I do not own Teen Wolf
The following chapter contains lots of Fluff and some BAMF.
Jackson drove with Bentley holding onto one hand so tight that his knuckles was white. The teacher had let them go to get to a hospital where Bentley could get the bite mark cleaned up and treated but Jackson had went straight home. He shot a glance at Bentley, who was staring straight ahead with tears running down his cheeks but saying nothing. Jackson wanted to get out and tear something apart but he had to keep himself in control. Bentley needed him right not and he had stay as clear headed as possible in order to figure what the hell to do about this situation. He knew that Thomas did this in order to get back at him for finding out about what he did to his pack and for sending Angelo after him. He felt his eyes flare and his fangs elongate in his mouth. If that bastard thought that he was going to take Bentley away from him, Thomas had another thing coming. Bentley gave a soft cry beside him and Jackson snapped out of his rage haze and saw his pressing a hand against his side.
"Are you ok?" he blurted out then shook his head, "Of course you aren't. I'm sorry. I…we can dress that when we get inside." Bentley nodded then frowned.
"Can we get inside?" he asked, "I had already placed the mistletoe around your house. Since I'm….I'm bitten, will I be able to get through?" Jackson frowned.
"I don't think that it should affect you since you haven't changed yet," Jackson said slowly, "We'll try it and see alright? If it doesn't work…I'll call my parent and tell them to come break the barrier for us."
"Then that will mean telling them," Bentley said, "Are you sure…"
"Yes I'm sure dammit," Jackson snapped at him, "I will do anything to keep you safe Bentley, alright? I will tell the entire world that I'm a werewolf if it meant keeping you safe." Bentley said nothing but there were fresh tears in his eyes. It turned out that Bentley could still open the barrier and they walked into the kitchen to find that his parents were sitting on the couch holding hands. When his mother saw them walk in she gave a soft moan. She ran to him and pulled him into a hug and began to cry. Jackson stood completely still for a moment and then placed an arm around her gently. His father came across to them, his arms around himself as if he was trying to hold himself together.
"What's wrong?" Jackson asked, a nasty sinking feeling settling in his stomach. His mother pulled away and wiped her eyes.
"It was just crazy," she said her eyes wide, "There was this person outside out house, a young man. He had…" She swallowed and looked back to his father and then continued, "Glowing red eyes and claws Jackson! He kept trying to get up the drive but something was stopping him. He was screaming for you." Her voice was climbing higher and higher as she spoke, "He kept saying that he was going to kill you. And that he was going to kill all of us!' Her voice was shrill at the end. She covered her mouth as a choking noise cut her off. "What is going on Jackson? Who was that? What was that?"
"Did you call the police?" Jackson asked. His father scoffed.
"Call the police?" he said a bit frantically, "Call them and say what? There was some kid with glowing eyes that tried to attack us but was held off by an invisible barrier? Who would believe that? They would think we were crazy!" Jackson and Bentley shared a look. His father did not miss it. "What do you know that we don't Jackson Whittmore?" he said with fear and anger rolling off if him, "What do you know about this?" Jackson once more he felt like his world was falling apart. He saw his parents as if they were at a distance and all he could think was 'I can't lose them. I can't…I don't want to lose them.' Then it was if he was being pulled back to the present and his parents were still waiting for his reply. He opened his mouth, closed it then opened it again.
"Some of us have red eyes," he said feeling like he was in a terrible dream, "Some have gold. And other have…" he paused and bent his head then looked up, "blue ones." His mother screamed and his father cried out. They clutched each other and took several steps away from him. The reaction jerked Jackson out his trance and he took a step towards them holding his hands out in front of him.
"Please," he begged, "Please don't hate me. Please don't send me away. I'm still me. I'm still Jackson. I just…I…Oh God…" Jackson shoved his face into his hands and tried to slow his heart rate but he couldn't. He could smell the fear from them. He could hear their heart rates racing up and their breathing loud and frantic. He wanted to just run and get out. He turned to go when suddenly arms were around him. He turned his head found himself resting against his mother's chest.
