25. Jackson

25

Jackson

My breath finally released. When Lola touched Charlie’s stomach, not only did I want to separate her from my little mate, but I also had to tell my wolf that Charlie was safe.

It doesn’t help that Lola’s words struck a chord in my heart about being blessed with a child. The reality that my parents never had that moment of sharing a pregnancy or announcing a child hits me hard. I could never condone blatant kidnapping, but the fact is my parents gave us a good childhood.

My mom is loving and kind, which is a lot better than what Charlie grew up with. My parents were always willing to help others and taught us right from wrong.

Charlie and Lola head towards the back of the bakery. I don’t even know if the place is open, but it’s the middle of the afternoon, and it’s empty. The tables appear to be wiped down, and everything looks clean, so maybe it’s not open. The large display case has an assortment of baked goods, but most seem to be empty. I wonder if keeping Charlie away has affected Lola’s sales?

I listen to the girls chatter as they push through the back doors. I realize I’ve been Alpha for weeks. This is the first time I’ve been out of the Pack house. Regret washes through me that I don’t know anything about my people in the Pack. I’ve spent the last few weeks worrying about dealing with my family and the crisis that has been Hunter. I haven’t tried to get to know my Pack, my people.Regret floods my body. Charlie deserves this an Alpha who is connected to everyone. She deserves the happiness of a kind, loving Pack.

My eyes take in Charlie’s tiny form as she pulls a flour-dusted, dusky purple apron off a hook near the back of the kitchen. I smother my laugh as I read the words on the front, “My butter half.”

She smiles. It’s the first natural and full smile I’ve seen on her today, and I want her to smile like this every day. She glances down at the apron, “Holly got this for me when I first started. I love it.”

Warmth and love fill me as she continues to take me in. She flips her dark black locks up into a bun on top of her head and walks over to the sink to wash her hands. Her grace makes me so enthralled that I don’t even notice Lola talking to me.

“I’m sorry, Lola, what?”

“You need an apron,” she holds up the white cloth in her hands.

My lips roll into my mouth as I look down at the lady who has served in our Pack for over fifty years and consider my options. I don’t want to be rude, but war veterans don’t wear aprons, especially aprons that look like they’re for children.

Charlie’s voice fills my head. ‘I have a matching hat if you want.’

My laugh fills the room, making both women smile bigger.

“Ah, you two have figured out all the perks of being mated. Here, take the apron. I know she has a hat here, too, if you want to make a bigger deal of this.”

I shake my head. These two really were made for each other. My hand runs roughly down my beard and gently takes the cloth from the older woman. “You two always going to gang up on me now?”

“Never, Alpha,” Charlie teases, “Now, wash up, and we can make chocolate chip cookies and some rolls for tomorrow.”

“I’m going to leave you young people to it.”

I respectfully nod to Lola, and she smiles at me. The need to be an Alpha this Pack deserves—the one who serves and honors the other members and takes pride in their accomplishments. My lips tug up in a smile as my large hands fumble to tie the strings behind my back. The apron is absolutely too small for me. The top section sits on my collarbones, and the bottom barely reaches my waist.

Charlie’s giggles are unrestrained as she approaches me and unties the strings. “You’re cute when you’re out of your element, big guy.”

My wolf growls in response as her tiny hands work to correct the ridiculous apron tied to my body. “Did you always bake? Like growing up?”

A kind of sadness pulses through the room. “No, no, I never baked. We had a mess hall we were expected to work in, and our meals were provided to us.”

I nod. Her Pack was old school. We have Nan’s, which is, in a sense, our mess hall, but Keelie always has food on hand at the Pack house too.

I think, ‘ Fuck, we really are messing up this Alpha position.’

Well, now I’m questioning how everything in our Pack is run. Are there hungry wolves?

“There you go,” Charlie pats my ass as she comes around me, and her size makes me shake my head because she barely reaches my chest. Her head tilts up and to the side as she returns my smile.

‘What?’ she says into my mind.

I’ve never been one to share my feelings, but now, with just her, I feel like I need to.

“I’m worried I haven’t been the Alpha Solaris needs,” I admit.

Charlie is not one to make a heavy moment more uncomfortable, so she nods while pulling things from cabinets and setting them on the large table in the middle of the room.

“Okay, and?” She jeers.

“I didn’t even know Lola had lost her mate.” The sadness of that reality sits heavy in the room.

Charlie drops her head, “Yes, Lola’s so strong. She’s…” Her soft voice falls off as she opens a lower cupboard and sets a large metal bowl on the counter.

“Charlie, that bowl is as big as you.”

She giggles sweetly, “Well, we have to make enough for the bakery tomorrow. I usually refill all the shelves out there, and when we walked in, I noticed the cookies were low.”

