***
A startled cry wakes me up. I instantly dive off the bed into an attacking stance before even opening an eye.
“I’m sorry. I got ya note. I thought ya’d be at Theo’s? I’ve just done some washing, I was going to put these clean clothes on ya bed. Ya scared the crap outta me,” Misty says, clutching at her chest with an armful of folded clothes.
I quickly straighten up and sit back on the bed. “I forgot about the note. I only got back just after four, I should have left you a new note.”
I look at the little alarm clock on the table next to the bed, it’s one o’clock in the afternoon. I can’t believe I slept eight hours straight, I usually get up at least once to use the bathroom through the night.
“Thanks for the washing,” I add as she places the pile on the end of the bed.
“I’ve just made a fresh pot of coffee, do ya want me to bring you a mug?” she asks, turning to leave the room.
I stand up and head for the bathroom. “No thanks. I’ll be out in a second. I’ll just get changed and come to join you.” I really don’t want to change out of Theo’s clothes. They’re a comfort to my wolf, but I need to act like a normal human being and not be hung up on someone’s scent, mate or not.
It doesn’t take me long to get washed and changed and I soon find myself walking into the kitchen.
Misty greets me with a steaming mug of coffee and a bacon and egg sandwich.
“Thanks Misty. Do you realise you’ll never get rid of me if you keep spoiling me like this?” I joke.
“That’s my point. I don’t want ya to leave. I love your company. Now tell me everything.” Misty loves gossip.
Who am I to keep of it from her? I fill her in on everything that happened after I left work last night.
“Wow. Nothing is boring when you’re around, is it?” We both burst into laughter at how true her statement is. I’ve been here only a short time, yet so much has happened. I’m turning into quite the drama magnet.
“Do ya think he’ll meet ya at the bar later?”
“I’m only guessing that Ruby is his sister, but the state she was in when I left, I don’t think he’ll leave her home alone to come and see me,” I reply. If I was in his shoes I wouldn’t leave her.
“Ya said Chloe was staying at his. She might be happy to keep Ruby company for an hour or two.”
I laugh at that comment. “Did you hear me when I mentioned that Chloe challenged me because she wants Theo for herself? There is no way she would make my life that easy.”
Before we know it, it’s time to get ready for work. Even though I’m not working I decide to go in with Misty and help her open up.
As soon as the customers enter she demands that I get on their side of the bar. I’ll comply for now but if it gets too busy I’ll be jumping over to help out.
Emmanuel comes in and sits on the stool to my left. As awkward as I feel, it’s a small town and we need to be civilised with each other.
“Hi. How has the last twenty four hours treated you?” Emmanuel asks breaking the silence. Was it really only in twenty four hours? It feels like days.
“Hectic. How about you?” I ask.
“Yeah it’s been pretty busy for me too.”
I feel a hand on my right shoulder. “How’s our Little Miss Wolfy doing?” I didn’t need to look to see who the voice belonged to. The scent and accent, along with the pack bond, told me it was Billy.
Evidently Emmanuel did have to look and he gives Billy such a glare that I think if looks could kill a were, Billy could possibly be dead right now.
“I’m fine thanks, Billy, but I thought I was Little Miss Unique Wolfy? Am I not unique anymore?” I pout.
“Don’t be silly.” He chuckles. “You’ll always be unique. It was too much of a tongue twister for me.”
“So are you here to tell me that Theo is standing me up?”
Panic crosses his face. “No, no. He’s just running late. He’s outside talking with Dominick, trying to persuade him to send some of his men to help us out. He’s not too keen but I don’t blame him, they are the ones that keep getting attacked, we are the ones that just get kidnapped and controlled.” He rolls his eyes.
Realising that I have just made it sound like Theo is my new boyfriend in front of Emmanuel. I turn to make sure I haven't upset him, only the stool is empty and, looking around the bar he is nowhere in sight.
