Troy Charleston’s body stiffened. “Calm down Dillon, remember you are brothers. And we all want the safe return of your sister. But predators? You had better tell me everything I need to know right now about your new friends Dollton and Jeremy. Right now.”
13
The cell phone rang in her hip pocket and Doll jumped. She wasn’t used to having one. Luke had bought her a burner phone so they could keep in contact. He’d programmed the phone number of his pack, that he thought she could use if needed in there. Other than that, there was nothing else programmed on the phone and she had not used it until now.
“Hi, It’s Luke, I’m on my way. I’ll meet you in the car park.” Doll waited out in the shopping centre car park with her groceries. Watching the coming and goings of people and cars around her. It was she decided rather symphonic in their movements.
Luke pulled up beside her briefly and told her he would find a car park. She watched him drive around the parking lot till he parked his pick up truck.
Doll started moving towards Luke. She almost twisted her ankle stumbling in step, when she saw Luke standing beside his truck talking to another male. She was down wind of them both but the familiarity of his body’s outline not unknown to her. Her stomach seized tightly. And she felt the air leave her body, making her feel very, very, faint.
Luke looked over the other male’s shoulder at her and smiled, causing the other male to turn around and look at her. His eyes widened slightly at the sight of her and he watched as she stood stock still. Doll forced her foot forward, her eyes downwards. Looking at the top of her groceries. She moved quickly and wide of the other male, to the far side of Luke’s truck. Luke saw how ghost white Doll was and the tension in her body again. She walked heavily, almost dragging her feet, he thought, towards him.
“Oh and who is your better half?” Luke’s acquaintance asked him as Doll came up to his side. Luke opened his mouth, smiling back at Doll. Doll’s inner werewolf was growling at him. He knew exactly who she was.
“Sarah.” Doll replied quickly, before Luke had a chance to speak. Luke reached for Doll and slid an arm around her waist pulling her close to him. He was an alpha who knew how to school his emotions and mask them when necessary. Now, it was necessary.
“Sarah Charleston.” She finished using Luke’s surname for the purpose of sending out a silent message to the other alpha werewolf. She was not only off limits; she was protected by another alpha werewolf. He could not have her, again, ever again.
Doll plastered a bright smile on her face. Luke’s fingers around her waist silently stroked her side softly. Doll’s entire body was rigid with fear, but she felt the obvious tingle of Luke’s influence over her and she pressed further against him, this time, welcoming it. She didn’t want to show her fear to an alpha werewolf who she knew, got off on other wolves’ fear. She knew this, because he was one of the Alpha Pack. She would never forget what they looked like. And her werewolf would never let her forget it either.
“This is Graham Roberts,” Luke said. “His pack is from Denver.” Luke informed Doll as he tried not to study the reactions from both Graham and Doll together for what must be the first time since her escape. Graham smiled at her and offered his hand to shake, like it was the most natural thing in the world to do, when greeting someone for the first time. Only Luke doubted this was the first time they had ever met.
Doll didn’t want to touch him, ever again. But she forced herself to meet the challenge, it wasn’t like after a year of abusing her, he wouldn’t be able to pick up her scent, if he didn’t shake her hand. He knew exactly who she was. Doll reached out and shook his hand, squeezing it hard. Just to get her message across to him.
“No ring? He not make an honest woman out of you yet?” Graham asked pointing at her hand as she pulled back. In normal circumstances, the comment might have been meant jovially or as a social taunt to long term couple. Doll tried not to bristle at the stinging remark Graham was slapping her with. He meant she was ruined in his eyes and for a long time, in her own. Doll lifted her chin slightly back at him.
“Silly, human custom.” Luke cut in abruptly at Graham.
Doll kept smiling. An honest woman. He implying she couldn’t be one because she’d been repeatedly raped by the Alpha Pack. “We live the way of the wolf.” She said holding his eye contact. She refused to bow down and act submissive to her former tormentor anymore, not with Luke by her side. Luke made her feel very strong and safe standing there before the nightmare of her past. Graham flashed a quick smile with teeth. It reminder her of the big bad wolf in cartoons, and that line, like she should say to him, my what big teeth you have.
