Jackson POV
I woke up early the next morning, ready to figure out what the hell was going on. I slept horribly, thinking about everyone in the pack that I could remember. I was trying hard to figure out who our leak was instead of getting the rest that I really needed.
Luckily, I didn't have a very large list of suspects. There were only ten people who always knew where we were going; myself, my dad, Brinley, Trent, Trent's Beta Sam, and his immediate guards. Either one of them was the mole, or one of them was accidently feeding the mole information.
I had my mind set on Trent, mostly because I hated him, but the last two times we were attacked he wasn't around. Sadly, the same could be said for his Beta and a few of his guards. Then there was also a chance that one of them had told their mate and then the mate told a friend and then the whole pack would know. Technically, it could have been anyone.
Trent and Brinley's pack made me feel like I was back in high school. Not only was I once again constantly fighting with Trent, but there was a lot of gossiping and cliques. Most of the older members stayed together with the small kids, the younger teens stuck together, the older teens controlled the younger ones, and everyone in between broke off into a few of their own groups. The pack was hardly what I thought they should be. They weren't all working together, they were all working for themselves.
I wanted nothing more than to get the hell away from them, but with their self-destructive ways, home seemed farther and farther away.
I stepped out of my room and came face to face with Trent. "Finally, figured you were going to sleep all day."
"Eat me," I spat out and pushed past him. He constantly went out of his way to find me and argue with me. We were definitely reliving our high school years.
We were always enemies. I couldn't even remember a time that we didn't hate each other. His pack had been moving territories when he started at my school. They were only supposed to be there for a few weeks, but with the hunter attacks, the younger members stayed with our pack until things settled down and his pack secured their new territory.
From day one he was a pain in my ass. He made out with my semi-girlfriend in the boys locker room and then made sure to tell everyone. We got into our first fight that day. Next he started working his way through the girls in our pack, going after any one of them that I'd shown even the slightest bit of interest in.
It continued on like that for a few months until he met my sister. Brinley and I were talking by my locker when they saw each other. We all knew immediately what was going on, but when my sister said something, Trent called her crazy and blew her off. That was the day we had our second fight.
He acted like an idiot for almost six months, scaring off any guy she talked to while he messed around. It was disgusting and we had it out numerous times; that was until he finally came to his senses.
Brinley took him in like he had done nothing wrong, and within a month she left with him. I guess I'm really bitter about the whole thing. I begged her not to go with him, told her he would never change, but she still went.
"Morning," my dad said, snapping me out of my thoughts as I stepped into the kitchen. He sat on a beat up stool with his coffee cup in hand. The table had deep scratches in it from where I had landed on it the previous day. The bodies of the hunters were gone, but blood still stained the rotted wooden floor and the silver chains were still piled up in the corner.
"Who cleaned up?" I asked, grabbing a cup of coffee off the counter. Someone had gone to the small gas station that was a few miles away and brought back loads of coffee.
"Trent and Sam," my dad answered, "They stayed up through the night, I think they went to bed a few hours ago."
"Well I hope a few hours of sleep is enough, because we have to leave this place before the hunters come back." I brushed the counter free of dust and small pieces of broken wood before I hopped up onto it. "I think we have a mole."
Dad set his cup down on the table and leaned back into his chair, eying me carefully, "I agree, with our abilities, even if they had wolves on their side, they wouldn't be able to find us." He ran his hands through his dirty hair and looked up at me.
He looked so worn down that I had to fight the urge to cringe at him. Not only was his hair a mess, but so were his clothes. He was covered in dirt and grime from our constant running. His once white shirt was brown and riddled with holes, and I couldn't even tell what color his shorts were supposed to be.
When traveling, we stayed in wolf form mostly, but we had been traveling by foot lately hoping to throw whoever was following us off our trail. We were all wearing dingy clothes that we kept with us since we first started the move. To say we all looked homeless would have been a compliment.
"So you have an idea on who it might be?" I asked hopefully
"Honestly, I didn't think about it until just now, when you brought it up," my dad sighed, "I've already told Trent and his men where we are going next."
I felt my heart drop into my stomach and I almost choked on the coffee that I was half way through swallowing. We were going to be moving again and the mole knew where we were going. That meant that I had to be ready for another fight.
"When do we leave?" I asked defeated.
"Twenty minutes."
I stalked off to the room that I had inhabited with a scowl stuck on my face. I was beyond pissed. I couldn't even begin to understand how my father had not figured shit out earlier. I knew he was busy with his own things, but still. I obviously didn't think it was him giving away our location, but I did think that he was dense as hell.