Billy looks at the stool too and shrugs before sitting on it himself. “Weird guy!”
Misty comes to a stop in front of us. “What do you two want to drink?”
“I’ll just have a bottle of something low strength, thanks Misty. I’m patrolling and Theo won’t be happy if I do it drunk. What do you want, Wolfy?” He looks at me with such a serious face.
I burst out laughing. “Little Miss too much for you now?” I shake my head at his laziness, “I’ll have a Cosmopolitan, thanks.”
“Coming right up.” Misty turns to the mixing area to make my drink.
“How come you have a night off anyway? You only worked half a night last night?” Billy asks.
“I know, I’m such an unreliable employee. Misty has a heart of gold. She still thinks I deserve a night off.” Misty places our drinks in front of us.
“Keep the change.” Billy says, handing Misty some notes.
Misty gives him a flirtatious smile which he returns. I think I may have a cupid style job coming up in the future.
Billy finishes the bottle in two swigs. “I better get off. It’s time to meet my men.” He gets up and kisses me on my cheek before turning and walking towards the door.
I suddenly get a bad gut feeling deep within me. I don’t know what it is that unsettles me but I don’t think tonight is going to go without violence. “Billy?”
He spins around to look as he pushes the exit door open. “Angel?”
“Be careful.” I give him a smile, which he returns with a confident one.
“I will… SHIT!” I watch his face change from confident to pure fear.
“What’s wrong?” I shout. I can feel it deep inside the pack bonds. Something is seriously wrong.
“Trouble,” he says, running out the door. He moves so fast I don’t even see him leave, not even a blur. His voice just comes from the empty air.
I only sit there for a second wondering what to do before deciding to follow. I’m a werewolf and I have a pack now. That pack is in danger and I need to do anything I can to help.
I don’t make it two steps before Dominick falls in the door. “Rosabel they took Theo and killed Chomp,” is all he manages to spit out before collapsing in a heap on the floor.
A female vampire rushes in after him shouting. “Someone needs to feed him! He’ll die without the blood.” Not one person in the bar steps forward to offer their blood. They all just stare at Dominick’s lifeless body in silence.
“Misty, ring Wesley. Tell him they’ve taken Theo and he’ll need to call a pack meeting. We have to find them!” Listen to me being all calm and rational. I’m usually the rambling mess in an emergency.
Unwilling to let Dominick die, I walk over and put my wrist towards his mouth, only to have his female vampire push it away. “You’re a werewolf. He can’t feed from you. You’re alpha won’t allow it. He’ll retaliate with war.”
“That alpha is my mate. He’ll understand my decision.”
“You are the ‘saviour’ he talks about? You taste too good and he won’t be able to stop. He’ll end up draining you. He’ll never forgive himself, or me.”
“You said he’ll die if he doesn’t get fed. Your compulsion won’t work in here and no one is willing to offer. You won’t be able to drag anyone off the street in through those wards. Their hearts will give up before you get them in. I’m not letting him die so I’ll have to take the risk of him draining me.” I put my wrist to his mouth but he’s so far gone that he doesn’t do anything. He needs to taste the blood before he’ll drink.
I shove my wrist into
the female vampire’s face. “Bite me so he can taste the blood.” She looks uncertain for a split second but she leans forward and I feel her fangs pierce my skin.
Fuck it hurts!
She’s looking directly at me but isn’t pulling away. She isn’t drinking either. I look into her eyes, “Dominick will die you need to release my wrist NOW!” She immediately follows my command.
I rest my wrist on Dominick’s mouth once again. He’s still not reacting to the blood. Please don’t let it be too late.
“Dominick, come on babe you need to feed.” I can’t suppress my panic. “You’re getting five star here. Feed dammit!”
