41. Let's Do This

Jackson's POV

It was a lonely feeling, having no one to love and cherish. My son, my soulmate, hell even the freaking voice in my own head hated me. I walked through the forest in the middle of the night. The slightly cold, damp air gave my skin a chill, but nothing unbearable. Even though it was almost halfway through December, the last of the leaves were falling off of the trees. Maybe if I disappeared no one would miss me. If I could fall into the sky then maybe the world would keep spinning with everyone on it happier than they were before?

I climbed a large oak tree and stood on the highest branch that would hold my weight. The stillness of the air encompassed me, and I found myself sitting down on the hard wood. I'd just stay up there forever and create no more conflicts in the world below...

Winston's POV (remember him? If you don't, chapter 3)

I opened my eyes to pure darkness around me. It was dirty smelling down here, and it felt like someone had smashed my head in with a ton of bricks. Through the darkness I could just make out the sleeping bodies around me. Suddenly a door opened, bringing with it the harsh light of day. I lay down and pretended to be knocked out like the rest of the pack since my gut told me to.

"They're all knocked out, what do we do with them?" A mysterious voice asked, splitting the silence.

"I don't know, he never told us what to do after we got them in here," a second voice responded. They walked into the small room with echoing footsteps. Suddenly I heard them stop right next to my head and immediately got fearful of them finding out that I wasn't asleep like I was supposed to be.

"This one's the future beta, yes?" person number one asked, kicking my side sharply.

"I think so..."

Suddenly cold water was poured all over my body, so I was shocked to opening my eyes. I pretended to be groggy and confused even though all of my senses were on fire. They lifted me before dragging me out of wherever we were.

"W-where am I, what is h-happening?" I asked loudly.

"Shut up," the person carrying me commanded. They put me down in a clearing that I recognized from the fighting.

"What do we do with him?"

A middle aged woman suddenly stood in my vision, peering down into my soul. "Kill him," her voice was cold, as if someone else was controlling her.

I saw a small dagger emerge into the hand of the man, and my life flashed before my eyes. I'll never run the pack with Alex by my side, I'll never find a soulmate... I was not ready to fucking die, but I had no choice.

Therefore as I lay there like a lamb to the slaughter, I felt incomplete. I needed to do so much more than this. This man leaned over me while holding the knife against my throat when I suddenly smelled the sweetest scent that had ever passed my nose. My forever was nearby, but I wouldn't get to know who it was because my death was near.

"Stop," a voice, crystal clear and filled with emotion, demanded. I was drawn to the single syllable more than anything else.

"Son-" another voice held it back, but was quickly cut off by the first.

"No."

Suddenly the pressure on my throat was released, yet I couldn't convince my eyes to open again. The fear of opening them to anything hostile stopped me. A pair of warm arms wrapped around my shoulders, sitting me up. I didn't realize that I was crying until I heard, "shhh, I've got you now... Nothing will hurt you, I won't let them hurt you."

I opened my eyes to the prettiest hazel ones staring back at me. I melted into their warmth for only a few seconds before my mate was ripped away from me.

"I will not allow my son to be mated to filth," a loud voice declared... The father, jeez.

"You don't have a choice, bitch!" he shouted while tearing out of his grasp. He tried to grab me and run, but it was my duty as beta to leave no pack members in danger.

"I can't leave them there," I pleaded.

"Well you can't save them if you're dead."

I sighed before allowing him to pull me behind him. "Do you know where you're going?"

"Not really, you lead."

After a few minutes of walking through the forest, I realized that it was going to take a moment to get there and murmured shyly, "tell me a little bit about yourself."

"Do you promise not to reject me?" he responded shakily, "I know some of you are put off by people like me."

"No, I was raised to love my soulmate no matter what they are."

"I come from a coven of vampires up north. My father was of high status and my mother was a whore that he had used to get pregnant. Eventually, when I was 3, he found his mate and had a lot of children with her. She hated me, and of course she taught all of her offspring to hate me just as much, so I was always a second class citizen even in my own family. Even though I was his firstborn, I don't even get my father's position because I'm a shame to the family. I was just a border guard, hardly even considered his son. I sometimes think how different my life would be if he had never met her, but then I'm reminded that as long as he's happy, I'm happy."

I could detect his sadness, so I leaned into his shoulder. Even though the action didn't do much, it still made me feel as if I was helping out just a little bit.

"I can't say I grew up with much hardship. I'm not going to lie and say that I wasn't raised to hate everything about vampires, but I was young and my mind moldable. Come to think of it, the first thing that I saw that gave me some hope that vampires had a little bit of sanity was seeing how my Alpha was mated to one and didn't mind. For the most part my whole life was set out for me, but I think this kind of poked a huge hole in most of my plans," I laughed nervously.

Eventually the house came into view, and I grabbed his hand tightly in mine. "Hold onto this and don't let go no matter what. What's your name?"

"Marcus, but please do call me Marc."

"I cannot be certain they will accept you. It took our current alpha a long time to accept Ash as his son's mate."

"Expectation set, let's do this."