Where the hell was this coming from, he meant everything Ben had said but he suddenly felt vulnerable, what if she didn't feel the same? He knew that if Lucky was another wolf she would feel the mating bond develop, but he wasn't sure whether that would be the same for a human. Suddenly he felt his heart beat faster, his wolf retreated into the background while she just looked at him. Her gaze was burning a hole into his chest, right into his heart.
"The thing is, this has happened really, really fast. I don't know if I can move at your speed…Before you start Ben don't interrupt me. Tonight without any thought and without me knowing, you were there for me and my girls. Every time I am with you, I feel how genuine your feelings are. So if you are asking about this mate thing, I think that maybe it could work, I might just be your mate. It was you I wanted to save me, and I will never admit that again. I don’t need saving, I never have and I don’t like needing you or anyone."
And just like that he wrapped his arms around her and swung her around. "How about that be our secret. I am going to make you the happiest woman in the world and the girls too of course, once we sort out this weird shit. Until then let me and my pack protect you and the girls, let my pack become our pack."
Lucky laughed before turning serious, shivering in response to the nights dramas. "Darius is going to call me when the crime scene finish. I want to know every little thing they find."
"Theo is going to stay at your house overnight."
"Why, you can't do that, they might return." Now with panic building into her voice, Lucky was worried about someone else, she didn't know what the person had wanted, so how could she be sure they wouldn't come back and hurt this random stranger that didn’t even know them?
"That is what he is hoping for."
Wrapped in his arms the night didn’t feel as threatening. "Ben we don't know who it is, I don't want anyone to get hurt."
"Don't worry about Theo you haven't met him, he will also check in with Connor every hour."
He wanted to distract her, he didn't want her worrying and he needed to make her feel better.
"Tell me about your family Lucky. I have met the girls but I know nothing about where you come from."
They sat together on the love seat in the deep recess of the window, as she leaned into him she sighed. "I had a good childhood, my parents were very much in love, my mom used to bake cakes and read me and my brother stories. My dad was great I always saw him as this huge strong man, who would swing me into the air when he came home from work. We were a really close family; we had holidays at the beach and skiing trips. My dad was a cop like me and used to take me to the station with him some times."
Taking a deep breath in an effort to steady herself, she leaned into her man. "My mom used to dread that knock at the door, every single day when he left for work she was never completely at ease until he walked back through that door. When I was twelve that knock came and it ripped us apart for a long time."
Ben could hear her pain and damn if it didn’t hurt him too. "What happened?"
"That's the stupid thing; he had left the station and was heading to the car, a drunk driver drove straight into him killing him instantly. How often does a drunk driver drive into a police station car park?"
An involuntary tear slipped from her eyes as pain threatened to overwhelm her, placing her hand on the cold of the window seemed to centre her. Watching the night she took a breath before continuing.
"Anyway mom did her best to keep it together but Lewis, my brother who is three years older than me pretty much lost it. He got in with a bad crowd, started staying out all night, getting wasted then arrested. It didn't matter what mom did, he wouldn't listen."
Ben could sympathise with that, he didn’t know how he would have managed this but suspected he may have taken a similar route to her brother.
"I can understand that, I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost my dad so young. What happened then, what about now?" So many questions, every experience had made her the person she was today and he wanted to know everything that had impacted on her life.
"I had always looked up to him and he hated me being around his new friends, he knew they were not nice people but he needed hatred and anger in his life at the time. What he didn't know was that as I got older, his new friends were encouraging me to meet up with them when Lewis wasn't around. One night when I was fourteen I snuck out of the house to go and meet Tommy, who was kind of the leader. Lewis wasn't there to start with and Tommy had given me some booze, he started kissing me when Lewis arrived. He had a bag full of things that he had obviously stolen from somewhere, when he finally caught sight of me he dropped them."
Lucky felt her mouth turn up as she recalled the events of that night, so many years ago. "Looking back it's funny as hell, but at the time it was so scary. Lewis is strong like me, though even then he wasn't a bully who felt the need to show people what he could do, so Tommy was not prepared. Lewis went ballistic especially after Tommy told him that as part of the crew they were entitled to me. Lewis beat the shit out of him, two others tried to jump Lewis, I was not having any of that, so I jumped in and it nearly got out of hand until we heard the sirens and ran."
Watching the night that surrounded them, Lucky was lost in the memories both the good and the bad. That era in her life contained the immense pain of losing her father, yet it also heralded the joy of re-finding her big brother.
Ben thought that Lewis sounded promising, someone he could get on with, or at the least he liked the guy's style. "Anyway Lewis tore into me on the way home and I cried my eyes out, then we talked about dad and what we were doing to each other, and to mom. From then on Lewis turned his life around and for a while he was even more protective of me and mom. He joined the army when I was nineteen, directly after I joined the force, he said he could not cope with waiting for the knock at the door again."
