Justin's lips parted in a choked scream when Jax pressed the stake into his side.
Melissa stood frozen by the bar, her eyes as big as saucers as she stared in disbelief at the scene unfolding in front of her eyes.
Several people were seated, eating their food, drinking their coffee but all of them were silent as they carried on like normal.
Nobody reacted to the guy about to be publicly executed.
Lola's voice was hoarse, barely making a sound after her screams were left to disappear into the air like they couldn't be heard.
She saw the wounds and bruises forming on his face and his skin was turning blue from the lack of air.
His bloodshot eyes looked pleadingly into Jax's as the stake was driven into his flesh.
Lola turned halfway, she cast a last desperate glance at Justin and Jax and then she turned to Ash.
"If you let this happen I swear to god I will never speak to you again. You will be dead to me now and forever and nothing you do will ever redeem you." She seethed, spit flew from her mouth, and her nostrils wide and flared.
His eyes were cold and calculating, as though he felt nothing at all but she knew better than to believe the masks they put on.
Underneath it he felt something, she was just hoping it would be enough to make him stop Jax.
"What makes you think that I care?" He asked.
"Don't stop him, see if I'm bluffing." She challenged, tilting her head and standing firm.
Lola stopped fighting the grip Ash had on her. He yanked her close and leaned down, the emotions were starting to show on his face, and little by little, she broke the mask.
"Glad to know where you stand." He said. He clenched his jaw and his eyes wandered over her face.
He yanked his hand away and growled in warning when Lola tried to move. She stepped back, stood still, and hoped.
"Jax," his voice filled the restaurant much like Jax's whenever they spoke as the Alphas they were.
The power exuded from them both, their words weighed heavy and people sat back and held their breaths.
"Leave him. Anymore lives lost and the town will get suspicious."
Lola stood watching Jax's face shift into amusement but his eyes bored into hers.
"Her words or yours? She got to you, didn't she," He spat.
Ash bit down and his eyes narrowed to slits.
"It's truth. Ever since that vamp took out the barista-chick the town has been on edge about who the killer is. Another death will stick them on a hunt that won't end well for anyone." Ash explained and it seemed he got through to him when Jax opened his hand and Justin fell to the floor unconscious.
The loud thud of his body landing on the laminated floor and his head hitting the first stair was too much for Melissa to witness and she whipped her head to the side and closed her teary eyes.
The smell of burned meat was oozing out from the kitchen doors and oil and salt wafted towards them- coming from the unattained friers.
Lola took a step, wanting to run to Justin's side and make sure he had a pulse. She saw the guy that had cared for her when she first moved here, he saw how broken she was and didn't judge her.
Rather he helped her cope, perhaps in a more toxic manner but for those few months, she didn't feel any pain or grief. She was completely free to make any choices she wanted and to live instead of just simply breathing.
Her life in this world had been a lineup of tragic events and meeting Justin was the first thing to happen that made her feel as though maybe an actual life was in the cards for her.
She looked at his limp body and focused on his chest, all she wanted to see was his chest rising.
Ash's voice boomed behind her.
"Do not move."
Her body froze and her shoulders stiffened when she felt him step closer. His chest brushed up against her back and he leaned down to where his breath fanned her ear.
"He's breathing," Ash informed.
Her shoulders slumped and she could finally release the breath she'd been holding. Melissa choked on a sob and watched Justin, knowing he was alive and would be fine.
Jax was speaking to his people, they were all rising from their seats and leaving the restaurant one after the other except for a few that stayed behind with their Alpha.
Their eyes glanced over Lola's worried face with judgment over caring about a human more than the order of their Alpha. She was their second leader, one they were meant to lean on but her loyalty was thrown into question and she felt how they all stepped further away from ever accepting her.
In this moment, however, she didn't care, all that mattered was that Justin was alive and that he would heal and continue living.
She looked at his wounded face from a distance and thought back to a few hours before they met that very first time.
He didn't know it, because she hadn't told him, but Lola had given up hope, she was tired of fighting for a life that didn't want her- her second day in Wild Cliff was meant to be her last one on this earth.
She wanted to start over, completely. Erase everything and be gone so that maybe her soul could be born again into love and happiness, not the misery she had been assigned in this life.
Justin helped her cope, in unusual ways yes, but in the partying and the dancing and smoking, she forgot that she was sad. At the end of that boozy-aired tunnel stood Melissa, Justin introduced them and ever since then they had been inseparable.
"Take him. We'll bring him back to the mansion." Jax ordered.
"Wait why?" Lola snapped.
Jax turned around but looked past Lola and instead threw an order at his cousin.
"Take her home. I'll meet you there."
"Don't speak about me as if I'm not standing right here!" Her words were coated with pain and Jax's face turned red as the anger rose within him.
They stood in a stare-off, both in their heads of what the other had done but Jax seemed conflicted, as though he was fighting more with himself than with anyone else.
"He's seen us, Lola, I can't just let him head back to class with that information in his head!" He snapped.
He moved quickly over the floor and stopped in front of her, his eyes burned into hers and Lola didn't notice but Jax noticed the small movement that Ash made as he stepped forward and lifted his head behind her.
Jax's eyes landed back on his wife- boring into hers- he scoffed and gritted his teeth.
"I'll deal with you later." He seethed.