Chapter 75

Jacke's POV

The following morning I woke up early, at the crack of dawn, and got out of bed as carefully as I could to not wake Alex up and let her sleep in. I left the room and walked out and downstairs into the kitchen to see it was empty, leaving me all the room to make some food. We split and Jake took a seat while I grabbed a carton of eggs from the fridge, an onion, and a roll of ground sausage. Browning the sausage in one pan while I diced the onion to make some breakfast burritos, Jake sat staring into space deep in thought.

"What's on your mind, Bud?"

"Just thinking about how we're going to go about talking to Pete, and Alex's Beta. Pete seems like a nice dude, but I don't know how I'd be able to play nice with Alex's old bully," He said before I handed him a drink, "Thank you. I mean, is it just me? I feel like it's almost a test for us not to just deck the guy after what he put her through."

"Under normal circumstances, I would agree with you one hundred percent, however, these aren't normal circumstances. If Alex was able to get this guy to stop bullying her when they were younger, I would presume that he's matured quite a bit, seeing as he now serves as her right hand," I said, draining the fat from the sausage in the pan and throwing the onion in with it, and started scrambling some eggs, "Besides, no-one ever said we had to get along with the guy if you don't like him that's fine but you can't pick a fight with him over the past. This isn't some fight or anything of that matter, we're just going to talk to him to let him know that we've accepted our Title and that we can't give a speech. No harm no foul."

Jake started thinking again considering what I had said as I rolled a couple of burritos together and wrapped them in aluminum foil before handing him one and leading him out the front door. We took a seat out on the front porch and started eating while admiring the progress that had been made on rebuilding. The majority of the buildings had been rebuilt, with only a few empty spaces left, and people were starting to move their stuff in from the trucks. As time passed we finished our food and continued talking about how we were going to talk to Pete, before Nicki and Jade came out of their apartment and joined us on the steps.

"What's got you two so anxious? I haven't seen Jake this tense since Alex first started flirting with him."

"We have to go and talk to her Uncle Pete, and explain that while we accept their Title, we can't give a speech on it. We spent almost an hour talking about it last night with Alex, and in the end, we agreed that it would just be easier for us to go and talk to Pete and her Beta instead of her pack as a whole," I said as Jake was finishing his burrito and getting a hug from Nicki, "We got up early to get some food first and talk about how we'd go about doing it, weren't expecting to see you two up this early."

"We grabbed some grub, and were going to go for a walk around the place until Nicki saw you two sitting over here and wanted to see what was going on," Jade said before sending a wink Nicki's way, which told me there was more to it than just a walk, but that wasn't for me to know.

"Don't be anxious, Jake, you've tackled scarier things than a conversation with those two and came out on top. You'll be fine," Nicki said before standing back up and taking Jade's hand to go on their walk. They lept down the stairs and before long were out of our line of sight, as we stood back up and fused back together.

"Let's go find Pete, something tells me he's going to be able to help us get ready before talking to Alex's Beta," I said before turning around and heading back inside, throwing our trash away on the way in, to see that Pete was already up and making his breakfast, "Well, that didn't take long at all."

"Good morning, Jacke! How's it going?"

"Not too bad I was looking to speak with you if you've got some time."

"For you? If I didn't I'd make sure I did, what's going on?" He said before taking a seat next to us with a bowl of cereal and mug of coffee.

"Last night, before we went to bed, Alex and I spoke about the speech I'm supposed to give. I ended up explaining that I don't think it would be a good idea for me to give a full-on speech to the pack as a whole, I just don't think it would work for me, and so she asked me to go find you and her Beta today and talk to you both about it."

"I see, a bad case of stage freight? Or do you just not think that a speech would fit your skillset?"

"It's a mix of both, to be frank, I already confided in Alex that I accepted the position as she laid it out to me, but giving a speech to her pack as a whole would probably lead to me being in a worse position than I am now. When she marked me a while back, she said something along the lines of 'I would fight death itself to keep you by my side' and I told her that I have no doubt she would. I don't remember if I told her this, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if she tried to fight death and I wasn't there with her," I said as I took a sip from the drink that Jake had left on the counter, as Pete considered what we had told him.

"Well, it seems to me that you're already the Luna of the pack, but wear such a title in secrecy. Even if we're rebuilding our home on your land, you were the one who gave us the resources to do so. You're a natural leader, even if you do so from the shadows. I would say it's still a good idea to talk to Alex's Beta, but in my eyes, you're already the Luna of our pack, and I'll get to work on spreading the word around. However, before I do so, I have a question I would ask of you."

"Sure, what's up?"

"The other night, before you and Alex started sleeping in the Packhouse, Alex had told me about your 'War of The Necropolis'. Would you care to give me some insight into what that was?"

"As to not waste too much of your time, I'll try and summarize what had happened, as difficult as that may be. Essentially, an old love of mine had come back from the dead, with a thirst for revenge. We were in love at another time in my life, but some shit went down that led our relationship to fail, and I left completely as I didn't want anything to do with her anymore. When she came back, my family was out and about trying to find Milo and Gloria, two of the newest additions to our family, and when we returned we found our home burned to the ground."

"That must've been difficult to see, I'm sorry that happened to you."

"Don't be, after all, Alex didn't call it a 'War of The Necropolis' for nothing. I gathered my brother's back, and we put her down after she came back the first time, but I knew she wouldn't be gone long. We gathered the strongest of our family and put them through hell and high water until they were ready for war. After all of that had finished, we stormed the gates of The Necropolis, or Land of the Dead, and fought her army of living dead until she was gone once and for all."

"How can you be sure that she's truly gone for good if she was able to come back beforehand?"

"Let's just say that I have strong faith in my abilities, and the abilities of my brethren, and leave it at that. She won't be coming back again, and that gives me the freedom to recenter my focus on rebuilding here, and helping out with both of our families wherever I can."

"I hope you'll be willing to elaborate on this conversation another day, Jacke, you truly are an intriguing fellow," Pete said before standing up to put his dishes away and grab another cup of coffee.

"Oh most definitely, and there's much more to share, but I have to go and have this conversation again with Alex's Beta, so if you'll excuse me."

"Of course, and good luck with him, he's rather quick to jump to conclusions."

"Thank You, Pete," I said before leaving out the front door again to go and find the other man I had to have this conversation with, and hopefully it would go smoothly, I'd rather not have to get in a fight this quickly with a member of Alex's Pack.