Bitten Hard

by Fel Fern

  Some of the enforcers there sported a couple of bruises and cuts. Lance felt a little guilty for not being there, but only for a second. No. His reunion with Joey was more important. Lance always placed the needs of the pack first, so for once he could afford to be selfish. Right now, Joey was eating lunch with his sister and some of the submissive pack members, who volunteered to show them around town.

  Lance didn’t expect this kind of reaction from Joe or Max once they learned he mated Joey, an outsider in their eyes. Anger flared inside him briefly as he regarded Max and Joe. Lance was known for his patience, but he found when it came to his mate, he could get riled up like other men.

  “Look at this from our perspective,” Max said, meeting his gaze. All six enforcers, him, and Deacon held the meeting in the conference room of the pack house, where they usually held discussions between the pack’s inner circle.

  Lance didn’t trust himself to speak, not yet. Lashing out at Max and Joe wouldn’t help, not now. They seemed to think Joey casted some kind of spell on him.

  Max went on, “Don’t you all find it strange that in a single day, this strange wolf managed to convince both Santino and Sabine he’s harmless? Come on.” Max looked to the two siblings. “You two are the most distrustful of outsiders. What’s even worse? This strange werewolf managed to mate Lance, Lance who’s the most logical and level-headed among us.”

  “Be careful, Max. This strange werewolf you keep referring to is my fucking mate,” Lance said in a dangerous voice.

  “Enough,” Deacon said, using that firm, commanding Alpha tone that silenced all of them.

  “Alpha, don’t tell me you don’t find this odd,” Joe said.

  “I will tell you my decision after I heard everyone’s opinion,” Deacon replied.

  “I don’t think Joey Mills is harmless. Opinions can change. I have doubts about him, too, however,” Santino said. “Daryl, our resident empath who’s never wrong about people, doesn’t think Joey has any malicious intentions.”

  “Sorry, Beta,” Forrest said, meeting his gaze. “I agree with Max and Joe here. I usually trust your judgement, but not in this case.”

  “I’ve told you everything there is to know about him,” Lance replied tersely.

  “All these years you thought your mate was dead. Once he realized you were alive, shouldn’t he have come to you?” Forrest finally asked.

  You don’t know him, Lance thought, sorrow in his heart. Ultimately, their Alpha’s decision would be final. If Deacon didn’t accept Joey, then would Lance have the courage to leave the pack, the home he’d searched for his entire life? In a heartbeat, he knew the answer. Part of him would die if he left the pack he’d grown to love, but he refused to let his mate step into the world on his own.

  Lance’s heart belonged to Joey now, and even among shifters, mates came first, before pack.

  “Joey focused on keeping him and his sister alive, and his account of his brush with the Discipline Squad confirms the information the hawks have given us about the humans being up to no good,” he said.

  “Changing the topic on purpose, Beta?” Max asked.

  He snarled. That wasn’t it at all. Lance was Beta because he saw the bigger picture. To him, both his mate and his pack were important, and he’d do anything to protect both Joey and the pack.

  Lance reeled in his wolf, who came this close to challenging Max. In a physical fight against the muscled redheaded werewolf, he’d win, but in the process, he’d lose Joe and Forrest’s respect. The last thing Lance wanted was for the inner circle to fracture, especially after all they’d achieved and all the battles they’d fought.

  Lance had started getting along with Santino and Sabine, two obstacles he’d never thought he’d win over. Oh, the Devil and the Ghost followed his orders well enough, but Santino had thought he had the ambition to be Alpha someday. Once they cleared that little detail up, he thought it would be smooth sailing. Now, he had to deal with Joe and Max.

  “No, I’m bringing up this issue because it concerns the pack. The Discipline Squad might take care in keeping out of our borders, but they’re plucking paranormals in areas close to where we are.”

  Deacon growled. “We’ve always been concerned with protecting our own territory, but Lance is right. If the humans have become this bold to take away paranormals on the road, who knows what else they’ll do? First though, the issue of Joey Mills.”

