Bear Lake, page 3
“Yeah. Let’s go see who the hell is looking for her.” Jackson wrenched open the door to his truck and the sound of the hinges protesting screech out into the night setting Marcus’s teeth on edge.
“Easy, Brother. Your ride will look stupid without any damn doors.” Marcus heard his alpha grunt in response.
“Funny I was thinking the same about your body without your damn head.”
It wasn’t enough that Alex had denied him. It wasn’t enough that she had tried to leave once, maybe even had already. Now they had some dick looking for her. He got the distinct impression that mating was more trouble than he’d expected it to be.
~^~
Alex heard the truck rumble down the driveway and sighed. If this was another one of Jackson’s pack she was going to kill someone. Coming face to face with Chance’s bear had been enough for one day, she didn’t need the hassle of being told she couldn’t leave, it only made her more determined too. At least Jackson had given her the choice, for her misery.
Alex fisted the handgun from under the cushion and moved towards the front door. If it knocked like a damn bear then she was going to take someone’s head off. She slipped the gun under the magazine on the hall table and picked up her trusted baseball bat that she’d had to retrieve after her little dustup earlier.
Without thinking she wrenched open the front door and carried the bat over her shoulder like she was going in for action. She saw him then. Joshua was at her fucking door…
Panic gripped her and her training went out of the window. Her mind rushed with fear and her body stood idle for the longest moments of her life… Then she took to flight, turning on her heels and heading back into the house…
Alex had all of her weight behind the door and was ramming it closed when the boot on the other side sent it flying backwards and her with it. She hit the floor and travelled a few feet with the momentum of the force of the door shoving her backwards. She felt the pain of impact tear through her body and half dazed, she looked around her for the bat…
“Stupid, bitch.” Joshua snorted his contempt for her. “Did you really think that we couldn’t find you, Sarah?” Joshua’s polished shoes came towards her, closer and closer as she started to push up with her palms against the wood.
The force of the kick that caught her in the stomach sent her up and backwards. Pain that she remembered well shot out like hot pokers through her stomach and travelled through her body. Using a burning pick axe would probably have been kinder…
Alex dug her fingernails against the wood and clawed the surface as she wrenched her body up onto her knees. Her breathing was erratic, her body was on fire, and her mind was dazed. She knew she needed to focus. She knew from her training… she needed to remember her training…
Another kick, this time to her side sent her flying sideways and her back hit the hall table. She yelled out with the pain. Collapsing onto her back on the floor, she tried to breath, tried to focus through the pain…
“Blake told you what would happen if you left him again, Sarah…”
Yes, she knew what would happen. She knew it only too well which was why she’d trained. She tried to focus on that, think through the pain, beyond the pain…
She felt Joshua’s breath in her face as he came down onto one knee beside her. His hand fisted her hair and he wrenched her head upwards from the floor. She cried out…
“Now I have you and Blake is on the way, Sarah.” Joshua wrenched her head back and her eyes snapped open. His eyes were fierce. His hate was written in the distortions of his face.
Alex felt that fear in every fibre of her being. When the time came, would she be enough? Could she see past the pain? Could she act? How much did she want to live? Every word her instructor had burned into her mind as they trained came back to her…
She bit down on the rush of anger that went through her. Anger was good if it helped, and it did. She felt the empowerment within her…
Alex forced her hands upwards through the pain, through the fear… She hooked her nails into the skin above his eyes and clawed downwards. His hand released her hair as he tossed his body back away from her… His hands came up to his face to shield his eyes, eyes that she’d already clawed through…
Alex spun on the floor and forced her body to move. She pushed up to her knees and knocked the magazine away. With an almost steady hand she fisted the gun and turned her whole body towards Blake’s hired grunt…
It didn’t matter to her that he appeared helpless as he tried to focus on her. It didn’t matter to her that he might not have had any fight left in him. It didn’t even matter that he might turn tail and run… Because she knew that as long as he was alive then he could come back to hurt her…
Alex pulled the trigger, over, and over, and over again.
~^~
The sound of gunfire cracked through the night. Even over the noise of the truck, Jackson and Marcus heard it clearly. Fear gripped Jackson’s heart and he stomped down on the accelerator…
“Jack…” Marcus didn’t know how the hell to make up for what he’d done. If he’d been more interested in watching the suit and not have been distracted by his cock…
“Save it. You might need to kill me sometime soon, brother.” Jackson didn’t want to hear apologies and weakness from a member of his clan. He needed strength now more than ever. If anything had happened to his mate…
“Fuck, Jack.” Marcus growled out as he was tossed and bumped all the way through the backwater roads and up Alex’s driveway.
