Chris POV

There's nothing like being in someone else's pack to make you appreciate your own more. Unfortunately without her here, it feels off. Malcolm has his work cut out for him to get New Moon back in shape, hell it could take years to correct the damage Rob has done.

To say I was disappointed to not find Jess in our bed when I got home was an understatement. I knew she was catching up on work at her farm but I had hoped by now she was comfortable enough here to view it as home.

Mid afternoon training kept my mind off of things until her scent hit me, cherry blossoms and cinnamon. After nearly a week of nothing but texts and a couple quick calls that was all it took to distract me.

Jude hits like a hammer; in my distraction he landed a solid uppercut that stunned me and had Cyrus seeing red. That set my inner wolf to push forward, wanting a taste of Jude's blood.

We may have come to terms with his relationship with Jess, he is her Gamma after all, but it still bothers Cyrus. Fortunately he yields to Jess, and she had him retreating with a single warning.

All that matters now is this woman in my arms. My mate Jess is beautiful and strong. Her honey brown eyes take on fire when she's worked up but overall she is kind and humble. When I first met her she was a shell of herself, though her past isn't something she ever wants to talk about. I've watched her blossom into the person she is today.

Curled up on a couch with her, sharing ice cream and watching a movie is a great way to end the day.

"What are you smiling about?" She asks, her honey brown eyes locked on mine.

"You," I say, kissing her on her forehead. She only raises a brow at me flashing me her best 'you're a dork' look. "The way you helped them tonight at dinner, you're a natural." She blushes and drops her gaze.

I can't help but chuckle at her shyness, but don't press it further. Nothing comes quickly with Jess, but she has come such a long way in a short period of time.

With dessert done I take the bowl from her and put it on the table. She shifts and snuggles in closer, moving her shirt off her shoulder slightly. My eyes narrow as I glimpse a fang mark on her shoulder.

Her eyes snap to mine in surprise, I didn't even realized a low growl slipped out. "What is that?!"

"Nothing," she says dismissively while dropping her gaze.

'She's lying to us,' Cyrus cuts in.

'Well aware,' I grumble.

"Jess," I say in warning.

"Chris," she sighs, "don't push things you don't want to know the answers to."

I carefully slide her shirt to the side revealing a clear, full wolf bite shaped bruise. She quickly readjusts it, hiding the bruise. "Who did that," I growl out lowly, as everyone freezes.

"It doesn't matter," she mumbles.

"The hell it doesn't, if you think I'm going to sit idly by while someone assaults my mate-"

"Stop!" She snaps, her honey brown eyes have that fire dancing in them, her temper matching my own. "I wasn't assaulted, I dodged when I should have ducked, and I'm not talking about this anymore." 

"You're not supposed to be training at all," I grumble at their disobedience. "I had Jude with me so it wasn't him this time," I trial off and look at Jude who is choking on his drink having been caught.

"Um, Chris I wasn't around when-" Jude stammers.

"Relax Jude, I know, but you don't leave marks on her," I grumble looking around the room. My eyes stop on Sara who is looking everywhere but here. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Chris don't be mad at her-" Jess starts.

"I'm not mad at her for training you, I'm pissed because she went against my expressed wishes, behind my back and damaged you." I can feel myself getting worked up again.

She rolls over so we are chest to chest now and looks up at me. "Please Chris," she says softly, looking up at me through her thick dark lashes.

"We'll talk about this later," I say softening, tucking some loose hair behind her ear. "If, we do this, it's under ground rules and no more secrecy, understood?" I ask, raising a brow. She beams at me before nodding. 

God I love that smile.

With that out of the way we settled back down to watch the movie. She lays her head on my chest as we were wrapped around each other.

"Elf?" Jace calls over half way through the movie.

"She's out," I mumble, brushing her hair back. Her breathing told me she nodded off about twenty minutes ago.

"Damn, I wanted the fuzzy peaches," Jace pouts. I reach over for them and chuck em at his head.

"Big baby," I grumble as he digs in.

Jess whimpers setting Cyrus on edge. I hug her a bit tighter to reassure her, but I feel her tossing. "Jess?" I call softly to her rubbing her back.

"Nightmare?" Jude asks pausing the movie as I nod.

Her brow furrows deeply as she whimpers again, I can see she's struggling to wake up. "Come on baby, it's just a dream, time to wake up," I say softly rubbing her back.

Her body jumps like she's been struck and she groans. "Stop messing around Chris, wake her up," Jude demands.

"I'm trying!" I snap. "Jess, wake up," I command, but it has no effect. "Jess, you have to wake up now." I grab her shoulder and shake her.

"What's wrong with her," Claire whispers in concern as Xavier holds her close.

"Stop!" Jess shouts as she starts to twist in my grip.

"Jess! It's me Chris, you need to wake up now." I can hear the desperate edge to my voice but I don't care. She's had nightmares before but she always wakes up as soon as I nudge her.

Without warning she really starts to fight, lashing out with her fists and thrashing wildly. "Jess, please baby wake up!" I beg as Jude catches her fist before it can hit my face. Her whimpers and cries are tearing at my heart.

I can hear her heart racing and smell her fear. She fights even harder as Jude helps me hold her back from hurting herself.

"Jess wake up," Jude yells, an edge of panic to his voice. She groans again and twists in my grip so she's on her back, mumbling something I can't make out.

*Thunk*

She lands a hard kick in Judes gut causing him to crash back into the coffee table, crushing it under his fall. Jace jumps in, grabbing her legs and preventing her from landing another kick. His grey eyes searched mine for direction.

