Keeping My Pack (7 page)

“
No touchy-touchy.” Logan chides a particularly aggressive woman. I go to help but cringe away from her once I notice the clear fluid running rampant down her leg.

“
Uh, I’ll just leave you guys to it,” I say, inching my way around the herd.

“
Reed! You fucker, get back here and help us get them downstairs.” Logan calls out angrily.

It’s tempting to run away, but I can see the two of them are stressed and outnumbered.

“
Fine,” I grumble. “There’s pot brownies dusted with coke in the dining room!” I say loudly and excitedly.

The hoard murmurs and chirps excitedly themselves before racing each other down to the first floor in a mass of stumbling limbs and glitter.

Jace blows out a breath as he runs his hands through his hair. “Thank fuck.”

I smirk at my brothers as they lean against the wall and regroup themselves. “First rule of drug addicts’ boys, they’re always on the hunt for their next fix.”

“
I don’t even know if I want to go down there now,” Jace says as he adjusts his lipstick-smeared and rumpled shirt.

“
Our girl is down there, and Kellan is probably almost done.” I try for playful, but my tone comes out dangerous anyway.

Logan kicks himself away from the wall and throws an arm over my shoulders. “C’mere you beautiful bastard. You will forever be known to me as the skank wrangler from this point on.” A laugh bursts out of me, my mood lightening immediately.

Tristan

The house is in organized chaos as Maksim and Albert separate the faithful followers of Marcus from those that were just following Alpha orders, and getting the human females calm enough to get into vehicles and shipped off to recover elsewhere. Since the humans were drugged, there’s little chance they’ll remember any wolves or at worst, chalk it up to hallucinations. The few followers of Marcus are being directed into a different room in the basement for holding until we can figure out what to do with them.

A howl starts up in the distance, and I swing my head to the side to listen better. My heart pounds overtime as I recognize Remy’s urgency in the howl. Shoving people out of my way, I make it to the back door and leap down the concrete steps leading to the lawn and sprint my way over to the detached pool house.

I swallow thickly as I slow to approach Remy, who stands just outside the open door. I meet his pale eyes, thinking the worst, but I see no new pain there. “Is she alright?” I ask.

“
Same as before, though Kellan assures me she’s improving.” He answers before shifting his eyes behind me to greet the rest of my brothers who came running as I had.

I duck through the door and am relieved to Kitten sans all the gore with a blanket tucked around her, appearing to be sleeping. I attempt to run my hand along her gorgeous, clean hair but the wolf laying across her legs snaps at my hand.

“
What the fuck, Ash?” I narrow my eyes at him.

“
It’s probably best to leave him be, for now. He’s having a difficult time reining in his emotions, and guarding her seems to be keeping him from killing people.” Kellan explains as he eyes the feral looking Ash warily.

“
What! No way, uh-uh fucker. She’s ours too; we missed her too.” Logan demands stubbornly behind me.

Ash moves quickly as he jumps to his feet, his jaw snapping dangerously as he barks wildly at all of us.

“
Enough!” Remy shouts, his booming voice carrying so loudly that it hurts my ears. Ash huffs, his dark eyes narrowing at Remy as he turns his large body around on the small chase lounge and lays himself over Kitten once again. His nose nuzzles under her arm until he manages to get her hand on his head. He gave us his back, but I’m not stupid enough to think that he’s ignoring us now.

“
Fucking caveman Neanderthal asshole mother fucker,” Logan grumbles as he finds a seat on the couch next to Kellan.

Remington closes the door with a bang. “Enough bitching and fighting for today, guys. Maksim and Albert will join us once everything is under control at the main house. Why don’t we use this time to get cleaned up and settled down? I’ve ordered our vehicles to be brought to us, so we’ll have our clothes and things momentarily.”

Jace, of course, calls dibs on the first shower, and I make myself at home in the small kitchen located right off the living area. Maybe now the ungrateful bastards will eat something, since we have Kitten back, sort of. There’s not a whole lot to work with, but I manage to put together enough simple grilled cheese sandwiches for all of us, cut up some apple and pear slices, and make a couple pitchers of iced tea from the powdered can. It’s not my best, but the guys eat greedily, and that makes me happy. Even Ash barked until someone tossed a few sandwiches at him, which he swallowed whole.

I grin to myself as I find a bowl in the cabinets and fill it with the ice tea. I add a few of the ice cubes, remembering when Kitten thought Finn was a dog and gave him water on the rocks because she likes ice water so dogs must like it too. I meet Finn’s eyes as I set the bowl in front of Ash, and he smirks back at me, remembering too.

About an hour goes by with no change in Kitten before Maksim and Albert show up. They choose to stand on the far wall after Ash gives them a warning growl. Nice to know the possessive wolf is giving us more rights than strangers.

“
Get everyone settled out there?” Remy asks the newcomers.

Maksim nods his head tiredly. “For the most part. Albert has been here and knows who’s who and where they stand, so that helped. The others were reluctant to leave after I explained just who they were helping keep captive. They wished to stay and see after her health and beg forgiveness.”

Remy raises an eyebrow at this. “And I hope you told them to fuck off because no one is getting close to her again.”

Maksim frowns but nods his head. “Something of the sort, but you do realize that these people are her pack members, right?”

Remy jumps to his feet, getting in the older man’s face. “Your blood may run through her veins, but make no mistake, she is ours, and we will be taking her with us when we leave.”

