One Princess One Pack One Villain

by Brenda Westfall

  Tina hadn’t even noticed I was sitting on the couch. When she did notice she about came unglued on his ass. “You brought a woman with you?”

  “Tina not another word or you will be looking for another job. This is my fiancé.” She must have seen the look I gave him. I had never agreed to be his anything. I stood up and walked over to him, then put my hands on my hips.

  “Who the hell is she? She isn’t just the waitress, is she? You screw her when you’re here?” Why did I ask him about her? What did I care who he did what with?

  “I have yes. Mate of mine, you are jealous.”

  “You wish. You can screw her all you want. I am done.” I turn and start to walk away. He grabbed my arm and turned me around. “Cara she was before I ever laid eyes on you. I have had many women. I won’t lie to you. I will never touch another. Not as long as I have you. I don’t want to be with anyone but you. Look at me love. You know what I am prevents me from it once I have found my mate. You know that. You’re the one I chose. I have chosen you. You’re mine. You hear me, you’re my mate!”

  He is yelling at me. She is watching like she doesn’t know him. Like she has never seen him this way. I wonder if he has lost his mind telling me in front of a human that I am his mate. Does she have any idea what he is talking about? He holds onto my arm so tight I know it will leave bruises. “Let go of me right now Max. I am going to lay down.”

  “Cara, honey, why are you fighting with me? What is wrong? You’re not jealous of her? She is just a human. Just a past thrill. You’re the real thing. You know you are. You know the way it feels. You can feel the pull, the string that binds us together. Baby come sit with me and have a drink and some food. You haven’t eaten all day. You are going to be ill if you don’t eat. Weakness will hit you hard. Come now. Baby sit down and she can pour us a drink.”

  Tina stands watching him like she has never seen him before in her life. Then she sees him staring at her. She lifts a glass and fills it with something that bubbles, it’s yellow. She hands the first glass to me. I set it down, I don’t want it. She fills another and hands it to him. She asks if he needs anything else. He tells her to leave. Not so nicely I might add. She doesn’t waste any time getting out of there.

  “Baby you must eat. Come. You want me to feed it to you? It could be fun.” He wiggles his eyebrows.

  “I don’t want you to do anything but leave me alone right now. I am going to lay down. I don’t want to eat. I don’t want a drink. I just want to be left alone.”

  “You really are hurting that bad, aren’t you? Would it help if you called him? Maybe talking to him would make you feel better.”

  “I would like that.”

  “There is a phone by the bed if you want, you can use it. That one can’t be traced. Neither can the one in the other room on the desk. Cara, you’re not going to tell him or any of them where we are, are you?”

  “Have I so far?”

  “That doesn’t answer my question. Tonight, you’re not yourself. I want to be able to trust you, but I can’t have you telling them where you are. I won’t give you up. Not now, not ever.”

  “You act like you own me. I am not a thing I am a werewolf. I am a person. I am not a possession.”

  “Not what I am saying but if you want to get technical you are my possession. I do own you. You own me. We are one. You are my mate. My soul mate. I know it and you know it.”

  “Whatever, I don’t feel up to this conversation. I think I need to lay down before I do anything else.” I do. I go find a bed and crash. I don’t even slip my shoes off. The shoes that have been killing me all day. They are too tight. I don’t fall asleep. I just lay there with my eyes closed. He comes in and out to check on me. He feels my head several times.

  I hear him on the phone outside the bedroom. He is talking to someone about me. I try to listen, but I am feeling so bad I can’t concentrate on him or his conversation. Then he steps back into the bedroom.

  “Cara, honey, I have a friend who is going to stop by in a little while. He might be able to help you feel better. He knows all about twins and things. He should be here pretty soon. Baby, are you listening to me?”

  I don’t know if I answer him or not. I feel like I am fading in and out of my life. In and out of existence. He sits beside me for a time. Then tells me he has to run down to the office and check things. That he will be back when his friend gets here.

