The quest to find her pitiful drunk friend

[Jaylene Bennet]

It was noon and there was only one place that jerk could be. The bar. Of course, the sad drunk. Her pity for his current drinking problem was almost washed away by her ire. They were supposed to meet up an hour ago by the docks! And he stood her up! He stood up his oldest friend! FOR BOOZE....AGAIN.

Jaylene mopped the sweat from her forehead before she pushed open the doors of the bar. The cool air was a welcome reprieve from the hot sun, but one whiff of the appropriately-named bar, made her consider going home. But she couldn't. She had a mission. As annoyed with Trent as she was, he was her friend and as his oldest friend in the whole world, it was her job to tell him what a dunce he was being. Even her infinite patience was wearing thin.

She paused in the doorway and let her eyes adjust to the dimmer lighting of the bar before glancing around for Trent. He wasn't at the table in the corner...nor was he..aha!

Her gaze locked in on him right at the bar. Did he really think he could hide from her behind that dehydrated-looking plant? Not today buddy! Her target in sight, she marched over to him.

"Trent!" irked as she was, she couldn't keep the concern out of her voice, "Isn't it a little early to be drunk?"

[Trent Landon]

Trent was on his sixth beer and took a good swig of it. It had been 8 months already since the incident had happened and more so then normal, it was a fuck-it-all day. He looked over to see other guys starting a fight over the bartender and who she wanted to go out with. He shook his head and snickered. Man, were these guys some dopes, didn't they know it was her job to talk to them and be flirty?

It reminded him of that dumb prince of the underground then and a deep growl forced it's way up his throat with just the thought of him. He did the same thing to...to...

Oh no, Jaylene. He forgot he was suppose to meet up with her. He looked up at the clock. "Oh shit..." He whispered as he looked to see he was three hours late already. He quickly gulped down his beer and was going to get up when he noticed two things. 1. He was too tipsy to walk and 2. he caught a whiff of Jaylene's perfume.

He slowly turned his head to the smell and saw a already mad Jaylene in his face. "Um..it is 5 o'clock som~where right?" His voice gave out slightly and rubbed the back of his head. "I lost track of time, I am so sorry Jay..."

[Jaylene Bennet]

Jaylene's eyes swept over the empty beer bottles, "Yeah, but it's noon here. This is the fifth time, Trent. Despite this angry face," She pointed at her face then scowled, not knowing how adorable it made her look since anger just wasn't a part of her, "I'm really worried about you. Look what it's doing to you!"

She sighed.

"Don't make me start an intervention." She looked at the booze again, "How many have you had? Are you okay?" She held up two fingers and slowly moved them back and forth in front of his eyes, "How many fingers do you see?"

[Trent Landon]

"Oh..that face makes it hard to do this..I hate when you are upset.." Trent said, his voice showing remorse. "It has been 8 months today, Jay.." He said, trying not to cry. This alcohol was not helping him at all. It may have been the third one or maybe the fourth, but he heard her say intervention and nodded, "Maybe I need one honestly.." he shook his head, looking at the ground. "I had about six, chugging the last one since I wanted to go and find you to apologize, but hey, you beat me to it."

Laughter slightly came out when looked up and his eyes blurred to where he could not see how many fingers were exactly here. "It may be two, but it's kinda fuzzy..."

[Jaylene Bennet]

"And I hate to see you like this!" she covered his hand with her own, "You're withering away before my eyes and it breaks my heart to see it. I know that you're still finding all the pieces of your shattered heart, but you have to stop doing this to yourself."

She looked at the beer that he said he chugged. There was still some in it, not much, but enough. She wasn't about to point that out, but now that she's seen it, he'd notice. Either he was really perceptive or she was easily read. She picked up the bottle and grimaced, "Just so you don't get any ideas," and she downed the rest of the bottle. After she swallowed she shuttered in disgust, "Yuck! Why do you drink this stuff? It's like you're drinking soap!" she stuck her tongue out as if that would help the nasty flavor go away, "Come on, let's go get some food in your belly. Can you walk or do you need help?"