"Oh baby," his mother sighed, with tears falling from her face to his, "Oh my baby." Jackson broke and grabbed onto her. He was crying now and couldn't care less. He smelt his father come near and then he was being enveloped by his father's scent as well. They stood there until Jackson was calm enough to pull away.
"You don't hate me?" he asked, "you're not afraid of me?"
"You're our son," his father said firmly, "We love you. But we would like to know how you managed to get glowing blue eyes." Jackson felt tears well up in his eyes and forced himself to give his father and mother a watery smile. He turned to see Bentley standing a few steps away, with his arms around himself and tears on his face. He held his hand out to him and Bentley took it. He then turned back to his parents.
"I took too long to tell you the truth and I'll fix that now," he said, "But it's not a short or nice story. But first, I need to fix Bentley." It took him almost four hours to tell the entire story of how he became a werewolf after his parent helped him to patch up Bentley. "So he bit Bentley most likely to get back at me," Jackson ended. His mother and father took the story surprisingly well with a few gasps. Then they began to ask questions. It took him a further two hours to explain how the bite works, the effect of the full moon, what was a kanima and that no he would not change back into that, what the blue eyes meant then had to sit thought some awkward crying from his mother and silent accepting from his father, what it meant to be omega and how he really wasn't because of Derek, what a soul bond was and that he and Bentley were connected but mostly sure that they were not gay but were in a really-close-sort-of-gay-looking relationship, about the other werewolves in London, plus a hundred others before his parent were satisfied and got to the business of Thomas trying to kill him.
"Can't you get help from Angelo?" his mother asked. Jackson shrugged.
"I don't know how to find him," Jackson replied. They lapsed into silence again until Bentley yawned. Jackson immediately yawned and his parents laughed.
"Get to bed," his father said, "You both need to rest. We'll figure out what to do in the morning." Jackson and Bentley got up and turned to go. Then Jackson turned back abruptly.
"I love you," he said, "I love both of you." There was a moment of complete silence and his parent's moths were both open. Jackson smiled as his eyes were suddenly blinded with tears. The next second both he and Bentley were pulled into hugs. Jackson suddenly remembered Derek's last words to him.
"I know that it is hard, you having to leave and all. And it's going to be harder over there because you won't have anyone with you at first but I think you will find some and I think you'll be okay."
He took a deep breath and felt the soothing sensation that Bentley's scent always brought him and the familiar scents of his parents and he knew that his Alpha was right, he was going to be okay.
Bentley lay against Jackson's chest, his fingers entwined with the fingers of the arm that Jackson had slung over his waist. They both knew that they couldn't sleep and didn't bother to pretend to try.
"I'm sorry," Bentley said finally. Jackson frowned and asked for what. "For all of this. If I hadn't come into your life, you wouldn't have a crazy Alpha werewolf coming after you."
"I think he would have still come after me," Jackson rebuffed him.
"But you would not have had me as a liability," Bentley replied and Jackson heard the hitch in his voice and the racing of his heart, "You are weak in this fight because of me." Jackson frowned harder and made Bentley turn to look at him.
"You don't make me weak," he said harshly, "You make me better. I don't ever want to hear you say that you're a liability to me because you are not. You're my soul bond remember? That Druid said that we were made for each other. If I didn't have you I wouldn't be complete, I would have gone ahead being the same jackass that I was and would have been miserable for the rest of my life. I am glad to have you Bentley Hawke and I am not going to lose you."
"I don't want to lose you," Bentley blurted out his voice broken with tears, "But Thomas is my Alpha now right? I'm bonded to him because of this stupid bite. I can't belong to him Jackson. I belong to you. I already bonded with you. I can't be part of his pack. I just can't. I can't be bad again." Jackson pulled Bentley close to him so that the boy was resting up against him.
"Bentley…, Jackson began… but Bentley cut him off.