  Lance tensed. Deacon, as the Alpha, listened to the advice of all his enforcers and Beta, but his word was still law.

  “Lance, Joey and his sister are welcomed here for the moment. They have the standard thirty-day guest rights, enough time to determine whether they can be valuable to the community. Does that sound fair enough to you, Max, Joe, and Forrest?” Deacon asked.

  Lance let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. That wasn’t exactly the outcome he wanted, but it was more than fair. Deacon had given his own mate Daryl that thirty-day condition as well as Dave, Daryl’s brother and Forrest’s mate.

  “Good enough for me,” Forrest said.

  “He’ll need to be watched,” Joe said. Lance glowered at him. “Don’t you think it’s a coincidence that Joey clashed with the Discipline Squad and arrived right on our doorstep?”

  “What the fuck are you implying now?” Lance gritted out, claws slicing out of his hand, but a slender hand gripped his shoulder. He turned his head, surprised to see Sabine shaking her head.

  Both Joe and you are angry. The result won’t be good, Beta. It unsettles Joe you’re not your calm and usual self, that will only worsen his suspicions of Joey.

  Sabine spoke, but he blinked, realizing no one else heard it. She stopped touching him and turned to the Alpha.

  “What are we going to do about these humans?” she asked out loud.

  The conversation turned away from Joey to the Discipline Squad. Lance paid attention but his mind was elsewhere. He knew Santino and Sabine had Esper blood running in their veins but thought they were only capable of communicating mind-to-mind with Deacon and each other. Were their abilities evolving?

  On a more serious note, it finally dawned on him that Joey truly wasn’t going anywhere. No, a month was generous. Joe, Max, Forrest, and the other packmates would soon find out Joey wasn’t some suspicious outsider. They’d see what Lance saw in his mate—a true survivor who’d go to the ends of the world to protect those he loved.

  * * * *

  Joey had been too preoccupied, he didn’t see the blur of movement from the corner of his eye. A second later, he felt the sting on his shoulder where the other werewolf managed to land a kick, one he should have managed to avoid.

  “Joey, you’re not paying attention,” Christa said with a sigh. Christa was one of the Devil Hills senior pack soldiers and part of Sabine’s team, who he learned was mostly in charge of the pack’s recon work.

  “Sorry.” Joey meant it.

  Two weeks passed since Lance told him the pack had given Freida and him the standard thirty-day guest rights. Plenty of things had happened since then. He’d moved into Lance’s cabin while Freida bunked with one of the submissive werewolves, Judy, who was the same age as she was.

  Frieda, he’d noticed with pride, had fit right in with the other submissive and other maternal females of the pack. Seeing her at the pack house nursery, laughing and bonding with the young wolf pups, brought him back to the image of Freida five years ago.

  The fact the Devil Hills wolves trusted her with their young meant she’d already won a place in their pack. Joey, on the other hand, still needed to prove himself. Lance must have told Sabine about his observational skills, because the Ghost had offered him to work with her team.

  Joey learned each pack enforcer and the Beta led their own personal teams. He knew it wouldn’t work if Lance put him in his own team, would have seemed like Lance was favoring him because Joey was his mate. Besides, Joey knew deep down he was no warrior. He did prefer gathering information more, and for the past week,
he’d been attached to various members of Sabine’s team, learning the ropes. They mostly went on patrol or scouted the areas beyond pack lands.

  Lance had been worried about him, but he’d convinced the Beta he could handle himself. Besides, even the Ghost said he had plenty of potential for this line of stealth work. Joey had never been complimented his entire life. Well, his mate did, but this was different.

  Still, Christa told him that everyone on Sabine’s team was expected to be able to defend him- or herself.

  “Let’s go again,” Christa suggested.

  He groaned but nonetheless returned to a fighting stance. Back in the Black Claws, the werewolves there didn’t trust him enough to train him. He appreciated Christa and the other werewolves of Sabine’s team taking time from their duties to train him. Even Sabine had tested him on the training mat, and to his surprise, he found her to be a strict but incredibly patient teacher.