  He is gone before I know it. I at some point realize that I am alone. I reach for the phone. I dial Zeke’s number. He answers sleepily.

  “Hello”

  “Zeke” He is snapped too. He sits up I can hear the covers moving.

  “Oh gosh, I thought you were gone forever. Where are you? Are you all right? Are you with… him?”

  “I am in Vegas. Don’t tell anyone please, I don’t feel like I can fight. I just needed to hear your voice. Zeke, how are you feeling?”

  “Probably about as good as you sound. Princess, come home, please. I am sure we can work things out. Father has been going crazy searching for you. He sends us out twice a day around the territory. Then he sends out groups of us to search around the state. Rufus and Kyle go out separate with groups in different directions to search for you. Everybody misses you.”

  “I miss you too. Zeke, I don’t know what to do. I feel like he is my soul mate, but how can I live like this when being away from you is…Killing me. I can’t eat, I can’t run, I can’t breathe half the time. The further we got from you, the worse I felt. Are we that connected that I can’t live without you being around me?”

  “It’s not just that you are connected to me Cara, but you have an entire pack that you are connected to. Sis, you have to come home. Please, it is killing me too. If you need me to come get you I will. I can sneak out without anyone knowing. You know me, I will do whatever I can to help you.”

  “I know that is why I called you. I had to talk to you. To see how you were doing. To know if you were hurting like I am. To know if you were running a fever, not eating, not functioning, Zeke?”

  I hear the phone fall to the floor, then I hear him cussing. Then the phone is picked up. I can hear voices in the room with him. I wait to see if he comes back on the line. Then I hear them telling him to keep me talking they need me to stay on the line a minute longer.

  “Bye Zeke I love you.” I hang up. I heard him yelling no, don’t hang up, then I was gone. They were trying to trace the call. Max said they couldn’t. I wonder if Zeke will tell them I said Vegas. I don’t know if I care at this point. I try to grab the phone again thinking I will call my friends who I haven’t spoken to in a very long time. I don’t even know if they have been told anything about me.

  I manage to dial Mel’s number. It is one in the morning in Vegas. I see the clock on the side table. I hear a very sleepy voice say hello.

  “Mel it’s Cara.”

  “What? Hello? Did I hear you, right?”

  “Yes, it’s me, Cara.”

  “OMG, where are you? What happened? Your brothers dropped out of school. The last thing anyone would tell us is that you disappeared. That you had been kidnapped. Are you ok? Are you back home?”

  “Not home. Ok. Sorry, I haven’t called sooner. I don’t have a cell anymore. My father has it. Long story short. Father, fight, left with a friend. Missing you guys.”

  “Oh man, we miss you too. Eric about had a heart attack when he found out you were missing. He has been searching for you. So, has the rest of us. We have been going out every weekend to different towns hanging up missing posters. You sure you’re all right, you don’t sound too good?”

  “Tired. Not feeling too good. Tell Eric, I miss him too. Tell them I miss them all. I wish I were home. Sorry, I had to call in the middle of the freaking night. It’s the first time I had a chance to use a phone.”

  “So, where are you?”

  “I can’t say.”

  “You’re not, alone are you?”

  “I don’t think so. I think I heard
the door.”

  “Do I need to let you go?”

  “No, not as long as I don’t tell you where I am. He would get, really upset if I told you where I was. I just really needed to hear a friendly voice. I didn’t know what you had been told or if you had been told anything.”

  “At first, we had to ask in the office at school where you were. The principal said he didn’t know. Then after a few days of us asking every day he looked into it. He called your father. Said your brother Marcus answered the phone. That is when he found out you were missing. Then I saw Marcus in town at the Construction office your dad owns. I knew you had been working there on weekends. Well, at least the last time we had talked you said you worked there. Marcus had just opened the door to grab something. He said the office wasn’t open anymore. Then he told me about you. Your father has shut down all his companies till they find you. It has put a lot of people out of work.”

  “Oh no. I had no idea. I really didn’t think he cared if I ever showed up again. We had a really bad fight. A really bad one. The worst one ever. He had decided who I was going to be given to.”