My eyes fill with tears as I start to give up, when I suddenly feel his mouth close against my wrist and his fangs pierce the skin again. He starts to pull at the vein and as much as it hurts, it’s the best thing I’ve ever felt because it means he’s going to live. I’m not sure why him living bothers me so much because I don’t really know him. I shouldn’t care, but for some reason I do. He’s only been feeding for a minute or two but I’m starting to feel dizzy!
Shit! She was right!
He is going to drain me!
“Dominick, you’ve had enough, you need to stop now!” I shove at his face with my free arm.
Fuck!
I have black spots dancing before my eyes, the spots getting bigger by the second.
“Dominick, you greedy bastard. You’re KILLING ME!” I scream, managing to keep my eyes open long enough to see Dominick’s eyes open. I catch a glimpse of recognition cross his face and I feel him release my arm as I fall to the floor.
“Rosabel, I’m so sorry.” I can hear Dominick repeat it over and over again his voice is getting more distant. Focusing solely on his voice pays off. It slowly becomes louder.
“Someone get her some orange juice,” he demands. “She needs fluids and sugar.”
I don’t hear anyone move but when I open my eyes there is a glass of juice being held in front of my face. I sit up slowly leaning against someone’s leg as the hand holding the glass carefully feeds me.
When I’ve drained the glass I look up to see that it’s Dominick’s hand. He passes it back to the female vampire.
She takes it away and before I can blink she’s back with the glass full once again.
Taking it in my hand this time I realise too late that I should’ve made him feed off of my left wrist, the glass drops towards the floor because my hand is drained and sore. I take a moment as I watch the glass fall to thank the gods I’m a quick healing werewolf. I don’t think a human would’ve survived that feed. I was too close to death.
Dominick catches the glass a second before it smashes on the floor.
“I am so sorry, Rosabel.” I can see the regret in his eyes, hear it in the tone and feel it in his emotions. With vampires being dead I would never have thought they would have emotions like humans. I always thought emotions were for living things, but I guess I’ve just been proved wrong.
He points his finger at the female vampire. “You should have never let her feed me, Patsy. I nearly killed her and you should have known that was a strong possibility.” He may be chastising her with his words but there’s no conviction behind them. I think he blames himself more then he blames her.
“I told her not to—”
I quickly cut her off, “She tried to stop me. If anyone is to blame it is me. It’s not her fault. No one else offered and I wasn’t going to just standby and watch you die.”
“What? You were willing to die to save me?” He actually sounds touched.
“To be honest, not really. I didn’t think you would actually drain me, especially if you knew it was me but you were so out of it, I couldn’t make you see what you were doing. It was a close call.”
Too damn close.
“You’re not just a Lone Wolf anymore, you have a pack. You could’ve stood by and done nothing. Thank you for having enough faith in me to risk your life.”
“I couldn’t live with myself if I allowed someone to die if I could save them, but thanks for not killing me.”
We are still sitting on the floor, directly in front of the door when Billy runs in and stumbles over us.
“What the hell? I left you for five minutes and you manage to get yourself in trouble?” he says as he shakes his head.
I open my mouth to explain but he cuts me off before I can get a word out.
“There isn’t time to explain. I’ve come to let you know that after I felt Theo’s pain and left here, I followed his scent for five blocks, but the napper must’ve somehow managed to totally erase it after that point because it just stopped dead in the middle of the path. I couldn’t pick it up again. So what do you want me to do now?”
“Why are you asking me?” I ask, frowning.
“You’re Theo’s mate, which means you, my dear, are in charge until he gets back.”
“Wesley is his second. Shouldn’t he be in charge? He’ll know better than me what to do.” I argue.
“No, Theo is just missing which leaves you our alpha female and the highest ranking pack member. If he’d died Wes would automatically become Alpha until someone challenges him for the position,” Billy explains.
“But The Pack don’t really know me. How can I expect them to take - or even respect - my orders?”
“They will do it for respect to Theo! So what do we do now?” he asks.
How the hell should I know? I have never even been in a pack before, let alone led one.
