Our Hope • Ava Rose Mikaelson

12. Sanctuary

I'm near the lake in the bayou away from Ileana, Jackson, and Hayley. I'm trying to get ahold of Nik to tell him what's happening but he won't pick up my calls. I heard footsteps from behind so I turned to see Jackson walking over to me.

"Is everything okay?" He asked with a bit of concern.

"Yeah." I assured him with a smile. "I was just letting Klaus know everything about the wedding."

"What did he say?"

"Nothing." I said and Jackson's brows furrowed in confusion. "He didn't pick up."

"Oh." Jackson said as he clears his throat. "I was worried you and Ileana ran off in the middle of the night."

I stared at him for a moment before speaking up. "Listen, Ileana, she knows a secret of mines that no one knows about." I said and I walked over to him. "That same secret broke you two up six months ago and I don't want it to break you two up again."

"What's is it?" Jackson asks curiously and I stayed quiet.

"I can't say." I looked away for a moment before looking at him again. "I can't even tell you why I can't."

"Ava, do you really think there's a secret you have that's so bad you can't tell me?"

"It's not safe, Jackson." I told him. "Not for you, not for Ileana."

"When have we ever been safe, Ava? Now, our people have been cursed, hunted, exiled. But this wedding with me and Ileana? We can change all that. We can create a new pack, one with your ability to turn at will. So, she and I will give each other our secrets. If we don't, then the transfer of power won't work, and we're back to where we were." Jackson says and he glanced behind him before looking at me. "Look, there's still something that I need to tell you." He says and it somewhat catches my attention.

"You don't have to tell me any of your secrets. I'm not the one you're marrying."

"It's not about you... or Ileana. It's about Hayley. It has to do with... how her parents died."

I stared at him in confusion and I was worried about what he has to say because it might lead to me keeping a secret that I won't want to keep.

****

Jackson took me to some sort of graveyard, I'm guessing. "What is this place?" I asked as I looked around.

"It's where wolves bury those who walk away from the pack. Traitors, murderers... like this one." Jackson says as he shows me a grave marker made out of wood. It has the initials RXD carved into it above a crescent moon. "Richard Xavier Dumas. He was Mary's husband... my grandfather. He was an Alpha of his time. He was a militant radical hell-bent on raising war with vampires. When he found out that Hayley's parents and mine planned to join the packs, try for peace with Marcel and his crew, he... he went ballistic."

"He killed Hayley's parents?" I said, staring at him in shock.

"He wanted to stop them and everything they stood for... and he did."

"Why did you wait so long to tell me? Or to tell Hayley? Does she knows?" I asked him.

"I didn't know until Mary told me. She said she'd held onto the secret about what my grandfather did for two decades, and knew it was time for it to come out." Jackson says and he visibly becomes anxious. "I was wondering if you could tell her."

"Oh, no." I said as I shook my head. "I can but I won't. You have to tell her. This has to do with your grandfather. Not mines."

"Yeah... your right." Jackson said. "That was my secret. Whatever yours is... If you don't want to tell me, then don't. It doesn't change a thing. Least of all, how I feel about Ileana."