Keeping My Pack

by Lane Whitt

  There’s a moment of stillness as if the chamber itself has paused for a breath. The only sound being Tristan, pleading for Kitten to come back to him. I focus on the anguish in his voice as a way to avoid my own. Something inside of me is telling me I’m in shock, but I ignore that as well. I force myself to look at the girl on the table and tell myself that it’s not her. It’s not Kitten up there. The filthy, blood covered body with the strange scent can’t be my girl. My girl is pretty as a picture, with soft pale skin, a killer smile and eyes full of lightning and life.

  Shouting gets mt attention and makes me aware of the chaos going on around me. Maksim is yelling in Russian as he shakes his son by the shoulders, slamming him repeatedly against the wall, while the other man cackles with insanity. Ash has decided that Adam is his new favorite chew toy and has the boy’s shoulder between his teeth as he shakes his head back and forth, trying to tear him apart. Kellan and Finn are slapping around the guy in the white coat, asking him what they did and how to fix it. The rest of my brothers have surrounded Kitten and are prodding her with their noses and whimpering or licking at her hands as they join with Tristan, trying to revive her.

  Maksim turns abruptly, pushing his son to the ground and shoving Reed out of his way to get to Kitten. Reed latches onto his leg, as he’s in wolf form, but the older man barely notices him. I watch in sick fascination as Maksim’s teeth sink into his own wrist, and he shoves it in Kitten’s lifeless mouth. My cry of outrage is lost among others. His desperate eyes implore Tristan, and I don’t realize what until it’s too late. Maksim lifts Kitten’s arm, bringing her wrist to Tristan’s mouth. A look of desperation and determination falls over his face as he makes his decision.

  “Tristan, no!” Kellan shouts.

  “It doesn’t matter! She’s dead!” Marcus laughs before his airflow is cut off by Remy pouncing on his back. He starts to speak again, but the giant red wolf silences him once more by taking his neck between his teeth.

  “It’s not too late! Change her now!” Maksim demands angrily.

  “It could kill her!” Kellan pleads.

  “She’ll die anyway!” Tristan barks back.

  His canines elongate, and he bites into her wrist forcefully.

  “No! Tristan stop! You don’t know what you’re doing!” Kellan calls out as he’s now struggling from both Jace and Finn restraining him, the man in the white coat forgotten.

  Maksim pushes Reed away from him and glares at him before slumping to the ground, presumably to let his leg heal where Reed tore through it.

  “He missed her heart, the idiot. If you all calm down, you can still hear it. It’s faint, but it’s there. My blood can heal her, not fast enough on its own, but Tristan’s bite may be able to change her in time. It’s her only option.” Maksim defends himself.

  A tear falls down Tristan’s cheek as he carefully places Kitten’s arm back down by her side. He unbuttons his shirt and places it on her, tucking the edges under her protruding ribs. She’s even slimmer than she was before. It’s obvious that she was starved as well as tortured. I’ve never been happier to have the ability to be a wolf than I am right now. Wolves can’t cry, only whimper and whine, and right now, I feel like balling my fucking eyes out.

  “How long should it take?” Finn chokes out in a raspy voice. His eyes roam over Kitten, head to foot, then back again, checking for any changes. “Should she be moving yet? Tristan, check her pulse, is it picking up?” My ears perk with the same hope I hear in his voice.

  “It could be awhile,” Maksim murmurs. “She’s been through a lot, and she’s been given too much blood recently, it will take time for my blood to heal her and then Tristan’s bonding bite to move through her.” He explains.

  The man in the white coat shifts his position and all attention snaps to him. Ash moves to roar in his face, and Maksim wipes a hand down his face. “Let’s get the Princess moved upstairs. Leave them all here for now. Don’t kill them yet. If she dies, I want the pleasure myself, and if she lives, she may want to do it herself.”

  Ash

  “We got my little one up the stairs and into a bathroom where I placed her carefully in the tub. The man in the penguin suit turned out to be Albert Rosen, the Russian’s contact, and the soon-to-be-dead-Alpha’s servant. Kellan instructed me to carry her carefully, so the blade didn’t shift in her chest. I thought we should take it out immediately, but Remy was right when he said we should get her away from those assholes.

