by Lisa Oliver
“Heads up, Kane and Shawn are here,” Troy said quietly and sure enough seconds later the two men burst through the trees, stopping dead at the sight of Shawn on the ground, bleeding and with bruises.
“What the fuck happened?” Kane roared as Shawn ran to Scott’s side and started to assess the damage.
“Those fucking useless Texan enforcers are what happened,” Scott said angrily. “Bloody well wouldn’t take no for an answer and they broke my nose and I think a rib or two.”
“No to what?” Kane said his voice positively deadly. Scott noticed Lucius and Vincent had arrived as well as another man he didn’t know. A really big man.
“What do you think?” Scott really didn’t want to spell it out.
“Scott, tell them what happened,” Troy said quietly in his ear.
“Fine. Bozo and Godzilla decided sniffing me was more important that sniffing around for the bear shifter. They wouldn’t leave me alone when we were supposed to be scouting around. We were heading back and the bloody idiots shifted. I wanted to head back because I knew we weren’t far from the house, but I couldn’t very well leave visitors in the forest lands. So I shifted to tell them to get the hell back to the house and that’s when they grabbed me. I was fighting them off when they got their call back. They were going to bloody rape me, the bastards.” He winced as Shawn prodded his nose.
“Stay still,” Shawn said quietly, “the cartilage is broken and it is going to take a bit to heal.”
Scott was surprised to see Kane turn to the stranger in their midst. He knew Kane was furious but he hadn’t seen him this angry in a long time.
“You bought enforcers onto my land and into my pack that were bloody rapists. Is that how you do things in your pack? Because I have got to tell you right now Damien, I am getting more and more angry with every passing second. That’s my pack member on the ground injured from fighting off your bloody men. What were you thinking?”
Damien. So that is what the big man is called, Scott thought. Fuck, wait a minute. Damien was the Alpha of the Texas pack. No wonder he was so blooming big. Then all of a sudden Scott’s nose cleared, thanks to Shawn’s magic touch and he was assaulted with the most amazing smell. Oh my God, what was it? Nutmeg, raisins and a warm rich brandy. Fuck it was just like bottled Christmas. Scott’s cock hardened instantly and he wanted…
“Get me out of here,” he whispered urgently to Shawn.
“What’s wrong?” Shawn said casting a quick look up at Damien and Kane who were still arguing.
“Just zap me out of here, like now,” Scott begged.
Shrugging, Shawn said quietly to Troy, “I am taking him back to his room to finish this. You can come up and see him when you get back.” Then putting his hand on Scott’s arm, Shawn closed his eyes for a moment and within seconds Scott found himself in his room in the pack house.
Looking at Shawn, the shock still evident on his face, Scott said softly, “Please tell me that Damien isn’t my mate. Please tell me that amazing scent I could smell does not mean that Damien is my mate.”
“I am sorry,” Shawn said as he rested his hands on Scott’s ribs and started healing them, “but it seems that he is. And yes,” Shawn said to Scott’s unasked question, “he already knows about it. That’s why he was so upset about you being attacked.”
“Oh that is just fucking brilliant,” Scott groaned.
/~/~/~/~/
Damien was torn. The sight of his mate sitting in the grass, blood all over his lovely face and bruises on his ribs made him just want to kill someone. He was also hellishly aroused. His mate was naked and he had an awesome body. So caught up in his blatant regard for Scott’s solid muscles, tanned skin and well-toned legs, he totally disregarded Kane’s yelling for the moment. But when Shawn and Scott just disappeared from the clearing, Kane’s words finally got through to him.
“…what are you going to do about it, fucking Alpha of the Texan rapists pack?”
“They were going to rape him?” Damien growled, going deadly calm.
“Didn’t you hear anything my Alpha just said,” the twin, Troy said angrily. “Your fucking enforcers were so busy trying to get a piece of ass they not only totally wasted their time on the scouting mission they also tried to take Scott by force. Scott was trying to do the right thing and lead them back to the house. He didn’t want to leave strangers to our area in the forest, and he only shifted to tell them to fuck off and get back to the house.”