"I want to tell you," he said, "I…I want to tell you so you can understand. I used to be a really horrible person. In my old school people used to hire me to hurt other people. I was feared and hated but I didn't care. I loved my reputation. I was good at what I did and no one could touch me. I lived off the high of being the Hawke. Then one day I got in over my head with a gang. I was being threatened but I didn't take it seriously. The gang members couldn't catch me alone to take me so they…they took my baby brother. The day they took him he asked me to come with him and I told him I was too busy. I didn't think that they would go that far to take him but I should have. I was cocky and I should have. When the cops came and told us that my brother had been found almost beaten to death, I snapped. I went after them. I almost died doing it but I didn't. I should have died but my brother did instead. He succumbed to his injuries while I was beating the life out of the gang members that hurt him. We got caught and I did some time and did my best to shape up after that. But my mother never recovered. She developed a sort of split personality where she can stand me some times and then she just trips and tries to hurt me. I can't blame her and I don't try to stop her when she tries."
"That's why there is the sign in the window," Jackson interjected softly. Bentley nodded.
"I can't afford to move out or I would," he explained, "We moved around a lot trying to find a place that didn't remind her too much of home but that was affordable for us. We found this place, here in Hengely." Bentley paused to get out, blow his nose and get back into bed.
Jackson felt like his heart was being ripped out hearing his soul bond's story. He couldn't imagine what it was like to live with the guilt of being responsible for a loved one's death but he was no stranger to living with guilt for taking a life since, despite what Derek told him, he had gotten back memories of being the kanima. There was no words to really comfort anyone for that; you just had to learn to live with the pain. Bentley continued, "I tried hard to put behind the person I was. I don't want to go back to being like that. If I can't resist Thomas, don't let me go back to being like that Jackson." Jackson frowned at him again.
"What are you asking me to do?" Jackson asked, not wanting to believe what Bentley was asking him to do.
"Don't let me follow him," Bentley said slowly, "Do whatever it takes Jackson. Because if he gets me, I won't become just a liability to you. I will be the death of you and I can't be responsible for the death of another person I love. I can't lose you." The last four words came out as a plea. Jackson looked down at the boy that had come into his life just one week ago and became a fixture in his life that he couldn't live without.
"I'm not going to lose you," Jackson said, "I promise you that."
He could smell the fear and anxiety off of Bentley and he pulled Bentley closer. As Bentley snuggled into Jackson's chest with a sound close to a whimper, Jackson made the decision that he had been struggling with ever since Thomas began threatening Bentley. And now the werewolf Alpha had gone too far in biting Bentley and trying to intimidate his parents. Thomas had no idea who he was dealing with. Jackson Whittmore was one of the few Werewolves with blue eyes, the eyes of a murderer. And now it was time to murder again.
An hour later Jackson was still up while Bentley had fallen asleep beside him. He was mulling around what was the best way to kill Thomas when he remembered Danny. He slipped out of bed, reassured Bentley who had woken up a bit frantically, fetched his laptop and slipped back into bed. Bentley gripped onto his t-shirt while Jackson fired up his laptop, logged into his e-mail and began to read Danny's message. Danny answered him about the signs he should look for and then ended that part with 'you are not gay, so don't even think about it', then he told him about some pack of Alphas that were trying to kill the werewolves of Beacon Hills and that if he wanted to hurt Thomas for the pack abuse then he should definitely use wolfsbane or mistletoe to try and even the playing field since trying to take on Thomas at full strength would be a really stupid idea. Jackson smiled at the advice since he was thinking the same thing. Danny knew him like no other and more often than not, knew exactly what he was thinking. Except things had changed now and he wasn't thinking about hurting Thomas but actually killing him. He read the rest of the letter and smiled at the line that said 'Lydia is doing fine. She's hanging with McCall so you know he'll never let anything happen to her', then he typed back a reply. He had promised Danny that he was ever going to do something stupid or dangerous he would let him know before he did it.
'I'm going to do something stupid and dangerous,' he typed, 'Thomas bit Bentley and I am going to kill him for it. I know that that will make me an Alpha and most likely I'll be killed for becoming one without telling London's head Alpha. But I don't care. That bastard has to die and I'm gonna make sure he does. No one touches my sol bond and gets away with it.
p.s. I'll explain everything to you later if I survive this. I love you.
Your best friend, Jackson. '
Then he shut down the computer and went to bed.
