Rosko, Mandy - The Wolf's Pack [Sequel to Mate of the Wolf] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Mandy Rosko

  That was all he needed, and he walked in the same direction as the other alpha and Deena.

  You should go with them, Michael said, and the sound of his voice inside of her mind startled her. They hadn’t spoken like this in so long.

  I want to stay with you. She couldn’t bear the thought of being alone in that house, even though there were so many other people. She couldn’t explain it, but she just needed—

  I understand. We’ll be quick about this.

  Michael’s stance shifted, his eyes locking onto the peepers of the other remaining alphas, and apart from Alex, everyone either got up from where they knelt or turned about-face to go back to the house. A silent command to his pack.

  Shelley hadn’t known he could do that. There were lots of things she apparently still didn’t know, but it wasn’t so far-fetched, considering he could mindspeak with her. Even Cal did as he was told. That, however, could be because, as a wolf, he was more prone to obey the commands of his superior, even if he didn’t like that superior.

  “Are you going to kill her?” Shelley asked. She wasn’t sure which outcome she was hoping for in this fucked-up situation.

  The wolves and men were still in earshot, still within sight, as they left the sad yellow light surrounding the crash site. No one turned back at her words this time, as if they already knew what was going to happen.

  That gave Shelley all sorts of messed-up mental images.

  Don’t worry. Michael’s voice was calm in her head, a soothing balm. But it was only a slight fix over a burning desire to know what the hell was coming next.

  Alex got to his feet, stepping away from the unconscious vampire. Jake picked her up and hoisted her over his shoulder, fireman-style.

  “I’ll give you twenty-four hours before putting a howl out,” Michael said.

  What the hell?

  Jake clutched Pearl’s legs tightly to his chest. Shelley didn’t know why she suddenly registered that the vampire’s ass was shaped like a heart. Her head was definitely messed up. Too many bad things happening.

  “Thank you,” Jake said, silent tears flowing down his cheeks. He looked like he was walking to his own execution on Christmas morning.

  “Her car still looks good,” Alex said. “You should probably dump it after a couple of miles. The vamps don’t have much to say about her, but she is still aristocracy, and they might come looking. If not for her then definitely their property.”

  What the hell? she thought again.

  “Especially considering the mission she was on,” Michael added with a hardly pleased grumble.

  When Jake nodded and made for the silver Porsche, Shelley could take no more. “Wait, wait, he’s leaving? With her?”

  No one answered her, and Jake didn’t stop. He gingerly placed Pearl in the passenger side of the car before moving on to the wreck of the animal transpo truck. He avoided the blood, glass, and vampire bodies as he picked up one of the broken-off cage doors before going back to the car. He yanked Pearl’s hands out and twisted the metal around her wrists, tight as a set of cuffs.

  Alex appeared next with a pair of pants in his hands. They were dark, like they came from a suit.

  Ew. He’d gotten them off of one of the dead vamps.

  Jake took them without a word and put them on. They were so tight he couldn’t do up the button at the top.

  He got into the driver side of the car. Shelley hadn’t known he knew how to drive. He started the car.

  “Wait, Jake!” Shelley ran to him. “You don’t have to leave. You could stay. Something can be worked out!”

  Michael grabbed her shoulders. It was like she’d run into a brick wall with an extra three feet of steel to reinforce it, for all the strength she had against him. “You can’t make him go! Jake, don’t leave!”

  Chris was gone. She couldn’t let Jake go, too. Not with Pearl.

  Jake didn’t answer her or even spare her a glance as he put the car in gear and drove off. When Pearl had stopped the car, she hadn’t even bothered to pull over. He could just go, and he did, the car vrooming off into the night, quick, smooth, and clean. The rear red lights became smaller and dimmer as he drove farther and farther away.

  Shelley called after him for as long as she thought he’d be able to hear her, but the sound of the engine faded as the driver put distance between himself and his pack.