“They grabbed him,” Troy stepped up to Damien, “they fucking grabbed him and when he told them no, they punched him, in his ribs and his face so they could just take him anyway. Is that how things are done in Texas because it doesn’t wash down here? Now what are you going to do about your fucking enforcers?”
“Troy,” Kane said, warning him to be quiet. Damien was an Alpha after all.
“No Kane, I’m sorry. This whole mess is the Texas pack’s fault and now my brother is hurt. Not by a bloody bear shifter, but by the men who are supposed to be here to help us. How helpful is it that my brother has a broken nose and broken ribs and was damn near raped?”
“Careful pup,” Damien said to Troy. “I don’t take kindly to being disrespected. But,” he said as he saw that Troy was going to start up again, “you do have a good point. Your brother was attacked by my enforcers and as such, under pack law, you and your Alpha get to decide what should happen to them. Personally I would just kill them, but if you can think of something you would rather have happen instead, then I will abide by your decision.”
“You would kill them, both of them,” Kane said flatly while Troy just stood quietly gob-smacked. Sure the attack on Scott was bad - the actions broke a lot of pack laws, but rape was not unheard of in some packs. Death seemed a bit extreme.
“Scott is my mate,” Damien said shortly. “I am inclined to kill them both, yes.”
Kane and Troy both stared at Damien in shock for a moment and then Troy shook his head, the disgust on his face evident.
“Oh this day just gets better and better,” he said crossly, “I am going back to the house to check up on my brother,” the emphasis for Damien more than Kane. He headed back to the tree line and the pack house.
“And when did you find time, in all of this mess,” Kane asked, “to realize that one of my pack members was your mate?”
“Shawn and I were talking about it when you came out and interrupted us on the porch. I’d been feeling edgy since I got here, and yes it is more than just seeing you two all lovey dovey and sickening,” Damien snarled. “I smelt him in the house and Shawn worked out who it was. When I saw Scott in the glade just before, all bloodied like that, I have never wanted to kill anyone as much as I do those two enforcers right now.”
Surprisingly Kane grinned. “Well congratulations on finding your mate,” he said. “Your mate status trumps my Alpha and Troy’s brother status in a heartbeat. You can do what you like with your enforcers. I’ll even help you.”
Damien nodded to Lucius and Vincent who had stood silently to attention throughout. “Let’s go,” he ordered as he headed back to the pack house, Kane falling in step beside him.
“That Troy he’s a bit mouthy,” Damien observed as they hit the tree line, “do you always let him talk to you like that?”
“Ha,” Kane laughed. “If you think Troy’s mouthy, you wait until you get to know Scott. Troy is the quiet one of the two.”
Both men’s heads shot up as a set of growls greeted their ears and then one god almighty yowl. “Shit,” said Kane, “Diablo’s shifted. This can’t be good.” All four men ran towards the house.
Chapter Three
Utter carnage, were Damien’s only thoughts as he shifted. As he and the others broke the tree line they could see wolves, four bears and a ginormous black panther all fighting furiously. Lifting his head Damien let out an enormous howl and members of his pack came running to his side. He noticed that Levi and Drake had obviously decided to side with the bear shifter and his motley c
rew. Kane lifted his head and howled in response and Troy, Dean, Griff and Diablo all came to his side.
For a moment all sides stood still assessing the threat. There were four bear shifters and six wolves with the bears plus Levi and Drake. No matter how Damien looked at it the odds of getting out of this without some serious bloodshed were next to none. Still, this was what he and his pack members had come to do.
He gave himself a shake and went to howl the attack signal when Shawn and Scott came running out of the house, the two men shifting as they went. The noise of their approach behind the attacking group divided the attacking men with two of the bear shifters heading for Shawn and Scott, while the rest headed towards Damien and Kane’s group. Damien looked at Kane and nodded and the pair of them took off after the bears hell bent on attacking their mates, while the other wolves and Diablo headed for the others.