  “What do you mean like an arranged marriage?”

  “Just like. Yes. Only I didn’t love the Guy. I didn’t want to be with him at all. Father wasn’t giving me a choice. That is when I left. But along the way, I got picked up. Now I am with a friend.”

  “Friend or are you being held against your will?”

  “Both sort of. I can’t explain. I wish I could, then maybe I would understand it better myself.” I was lying on the bed with my back to the door, but I knew he was standing there watching me and listening. I talked to Mel a few more minutes before I told her I needed to go. That I would call again if I could. I tried to hang the phone up but dropped it. I was getting really weak.

  He heard me talking and listen to see if I told anyone where I was. I only hoped he hadn’t heard my conversation with Zeke. When I dropped the phone, he ran around the bed and grabbed the phone. He hung it up, then kneeled beside me.

  “Baby, I brought someone to see you. I think maybe he can help you. Do you think you can come in the other room? I can carry you if you need me to. You are weaker than I thought. You couldn’t even hold the phone to your ear to talk.”

  “I am so tired.”

  “Maybe I should let him come in here to see you. I will try to control my wolf. It is hard to have another male in our bedroom. It would be best if I carried you out to the living room, but I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “You can carry me. I don’t think I can walk. I am just too tired.” He very gently lifts me up into his arms. He stares into my eyes. He doesn’t smile at me like he normally does.

  He hurries into the living room. His friend sees him carrying me and gets up off the couch. “You didn’t say she couldn’t walk on her own. How long has she been this weak? Maxwell?”

  “I am thinking. She walked in here earlier tonight. She wasn’t herself then. She was too tired to argue with me. She is pretty strong willed. Then when I left to go down to the office she had said she needed to lay down. I thought she was just resting. Now she seems so much weaker.”

  “I’m just so tired.”

  “Miss Cara, I am a friend of Maxwell’s. I am also supernatural. Not a werewolf, but not human either. I want to take a look at you and see if I can help you. I understand you have a twin brother?”

  “Yes. He is sick too.”

  “I figures so. But if he is male it isn’t affecting him as hard as it is you. Now let me listen to your heart.”

  He sits very still and listens without touching me. Then he smells me. Nothing new if your werewolf. It is how we remember the ones we have been around. I will know him anywhere from now on because I got his scent.

  “Maxwell, I can give her a supplement to boost her system for a few days. But the sooner she is within a hundred miles of her twin the better. What I am going to give you Miss Cara, is like a high energy vitamin. I want you to drink it three times a day till you get back where your twin is close enough for you to feel him. This stuff should give you energy. But you must eat. You haven’t eaten in days I would wager. Being wolf you know better than to go without food. Maxwell, see to it, she eats plenty of raw meat. She needs the blood and iron. Make her drink what I leave at least three times a day. If she doesn’t feel better tomorrow night, call me. I will come back. Now, as for you Miss Cara, I want you to get to feeling more alive. I don’t want you to die grieving yourself to death.”

  “Is that what she’s doing? Grieving?”

  “Yes, to a point. When a twin can’t feel their twin or other part they let their minds think the other half of their being is dead and the body naturally starts grieving. That is why she needs to stay within a hundred miles of her twin at all times.”

  “I see. That is going to be hard. I will have to figure out something. I can’t be that far from here either. She is my soul mate. I can feel the pull that connects us.”

  “Hum, that is not good. She is being pulled in two directions then. It makes things even harder on her. Don’t suppose the twin would come here for her sake? Maybe he would be willing to travel with her.”

  “I don’t know about that. I will have to do some thinking. Thanks for coming so quickly Leon.”

  “Get a cup let me see her drink the first cup of this vitamin supplement. Can you sit up?”

  I try to pull myself up, but I can’t seem to do it. I didn’t realize how weak, I was either. Max watches me for a minute, then he lifts me up on his lap after handing the Doctor or whatever he his, a cup. Max holds me on his lap keeping me upright.