"Hey cutie." Someone purred behind me as I made it to my door.
I warily turned my body towards the voice and cringed when I saw who it was. I should have known.
"Ally," I mumbled. Ally was a pain in my ass. She had it out for me the moment I showed up with my sister. She couldn't understand that I had a mate, or she did but chose to ignore it. Maybe if I hadn't been mated I would have went for her. She was hot with long tan legs, fake blonde hair, slim tall body, and big green eyes. I didn't even think that her face had ever been pestered by a blemish, yeah she was hot and she knew it. I think that was my biggest turn off. Well that and the fact that she wasn't Sadie.
"You look tense," Ally whispered, running one finger down my face, "Want me to come in and help you relax?"
"Nope," I said popping the p and moving my face away from her. "You know I have a mate." If I were to say she wasn't a temptation, I would be lying. My body craved the attention that I had been missing since we left.
"Well, I don't see her here," she smiled, theatrically looking up and down the hall. "What she don't know won't hurt her." She moved her body closer to mine until she had me pinned against the door. I knew right then that I had to get the hell away from her.
"Well that is true," I said raising an eyebrow and resting my palm on her cheek. I moved my face in closer until my lips were right beside her ear, and then whispered, "I just don't want to catch whatever STD you have."
Ally bounced back away from me with a gasp. She had a scowl on her face as she slapped mine, very hard. Shifter girls hit pretty damn hard, regardless of if it was their fist or not. "You ass!" She spat out before walking away.
"See ya later Ally," I yelled after her. I had never been very nice to her, and she always came back. So I knew that I would soon be dealing with her again.
I turned back towards the door and popped it open. I packed all my things, making sure to leave nothing behind. I had once had a small backpack, but that was long gone. Now I traveled even lighter. I had a small knapsack that carried a single change of clothes, which were just as dingy as the basketball shorts I was currently wearing.
I sat down on the floor with my back and head resting against the hard grimy wall. I let visions of Sadie enter my mind as I tried to calm myself down. Every day I spent with this damn pack made me angry, and just knowing that I wasn't even close to being done with them set me off. I could only hope that Sadie was having an easier time than I was.
Sadie POV
Waking up in the morning was hard, mostly because going to sleep at night was extremely hard. It wasn't due to the fact that I had a child, I completely enjoyed my daughter, but I was lonely.
At first it wasn't that bad. I had so much to take care of with a baby on the way, and I had to be quick about it. It turned out that shifter pregnancies only lasted about five months at most, and I was already about a month along by the time I found out.
Ember, my daughter, looks so much like Jackson it's ridiculous. Her brown hair is so dark that it almost looks black and her eyes are an extremely light blue, sometimes they looked gray. When I brought her home I was terrified. I had never taken care of a small child and all of a sudden I was expected to do it on my own.
I actually didn't have to do it alone, just had to do it without Jackson. Mom and Elly had been there for me and were completely amazing. They started off by turning our guest room into a nursery as my baby shower gift, complete with clothes, diapers, bottles, and anything else the baby might need. Then once she came home, they took turns waking up at night with me.
Elly had really turned a corner. She stepped up as my sister and it's safe to say that we were actually friends. I don't know how the change happened and if I hadn't been so engrossed in my own little pregnant world, I probably would have gotten whiplash because she had changed so fast.
I took a break from school and actually got a job. Steve, the good doctor, offered me a spot with him at a small clinic on the edge of town. It was a shifter clinic. I loved the job and the fact that I was finally making money, and good money at that. I worked mostly with the small children that had yet to shift, but I occasionally took care of some adults since we still had hunter problems.
We had been through three hunter attacks in the last three months. They still believed that I, and now Ember, belonged to them and they were definitely working hard to get to us. They usually attacked very near to my house, so Mark set up patrols that constantly watched my house. I even had my own body guard; Andy.
Andy, Ken's mate, was doing much better. It took him over seven months to get back to normal after Ken died, well that's how long it took for the mate bond to go away. I knew that he was still mourning for Ken, but he wasn't as grief stricken as he was when the bond was still intact.
I lived in fear every day of the bond. I was told that I would feel it if Jackson died, that I would know when his heart stopped beating because mine would feel like it was breaking. Every time I woke up, I did a mental examination of my heart and wouldn't get out of bed until I was satisfied that my heart was alright and that Jackson was alive.
"Sadie, snap out of it."
I shook my head clear of my thoughts and looked up to see Steve standing right in front of my small desk.