With a sigh Lucky yet again felt the acute loss of Lewis in her life, she missed him so much and tonight she would have felt better with him close to her and the girls. "He thrived in the Army and was quickly promoted, he has spent the last three years in Afghanistan doing god knows what. Lewis is pretty protective of me and the girls and never really got on with Phil. Lewis always said Phil was not strong enough for me and was pleased when we separated."
"Why?" Ben was curious.
"I am not really sure Lewis takes after my dad, he is big and like me stronger than most humans. He is very much an action type of guy and Phil isn't, so he never really got on with him. He should be home in a couple of months; sometime I miss him so much."
"Where's your mom?"
"Ha now she's touring round Europe with my aunt Lacy. They left three months ago, for a six month tour. I miss her loads but she is having a great time and deserves to, she never moved on after dad even though we would have understood." Lucky felt so relaxed and safe in his arms, it was almost easy to forget about the awful night.
They spent the rest of the night curled up on the bed, talking about everything. Lucky had never felt so listened to, they laughed about growing up in a pack, he shocked her with his business acumen and in turn she shocked him with more of her teenage exploits. And then in the early hours of the morning they made slow and tender love that left her feeling cherished; she had never felt this close to another person.
Chapter 16
As she opened her eyes she stretched, disappointed to find herself alone. Actually why was it so quiet, not only in the room but in the house? The girls should be up and about by now. Sliding out of bed Lucky realised that it was unusually quiet; she put Ben's t-shirt on when she was unable to find her clothes from last night, thankfully the t-shirt reached her knees. Entering the kitchen she found Ben, Leyland and May at the dining table pouring over some books; it was actually a remarkably endearing picture.
"Hmm, am I interrupting anything?"
"Hey mom I was just showing Ben some stuff I have been reading. It's about the genetics of different species." May
had this huge smile on her face, the one she got when people were actually listening to her and interested in what she had to say.
"Be careful, before you know it you will be giving blood for her to study. May has been trying to talk me into changing our study at home into some sort of lab." She said this as she lovingly planted a kiss on the top of May's head.
"I was just thinking that we may need to have a chat with Emma, she's our pack doctor and a wolf. I am sure you can imagine we get a fair amount of injuries, especially Danny. If she agrees and if it's okay with your mom, would you like to help her at the clinic? You don't have to of course."
May was suddenly smiling brightly at Lucky. "Please mom, please."
"Ben is being modest Lucky; we get a lot of injuries. Emma brings in locum nurses from time to time, mainly to help out with the running of the clinic; she would love someone as bright as May." Leyland looked brightly at May, "and I would have no problem giving her my blood anytime."
As soon as Lucky nodded May ran off shouting Ellie. "I don't suppose you know where the rest of my children are hiding, do you?"
"Blondie and Red have gone riding, don't worry I have four wolves following and both of the girls and Sylvia have two way radios with them." Leyland pointed at the radios on the table. Inwardly she smiled, they had certainly covered everything.
"Ellie is with Connor in the gym, she has decided that if anything happens again she needs to be able to stand by your side. Connor runs kick boxing classes in the mornings for the pups and Ellie wanted to go." Ben suddenly looked worried. "Sorry I should have checked with you."
"It's fine, I never wanted the girls to grow up needing to fight, yet Ellie is still a fighter. It makes sense for them to be able to protect themselves. I suppose I always thought that I could protect us all."
"I think that is one of the lessons every parent has to learn Lucky; I genuinely thought that being Alpha would be enough to protect Ben." Leyland was sat down looking at Ben while he was talking. "What I didn't realise was that Ben had been having to watch his back from early on, some people thought that if they couldn't take me, taking down Ben was close enough."
"Oh what did you do?" She was interested in his wisdom and of course Ben's childhood stories, she sat waiting for Leyland to continue.
"I didn't realise what was happening, Ben had some good friends who continue to be his good friends. Connor, Theo and Ben always seemed to be getting in scrapes with the older pups. Theo was a hot head and initially when I took him to one side he refused to tell me what the fighting was all over."
He dropped his head slightly, ashamed even now. "So I punished him, I made his work out gruelling, pitted him against older and stronger wolves but damn even then he was stubborn and strong. It didn't stop the fights, so I went to Conner next. Again he wouldn't spill; Conner's mother eventually spoke to me, though only after Conner received another broken nose."
Leyland was shaking his head; maybe the rage of your child being hurt didn’t dissipate. "I was so angry that I wanted to give all the pups who were bullies a beating, I had gone looking for the pups to deliver it when I stumbled along Theo. I was furious and demanded he explain why he didn't tell me what was happening."
Leyland was now laughing. "Here I was this fully grown man and I had a seventeen year old pup giving me advice. He looked me in the eye and said; to tell you and have you punish them would undermine our future leader." Leyland shook his head when Ben patted him on the shoulder.
"Do you know something, until that day I had never considered Ben to be my successor? He was my son, my baby and that was his most important role. He has turned out to be one hell of a successor, I am incredibly proud of him."
Looking to Leyland, Lucky's eyes were wide. "What did you do about the others?"
Ben answered for him. "He made me train more, train harder, he toughened me up and started preparing me for being Alpha. Mom cleaned my wounds and dad made me stronger."
