by M. L. Briers
CHAPTER TWELVE
Dermond was too intent on feeding to pay the proper amount of attention to what was happening around him. The Fae’s blood was a sweet nectar that he craved more than life itself and he drank hungrily from her vein, taking what he needed, for he would drain her dry and leave her here like an animal for the wrongs that her sister had done to him.
Seth saw Lee’s wolf head straight for the vampire and circled around the other side, as Lee pushed off with his back paws. On him in an instant he sunk his claws into the vampire’s back and chest.
Ripping him away from his feeding on his mate was a risk, but it was one he had to take. He didn’t know how much blood he had taken from Kay, and she stood more chance of survival this way than asking the damn vampire to please stop feeding.
Seth closed in as he watched his beta roll across the frozen ground, his claws still locked into the vampire’s body. He knew the vampire had fed, so he would be so much stronger now and his wounds would heal faster, and as the vampire dragged himself up onto his feet with Lee’s wolf still clinging onto him, he watched him shake the wolf off and literally toss him away.
The deep gouges in the vampires flesh that Lee’s claws had created was like a red flag to a bull, and he saw Declan launch himself at the vampire before he had a chance to move in.
‘Stand down, Declan.’ Seth growled out, a moment before the vampire roared his anger at having Declan’s fangs in his shoulder and tossed him aside in the same manner that he had done with Lee.
Seth wasn’t about to lose the opportunity again. He pushed off with his powerful back paws and struck out with his claws. He felt the razor sharp tips meet bone against the vampire’s neck and hooked in, as his downward momentum dragged the demon down to the floor with him.
Twisting his back around to try to clamp his jaws around the vampire’s throat, he felt the vampire strike out blindly with his own claws, slashing at Seth’s fur, scoring through his skin and down to his ribs, as he kicked Seth backwards away from him.
He heard Lee’s roar from somewhere beside him, but a second later Dermond’s eyes went wide with agony and shock, before a glazed look took hold. He seemed to be suspended in the moment as he gurgled deep within his throat and then fell to his knees in the snow.
Mac held Dermond’s heart in his hand, and he sidestepped the wolf that was flying through the air towards him, just as Dermond’s body feel forwards into the snow, face first.
Mac dropped the bloodied prize onto the floor beside the vampire and moved towards Kay, but Lee blocked his path, snarling and snapping his jaws in warning to stay away, and Mac pulled up short with his hands held out in front of him to placate the beast.
“Little help here, Seth.”Mac bit out.
‘Lee, stand down.’ Seth growled out as he padded towards his Beta, hoping to hell that he hadn’t gone rogue. He didn’t want to have to kill his best friend to save his mate’s sister, even though he knew that Lee would approve.
‘Stand down!’ Seth put everything he had behind his command. He rushed towards his beta and snarled his warning. His Beta hesitated, took a step forwards and then backed away and bowed his head, twisting his neck for his alpha’s fangs, submissively.
Mac didn’t wait to see if it was going to end badly. He was on his knees in the snow, biting down once more into his own flesh to offer another mate his blood, but then he stopped…
Seth saw Mac stop and shifted into his human form. “What is it?” Seth growled down as he dropped to his knees on the other side of Kay’s lifeless body, there was so much blood that it was hard to discern the actual wounds.
Mac shook his head and Lee shifted beside him, dropping down onto his knees and reaching for his mate.
“What are you waiting for, Mac?”Lee demanded, tears filled his eyes as he drew her bloodied body towards him. The sound of her bones cracking within her made him want to throw up, as he collected her to his chest and heard the low slow echo of the heart within his mind.
“She’s close to death lad, if I do this, she may die and come back a vampire…”Mac wanted him to know. This wasn’t something that Mac could decide. If it was his mate he would take the chance, but then he wasn’t a Lycan, and this wasn’t his mate.
“Christ…”Seth spat out and Lee shook his head as he gazed down at her through the haze of his tears.
