by Flynn, Donna
*****
Alec waited impatiently for Mercy to finish showering, pacing back and forth in front of the bathroom until Lucan joked he was going to pay to replace the carpet if he wore it out. His attempt at humor failed to hit the mark, though. Alec growled in response but continued his vigil. The moment Mercy opened the door he was at her side, lifting her in his arms despite her protests she could walk.
“I’m not the least bit tired. Why don’t we all go downstairs and talk about what happened?” she said as he placed her on her bed.
“You are not going anywhere!” he yelled. “How could you have endangered yourself this way? Did you not consider that you almost died yesterday? That none of us would know you were off wandering the forest. No, as usual Mercy just does whatever she wants, and damn the consequences to everyone else.”
“Alec, that’s enough!” Lucan snapped angrily.
Alec turned on him with a loud snarl. “You have to stop treating her like a child. She knows who and what she is now. I agreed to let her have some time to adjust, but her actions are destructive, and have put her life in danger yet again.”
“Don’t tell me how to treat her. I’ve raised her since she was six, I certainly have more say in her life than you do,” Lucan argued, the hair on the back of his neck standing up.
“Do you?” Alec growled. His only thought was of keeping Mercy safe and that came before any friendship he had shared with Lucan over the years. “Do you really think I won’t pull rank if her life is in danger? That I won’t do what I think best to keep her safe? She has accepted my father as her Alpha and as his Beta I outrank you, so don’t force my hand, Luc, you won’t like my response.” His body trembled with barely controlled rage as he stood face to face with Mercy’s brother, ready to fight if that was what it took to protect his mate. He was an alpha male, second in command to his father, and he wasn’t backing down, not when his mate’s life was in danger.
“Luc, let it go,” Cade said placing his hand on his brother’s shoulder, aware that Alec was thinking as a mate and not the friend they knew. “If it were Nina, you would feel the same way Alec does.”
Lucan’s own body shook with anger, his love for Mercy making him irrational and unable to think clearly. “It is not Nina, it’s my sister, she’s been through hell these last few weeks, and it doesn’t help to have him berating her for something she has no control over.”
Both men stood face-to-face, toe-to-toe, neither willing to back down. Cade and Gregory looked on warily, both unsure how best to calm the explosive situation. Lucan and Alec had never argued before. They always seemed to be of one mind, especially where Mercy was concerned, but with Lucan unwilling to allow her to grow up and accept blame, he was forcing Alec’s hand. The problem was no one knew how Alec would react with his mate’s life in question.
“Stop it, both of you!” Mercy yelled. Both men turned to stare at her, startled by her outburst. “Luc, I am not a child. I made a mistake, it’s going to happen from time to time and Alec was calling me on it. Did I like him yelling at me? No, but everything he said was true. I need to learn how to be part of the pack, and you need to let me do it.”
“I only want what’s best for you,” Lucan told her sadly. “All have I have ever wanted was to keep you safe.” Mercy held out her hand and he came to her side, taking it in his own and sitting on the bed next to her.
“I love you, no father could have done a better job raising me; but it’s time for me to step up and become the woman I am meant to be, not the child you want me to remain.” She placed her hand on his cheek and smiled. “I will always need you in my life, but Alec is right. I have to start taking responsibility for my own actions. I placed myself in danger today, and I accept the blame.”
“When did you become so wise?” he asked, resigned to the fact he was losing her far sooner than he wanted to.
“I’m not sure, somewhere between finding out I am a werewolf and seeing you fight with Alec just now. I need to learn what I am, or it will destroy me and possibly everyone around me.”
“You are right, I know that, but I cannot help the protective way I feel about you. In my heart you are my daughter, and that makes it so much harder to let you go.”
“No one is asking you to let her go. Just give her some room to grow,” Alec said behind him, finally calm enough to think clearly again.
Mercy’s gaze met Alec’s, and for the first time he saw a willingness to learn about their pack. It was his job to teach her their ways, and it was a challenge he was more than willing to accept. She was his mate and her success or failure depended upon his ability to show her how to be one of them.
“Now that has been settled, why don’t we figure out exactly what happened today while it is still fresh in Mercy’s mind?” Cade said, relieved Lucan and Alec had not come to blows.
“What exactly do you remember?” Lucan asked Mercy.
“I was following the trail my wolf took the night before,” she explained.
“You knew the path your wolf had taken?” Gregory asked, amazed she had that kind of bond with her wolf. Most young ones spent years trying to meld their human mind with their wolf, but it seemed she had done it effortlessly.
She nodded. “I walked to the river, and there was a wolf in the tree watching me.”
“What did the wolf look like?” Alec asked.
“Black with the reddest eyes I have ever seen,” she told him, shivering slightly. “If I didn’t know better I would swear it had been waiting for me. It seemed to know I would try to run, and it blocked my path. I tried to back away, but I lost my footing then fell into the river.”
“What happened next?” Alec asked.
