Pride to Pack (The Mount Roxby Series)

by Aimie Jennison

  He’s delirious. His fur is matted with blood, obstructing my view of any actual wounds. I reach deep into our mate bond hoping to get through to Theo.

  The wolf before me pauses and weighs me up.

  I don’t move, I can’t tell if he recognises me or if he is wondering if I taste good. It’s much scarier being faced with Theo ready to eat me than it was being faced with Paddy. He’s making a rumbling growl deep within his chest as he slowly starts to edge towards me. I hold my hand out for him to sniff and hope he recognises my scent.

  It doesn’t take him long. He’s barely sniffed it when he drops to the floor with a whine. His whole persona changes. He’s extremely weak. It must have taken so much out of him to pretend to be so fierce.

  When I fall to my knees and reach out to feel for injuries, he doesn’t protest. I rub my hands over his head and neck, which all feels normal. I find the first wound on his shoulder. He doesn’t even flinch as my fingers probe it.

  What the hell is wrong with him? He should at least be reacting to the pain.

  “Jared just informed me that Theo has at least two silver bullets in him. He clawed one out himself last night.” Dominick’s voice answers the question I was asking myself. I don’t complain this time.

  Thanks.

  In the blink of an eye I shift my hand to claws and slice into his shoulder making the wound bigger, once I get it deep enough so that I can see the bullet, I shift my hand back and grab the bullet between my fingers. I grit my teeth against the burning on my fingers where the silver comes in contact with my flesh, and drop it to the floor the second it’s out.

  “Theo, one down, let’s see how many more you have in you,” I say, running my hands over his body. I find numerous bites but I can’t find another wound that looks remotely like a bullet. I’m about to give up when I find it lodged in his front leg. It’s not too deep but I still need to use my claws again to make the wound big enough for me to get a grip on the bullet. I’m throwing that bullet across the room in no time.

  “I think that’s it, Theo. Now we could do with some meat to get your energy back up.” I regret my words as soon as they leave my mouth.

  Mentioning food to a hungry wolf. Clever idea, Bel!

  His eyes flash from the black of his wolf’s to emerald green. Theo must be fighting his wolf for control.

  I slowly back away looking for an exit, catching sight of the reinforced steel door with no handle. I realise I have no chance getting out of that so I give the rest of the room a quick glance. All blank solid walls and not one window to be seen.

  Brilliant! There isn’t even a wardrobe I could lock myself in.

  “Rosabel, don’t worry. We’re on our way. I can sense you,” Dominick reminds me, the panic clear in his own voice.

  I turn my full attention back to Theo. “They know where we are. They’re on their way. Just hang on a little longer.”

  His eyes are fully black now, telling me his wolf is back in full control. I have to have faith that he won’t harm his mate. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem but he’s been confined and left injured for twenty four hours. To make things worse I just pulled out two silver bullets that had been stopping him from healing and taking all his energy. He’s not exactly in his right mind right now.

  “We’re two minutes away Rosabel!” Dominick tries to reassure me and fails miserably.

  It won’t take him that long to devour me. Is the reply that runs through my head as my body floods with panic and fear.

  “Calm down. The fear will make him want you all the more,” Dominick suggests.

  How helpful Dominick. It’s not like I already know that, being a wolf and all. You try being calm in my boots.

  Shifting into my wolf would only serve to make Theo feel more threatened, therefore pushing him to attack me. I find myself backed up into the corner of the room; I must have been backing up whilst arguing with Dominick.

  Theo is stalking towards me. He nuzzles his snout into my stomach trying to get to the soft flesh he could tear into. Thankfully my hoodie is in the way. I hear the material rip.

  Nothing like jinxing myself.

  His teeth brush against my skin as I am racking my brain for something to say to stop, or distract him but I can’t think of anything.

  I hope you are bringing some fresh meat with you. I think to Dominick.

  At that moment the door bursts open, three metres away from me.

  The noise is not distracting Theo one bit. There is no way I can get to the door. He has me pinned to the wall.

  Dominick and Ed appear from around the door.

