Torn (16 page)

I could hear them now,
panting as they ran several hundred feet back. They weren't gaining,
but there was still a lot of ground to cover before I was safe. The
underbrush that normally slid by with only the merest whisper of
contact now seemed to be pulling at me, trying to slow my progress.

I was less than a
minute short of our land when they sprung the second prong of their
trap. I smelled Nathanial a split second before he pounced, which
was the only thing that allowed me to dodge his attack. He still got
a piece of my shoulder, but he missed the neck hold he'd been going
for, and even as we went rolling from the force of the impact I let
my hybrid form explode out.

His fangs lost their
hold on my shifting flesh, but not before they tore huge, bloody
gashes in the muscles that shielded the joint. I chose flight rather
than attempting to kill Nathanial, but still only made it fifteen or
twenty seconds further before I heard the others closing in.

I spun around just in
time to catch Simon as he lunged at me, but Vincent shifted forms and
hit me like a wrecking ball. Simon let loose with a pained howl
as I took him to the ground, but I was forced to let him go in order
to roll back to my feet.

It was a hopeless
fight. Nathanial was mobile again and circling to my right at the
same time that Simon was arcing around to the left. Vincent was
dancing just out of striking range as he waited for his companions to
get into position.

I attacked before they
could get set, moving into Nathanial with every bit of speed I could
muster. I caught him with the claws of my right hand and nearly
managed to make it back around in time to catch Simon. The motion
threw off Simon's aim. He wasn't used to lunging at targets so tall,
and his fangs fastened on my arm with accompanying spikes of agony.

Vincent was only a
half-step behind, but I brought Nathanial up and used him as a club.
The attack nearly succeeded in knocking Vincent over, but he barreled
on in and knocked me to the ground again.

I scrambled furiously,
attempting to get out from under Vincent. My talons and claws were
finding purchase on his body, but he'd fastened his fangs onto my
arm, clamping down with enough force that I knew I only had a few
seconds before he'd manage to rip it off.

I redoubled my
efforts, raking him with such frenzy that hot blood washed over me,
but he didn't even flinch. I felt his teeth meet inside my arm, and
then suddenly a loud shriek caused both of us to start.

I lunged back to my
feet as Vincent released me and spun around to meet Isaac's attack.
On paper the others had the edge against us, but Isaac was fresh, and
I was still more than capable of handling whichever of the wolves got
too close.

I knocked Nathanial
away again as he sprang at Isaac, and then Isaac and Vincent clinched
in a whirlwind of claws and blood. I spun just in time to duck
Simon's attack, and then Nathanial was back again. Somehow he'd
locked on my leg without me seeing the attack coming, and Simon spun
around and hit me in the chest hard enough to knock me over.

I caught a glimpse of
Isaac's fight, just enough to see that he was winning, that he'd
pinned Vincent and was working his way into a lethal hold, but my
situation was turning serious. Simon had a hold of my good arm and
was stretching me out so that I couldn't get at him or Nathanial,
either one.

It wasn't the kind of
thing that would grant them a quick kill, but all they had to do was
keep me stretched out between them and sooner or later I'd bleed to
death even if they didn't manage to rip me in half before then.

They chose the second
option, and dug their paws in as they whipped their heads back and
forth. The agony as my joints were strained nearly to the point of
breaking wrung a cry out of me and suddenly Isaac was there knocking
them off of me.

Vincent was back on
his feet, looking unsteady but more than ready for another round, but
Jasmin's howl announced approaching reinforcements. Vincent and the
others disappeared into the night as I limped home after Isaac.

Jasmin joined us and
then raced off to find the others. Everyone was waiting for us back
at the house. I made it almost to the lawn before accumulated blood
loss and shock brought me to my knees. The last thing I remembered
before the blackness overtook me was James approaching with his ears
laid back and the blood thirst in his eyes.

