by R. E. Butler
Jake walked over to him as he surveyed the scene. “Cadence okay?”
“She will be. Listen, Jake,”
“No, wait.” Jake sighed, running his hand through his graying hair. “Chris is my son and Cadence has been like a daughter to me. No one deserves to be terrorized the way that she was. I won’t stand in your way. I know by law that he deserves death. I wish I could tell you why he went crazy, but I truthfully don’t know. A month ago I wouldn’t have guessed he had it in him to be so calculating and cruel. And then for the others to go along with it, well, it makes me feel like I wasn’t being an effective alpha. But that’s my baggage. I’ll make the announcement that I stand down from punishing my own pack members for their crimes. I can’t stay. You know, that, right?”
Jason nodded, amazed at Jake’s calm nature.
“The cabin’s yours, for whatever you need. I’ll make sure that Renee goes to the trailer park to help.”
He and Jake walked together to the stone circle. Jake turned around. “As alpha of the Garra Pack, I withdraw my judging hand from this gathering. For crimes against the Tressel Pack and their alpha female, I give my support to Jason Gerrick, alpha.” He gave one glance at Chris, called for his pack to head home, and left without another glance at son.
In all his arrogant posturing, Chris had been so smug, but seeing his father walk away turned him into a blubbering child, begging for mercy and calling for Jake. To his credit, he never turned around, and neither did any of the other pack members.
Jason walked in front of the men. He wished he knew why Zan was unconscious. He looked at a couple of the mid-ranked wolves. “Ben, Tig, take Zan and secure him in the back of Bo’s truck. I’m not going to punish him until I figure out why he’s unconscious.”
He turned to the elders who were standing stoically outside the circle, there for guidance if he needed it. He appreciated their presence, and wished his father had been able to stay. But there was no one he trusted more with his woman than his father. Jason spoke with authority. “They are cast from their pack at their alpha’s command. They kidnapped an alpha female with the purpose of at the least watching her be raped by another alpha.” He had a good guess that they planned more than just watching.
Lon, one of the elders, took a step forward. “Alpha, there is only one true path. They must be given to the pack so they may avenge their alpha female. Only blood will do.”
So the challenge would be issued. The criminals would be allowed to shift and given a two minute head start. If they could make it to dawn alive, they were exiled from the town but given their life. Dawn was four hours away.
Drawing on his wolf for power, he said with a deadly calm voice, “I, Jason Gerrick, alpha of the Tressel pack, charge you, Westin, with kidnapping the mated alpha of our pack with intent to cause her bodily harm. For your crime, you are challenged for your life. Make it to dawn and your life is yours, but you are required to leave the state within 48 hours or you forfeit your life. Have you anything to say?”
Westin, a man that Jason had at one time looked up to, spit on the ground. “I’d have fucked your little female until she begged for mercy, so you can stick your challenge up your ass and go fuck yourself.”
Ignoring the digs, because Westin was clearly hoping to have a fast end instead of facing the pack in the woods, Jason moved on and repeated the challenge to Darrin and Quincy. Darrin said nothing, resigned to his fate. Quincy begged for mercy, but there was none to be found.
He faced Chris finally, held on his knees by Michael and Bo. He glared up at Jason but there was nothing human about him anymore. He’d lost all touch with reality. “Christian, I sentence you to death, for crimes against the female alpha of our pack. There will be no dawn reprieve for you, I will hunt you down and kill you myself. Do you have anything to say?”
He stared up at him and the emptiness was vast in his eyes.
With a nod, his men set the criminals free and they struggled to their feet and ran. He was pleased to see that someone had removed their shoes. It was only fitting that because Cadence had run without shoes that they would have that same feeling, at least until they shifted.
Turning to his pack, he met their simmering, angry gazes. “Tonight we hunt to avenge our alpha!” He lifted his head to the sky and howled and the hills echoed with the sound. Clothes dropped and they shifted to their wolf forms and headed towards their prey.
Michael and Bo followed him as he scented for Chris and picked him out easily. The wolves had splintered and each gone in different directions but it wouldn’t matter. Chris had only stayed in his human form for a few feet and then shifted. No matter how long it took, Jason would see that Chris never hurt another person again.
They trailed him for hours. He was fast and backtracked a lot, crossing over his tracks again and again, but finally, they caught sight of his dark gray form as he padded along a soggy creek bed. With a coordination of a group that had hunted together for years, Bo and Michael split off and attacked Chris from either side as Jason went for his back. His natural reaction to seeing the two wolves on either side of him was to back up, and he ran straight into Jason. They locked jaws around each other’s necks, the snarls and growls growing louder and louder.
They tumbled and twisted in the mud and Chris pinned him on his back, going for his jugular, and Jason caught his belly with his back paw and ripped his stomach open by dragging his thick claws through the soft flesh. Chris cried out and let go, and Jason went for his neck, shaking it hard and snapping it abruptly. Chris may be evil, but he didn’t deserve to suffer.
Michael and Bo howled in victory, digging their muzzles in the bloody entrails. Jason did the same. They wouldn’t eat him as if he were prey; they would drag his body back to the bonfire and burn him with the others. They took turns dragging the body back to the bonfire because of the dead weight of his form. Three other wolf bodies waited by the time they got there. They had chased Chris for miles; the others had fallen quickly.