Jackson woke to find Bentley's head on his chest and arms around his waist. He leaned down to nuzzle the boy's hair. Bentley woke up and took a deep breath and then dropped his head back onto Jackson's chest. Jackson hugged him tight.
"What are we going to do?" Bentley asked.
"First thing's first," Jackson answered, "We go eat." Bentley looked up sharply at him and narrowed his eyes.
"You're not telling me something," he said, "I…I can feel it. I can tell that you're hiding something from me." Jackson felt Bentley's anger and hurt but it wasn't like how he knew from scenting someone, it was much clearer and stronger, like a pack bond would be. He pushed Bentley over and lifted his t-sihirt and pulled off the bandage. The bite was healed. Bentley looked down at the healed skin, ran a hand over it and then began to hyperventilate.
"This is it right?" he said, "I'm officially a werewolf?"
"Maybe," Jackson said, "Sometimes you don't always become one."
"Like you," Bentley said gently. Jackson nodded and rolled out of bed.
"You're right," Jackson said, "I am keeping something from you. You asked me last night to kill you so that you won't be responsible for my death. But I can't do it. I won't do that. I am going to kill Thomas instead." Bentley stared at him for a long moment, Jackson felt every emotion that passed through him and then Bentley nodded.
"How are we going to do that?" he asked.
"Not we," Jackson said, "Me. I am not going to put you in harm's way." Bentley frowned and Jackson knew that he felt the fear that Jackson was feeling. He got out of bed and came to stand right in front of Jackson.
"Let's agree on this Mr. Whittmore," Bentley snarled in his face, "We both don't want each other to get hurt. We both want Thomas dead and we will both plot his demise. Because I am not going to let you bear this burden by yourself because we are bonded alright? So don't even think about going this alone. Because honestly, I don't think you can, since I can tell every emotion that you just felt." Jackson sighed and then smiled.
"If we end up reading each other's mind," he said, "We're going to need therapy."
They managed to convince Jackson's parents to let them go to school, since Jackson was sure that Thomas would not kill him in school. Also Jackson wanted to have a word with Thomas' pack. His mother and father hugged him and Bentley before sealing the barrier behind them.
"We love you," his father said.
"I love you both too," Jackson replied then gave them a look, "Are you two sure you're okay? I mean I did tell you all that I was a werewolf and you didn't really freak out the way I thought you would." His parent shrugged and looked at each other.
"We lived in Beacon Hills dear," his mother explained, "We should have figured it out sooner." Jackson just shook his head and left for school. AS they drew closer Bentley began to fidget beside him. Jackson bore it for as long as he could and then sighed.
"I can tell something's bothering you," he said. Bentley said nothing until they pulled into the parking lot.
"I can feel them," he said, "Faintly but it is there. I can feel all of them." He grabbed Jackson's hand and held it tight. Jackson squeezed back. "I want you as my Alpha," Bentley blurted out, "We more bonded now but it feels now like something's between us. That block wasn't there before."
"I know what you mean," Jackson said, "The pack bond is what that is. I'll fix that soon."
"What about the rest of the pack," Bentley asked. Jackson quieted down his anxiety.
"That's what I need to talk to the rest of them about," he replied.
They should have been less surprised to find all of Thomas' pack waiting just inside the school doors. They all moved in one motion towards Bentley and then stopped as Jackson stepped in front of him. They all looked at each other for some long seconds and then Bentley sighed behind Jackson, stepped around the group and continued along to class with Jackson in tow.
"Bentley," a wolf called. Jackson felt Bentley hesitate for a second and knew that the wolves were using the bond. Bentley turned and Jackson saw a brief look on longing pass over his face. Then he spun back and continued walking. Jackson stepped up beside him to wrap his arms around his shoulders and ignored the shaking in Bentley's shoulders. It was just their bad luck to have just one class together. Jackson however could feel what Bentley was feeling and vice versa so the two class periods apart were both anxious but bearable. Then at lunch Jackson found Thomas' pack waiting with Bentley at the cafeteria entrance. He walked up and stood beside Bentley.
"Locker room now," he said and walked off with the pack following him. The locker room was surprisingly empty and they locked the door behind them.