  The drop in her stomach went on forever. It was like another one of her adopted brothers had just died. She wanted to collapse and cry. It was only proof of her own strength that she held back her tears and rounded on Michael.

  “Why did you make him go? Why did you make him leave with her? She’ll kill him!”

  “She’ll force him to kill more of us,” Michael said, his features as emotionless as his voice. Somehow that made the long scratches running a diagonal track over his eyes, nose, and cheek all the more prominent.

  And that just pissed Shelley off more.

  “She’s going to murder him in his sleep. Why didn’t you just kill her?”

  That got a reaction out of him. His brows came together, teeth bared, fists clenched, and body as tense as the air after an inappropriate joke. It wasn’t an explosive eruption of anger or shock, but definitely something.

  The unnerving thing was that Shelley had never seen him angry with her before.

  First for everything, they said.

  “You didn’t want us to kill her anymore than he did.”

  True, but… “Why did you make him leave?” Now she was crying, and doing that in front of two macho werewolves only made her feel weak and small and totally out of place.

  It got to the point where she could barely see through her tears. The world was a dark blur with only the butter-colored artificial light of the streetlamp to light the way.

  Strong hands gripped her shoulders and pulled her into a warm embrace. She was angry as hell and wanted nothing more than to punch and kick at him for banishing Jake, but Shelley found herself hugging him back and hanging on.

  Michael smoothed her hair in long, soothing strokes that centered her in ways she hadn’t thought possible. Was this how he felt when she petted him as the wolf?

  “I sent him away for the same reason I can’t stay the head alpha. I gave him a full day before I sent the word out so he could get as far away with her as possible.”

  “You sent out a howl on him. What is that?” Shelley asked.

  “It’s a banishment and a warning. If he’s ever caught on any pack land, ours or otherwise, members of that pack have free rein to hunt him, and anyone with him, down. Even our wolves know to keep away from that kind of hostile territory, and it’s the only thing I could think of to keep Pearl from coming back here with him,” Michael said, his mouth coming closer to her ear. He was taking comfort from her as well. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry this had to happen.”

  She didn’t respond. She just molded herself to his chest, her body greedily taking in his strength until everything was far away and distant. She suddenly felt so tired.

  She was vaguely aware of Alex’s voice. “Michael, we need to get this stuff off the road.”

  That was right. The totaled vehicle and vamp car and the twisted bodies. The road they were on was still a private one, but there was always the one-in-a-million chance that someone could take that wrong turn that would leave them witness to the highly difficult-to-explain carnage.

  In a world where werewolves and vampires existed, anything was possible.

  Something would have to be done. Shelley wanted to help them with the cleanup, but her body was clocking out. She was fried for energy and couldn’t spare the strength to pull away from Michael and get started.

  The earth suddenly left her feet as she was engulfed in a warm heat, and the sound of Michael’s commanding voice penetrated her brain without offering her the actual words he used.

  Shelley couldn’t even make herself care that she was slipping away anymore until she was finally gone.

  Chapt
er Ten

  Shelley woke up to the sun in her face, then flew up as awareness crashed down on her.

  Mistake.

  Her legs were tangled in the comforter, like a boa wrapped around her lower body, and she went down hard on the carpeted floor of her room, a tiny scream escaping her lips before it was cut off by the ground hitting her chest.

  She had no time for this. She fought with the damned thing, kicking her legs and yanking the blanket away from her. Apart from her shoes, she was still wearing the clothing she’d had on the night before, which was no help as her jeans seemed to cling to the other fabrics like Velcro.

  With one last hard kick, she managed to get the heavy blanket off. She shot to her feet and hoofed it out of the room before launching herself down the hall.

  She’d fainted. Like the most worthless human being on the planet, she’d punched her ticket and created another problem for Michael to handle without even helping with the cleanup or staying with Deena, who had by far experienced more tragedy than Shelley had last night.

