by Sam Crescent
“My pack didn’t like that I enjoyed young girls,” the man said.
Bingo.
He was surrounded by sick bastards.
“You’re a pervert,” Ryan said. “Good to know. Luther, plan it all. Being here is starting to make my skin crawl.”
“We’ve made a lot of changes since you were last here, Luther. You’re going to find it a lot harder to escape.”
The wolf slammed the cage of Lucia’s cage, jerking her awake.
“I hope you’re all ready for when the fun starts.”
Luther waited for the bastard to go. His gaze was on Lucia as her eyes sparked amber. The blue had completely disappeared, and she looked feral.
Closing his eyes, he drowned out everything else and started to listen.
He focused on all of their heartbeats, and as he heard it, the scent of Lucia surrounded him. None of them knew it yet, but their mate was pregnant.
It’s why she was acting rashly, hurting people and also looking like a crazy woman.
She was protecting her cub, and she didn’t even realize it.
They were all going to be fathers to a sweet little baby.
Tears filled his eyes.
“You!”
Lucia’s hands gripped the cage, and she yanked on it. Did she even realize that she was shaking reinforced steel as she glared at him?
“How dare you leave us like that? Who do you think you are?”
“Lucia, I love you.”
“If you loved me, you wouldn’t have run.” She snapped each word out. “If you had loved any of us, we wouldn’t be here.”
“Lucia, you are pregnant.” He let that revelation sink in.
She stumbled back from the cage, and her hand immediately went to her stomach.
“No, you got it wrong.”
“I didn’t get it wrong. You’re pregnant. I can hear its heartbeat. If you focus, you can as well.”
She sat down on the floor, her hands going to her stomach.
Silence filled the air, and he saw the tears once again fall down her cheeks.
“I’m pregnant.”
She looked up at each of them.
“Luther, this is bad. Really fucking bad. There’s no getting away from this. If they find out she’s pregnant, they are going to hurt her. Is that what you want?” Ryan asked.
“Have you guys ever heard of a feral female?” Luther asked.
“Yeah, it’s where a woman can exert a certain level of strength to protect her baby,” Noah said. “My mom told me about it. She’d witnessed a female with a baby once. She’d been scared for her life and had been a timid wolf until that point. No man was left unscarred, or at least that was the story she told me.”
“Lucia, they are going to come. They are going to take your baby from you. They’ll tear her out of your stomach and give her to that man to play with.” Luther hated speaking the words, but he needed Lucia to act. He couldn’t warn her.
“Luther, shut up,” Ryan said.
“Don’t,” Luke said.
“No!”
The scream tore from her throat as she got to her feet and charged the cage. The bars rattled, and he saw some of the dust that spilled from the ceiling. Her need to protect was coming full force.
“They’re going to hurt our child. There will be no safety for her or him. They’ll never roam free in our forest or know the feeling of sunshine on their face. They will be tortured, experimented on, hurt in every conceivable way.”
Lucia charged the cage, and the door flew off. She stepped out and up to his cage.
She took several deep breaths as she stared at him.
“And I will never let that happen,” Luther said. “You can hate me, deny me, and make me pay for walking away, but right now, I have got to protect you. Protect this pack and to do that, I need you to open this cage.”
She was still panting deeply.
“You said all those things on purpose?” she asked.
“If they find out the truth, they will hurt you, Lucia. I have no doubt about that, but right now, your wolf is in charge. You are stronger than you can even imagine. Open my cage.”
She looked at the door, and shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Think about the danger they are to your baby. You broke a man’s arm. One of their leaders. You think they’re going to make it easy on you right now?” He needed to get out of the cage.
She gripped the bars, and he stood waiting.
In one smooth tug, she opened the cage.
He stepped out, and started going for his pack’s cages.
The drugs were starting to wear off, and he was able to use his strength to get the chains down.
“You need to hold yourself up. We have to protect Lucia,” he said to each of them as he got them loose.
They all had to work together.
He glanced at the other cages. The wolves looked … empty.
One by one, with Lucia’s help, they opened their cages. There were only ten more wolves in the room, and they looked shocked as they stepped out of their cages.
Just as he let the last one out, the door opened. A human carrying a gun and a cup with some baked good in his mouth entered the room, clearly not expecting to encounter feral beasts as he locked the door and turned around.
The moment he realized he was surrounded by sixteen wolves, fear filled his face, his pores, drowning him in it.
Luther reacted. Wrapping his fingers around the bastard’s neck, he twisted, and the human fell to the floor, dead. With a gun in his hands and keys, Luther was ready.
“We will either die trying, or we can make it out.”
He didn’t intend to just make it out though. He was going to shut this place down for good.
Chapter Thirteen
Lucia was pregnant.
Going to have a baby.
She couldn’t believe it.
Nor did she have time to think about it.
As Luther took the lead, they all banded together as they moved throughout their prison. She didn’t know where they were, but it was a horrible, dank place.