  Keeping my eyes on her is the only thing keeping me calm right now. Knowing her abusers live only a short distance away while she may die is almost more than I can take. But she needs me, and she’s never leaving my sight again, not even in death.

  A hand lands lightly on my shoulder and my head jerks around to snap at it, my skin rippling with the need to shift.

  “Easy, Ash. It’s just me. Let me get the knife out of her so the wound can close.” Kellan’s deep green eyes are wary, and they should be. I’m barely holding on to control of my wolf. Behind him, Logan trips, shoving Kellan forward a step. He moves too quickly for my liking, and my wolf takes over immediately. My body starts to shift, my chest rumbling with a warning of imminent attack.

  “Ash!” Kellan says firmly. “I need you, man. You have a crucial job right now. I need you to listen carefully to Kitten’s heartbeat, okay?” My wolf calms a bit with his words. I have a job to do. He needs me to help Kitten.

  I take a deep breath and reverse the shift. Kellan moves carefully, but swiftly, lowering himself down next to me, keeping his eyes on me the whole time. He places his hand on the hilt of the blade and slowly pulls it up. I’ve been in bloody battles, seen good friends killed right in front of me, but I can’t make myself watch what he’s doing now. I close my eyes and bow my head; my hearing focused on the faint and erratic sound of my girl’s heart.

  Time passes, I’m not sure how much, but Tristan’s soft voice that I’ve only ever heard him use on Kitten, brings me back to the room.

  “It’s done, Ash. Why don’t you come out into the hallway with the rest of us so Kelan can clean her up a bit?” He asks.

  I shake my head, staring blankly at the lip of the tub, unable to look at the woman inside of it for fear of what I’ll see. Is blood gushing out of the wound? Has she gone paler than she already was?

  “No,” I say gruffly. “I have to stay. She needs me.”

  “Just leave him be.” Remy sighs, leading everyone but Kellan and I out and closing the door behind them.

  I listen, more than watch, as Kellan fills a small bowl in the sink and brings it and a washcloth over to the tub. He talks to her as he cleans her. Mostly telling her where he’s washing next.

  “Let’s get that pretty face all shined up, yeah? There we go. Now behind those ears, always have to wash behind the ears. You have the neck of a swan; you know that?” He prattles on. I half wonder if this is a doctor thing, or if he’s doing it for my benefit so I know what’s going on. He doesn’t mention her wounds or her womanly areas, so he either doesn’t clean them or just doesn’t speak about them.

  “Now time for those little piggies, no giggling now.” He tries for playful, but his voice sounds sad none the less.

  “No,” I grumble, snatching the washcloth from him. “I’ll do it.”

  I hold my hand out for the bowl, then take it over to the sink to wash it out, filling it with fresh water. I get a new cloth and sit next to the tub, with my back facing the rest of her body. Her tiny feet are caked with dirt and grime, her little toe missing a nail, and she has half healed scrapes, even here.

  I focus on my task, scrubbing every inch of her small feet, then doing it all over again. Tears threaten to fall, but I hold them back. I refuse to cry. It’s tough though. I failed these toes. I promised to protect them and now here they are, all messed up and broken and hurt.

  “Her toes will heal, Ash. Kitten will heal. You didn’t fail her; she’ll tell you that herself soon.” Kellan whispers. My body goes stiff as I r
ealize I was talking out loud. “I have to turn the showerhead on now, okay? We need to spray her down, and I need you to help me with her hair, Okay? Can you do that, Ash?”

  I grunt at him and set the bowl aside. Taking a deep breath, I turn around and focus on her face. Without all the dirt and blood, she looks like she’s sleeping. Her face is paler and thinner than the last time I watched her sleep, but she looks less like the murder victim she did earlier. Kellan starts the spray and adjusts the temperature to warm, bringing down the removable showerhead. I gently lift Kitten and place my arm behind her shoulders. I bring her close to me and put my other hand behind her head. My face goes to her neck, and I hug her to me. She smells different, but it’s still her. I cry silently as Kellan continues to wash her. I’ll never admit to it, but fuck if I could stop it from happening.

