Bonded to the Pack (Born to be Were) (3 page)

“He’s fine,” Alec answered looking
nervously toward Mercy. He had yet to discuss the fact his father was stepping
down with her or her brothers. Gregory wanted to make a smooth transition,
which was why he had been going home on weekends. He needed to reacquaint
himself with pack dealings and deal with those members of the pack who had in
his absence tried to assert themselves as possible candidates to succeed his
father. Some of them thought they had what it took to usurp him and had
challenged him to rank fights, which he had to accept and win if he wanted to
take his father’s place. That was the reason why he had been gone so much. It
seemed in his absence many of the young males had forgotten just how fierce he was
in a fight. As the challenges progressed more and more of them had learned the
hard way why he was going to be the next Alpha of their pack, and he was proud
of every scrape and bruise because it showed he was earning his place, not
having it handed to him.  

 Presently, though, his worries were not
about fighting for his place in the pack. His worries were for Mercy and how
she was going to react when he told her that his father was stepping down right
after graduation and handing him the reins of the pack. It would definitely
complicate the dynamics of their relationship. As Alpha, he could not continue
to live in the mountains full time. He would have to move back to the small
town where the pack lived, in the central part of the state, and until they
were fully bonded, she couldn’t join him there. It would just be too dangerous.
The obvious solution was for her to bond with him as soon as he took over as Alpha,
but he had the feeling Lucan was not going to be happy about that option.

“Alec, are you alright?” Mercy asked,
noting his distraction.

“What?” He looked down at her frowning
face and forced himself to smile. “I’m fine, just thinking about how much I
missed you this weekend.”

“I missed you too,” she told him, laying
her head on his shoulder, her fingers twining with his on his lap.

“I missed you too,” Lucan teased,
batting his eyelashes at Alec.

“Cute,” Mercy told her brother, swatting
him on the arm playfully. “Do you think we could have some dessert now?” She
stared at the tray of brownies on the counter with a lustful expression that
made them all laugh.

 “Great, I’m gone for two days, but it
is the tray of brownies she longs for,” Alec said with a grin.

Lucan turned to the counter to cut the brownies
she had been eyeing

“You know that’s not true,” she murmured
in his ear. “But you said we had to be good so I’m lusting after something I
can actually have.

Alec chuckled and pulled her onto his
lap wrapping his arms around her.  “While I agree I might have been hasty in
that promise, I know once we have bonded I will be thankful I made it.” He
nuzzled her neck playfully and she sighed. “What’s wrong, baby?”

“I can’t stand all of this time apart from
each other.” She met his gaze evenly. “I want to do the Bonding Ceremony as
soon as possible after graduation.” 

Lucan, hearing their conversation,
dropped the plate had been holding. The plate hit the ground, shattering immediately,
sending pieces of brownie and glass across the floor. “There is no need to rush
this,” he said, ignoring the mess on the floor and striding quickly to the
table. “You have the rest of your life together, why try and hurry this along.”

“Lucan, we know what we want. Why are
you so against this?” Mercy said with a sigh.

“I’m not against you two being together,
someday.  I just want you to have time to explore the world, to go to college,
and live a little before you are drawn into the demands of being the mate of an
Alpha.”

“It will be a long time before Alec has
to become the Alpha of his pack. I can still explore the world and I can still
go to college after we bond.  There is no law that states a female cannot
attend college once she is bonded, is there?”

“No, of course not,” Lucan said wearily.

Alec figured it was as good a time as
any to broach the subject of his father stepping down as Alpha, but was
interrupted when Cade walked into the room after a weekend away with his mate’s
family. 

Mercy cried out happily, jumping from
Alec’s lap to hug her brother. Since he had found his mate, he now traveled
back and forth between her pack in Tennessee and their home on a regular basis
and she missed him terribly. “I missed you,” she told him as he enveloped her
in his muscular arms.

“Not as much as I missed you,” he said
hugging her close, his expression grim as he met Alec’s gaze over her shoulder.

Alec stiffened, sensing something very
wrong and when Cade let Mercy go, he pulled her back into his arms wrapping her
tightly in his embrace, dreading what Cade had to say.  

Lucan, too, read his brother’s anxiety
and knew he wanted to talk without their sister around. “Mercy it’s late, why
don’t you get to bed and let Alec get some rest. I am sure he is tired, and you
both have school tomorrow,” he said, rising from the table.

“Are you serious?” Mercy replied, angry he
was treating her like a child.

Alec felt her anger and faked a yawn,
then placed a kiss on her head. “I am kind of tired, Angel, why don’t we call
it a night?” he asked, playing along with her brother.

“Oh, alright then,” Mercy said easily,
all her anger at her brother disappearing at the idea of spending time alone
with Alec. It seemed lately that when he was around, they were almost never
alone, so if she could catch a few minutes by herself with him then she was up
for calling it an early night. She allowed him to escort her outside where they
walked to the rose garden and he promptly pulled her into his arms for a goodnight
kiss.

For once, she thought, everything in her
life was perfect. She had embraced her Were side, was in the arms of the one
male on earth meant to be hers, and only weeks away from graduation. She should
be over the moon with happiness but a niggling feeling in the back of her mind
kept her from rejoicing. If there was one thing she had learned in the last
year, it was that life could change on a dime and could take a course very
different from the one she had been expecting.

*****

“No!” Alec bellowed after hearing the
news Cade brought.  “Mercy is mine. I won’t turn her over to the Elders.”  