They encountered men, and Luther or Ryan took care of them. She was held back even though her wolf screamed for her to fight, to get them the hell out of there.
She’d never felt so connected to her loved one.
So in need of protecting her.
They had to keep their baby safe at all costs.
As she put a hand on her stomach, they turned a corner, and saw five men enjoying a cigarette break. The moment they saw them, they grabbed their guns, about to take aim. The men Luther had freed charged them, and within a matter of seconds, they were armed.
Only now, they heard the alarm sound, alerting all that they were on the loose.
“You have got to stay close to us,” Noah said, wrapping an arm around her.
Some of the men that had been freed started to open doors, and it didn’t take long for more and more wolves to filter out.
They were all ready to fight and to take revenge.
“We’re going to encounter wolves who are willing to end us,” Luther said. “You all need to be ready because this is not going to end well.”
“It’s not?” one of the newest men asked.
“No. Our own are out there. Wolves who have turned. Outcasts who have found a place with the humans. It’s going to get ugly.” Luther turned toward his brothers. “I need you to get her out of here.”
“Are you shitting me?” Lucia asked. “You left, and we ended up in this place. Now you want to leave us again so what? So you can have some kind of sick, twisted revenge? It’s not happening, Luther. We’re not leaving you, and if you even try to leave us behind, I will kick your ass.”
“Our baby.”
“Is all of ours. We either leave all together, or we don’t leave at all. Understood?” She stared at Luther, and her heart raced.
“I love you,” he said.
“Then prove it. Stay with us.”
He cu
pped her face, and she covered his hands with her own. “I love you.”
“I’ll believe you when we get home alive and ready to face the world.” She wanted to cave to him, to give in and to let him take control, but the last time he did, it didn’t end well for either of them.
Following Luther, they opened the door, and right there, in front of them, were the wolves that had helped to capture them. The ones that were traitors to their own kind.
“Show no mercy,” Luther said.
Guns were raised, and everything erupted into screams and tortured cries.
****
A few hours later
Luther carried his woman upstairs to their bed. They had all gotten out of the wolf compound alive. It wasn’t overly large, but the security had been tight. They’d freed all of the captive wolves, and they had only had fifty of them. He knew there would be more places where hunters used them to lure wealthy, sick fucks who wanted to get their kicks out of hurting people.
“I can’t believe she is pregnant,” Luke said. “We’re going to have our own special family.”
Luke spent most of his time in his books, doing general chores, and just being a good brother. He never demanded any attention, but now, he sounded so happy. Luther knew he’d make a good father. He was the most compassionate out of all of them.
Their house was full with all of the wolf captives they’d saved.
He stroked Lucia’s cheek. After they had escaped and she’d found some of her pack, she’d been exhausted.
All of her energy had been spent trying to protect them all. She had stood at their side, fighting for them.
They were not all without injury.
Luke had gotten shot in his leg. Noah had a graze across his head. Ryan was hit in the shoulder, and poor Billy was out cold as he’d gotten hit with a tranq dart. Lucia was out cold as well, so they were both laid out on the large bed, looking so sweet together.
Stroking her head, he pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“I’ll never leave you again. I promise you,” Luther said.
“Some of the wolves want to talk to you, Luther,” Noah said, coming back into the room.
Luther nodded.
“I can’t believe we’re going to be parents,” Noah said, looking at Lucia. “She was so ferocious. So amazing. I love her more than anything else in the world. I will give her my life.”
“Stay here,” he said to Ryan. “I’ll be back.”
Luke and Noah followed him as he made his way downstairs. Several of the men were scarred, and it was clear they’d been captive for some time.
He nodded at the men.
“Is your woman okay?” a dark-haired man said.
“She is resting.”
“A pregnant female is deadly,” the man said with a sadness in his eyes. “I lost my woman and my child to the hunters. They laughed the whole time they tore them both from me. I vow to always protect the Knight pack. You could have left us, and the fact you didn’t, I will remain loyal to you forever.”
“What’s your name?” Luther asked.
“Robert.”
“I’m the alpha of the Knight pack, and as you stood by my side, protecting what is mine, I know I speak for all of us when I say that you are always welcome here. The Knight pack is now your family, and if you would like, you may stay.”
“But you can’t mate with our woman,” Luke said. “She’s already got us as her men.”
Robert smiled.
Luther worked his way through the crowd of men, offering each a home here. There was more room.
His father had once said a great alpha doesn’t turn men away, he embraces them. Luther completely understood what he meant by that statement. A pack wasn’t just about the closest thing to family.
It was about so much more than that.
Shaking each man’s hand, he introduced himself to the few members of Lucia’s pack that remained.
Afterward, he made his way back upstairs. He had a woman to keep happy and a pack to apologize to.
Chapter Fourteen
The moment she woke up, Lucia’s hand went to her stomach. Her baby. Their baby.
“You’re fine,” Luther said.
She turned toward the sound and found Luther sitting on a chair beside the bed. His hands clasped together, and he was looking so upset.
