Mated to the Pack (10 page)

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.

Logan said nothing, which spoke more loudly
than any words ever could have. Michael knew he was defeated.

“Fine,” Michael sighed.

“My first act as Alpha is banishment,” Luke
stated, and Michael’s eyes grew wide.

“But you just said…”

“Not you, Michael,” Luke interrupted him.
Then he nodded at Allison and said, “Her.”

Michael’s face expressed pure disbelief, and
he turned to look at Allison who had failed to grasp what had just
happened. She stared at him like a deer in headlights.

“You can’t do that!” Michael shouted,
stepping into a defensive position beside Allison.

“I can, and I have,” Luke said. “You have
two choices. You can take her somewhere safe immediately, or you
can turn her over to Victor. The choice is yours. But you have
until sundown to make it.”

Normally ever strong, Michael crumbled. In
an instant, it was as if his very essence was drained from his body
by some lecherous, soul-sucking vampire. He folded to his
knees.

“Luke, please… I can’t do this,” Michael’s
voice was pleading as he shook his head slowly.

“You’ve made your bed,” Luke said. And then
more venomously, “Now lie in it.”

Michael looked to Logan for help once more,
but again Logan kowtowed to his older brother, and he continued to
stare at the ground over Thaddeus’s grave.

Allison had never seen a person being torn
in two, but she was witnessing it now, right before her eyes, and
she was helpless to stop it. The only thing she could do was play
the martyr.

“I’ll go,” Allison said softly.

Michael opened his mouth to object, but
Allison placed a finger on his lips and shook her head.

“It’s the only thing to do,” she said.

“Victor will find you,” Michael argued.

“I’ll go somewhere no one can find me,” she
said. “I know where, but I won’t endanger you by telling you.”

“I’m going with you,” Michael said, pulling
himself to his feet.

“You can’t break your oath,” Allison pointed
out.

“I’ve already done that,” Michael said.
“More importantly, I’ve betrayed their trust in a way no wolf ever
should. I don’t deserve to be here anymore.”

“It’s your choice,” Luke shrugged.

For the first time, Logan gathered his
cojones to speak.

“Brother,” Logan pleaded. “Don’t leave.
We’re a family, aren’t we?”

“You two are,” Michael said, nodding toward
Luke. “Apparently,
I
am not.”

“Of course you are,” Luke argued. “Don’t go.
We can work through this!”

“Not this time,” Michael said. “I disavow
this pack. You are no longer my Alpha, and this is no longer my
pack!”

Hearing his own words spat back at him, Luke
twitched slightly, but made little other indication that he was
affected. He leaned against the laurel tree with his arms crossed
casually and said nothing.

“Let’s go,” Michael threw at Allison over
his shoulder.

Allison shot a helpless look at Logan, but
he only bowed his head shamefully and offered no solace.
Reluctantly, she followed Michael into the tree line, noticing he
didn’t even look over his shoulder as they went.

“The nerve of him,” Michael grumbled as soon
as they were well out of earshot. “Taking over my pack and then
trying to act like it had been his all along! I’ll show him. I’ll
start my own pack, and it’ll be bigger and better than he ever
thought of!”

Allison said nothing. This complaining was
so out of character for Michael that it was jarring.

“What do you think?” Michael asked her
suddenly.

Unable to stop herself, Allison blurted out,
“I think you’re acting like a child.”

Michael stopped walking and spun on his heel
to face her.

“What are you talking about?” he said, his
voice rising far above its natural tone. “How am I acting like a
child?”

“All I hear is you whining about what Luke
did, but I don’t hear you taking responsibility for what we did,”
she said. “From what I gather, Luke had every right to do what he
did according to pack law, so…”

“What do you know about pack law?” he
interrupted her. “You are nothing but an outsider, and that’s all
you’ll ever be,
human!
”

Allison’s jaw dropped, and her heart jumped.
A dozen thoughts ran through her mind at once, but rather than
shouting, lashing out, or striking him as she was wanting so
desperately to do, she simply turned and began to walk away.

“Where are you going?” Michael called after
her. “Allison!”

She continued to march purposefully away
from him, and she didn’t hear his footsteps behind her. She found
her way back to Thaddeus’s grave, and Luke and Logan were still
there. Their eyes turned to her as soon as they heard her footfalls
in the distance.

“Take me to Victor!” she shouted, striding
long and fast in an effort to reach them quickly.

Luke said nothing as she approached. Logan’s
eyes darted to and fro, undoubtedly looking for Michael.

