by Flynn, Donna
“Don’t even think about that. I will make this work somehow,” he told her. Mercy turned and stared up at him, looking so fragile he couldn’t help but pull her to him and hold her close.
“I don’t want to go into this blind. You need to tell me everything that could happen so I know what to expect,” she said wearily. He was trying to protect her. To keep her from worrying, but the unknown was far more worrisome than anything he could tell her. “Please, Alec, I need to know.”
Alec knew he couldn’t keep her in the dark; she had the right to know what they were facing, but a part of him feared she would not believe he had the ability to win her if it came down to fighting. He took a deep breath and explained, despite his reservations. “The council will most likely detain you until they make a decision. If we are lucky, maybe enough of them have decided that our bond is more important the old laws. If not, every pack will have the right to put forth one of their own to fight for the chance to bond with you.”
His fingers rubbed hers nervously. Mercy clasped them with her free hand and looked up meeting his gaze, realizing he needed her support more than ever. “So if it comes to that, you just have to win and we can be together forever right?” He nodded and she smiled, hugging him close. “Good, then there is nothing I need to worry about.”
Alec was shocked by how easily she believed he would win. He had thought she would worry, beg him not to fight, but instead she seemed to calmly accept that the outcome would be in his favor and that everything would work out. It was so unlike the old Mercy that he was speechless, but the moment she reached up and pulled his head to hers and their lips met, he realized didn’t need to use words anyway.
*****
From the woods, a figure watched, her porcelain white skin luminescent in the moon light that broke through the tree branches that towered above her. Her hands were clenched as she watched the young couple on the porch, jealousy for what they shared making her body tremble. She had been sent to ensure the Born Were didn’t run or that her mate didn’t try to bond with her before she met with the Elders. It was not a job she had wanted. The idea of tearing apart two Weres who had found each other, gnawed at her.
“I miss the forest back home,” Wren said behind her.
“Me too, but the Elders were very clear. Until they arrive, we must stay.”
The males hand fell upon her shoulder and she whirled on him, teeth gnashing as she snarled. A jolt of electricity flooded her at his touch and she despised her body for the reaction it had to him. “Do not ever touch me again, Wren, or I will end your miserable life without a thought.”
Wren pulled his hand back, and stared at her quizzically. “I have never seen you this tense, Jaden, what is going on?”
Jaden looked to the couple on the porch and frowned. “Do you ever wonder if it is real?”
“What?” Wren asked following her gaze, still not understanding.
“The idea that there is one perfect Were for you, the only one who can make you whole?” She watched as Alec stroked Mercy’s check tenderly, causing a ripple of jealousy to go through her. They seemed so perfect for one another and she resented that fate had made it that way for them when they made her own mate so very wrong for her.
“I have never seen it,” he told her, looking doubtful.
“Me either, until I saw these two together.” Jaden said quickly, unwilling to let him see her own feelings for him. “Look at them. See how he instinctively knows how to soothe her. She is no different: as scared as she is, she believes in him and doesn’t doubt for one second he will be the one who wins her.” She watched Alec gather Mercy in his arms and carry her into the house as if she were the most precious thing in the world to him and felt a warmth spread through her that she had never felt before. Many times she had dreamed of Wren doing the same thing to her, but ever would she admit that to the womanizing male before her.
“I think you’re crazy,” Wren sneered.
Jaden didn’t even bother to respond, Wren didn’t believe in love. He was a notorious womanizer who jumped from one woman to another. On assignment that could be helpful when they needed to get close to their targets, but for some reason his constant womanizing was annoying her more than ever on their assignment. Maybe it was the fact that everyday she was confronted with two mates so obviously meant for one another. Or maybe it was just that she was ready for that kind of relationship in her life, but either way it was getting to her.
“Let’s get out of here and let the others keep watch, we have a big day tomorrow,” he said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “I would imagine there will be a lot of hot girls at that high school and I intend to sample as many as possible before we leave here.”
“Our mission here is not to fool around with the locals, Wren. We were sent to ensure that the Born Were remains where she is and is kept safe until the Elders arrive.”
“Whatever,” he said, shifting easily to his wolf form, staring up at her with canine eyes as dark night.
“You’re such a jerk,” she told him, calling upon her own wolf, and shifting seamlessly into a stark white wolf before running off through the forest, howling loudly to let the others know she was leaving.
Wren’s wolf paused, looking back at the house seeing the girl’s light turn on as her mate walked off the porch stairs, smiling happily despite the circumstance they were facing. Maybe, he thought, there was something to the whole Bond Mate thing, not that it mattered to him. There was no way he was being tied down to one female for the rest of his days, no way in hell!
*****
Mason watched the female and her partner leave the clearing from the spot where he rested high up in an old evergreen covering his scent with its bountiful fragrance. The male was a cocky little piece of work who needed to be put in place by some she-wolf who wouldn’t put up with his crap, but the female was different. She seemed to care about Alec and Mercy, which he found interesting given the fact she was there to split them up.
“Mason,” Alec called from beneath the tree.
