“I don’t understand this,” I say. The locket feels heavy in my hands, like a weight is strapped to my wrists.
“There isn’t much to understand about it,” Jackson looks down at me as he dries his hair with a damp towel. “It’s yours, isn’t it? Oscar was just returning it to you.”
“Yes, but…” I hesitate. Something about the necklace just feels…wrong. I have vague memories of my mother wearing the locket, but why would Luna Hailey have it? If anything, I had assumed that my old Alpha had sold it after selling me.
Jackson frowns. “What?” He asks. He’s still on edge, jealousy reeking off of him. Inside it makes me laugh. He looked barely able to control himself when Oscar hugged me, or the little touches he gave me. It was an old habit of his, and I didn’t find anything wrong with it. I’m just glad that Jackson didn’t do anything. He knew his limits, which was good, I suppose
I shake my head and sigh. “Nothing,” I say. I move to put the necklace on the table, then pause. Mama’s name catches my attention and it holds me in place, like a net has been thrown on me. Even my heart slows it’s running to allow for my mind to take in the scripture for what should be the hundredth time that day.
Akanksha Bachan.
Mama and I had almost the same names, I realize. At least, both Anvi and Akanksha start with an ‘a’. We looked alike, too, and our mannerisms were the same. I just hope that I don’t end up like her too.
“Don’t worry too much about that,” Jackson’s voice brings my gaze away from the necklace and to his dancing eyes. He drops the towel on a chair by the balcony and picks up an orange manila folder. He sits on the edge of the bed and opens the clasp, pulling the papers out slowly. “It’s just a necklace, after all. You don’t have to wear or keep it if you don’t like it.”
“It’s not that,” I say. “I’m just surprised. I…never expected to see it again. I thought when I went to Banastre’s, my old Alpha had sold everything of mine already.”
Hearing both my old Alpha and Banastre’s name in one sentence makes Jackson’s back straighten. His grip on the papers slips a little and he turns to look at me. He’s trying to feign disinterest, but I can see that there’s some calculations going on behind his eyes.
“So, then why would Oscar have it?” He asks. “Or Hailey? Did they know about your old Alpha?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. If they did, then they never mentioned it.” I bite my lip. “That was two years ago, Jackson. I doubt they would have kept this from me for this long if they had known before. Besides…my pack disbanded shortly after I left for Banastre.”
“You don’t know anything about your pack?” Jackson glances at the folder, then back at me. “The Alpha, do you remember anything about him?”
I wince. “I chose not to. It was a dreary moment of my past, and I’d rather keep it in the dark. Besides, it’s not a very fun topic.”
“Oh…okay,” Jackson nods and stands up. He pushes the papers back into the folder and tosses them onto the desk by his side of the bed. We had been sleeping next to each other since my nightmares kept coming back. Each time it was something new. Sometimes a lucid dream, sometimes Alpha Banastre, sometimes the death of my parents. But no matter what it was, it never failed to wake me up, panting and in cold sweat, furiously patting the covers for something concrete to hold onto and make sure that what I had seen was only just a dream.
“What paper is that?” I ask as I set the locket on the table beside my side of the bed.
“Oscar gave it to me,” Jackson answers. “It’s a file on Banastre. The one I had was half empty, so I asked him if he and Hailey could fill it out for me.”
“Did you know that Oscar was coming, then?”
“No. I knew he had something to return to me, though,” Jackson replies. He sighs and looks at the manila folder. Then he comes to his side of the bed and plops down. The mattress dips with his added weight.
“How come Banastre’s file was half empty?” I ask.
“That’s my fault,” Jackson says. “I didn’t pay attention to what form I sent him to fill out and I ended up giving him an old document that only had half of the questions.”
“Do you not know anything about Banastre?”
“Apart from the fact that he’s a scheming, arrogant bastard?” Jackson asks. He smirks when I giggle. “Then no, not really. I have to monitor all the Alphas in the world, Anvi. I can’t possibly remember every tiny detail about them.”
“Right, right, sorry,” I blush. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think about that.”
He scoffs and takes my hand. He brings it to his mouth and presses a chaste kiss to the top of my palm. My heart flutters.
“Don’t apologize,” he says. “I don’t expect you to know everything either. But now I have a bit more information about him from Oscar and Hailey, so maybe I can understand where that massive ego comes from.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I say. “Banastre always had a huge ego. He had power, maybe that’s why?”
“Possibly.” Jackson nods. He kisses my hand again and twists his torso to turn the lamp off. The room is plunged into darkness. Even the light from the moon is shielded by the dark curtains that hang tightly to the windows. “Power is…a delicate thing. Power can destroy or create.”
