Blood Rites (8 page)

***

Two more weeks passed and Fane marked the
four week anniversary of the accident on the calendar he placed at
Jacquelyn’s bedside, praying the strength of tonight’s full moon
would return his Luna to her rightful place at his side. He
gratefully stood next to Jacquelyn's bed during one of the limited
visits allowed and couldn't tear his eyes from her
.
It was amazing how much she had healed in the past
month. Her skin was raw and pink where the burns had been but you
could see the new skin was knitting together rapidly. Dr. Steele
had told him that her leg was completely healed. She had gone back
through Jacquelyn's medical records to alter some of the past
findings because there was no way she could justify a person's
broken leg healing completely in four weeks. She had also told him
that they still weren't out of the woods regarding the human blood
she had received. Jacquelyn had been running a fever constantly for
the past 3 weeks and Dr. Steele also said that her white blood cell
count was elevated, which meant her body was fighting an infection.
Whether that infection was from the burns, or had something to do
with the blood, she didn't know. So he continued to wait, and wait
some more.

Before he left, he leaned down and kissed her
forehead, and as he did everyday he whispered her name through
their bond. "
Jacquelyn, come back to me."
He longed to see
her emerald eyes staring into his.

And finally someone heard his pleas.
“Fane?”

Fane leaned closer, as if proximity would
help with their mental bond.
“I am here, Luna. Can you open your
eyes for me?”
he asked her, desperate to bring her back to this
world.

She didn’t answer him, and he thought maybe
she had slipped away again, but then suddenly he was looking into a
sea of green. His breath left his lungs as he saw the light in them
slowly return. Fane didn’t realize he had shed any tears until she
whispered in a dry, hoarse voice, “Don’t cry wolf man, you didn’t
think you could get rid of me that easy, did you?”

He could barely contain the relief he felt at
hearing her speak, seeing her awake. “I want to hold you, Luna, but
I don’t know where to touch you without causing you pain,” he
confessed, it was his deepest desire that moment.

“I'm so doped up I can’t feel jack right now,
so lay it on me,” she told him with a weak grin.

Fane leaned forward as gently as he could and
placed one arm around her waist. He laid his head on her shoulder,
effectively placing his lips right against the bend in her neck to
her shoulders. He kissed her as gently as he could and felt his
wolf rumble in contentment.

“I missed you,” Jacquelyn told him in a
strained voice.

“I messed up, Jacquelyn. I left you
unprotected, I could have lost you. It is inexcusable. How can you
even want me near you?”

“Fane, this is not your fault. Don’t go all
Alpha on me right now. I need you more than ever,” she told him
without shame at her own dependence on him.

“I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

The door to the room slid open and, true to
his wolf nature, Fane took up a defensive posture in front of his
mate. Okay, so maybe he was going to overreact for a while, but
everyone would just have to deal with it. Lilly walked in with Dr.
Steele at her side.

Lilly let out a shuddered breath and tears
tumbled down her cheeks as she looked at her daughter. She walked
forward as Fane stepped aside to allow her access to Jacque.

"So nice of you to return to the living,"
Lilly teased, even though her voice quivered.

"Yeah, well, you would be lost without me so
I had to come back." Jacque leaned into her mom as Lilly kissed her
gently on the forehead.

"I love you, Jacque."

"I know you do, mom," Jacque responded with
her usual remark to her mother's words; it was an inside joke
between them. Lilly always said that Jacque was too big for her
britches and Jacque continued to prove her right. At the sound of
Dr. Steele's voice, Lilly turned away from Jacque to look at the
doctor.

“Good, she’s awake,” Dr. Steele acknowledged.
"Jennifer has woken as well, about an hour ago."

"How long have we been out?" Jacque asked
apprehensively. Somehow she knew it hadn't been only a few
hours.

"A month, Luna," Fane told her gently as he
brushed some hair from her forehead.

"A month?" Jacque's eyebrows rose with
question in her voice.

