Beast Within (Loup-Garou Series Book 3)

by Sheritta Bitikofer

  Darren stood in the doorway, his clothes dusty and hair disheveled. Brown eyes regarded Logan with a look of fatigue that told him his alpha was on the rebound from a difficult night and even more difficult week. If Michael was correct, and this place was the safest, so close to the hunter’s den, then the hardest part of their trial was over.

  The alpha leaned against the doorframe and Logan looked away. “You smell like a swamp.”

  Darren let out a deep breath. “I took Katey around the property to stretch her legs. She wanted to take a swim in a river.”

  Logan would have laughed if it didn’t pain him so much that he wasn’t there to swim with her.

  “I hope she didn’t cause too much trouble before we got here,” Darren continued.

  Logan didn’t reply, feeling somehow distant from his alpha. The last couple of days spent away from the pack had put him in a strange situation. He was the dominant one between him and Katey and was forced to make the decisions.

  Although he knew it was an entirely different ballgame to oversee one person as opposed to a whole pack, Logan felt somewhat confident in his ability to lead. The thought of being an alpha one day intrigued him, but he always knew it was out of his reach until now.

  As if sensing his thoughts, Darren said, “You did a good job taking care of Katey.”

  “Not as good as you would have,” Logan mumbled, keeping his eyes fixed on the undulating glow of the dying embers.

  He didn’t have to look at Darren’s face to know his eyes were rolling. “You know I never like flattering. Not from my students and not from my pack.”

  Logan could have cared less if Darren disapproved. The alpha shuffled across the floor, tracking in a light trail of soil from the bottoms of his shoes as he pulled up a chair beside Logan. With a great sigh, he sat down and leaned back.

  He slid a glance toward Darren and would have guessed him to be asleep already.

  “Is she going to be okay?” Logan suddenly asked, heedless if his alpha was dozing or not.

  Darren cracked open his eyes and stared ahead of him, pondering the question. “She’s resilient. You know that.”

  “She was crying when you brought her inside,” Logan remarked.

  Darren shut his eyes again. “She was just scared and confused. It probably hurt like hell, but she’ll be fine after she rests for a while.”

  Logan went silent and looked away, his fingertips unconsciously raking across the stubble on his jaw. He remembered the way Katey looked at him with such trust while he held her close just before she started to change.

  She wouldn’t have died from the fall, but she had given them all a scare, nonetheless. He still wondered if she had fallen on purpose or if it was a simple accident. If she understood what was about to happen to her, Logan didn’t put the notion of suicide past her. If he had known what kind of monster he would become that night when he killed his parents, he would have done anything to stop the course of fate.

  After a few moments, a door closed upstairs, and another loup-garou made their way into the parlor. Ben smelled distinctly of moss and swamp water as well. His face was not haggard as Darren’s was, but strained with worry.

  “How is she?” Darren asked in a willowy voice, probably on the cusp of sleep as he spoke.

  Ben pulled up a chair on Logan’s empty side and eased himself into the seat. “She’s… I don’t know. At first, she was a little hysterical because of all the blood, but then she passed out from exhaustion. I don’t know how she’s going to take it when she wakes up.”

  Logan felt his spine tingle with eagerness. He should be up there with her, to be there whenever she woke up. Perhaps he could atone for his absence during her change and comfort her somehow.

  He rose from the chair, feeling his legs strengthened by his resolve.

  “Don’t do it,” Darren warned.

  Logan turned at the threshold and met his stern gaze. No matter how much Logan tried to admit he could be alpha, he couldn’t deny that Darren was still more dominant. A mere look had never stopped him before, but Logan was nailed to the floor where he stood.

  “Why not?” he questioned.

  “She needs rest, Logan. She doesn’t need you crawling into bed with her.”

  Logan dropped his gaze, trying to form his argument. Before he could even begin, another door upstairs opened.

  Gregory’s scent came to Logan and abolished all reason and control. Darren’s hold over his ward broke, freeing him from his fixed spot so he could meet Gregory at the bottom of the stairs.