Shocked Alec had found him so easily and took him by surprise Mason climbed down and shifted back to his human form. “How did you know where I was?”
Alec smiled. “You’re not as hard to figure out as you think you are, now that I am getting to know you.”
Mason grimaced. He prided himself on the fact he could blend in wherever he went, but Alec had figured him out in a very short time. Either he was slipping or Alec was just that good; neither option made him happy. “What can I do for you?”
“You could try putting on some clothes and following me to my house.”
Mason bristled at his command. He wasn’t part of Alec’s pack and he didn’t take orders from anyone.
Alec realized almost immediately, what he had done and turned to face Mason with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I’m used to issuing orders, not asking favors.”
Mason felt some of his initial anger leave him and he nodded.
“I need your help, and trusting you is not easy given I know very little about you, but this is for Mercy and she believes in you so I am hoping her instincts are right.”
“I would do anything for her. She is the first of our kind to ever believe in me. I won’t let you down,” he promised.
“Good, because we don’t have much time before Graduation and I need to make plans.”
“Whatever you need, I’m there for you,” Mason said solemnly.
“That’s great to hear, because no one knows this forest like you and that is crucial to my plan.”
The two males walked back to Alec’s house and talked well into the night before Mason left and Alec finally went to bed. He was preparing for anything that might happen and Mason was crucial to his plans if things should go wrong. He was the only one who knew the forest like the back of his hand and the only one who could get Mercy out of there if the council decided to go through with the challenge and he should lose.
Chapter Eight
Alec was leaning a
gainst Mercy’s locker the next morning wearing the stupid mask she had insisted he put on for the masquerade-themed day, when he felt the first stirrings of an unfamiliar presence in the hall. Immediately his body was on full alert, and his eyes scanned the area for anyone that was not what they seemed. His gaze fell upon a small, dark-haired girl who walked next to a tall muscularly built male who eyed every girl he passed as if he were in a candy shop. He quickly noted Rich’s body tense across the hall as he watched the female approach and looked to Mason who was also staring at the newcomers with interest. The girl looked his way and smiled. her pale complexion making her appear innocent and doll-like. He frowned, moving protectively in front of Mercy as she approached them.
“Alec, right?” the female asked, looking past him to Mercy who, sensing his unrest, had turned to stare at the newcomer.
Although taken back by the female’s forwardness Alec wasn’t fooled. She was one of the Elders’ puppets and he wasn’t in the mood to play her games. “Is it not bad enough you’ve surrounded her house, now you’re going to plague her at school too?” he growled.
Jaden frowned. She had hoped for a better reception, but given the fact they were working for the people trying to take his mate away she understood his anger. “Wren and I were sent to ensure Mercy’s safety until graduation. I can assure you we are no threat to her.”
“You work for the Elders, so right now you are the biggest threat to her.” Alec clenched his fists at his sides angrily as he stared down at her with contempt.
Jaden was getting nowhere with the overly protective male and decided to try a different tactic. She looked past his shoulder to his mate instead. “Mercy, right?”
Mercy nodded, placing her hand on Alec’s back to calm him. “Alec, this is not the place for this, let’s just get to class before we are late”
Alec turned and looked down on Mercy feeling her calming influence wash over him. He grabbed her hand bringing it to his mouth and kissing the back of it before reaching behind her and slamming her locker closed, then turned back to the female and her escort. “Back off, she has until graduation to enjoy her freedom and I intend to see she does,” he growled, placing his arm around Mercy’s back and escorting her down the hall.
“That was smooth,” Wren said behind Jaden.
Jaden watched Alec pull Mercy close to his side; then he leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her head before looking back at her with a snarl. “It went better than I expected, I thought for sure he would kick your butt.” He looked stunned and she smiled, patting his cheek, then walked off down the hall following the path Alec had taken, leaving Wren to catch up.
*****
Alec’s body stiffened, as the Elders’ female guard walked into class handing the teacher a paper before taking a seat across the room where she had a perfect view of them. He rose to his feet ready to confront her, but Mercy placed a staying hand on his arm and shook her head.
“Alec don’t, it won’t change anything. She is just following the Elders’ orders and if it wasn’t her, there would be someone else.”
Alec sat back down, but glared daggers at the petite female across the room.
Gina came rushing in and took the seat next to Mercy’s looking frazzled and out of sorts, earning her friend’s immediate attention. “What’s going on?” Mercy asked, unused to seeing Gina so flustered.
“This jerk in the hall who thinks he’s God’s gift to women stopped me and offered to make my day.” She rolled her eyes. “As if I haven’t heard that a million times from the Neanderthals around here.”
Mercy watched her friend with a knowing eye and smiled. Gina liked to have the upper hand and a male who was aggressive tended to aggravate her.
The door to class opened and in walked Wren who had been with the little dark-haired female in the hall. He looked to Gina with a devastating smile, and she clenched the desk on either side, glaring back at him.
Mercy noted the male who ogled Gina, but thankfully, Alec was still busy glaring at the female guard and had yet to notice or he would have used it as an excuse to start a fight between them.
