Mated to the Pack (5 page)

“Hey, hey!” Luke interjected. “Settle down!
I can’t leave you two for a second!”

Luke grabbed Allison’s arm and started to
usher her up the stairs.

“Hey!” Michael yelled, stomping up the
stairs after them. “Where the hell do you think you’re taking
her?”

“Upstairs,” Luke answered, still guiding her
along. “You two need to be separated.”

Michael grabbed her other arm and yanked,
nearly sending Allison tumbling down on top of him.

“Oh, no you’re not!” Michael snapped. “We
can’t risk it!”

Luke tightened his grip on her arm and
snarled, “Well I can’t leave her downstairs with you and your
temper!”

“My temper? You think I’d hurt her?” Michael
shouted viciously.

Logan appeared at the top of the stairs and
asked anxiously, “Everything okay?”

“Stay out of it!” Michael and Luke both
growled at him, and Logan’s body quivered almost imperceptibly as
though he wanted to cower away.

Allison twisted herself out of both their
grasps. She was shaking with rage, and her eyes were narrowed
again.

“Stop fighting!” she shouted. “Look, I’m
fine downstairs! Michael’s a dickhead, but he’s not hurting
me!”

She whirled around and stomped angrily down
the stairs, throwing herself down onto one of the cots and crossing
her arms angrily in front of her.

“You’re a jerk,” Luke grumbled at
Michael.

“Get back upstairs and keep watch,
now
,” Michael snarled.

Luke started to object, but after seeing the
seriousness on Michael’s face, decided it was better not to press
the subject. Soon, his stomping footsteps disappeared upstairs.

Michael slammed the door behind him and
leaned against it with his eyes closed. He took a slow, deep
breath.

“What was all that about?” Allison asked
quietly.

“Nothing.”

“Michael, Luke was practically…”

“I said it was nothing!” Michael
snapped.

Allison glared at him, but she turned away
and stared at the wall as though the crack in the concrete was the
most interesting thing she’d ever seen. Her mind was covered in a
thick cloud of confusion, and she didn’t want him to see the tears
that had begun to sting her eyes. She sat and waited for an
apology.

“You should get some sleep,” Michael said.
“It’s gonna be a long night.”

Allison heard him roughly fall onto another
cot, and she hastily got under the covers and closed her eyes. Her
mind raced with fury and her face burned with rage. She was fuming
angry that she’d allowed herself to be swept away by him. What a
pig!

When Allison woke up, she noticed Michael
was no longer in the room. Instead, Logan sat in a chair in the
corner reading. He noticed she was awake and smiled warmly.

“Did you have a good sleep?” he asked.

“I suppose.”

“Are you hungry? Do you need anything?”

“No.”

His smile faded slightly, and his eyes
shifted back down to his book.

“Logan, can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” he answered, closing his book
and leaning forward.

“It’s… well, can I trust you not to mention
this to Michael or Luke?”

He gulped and shifted his eyes uncomfortably
toward the door as though he were afraid someone might
overhear.

“Um… sure,” he said reluctantly.

“I wouldn’t even mention this, but… well, I
don’t have anyone else to talk to, obviously, and… and I really
need to figure this out.”

“Alright, go ahead.”

“Okay, last night Luke barged in on us,
right?”

Logan nodded.

“Well, I told him Michael and I were
arguing.”

“Yeah. That was no big surprise. You do that
a lot.”

“Well, we weren’t exactly arguing.”

Logan just stared at her, waiting for her to
continue.

“We were… kissing.”

Logan’s expression didn’t change, but the
look in his eyes certainly did. They became glassy and
expressionless, devoid of emotion, yet somehow not.

“Logan?”

“Michael kissed you?”

“Yes.”

Logan gulped.

“How… why…” he gulped again. “You
don’t…”

“Logan, what’s wrong?” Allison asked, noting
the fact that his ears were reddening and his forehead was knotting
into a mass of wrinkles.

“You don’t know what this means,” he said,
his voice barely above a whisper.

“What are you talking about?”

“He can’t… it’s… it’s not allowed,” Logan
whispered, his eyes surveying the door anxiously. “If Luke finds
out…”

“What does Luke have to do with this?”
Allison demanded.

“Shh!” Logan hissed. “You don’t understand
pack law! A mate belongs to the
entire pack
. No one, not
even the Alpha, can go behind the others’ backs like that!”

“Belongs… I’m sorry, Logan, I don’t
belong
to
anyone
,” Allison said frankly. “I’m a human
being, not a… a… a book or-or-or… a hamburger!”

“Shh!” Logan hissed again. “Please don’t let
them hear you! Luke will freak out!”

“So what? Let him freak out! You people
don’t own me!” Allison shrieked, jumping to her feet. “This is
ridiculous! I’m leaving!”

Allison stormed toward the door, but in a
flash, Logan was blocking her way. He placed his hands firmly on
her shoulders and looked into her eyes. His expression was soft and
pleading.

“Please don’t go,” he begged. “I… they’ll
kill me.”

“Well, not literally,” Allison said, rolling
her eyes. When Logan didn’t respond, she said, “Logan?”

“Pack law is complicated,” he said.
“Besides, I… I really
want
you to stay.”

“Logan, tell me you’re joking,” Allison
demanded. “They wouldn’t really kill you, would they?”

“If I let you go, I’d be betraying my pack,”
Logan said firmly. “By law, they would have no choice.”

“Oh, this is
not
happening,” Allison
muttered, hanging her head ruefully. “Your kind sure has some crazy
rules.”

Allison flopped down on the bed and sighed
heavily, hiding her eyes underneath her arm, which she draped
across them in frustration.

“They may seem crazy to you, but they’ve
kept
our kind
in check for hundreds of years,” Logan
said.