[Trent Landon]

Trent flinched at her words. He knew it hurt her, but what could he do he was hurting too. He looked back up at her and tilted his head when she brought up not getting any ideas and watched her chug the rest of the beer he thought he got through and cringed. "Well, when you have had a few, you stop tasting after awhile, and food sounds good, where were you thinking?" He nodded his head at the help part of her sentence when it came to the walking, but realized that may not make sense.

"Yes, I tried to walk, but I could feel the room spin when I tried." Trent admitted.

[Matthias DeLune]

Trent wasn't the only one being sought out that afternoon. Matthias was looking for his girl. They hadn't made plans to be together that day, but he didn't like it when she was away from him for too long. So he searched the island for her. He had looked at far too many locations before he suddenly thought of where she would possibly be. With Trent. His fists clenched. That filthy Shapeshifter. Oh yes, he knew that his Jaylene and Trent were only friends, but that didn't matter to him. Even for a werewolf he was territorial, and Jaylene belonged to HIM. Maybe he SHOULD just lock her up somewhere...that would teach her to be out of his reach.

So he went to the bar since that was the constant haunt of the now-drunkard Trent. As he stalked closer and closer to the bar, the his inner predator came out. The other packs accused him of having no control over his wolf. He disagreed. Why deny yourself this...primal feeling? Why not revel in the bloodlust? Nothing made him feel more alive.

Finally arriving at the bar, he pushed the door open and sneezed at the smell of the bar. If there ever was a place that needed to be aired out...

And then he saw Jaylene put Trent's arm around her neck. His vision became this hazy red color. How DARE she touch another man???

He stomped over to them and shoved an obviously smashed Trent away from Jaylene before roughly grabbing her arm.

"Hey baby," he purred, ignoring her whimper of pain, "What are you doing?" His tone was sweet, but his eyes promised nothing good.

[Trent Landon]

Trent slowly got up when Jaylene had put his arm around his neck. He was really glad to have her, he was not sure what he would do without that sweet girl. He then heard some kind of stomping and looked up only to see Matthias for a second before he toppled over the barstool, hitting his rib on the way down and crashing on the ground. He looked up after a second to see Matthias grabbing her arm rather hard.

The growl came out of his throat again as he stood up, his eyes almost seemed to gleam a purple tint, more so than normal. "You will be soft on her, or so help me Matthias I will put you down like the wild DOG you are." He stated in a very matter-of-fact tone.

The bartender, after having security get the two men from before out of the building, turned her gaze at the two boys and shook her head. "No, not this again, you still owe us for last time Matthias, about another $150." She then slammed her hand against the table. "You will take this outside." She huffed then folded her arms. "And I need to make a sign that says "No Fighting in the Bar"..." She said under her breath.

[Matthias DeLune]

Matthias chuckled darkly under his breath, "You threaten me, Mutt?" He pulled Jaylene closer to him so that she was pressed against him. He did this to both show the other male who she belonged to and also as a shield of sorts.

He bared his teeth at Trent, "I will treat her however I want. She's mine," he growled, "Now, little yorkie, bark all you want, but she goes where I do. Don't you, Sweetheart?" He brushed his mouth against her cheek in a possessive kiss, pulling he closer when she flinched away from him.

When the bartender reprimanded him, he replied without looking at her, "The pack will take care of it, barkeep. Just like they should have last time. But what do you say, Mutt? Shall we take this outdoors? I'm sure you'd hate to have your favorite haunt closed again because you couldn't keep your nose where it belongs."

[Trent Landon]

"They said it was your job, not theirs.." The Bartender laughed.

Trent wanted to spit in his face, but Matthias was not even worth it. He looked over at Jaylene to see if she was going to be ok. He wanted to make sure she could run as fast as she could away when the fight broke out. He kind of laughed internally as he realized that with how much he drank, he may not even be able to stand properly, let alone get a good swing in. He tried to stand straight, but realized that was not happening still and shook his head.