Rachel was waiting
next to my bed when I finally came back to full consciousness. She'd
been crying, and still looked worried, but she mustered a brave smile
as soon as she realized I was awake.

"Alec, I was so
worried. What happened?"

I shook my head,
wincing at the way the motion made my stomach clench. I hadn't known
it was possible for one of us to get a concussion.

"We can talk
about that later. What's the status of the pack?"

Jasmin walked into the
room before Rachel could answer.

"Pissed off and
worried, or maybe worried and pissed off. It probably depends on who
you ask. What in Adjam's name were you thinking running about into
the neutral territory by yourself?"

"As I recall you
didn't think it was so unreasonable when it was you and James that
struck out on your own."

"That was
different. There were two of us and Brandon's pack hadn't been
acting quite so aggressive. By all rights you should be dead."

I nodded my head, more
gingerly this time. "You're right, Vincent and the others
would have killed me if Isaac hadn't happened to be so close."

Rachel shook her head
at me. "That's not what she's talking about. James was mad,
or scared. When you came back he almost challenged Isaac right then
and there."

I felt a shiver work
its way up my spine as I realized what Rachel was saying. James
couldn't attack me until he'd beaten Isaac, but Isaac had been
injured. If he'd beaten Isaac, or if Isaac had just declined to
fight, there wouldn't have been anything to stop James from killing
me. He'd have inherited a pack that was only days from destruction,
but he'd have finally achieved his mother's ambitions for him. Rule
in hell indeed.

"So why didn't
he?"

Rachel answered again,
"Isaac refused to stand aside for him, and Jasmin told him that
she'd challenge him just as soon as he finished with Isaac, and that she'd
kill him if Isaac proved unable to do it."

I looked up at Jasmin
and nodded in thanks. Isaac and I enjoyed a better working
relationship than most alphas and their seconds. He knew I was a
slightly better fighter, but even more than that he didn't have any
desire to lead the pack. In any other pack he'd have either been
killed early on or forced to become something entirely different than
he was now. I kept the dominance games between him and James to a
minimum and in return he generally backed me far past the point where
most hybrids would have been looking to increase their own status and
power.

Despite the capital
I'd burned up with him lately, he'd acted essentially as I'd have
expected. Jasmin was a different matter altogether. Her personality
was much more aggressive than Isaac's and she very much resented
being fourth in the pack. With the erratic nature of her actions
lately I was almost surprised she hadn't joined in with James'
attempted coup.

Some of my thoughts
must have been mirrored on my face, Jasmin looked away after only a
second of meeting my eyes.

"Don't look at
me like that. I wouldn't have let him kill you."

"I never said
you would. I'm just realizing I can't predict your actions as well
these days as I used to."

"I could say the
same thing about you. Going out there by yourself was seriously
stupid."

"I don't want to
talk about it, Jasmin. I appreciate what you and Isaac both did for
me, but the reason I was out there is off limits."

Jasmin flipped me off
and stormed out of the room. Rachel tried to make small talk, but
quickly realized I wasn't in the mood and followed after Jas.

Now that I was safely
by myself I pulled the sheet back and took an inventory of my wounds.
There were more than I remembered. The massive ones on my leg and
each arm were about like I expected, but there were a whole host of
slashes across my chest that I didn't remember receiving. Apparently
Vincent had gotten in more blows than I'd realized.

Jasmin was right; by
all rights I
should
be dead. I'd be back up and fully mobile
within another twenty-four hours at the outside, but it had been a
close thing.

I was shaken by what'd
happened, but I pushed those concerns out of my mind and stumbled
over to my studio, running my finger over the biometric lock. I
needed to make another attempt at the painting while Adri's face and
form were still fresh in my mind. Given what'd just happened it was
unlikely I was going to get another chance to see her asleep.

When I finally
staggered back to my bed and collapsed into an exhausted sleep I was
only slightly less frustrated than I'd been after the last attempt.
It was better. I had more of her essence, most of the sweet
innocence that made one think of the angelic, but it still wasn't
perfect. It still lacked so many of the essentials that made her
perfection.

