Gone

Mission One: Recovery

Jackson POV 

I had spent the remainder of my day visiting with my mother and playing with Ember. After I got the world's longest speech from my mother about not coming to see her sooner, we took Ember to a small park that was close to my house. I must have pushed Ember on the swing for over an hour. At one point I even stood in front of her while my mother pushed her and pretended to get hurt every time she came forward and her feet brushed my chest. Ember found the idea of kicking the crap out of me very entertaining. 

After the park and another long speech from my mother about never leaving again, we went back to the house for some dinner and then I put Ember to bed in my room, deciding it would be better for her to be here since the Luna, my mother, and Elly would all be here throughout the night.  

I had sat at the kitchen table while my mother baked and just caught her up on everything. Told her about my year away and what had been going on since I had been home. She was the easiest person to talk to, she never interrupted, and she knew when to let a subject drop. By the time I looked over at the clock, it was only thirty minutes before I had to be at the Pack house.  

"When am I going to have a daughter-in-law?" My mother asked, causing me to spit out the milk I was currently chugging down. The woman just said it casually while doing the dishes, like it wasn't a big deal. "Stop being so dramatic," she scolded in response to my spit take.  

"Mom," I sighed, "we barely got enough time together before I left and now that I'm back I had planned on fixing that, but you see what's happened. Can't I take things one day at a time and worry about the future later?" 

"Why do you sound so nervous? It's not like she would say no," my mom teased.  

I rolled my eyes, behind her back of course, and kept my mouth shut. I had no idea when I was going to pop the question. I felt like I had way too much making up to do. I had been a total screw up since I had been back home, and I would be lucky if Sadie even spoke to me once I got to her back.  

"We're here!" I heard the Luna, I mean Kate, sing out.  

I turned my head to see Elly, Kate, Dean, and my father walk into the kitchen. I had barley seen Dean or my father since I had been home. My parents didn't make it to Ember's party because, according my father, they lost track of time. I couldn't be mad, mates reunited after a long period usually lose track of time very easily.  

Dean was at the party, but I was too consumed in my own self destruction that I barely noticed him. Come to think of it, I could hardly remember who all was there. I had a one track mind because that's what I was used to. For over a year my life it was wake up, fight, survive, run and repeat. I thought about things one problem at a time. I would fix one and then move onto the next. I was going to have to figure out how to multi-task my thinking pattern.  

"You ready Jack?" Dean's deep voice cut through my inner thoughts. 

I nodded and stood up, giving all three of the ladies a quick hug before rushing out the back door. Dean and I didn't waste any time with small talk, we just began a light jog. Neither one of us was sure if we were going to shift for the mission or not, so we stayed in human for so that we would have clothes just in case.  

We made it to the Pack house at the same time as many others. There was about twenty people standing around the yard and I could see there was even more people conversing in the house. I could feel all the anticipation of the mission in the air, and see it in the way everyone was behaving. It was like no one could stand still. Some men were pacing or jumping about while other were stretching or sparring with one another.  

"Gentleman!" The Alpha called out from the front door, "Please come in and take a seat in the living room." 

Everyone complied, piling into the house quickly. There were way more wolves than I had expected. I guess I figured we would be keeping this as small as possible, but the Alpha apparently had other ideas. I walked in, side-stepping all the other bodies, and sat on the floor with my back against the wall next to Ethan. He had changed his clothes and was wearing only a pair of black basketball shorts. "Are we shifting?" I asked.