  “Eddie you need to get out of here, Theo is full wolf it force the change on you. We don’t need two wolves in here!” Panic once again floods my body.

  “It’s okay, I can fight it. If I feel like I can’t, I’ll leave. Theo you need to leave Bel alone. Come to me I have some meat for you.” He throws a dead rabbit in the room. It’s freshly killed and dripping with blood. God only knows how he got one so quick.

  Theo doesn’t even bat an eyelid. “Theodore, you don’t want to hurt Rosabel. I nearly killed her yesterday. I know what pain it would cause you if you killed her. You don’t want to feel that pain.”

  Both Ed and I give Dominick a perplexed look.

  Are you insane? That’s only going to make him angrier, I inform him through my thoughts.

  “Yes that is my plan. If we get Theodore mad enough, he might take control,” he replies in my head.

  Yes, control enough to want to kill YOU!

  Fuck!

  I look down at Theo. I have to find something to say to ease the situation. When I see Theo’s emerald eyes looking at me my fear subsides and relief washes over me.

  “Theo, Ed has lots of those rabbits for you. Please go eat them.” I say, pointing to the dead rabbit on the floor. I’m hoping Ed has more, at least.

  Theo rubs his head against my leg, probably in apology at almost eating me. He walks over to the rabbit and starts to devour it.

  I walk by him, slowly, hoping not to make him feel like I’m trying to steal it from him. Animals get extremely territorial over food. Once I reach Dominick and Eddie in the doorway, I can’t believe how much safer I feel now that I am standing next to another werewolf and a vampire.

  The three of us stay there watching Theo thoroughly clean up the rabbit. Once he starts licking the blood off the floor, I nudge Ed. He gets my hint and leads Theo to a van, which looks the same as the one that had been in the alley earlier. The only difference being that this one is blue not white. They both jump in the back with a mountain of rabbit bodies.

  God knows where he got all them from.

  Dominick gets behind the wheel so I climb in the passenger side.

  It doesn’t take long to get to Theo’s house. We drive around the back of his house where he’s got a big shed on the land there. I call it a big shed but it’s a huge eight bay workshop. Eddie called it ‘the shed’. I had to add big and that still isn’t a good enough name to describe it.

  I get out the van and walk in to ‘the shed’, leaving Ed and Dominick to help Theo out. The floor is covered in gym mats. There are a couple of punch bags and a weights bench with weights in the area in front of the entrance, which he must use as a training area. There is also a couple of hospital beds on the far wall set up with what looks like all up to date medical equipment around them. So the training room doubles up as a medical room.

  Jared is sat on the edge of one bed and Paddy is sat on the edge of the other.

  Wesley is cuddling Alyssa in the corner of the room. I don’t think he’ll be letting her out of his sight for a while. But I won’t be letting Theo out of my sight for a while either.

  Billy is standing with a woman of Asian descent who I don’t recognise. She has a black chin length bob, and she’s wearing a white doctor’s coat with a stethoscope hung around her neck.

  As I approach Billy, he turns his attention towards me. “Hey beauty, you did real good ton
ight,” He says, pulling me into a quick side hug, “This is Dr Patel. Dr Patel this is Rosabel.”

  She reaches out and shakes my hand. “Call me Zainab.”

  “Nice to meet you, Zainab. I’m Bel. How are these guys doing?” I ask waving my hand, gesturing to each of the three that had been taken.

  “I’ve just finished checking them over and they are all perfectly healthy.”

  “That’s great news. We have one more patient for you to look at. He’s not in as good a condition as these three though. He should be in any minute, now.”

  I turn to look at the door and see Eddie walking in with Theo trotting in alongside him. His eyes roam the room looking for something. When they land on me he heads straight for me. He stops in front of me so I crouch down.

  “Bel, be careful,” Billy warns me.

  Wesley appears next to me ready to protect me if he needs to.

  “It’s okay. He won’t hurt me!” I say confidently before putting my arms around his neck, cuddling into his fur and filling my lungs with his lovely scent. My wolf is itching to get out. I can’t stop myself whimpering in his ear. “My wolf will join you when you’ve been checked over, if you want?” I think it was her telling him that not me.

