Splintered (3 page)

Sam cleared his throat
uncomfortably. "Actually, I think that was my fault. I was trying
to calm Jack down, you know how he gets. Anyways I was trying to
point out the stupidity of going after Jess when she was with
Isaac. It sort of came out wrong and I think I pissed him
off."

Things had been pretty tense before. The night
Alec had rescued me from two of Brandon's wolves, Jasmin, Jess and
James had nearly staged a coup d'état. Still there had always been
the sense that the bonds the pack had forged while standing up to
Brandon's pack were ultimately too strong to allow that kind of
catastrophe to take place.

I was starting to wonder though how much of the
unity had been shared closeness and how much of it had simply been
an understanding that they had to all hang together or Brandon
would hang them individually.

"I always thought things would get better after
we beat Brandon. I never imagined that they could actually get
worse. At least we helped get the three of you out from under his
thumb. Every day must have been terrifying with him, Cassie and
Vincent around."

Sam shrugged but didn't look up from
Jack's still-bleeding form. "It's all about the same. The life of a
submissive pretty much sucks wherever you are. At least there
we…"

I saw Alison look up out of the corner of my
eye, the movement inhumanly fast, an expression that almost looked
like terror on her face before it settled into the expressionless
mask I was realizing all of the submissives developed.

"Sam!"

"Sorry." He looked up at me as he said it,
leaving me with the impression he hadn't been sorry, that there was
more he'd have told me if Alison wasn't there.

It was one of the more disturbing conversations
I'd had recently. I'd been through more with Alec's pack in the
last couple of months than I like to think about. They'd primarily
been backing up Alec, but by doing so they'd also supported me when
it would have been easier to give me to Brandon and just hope for
the best.

I
didn't really like all of them, but I'd thought I could trust them.
If someone was going around abusing the three new members of the
pack then they weren't the person I'd thought they were.

Chapter 3

I was sleeping alone these days. Not that Alec
and I had ever done anything more than just sleep. Frankly I was
still a little freaked out about the idea of crossing that line.
Most girls my age seemed to do that kind of stuff without a second
thought, but it wasn't something I was eager to jump into. Still, I
really did miss waking up next to Alec every morning.

Alison and Sam had stabilized Jack and then
we'd headed back to the house. The three of them actually lived in
one of the smaller dwellings scattered around the grounds, but
Alison had been uncharacteristically firm and demanded that I let
her accompany me all the way to my room.

It'd been looking like she was going
to camp out on my floor until Alec showed back up to release her
from the assignment to protect me. Luckily Rachel had shown up and
shooed her off. A normal human like me, Rachel shouldn't have
really had any standing in the pack. If it wasn't for the fact that
Alec had invested her with a hefty chunk of his authority as alpha,
she would have been a second-class citizen.

From what little bit I'd been able
to tease out of the various members of the pack it was an unheard
of measure for an alpha to take. It was a sign of both just how
much Alec trusted her and how much he loved her. Not every brother
would put himself that much in harm's way just to make his sister's
life a little more bearable.

When Rachel had told Alison that she'd accept
responsibility with Alec if something happened to me, it was enough
to reassure Alison she could leave.

Rachel hadn't had much in the way of
news. Apparently Jess's wounds were a lot worse even than I'd
realized, and the rest of the pack was busy dealing with the
fallout.

I'd thought about calling Alec for an update.
I'd really wanted to hear his voice at least, but given the fact
that he had been forced to shift without stripping down to the
stretchy ha'bit they all wore, his phone was probably still up at
the training ground. I should have thought to grab it before I
left.

Rachel had tried to reassure me that
everything would be okay, but she was too worn around the edges for
it to be very believable. The tip-toeing,
waiting-for-the-other-shoe-to-drop feeling hadn't just been
impacting the shape shifters. It didn't help that she seemed to
have caught some kind of bug. Nothing serious, just enough to
deplete her energy levels.

It was actually a relief when she
finally left. Pretending that we weren't worried, that everything
was bound to be okay was surprisingly exhausting. I'd nibbled on
some of the dry food Alec had packed for the picnic, finished up
some of the homework I'd been procrastinating and then finally
turned in a good three hours early.

With a solid night's sleep behind me, lonely
though it had been, I felt quite a bit better. I hurried through my
morning routine and sighed in relief when I found Alec waiting for
me at the breakfast table.

He poured me a bowl of my favorite cold cereal
and a tall glass of orange juice and then held my chair as I sat
down. He'd been on a real 'Adri needs to eat' kick ever since I'd
been injured.

"Is Jess going to be
okay?"

"It looks that way. We'll have to keep her home
for a day or two to avoid all kinds of questions at school, but she
seems stable. Past the point of us having to worry she's going to
lose control and attack Dom or Donovan."

I nodded in relief and then started in on my
cereal. Alec would either tell me more or not. I'd pretty much
learned that there was no point pestering him for more
information.

"It's going to play havoc with
everyone's schedule though. Isaac was scheduled for a couple of
business trips over the next little bit. We're trying to sweep up
as much of Brandon's financial empire as we can before the vultures
start circling. A lot of his factors aren't particularly
trustworthy. Once they stop getting instructions from the top we
can probably convince them to sell off pieces at huge discounts.
He's always relied mostly on fear to keep his people in
line."

The sudden concern with cash was the last thing
I'd expected out of Alec. "I thought we, I mean you, were pretty
much set for life."

