Splintered (2 page)

I nearly protested, but Alec was right, it
would take an actual order to get Donovan to slow down, and two
days was probably pushing it. Donovan somehow managed to
respectfully circumvent any order he thought prevented him from
taking adequate care of Alec's family.

"Tell me about Christmas at the Paige
house."

I blinked a couple of times. The
progress I'd made lately notwithstanding, I half expected the
question to drive me into a panic attack. Apparently Alec's
presence was proof against a second near-attack today.

"I don't know. We always used to do the
standard kind of stuff. Presents, eggnog and the Christmas story.
Usually Dad made us breakfast Christmas morning and then we'd drive
out of the city later in the day and go sledding. I hadn't thought
about what it would be like this year."

Alec nodded like he'd just checked a
box off on some kind of mental list. "So snow's always been a
pretty key ingredient, sounds like."

"I guess. It hadn't sunk in yet that
we wouldn't be getting any of that this year. A month ago I would
have thought that was a good thing, that it would be one less thing
to remind me of Dad and Cindi. I think I might actually miss it
this year though."

I rested my head against Alec's shoulder. "It
doesn't matter. The important thing now is that we're together for
Christmas. Beyond that I don't care what happens."

I was still safely wrapped in my
blanket so Alec pulled me into a hug. Even taking into
consideration his annoying efforts to protect me from the addictive
effect of his touch, this was the happiest I'd ever been. I'd had
plenty of bad times over the last year or so to offset the
near-perfection of my life now, but it still didn't seem like
something that could last.

We just sat there in silence with his arms
wrapped around me for several minutes before his cell phone rang.
Sometimes I wondered if the slim device was some kind of super spy
phone. It seemed to get reception in some of the most incredible
places.

He shifted around just enough to answer it
without letting go of me with his right arm.

"What's up?"

Whoever was on the other end was talking too
quietly for me to make out more than the occasional
word.

"…Jack…now…no time…"

I could suddenly feel the energy radiating off
of Alec as his beast woke and rose to the surface. His limbs hadn't
taken on the fine tremble of someone only seconds away from
changing shape, but he was obviously unhappy. Given the tight leash
he kept his beast on, I would have been willing to bet that just
about anyone else in the pack would have already shifted shapes and
ripped a tree out of the ground or done something equally
destructive by now.

Alec shifted the phone slightly. I
couldn't hear whoever was on the other end anymore, but whatever
they'd just said hadn't made things any better. The invisible ants
marching up my arms went to double time and the metaphysical breeze
that started on his skin and went outward turned into a full-blown
gale.

"Stall them. We'll be down in eight
minutes. If worse comes to worst, you two contain Isaac and tell
Dom to sit on Jack. Keep Rachel out of the way."

Already moving with the unearthly speed he
normally concealed even from me, Alec hung up the phone and started
throwing things into the backpack.

"Jack's
working himself up to a dominance fight with Jess. This couldn't
have happened at a worse time. If we're not back before it starts
odds are someone's going to die."

Chapter 2

I tried to convince Alec to leave me behind. He
could run much faster without me, but we'd never managed to track
Vincent down. It was a remote risk, but Alec spent the odd moment
worrying about whether or not Vincent was lurking in the area
hoping for a chance to get back at us.

I was still arguing when he put the backpack on
me, picked me up, and started running. He'd swung me around behind
him by the second step and then there was nothing left to do but
hold on.

I tried closing my eyes but the first time he
dropped down a cliff it was all I could do not to scream and I
quickly decided it was better to see what was coming than be taken
completely by surprise.

Alec wasn't just fast, he was incredibly agile
too. If I'd doubted his ability to get us to the bottom of the
mountain in less than ten minutes the doubt vanished in the first
thirty seconds of the adrenaline-filled dash.

We jumped a respectable-sized ravine
and then leaped out into empty air, skipping from one branch to
another and then sliding down the bare trunk of a dying pine tree.
It wasn't a smooth descent. I suspected that Alec left blood and
skin on the bark before we hit the ground.

