Jason's life was not atypical. He grew up in a small, all American town that's livelihood came from the Ford factory there. His father worked there, and he anticipated that he would to after graduation. Well, that was until the company started making cut backs and the factory shut down. That was when his father started drinking more and more, he had always had a bit of a problem with it. The thing about it was that when Gerald, "Jerry" McKenzy started drinking, he got mean. Most of the time, Jason would keep that meanness directed at him, to shield his mother and little sister, Michelle, from it.
Things really didn't help with the father and son animosity when Jason managed to get a job at the local Wal-mart and was the bread-winner of the family. It only added salt to the wound of Jerry's inability to provide for his family. On one particular night, Jerry and Jason got into it worse than they had ever before. The police were called by the neighbors and had to come break up the fight. Being a small town, the sherriff had grown up with Jerry and was more than willing to not follow up the incident with more than just a report. When the police left, Jason left the house for a walk to cool his head. That walk took him someplace he had never even thought of.
Jason has no memory of the rest of the night. In fact, he doesn't remember the next several days that followed them either. He woke up several days later about a mile and a half from his home, covered in blood. When he got home, he found that the doors were covered in police crime scene tape. He crossed the tape line and entered his home to find it in ruins and large blood stains everywhere. Before he could do anything, the police burst in the house and arrested him for the brutal murder of his father, mother, and little sister. He was stunned and confused as they put him in the squad car to drive him to the police station.
He doesn't remember what happened next. He doesn't remember the fact that one of the state police officers turned and grinned at him cruelly through the steel mesh and willed him to shift. Nor does he remember him reaching over and breaking the neck of the other officer in the car, causing the car to go off the road and crash. Nor does he remember the state trooper ripping the door off its hinges and ordering him to run, because the fun was just now starting.
For three months, Jason has been on a constant move, never letting himself stop for very long, because everytime he does someone dies, and he has no memory of what he was doing at the time of the deaths. Eventually he ended up in Boston, where he was found by a were-leopard named Gabriel, who abducted him off of the street and took him outside of town into the woods, to convince him that he too was a were-leopard. When Gabriel found Jason, the one who attacked Jason, the one who murdered Jason's family, the one who made it look like he escaped the custody of the police, the one who had been following behind Jason for three months leaving a trail of bodies behind him, was watching from a roof top, finally ready to close in on his prey once and for all.
Gabriel convinced Jason of what he was and what that meant. He took the bewildered boy to meet the Nimir-Raj of the local pard. Julian welcomed Jason, but left him in the care of Gabriel. Little did the two know that their fates, lives, and hearts were already so completely tied to one another. For weeks Jason stayed by Gabriel's side, learning everything he could about what it meant to be a shifter and a leopard, except when Gabriel was off hunting the rogue leopard that he sensed to be lurking in the area. During those times, Jason was left under the care and watchful eye of an old leopard named George.
George was a rough man to figure out, and it wouldn't be until some time later that Jason would ever know that the grumpy old man actually thought of the boy as a surrogate son. The boy was not aware how delicate everything really was. That is until the rogue started playing with him and the others, buy sending pictures of his initial infection and the massive amounts of trauma and torture that he had underwent. This spurred Gabriel and George's resolution to protect the boy.
But even the best of plans can have flaws, and a band of South African mercenaries managed to kidnap Jason and disappear with him. For weeks, Gabriel and the rest of the Pard were unable to find any sign of Jason or the rogue. It was like everything had just disappeared into thin air. Until the rogue had decided that enough time had past and sent a message of Jason's screams. During that time, the rogue tortured and starved him, forced him to kill, and to watch his family's murder over and over again on video. The Rogue hoped that he would either make the boy strong, strong enough to deserve to live or break him completely.
Eventually with the help of Nathaniel, the Master vampire in charge of Boston, the Pard was able to rescue Jason. Sadly, George died in the attempt. The old man had known that it was a possibility and had contacted Thomas Walters, a trusted friend of his, to draw up a will, leaving everything he owned, including the old hotel that many of the Pard lived in, to Jason and made Thomas promise to watch after Jason. Thomas owed George in ways that he could never repay and agreed.
