The Pack (9 page)

     “
I am not two
Luc
,
and Gina’s mom keeps one at the house
for me.” She blew out an exasperated breathe and
walked up t
he stairs hating that he had made her look like a child in front of Alec
.

     Alec couldn’t stop staring
after
he
r as she moved up the stairs
.
Every part of him wanted
to claim her,
his wolf demanded it,
bu
t
she wasn't ready
.  She didn’t understand what they were and h
e wanted to
give her
ti
me to come to terms with her own destiny before pushing her to commit to his
.

     “Yeah
,
you need
to fix
that
or this is never going to work out
,
” Cade said
watching him with a frown
.

     Alec knew he was right, k
eep
ing
his flirting light
had been h
ard when
wanted nothing m
ore than to tell her everything and pray she would understand.
H
er rush of desire
whe
n she first saw him
had been heartwarming, but h
e cautioned himself that her
reaction
was instinctive, part of the bonding process
between them. S
he felt every emotion
as strongly as he did
, but she didn’t understand it
like
he did
, hadn’t had time to adjust to the idea
as
he had
and he wanted to give her that time
.

    
For
years,
he
tried
to ignore his feelings, dating
other
females,
tryi
ng to forget what she was to him
, but it had bee
n fruitless. No
other
create
d
the
sensation of home he experienced
when she was
near, or understood him the way she did, and no other would ever take her place in his heart.
Fate designed them to complement each other, to complete one another’s lives and he wasn’
t going to rush her
.

     “That
is what Cade is talking about
,
” Lucan said watching Alec’
s eyes as they changed from brown
to amber,
an indication his control
was slipping
. “She’s not going to und
ers
tand your possessiveness after years of being parted
.” 

     “Are you sure you can handle t
his?” Cade asked worriedly
.

     “What other choice is there
?
I can’t live without
her.
I tried for the last year
. D
o you
have any idea
the hell I have been through
?
” He closed
his eyes and called upon his power to bring his body back under control
. A lot of
effort
went in
to keep
ing
a powerful
wolf
like his at bay
,
but as
the son of a formidable
Alpha
,
he
had better discipline than most
.
That was why h
is r
eaction to Mercy being gone
had
stunned his father
. Never before had Alec been so edgy and una
ble to keep his focus, as he had been
after claiming her
. H
e
had
worried
day
and night
about
her welfare
,
so much
so he started losing sleep
,
which made him irritable and
hard to deal with
.
A
fter he had smashed his laptop because it would not open this daily email from Lucan regarding Mercy’s welfare
, his father had confronted him. It was decided the best course of action was to send him to North Carolina so he could be near Mercy
.

     “I’m sorry,
”
Lucan,
said
blaming himself for
the incident that
create
d the bond between them
.

     “It’s not your fault.
” He hated that Lucan felt so guilty for something that would
have happened eventually
and he wanted to ease his mind. “
I
should have told you a long time ago I
knew
she w
as my Bond M
ate
. F
rom the first time I met her
I sensed a connection between us,
” h
e admitted
.
“I
didn’
t understand
then, but
once I did
,
I worried you
might not let me near her
,
so I was afraid to say anything
.
”

     “I wish you would have told us sooner.” Lucan said obviously
irritated he had kept such an important thing from him
.
  

     “
W
hen I arrived last year
I was going
to tell you
,
but
ever
ything got thrown
into chaos and you had to leave so quickly
I never got the time
.”

  
  “Does it really matter
?
What’s done is done,
” Cade said watching Lucan
warily
.
As far as he was
concerned,
Alec being
his little sisters Bond M
ate was a good thing. They knew
he would treat her well
, and
he was destined to be an even greater
Alpha
than his
father was
one day
, which would ensure a good
future for their sister
.
The way he saw it she
could have done a lot worse.

    
“I
’m happy you are her Bond Mate
,
”
Lucan said a
lthough he worried him
no
w Alec might push her to finish the bond he
started.
He had no doubt Alec
would treat h
is sister well, but Mercy still didn’t have a clue
what they were, and
he didn’t want to rush her into accepting her Were side
. “
I will not let you force
her
into anything though
until she knows everything about us
and
you w
ill wait until I think
she’s old enough
to complete the
bonding ceremony
.
”

   
“Of course, I would
never push her,
”
Alec told him solemnly
.

   
“Let’s get you settled
then
,
” Cade
said
grabbing
the
duffle bag Alec
brought with him and escorting him up the stairs to the guest room
.

    
“Okay spill who is the
smoking hot guy
on the porch
when we picked you up?”
Gina asked
later that
night,
as they got ready for the game.
Her mother
,
thinking they were ge
t
ting
a ride
with another cheerleader
,
left
for her date
,
which gave them freedom to talk
openly
.

    
Hope glanced nervously around the eclectic green and blue bedroom trying to think of a response that wouldn’t make her seem like a stupid schoolgirl with her first crush, which was how she
had been acting since Alec’s
arrival.

    
The hour she had waited for Gina’s mother to pick
her up had been difficult
. Alec had asked he
r a million questions, always close
to her
, touching her shoulder, or twisting her hair in his fingers,
making it hard for her to think or even breathe. She had always thou
ght him attractive and reveled in
his harmless flirting
,
but now his actions took
on a d
ifferent tone. U
ncertain
ty
whether he was serious or not
, kept her on guard, but the newfound emotions he was stirring inside of her created
a problem
she didn’t want to deal with
. 

     “Earth to Mercy, y
ou can’t keep a guy like him
to yourself
,
besides he’s not your type he’s a bad boy
,
my kind of guy
,” s
he teased.

     “He’s a friend of the
family
,
”
Mercy mumbled snapping the brush she held in her hand in two.
Her
irrational
anger was
tota
lly out of place and sc
ared the hell out of her
. Gina was her bes
t
friend, s
he shouldn't want to hurt h
er
for thinking Alec was cute. I
t wasn’t as if he was hers to be jealous about in the first place
.
He
was a
flirt and
had dated more girls than she could count on one hand
, h
e
certainly wasn’t
the kind of guy she wanted to fall for
. She
wanted a
calm,
easygoing,
faithful guy
,
someone
l
ike Kirk, but when she saw Alec again, all of that changed.

    
“
Kirk is pulling
in,
” Gina said grabbing her bag and looking
Mercy over one more time
with a canny eye
.
“You look great
.”

     “I’m ne
rvous,
” Mercy told her
honestly. Taking a de
ep breath,
remi
n
ded herself
,
she was doing the right thing
.

     “Why? Kirk r
eally likes you and y
ou have been flirting with him for the last six mon
ths, now’s the
time to make the next move
,
”
s
he admonished
as they walked down the stairs.

     “Gina I haven
’t ever ….” Mercy bit her lip in embarrassment, but forced herself to admit the truth
. “
Well
… you know… b
een
kissed.”

     “Whoa!” Gina stopped dea
d
her
as
tonishment easy to see
. “Why did you not tell me this
before.”

     “You never asked.”
Her cheeks heated as her friend continued to stare at her in disbelief
. “You have met Lucan right?
He doesn’t allow
me
any freedom
,
so I have never actually had time alone with gu
ys except for Alec.” She didn’t add
she
often
imagined
what kissing him would be like
.

     “F
ollow Kirks le
a
d
and for
god’s
sake,
don’t let him suspect
you never kissed a guy before. He might think you’re a leper or something
,” s
he
teased
as they walked out the front door
.