*****
“What did you do now?” Jaden asked Wren, as Mercy’s friend glared at him repeatedly throughout the class.
Wren looked to the beauty who had caught his eye and waved, earning a thunderous glare, and turned back to Jaden. “I didn’t know she was friends with the Born Were, but she’s cute and I offered her my services.”
Jaden glared him. “You idiot, stop thinking about girls and start thinking about watching over the redhead, she’s the one we are here for.”
He looked to where the stunning redhead sat with her mate’s arm around her back as they studied together and shook his head. “Do you really think anything is going to happen to her while he’s around? Look at them. They are inseparable. I bet he would kill anyone who dared to touch her.”
Jaden’s gaze moved to where Alec and Mercy sat, she watched them interact with one another, anticipating each other’s movements and adjusting themselves accordingly to the other’s needs. It was sweet the way they were with one another and she felt sorry for them. The council was using Mercy’s Born Were status for their own agenda and they would not allow them to be together without Alec having to fight every male who challenged him for the right to bond with Mercy. “He loves her, Wren, there is nothing he wouldn’t do for her, including trying to run away and bond with her before the Elders come,” she pointed out.
“Why do I get the feeling you don’t really care for this assignment?” he asked suspiciously.
“Nonsense, what could be better than tearing apart two of our kind destined for one another?” she sneered. “For once I wish I were anyone but one of the Elders’ guard. This goes against everything we are taught about Bond Mates.”
“You’re getting personally involved here, Jaden, maybe you should back off this one,” he warned.
Jaden turned and looked at him, her blue eyes piercing his. “Maybe you should keep your opinions to yourself and go and chase your little girlfriend over there. She might be useful later on.”
Wren looked to where Gina sat and smiled wickedly. “I don’t need to chase her. All I have to do is wait for her to fall all over me like all females do.”
“One of these days, Wren, a female is going to prove you are not as immune to love as you think you are.” She stood as the bell rang and grabbed her books, quickly following Alec and his mate down the hall to Mercy’s locker where they stopped to speak with a few of their friends. Their conversation was rather boring and she was growing tired of their banter when a medium-built male with midnight black hair and a muscular body that was molded into a pair of black jeans strode up to them gracing Mercy with a devastating smile. The newcomer was gorgeous and if it wasn’t for the fact her heart was already taken, she would have been interested, but as it was he was just another Were she had to keep her on eye. She reached into her locker for her books and when she turned back around, they were all gone.
“Oh crap,” she murmured, slamming the locker door and racing to Mercy’s next class, hoping Alec didn’t try and spirit Mercy away. As she rushed into the room Wren watched her with a grin, sitting a few seats behind Mercy and her friend, who was glaring at Jaden with unconcealed dislike. Alec sat beside his mate, his arm draped around her back, his body in full protective mode ready to pounce as she walked past. She had never felt more like a pariah than she did in that moment and accidentally she stumbled, dropping her books on the floor. Heat flamed her cheeks as she bent to retrieve them, but found that Mercy had already turned despite the growl from her mate and began to gather them up for her.
“Here you go,” Mercy said with a friendly smile, handing her the books.
“Thank you,” Jaden said softly, looking up into the female’s sea-green eyes and finding herself smiling back.
“Instead of standing so far away in the hall, you can join us, we don’t bite.” She looked to her mate, who was frowning, and smi
led. “Much, anyway,” she said caressing his cheek lovingly.
“I, ah…” Jaden didn’t know how to react. She had not expected Mercy to be so nice, much less invite her to join their group.
“Angel, I’m sure that might make her uncomfortable, after all she is here to tear you away from me and hand you over to the Elders,” Alec said, glaring at Jaden.
“Stop, I am sure…Ah.” Mercy looked to the female for her name.
Jaden extended her hand, earning another growl from Alec. “Jaden,” she said.
“Nice to meet you, Jaden,” Mercy said, taking her hand in her own. For brief minute, she felt as if they had met before and she stared trying to place the female before her, but nothing came to mind. “If you’re going to be around for the next few weeks we might as well get to know one another.” Jaden looked at her uncertainly, but Mercy just smiled. If she intended to sway the Elders into seeing Alec as an Alpha who wanted to maintain the old ways, she could use an ally, and someone like Jaden, who knew them well, couldn’t hurt her cause.
Jaden wasn’t sure how to react. In all her years with the Elders, no one had ever just accepted her into their lives. Most of the time they cursed at her, or tried to kill her, but never had anyone welcomed her and that threw her off. “Ah…yeah, I need to see my friend,” she said looking to where Wren watched them with a puzzled expression.
“Okay then, see you around,” Mercy told her, turning back to Alec who wrapped his arm tighter around her and continued to glare at Jaden as she walked to where Wren waited.
“What was that?” Wren asked as she took the seat next to him.
Jaden looked to Mercy, who was talking heatedly with Alec, and shook her head. “I’m not sure.”
*****
“What the hell was that?” Alec demanded after Jaden left them.
Mercy smiled and placed her hand on his cheek, staring up at him calmly. “Being unkind is not going to make this easier.”