"Please Jess! You have to wake up!" I yell at her desperate to get through.

"Run," she screams, the panic is clear in her voice as she thrashes again with renewed desperation.

Her body tenses as she tries to pull away from me; I wasn't prepared for the next sequence of events. She brought her head back to mine with such force she shattered my nose. In that shocked, painful moment she broke my grip and nearly bolted before Jace shifted his grip to grab her arms.

He realized his mistake too late as she hit him with both feet sending him flying backwards over the nearest chair.

"Jess," Jude screamed as he caught her mid jump as she tried to break away. She hit him hard in the temple with an elbow causing him to drop her. She hit the floor and froze on her hands and knees panting.

Her fingers knot and relax before digging deeper into the carpet, grounding herself.

"Jess?" I call softly.

"I'm ok," she whispers between labored breaths. Her heart is still racing as she strugles to even out her breathing.

"What the fuck was that?" Sara asks stunned.

"Nothing," she snaps back at Sara without thought.

"The fuck, that was nothing," I growl holding my nose.

"It was just a nightmare," she whimpered, unable to look at anyone.

"Baby, what did you see that had you so upset?" I ask desperate to understand.

"I can't," she pleads.

"You can't what!?" I ask confused.

"I can't remember," she grits out doubled over like she's in pain.

'She's lying!' Cyrus growls, he's furious in my head. Partially because she's holding back but more so because of how terrified she was.

"What are you hiding?" I whisper, inching closer. I slowly and gently put my hand on her back, praying that it doesn't set her off again. Her body is trembling as she fights to calm down.

"Please Chris," she begs. "I can't talk about it," she trails off as she lifts her gaze from the carpet to me. Her eyes go wide as she sees my broken and bleeding nose, realizing she caused it.

"I did that?!" She shrinks back on the floor and leans against the couch as she looks around. Jude is still seated in the middle of the broken coffee table while Jace is standing beside the flipped over chair clutching his chest.

"It's ok baby, you didn't know," I say kneeling beside her. She flinches, clearly still on high alert. "We couldn't wake you up, we tried so hard, but no matter what we said or did you couldn't wake up."

"You scared the shit out of us," Jace blurts out.

'Really!?' I snap at him through mind link.

'Sorry,' he apologizes.

The door bursts open as doc rushes in. He scans the room confused as to what's going on and where to start. "What happened?" He finally asks.

"It was an accident," Jess says.

"Are you ok Luna?" He asks as he slowly makes his way over to her.

"I'm fine," she says unable to look at him.

"Let me take a look Alpha," he says looking at my nose. "I need to set that at the hospital before it heals anymore." I grumble in protest until I feel her soft hand on mine.

"Go Chris, I'm ok now," she says giving me a reassuring smile. Her heart is no longer racing and her breathing is back to normal.

"Fine but when I get back we are talking about this," I say with authority. She only sighs and drops her head in defeat.

-----

As soon as doc is done I head back to the den. Only Xavier, Claire and Sara are left.

"They went upstairs," Claire tells me as they clean up. I nod and head for the stairs.

Jude and Jace are standing tensely outside my room. "She wanted to clean up," Jude said quietly.

I tried the door and it was locked, so I knocked and got no answer. "Baby, open the door or I'll open it," I grit out. No answer. I hit the door with my shoulder, it groans before ripping the doorframe apart and caving in. Her discarded, slightly bloody clothing lays in the middle of the floor.

'I've got a hunch,' Jude links while he drags Jace out of the room with him.

"Open up Jess," I say after knocking on the locked bathroom door.

"Give me a couple minutes," she says. I sigh but relent. After nearly five minutes my patience is nearly gone.

'She's in the garage,' Jude links.

"The fuck!?" I snarl as I break open the door to see the open window. I growl as I make my way as fast as I can to the garage.

No sooner do I get there she blitzes past me on Jace's crotch rocket bike. "Jess," I roar in anger. She slows down a moment and my heart lifts as she pauses looking back at me, until she turns and speeds off leaving me seeing red.

"What the fuck happened?!" I seeth.

"I had a hunch she was trying to make a break for it, so I grabbed Xavier and Jace thinking we could cover more options." Jude began, rubbing his neck nervously.

"She went straight for your bike, I was on it, asked her where to," Jace trailed off as though he was stuck on something.

"What is it?" I asked through clenched teeth.

"I've seen that fire in her eyes when she's been pissed before, but tonight, she was all fire," he trailed off.

"I want her location now," I growl at Xavier, who visibly pales.

"She hates Jace's bike," he pauses nervously. "We haven't put a tracker in it yet, only your bike and the other vehicles she's taken before."

"A fucking human! You guys couldn't stop a human woman from taking off?! You know how upset she is right now and you know she's hiding something." I can't contain myself.

"This is Jess we're talking about-" Jace started.

"Yeah, my mate and your Luna, who is now out, good knows where, unprotected," I snap cutting him off.

"I know you're upset, but you wouldn't have been happy if we man handled her either," Jude reasons.

"Fuck," I yell hitting the nearest tool box, sending it flying.

"Feel better now?" Jace asks annoyed. I glare at him, now's not the time for that attitude.

I sink into a nearby chair and groan in frustration. "Where would she even go?"

"I don't have a clue, but patrol said she went north, so she's not going to her farm," Jace offers. "The only person I can think of is Alpha Eric, she's never talked about knowing anyone else."

"It has to be something to do with that dream, I don't know what, but that look in her eyes," Jude trailed off.

"But why didn't she just tell us? And where the fuck is she going?" I ask in frustration.