“Do it. She’ll live…”Lee spat out, adamant in his decision. Even if she came back a vampire, she’d come back. He wouldn’t lose her. He couldn’t lose her.
Mac didn’t need to hear the words twice. There was no time. He reached for her mouth and squeezed his own blood onto her tongue and down her throat, as Declan whined his sorrow and fear as he guarded the clearing.
“Please, Kay. Don’t die my love. Fight. Fight to come back to me a Fae. You’re fiery enough without having a vampire to contend with…”Lee soothed against her ear, as Mac sat back on his heels and said a silent prayer of his own as the three of them watched over her.
“Come on lass.”Mac bit out between clenched teeth as Seth looked from Kay to Mac.
“Shouldn’t it be working by now?”Seth growled out, and Mac shook his head on a shrug. It depended on her blood loss, on her injuries, and on her desire to fight to come back, but those weren’t the words that Lee needed to hear right now.
“Kay, please, love. Fight. I’m here, open your eyes, let me see your beautiful eyes…”Lee murmured against her lips, brushing his lips over hers as his hot tears fell on her face.
The hard thud of her heart sounded like gunshot within the silence of the clearing, and Mac was the first to react. “Thank God.”He ground out, almost jumping for joy as her heart started to beat with the strength she needed to survive, to heal, to not be a vampire.
Lee dragged her further against him and buried his face against her neck. The relief washed through him and he thanked every God and Goddess he had ever heard off in that long moment in time.
Seth sat back on his heels and released the breath he had been holding and the tight fists he didn’t even realise he had made. Brushing his hand over his face, he saw Declan toss back his head and howl in delight as the young Lycan practically danced across the damn snow.
Seth couldn’t help the chuckle that he released. The pent up tension of the last few minutes was making his head throb like someone pounding on a drum, and he raised his brows at Mac and reached out his hand to his friend.
Mac slapped his hand against the alpha’s wrist as both men held tight for a long moment, savouring the moment, savouring their friendship. Both thankful for this outcome.
“I’m too damn old and set in my ways to train a new vampire.”Mac grinned and Seth shook his head.
“One vampire in the pack is…”
“One too many?”Mac offered and Seth shook his head.
“Our blessing, my friend.”
Seth had been going over and over the events of the night in his mind as they walked back with Lee, whose arms were full of his mate as he carried her home while she recovered from her injuries.
By the time they reached home he was madder than hell and ready to knock some heads together. Relief had given way to anger as he realised that he could have lost seven members of his pack tonight.
When he threw the front door open for Lee to carry Kay inside his anger dissipated slightly as Hannah and Fiona rushed forward, shock and fear clouding their faces as they took in their sister. Covered with blood and still pretty lifeless within her mates arms.
“She’s alive.” Seth growled out quickly, not wanting them to reach the wrong conclusions from the sight of her.
“What happened?”Hannah gasped.
“Did you kill Dermond?”Fiona bit out as she took in what he had done to her sister.
“Calm down.”Mac pulled his mate’s back against his hard chest and wrapped his arms around her to still her. He could feel the fire within her burning for vengeance, as he closed his eyes and revelled in the feel of her, alive and well in his
arms, he hadn’t wanted to leave her when he had brought her back to the house, but he needed to hunt down her sister, or she probably never would have forgiven him.
“Dermond’s dead. Kay nearly died, Mac healed her…”Seth reached for Hannah and pulled her to his naked body, her warm hands pressed against his chest and he growled down at her gently, thankful that she was alive, and grateful that she was his.
Lee carried Kay towards the stairs and nobody tried to stop him as he covered the distance between downstairs and their bedroom in a fast run.
“But…”Hannah bit down on her maternal instincts for her sister as a naked Lycan carried her away.
“She’ll be fine. Let him care for his mate, it’s his duty.”Seth breathed against her ear and she nodded.
