The Pack (41 page)

     “I will go when my brother tells me too
.
I don’t take orders from
some young pup who still doesn’t know enough to lift his
leg to pee,
” Trevor said spitting tobacco from his mouth
.

     “Leave,” Lucan, commanded
walkin
g out of the door, Gregory
on his heels
.

  
  “Ah Luc it’s been a long time.” Trevor turned
to face him
looking disgusted
. “I came to discuss something with you
. I
t would be impolite not to listen to what I have to say.”

     “Yeah
,
he’s your brother you should listen close
,
as if the lives of everyone you love depend upon it
,
which it does
,” his partner
said his eyes riveted on Mercy despite Alec’s defensive stance in front of her.

     “Shu
t it,
” Trevor said to his accomplice
addressing Lucan once again. “I don’t know what you’re up to
,
but I came to warn you if your even thinking of challenging me I will take great pleasure in killing everyone you love start
ing with your sweet little girl
t
here.”

   
Alec
threw himself at Trevor pinning him easily
to the ground
as Gregor
y ta
ckled his friend to keep him fro
m interfering
.

    “Alec
,
get
Mercy inside,” Gregory said calmly
despite the tick in his cheek
and the change in his eyes
as he glared down at the man under him
.

    
Alec turned to his father his eyes glowing with rage as he pressed down on Trevor’s neck cutti
ng off the air to his windpipe
. The urge to kill any threat to his mate was strong and he felt his body move under his clothes as the wolf inside him fought to be free. He hun
ched low
his bones popping trying to
reshape
themselves
to
ready for the shift
,
letting out a loud snarl as the man under him fought to get away.

    
“Now son,” Gregory urged
,
but it was Mercy’s cry of distress that forced him off the fallen man.
He
was mid shift,
fighting to stay human
as he walked towards her
,
wanting only to ease her fears
,
but he clearly saw the horror in her eyes and knew it was too late
.

     “Alec?”
she whispered her eyes growing wide
as he approached
.
Fear gripped her as
she took in the extended jaw,
the change of his eyes color
and t
he fur on t
he back of his hand
,
creeping up his arm
and she screamed.

     “It’s okay
,” h
e growled
shaking his head as he fought to free himself of his rage
before he shifted
in front of her
.

     “What are you?” she asked taking a step back when he reached for her
looking to Lucan who was now in the process of lifting his brother in the air by his throat
.
“What is going on?”

     “I wi
ll explain,”
Alec,
said his voice rough
and distorted. He took
another step towards her underestimating her ab
ility to move swiftly.

     Terrified of the sight before her, Mercy
jumped over the rail and took off into the woods running with all of her might to g
et away.

     Her f
ear was the trigger that his wolf needed
and Alec
jumped after her tr
ansforming easily
to
wolf form to
pursue her.

     Lucan screamed at Mercy
to stop
running knowing Alec was now out of control
,
but it was too late
,
she was too fast
,
and Alec was now in wolf form pursuing her.

      The distraction was all
Blade needed
to free himself from Gregory
,
but
he
made n
o move to help Trevor
. Instead,
a small grin split
his scarred face
as
he watched him choking, unable to defeat his brother
.

     “I’ll kill you this time,
” Lucan snarled at his brother.

     “Help,”
Trevor gasped his terror-filled eyes meeting Blades.

    
“
I don’t t
hink so
,
it seems to me that you’re
finally getting what you deserve.
Our plan worked
,
the girl is in
the woods where my men wait and Gregory’s son is a bonus I j
ust
can’t ignore.”
He shifted easily and
leapt
off the rail
then
vanished into the
woods
leaving
Trevor
to deal with
Gregory and Lucan
.

     “What is he talking abou
t,” Lucan screamed
slamming Trevor’s head
against the column of th
e porch ignoring the
loud crunch of bone that followed
.

     “It was a setup
,” h
e panted. “H
e wanted to make you angry
…
to force Ale
c to change so she would
run,
” h
e whimpered.

     “
Why?” Gregory
asked impatiently
.

     “I don’t know!” he
shouted
.