Alec nodded. "Donovan's got more
assets under management than any eight people could conceivably
spend in a lifetime as long as they exercised a modicum of
restraint. It's not about that though. Half of the reason we were
able to hold Brandon off as long as we did was the fact that we had
considerably more economic clout than he did."

Alec finished peeling his orange and
shrugged. "Standing off a more powerful opponent is all about
making them understand that although they could kill you, they'd
get hurt too badly in the process to make it worthwhile. If we
can't do that physically, there's always the chance we can do it
economically."

"So we're not really out of the woods yet
then?"

"I'm afraid not."

After news like that I really didn't
want to eat. We'd barely scraped through our last near-death
situation, and we'd been a relatively tight-knit group then. How
could we possibly survive another if we were eating at each other
like this?

"I got confirmation last night. Your mom will
be flying back into town soon."

"Great. It's like knowing I've got to go back
to prison."

Alec's expression solidified into the mask he'd
always used when dealing with Brandon. "Actually I think it would
be a good idea for you to go home today after school. Given how
things have been recently it would be safer for you
there."

It was like being dunked in ice water. He
continued on while I was still trying to come up with the right
protest.

"Donovan had your house cleaned last week so
you won't need to worry about that, but it'd probably be best if
you were there for a couple of days to give it a more lived-in
feel. I know that Rachel will want to spend some time over there if
you'll have her. She's been chomping at the bit to exercise some of
the freedom available her now that the threat of Brandon's pack
isn't continually hanging over us."

I nodded, not because I was
convinced, but because I knew fighting with him over something like
this wasn't the way to go. Whoever had said that bit about picking
your battles had probably been thinking of Alec when they'd said
it.

"Will you come over too? Maybe stay the
night?"

A trace of longing flashed across his face
before the mask mostly settled back into place. "I'm not sure
that's a good idea. Things are still too unsettled around here. I'd
thought maybe they were cooling down a bit, but you saw what
happened when we left on that picnic."

It was probably even true, but it wasn't the
only reason. He was still fixated on that Ja'tell bond, still
trying to do what he thought was the right thing.

**

The drive into school was more subdued than
normal. Rachel even forwent her usual plea for Alec to put a better
stereo system in her car. When our motorcade rolled into school it
was to more of the furtive looks and hushed conversations I'd come
to expect.

I kept telling myself that nobody our age was
going to be able to keep the disappearance of nearly all of
Brandon's pack at the forefront of their minds forever. It was hard
to believe that with the police in the school every day
though.

I'd been pulled in for questioning twice
already. I'd stuck to the story Alec had outlined. We'd all been
together roasting marshmallows around a campfire to finish out our
Ashure Day celebration. I hated lying to the cops, to anyone
really, but the police especially. Alec was right though, it wasn't
like we could tell them the truth. Nobody would ever believe that
Brandon had been an evil shape shifter out to kill Alec and enslave
the rest of us.

The well-known rivalry between Alec and Brandon
made us immediate suspects. If not for the fact that apparently the
local judge and chief of police both owed Alec some pretty huge
favors things probably would have gotten worse.

I'd expected Alison, Sam and Jack being with us
to take some of the pressure off, but so far it hadn't helped.
Still, Jasmin was right. As long as we all stuck to the same story
eventually the police would have to close the case. Alec apparently
had a whole team of very high-powered lawyers on his payroll and
they'd already started making noises about police
harassment.

Some of the pack members had swapped their
classes around now that Rachel and I didn't need constant
babysitting, but I still shared Biology with Alec. Mrs. Sorenson
had seriously mellowed out in the last few weeks, so as long as we
kept it down we pretty much had carte blanche.

Normally Alec used the time to tease more
details out of me regarding my life before Sanctuary. He was just
as attentive as ever, but I could tell there was something
bothering him. My mom coming back? The escalating tension among the
rest of the pack? I discarded a dozen different ideas on how to
pull him out of his shell, and then class was over.

Alec gingerly hugged me, no skin on skin
contact, as he dropped me off at English and then it was time to
face Britney again. Actually it was all much less dramatic than
that, but outside of the pack, Britney was my biggest
concern.

She'd taken Brandon's disappearance incredibly
hard. Not only had she liked him, apparently he or one of his pack
had let slip that they were headed over to kick the crap out of us.
Given the way her father had been poking at some of the inevitable
anomalies that had surfaced lately, it seemed only a matter of time
before he started believing her. Her history of lying to manipulate
him had so far been working against her, but she showed no sign of
backing down over her claims that Alec's friends had to be involved
in Brandon's disappearance, and the uncharacteristic determination
was bound to eventually convince him. He wasn't in law enforcement
or anything, but he was pretty well-respected. So if he really
started pushing, it was bound to cause more problems.

"Killed anyone lately, Adri?"

"I don't know what you're talking
about."

I should have just ignored her.

"Eventually the cops are going to come up with
evidence that Alec won't be able to suppress. When they do I'll be
first in line to testify against you. Brandon was twice the man
Alec is."

"Look, Britney, I'm sorry that we had that
falling out. I'm sorry that you're all alone now, but you need to
understand that Brandon never loved you. He never even really liked
you. He was using you, and whatever might have happened to send him
away doesn't matter. What really matters is that you've got another
chance to do something with your life instead of just sitting here
and pining after him."

It was a long shot. I had no real
way to know for sure she was addicted to him, but Alec wouldn't
have gone on and on about the Ja'tell bond if it hadn't been real,
hadn't been dangerous. Not every human who got entangled with a
shape shifter was going to end up like his mom, but none of us
really came away completely unscathed.