“No, no you’re not.” Doll replied passionately suddenly feeling guilty for thinking she was building something with Luke. For enjoying Luke and having him all to herself.
“I mean, you guys are getting together, we’ve found this sanctity here in Seattle, away from everything. You can try for the life you want now. We’re safe.” Doll looked across at Jeremy and her breath hitched.
“You don’t remember?” She asked him gently. She forgot that Jeremy had bad days, less coherent days when he didn’t remember a great deal. And that it got worse under duress stress.
“Remember what?”
Doll screwed up her face and then tried to relax. She wished she didn’t have to tell him, but then it was right that she should be the one to tell him about Graham Roberts’s presence in Seattle. “Jer, what do you remember about the last twenty four hours? Before you woke up this morning?”
“I don’t know. I think we had some sort of fight. Did we?” He asked her sheepishly. It wasn’t uncommon for Jeremy not to remember hours of events after getting highly emotional. Doll had seen the gradual deterioration of him, during their captivity.
“We didn’t fight, but you weren’t happy with me. Because I’d spent the night in Luke’s bed. Do you remember that?” She asked stopping to give him a chance to answer her. “You went off to cool down. You went to the Charleston’s garage.” Doll explained gently. “While you were there, Luke and I went grocery shopping and we had an unexpected run in with someone Luke knows.” Doll waited, letting her words sink in. Jeremy looked at her.
“He was introduced to me, as Graham Roberts.” She waited to see if there was any reaction from Jeremy. It was always possible he’d heard or learnt an Alpha Pack members name.
Jeremy shrugged his shoulders. “Who’s Graham Roberts?”
“He’s from the Alpha Pack.” Doll watched Jeremy closely. His face dropped into a stillness. “He’s the one who,” She stopped, finding the words hard to bring up. Her hand shot out to his and she entwined her fingers with Jeremy’s. “Liked you.”
Jeremy squeezed her hand back. Tears started falling down Doll’s eyes. She remembered watching Graham with Jeremy and fighting against her restraints uselessly. Wanting to help Jeremy with the dominant werewolf. All to no avail. She remembered Jeremy sobbing softly, every time, after Graham left him alone. Doll remembered being unable to reach Jeremy to comfort him. His pain was her pain too.
“Yes.” She sniffed and wiped at her face hastily. “Luke and I were determined to follow him and get to him because he threatened to come after you and me again.”
“What?” Jeremy’s voice was hoarse as his face paled instantly.
“I mean, he was more subtle about it, but Luke agrees, it was a threat, a genuine threat against us all the same.” She watched Jeremy pale.
“While we were tracking him, Luke sent his older brother out to the garage to protect you incase Graham found you first. But he didn’t. And Dillon brought you back here, only you had already shape shifted by then, you stayed in your tribal form for most of yesterday and all of last night Jer.”
Jeremy let out a heavy breath and tried to laugh, but it sounded awkward. “No wonder I kind of feel relaxed and calm today, I haven’t been a werewolf for so long.” Doll nodded her head, not sure what else to say to comfort him, now that they knew they were no longer safe. Jeremy turned to Doll. “So when are we leaving?”
“That’s just the thing Jer, we’re not.” Doll said watching as he pulled back from her and withdrew his hand from her like she’d slapped him. In a way, she had, she supposed. But Doll knew, they couldn’t run forever, there would be a time when they had to make a stand and had to confront those from their past. It was the only way for them to move forward. Besides, where would they run to that Graham Roberts or any of the other alpha werewolves might not find them? They had no home, no pack, nowhere else to go.
Jeremy frowned at her. “We had an agreement Dollton, that we would never allow anyone, especially those from the Alpha Pack to ever get us again!”
“I know.” She muttered softly. “And I still promise you that. He will never get to touch you again. I’ll defend you to my very last breath.”
“Defend me? Against an alpha werewolf?” Jeremy’s inner werewolf started pacing around on itself in circles. His anxiety returned instantly.