“Misty has already called Wesley, I assume he will be organising a meeting to make a plan of action.”
“Sounds like a good place to start to me,” Billy praises me.
“If you could help organise that I’ll get Dominick’s side of the story and meet you there. I assume it’ll be at Theo’s still? If not I’ll need a lift because I won’t be able to teleport there.”
“Theo’s place is pack headquarters. We’ll all gather there. I’ll check in with Wes and see what he needs me to do. Tell him to pull the pack together. I’ll spread the news in here on my way out.” He offers me his hand to stand which I happily take because now I’ve realised I’m still on the floor leaning against Dominick’s leg and I start to feel silly for being here.
“Catch you in a bit,” I say.
I stand and look around for the first time since Dominick fell in. I suddenly notice everyone is frozen. “Wait a minute. Why is everyone frozen?”
Dominick, Patsy and Billy all look around just as shocked as I am.
“I did it,” says Misty as she walks out from behind the bar, “I thought it would be better to freeze them, than having the Werewolves trying to stop you feeding him,” she adds when none of us say anything.
“Good thinking,” Dominick praises her with great sincerity. If she did it early enough no one will have seen him nearly kill me.
“That’s a cool trick. What else have you got up your sleeve?” I joke as Misty laughs she clicks her fingers and everyone unfreezes and acts like nothing happened. I hope no one looks at their watch and wonders where the time went.
“Okay now everyone is moving again. I’ll go start organising things. See you in a little while.” Billy doesn’t wait for me to reply, he just walks off. I watch him tap a few people and lip read him saying three words. “Pack meeting now!” Once he’s given the order, they immediately leave and he moves onto another pack member.
I feel bad for Misty. All her customers are leaving. Where are all the Witches when you need them? Oh, that’s right, there is one out there somewhere controlling the Werewolves. I have no doubt about it being a witch now. Not one pack member would attack Theo unless they weren’t in control of their own actions.
Dominick, Patsy and I find an empty booth near the wall. Patsy gets in one side and Dominick sits next to her, leaving the seat opposite for me. Unfortunately it leaves my back to most of the room so I shuffle into the corner and sit against the wall so I can see anyone approaching. Just as I get comfy, I spot Mi
sty walking over with a bottle of bourbon in one hand and three glasses in the other.
“Hey. Thought ya might need this to calm ya nerves. It’s on the house,” she says, placing the bottle and glasses on the table.
“Well thank you very much, Misty. Although, I’d rather you let me pay since you are losing your customers to a pack meeting,” Dominick says, taking a couple of notes out of his pocket and tucking them into Misty’s jeans pocket.
“Thank you, Dominick.” She has a strange sparkle in her eye as she smiles at him, which with the flirtatious smile she gave Billy earlier, makes me think there’s going to be a love triangle happening sometime soon. She heads back to the bar but when she gets a couple of steps away she glances back at Dominick over her shoulder.
We really don’t have time for romance at the minute.
“Dominick, what happened outside?” I ask, making him tear his eyes away from Misty’s direction.
He opens the bottle and fills all three glasses before answering me. “Well as you know, Theo arranged to meet me. We were standing out the front and Theo was asking if I could send some of my men on the patrols with his wolves. I wasn’t too keen because it would put my men in danger of attack. The wolves are getting taken but seem to be in good health. We hadn’t been alone long; Billy left us to see you.” He’s staring off into the distance as if he is picturing the scene.
“He was trying his hardest to persuade me when we were ambushed. Neither of us fought back. Theo tried to command them to stop but he just couldn’t get through. He didn’t want to hurt them because he knew they weren’t in control. It was then that the lion jumped on me. I didn’t see anything else. I had to fight back, it was me or him.”
“Did you just say a lion jumped you?” There is only one lion I know of in town and that is Jared.
“Yes. It looks like he’s controlling your friend too… Jared wasn’t it?”
I nod in agreement and take a mouthful of my drink as I let him carry on.
