Four large black paws hit the dirt hard and fast, an urgency like never before, tiny plumes of dust exploding out under each step of the large body. Running as fast as his bulky yet streamlined body can possibly handle, his well built and highly conditioned muscles burning with the strain, but he doesn’t even feel it, he only wills himself to move faster.
Even though his footsteps are loud and in any other circumstance he would be easily found, they are nothing compared to the cacophony of sounds filling the night air.
Surrounding him he has screams of anguish, the cries for help and the unmistakable sounds of fighting and blood shed.
The rest of the forest is surprisingly quiet, as if the rest of the forest creatures have disappeared from the scene. Knowing what dangers lie throughout. Even the safety of the trees is not far enough from this brutal battle.
The usual tranquil setting is now anything but.
Jaxson diverts a little from his straight line, his paw swiping down hard, his claws extended, taking the life of one of the enemy as he passes, but it is all seeming rather pointless at this time and all he can do is finally come to the conclusion that all is lost.
'Stand down'
He pleads desperately through the link to his men.
'We can’t alpha, we can’t allow them to take us, we can’t just roll over without a fight'
'You have fought, I have fought, but the battle is endless, we are in a losing position'
'We can do it'
The reply comes through but even though the words are strong, the voice sounds less than convinced, they were taken by surprise in the period of transition and mourning. Maybe they were never prepared for such an onslaught, but this was the worst moment in the packs history and obviously the best time for others to strike.
Even though it hurts to say it, somethings are more important than him retaining control.
'There will be less causalities this way, lives need to be preserved'
Jaxson doesn’t want the pack that he has been the alpha of for barely two days to be taken, he doesn’t want his birth pack, his home and everything he has ever worked toward to be handed to someone else, his family legacy lost by his own hands. But there is no way that he wants everyone to die for a lost cause. He has to face the reality that they are defeated.
Any blood from this point will be on his hands and that is a price he cannot stand to pay.
The night air is cool and wraps around his warm body, chilling him to the core. He is not even sure when it got so dark, this whole process has been such a blur. Hours have passed unknowingly. They have been the slowest yet simultaneously the fastest hours of his life.
Jaxson feels like he has been running for an eternity yet he feels like he has moved nowhere. He never believed that the Autumn pack was so large before, but how has it taken so long to move across it?
Jax takes a deep breath in, centering himself. His large, black alpha wolf is proud and it's the last thing on earth he wants to say, but he cannot let anyone else die for him.
'I command you to stand down, all of you, the battle is lost. I will not allow another to get killed or even injured for my sake…'
The large black wolf stumbles for a moment as he struggles with the enormity of his words, the meaning crashing down on him.
'...I'm so proud of all of you for your valiant effort in defending the pack. It has been a privilege to serve as your alpha, no matter how short the time has been. Just know that I appreciate the way you all came through for me. I know my parents would’ve been proud as well…'
Jax swerves and hits a tree with his loss of concentration. This week has been too much, it is hard to see a time when he can turn this all around.
'...I will see you all again. I am not sure when, but just know that I will never give up'
Jaxson doesn’t know if he will ever be able to fulfil his promise, but he had to make it for himself as much as he had to make it for them.
The telltale signs of surrender sound around him and somehow that is louder than the sounds of war, which seems impossible, the sound echoes in his ears making him lose his footing, his wolf is grieving as much as he is.
'Torin?'
Jax doesn’t let the little set back stop him in his current task, focusing completely on the run. He knows the link will soon be lost as the pack bows to the new alpha and he loses his title and his position within the pack. Jax is working to a time limit now more than ever.
'Please Torin, a single word, even a sound is enough, I just need something'
But it doesn’t matter how hard he pleads, Torin gives him nothing back, there is just static like trying to link but reaching a roadblock each time and Jax is too scared to accept what that might mean.
He feels it in his heart, yet he is still neck deep in denial. His speed recovers once again as there is still a task for his wolf to focus on and his pace hardly differs as he feels the bonds of the pack being pulled away from him one by one, each one hurts more than the last. This is the most hostile and most underhanded way to take a pack.
Jaxson still hasn’t even seen the aggressors to know what pack they are from and why they are doing this, he can only put it down to opportunity. They chose to strike at the weakest moment to guarantee success, but it never should have involved the entire pack. It should have just been an alpha battle, he should’ve been approached and then win or lose. It would’ve been on him. But Jax never got that chance.
As it stands he wasn’t even in the pack when they were attacked, he was organizing the last minute things for the ex-alpha couple and ex-beta couples funerals. Now, instead of giving them the send off they deserved, somehow he has lost their whole legacy in the first few days. His parents may have been proud of the pack for their efforts, but Jaxson can’t help but feel that his parents would feel disappointed by his own efforts.
The large black wolf takes a deep intake of air, his heart is breaking into a million pieces, but he needs to keep moving, he needs to push through.
'Alaska?'
