The week passes quickly and Jaxson really does regret it, not because Alaska is out on a death-defying mission, not because she has delivered something so brilliant that he can’t possibly say no. It is because she is so deeply immersed in the planning process that she doesn’t do much except disappear into her room and then reappear to eat and work only.
It is hard for him to adjust to the sudden loss of her as his constant companion. Even when she was in such a bad state, she was there. She didn't need to say anything. She didn't need to smile or give him any emotion. Just being there was enough.
When they first arrived, when she was just laid out in her room for months on end. The only difference was that back then he had free access to look after her. Sometimes it was like she didn't even know he was there, but at least he could be close. But now it's different. Instead of hearing, silence or sobbing, now he can hear progress. He can feel her happiness at the process and it makes it hard to feel like he did the wrong thing.
Now he can smell her scent. He catches brief glimpses of her and he can hear her within the confines of her room, but that is the extent of their interaction.
Jax leans casually against the kitchen island with a bowl of cereal pressed tightly to his chest, staring directly at Alaska's door.
She has been getting up earlier than ever before and sometimes in the morning he has been missing her altogether. She moves so stealthily that he doesn't even wake, so this morning he made sure that he was awake so early that there is no possible way that he could miss her.
Alaska emerges in a black women’s pant suit with a light gray shirt, her long hair hanging around her, her eyes lock onto Jax straight away and she shoots him a smile. At exactly the four-month point they were in the worst situation they had been. Jax had hardly been working because he wanted to look after Alaska, the money in the safe was disappearing faster than he thought was possible purely existing in a different world was so expensive.
Jax had the burden of the world on his shoulders after all the failure and grief it just continued for him. He wasn’t sure when they would end up being foreclosed upon. He got home that day and he always he had braved a smile when he entered the warehouse, but that day he saw no one. The last fifty dollars in cash they had was gone and as he looked around that empty warehouse he truly believed that he had officially hit rock bottom and he had no energy to go on.
The last person in the world he wanted to let down was Alaska and he was.
It was at that moment that Alaska walked in, she had a pant suit on and a folder clutched to her chest. Jaxson barely even recognized the person standing in front of him, her hair was washed and brushed without him having a hand in it, her face was still pale, but other than that she resembled a living breathing human, which was such a change from the still breathing near corpse that he had kissed on the forehead that morning. Jaxson had just stood there with his mouth open staring. Alaska had walked forward and physically lifted his chin with her fingers. That was when he saw the illusion of the miraculous recovery fade away, because she looked beautiful, there was no doubt, but there was a hollowness in her eyes as if she was a puppet on strings being manipulated into the real world, but her soul was still far removed.
"I got a job"
It was as simple as that. She had taken the last fifty dollars to make a resume and get prints, she managed to secure a suit from a second-hand store and the rest was history. She had the world of experience as a trained beta and beta female but nothing much that would translate to experience in the real world, the human world, so she got a menial position but the extra income made the world of difference, Jax was also able to up his work load because he wasn’t worried that that day would be the day that he returned to find her deceased.
She was a shell of a person, but somehow that shift happened overnight and she became a functioning member of society.
That girl that stood in front of him then is a far cry from the girl that stands in front of him now. Now she has a tailored suit that wraps around her body perfectly, it is crisp and new, the colorless face is now full of life. She may have started in a low position, but once she had the ability to showcase her skills, she moved up the ranks impossibly quickly.
It was that day that she also started training again. It was so basic at first, because everything she had was lost in that period of grief. She grew as the life returned to her and once she started to eat properly. It was so slow at first, but it was the six month point that was the real change in her, but a single letter on a single white piece of paper was enough to do that.
"Are you eating?"
Alaska walks forward, running a hand through his soft hair as she makes her way toward the cupboard.
"And risk your wrath if I don’t?"
Alaska cringes as she even thinks about being pulled onto Jax’s lap and cradled in his arms and being spoon-fed as she sobbed and near choked on the minimal food. She was so pathetic back then, she didn’t have a bigger goal in mind. She was weak and let Jax as well as Torin and her baby down.
Every meal is still tasteless to her, but now she eats for sustenance, she eats to power her body so she never falls apart like that again.
"Don’t forget about tomorrow"
Alaska looks at Jax, her emerald eyes shining brightly.
"I haven't forgotten, I am actually looking forward to it"
Jax takes a bite of cereal at the wrong time and nearly spits it out in his own shock.
"You are?"
