No Escape

Chapter Forty-Four

"...no. I'm not going to put her through that."

"We can't just leave him down there!"

"And why not?!" Lily woke up reaching out for Jackson beside her, but the bed was empty. She tuned in to the conversation that was happening outside of her room and realized it was the reason why he wasn't next to her. "I'm not giving him the chance to attack her or to destroy the pack again!" Jackson's voice said before the other could respond to him.

If you're talking about who I think, it's probably best to keep him down there, Lily told Jackson.

She heard him growl through the closed door and say, "he stays in the cells. We'll talk about this later."

The hard glare in his eyes softened the moment Jackson walked in and saw his mate. He closed the door behind him and made his way back toward the bed. He laid down and sighed.

"Tell me what's going on," Lily told him.

"No. You're still healing," he told her.

"That didn't matter yesterday," she teased him. Jackson didn't seem too amused though, "but really. I feel a lot better. I've got that speedy healing that you do now." It was true, she was able to move around freely without any pain at all. Along with the healing ability, she had the others as well; heightened senses, and all the feelings the mate bond had provided were stronger as well. When Jackson touched her the tingles were more intense, and when he was next to her she felt complete. When they were apart, like how he wasn't at her side when Lily had woken up, she felt as though a part of her was missing.

"Still, I don't want to worry you or stress you out."

"Jacks, am I the future Luna of the pack?"

"Of course you are."

"Are you planning on keeping things from me for these reason when they come up in the future?"

"No."

"Then why would you start now? We make a good team, right?"

"Absolutely. I just-I wanted you to have one day stress free, Lil."

"Let me worry about my stress levels, okay? I promise if I can't handle it, I'll tell you." Lily told him, giving him a quick kiss. Jackson tried to deepen it, but Lily pulled away. "Now, what's going on?"

Jackson sighed once again, "my dad's locked away in the cells. His Beta and a couple other people don't think we should leave him there." He paused for a moment before explaining, "the pack thinks that my whole family has been by your side while you heal. They don't know what he's done."

"Why not?"

"He's still the alpha, Lil. This pack has been through a lot with everything that happened with Nikolas and my dad worked really hard to build us back up and makes us as strong as possible. If they found out that he sabotaged us and went betrayed the pack, they would never trust my family again."

Lily thought fora moment, "but it's wrong to lie to them. And if they don't know about it, we can't keep him in the cells. He's the alpha, the pack will know something is up."

Jackson frustratedly ran his fingers through his hair. "I know, I know. I have to come up with something. I just don't know what to do right now."

"If he wasn't the Alpha and he did the things he did, what would be the repercussions?"

"Well, they'd be made a rogue for betraying the pack. It's a death sentence for attacking the Luna."

Lily gasped in shock, "a death sentence?!"

"I told you, Lil. The Luna is the most important member of the pack."

"Okay," she said, taking a shaky breath. "What if we gave him the option..."

"What are you talking about?" Jackson asked. Why should his father have a voice in the matter?! He made his choice already; it was their turn to decide.

"No matter what we do the pack will find out what has happened one way or another. For all intents and purposes, you're already the Alpha and I'm the Luna. But they don't know, nor is it official yet. I'm not saying what he's done was right by any means, but we could give him the option to step down, hand down the title to you, like he was supposed to. After he's done that, the first thing you could do is show the pack what he's done and sentence him to a life in the prisons."

"The other option being execution?"

Lily winced, "did you have to say it like that?" She then shook the thoughts from her head, "make the sentencing in front of the pack, so they know his crimes are being punished."

Jackson nodded, "mom should be there."

Lily softly agreed with him, then took a deep breath, "I guess there's only one thing that we can do now."

Her mate nodded, "time to make a trip to the dungeons."

~~

This one's a little shorter than most but here it is anyway!!!

TM