Rescued by the Pack (4 page)

Bang!
The sound jolted Allison upright in bed. Her eyes quickly traveled toward the source of the sound. She gasped, and jumped to her feet, rushing toward the door.

Michael, bloodied and gasping, hung limply from Luke’s shoulder. Allison lifted his arm around her shoulders and helped Luke guide him to a nearby cot. He collapsed heavily onto it.

“What happened?” Allison demanded, surveying Michael’s wounds.

“We had an altercation, but they’re gone, now,” Luke explained.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Michael is in considerably better condition than they are,” Luke said.

Allison shivered and asked, “Will he be alright?”

“Yeah, he’ll live,” Luke said.

Allison peered down at Michael as he lay nearly unconscious on the cot. His skin was mottled with bruises and blood, and a few open wounds seethed angrily. He muttered something weakly, and his head rolled from side to side. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead and trickled down into his dark hair.

“Do you have any washcloths down here?” Allison asked.

“Uh… I think so,” Logan answered.

“Can you bring me one? And a bowl of cold water?”

“Okay,” Logan said.

In a moment, Logan handed her a clean, white washcloth and a large bowl of water. She placed the bowl on the concrete floor and dipped the cloth into it, wringing it out. Then she wiped the sweat away from Michael’s face. He continued to mutter incoherently, and his breath was ragged and gasping.

“Are you sure he’ll be alright?” Allison demanded.

“I’ve seen worse,” Luke insisted. “Give it a bit and he’ll heal.”

Allison was largely unconvinced. She continued to wipe Michael’s forehead, and he began to shiver with fever. She moved the cool cloth across his torso, attempting to cool him down.

Soon, she noticed some of the nastier wounds looked a little less angry, and a few of the smaller ones had disappeared entirely. Her tense muscles began to relax and she breathed a sigh of relief.

At some point later, Allison jolted awake. The room was dark, but a tiny shaft of light peeked under a door and illuminated things faintly. For a moment, she was disoriented. Then she realized she’d fallen asleep kneeling in the floor beside Michael with her head on his abdomen.

Her eyes traveled upward, and he was looking down at her with a smug grin on his face. She scrambled backward immediately, her face flushing deeply as Michael chuckled at her.

“So I hear you were worried about me,” he snickered.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” she spat. “I was worried about my neighbor’s dog when he got hit by a car, too.” She paused, and then added with a sneer, “And I don’t even like dogs.”

He suppressed a laugh and raised one eyebrow at her. Her eyes narrowed into cat-like slits and she glared at him stormily.

“Now, now,” Michael teased. “No need to get all grouchy like that.”

Allison ignored him and her eyes scanned the room looking for Luke and Logan.

“They’ve gone,” Michael informed her. “They’re upstairs keeping watch.”

“Oh, fine,” she retorted, rolling her eyes dramatically. “They’re keeping a lookout up there when the beast I
really
need to be protected from is down here.”

Michael’s grin disappeared, and he suddenly looked wounded.

“Are you forgetting what happened earlier?” he snapped, bolting straight upright in bed and jabbing an accusatory finger in her direction. “I didn’t get into a bar fight over a pool table! I fought to protect
you
!”

“Well don’t do me any favors!” she shouted, scrambling to her feet.

“Fine! You want to leave? Go! Just go!” he shouted, pointing toward the door.

In a huff, she spun on her heels and began to stomp toward the door with every intention of taking her chances with the other pack. Just as she reached for the door, it slammed, and Michael wedged himself between her and the exit. Her eyes were confronted with his chest as it heaved mightily with ragged breath, and her eyes traveled upward, expecting to see his face seething with rage. Instead, his eyes were soft with concern.

“I thought you told me to go.”

“I can’t let you do that.”

“You don’t want me to stay.”

“I
need
you to stay.”

For a moment, Allison’s lip quivered. Her heart began to race erratically in her chest. Her mind reeled as she tried to decide whether to try to push past him and flee or give in to…

…and then his lips were on hers. She closed her eyes and felt his arms close around her. His lips were firm and rigid, demanding. Her mind screamed out at her to resist, to slap him, to shout at him. How dare he? But the rest of her wanted nothing more than to surrender. Her lips parted slightly, almost involuntarily, and she felt his tongue slip between them. It was soft, teasing. Warmth began to spread over her body, and she went limp in his embrace.