To his credit, Maksim doesn’t even flinch. “My granddaughter may do as she pleases once she wakes. If she chooses to be with you and your men, so be it. That doesn’t change the fact that she is the Princess of the most feared and respected wolf pack in the world. She has responsibilities here and once word travels of her existence, she’ll be in even greater danger than she was before without the protection of her pack.” He argues calmly.

Remy, on the other hand, is furious. “Is that I threat?”

Maksim’s eyes flash in anger. “Not from me, no. The Ivaskov pack will know better than to try to harm her again, but we have enemies, and I imagine even more so now that we will be dethroning our alpha and taking prisoners within our own pack.”

Remy takes a step back, looking for the world like Maksim just grew three heads. “Am I supposed to say sorry? They kidnapped and tortured one of mine!”

“
No! You stubborn imbecile, you’re supposed to see that she belongs with us, with or without you! It’s what’s best for her, for her safety and because we are family.” Maksim shouts, his hands going out to his sides in the universal ‘isn’t it obvious’ gesture.

Remy scoffs. “Her family? Her family is responsible for what happened to her.”

Kellan jumps to his feet and pushes his way between the two men. “Let’s cool this down a bit shall we? A girl is laying over there trying to recover from a fatal injury, and she doesn’t need any outside stress.”

That gets their attention, and they both back off. Kellan looks relieved as he continues. “The issue of what Kitten wants or needs can be revisited once she is no longer fighting for her life and she can speak for herself. If the two of you, or all of us for that matter, would like to discuss our options no matter what she chooses, then we can do so in a quiet, peaceful manner.”

“
Yeah, that,” I smile and nod my head, pointing at Kellan in agreement.

“
Fine.” Maksim agrees through gritted teeth. “May I sit?” He looks to Ash with an expression of annoyance. Ash grumbles but jerks his head to the side, indicating the group of chairs furthest away from Kitten.

Remy remains standing but moves to stand in front of everyone, much like he does at home when he’s leading a meeting. “I just want it said that I don’t oppose Kitten finding a place within your pack if that’s what she wants. I’m telling you now, though, where she goes, we go.” His eyes scan the room, and each member of our family gives a nod of agreement.

Albert stares at Remy in confusion for a moment, before turning to look at Maksim. “They still don’t seem to understand.” He tells the former Alpha, shaking his head.

“
Understand what exactly?” Finn speaks up.

“
It is not
our
pack; it is hers. She’s the heir. Without a mate, she cannot rule the pack, and that of wolf society as a whole, on her own, but she will be given a counsel until her mate is found or arranged. Once she has a mate, then he will be named Alpha until she births a son and the son is deemed mature enough to rule.”

I blink at him in shock. I guess I should have known it already, being as Remy explained something similar after we first met with Maksim, but I suppose I figured they’d be wrong, and truth be told, I wasn’t actually paying attention. My focus was on finding her at the time.

“
Holy shit! So she’s like, a
Princess
Princess.” Logan says dazedly. He must not have been paying attention either.

“
Yes, exactly,” Albert smiles, happy to be finally understood.

Remy stares at Maksim in a silent challenge, his arms crossed over his chest. He doesn’t appear to be shocked or surprised at all, but he’s still skeptic. “Even if she awakens and Tristan’s bite changed her, you have no way of knowing if she’ll be able to shift, or bear any pups.”

Albert raises his hand and waves it frantically in the air like an eager child in a classroom. Remy nods his head to him, and he stands proudly. “I have a theory on who Princess Kitten’s mother is. I spent a lot of time with the former Alpha Mikel, and we journeyed the globe on scientific missions. Her father was obsessed with finding a way to create more females. Either by safely turning humans, or curing the virus that prevents our remaining females from giving birth entirely or only a few children in an entire lifetime.”

“
Your point being?” Jace says distractedly as he inspects his fingernails. He looks bored, but the set of his shoulders tells me he’s anything but.

“
What that means.” Albert continues. “Is that I can look over his research and see what he found. Kitten’s existence obviously means he found something. The last year he was with us, he was very distracted and hardly spent any time with his pack. He took frequent trips to Australia and on the occasions I accompanied him, we met with some fascinating people.”

Maksim turns outraged eyes to Albert. “Interesting how? And why is this the first I’m hearing of it?”

Albert looks to the floor, appearing every bit the kicked puppy. “If…if you don’t mind, Sirs, I would like to hold off on giving that information until I have spoken with the Princess in private. I answer to only her for the time being.” He shifts nervously from foot to foot.

Maksim jumps to his feet and grips him by the collar of his shirt. “No,” Remy says calmly, making Maksim pause. “We’ll respect his loyalty, for now. If it’s something we need to know, Kitten will tell us herself.”

I barely stop myself from clapping at my hot-headed brother, but I also know that he fully expects Kitten to tell him everything and won’t take no for an answer.

“
However, you still have yet to make your point.” Remy eyes Albert in a way that should tell him to hurry it up.

“
My point is that, if the girl is what I suspect she is, she should not only be able to shift but will also be the most fertile female wolves have seen since ‘The Suffering.” He smiles like he just found a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

That news should excite me, but I find myself swallowing what feels like lead. So not only is the girl my brothers and I have claimed as ours turned out to be a Princess of a pack that clearly needs her, but she also might be a pup-making machine that most wolves would kill for. She’s always been special to me, but knowing just how special she really is, is a bit overwhelming. I see now that getting her back is less of a final solution and more of a start into the unknown. There will always be someone out there trying to take her away from us.