“You’re passing through town right?” Luke asked knowing fully well that Graham had not indicated wether he was staying or going or what his activities were in town. Unlike other bigger city werewolf packs, the Seattle Alki did not have rules that barred other werewolves form entering their territory on a lunar week.
Graham smiled back at him but looked at Doll. “I was thinking of spending a few days here. Got a couple of items to pick up and bring home with me.” He said as Doll held his gaze.
“Well, we’ll leave you to it, we’ve got to be going.” Luke replied eyeing Graham and scooping up the grocery bags as Doll grabbed the remainder and put them into the truck.
“Be seeing you.” Graham replied with a wide smile, walking off towards the supermarket. Doll climbed into the truck and locked her door quickly. It wasn’t until they started driving away that she began to shake violently. As Luke’s influence slipped away from her again. Luke glanced across at her.
“Doll?” She kept shaking, unable to stop herself, the urge to scream was pressing down on her chest. The urge to flee was making her panic. Luke could feel the anxiety rushing off her, it was charging the air around them and making it feel like fire ants were biting at his skin. He pulled the truck over to the side. He reached out for her and Doll flinched back instantly. Luke pulled his hand back.
“He’s one of them isn’t he? One of the Alpha Pack that held you and Jeremy.” Doll feared opening her mouth would lead to screaming, uncontrollable screaming. So she nodded her head up and down quickly, not trusting her own voice.
“Doll he is never going to touch you ever again. I’ll make damn well sure of it. He’s going to pay Doll, I promise you.”
She looked across at him, the strong, fiery woman who’d challenged him through the week was gone. The content and sexy werewolf who’d been in his bed last night, no longer there either. She looked scared, lost and uncertain. Like all the progress and good work they’d done throughout the week had just come undone in one big hit.
“We have to get to Jeremy, now.” she said. “Right now! Jeremy was Graham’s favourite out of the two of us.”
Luke’s anger surged through him and his jaw tightened as he put the truck into gear again. Glancing in the rear-view mirror he noticed, Graham’s car pulling out of the car parking lot. The possibility that Graham had managed to track both Doll and Jeremy down after two months, was remote but possible. And if Graham remembered who Doll was and by the sound of his departing line, he did, then it was likely he suspected she was also with Jeremy and that he would go hunting for the other beta werewolf.
Luke waited a moment, he could follow Graham or he could drive them to Jeremy. The fact that one of the predators who had held Doll and Jeremy captive for a year was in town the same time his sister had gone missing, made him make a snap decision. He turned the truck around and started to follow Graham form a distance.
“What are you doing? The garage is the other way!”
Luke nodded his head. “I’m following Graham. Jeremy will be safe for now, because Graham probably doesn’t know where he is and if we drive over there, we’ll lead him straight to Jeremy.”
“You can’t leave Jeremy unprotected by himself with this predator on the loose in the same town as us!” Doll yelled at him anxiously. “He couldn’t fight off Graham coming at him. He
can’t go through all that again! I have to protect him!”
Luke glanced over at her. He understood her panic. “There’s a possibility, he’s involved in another kidnapping.” Luke stated watching as Doll became quiet again. “The pack business I had to go to before, it was about my sister Sonny, she’s been kidnapped.”
Doll’s hand went to her stomach. “I’m going to be sick.” She muttered winding down the truck window quickly. The idea of another woman suffering through what she’d been through was just too much to bear thinking about. She stuck her head out the window and let the cold air rush over her as she inhaled it quickly.
“You alright?” Luke asked her, reaching out with a hand on her thigh as he drove on. Doll pulled back into the truck and wound the window back up.
“He has to be stopped Luke, he can’t be allowed to do this to anyone else. Ever again.” She said placing her hand on top of his. “He’s evil.”
“I know.” Luke replied solemnly. “Press one on the cell phone I gave you and put it up to my ear will you?” He said as she pulled out her cell phone and did as instructed.
