Pack and Coven (25 page)

“That's the idea,” she croaked, a sly smile on her face.

Gavin smacked her thigh and grabbed her panties. “You think a little puke will stop me after you broke my pack rules?”

“Whoa now.” Bianca, finally, approached. “It's not your pack yet.”

Gavin glanced at her but kept a hold on June. “You're a lot of trouble, you know that, B? First I have to convince Pop to leave Roanoke so we can help your incompetent ass find the runner you lost. Then I find Harry when you can't, and I let him go because he's not worth crap. You need me.”

“You didn't come to help with the lockdown. You came because you thought you had a chance at pack alpha.” Behind Bianca, several figures broke rank and stood silhouetted against the flickering bonfire. “Douglas is desperate to get you out of his pack without banishing you. He had to be desperate, to come deep into my territory and pull this stunt with you. Don't pretend to be noble.”

Gavin pushed June into the dirt and shoved his foot in her back. Harry caught her gaze. She didn't seem as horrified as he would have expected.

“That may be true,” Gavin drawled, “but how about after I kill your precious Harry, I walk? You ran Dad off this morning, so I've got a day before I lose my juice. Mom would take me back, no matter what Pop wants. Then your whole pack will dissolve around you and you won't be able to do a thing about it.”

Bianca startled, as if that hadn't occurred to her. “You wouldn't.”

“Good God, B, do you think nobody knows you set Bert up? Like I want to be next on your hit list.”

She paced out of Harry's view, her voice uncharacteristically tentative. “I don't know what you're talking about.”

“You tipped off the cops when he was on the job.”

“He was my husband. That's ridiculous.” She returned to stand between the shifters who'd broken rank, her back to Gavin. The bonfire danced. An owl called. No one else in the circle so much as whispered.

Harry didn't think it sounded ridiculous. He just wondered why it hadn't occurred to him before.

“I overheard the cops talking when I was at that old bat's house. Not hard to put two and two together.” Gavin noticed June raising her head and pushed her face back into the dirt.

Bianca conferred with the others, one grabbing her shoulder urgently. They changed position enough that Harry could see it was Susan, which probably made the other one Violet.

While Gavin gloated, Harry bent his legs. His ribs tortured him, but the paralysis he'd feared seemed to be fading. He fingered his midsection, assessing the damage. Would he be able to attack Gavin one last time?

“It doesn't matter, anyway.” Gavin smacked June's ass. Harry gathered himself to lunge. God, this was going to hurt. “I got me a new alpha bitch here. If you don't make me real happy, Bianca, you're not the only one who has a hit list.”

Bianca stalked toward him. “I won't allow this.”

“Heard that one before. You don't have a choice. I'm in charge unless you want to lose the pack, and I'm going to—” He paused, shutting his mouth with a deep frown. “I am going to—”

Vomit.

Gavin threw up green bile, and June scrambled out of the way, straight to Harry.

“Temporary,” she murmured. “Be ready.” She patted his hips, finding the pill bottle in his jeans pocket. She withdrew it and fed them both one.

Harry gagged it down, the dry swallow difficult.

“What the hell have you and June been eating?” Bianca asked.

“I haven't—” Gavin puked again, a third time, a fourth time. A lot more than June had. He clutched his stomach and moaned.

His misery invigorated Harry. That or the pill. Relief coursed through his tortured limbs. It was like…

Magic.

June tugged his hand. He rolled to his feet. Energy filled him, energy and power like he'd never felt before. The coven's restoratives were amazing.

He turned to the closest man wearing clothes. There weren't many. They all had to shift at the end of the ceremony, and clothes were a hindrance.

“Give her your shirt.” He motioned toward June, who'd wrapped her arms around her bare breasts.

The man obeyed without question.

Gavin bent with his hands on his knees, heaving. Harry tested his ribs. The pain barely registered.

“You have to kill him,” Bianca said to Harry conversationally. “It's what you came here to do.”

“I came for June.” He'd intended to sacrifice himself, one way or another, but June's safety was paramount.

