Chapter 5

The week passes quickly and Jaxson really does regret it, not because Alaska is out on a death-defying mission, not because she has delivered something so brilliant that he can’t possibly say no. It is because she is so deeply immersed in the planning process that she doesn’t do much except disappear into her room and then reappear to eat and work only.

It is hard for him to adjust to the sudden loss of her as his constant companion. Even when she was in such a bad state, she was there. She didn't need to say anything. She didn't need to smile or give him any emotion. Just being there was enough.  

When they first arrived, when she was just laid out in her room for months on end. The only difference was that back then he had free access to look after her. Sometimes it was like she didn't even know he was there, but at least he could be close. But now it's different. Instead of hearing, silence or sobbing, now he can hear progress. He can feel her happiness at the process and it makes it hard to feel like he did the wrong thing. 

Now he can smell her scent. He catches brief glimpses of her and he can hear her within the confines of her room, but that is the extent of their interaction.

Jax leans casually against the kitchen island with a bowl of cereal pressed tightly to his chest, staring directly at Alaska's door. 

She has been getting up earlier than ever before and sometimes in the morning he has been missing her altogether. She moves so stealthily that he doesn't even wake, so this morning he made sure that he was awake so early that there is no possible way that he could miss her. 

Alaska emerges in a black women’s pant suit with a light gray shirt, her long hair hanging around her, her eyes lock onto Jax straight away and she shoots him a smile. At exactly the four-month point they were in the worst situation they had been. Jax had hardly been working because he wanted to look after Alaska, the money in the safe was disappearing faster than he thought was possible purely existing in a different world was so expensive.

Jax had the burden of the world on his shoulders after all the failure and grief of losing Torin and the pack, it just continued for him. He wasn’t sure when they would end up being foreclosed upon. He got home that day and he always he had braved a smile when he entered the warehouse, but that day he saw no one. The last fifty dollars in cash they had was gone and as he looked around that empty warehouse he truly believed that he had officially hit rock bottom and he had no energy to go on.

The last person in the world he wanted to let down was Alaska and he was.

It was at that moment that Alaska walked in, she had a pant suit on and a folder clutched to her chest. Jaxson barely even recognized the person standing in front of him, her hair was washed and brushed without him having a hand in it, her face was still pale, but other than that she resembled a living breathing human, which was such a change from the still breathing near corpse that he had kissed on the forehead that morning. Jaxson had just stood there with his mouth open staring. Alaska had walked forward and physically lifted his chin with her fingers. That was when he saw the illusion of the miraculous recovery fade away, because she looked beautiful, there was no doubt, but there was a hollowness in her eyes as if she was a puppet on strings being manipulated in the real world, but her soul was still far removed.

"I got a job"

It was as simple as that. She had taken the last fifty dollars to make a resume and get prints, she managed to secure a suit from a second-hand store and the rest was history. She had the world of experience as a trained beta and beta female but nothing much that would translate to experience in the real world, the human world, so she got a menial position but the extra income made the world of difference, Jax was also able to up his work load because he wasn’t worried that that day would be the day that he returned to find her deceased.

She was a shell of a person, but somehow that shift happened overnight and she became a functioning member of society.

That girl that stood in front of him then is a far cry from the girl that stands in front of him now. Now she has a tailored suit that wraps around her body perfectly, it is crisp and new, the colorless face is now full of life. She may have started in a low position, but once she had the ability to showcase her skills, she moved up the ranks impossibly quickly.

It was that day that she also started training again. It was so basic at first, because everything she had was lost in that period of grief. She grew as the life returned to her and once she started to eat properly. It was so slow at first, but it was the six month point that was the real change in her, but a single letter on a single white piece of paper was enough to do that.

"Are you eating?"

Alaska walks forward, running a hand through his soft hair as she makes her way toward the cupboard.

"And risk your wrath if I don’t?"

Alaska cringes as she even thinks about being pulled onto Jax’s lap and cradled in his arms and being spoon-fed as she sobbed and near choked on the minimal food. She was so pathetic back then, she didn’t have a bigger goal in mind. She was weak and let Jax as well as Torin and her baby down.

Every meal is still tasteless to her, but now she eats for sustenance, she eats to power her body so she never falls apart like that again.

"Don’t forget about tomorrow"

Alaska looks at Jax, her emerald eyes shining brightly.

"I haven't forgotten, I am actually looking forward to it"

Jax takes a bite of cereal at the wrong time and nearly spits it out in his own shock.

"You are?"

"Of course"

Alaska shrugs as she fills up her own bowl. A vicious smirk on her face, it is a whole lot more tolerable to sit and act in front of those people when she is plotting their demise.

Faking a smile with an agenda is easy.

All she usually sees is five people with so much blood on their hands that it makes her gag. She has actually been looking forward to the visit for the week because the more inside intel she can gather the easier it will be.

Usually she is so busy trying to hold herself back from beating them to death that she fails to take in the intricate details. She knows everything she can know from a cyberspace perspective, but she needs to know the enemy on a personal level. She needs to look in their eyes and know what is in their pitch black soul.

Even though Jax is only looking at her profile as she looks at her cereal, her face is scary.

"Umm I will take that as a good thing?"

His voice sounds thoroughly unconvinced but Alaska dismisses it with a wave of her hand.

"As you should"

"Is there anything else on?"

Alaska’s expression softens as she looks at Jax.

"Work is throwing a mixer for me with the new promotion. Will you be my plus one?"

"When is it?"

Jax asks the question while nodding his head vigorously, it doesn’t matter what he had on, he would be changing it on the mere idea of being seen somewhere in public with her.

"Next week"

"I will be there…. Anyway, at least that is a good sign because you plan on living that long"

"I will keep my promise to you Jax, we only attack once the plan has been approved. I am not planning on staging an attack when the only outcome is death…Give me a little credit"

"I am sorry, of course you are right, I am just nervous that they will get their guard up around us"

"I won’t give away the game"

Jax hooks her chin with his thumb and his index finger, placing a kiss on her forehead.

"I know you won’t and, by the way, I give you all the credit in the world, there is no one I trust more than you"

"I am glad Jax, because we only have each other"

Alaska looks back down at her bowl, her hand shakes as she tries to pour the milk on top. There was a time when she was surrounded by so many people and then they all disappeared in the space of a week.

Her parents, Jaxson’s parents, at the start of the week and then by the end she was holding the mutilated body of her mate with no pack support. There was only Jax and somehow he made that enough, she will appreciate him forever for that.

"Anyway, another promotion. Congratulations Alaska"

"Hmm anyone would believe that I was born to be a human"

Jax laughs as his hands once again find his bowl needing the cool surface to calm him. Too much physical contact with her is getting harder and harder.

"You were trained in all of this. What would I do without that beautiful chocolate beta wolf who pushes me so hard?"

"Be half the man you are today?"

"Try a quarter....maybe.... if I was lucky"

Jax says it but his wolf would’ve faded to nothing without knowing he needed to be so strong to protect her.