For a moment, reality seized her. She barely knew him, and he was an incorrigible cad. He’d been rude and arrogant, and she was angry. She pushed her arms between them and tried to wrench herself free of his grasp. His muscles tensed and his grasp tightened. His body turned slightly and pushed her roughly against the wall with a thud as he pushed his tongue deeper into her mouth. A gasp rose in her throat, and then she was overcome with passion.

Her hands traveled up his bare chest and wound around his neck, pulling him deeper into the kiss. Her fingers tangled in his short, dark hair, and she wrapped one of her legs around him. Michael pulled away from the kiss to take a deep, gasping breath, and then his lips closed over hers again. She caught a glimpse of his face in that moment. It looked wild, as though he were a caged animal experiencing his first taste of freedom in ages.

His body pressed urgently against hers – so urgently it was almost terrifying. Yet the thrill of his kiss and his passion quelled any fear. Her boyfriend had never been so passionate. No one had ever been so passionate. This was unlike anything she’d ever experienced – anything she’d ever even imagined.

Michael’s right hand traveled slowly around her body and caressed her cheek. It traveled slowly down her face to her neck, sending chills of pleasure over her body. She felt her nipples stiffen and she gasped aloud.

Footsteps began to pound on the stairs above, and they instantly flew apart. Michael jumped backward, his jaw gritted tightly as he took deep, ragged breaths. His fists clenched viciously beside him, and his eyes shot her a warning as his chest rose and fell savagely.

Luke poked his head into the room, a look of concern on his face. His eyes traveled up and down Allison, and then traveled over to Michael.

“Everything okay down here?” he asked cautiously.

“Yeah, why?” Michael asked, his voice breaking slightly. He cleared his throat.

Luke glanced back at Allison with one eyebrow raised. She crossed her arms defiantly in front of her body and tossed her hair over her shoulder, averting her eyes away from his gaze. He turned back to Michael.

“I could hear your heartbeats all the way upstairs,” Luke insisted. “What’s going on?”

Michael opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Allison sensed an urgency in him, and she quickly sprang to action.

“He was being a jerk, like usual,” she snapped, sending a vicious glare toward Michael. “What did you expect when you left me alone with this arrogant prick?”

“Arrogant prick?” Michael shouted. “Why you ungrateful little…”

“Hey, hey!” Luke interjected. “Settle down! I can’t leave you two for a second!”

Luke grabbed Allison’s arm and started to usher her up the stairs.

“Hey!” Michael yelled, stomping up the stairs after them. “Where the hell do you think you’re taking her?”

“Upstairs,” Luke answered, still guiding her along. “You two need to be separated.”

Michael grabbed her other arm and yanked, nearly sending Allison tumbling down on top of him.

“Oh, no you’re not!” Michael snapped. “We can’t risk it!”

Luke tightened his grip on her arm and snarled, “Well I can’t leave her downstairs with you and your temper!”

“My temper? You think I’d hurt her?” Michael shouted viciously.

Logan appeared at the top of the stairs and asked anxiously, “Everything okay?”

“Stay out of it!” Michael and Luke both growled at him, and Logan’s body quivered almost imperceptibly as though he wanted to cower away.

Allison twisted herself out of both their grasps. She was shaking with rage, and her eyes were narrowed again.

“Stop fighting!” she shouted. “Look, I’m fine downstairs! Michael’s a dickhead, but he’s not hurting me!”

She whirled around and stomped angrily down the stairs, throwing herself down onto one of the cots and crossing her arms angrily in front of her.

“You’re a jerk,” Luke grumbled at Michael.

“Get back upstairs and keep watch,
now
,” Michael snarled.

Luke started to object, but after seeing the seriousness on Michael’s face, decided it was better not to press the subject. Soon, his stomping footsteps disappeared upstairs.

Michael slammed the door behind him and leaned against it with his eyes closed. He took a slow, deep breath.

“What was all that about?” Allison asked quietly.

“Nothing.”

“Michael, Luke was practically…”

“I said it was nothing!” Michael snapped.

Allison glared at him, but she turned away and stared at the wall as though the crack in the concrete was the most interesting thing she’d ever seen. Her mind was covered in a thick cloud of confusion, and she didn’t want him to see the tears that had begun to sting her eyes. She sat and waited for an apology.

“You should get some sleep,” Michael said. “It’s gonna be a long night.”

Allison heard him roughly fall onto another cot, and she hastily got under the covers and closed her eyes. Her mind raced with fury and her face burned with rage. She was fuming angry that she’d allowed herself to be swept away by him. What a pig!