“Who is number one in my phone again?” She asked holding it up to his ear.
“Dillon, my older brother.” Luke replied. “I’m going to get him to arrange for someone to keep an eye on Jeremy while we track this predatory mother fucker down and figure out what to do with him.”
“You can’t send an alpha over to Jeremy, especially one he doesn’t know. He’ll freak out.” She pulled the phone away from him and cut off the call. Luke looked at her cell. “Alright, I’ll get one of my other brothers, Bastian or Aiden to check on Jeremy, while we deal with Graham.”
“But a beta wolf won’t be strong enough to hold off Graham if he comes for Jeremy, trust me. This guy is a total monster as well as an alpha that knows how to use all his abilities to his advantage.”
“Well what would you suggest then?” Luke asked perplexed. They couldn’t give up trailing Graham, especially if it meant getting his sister Sonny back.
“I don’t know, but Jeremy needs to be protected by someone who doesn’t intimidate him and can handle Graham if he comes along. He should be watched form a safe distance, that way he won’t freak out. But he’ll be safe. I’ll know he’ll be safe.”
“What about my father?”
“I think you’re father in protector mode, would freak the shit out of Jeremy. He has the presence of an alpha about him even when he’s not being the alpha.” Luke nodded his head, he’d heard that before. But it was next to impossible to tone it down when you were born an alpha.
“When you say Jeremy will freak out, what exactly do you mean?” Luke asked turning down another street, keeping his truck at a distance of four cars back.
“I mean, Jeremy will shift and attack everyone and anyone who comes near him. And if he can’t shape shift, he’ll still attack everyone who comes near him, only he’ll do it with whatever means necessary at his disposal.”
“How do you know this? Has he done it before?” Luke asked glancing across at her. Doll looked grim.
“I know this, because I taught him this as a fall back mode after we escaped the Alpha Pack. I made sure he was prepared for this, if I wasn’t around. I programmed him to respond this way. I knew he would do whatever I told him to do and I figured, if I wasn’t around he needed to know he could be strong enough to get through this life without me. We aren’t like pack werewolves, Jeremy and I. We’ve had to do things differently to get by. I told him to rip out the heart of his enemy and squeeze the blood from it, like it was champagne to be devoured at a victory.”
Luke kept looking out ahead of them. He’d have never known, looking at Doll that she could contain such darkness within her. But he understood where it came from and why she had it. And he was grateful it didn’t consume or attract her to it. For her and Jeremy to tap into the darkness of their werewolf self, it meant pure survival as a last option, nothing more.
Doll sounded apologetic, not that Luke thought she had to apologise for anything. Luke let out a haggard breath. He had to give her credit, she’d planned ahead for her pack mate’s survival if she was dead. It was kind of smart and incredibly scary that she’d had it in her to ensure Jeremy had the ability to go rabid if he needed to relay on himself to survive. If he wanted to or could survive.
“We made a promise to one another once we got free of the Alpha Pack. Neither of us would ever go through that again. We’d either die first, or kill all that came for us. Wether we were together, or not.”
“You honestly believe Jeremy will fight, not roll over?” Luke asked softly.
“Yes. Because I told him it’s what I wanted him to do. It’s what I wanted him to be.” She looked at Luke sadly. “And you know what he said?” Luke waited for her to go on. “Ok, doll.” She looked away again. “Whenever he says that, he follows through on the instruction given.”
“I’m calling Dillon, he can handle Jeremy. You and me, we’ve got an alpha to hunt down.”
14
Dillon Charleston pulled up at his father’s garage just in time to see Jeremy lunge his younger brother Bastian. Waist length blonde hair flying out behind him, Bastian leapt back out of the way. Dillon jumped from his car and ran over to the brewing fight. Jeremy stepped back and picked up the tyre iron near him as he focussed on the bigger werewolf male he saw approaching.