    
Lucan hit him in the mouth
s
o hard blood spattered
across
the white porch rails
and deck
.
“Answer him or I swear…”

     “Let him go,
” Mather said from behind them.

     “I swear if you had anything
to do with this I will kill you,
” Gregory snarled.

     “I came to help
.
I only just found out who and what Blade is.” He looked t
o Trevor the disdain
. “How could you be so stupid? How could you involve yourself with a group who wants nothing more than to dominate the packs
,
to take over and us
e our people for their own gain
?”

     “I didn’t know,
”
Trevor cried out
blood dribbling from his tattered lip
as Lucan held him captive
. 

     “Let him go
,
we
need to save Mercy and Alec and
he’s the only one who has the answ
ers we need,
” Gregory told him
.

     Lucan did as ask
,
letting his pathetic excuse for a brother fall to the ground with a thump.

     “I want answers now,
” Mather commanded unsympathetic to his
son’s
battered
state.

    “At first he said he only wanted to ensure the proper
Alpha
took control of our pack.”
He wiped the blood from his mouth and looked to his father. “I thought he meant me
,
I swear I had
no idea he meant to kill everyone in his way
,
including me
.”

     “You,
y
ou think I care about you?” Mather sneered. “After we find your sister I never want to see you again
,
I disown you and ban you from our pa
ck.”

     “Sister?”  Trevor
asked looking confused.

     “That’s right Mercy is my daughter.” He looked to Lucan. “Did you really think I would not have known? I let her mother leave so she might have a life unli
ke yours and your brothers
.
I kne
w
how much you both hated
me and it was not what I wanted for my only daughter.”

     “
You knew all along?” Lucan said
wearily.

     “Since the day
Linda found out
,”
h
e answered sadly.

     “How cou
ld you let her go she loved you,
” Lucan said.

     “At one tim
e she did
,
but in the end
her love w
as for you and your brother.
I had treated you both with such neglect I knew she would be be
tter off finding a
father for our daughter
who would be there for her
.” His eyes were suspiciously misty as he went on. “I never doubted I made mistakes with my children
, but she made them clear.
I let her
go, let you and your brot
her go
,
to make a better life, which
you did for yourselves and your sister
,
for that I will be forever grateful.”

     “Mather I don’t mean to cut you short
,
but we need to find Alec and Mercy before Blade and his men do.” Gregory
said
.

     “My pack is
in the woods
. A
s soon as we fou
nd out what they planned we came
after them
,” he told him.

     “My pack is also in the woods
,
they have been keeping watch since the first shooting
,
but we should go now,
” Gregory told them
his body already forming into that of his wolf as he headed to
wards
the forest.

    
Lucan foll
owed his lead leaving
father and son
on the porch.

     “Father I….”
Trevor pushed himself up trying to explain
,
but Mather reached down taking his throat in
his hands
. “D
on’t
,
the sight
of you makes me sick and to hear anymore of your lies will only force me to kill you here and now.” He let go and his son fell to the ground gasping for air. “I never want to see you again as far as I and the rest of the pack are concerned your dead.” He moved swiftly to the wood line never looking back as he transformed then disappeared into the trees
hell bent on saving his daughter
.

*****

    
Mercy ran far into the woods
,
fear making her foolish and desperate to escape
from the very men who were
closest to her. She could still see Alec
,
his body moving under his clothes
,
the feral growl he had let loose as his e
yes changed and his bones moved under his skin
.
Worse,
h
e
r own body had reacted to his
change and now
she feared she too would become a monster
,
but even as she
ran,
she knew it was too late.

    
Alec was not far behind her
and s
he sensed many following
her path, but still she
pushed herself to run despite the
excruciating pain
her body experienced
as
her bones shifted and moved.
On
e glance
at her arms and she grimaced. F
ur
had
begu
n to
sprout from her skin
and pain unlike any she
had ever known tore
through her body
. S
he fell to the ground a mass of quivering skin, fur
,
and bones
,
screaming
as
her body contorted reshaping itself regardless of her begging for the pain to stop
.