"I have had it arranged that she will share a
room with her friend, Jen. Lilly has consented to that. Jacque, is
that okay with you?" Dr. Steele asked her.

“Nothing would make me happier,” she told the
doctor, a weak smile joining her words.

Fane and Lilly stepped out
of the room when transport arrived to move Jacque to the room she
would share with Jen. As she wheeled past, she gave Fane a quick
wink and challenged, “Race you to the room.”

Chapter 8

Dillon
was joined by his Beta, Logan in his
office to go over the weekly update on how Jacque was healing. It
had been four weeks since the accident and finally Logan had some
good news to pass on.

"Jacque has awoken from her coma," Logan
informed him.

"Do you know anything else about her
well-being or just that she is awake?" Dillon's voice was gruff
with emotion despite the wreck having been a month ago.

"From what I can gather she is healing
rapidly, nearly as well as a full blooded wolf."

Dillon couldn't help thinking for the
thousandth time how Fane could have left her, or any of them for
that matter, completely vulnerable especially after the challenge
he had taken part in. Then a thought that he kept coming back to
occurred to him again. He spun around, glaring at Logan. “You were
there, why didn’t you help her?”

“I was going to, Alpha, but Fane got there so
quickly and he would have known what I was had I revealed myself. I
realize now Jacque’s safety should have been my first priority, not
my cover,” Logan told him, eyes down, neck exposed in
submission

Dillon appreciated the gesture as he was
hanging on to his wolf by a thread and any defiance on Logan’s part
would surely forfeit his life.

“I was going to stay out of this. I was going
to trust Lilly to know what was best for our daughter, but these
past weeks the more I go over it in my head, I just can't, not now.
Jacque could have been killed and all because her supposed mate,
who is little more than a kid, didn’t protect her as is his
responsibility.” Dillon knew in the rational part of his brain that
maybe he was being too hard on Fane, but he couldn’t help it, that
was his daughter, and had she died he would never have had the
opportunity to know her. That was unacceptable in his book. Jacque
was still a minor, he could invoke his rights as her Alpha, that he
take her under his care until she was an adult. Lilly would
probably hate him for it but she would eventually see that it was
better for Jacque this way. She was too young to mate, and worse,
Fane was too young to be her mate. He didn’t understand what it
meant to be a mate, the responsibility that came with it.

Dillon turned to look at Logan. “You said
there were four wolves besides Vasile and his son?”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“Get the pack's first four, with you and
myself that will make six. We will be walking in with an even
number of wolves so as not to appear like I am challenging Vasile,
but enough to show that I have support. Also have Colin charter a
private plane, I want to get there as soon as possible.”

Colin was Dillon’s assistant, for lack of a
better word, and took care of any pack business and acted as a
liaison to other packs. Because of his Omega status, he wasn’t
considered a threat or a challenge to other packs, nor was he a
submissive which would allow other packs to walk on him.

Logan nodded at his Alpha’s request and
turned to go.

“We leave in an hour,” Dillon told his
retreating back.

His plan could not be working out any better,
Logan thought to himself. Although he hadn’t wanted Jacque to get
hurt, how was he supposed to know that a simple blown tire would
cause the car to roll, and then catch fire? Logan’s heart had been
in his throat when he had watched Jacque’s still form being pulled
from the burning SUV. He had nearly rushed forward to help but he
had picked up the sound of the other wolves' vehicles and had
gotten in his car and driven across the median to the opposite
highway. He had been driving the opposite direction as Fane and his
family. They'd never even looked his direction, their eyes only on
the wreckage. Logan had thought that over the past few weeks
Dillon's anger would abate, but much to his dislike it had only
increased.

Dillon walked into the pack defense room
where he knew the 4 top members of the pack would be this time of
day. Each was in various states of cleaning their assigned weapons
and monitoring the parameter of the mansion on the various TV
screens that were wired to the cameras all around the grounds. It
seemed like an archaic thing to do as they had not had another pack
attempt to challenge them on their territory in over a century. Old
habits die hard, and as Dillon told them you can never be too
prepared.