  “Drink it all for me. Come on now open up.” Leon watches me.

  “Baby, you have to drink it. Come on now, drink for the doctor. Leon, are you sure she is going to be alright?”

  “She is a werewolf and a full blooded one. She will get better if you take her back pretty soon or get him here somehow.”

  I manage to get a few drinks down. Then they talk for a while and try again to get me to drink some more. I slowly get the entire cup down. I had no idea werewolves could get so weak so fast. I have never been away from Zeke or the pack before. I had always lived with the pack. But I was learning really fast just how much I needed them.

  “How do you feel now?”

  “I think I can hold myself up now.” Max doesn’t believe me and neither does the doctor from the look on his face. I try to sit up on my own. I struggle till I manage it. Then I try to stand up. I make it to my feet, but not for long, my legs buckle. Max is cussing up a storm.

  He grabs me up off the floor and holds me. “I think maybe I should lay down. Let that stuff take hold.”

  “I think she may be right. Max why don’t you lay her down them come see me out. Miss Cara I will be back to check on you.”

  “Thank you.” He sits still while Max carries me back into the bedroom and lays me on the bed. He pulls the covers back and lays me on the sheets. I am still sweating. He pulls off my shoes than most of my clothes and covers me with a sheet.

  “I will be back in a minute. If you need me call me.”

  “I’m going to sleep. You do what you have to do.” He nodded his head, then ducked out of the bedroom. I heard the doctor get up and the two of them walk out of the living room. I heard a door, then nothing. I either feel asleep or they both left the penthouse.

  When I woke up some time later it was still dark in the room, but I wasn’t alone. Nor was it anyone I knew. I called out for Max.

  “He isn’t here right now. Can I get you something?” Said a woman’s voice.

  “Who are you?”

  “Irene. I was sent up to help you in case you needed anything. Maxwell said you weren’t feeling too well. Did you need something?”

  “I need to go to the bathroom. I think I can make it. I just didn’t know where Max was.”

  “He has been coming up every couple of hours to check on you. You have been sleeping a lot.”

  “How long is a
lot? Why do I get the feeling it isn’t the same night I think it is?”

  “You have been in and out of consciousness for three nights now. The doctor has been in twice a day to make sure you’re doing all right. He thought you would be up and about by now. He was worried about you. He told me to call him when you woke up. He is asleep on the couch.”

  “Here?”

  “Yes, ma’am. He has stayed here the past twenty-four hours or so. He was worried that you weren’t improving.” I don’t remember anyone being near me since Max carried me to the bed. Three nights ago? I feel a panic feeling like I need to get to someone right now. Then I think of Zeke. I Roll over and grab the phone. Maybe he is hurt.

  “Hello”

  “Zeke?”

  “Hey, you. How are you feeling? Better I hope. I should be there real soon.”

  “Be where?”

  “Vegas.”

  “What, why? How do you know where I am?”

  “Your friend called my cell. I don’t know how he got the number, but he told me the situation. He asks me to come. He said he would pay me to sit with you as long as I came alone. He said if I brought the others...”

  “What?”

  “He would have them killed before they could reach the casino. Are you feeling any better?”

  “I don’t know, I just woke up. There is a lady here who says I have been out for three nights. I don’t remember much. She said I was in and out of consciousness. Zeke, are you coming alone?”

  There is a long pause. I get the feeling he isn’t alone. I wait for him to answer. When he doesn’t I get the message. “Who is with you? The entire pack or just three?”

  “I will see you at three ok?”

  “Got it. How do they think they will get past Max’s people?”

  “Don’t ask me. You be careful speaking aloud.”

  “Oh yeah, sorry. Got to go someone is in…” Before I could hang up Max was in the room rushing to my side. He stared at me then took the phone and put it back on the receiver.

  “You’re awake. Baby, I thought you weren’t ever going to wake up. How are you feeling? Do you think you can eat something? Maybe you can drink some more vitamin stuff. Doctor, she is awake.”