Jackson didn’t even bother cutting the engine. His eyes took in the fancy truck out front of her house and the fact her front door was open, and he started running. He heard Marcus at his heels.
He scented the blood on the air. Human. Alex’s scent with another, mixed in, headier… He tore into the hallway and skidded to a halt. The sight of the suit lying dead with numerous holes in his body and Alex sitting back on her heels with a gun still held out in her hand chilled his blood.
“Fuck.” Marcus grunted out and Alex spun the gun towards them. Her eyes only seemed to be half focused. Both shifters jumped backwards and held up their hands in surrender. It was what you were supposed to do when someone pointed a damn gun at you.
“Easy, Alex.” Jackson growled out. His bear was prowling just beneath the surface for someone to kill, but it wouldn’t be her.
Alex opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. The hand holding the gun lowered and the barrel tapped against the wood of the floor. Jackson moved slowly, carefully towards her. He could see that she was in shock and he didn’t want her firing that damn thing at them.
“Careful, Jack…” Marcus whispered and Jackson groaned.
“Ya think?” He growled back. The sound of his growl reached Alex’s ears and her eyes came up from the body towards him.
“I did it. I said I could do it and I did. I did it.” Alex sounded lost and Jackson’s heart went out to her. He moved faster, reaching for the gun with one hand as his other hand wrapped around her body and he drew her against his chest. He heard her catch her breath, knew that sound, she was injured, something that he couldn’t see.
“I have you, Alex.” Jackson tossed the gun across the floor towards Marcus and the big man snorted.
“Why give it to me? I hate guns.” Marcus growled to himself as he scooped to pick it up.
He walked across to the suit and nudged him with his foot a couple of times. He’d seen it in movies and thought it was fitting. He already knew the guy was dead, he didn’t have a damn heartbeat. Alex had certainly… done it…
“Where are you hurt?” Jackson was searching her body as he kept her against him. His hands found no real blood apart from the small cut above her eye… “Alex…?”
“I did that, Jack…” Her eyes were locked onto the body at Marcus’s feet.
“Let’s get you out of here.” Jackson pushed up to his feet and took her up with him. He reached down and swung her up and into his arms. Turning back towards Marcus; he nodded to the body on the floor.
“Get rid of that. Check to see if his truck has GPS, if it does drive it a few towns over and wipe it down. Then come back, don’t be seen.” Jackson growled out his orders and headed towards the front door with his mate.
“When did you become a criminal mastermind?” Marcus growled back.
“I watch a lot of TV.” Jackson tossed back over his shoulder and Marcus chuckled as he nodded his head.
CHAPTER FOUR
Jackson wasn’t about to take no for an answer where Alex was concerned. He’d taken her back to his cabin and was looking for the injuries that were making her gasp whenever he touched her body. His bear wasn’t so much horny as filled with the desire to kill. The sight of ugly bruises appearing on her smooth skin made him want to kill the dead guy all over again.
“Who was he?” Jackson needed answers. He’d become embroiled in this and his clan’s future was on the line if that body was discovered. He had no problem in taking the blame for the murder but he’d liked to know who the hell it was he was supposed to have just killed.
“Joshua. A hired grunt that works for my ex…”
“Boyfriend?” Jackson growled at the thought of another man touching her body.
“Husband.” Alex caught the hurt in his eyes when he flicked them up to her. She held his gaze for a long moment before he went back to cataloguing her injuries.
“He the reason you don’t want to stay with me?” Jackson had to ask and it was a loaded question. He held his breath as he waited for her answer.
“Yes.” She didn’t sound as if she wanted to share.
“I don’t think anything is broken, but you could have internal injuries. We should get you to the hospital.” Jackson pushed up to his feet, but Alex just shook her head, pushing her shirt back down over her ribs.
“No hospitals.” She bit out.
“Alex…” He squatted down on his haunches in front of her.
“Hospitals have records. Records leave a paper trail. No hospitals unless it’s life or death.” Alex sounded as if she’d had those words drummed into her.
