Rescued by the Pack

by Leah Knight

  “Michael!” she shouted, and he looked over her shoulder, noticing now the flow of water inching dangerously close to them.

  They both began to scramble from behind the curtain of roots as the creek began to rush around their feet. Michael clutched her hand and dragged her up the bank and away from the rising waters. They collapsed into the leaves, breathless and in disbelief. There was nowhere to go as the rain surrounded them and the wind gusted heartily. Trees swayed heavily, and thunder grumbled following lightening that streaked across the sky.

  Allison made the mistake of turning her eyes toward Michael, and the moment their eyes locked, they were overcome by a force of nature far more powerful than the thunder, the wind, and the rain combined.

  She flew into his arms, wrapping them around his neck and throwing her leg over him, straddling him as she kissed him passionately. Her hands rested on his cheeks, and as the rain washed over them, they embraced and escaped into one another.

  Michael’s hands wrapped into her hair and tugged hard, and she moaned against his lips. She could feel him swelling underneath her, and she was desperate for him.

  His hands clutched at her shirt and pulled it over her head, letting it drop in a soggy pile on the leaves beside them. His eyes traveled over her, drinking her in, and then he pulled her back into the kiss, their bare skin boiling so hot it nearly steamed in the torrent of rain.

  His lips trailed slowly down her neck, and he lapped at the skin, drinking the water that flowed down her body in streams. She arched her back, and his head dropped further to take one of her nipples between his lips. She moaned softly and cradled his head in her hands, pulling him against her.

  His hands began to caress her breasts, fondling them gently. His fingers pinched her nipples lightly, and she gasped.

  In one deft movement, he grabbed her body and twisted her onto the soggy ground. He scrambled to remove her shorts, which he dumped atop her tank top in the mud. Then his head dipped to kiss his way down her stomach, which quivered with delight.

  His tongue slipped between her labia, warm and soft, sliding across her clitoris and sending thrilling jolts of electrifying pleasure over her trembling body. His finger slipped inside her, curving upward to tease her G-spot as his tongue worked masterfully on her ever-swelling clit.

  Her whole body quivered with tension. She wanted him inside her. She wanted to feel herself clenching around him.

  “Take me,” she pleaded. “Please take me!”

  Michael freed himself from the constraints of his shorts, and she eyed his erection with wide-eyed lust. She licked her lips, wishing for the opportunity to take him between her lips, but he was just as eager as she to feel the pleasure of full penetration.

  He grasped his cock and positioned it between her legs, rubbing it through her glistening slit, gathering her hot slickness on the head. His eyes captured hers, and she bit her lip with anticipation.

  She felt the head pressing against her, and she reached up and grabbed his buttocks, squeezing their muscular fullness and pulling him into her.

  He entered her in one smooth thrust, slipping inside her and filling her, plunging so deep she could swear she felt him within every inch of her body.

  Michael, never breaking eye contact, grabbed her wrists and pushed them harshly onto the muddy ground above her head, restraining her. She surrendered herself to him willingly, matching his thrusts with her own as she began to grind against him.

  His expression was far more than masculine eroticism. It was primal, animalistic. As he thrust inside her, his lip curled into a snarl that thrilled Allison delightfully. His eyes were wide with some savage hunger for her, and he began to groan a with a fierceness that resembled a growl.

  Pleasure was mounting inside her. Her flesh quivered at random points, and she clenched around his cock as he plunged inside her and withdrew. Her orgasm began to ripple, and then it swept across her body like a tidal wave of intensity. She cried out and clawed his back, arching her head backward as her eyes rolled back into her head.

  “Oh, Michael!” she cried. “Michael, yes!”

  His voice was low and savage, snarling. He began to pant, and his head dropped to her chest, his forehead resting there, rising and falling with each breath she took. He thrust faster now, and his arms began to tremble. His cock twitched, and then his thrusting became erratic, his timing lost. He moaned loudly, and he pulsed inside her, spilling his seed into her in hot, sticky spurts.

  Finally, his weight collapsed on top of her as he struggled to catch his breath. His hand grasped her face, squeezing firmly and bringing her mouth to his. He kissed her harshly, and she wrapped her arms around his quivering body and held on as though she would never let go.

  As the rain fell around them and the thunder echoed its lonely rumble in the distance, they lay entangled, their breathing slowly melding into one. Michael closed his eyes as he rested his head on her chest.

  Then his eyes popped open and he sat up with a gasp.

  “What have I done?” Michael moaned.

  Allison finally realized the gravity of their situation, and the faces of Luke and Logan stared at her through the haze of passion from which she was just beginning to emerge.

  “Oh, my god,” Allison murmured.

  “They’ll never come back, now” Michael lamented, running his hand harshly through his dripping hair.

  “We won’t tell them,” Allison suggested.

