Chapter 4:
"When you said we were going to Stonehaven I figured we were going to be staying with the twins." I said as we walked down a dark road just off the college campus of Syracuse University. I stopped and pretended to tie my shoe, sniffing the pavement. We'd been following his trail for an hour now. Elena and I were the best trackers- but, being Alpha, Elena wasn't out hunting tonight. Clay had quickly kiboshed that idea in the name of safety.
Reese had been, for the most part, battle ready when he'd joined the Pack; I had joined some formal martial arts training and had a working knowledge of street fights and fighting bigger opponents; and Morgan had been working his ass off learning and was catching up quickly. Individually we might not be able to take down this mutt, but together he wouldn't stand a chance. Noah was at the hotel doing Calculus homework.
The scent I'd been following on the ground got stronger. "At least we're going in the right direction."
We kept walking and ended up in an older, more rundown section of the city. All of a sudden the scent was in the air and I swore.
Reese and Morgan both had their own epitaths to go along with mine. We were sent out to track him, find where he was, and NOT engage. We figured three of us would be enough of a deterrent from him coming after us, and our ages gave us a good excuse for walking around a college town.
He dropped out of the tree a few yards in front of us and I growled.
"Shut up Bitch, though I'm sure someone would love to hear his puppy growl again." Still downwind far enough that I couldn't smell him, another figure jumped from a fire escape into the light thrown by the street light and I back pedaled, ending with with my back against Morgan who steadied me. The familiar dark eyes and hair, along with the plains of his face struck a chord of fear in me.
"Steven..." I muttered, the new bulk of muscle and strange sheen to his eyes and skin suggested he hadn't been happy with the natural boost of being a werewolf and chose a chemical improvement.
"You okay?" Morgan murmured softly, almost invisibly rubbing my hand.
I didn't answer.
Two mutts hopped up on god only knows what kind of steroids vs three werewolves in our twenties. We needed back-up, which was about half an hour away, but this was our turf, we couldn't run. Fuck.
I pressed the button that would send for the rest of the Pack- one of the nifty gadgets courtesy of Nick's kinda-sorta girlfriend, Vanessa.
"So what happened? Get your ass handed to you after I took off and decide you weren't man enough to deal with it? Decided to hope some chemicals make all your problems go away?" I laughed. "To bad your ego is bigger than your dick."
He roared in anger and charged like a bull on a mission. Roid-rage... Now let's hope this works.
Within seconds all three of us were fighting.
"I'll show you Bitch!" Steven growled as he tried to pin me, I had a pretty good idea of what would happen if he did.
"So you can't get laid without raping? Sad, though I guess you always did have trouble keeping it up." He growled and started to fight harder, but the rage was pushing all rational thought aside, he lost all finesse, but gained strength. A fist to my solar plexis sent me flying backward and seeing spots, which turned to blackness as my head cracked against the pavement. Well shit...
I came too and tried to jump back up, still woozy.
Morgan dodged a punch to the face and it clipped his jaw instead. He kicked out the mutt's knee and moved back. Taking a second to pull me up. "Have a nice nap?"
"Shut up."
"Can you fight?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Not really."
A police cruiser turned the corner and flashed its lights- the mutts took off.
All three of us were bloody and bruised- I wish I could say that the other guys were in bad shape too... My ego isn't that over inflated. We weren't even fighting for that long.
"What happened here?" The officer asked getting out of his vehicle.
"We were out for a walk and were attacked." Morgan said putting an arm around me, I winced as he put pressure on my ribs.
"We're from out of town, they didn't take anything, but could you give us a ride back to our hotel?" I asked giving him a wide-eyed look.
"You need to make a statement."
"We didn't get a good look at them, it happened so fast." Reese said, swallowing as much of his accent as he could, and I nodded in agreement.
"Then you need to go to the hospital."
"Will you take us back to our hotel first? Then we could take ourselves to the hospital- I don't think we have any serious injuries and I know I'd rather at least have a change of clothes to take with me."
"Fine." He said. "Just promise me you will go to the ER."
"I promise." I said, still trying to act innocent.
I called Nick who was on the way with Antonio and Jeremy. "We're coming back to the hotel early." I told him, my tone must have said something happened."Our walk got interrupted, I'll tell you more when we get there."
