Light the Fire (Jackson's Hollow #1)

Chapter 71

If Ryker had to spend one more minute with Duncan instead of Jo, he was going to pop. Having to be this close to Jake again so soon after thrashing him also wasn't helping anything.

"If you weren't so weak, this wouldn't have happened," Jake snapped at Duncan, repeating the same bullshit he had been ranting about for the past five minutes. The greasy-looking weasel was sitting on the ground, a bandaid over one eye, a scowl on his face. He and the rest of his hodgepodge tiny pack had been tossed into the guest house or whatever Blake had decided to call it during his stay there. The dungeon?

Brett, who was reluctantly patching up the rogue wolves, had kicked Jake out when Duncan came to confront him. He didn't want more injuries to deal with if Jake's little group tried to gang up on them, though that would be stupid since there was a whole patrol of Monroe and Callahan pack members guarding the little house.

It had been Ryker's idea to have Jake sit on the ground like a child receiving a scolding.

"You've always looked for some excuse to try to step up and be Alpha," Duncan growled back. "If you had challenged me to a fight, I could respect that." He pointed at Jake. "But what you did? There's no coming back from that. No forgiveness."

"Like I care."

"Well, I guess you won't care when you get banned from the pack and our territory," Duncan said, finally delivering the news. About time. Jake didn't seem much phased, a smirl curling his lips into a highly unpleasant expression. Ryker felt sorry for his future mate–thank God Lexi hadn't ended up with him. As much as he wasn't a fan of Duncan, Jake would have been infinitely worse.

"Not just Duncan's territory," Ryker added, finding some enjoyment in the part he got to play in this. "You're also banned from Monroe and Callahan territories." The Callahans had no problem getting on board with this, seeing as several of their members had also been injured by Jake's little rebel pack.

That surprised a growl out of Jake, his smirk dropping. "You're banning me from the mountains?" Essentially, yes, that's what they were doing. Between the tree packs, their territories covered most of the North Carolina mountains, plus some areas of the Georgia and Tennessee mountains. If he wanted to stay in North Carolina, all that left Jake was a small bit up near Virginia–but he'd have to get permission from a pack they rarely worked with to stay in that area.

"Guess so," Duncan said with a shrug, although the glint in his eyes was hard. "Maybe should have thought about that earlier."

"This is gonna make things worse with the pack," Jake started in on his rant again, rising to his feet, "they won't let you take over, they'll.."

"Cut the crap," Duncan growled, shoving Jake back down. "Don't worry, your little pack has the option to leave with you," he said. "Tomorrow you all will be escorted to the border. If you send us an address, we'll ship your things to you and the money from the sale of your house, although that's more than you deserve." They'd decided to do that when Malcom's Beta had brought up the fact that Jake could technically turn to the human legal system to get access back to pack territory if they didn't do everything by the books.

It left a bad taste in Ryker's mouth, but that was the world they lived in. And at least, with what they were offering, nobody could say they were setting Jake up to fail in his new life.

"Whatever you think–"

"I swear, I'm about two seconds from punching this dude," Ryker commented flatly to Duncan. Not that he'd knock a guy already on the ground, but if Jake tried to put up a fight again, he'd happily remind him which of the two of them had asserted Alpha dominance in the fight earlier.