Doll wiped at her face quickly. “Yes. It’s time we stopped running Jer. We’re in a good place now, surround by good werewolves. They’ll protect us, they’ll help us. We can be safe here. We can have lives here. We could be part of a pack, again.”
“And what exactly did the last werewolf pack with alphas in it we came across do to us Doll? Remind me of that again.” Jeremy stalked into the house abruptly. It was a cheap shot but Jeremy could not forget and feel so comfortable as Doll did there. He did not have anyone other than Doll. Eventually Luke would see him as a pain and make Doll discard him, kick him out of the house. And then where would he be? He’d be alone.
“Jeremy?” Doll called after him.
Maybe it was better that he move on, by himself without Doll. But the thought alone made him sick and dizzy. Jeremy reached out for the wall to support himself. He knew deep down that Doll was right about fighting whatever came at them. But he couldn’t. He just couldn’t. He wasn’t a fighter, damn it, hadn’t he proven that when he’d been overpowered by the alpha werewolves? He couldn’t even fend for himself, let alone both of them.
He walked into the bedroom and pulled out the cell phone and the note he’d found in his Jeans pocket that morning, which he hadn’t remembered previously having, but now it made some sense. The note said, that if he ever felt the struggle of his werewolf rising, he should ring Dillon Charleston on the phone provided and he’d help him learn to the way of the werewolf again. And if he and Doll were going to ever get on with their lives then Jeremy knew he had to be prepared for a fight should Graham Roberts or any other Alpha Pack wolves come after them. Because he could never go back to being their play thing ever again.
Luke Charleston drove slowly back to his house. He felt numb at the proposed idea to help Sonny with her latest problem. Because it involved the two wolves who had somehow managed to create a place for themselves in his house and heart within the space of a few weeks. He didn’t like the idea of involving either of them. But the reality was, they could use all the werewolves and lycans they could get their paws on.
And if Doll and Jeremy wanted to be a part of his pack, the reality was, each werewolf had to pull their own weight some how. It was how a werewolf pack operated. Each wolf had the back of the other wolf. The pack was only as strong as it’s wolves provided strength.
And whilst the Seattle Alki weren’t a traditional werewolf pack made up entirely of just werewolves or wolves from the local area, they were a pack that relied on strength to keep their reputation in tack. The Seattle Alki had defended their territory for over one hundred and fifty years thanks to those who were considered pack and Seattle Alki’s.
Dillon Charleston glanced at his phone and answered it on the first ring. “Jeremy?”
“Um, yes. You’re Luke’s brother right?”
“Older brother,” Dillon corrected him.
“I think, I could use your help with, how do I say this, re-aligning my werewolf self with me.”
“I know, Luke told me what happened to you. There is no need to explain further, my note meant exactly what it said. I’m here to help. The Seattle Alki can not have a rabid werewolf amongst them or being a larger danger to the community in general. You are very close to that edge.” Dillon said calmly all pack business.
“And if I want to be a part of the Seattle Alki pack?” Jeremy asked walking out of the room and back out towards the back stoop. He looked at Doll standing up, her arms crossed over herself tightly through the back screen door. She walked out into the neatly mown back yard.
“Yes.”
“What do I need to do?” Jeremy asked opening the back
screen door. “For me and Doll. What do I have to do if we want in?” Jeremy asked looking at the only werewolf who mattered to him. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her. She’d been there for him, stayed with him, looked after him, helped free him from the Alpha Pack. He owed Doll everything. So he’d give everything just for her. It was that simple. He loved her, whole heartedly.
Doll turned around and looked back at Jeremy who held a cell phone to his ear, talking into it. He looked at her softly. Letting her know they were okay. Then his face changed from soft and loving, to absolute still and white, again.
Doll swiveled around quickly, the back yard was large but it was fenced by a wooden fence on either side of it’s landscape. However the back fence, had a gap, for where a swing gateway should have been. There was no gate however, just a space for it. And it was through this space that Doll saw Graham Roberts, standing there, a smile forming on his face. His eyes shifted to werewolf eyes and they flicked from her to Jeremy on the back stoop and his smile widened to show werewolf fangs amongst his teeth.
