The Pack (6 page)

    
Alec kicked the
young
wolf
hard enough
that
he let
out an
ear-piercing
yelp
of pain before
slinking back out of the way looking
uncertain
.

    
The howls
among the others
grew louder as the scent of Mercy’s blood filled the air and f
ighting erupted b
etween t
hem
.
The
yelps of two males tearing into each
other
interrupted the packs
progress
and he took advantage of their distraction
.

    
Without further
hesitation
,
Alec
stepped back allowing the
Alpha
wolf
that
had been struggling
inside of him
free.
His shift took mere seconds to happen and the
power of his wolf, unleashed
brought a
ripple effect of obedience from the hostile males
surrounding him
.
All
fighting stopped
and they
turned towards him expectantly
unable to resist his powerful presence
.

    
He
placed his oversized paw
on Mercy’s chest and growled fiercely
warning them all he was staking his claim
.
No
one move
d. None
dared
to challenge him
, so
h
e bent down and bit her right shoulder rele
asing a small bit of his own saliva
into her
body
marking her as h
is to
all of his pack.
It wouldn’t
make her completely safe, but it brought the time he needed to get her out of there.

     He howled loudly stepp
ing back to shift to human form then
scanned the group meetin
g each
wolf’s
eyes before taking a step forward
and gathering Mercy in his arms
.
None m
oved to stop him as he
walk
ed
towards them.
Instead,
they parted allowing him to move
easily throu
gh the mass of male wolves before him.
O
nce through
h
e turned and looked to the
young one,
then
to Cade who waited in wolf form
for his commands
. “T
ake him back to his family
,
make sure they are aware what happened here tonight
.”

    
Cade howled
nodding his furry head
in acknowledgement
before approaching the snarling young male accreting his own dominance over him to coral him and le
a
d him home
.

    
Alec turned walking
off
into the woods until they were out of
sight
,
then
ran as fast
as he could to Lucan’s house
cradling Mercy against his bare chest
trying not to make her wounds worse
than they already were
.

*****

     Mercy
woke as he lai
d h
er on the bed in her room
,
her eyes wide with pa
nic
, a scream of terror on her lips
.
She thrashed and fought against him as he tried to assess her wounds forcing him to give
her a shot of pain medication all of his kind kept on hand
for emergencies
to calm her
. It took only minutes for the medicine to take effect, minutes that seemed like a lif
etime as he listened her pleading
, begging him to make the pain go away. 

     Once she had calmed he was able to begin the process of cleaning the wounds. Thanks to her Were
DNA, the artery had started to mend on its own
, but the external damage was
extensive
and had yet to begin the process of mending
. Her screams of agony
,
despite the s
ubstantial quantity of pain medicine
he gave her
,
made him flinch
.
Still he
f
orced himself to continue
until
every
wound
was clean and wrapped
with
gauze to protect them from infection
as they healed.

    
By the time he finished she had passed out, whether
from the pain or drugs, he wasn’
t sure
, but he was grateful. Finally, he injected her with antibiotics and covered her with a soft blanket taking his first real breath since bringing her home. H
e
knew he
would never forget the sound of her screams and
the look on
her face as she pleaded with him to stop hurting her
,
for as long as he lived.

    “
She has always been afraid of wolves
,”
Lucan said
solemnly
as he walked
into
t
he room and sat
on the bed next to her taking her hand in his
own.
“How do I tell her the very thing that keeps destroying her life is her destiny?”

     Alec shook hi
s head uncertain how to answer.

     Lucan was more confident
than ever in their decision to Leave
. E
very
male in the area was now a
potential
threat
now that they had scented her blood
.
Alec
’s
claim
saved her in the moment, but
now h
er presence w
ould cause fighting between him
and any who wanted his pl
a
ce in
the pack. Lucan didn’t want Alec’s home to become a battleground for him and he didn’t want Mercy to
live in jeopardy, so moving was the only option.

  
   “She should sleep for a few hours
.
I gave her a shot
to ease the pain
and antibiotics to prevent infection.
” Alec t
old h
im tiredly
.
“I think it
best
if you left early in the morning before anyone else is up and around
.”

     “There is
a healer
a few states over, w
e
will stop and have Mercy
tended to before we find the place you
r father
secured for
us.”
He looked up at the young man he had grown to respect
during their time as friends,
his eyes filled gratitude, his heart h
eavy with regret
.
“I will never be able to thank you for saving her
tonight
.”

     “Did I?” Alec ask
ed doubtfully
rising from the chair and brushing a soft kiss on Mercy’s forehead
before
walking
out of the room.

     Mercy watched the o
ther girls of her
cheerleading
squad
flirting shamelessly
with the football players after
practice. She
did not join them
in their pursuits having never felt the same pull the
other girls did toward the males
that surrounded them daily
,
but
instead
gathered her gear and
got ready to go home.

    
It had been a
lmost a
y
ear since they had moved to the mountains of North Carolinia and she had adjusted well to her
new surroundings.
She
made
good
friends at school
and
j
oined the
cheerleading sq
uad
at her best
friends urging
.
Everything seemed to
be running smoothly
, s
he should have been happy and carefree, but something held her back from enjoying
her new life
.  As
if there were something missing,
she needed to complete the picture, something that would grant her the happiness she longed to feel.

    
T
he lo
ud honk of a horn let her know
h
er
brother Cade waited in t
he parking lot for her
,
as he did every afternoon
and she shook her head to clear it
. S
he needed to hurry
before they were late because if
they were even a few
minutes off schedule,
Lucan would be calling her
for the reason
.
Since the night of the attack, he had become more overprotective than a mother bear with her cubs, allowing Mercy very little freedom. 

     “Hey girl we are all meeting at the
lake tonight
.  W
hy don’t you tell your brothers
you’
re spending the night with me so
you can go too
,
”
her best friend
Gina said
as she joined her at the bench
.

     At five foot-five
,
with luxurious raven colored hair
,
big b
lue eyes and a
body years of cheering had
perfectly toned she was one of the most attractive girls at the school. When she had first approached Mercy she couldn’t help
,
but be intimidated by her exuberant personality and her flirty nature, but Gina quickly put her at ease. Now they were inseparable and thick as thieves at school and out.

 
   “
I hate lying to them
,
” Mercy said
her tossing her bag over her shoulder.

     “You are not lying
at all
.
” S
he said with a grin
.
“
W
hen the party is over we will be going back to
my house.” 

    
Gina was always coming
up
with schemes to get her away
from her protected home life, but so far, Mercy had shot them all down.
She sensed,
by the stubborn set of Gina’s jaw though that
this time that was not going to be the case
.

    
“Come on
,
you never hang with us and
Kirk
wants you to
come
.”
She wiggled her fingers in the direction of the team
’
s quarterback who stood a few feet away talking with his coach and he waved ba
ck
his eyes glued on Mercy much to her
humiliation
.

   
Blonde
hair,
with eyes as blue as the s
ky, he was simply the most gorgeous guy at school
and h
e
had made it clear
from the first day they had met
he was interested in her. He
asked out a few times,
but she had hesitated as she alwa
ys did when a guy asked her out.
It wasn’t that she didn’t find him attractive,
she did
, but something seemed wrong about her dating him or any other guy who had asked.

    
Gi
na waved her hand in front of her
face
until she blinked and smiled apologetically
. “Sor
ry, I got lost for a minute
.”