"Of course"
Alaska shrugs as she fills up her own bowl. A vicious smirk on her face, it is a whole lot more tolerable to sit and act in front of those people when she is plotting their demise.
Faking a smile with an agenda is easy.
All she usually sees is five people with so much blood on their hands that it makes her gag. She has actually been looking forward to the visit for the week because the more inside intel she can gather the easier it will be.
Usually she is so busy trying to hold herself back from beating them to death that she fails to take in the intricate details. She knows everything she can know from a cyberspace perspective, but she needs to know the enemy on a personal level. She needs to look in their eyes and know what is in their pitch black soul.
Even though Jax is only looking at her profile as she looks at her cereal, her face is scary.
"Umm I will take that as a good thing?"
His voice sounds thoroughly unconvinced but Alaska dismisses it with a wave of her hand.
"As you should"
"Is there anything else on?"
Alaska’s expression softens as she looks at Jax.
"Work is throwing a mixer for me with the new promotion. Will you be my plus one?"
"When is it?"
Jax asks the question while nodding his head vigorously, it doesn’t matter what he had on, he would be changing it on the mere idea of being seen somewhere in public with her.
"Next week"
"I will be there…. Anyway, at least that is a good sign because you plan on living that long"
"I will keep my promise to you Jax, we only attack once the plan has been approved. I am not planning on staging an attack when the only outcome is death…Give me a little credit"
"I am sorry, of course you are right, I am just nervous that they will get their guard up around us"
"I won’t give away the game"
Jax hooks her chin with his thumb and his index finger, placing a kiss on her forehead.
"I know you won’t and, by the way, I give you all the credit in the world, there is no one I trust more than you"
"I am glad Jax, because we only have each other"
Alaska looks back down at her bowl, her hand shakes as she tries to pour the milk on top. There was a time when she was surrounded by so many people and then they all disappeared in the space of a week.
Her parents, Jaxson’s parents, at the start of the week and then by the end she was holding the mutilated body of her mate with no pack support. There was only Jax and somehow he made that enough, she will appreciate him forever for that.
"Anyway, another promotion. Congratulations Alaska"
"Hmm anyone would believe that I was born to be a human"
Jax laughs as his hands once again find his bowl needing the cool surface to calm him. Too much physical contact with her is getting harder and harder.
"You were trained in all of this. What would I do without that beautiful chocolate beta wolf who pushes me so hard?"
"Be half the man you are today?"
"Try a quarter....maybe.... if I was lucky"
Jax says it but his wolf would’ve faded to nothing without knowing he needed to be so strong to protect her.
Alaska eats her cereal so fast that she appears to be inhaling it, barely stopping to take a breath. She places her bowl on the sink before gripping Jaxson’s forearm and kissing his cheek."Only a quarter of who you are would still be a good man Jax"Alaska doesn’t wait for a reply as she practically skips out the door with a smile on her face and her emerald eyes shining with sinister ideas, her whole persona is out of place in her outfit.Jax just stares at her disappearing figure long after she is gone. She touches him so softly, she says all the right words, but he is well aware that she never intends for them to mean what he wants them to.Jax stares at the photo on the wall, one of the two remaining photos of their previous life. He could have had so much more if he had listened to his father, one of his many regrets."Stop it Torin, I am well aware that her heart will always be with you…"Jax stares at the smiling face of his best friend, Torin’s arms wrapped tightly around Ala
Jaxson looks at Alaska as she emerges from her bedroom. He has been up half the night, just sitting on the sofa staring at Alaska’s door like he used to do early in the piece, sleeping on that broken old sofa waiting for her nightmares.Sleeping with one eye closed, wanting to get to her before it got too bad. The sofa is new and a lot more comfortable now, but right now the anxiety is very much the same.Jaxson stares at Alaska’s neat clothing and glowing face, her small amount of makeup is impeccable. Her lips look soft and subtle with a tint of pink. She looks healthy. She looks glowing. She looks a long way off all the other times that she has presented herself in front of the five. Admittedly, it is not often that she has had to show herself in front of them. Jax has to go once a week, but Alaska has only been requested as little as once every six months. Alaska may have good breeding and come from good bloodlines, but they expect very little from a female beta blood who would s