  All the doors to the guest rooms were closed. The other pack members were still recovering from last night’s exertion, mourning the loss of those who’d died, or sleeping.

  The sun was bright this morning, but the chill in the air and one quick look out the nearest window told her it was only dawn.

  She went to the kitchen first, since, apart from the billiards room, it was the main place of gathering.

  Yup, spot on deduction there, Holmes. Sitting around the circular table that made up the breakfast nook, Michael was overlooking a map, and Alex, Cal, and even the bald-headed werewolf whose name she couldn’t remember stood circled around with him, each male freshly showered and shaved, from the looks of their gleaming skin and smooth faces.

  Guess that meant the cleanup on the road and burying the vampire bodies part of the night was all done. What made it all worse was the way they looked at her, as though they understood and weren’t mad at all for her uselessness.

  It was weird how it would’ve been so much better if someone had just yelled at her or something.

  Michael left the table and the men around it and went to her. His arm was bandaged from where Jake had sliced him with his teeth, but the scratches on his face were already scabbing and healing. “How you feeling?” His big hands found her shoulders then slid up her neck in a comforting near massage.

  She didn’t want him to have to comfort her all the time. She wanted to be there for him too, and not just because she needed to prove she could handle this new life. “I was wondering the same about all of you.”

  Michael’s face took on that of a man stunned with the whole wide eyes, mouth opening kind of thing, but that lasted for about one and half seconds before a warm smile took the place of all that. The problem was that Shelley could always tell when someone faked a smile. She knew because she used to do it all the time for a living.

  “We’re holding up.”

  Someone cleared their throat back at the table, the awkward, remember us? sound. It got Michael’s attention back to their group.

  His next look to her was apologetic, and that wasn’t being faked.

  “Do what you need to do. Where’s Deena?”

  “Her room. I’ll be here if you need me.”

  “Right,” she nodded, almost afraid to ask. She licked her lips and worked up the courage. “What about Chris and Isaac?”

  Although she barely knew Isaac, didn’t know the kid at all, in fact, it seemed only prudent to ask about him too, being that Cal was in the room and she didn’t want to be insensitive to him.

  Cal looked away at the mention of his younger cousin’s name.

  “Their funerals are in a couple of hours,” Michael answered. “You should see Deena.”

  She nodded, lifted herself onto her toes to plant a kiss on his mouth, one that she allowed to linger for a couple of seconds before coming back down, then left the men to their revenge planning.

  His words almost lifted her spirits, but there was no place for happiness where she was going. Her best friend needed her, and she needed to make sure Deena survived her loss. God knew Shelley wouldn’t have been able to survive it if Michael had been taken so abruptly from her.

  Just the thought that she was never going to see Chris again, when yesterday morning things had been as normal as apple pie between them, was enough to make her chin tremble and eyes sting.

  No. She needed to be the strong one. She needed to mourn with Deena, comfort her, not burst out sobbing in front of the one person who was in the most pain. Hell, even Cal was handling the whole day-after thing a lot better than Shelley was, and Isaac was his little cousin.

  Shelley found her knuckles rapping on the door to Chris and Deena’s room all too quickly.

  Her little whisper taps barely made a sound. The coward inside of her hoped Deena would be sleeping or something. Going comatose to avoid the pain of a lost loved one seemed like a great idea. Maybe it was why Shelley had shut down like she had.

  The door clicked softly, the lock from the inside being unbolted, then the door seemed to exhale as it opened just enough to reveal the lonely inhabitant of the room.

  Deena appeared like a ghost on the other side, her body half-hidden by the door, eyes sunken, red, and darkly rimmed. Her pink hair was flat and dull today, and her tweenager beaded jewelry and unicorn earrings were gone. Stale air wafted out from the space within as though her windows and shutters were closed up so tight nothing fresh could come inside.

  Of course. What in the freaking the hell did Shelley think she was going to say that would reverse this?

  She felt like a total idiot.