“Says?” Jackson growled. It was just starting to dawn on him that he didn’t know his mate at all. Everything, absolutely everything about her had been bullshit.
“My trainer.” Alex leaned back against the softness of the cushion on the sofa. It felt as if there were sticks in those cushions pushing against her damn ribs.
“The one who taught you to kill?”
“Yes.” Alex didn’t want to do this now, or maybe ever. But she owed Jackson and his clan an explanation. She got that. She’d dropped this whole shit storm in their laps.
“So it wasn’t self-defence?” Jackson needed to know what had happened in that house.
“I was defending myself. It was him or me, maybe not that exact moment in time, but it would have come down to it in the future if I hadn’t of pulled the trigger.” Alex believed every word of that. She knew in her heart. Her poor broken, cold heart.
“It’s not like I can talk.” Jackson expanded his hands. “I’m a fucking bear, a killing machine. If I’d been there…”
“But you weren’t.”
Jackson twisted his head on his neck and stared down at her. His eyes narrowed as he tried to read her, but she was still in shock and her emotions were jumbled.
“I’m sorry for that.” Jackson knew that he should have been there. He should have been at her house from the moment he’d known who she was. Protecting her was his job and he’d fucked it up.
“I’m not.” Alex tried to sit forward but her ribs hurt too much. She bit out a curse.
“Why? It’s my fucking job to protect you, you’re my…”
“Please, Jackson. I can’t do this now. I’ll tell you whatever you want or need to know about Joshua and my ex-husband, but I can’t even think about us right now.”
The sound of knuckles against his cabin door made him curse out at the intrusion. When he wrenched the door open he found Chance standing there. The man looked guilty.
“What?” Jackson growled out and Chance sighed as he dropped his eyes to the flasks in his hands. He held one out.
“This one is whiskey, good whiskey, helps with the pain.” He growled and Jackson took it from him. “This one is belladonna. I got it from a witch friend. It’ll help her to sleep through the pain. Don’t mix them.” Chance rushed out. “Small amount of the belladonna, it’s already mixed properly.” Chance thrust the second flask at his alpha and turned on his heels and stalked away.
Jackson rolled his head on his neck and turned back towards Alex. The woman had a damn grin on her face that looked kind of surreal. She pointed to the first flask.
“Whiskey good.” She gave a small chuckle that hurt her ribs and she winced against the pain.
“Whiskey very damn good.” Jackson agreed as he slammed his front door closed.
~^~
Jackson didn’t sleep one wink. He couldn’t. Sitting there holding Alex within his arms all night as she slept off and on through the pain was bad enough. The sounds of her small whimpers was worse. But he was listening for the sounds of anyone approaching the cabin outside. He was determined to protect her from anyone else seeking to harm her, and her ex was still out there somewhere, and according to Alex, he was headed this way.
Alex had said his name a couple of times as she’d slept. Each time it sounded damn good to his ears. Each time she’d given a small whimper afterwards that didn’t sound so damn good.
He hated himself for not being there to protect her. He hated that she’d had to end someone’s life. But he was damn glad that she’d done it, and after what she’d told him, if the man had still been alive then Jackson would have ended him himself.
He was checking her temperature off and on while she slept. Keeping an eye on her so that if there were injuries that neither of them knew about inside of her then he could get her help. He’d confess to the murder on the spot if she needed damn hospital treatment.
Half of him dreaded her ex turning up in town and the other half welcomed it. The man shouldn’t be allowed to breathe air and if Jackson had anything to say about it he wouldn’t be breathing it much longer. Alex and whoever had trained her was right, the only way to guarantee someone’s safety was to put the risk down for good.
Jackson felt her stir in his arms and a curl of her hair fell across her face. He reached up and tucked it behind her ear. The feel of the backs of his knuckles brushing against her cheek brought her awake and she looked up at him.
“Jackson?”
“It wasn’t a dream, Alex. But I have you now. You’re safe with me.” He allowed his bear into his voice. He needed her to know deep down in her soul that he was there to protect her. From that moment on his only job in life was to keep her safe.
“Sarah.” She offered on a quiet voice.
“Sarah.” He smiled down at her.
“I don’t want you to call me Sarah. That part of me is dead and gone. But I wanted you to know who I was.” Her hand was against his chest and her fingers curled into him.
