He was practically groomed to fill the role. He couldn't have that. He had a lot of things that he wanted to do with his life.
He learnt all he could until he was eighteen before he left the town.
He barely remembered much from the town. Even though it was where he had grown up, all of his memories had not exactly been pleasant ones.
That was in the past now he told himself. He needed to make sure that Belmont stayed as his past. He missed Jenna more than he could express.
"Hi Jace." Jenna said, as soon as she got to his home. "It's been a minute." She said in that dreamy tone of hers.
He didn't see why they couldn't just enjoy being together. It would have been just like old times except they were no longer children and life was a lot more serious now.
He was so far from home but she smelled like something he couldn't quite place his finger on.
She still styled her hair almost the same way, he noted. She was still very pretty, he concluded.
She smiled the same way.
She was still the same Jenna he had left back home, he hoped.
He asked her to leave with him. She had been too scared to leave with him.
He didn't think he was to blame for how they fell apart and he frankly didn't blame her. It was a bold move to have left the only home he had ever known. He didn't think she betrayed him to not come with him.
He did however think that she felt differently on the matter though.
She had begged him not to go but he knew what his heart wanted.
He respected her decision to stay but his heart was set on leaving the town and that he did.
Well over ten years later and she was at his doorstep. She looked like a blast from the past that he had worked so hard to keep behind him but it was the good kind of blast.
"Hi Jen." Jace said, opening the door for her and showing her the way in. "I don't suppose I should ask you how you found me now should I?" He asked, tapping his nose.
He was implying that she still knew his scent and that was probably why the elders of the pack had sent her on this mission instead of someone that he barely knew.
"No, you shouldn't." She said with a soft smile that warmed his heart. "It's so nice to see you." She added, with a little pull at her hair.
She had to be at least twenty five by now. He didn't think that she could have grown to be this beautiful. Actually, he never really thought about it.
He had tried his best to put that past behind him but it became increasingly hard to stand by it.
The past had come knocking on his front door and it was calling him to his so-called destiny.
He didn't know how he was going to say no but he had to. He had devoted the last decade of his life to making his own money and he was successful.
He didn't want to be tied down by his family's money.
He was a tech genius as far as the world was concerned.
He had made his billions and he didn't need any hand me down that his family wanted to offer him.
As far as everyone else was concerned, he was a billionaire playboy. His gossip was the talk of the tabloids.
He liked for it to stay that way. That was as much accountability as he wanted to have. It didn't matter what anyone said, his life was perfect. He just needed to make sure that she left the same way that she had come.
He was in no mood to complicate his life by adding whatever this looked like it was going to be.
"Would you like something to drink?" He asked as he gestured for her to sit.
She seemed a bit hesitant at first, he noticed but she eventually listened to him and sat like he told her to.
"Please relax." He told her. "It's just us." He said, not sure why he was assuring her.
He never felt free in Belmont. Even though she did not admit it, she had to feel a breath of fresh air that she didn't usually feel.
Belmont Falls was a war front. It was a vampire haven and the home of a long line of purebred wolves.
While there was a truce, that did not stop petty fights from breaking out amongst other things.
He could recall the stories that his grandmother told him. Stories about their family coming from a long line of werewolves.
He always remembered thinking that his gran was the best storyteller ever.
Life had a way of making nightmares come true, he thought to himself as he stared at the window. It was raining even if the moon was shining from a corner of the earth.
It was a nasty phenomenon this one, he told himself. His Gran maybe have even a really great story teller but she had prepared him for all the horrors he didn't know existed. Until he came of age of course.
They had one natural enemy. Vampires, he hissed half to himself. The one and only danger to their kind.
Belmont falls was their stronghold. Far as he could tell, there were stories about them. Stories that even he could not stand to recount.
"I am relaxed." She finally said, staring at him from behind the curtain of those brown eyes.
He had always thought that they looked beautiful.
He could see it in her eyes. She was feeling particularly daunting.
He didn't want to be the one to stand in the way of that. If anything, he welcomed the bravery.
