Mated to the Pack (8 page)

“How dare
me
?” Michael returned. “No,
no, no. How dare
you
! I saw the way your stuck up little
nose wrinkled when you came out of the bathroom! We risked our
lives for you and all you can do is turn up that little nose of
yours!”

“For your information,” Allison snarled,
approaching him aggressively, “that isn’t what I was doing! I was
actually thinking that I wished I could fix things up a bit and
make things more pleasant!”

He lowered his head until his eyes were
inches from hers and said incredulously, “Oh, yeah, I’ll bet that
is
exactly
what you were thinking.”

“I hate you,” she muttered.

“The feeling is mutual,” he retorted.

Then suddenly their lips collided, pushed
together so firmly that Allison could have sworn she tasted the
pungent bite of blood on her lip. Michael’s body leaned against
hers, slamming her against the rough cave wall. His hand wrapped
around her throat, pinning her against the wall as his tongue
pushed its way between her lips.

Allison’s leg lifted upward, wrapping around
his hip and pulling him firmly against her. She wrapped her arms
around his neck, and he reached behind her, grabbing her bottom and
pulling her upward, where she wrapped her other leg around him. She
could feel him bulging against the thick curves of her hips.

His tongue probed wildly within her mouth.
She was breathless, her heart pounding erratically. He took her
lower lip between his teeth and nipped sharply, and she gasped.

“Oh, god, please take me,” she begged him
with the faintest of whispers in his ear.

Then she heard the grinding of stone against
stone, and the two of them froze. Panic stricken, the two were
unable to react, and the two of them were still tangled together as
Luke and Logan emerged through the doorway.

The color drained from Logan’s face, and he
dropped the paper grocery bag he was carrying. Inside it, glass
shattered, and some liquid began to leak through the brown paper,
seeping into the earthen floor.

“You son of a bitch,” Luke murmured, shaking
his head.

Michael’s body went limp, and Allison slowly
slipped downward until her feet touched the floor. He backed
carefully away from her and turned meekly to face the two.

“Brothers, please, let me explain…” Michael
tried to begin, but Luke cut him off.

“Don’t bother,” Luke spat. “You’re dead to
me. I disavow this pack. You are no longer my Alpha, and this is no
longer my pack!”

Logan’s lips parted, and he tried to grab
Luke’s arm as he dash past him and out the door, but Luke was too
fast. Logan grunted with his mouth agape, and he looked into
Michael’s eyes and quickly after his brother, and then back to
Michael. Logan shook his head apologetically, and then disappeared,
calling after Luke as his voice echoed into the darkness in the
cavern outside.

“Damn it,” Michael muttered. Then, slamming
his fist into the stone wall, he shouted, “Damn it!”

Allison said nothing. She shrank back into
the shadows against the cave wall, afraid to speak. What had she
done?

Michael turned toward her with his eyes
brimming with fury, and he pointed his finger toward her
accusingly.

“You,” he snarled.

“Wh-what?” she stammered.

“You,” he repeated through gritted teeth. He
shook his finger at her and muttered once again, “You.”

Then he turned and struck the wall again…
and again, and again until his fingers were shredded an leaving
bloody fist prints on the stone.

“Stop!” Allison shrieked. “Please stop!”

She rushed to his side and grabbed his
wrist, pulling with all her might. His arm was rigid with tension,
but as she peered with wide eyes at his mangled hand, he began to
relax.

“I have to find them,” he said softly.

Allison nodded her understanding and said,
“I’ll be alright here.”

“No, I can’t leave you,” he argued.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake! Now is no time for
obstinacy! Go! Bring them back!” Allison said.

“I can’t leave you!” he shouted. “Don’t you
understand? I can’t… I can’t lose you.”

Speechless, Allison’s eyes turned toward
his. She could see the concern that looked back at her.

“Then we’ll go together,” she said
softly.

“I can’t endanger you,” he said. “Victor and
his pack are still out there, and they’ll stop at nothing
to....”

“Michael, we go together,” she interrupted
him. “They’re your brothers. You can’t just let them go.”

For a long, tense moment, Michael was
silent. His eyes studied the bloody wall. Then he hung his head in
defeat.

“Then we go,” he said.

The leaves crunched heavily under their feet
as they walked. Allison was hardly dressed for such terrain,
wearing nothing but a tank top and shorts that they’d obtained for
her the first night she stayed with the pack, and her feet were
bare. Until this moment, she’d never realized that her shoes,
inappropriate that they might have been with their spiked heels,
had been lost at some point during her abduction and rescue.

“Are you alright?” Michael asked her,
glancing down at her tender feet.

“I’ll be fine,” she lied, eager to find Luke
and Logan as quickly as possible.

In truth, her feet felt as though they were
being ripped apart. Every jagged stone, every briar, every sharp
twig tore at her delicate flesh, so used to wearing fuzzy slippers
and being moisturized nightly. But she said nothing. The pack was
far more important.