“I should have known you two would be together.” Graham Roberts said as he stalked towards them.
Dread filled Doll and she was momentarily frozen before find her voice. “Run! Jeremy Run!” She screamed at him. “Run!” Doll heard the cell phone clatter to the floor and the back door slam closed. She watched the alpha approach her.
“I just want the boy. You are inconsequential.” Graham Roberts growled at her. “Give him to me and I won’t kill you. I’ll just take him back to the play house.” He growled again, so loudly it sounded like the battle cry of a wild animal as he charged directly at her. Once he’d run into her with Luke Charleston, he’d been determined to bring her back to the alpha play house. Especially since she had killed one of them to escape. The bitch had to pay.
Losing them when trailing him in a car, wasn’t that hard. He had then double back to Luke’s house. He figured it was as good a starting ground to finding her as anywhere. He’d practically thanked the gods when he’d noticed she lived with Luke. Then it was just a matter of waiting for the right time to strike out and re-capture the bitch who’d gotten away from him and the others. He couldn’t wait to drag her back kicking and screaming. It had practically made him hard all over at the thought of her fear.
When he’d discovered a back way into Luke Charleston’s house, he had again, thought luck was on his side, and then he spotted the real prize. The boy.
Fear assailed Doll and she felt her werewolf start growling, crouching within herself. For once she followed her werewolf’s lead and started crouching low on the balls of her feet, her arms pulled back behind her. This was not the basement of an eternally dark and painful room. She was not a prisoner, or a victim.
This was Seattle and the start of her new life. She would not give that up to their tormentor. “Not this time.” She growled in a gravelly voice, holding her ground, watching him come towards her with the precision of an animal lying in wait, ready to trap it’s prey. She had meant every word she’d said to Jeremy. And she intended to make her words come true. She would defend him till her death, if it meant that.
19
Dillon rubbed the bridge of his nose. It really wasn’t for him to say. He wasn’t the Seattle Alki pack leader. The reality was that the Seattle Alki was a warrior pack of wolves, made up of not only werewolves, but lycans, lone wolves and to some extent, the human population of the Seattle U-District area. And it didn’t matter if he wanted to help Jeremy and Doll out, the end call would be his father’s to make.
But the likely hood in taking a couple of damaged, beta wolves who didn’t appear to be all that useful for anything other than perhaps being more trouble than they were worth to the pack as a whole, made the question he was being asked seem impossible to answer, diplomatically. He had to give Jeremy the standard line to that question. The diplomatic answer. The one that reiterated to “don’t call us, we’ll call you.” Brush off.
Dillon let out a breath and before he could answer, he heard the shrill cry of another voice in the background of the call. “Run! Jeremy Run!” Then there was some loud noise and from what Dillon could figure the phone had been dropped.
“Jeremy? Are you there?” He disconnected the call and dialed Luke instantly. It rang twice before Luke came on the line.
“D, what’s up?” Luke greeted with.
“Get over to your house right now! I’m on my way, something’s happened, I heard Doll screaming. Get there, now!” Dillon cut off Luke as he started rambling back at Dillon who ran towards his own car.
Luke and Dillon arrived at the house at the same time. Pulling up abruptly, both males were running towards the house and ripping off their tops as they did so. They had already discarded their shoes in their vehicles.
As alpha werewolves they could shape shift easily and fast, but clothing hindered the process and was destroyed in the process if you started with it on. Despite what movies might show, it didn’t magically appear with the werewolf shifted back. If it survived the shape shift, it was usually shredded beyond wearable.
“What’s going on?” Luke asked his brother as they ran towards the front door together. There was nothing to see that there was any disturbance at the house. It appeared normal from the outside and quiet. There was no obvious breakage to the house itself and no movement could be seen from inside the house’s windows. But Luke knew if Dillon said something was up, then something was happening, something was wrong, his brother didn’t go for dramatics, exaggerating or lying.