As Declan came through the front door naked, slamming it closed behind him, he made a beeline straight for his mate, who was awake and buried under a mound of blankets on the couch.
He knelt down beside her and brushed his fingertips down her cheek. “Are you hurt?”His wolf was still at the forefront of his personality, and when she shook her head, he growled low and deep within his chest. “How could you leave the house when you promised me you would stay inside?”The raw growl of his beast rumbled through him and Hannah went to take a step towards her sister, but Seth held onto her, shushing her, and she had to bite down hard on her jaw not to say anything.
“I’m so sorry…”Mary blurted out, dissolving into floods of tears as she tried to throw the blankets off so she could pull herself up on the sofa.
Declan stripped the blankets back in one swift move and reached for her, lifting her and wrapping her in his arms, as he soothed her.
“I could ask you the same thing, but I already know the answer, a mother’s love, you were protecting your sister’s.”Seth breathed against her ear and she melted back against him, grateful for his strength to keep her standing when all she wanted to do was sink to the floor, curl into a ball and stay there for an indefinite amount of time.
“I’m sorry, Seth. But I would do it again if I had too.”She admitted and he growled his annoyance.
“Good to know, so if it happens again, I’ll tie you to the damn bed and leave you there.”
“Ooh, that sounds like fun.”Fiona’s eyes flashed with glee as she turned in Mac’s arms to look up at him, but he wasn’t smiling back at her.
“If you ever pull a stunt like that again…”Mac warned her.
“I know, you’ll tie me to the bed, blah, blah, blah…”Fiona rolled her eyes as she went to pull away from him, but he tugged her harder against his chest.
“Not likely. That, you’d enjoy…”Mac growled down at her and saw the twinkle of wickedness in her eyes.
“Let’s find out how much I’d enjoy it.”She whispered up at him and heard him groan his response.
“Are you sure Kay will be alright?”Hannah asked and Seth brushed a hand down her cheek.
“It was touch and go there for a while that she might become a vampire…”
“A vampire!” Mary spat out in shock as she wiped her cheeks and shook her head.
Fiona couldn’t help but chortle her amusement. “Kay a vampire. She doesn’t do well with blood…” Fiona opened her mouth and gave a silent look of glee up to Mac. “Wait until she finds out she drank your blood. You’re never going to hear the end of it.”
Mac rolled his eyes and reached down behind her legs, swinging her up into his arms, he carried her towards the stairs.
“Talking of blood. You’re covered in it. You need a shower and I need a snack.”He whispered against her ear and she giggled as she rested her head against his chest and let him play hero. Especially as he was.
“Come on Mary, you could use a warm bath…”Declan picked his mate up and disappeared up the stairs, as Seth caught sight of Bertha sitting quietly in the chair in the corner.
“I think you’ve got your work cut out for you alpha.”She got to her feet and walked into the kitchen as Hannah looked up at him.
“What’s that all about?”
“I’ll tell you later. I could use a shower and your penance is washing my back…”He growled down at her and she raised her brows suggestively.
“Just your back?”She ran a fingernail gently down over the hard muscles of his chest and he snagged her finger and pulled her against him.
“And other bits, and I want them very, very clean.”He growled against her lips.
“I’ll do a taste test just to make sure.”She whispered back before he claimed her lips.
Seth turned in the shower and looked down on Hannah. Her hands had dropped from his back and she was standing there looking lost, staring down at her hands. He’d felt the change come over her, felt her emotions in turmoil, and then she had pulled away from him. He reached for her hands and stepped closer to her.
“What’s wrong?”
“I could have lost my sister today…”She dragged her eyes up his body until she found his eyes. “I nearly lost Kay and Fiona.”She started to shake, her whole body trembling with the realisation of how much she could have lost. Seth pulled her forwards and took her into his arms. Hannah buried her face against his chest, reaching out with her magic to capture the strength from him that she needed.