Only his well-muscled arm stretched back around
me kept me from being jarred off of his back. The gravity-fueled
first part of our run was bad enough but once we got to more level
ground Alec put on a burst of speed that turned trees and rocks
into barely-seen blurs that were past almost before I registered
their presence. Alec running flat out on a level road was one
thing; in the forest it was simply terrifying.

Only the thought of one of my
friends bleeding and dying kept me from begging Alec to stop. I was
surprised when Alec veered towards the training ground rather than
continuing on to the house.

I had a heartbeat to hope that Alec's sister
Rachel, a normal human like me, was safely home and then we slid to
a halt on the hot sand.

The whole pack was there, and I immediately
understood why most of them had changed shapes. The energy in the
air tore at me like a chorus of buzz saws; the united pack that had
recently faced down Brandon's larger group of thugs looked like it
was only seconds away from turning on itself.

It was Jess who was in the center of
the circle, faced off against Jack. I felt my throat tighten up.
Jess and I weren't exactly friends but I was pretty sure she hadn't
done anything to deserve having Jack tear into her. Jack was one of
the new wolves Alec had absorbed into the pack when he'd killed
Brandon. Apparently three of the rival pack hadn't ever been quite
as bad, so when they came to us and requested protection, Alec
hadn't had the heart to turn them away.

Sometimes I wished he had. At least
Jack--he was always in everyone's face, and I had a suspicion that
he wasn't going to be fighting fair. He'd spent his formative years
in such a brutal environment it was almost inevitable that he'd do
something dirty. He didn't fight just to win, he fought to
intimidate so that nobody else would be willing to face off against
him.

Dom and the other submissives were
milling around the outside of the circle while James and Jasmin
were obviously trying to keep Isaac from interfering. I opened my
mouth, maybe to ask everyone to calm down, and Jack sprang at
Jess.

Scraps of cloth went flying as both
fighters shifted and clinched. Their coloration was too similar.
For a second it looked like Jess was on top and then the pair
shifted around again and I lost track of who was who.

Big splashes of crimson stained the sand now
and the growls were interspersed with whines of pain. The rest of
the pack wasn't hindered by my merely human eyes. I watched them
out of a corner of my eye for some clue of who was
winning.

Isaac crouched forward as a particularly loud
yelp signaled trouble for Jess. On the other side of the circle
Alison had shrunk down on all four paws. Jack had been her friend
for years but she mostly just seemed like she wanted the fighting
to stop.

The whirling bundle of fangs and blood wasn't
moving as quickly now. It looked like Jack was on top now, his
fangs fastened on Jess's throat. She unsuccessfully tried to shake
him off and then stopped moving with a final whine.

Isaac knocked James and Jasmin back
and crossed over to Jack, ripping him off of Jess. The movements
were so fast I had to intuit them based off of their effects. The
rest of the pack seemed to spring into action at the same time.
There was a flurry of motion, but the only thing I registered was
Isaac following Jack's flying form, intent on finishing the smaller
wolf.

Alec had been standing next to me,
but somehow he arrived at Jack first. Alec's hulking hybrid form
knocked Isaac to one side and then spun around just in time to
catch Jack mid-spring. James arrived a split second later to help
restrain Isaac. I'd expected to see Jasmin accompanying him, but
she'd joined Dom in facing down Sam and Alison, who looked like
they wanted to help their friend.

Jack was thrashing in Alec's grip now, and
Isaac had turned on James with a killing fury. Even I could see
there wasn't time for Alec to be gentle, not with the growing pool
of blood around Jess. Alec threw Jack up against a tree and then
turned and tackled Isaac.

"You're stopping us from helping
Jess!"