“I don’t know.” Dillon replied leaping up onto the front stoop and reaching for the front door, only to have it yanked open from the other side and Jeremy bail into his chest suddenly. Dillon rocked back on his heels and steadied catching Jeremy who face planted into his chest. He’d been in a damn big hurry.
“Jeremy, what is it?” Dillon asked, grabbing him by the arms and putting space between them. Jeremy’s eyes were wide, his skin calmly and pale and his entire aura reeked of fear.
“Where’s Doll?” Luke barked at him frantically. Jeremy looked back at Luke, wide eyed with terror in his eyes.
“Doll, where is Doll?” Luke tried again his voice still raised.
“You’re scaring him,” Dillon said in a softer tone of voice. “Lower your tone of voice Lukas.”
Luke sucked in a breath and tried to calm himself down a fraction. “Jeremy, where is Dollton?” He said in a far calmer voice than he felt. Jeremy stopped staring through him and looked at Luke.
“The yard. She’s in the back yard. He’s in the back yard.” Luke didn’t need to hear anymore, he pushed past the two male wolves and started running through his house, towards the back yard.
“Jeremy, listen to me.” Dillon said in the soft tone of voice whilst shaking the younger wolf quickly to get his attention. “I want you to go to the bedroom, lock the door if you can and barricade it. Don’t come out until one of us three comes for you.” He said dropping his hands of the other male and sprinting after his brother.
Graham Roberts was almost upon Doll when Luke reached the back door first. He busted down the back screen door, running it through it, rather than wasting time to open it. The screen door crashed down and Luke pushed through its mesh and wooden frame. He came through in time to witness Doll growling loudly and leaping from a crouching position, up and at her attacker, Graham Roberts.
“Doll!” Luke shouted too late. He didn’t want her going anywhere near Graham Roberts. Luke too leapt from the back stoop toward the fight. He covered more air in with the spring of his leap.
Graham charged at Doll as she flew up at him and he at her. In one swift, seamless movement, whilst in mid air, he shape shifted his hand into a werewolf’s long, sharp claw. Slashing it down across Doll’s body as she collided with him. She never stood a chance at bettering him.
The claw, cut into her face, her throat, chest and breast as Doll was knocked down and backwards. Hitting the ground with a sickenin
g thud, her skin ripping open from the werewolf’s brutality on her all too human body. In human form, Doll was far too fragile to fight a werewolf as powerful as Graham Roberts. Tearing her open, didn’t take much effort at all.
She hit the ground like a rag doll with the stuffing knocked out of it. She watched as Graham who should have landed on top of her, was thrown backwards by another male body. Luke fell on top of him and they tumbled away from her.
Gasping for air, and feeling the blood running from her body Doll lay, where she had landed, watching an extra figure in Jeans leap into the fray. Luke’s brother Dillon, together they attacked Graham Roberts relentlessly. Doll tried to get up and found her body unwilling to help her. Pain assailed her body and she spat up blood. Knowing she could not move and was of no use to those in the fight. Hers and Jeremy’s fight.
Her eyes fluttered and she felt the heaviness of them want to close. Dillon and Luke would keep Jeremy safe, they were good werewolves, she felt it. She knew Jeremy would be safe from his tormentor. Luke and Dillon would protect him. She could finally escape the clutches of the alpha pack. Her body began to shake violently and Doll coughed and choked on blood, she couldn’t tell if it was coming up from inside her or was drowning her, going into her.
“Get to Doll!” Dillon barked at Luke as he threw Graham Roberts in the air, away from them. “I’ve got this bastard.” Luke watched Dillon go after Graham again. Not allowing him time to recover and regain ground on them. He looked around for Doll, what he saw made his heart lurch in his chest.
She was covered in blood. So much blood. Bleeding badly, her clothing shredded with her skin, in horribly open, wide, claw marks. Luke could see muscle from how deep the alpha’s claws had cut her. And she wasn’t moving. Running to her side, Luke slid on his knees beside her, and looked her over again. She was a mess. Her eyes were closed and he lent down, turning his ear to her mouth. His heart skipped a small beat as he felt relief at the sound of very shallow, light breathing.
Bleeding Hearts Page 14