“Hmm, what do you need me to do?”

“Grab the butter from the counter over there, and use the spatula to put it in the bowl.”

I follow her orders and add sugars; she flips a switch on the mixer, and the machine mixes the three ingredients. “I’ve never made cookies before,” I say while I watch the butter turn a lighter color.

“Mmm, yeah, cookies are easy. I used to daydream that my brother would be here with me, that he’d snatch frosting out of the bowl and eat it or try the dough. He would tease me and sit on the counter.” As her eyes fill with this longing, emotion floods our bond.

“I’m so sorry, Charlie.”

“Before you, he’s the only person who ever loved me. For me. So yeah—” Her mouth turns to this sad smile, and her eyes soften as she says she was loved in the past tense. Her voice fills my head. ‘I love having you here; for the first time, I feel like maybe I can have that kind of love again. That the happiness I once felt might be attainable, that I might be worth it, to be loved.’

‘Oh, Little Phoenix, I see you.”

The hum of the mixer fills the quiet as I pull her into my chest, holding her while she falls apart.

“I don’t know what it’s like to lose a sibling, but I’m sorry you’ve had to carry this weight for so long.” My voice is scratchy with emotion as I kiss the top of her head.

“Thank you, Jackson—for loving me. I think Ryan would’ve really loved you. He probably would have tried to punch you, but he would’ve loved you.”

Kissing her head softly while she pulls out of my hold, wiping bravely at the few tears still staining her cheeks.

“Okay, let’s get the flour and baking powder ready?”

Charlie has me crack an ungodly number of eggs into the mixer and add a bucket of vanilla. I’m new to baking, but these are diabetic-inducing amounts of sugar paired with the vanilla. “Charlie, exactly how many cookies are we making?” I hope it’s a lot so that these numbers make sense.

“Only twelve dozen or so.”

My head tilts in surprise, “This is only a hundred and forty-four cookies?”

“Yes,” she laughs, “have you ever had a bakery cookie? They are usually the size of your head!”

“What? Seriously!”

She keels over, laughing, then says, “Help me get this flour in there, and then I’ll show you the scoop we use to measure each cookie.”

Charlie hands me a bucket of flour, and I ungracefully pour it into the mixer, causing a massive cloud of floury dust to fill the room.

“Oh my,” she laughs, swatting at the air as I suppress my laughter. Her hair slowly turns white from the overflow.

“You have to do a little at a time,” She smiles through a coughing fit.

“Right,” my cheeks heat from embarrassment.

“Okay, now stand here and turn the mixer on.” She positions my body just so and then steps back. My wolf perks up because something feels off. Her eyebrows lift as if to say turn it on, and I shake my head and flip the switch as a wave of flour flies from the mixer, covering my chest and torso. Charlie’s laughter is unrestrained as she keels over in a fit of joy.

My whole world feels complete—seeing her like this is such a change from the woman I met. Charlie is strong and carefree. She’s fun and playful. I stalk towards her, and she slowly backs up, still trying to catch her breath from laughing so hard.

“Alpha,” she breathes out. My wolf pushes to shift as Charlie puts her hand up to avoid my advances. I want nothing more than to smear the flour covering my body all over hers, but this is an excellent chance to teach her how to harness her strength.

“Lesson one, Charlie.” Her smile starts to fall as she hears the seriousness of my tone. “If you’re ever in an uncomfortable situation and he doesn’t stop advancing when you ask, don’t try to stop him by putting your hand up. It leaves you vulnerable.”

To prove my point, I slowly wrap my large hand around her soft wrist, twisting her body as my other arm wraps around her neck; the movement has her pinned to my body, where I have total control.

“But if you don’t have time to get away, and he gets you in a hold like this, lean back into them as they grab you and head-butt them as hard as you can. At your height, you might knock the air from them and kick back with your leg, crushing their toes. Finally, attempt to elbow them just here,” I push to her kidneys. “That should get them to loosen their grip and allow you to run.”

I kiss her softly on the temple and release her. She looks at me, and her eyes are heated. The look makes me smile, but I want her to focus on saving herself and not on whatever our bodies seem to naturally want to do. “Are you ready to try?” I redirect.

She gives a determined nod.

“Okay, I’m going to advance slowly, and you run through the movements we just discussed.”

“Jackson, stop.” Her voice is weak as she backs up against the cabinets. She looks for a way to run, but I know she’s trapped. I’ll need to make that lesson two; don’t get in a situation without at least two exits. I don’t heed her warnings as I stalk forward.