"We didn't know he was going to bite Bentley," Riley said quickly, "I swear it Jackson. If we had known…"
"What would you have done?" Jackson spat at him, "What the hell would any of you have done?" The pack looked at each other nervously but no one answered. Jackson snorted in disgust. "Just as I thought. You would done nothing." He paused and then sighed, "And I wouldn't blame you. It's not easy going against your Alpha. And since he's also been abusing you all both physically and mentally, it would have been even harder."
"We tried to tell him not to do it," a wolf offered softly. Jackson rubbed his face. He spotted Felix and nodded to him.
"Did he hurt you?" he asked. Felix shook his head.
"Some of the guys kind of hid me from him," Felix replied, "They got beat up for it but they didn't give me up." Jackson sniffed for blood. "He didn't get to rip them," Felix broke in, "He knew Angelo was in town and didn't want to leave more evidence." Felix grimaced and then looked across at two other wolves. Jackson followed his gaze, met those of the two wolves and nodded his thanks. He rubbed the back of his neck feeling suddenly tense and anxious.
"Okay, I'm just going to come out and say this," Jackson stated, "I'm going to pay Thomas back for biting Bentley." There was a moment of silence and then the wolves began to laugh.
"Pay him back?" one said, "You don't just pay Thomas back, Jackson. You'll have to kill him or else he will come back and kill you."
"I know," Jackson said quietly and suddenly the laughter stopped, I know." The pack of wolves looked at him and Jackson was very aware that if they all decided to kill him now, he could not stop them not all of them.
"You're going to kill Thomas," Riley said slowly, "You're serious about this?" Jackson nodded and could feel a cold emotion from Bentley and knew that boy was getting ready to fight if things went south. Riley looked around at the other wolves and they all shrugged.
"If you do, what will you do with the pack?" Riley asked. Jackson blinked a few times in surprise.
"I don't know," he replied, "I figured you guys could probably go to Angelo and he could place you into other packs or something." The wolves exchanged looks again.
"You mean after becoming our Alpha you would tear us apart?" Riley asked again. Jackson felt like he was being baited into something but couldn't get out.
"Do you mean that you would take me as your Alpha?" Jackson said and as soon as the words were out of his mouth he knew he had the wolves had sprung their trip and he was caught.
"You're an asshole Jackson," Riley smiled fangs at him, "But you're a good guy. You stand up for those you care about. That's good enough for us. Right guys?" Jackson watched in a sort of stunned daze as the wolves consented and then simply filed out of the room. Jackson sat down on a bench after they were gone and put his hands in his head, while Bentley rubbed soothing circles on his back.
"What the hell have I done?" he asked.
"Exactly what you should be doing," a new voice said. Jackson snapped his head up the see the Druid woman walk out from behind some lockers.
"How the hell did you get in here?" he asked. Bentley stood up and stepped in front of Jackson.
"I'm not here to hurt your soul bond, Bentley," Mariah said, "I felt a change in the energies and came to find out what happened. But now I know. You're bitten and Jackson is taking the first step in becoming the kind of man that he needs to be."
"A murderer," Jackson said bitterly.
"A person that does what they need to do make sure the people they care about stay safe," Mariah corrected, "An Alpha that hold the safely of his own above the safety of himself."
"I'm not an Alpha," Jackson replied then paused, "yet." Mariah smiled and nodded.
"But you will be and will become one worth following in time," she said, "But your first task at hand would be to survive your fight with Thomas. I assume that you have a plan?" Jackson nodded.
"I just need to find the bastard," Jackson said. Mariah nodded.
"I think I can help with that," she said, "I'll text you his location once I find him."
"Don't you have to tell Angelo that?" Bentley asked raising an eyebrow.
"I can tell him after I tell you," Mariah replied smoothly. There was a pause and despite the terrible feeling that Jackson had, he nodded. The Druid smiled and turned to go.
"Why are you helping me?" Jackson asked unable to hold the question. The Druid paused and turned.
"Because Hengely is a special place," she said softly, "And it needs a special person to take of it." Then she walked out the room. It was only after that Jackson realized that he never gave her his number.
"Druids," he snarled.