Taming Jax (First Wave Book 5) (26 page)

“Thanks.” Jax said with a shy smile before turning away to cut up some of her pancake for Bayla as well.

Reven nodded and stood. Moving to the coffee pot, he refilled their cups before refilling Melina’s glass and Bayla’s sippy cup with milk.

When he sat back down, Reven turned to Melina. “We’re going back to the testing facility today. What are your thoughts on how you would like to learn?”

Jax wanted the last few bites of her pancake so bad, but Bayla’s sad eyes staring at it was killing her. With a sigh, Jax put the last four pieces on the baby’s tray and kissed her forehead as she stood, waiting to hear what Melina would say.

She tried to pretend to be nonchalant as she began rinsing the dishes in the sink and loading the dishwasher, but inside, she was nervous about going back and getting Melina’s new education plan. She was still irritated over the last one.

Obviously, Melina wasn’t too excited about it either because she slouched in her chair and stopped eating. Instead, she moved the last few pieces of pancake around on her plate distractedly. Jax could tell the girl was struggling over the question. However, she also knew what else Melina was doing and knew she had to stop it now.

“You can stop that. Reven and I don’t want lies. When we ask you something, we want the truth, no matter what it is.” Jax said gently while Reven looked at her with confusion.

She turned to Reven to explain while Melina blushed and lowered her head. “She’s not happy. Instead of telling us that, she’s trolling our energy to see what she thinks we want to hear.” Melina’s heavy sigh told Reven and Jax that she was right.

Reven turned to Melina with concern. “Jax is right; we want the truth. I don’t ever want you to think you have to lie to us to make us happy. Especially not when there is a lot of room for compromise. What is it that you don’t like?” Reven asked, hoping the young girl would be honest with them.

Melina looked at both of them nervously. “You won’t make me leave and go back to the city?”

“What?!” Reven exclaimed, while Jax looked like she’d been slapped.

Recovering quickly, Jax added, “Why would you think such a thing?”

Neither Jax nor Reven realized that their shock and horror at the thought were bleeding through their energy, and Melina was picking up on it easily. She was a little taken aback by their concern for her, and her heart soared at the thought that they might actually want to keep her, for real.

“I… I don’t know. I don’t want to leave. I’ll do whatever you want.” Melina said, allowing the tears to slip silently down her face as she kept her head down.

Reven’s heart broke at the child’s admission, and he moved to scoop her into his arms before Jax pushed him out of the way and kneeled in front of the little girl.

“You listen to me. I know what you’re thinking, and I know how you feel. I’ve been right where you are, with strange people and unsure about if they would kick me out at any moment. My biggest fear was that they would put me back in that orphanage or on the street.”

“There are only a few rules that you always have to follow. They are just as much for you as they are everyone else. The first is always tell the truth to our own. The next is that you never, ever hurt someone weaker than you intentionally unless you know they are an enemy, and you have to.”

Jax was starting to feel better when Melina looked up at her with watery blue eyes and nodded her head slightly. Jax tried to hide her relief that she was right. On the streets and even in the orphanages, you have no control. Everything happens to you, and you keep rolling with it-like punches. Some hurt worse than others; she thought sadly.

When Banatar brought her to their first command center, she had been terrified that one wrong move would put her back on the street. Until Sarex sat her down and told her of the Hybrid Code. Rules that they all agreed to live by, something they would all have in common. A structure that they all desperately needed. One that Jax knew, Melina needed as well.

Jax stood and held out her hand to Melina, who hesitated only a moment before taking it. “We call it the Hybrid Code. It was a way for all of us to know what rules to follow, what rules couldn’t be broken. We knew that no matter what mistakes we made or what stupid things we said in anger; nothing would make anyone kick us out if we didn’t break the code.”

“Now it’s time for you to learn the code the way I did, the way all the others did before you and I.” Jax said with a gentle smile as she sat them both on the couch.

Reven followed with Bayla in one arm, and a baby wipe in the other that he was chasing her hands with, trying to clean them. He was a little ashamed that Jax had figured out what was wrong with Melina when he should have.

He knew more than he ever wanted to admit about feeling helpless while the world around you kept beating you down. And how it felt to worry about doing the wrong thing and being kicked out. He was curious if the rest of the Hybrid Code was as similar to the warrior's code that Ivint’s father taught him when he was a child. He listened intently while Jax continued.

“Ok, so you have one and two right?” Jax asked, making sure Melina was listening.

Melina nodded her head. “Always tell the truth to our own. Never hurt someone weaker intentionally unless they are an enemy, and I have to.”

Jax smiled, happy that the child’s tears were gone, and she was listening to her with wide-eyed interest. Knowing the rules and that the decision to follow them was in your hands was pretty empowering, and it helped give a little confidence, Jax thought. At least, it had worked wonders on the angry and terrified little girl that she had been when Banatar found her.