“I don’t know. I can’t remember, it’s just blank, the next thing I remember is Gregory finding me.” She looked to Gregory. “Did you see anything at all?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t, but to be honest after I saw you on the ground my only concern was getting you back home,” he answered, unable to look into her eyes as he lied to her. Thankfully his son was too concerned about his mate to notice his odd behavior.
“Surely something must have caught your interest, a print, a scent?” Alec questioned.
“Nothing. Mercy was bleeding badly and needed help, that was all I focused on.”
“I’m going to go and have a look, maybe we can find something that will lead us to the one responsible,” Alec said, finding his father’s answers hard to believe. It was not like him to be careless. His father usually noticed everything around him, even in an emergency, but given that Mercy was involved, he supposed it was reasonable that he was more worried for her than what had happened. He knew better than anyone what her loss would mean for Alec and her health would have been his top priority.
“I’ll go with you, two sets of eyes will be more helpful,” Cade told him.
“Alec, you should be here with Mercy. I will go with Cade,” Gregory said, knowing he needed to be there to hide any traces of Marlo’s presence from the scene before Cade found them. No one, aside from himself, knew what Marlo was. Although she was no longer ashamed of being a vampire, werewolves and vampires were not exactly known for being friendly with one another, and he wasn’t sure how they might react if they found out what she was. Besides that, he wanted to know where all of his pack had been when Mercy was being attacked. They should have been patrolling the woods and heard her screams. It was odd that none came to her rescue.
“Are you sure?” Alec asked, torn between leaving his mate and finding any evidence that would lead him to the one who wished her harm.
“Son, let me handle this, she needs you now.” He didn’t wait for an answer before following Cade, who was already on his way out the door.
“I suppose you must be hungry?” Lucan said to Mercy, who nodded emphatically. He rose from the bed and looked to Alec in warning. “Ten minutes and I expect you both down stairs.”
“Knock it off, Luc,” Mercy admonished.
�
�I may have to accept you are older, but I am still in charge,” he said before walking to the door, looking over his shoulder at Alec once again. “Ten minutes, not a second more.”
“So how mad are you?” she asked, crossing her legs Indian-style as she waited for him to answer.
Alec ran a hand through his hair in frustration then stalked to the bed and pulled her into his arms, ignoring the slight stiffening of her body. “Can you not understand how very much you mean to me?” His lips crashed down on hers, and although she didn’t pull away, he felt her hesitation. He continued his assault on her lips until she sighed and wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her body against his, earning a low moan from deep in his throat. Already hyped up from his anger at her and the argument with her brother, he knew it was not a good idea to press his own desires further, so he pulled abruptly away from her.
Mercy stared at Alec, seeing the raw desire in his eyes, and felt horrible. He deserved a girl that wasn’t so scared, and could return his kisses without him coaxing her to respond. She was ashamed and wanted immediately to apologize and explain again, why she wasn’t ready for what he wanted. “Alec, I….”
He placed his finger on her lips silencing her, confident she was once again going to put off their relationship. “Say nothing. I know you’re not ready for us to move forward in our relationship, but be warned I have only so much patience and you are testing it severely.” He came to her side and sat down, taking her hand in his. “If anything happened to you, it would be the end of me.”
“Nothing happened. I’m fine, a little sore, but fine,” she told him.
“Yeah, but if you’re not careful that might not be the case next time,” he said leaning his forehead against hers. “Promise me that you will go nowhere without your brothers or I, even if it’s just the back-yard?”
“I promise,” she murmured, lifting her hand to the back of his head and running her fingers through his soft, thick mane of hair. “I will be a good girl and do as you ask, but I want something in return.”
She gave him a devilish smile that boded ill, but he bit anyway. “What do you want?”
“I want you to teach me how to shift, and I want to know how to defend myself, so I won’t be useless all the time.”
He held her face in his hands and looked into her eyes with so much adoration it was scary. “You could never be useless. To me, you are everything.” He meant it, but knew she wasn’t ready to understand exactly what that meant to him and all of his kind.
“Don’t, I’m not ready for that kind of talk. I can’t be anything to anyone until I know who I am,” she whispered, hating the sadness that crossed his face once again because of her.
Alec sighed. “I’m confused, Mercy. You’re afraid, I know that, but then you respond as if you want me, and then you push me away. It’s so hard to keep pretending everything is okay when all I want is for you to be mine.” He let go of her face and turned away from her, lowering his head into his hands.
She wrapped her arms around his waist, laying her cheek against his back. “I can’t promise you forever, not until I accept what I am, but I can promise that I have no interest in anyone but you.” She brushed her lips across the back of his neck. “Of course, that also means if you wanted to kiss me now and then I wouldn’t say no.”
He reached back quickly, capturing her and pulling her across his lap, staring deeply into her eyes. “I’ll take what you’ll give me for now, but I am not a very patient wolf.” He sealed his words with a long lingering kiss then stood, setting her feet on the ground. “Luc will be watching the clock, we had better get downstairs.”
“He would never keep us apart,” she assured him, tiptoeing up to brush her lips across his once again.