Fuck, thought Damien, as he saw one of the bear shifters reach Scott, we aren’t going to get there in time. He could see Kane had the same thought as they ran as fast as they could. Without thinking Damien leapt up and jumped the bear shifter that had just grabbed Scott with his claws, scratching and biting as he fell back off the bear’s back. He leapt again determined to try and fell the big beast. Off to his side Damien saw Shawn’s wolf was covered in a blue haze, as he and Kane worked on the bear who had attacked Shawn - one black and one white wolf working in tandem.
Damien yelped as that moment’s inattention had left him at the mercy of his bear shifter’s claws. Sharp pain ran down his side even as he jumped to get out of the way of further damage. The bear had turned away from Scott and was now focused on bringing Damien down. Damien barely had time to blink before the bear lunged at him and Damien leapt in response going for the bear’s throat. Suddenly there was another wolf there with him and Damien knew it was Scott. The wolf seemed to have blood coming down from one shoulder, although it was hard to tell as the wolf was such a dark brown color. But Damien knew he couldn’t take the time to get distracted again. He refocused his efforts on reaching the bear’s throat while Scott went in underneath him going for the bear’s legs.
Snapping, snarling, and biting where they could, Damien and Scott worked together, moving quickly in and out of the bear’s reach, wearing the huge animal down until finally Scott bowled straight into the bear’s legs, bringing him down. That was all Damien needed. He shot forward and with one giant lunge he ripped the bear’s throat out, killing the beast instantly.
Turning to check his mate over, Damien was stunned to see the wolf already running to where the main fight was still going on. He could see Scott was trying to help an identical wolf fight off two other wolf shifters - Levi and Drake had got Troy cornered and were trying to bring him down. Troy was smaller, but he was fast, and so was Scott, who even now had Levi by the scruff of the neck and was biting hard enough to kill.
A yelp off to his side caught Damien’s attention and he turned to see Kane and Shawn bring down their bear shifter, Kane doing the killing honors this time. Kane barked at Damien and the three wolves headed back into the fray.
/~/~/~/~/
It seemed like hours later that Damien and his men and Kane’s pack could finally shift and do a body count. Three of the bear shifters were dead, the third one courtesy of Griff and Diablo, and four of the wolves. Bruce and four other wolves, including Drake had escaped, and Kane had vetoed tracking them down. Their side had too many injuries to make that a safe thing to do and Damien agreed.
On their side Max was dead and Shawn wasn’t sure that Isaac was going to make it. His throat had been badly torn and he had blood all over his body that remained in wolf form. While Shawn was doing all that he could to fix the throat wound, the wolf’s muscles and ligaments weren’t healing fast enough to stop the bleeding that was going on every where else. Shawn also thought Isaac had internal bleeding - Bruce had apparently grabbed Isaac in one crushing embrace and most of the ribs of the wolf were broken. Finally, Shawn threw a blue ball of energy over the wolf that put him in stasis. He looked up at Damien in regret.
“I don’t know that he is going to make it, my friend,” he said sadly. “He is just bleeding from too many places and I can’t heal him fast enough to stop it. I can keep him like this, in stasis, to see if enough of his wounds will heal naturally, but I can’t see it myself. I can’t stop the bleeding even with him under like this and I am afraid he is going to just bleed out.”
Damien bowed his head. Isaac had been his enforcer for more than thirty years and was mated to one of the few females in the pack. He had two grown sons. It was times like this that Damien hated being the Alpha. He knew the kindest thing to do was to kill the wolf now, and put him out of his misery, but Damien didn’t know if he had the strength. God, how he hated times like this.
He felt Scott come up beside him, standing close enough that the man’s shoulder brushed his arm. Damien immediately felt comforted by the man’s presence, and he breathed in deeply finding solace in the scent of his mate.
“He’s suffering,” Scott murmured quietly. “You have to find the strength. You have to do this for him.”
