Greykin Mountain

| 62 | The Stranger Next Door

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Jackson didn't get to relax with Damon for long. He sat there and watched Damon pull his clothes back on; he wanted to focus on his content feelings, but the Alpha's reason for being so hasty to leave weighed on his mind.

          "I'll speak with the council first," Damon said, buttoning his jeans. "Not including Elias and Aysel. I won't give those two a chance to take the information to their loyalists before I tell everyone else."

          "Won't they like...kick off or make a huge deal out of not being included in a council meeting?"

          "From what I hear, the two of them are holed up in the room I was sharing with her. The council are helping and supervising the wall reconstruction, which I'm sure is almost complete," he said, leaning back so he could glance out of the small window. "Just promise me you'll stay down here until I come and get you," he requested, sitting on the couch.

          He nodded as he sat up and pulled his arms out from under the blanket. "Yeah. I'll stay here."

          Damon leaned closer and kissed his lips. "Okay. I shouldn't be too long."

          Jackson nodded again and looked down at the floor. He couldn't deny that he was worried—maybe even a little terrified, too. He had no idea how the council were going to react when Damon told them that he was a demon-wolf walker hybrid...and they were supposed to be the most mature wolves in the pack. If they didn't react well, then he was sure that the rest of the pack would probably try to chase him away or murder him in his sleep out of fear that he might do the same thing.

          "What's wrong?" Damon asked, gently gripping his chin and moving his head so that he'd look at him.

          "I just...I'm worried about how they're going to react. I was freaked out at the mere idea of demons and seeing those things in Ridge's cave absolutely horrified me; I'm pretty sure I know how most of the pack will feel about knowing there's a demon sleeping among them. And I've already caused enough drama."

          Damon sighed and shook his head. "Just because you have demon blood does not mean you're like other demons. You only just found out and haven't been raised as a demon would have been." A hesitant frown appeared on his face. "We do need to find out what you need in terms of sustenance, though, and I'm hoping one of the council members will have an answer. You feel okay right now, don't you?"

          "Yeah," he said confidently.

          "When was the last time you ate?"

          "Uh...." He tried to remember. "I had some stuff from the bakery before Ridge kidnapped me, and then whatever was left of that stuff when we got back to my room."

          Damon dragged his hand over the back of his head. "The pack are hungry—I can tell. We lost that moose, and without knowing whether or not there are more variants out there, I'm not willing to take the risk and send the Kappas on another hunt. We've got a few supplies left, so I'll ask Rachel and Brando to cook something up later."

          "I'd offer to help, but I'm not really one for cooking up meals. Wilson and I lived off microwave crap and noodles."

          The Alpha frowned. "Microwave?"

          "It's...a sort of electric oven that cooks stuff real fast."

          "Hmm."

          "Anyway, do you know how long you'll be?"