Revolutionary

Uneasiness crept into Jackson’s conscience, making the lines on his face appear more noticeable even as Hayley reassured him that it was okay to go with Oliver and Aiden.  Had it been Oliver alone, he wouldn’t have left, but with Aiden, he knew something was up.  A sigh of resignation along with a kiss to her forehead and he found himself reluctantly wading to the shoreline, leaving her with a view of his sculpted backside.  Pointing to TweedleDee and TweedleDum, he gave them both a brooding look.  “You two, this better be good.” Oliver wanted to argue as Jackson retrieved his clothes.  Still wet, he did his best to get into his jeans, tucking his junk in before zipping up.  Shrugging into his shirt, he left it unbuttoned and ran a hand through his wet hair.  “Yeah Ollie, I know, pack business comes before playtime…  Yeah Ollie, I know, you don’t like having to babysit the pack… and all that sh*t.” He was beginning to sound like a broken record.  “You know what Oliver, if you don’t want this responsibility, I can assign it to someone else.”  That shut him up real quick.

Enough distance had been put between the trio and Hayley that he could finally ask, “So what’s this about?”
Aiden chimed in, a look of genuine concern on his features.  “Allie’s gone missing and it appears she took your quiver and arrows.  We didn’t think much of it at first, but she’s been gone for two days now and our accountability procedures require everyone leaving for more than just a day to run it by one of us.  She didn’t.”
Jackson now sympathized with Oliver’s babysitting observation.  “Did she leave a note?”
“Man, she didn’t leave sh*t.” Leave it up to Oliver to constructively help every situation.
“Okay, we need to scout… North, East, South and West.  Aiden, grab your brother.  I’m going to grab Hales some clothes and head back South to get her. I’ll see if anything turns up retracing my tracks.  We’ll meet back here tonight and regroup.” After heading back to the cabin to change out of his wet clothes and get Hayley some dry ones, Jackson took off on foot, following the scent of his pack, his senses on high alert for both the scent of Hayley and the missing female.  When he came to the waterfall, Hayley wasn’t to be found.  “HAYLEY!” He called out for her, but was met with his own echo, followed by silence.  Following the flow of the water downstream, he caught the scent of both females, panic, anger, jealousy and blood.  Oh sh*t… OH SH*T!  His thoughts were racing as fast as he was to pinpoint their location. 

“STOP!” Jackson’s command caught the attention of both women.  All of the details at the scene unfolding weren’t known to him, but considering what he was seeing, he had a pretty good idea of what was happening.  While he hadn’t launched that arrow, he was the reason for its launch.  He should’ve known better than to f*** around with Allie.  Of course at that time, it was unknown to him that Hayley was alive.  And even when she was alive upon his resurrection, Jackson had made no effort to reconcile their marriage.  From what he could see, she was happy and living her life with the assumption that he was dead.  Presenting himself to her would’ve only added a layer of heartache and complications that he was sure she didn’t need.  His only desire was for her to be happy, even if that meant without him.  Taking Allie to bed wasn’t meant to be a replacement.  Perhaps she’d misunderstood… friends with benefits.  Allie wasn’t the only one either. His discretions were becoming indiscretions, bringing full circle the meaning behind his couch having seen a lot of ass. Regardless, as soon as Hayley returned, all of that stopped. 

Hayley was about to kill this girl.  For all intents and purposes, it technically would’ve been justifiable.  Attempting to kill your own kind was a form of treason and the punishment for treason was death.  That law was as old as time and probably due to be amended on the books as it seemed a little hypocritical to punish a perpetrator with the same offense of the crime they’d committed.  This, however, wasn’t the time to mull over it.  “Hayley… Hayley, look at me.”  She was wildly infuriated, as if devoid of all humanity.  He knew that look.  Allie was spitting blood, another trigger to that dark side Hayley was figuring out that was about to go full apocalyptic.  Gently caressing Hayley’s cheek while wrapping a towel around her, he aimed to anchor her. Having heard the commotion, Oliver and Aiden were in tow, attempting to grab Allie and put distance between her and Hayley.  Jackson gave them both a grateful nod, laced with just a tad of welcome to the sh*t show before turning his attention back to Hayley.  “I don’t know what happened here, but I’ve a pretty good idea.  I know you’re angry and trust me, this will be rectified.  We have a democracy.  Otherwise we’d just be a pack of heathens.”  Jackson wasn’t sure if Hayley could hear him or, if at this point, he was strong enough to keep her from ripping this girl to shreds.  These new dark powers she had were unlike anything he’d seen.  “Hayley…” He tried once more to defuse this bomb of a situation.  “You’re injured.  Let’s not make it worse.  Let’s go back to the cabin and deal with this.  Aiden and Oliver will detain her.”  And by Aiden and Oliver, he meant Aiden.