“What the hell happened to keeping out of sight like I told you till I got here?” He yelled at his brother as they both eyed a clearly agitated Jeremy. Bastian had been closest to the garage when Dillon had received the call from Luke. All he was meant to do was watch Jeremy from a discreet distance and trail him if he left the garage grounds, so they knew where he was. That was all. Not start a fight, which normally wasn’t Bastian’s style. At least not directly.
“I was but then the wind changed and he picked up my scent and came at me, wouldn’t stop. I’ve tried reasoning with him but he won’t listen.” Dillon looked at the other werewolf, he looked like he’d was ready to do nothing but fight. Jeremy was drooling at the mouth as he growled.
Luke had told him and his father about his two new friends, Doll and Jeremy at the pack meeting. They weren’t the predators that they needed to be worried about. They were what the predators wanted. Which made them just as dangerous to know and have around the Seattle Alki pack, as far as Dillon was concerned.
“Alright, go, I got this and do not speak of this to father at all.” Bastian nodded his head and ran away quickly as Dillon move forward, cautiously slowly to Jeremy. Still, after hearing that both the two stray werewolves under Luke’s care had been abused repeatedly and incredibly violently, he didn’t find it surprising that Jeremy would respond to another werewolf that he didn’t know, coming at him like this.
“Jeremy my name is Dillon Charleston, I’m Luke’s brother.” Jeremy squatted down on his haunches, tyre iron still in hand. Jeremy swung the tyre iron out wide at Dillon. Dillon moved swiftly out of its reach. Jeremy’s body strained at the edges of his clothes, as he growled, baring human teeth at Dillon. “Doll and Luke sent me here to look after you.”
He’d been told not to hurt Jeremy. He’d been told to expect hostility but there really hadn’t been time to tell him why. Not that it mattered to Dillon. He could get a beta werewolf under control. Jeremy’s skin began to shake.
A shape shift in the day time? Dillon silently applauded the other werewolf. It was a kind of smart move to tackle him in werewolf mode. Werewolf tribal form was generally speaking, better for fighting than human form. Not that he couldn’t handle a little, angry beta werewolf, or even a slightly rabid one. But there were other things to consider, like being seen by the public, or having Jeremy wolf out and start rampaging around endangering people. Dillon looked around them quickly.
“Okay, you want me?” He said walking backwards and around to the side of Jeremy. “Come and get me.” Dillon sprinted to the far end of the garage and ducking into the last compartment o
f it and disappearing from sight as Jeremy sprang up running after him. Jeremy ran into the garage intend on harming the big Alpha werewolf who’d spoken his and Doll’s name. That was all there was to it.
He stood up once inside the darkened part of the garage looking around himself wildly, the alpha had disappeared from sight. He lifted his nose to sniff through the garage grease, dirt, oil and petrol and still he couldn’t locate the alpha. But Jeremy didn’t have the best scent tracking skills around. He turned around on himself and as he did so with his back to the open garage component, the roller door slammed down quickly closing him in.
Dillon stepped out from the shadows of his hiding spot. “Now, where were we?” He said as Jeremy started sweating and growling at him again. “Are you going to be reasonable about this?” Jeremy dropped to his knees heavily and dropped the tyre iron. “I’ll take that as a no.” Dillon replied watching the beginning of the beta werewolf’s shape shift.
“How the hell did we loose him?” Luke Charleston asked angrily banging his fist down on the dashboard. Doll jumped at the action. Luke sighed and reached a hand out to Doll. “I’m sorry.” He said holding her hand. “That wasn’t directed at you.”
They’d been trailing Graham Roberts for a good twenty minutes. Which might have been the give away that he was on to them. Since if he was staying in town, it wouldn’t take him twenty minutes to get to any accommodation from where they’d been, not unless he was staying somewhere out of the immediate area. And Luke remembered hearing somewhere that the longer you trailed someone the more obvious it became to them and the more that worked to your intended target’s advantage.
Doll look around the streetscape through the pick up truck’s windows. She couldn’t spot him either. They turned onto a street after him and he just wasn’t there.
“Maybe if we get out on foot.” Doll suggested.
“And give up the higher ground, I think not.” Luke replied still annoyed at loosing their target.
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