  The rougarou alpha had vanished shortly after Darren, and the pack arrived on the scene, and there was some unresolved business between them.

  The slept-in hair explained volumes. Gregory hadn’t slunk away out of fear of Darren or the others. His wounds were probably on the mend by that point, but while everyone else was focused on getting Katey comfortable with her new form, he had gone to bed. His well-rested and strong gate was also a testament to that.

  Gregory held up his hands to stop Logan, but the gesture was futile.

  Logan charged forward and swung his fists at the alpha’s face. Much to his surprise, the alpha took the blow and staggered to the side. He grabbed the edge of the railing on the stairs and wiped the blood from his busted lip.

  Darren and Ben were at his side less than a second later and took hold of Logan’s arms to pull him away before he tried to murder Gregory.

  The alpha, without so much as a wince, popped his jaw back into its socket and flexed it to make sure everything still worked properly.

  “I suppose I deserved that,” he said and stood up straight to face the furious lover. “You have to know it was just business, Logan. There was nothing personal in it.”

  “You break your new pack members by trying to rape them?” Logan fumed.

  Darren and Ben, who were not there to see Gregory try to mount Katey, looked between the two of them with eyebrows raised.

  Gregory pulled down his t-shirt in a quick jerk as if offended by Logan’s assumption. “No, I don’t.”

  “Then that’s how you make your women submit?” Logan snarled.

  The alpha’s nostrils flared. “Sometimes, that’s the only way. I don’t have to like it, though.”

  Logan let out a slew of curses in the loup-garou tongue, not expecting Gregory to understand him. To his surprise, Gregory’s throat rumbled in a low, defying growl.

  Darren stepped between them. “Greg, the boy’s just upset. You would be too in his place.”

  Taking a deep breath, he nodded. “I will admit that. I wouldn’t be so civil, either.”

  Even though the conflict had cooled between Gregory and Logan, Darren’s eyes burned with questions. He stepped up close to Gregory, each one sizing up the other.

  “What did you do to Katey?” he asked calmly.

  Gregory didn’t even break a sweat under Darren’s scrutiny. “I was trying to break her, as another alpha tried to do, but… she didn’t take well to it.” Darren waited for a better explanation, and Gregory sighed. “I tried to mount her, and she turned on me.”

  Ben snorted, but Darren was not amused.

  “You do realize if you had succeeded, we would have a problem.”

  Gregory finally broke eye contact and glanced up the stairs as a door opened and closed somewhere down the corridor. “I realize that,” he said, turning back to Darren. “But, at the time, it was a little difficult to think straight while I was trying to wrestle with your prodigy.”

  Logan looked to the top of the stairs at a perplexed Dustin. “You four are loud enough to wake the dead,” he grumbled as he took lazy and swaying steps down the stairs. He had bathed since they returned from the run that night and no longer reeked.

  “If that were true, the vamps would be walking around already,” Gregory corrected as he moved away from the rest to wander toward the dining hall. “Michael usually has some food set out.”

  “How long have you been here?” Ben queried.<
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  Gregory didn’t even bother to look over his shoulder. “A few days. I’ve been waiting for Michael to get back from Florida.”

  With that, Gregory disappeared through a doorway off the foyer, and Logan heard the light clamoring of dishes and utensils. One thing was for sure, Gregory had not heard the last of Logan on the matter. The alpha was fortunate that Logan didn’t tear him apart on sight.

  “I trust everything went well getting Katey back inside,” Dustin asked, running a hand through his damp hair.

  Darren nodded, the movement slow and effortful. “As well as could be expected.”

  Dustin looked to Logan and ruffled his grandson’s hair. “I like what you did there.”

  Logan rolled his eyes and batted Dustin’s hand away. “I’m surprised none of you did the same.”

  “We thought about it,” Ben replied.

  Dustin’s eyes skimmed over Darren. “You look like trash.”

