Lies for Truth

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Jax couldn’t believe his piss poor luck. Being as smart as she was Ariana had pieced together the truth.  He had bitten Charlie, a little too much, and now the son of a bitch was turning. But no it couldn’t be that simple. A bite no matter how deep didn’t trigger a shift, there was something else at play here and again with his bad luck Jax was stuck in the middle and Ariana was figuring out the truth.

Staring at her he knew she wanted answers, but what the hell was he supposed to say? “What are you thinking?” he needed time to think, time to stall and find a way to somehow fix this, go back to how it was yesterday when they were happy.  

Ariana let out of shuddering breath. “I’m thinking I’m crazy but then….” She turned and glanced at Charlie. “The bite is gone, your cut is gone. Things doesn’t magically heal this fast!” she was getting angry as she doubted everything she believed to be true.

“No.” Jax agreed.

She turned back to him, her tears faster down her cheeks. “What are you?”

Jax hated right now how damn smart she was, she knew to say what instead of who. His cover was blown and he had no one to blame but himself and his lack of control. “You already know.” He whispered, feeling more defeated than he ever had before. Not even when his mother died did he feel this lost.

Her cries turned into sobs, she shook her head and stepped farther away from him. “No, no. They don’t exist.”

“What doesn’t? Say it Ariana.” He wanted her to say the word, he wanted to know there was nothing else hidden between them. “What am I?” he moved toward the door where she stood and gripped her forearms. “Say it, what am I?” as the words left his mouth he felt his heart shatter into a place that couldn’t be put back together.

She looked up into his eyes and he saw all the betrayal she was feeling, the torment was clear as day inside her hazel orbs. “A werewolf.” She hissed the words with accusation behind them.

Jax let her go. “I didn’t lie to hurt you.”

“But you lied, you lied right to my face when I asked you flat out what was happening. Why did you do any of this? Why did you let this happen when you planned to lie the whole time and never trust me?”

It broke his heart to see Ariana regretting every moment they shared together. “It wasn’t like that, I wasn’t using you.” he prayed for the words to help him somehow get her to believe what was in his heart.

“It feels like it.” It didn’t seem like she’d believe anything he’d say anytime soon. “I want to go home.” she said the words and glanced at Charlie. “What will happen to him now?”

“He’ll have to get used to the differences in his body. I’ll talk to him and work something out.” There were answers he needed from Charlie but that wasn’t something he wanted to worry Ariana about.

She nodded and avoided eye contact with him before turning around and leaving the room.

Jax stared at the now closed door wondering what happened next. He couldn’t lose Ariana, yes she was pissed off now but he believed she loved him and because of that it couldn’t be over.

He had reserved this motel room for them to have time together without having to worry about being caught. Now here he stood alone with Charlie Lowell of all people.

He walked over to the bed and began to shake his shoulder. “Come on wake up.” he made a note not to hit him so hard next time, surely there’d be a next time.

“Huh?” Charlie stirred awake and sat up on the bed. He carefully looked around. “Why am I in a room with you?”

“What do you remember?”

“I was at the party,” he thought back to it, rubbing the side of his head. “I went outside and Ari followed me. I started sniffing her.” it was obvious that was bothering him. “What the hell is going on?” fear poured out of him in waves.

“I punched you before you could hurt her again.”

“I wouldn’t have.” Charlie said tightly.

“Don’t worry I’m not blaming you, you weren’t in control of what was happening.” Jax would’ve gladly gave Charlie a hard time but this time it wasn’t the other guy’s fault for his actions, the blame laid with Jax.

Charlie narrowed his eyes in thought as he continued to look around. His eyes landed next on his arm.  “What….?”

“Hey, I need you to answer some questions. That bite mark healed because your body is healing faster from constant regeneration of abnormalities. You’ve probably been smelling things you shouldn’t, seeing better than ever before. Everything gets so loud you think you’re going crazy.” Jax knew he hit the nail on the head when Charlie didn’t protest. “Has your mother or father ever shown signs of these things?”

Charlie shrugged; he wasn’t putting up a fight because in the end he knew he needed help. “My mom hasn’t been good at anything her whole life, I think if she had any super sense I’d know and she probably wouldn’t make the fuck up choices she has. I don’t know anything about my father. Why are you asking me all of this?”

“There was a doormat lycanthrope gene inside of you and the bite triggered it.” Jax knew that was the cause, unless you nearly killed the person you couldn’t change them. He hadn’t bitten Charlie that bad so it had to have been genetics.

“Dude…what the fuck? Lycan that’s…..no way.”

 “If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. The anger spikes, the highs and lows it’s all connected. You were misdiagnosed of being bipolar.”

Charlie ran his hands over his short hair. “Because my life doesn’t suck enough you’re telling me I’m some supernatural creature now? How do you know all of this?”

 Jax walked over to the empty chair angled in front of the window. “Who do you think bite you?” he couldn’t keep lying to Charlie because he needed him to trust him, they were in this together now whether they liked it or not.

Charlie’s eyes flashes into their wolf’s bright yellow.

“Down boy.” Jax said flatly. “You can’t take me.”

Charlie groaned but he calmed down as well. “That day in the park, that was you? How long have you been like this?”

“I was born like this but I first shifted when I was sixteen.”

“S—shifted?”

Jax sighed; this was going to be a long night. “Yeah, I’m gonna explain everything you can expect. First you can’t tell anyone, not your mom, your girlfriend, no one.”