“I could have lost you.”Seth’s gentle growl rolled through his chest and against her cheek. He tried to sooth her anxiety, her pain, as she clung to him.
“I’m sorry Seth. I shouldn’t have let Fiona and Kay sway my actions. I should have stopped them, and Mary…Goddess, what was she thinking?”
“Mary is young, she’s full of the bond with her mate at the moment, but she’ll settle, she’ll learn the ways of the pack. Mary is the one I’m not worried about settling into pack life. Kay is head strong and feisty, but Lee is more than a match for her ways. The more time Fiona and Mac spend with the pack, the more she’ll come around.”Seth brushed his hands down her back, soothing her body and mind with his touch and his gentle words.
“And me?”Hannah found she wasn’t shaking anymore. Her mate’s strength had managed to give her emotions the boost they needed to be able to comprehend just how lucky they had all been.
“You were acting on instinct. You’ve been the alpha of your Fae pack for a long time, and I’m sure your protectiveness towards your sister’s drove you to take chances…”He let a small chuckle roll through him and she looked up at him, questioning his new found amusement. “You’ll be fierce with your own pups. Firm but fair, even when you’ll want to Velcro them to the nearest wall as my mother admitted she wanted to do to me.”He couldn’t help the growl that rolled through him at the thought of his own pups causing mayhem in the house.
The smile crossed over Hannah’s face. The thought of a little Seth stuck against a wall, struggling and kicking, and growling at the world made her chuckle even though she hadn’t much felt like it.
“We’re you a horrible child?”
“I was… testing of my mother’s patience, an endurance of wills…”
“And you won?”
“Actually she won, or she thought she did. What she didn’t know couldn’t get me in trouble.”Seth grinned down as he raised his hand and stroked the backs of his fingers down her cheek, and felt her shiver against him. This time it was with desire and not through the fear of loss.
She was suddenly more aware of the other emotions that were running through her, the need to be in his arms like this were strong, stronger than before, she was still feeling the call of her body to bond with Seth.
Seth recognised the fire of desire that swept through his mate, and when she touched him, stroking down his chest with her fingertips, his own emotions turned from protectiveness to possessiveness.
‘Mine.’ It wasn’t going to be easy to keep his wolf at bay much longer. Seth had already marked his mate and his beast was eager to bond. The distraction of the day had only been a band aid on his need to claim his mate once and forever.
Seth dipped his head and nu
zzled against his mark in her neck. His tongue was gentle over the four points from his fangs that resided in her skin, and with each touch he felt her melt against him more.
“Mine.”Seth’s gentle growl rolled over her like a fire within her blood. His body was calling to hers. His mind was reaching for her, but without the bond she couldn’t connect with him, even though she felt him there, just on the outskirts of her consciousness.
“Mine.”Hannah nipped against the little hard bud of his nipple with blunt teeth and heard his growl deepen. He cupped her face and brought her eyes up to his and she saw the wolf at the door as he growled down at her.
“Hannah?”It was a question without words. Just her name on his lips, just the look in his eyes, eyes that were darkening with his need, his desire, and she could feel the hardness of his arousal twitch and strain against her stomach.
“Mine, Seth. You are mine.”Hannah let her nails trail down over his chest, four bright red marks stretched over his skin and she heard the more feral growl of his beast pushing forward within him.
“You know I can’t be gentle with you when I let my beast out. I have to taste you and…”
“I know. I want you to let him out now. I want you to bond with me…”His lips were on hers in a heartbeat. He nudged her backwards with his hips against the coldness of the tile, and she gasped with the shock of the jolt of pleasure that coursed through her and the chill of the wall at her back.
He demanded entry to her mouth and she didn’t deny him. The thought of denying her mate anything never entered her mind. She was his and he was hers, it was that simple.
‘Mine.’ The beast pushed forward within him and he swept her up against him, wrapping her legs around his hips as he carried her to the bedroom. The hardness of his manhood pressed against her sex and made her ache for his possession of her body.