“Chomp sensed my distress and joined us in the fight. There was one fighting each of us but no matter how much I injured Jared he didn’t act like he felt it. I don’t know if it was just because they weren’t in control, or if he’s got some protection on them and they can’t actually be injured. I never saw any blood on them. I’m Chomp’s maker. When he died I felt it. It was then that Jared left me, which turned out for the best because I wasn’t far off death myself, as you saw. I just saw them drag Theo away. He looked like he was in a bad state. He wasn’t moving. I can’t tell you if he is dead or alive.” He looked really concerned. “That’s when Billy came out and I fell in.”
“He’s alive,” is all the lump in my throat would allow me to say. He has to be alive. Besides, I would have felt it if he died.
Dominick pulls me away from my thoughts. “I guess we now need to come up with a plan to find them. Billy said the scent was gone so tracking is no good.”
“We need to find out who is controlling them? I can tell a liar through my empathic ability but I can’t interrogate every witch in town.” I pause a second to think. “They have attacked you twice so it’s safe to say they want you dead. Do you know a witch that hates you enough to want you dead?”
Dominick laughs, spraying the table with the mouthful of bourbon he’d just had. “A number of people want me dead, Rosabel. Not everyone is as nice to me as you are.”
“You saw for yourself that no one would offer to save him,” Patsy adds.
“What if we set them up?” They look at each other then back to me, without saying a word, so I continue with the plan that just popped into my head. “It’s safe to say they won’t attack again tonight. He’s got too much to deal with. Theo being injured is going to cause him some problems. If he was just another pack member he’d maybe be okay, but Theo is Alpha and no one can control an injured alpha. You need a stronger alpha or to lock him up until he starts to heal and calm down. He’ll probably try again tomorrow night. Theo should be calmer by then. We need to set a trap.”
They both look at each other for a minute. It almost looks like they are having a silent conversation. It’s actually making me feel out of place.
“What kind of trap?” I can tell from Dominick’s emotions he’s uncertain about something.
“We’ll have to use you as bait.” I look at Dominick hoping he doesn’t disagree; he nods for me to carry on. A good sign.
“If you hang out in the back alley, make it look like you’re meeting Wesley to plan what we’re going to do next. I don’t think he’ll understand pack politics enough to know Wes isn’t acting leader. Obviously we’ll have pack members and whichever of your men there watching from a safe distance - close enough to jump in when they attack, but far enough away to not be spotted beforehand. Paddy, Alyssa and Jared shouldn’t be able to pick up any scents because they’re not in control of their own actions. They won’t be thinking anything but what the controller is telling them, which will be to kill you. The controller has to be at a good vantage point with a clear view so he can see what’s happening. My guess is a roof or fire escape of one of the surrounding buildings. As soon as the controlled wolves arrive we look for him. If we can’t see him and they attack, we get you out.” I leave it at that, hoping he agrees.
“What time and where do you want me?” he asks.
I’m too shocked to answer immediately. I stumble over my words. “I-I guess first dark. If you meet Wesley by the bins near the back door of the bar. Send your men in and I’ll tell them where to go. In the meantime, I’ll look for some good places to put everyone.”
“I’ll be there but my men won’t be. I can’t put them in danger - not after losing Chomp.”
“I understand. That’s not a problem. I’ll make sure we have plenty of pack members.”
Patsy looks scared. “He controls the weres. What’s to say he won’t take them all over in the back alley and kill you immediately?”
“We just have to hope we get him before he gets them,” Dominick says as he stands to leave. “Thank you for earlier, I’ll be there at first dark,” he says addressing me.
I stand and lean in to kiss him on the cheek. “I won’t let them kill you, I promise. Even if I die saving you.”
He laughs as we break away, “I know you are my ‘saviour’ after all. I can feel the truth through our tie.”
After a smile I close my eyes and teleport to Theo’s.
22. CONTACT
Rosabel