Pack and Coven

by Jody Wallace

  He was going to snap Harry’s neck. Harry focused on the scar and thought about how good it must have felt to his mother to put it there. It would be the final sight he’d take to his grave.

  “No!” A body pelted into Gavin, knocking him off Harry.

  “What the hell?” Gavin tried to sling June aside, but she clung to him like a furious cat and jabbed him in the face with a twig.

  What the hell? She shouldn’t have come back. Harry crawled to his feet, gasping. There was damage to his windpipe. He couldn’t suck a full breath. Hot pokers of agony seared his lungs—broken ribs.

  “No interference from the pack.” Gavin whirled, trying to rip June off his back.

  “I’m not pack, I can do whatever I want,” she yelled.

  Gavin grabbed her hair and she squealed. “Somebody get this crazy bitch off me.”

  Her cry energized Harry. He darted in and punched Gavin in the mouth so hard it cut his hand.

  Gavin’s head whipped sideways. He remained standing, occupied now with fending Harry off instead of pulling June’s hair.

  She jabbed Gavin’s good eye with her stick.

  “This bitch is dead. They’re both dead.” He wrestled away from Harry toward the fire. “Get her off me, Bianca.”

  “Hell no, this is the best ceremony ever.” Bianca tossed a baggie of herbs into the flames while June shoved a leaf into Gavin’s mouth.

  The air around Harry bulged with shouts and sound, pushing him from every side. Then came a pop. The bonfire flared.

  Gavin bit June and she cried out, snatching her hand free. Blood dripped from her fingers. He threw her off. She skidded across the dirt toward Harry. He tried to pick her up, but pain lanced him so sharply he nearly blacked out.

  She was flat on her back, her blue eyes huge. Furious. A bruise darkened one side of her face and she clutched her hand. “Drink one of the Dixie cups.”

  Harry spotted a white cup in the hand of a shifter and ran. Gavin slammed into him from behind before he got to the edge of the circle.

  The two of them stumbled forward, crashing into the shifters who didn’t get out of the way fast enough. The coveted cup flew through the air, its contents spilling in an arc. Harry fell face-first into the pine. Branches scattered.

  Gavin kicked him in the side, breaking another rib. Harry curled up to protect himself and flexed his hands, intending to grab Gavin’s foot on the next blow.

  It landed in the center of his back instead.

  Something snapped. An agony so intense it whitened Harry’s vision swept over him. When he could see, when he could breathe again, he realized he couldn’t feel his legs.

  Gavin grabbed his hair and yanked his head up. “Something wrong, Johnny boy?” Then he let Harry’s head drop into the pine. “Choices, choices. Do I break his neck? Rip his guts out?”

  Murmurs, growls, rose around them, but the pack continued to obey custom.

  And again, June felt no such restrictions.

  She darted between Gavin and Harry, limping. Behind her back, she held a small cup, which she poured in Harry’s face. The minty liquid trickled into his mouth. He licked and swallowed, the taste more pleasant than blood and anguish.

  June, posture stiff, pointed at Gavin and Bianca both. “It doesn’t have to be like this. You choose to be savages.”

  She crouched beside Harry and put her hand on his chest. He felt another surge of magic. His whole body seemed to inflate like a balloon before it sank, back into a world of pain. Did the other shifters feel the magic? Did they realize what she’d done?

  Speaking of which, what had she done? He still hurt. He still had no sensation in his lower half.

  “It will be like this because I want it to be.” Gavin faked a lunge at her, laughing when she gasped. She still had on the nightshirt from this morning. No shoes. Her calves were scraped, dirty. Harry wanted to tell her that he loved her, that he was sorry he couldn’t save her, but no words came out of his mouth.

  The numbness in his legs crept up his body.

  “You can have the pack.” June stumbled away from Gavin. The ring of shifters watched. Waited. “Take it. Harry and I will go far away and never bother you again.”

  “But I want him dead, and what I want, I get.” Gavin spread his arms. “I’ll let you live. Maybe.”

  “Don’t touch him,” June warned.

  “How about I touch you?” He lunged again, this time with greater intent.

