Keeping My Pack (22 page)

I stick the needle in my arm and watch as two drops of my blood slowly make their way down the tube. Then a third. This is taking forever. Following the tube again with my eyes, I see the small plastic thing on it that I noticed before. I don’t know what it’s for, but surely it has a purpose. To my delight, there’s a moving circle, and when I turn it one way, the tube clears of all liquid, the other way…there we go. My blood starts to fill the entire tube and make its way into Mikey.

After a few minutes, I slump back in my seat, disappointed. Maybe my blood actually won’t work. Or maybe I’m just doing it wrong. I guess I could try to bite him, but I don’t think I can turn others into wolves, and the thought of biting a dying boy makes me shudder, not to mention I don’t know if I would be claiming his as a mate, which makes me want to punch myself in the face. Besides, I don’t need his blood; he needs mine.

“
What the hell are you doing, Kitten!” Kellan yells in a hushed whisper, his face panicky.

“
Trying to help. I have hope.” I tell him with a frown. Isn’t it obvious?

“
You can’t just…” He cuts off, waving his hand wildly at my arm and to Mikey.

“
Uncle and my Grandfather could fix me with blood; I had to see if mine could fix Mikey,” I explain. “It isn’t working,” I add, shaking my head sadly.

“
Kitten, honey…I know you liked this kid, and I understand the need to help, but do you realize what you’re doing?” He coos.

I nod my head, albeit a little unsurely now. Kellan continues. “Even if your blood did heal him, he’d wake up changed, he wouldn’t be human anymore. Do you feel like you can make this kind of call for him? This choice? And then we’d have to take him with us, because he couldn’t be left on his own, especially in a hospital with a miracle cure. The government would take him and experiment on him. Are you ready to be an adoptive mom, to care for this boy just because you liked having him around at the ice rink?”

I shrug a shoulder. “I didn’t really think about it. He’s my friend, if I can help him, I want to do that.” I tell him.

“
And the rest of what I said?” He asks impatiently.

“
I don’t know how to be a mom, but I think he would have a better life with me than he did before, and he likes dogs, so he would probably like wolves,” I say.

Kellan scrubs at his face with both hands. “We will have to talk about all the things wrong with that statement later.” He sighs deeply. “For now, I have to do damage control. Your friend is waking up. Your blood worked after all.”

I turn my head quickly and look to Mikey, his eyes just fluttering open. He blinks at me before going into a coughing fit. Kellan had anticipated this, I guess, because he already has a cup of water with a straw for him. “Stay quiet for now, okay?” He instructs.

Mikey smiles nervously at me, and I smile back at him, kissing his forehead to hold back the happy squeal that wants to come out.

Kellan stands by the door, speaking into his cell phone. “Hey Rem, it’s me. Look, we have a problem. To keep it short, Mikey was dying, and Kitten healed him with her blood…No, I didn’t allow it, I wasn’t in the room… Yes, it worked. Okay. Okay. Sounds like a plan. I get it!” He hangs up and rolls his eyes. Pushing at the phone again.

“
What did say? Who are you calling now?” I ask him.

“
I’ll explain later; we need to move quickly here. I’m getting Finn to erase all footage of any of us from security tapes, but I need to find Mikey something to wear out of here. Get him up and see if he’s able to walk. I’ll be right back.”

I have a sinking feeling that I did something wrong, but that thought changes as soon as I look back to Mikey. I help him sit up and shift the blankets around to keep him covered.

“
Uh, hey Mikey,” I say awkwardly.

“
Hey, Kitten.” He rasps back.

I sigh heavily. “I know you’ve been through a lot, and you have no clue what’s going on, but would you like to come and stay with Jace and me and the rest of the guys?” I ask, hoping he’ll say he wants to because I’m pretty sure it’s the only option now.

“
My Dad?” He chokes out. I hand him back the water glass for another sip.

“
He’s in jail now. He’ll never hurt you again. I won’t let anyone hurt you again. Ever.” I vow, and I mean it.

“
Did you really save me, like the guy said?” Mikey asks shyly.

I nod my head. “Yeah, I had to try, you’re my little buddy,” I say playfully and ruffle his already messy hair.

“
So you’re gonna adopt me? Like, you’re gonna be my mom now?”

I shrug. “I can be if that’s what you want. I’ll warn you, though, I’m probably bad at it. I didn’t have a mom either, but I promise to do my best to care for you and make you a part of my family. The thing is Mikey, my family is…well, we’re different. There are things about the others that you might think would be scary, but they’re not scary at all. They will never cause you harm, and they will help you in any way they can, I just know it.”

“
Okay.” He says with a smile.

“
Okay? You want to come with us?” I ask, just to make sure.

“
Yeah. You’ve always been really nice, and Jace is cool, and you said there would be food.” He laughs cheekily.

I laugh too. “Tristan is going to love you.”

Kellan comes in with a set of scrubs that are way too big for the small boy, but he holds the pants up as best as he can as we walk behind Kellan to the elevators and through the hospital to the truck outside. He tells us to get in and wait for Finn, while he goes back and cleans up the room of all evidence of my being there and erases Mikey’s record.