“Destroy…anything?”
“Anything,” Jackson repeats. “Hell, I’ve seen it destroy cities, people, objects. It destroyed families, Anvi. Relationships have crumbled because of power.” He shakes his head and slides down onto his pillow. He keeps my hand in his as I follow his lead. My pillow feels a bit harder than when I first slept on it, like the locket is underneath it. “Power is dangerous, but it’s what keeps everyone alive, you know? People die for it. Spouses, children, hell, even siblings have been pitted against each other for a power grab.” Jackson yawns. “But I’ve been able to manage it a bit more now. It’s just people like Banastre that threaten to destroy everything that my wolves and I have worked so hard to build.”
“Then why don’t you just take Alpha Banastre out of his position?” I ask. The warmth of his legs radiates onto my bare feet, and subconsciously, I inch closer to him.
Jackson shakes his head again as his eyes close. “It’s not that simple, Anvi,” he says. His sleepy arm wraps around my waist. “I have laws to abide by too. Being Alpha King doesn’t exempt me from that. Banastre has two strikes already. Once it strikes three -” Jackson pauses to yawn again.
“Once it strikes three…?” I prod.
He smiles. “He’s out.
~***~
I’d like to say that I slept as peacefully as Jackson did, but that would just add to the endless pile of lies that I’ve told for the past couple of weeks.
Jackson’s words about power, Alpha Banastre, and Luna Hailey having my mother’s necklace all stay in my mind, swarming around my brain and creating such a large amount of commotion that you’d think I was having a party in my head.
It’s hard enough that Jackson’s a cuddler in his sleep. I don’t mind it, but it does make it hard to move around on the bed. He has one arm around my waist, one holding my hand, and his legs are tangled with mine, making it impossible for me to move.
“Gosh, Jackson,” I hiss, struggling for what feels like the tenth time that night. He gives a little hum in response, but I don’t think he’s heard what I said.
“Great…” I mutter. I begin to try to roll on my other side to get some sleep, but just as I’m turning, a pair of dark eyes with a malicious glint stares back at me. Whoever the person is holds their hand up, showing me my mother’s locket in their grasp just before they jump out of the window.
My heart stops.
For a moment, I just stare, star-struck. My brain takes a while to compute the interaction, but once it’s finished downloading the image, I pull whatever strength I have left inside of me and yank myself free of Jackson’s grasp. I don’t even look to see if he’s woken up or not. Gathering my shoes, I bolt down the hallway and towards the stairs, but I think I’ve taken a wrong turn because I end up exactly where I was before – in front of the bedroom.
“God darn you, Jackson,” I hiss again. I bite my lip, pulling repeatedly, and blood pools in my mouth. The tangy taste awakens my senses from their dormant state and I dash towards the other set of stairs, by Adonis’s room.
This time, I find my way into the kitchen. Delia is still awake. She’s humming a nursery rhyme to herself as she mixes the batter of whatever it is that she’s making. Her eyes glow in the moonlight, reflecting my shadow. I don’t think she sees me as I tiptoe past her and into the main hallway. She could have smelled me, but if she were going to stop me, she would have done it in the kitchen itself.
The pack is silent outside. Everyone is asleep, it seems, except for the wolves on patrol. The ones closest to the Alpha House notice me as I pass them. They nod but frown, and it looks like one of them is standing to approach me, but I don’t give her time. At this point, I’m not even sure who I’m chasing, but every now and then, I can still see the dark eyes and the sparkly glint in front of me, teasing me as they hold up the locket in the ray of the moon.
We continue our game of cat and mouse until we reach the edge of the pack, the darkest part. They’re gone by the time I get there, but the locket is on the ground, discarded like a useless piece of paper.
“What the…?” I pick it up hastily and look around, searching for the person who took it, but it’s too dark outside and without my wolf, I can’t see very well. It’s silent, though, so either they’re waiting to attack me, or they’ve already left. I would have thought that they would take the locket with them if they wanted to lure me. Mama used to say that it’s made out of real gold.
“Anvi?”
“Huh?” I spin around, and because I was born with two left feet, I trip, colliding straight into Adonis. His hands grip my arms and hold me back to steady myself. His eyes gleam with mischief.
“Careful,” he says, grinning. “What are you doing out here? It’s so late.”
“I could ask you the same thing,” I pant, clutching my necklace tightly. “What are you doing out here?”
Adonis laughs. “Patrol,” he says. “I’ve been taking Jackson’s shift for the past few weeks. I swear today is the last day that I’m doing it.” He frowns. “So…what about you?”