  She didn’t have a chance. Harry couldn’t get up. Gavin ripped June’s nightshirt and threw her onto the ground in front of Harry. He could smell her blood, even through his own.

  He could sense her pain, her determination.

  “It’s okay. They’re here. I know what to do,” she whispered before Gavin dragged her across the dirt, her fingers raking the surface.

  Harry couldn’t tear his gaze away. Gavin kneeled and hoisted June’s hips into the air even as she fought him. He leaned over her body and grabbed her neck. “How do you want him to see it, bitch? You want to suck it or take it up the ass?”

  Harry felt his hackles stir and anger twist through his body. A different anger. A protective one. His nails bit into his flesh as he fisted his hands. The ground rumbled. He realized he was growling so deeply it hurt his throat.

  Why was no one helping her? This wasn’t part of the challenge.

  “Let go of me.” June glanced at Harry, her face pale. Almost greenish.

  Gavin shook her. Her hair tumbled around her face as she bounced forward, hiding her expression. “No can do. Johnny needs to understand who’s in charge here before I kill him.” He raised his voice. “This whole pack needs to understand I make the rules now.”

  Voices buzzed in Harry’s ears. He snarled—at Gavin, at all the shifters standing around, letting this happen. His wrath intensified when no one intervened.

  Gavin bent over June’s struggling form, one hand securing her hair. His scar blazed like fire, twisting his face into a demonic mask. “You think you can save her? Well, get up. Come on. Save her. Fate worse than death. I’m going to pound her so hard she bleeds.”

  Harry tried. Shards of agony lanced down his legs. He welcomed it. He’d figured they would stay numb until he shifted—if he ever shifted again.

  Gavin unlaced his breechclout, his dick popping free. “How’s her hole, loser? Is she tight and hot or is she a flappy whore?”

  “Oh, Goddess. That’s just… I’m going to be sick.” June convulsed and vomited, greenish liquid spewing from her mouth.

  Raising his head, and thankful he had the mobility to do it, Harry glanced around. The pack was transfixed. Many appeared uneasy or angry. Was it standard procedure for their alpha to rape and murder as he pleased? He’d known the Millington pack was primitive, but not degenerate and evil.

  “Somebody stop this,” Harry managed.

  Gavin cuffed June in the head. “Quit puking.”

  Whispers. Rustling. As the pack stared with growing revulsion at Gavin, no one except Harry noticed coven members dressed in camouflage snatching Dixie cups off the ground before disappearing into the shadows.

  What was going on?

  Harry’s feet began to tingle. His next breath hurt less than the previous one.

  June shuddered one last time before spitting on the ground. Gavin watched her with disgust on his face. “You make me sick.”

  “That’s the idea,” she croaked, a sly smile on her face.

  Gavin smacked her thigh and grabbed her panties. “You think a little puke will stop me after you broke my pack rules?”

  “Whoa now.” Bianca, finally, approached. “It’s not your pack yet.”

  Gavin glanced at her but kept a hold on June. “You’re a lot of trouble, you know that, B? First I have to convince Pop to leave Roanoke so we can help your incompetent ass find the runner you lost. Then I find Harry when you can’t, and I let him go because he’s not worth crap. You need me.”

  “You didn’t come to help with the loc
kdown. You came because you thought you had a chance at pack alpha.” Behind Bianca, several figures broke rank and stood silhouetted against the flickering bonfire. “Douglas is desperate to get you out of his pack without banishing you. He had to be desperate, to come deep into my territory and pull this stunt with you. Don’t pretend to be noble.”

  Gavin pushed June into the dirt and shoved his foot in her back. Harry caught her gaze. She didn’t seem as horrified as he would have expected.

  “That may be true,” Gavin drawled, “but how about after I kill your precious Harry, I walk? You ran Dad off this morning, so I’ve got a day before I lose my juice. Mom would take me back, no matter what Pop wants. Then your whole pack will dissolve around you and you won’t be able to do a thing about it.”

  Bianca startled, as if that hadn’t occurred to her. “You wouldn’t.”