When Allison woke up, she noticed Michael was no longer in the room. Instead, Logan sat in a chair in the corner reading. He noticed she was awake and smiled warmly.

“Did you have a good sleep?” he asked.

“I suppose.”

“Are you hungry? Do you need anything?”

“No.”

His smile faded slightly, and his eyes shifted back down to his book.

“Logan, can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” he answered, closing his book and leaning forward.

“It’s… well, can I trust you not to mention this to Michael or Luke?”

He gulped and shifted his eyes uncomfortably toward the door as though he were afraid someone might overhear.

“Um… sure,” he said reluctantly.

“I wouldn’t even mention this, but… well, I don’t have anyone else to talk to, obviously, and… and I really need to figure this out.”

“Alright, go ahead.”

“Okay, last night Luke barged in on us, right?”

Logan nodded.

“Well, I told him Michael and I were arguing.”

“Yeah. That was no big surprise. You do that a lot.”

“Well, we weren’t exactly arguing.”

Logan just stared at her, waiting for her to continue.

“We were… kissing.”

Logan’s expression didn’t change, but the look in his eyes certainly did. They became glassy and expressionless, devoid of emotion, yet somehow not.

“Logan?”

“Michael kissed you?”

“Yes.”

Logan gulped.

“How… why…” he gulped again. “You don’t…”

“Logan, what’s wrong?” Allison asked, noting the fact that his ears were reddening and his forehead was knotting into a mass of wrinkles.

“You don’t know what this means,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

“What are you talking about?”

“He can’t… it’s… it’s not allowed,” Logan whispered, his eyes surveying the door anxiously. “If Luke finds out…”

“What does Luke have to do with this?” Allison demanded.

“Shh!” Logan hissed. “You don’t understand pack law! A mate belongs to the
entire pack
. No one, not even the Alpha, can go behind the others’ backs like that!”

“Belongs… I’m sorry, Logan, I don’t
belong
to
anyone
,” Allison said frankly. “I’m a human being, not a… a… a book or-or-or… a hamburger!”

“Shh!” Logan hissed again. “Please don’t let them hear you! Luke will freak out!”

“So what? Let him freak out! You people don’t own me!” Allison shrieked, jumping to her feet. “This is ridiculous! I’m leaving!”

Allison stormed toward the door, but in a flash, Logan was blocking her way. He placed his hands firmly on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. His expression was soft and pleading.

“Please don’t go,” he begged. “I… they’ll kill me.”

“Well, not literally,” Allison said, rolling her eyes. When Logan didn’t respond, she said, “Logan?”

“Pack law is complicated,” he said. “Besides, I… I really
want
you to stay.”

“Logan, tell me you’re joking,” Allison demanded. “They wouldn’t really kill you, would they?”

“If I let you go, I’d be betraying my pack,” Logan said firmly. “By law, they would have no choice.”

“Oh, this is
not
happening,” Allison muttered, hanging her head ruefully. “Your kind sure has some crazy rules.”

Allison flopped down on the bed and sighed heavily, hiding her eyes underneath her arm, which she draped across them in frustration.

“They may seem crazy to you, but they’ve kept
our kind
in check for hundreds of years,” Logan said.

“I’m sorry,” Allison said quickly, glancing at Logan apologetically. “I didn’t mean to insult you. I’m just shocked that you’d kill your own kind over some rules. Who makes the rules, anyway?”

“You know how on those nature shows they show baby animals that get abandoned or their parents die and they have these natural instincts?” Logan asked. “Like birds have the instinct to migrate?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, some of it is like instinct. It’s something that is so deeply ingrained into our psyche we are powerless to go against it. Like taking you as a mate. We physically couldn’t prevent it, because it would be going against thousands of years of instinct.”

“But animals go against their instincts all the time,” Allison pointed out.

“I suppose. But for us, instinct is all about survival. We’ve developed a society based on strict obedience of our laws. It’s the only thing that keeps our kind safe from being hunted by humans. We obey our laws strictly. Those that don’t draw too much attention and could get us killed.”

“Well, how is that other pack able to go against their instincts?”

“The best way I can explain it is to point out humans who go crazy and go on murderous rampages. You know… like serial killers and stuff. They’re insane.”

“So this other pack is crazy?”

“Basically.”

“The whole pack?”