  Darren gave a heavy sigh. “I need sleep.”

  The beta took his alpha’s arm and led him halfway up the stairs. “There’s a spare bed in my room. Last door on the right.”

  Darren didn’t need to be told twice and made it the rest of the way up the stairs without help. “Don’t get into trouble,” he cautioned.

  “You got it, boss,” Dustin assured, then turned to Logan as soon as Darren was out of sight. “So, I want to go to the French Quarter. You in?”

  Logan blinked. It couldn’t have been a more perfect arrangement. Dustin and the others had no knowledge that hunters were in New Orleans, and Logan had some business to conduct on Bourbon Street. “Absolutely.”

  Ben stepped in and grabbed them both by the shoulders. “Don’t you think you two should be resting?”

  Dustin scoffed. “We’re not vamps. We don’t need to sleep during the day.”

  Ben looked between the two of them, then took his hands off them in a sign of surrender. “All right. Just be back before dinner.” He turned to trudge up the stairs. “I’m going to bed too. Where’s an empty room?”

  Dustin thought for a moment. “I’m not sure. You can take my bed in Darren’s room.”

  The omega nodded and headed down the same way Darren had gone a moment before. When they were alone, Dustin jerked his head toward the door. “Let’s go before someone else tries to stop us. There’s a bar on Bourbon Street I want to visit. I know the owner.”

  Logan shot him a dubious look. “Have you been to New Orleans before?”

  “A very long time ago, before I even met Ben. Louisiana was a different place then.”

  Gregory appeared in the doorway, a container of red meat in one hand and a fork in the other. Somehow, Logan had expected the alpha to eat with his bare hands.

  “I don’t think the bar will be open this early,” he commented, a mouthful of meat pushed against one of his cheeks.

  Dustin gave him a dismissive wave. “The bars are always open on Bourbon Street.”

  They quietly walked out the door into the warm sunshine of the morning, leaving behind the mansion, the vampires, the pack, and the love of his life. When he came back, he’d have the key to everything he had ever wanted out of himself as a loup-garou.

  The salty tears had dried on her cheeks. Katey could still feel their long trails along her skin and neck as she lay in bed. Lily had been moved to another room, mostly for her own safety and for Katey’s. The ache of isolation hit her harder than ever as she stared at the sliver of light seeping through the bottom crack of the shuttered French doors.

  A few hours of sleep had been enough for her to recuperate from her late and terrible night, but it wasn’t enough to heal the deep pain within her heart. After changing voluntarily into her wolf form, Katey imagined her first monthly loup-garou change would be just as seamless. Never in her life had she felt so helpless, so close to death. Even when Logan turned her, even when she died on the floor of the castle foyer the month before, it had not been nearly as painful as changing for the first time. It was a marvel anyone survived it at all.

  Now she understood why no female could be turned into a loup-garou. The frail and fragile feminine body wasn’t made for it. If it weren't for her unique parentage, Katey would have died for sure. Laying there in bed, she almost wished she had. To think it would happen again and again for the rest of her life made another tear slip from the corner of her eye and dampen the pillow beneath her head.

  It wasn’t just the pain of the change that kept her paralyzed in bed. She could have gotten up and gone downstairs to fill her rumbling stomach. She could have run to see Logan and hold him close until the memories of the night before faded into the past, but no. It was the fear that kept her snuggled under the covers.

  It was a fear that scarred her mind and weakened her spirit until Katey felt numb and lifeless. No one would have guessed, but Katey was conscious through the whole ordeal. The blood, the carnage, the harried and frightened looks of the loups-garous and vamps that surrounded her, all of it came back in flashes and shadowy images.

  She remembered glancing down at her once pristine white fur and seeing nothing but the red blood of her friends and allies. They tried to control her, tried to contain her, and she struck them down one by one. Katey had even tried to attack Michael, who had been nothing but kind and generous to her since the day they met.