  Eventually, Kellan dries her hair with a towel, and I help him wrap her in a dry one and carry her with me out to the hallway. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but I could swear her heartbeat now has a steady rhythm.

  Reed

  Remy was quick to put us to work as soon as we stepped outside of the bathroom. I know there’s a lot to be done around here, but knowing that Kitten could die at any moment and I won’t be there to say goodbye, has put me on edge. The whole time she’s been missing, I’ve been trying to think with my rational mind, or at least channel Finn and his rational mind. I tried to tell myself that my brothers and I barely knew her, that she wasn’t a part of our lives for very long and we’d all be okay if we couldn’t find her. I knew I loved her from the moment she told me about her past. Even if she weren't beautiful on the outside, her soul still would be. Her kindness and ability to forgive spoke to me on a spiritual level, and I knew her shiny, happy aura was just what our family needed. She was delicate as a butterfly and strong as a lioness. Stubborn as a mule too, if you ask me, but oddly that only added to her appeal. Oh, and when the girl paints, mmm…so lovely. Her mind is a million miles away, her eyes telling a story of an old, earned by a hard life, even in one so young.

  But I digress, what I was trying to tell myself is that my family’s love for Kitten was not normal. I had sought to rationalize our relationship and my feelings for her, but I was kidding myself. We were never normal before her and even less so after she arrived in our lives. Telling myself I couldn’t possibly truly love Kitten in such a short amount of time is like the waves of the ocean telling the sand on the beach that it will never return.

  I go about my task of clearing the upper floors with one ear out for the bathroom door two stories below. The grenade launchers did a fairly good job of clearing out the top level, but I’ve found more than few men and women too strung out on drugs to care that the house was on fire. With so many humans here, I have to wonder what they’ve seen and if we can even let them all go. Marcus was obviously careless and didn’t give a damn about protecting his wolves from the humans, or all wolves actually. If humans knew we were real, they’d hunt us down and either kill us or experiment on us. Or worse, lock us up in some zoo for other humans to ogle us.

  I open the last door on this floor at the end of the hallway. It’s as big the master bedroom was at the other end, but this room holds none of Marcus’ scent. The bombs have shattered the glass out of the windows in here, along with the mirror hanging over the dresser. It reeks of stale sex, alcohol, and human blood, but underneath that, I smell the fading scent of Kitten.

  Before my heart can break at the thought of her being with a man other than my brothers and me, I calm myself and remember that I could still smell her innocents on her. I concentrate on where her smell is coming from and find myself opening the closet door and rummaging through a small cardboard box. Inside, I find a few pairs of her underwear, her scent mostly faded from them, and the jewelry I know she was wearing when she was taken.

  I pocket the gifts my brothers gave her quickly and turn to punch at the wall until my entire arm goes numb. I’m not usually a violent person, but I just can’t stand the thought of Kitten being with these monsters. This was obviously Adam’s room and who knows how long the sick bastard has been getting off on her used panties. For once, I completely understand Ash and Remy’s physical need to hurt someone. I throw the underwear in the trash by the door on the way out.

  Heading down the stairs to the second story, I almost laugh at the sight of Jace and Logan trying to keep the scantily clad, highly-drugged women off of them. I’m sure they think they are being alluring, but even if they didn’t look freshly had, they’d be barking up the wrong trees. Before Kitten came into our lives, Jace only made himself available to ice queens and women who at least played hard to get. Logan, on the other hand, only touched a woman after multiple drinks and I’m sure made love with his eyes closed. I had thought him gay for a while before having a conversation with him about how none of us would judge him if he were into men. He’d laughed heartily at that, but explained his reasons for his behavior, and I’d understood him better after that.

  “No touchy-touchy.” Logan chides a particularly aggressive woman. I go to help but cringe away from her once I notice the clear fluid running rampant down her leg.

  “Uh, I’ll just leave you guys to it,” I say, inching my way around the herd.

  “Reed! You fucker, get back here and help us get them downstairs.” Logan calls out angrily.

  It’s tempting to run away, but I can see the two of them are stressed and outnumbered.

