The Recruit: Book Two (8 page)

“A few weeks?”  She said softly.

She turned to Richard.  “How long has this
been going on?  How long have you sat and done nothing while they murdered my
family members one by one?”

Richard swallowed.  “It started a few days
after the night at the factory.”

“A few days?”  Hannah stared at him
disbelievingly.  “A few days?  Jesus Christ, Richard!  It’s been over a month
since the factory!  Why the fuck did you wait so long to tell me about this?”

“We weren’t sure that you would be ready to
– “

“Not sure?  You could have fucking asked me,
Richard!  Instead you let my family members get murdered while I wandered
around your goddamn facility with my shiny swords playing pretend vampire
slayer.”

She was furious now.  Her formerly pale
face was bright red and her eyes were spitting sparks.  “What the fuck did you
think would happen?  That the vampires would kill one or two and then get tired
of the game?”

“Hannah,” Reid tried to explain, “it’s not
that simple.”

She turned on him.  “Did you know about
this?”

When he didn’t answer, she turned on Mannie
next.  “Mannie?  You knew and didn’t tell me.  How could you?”

“Hannah, I’m sorry.  We thought it would be
– “

She held up her hand.  “Don’t Mannie.”

Her head swivelled to Chen.  “Master?”

Chen stared at her steadily before
nodding.  She snorted with disgust and closed her eyes for a moment, taking
deep breaths.

She suddenly froze completely and then
turned her head to stare at Will sitting beside her.  She gave him a careful,
considering look and he watched as a brief flicker of pain crossed her face. 
“You knew too.  You knew and you didn’t tell me.”

He reached for her and she yanked her body away
from him, standing up and stumbling away from the couch.

He followed her, his voice soft and
pleading.  “Honey, I’m sorry.  You’re right.  I should have told you but we
were hoping that with enough time the vampires would grow tired of waiting for
you and attack.  We knew we could keep your parents safe and it would have been
better – safer - for you if you didn’t have to act as bait.  I - we just wanted
to keep you safe.”

The red had faded from her face, leaving
her pale and sick looking.  “Don’t, Will.  Don’t feed me more lies and
excuses.  You should have told me and you know it.  How could you of all people
betray me like that?”

When he didn’t reply, she gave a bitter
little laugh.  “Oh yeah, that’s right. We were just a fling - a fun, dirty
little distraction for the big, bad wolf.”

“No!  Hannah, it isn’t like that.”  Will
said frantically.

“Shut up, Will.  I know exactly what it was
and I’m tired of you pretending to care about me.  What’s the point of that?  I’m
not weak, and I don’t need you.  Stop feeling sorry for me.  Just leave me
alone.”

She left the room, slamming the door behind
her, and leaving the men to stare at each other mutely.

“I’m sorry to bother you.  I just – I
didn’t know where else to go.”

Douglas shook his head and poured the water
into her teacup.  “You’re not bothering me, Hannah.”

She stared into her mug, watching as the
tea seeped into the water, turning it a warm amber colour.  “I didn’t want to
go to Selena.  She’s still grieving over Tyler and I – “

“It’s not a bother, Hannah.  I promise you
that.”  Douglas interrupted.

He sat down on the stool next to hers and
patted her hand gently.  “I’m sorry for the loss of your family.”

“Thank you.”  She stood and crossed the
room to stand in front of the painting over the fireplace.  She studied it
carefully for a moment before speaking.

“They betrayed me, Douglas.  They’ve known
for weeks and they didn’t tell me.  Mannie, Chen – “ she hesitated, her voice
catching a bit, “Will.”

“They were wrong to keep it from you.”  Douglas
said softly.  “But I believe their hearts were in the right place.”

She whirled around.  “They treat me like
I’m a child, like I cannot be trusted to take care of myself.  Time and time
again I have shown them that I am more than capable of protecting myself yet
they still – still chain me to this facility.”

She gave him a look of anger.  “How many
vampires do I need to kill?  How much blood do I need on my hands before
they’ll realize that I’m just as capable as they are?  I joined the program
because I wanted my revenge for Sara’s death, and Richard promised me I would
have it.  He promised me!”

She was panting heavily, and pacing back
and forth in the small living room. “I’ve worked my ass off to learn how to
kill those sons of bitches.  At the factory I killed a small army of vampires
and it was so easy.  They came towards us, all of them hissing and snarling and
acting like we were already dead, but I showed them didn’t I?  They learned
that they couldn’t fuck with me and if this Marcus wants me that badly, I say
let him try.  I’ll rip his heart out with the tip of my sword and show it to
him before he burns.”