  Katey buried her face in her pillow when she recalled how Gregory had brutalized her and fought with as much ferocity as she did. When he moved behind and tried to… She shook her head and swallowed back the tightness in her throat. She didn’t want to cry anymore, didn’t want to remember anymore or even think about it.

  Then there was Darren. He accomplished what no other loup-garou present could do. Her legs curled up against her chest and Katey bit into her bottom lip to suppress the whimper of anguish she felt deep in her soul. Never had she felt so violated and betrayed by someone who she cared so deeply for.

  When Darren had beaten her down, Katey could feel the warmth of his body covering hers, and she didn’t know what was worse: being broken by her alpha or nearly raped by Gregory. She was sure she would never forget his hot breath and saliva on her neck, the feel of his teeth perforating into her skin as she tried to escape.

  It had to be done, Katey understood that. If it hadn’t, she might have never been able to take the reins away from her wolf. Yet, every ounce of her being wished it didn’t have to be so hard to deal with.

  Now she understood what Dustin meant. Before last night, she had never understood what it truly meant to be subordinate and part of a pack. Even when her wolf tried to teach her, she couldn’t wrap her head around the idea that anyone, Darren or otherwise, could become the master of her body and soul. After the deed had been done, Katey’s spirit felt shackled and broken.

  No, she couldn’t possibly go out and try to pretend like none of it had ever happened. She couldn’t face the men she had hurt. She couldn’t face the man who nearly raped her. She couldn’t face Darren, who seemed to have stolen her free will for all eternity. How could she possibly face any of them? She was sure that not even Logan’s company could mend the shattered remains of what was left.

  As the rest of the world carried on without her, she could hear voices and movement in the mansion and around the property. Loups-garous awoke and went out to hunt on their own or take the meals left out for them by the vamps.

  The smell of cooked and raw meats of all kinds made her mouth water, but Katey’s limbs refused to react to her need to eat. All she wanted to do was sleep until the world ended.

  But someone wouldn’t let her. They had placed her in a room farthest from the others on the eastern corridor of the mansion, so she knew the footsteps down the hall could only belong to someone who came to see her.

  Katey rolled her head to the side so one eye could watch the door. Her body jumped at the sudden, hard rapping on the wood. Perhaps if she pretended to be asleep, they wouldn’t come in.

  “I know you’re awake, Katey.”
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  Every red flag in her mind flew up, and her eye went wide. What could Gregory possibly want?

  “Go away,” she croaked out, her voice tense like her bunching muscles ready to propel her to the window if she needed to run for safety.

  “I have food,” he replied in a lame attempt to coax her.

  Katey gripped the sheets beneath her and felt her heart pound against her aching chest. Over and over in her head, she repeated: Don’t come in. Don’t come in.

  A moment passed, and she could hear nothing else but her own heartbeat in her ears, or was it Gregory’s? Either way, the alpha hadn’t moved from his spot right in front of the door.

  He let out a deep breath and jiggled the handle. Katey’s body began to tremble, but she couldn’t bring herself to flee.

  Gregory gave the door a quick tug, and the locking mechanism busted. Katey finally found the courage to spring to her feet and dart to the French doors.

  She tugged on the handle, but her burst of adrenaline didn’t last long before she crumbled to the floor like a limp fish and wept for fear that Gregory would try to finish what he had started the night before.

  Katey leaned her shoulder against the cold pane of the glass panel in the door and with one hand still clutching the handle, she brought her knees to her chest with the other and rocked back and forth, wishing Logan would come to her rescue. Reaching through their bond, she realized he was nowhere close by, and her weeping turned into hysteria.

  Loups-garous ran up the stairs to the second-floor hall, but Gregory had already closed the door behind him. Katey fully expected him to rush upon her, but he did nothing. He didn’t even step farther into the room beyond the threshold.

  With aching and puffy eyes, she looked up to meet Gregory’s steely gaze. There was no malice, no anger, and no lust. He didn’t even seem worried or confused by her panic. Gregory just stood there with a plate of food in one hand, watching and waiting until she calmed down.