The Pack (13 page)

     “You ca
n’t hide
all day,” s
he told herself forcing herself
from the bed
. “I can handle this
.
I
lie
d
and I will apologize
,
but
I will also explain
he has to let me grow up.
I am
not si
x any more I need to
experience life.
I am sure
once I
make him understand, he will agree to give Kirk a chance,
if of course Kirk
even wants to speak to me again
.”
She peered into the mirror
and pointed at her reflection
. “Yeah right
,
vampires and werewolves are real too.
” She laughed and decided the best course of action was to
face her punishment and pray he did not lock her up until she turned eighteen
,
a probability
she did not want to think about
.

*****

     Alec,
too disturbed by the night’s events to sleep, got up at dawn and waited in the kitchen for her to appear
. T
he brothers
joined him
after the sunrise
to discuss the best way to handle the situation. 
T
hey had arg
ued for hours how best to approach the situation, but
were still torn
.

    
“L
ucan are you in control?”
Cade asked
with concern.
H
is brother
spent a good part
of the night walking the fl
oors, angry she had lied
to them and upset with himself for hurting her
.

     “I’m alright
,”
Lucan,
answered
taking a swallow of his coffee,
the sixth cu
p of the morning.
It was his drink of choice and
C
affeine was nev
e
r a problem for thei
r kind since the buzz burned through them quickly. 

    
“You didn’t hurt her on purpose,
”
Cade,
reminded him.

     “If I thought you did
,
you would not be sitting here you would be ten feet under and missin
g yo
ur heart,
” Alec told him
coolly
.

    
Lu
can did not doubt his words
, t
hey might be friends,
but
h
e w
ould do anything to protect Mercy, even if that
meant eliminating one of her brothers to keep her safe.
He took no offense
.
The idea
he would threaten another of his kind, one who was much older than
he was
,
showed why the entire pack knew he would be the next
Alpha
. He possessed a strength and co
ntrol of his wolf impressive to
even
his father,
one of the stro
ngest
Alpha
’s in the country.

    
He didn’t bother to respond
to respond to his comment
. Alec
didn’t want
an
answer
,
so they sat in
silence until the sound of Mercy
walking down the steps announced her arrival.

     Mercy entered the kitchen
aware every eye in the room followed
her as
she went to the refrigerator,
grabbed the o
range juice
and
poured
a glass before joining them a
t the table.
Alec offered a warm smile as she settl
ed into the chair next to him
and
her heart rate pick up considerably
.

    
From
the first day she met Alec,
they
had formed a bond between them
.
He
quickly beca
me her best friend and confidant, the one she turned to when she needed advice
,
or
a hand to hold
.
He
often stay
ed
for dinner
, or
to
play boar
d games with her family at night
, spending most of his free time at their house instead of his own.

    
Everything was
perfect until at thirteen she
ask
ed him how she would know when a boy liked her.
He had grown
angry at her innocent question and interrogated her
about who
was interested in
her
. She had assured him there wa
s no one in particular
, but he had been sullen and angry, making an excuse soon after to leave.
A
fter that he,
began to spend more time away
, always
too busy
with his father
to come by
.

     Although hurt,
she never questioned his sudden absences
until
she spotted
him one night with a
date
at the local movie theater
after he had told her he was staying home with his dad
.
He had been sitting with a gorgeous blond-
haired girl she re
cognized  from school. The girl was leaning
close to him
, pressing her larger than average chest against him as she flirted shamelessly
. Alec had smiled wrapping his arm around her and placing a kiss on her pouty red lips, which had only increased the girl’s aggressiveness
.

    
The need to harm the girl became
so
strong
as Mercy
watched them together
she’
d been afraid she might actually lose c
ontrol and do something to harm her.
Horrified by her
reaction she excused herself from her friends
and ran all the way home
, where she cried all night, hurt by his deception and confused by the jealousy that ate at her.

   
Now as he sat next to her once aga
in
,
the calming balm to her worries
,
she sensed
the bond
between them strengthen and that worried her. She did no
t want to get
to
the point
w
here seeing him with other girls would make her sad and so filled with rage she thought she
might physically hurt someone.
She couldn’t go there again it hurt too bad
and turned into someone she didn’t want to be
.

     “Mercy,”
Lucan reached out and took her hand in his br
ining her back to the present. “
I should not have
embarrass
ed
you last night and
I never meant to hurt you
,
but we need to talk about why
you would lie to us
.”

     She squeezed his hand hop
ing to ease the sadness
in his eyes
and decided being honest was the only way to deal with everything
happening
around her
. “Y
ou never give me freedom
. M
ost girls my age h
av
e been dating for a few years and u
ntil last night I had never even been kissed.” She heard Alec’s deep intake of
breathe
,
but did not
dare
glance
his
way
. “
I need to grow up and you won’t let me.”

     “I
want to ke
e
p you safe.”

     “From what
?” No one answered
,
but she had not expected them too
they never answered her questions
a
bout why they feared for
her
the way they did
. “
Kirk t
reats me with respect and he asked me to be his girlfriend last night
, but you ruined the whole thing
. N
ow he will probably never want to speak to me again.”

     “No loss
,” Alec murmured
under his breath
,
earning a
sharp
look of disapproval from Mercy
.

     “I doubt anything is ruined
,
he seemed to like you a lot,
” Lucan
replied unhappily
.

     “I am sorry I lied
to you
.
I was afraid if I asked
to go
you would say no and I
wanted to go out with Kirk
, I like him
.
”
She bit her lip silently waiting for his reply.

   
Lucan realized
she had a point
, t
hey couldn’t
keep her l
ocked a
way forever.
“W
e were
both wrong
in this
,
me for keeping you locked up and you for not coming to me and giving me a chance
to do the right thing
. Fo
r the next week you are grounded for lying to us
, but after that you can see Kirk if you let us know where you are going and who will be there
.”

     “But…” He laid his finger on her lips and s
miled stopping her objection.

     “Take it or leave it,” h
e told her laughing when she nipped his finger playfully.

     “I’ll ta
ke it
and I promise I won’t ever lie to you again.” She hugged him then reached for Cade who swept her against him in a bear hug,
leaving her gasping for air
. “By the way,
you were right. Lying brings
nothing
, but
trouble
.”

    
Everyone grew silent
,
but she was to
o
happy to notice
the
discomfort
her words caused
to the three males in the room
.

     “H
ow about some breakfast?”
Lucan asked as he rose from the chair,
t
urning away before she saw
the
regret
in his expression
. They kept what they were from her
for all the right reasons
,
but he wondered if she would understand
that
once she found out
.

     “Let
’s go sit out front
until breakfast is r
eady,
” Alec said taking
her hand
and
pulling her out of the door before she noted Lucan’s unhappiness
.

     “We did this for h
er
,
do not
second guess the past
now,
” Cade said from the table
. H
e too had
plenty of regret for all of the lies
they had told
,
but how did
one tell a six year old her
parents w
ere killed by we
rewolves
and
they kept
her hidden so others
,
including her own family, wouldn't harm her?

    
“We’ve done the best we can, her father
should be protecting her, and he should have been the one she turned to when her mother died.”

     “W
hat kind of a life would she have had then?” Cade asked
striding angrily to his side
. “
Father would not give her the attention she needs and
our br
other would
exploit what she is
for his own gain
.
That is why Linda kept her hidden, why she made us promise that if anything ever happened to he
r we would care for her and
te
ll no one in our family
of her existence.
”