“Oh, um,” I pause to gasp. “I was just…getting fresh air.” I hid my hand behind my back. “It got kinda hot in the room.”
“Hot?” Adonis chuckles. “You have to be specific with me, Anvi. What kind of hot?”
My cheeks burn. “Not that kind,” I snap. “I mean temperature wise!”
“Sure you do,” Adonis laughs. He glances over my shoulder and rolls his eyes. “I’d better be going. I have my own route to patrol. Jackson’s gonna scold me again if I don’t do my job.”
I giggle a little. “He can do that?”
Adonis shrugs. “He’s my older brother,” he says quietly. “He can do anything he wants to me.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t know,” I say. “I never had any siblings.”
Adonis scoffs. “Lucky,” he says. He steps away from me and his hands leave my arms. “I’ll see you later, yeah? Go back home. It’s not safe out here, especially at night.”
I smile. “I’ll do that, thanks, Adonis,” I say. Adonis nods and smiles, and with a shift he’s off running into the night, the shadows burying him as he runs into the forest.
I watch him go, and I wait until I can’t see him anymore before I turn to make my way back to Jackson’s home. It seems to be a habit of mine, though, because when I turn around again, I collide into another body, but this time he’s taller and bigger than Adonis was.
Oops, I think, peering up into Jackson’s darkly lit eyes. You’d never guess that they were gray – they looked black in the moonlight. Like obsidian, glinting in the white rays. He looks terrifying, though. His stance is firm and domineering, like when he and Alpha Banastre were sizing each other up when we first met. He glares at me and my stomach clenches anxiously.
“What…exactly do you think you’re doing?” He manages to say, resisting the urge to replace his pause with a curse word. His arms relax a little, and he moves to reach for me, then stops himself. My heart wails. I wish he would touch me. It would definitely ease this anxiety a little…actually, it would ease it a lot.
“I can explain!” I blurt, thrusting my hand outwards to show him the necklace. “I…somebody took the necklace, and I didn’t want to wake you up or lose it – you know, I mean, you were sleeping so peacefully and nicely and you were so tired and I didn’t want to wake you up but then the person came and took it and I didn’t know what to do so I chased after him but he dropped it here and I thought they were going to attack me but then they didn’t and Adonis found me – he was working, please don’t get him in trouble, and-!”
“Anvi.” Jackson places his hands on my shoulders and I stop blabbering immediately. He bends to meet my eyes. I swallow, and he smiles wearily. “I’m not mad at you, Anvi. Scared, maybe, but not mad.” He sighs and closes his eyes momentarily, like he’s remembering something that he doesn’t want to. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, Anvi…you’re too precious to me.”
“How?” I whisper. “You barely even know me.”
“I know you enough to know that I care about you,” Jackson says. “Anvi, I’m not forcing you to love me. I don’t want to force you to do anything that you don’t want, but…” he hesitates. “I can’t lie about how I feel about you.”
“How do you feel about me?” I ask, a little breathless. It surprises me, because I don’t remember the last time that I’ve sounded so soft, and I think it annoys me a little because I don’t want to repeat myself. Jackson, however, smiles. He stands and gently puts his hands on either side of my face. His touch is warm and careful and my feet feel weightless.
“Can I show you?” He asks.
It takes me a moment to register what he’s asking to do. My cheeks burn harder and I’m glad that it’s nighttime so he can’t see how red my face probably is. My body is beginning to float little by little. Jackson continues to look at me. His face hides any emotion that he’s feeling, and I inwardly curse myself for being unable to read his mind.
Make up your mind, Anvi! I scold myself. He’s not going to wait all night!
“Okay,” I say finally. I can’t say that I’m fully confident with my response, but I can’t deny that a part of me wants to feel what his kiss feels like. And who knows, maybe it’ll clear up some of my doubts if I’m able to connect to his wolf. Wolf or no wolf, I’m still a werewolf.
Jackson pauses for a moment, studying my face. It’s a bit intimidating, and after a second or so, I begin to squirm, and I smile awkwardly.
“Um…anytime tonight…or…?”
That seems to spur Jackson back into action. Whatever he was thinking about, the thought disappears as he lowers his head. His eyes are as clear as the sky above us, but I don’t think that I’ve ever seen them as clearly as I do now.
“I love you,” he murmurs, and just as my heart stills at the soft sentence, he kisses me.
~***~
Hey guys!
New chapter is finally here! Jackson and Anvi have finally kissed, and Jackson says that he’s in love with her! Does Anvi feel the same? Can she gather the courage to tell him? I hope you enjoyed, and let me know what you enjoyed 😀 It gives me motivation LOL