  Christa came at him, but this time he was ready. He blocked her punch, groaned when she managed to get a knee to his ribs. Sweat dripped down his back, but he intended to prove himself, to show Lance and the pack he belonged here, too.

  Half an hour later, Christa said, “That’s enough for the day. Let’s take a break. Looks like we have a visitor.”

  Joey looked at the pup sitting at the edge of the training mat, watching them intently. Sylvia, Sabine’s five-year-old daughter, flashed him a toothy grin. Joey noticed she was a frequent visitor, either causing mischief or mimicking the other moves of the other soldiers.

  “Not in wolf form today?” he asked the little girl as he took a swig of his water bottle.

  Christa nudged him. “Don’t encourage her or you’ll bet the one chasing after her.”

  Joey recalled the last time Sylvia convinced two other wolf pups to wreak havoc in the pack kitchen and grimaced. He’d been one of the werewolves who volunteered to catch them and only after the chase did he understand why some of the other shifters gave him those knowing looks. Who knew werewolf pups had such an abundance of energy?

  “Joey play with Sylvia?” she asked, blue eyes hopeful.

  He patted her gold-white hair, similar to her mother’s. “Shouldn’t you be at the nursery with the other pups?”

  For some incomprehensible reason, Sylvia was always able to escape whoever was watching her, including her dangerous uncle and, rumor had it, even the Alpha.

  Sylvia crossed her arms and lifted her chin. “Big girl now.”

  Christa laughed just as Freida, along with Sky, another submissive wolf, came bursting into the training room.

  “Sylvia go now,” she said, and in moments, the girl transformed into a small dirty white wolf pup.

  Joey watched, stunned as she climbed up a number of training mats with her stubby legs and, in moments, jumped out the window.

  “Damn Zack for teaching that little terror to climb,” grumbled Sky. “Freida, stay here bit in case she tries to circle back.”

  Sky ran out of the training room.

  “How are you doing, brother?” Frieda asked, approaching him and Christa.

  “Good,” he blurted.

  “Well, he’s been distracted,” Christa said with a roll of her eyes. He huffed at her.

  Well, he had every right to be. “Lance is out there, investigating the Discipline Squad,” he stated, recalling why he’d been spaced out during their training session.

  “This is the Beta we’re talking about. He can take care of himself,” Christa said.

  “I’m his mate, of course I worry.” Joey knew Sabine had taken most of her team to work with Lance on their operation.

  He’d been disappointed at first that he wasn’t included, then saw her logic. Judging by his poor performance on the mat today, he knew he still had plenty to learn. Besides, all the junior soldiers in the pack had to go through the same basic training. Once he passed that, then Joey would begin working with the other senior members of Sabine’s team for specialized recon training.

  Christa laughed. “Of course you do. Well, take the day off.”

  “What about the patrol this afternoon?” He didn’t want to appear like he was slacking.

  “You’ve been working too hard these past few days, you deserve a break,” Christa said, “Besides, with your mind scattered like this, you might just end up hurting yourself.”

  He scowled at Christa as she left him and Freida alone.

  “She’s right you know,” Freida said.

  A sigh exploded out of him and he realized and he realized this might be a good opportunity to spend more time with his sister. Joey had been busy the past few days with his training, and what free time he had, he spent with Lance. Besides, talking to Freida might distract him from worrying about Lance too much.

  “Let’s have lunch?” he suggested.

  “Really? Oh, I have so much I want to talk to you about, brother,” Freida said, beginning to drag him to the exit of the training room.

  Lance, he thought, touching the mate mark on his neck. Be safe.

  Chapter Nine

  Through his position behind the bushes of the parking lot, Lance wrinkled his nose. He’d nearly forgotten what it was like being outside pack lands. The roadhouse in front of him and his team smelled of smoke, beer, and sex. It also smelled of dominance and desperation, a place where lost souls ventured to.