“I don’t know that I can,” Damien whispered brokenly. “He’s been with me for so long.”
“That’s why you have to do it. It’s the final act of kindness you can give him. You have to be strong for just five minutes more.”
Damien knew his mate, a man he’d barely talked to, but who seemed to read him like a book, was right. He nodded and stepped up to his friend. He watched as Shawn lifted the blue energy ball and then with a whispered, “I’m so sorry,” he shifted, quickly tearing out the throat of his long time enforcer. Then he sat back on his haunches and howled - a long mournful sound that was echoed by those around him.
Chapter Four
Damien didn’t get drunk very often. For one thing it was really hard for a wolf shifter to get drunk, and as Damien was an Alpha, with so many people depending on him all the time, he just couldn’t afford the luxury of the time it took to get well and truly sloshed. But, after the men had cleaned up and buried Max and Isaac in the forest, they went inside to share a subdued meal. Kane had pulled out two bottles of Jack Daniels, and they had all raised a toast to the two men who had fallen. Then Damien kept on drinking.
He drank as the others finished their meal. He drank as they slowly peeled off and went to bed. And now he was sitting in the dark, drinking alone in the room Kane had given him, assessing his life. He had lost four enforcers in one day.
His heart hurt over the treachery of Levi and Drake. Sure he had been angry enough to kill them both after what they had done to Scott, but to have them turn on him, and fight against him was a cruel blow. Up until that day, the two men might have been rough and mean, but they had been loyal. Or so Damien had thought.
Max had been a solid enforcer. He was a big wolf who had always longed to find his mate. He fought hard and had never once questioned Damien on the Alpha’s decisions. Max had been strong, loyal, and everything Damien had always wanted in an enforcer. And Isaac. That man had been with Damien the longest of any of the enforcers. He never said a lot, but he always seemed to get the job done. He would be sorely missed.
Losing four enforcers weakened Damien’s position as well. Over the hundred years Damien had ruled his pack, he had faced more Alpha challenges than he could count. Having such a large, wealthy pack with huge resources, meant that challenges came from both inside and outside of the pack. As Damien had gotten older, the challenges had come that often, that Damien scheduled one day a month to meet them. To take them as they came up was just too time consuming, and distracted Damien from the million other things he had to do as Alpha and the owner of the biggest BDSM club around.
Leaning his head back on the wall behind him, Damien acknowledged to himself he was bone tired. Every day meant more responsibilities. More demands on him and his time. He never had any time to himself, often working late into the night at the club before fronting up in his office at f
irst light to meet the demands of his pack. He had often thought about selling the club, or at least putting in a full time manager, so that he didn’t have to worry about the day to day stuff. But Damien was proud of his club and the safe place he provided for pack members to play.
Ruefully, Damien admitted to himself he also liked the fact that he only had to click his fingers and a dozen subs all ran to service his needs. The mindless fuck or blow job he ordered was Damien’s prime form of stress release, and he availed himself often. Not that he would be doing that anymore. No, because aside from everything else that had happened on this clusterfuck of a day, Damien had finally met his mate.
Scott.
The wolf who had fought by his side to help him kill one of the bear shifters, and who had then gone off to defend his brother. Damien hoped the fact that Scott had managed to kill Levi went some way to making up for the fact the wolf had tried to rape him. He was also seriously impressed that Scott had managed to kill one of his meanest enforcers. The man, or the wolf at least, was an impressive fighter.
Scott.
The man who had stood by his side, offering him strength and comfort when he had to perform a mercy killing for his friend. The man who had been one of the first to pick up a shovel, and start digging the graves for Max and Isaac. The same man who had then gone with Griff and Diablo to dispose of the bodies of their enemies.
Scott.
Who had watched him all through dinner and yet never said a word. Who watched, as Damien drank his way through the meal, and been one of the first men to retire for the evening. The man who was currently sleeping alone, because Damien was too damn sick and tired of everything and anything, to even approach his mate