Mated to the Pack (11 page)

“Don’t bother,” she heard Luke say
weakly.

“Luke? Where are we?” Allison asked. “What
happened?”

“Victor has us,” Logan answered.

Allison tried to get up, but she discovered
her feet were shackled to the foot of the bed.

“I told you not to bother,” Luke said.

“What is he going to do with us?” Allison
asked. “And was that woman your sister?”

“I imagine he’ll try to break us with the
intention of forcing us to join his pack,” Luke answered. “You, he
will turn into the pack mate.”

Having ignored the question about Lydia,
Logan answered, “Lydia is our sister, yes. She’s Luke’s twin.”

Allison sucked in a breath.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Luke said.
“And I didn’t abandon her. I truly thought she was already dead. I
never would have left her if I thought I could save her. But with
her dead, or so I thought, I had to save Logan. I had to get him
away from there. We wouldn’t have stood a chance against five
hunters.”

“Five hunters? You could have destroyed five
puny humans!” Allison cried in protest.

Luke chuckled darkly at her stupidity.

“We’re not talking about Bambi slayers
here!” Luke shouted. “These are trained wolf hunters who seek out
packs and destroy them! They slaughtered our parents when we were
kids, leaving us all orphans! They killed Lyd… I thought they
killed Lydia! They have every anti-wolf trick in the book under
their sleeves, and we’re all but powerless against them!”

“I didn’t know,” Allison said softly.

“You might have if you’d bothered to ask,”
Luke grunted.

“Stop it,” Logan said. “This isn’t her
fault.”

“Ooh! Listen to who’s all brave now that I’m
restrained!” Luke snarled.

Allison stared at what would have been the
ceiling if she could have seen it and listened to Luke and Logan
bickering back and forth. Their voices soon melded into one, and
then faded into the background as she wondered where Michael was,
what he was thinking, and what would happen to her if they couldn’t
figure a way to get out of this situation.

Outside the room there was the sudden sound
of a scuffle that startled Allison from her thoughts. Muffled
shouting, grunts, slams and bangs. The sound of splintering wood
made her heart jump, and light streamed through the remains of a
wooden door.

“Michael!” Allison gasped.

Using a newly procured key, Michael quickly
removed her shackles, and then proceeded to release Logan and
finally Luke.

“Let’s go, quickly!” Michael said.

“Michael, there’s something you should
know,” Luke said quickly.

“There’s no time, let’s go!” Michael
ordered.

“Michael, I really think…”

But Luke’s voice was cut short when Lydia’s
tinkling laughter filled the room into which they’d fled. Allison
noticed Earl lying sprawled across a table, clearly unconscious.
Michael turned to face her, and she smiled warmly at him.

“Lydia…” he breathed, the color draining
from his face.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you,” Luke
whispered, leaning toward Michael.

“What a pleasant reunion,” Lydia said. “The
family’s all back together again! Except for poor Thaddeus, of
course.”

She pouted dramatically, and then threw her
head back and laughed heartily. Michael twitched as though he was
about to fly at her in a rage, but Luke’s hand on Michael’s arm
gave him pause.

“Thaddeus never did anything to you,”
Michael snarled.

“Oh, are you forgetting how he forced me to
leave the pack because of you, Michael?” Lydia asked. “He left me
to fend for myself with hunters after me when I came to you for
help. He left me to die!”

“You know why he had to do it,” Michael
said.

“Because of our love, you mean,” Lydia said,
and Allison’s heart began to pound so hard her hearing began to
throb in her ears.

Michael glanced back at Allison, whose face
was pale, but stony. She said nothing, and averted her eyes.

“That was a long time ago,” Michael reminded
Lydia. “And you know how it turned out.”

“Oh, yes, I remember quite well,” Lydia
said. “You dumped me like a hot potato all because your precious
Thaddeus bade you to.”

“It was not within my power to resist,”
Michael said. “You know that.”