Cade looked upon him with apathy,
knowing if anyone told him his mate was free game for any male who could fight
for her that he, too, would lose his cool. “Look, I completely agree, but their
word is law and since they have heard about the rogue’s interest in Mercy, they
want her protected until she is well and truly bonded to a male they deem
capable of protecting her for the rest of her existence.”

The Elders were the supreme ruling body
of werewolf society. They handled any disputes amongst the packs and were the
keepers of all werewolf laws and history. They were the oldest of their kind
and possessed powers that were beyond comprehension. Their word was law and
their decisions final. If they decided to allow a challenge for the right to
bond with Mercy, he would have to go along with it and beat everyone else to
claim her for his own.

 Lucan sat still, shocked and unable to
believe that the Elders were willing to evoke a law no one had ever even knew
existed.  That law stated that a Born Were, because of how rare a treasure they
were to all packs, was to be offered up in a challenge that would pit males of
all packs against one another for the honor of becoming her mate. The law had
apparently been created to test the prospective mate’s ability to protect her
and keep her safe, but if anything, it only succeeded in making the Born Were a
prize for any who sought her for their mate. Since they still didn’t know to
what extent the rogues had infiltrated other packs it would give them a chance
to claim one of the werewolf society’s greatest treasures. “How long before
they come for her?”

“She has until her eighteenth birthday
before they can enforce the law,” Cade said, barely containing his own anger at
the idea of his sister being treated like a possession, not a person.   

Lucan thought about his brother’s words
and came up with only one answer that would save his sister from becoming a prized
possession. “You need to bond with her right after graduation,” Lucan said to
Alec. “Her birthday is two days later and I have no doubt they will be here to
retrieve her.”

“You wanted her to wait,” Alec whispered,
unable to believe Lucan was now on board with their bonding so quickly.

“I want her to be happy and with you she
will be, with another that might not be the case.” Lucan looked to his brother,
who nodded in agreement. “She was always meant to be yours anyway, now it will
just be a little sooner.”

“Lucan, I…” Alec didn’t know what to
say, but it didn’t matter because Lucan raised his hand and stopped him from
saying anything.

 “You’re her mate and she needs you more
than ever to take care of her, now. It might be sooner than I would have liked,
but this is how it will have to be.”

“What do we tell Mercy?” Cade asked.
“She isn’t going to believe you just suddenly changed your mind when you have
been so adamant about them waiting.

“We need to tell her the truth,” Alec
said. Mercy was no longer a child and she wouldn’t be pleased if they lied to
her again. After keeping the secret, she was werewolf from her for most of her
life he was lucky she spoke to him now. He would not risk their relationship
again for something she would soon find out about anyway.

“I agree,” Lucan replied. “If we don’t
tell her and she finds out, I don’t think she would ever forgive us.”

“You think she can handle this?” Cade
asked worriedly. With everything that was going on, he feared one more thing that
endangered her relationship with Alec might just be too much for his sister.

“I know she can, but that doesn’t mean
she’s going to take it well.” Lucan shook his head. only imagining how the news
was going to affect her.

“I will tell her this week,” Alec said,
resigned to getting it over with, even though he knew it would upset her
immensely.

“Don’t look so unhappy, man, you’re
finally getting what you want,” Cade teased.

Alec knew the moment had come to tell
them that his father was stepping down. “There’s something else I need to talk
to you about.” Both men’s eyes immediately turned to him. “My dad is stepping
down as Alpha after graduation. That’s why I have been going home every weekend. 
I have been handling the rank fighting with those who are challenging my right
to take his place as Alpha.”

“That’s why you have that bruise and
those claw marks on your arm,” Lucan said. Although they healed fast, deep
marks, and injuries took longer without a healer’s aid and Alec’s marks still
looked fresh. Also the marks were extremely deep, which told him a lot about
the fight he had been engaged in. “Must have been a hell of a fight.”

Alec nodded. “Yeah, he didn’t exactly
play fair, but he’s the one paying the price now so I feel alright about my
battle scars.” The wolf that fought him had tried to use drugs to enhance his
strength, but halfway through the fight, those drugs wore off. Unfortunately,
by then, Alec had been enraged and near killed him. Fortunately, he had the
control to back off despite his wolf wanting to tear him to shreds.

“I can’t believe Gregory’s stepping
down,” Cade said in shock.

“He and Marlo want to travel,” Alec told
them, keeping Marlo’s vampire status to himself. If his father wanted them to
know, he would tell them himself. “I can’t ask him to give up his only chance
at happiness, not after all he has done for me.”

“Are you ready for this?” Lucan asked.

Alec nodded. “More than I ever thought I
would be. With Mercy by my side, I know I can be the leader my father expects
me to be.” He looked to Cade ruefully. “I had hoped to ask you to join me in
leading our pack, but I know your heart is drawing you back to your father's
pack.” He looked to Lucan. “I know it is a lot to ask, but would you be my Beta?”

Lucan was taken aback by his request. He
had not seen it coming, and he was honored that Alec thought so highly of him.
There were so many others he could have bestowed that honor upon, but he had
chosen him and there was no way he would refuse his request. “You know I will.”
Alec stood and extended his hand, which Lucan shook vigorously before pulling
him into an awkward, manly sort of hug. They might have had some disagreements
about Mercy but he knew the young man before him had what it took to be a great
Alpha and he would be proud to help him lead their pack.    

“All right then, we have a plan. Now
let’s get it into motion,” Cade said behind them.

Chapter Two