  A tiny squeak did manage to get past her tongue. “Hey.”

  The sound Deena made in response was pretty much the same. “Hey.”

  “May I come in?” she asked, too depressed to be proud of the fact that she’d spoken properly.

  Deena hesitated, using the door as her crutch, then nodded, stepped aside, and opened the door a fraction more so Shelley could slip in.

  One look at the open suitcases, half-filled already, and Shelley wanted to cry.

  She valiantly held it back. “Where’re you going?” she asked. She walked to the bed, as though getting a better look at the packed luggage would convince her they were there for some other reason. She looked up, and yup, the dressers were open and empty. Everything that had once sat on the tops of them, pictures, assorted makeup, even Chris’s NGP and robot Schwarzenegger action figure were gone.

  Only a couple of things belonging to Chris remained inside the open closet, from what Shelley could see. His video games were still stacked beside the TV. Shelley had no doubt that if she checked the bathroom, Chris’s toiletries and electric razor would still be there.

  Maybe Deena was leaving it all for when she came back. Maybe she was leaving it because she wanted Alex and Michael to have something of their friend’s, too.

  Or maybe there just wasn’t any room in her luggage to take any of it yet.

  “I figured I should get out of here before Michael had to ask me to go,” Deena said.

  Shelley spun on her. “What? Deena you need to stay here. The funeral…And Michael would never kick you out, not ever.”

  A cynical smile touched Deena’s pale lips. It vanished pretty fast. “I keep forgetting you’ve been here only a month.”

  “Which has what to do with anything?” Shelley demanded, no longer caring about being gentle when her friend was talking about leaving. “You need, I don’t know, some moral support or something. You shouldn’t be on your own right now, Deena.” Shelley put her hands on Deena’s arms—they were so cold—and tried to do the whole soothing, rubbing motion. Deena’s countenance remained miserable. “Stay here with me.”

  Deena’s chest rose and fell in a sudden, rapid succession, and here it came, Shelley thought, the flow of tears that she had to brace herself for so she could offer the support that Deena would desperately need.

&nb
sp; They didn’t come. The other woman’s eyes became diamond bright as the tears threatened to take over, but whatever dam inside her eyes held up. Nothing came.

  “I am going to stay for the funeral. I won’t leave until after, but the only thing keeping their wolves from ripping me up is Chris’s scent. Soon it’s not going to be here to protect me. I need to leave.”

  “What about…” Shelley couldn’t say the word for fear of any sort of negative reaction, so she just motioned with a limp hand to Deena’s belly.

  Way too much, it seemed. Deena’s face crumpled, and she put her hand over her face before sinking down onto her bed. She sucked in a sharp breath through her nose then wiped her face with the backs of her hands and her palms, but she couldn’t keep up with the flow.

  “There’s no baby. I started my menstrual cycle this morning.”

  Shelley fell onto the bed with her, wrapped her arms around Deena’s suddenly thin shoulders, and hugged her with all the strength she possessed.

  She kissed Deena’s pink hair, made shushing sounds and hopeful promises, but everything was empty and worthless, for all the good it did.

  * * * *

  Shelley left Deena’s room a little under an hour later. Deena cried to her heart’s content, but there was no way she’d have gotten all of that emotion out of her in one go. She had a road ahead of her so horrible that Shelley didn’t even want to contemplate it. Let alone the fact that she would be facing it alone.

  Deena hadn’t wanted any help packing her things, and truthfully, Shelley didn’t want to help her leave, either. There was only one place she wanted, needed, to be.

  Despite his claim to remain in the kitchen, Michael and the others had taken their little meeting into the billiards room. They were all sitting around the circular, dark wood coffee table in their leather chairs, making Shelley think of a sort of mashed-up knights of the round table.

  They looked beat, and their shoulders sagged. Cal was rubbing his face with his palm, and no one was really speaking, but they all looked up as Shelley came into their space.