dismay.
"You dare," he stalked towards her, "speak to my wife as someone below you? As someone unworthy of anything we have? Out of everyone here, Lola is the one with the most decency, dignity, humanity, and respect- you on the other hand will leave and you will not ever address my wife again unless it is opened with an apology and continued with respect."
His eyes, now black, stared into her soul and even she felt his aura holding a choking hold around the throat of her wolf.
"Jax," she laughed, "are you feeling well?" She stepped closer and reached out for him. His hand shot out and he grabbed her wrist.
"That is an order!" It was his wolf, speaking to hers, a voice impossible for a werewolf of the pack not to obey.
Mrs. Blackwood staggered back and stared in disbelief at her son, at the Alpha.