“It’s who you are now, sweetheart, and who you want to be that matters to me. If you want to leave Sarah in the past that’s ok with me.” Jackson brushed his fingertips down her cheek again and she nodded.
“Go back to sleep. It’s still early.” He leaned in and whispered against her hair. She didn’t answer, and she didn’t sleep either. Just laid there with him in the semi darkness of his cabin until the sun poked through the curtains.
~^~
Jackson noted the way that Alex jumped when someone knocked on the cabin door. She was sitting on the sofa while he was making coffee and he held his hand up and drew her attention towards him. He gave her a smile.
“It’s just Marcus.” He offered and watched her nod.
He turned and yanked open the door. Shoving Marcus backwards away from the cabin door, Jackson stepped outside into the morning chill and breathed in a long breath. He looked at his brother.
“You do it?” Jackson asked and Marcus nodded his head.
“Dead guys gone.” He shook his head. “They ain’t gonna find him.” He assured his alpha. “The cars over in Gorston. Wiped and parked up like it was driven by a Nun.” Jackson snorted a chuckle.
“Alex’s house?” Jackson asked and Marcus nodded backwards.
“Shane and Reece cleaned it up last night.”
“Reece is back?” Jackson eyed the man’s cabin for signs of life.
“Yeah. He appreciated the welcome home.” Marcus grinned and that was cut it short when the alpha growled. “So what’s the plan?”
“None yet. We need to wait for her ex to show up…” Jackson turned back towards the door.
“Then we kill him?” Marcus growled.
“Then I kill him.” Jackson corrected him.
“Got it.” Marcus understood his alpha’s words. Nobody touched the human but him.
~^~
Alex had a coffee but she wouldn’t eat anything. He didn’t know if it was because she was sick, because she couldn’t force it down, or because she didn’t trust his cooking. Whatever it was he didn’t like it, she needed food to heal, everyone did. Her body was burning more energy as it healed and he needed to entice her to help herself.
He was still wondering how to get her to eat without having to force feed her when she tried to push herself up to her feet and he was at her side in a heartbeat. He heard her catch her breath as the pain went through her body. His hands were gentle and well placed to miss everywhere that was bruised as he steadied her.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I need to get home.” He couldn’t stop the growl that rolled through him.
“I know you’re not insane, Alex…” He offered.
“Jackson.”
“Easy, Brother. Your ride will look stupid without any damn doors.” Marcus heard his alpha grunt in response.
“Funny I was thinking the same about your body without your damn head.”
It wasn’t enough that Alex had denied him. It wasn’t enough that she had tried to leave once, maybe even had already. Now they had some dick looking for her. He got the distinct impression that mating was more trouble than he’d expected it to be.
~^~
Alex heard the truck rumble down the driveway and sighed. If this was another one of Jackson’s pack she was going to kill someone. Coming face to face with Chance’s bear had been enough for one day, she didn’t need the hassle of being told she couldn’t leave, it only made her more determined too. At least Jackson had given her the choice, for her misery.
Alex fisted the handgun from under the cushion and moved towards the front door. If it knocked like a damn bear then she was going to take someone’s head off. She slipped the gun under the magazine on the hall table and picked up her trusted baseball bat that she’d had to retrieve after her little dustup earlier.
Without thinking she wrenched open the front door and carried the bat over her shoulder like she was going in for action. She saw him then. Joshua was at her fucking door…
Panic gripped her and her training went out of the window. Her mind rushed with fear and her body stood idle for the longest moments of her life… Then she took to flight, turning on her heels and heading back into the house…
Alex had all of her weight behind the door and was ramming it closed when the boot on the other side sent it flying backwards and her with it. She hit the floor and travelled a few feet with the momentum of the force of the door shoving her backwards. She felt the pain of impact tear through her body and half dazed, she looked around her for the bat…
“Stupid, bitch.” Joshua snorted his contempt for her. “Did you really think that we couldn’t find you, Sarah?” Joshua’s polished shoes came towards her, closer and closer as she started to push up with her palms against the wood.