The elders were waiting and together the three men spoke ancient Greek over each body, basically asking the great spirits to bless the pack and wash the tragedy from their minds. He watched dispassionately as each body was lifted and tossed into the fire that had been fed more wood so it ran hot and would burn the bodies quickly. When the last body was tossed on the fire, the wolves raised their muzzles. It wasn’t a howl of victory; it was a mournful sound for the loss of their brethren and the violence that had brought them to this end.
He shifted back to his human form, and each man did the same, and he gathered his clothes and headed towards the cabin. He wanted to clean up before he dressed and headed back to see Cadence.
A pump well on the back porch provided ice cold water, but that was all he needed. He washed the blood and mud from his face and body and rinsed his mouth out, making sure his hands were as clean as he could get them. He only cared about getting home to Cadence. He needed to bury his face in her hair and take in her scent and hold her in his arms. He wouldn’t let her go for days.
Michael joined him, already dressed, and washed his face. Fishing in his pocket while Jason put on his boots, he pulled out something shiny. “The chain’s busted, but I thought you would want to give this back to her.”
“Thanks, man.” He squeezed it in his palm and tried not to think about how he’d come close to losing her, again.
A handful of the pack and the elders agreed to stay until the bodies were complete ash and then cover the bonfire with dirt. The need to hold Cadence and see how injured she was overcame everything else in his mind, and he sped towards home, his men on his tail. Everyone was anxious.
Pulling into the trailer park after less than 20 minutes, he was surprised when Callie threw open the door to his trailer. “Thank goodness, Jason! Hurry!’
With his heart in his throat, he turned off the bike and cleared the steps in one bound. His mother, Renee, his father, and a few of the pack females were inside, looking worried. The others had been out
side standing guard.
Glancing at the clock, he realized that he’d been gone nearly six hours. Holy hell, what had happened while she’d been home?
His mother pulled him back gently towards the bedroom. “Jason, she’s in shock. She woke up when your father brought her in the house and had a panic attack. We were about to call the squad when she calmed down some because your father spoke to her as former alpha. She wanted to take a shower so we helped her and then left her alone when she insisted, and Callie went in the bathroom a half hour later and she was sitting under the water curled up in a ball and crying. Callie turned the water off, tried to get her out, but she wouldn’t move. So we’ve been putting towels on her to keep her warm, but she’s shut down.”
He looked at the bathroom door. “Is she injured?”
“She had some rocks and glass embedded in her feet and her palms, and a pretty bad gash on her thigh, but other than the bruised cheek, she seems to be okay. She needs you, honey.”
“Then I’ll help her. Thanks, mom.” He hugged his mother, worry skating through him. How was he supposed to help Cadence come out of shock? Maybe taking her to the hospital was the best thing.
He sent the females home, except for his parents, Renee, and Callie. Closing the bedroom door he went to the bathroom. As they’d said, his little sweetheart was leaning against the wall of the tub, arms wrapped tightly around her knees. She rocked back and forth slightly.
He grabbed another towel from under the cabinet. “Sweetheart? Cades? Can you hear me?”
She made no movement that indicated that she’d heard him. When he tried to pull her to her feet, she made little whimpering sounds and resisted him. He spoke softly to her, touched her shoulder and face, and she refused to even open her eyes or say anything. Frustrated, he growled as he dropped to one knee. Her whole body stiffened.
Ah. Once again the wolf part of her was working even when her human side wasn’t. He lowered the wall that separated himself from his beast and allowed the wolf to fill him with power. He knew his eyes would be bright amber and he could feel his canines elongating. With a powerful growl, he said, “Cadence, you get up this instant and go sit on the bed.”
Obediently, she stood and he followed her out to the bedroom where she sat, so much a puppet, a body without conscious thought. He wrapped the dry towel around her.
He knew what he needed to do. He’d seen it once, when he was a kid. A wolf had been injured severely and had retreated into his subconscious to protect himself. His father as alpha had called to his beast and comforted it as only the alpha could. He would cover her with his scent and use his beast to draw her from the place where she hid. She was stronger than this. He wouldn’t let her retreat.
He opened the bedroom door and saw Callie. “She’s going to be fine in the morning, Callie. I promise.”
Shutting the door, he jerked off his shirt and let it drop as he called his beast to the surface again with a loud growl and he stalked to his mate.
Chapter 13
Cadence felt like she was drifting in the darkness. She could hear things – voices, sounds – but she couldn’t really see anything. Her head felt disjointed from her body, as if it had never even been part of it before. Two separate things.
She was wicked cold but couldn’t get the energy together to do anything about it. And then suddenly, her wolf self started to get agitated, and she felt compelled to action. To get up and move, to sit down and be still. She didn't like taking orders from anyone, but this wasn’t quite the same. It wasn't orders exactly it was…something deeper, ancient and more powerful.
Suddenly she was flooded with the scent of fall, of trees and brush preparing for winter, of fur and blood and teeth, and her brain started to reattach itself to her body. There were hands on her, not just any hands, but the two most important hands in the world. Jason.
