Marked by the Alpha (11 page)

It was as if something snapped inside Mason, and suddenly his face was a mask of pure rage. He
growled
savagely and shoved
Phil hard
enough that
he was thrown backwards across the room
and
slammed against the wall.
Mason started toward him with
lethal intent
, but
at last
Dani
found her voice.

“Mason, no!” she
screeched
in terror,
and
then
grabbed his arm to try to
hold him back
. Seemingly without comprehending who was holding him back, he
tossed her aside. She hit the
edge
of the tub hard and her vision swam in colors.
Dani
tried to keep her eyes open but her head hurt too much
, and she lost consciousness.

* * *

Phil took a step forward and shoved Mason, hard enough to shake him. “Look! Look at what you just did to your mate!
Get ahold of yourself!”

Mason growled and slammed Phil back into the wall before turning around and dropping to all fours.
Dani
was lying against the tub and there was blood dripping down the side of her face. Mason shook his head in a panic. “I’m sorry
…
oh
Dani
, I’m sorry.”

Phil crawled over to
Mason
and kept very low to the ground. He did not want to cause another outburst
,
but
Mason
was in no position to take care of
Dani
. “I’m going to bring
Dani
downstairs and call Cal. I need you to go for a run
and calm down,
Mason, please listen to me.”

Mason shook his head. “No, I did this,
and
I need to fix it.” He
started to
reach for her
but
then stopped
, reconsidering.
“I am so sorry that my actions caused this. You’re right
, I need to calm myself
.” Mason stood slowly. “Please take care of
Dani
.” With that Mason ran out of the room and down the stairs.

Phil managed to find the towel to save some of
Dani’s
decency as he scooped her up. “
Dani
, can you hear me?” He pressed his palm to her head and tried to stop the bleeding.

Dani
groaned against his chest and opened her eyes
at last
. “Phil?” She took in a breath. “I’m fine
.
I’m upset, but I’m fine.”

“Listen, you smacked your head pretty hard,
and
I just want Cal to look you over.” Phil took his time walking down the stairs
, being careful not to jostle
Dani
more than necessary. Once in the living area, he
set
Dani
down on
a
couch
and then went into the kitchen to grab
a few paper towels.
When he returned, s
he was staring up at him with an unreadable expression on her face.

“Here, hold
th
ese
on your head, right
there,” he instructed her.
“The wound is
almost closed
.”

Phil made a decision
at that moment
to pull her into his arms. To his surprise
,
she settled against
his chest and did not fight him.
Searching in his pocket,
Phil found
his cell phone
and
dialed
Cal’s cell number.

“Is everything alright?” Cal’s voice
came
through the phone without a hello.

“Are you working today? I really need you to come over and look at
Dani’s
head.” Phil
tilted
her head
up
so that he could get a better view. “She had a bad cut that is almost closed but she hit her head pretty hard.”

“I’ll be right over. Is she conscious?” Cal’s voice had taken on an urgent tone.

“I’m sitting here with her
;
she’s awake but she might have been knocked out for a minute
,
”
Phil
said, and
let go of her chin.

“Alright, I’ll be there as quick
ly
as I can. Don’t let her go to sleep
,
even if she wants to.” Cal ended the call and Phil set the
phone
back on the coffee table. He looked down at the woman in his arms and wondered what she
had been
thinking.
H
e slowly began to understand that she
had been
afraid for him.

“I’m really sorry that I was such a bitch
to you
the other night
,
”
Dani
said suddenly. Her
tone was back to normal. That had to be a good sign.

Phil took in a breath. “Listen, if you
hadn’t
tried to hold back Mason
in the bathroom
a few minutes ago—
as reckless as it was
—
Mason could have hurt me very badly.
You might have saved my life.
He didn’t mean for you to get injured, and I know that it’s killing him that you did, but honestly I have never seen him this way before.
”

The door banged open and Alisha ran in, followed closely by Portia.

“Is she ok
ay?
” Alisha asked immediately.

“She’s going to be fine,” Phil responded, “but I have Cal coming to check on her just in case. He’s the only doctor we have in the pack, and he should be here soon.”

“What happened to her? Where is Mason?” Portia asked in a fearful voice.

“He’s out for a run, and he’ll be back soon. Enough questions for now,”
Phil said firmly, and with much more confidence than he felt. Mason had better pull himself together and get back here in a hurry, Phil thought, before things got further out of hand.