The force of the kick that caught her in the stomach sent her up and backwards. Pain that she remembered well shot out like hot pokers through her stomach and travelled through her body. Using a burning pick axe would probably have been kinder…
Alex dug her fingernails against the wood and clawed the surface as she wrenched her body up onto her knees. Her breathing was erratic, her body was on fire, and her mind was dazed. She knew she needed to focus. She knew from her training… she needed to remember her training…
Another kick, this time to her side sent her flying sideways and her back hit the hall table. She yelled out with the pain. Collapsing onto her back on the floor, she tried to breath, tried to focus through the pain…
“Blake told you what would happen if you left him again, Sarah…”
Yes, she knew what would happen. She knew it only too well which was why she’d trained. She tried to focus on that, think through the pain, beyond the pain…
She felt Joshua’s breath in her face as he came down onto one knee beside her. His hand fisted her hair and he wrenched her head upwards from the floor. She cried out…
“Now I have you and Blake is on the way, Sarah.” Joshua wrenched her head back and her eyes snapped open. His eyes were fierce. His hate was written in the distortions of his face.
Alex felt that fear in every fibre of her being. When the time came, would she be enough? Could she see past the pain? Could she act? How much did she want to live? Every word her instructor had burned into her mind as they trained came back to her…
She bit down on the rush of anger that went through her. Anger was good if it helped, and it did. She felt the empowerment within her…
Alex forced her hands upwards through the pain, through the fear… She hooked her nails into the skin above his eyes and clawed downwards. His hand released her hair as he tossed his body back away from her… His hands came up to his face to shield his eyes, eyes that she’d already clawed through…
Alex spun on the floor and forced her body to move. She pushed up to her knees and knocked the magazine away. With an almost steady hand she fisted the gun and turned her whole body towards Blake’s hired grunt…
It didn’t matter to her that he appeared helpless as he tried to focus on her. It didn’t matter to her that he might not have had any fight left in him. It didn’t even matter that he might turn tail and run… Because she knew that as long as he was alive then he could come back to hurt her…
Alex pulled the trigger, over, and over, and over again.
~^~
The sound of gunfire cracked through the night. Even over the noise of the truck, Jackson and Marcus heard it clearly. Fear gripped Jackson’s heart and he stomped down on the accelerator…
“Jack…” Marcus didn’t know how the hell to make up for what he’d done. If he’d been more interested in watching the suit and not have been distracted by his cock…
“Save it. You might need to kill me sometime soon, brother.” Jackson didn’t want to hear apologies and weakness from a member of his clan. He needed strength now more than ever. If anything had happened to his mate…
“Fuck, Jack.” Marcus growled out as he was tossed and bumped all the way through the backwater roads and up Alex’s driveway.
Jackson didn’t even bother cutting the engine. His eyes took in the fancy truck out front of her house and the fact her front door was open, and he started running. He heard Marcus at his heels.
He scented the blood on the air. Human. Alex’s scent with another, mixed in, headier… He tore into the hallway and skidded to a halt. The sight of the suit lying dead with numerous holes in his body and Alex sitting back on her heels with a gun still held out in her hand chilled his blood.
“Fuck.” Marcus grunted out and Alex spun the gun towards them. Her eyes only seemed to be half focused. Both shifters jumped backwards and held up their hands in surrender. It was what you were supposed to do when someone pointed a damn gun at you.
“Easy, Alex.” Jackson growled out. His bear was prowling just beneath the surface for someone to kill, but it wouldn’t be her.
Alex opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. The hand holding the gun lowered and the barrel tapped against the wood of the floor. Jackson moved slowly, carefully towards her. He could see that she was in shock and he didn’t want her firing that damn thing at them.
“Careful, Jack…” Marcus whispered and Jackson groaned.
“Ya think?” He growled back. The sound of his growl reached Alex’s ears and her eyes came up from the body towards him.
“I did it. I said I could do it and I did. I did it.” Alex sounded lost and Jackson’s heart went out to her. He moved faster, reaching for the gun with one hand as his other hand wrapped around her body and he drew her against his chest. He heard her catch her breath, knew that sound, she was injured, something that he couldn’t see.
“I have you, Alex.” Jackson tossed the gun across the floor towards Marcus and the big man snorted.
“Why give it to me? I hate guns.” Marcus growled to himself as he scooped to pick it up.
He walked across to the suit and nudged him with his foot a couple of times. He’d seen it in movies and thought it was fitting. He already knew the guy was dead, he didn’t have a damn heartbeat. Alex had certainly… done it…
“Where are you hurt?” Jackson was searching her body as he kept her against him. His hands found no real blood apart from the small cut above her eye… “Alex…?”