  “Fine,” I grumble. “There’s pot brownies dusted with coke in the dining room!” I say loudly and excitedly.

  The hoard murmurs and chirps excitedly themselves before racing each other down to the first floor in a mass of stumbling limbs and glitter.

  Jace blows out a breath as he runs his hands through his hair. “Thank fuck.”

  I smirk at my brothers as they lean against the wall and regroup themselves. “First rule of drug addicts’ boys, they’re always on the hunt for their next fix.”

  “I don’t even know if I want to go down there now,” Jace says as he adjusts his lipstick-smeared and rumpled shirt.

  “Our girl is down there, and Kellan is probably almost done.” I try for playful, but my tone comes out dangerous anyway.

  Logan kicks himself away from the wall and throws an arm over my shoulders. “C’mere you beautiful bastard. You will forever be known to me as the skank wrangler from this point on.” A laugh bursts out of me, my mood lightening immediately.

  Tristan

  The house is in organized chaos as Maksim and Albert separate the faithful followers of Marcus from those that were just following Alpha orders, and getting the human females calm enough to get into vehicles and shipped off to recover elsewhere. Since the humans were drugged, there’s little chance they’ll remember any wolves or at worst, chalk it up to hallucinations. The few followers of Marcus are being directed into a different room in the basement for holding until we can figure out what to do with them.

  A howl starts up in the distance, and I swing my head to the side to listen better. My heart pounds overtime as I recognize Remy’s urgency in the howl. Shoving people out of my way, I make it to the back door and leap down the concrete steps leading to the lawn and sprint my way over to the detached pool house.

  I swallow thickly as I slow to approach Remy, who stands just outside the open door. I meet his pale eyes, thinking the worst, but I see no new pain there. “Is she alright?” I ask.

  “Same as before, though Kellan assures me she’s improving.” He answers before shifting his eyes behind me to greet the rest of my brothers who came running as I had.

  I duck through the door and am relieved to Kitten sans all the gore with a blanket tucked around her, appearing to be sleeping. I attempt to run my hand along her gorgeous, clean hair but the wolf laying across her legs snaps at my hand.

  “What the fuck, Ash?” I narrow my eyes at him.

  “It’s probably best to leave him be, for now. He’s having a difficult time reining in his emo
tions, and guarding her seems to be keeping him from killing people.” Kellan explains as he eyes the feral looking Ash warily.

  “What! No way, uh-uh fucker. She’s ours too; we missed her too.” Logan demands stubbornly behind me.

  Ash moves quickly as he jumps to his feet, his jaw snapping dangerously as he barks wildly at all of us.

  “Enough!” Remy shouts, his booming voice carrying so loudly that it hurts my ears. Ash huffs, his dark eyes narrowing at Remy as he turns his large body around on the small chase lounge and lays himself over Kitten once again. His nose nuzzles under her arm until he manages to get her hand on his head. He gave us his back, but I’m not stupid enough to think that he’s ignoring us now.

  “Fucking caveman Neanderthal asshole mother fucker,” Logan grumbles as he finds a seat on the couch next to Kellan.

  Remington closes the door with a bang. “Enough bitching and fighting for today, guys. Maksim and Albert will join us once everything is under control at the main house. Why don’t we use this time to get cleaned up and settled down? I’ve ordered our vehicles to be brought to us, so we’ll have our clothes and things momentarily.”

  Jace, of course, calls dibs on the first shower, and I make myself at home in the small kitchen located right off the living area. Maybe now the ungrateful bastards will eat something, since we have Kitten back, sort of. There’s not a whole lot to work with, but I manage to put together enough simple grilled cheese sandwiches for all of us, cut up some apple and pear slices, and make a couple pitchers of iced tea from the powdered can. It’s not my best, but the guys eat greedily, and that makes me happy. Even Ash barked until someone tossed a few sandwiches at him, which he swallowed whole.

  I grin to myself as I find a bowl in the cabinets and fill it with the ice tea. I add a few of the ice cubes, remembering when Kitten thought Finn was a dog and gave him water on the rocks because she likes ice water so dogs must like it too. I meet Finn’s eyes as I set the bowl in front of Ash, and he smirks back at me, remembering too.