Unwanted

5

"Oh my god." I groan to myself and I finally pick myself up from the ground. Aliyah giggles as she reaches out for me again but I step back a few feet just in case I get any residue memories. "I'm never going to unsee that." I whisper to myself as I stare down at the puke sitting next to me.

"You saw something?" Father says as he hurries over to where I am. I watch confused as he helps me off of the ground and brushes off my ass, like he use to do when I was younger. Only now I am a grown man who doesn't understand why the man who tries his hardest to hate me is helping me and is touching my butt, a no-no zone for parents.

"Yeah, but nothing you would be interested about hearing." I grunt as I pull away from Father's grip. "So let's forget about it?" I say as I turn to look at my father. He gives me a thoughtful look for a second before nodding and looking to the rest of the family. It hard to ignore how easily he is able to just discard me. If it was anyone else he would have pushed more.

"I think now is a good time to have that lunch that we made for us." Everyone takes this as their cue to leave, but I stay behind so I can walk with the back of the group, sadly, it seems this is the same thing that Jackson had decided to do. Admittedly, out of everyone, he was the one that I was most reluctant to say hello to.

"You know, I honestly wondered if I would ever see your repulsive face again." This is exactly why I didn't want to have this moment, literally the first thing he says to me is an insult. He doesn't have compassion, I wonder how his mate deals with him.

"You know, that's funny, cause I was gonna say the same thing." Just because I use to be the shy, mommy's boy doesn't mean that I am going to let people pick on me anymore. I'm not a kid anymore.

Jackson looks at me quickly before a smile blooms on his face and he gives me a nod of approval.

"Got a backbone while you were away. Good for you, just means I can make more fun of you and not have to worry about you going to cry on someone's shoulder." Jackson nudges me in the shoulder with his own before giving me a small smile. "But really, I don't think anyone is gonna say this, besides maybe Logan, but we all missed you. It hasn't been the same here since you left. I hope you can stay for a while." I smile back at Jackson before nodding.

"I was hoping to make this trip longer than it should be. I've been thinking about a lot of things lately. Since I got the letter from Logan." I admit as I look out at the meadow again before we enter into the trees and follow the path that brings us back to the pack house. Even though I haven't been here in years, I still remember this path like the back of my hand.

"Like what kind of thinking?" Jackson pushes as he concentrated on walking without tripping on the fallen branches and roots sticking up on the path.

"What was I really going for, moving to New York, becoming a lawyer, being independent? It goes against everything that our kind stands for, and I wanted it, so bad. I wanted to leave so badly." I sigh as I look up at the small glimpses of the sun between the tree branches and leaves. It turned out to be a beautiful day, but I think it is the mood goddesses way of saying that she will take care of our mother for us now that they are united.

"But what?" Jackson may be an ass, but he does know when there is more to something then what you are really saying. I guess growing up with Father has made us all this way, a lot of the time we had to guess if he was proud of us or not.

"But did I really want it? Or was I just sick of being the weird kid that everyone side glanced at when he walked in the room? Did I want all of those things, normal human things, because even in a non-normal world like ours, I was the weird kid nobody wanted to be friends with? Did I just want to fit in? Even in a world that isn't mine?" Jackson stops and pulls my arm so I stop in front of him.

"You know we never thought of you like that. We love you, you are our brother and we don't think of you like your some weird kid. You have a gift, more than one, you should be proud of it. You should be proud of yourself." Jackson's face is split with a frown and I have a hard time not believing him, but the facts of my childhood don't lie.

"It would be easier to believe you if I wasn't told to hide myself and to never use my 'gifts'. And if people didn't treat me like I was a fragile little flower who needs counseling for his fucked up life. " I say as I give Jackson a small, sad smile before turning and continuing to the pack house.

It was hard to ignore the pitying look he gives my back as we walked back to the house in silence, Jackson walking behind me the rest of the way, not saying anything else in fear that I would explain more of my miserable life while living in the pack.