The Pack (15 page)

     “Well that’s a good sign,
” Cade told him as they walked into the hall
where Lucan waited
.

     “S
he’s sleeping who kn
ows what she was dr
eaming about,” Alec told him still reeling
by her admission of love.

   
“S
he said
your name
,
”
Cade pointed out.

    “She
’s
worshiped you since she was s
ix, this will be a piece of cake,
” Lucan told him placing his hand on his s
houlder. “Besides
, you have history
with her
,
Kirk does not.”

     “I
just
hope our hi
story does not make this harder,” h
e told him.  Truthfully, h
e had dated
more girls than he co
uld count on both hands
while trying to avoid the
feelings,
he had for her, but since he had claimed
her,
he dated no one. No
other
who
compare
d
to Mercy, she was
everything
to him. Now
he ju
st needed to make her understand
that before she fell in love with the werewolf jock
.

     “
Make sure you come for breakfast tomorrow,”
Lucan told him. “It
defiantly
won’t hurt
that
you have access to her home.”

     “Thanks I appreciate your help
. I’ll be by first thing in
the morning.” He walked out of the house
reveling in the
strong
rush
of emotion
her words of love e
voked,but cautioning
himself not to get excited.
Until he heard the words from her while she was awake, they could not take them as the truth.
S
ti
ll, the words she had muttered made him
hopeful
for their future
.
eHe cautinHe

     His musings kept him from noticing
the abnormal silence of the forest around
him or the lack of wildlife that usually roamed the area. He felt something hit his chest with enough force to cause him to stagger backwards and let out a loud howl of agony. I
mmens
e pain tore through his chest and he stared down at horror at the blood gushing through his fingers as he clutched the wound. His legs wobbled like Jell-O then he felt himself crumple to the ground.

     “Alec!” Lucan screame
d running out the door,
vaulting o
ver the porch rail arriving
in time to catch him a
s he
collapsed. “W
hat h
appened?”  He saw the blood and tore the
shirt
open gasping when he saw the hole left by bullets entry
.

    
Cade ran past them into the woods
looking for the shooter,
knowing Lucan could care for Alec
until he returned
.

    “Relax,” Lucan said as Alec tried to speak
.

     Alec
felt the burning that accompanied silver when it entered thier kind and knew he had no chance of recovery without a healer close by. H
e
spit out the vile blood
pooling in his mouth
,
its acrid taste
making him gag
. T
he
bullet had been aimed to perfection,
the silver
in his heart pumped furiously though him,
shutting down his body
one agonizing inch at a time. There were only minutes before he would die. H
e
grabbed Lucan’s hand and met
his eyes grimacing a
t the pain
such a small
move
ment caused
.
“T
ake care of Mercy
for me,” he rasped out.

     “You can take care of her yourself,” Lucan told him pressing his hand to his chest trying to staunch the flow of the blood
despite the burn of the silver
to his
own
flesh
. “Fight!” he yelled as Alec’s eyes closed
.

     “Ca
n’t
,
” he moane
d.

     “No!” Lucan howle
d in disbelief as Alec cl
osed his eyes and took one last shu
d
dered breath.

    
Mercy stumbled
out of the house
half-asleep,
but
awar
e something very
wrong
was happening
.
Lucan’s
intial scream had woken her, but some sixth sense
,
a premonition
,
made her run
outside to where her brothe
r sat at Alec’s side crying out in disbelief
. 

  
“Alec?” she whispered h
er eyes w
idening
a
s she noted the amount of blood that ran through her brother's fingers from the gaping hole in Alec's chest
. “Oh god
no!” she screamed
shoving Lucan
out of the
away with
strength
that would have made her pause if the situation were not dire.

    
“It’s going to be alright,
be still,” she told Alec
, but
he
made no respons
e other than to open is eyes and stare
at her with a
finality of one who knew they were dying
.
“No!
Y
ou don’t
get to
leave me.
I won’t lose you too,
I can't
!
” she yelled,
laying her hand upon
his chest
closing her eyes and focusing
on the wound
.

    
V
isions of the bullet slammin
g into his chest ca
me to her and f
or a brief mo
ment, she felt everything
he had
in that moment
, the impact of the bullet, the pain as it tore into his flesh, the realization that he was going to die.
A low hum sounded in her head tak
ing away the pain and her body became still as healing energy built inside of her
.

    
Placing
both hands
on
his chest
, s
he focused
pulling all the
energy
inside of her together
before
allowing it
to seep from
her
body i
nto his.
T
he energy worked its way through Alec following
the bullets path
mending the damage it had inflicted until it came upon the
bullet
imbedded deep in his heart. W
ith great precision
, the energy
surrounded the silver slug
and forced it from the
perilous position
before mending
the damage
it had caused
.

   
“
Mercy stop he’s gone
,
”
Lucan pleaded
placing hi
s
hands
on her shoul
ders trying to pull her from Alec’s still
body
.

     His touch brought Mercy back into her own body before she was ready and she
growled
, shoving
him away
,
refocusing
her energy
on Alec. 

    
Lucan
lay on the ground staring
at her unsure if her Were
si
de or a rush of adrenaline had given
her the strength
to m
ove him.

     “W
hat’s going on?” Cade asked as he ran back into the yard and
knelt
next to his brother look
ing to where Mercy sat in a trance like state her hand over Alec’s chest
.

     “I’m not sure
,
but I think she’s
trying to save him
.
”

      B
right flas
hes of light filtered through Mercy’s
fingers into Alec’s chest.  H
is
body jumped as if
being
shocked
and his
heart
shuddered then began beating
dimly at first then strengthening
under her
influence until his heart beat in time with her own
.

    
S
atisfied he was going to survive
s
he
pulled her hands away
and
sat back taking a deep breath before glancing
to
her bro
thers who s
tared
at her with mouths gaping open
.
She never meant for them to find out abou
t her odd gift in such a manner.  S
he had never meant for
them to find out
at all, but Alec needed saving and she was the only
one with the ability to manage such a feat
.
On trembling
legs,
she stood
ready to face their recriminations
, but exhaustion and the use of her healing energy
had sapped her of
strength. H
er legs gave out from under her
almost immediately
and
she felt herself falling
as the ground rose up to meet her
.

     “I got her,” Cade said lifting her in his arms
just before sh
e hit the ground. “
Is he going to
survive
?” he called to Lucan who was now kneeling next to Alec looking over his wound with wonder.

     “I’m not sure
, but for now he’s breathing. Let’s get them both into the house
and get some help.” 
He lifted Alec
in his arms carrying him
in
to
the house then
the guest room, laying
him on
one of the twin beds
as Cade
laid Mercy on the other
.

     Both worked to clean up their charges and make them as comfortable as possible.
Cade placed Mercy’s hand
on top
of
the blanke
t
noticing for the first time her fist was balled,
as if trying to hold on to something.
H
e
pried
her fingers open and found
the bullet that she had extracted from Alec
’s heart
burnin
g into her skin
. Grabbing a wad of
tissue,
he lifted the object
fro
m her
palm sett
ing it
on the
nightstand next to them
and applied burn cream to the already healing skin
.

     “Lucan look at this,
”
Cade
cal
led out.
Lucan
came to his
side peering down on the bullet
with disgust.
The silver
shined under
the light of the lamp as if taunting them with its power
over them
.
“We should call Gregory,
somebody tried
to kill Alec and they are aware
of
what he is
or they wouldn’t have bothered with silver bullets
.”

     Lucan
lif
ted his cell from his pocket with dread and made the call no father ever wanted
receive
.