This time he can feel it get through, the connection is weak but he isn’t sure whether it is because she is weak or his ties to the pack are all but gone. He doesn’t receive a reply and can only prod again.
'Alaska, please'
'I…I…I… can’t, I can’t Jax, I just can't'
Her voice hits him sharply in the chest, he has never heard her sound like that, even remotely close to that. If he didn't know who he was linking he would believe that he had the wrong person, he can't recognize that tone, that defeat. This is the girl whom he has grown up with, the one that is mated to his best friend, the one who is an endless pool of positivity, of love, of happiness. It has been the three of them for as long as he can remember.
Her voice is worse than a thousand knives to the heart and he struggles to go on. The last ties to the pack are taken and he hears the howls of victory of the new hierarchy, but all he can concentrate on is putting one foot in front of the other, willing himself to stay upright.
His wolf feels weaker than ever before, he has lost his purpose, but still Jax continues on. The night starts to quiet down and all he can hear is his own paws hitting the ground. They ring in his ears, deafenly loud yet frustratingly slow. He feels hollow and broken, but still he pushes on. He smells the blood. At first it is subtle, but each step he takes it gets substantially stronger until he feels like he is surrounded by it, yet he still can’t see the thing he is afraid to see.
The scent of blood is so thick it is near choking, he runs past the bodies of the fallen enemy without sparing them a single glance. Each step is getting a little heavier and the scent which is so strong and so familiar blurs his eyes, it threatens to asphyxiate him, it permeates his lungs, poisoning him from the inside out.
His front leg, which has always been so strong and powerful, bends as it gives out, the black fur of his chest skids across the dirt, but he doesn’t even make a move to save himself, to stop the damage which is sure to result, his large blue eyes are just focused on the scene in front of him, it is so all consuming that it is impossible to care about anything else in the world.
One look is enough to take those broken pieces of his heart and squeeze them until they turn to dust.
The arms that once held Alaska tight are now fallen limply to the ground. Even till Torin’s last breath Jaxson knows that Torin would hold Alaska tight, till his last word he would be telling her that everything is going to be alright, that he loves her.
Jaxson chokes back a sob as his glassy eyes land on Alaska, her shoulder-length brown hair is lying across Torin’s chest and it is obscuring Jaxson’s view of her face, but he can see an eye pressed shut and her arms are wrapped tightly around Torin, her tears mix with his blood as well as her own, the thing that gives her away is her trembling bottom lip.
Jax’s mouth opens in shock. He truly believed that they were both dead, he can see the injuries on the both of them and he knows that it isn’t hard for one mate to follow the other into death.
*Trigger warning, infant loss*Jaxson reaches out a shaky hand and places it on Alaska’s shoulder and rolls her half off Torin in an effort to see what has happened, Alaska curls into a ball, the hands that were clutching Torin only a moment ago press on her stomach, her stomach is a mess as if it was directly targeted."He is gone, they are both gone, I tried so hard but in the end I wasn't strong enough to save either, I failed them, I let them die…"Jaxson’s tears finally flow as he watches her hold the flesh of her shredded stomach in such a way. They had only celebrated the news of her pregnancy a few weeks before their parents demise. Alaska’s last piece of Torin.Alaska wails, rocking back and forth on the ground with no way to vent her hurt. The pain doesn’t lessen the louder she is."...I want to go with them. Why can’t I go with them? Am I being punished? Did I fail so badly that I won't be granted this reprieve?"Alaska has tried to slip into death, she has closed her eyes
*3 years later*"Alaska, I'm home"Jax’s voice reverberates around the cavernous space as he walks into the warehouse. It is unrecognizable from the empty, near rundown place that he walked into three years ago. It looks very much the same on the outside and anyone would still consider this an abandoned warehouse. Inside it is polar opposites.Of course, it wasn't a quick process and they have only put the final finishing touches on it recently. It was a massive effort to get it to where it is now, to get them to where they are now and it wasn’t a rapid incline from the near unlivable space to the wonderland that appears in front of him now.He receives no reply, not a single sound can be heard, his face tilts up and he takes a deep breath in."I know you are here, I can scent you"Jax’s eyes scan the once empty space that is now filled with training equipment, a set up that they never dreamed of having within the autumn pack. They use the upper space as much as the lower space. Wolve
Jax’s head tilts back toward the roof, trying to stretch out the tension, he has known for a longtime that this was coming and maybe Alaska is right, if they are ever going to be ready they are now. But he is finally comfortable in the life they have now. They may not have everything they used to have, they may only have each other, but that is all he needs.Jax is terrified of losing her and going head to head is classified as a suicide mission, but saying no will just result in her moving without him, which he will not allow.Jax looks at his meal, the tasty dish only moments before is dull and tasteless now and he can barely choke it down, but he shows none of that on the outside, pretending it is the most interesting thing in the world. Right now he needs a moment to think and doesn’t want to engage in this conversation. He needs the perfect words, but just like so many times before, when it comes to Alaska he is drawing a blank.Alaska doesn’t wait for an answer even though she w
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
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