"At times I thought he would hate me." Said Leyland.
"I would have if I had been alone. What I have never been able to work out, is why you included Conner and Theo in the training from hell?"
"That's easy, without realising it they had stepped up to be your second and thirds, Conner and you were a good team, but with Theo you were damn near unstoppable. Theo used to scare me, all that anger and hatred with nowhere to direct it, shit he still scares me. He was older than you but rather than pick on you he protected you."
Lucky could sort of understand this, although it had now dawned on her that her baby was fighting wolves. "Ben will the other wolves hurt Ellie? Wolves are much stronger than Ellie." Lucky realised that Leyland was right, she needed to help her girls protect themselves but it wouldn't stop her worrying.
"They know to be careful with her; she won't get hurt I promise. Oh and Bastian called, he wants to come and meet with you and Darius here. Now don't ask me why, he wouldn't say. I know I can't tell you what job to do, but I don't have to like it. Now sit down and have breakfast."
With that Ben was bringing over bacon and eggs, and Lucky realised she was famished when her stomach made its presence known. Helping himself to her breakfast Ben bent to kiss her. "I like seeing you in my clothes; I would go as far as to say that they look better on you than me."
As she looked into his eyes and saw the desire there, she felt her stomach do that little flip, a feeling she was starting to associate with being in close proximity to Ben.
Seeing his woman and watching her, he realised that he honestly did like seeing her in his clothes. Her scent was all over him and his clothes and while he liked it a lot, his wolf loved it; he couldn’t get enough of her. Hearing his friends approach he warned Lucky.
"Connor and Theo are nearly here. Just so you know Theo is pretty quiet and does not say a lot. Try not to stare at him, he is a really nice guy, he just has a funny way of showing it."
"How do you know they are here? I can't see them." Lucky was glancing around the kitchen; she couldn't even hear anyone else.
"What Ben meant to say, is that Theo rarely speaks but the pack is connected on another level; as an Alpha the connection Ben has with the pack is stronger than the other members, aside from the mated pairs. Ben can talk telepathically to them, and that's how Theo prefers to communicate."
"Wow that would be pretty cool. Hey, did you say that the bond between mated pairs is stronger, does that mean us?" Lucky's interest was piqued, though now was probably not the right time to ask questions.
"When we mate Lucky it will take us to a whole new level. We will be linked so closely that yes we will be able to talk telepathically, and we will be able to find each other and feel what the other is feeling."
"What if I don't want to be found or speak to you? I don't know if you noticed but you do seem to find a way to annoy me at times."
Leyland seemed to find that amusing. "Sylvia will show you how to block him, females mated into the pack seem to work out how to block pretty quickly."
Lucky looked to Ben when she heard the front door bang, she recognised Connor as he walked in having seen him in the club. The other man though, hell he made Ben look small, he was so enormous he was practically a wall. His face was scarred all down one side, although it was somewhat covered with the tattoos covering that side of his face, tattoos that went straight down his neck, the scarring looked like a burn. He didn't scare her, however there was something compelling about him, it made you want to look twice. Theo was actually uncommonly handsome in a bad boy way. Lucky could immediately feel his exhaustion but could also feel an immense sadness seeping from him, except when he looked at her then his feelings became hostile, he did not trust her. Where could this much sadness and distrust come from?
"Hi, you must be Theo." Rather than answer he nodded, his feelings were actually hurting her chest, the weight of them pressing on her interrupting her own feelings and thoughts.
"Lucky, are you okay?" Ben was watching her, the concern etched on his face
but she didn't trust herself to speak so she followed suit and nodded. Pushing the food across the table to Connor and Theo, both immediately helped themselves; she had lost her appetite when she met Theo.
"Did you meet any problems?" Lucky was pleased that Ben had asked the question, she was too busy pulling her emotions together.
"None, I looked around and whoever it was had definitely been in the main bedroom and spent some time in the hall upstairs." So this Theo guy spoke, now what Lucky wanted to know was how he knew this.
"How do you know all of that?"
Theo looked at Ben who nodded, prompting Theo to explain in as few words as possible. "I see energy signatures."
"What do you mean?" Theo might be scary as hell, but he was also as captivating as hell with well hidden talents.
"I can see where a person has been by their left over energy. The stronger it is, the more time that was spent in that place."
Lucky could feel how reluctant he was to tell her, she automatically knew that this man would protect Ben to the death. "Does everyone have a different energy?" She had never heard of this before, his gift was unique.
"Yes, if I met the person who was in your house I would know their energy."
"How, what is mine like, sorry you must be exhausted?" She couldn’t help the multiple questions.
"It's bright, lots of purples and blues, the purple indicates general goodness, and the blue is someone who is calm and thoughtful. Signature colours tend to remain the same although they do have distinct patterns depending on the person's character. Someone who is generally a nice person has gentler patterns with curves and swirls. Someone evil and intent on harm tends to have sharper cut patterns."
Silvers Alpha (The Silver Series) Page 13