“That’s awesome honey; you did great. Ok next, learn everything you can and try to be the best at everything you can. Your life or the life of your new family may depend on it. By that I mean all of us, not just Bayla and Reven. That is the next thing, we are all family.”

“Gifted, hybrid, Valendran, Tezarian and even the human friends who help us, we’re all family. We’re bound by our uniqueness, by our circumstances and who we are. We protect one another because we’re the only ones on the planet qualified to do it, and because we take care of our own. All of our own. Weak or strong. You and Bayla are now one of our own.”

“That leads us to the next, never pre-judge one of our own. No one knows what the others have gone through, what caused their fears or the pains they’ve suffered that make them unique on the inside. What someone else may think is strange could be nothing more than their way of handling years of abuse or worse.”

“Which leads us to the next rule. Never ask someone else’s story, but if they tell you, you can never repeat it to another. Your story is yours to tell, not someone else’s to tell for you, unless you ask them to.”

The more Jax relayed the hybrid code to Melina, the more she could see just how many she’d broken dealing with Reven, and she was starting to feel pretty damn ashamed of herself. Not to mention her beast calling her a hypocrite, which wasn’t helpful at all. She thought as she screamed back at him in her mind to shut up.

Since Jax had paused for a moment, Melina felt brave enough to ask a question. “No one will ever make me leave if I follow the code?” She asked, hoping it would be that easy, but terrified there was a catch.

There was always a catch, she thought sadly, remembering the times people would promise her food or a place to stay if she would do something sick and disgusting for them. Or when they’d tease her with a bag of food before walking away with it as they laughed at her hunger.

She was never sure, which was worse, those who mocked her and made her feel ashamed and worthless or those who would walk by and pretend she didn’t exist. Like she was less than human and didn’t deserve their notice.

Jax nodded her head. “That’s right. It’s that easy. It goes back to the rule about being family. You are family now. Bayla is family. Next week, we could find two more children, just like the two of you, and they will be your family to.”

“In fact, you could be in this exact position one day. Explaining the code to another child we were able to save and helping them to become part of our family. It might even be children that you find and save, like Bayla.” Jax said with a gentle smile, happy that the little girl was beginning to understand.

Reven could see that Jax was having an impact on the little girl. He could feel some of her confidence beginning to bleed through her energy. He hated to interrupt them, but he really felt that some common sense conditions needed to be stated.

Melina was vulnerable right now, and he didn’t want her fear and concerns to make her take what Jax was saying literally. He knew all too well the pressure that could put on a young child and the damage it could do.

“We all go by those same rules, but you have to remember that accidents happen. You could accidentally hurt Bayla while you’re playing. That doesn’t mean you broke the rule, it means you had an accident and no one will blame you for that. We all make mistakes and have accidents so don’t be hard on yourself or worry too much about it, ok?” Reven asked, wanting to make sure she understood.

Jax looked at Reven strangely, wondering what he could have ever experienced that would make him say something like that with so many different emotions bleeding through him. She was so surprised by it; she didn’t even think to yell at him for interrupting her.

Jax felt like a hand slapped her in the chest when his beautiful blue eyes turned and stared deeply into her own. Damn if the man couldn’t make you feel like your heart stopped mid-beat, Jax thought as she tried to contain the sigh that threatened to escape her lips.

She stared back at him silently, lost to his eyes until Wolfen chose that moment to start whining. Melina stood quickly and looked at Jax and Reven.

“Can I take Bayla and Wolfen outside by myself?” Melina asked with excitement.

Jax was getting ready to answer when Reven did. “Go ahead honey. We’ll finish cleaning up in here, and we’ll leave when the little guy is done with his business.”

Jax was seething; all thoughts of the man’s good qualities went out the window. She waited until Melina carried Bayla out of the door, with Wolfen happily prancing behind her, before she turned on him.

“What the fuck are you thinking?” Jax asked angrily, hands on her hips.

Reven turned slowly to her, not the least happy to play ‘guess what pissed Jax off this time’. Just like every other time she’s gone off the rails, one moment, she’s fine and the next she’s the raging little pocket rocket ready to detonate. Like right now, he thought.  

While most of the team members were scared to death of the dangerous little woman, he found her to be more beautiful when angry. Her eyes flashed more darkly and seductively; her body tensed as if to fight, yet her strength turned him on.

Her breath came more heavily as the adrenaline rushed through her, and he admired the sharp rise and fall of her breasts, uncaring that he was making her angrier that he hadn’t answered yet.

He had no idea why, but he wanted to instigate her further. He wanted to see her detonate and out of control. A part of him wondered if it was because he needed an excuse to take her again, the rest of him didn’t care about the reason as long as the outcome was the same.

Reven looked at her lazily and finally answered. “What exactly, has caused your latest emotional imbalance?” He ignored his beast screaming at him to stop, and casually leaned against the wall while he watched his beautiful mate explode.