“Perhaps.” Lydia clucked her tongue and
added, “Or perhaps you only… go! Quickly!” Her voice had sunk to a
hissing whisper as her head turned toward the front door. She
pointed in silence to a door behind her, and with no further word,
Michael grabbed Allison’s hand and dashed through it, followed
closely by Luke and Logan.

Through the kitchen, they broke through a
rickety back door and into the forest. In an instant, Michael
shifted. His hulking form stood dark and twitching anxiously before
Allison. Luke and Logan had shifted as well, and the difference in
size between Michael and the other two was startling. Michael was
nearly as tall as Allison, while Luke and Logan were only half
again as large as a regular wolf.

Michael growled, and Allison was shaken from
her momentary shock. She quickly mounted the massive wolf and
grabbed thick handfuls of his gray fur. Off he dashed, his paws
making scarcely a sound as he bounded through the trees.

Occasionally he would glance over his
shoulder, but nothing but Luke and Logan followed. Soon, they
arrived back at the cave they’d been hiding in originally. Allison
fled instinctively into the darkness, feeling along the wall in the
darkness, fumbling for the secret entrance.

She paused, noticing the door already
slightly ajar. She peeked inside and gasped, flattening her back
against the chilly wall, her heart pounding.

“Michael!” she hissed.

“What it is?” he asked, a bit out of breath
and panting. He’d already shifted.

“Look!” she whispered.

She saw his head enter the shaft of light
that flooded from the crack, and he grasped her hand and squeezed
it. He was seeing what she’d seen. The place was ransacked. Their
cots were ripped to shreds, food was scattered across the dirt
floor. Everything was destroyed.

“Let’s go,” Michael ordered. “They’ll be
here shortly. We’ve no time to lose!”

Allison and Michael left the cave and found
Luke and Logan arguing outside. They turned to Michael and blanched
at the sight of his grave expression.

“What’s wrong?” Luke asked.

“No time to explain,” Michael said. “We’ve
got to go. They’re coming.”

“How did they…” Logan started to ask.

Michael didn’t answer. He simply shifted,
and Allison jumped upon his back, ready to go. Luke and Logan
followed suit, and off they went.

Suddenly, Luke and Logan froze. Michael,
sensing they’d stopped, immediately turned his head and barked
something. They returned with a short, sad yelp, and Michael
immediately turned in go back in the direction from whence they’d
come with Luke and Logan on his heels.

“Where are we going?” Allison begged, but
the three wolves simply sprinted at top speed in the direction of
Victor’s cabin.

Allison’s stomach churned and twisted in
knots. She’d no clue what they’d spoken of. All she knew was they’d
suddenly decide to go back to the place that put them all in such
danger.

Before long, Allison detected the scent of
smoke in the air. It grew stronger and stronger, and eventually it
was nearly suffocating. Allison coughed and squinted through the
ever thickening haze of choking smoke, her eyes beginning to burn
and water.

Michael lurched to a stop, nearly throwing
her from his back. She quickly scrambled down, and the three wolves
shifted back into human form. Allison barely noticed their
nakedness, now. It had become so familiar.

Michael burst through the front door as
flames gushed out explosively around him. He disappeared into the
dancing orange and yellow fire and emerged moments later carrying a
limp Lydia, who had obviously been worked over quite badly before
the fire started.

Luke and Logan shifted back into wolf form
once more, and Michael laid Lydia’s lifeless body across Luke’s
back. Then Michael too shifted, and Allison quickly jumped
aboard.

They raced back to the house and found it
miraculously standing. As soon as Allison dismounted, Michael
shifted and snatched Lydia from Luke’s back, bursting through the
cabin door and laying her limply on the same bed Allison had found
herself shackled to when she’d first come to in their den.

“Lydia,” he said gently, tapping her
face.

Luke and Logan entered and stood solemnly
beside the bed, watching anxiously for any sign of life.