“I did that, Jack…” Her eyes were locked onto the body at Marcus’s feet.
“Let’s get you out of here.” Jackson pushed up to his feet and took her up with him. He reached down and swung her up and into his arms. Turning back towards Marcus; he nodded to the body on the floor.
“Get rid of that. Check to see if his truck has GPS, if it does drive it a few towns over and wipe it down. Then come back, don’t be seen.” Jackson growled out his orders and headed towards the front door with his mate.
“When did you become a criminal mastermind?” Marcus growled back.
“I watch a lot of TV.” Jackson tossed back over his shoulder and Marcus chuckled as he nodded his head.
CHAPTER FOUR
Jackson wasn’t about to take no for an answer where Alex was concerned. He’d taken her back to his cabin and was looking for the injuries that were making her gasp whenever he touched her body. His bear wasn’t so much horny as filled with the desire to kill. The sight of ugly bruises appearing on her smooth skin made him want to kill the dead guy all over again.
“Who was he?” Jackson needed answers. He’d become embroiled in this and his clan’s future was on the line if that body was discovered. He had no problem in taking the blame for the murder but he’d liked to know who the hell it was he was supposed to have just killed.
“Joshua. A hired grunt that works for my ex…”
“Boyfriend?” Jackson growled at the thought of another man touching her body.
“Husband.” Alex caught the hurt in his eyes when he flicked them up to her. She held his gaze for a long moment before he went back to cataloguing her injuries.
“He the reason you don’t want to stay with me?” Jackson had to ask and it was a loaded question. He held his breath as he waited for her answer.
“Yes.” She didn’t sound as if she wanted to share.
“I don’t think anything is broken, but you could have internal injuries. We should get you to the hospital.” Jackson pushed up to his feet, but Alex just shook her head, pushing her shirt back down over her ribs.
“No hospitals.” She bit out.
“Alex…” He squatted down on his haunches in front of her.
“Hospitals have records. Records leave a paper trail. No hospitals unless it’s life or death.” Alex sounded as if she’d had those words drummed into her.
“Says?” Jackson growled. It was just starting to dawn on him that he didn’t know his mate at all. Everything, absolutely everything about her had been bullshit.
“My trainer.” Alex leaned back against the softness of the cushion on the sofa. It felt as if there were sticks in those cushions pushing against her damn ribs.
“The one who taught you to kill?”
“Yes.” Alex didn’t want to do this now, or maybe ever. But she owed Jackson and his clan an explanation. She got that. She’d dropped this whole shit storm in their laps.
“So it wasn’t self-defence?” Jackson needed to know what had happened in that house.
“I was defending myself. It was him or me, maybe not that exact moment in time, but it would have come down to it in the future if I hadn’t of pulled the trigger.” Alex believed every word of that. She knew in her heart. Her poor broken, cold heart.
“It’s not like I can talk.” Jackson expanded his hands. “I’m a fucking bear, a killing machine. If I’d been there…”
“But you weren’t.”
Jackson twisted his head on his neck and stared down at her. His eyes narrowed as he tried to read her, but she was still in shock and her emotions were jumbled.
“I’m sorry for that.” Jackson knew that he should have been there. He should have been at her house from the moment he’d known who she was. Protecting her was his job and he’d fucked it up.
“I’m not.” Alex tried to sit forward but her ribs hurt too much. She bit out a curse.
“Why? It’s my fucking job to protect you, you’re my…”
“Please, Jackson. I can’t do this now. I’ll tell you whatever you want or need to know about Joshua and my ex-husband, but I can’t even think about us right now.”
The sound of knuckles against his cabin door made him curse out at the intrusion. When he wrenched the door open he found Chance standing there. The man looked guilty.
“What?” Jackson growled out and Chance sighed as he dropped his eyes to the flasks in his hands. He held one out.
“This one is whiskey, good whiskey, helps with the pain.” He growled and Jackson took it from him. “This one is belladonna. I got it from a witch friend. It’ll help her to sleep through the pain. Don’t mix them.” Chance rushed out. “Small amount of the belladonna, it’s already mixed properly.” Chance thrust the second flask at his alpha and turned on his heels and stalked away.
Jackson rolled his head on his neck and turned back towards Alex. The woman had a damn grin on her face that looked kind of surreal. She pointed to the first flask.