“We made it out?”
“Yes, we made it out. It was so fucking difficult, but we somehow managed it. If it wasn’t for the other wolves, we wouldn’t have made it out alive.”
“The actual compound?”
“Destroyed. We found some explosives, and a couple of the guys knew how to deal with them.”
She nodded. “Billy? Noah? Luke? Ryan? They’re okay?”
“Of course. They’re downstairs working on helping them settle in.”
“You have some new members?”
“We all have some new members, Lucia. None of them have a home to go to. We’re opening our home and land to them. It’s the least we can do.”
Pain sliced through her heart at the memory of him walking away from her.
“I’m so sorry.”
“You just walked away,” she said. “Why did you do that?”
“Because I’m an idiot. I … wanted to protect you, and I fucked up.”
“Is this about the baby?”
“No, this isn’t about the baby at all. This is about you and me.” He placed a hand on her stomach.
“This baby may not even be yours. It could be Ryan’s or Noah’s.”
“Or Billy’s or Luke’s. I know that, but it will be mine. We took you as a pack, Lucia. You’re our mate. All of us are connected to you, and you know that means something.” He took hold of her hand, and she couldn’t bring herself to pull away from him.
It would hurt too much to let him go.
She had nearly lost him.
Seeing him in that cage, locked up, it had really scared her. She didn’t think she could ever survive something like that. Not again. Not ever.
Cupping his cheek, she moved off the bed and straddled his waist. He lifted her up in his arms and moved so that he sat where she had been lying.
“Don’t ever do something like that again. Please, you have to promise me.”
“I promise you.” He held her a little tighter, and she moaned against him.
Pressing her face against his neck, she breathed him in, basking in the scent of him.
He truly was perfection, and she adored being with him.
“I never thought I’d find my mate,” he said. “I always wanted to, and we had hoped that when we did find a mate, we would all love her. One woman for all of us. Our bond was so united it was no doubt that if we found her, she’d belong to all five of us.”
“You couldn’t guarantee it though.”
“That’s true. As the years went on and we lost our parents, survival seemed more important than finding a woman. We made sure we took care of our own and didn’t allow anyone else in.” He cupped her face, both of his hands holding her, forcing her to stare into his eyes. She didn’t want or need to look away. “When you stumbled into my arms, I was so angry and scared.”
“Why scared?”
“Because I felt something from you that first moment, and it terrified me. What if you were the enemy? What if my pack didn’t want you? I’ve never given myself to anyone before, and here you were. A perfect blonde package and I had to deal with that. I had to deal with you hating me. I’m not an easy man to live with.”
“I wouldn’t have known that.” She winked at him.
He chuckled. “I’m going to be bossy and controlling. I don’t know any other way.” He teased her hair behind her ear. “I’m going to do my brooding alpha thing because I have to.”
“Yeah, well, I think we all proved to you just how lame you really are,” Noah said, coming into the room.
“Does anyone remember when he stayed silent?” Luther asked.
Noah laughed. “I’ve got a
lot more to lose now. You hurt Lucia, and now we’re all on possible escape watch.”
Lucia rolled her eyes. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Yeah, I hate to break it to you, but I don’t think any of the fifty guys and girls downstairs are either,” Billy said.
“We’re going to be crowded for quite some time,” Luke said. “You think you can handle that?”
“I don’t have a lot of choice. I’ll do what needs to be done, for all of us.”
Lucia climbed off Luther’s lap and settled between him and Ryan. She pressed her head against them. Noah, Luke, and Billy were at the base of the bed, each of them touching her in some way.
Their physical connection helped to calm her.
She had to think, and doing that wasn’t easy.
“We’re going to be parents,” she said, placing a hand to her stomach.
“What if it’s a girl? Do you think we could handle something like that?” Noah asked, stroking her stomach.
“Nah, it’s going to be a little menace. A boy for us all to love,” Luke said.
“We can have paintball fights,” Billy said.
“I don’t care what we have so long as it’s healthy,” Luther said. “So long as mom and baby are healthy.”
She smiled at him.
“Oh, please, you’re kissing her ass because you know you’re in trouble,” Ryan said. “I didn’t walk away.”
Each of her men spoke up, reminding her that they didn’t walk away whereas Luther did.
“I’m sorry, guys,” Luther said. “I shouldn’t have walked away.”
“But you did,” Noah said. “We’re stronger together. You know that now.”
“I do, and I’m not going to do anything to put us at risk again. I’m here. I’m not going to leave, ever. I want to stay with all of you. To raise our baby and to help make this pack strong.”
She smiled up at him. “I love you, Luther Knight, with all my heart and soul.” She looked at each of her men in turn. “I love all of you, and I’m never going to leave. Not because of the baby or having no pack, but because I love all of you so damn much.”
“And we love you as well,” Ryan said. “All of us love you.”
“Which is why we got you this.” Luke was the one who held out a box.