28. Forever

Ash's POV

I jerked awake and moved my eyes all over the tree before looking straight forward to see my mother crouching in front of me. I looked up with a glare, unable to pull even a bit of kindness from the core of my broken soul. The kind, caring smile dropped from her face and was replaced by a sad frown causing me to feel bad immediately.

"I wanted to make sure you're okay. You left in quite the hurry there, and you were kind of glowing red."

I looked at her soft features, and tears began to well up in my eyes. Her face was gentle, just like his touch whenever it brushed over my skin. My mouth was as dry as paper, screaming at me to find a fresh food source.

She reached a hand out to brush my shoulder, but I forgot it was her and jerked it from her grip. I sprinted out of the trunk, running who knows where. By the time I refocused, I realized I had run back to camp with home in mind. I moved silently towards my own tent, but heard voices inside of my parent's. I snuck towards the back of it until I was in range and began to listen in.

"He doesn't even know I was the one," my father chuckled psychotically. Who was he talking about?

"It was a job well done, Master Jackson," another male voice that didn't recognize spoke from the other side of the room.

"We also have to figure out what to do with the other one down there. Allystar, I believe his name is."

"Yes. I have strong feeling that he and the boy are related, based on the images of his parents you sent me."

"If there's any chance that he could be another of their kids, then he must be annihilated. While the powers are only spread to the first born heir, if they're twins it could go poorly."

"True... We have to delete any chance of the plan veering off course. No matter what, we have to delete Alex and Allystar Canfield from existence."

My breathing quickened. It was him!? I thought he had changed at least a little bit, but clearly he was still just as upset about Alex being mated to me. Why can't he just understand that Alex was my soulmate, and that you can't choose love?

Then I put more thought into the revealed information. He took my soulmate... Annihilate him? My... Father... Kill my soulmate.

I was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. I stormed around the small tent and burst into the main area. I shoved the man I called father onto the ground roughly and put all of my weight on his arms and legs.

"It was you," I snarled, but the voice hardly sounded like mine.

He laughed bitterly, his already black eyes somehow getting even darker. "I only want you safe. In order to do that, I can't let you get mixed up with him."

I glared at him directly into the eyes, and I saw a red flash in them. He was either angry or bloodthirsty, probably both. "I can't live without him."

"You haven't known him longer than a few weeks. I'm sure you can learn-"

"Imagine losing mom. If I was the one that killed her."

His look turned into a glare as well, probably the same as mine. "You wouldn't dare."

"You wouldn't dare, either, now would you?"

"Well, your mother isn't the enemy!"

"Neither is Alex!"

Suddenly he made a deep chuckling noise, which slowly escalated to a laugh. I was confused, until in the blink of an eye I was the one on the ground with my father hovering over me. I tried jerking my arms out from under his, but his were too strong.

"Anyone who is a wolf is the enemy."

"But he's different!"

"Their species will never change! The sooner you learn that, the better off you'll be. I believed that once, and... Well..." he broke off with a sniffle.

His grip on my arms weakened while his tears began to land on my collarbone. "Twice, actually. Both times I lost everything."

I looked up at him. I had never hear his past story. He took a breath and began to tell it.

***

Jackson's POV

It was nighttime, and we were all out hunting. I looked up at my father. Strong, brave, everything a leader should be, and everything I aspired to be whenever I took over. I was only ten, just a young, naive boy when everything went wrong. It was quiet, much too quiet.

My friends pulled me off to hunt with them, and we were having fun until we heard loud gunshots from across the woods. We scattered swiftly, all taking a partner and sprinting all over the blood spilt forest. I realized I had grabbed a young female I hardly knew. Heria, I think her name was. She smiled warmly at me and pulled me into a hug. I heard loud footsteps approaching, and I immediately knew who they belonged to. Those damn wolves were there. I was warned about them, yet I had still thought it a good idea to mix with them. I grabbed Heria by the arm and we ran. As far and as fast as we possibly could.

We eventually found a coven to call home and worked up the ranks until we were the head. The first night we knew for certain we were meant to be, we conceived our little boy that we soon called Ashton.

Everything was fine until the wolf pack that lived nearby began trouble. They would frame us for crimes we did not commit, steal our animal blood supply so that we went starving. However somewhere in my mind I still thought the species was decent.

That is, until they attacked us with such brute force it would bring even the strongest leader to their knees. Just before our fake deaths for show, our little boy got stubborn and refused to drink the only thing that could ensure his survival.

The leader of the pack soon came through the trees, leading a pack of fully trained wolves behind him. I walked out to meet him with my wife, still clinging to the small hope of their purity. He even had a little boy of his own standing next to him, frantically observing every surrounding.

Before I could even state a friendly word of greeting, the Alpha shouted attack and everyone leapt forward. Every single wolf shot forward and began a swift massacre to my coven. I watched him 'kill' my mate before turning to his little boy and saying, "now that's how it's done, Alexander."

He turned to me with a greedy smile, and my last hope to the goodness of wolves went out when I saw the fire in his eyes.

"Why, Papa?" the little boy whispered just before his father bounded forward and killed me with a single bite.

The two moved away, and it was a few days before us vampires began to get up and search for the others scattered around. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't find our boy. Of course, my wife also lost her baby, so we were all alone. We left in the thick of night to a new place, new home. A place where we would be left alone, childless... Forever.