  A rumble comes from deep in his chest, which I take as yes, along with the excitement I can feel emanating from him.

  I stand up and Theo pads over to the empty bed that Jared had been on a few minutes ago.

  Jared is now standing behind me in a protective stance.

  I notice Dominick is missing. “Eddie, where’s Dominick?”

  “I need an invite from Theo. He’s not got the ability to give one at the minute.” Dominick’s voice answers me in my head. I turn and head for the door before Eddie could answer.

  “He’s outside, but you seem to know that now, how?” His curiosity rushes over my skin.

  “We’ve got a blood tie. He answered me before you did, in here,” I say laughing, while pointing to my temple.

  “What?” Jared’s anger hits me like a wall. I thought he’d be jealous because when any other guy is involved that’s usually the case, but he’s angry as if he’s concerned for my protection. But then again why would he be jealous? Dominick is a vampire. He’s dead. I don’t think he’d be capable of love. I don’t think I’d be able to fall in love with someone that is dead either.

  “Am I?” Dominick says in my head again. I’m kind of getting sick of not being able to think without being interrupted.

  “Can’t you just listen to me when I’m actually talking to you? Rather than butting in on my personal thoughts. I can only hear what you want me to. How come?” I take a few steps out the door before Dominick walks into view from around the other side of the van.

  He speaks out loud this time, “If you want to drink some of my blood, then you’ll be able to listen in on my thoughts whenever you wish, too.” He tilts his head in a gesture to offer his neck to me.

  “Eww, no thanks.” That thought totally grosses me out. Although I’m not sure why? Because when I’m in wolf form I hunt and eat animals, fur, bones and all. It’s probably because Dominick’s cold and dead that it freaks me out so much.

  “I have blood running through my veins and a heartbeat. Am I really dead?” He grabs my hand and places it on his bare chest through the opening of his dress shirt, right over his heart. I feel the thud, thud. It’s slightly out of time compared to a human’s. It has an extra faster thud, thud in between the normal thud, thud. Werewolves run to a slightly different beat too.

  I move my hand away and force myself not to wipe it on my sweats.

  “I don’t know,” is the only answer I can give him.

  “I must leave now, Rosabel.” He kisses me on the forehead before I even have the chance to think about dodging it.

  “Thanks for your help tonight,” I say, pulling away.

  He smiles. “We are even now.” He disappears with a pop before my eyes. How come he can make noises if he wants?

  I turn back to go inside, only to find Jared standing in the doorway. I feel his concern tickle against my skin. “I don’t like you having this tie with him. I don’t trust him.”

  “He’s not too bad, if you didn’t nearly kill him the other day. I wouldn’t have had to donate my blood and I wouldn’t have a tie at all.”

  His face drops into a look of sadness as his guilt brushes against my skin.

  “I’m sorry Jared, I shouldn’t have said that. It wasn’t you. It was Emmanuel.” I lean in and give him a big hug and he squeezes me back hard. He was always great to hug.

  “I miss you baby Bel, I really do.” The truth of his words is evident in his emotions. His love is just as strong as it was when we first got together all those years ago.

  “I know.” I stay in the hug to hide the fact that I am crying. I don’t want him to get the wrong idea if he sees so it’s a good job he seems happy enough to still be hugging me. We hear a fierce growl coming from inside the shed causing Jared and I to break apart and run inside.

  I can’t see a problem with the scene before my eyes, except Theo was looking directly at me, growling. I look back at the door. He would have seen me and Jared cuddling but I can’t feel jealousy coming from him.

  The room fills with his bonding scent.

  “Jared stay there,” I warn as I put my hand behind me to stop him coming any closer.

  “Yeah I get the point,” he replies as Billy, Paddy and Alyssa walk over to where we’re standing, while I head for Theo who is still growling quietly.

  “Come on. You need to get out of here,” I hear Billy say to Jared behind me.

  “But Bel?” He’s worried that I’m going to get hurt.