Michael was careful to slow his pace,
allowing her to keep up despite her aching feet. He knew she must
be in terrible pain. He could see her wince now and then, and he
could hear the occasional sucking of air between her lips. But he
would not belittle her by asking if he could help her.

“Do you have any idea where we are going?”
Allison asked.

“I go based only on pack instinct,” Michael
said. “Unfortunately, I can no longer sense their location.”

“Why not?”

“I’ve been disavowed. They no longer
recognize me as Alpha because of my betrayal, and as a consequence,
our pack bond has been broken,” Michael explained.

“Oh, no,” Allison murmured. “Because of me.
Michael, I’m…”

“Don’t,” Michael shushed her. “This is as
much my responsibility as it is yours, if nor more so. As Alpha, I
should have had the strength to resist. This is my failing.”

Allison bit her lip and struggled against
her emotions as her eyes began to well with stinging, bitter tears.
No,
she told herself.
Don’t you dare cry!

Crying would do no good. Crying would weaken
her, and Michael needed her to be strong. The whole pack needed her
to be strong. They were broken, and it was all because of her. She
couldn’t let them down.

She swallowed hard, and the lump of raw
emotion that had become lodged in her throat was pushed into the
pit of her stomach. She took a deep breath, willing herself
strength she feared she didn’t have.

“This pack instinct… can it really help find
them?” she asked.

“I hope so,” Michael said.

She wanted to tell him how little confidence
his hope inspired in her, but she knew that he himself might be
lost in a quagmire of hopelessness if she did. So she did the only
thing she knew to do. She lied.

“We’ll find them,” she said. “I know
it.”

Michael said nothing, but she could see that
his jaw muscles were tense and twitching. Not wanting to put him
under any more stress than he was already bearing, she walked
beside him in silence.

After several long, painful miles, Allison’s
feet felt as though they were on fire. Michael sniffed the air and
glanced down, noticing a path of blood trailing behind them.

“Your feet!” he gasped.

She froze and looked down, noticing the
leaves beneath her mottled red. She glanced behind her and saw the
trail. Her skin tingled, and her whole body began to shiver. She
felt herself sinking.

Michael caught her just as she was falling.
His thick arms wrapped around her and held fast, and she struggled
to remain conscious.

“No, no, no…” he pleaded with her. “Don’t
you faint on me!”

He needed her. He needed her to be strong.
The pack needed her to be strong. She kept repeating it, and she
shook her head rapidly to chase away the fog that threatened to
pull her out of reality.

Her hands gripped his forearms, and she
pushed herself back onto unsteady feet. Her head swam, and she
swayed, but she managed to stay upright.

In the distance, thunder bellowed ominously.
Even Allison, with her human sense of smell, could detect the scent
of rain in the air.

“We need shelter,” Michael said.

Then, without a thought to propriety or her
silly pride, he scooped her into his arms and scanned the area
through narrowed eyes.

Allison, too weak to argue or protest,
allowed herself to be nestled in his embrace. She laid her head
weakly on his shoulder and noticed his musky scent for the first
time. Perhaps it was imperceptible before, but now it was familiar
and soothing.

The thunder rolled over the hill and
droplets of rain thumped on the leaves. At first, the pitter-patter
was soothing. Soon, the downpour was a drenching, driving force
that beat down on their heads unrelentingly.

Michael’s pace quickened, jostling her as he
jogged. She could hear the babbling of running water nearby, even
over the torrent of rain. A creek. Michael dropped to his knees and
began dragging her underneath an outcropping just feet from the
creek bank.

The opening was narrow, but the two of them
could just barely fit inside the tiny cave-like structure. There
was nothing but soil underneath them, but at least it was dry. Bare
roots formed a natural wall in front of them. They were almost
entirely hidden from sight.

Michael wrapped his arms around her, pulling
her against him. His warmth calmed her shivering, and shielded her
from the chill that crept in from every angle.

Pictures crept into her mind. She fought to
keep them away, but they were vivid and real. His body pressing her
against the rock wall of the cave, his kiss on her tender lips, the
taste of him. She couldn’t keep those thoughts from invading her
head, but she knew she had to. She couldn’t let him betray the pack
again. She wouldn’t.

She could feel his breath hot on the back of
her neck. His lips brushed against her flesh, and her skin erupted
in tiny goose bumps. His nose nuzzled against her neck as he
breathed in her scent. She closed her eyes and tried to picture
something else, anything else. But it was no use.

“How do I fight this?” she whispered. It was
meant to be a silent prayer, but it somehow slipped from within
her.

“If I knew that then I would be able to do
it, too,” he whispered back, his lips pressing against her neck,
tasting her skin. His arms squeezed her more tightly.

“Michael, I…”

“God help me, I need you,” he said, his
breath ragged behind her.

Her throat swelled with suppressed desire.
The creek rushed by, filling higher and higher with water,
threatening to swell over the bank and into their shelter.

“Michael,” she said.

He paid no heed, and he continued to kiss
the sensitive skin below her hair. She closed her eyes and murmured
pleasantly, but upon opening her eyes, they widened with alarm.

“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.