Jox + double date with Jessie and the history teacher:
Joe and Ox are happily mated and things have started to settle down for the pack.
Joe’s jealousy has calmed down a bit because Ox is his mate, but at the same time he makes sure to bring up the fact that Ox is his perfect mate any opportunity that he gets.
So even though Joe is more relaxed about Jessie and Robbie being in Ox’s pack because it’s his pack too and Ox is his mate, sometime Joe can be a little off-putting around Jessie and Robbie still.
So, one day, when Joe’s making sure Jessie remembers that Ox is Joe Bennett’s mate, Jessie tells him, “I already know that. I’m not trying to steal Ox. I have a girlfriend.”
And this is fantastic news to Joe because Jessie is dating Not Ox.
So Joe like Jessie a lot more now that he knows she is with someone else.
Jessie wants Ox to meet her girlfriend.
Chris already knows about her girlfriend and has met her and gets along with her.
Jessie told him first because he is her family.
But pack is family too and Ox is her good friend so she wants Ox to meet her too.
And she doesn’t want the whole pack meeting her at once because she knows how overwhelming they can be and how unintentionally unwelcoming they can be because of the pack bonds, even while trying to be warm and inviting.
She wants Ox to like her girlfriend because he is her friend and he is her alpha.
Ox is surprised when Joe happily agrees to go on a double date with Jessie and her girlfriend.
But Joe is excited to see Jessie happy with someone else while he shows off how happy he is with Ox and they have a date night.
And Jessie and Ox are glad that they’re getting to go out and spend time together because they’re good friends and it’s nice having fun friend time besides pack time.
When Ox says that Joe agreed to go, Jessie expects that Joe will ignore her and her date and just talk to Ox the whole time.
Like back at the lunch table when he used to only talk to his brothers and Ox and would completely ignore her presence.
But when Joe sees that Jessie’s date is his old history teacher, he starts commenting on that.
And he talks most to Ox of course, but he does talk some to Jessie.
More than he talks to her date.
Because she is pack and the history teacher isn’t.
And Jessie isn’t used to being included by Joe.
Ox approves of Jessie’s girlfriend because Jessie is so green around her.
Ox is pretty green too, getting to be on a date with Joe and seeing him and Jessie getting along so much better than usual.
After the date, Ox tells Jessie that he likes her girlfriend.
And he tells Jessie that if she doesn’t want to hide the pack from her, she doesn’t have to.
Because he remembers the choice that Thomas gave him to let his mother know.
And Jessie’s girlfriend is important to her and Ox doesn’t want the pack messing that up or making Jessie have to live two big separated lives.
So Jessie keeps that in mind.
She doesn’t tell her girlfriend right away.
And it’s a while after she does before her girlfriend meets the rest of the pack.
(And Ox tries to keep them from acting weird around her, but even he ends up acting kind of weird because the pack bonds make for very close ties between them all and make for her seeming like an outsider without them.)
(But the pack ties also tell them all how green she makes Jessie and the wolves can hear her heart rate and know she’s being honest and genuinely kind with them.)
(So even though she’s not pack, they like her alright from the start.)
(Which is good, because Jessie would have fought anyone who was rude to her girlfriend for no reason.)
And it’s a while before she comes to see the wolves run and the humans train on a full moon and is scared and intrigued all at the same time.
And it’s a while after that until she first run with the wolves and trains with the humans and she first starts fitting into the pack and slipping into pack bonds.
But, eventually, she does end up joining the pack and ends up being there basically as Jessie’s mate.
And, wow, Jessie is happy then when both of her lives come together and her girlfriend who is so important to her is so important to the rest of the pack too.
And when she doesn’t have to lie or worry about her girlfriend getting captured by a wolf and not knowing what’s going on and them not being able to feel her to tell if she’s okay.
But that is still a while off and new pack bonds forming takes time.
Still, there are some changes that are noticeable after the double date.
Like how Jessie and Ox are closer friends again without any awkwardness between them and without Joe being bothered by them spending time together.
And now that they’re both dating someone and they both know the other’s partner, they go to each other for advice and to talk about their significant other and to vent and just to hang out.
And Joe starts getting along with Jessie better just generally.
And he doesn’t question why she’s in the pack so much anymore because he knows that she cares about Ox a lot and Ox cares about her a lot and that no longer feels like a threat waiting to take away the best thing in his life to Joe.
So that date is the start of a much better dynamic for them all.