* * *

Cal was shining a penlight in
to
each of
Dani’s
eyes.

“I told
you
that I’m fine
;
I don’t even have a headache anymore
,
”
Dani
protested,
her arms crossed in front of her.

“Are you always this disagreeable?” Cal
asked in an exasperated tone.

Dani
ignored the question.
“Where is Mason?
Why isn’t he back yet?
”
she asked, glancing
toward the door.

Portia wrapped her arms around
Dani’s
shoulders and
guided
her to lie back down on the couch. “
Don’t worry, i
t hasn’t been that long
,
”
she told
Dani
, stroking her hair gently.

“How long does a run take?” Alisha
asked, and then
curled up on
Dani’s
legs
.
Portia ran her hand through
Alisha’s
hair too.

Portia
looked up at Phil and then to Cal before patting Alisha’s head. “For Mason it could be
a while
.
He must have been very agitated to have thrown
Dani
that way, and the run
will help him clear his
head.
I’m not sure how long it will stay clear, though. When I was young, the leader of my pack once told me that once an alpha finds his true mate
,
he has no choice but to claim her. If he doesn’t, he will go mad with need. He said that it sometimes takes a little while, but once
it s
tarts
it comes on fast. He said that the wolf part of an alpha doesn’t care what century it is, or whether the mate wants it or not. I didn’t believe him at the time—I thought he was just trying to sound like a tough guy alpha—but after seeing Mason today I’ve changed my mind.”

“I’ve got to go find Mason
,
”
Dani
spoke up suddenly, then
flexed her toes
, tossed her towel aside,
and
stood up
,
which caused
an uproar
from Portia, Alisha, and Cal.

“Even if you don’t have a concussion,
Dani
, you really need to lie down a little longer. I know you heal quickly but pushing yourself is not a good idea right now
,
” Cal
told her. He
reached out his hand
to lead her back to the couch,
but
Dani
growled in response.
Cal
looked over at Phil.

“
Dani
, lie back down on the couch or I will have Cal sedate you, your head be damned. I’m sure it’s not serious but there is too much going on right now. Mason will be back very soon.” Phil took a breath to keep his eyes clear.

Rather than obey him,
Dani
growled
and shifted
, then bolted for the door
before he could react
. She was a beautiful mixture of red fur and darker burgundy
,
but her beauty was lost
on him at
the moment
. She
pushed
through
the flimsy screen door and raced outside
before
he could decide how to respond.

“Damn it,
Dani
!” Phil
shouted after her, and then
slammed his hand against the wall
in frustration.

“I’m going after her
,
”
Portia
said without warning, and then jumped up
and pulled off her top.
This was an even bigger surprise to Phil than what
Dani
had done.

“Wait! Wait a damn minute
,
”
Phil growled under his breath. “Sit down and stay put.”

Portia
pulled off
the remainder of her clothes. “
Someone has to go after her, Phil, and it might as well be me. If you don’t like it, you can blister my ass when I get back.
” She shifted
without further discussion and then
bounded outside.

Phil shook his head. “I swear she’s getting her attitude from
Dani
,” he muttered, while considering going after her.

He looked around the large living room, though, and saw
that
mo
re and more members of the pack
were gathering
. As far as he could tell, none of them knew about the threat from the hunters yet. He had ordered Tyler and Jesse to keep that to
themselves
until Mason could address the pack, and they seemed to have obeyed his orders… so far. Nonetheless, every wolf in the room could sense that something very serious was going on, and all of them knew by now that the leader of their pack wasn’t around to protect them.

Fear was starting to spread, and in a situation like this fear could quickly turn to panic. Phil was Mason’s second-in-command, and if he went running off after
Dani
and Portia while Mason was still gone, quite a few of the wolves might abandon the pack and run for it
. Even worse,
some of the stronger males might decide that they could do a better job as pack leader themselves, which would lead almost instantly to bloody confrontation. If Phil left now, Mason might not have a pack to defend by the time he got back. Reluctantly, Phil decided that Portia and
Dani
were
on their own
until Mason returned.

Dani
was running through the woods at full speed
, trying to catch Mason’s scent
. She did not know the
se
woods
and
she
had
long since
lost
the
scent of the pack
, but she ran on. Her thoughts were simpler in this form,
and more focused on the immediate situation. S
he did not concern herself with regrets about the past or worry about what the future might bring with Mason—she just wanted to find him.