  “They’ll know,” Michael said.

  “But, you said the bond was broken,” Allison argued. “Maybe they won’t know.”

  “They’ll know,” he repeated. “They’ll know, and they’ll hate me forever.”

  As the clouds began to part and golden sunlight peeked through the trees in streams, the two of them sat in silence. What could be done? Was the pack forever broken? There had to be some way to mend it.

  “I know!” Allison suddenly gasped, her face lit with excitement.

  Michael looked at her with an eyebrow lifted quizzically.

  “I’ll let myself get captured by Victor!” she squealed with glee.

  “What?” Michael’s voice boomed more loudly than the thunder ever had. “Absolutely not! I forbid it!”

  “You can’t forbid me! You don’t own me!” Allison shouted.

  “I most certainly can, and I do!” he shouted back. “You cannot do that! What if they… what if…”

  “Michael,” she said softly, her hand brushing his cheek. “It’s the only way. They’ll come back if they think I’m in danger. Won’t they?”

  “Well, yes, I’m sure they would,” he agreed, clasping her delicate wrist. “But at what cost? And even if they do come back, there’s no guarantee they’ll forgive me… or us.”

  “But it’s possible,” she said. “I don’t see any other way. Do you?”

  “I don’t,” he admitted.

  “Then we must do what we must do,” she said. “I trust you.”

  “I can’t help but think of the what if,” he said.

  “Well, I can’t help but think what if we don’t,” she said. “There is no other way.”

  Michael’s skin turned a sickly shade of green, and he looked as though he might lose his lunch at any moment. Allison could think of nothing else to say, but she snuggled close to him and stroked his arm.

  “No,” Michael said suddenly.

  “Huh?”

  “I said no,” he repeated. “No, I won’t risk you. There has to be another way.”

  “But you said…”

  “My decision is final,” he said. “I refuse to put you at risk. We will find another way. We must.”

  She meant to protest, and her mouth opened to do so, but the stony look on his face told her he would not be swayed. She sighed heavily and sat back resignedly. Retrieving her soggy clothing, she began to wriggle into it.

  “Thaddeus,” Michael said suddenly.

  “Who?” Allison asked absently as she struggled to yank her shorts over her wet ski
n.

  “Thaddeus was the Alpha of our pack before…” he paused, and she stopped struggling with her clothes to stare at him. “Before he died.”

  “What happened to him?” she asked gently.

  “Victor.”

  “Oh. Well, what about Thaddeus?”

  “On his death bed, he beseeched only one thing of us,” Michael said. “And that was to remain a pack and always look out for one another. An oath made to a dying Alpha can never be broken. So you see, they have to come back! They’ve simply forgotten about their oath in their distress.”

  “Well, how can we remind them?” Allison asked.

  “We have to find them, first.”

  “You said you could use pack instincts to find them,” Allison reminded him.

  “Normally I could but…” he paused.

  “What, Michael?”

  “My instincts seem to be severely hampered at the moment,” he admitted, hanging his shoulders dejectedly.

  “By what?” she asked. Then she saw it in his eyes, and she added, “By me.”

  He nodded.

  “It’s not supposed to happen this way,” he told her. “We live as a pack, we love as a pack, we often die as a pack, though that’s obviously not always the case. I don’t know what came over me.”

  “You really should just forget about me,” Allison said. “I’m nothing but trouble for all of you. You should just throw me to the wol… um… dump me off somewhere and go on with your lives.”

  “You know we cannot do that,” he said. And then he added, “I cannot do that.”

  “So what’s the solution to all of this, then?” Allison asked.

  “We bring them back, apologize profusely, and remind them of their oath to Thaddeus,” he said. “Failing that, I don’t know.”

  “How will we find them?” she asked.

  “We let them find us.”

  Chapter Eight

  The grave was on a hill underneath an ancient laurel tree that stretched its arms in a vast canopy that shaded the surrounding area, marked only by a stone wolf statue that sat with its haunches buried slightly in the damp earth and its neck craned high as it howled at an imaginary moon.

  Michael approached it with solemn reverence, his head bowed. He stopped beside it and kneeled.

  “Hello, old friend,” Michael said.

  His hand brushed lightly over the grass-covered mound, plucking away an errant twig, grooming it carefully.

  Allison placed her hand on Michael’s shoulder and paid respects to the man who had led this pack before.

  “He gave his life to protect us all,” Michael said. “He was like a father to us.”

  “I’m sorry,” Allison said meekly.

  “That night was like something right out of a horror novel,” he told her. “The wind was howling so loudly it was deafening, and suddenly it just stopped. Dead silence. Made my ears ring. Then a fog rolled in that was so thick you couldn’t see a finger in front of your face. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  Allison was silent as she waited for him to continue.