"As much as I would love to wipe that smirk off your face, I can't even stand. Just leave her alone, all she was going to do was hang out by the coast and my brother and I were going to meet up there. Speaking of which..." Trent trailed off and looked at Jaylene.

"Did my brother even show up?" He worried, if his brother was not there, that may mean that he has gotten into one of his moods and he would have to go home, as soon as walking was a thing again.

[Jaylene Bennet]

Jaylene tried not to wince under Matthias's grip. She hated it when he got this way...

She met Trent's eye. She knew that look. Shaking her head, she hoped that he read her gesture correctly. She couldn't run away from him. The werewolf was holding onto her too tightly and with here meager human strength, she wouldn't be able to fight her way out no matter how much she squirmed.

Not that she was brave enough to try.

"Matthias," she said, hoping her voice sounded sweet and not shaky, "P-please calm down. I was just helping him stand, it's true!" She hated she became a shrinking violet with him, hated what he made her be, "Will you let me go now? I told you that I would see you tonight."

To Trent she said, "He showed up. He asked me to draw him like one of my...Spanish men? I think he got the phrase wrong..." she tried to push away from Matthias but he wouldn't budge, "We split up when we went looking for you

[Trent Landon]

"Matthias, just let her go." The Bartender spoke up. "Or I will have you thrown out for being an ass."

Trent sighed in relief until he heard that his brother was looking for him and Matthias was threatening him. Well at least he wasn't..

Before he could even finish his thought he looked over and saw his brother at the door. "Uh-oh" forced it's way out of Trent's mouth.

[Max Landon]

Max wondered why he didn't go to the bar first. His baby brother always seemed to loom there these days. He paused in front of the doors and braced himself. This place wasn't called, "The Devil''s Armpit" for no reason! He opened the door and tried not to wretch when the stench hit his sensitive nose. Every time he came to this place, he wondered what had died to make it smell this way...or what foot had rotted and they never felt the need to clean it up. Why he or anyone wanted to eat here was beyond him. The food was good, that's for sure. The barkeep wasn't too bad to look at either. Why just the other day, he swore they had a moment...

He was getting distracted. What was he here for again? Hot bartender? Nah. His brother? Not as cute to look at, but yes. That's who he was here for.

Back on track, he had no trouble finding his brother. Who couldn't spot them, what with the angry hissy fit the werewolf was having.

"Uh oh?" Max acted confused, totally ignoring Matthias, something he knew would annoy the crap out of the werewolf, "You see your big brother and you say 'uh oh'?" He placed his hand over his heart and frowned, "Oh, Baby Brother, how you wound me!" he moved between Trent and Matthias, using Jaylene as the excuse to do so, "Hey Blue Jay! Still with the Big Bad Wolf?" He looked Matthias in the eye, the smile on his face friendly, "You know, they squirm less when you treat them right. You gonna let her go, Prince Charming?"

[Matthias DeLune]

Matthias didn't feel outnumbered when the barkeep, Trent, and the Landon heir demanded he let go of his girl. He growled at Max, bearing his sharpening teeth, "Are you challenging me, shapeshifter?" he didn't wait for a reply. He moved to shove Jaylene to the side so that he could lunge at Max and tear his throat out when his cell phone started to ring.

He knew who it was before he even answered it. He ground his teeth at the sound of the ringtone. It was his father. The one person he couldn't defy. He answered it, "Father," his fist clenched at what his father said on the other line, "But he-" unintelligible yelling could be heard through the receiver, "Fine." He hung up. "You're all lucky today. The pack summons me." He left the bar, still not paying his debt to the bartender.

[Trent Landon]

"I was afraid you were going to say something like that, Max.." Trent sighed and when Matthias left sat down. "Jaylene, are you ok?" He ask, wanting to stand up and ask her, but that would be too much at this moment. "I'm glad you guys were able to meet up. What did I miss?" He asked relaxing a bit now.

"Oh, Max, always a pleasure." The bartender smiled. "Getting anything today?"