Rise of the Underdogs: JACOB

Complex Care

Once I returned to the Howler packhouse, I was greeted by a male Vampire Omega bouncing from foot to foot. “You got a grasshopper in your jeans or something, Leo?”

“Anxious!” He squeaked. His pale features were drawn into a mask of unease as his red-ringed eyes scanned the road continuously. “My mother and sister are on their way to join the pack. They are coming from Salem down in the States. I… I told them it’s a revolutionary movement that was created by Guardians, and they chose to join, but I don’t know how to approach Lord Logan about it….”

“Stop,” I commanded, knowing that he’d never asked for anything since coming to our lands. “Breathe. Refocus. Reup. Repeat.”

It took a hot minute, but he got it. Thank the Gods.

The common knowledge was that none of the founding members objected to much. We mostly held votes, talked stuff out, and moved on once the issue was dealt with. We had revolutionized our world to include various skill sets that others might have missed, but it also meant that we weren’t just a household name.

We were the result of letting pups take point in training where adults suppressed their desires by saying “You’re not old enough”.

Hell-to-the-yes, we proved it wrong!

You could tell how close someone was to Logan by what they called him. Vampires said “Lord” like they were trying to impress a council—mostly out of fear of offending his full-blooded cousins from Valencia. Werewolves used “Alpha” because they knew he earned it, trial by fire and all. Everyone else fumbled between “Logan” and “Sir,” unsure of their standing, hoping not to step wrong.

But Lo-lo? That name was forged in a white-walled room—his childhood bedroom, back when grief still hung in the air like fog and we were just kids trying to figure out how to share space and survive together. Heaven and Ember coined it at age two and a half, and it stuck like soul glue. It wasn’t cute. It was real. It was the sound of chosen family forming in the silence left by loss.

We didn’t become close after his mother died. We already were. Her absence just sealed it. From that point on, we weren’t just friends. We were his. And he was ours.

In what my father used to call the tapestry of life, we’d found each other and got the strings of fate tangled so bad, it was difficult to find one Howler without others silently guarding them from afar. That was something else I held in common with Valik: poetry. He loved it and so did I.

Why? Because it helped. Because words in poems were beautiful hooks that told stories of emotional and mental states.

Gawd, I can already hear my English teacher yelling at me for using prepositions at the beginning of my sentences. Eff you, Mrs. Wellington!

I collapsed to my bed at the Howler packhouse, enjoying the quiet for a while before Heaven knocked on my door. “What?”

“Moody?” she asked, her voice holding a tender mix of sibling humour and a Healers curiosity.

Lifting my head, I glared at her, “No. I’m tired and cranky.”

“You went home,” she stated. I say stated because that was not a question. It wasn’t even a guess. She knew. The thrum of her heart skipped a beat, stuttering over the rhythm as her sadness spiked.

Letting out another breath, I fell quiet. Then, “I had to. To know if I was going to be strong enough to do this without him. I miss him, Ven.”

She nodded, “We all do, Jake. I don’t envy your grief.”

My eyes darted around the room, taking inventory of my scarce belongings. I held out my hand to her, almost expecting her to deny me before her willowy arms pulled me to her chest. Her softness held a strength not many possessed. My sweet baby sister – so kind and gentle – better have a good man for a Mate or I was going to kill him.

Heaven was too good for anything less than the most deserving.

With me, Wynter, and Heaven being the youngest of the fam-jam, we were a little closer. I mean, yeah, my sister’s annoyed the heck outta me, but I loved them dearly. There was one thing people didn’t know. See, I’m only nineteen months older than Wynter, and Wyn is thirteen months older than Heaven. Most of our siblings were born within two years of each other, but we three were closest.

Holding the baby of the family, I let out a harsh laugh that sounded similar to a sob. Her hand moved, stroking my hair soothingly as I let it out. Unashamed and unafraid.

“It’s okay, Jakey,” I heard her whisper. “Sissy’s here. I got you. You’re not alone in your heartache.”

I nodded against her before another set of arms surrounded me from behind. Inhaling, I caught Wynter’s scent mixed with Devon’s. They were Mates, unsurprisingly. I had a feeling one of the twins would be Wynter’s. She desperately needed someone who could match her energy.

“I felt your pain from the training arena,” Wynter whispered, hugging me firmly from behind. “We’re with you, Jakey.”

“He okay?” Paul’s voice cut through the thick air of the room.

The kind of thick air that sucked the oxygen out and tried to crush you under the weight. The soft patter of rain started beating against the window as my siblings and fellow founders of our perfect little pack filled my space with their presence. It helped me while helping them as well.

Finally, when the emotional swell died down and I felt more like myself again, I took a breath. “Thanks, guys. When I went by the old house, I, uh, did a walk-through. As much as it hurt, I had to confront it head on. I had to. Also, I talked to Quartz about our stuff. She said we can take and or donate whatever was left behind. She and Jack are going to share the house between their families for now.”

“That’s a lot, little brother,” Paul murmured. “Are you feeling better now?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, wiping my face before Wynter shoved a box of tissues in my face. “Thanks.”

“So, we can take what we want from the house and donate what we don’t need anymore?” Paul asked, his eyes sparking with curiosity.

It was our shared foundation, that curiosity. The ability to seek answers beyond the answers other people would take at face value.

“Yeah, that’s what the agreement was,” I told him, my voice hoarse after my emotional breakdown.

The upside to having compassionate siblings was that they showed up when they were needed, not when you thought they needed. They were just… there. Holding the line, defending the weak, even if that weak one was their Tracker brother who could sniff out a rabbit den five kilometers away.

Licking my lips, I was about to say something when my phone rang shrilly. Pulling it out of my back pocket, I breathed a small laugh. “Yes, Alpha?”

“Why is Ignacio telling me my Delta’s in pain?” Clear, crisp, and straight to the damn point.

Honestly, I absolutely adored how Logan ran the Howlers. His methods actually made sense. He wore honour and integrity like badges of accomplishments, and his friends were his supporting cast in the grandmaster play of life.

“Because I went…” pausing, I calmed myself before continuing. “I went back to the old house today. Memories surfaced, and it caused a breakdown. I’m okay now. My sibs helped ground me.”

When he spoke again, I could hear the worry and praise in his voice. “Jake, you know you’re all family to me, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then tell me the truth,” he coaxed.

Even from a distance, his power was formidable. The compulsion in his voice added Ignacio’s presence to the discussion, and the weight of the Alpha command pressed down on my shoulders.

“I’m not okay. I feel guilty as all get-out because I’m a living, breathing reminder of my father,” I told him, letting the words fall where they may. Watching them shatter the still quiet of the room as my siblings’ faces took on a vicious look that said they had gone from sympathizing with me to ready to murder me. “What? You want me to lie?”

Paul let out an ominous growl that said he was ready to drag me to the training arena himself. Wynter tilted her head to the side in a gesture that said I was going to regret saying anything to them. The only one trying to stifle a laugh because she knew how I rolled with my attitude was Heaven.

Logan barked a laugh, “Jake, you’re going to be fine. You might look like your dad, but, like me, you’re not him. We’re the next generation of leaders, so have your moment, pull yourself together, then reup. We’ve all got your back in this.”

And that right there, ladies and gentle beasts, is why we adored the absolute heck out of the guy we put in the Alpha seat.