The words came out deep and harsh from Alec's
shifted throat, but they got through to Isaac. He stopped
struggling instantly and James and Alec rolled off him a few
seconds later. I half expected Jack to rush Isaac again. Instead as
Isaac melted back down into his normal human form, Jack limped over
to Alec and dropped down so his belly was in the sand.

Dom had already shifted back and was applying
pressure to the worst of Jess' injuries. Alec took in Jess' wounds
and then turned back to Jack. "Stay out of Isaac's way."

Alec waved James and Jasmin after
Isaac and Dom and then hurried back to me. "I've got to go with
them. James will need help if…well, if things go badly. It's not
safe for you back at the house right now. Are you okay here for
half an hour or so? Then you can have Alison bring you
back."

My mind shied away from the
implications of what he'd just avoided saying. Jess dead, Isaac
losing control and having to be restrained. Alec was right. There
were too many people back at the house already who couldn't protect
themselves. Rachel, Donovan, Alec's mom. Plus James' mom and Jess'
dad.

Alison's welcoming presence notwithstanding, I
probably would have just headed back up the mountain by myself so
as to avoid being around Jack. Alec was right though. If Vincent
really hadn't cleared out of the area I'd be much safer with Alison
and Sam around than off by myself.

Alec waited for my nod of acceptance and then
turned back to Jack and the others. "If anything happens to Adri
that you could have stopped, I'll hunt you all down."

It could have been an idle threat,
but the words were accompanied by a flash of power. I'd never felt
anything like it before, but it sounded like Alec had just bound
both him and his beast. If they let me get hurt, then his beast
would essentially take over and run the three of them to the
ground. It wasn't a thing to do lightly but it was exactly the kind
of thing I'd come to expect out of Alec. He always did his absolute
best to take care of those who depended on him.

As soon as the three submissive
wolves nodded understanding, Alec took off in a blur. The fact that
he was moving so quickly and didn't bother changing back to his
human form was a testament to just how badly he was needed back at
the house.

As Jack melted back into his normal form Alison
and Sam hurried over to his side.

"Stay back a little please, Adri. Until we know
for sure how bad his injuries are, he isn't safe."

Alison's pleasant alto voice was distorted
slightly with worry, worry for Jack, worry for me, worry for
herself if something happened to me.

Sam looked up just enough to confirm that I was
keeping my distance and then nodded. "She's right. When one of us
is injured past a certain point our beasts can sometimes take over.
It doesn't happen often, but when it does the injured wolf goes
berserk."

Alison used a length of cloth off of
her discarded shirt to stem some of the bleeding, placing Sam's
hands on the area to apply pressure before she moved on to the next
injury while he continued explaining.

"If there's a powerful, dominant
hybrid around they can compel the injured beast into submission,
but if there isn't, your best bet is to just beat on the injured
wolf until it collapses into a coma and then try and keep it alive
once it's not trying to rip your head off."

I was pretty sure Alec wouldn't have been
overjoyed to know that his newest wolves were letting so much slip,
but I wasn't about to tell him. I'd spent entirely too much time
wishing I knew exactly this kind of stuff. He claimed my ignorance
would help protect me but I was less and less convinced he was
right the more I found out about his world.

I shifted around so I could see
Jack's face. He looked unconscious, which probably meant he was
safe, at least until he woke up, but I didn't get any
closer.

"What happened? I mean I know dominance
challenges are kind of a fact of life in a shape shifter pack, but
this seemed crazy. I mean I don't think I've ever seen Isaac lose
his cool like that."

Sam looked at Alison for a second
and I was momentarily struck by just how odd their pairing was. She
was one of the kindest people I knew. I mean like Rachel or Dominic
kind. He was much more edgy, not Jack or James edgy, but edgy
enough I wouldn't have expected him to fall in love with Alison or
for her to return the sentiment. Then again, it seemed like
everyone in the pack had some kind of odd love interest. James and
Dom, Isaac and Jess. Heck, when you got right down to it, those
were normal compared to the thought of rich, gorgeous, perfect Alec
liking me.