Steel: The Transformation

Chapter 29

Chapter 29 

Jackson POV

The brush of air stroked my neck as the dagger flew past me, I felt the small rip as some of the material of my collar caught on it. My wolf pushed to the surface as I mustered up all control I could to keep myself from shifting. I looked over at Cleo, her Steel grey illuminated eyes stared back at me and her expression was set.

"Pinecones," she breathed out. I cursed myself for saying something that had made her suspicious and for not changing clothes after seeing her earlier that day at the mountain reservoir. I felt a wave of helplessness swell over me again as I realised that I had just walked myself into even more trouble with her. Just when I had gotten her to talk to me again, I had yet again gone and proved to her that she couldn't trust me anymore.

"Maybe it's time for you to leave now," her words came out harshly and each one of them stabbed through me.

I nodded and walked out of the living room silently, closing the front door behind me and walking down the porch steps. My body felt numb, the whole world was muted and a small ringing passed through my ears. I staggered down the street and slowly made my feet walk towards my house. A strong pressure was building over my chest and my breathing became increasingly shallow, the more I tried to breathe the more difficult it became. I had to sit down at the grass of someone's front lawn. I put my head between my knees and tried to control my breathing but it only became worse. A small hot tear pressed its way out of my closed eyelid. This time I had really lost her.

~*~

The barbeque surrounding me made no impression on me. The little kids were playing on the lawn and Tim's and my dad was preparing the meat, I could hear them chuckle but I continued to stare down in my lemonade cup. My last conversation with Cleo had really brought it home to me that she no longer trusted me. I had given her reason after reason not to do so and I no longer saw any way of coming pack from what had passed between us. If I just hadn't been the alpha, I would have left this place a long time ago. I looked over at Tim and Wyhatt, sneaking a beer past their parents and laughing on the other side of the garden. I felt resentment fill me up again, if it weren't for them none of this would have happened. If it weren't for the fact that I had to protect the pack I never would have had to make the kind of decisions that I had. If I hadn't made those decisions, then Cleo would still be in love with me and everything would be fine. I stared glumly into the distance.

"Hi," she said merrily and sat down on the porch step next to me. Her brown ponytail bounced around her neck and the sun caught some of the red in her hair.

"What's up with you?"

"Not much, Dessie," I sighed. I knew that she was Tim's sister but she sure could be annoying sometimes. Since she was due to start at the university soon, she had started to make more of an effort to become friends with me. Maybe she wanted to make sure she would know someone else apart from her brother when she started.

"So you don't seem to be enjoying yourself?" she frowned her nose slightly and shot me a concerned look.

I stayed silent.

"Is something brothering you?" her naive concern was really getting on my last nerve.

"What isn't bothering me," I muttered behind the lemonade cup before taking another sip from it.

"Is everything okay with you and Cleo?" she asked a little bit too innocently.

"We broke up," I said darkly. Might as well start admitting to what was happening, since it was becoming clear to me that there was no way of fixing what I had done.

"What happened?" she flashed an animated look of concern and interest across her face, before cocking her head slightly to one side.

"I made a really terrible and stupid mistake," I said before continuing slowly, "and I don't expect her to forgive me."

"Well maybe with time she will come around? Maybe she just need some time and then she can forgive you?" her sparkling enthusiasm made me feel sick.

"Even if that had been a possibility I went and messed it up even more, making more stupid mistakes..." I looked over at her.

The conclusion to my explanation seemed to have caught her short, not knowing what to say.

"Let me go grab you some more lemonade," she said softly, grabbing the cup from my hand.

"Stupid pinecones," I breathed out, speaking to the air around me. There was really no way back from this now.

The barbeque was winding down and Dessie had finally decided to leave me alone, I watched her without much interest as she played with the little kids further down the garden throwing a ball back and forth.

"Hey," Tim sat down next to me and gave me a look that clearly told me that I needed to cheer up.

"Hi," I replied moodily.

"What's going on with you?" his voice was still respectful but I could tell that he was frustrated by my lack of participation during this afternoon of family fun.

"Cleo found out we were at the mountain reserve," I told him quietly not wanting anyone else to hear our conversation.

"How did that happen?" he asked.

"I went to see her, I wanted to know more about the Hunters. I said something that I heard Alec say and I forgot to change clothes. She picked up on the smell of the forest and put two and two together," I summed up quickly, not wanting to dwell on the details.

"Okay, so did she tell you anything about the Hunters?" Tim focused on the part of my explanation that he knew would be the least painful for me to talk about.

"No really. She said that we should try to find things out for ourselves and that we should ask the elders for information," I allowed for a moment of silence before adding, "She did offer herself as a last resort that if we didn't find answers any other way, she would help. But I have a feeling that after she figured out that I was following her that might not be an option anymore," I let my voice die down and looked over at Tim.

He looked over at the kids playing for moment before replying, "I think she's right."

"What?" I could feel my voice rise and my pulse quicken.

"I think we should ask the elders too. They must know something and it's only fair that their pack know about the threat too."

My blood was pulsating behind my ears, "Why should we ask for their help and warn them. They never helped us that much when we were changing and we needed them."

"They are our parents. I want them to know and they might also have information that we need."

"If they are that clever they can figure it out on their own. I forbid you from talking to them about it!" I dropped my cup in the grass and made a quick exit around the side of the house. I steamed down the front garden and started to walk towards my own house. There was no way I was going to my father or Tim's parents for that matter about the Hunters. They left us to fend for ourselves and I wasn't going to crawl back to them with my tail behind my legs at the first sign of danger, my wolf was shouting through my body that it would make me weak. Accepting answers from an older pack and their alpha, even if that happened to be Tim's dad was not an option.

Author's Note: So Jackson's feeling pretty low at this point. He can't seem to catch a break. Do you think Tim is right? Should they speak to the elders?

Thank you for everyone that has checked out my other story Magic's Mark this week. I wanted to upload this chapter a bit sooner than Sunday but the week has just been so busy. The next upload for me will be this Thursday for Magic's Mark. So if you haven't read that story yet, I would love to hear your opinions. May is looking like a really busy month but hopefully I can try to do one week with double uploads of Steel soon. I do know that you enjoy it when the chapters are up a bit sooner than next Sunday ;)

Song:  Kelela - A Message