Fighting For Hope (The Hybrid and The Wolf - Book 3)

Chapter 20 - City Beneath the Sea

-Third Person POV -

Jackson carried Nina's desiccated body upstairs and laid her body carefully on the floor with the stake still lodged in her chest, he looked down at his sister with a guilty look.

"I'm sorry, Nina. When all this is over, I hope you understand why I did this. I just want to protect my niece, give her the life you want for her. I promise you when Dahlia is taken care of, I will return her to you."

After a moment of hesitation, Jackson leaned down to kiss Nina's gray desiccated forehead.

"Jack," Hayley stood behind him with a crying Hope in her arms. "We have to go."

"Okay."

Jackson stood up and walked away from his sister's body and left St James Infirmary with Hayley and his pack.

~*~*~

In the Bayou, Jackson, Hayley and the pack were trekking the woods towards the river so that they could give Aiden a true Crescent funeral. Hayley still held Hope in her arms, who was fast asleep.

"You used to run these woods when you were cursed to your wolf form?" Hayley asked her husband.

"And before it. I was an angry kid. I was pissed we were exiled, I was pissed at my parents, pissed Nina was gone . . ."

Hayley noticed the guilty look in his eyes. "Jack, I'm sorry about what happened with your sister. Please don't hate me for staking her, but--"

"I don't hate you, darling," He cut her off. "I just wish we could've convinced her to come with us."

"As long as the Originals are in her life, she will never run and because she's in love with a psycho, she won't betray him," Hayley told him. "She's changed. The girl I met never would have chosen a vampire over her own kind. Every kid with the wolf gene is angry. I was a nightmare. Triggering the curse actually settled me down but Nina? She told me that she didn't calm down until she found another wolf. She hates being alone, growing up with people who didn't give a damn . . . no wonder she fell for Klaus."

"Not me," Jackson replied, referring to the curse. "I got worse. Of course, it was different. You know, when I triggered my curse, the Crescent curse kicked in, so I was stuck as a wolf all month long. One full moon, our Alpha didn't show up. He was killed, so I stepped up. Protected these people, kept them safe and that calmed me down. At least for a little while."

Suddenly, Hope woke up and started crying.

"Hey, I think she's hungry."

"There's a hideout about a half mile south from here," Jackson told his wife. "Grab some guys to watch your back. I'll round up the rest and we'll make a perimeter. This bayou is our territory and we'll defend it."

Hayley hesitated before doing what Jackson said. She was anxious because she didn't know if she could calm Hope down because she wasn't her mother, but she was good with kids like Jackson, so she quickly pushed those thoughts away as she walked off.

~*~*~

Hayley was in the hideout with Hope, playing with her as she talked on the phone with Marcel, who informed her of what Cami had told Elijah about Aiden's death. Nina had told her when she was on her way back to the jazz club, before Hayley staked her. Elijah then told Marcel and now he was telling Hayley.

"So after all that, Klaus wasn't even the one that killed Aiden?" She said upon hearing the news.

"Thought you'd wanna know," Marcel replied.