“I believe that the others know how capable
you are.”  Douglas said mildly.

“They don’t!  If they did they would not
have kept this from me.  It’s bad enough that Chen kept it a secret but to know
that Will knew of it and said nothing to me?  Betrayed by the man that I lo-“

She stopped, breathing harshly and her
entire body trembling.  She made herself take some deep breaths.  “I’m sorry,
Douglas.”

He shrugged.  “I’m a Lycan.  I know a
little something about anger.  I’ve learned over the years that it’s better to
let it out. “

He patted the stool beside him.  “Come -
drink your tea.  My mother always said that most of our problems could be
solved over a hot cup of tea with a good friend.”

She sat down next to him, sipping at the
hot tea.  “It is very good tea.”

“Isn’t it?”  He gave her a smile of
delight.  “If I had known humans had such amazing tea, I would have joined your
kind long ago.”

He gave her a searching look.  “I cannot
speak for the others but I have known Will a very long time and I am positive
he did this because he believed it was in your best interest.”

“I don’t care about Will.”

He gave her a dry look and she groaned and
buried her face in her hand.  “Jesus, you know don’t you?  How?  You’ve been
here less than two weeks.”

He took another sip of tea.  “Well, there
appears to be nothing even close to a secret in this facility.  Do all humans
gossip as much as the ones in this facility do?”

Before she could answer, he shook his head.
 “It doesn’t matter anyway.  The Romeo and Juliet vibe you and Will have tipped
me off the very first time I was in a room with both of you.”

“There’s no – no vibe between us.”  She
protested hotly.

He laughed, the sound rolling out of his
mouth and washing over her.  “Oh, Hannah.  Oh my dear, forgive me but you are
the very definition of denial.”

He continued to laugh; deep belly laughs
that shook his whole body and made him grab the counter for support.  The old
Lycan’s laughter was very contagious and against her will, Hannah could feel
herself starting to smile.

“Okay, fine.  There might be some tension
between us.”  She conceded.

“Yes, tension indeed.”  He agreed, wiping
the tears from his face.  He cleared his throat and took a sip of tea.

“So, are you and Will the reason they have
such strict rules about recruits and instructors sleeping together?”

“Yeah.  Not that the rest of the
instructors weren’t sleeping with the recruits, they were.  Well everyone but
Master - I mean Chen – but Will and I were the only ones who got caught.”

“My understanding is that you’re no longer
a recruit - congratulations by the way - so are you and Will going to uh, pick
up where you left off?”  He asked delicately.

She shook her head, giving him a strange
look.  “No.  Of course not.”

“Why not?”

She sighed.  “When the other recruits found
out that I was sleeping with Will, they, well they shunned me for use of a
better word.”

She grimaced.  “You would not believe how
many of them drool over him, and fantasize about taking the big, bad Lycan to
bed.  Except when they found out I had actually let him into my bed, suddenly
I’m this weirdo Lycan groupie with a death wish who’s sleeping her way through
the program.”

“You don’t seem like the type of person who
cares what other people think of them.”  Douglas pointed out.

“I’m not.”  She replied.

“Then, I don’t understand why you don’t
continue your relationship with Will now that you’re no longer a recruit. 
You’re both obviously miserable without each other.”

“Well, because – because Will made it clear
that what we had was just a fun little fling for him and as soon as it became a
matter of me being kicked out of the program for it, he ended it.”

Douglas frowned.  “A fun little fling?  
That doesn’t sound like the Will I know.”

She snorted angry laughter.  “I guess he’s
changed.  He told me himself that while Lycans will mate with humans, there
couldn’t be anything else between them.  I was nothing more than a distraction
for him, a way to pass the time until he found a Lycan he could have an actual
relationship with.  Someone like – like Constance.”  She finished bitterly.

He pulled at his chin thoughtfully.  “I was
in love with a human once.”

“What?”  She stared dumbfounded at him.

He nodded.  “It’s true.  It was many, many
years ago.  I was younger than Will is now.”

He stared into his cup of tea.  “Her name
was Andora.  Isn’t that a lovely name?”

“It is.”

“She was a lovely girl.  She died two years
ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

He smiled.  “She was 81 years old and had
lived a good life.  She had a husband and children, and grandchildren and
great-grandchildren who loved her very much.  It is the best we can hope for in
life, is it not?”

“Yes.”