  Joey used to work in a place similar to this to make ends meet. Never again, he thought vehemently, would he allow his mate to step foot in a joint like this. He’d been so busy planning this operation that he’d hadn’t had the time to tell his mate how proud he was. Joey had come so far, and Sabine told him that with enough training, Joey would definitely become an asset to the pack.

  Knowing Sabine selected the men and women under her carefully, he knew she didn’t take Joey under her wing as a favor to him. Like Lance, she probably saw how determined Joey could be. One of his senior soldiers, Catherine, brushed against his fur. They were expecting his orders, he remembered.

  Lance needed to focus on the job first, then pay full attention to his mate. According to their trusted allies, this was the next stop the Discipline Squad would make. Sabine and some of her team members had also worked closely with Malden, their resident hawk king, and his hawks to watch these humans over the past three days.

  He told them to wait, not attack yet, because he needed to see how they ran their operation. Right on time, two white vans rolled into the parking lot. A third container truck followed right after the two. He narrowed his eyes, his wolf sensing the presence of more shifters inside that truck. That was where the humans were reportedly holding their paranormal captives.

  One of his younger wolves, Elliot, snarled softly, but thankfully, Catherine nipped the soldier’s ear in warning. Lance waited, although his wolf wanted to rip up these Squad members, too. If Joey hadn’t been able to grab his sister and run, they would have ended up prisoners of the Discipline Squad.

  Whatever these humans were doing to their supernatural captives, no doubt it was nothing good. Santino and Sabine were a result of a successful experiment conducted by the Humans Matter government in creating hybrid paranormals they could control. They managed to escape and Deacon found them. Were these humans trying to experiment cross-breeding paranormals again?

  The thought sickened Lance, because Santino once confided to him the odds of creating a hybrid were incredibly low. The humans emerged from their vehicles, clad in the tell-tale white uniform of the Discipline Squad, all of them carrying high-powered assault rifles. Lance noticed they set their weapons to stun, not kill.

  What were these humans planning?

  “Hurry up,” yelled a Squad member who had multiple stripes on his uniform.

  A commander. Lance counted the men who got out, a dozen in total, fifteen if he included the drivers waiting in the vans and truck. His pack would take those down first before dealing with the others.

  “Let’s go,” the commander said.

  Once the Squad entered t
he roadhouse, Lance sprinted out of his hiding place. He’d already briefed his team, but he lingered long enough to make sure those in charge of taking down the drivers did their jobs. One of Mal’s hawks lifted his wings, probably to alert Sabine’s team to act as backup.

  Lance could probably take care of this little problem on his own, but he’d always been the one who supported a plan B in case they encountered a glitch. He turned over his shoulder. Certain three of his wolves had dealt with the driver, he led the others into the roadhouse. He went through the backdoor in the kitchen. Seeing them, the cook cried out. Gunshots rang from the main bar area.

  He snuck past the kitchen and into the bar. Fast kills. Show no mercy. These Discipline Squad members needed to know that they couldn’t just kidnap innocent folks so close to their borders. Lance latched his teeth on the first white-clad pants he could see. The human howled, fumbling for his gun. The bullet zipped past his right ear, drawing a line of blood.

  Lance took the bastard down and finished him off by ripping out his throat. His other wolves leapt into motion, taking the rest down. He tackled another, taking the human by surprise from the back. From the corner of his eye, he glimpsed Elliot, muzzle full of blood, having bitten off the neck of a Squad member, but not seeing the second aiming his rifle at him.

  Getting off his current victim, Lance went for the shooter’s legs. The human cried out in surprise but managed to get a shot to his left shoulder. Snarling softly at the pain, he ripped the gun from the human’s hands and tossed it aside. By the time Lance finished him off, silence filled the roadhouse.

  He narrowed his eyes, seeing the opened door and spots of blood left on the dusty floor. Had one managed to escape? Growls outside told him Sabine’s wolves finished off the stragglers. Lance turned his attention to the people there. A mix of frightened and relieved faces looked back at him. Lance’s shoulder throbbed. The bullet was probably silver. The Squad didn’t take chances when it came to battling the paranormal.