*Three years earlier continued*The large black wolf skirts the edge of the summer pack, just as he is about to head to the main entrance to be allowed in by the border patrol, he has a strange feeling down his spine.He has been to the summer pack many times before. Technically, the alpha, Valen, is his uncle. He is a couple of times removed but they all like to play on it. At one time, in Jaxson’s great-great grandfather's time, this was all one pack. The seasons pack, Jaxson’s great-great grandfather had four sons, which was incredibly rare for an alpha. The sons were very close in age, one set of twins and two separate on either side. The season's pack was incredibly large, to the point where it was nearly too difficult to protect the borders. All the sons were very similar in abilities, which made it hard for him to choose who was going to take the pack.The only logical solution was to split the pack into four smaller pieces and allow each of his sons to have a pack of their own
Driving up to the summer pack now is much the same feeling as that first time he re-entered the summer pack and found out the depth of the betrayal. The people that he thought would be there for him, the ones that he considered family. The ones he considered good people. He thought it was bad then. But the more he learned, the more he thought about it, the worse it became. Jaxson's hands move without him releasing his grip in the slightest, the cheap plastic steering wheel making a sort of screeching sound under his hands. Alaska finally looks up from the radio and places a soft hand over his. "It is all going to be fine" Jaxson is like this every single time. It is like that same feeling of dread and clarity washes over him and then every time he has to swallow down all those intense feelings and smile at the scheming bastards that caused him to lose so much, the ones he actually went to as a savior were the ones that took it all away.He believed that this trip would help, but
Alaska just puts one sandal-clad foot in front of the other on the bitumen-paved driveway. Her hand brushes against Jax's large hand, grounding her just that little bit as hatred washes over her, it's so thick and fast. Sometimes it's a little harder to swallow down than others, but she manages to push it all into the pit of her stomach and put on her token fake smile. Back before all this, she didn't even know that a fake smile was a real thing she didn't understand what someone would even use such a thing for. She spent so much of her time smiling and having fun. No matter the workload or what life threw at her, she could still smile happily. Now it has just become a piece of her mask, a necessary item, better than any makeup at hiding the true feelings inside. A smile can hide a million truths. It is as necessary mask in her workplace as it is here. She looks up at the one dark-haired man that stands between his four golden blonde sons. There is no doubt that all five of them ar
Valen smiles as the sweet girl kisses his cheek. She is skinnier now, but that is the only real difference he notices, maybe a little bit more hollow in the eyes, they just don't have the same glitter they once had, but that is to be expected. It is impossible for such an innocence to survive in such conditions. Everything is crushed, the beautiful flower is wilted. He feels silly for even suspecting them. It isn’t even like it is two together, it is one male and a weak female that, even though she could’ve had the talent and the bloodline to step forward and take her birthright, she chose to sit back and watch her mate claim the glory. She was pathetic then and while it is admirable that she pulled herself together to this point, expecting her to come out of those depths with anything more than a basic need to survive is overreaching. She couldn't take the title then and now she is the same, happy to sit back and let others lead while she hangs on for dear life desperatly trying no
As soon as they returned home, Alaska disappears into her room and Jaxson is left to sit on the sofa alone. She didn’t speak anymore on the drive or subsequent run back to the warehouse. They didn’t feel as if they were followed, but they will never take a such chances always making sure ro cover their tracks. They have tried and keep everything hidden within the space, but if the warehouse was found, the rest would unravel quickly.Jaxson has the television on, playing some series that fails to spark his interest enough to allow him to focus on anything other than Alaska’s closed door. He craves to hear her voice, to feel her touch. He knows that the whole experience hurt her, but right now it feels like it hurt him a whole lot more. The word friend still bouncing around his head telling him everything he already knows but cutting him to pieces at the same time.Hours move slowly by but still a closed door separates the pair. He is in no mood to workout. He looks briefly at the kitch
Jax grits his teeth, he wishes he had her confidence, he would like to take the cowards way out on this one, but he knows that he would never talk her into such a thing unless they have at least tried. The more he has thought about it and just witnessing the five today, he saw Valen’s suspicion fade throughout the visit, but he knows that is only fleeting, he knows that at least one of his cousins would rather just eliminate them.Every word he said is true, it is only a matter of time and they cannot live indefinitely with a dagger hanging over their heads."I hope you are right"Alaska nods as she looks down at her phone. She was not expecting this to be so easy, this is a big hurdle passed. But from now, it only gets harder. Her fingers move swiftly across the screen of her phone. Words that she never thought that she would write to another man come out as forced as she expected they would. Seeking justice for Torin by seemingly betraying him in such a way is torturous. After a few