"Sorry, were you talking to me?" I asked. I looked around the office to see if I had missed something. My office was small. It held my tiny brown desk, a mini fridge, and a small couch that took up most of the room. I wasn't even sure why he gave me an office, but I didn't complain. It was a quiet space that I could use to disappear inside my own head, and I did that a lot.
Steve laughed, "Yes dear, I told you to go home, it's five."
"Oh, is Andy here?"
"Of course, are you alright?" I could see concern written all over his face.
"Yes, I'm fine," I sighed out. This was an everyday thing with us. Every single day, before I went home, he would ask me if I was ok. I knew that he was only looking out for me because he cared, but the man was killing me.
"Well ok, get out of here then, I'll see you in the morning."
I nodded my head and gathered my things. "See ya." I waved as I walked out the office door.
I made my way to the reception area where I knew Andy would be. I didn't even understand why we had a reception area, most people just walked in to the back, where Steve's office was, and announced themselves. I think we only had one person try to actually check in, and it was a human.
"There's mommy!" I heard Andy coo excitedly as I rounded the corner and came into his view. He had Ember tucked in his arm.
Andy had become one of my closest friends. He was always there for me, mostly because he was ordered to be, but I still loved it. He made it a little easier to be without Jackson. Sometimes almost too easy.
I had recently started to notice how good looking he was and it terrified me. I even started to notice his clothes and how nice he looked in them. For example, I saw how his large biceps pushed against the hem of his button up black shirt, and how sexy he looked with his sleeves partly rolled up. Then, if he turned around, I would be sure to notice how nice his butt looked in his light colored jeans. Not good.
"Hey baby!" I squealed. I hurried my pace and then snatched Ember away, lifting her up in the air and doing a little spin, before I brought her back down and kissed her cheek. She was the best part of my day, not only did I miss her like crazy, but she reminded me of Jackson. Ember was always my reality check, whenever my mind and body were confused by Andy, she would be there to remind me about Jackson.
"Sue said that she's almost walkin," Andy said as he stepped forward and rubbed her head.
"You better walk when you're with me," I cooed, tickling Ember's sides. Sue, the pack daycare provider, had been there when Ember first sat up, and when she started crawling; I was at work for both.
"Don't worry Sadie," Andy said, throwing his arm around my shoulder and pulling me towards the door, "I'm sure Sue will record it for ya."
"Ha. Ha." I replied. "Don't joke about this, I really want to be with her when she walks."
"It'll be fine, even if you're not there," Andy said, trying to make me feel better. He knew how upset I was when I missed those types of things, but I didn't want to leave my job either. I was my own worst enemy.
"Yeah, sure." I walked up to Andy's big black dodge truck and opened the back door. I settled Ember into her car seat and then hopped into the front.
The ride back to my house was silent and not in a good way. Andy kept looking over at me when he thought I wasn't paying attention, but I saw it. Then, whenever I would look back at him our eyes would meet and he would turn away quickly. I couldn't help but wonder if he was as confused about me as I was about him.
"Well, here we are," Andy said, finally breaking the silence as we pulled into my driveway.
"You coming in?" I asked. He usually always came in, but I got the feeling that today would be different. He was normally out of the car and by my door the second he turned the engine off.
"Not today, I have the night off, but Dean is in there," he replied.
I nodded quickly, hopped out of the cab, and went to the back seat. I pulled Ember out and rested her on my hip. I needed to get away from Andy as quickly as possible, I hated the way he made me question my feelings.
"See ya later!" I yelled. I was almost to the door when Andy got out of his truck and called my name. "What's up?" I asked, slowly walking back over to him.
"Look," he began, running his large hands through his dark blonde hair, "I just want you to know that I'm here for you."
"I know."
"No, I mean if anything bad were to happen, I would still be here for you."
"I know, Andy."
He shook his head for a few moment before responding, "Good, you better get inside then."
I had a feeling that I was misunderstanding what he was trying to say, but I didn't push the issue, entirely sure that I didn't want to understand.
"Have a nice night Andy," I smiled, "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Can't wait," he laughed, and then he leaned his head down until his face was even with mine and his breath hit my face. "Stay safe," he whispered.
I only nodded, not liking the butterflies in my stomach.
He stayed in my face for a few moments, his eyes darting down to my lips every few seconds. Then, so quick that I wasn't even sure it happened, he left a small kiss on my cheek.
My eyes went wide and I took a small step back, Andy had never done anything like that before.
"See ya Sadie," He smiled and then turned away from me.
What the hell just happened?