  “It’s not her he wants to hurt,” Billy tells him as Theo pounces in front of me facing Jared, growling fiercely once again.

  Jared puts his hands up above his head like you do to the police to show them you have no weapons. “It’s okay mate. I’m going,” he says backing up and out the door.

  I start taking my clothes off. Wesley has seen me naked and I’m sure Dr Patel has seen plenty of people naked before. I need to get into wolf form so we can communicate better.

  I’ve just pulled the bra off my arm, to be fully naked, when Eddie emerges from the cupboard with what looks like some medical supplies in his hand, “Is this what” he looks up midsentence, “you, wow.”

  I instantly smell his arousal and so does Theo.

  He spins around and growls at Eddie in warning, just as the room fills even more with the bonding scent. For Eddie’s sake this time.

  Billy comes running back in as I finish the shift into my wolf form; I guess he heard the growl.

  He takes in the scene. “Eddie, what have you said?”

  “Oh, Eddie, for god’s sake. You’ve seen plenty of naked people before.” He must have caught on to the scent of Eddie’s arousal.

  I trot over to Theo and wiggle my behind at him in a flirty way in order to distract him. “I’m all yours, Theo.” It seems to get his attention.

  “I never doubted that. You were crying. Jared upset you.” He was trying to protect me. I can’t help but smile at that thought.

  “No! He didn’t upset me, not really. He was telling me he missed me. I could feel how much he loved me still and I cried because I can’t return those feelings.”

  Theo rubs his head against the side of mine and I notice a mass of matted blood on the back of his neck, making me think there must be a serious wound there.

  “Has Dr Patel looked at this wound on your neck?”

  “Yes, it’s all healed, I just need to wash the blood out my fur, that’s all. There is one on my stomach too. I’m healed enough to change back now, but I’d rather have you to myself like this for a while first, or maybe for the rest of the night. I’m sure the pack can cope without talking to me until morning.” Theo strides over to the corner on the gym mats. He turns around a couple of times to get comfy.

  I make the same move curling up
next to him.

  “I love you, more than I knew it was possible to love someone,” he blurts out. The love flowing through our bond. He meant it with all of his heart.

  “Ditto.”

  I feel him chuckle in a wolfy way against my side. “Has somebody been watching ‘Ghost’ too much?”

  “Sounds like I’m not the only one since you knew what I meant.” We both chuckle at that. It’s great to feel him so happy, not to mention, healthy.

  “Has anyone filled you in on who the controller was?” I ask him. I guess he should be told and since I was in charge. I should be the one to fill him in.

  “No, not yet. I guess I’ll have to bring him to justice tomorrow, where is he?” He sounds as though he hates that part of being alpha. I don’t blame him, I do too!

  “No, you won’t. It was Emmanuel. He wanted to cause a war between the werewolves and the vampires.”

  “I know you dated him Bel, but I have to serve a death sentence, it’s the law.” He thinks I said no because I didn’t want him to hurt Emmanuel.

  I wish that was the case.

  “No, it’s already been done. I k-killed him.” My voice cracks and tears well in my eyes. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over killing someone I cared for. Killing the pride members that duelled with me was a completely different thing. It was them or me. I could live with that. Emmanuel, though. Emmanuel was different.

  “Oh, Bel. I’m so sorry you had to do that. It must’ve been hard for you,” he says with regret.

  “It was, but I had no choice.”

  “Why didn’t you just leave him to me?” he asks.

  “He knew he had a death sentence. He wanted to hold you hostage so we wouldn’t kill him.”

  “Thank you for taking over and coming to rescue me.” He gives me a funny looking toothy grin that I think is meant to be a smile. It’s hard to tell on a wolf’s face.

  I snuggle into his fur breathing in his scent. It’s so relaxing after such a long twenty four hours.

  We both lift our heads as we hear the door open, to see Billy rushing in and closing the door behind him. “You guys need be quiet. Selena thinks we have a pack of wolves on the property. She’s talking about setting traps.” I start to giggle at the fact that it’s true. There is a pack of wolves on the property, well a quarter of a pack, not to mention the lion.