She had been so cooped up all her life that she deserved this one moment of respite. A moment where she felt like she could do anything in the whole world. Where it did not feel like some destiny that was tailored out for her was looming at the back of her head.
That was him if he was being honest. It was all he had Everly been aware of. It was the very reason why home did not feel like home for him.
The first chance he had gotten, he bailed. He bailed without looking back and until now, he didn't feel the least bit sorry about wanting to live his life.
He stared at her as she rested her back on the chair.
"Water." She said as she noticed that he raised his hands to ask her the question again.
She knew him so well. She was the only one that did right now, he thought to himself.
Clive was gone. He still found it weird that he called his father Clive. Heck, the man never knew him. He always went on and on about duty but somehow, he still managed to accommodate his excesses. Still, that did not count as actually knowing him for what it was worth, he told himself.
If there was one person that had the ability to guess what he was thinking then it had to be her. He knew that there was no point lying to her so he had to confide in her when he was about to leave.
If he didn't do that, she would have found out anyway and would be pissed.
He didn't want to see her pissed and yes, she could still kick his butt, he reminded himself.
Their childhood was exciting. He made a mental note to try as much as possible to get this over with and have her be on her way. He had not let this much thoughts of his past barrage his mind in years. The fact that he was seeing her now made all the things that he had been trying to hold back inside come pouring ā and in the most unruly fashion too.
He sighed as he continued to walk towards the kitchen.
His home was set in different eras. The living room was a modern type American set up. It was huge as he had been told. Humongous according to what one of the architects that designed the place said. He often wondered during the process; the architect that is. He wondered who would be eccentric enough to brave this design. Turns out that he was the one that was that eccentric.
Other parts of his home had different cultural representations. His bathroom was Slavic. His bedroom was themed in a Japanese styled manner. It was his most favorite room in all of these. Tailored after his love for Japanese animations.
Jace was a well-built young man in his late twenties. He wore his hair in a buzz fade that made his face look smart. His body did nothing to not distract any oncoming gaze that sought him out. He was built very nicely. Years of hitting the gym paid off and he was a McCain as much as he would hate to remind himself. They were built like mountains. An unstoppable force in anyone's path. Anyone that they choose to barrage for what it was worth.
His blue eyes were just like his father's although he would drop dead before he admitted that he had anything in common with that man. This was a fact however. One that he could do absolutely nothing about.
"So, how long are you in town for?" He asked, trying not to turn around.
She had to have had some place where she was staying, he told himself.
"I'm not sure. Just until Iā" she started to say but she eventually trailed off and stopped.
"Just until you what?" He asked her in a stiller voice.
He had already gotten the water she wanted and he was back to the living room.
"Uh, nothing." She said, looking away from him.
"Until you convince me to come back home with you right?" He asked her.
It wasn't really a question and they both knew it. It was more like an affirmation that he knew what she was doing. What she was sent here for. It would do them good for him to break that illusion that he didn't know. Also, she needed to know right now that he was not letting them manipulate him into coming back home. He was not so easily deceived, even if it came in the form of an old face.
He was far too strong minded for that to happen.
"It's not like that, Jace." She said in her smallish voice as she unconsciously put her hair behind her ear.
She did that when she was nervous. He had known that part about her for ages. She didn't want anyone to see how afraid she would usually get so she tried to keep them distracted.
"You don't see me making any bold assumptions now do you?" Jace asked. "Enlighten me. How is it like?" He asked her.
"It's ā" she began.
Jace stared at her with his piercing blue eyes, expecting her to say something would make it look like he had not just been ambushed. I mean, he saw it coming so it didn't matter. He just didn't want her to act like they didn't plan to lure him back home.
He would have made it back home eventually if they met him. Heck, it was only a matter of time. He had a duty. But no, he told himself. They didn't trust him enough to do that. Let him make his own decisions.
Somehow, he started to guess that Clive was the only one that kept them at bay. Those blood thirsty geezers.
"You know," he began to say as he handed her the glass of water. "I thought you would trust me." He told her, turning around to face the sea.
It was a magnificent view but he was not feeling it right now. It didn't feel like the usual wash of Euphoria that it usually filled him with.