“Lydia!” Michael shouted, slapping her
squarely.

Her eyelids fluttered, and the brothers
inhaled sharply. Her eyes opened, and she coughed.

“Get her some water!” Michael snapped, and
Logan dashed into the kitchen returning with a glass jar full of
tap water.

Michael snatched it away and held it to
Lydia’s lips. She took a small sip and weakly pulled her head
away.

“Lydia, what happened?” Michael asked.

She took his hand in hers and looked deeply
into his eyes. Her lips parted, and she tried once… twice… three
times to speak. Then she sighed and closed her mouth, swallowing
hard.

Michael leaned his ear as closely to her
mouth as possible, and she finally managed to croak, “Simon.”

Her eyes closed and her hand went limp,
slipping from Michael’s and flopping lifelessly onto the bed.

“Lydia, no!” Logan wailed, kneeling beside
the bed and taking her hand in his, pressing it to his
forehead.

“Goodbye, sister,” Luke said, his hand
gripping the bedpost fiercely.

Michael turned to the others and said, “She
said Simon. That can only mean one thing. He’s back.”

“Oh, Jesus,” Luke said. “You don’t really
think… you don’t think Simon’s really back here, do you?”

“I’m afraid so,” Michael answered. “And that
means none of us are safe. We need to leave town, and quickly.”

“Who’s Simon?” Allison asked.

“Logan, pack a bag of food right away,”
Michael said, and Logan kissed Lydia’s hand and wiped the tears
from his eyes, disappearing into the kitchen. “Luke, get to the
safe and put every dollar we have in a backpack, now!” Luke dashed
upstairs.

“Who’s Simon?” Allison repeated.

Michael carefully lifted Lydia’s body and
headed for the door. He turned to Allison and said gruffly, “Stay
here.”

“Michael, who’s…” but her words went
unheeded as Michael disappeared.

Just as he returned, Luke and Logan also
came back from their tasks and Michael said, “Let’s go.”

“Who is Simon, and where are we going?”
Allison demanded.

“I’ll explain when we get there, now let’s
go!” Michael shouted.

Outside, they shifted rapidly, and Allison
lifted the backpack onto her shoulders and hefted the bag of food
onto Michael’s back in front of her. And off they dashed.

“Where are we going?” Logan asked.

After hours of traveling, they’d shifted
into human form and were walking carefully through the woods.

“Primrose Peak,” Michael answered.

“Why Primrose Peak? Isn’t that Seth and
Wyatt’s territory?” Logan asked.

“It’s
safe
territory,” Michael said.
“I know they’ll let us stay there for now. Plus, they do things
differently up there.”

“What do you mean?” Logan asked.

“Do you have to ask so many questions?”
Michael groaned.

“Last one,” Logan said. Then he quickly
added, “For now.”

Michael sighed and rolled his eyes and said,
“They don’t follow ancient pack law. They have their own set of
laws that have been working for them for a few decades.”

Logan clearly wanted to ask more questions,
but wisely refrained. Allison could tell that everything had
already reverted to the way it had been before Logan originally
disavowed. Michael was once again Alpha, no ceremony needed.

“Michael, who is Simon?” Allison asked.

“Now you with the questions, too?” Michael
sighed.

“Just answer me,” Allison said.

“Simon used to be Alpha of Victor’s pack,”
Michael answered. “He and Thaddeus were good friends many years
ago. Then Victor convinced him to go rogue, and that lead to the
death of Thaddeus. I guess Simon felt guilty over the death of his
friend, so he left. Went out on his own, I guess. But when he left
he said he’d come back and destroy us all. He’s a raving
lunatic.”

“That makes no sense,” Allison said. “If he
blames himself for what happened to Thaddeus, why would he want to
do anything to you?”

“I told you, he’s a lunatic,” Michael
answered. “He absolutely lost his mind, and he was sure everyone he
knew was conspiring against him somehow.”