  “Good God, B, do you think nobody knows you set Bert up? Like I want to be next on your hit list.”

  She paced out of Harry’s view, her voice uncharacteristically tentative. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You tipped off the cops when he was on the job.”

  “He was my husband. That’s ridiculous.” She returned to stand between the shifters who’d broken rank, her back to Gavin. The bonfire danced. An owl called. No one else in the circle so much as whispered.

  Harry didn’t think it sounded ridiculous. He just wondered why it hadn’t occurred to him before.

  “I overheard the cops talking when I was at that old bat’s house. Not hard to put two and two together.” Gavin noticed June raising her head and pushed her face back into the dirt.

  Bianca conferred with the others, one grabbing her shoulder urgently. They changed position enough that Harry could see it was Susan, which probably made the other one Violet.

  While Gavin gloated, Harry bent his legs. His ribs tortured him, but the paralysis he’d feared seemed to be fading. He fingered his midsection, assessing the damage. Would he be able to attack Gavin one last time?

  “It doesn’t matter, anyway.” Gavin smacked June’s ass. Harry gathered himself to lunge. God, this was going to hurt. “I got me a new alpha bitch here. If you don’t make me real happy, Bianca, you’re not the only one who has a hit list.”

  Bianca stalked toward him. “I won’t allow this.”

  “Heard that one before. You don’t have a choice. I’m in charge unless you want to lose the pack, and I’m going to—” He paused, shutting his mouth with a deep frown. “I am going to—”

  Vomit.

  Gavin threw up green bile, and June scrambled out of the way, straight to Harry.

  “Temporary,” she murmured. “Be ready.” She patted his hips, finding the pill bottle in his jeans pocket. She withdrew it and fed them both one.

  Harry gagged it down, the dry swallow difficult.

  “What the hell have you and June been eating?” Bianca asked.

  “I haven’t—” Gavin puked again, a third time, a fourth time. A lot more than June had. He clutched his stomach and moaned.

  His misery invigorated Harry. That or the pill. Relief coursed through his tortured limbs. It was like…

  Magic.

  June tugged his hand. He rolled to his feet. Energy filled him, energy and power like he’d never felt before. The coven’s restoratives were amazing.

  He turned to the closest man wearing clothes. There weren’t many. They all had to shift at the end of the ceremony, and clothes were a hindrance.

  “Give her your shirt.” He motioned toward June, who’d wrapped her arms around her bare breasts.

  The man obeyed without question.

  Gavin bent with his hands on his knees, heaving. Harry tested his ribs. The pain barely registered.

  “You have to kill him,” Bianca said to Harry conversationally. “It’s what you came here to do.”

  “I came for June.” He’d intended to sacrifice himself, one way or another, but June’s safety was paramount.

  Bianca shrugged. “Same difference.”

  “Not sure about that.” Harry’s heart thumped against his chest as he considered Gavin, weakened by whatever June had done. Did the pack realize there was a supernatural force involved in Gavin’s condition?

  It seemed unfair to defeat a man handicapped by magic. Of course it also seemed unfair to defeat him using a gun, but now Harry didn’t need it. He didn’t even need to shift to heal his injuries.

  What was in that pill? Would it last? He had to free June and get himself instated as alpha as quickly as possible.

  Harry turned to Bianca. “She walks or I don’t step up.”

  Bianca straightened. “She walks.”

  “You can’t be pack alpha.” June tugged his arm. “You and me, Harry, we’ll go somewhere. Canada. South America. You don’t want to be pack. This isn’t fair.”

  He cupped her sweet face in his hands and kissed her forehead. Her breath smelled oddly of mountain laurel. “I promised your friends. This is the bargain I made. I’m taking Gavin’s place.”

  “Harry’s not going anywhere,” Bianca said.

  “You don’t need my friends’ help. I’ll help you. Don’t do this,” June begged. Tears glistened on her eyelashes as she fought not to cry. “I’ll lose you. We’ll lose each other.”

  “Girl, can the melodrama,” Bianca said with an exasperated sigh. “You can be with your boyfriend all you want. I don’t care. I’m not going to marry him. I just need him to balance the pack.”