“Whiskey good.” She gave a small chuckle that hurt her ribs and she winced against the pain.
“Whiskey very damn good.” Jackson agreed as he slammed his front door closed.
~^~
Jackson didn’t sleep one wink. He couldn’t. Sitting there holding Alex within his arms all night as she slept off and on through the pain was bad enough. The sounds of her small whimpers was worse. But he was listening for the sounds of anyone approaching the cabin outside. He was determined to protect her from anyone else seeking to harm her, and her ex was still out there somewhere, and according to Alex, he was headed this way.
Alex had said his name a couple of times as she’d slept. Each time it sounded damn good to his ears. Each time she’d given a small whimper afterwards that didn’t sound so damn good.
He hated himself for not being there to protect her. He hated that she’d had to end someone’s life. But he was damn glad that she’d done it, and after what she’d told him, if the man had still been alive then Jackson would have ended him himself.
He was checking her temperature off and on while she slept. Keeping an eye on her so that if there were injuries that neither of them knew about inside of her then he could get her help. He’d confess to the murder on the spot if she needed damn hospital treatment.
Half of him dreaded her ex turning up in town and the other half welcomed it. The man shouldn’t be allowed to breathe air and if Jackson had anything to say about it he wouldn’t be breathing it much longer. Alex and whoever had trained her was right, the only way to guarantee someone’s safety was to put the risk down for good.
Jackson felt her stir in his arms and a curl of her hair fell across her face. He reached up and tucked it behind her ear. The feel of the backs of his knuckles brushing against her cheek brought her awake and she looked up at him.
“Jackson?”
“It wasn’t a dream, Alex. But I have you now. You’re safe with me.” He allowed his bear into his voice. He needed her to know deep down in her soul that he was there to protect her. From that moment on his only job in life was to keep her safe.
“Sarah.” She offered on a quiet voice.
“Sarah.” He smiled down at her.
“I don’t want you to call me Sarah. That part of me is dead and gone. But I wanted you to know who I was.” Her hand was against his chest and her fingers curled into him.
“It’s who you are now, sweetheart, and who you want to be that matters to me. If you want to leave Sarah in the past that’s ok with me.” Jackson brushed his fingertips down her cheek again and she nodded.
“Go back to sleep. It’s still early.” He leaned in and whispered against her hair. She didn’t answer, and she didn’t sleep either. Just laid there with him in the semi darkness of his cabin until the sun poked through the curtains.
~^~
Jackson noted the way that Alex jumped when someone knocked on the cabin door. She was sitting on the sofa while he was making coffee and he held his hand up and drew her attention towards him. He gave her a smile.
“It’s just Marcus.” He offered and watched her nod.
He turned and yanked open the door. Shoving Marcus backwards away from the cabin door, Jackson stepped outside into the morning chill and breathed in a long breath. He looked at his brother.
“You do it?” Jackson asked and Marcus nodded his head.
“Dead guys gone.” He shook his head. “They ain’t gonna find him.” He assured his alpha. “The cars over in Gorston. Wiped and parked up like it was driven by a Nun.” Jackson snorted a chuckle.
“Alex’s house?” Jackson asked and Marcus nodded backwards.
“Shane and Reece cleaned it up last night.”
“Reece is back?” Jackson eyed the man’s cabin for signs of life.
“Yeah. He appreciated the welcome home.” Marcus grinned and that was cut it short when the alpha growled. “So what’s the plan?”
“None yet. We need to wait for her ex to show up…” Jackson turned back towards the door.
“Then we kill him?” Marcus growled.
“Then I kill him.” Jackson corrected him.
“Got it.” Marcus understood his alpha’s words. Nobody touched the human but him.
~^~
Alex had a coffee but she wouldn’t eat anything. He didn’t know if it was because she was sick, because she couldn’t force it down, or because she didn’t trust his cooking. Whatever it was he didn’t like it, she needed food to heal, everyone did. Her body was burning more energy as it healed and he needed to entice her to help herself.
He was still wondering how to get her to eat without having to force feed her when she tried to push herself up to her feet and he was at her side in a heartbeat. He heard her catch her breath as the pain went through her body. His hands were gentle and well placed to miss everywhere that was bruised as he steadied her.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I need to get home.” He couldn’t stop the growl that rolled through him.
“I know you’re not insane, Alex…” He offered.
“Jackson.”