I quickly grab her and twist her tiny body into mine, and I hate how easy this could be for any other person. She surprises me, though, as she uses my momentum against me, slamming into my chest with her tiny head, causing her hairband to come loose. Her long locks fall over her face, momentarily distracting me again as her foot smashes mine and her elbow connects with the tender ribs from Killian’s hits a few days ago.

Within seconds, she has me bent over, attempting to catch my breath, and she confidently escapes my hold. Her excitement at taking me down makes me smile as I heave air into my lungs. Then her smile turns to concern, “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

“No,” I huff. “You did good. I’m glad I didn’t tell you to go for my balls ’cause you can do some damage.”

She smiles brightly, “Can we do it again?”

I slowly stand back up, cringing.

We spend the next hour practicing escaping this hold while baking cookies. She slowly gets more comfortable using her body against me to the point where her wolf’s strength would have me bending over, trying to catch my breath. We also practiced being caught off guard from behind. The movements were similar.

By the time the last batch of cookies finished, the kitchen was hot, and we both had a good amount of flour and sweat covering our bodies. “I think we need to clean up,” I say as she tries and fails to wipe the white powder off her round cheek.

“Yeah,” she says as she glances around the kitchen. You’re very distracting to have here. Usually, I clean as I bake, but we have a lot of cleaning to do.”

I scratch at my beard and nod. I can’t help the smile that pulls at my lips. I love this. I love her, and I love this mess we’ve gotten into. We both slowly start wiping down counters and putting ingredients away. Having the kitchen back in order only takes thirty minutes or so. Charlie also made puff pastry and slid the trays of cookies and bread into a large fridge for Lola the next morning.

“I think I need to return to work more full-time and help Lola.”

I nod. I don’t want this time to end, but I also need to get to know my Pack, learn what they need, and how I can help them.

“You’ll have one of the guys with you while you’re here.” Even though the bodyguard was established a while ago, I still can’t risk her being alone.

“But you just showed me how to defend myself,” her voice is passionate, and I shake my head no.

“I never want you to have to use those skills. I’ll teach you and protect you, but never would I allow you,” my hands pull her in and sweep down to her stomach, “Or our child the chance to be hurt. This is none negotiable.”

‘Could we move the bakery to the Lodge? They can sell sweets and treats from there,’ my wolf suggests.

My hold on her tightens as I consider how the Village is set up. The bakery sits on the far end of the main street, closest to the highway. If someone managed to get a hold of her, they would have a straight shot to leave, especially since my enforcer team is preoccupied with finding out who is leaving bodies in the forest.

My wolf growls deeply, and Charlie’s voice fills my head.

‘What’s the matter, big guy?’

I nuzzle into her soft hair, taking in her scent. “Nothing can happen to you two; I wouldn’t be okay.”

She turns in my hold, and her tiny hand sweeps down my jaw. “We are safe. I can keep a bodyguard around. It’s okay.” Her voice is soothing as she looks between my eyes.

I grunt and kiss her forehead, pulling her into my body.

She melts into my embrace as my phone buzzes between us. The vibrations have her squirming in my arms, and she gives me more ideas for what we should explore next.

Charlie slowly locks up the kitchen and leaves Lola a note saying she’ll return in the morning.I pull the phone out as we head to my truck.

The text is from Killian,

Hey, we’re all set up for some fire pit action tonight. Are you two coming?

I shoot back.

Yeah, we’re just leaving now.

I watch Charlie, covered in flour, saunter past my office and upstairs to clean up before we meet the guys. A big part of me wants to bring Charlie in on the issue with the Pack. Hunter’s situation exploded a few days ago, and now she doesn’t know that someone is after our kind. I hate that I’ve kept the truth from her, but I don’t need to add more fear into her life right now when she’s just starting to heal.

Tonight, the large oak doors to my office feel heavier as I push into them. My phone is in my hands as I dial Will’s number.

“Hey, did you get those cameras near the Mill?”

“Yeah, boss, they’re in place.”

“Good. Did you see anything else out there?”

The last few times someone has been out near the Mill, we’ve found mutilated animals on the trail. While Emma created the cure for Wolfsbane poisoning, we discovered it was the remains of that process. Now, I know that something is going on, but someone knows how to poison my Pack.

“No, sir, it’s been quiet for a few days now,” Will says in a relieved sigh.

Unfortunately, quiet isn’t always better; I wonder what’s coming next. “Alright, well, if you’re up for it, we’re having a bonfire behind the Lodge tonight.”

“Sure, I’ll be over in a bit.”

I sit back in the oversized red chair and look at the ceiling. Nothing has made sense about the poison or the kidnappings. It’s a relief that my sister is safe, and Anna, who had also been poisoned. But I feel like I’m missing something. I must zone out because Charlie presses into my office only a few minutes later, sliding her tiny body into my lap.