“Lee, Phillip, Dalton and Aidan, I need you
with me. Assemble your weapons. At this point you will not carry
them on your person, but I want them available in case they are
needed. Go pack enough clothes for three days' time and then meet
me and the Alpha in the main garage. I will explain what is going
on while we are en route to our destination. Move out.” Without a
word the 4 wolves assembled their weapons and then left the room to
comply with their Beta’s instructions. Logan always felt a sense of
pride when the pack obeyed without question, it was a sign of
trust, trust that he was going to have to betray. Better not to
think of that now, he told himself, just do what needs to be done,
ask for forgiveness later.

Dillon stood in the main garage, waiting on
his pack to join him. He was trying to be calm knowing that the
pack would feel what he felt, he didn’t want them to have to
shoulder his burdens. It was his job as Alpha to protect them from
unnecessary stress, but this was a situation that he had never
dealt with before, and for the first time he didn’t really know how
to handle it. He called on his wolf, knowing that he would be less
emotional and more practical; he would do what needed to be done.
Dillon could worry about the emotions when the situation was under
control. Logan had just shown up and right behind him were his top
four pack members, all dressed in black fatigues.

“Have you briefed them on the situation yet?”
Dillon asked Logan.

“No, Alpha. I figured I could do that en
route.”

Dillon nodded his head in agreement.
“Alright, let's load up into the Hummer. Phillip, you drive.”

Once on the road, Logan began to fill the
wolves in on the situation in Coldspring.

“It is imperative at this point that this
information stay within this group. Dillon will be the one to
decide when the rest of the pack will know,” Logan told them.

Dillon spoke up then. “It may make you all
uncomfortable since she is your Alpha as well, but I have chosen at
this time not to disclose this to my mate. Speaking of, excuse me
from the conversation for one moment, I need to inform her that I
will be gone for a few days.” He said no more on the topic.

Logan heard Dillon tell Tanya that he was
taking a business trip to discuss pack relations and ways to
improve pack communications and that he would be meeting with some
of the Texas packs. She didn’t question him and once again Logan
noted the simple trust, trust that was being broken even as the
Alpha spoke to his mate. It was for the best, Logan decided, and
just like he needed to take matters into his hands regarding
Jacque, Dillon had to make the difficult decision of dealing with
this situation without the added stress of his mate’s emotions.
Once the situation was contained, then Dillon could sit down with
Tanya and explain things. Logan would be sure to be busy when that
conversation took place. Tanya was hot-headed, and more often than
not spoke before she thought. It was going to be a volatile mess
when it came time to explain things to her. Yea, good luck with
that, Alpha, he thought to himself.

“So the plan at this point,” Dillon began
after he had disconnected with his mate, “is once we arrive in
Coldspring I will contact Vasile first per pack law and let him
know we are there. I am sure he will tell Lilly, who will in turn
tell Fane who you now know has declared himself Jacque’s mate. You
will not engage Vasile’s wolves unless I command it. Is there any
confusion about this?”

Each of the wolves shook their heads and
bared their necks in submission.

“After Lilly is notified I will set up a time
to meet with her to discuss my meeting Jacque. At this point I am
not going to say anything about the fact that I am there to invoke
my rights as her Alpha. I will do that after I have met her. I will
also only do that in front of Vasile, his pup and his Beta. During
that time only Logan will be permitted to be with me,” Dillon
explained.

By the time he was done telling his pack what
would take place, they had arrived at the airport and were boarding
the charter plane that Colin had secured for them.

As the plane took off, Dillon sat back in his
chair and closed his eyes. He tried to envision what Jacque would
say when he introduced himself to her. Would she be angry that he
had not been a part of her life? Would she be happy to finally meet
him? He was usually so confident in himself but at this moment he
couldn’t remember ever being so unsure of himself.