No Escape

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Lily made it to her bedroom in record time. She needed to know that Charlotte was still in bed without a single hair on her head touched. She swung the door open and rushed to the side of the bed, only relaxing and letting out the breath she was holding when she saw that Charlie was in fact still there sleeping peacefully. Lily laid down next to her, pulled her close, and began gently running her fingers through Charlie's hair. She stared at the ceiling as she processed what had just happened. The Man was targeting his own children and leaving them on Jackson's pack lands; for what? Putting him in prison? To get back at her for escaping? 

No matter the reason, there was one thing Lily was certain, "He will never take you from me. I won't lose you too. Not again; not ever again." She promised in a whisper.

Lily hadn't noticed Jackson standing in the doorway. His mate had so much determination to keep Charlotte safe. It was incredible. He spoke up just loud enough for her to hear after a few minutes, "we won't let anything happen to her. I promise."

She looked over at him as he slowly made his way into the room, "I just hope that's a promise you can keep." She didn't mean it to be nasty or rude. Lily genuinely hoped that all of them, even her, could keep Charlie from any harm.

Before Jackson could respond, Lily asked him "who's Nikolas?"

He sighed, not wanting to explain all of this to her right then, but she deserved it. She deserved to know who the man was that had taken her hostage for a little over a third of the year. She deserved to know his theory as to why, besides the fact that he was a sick fuck. "He was the previous alpha of this pack. Before my dad overthrew him."

Lily was surprised to hear that. She slowly sat up and removed herself from the bed, so she didn't disturb Charlie, then she made her way over to the couch. Jackson followed her lead and sat beside her, "it's not your family's pack?"

"Well... yes and no. Now it is. Before my dad took over, the alpha title belonged to Nikolas and his family. Nikolas was not a good alpha. He was greedy, abused his title and his pack, he killed his own mate for not being able to provide him with any kids. He treated the pack like shit, like servants, and used force and fear to rule over them; unfair rules and punishments in order to attempt to gain respect. He threw us into war with other packs whenever he wanted just so he could claim he was the most feared and powerful. He was also completely irresponsible. Always blaming others when things went wrong."

Lily was disgusted, though not surprised, "so what happened?"

"My dad challenged him for the title and won, then exiled him. He was the Beta of the pack; the two of them were never close. My dad didn't like him or trust him when they were growing up, for good reason. He trained really hard until he was confident enough that he could beat him, it took a little over a year, but when my parents found out they were going to have me he decided that he needed to finally step up." Jackson told her, then took a deep breath before continuing, "he's the one who took you and Adrienne. He's the reason all of this is happening."

"So he's doing this for what? To rattle us so he can get his title back? Keep it in the family?"

Jackson nodded, "that's what Dylan, Ty, and I think."

"Okay, what do we do?" Lily wanted to help, she was a part of this whether she wanted to be or not. It didn't matter that her and Jackson were mates. She was involved and needed to see this until the end.

"Well, really it's for my dad to decide. Even though I'm the acting alpha, my dad has final say on whether he approves my decisions and ideas or not."

"So we just have to wait around for him to decide when enough is enough?" Jackson only nodded. "We're screwed."

"He'll come around..." Jackson told her in attempt to ease his mates' worries. He didn't entirely believe it though. His dad was stubborn and completely wrong about Lily and he was letting it blind him to what was really going on.

"No, he won't. He won't apologize to you for the things he's said and hasn't spoken to you for almost two weeks. Not to mention how rude he's been to me."

"He just wants the best for the pack."

"Are you actually defending him right now?" Lily whisper yelled. Jackson sat there silent knowing he hadn't chosen his words right. "Mate or not, the shit he's said to me was fucked up. And what he's doing to your family is not for the best of the pack, nor is it good for you."

"That's not how I meant it, Lil."

"How did you mean it then, Jackson? If I'm not good enough for you or your pack tell me now while I can still walk away in one piece."

A low growl escaped from Jackson's chest from the idea that she even had the thought of leaving now. He pulled her into his chest to settle his wolf, "you're not going anywhere. Not when I've just got you."

Lily sighed, suddenly not mad at him anymore. Jackson spoke up again before she could come up with a response, "I'm sorry. I didn't think before I spoke. It came out the wrong way. It's just difficult to see my dad as the bad guy. He's been well respected by the pack since before he took over, and by me ever since I was little. I know he's in the wrong here."

"He's doing the same thing to us and the pack as Nikolas did to his mate and the pack when he was in charge. Just in a different way. If no one stands up to him, the pack is going to fall. We have to do something."

Jackson felt proud of his mate. Even though he knew it was important for her to get this resolved as quickly as possible because of Charlotte, she had still thought about the good of the pack and voiced that it was important. "We will. I'll have to go behind my fathers' back, but I'll fix this."

Lily shook her head. She wasn't going to let him do this on his own and face the repercussions for it. They were in this together from this point on. She knew new things about Nikolas that no one in his pack did, not even Adrienne. She wasn't going to be pathetic and useless anymore. She would train harder and smarter so she could help more. "No. You won't. We will."