  “We’d been having trouble with Victor’s pack for a while. They wanted our territory, but it’s been in our family for over a century. Thaddeus offered to allow Victor’s pack to blend with ours, but Victor… he’s mad for power. It wasn’t good enough for him.

  “Thaddeus, ever the diplomat, invited Victor over to discuss it. He showed up, alright, but he brought his pack with him. It was Victor, along with the cronies you’ve met, Phillip and Earl, and two others, Pritchet and Sonny.

  “Obviously, Victor had no intention of discussing things diplomatically. His pack attacked, we fought back, and ultimately we were outnumbered. Finally, Thaddeus ordered us to retreat.

  “Naturally, we thought Thaddeus would follow us. But he stayed behind. He fought valiantly. He took two of those bastards down with him – Pritchet and Sonny. But as I turned back to look for him, I saw in the distance the evil glint in Victor’s eye as he sank his fangs into Thaddeus’s throat, and even from such a great distance I could hear that sickening sound as his flesh was ripped away from his body. I meant to turn back, to help him, but the Alpha’s command overrode my emotions and I just turned and fled as he’d ordered me too.”

  “Oh, Michael,” Allison breathed.

  “I’ve carried the guilt ever since,” Michael said, his voice breaking.

  Michael bowed his head and resting his forehead on his knee. Allison stroked his hair, but she knew this was something she could do little to comfort.

  “You know it isn’t your fault,” Allison said. “You had no choice but to obey your Alpha.”

  “I still can’t help but feel that I should have done something,” Michael said, rolling his head back and forth on his knee. “And now I’ve gone and fucked everything up! Thaddeus is the rightful Alpha. He should be here, not me!”

  “Michael, he gave his life for all of you because he trusted you,” Allison said.

  “Well, that makes me feel better!” he groaned facetiously.

  “No, no… I mean he trusted you to make the right decisions, because you will,” Allison explained, her hand resting on his shoulder. “Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. You’re only human… or… well, you know what I mean. I’m sure even Thaddeus made mistakes.”

  “Perhaps,” Michael said. “But not as grievous as the one I’ve made. He never betrayed us.”

  Allison sighed. This weighed heavily on her heart, because she knew that ultimately the responsibility rested on her shoulders. If she hadn’t come into their lives, the pack would still be together.

  “You have to stop blaming yourself,” Allison said. “If I wasn’t here…”

  “If you weren’t here,” Michael interrupted her, pulling to his feet and grabbing her shoulders firmly, “then I would still be wandering aimlessly through life with no purpose! You’ve given me purpose! For the first time in my life, I know what I’m alive for! I’m living for you!”

  “My, what a pleasant sentiment.”

  The voice startled them both, and they whirled in unison to face it. Luke was trudging up the hill toward them, followed closely by Logan, who hid behind him.

  Luke kneeled beside the grave and pressed two fingers to his lips, brushing them through the grass over Thaddeus’s grave. Then he rose and approached Michael seething.

  Logan cleared his throat uncomfortably and kneeled beside the grave, paying silent respects while also avoiding the confrontation.

  Luke’s nose wrinkled as he sniffed the air, and his face reflected what he undoubtedly knew.

  “I smell the stink of it,” Luke snarled, his face contorted with disgust.

  “Brother, let me explain,” Michael began.

  “I owe you nothing,” Luke said. “You betrayed the pack. You are not my Alpha.”

  “But what about…” Michael tried to protest.

  “The oath we all made to Thaddeus?” Luke interjected. “No, I haven’t forgotten it. Perhaps it is you who has forgotten.”

  “I have never forgotten it for a second!” Michael shouted.

  “Then what happened to remaining a pack?” Luke retorted. “What happened to looking out for one another?”

  “I’m not the one who abandoned my pack!” Michael snapped.

  “Abandoned?” Luke asked. “No. I didn’t abandon my pack. I reorganized it.”

  “Reorganized,” Michael repeated dully.

  “In other words,” Luke said coolly. “I’m the Alpha, now.”

  “You can’t do that!” Michael exploded. “There are protocols in place! There are rules that cannot be…”

  “Cannot be what, Michael?” Luke challenged. “Rules that cannot be broken? Alas, you, Michael, are the one who so nonchalantly breaks pack rules!”

  “You don’t understand,” Michael attempted to explain. “It’s not like…”

  “There is no explanation you can give,” Luke stopped him. “You broke one of our sacred laws. Because of my oath, I
cannot oust you from our pack, but I can rightfully take your place as Alpha, and I am exercising that right effective immediately.”

  “But…”

  “Like it or leave it, Michael,” Luke said firmly, standing with head held proudly aloft. “Literally, if you don’t like it, you’re free to leave.”

  Michael’s eyes shifted toward Logan, who stared solemnly at the grave.

  “Logan?” Michael asked, seeking help.