Finn jumps in behind the wheel and shakes his head at me. “Remy is going to kill us; you know that right?” He turns to Mikey next to me. “Hey there, Kiddo, welcome to the family. Happy to see you up and moving again.”

I smack Finn’s shoulder lightly. “How come he gets the welcome back greeting while I get the impending death one?”

Finn laughs. “Because you’re the one that turned us all into kidnappers.”

“
I’m not a kid!” Mikey exclaims with a huff.

“
The only thing we kidnapped him from was death. Children services are the ones who thought giving him back to his father was a good idea; they shouldn’t be trusted with his care anymore.” I state, crossing my arms over my chest. “Besides, Mikey said he wanted to come with us.”

“
Yeah!” Mikey pipes in, defending me.

Finn puts his hands up. “I don’t disagree with what you did. I just wish you would have let us in on the plan so we could prepare is all. Now we have to go wipe Kellan’s office completely, and the three of you will need to get out of dodge quickly.”

“
Oh,” I say, deflating and now feeling terrible. I’m not sorry for helping Mikey, and I’m even happy that he’s coming with us now. I won’t have to worry about how he is anymore; I’ll know he’s being taken care of. But I did bring the guys into all of this without even asking, and I’ve brought a child into their lives that they might not have wanted.

Kellan comes out shortly, and the three of us remain quiet on our way back to the house as Mikey plays with the radio, listening to ten seconds of a song before changing the station and doing it all over again. He seems happy enough; I just worry how the rest of the guys are going to react.

M
ikey and I rush out of the truck as we pull up to the house. Reed jogs over to us, placing a quick smacking kiss on my lips, telling me he’s proud of me before he jumps in the truck in with Kellan and Finn, heading for the clinic.

I stare at the open front door nervously, rocking back on my heels. I guess the rest of them know already. “I guess we should go in.” I proposed.

As we’re climbing the stairs of the porch, Maksim appears with a broad grin on his face. “I suppose this is the newest Ivaskov!” He greets happily.

Mikey looks up at me with a puzzled expression. “What’s an I-vash-cough?” He pronounces the name so funnily that it’s hard not to laugh.

“
Well, apparently that’s what we are now. It’s a name.”

“
Oh. So is Mr. Jace around?” He walks to the door and peeks his head around.

“
We can go find him in a minute, Mikey. First, I want you to meet my grandfather, Maksim.” I introduce.

Mikey waves and Maksim takes that as an invitation. He steps up to him and places his hand on his shoulder. “Come on boy, how about we get a bite to eat before we seek out the Duke’s son, hmm? And you can call me grandfather, most people do.”

The two of them walk off without me, and I glare at the back of Maksim’s head. He had to know I was planning on using Mikey as a shield from Remy, and he stole him from me. I stick my tongue out at him, even though they’ve disappeared into the house. I roll my eyes at myself before deciding to act like an adult and find Remy before he finds me.

I know if Remy is actually home, he’ll be in his office at this time of day, so I head there first.

Remy

Kitten knocks lightly on the open door, and I throw her a look that tells her she knows better. She shrugs her slim shoulders unapologetically, her smile forced, but beautiful all the same.

“
Don’t be mad.” She asks, looking around at all the empty shelves in my office.

“
I’m not angry at you, Love. Just worried that you didn’t think this through, and worried how the boy will react when he learns what we are.” I tell her softly.

“
Oh.” Her shoulders relax, and I can tell she was worried about my reaction.

“
Come here, Love. Let’s have a chat.” I slide my chair back, giving her room to sit in my lap. I brush her luscious platinum hair away from her shoulder and run my hand soothingly over her back before continuing. “I want you to understand that even if I do become angry with you, I will never raise a hand to you in anger. I also will never turn you away or make you feel ashamed for your mistakes or if we disagree on a matter. There’s never a reason to fear me, Kitten.”

“
Okay. I understand.” She smiles shyly at me, giving me a kiss on the cheek.

“
Now, about young Michael. I assume you thought it was the only way to keep him alive, and if that’s the case, then I feel you should be proud of your choice.” I tell her firmly.

“
Really? You mean that, Rem? I know bringing a child home is kind of a big deal, but I’ll take care of him myself, he won’t get in your guys’ way.” She promises.

“
Stop.” I bark, harsher than I intended, but I don’t like where that was headed. I embrace her tightly in a hug to soothe the sting of my order. “You won’t be caring for the boy on your own, you’ll have us, that’s what family is for. You forget that every other man in this house was brought home by me and cared for, welcomed into the family if you will. You don’t have to do anything alone anymore, Love. We’ll support you and the decisions you make. All I ask is to be included in making those choices.”

Kitten smiles even though I can tell she feels like crying, the rims of her eyes turning red and heavy with unshed tears. “Thank you, Remington. I’ll do better in the future. I was worried Kellan might try to stop me if I asked.” She admits.