"Are all of you okay?"
I looked at Reese who had a cloth pressed against his bleeding, surely broken nose, Morgan who winced when he took a breath and my current inability to focus on something for more than a minute at a time and the spots in my vision.
"For the most part."
We had him drop us off at the hotel down the block from ours and we snuck in a back door and Nick, Jeremy, Elena, and Clay were in our shared room.
"You all look like hell." Nick said as Jeremy and Elena sat us down and started evaluating injuries.
"So let me get this straight, Lake has now recruited another month and that mutt just happens to be the same guy that bit Serena and both are on steroids?" Nick asked Reese. I was barely processing everything between a decent concussion from my head bouncing on the pavement and the pain medication Jeremy had given me for that, a broken rib and several bruised ribs plus the fact my shoulder had apparently dislocated; how I hadn't noticed it? Your guess is as good as mine.
My alarm was supposed to be set for 8am to get the three of us up- but when I woke up and saw light coming through the west facing window I knew something was up. I slowly sat up and saw the note on top of the unplugged alarm. "You three are out of commission for right now, relax and be careful. ~Elena." Down below that in Nick's handwriting. "You all look like hell- please avoid scaring the staff and other guests. So basically don't leave the room and call if you need anything."
I rolled over and went back to sleep.
When I woke up again Reese had his laptop out and it looked like he was working on something for work, he also had two black eyes.
Morgan was surfing through the channels on TV still laying in bed. It took me a moment to realize why though, I was curled up with my head on his chest, which had nice black and blue bruises across it.
"Sorry, I said sitting up and almost fall back down as the room spun."
"You're fine, that side doesn't hurt too badly."
I cocked my head, hearing voices, that got me up as I tried to follow the sound.
"Where are you going?" Reese asked as I quietly opened the dividing door between ours and Antonio and Jeremy's room.
I put my finger to my lips and slipped in before putting my ear to the wall that separated this room from the next, which just happened to be Elena, Clay, and the twin's.
"It went south fast, yes, but how the hell could we have figured out it would be not just one, but two steroid fueled mutts? They did their part and figured out what we're dealing with, Darling." Clay's voice drawled.
"You heard Jeremy, if that cop hadn't showed up they would most likely all be dead. It was a bad call, we should have sent someone else with them."
"They attracted minimal attention, we don't have the media searching for the attack victims nor the attackers. They were able to talk that cop into dropping them off here, not booking them and not rushing them to the ER in an ambulance. And if you asked them, they'd do it again in heartbeat."
I backed away from the wall and ran into Reese as I tried to go back through the dividing door.
"Either you just stood there for five minutes listening to nothingness or you were eavesdropping."
"And?"
He rolled his eyes and sat back down. "Morgan, your woman is insane."
"I know." He said at the same time I said "I'm not his woman."
The next day we all looked somewhat less like we'd been beaten half to death- Reese's black eyes were fading, my concussion and bruises were healing, and Morgan could actually breath without pain. I ended up getting volunteered to take the twins swimming- which meant that I got to hope that the bruises across my ribs and back were faded enough to wear a bikini.
"So the bruises are faded enough that I don't look battered?" I asked spinning in front of Morgan. Reese had disappeared with Nick and Antonio, all three trying to keep the business going from the other side of the state.
He put his hands on my hips and stopped me. "Yes, they are, and you look fine."
I looked up at him and my breath caught. I backed away quickly. "I'm going to go see if Logan and Kate are ready."
I watched as Kate and Logan swam and splashed in the hotel pool, someone sat beside me and I glanced over. The chlorine overwhelmed every other scent.
"Is there a reason you seem to be avoiding the obvious tension between you two?" Reese asked.
"I don't know what you mean."
"Sure." He said giving me a glance that told me he knew better. "When you decide to get your head out of your ass, I'll listen. Though he's no better at the moment."
"What do you mean?"
"He teases you about it, but doesn't really think anything will happen between you two, hopes it will, but Morgan doesn't have his head as far in the clouds as it may seem."
"You're very perceptive."
After a moment he snorted, eyes glazed over as he watched the water. "Lot's of practice I guess."
"Reese, what happened?"
"Nothing important." He said and slid into the water.
Everyone has their secrets.. Even me.