Jason.
The word alone was enough to spike her heart rate and she could smell him and feel him and hear him. He grabbed her wolf by the scruff and was pulling her forward, dragging her out of the darkness and Cadence was attached to her. She realized that now. They weren't really separate creatures; the wolf was part of her because she was what made her unique. A hybrid. A werewolf and a human mashed together.
“Come on, love, come back to me.” The voice she held dearest was chanting as warm hands moved down methodically from her neck to her shoulders, down her chest and ribs, skirting her hips and all the way down her legs.
She heard a deep breath in the pause before the hands started again, and then she smelled the scent of her mate so strong that she forced her way up through the darkness to find him. It was a struggle, like walking through surf towards the shore and she needed help. But her mind couldn't get her mouth to form the right words. As if he knew, Jason began to nip at her pulse points with his teeth, and the little jolts of awareness were enough to bring her back to him with a gasp.
She sat up with a deep breath and clutched her chest. She reached for Jason and he pulled her into his arms and she fell from the bed and into his lap with a sound halfway between a shout of happiness and a sob. He held her close, stroking her hair and sighing deeply.
“I thought you’d never wake up, sweetheart.”
She leaned back to look at him. He was smiling, but it didn’t reach his eyes. There was darkness there in the depths of the eyes she loved so much and she knew then that she wasn’t the only one traumatized by Chris’ actions.
“I tried to, but I felt so lost in my head. It was weird. But I smelled you, your wolf, and I felt your hands on me.”
“I was breathing my scent into my hands. It’s an old alpha trick and you’re wolf enough to recognize my authority and scent. At least when you’re a zombie.” He smirked and she rolled her eyes.
“Hey, I was very nearly made some kind of pack bride so don’t be so glib.”
He stood up slowly with her in his arms and put her back on the bed, drawing a soft blanket around her shoulders. Ducking to his knees he put his arms around her and cuddled into her lap. She stroked his hair and waited for him to talk.
Eventually he did.
He shared it all with her, and the wounds were fresh and deep for him. He’d never seen pack justice carried out like that before. It was necessary, there was no other way for things to go, but it didn’t mean he didn’t suffer for it. Heavy was the head that wore the crown, wolf or not.
“Thank you, Jas.”
“For what? Taking your safety for granted again? Trusting that you’d be safe when I have absolutely no reason to believe that?” His eyes flashed for a moment and then he dropped his head back to her lap.
“Thank you for finding me. For saving me. And for doing what you needed to do as pack leader. I don’t understand a lot of the burden you carry as alpha, but I have a better idea now. And I’ll share that burden with you, Jas.” She tilted his head up in her hands so he was forced to look at her. “I love you. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
His eyes went very bright with unshed tears and she had a feeling that she could sit there all day and stare at him and he wouldn’t ever cry and that was okay. He wasn’t made for soft things, but then again, neither was she.
“You drew blood.” She groused, catching a glimpse at one wrist. One of his fangs had nicked her.
He shrugged sheepishly. “I had to call my beast. And you’re damn stubborn, you know that?” He smiled and chased that dark look from his eyes. He kissed the mark and then got up.
“You knew how high maintenance I was before you marked me.”
“What when you were 9? Shit.” He stretched with a groan. “Back then all you wanted was Barbie dolls and candy necklaces. That’s not high maintenance, not even close.”
He declared he was hungry and went to an overnight bag and tossed a t-shirt and panties at her. Her joints ached, but her cuts had healed while she’d been comatose, so she could be thankful for small miracles. She slid her clothes on, figuring she didn’t need pants because
they were alone in the house.
He made two phone calls after she volunteered to cook for them, because there was very little he could do in the kitchen except make a mess. And it gave her something to do anyway. If she had to sit still for too long, she thought her emotions would get the better of her right now. He followed her around the small kitchen while she made them breakfast, as if he couldn’t stand to be more than a foot away from her. Any other day, she would have snapped at him to give her some space, but not today. He’d been shaken to the core at what had happened to her, what nearly would have happened if he hadn’t shown up when he did, and she needed his touch as much as he needed hers. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been out of it but it was 8 a.m. now. The start of a new day.
While she scrambled eggs on the stove and he kept his fingers twisted in the hem of her top while he leaned against the counter, she said, “Do you need to go anywhere today?”
He looked startled, “As if I would leave you alone today.”
“No, Jas, I mean, I’d like to go back to bed after we eat and just hold each other, okay? But if you need to go somewhere, to handle pack stuff or whatever, then I’ll shower and go with you.”
He shook his head, “No, Michael’s got the pack covered and nothing is happening right now anyway. Tonight we’ll have a meeting, let everyone see that you’re okay. You are okay, aren’t you?”
She paused mid-stir and looked at him. Once, when they were very young he killed a snake because it frightened her when they were playing in the woods. Although the snake wasn’t poisonous she remembered the look in his eyes then, and she could see it clearly now. He was thinking about the worst case scenario. Back then, he’d been haunted by the fact that the snake could have been poisonous, could have bitten her and she could have died before help came. This morning, he was thinking about all the “could haves” that her abduction might have turned into.