“A pack feeds off the emotions of their Alpha. Michael is our Alpha, and we pretty much have to obey whatever he commands. Their Alpha… his name is Victor… went crazy and took his pack with him.”

“I see.”

“It wasn’t always that way. Victor used to be a decent guy. But then…”

Logan’s face drained of color, and his mouth hung open for a moment. Then he cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“Then what?” Allison urged him.

“Um… nothing,” Logan said. “Then he went crazy and that’s it.”

“But what about… you know… the kiss?” Allison asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Logan’s brow furrowed, and he looked irritated.

“It’s a betrayal,” Logan said flatly. “Michael betrayed all of us.”

“How?”

“You’re
our
mate, not his. He had no right to do that without us being present. It’s not allowed.”

“But he’s the Alpha. Can’t he do what he wants?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Logan snapped.

“Logan, I…”

“I wish you hadn’t even told me any of this!” Logan shouted, jumping to his feet and taking a few steps toward the back of the room. He threw his hands into the air. “I don’t want to know this!”

Allison placed her hands on his bare back. He bristled, his muscles instinctively jerking away from her, but then he started to relax.

“I’m sorry,” Allison said gently. “I didn’t know any of this.”

“It’s not your fault,” Logan said, his head hanging limply. “I just don’t understand why Michael would do something like that. I thought you two couldn’t stand each other, anyway.”

Allison’s hands dropped and her shoulders slouched heavily. She sighed.

“We can’t,” she admitted. “I don’t really understand what happened. It just… happened.”

“Did you like it?” Logan asked gently.

“What? I… no!” she hissed. “No, it… he was…”

“Let’s talk about something else,” Logan said quickly.

“Good idea,” Allison agreed.

“I know, let’s play a game!” Logan suggested.

He opened a cupboard near the back of the room and pulled out a stack of board games. Allison’s stomach was still twisted in vicious knots over everything that had happened lately, but she could see how eager Logan was, so she relented.

“How about this one?” she asked, pulling out a random box.

“Oh, I like that one,” Logan agreed.

They were still playing when the huge door clanged and screeched open and Luke peered around the corner with a look of panic spreading across his face. Logan jumped to his feet and knocked the game board over, sending tiny plastic pieces clattering onto the concrete floor.

“Michael took off!” Luke gasped.

“What? Where’d he go?” Logan asked.

“To see Victor.”

“What?” Logan shrieked. “They’ll kill him!”

A lump swelled in Allison’s throat, and her heart began to pound savagely in her chest.

“He just said he needed to talk to Victor and he jumped up and ran out before I could stop him,” Luke groaned, shaking his head.

“Damn it!” Logan swore. “What was he thinking?”

Logan drew his fist back and punched the concrete wall so hard that it sank inward, sending a shower of concrete bits onto the floor and left a fist-sized indentation behind. He swore again as he pulled back his throbbing hand and nursed it.

“We have to go get him,” Luke said.

“But we can’t leave Allison!” Logan argued.

“They’ll
kill him
!” Luke reiterated.

“Go!” Allison said suddenly. “Lock me in here. I’ll be fine. Just go!”

Logan turned to Allison and grabbed her shoulders. His eyes were glistening as he stared deeply into hers.

“We can’t leave you alone,” he said. “Michael would flip out.”

“Logan, go,” Allison demanded. “I saw what happened to him before. You can’t let him go alone.”

Logan was silent as he mulled things over. He stood there motionless, his hands trembling as they held her shoulders.

“Come on,” Luke said. “We’re losing time.”

“
Go
,” Allison urged once more.

Logan’s head dropped forward, and he exhaled sharply.

“Fine,” he relented. “But you stay put!”

“Like I could get out of here if I wanted to,” Allison groaned. “Just go!”

Without another word, Logan followed Luke out of the room and the heavy metal door clanged shut behind them. Allison slumped into her chair and froze. She felt numb. She knew she should be afraid of being alone there. She was trapped. If they did come for her, she’d be defenseless. But she couldn’t feel much of anything.

Then it hit her. These men would really die to protect her. Michael had been seriously injured defending her, and now the others were running off to fight by his side to keep her safe. All along she’d been defensive, angry, and belligerent. She suddenly felt intense remorse. What if they were all killed? They might die never knowing how much she appreciated it. She wasn’t thinking about the fact that if they never came back she would starve to death alone in that underground bunker. She was only worried that she would never be able to express her gratitude.