  “She’s definitely not going to marry him,” Susan added. She and Violet had followed Bianca from the fire to support their alpha.

  No marriage, no argument, no issues with him having a girlfriend. Was the pack more modern than he realized? If so, why had they allowed the brutal pack challenge and Gavin’s abuse of June to go on as long as it had?

  The whole situation infuriated Harry. He was going to be a terrible alpha, but at least June and the witches would be safe. It was in the coven’s best interest to have a sympathetic alpha in charge. One they could bend to their will, which he hoped was benign.

  He trusted June and Annette, but Vern was another story.

  “June won’t be joining us,” Harry informed everyone. “She is going to walk out of here and nobody is going to stop her.” He eyed Gavin, gasping for air. Gavin would be confined until he got severed from his old pack and lost his powers. The men who’d planned to join up with him could get the hell back to Roanoke. In fact, they must have already sensed the tenor of the group, because they were no longer in the circle.

  June shook her head. “I’m not leaving you.”

  “Yes, you are.” Harry felt powerful enough to command a regiment. He allowed his alpha side free reign. Unfair advantage? He didn’t care about that any more than he’d cared about running. Changing his name. Cultivating grannies in a tea room. Looking like a coward with a gun. The only thing that mattered was keeping her safe.

  To his surprise, June turned on her heel and started walking, a stricken expression on her face. She didn’t even hug him goodbye.

  A pang struck his heart. He ignored it.

  “Whoa. I noticed that a minute ago,” Bianca commented, her eyebrows raised. She was actually surprised; he could smell it. “Spoken like you’re already a pack alpha. You are independent, right?”

  “You know I am.” Harry watched June tiptoe through the ring, fighting every step—but stepping away from him. Another couple of feet. Another. Would he ever see her again?

  “You haven’t always been. According to Gavin your name’s John Lapin.”

  “That doesn’t change anything.”

  “True. But…” Taking him by surprise, Bianca swiped a finger through a rivulet of blood on his face and stuck it into her mouth.

  “What are you doing?” Blood exchange was sometimes part of a bonding ritual. He hoped he didn’t have to bite anyone. He’d tasted enough blood for one night.

  In the corner of his eye, he noticed June strugglin
g at the pine barrier. Her gaze was focused on something in the woods, something he couldn’t see, even with vision that seemed preternaturally accurate.

  Hearing that seemed exceptionally sharp.

  The scents coming to him were as distinct as when he was in wolf form.

  The coven surrounded them. When he concentrated, he could hear them. Smell them. Each one, familiar to him. Each one, almost a part of him, in some way he didn’t understand.

  His skin, everything inside him, sizzled with power. It flowed into him from his feet. From the air. From inside.

  “You’re not independent. You’re too strong.” Bianca backed away, halting between her seconds. “What are you?”

  “What am I?” Harry inhaled, exhaled. All the scent markers in the area were like beacons. He would never forget a single one of these people. “I’m your alpha-to-be, just like you wanted. Come over here and let’s get this over with.”

  She lurched forward at his command, stopping herself with some effort. “This isn’t right. I don’t want someone who can—”

  “Who can what?” Harry grasped her arm, not hard, but enough to keep her in place. “Why did you hunt me? The truth this time.”

  “Because you’re weak,” Bianca confessed through gritted teeth.

  “You thought I was weak? Pathetic?” That might not have offended Harry a day ago, but it offended the hell out of him now. Strength flowed through him like ocean currents. “Surprise.”

  She cast her gaze at Susan, who radiated distress.

  “Harry, you don’t understand,” Bianca continued, a bit desperately. “No one thinks you’re pathetic. We picked you because you were our guarantee. We didn’t want the risks involved the application process, and we didn’t want another Bert who expected to rule the pack. Me. Everything.”

  He stared at her, not sure he was hearing her right. This was a whole new level of canniness on Bianca’s part. “You picked me because you wanted a figurehead?”

  “Most male alphas are archaic, at least the ones who want to be pack alphas. We hoped you’d step back and let us handle things.”