“I don’t want to anger him anymore today.” He took her hand in his and pulled her gently towards the door. “Besides I smell something good, and I am very hungry.” He pulled her close and nibbled her ear making her laugh loud enough that Lucan responded.
“I’m waiting,” Lucan screamed loud enough to wake the dead.
Alec looked at his watch and smiled. “Nine minutes and forty-nine seconds,” he called back.
“Smart-ass,” Lucan called back.
“Don’t tease him,” Mercy chastised, knowing how upset her relationship with Alec made him.
Alec pushed her against the wall, his hands on either side of her head, his forehead against hers, his breathing heavy. “I have waited a very long time for you to grow up, Angel. If he’s upset over waiting just few minutes, imagine how I feel after all this time.” He pressed a kiss to her shoulder, his now-amber eyes meeting hers, then growled softly before backing away, whistling as he walked down the stairs.
Mercy leaned against the wall trying to catch her breath, her entire body aflame just from his statement. Alec had a way of seducing her just by being near. He was like a drug she just couldn’t get enough of, and she wanted more and more of him with each taste. Plain and simple, she had become addicted, and she had the feeling there was no getting over him.
Chapter Seven
Mercy leaned against the wall after Alec left her, dumbfounded by his statement. She had never realized that Alec had feelings for her until recently, so to hear him say he had waited a long time for her made her heart shudder and skip a few beats.
“Mercy, let’s go,” Lucan called from the kitchen.
Reminded they were waiting for her, she began to walk very slowly down the stairs, then into the kitchen sinking down into the chair next to Alec, still in shock. Lucan placed a plate in front of her, but she just stared at the sandwich instead of eating it.
“Angel, you need to eat,” Alec whispered, his warm breath on her ear increasing her heart rate considerably.
“Gina is on her way over. If you’re feeling up to it, we thought maybe we could take you out and teach you a few things,” Lucan said, coming to sit across the table from them.
“Really?” she asked, more than ready to begin any lesson that would teach her how to be a better wolf.
He nodded and took a bite of his sandwich. “It seems the best course of action given the events of the last month. I want you ready in case something like this should ever happen again, and I know Alec feels the same way.”
“We want you to know how to shift properly. I promised you that I would help you learn, and now is as good a time as any to start,” Alec said, dropping his arm over the back of her chair and rubbing her neck lightly with the tips of his fingers. Frowning as he noted the large area of bruising on her shoulder where she had been bitten.
“I have a few things to do in the office, call me when the others get back, and we can go.” Luc grabbed his sandwich and left them to eat on their own, feeling slightly uncomfortable around Alec after the earlier episode in Mercy’s room.
“You alright with all of this,” Alec asked.
“Fine,” she answered leaning closer to him, tossing her uneaten sandwich on the plate.
“You should eat,” he said moving closer to her.
“I am not hungry for food,” she told him breathlessly.
“Neither am I,” he growled pulling her onto his lap, his mouth moving over hers in a demanding kiss that had both of them so lost in each other they failed to hear Amber’s arrival at the screen door.
“Hello, I hope I’m not bothering you,” Amber called out, her cheek twitching with anger, as she stared at the couple inside with scorn.
Mercy looked to the door easily catching the look of hate on Amber’s face, but the moment Alec turned to look her way, she covered it up with one of the fakest smiles she had ever seen.
“Of course not,” Alec said, placing Mercy back in her seat as he went to open the door for her.
“I thought maybe I could help out here. I heard about Macy being attacked and felt horrible,” she explained as she walked inside. “As one of your best friends I just wanted to come and offer you comfort.”
“Mercy,” Alec reminded her.
“Oh yes, poor, poor Mercy,” Amber said looking at her with pity. “It must be so trying to be you, always in trouble, always having to be rescued.” She turned to Alec, placed her hand on his forearm, and smiled up at him as if he were a hero. “And it must be so draining for you to keep up after her.”
“There is nothing I would not do for Mercy.” He meant it, but when he looked to Mercy she was frowning, her eyes narrowed on Amber’s hand, her hand clenched so tight her knuckles were ghost-white.
“Well, she does seem to be putting that to the test,” Amber replied with a chuckle. “The way Gregory went on, I had thought to find a much worse situation. I rushed right over to help you, but since she appears to be fine, I suppose I’ll just go back to the hotel and wait all by myself for my father to come back for the evening.”
She sighed, looking saddened by the thought of being alone. A move Mercy knew was for show, and Alec, being the nice guy he was, jumped right in to make her feel better.
“Actually we are going to take Mercy into the woods and teach her how to shift, you’re welcome to join us,” Alec suggested, hoping that if the two girls spent time together, they might become friends.
Mercy wanted to shove her fist in his mouth. She was furious he could not see through Amber’s conniving little schemes, and did not understand why he thought to include her in something that should be private.
“Oh, I am sure Mercy would not want a stranger present while she struggles to learn how to shift.” Amber turned and looked at her with a satisfied smile, daring her to turn down Alec’s suggestion.