“Allison, what are you doing here?” Logan
asked with pleading eyes.

“I want you to take me to Victor right now,”
she said flatly, coming to a stop challengingly close to Luke. Her
hands were on her hips, and her eyes flared dangerously.

“Might I ask why?” Luke asked.

“Begging your pardon, but I don’t believe
you have any right to ask now that I’ve been surreptitiously ousted
from your pack,” Allison said. “Will you take me, or not?”

Luke shrugged and said, “Have it your
way.”

“Luke, what are you doing?” Logan nearly
whispered in Luke’s direction.

“This is her request,” Luke said. “Who are
we to deny it?”

“You’re only doing this because you’re
pissed at Michael,” Logan challenged him.

Luke’s face clouded and he struck like a
viper, backhanding Logan with such force that Logan staggered
backward and nearly toppled. Logan rubbed his cheek and lowered his
eyes in submission.

“Don’t
ever
question my authority
again,” Luke snarled. Then he turned to Allison and said, “Let’s
go.”

Their approach was obviously heard well in
advance, because Victor and his cronies were already waiting
outside when they arrived.

“Hello, boys,” Victor said with a wicked
grin curling his lip on one side. “What can I do for you
today?”

Phillip’s hands were balled into fists, and
when he clenched them, his knuckled cracked like popcorn. Earl
grinned a wide, stupid grin, and his nasty teeth were riddled with
cavities and a few teeth were conspicuously missing. Allison
shivered.

“We’re not here to start trouble,” Luke
said, holding his hand up peacefully. “We’ve brought this woman to
you.”

“A gift?” Victor asked. “How lovely.”

“Not a gift,” Luke said. “Simply returning
to you what’s yours.”

Victor grinned widely and said, “Finally
came to your senses, eh? It’s about time. Where’s your Alpha,
anyway? I sincerely hope he’s not lying in wait somewhere planning
an ambush. That would be incredibly stupid on all of your
parts.”

“Michael is no longer Alpha,” Luke said
coolly. “I am Alpha, now.”

“My, my, my,” Victor said. “This is a
development, isn’t it?”

“Anyway, she’s yours now,” Luke said. “We’ll
be going, now. In peace.”

“Wait,” Victor said. “Before you go, I’d
like to introduce you to our new pack member. I believe you know
this person quite well.”

The door of the rickety cabin creaked open
and a woman with flowing black hair stepped out, grinning even
wider than Victor.

“Lydia!” gasped Luke and Logan in
unison.

“Brothers,” she greeted them with mock
warmth.

“I thought you were…” Luke’s voice trailed
away.

“Dead? Oh, no, no, no!” Lydia chastised
them. “You should know better than that. It takes a lot more than
five little wolf hunters to take a girl like
me
down!”

“What are you doing with this scum?” Luke
demanded.

“Scum,” Lydia commented flatly. “Let’s see.
Scum is someone who abandons his sister and leaves her to die,
running away like a coward. Whereas Victor here gave me a home, fed
me, nursed me back to health. No, dear brother. Victor isn’t the
scum here.
You are
.”

“Lydia, I thought you were dead!” Luke cried
out. “I saw you… they were… I never would have left you if I didn’t
think…”

“I never would have left you like that!”
Lydia shouted, her cool disposition melting under the heat of rage.
“I’d have torn every last one of those hunters apart or died
trying! And if you were dead, at least I’d have had your body to
bring home and give a proper burial!”

“I’m sorry, Lydia,” Logan piped up meekly.
“I tried to come back for you, but…”

“I know you did,” Lydia softened, looking at
her youngest brother through a thick veil of lashes. “I heard you
trying to get back to me. But there wasn’t much you could have done
on your own… considering our brother here abandoned us both!”

“Lydia, I…” Luke tried to explain.

“Enough!” Lydia shouted. “I’ve a job to do,
and it’s time.”

Lydia balled a fist in front of her and blew
through the opening. Then she laid her hand out palm up, and blew
across it, scattering a glittering golden powder into the air.

“Run!” Luke shouted.

Luke and Logan immediately turned to run,
but roots rose from the ground and entangled their feet, spilling
them both onto the ground. Allison was frozen with confusion, and
she watched the powder slowly fluttering through the air until it
tickled her nostrils.

She started to sneeze, but an overwhelming
exhaustion suddenly gripped her, pulling her into slumber and
sending her tumbling downward.

When Allison awakened, she was lying in a
comfortable bed in utter darkness. She sat up and squinted, trying
to see something… anything.