“I’m sorry,” Allison said quickly, glancing
at Logan apologetically. “I didn’t mean to insult you. I’m just
shocked that you’d kill your own kind over some rules. Who makes
the rules, anyway?”

“You know how on those nature shows they
show baby animals that get abandoned or their parents die and they
have these natural instincts?” Logan asked. “Like birds have the
instinct to migrate?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, some of it is like instinct. It’s
something that is so deeply ingrained into our psyche we are
powerless to go against it. Like taking you as a mate. We
physically couldn’t prevent it, because it would be going against
thousands of years of instinct.”

“But animals go against their instincts all
the time,” Allison pointed out.

“I suppose. But for us, instinct is all
about survival. We’ve developed a society based on strict obedience
of our laws. It’s the only thing that keeps our kind safe from
being hunted by humans. We obey our laws strictly. Those that don’t
draw too much attention and could get us killed.”

“Well, how is that other pack able to go
against their instincts?”

“The best way I can explain it is to point
out humans who go crazy and go on murderous rampages. You know…
like serial killers and stuff. They’re insane.”

“So this other pack is crazy?”

“Basically.”

“The whole pack?”

“A pack feeds off the emotions of their
Alpha. Michael is our Alpha, and we pretty much have to obey
whatever he commands. Their Alpha… his name is Victor… went crazy
and took his pack with him.”

“I see.”

“It wasn’t always that way. Victor used to
be a decent guy. But then…”

Logan’s face drained of color, and his mouth
hung open for a moment. Then he cleared his throat
uncomfortably.

“Then what?” Allison urged him.

“Um… nothing,” Logan said. “Then he went
crazy and that’s it.”

“But what about… you know… the kiss?”
Allison asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Logan’s brow furrowed, and he looked
irritated.

“It’s a betrayal,” Logan said flatly.
“Michael betrayed all of us.”

“How?”

“You’re
our
mate, not his. He had no
right to do that without us being present. It’s not allowed.”

“But he’s the Alpha. Can’t he do what he
wants?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Logan
snapped.

“Logan, I…”

“I wish you hadn’t even told me any of
this!” Logan shouted, jumping to his feet and taking a few steps
toward the back of the room. He threw his hands into the air. “I
don’t want to know this!”

Allison placed her hands on his bare back.
He bristled, his muscles instinctively jerking away from her, but
then he started to relax.

“I’m sorry,” Allison said gently. “I didn’t
know any of this.”

“It’s not your fault,” Logan said, his head
hanging limply. “I just don’t understand why Michael would do
something like that. I thought you two couldn’t stand each other,
anyway.”

Allison’s hands dropped and her shoulders
slouched heavily. She sighed.

“We can’t,” she admitted. “I don’t really
understand what happened. It just… happened.”

“Did you like it?” Logan asked gently.

“What? I… no!” she hissed. “No, it… he
was…”

“Let’s talk about something else,” Logan
said quickly.

“Good idea,” Allison agreed.

“I know, let’s play a game!” Logan
suggested.

He opened a cupboard near the back of the
room and pulled out a stack of board games. Allison’s stomach was
still twisted in vicious knots over everything that had happened
lately, but she could see how eager Logan was, so she relented.

“How about this one?” she asked, pulling out
a random box.

“Oh, I like that one,” Logan agreed.

They were still playing when the huge door
clanged and screeched open and Luke peered around the corner with a
look of panic spreading across his face. Logan jumped to his feet
and knocked the game board over, sending tiny plastic pieces
clattering onto the concrete floor.

“Michael took off!” Luke gasped.

“What? Where’d he go?” Logan asked.

“To see Victor.”

“What?” Logan shrieked. “They’ll kill
him!”

A lump swelled in Allison’s throat, and her
heart began to pound savagely in her chest.

“He just said he needed to talk to Victor
and he jumped up and ran out before I could stop him,” Luke
groaned, shaking his head.

“Damn it!” Logan swore. “What was he
thinking?”

Logan drew his fist back and punched the
concrete wall so hard that it sank inward, sending a shower of
concrete bits onto the floor and left a fist-sized indentation
behind. He swore again as he pulled back his throbbing hand and
nursed it.

“We have to go get him,” Luke said.

“But we can’t leave Allison!” Logan
argued.

“They’ll
kill him
!” Luke
reiterated.

“Go!” Allison said suddenly. “Lock me in
here. I’ll be fine. Just go!”

Logan turned to Allison and grabbed her
shoulders. His eyes were glistening as he stared deeply into
hers.

“We can’t leave you alone,” he said.
“Michael would flip out.”

“Logan, go,” Allison demanded. “I saw what
happened to him before. You can’t let him go alone.”

Logan was silent as he mulled things over.
He stood there motionless, his hands trembling as they held her
shoulders.

“Come on,” Luke said. “We’re losing
time.”

“
Go
,” Allison urged once more.

Logan’s head dropped forward, and he exhaled
sharply.

“Fine,” he relented. “But you stay put!”

“Like I could get out of here if I wanted
to,” Allison groaned. “Just go!”

Without another word, Logan followed Luke
out of the room and the heavy metal door clanged shut behind them.
Allison slumped into her chair and froze. She felt numb. She knew
she should be afraid of being alone there. She was trapped. If they
did come for her, she’d be defenseless. But she couldn’t feel much
of anything.

Then it hit her. These men would really die
to protect her. Michael had been seriously injured defending her,
and now the others were running off to fight by his side to keep
her safe. All along she’d been defensive, angry, and belligerent.
She suddenly felt intense remorse. What if they were all killed?
They might die never knowing how much she appreciated it. She
wasn’t thinking about the fact that if they never came back she
would starve to death alone in that underground bunker. She was
only worried that she would never be able to express her
gratitude.