“I met her when I saved her life.  She was
hiking and was attacked by a bear.  I killed the bear, saving her and revealing
my true nature to her in the process.”

He sighed.  “I thought she would be
frightened of me, disgusted maybe, or just unable to even believe what she had
seen.  But she wasn’t.  She was grateful to me for saving her life.  She asked
me to meet her again the next day and I agreed.  I don’t know why.”

He gave Hannah a small smile.  “Perhaps it
was the way her hair shone in the sun or the way she tugged at her ear when she
was nervous.  Or maybe it was her laugh.”

Hannah stood and poured him some more tea
as he continued.  “We met every day for weeks and then one day I just worked up
the nerve to kiss her.  I can still remember how soft her lips were, the little
gasp of surprise she made and the way she smiled at me when I stopped kissing
her.”

He smiled a little.  “That was the day I
fell in love with her.”

He fell silent, staring moodily into his
cup of tea.

“What happened?”  Hannah asked quietly.

“You have to understand that at that time,
Lycans were often killed or at the very least kicked out of their pack for
socializing with humans.  Many Lycans kicked out of their pack usually ended up
committing suicide.”

“That’s awful.”  Hannah gave him a
horrified look.

“It is.  A Lycan without a pack is lost. 
We need our packs like humans need air.  It’s in our genetic makeup, in our
very bones, to be a part of a pack.”

“Will doesn’t have a pack.”  She whispered.

He smiled.  “He does.  He has made the
humans his pack.  He may not be aware of it but he has.  Richard, Chen, Mannie,
you – you’re all his pack and it is part of the reason he did not tell you
about your family.  Lycans are driven to protect the other members of their
pack at all costs.”

“I’m not a part of his pack.”  She replied.
 “He was just using me.”

He started to protest and she interrupted
him.  “You and Constance left your pack.”

He shrugged.  “Perhaps I will make the humans
my pack like Will has done.”

“And Constance?”

“I believe that Constance is anxious to
start her own pack.”

“With Will.”  Hannah said flatly.

“Yes.  But it does not mean that Will wants
to – “

Hannah shook her head.  “It doesn’t
matter.  Finish your story, Douglas.  What happened between you and Andora?”

He smiled sadly.  “We were doomed from the
start.  Back then Lycans and humans did not mix.  Like I told you before, more
and more Lycans are starting to integrate with humans now.  It’s becoming more acceptable
to live among the humans, to mate with them, to care for them.”

“Will doesn’t believe that.”  She said
shortly.

He shrugged.  “Will has been away from the
Lycan world for too long.  All he knows is the old ways, and the old ways said
that no Lycan could ever fall in love with someone who wasn’t a Lycan.”

He sighed.  “Anyway, after nearly a year Andora
and I were discovered by a member of my pack.  I was lucky that it was someone
who chose not to reveal it to the other members.  He was disgusted with me of
course.  He beat the hell out of me and threatened to tell Phillip, the leader
of our pack, if I didn’t break it off with Andora.”

“So you did.”

He nodded.  “I did.  If I hadn’t, he would
have gone to Phillip and told him about Andora, and Phillip would have killed Andora
and her entire family and kicked me out of the pack.”

“I’m so sorry.”  Hannah squeezed his hand.  “Who
was it that found out?”

“Daven – Will’s adopted father.”

“Oh Douglas.”

“I broke it off with her the next day.  She
didn’t understand, didn’t care that we were different and wanted us to run away
together.  But I couldn’t.  As much as I loved her I couldn’t bear the thought
of not being with my pack.  So I hurt her instead, said cruel things until the
love she felt for me was destroyed and she wanted nothing to do with me ever
again.”

He traced the top of his mug with one
shaking finger.  “I kept tabs on her over the years.  When she fell in love
with the local Sheriff, I was happy for her.  I really was.”

He glanced up at Hannah.  “I wanted her to
be happy and to be in love.”

“Did you ever find love again?”  Hannah
whispered.

He shook his head.  “No, I never married or
had children.  Andora was the only love for me.”

She reached out and took his hand again.  “I’m
very sorry, Douglas.”

“Thank you.  But I didn’t tell you this to
gain sympathy.  I just want you to try and understand where Will is coming
from.  He grew up in a world where he was told time and time again that Lycans
were not to care for humans.  He struggles now because I believe that he cares
for you deeply.  I can see it every time he looks at you.”

Hannah shook her head.  “You’re wrong,
Douglas.”

He shrugged.  “Perhaps.”