The distress over the
painting dissolved as I floated away into a calming dream. I was at
the pond on the far end of the estate. It was possibly the only
natural spring in sixty miles, and was deep and wide enough to
support a type of long, slender fish.

It was another refuge
I hadn't been to in more months than I cared to think about, but it
was made all the more calming by the fact that Adri was there as
well. She walked up the path from the hedge maze and then smiled in
delight at the sight of the pond.

I was momentarily
worried she'd smell me and bolt, but in this dream Adri didn't seem to
have inherited our sense of smell. I crowded ever so slowly forward
to find a better vantage point from which to watch her.

She carefully walked
up to the bench, and then as she placed one toe in the water, she was
suddenly clad in a swimsuit rather than the jeans and tank top she'd
been in just a second before. I felt my pulse speed up as I took in
the gorgeous expanse of pale skin that the blue two-piece revealed.
Fortunately her hearing was likewise human-dull.

She suddenly dived
into the pond with a bravery and zest I'd seen only hints of
previously, coming up sputtering and then diving back under to pursue
the darting slivers of light that were the freshwater fish.

She moved with the
smooth, sure strokes of an Olympic swimmer as she chased and then
finally settled back to just float in the center of the expanse of
water. I remained motionless, silently watching until my healing
body finally determined it'd rested sufficiently and sent me back
into the real world.

**

The next couple of
days were a frenzy of activity. I'd chosen not to go to school,
partially because I had too much to do to spend my day sitting
through pointless lectures, and partially because I was hoping that
Brandon would assume I was even more injured than I actually was.

I'd just discovered
that the old saw about necessity being the mother of invention had a
very important corollary. While self-preservation was capable of
focusing the mind to an incredible degree, sometimes inspiration
required a higher cause than mere survival.

For years we'd been
hoping that we could defer the coming confrontation until I'd had
time to manifest my power. I'd been hesitant as a result, often
choosing to bend rather than face Brandon down over things that
didn't directly relate to our survival.

It would have been
tempting to blame Donovan. Flexibility and misdirection were the
usual tools of the submissives, but that wouldn't have been fair. It
had been my decision, just like it was now my decision to alter our
tactics.

Donovan and I sat
down, pooled our knowledge of Brandon's fiscal operations and assets,
and then came up with ways to begin causing him problems in each
area. It wasn't anything overly aggressive, but he was about to find
his net worth declining abruptly.

I slogged through
hours and hours of homework, and then did something I hadn't tried in
ages. The rest of the wolves were at school, so I couldn't spar with
them, even supposing that was a good idea considering their recent
frustration with me, so I went out back to my father's old workshop
and strapped myself into the machine.

Weightlifting had long
been viewed as worthless among shape shifters. When you're easily
able to bench press a small car, there doesn't usually seem to be
much point in becoming two or three percent stronger.

My father hadn't
shared that belief, and with the advent of science and weight
machines he'd been vindicated. It'd taken several years to design
and build a machine capable of stressing the strength of even a full
blown hybrid, but metal work had been one of his great loves, and
he'd persevered.

The result wasn't
pretty, but it allowed me to lift massive, almost inconceivable
amounts of weight in either of my two-legged forms. When I'd first
manifested my wolf form I'd spent hours in the machine attempting to
compensate for Jasmin's increased strength and power. I hadn't been
entirely positive that my royal traits would breed true with only one
moon born parent, and it'd seemed the only hope of retaining control
of the pack when faced with Jasmin's royal heritage.

I'd even continued
working out on the machine for a short time after I'd manifested my
royal hybrid form. Strength led to speed, and the two were vitally
important in any shape shifter fight, but all too soon Brandon had
manifested his power, and it had seemed pointless to continue to
train when no amount of muscle growth could hope to compete with his
unnatural strength and speed.