Bianca shrugged. “Same difference.”

“Not sure about that.” Harry's heart thumped against his chest as he considered Gavin, weakened by whatever June had done. Did the pack realize there was a supernatural force involved in Gavin's condition?

It seemed unfair to defeat a man handicapped by magic. Of course it also seemed unfair to defeat him using a gun, but now Harry didn't need it. He didn't even need to shift to heal his injuries.

What was in that pill? Would it last? He had to free June and get himself instated as alpha as quickly as possible.

Harry turned to Bianca. “She walks or I don't step up.”

Bianca straightened. “She walks.”

“You can't be pack alpha.” June tugged his arm. “You and me, Harry, we'll go somewhere. Canada. South America. You don't want to be pack. This isn't fair.”

He cupped her sweet face in his hands and kissed her forehead. Her breath smelled oddly of mountain laurel. “I promised your friends. This is the bargain I made. I'm taking Gavin's place.”

“Harry's not going anywhere,” Bianca said.

“You don't need my friends' help. I'll help you. Don't do this,” June begged. Tears glistened on her eyelashes as she fought not to cry. “I'll lose you. We'll lose each other.”

“Girl, can the melodrama,” Bianca said with an exasperated sigh. “You can be with your boyfriend all you want. I don't care. I'm not going to marry him. I just need him to balance the pack.”

“She's definitely not going to marry him,” Susan added. She and Violet had followed Bianca from the fire to support their alpha.

No marriage, no argument, no issues with him having a girlfriend. Was the pack more modern than he realized? If so, why had they allowed the brutal pack challenge and Gavin's abuse of June to go on as long as it had?

The whole situation infuriated Harry. He was going to be a terrible alpha, but at least June and the witches would be safe. It was in the coven's best interest to have a sympathetic alpha in charge. One they could bend to their will, which he hoped was benign.

He trusted June and Annette, but Vern was another story.

“June won't be joining us,” Harry informed everyone. “She is going to walk out of here and nobody is going to stop her.” He eyed Gavin, gasping for air. Gavin would be confined until he got severed from his old pack and lost his powers. The men who'd planned to join up with him could get the hell back to Roanoke. In fact, they must have already sensed the tenor of the group, because they were no longer in the circle.

June shook her head. “I'm not leaving you.”

“Yes, you are.” Harry felt powerful enough to command a regiment. He allowed his alpha side free reign. Unfair advantage? He didn't care about that any more than he'd cared about running. Changing his name. Cultivating grannies in a tea room. Looking like a coward with a gun. The only thing that mattered was keeping her safe.

To his surprise, June turned on her heel and started walking, a stricken expression on her face. She didn't even hug him goodbye.

A pang struck his heart. He ignored it.

“Whoa. I noticed that a minute ago,” Bianca commented, her eyebrows raised. She was actually surprised; he could smell it. “Spoken like you're already a pack alpha. You are independent, right?”

“You know I am.” Harry watched June tiptoe through the ring, fighting every step—but stepping away from him. Another couple of feet. Another. Would he ever see her again?

“You haven't always been. According to Gavin your name's John Lapin.”

“That doesn't change anything.”

“True. But…” Taking him by surprise, Bianca swiped a finger through a rivulet of blood on his face and stuck it into her mouth.

“What are you doing?” Blood exchange was sometimes part of a bonding ritual. He hoped he didn't have to bite anyone. He'd tasted enough blood for one night.

In the corner of his eye, he noticed June struggling at the pine barrier. Her gaze was focused on something in the woods, something he couldn't see, even with vision that seemed preternaturally accurate.

Hearing that seemed exceptionally sharp.

The scents coming to him were as distinct as when he was in wolf form.

The coven surrounded them. When he concentrated, he could hear them. Smell them. Each one, familiar to him. Each one, almost a part of him, in some way he didn't understand.

His skin, everything inside him, sizzled with power. It flowed into him from his feet. From the air. From inside.

“You're not independent. You're too strong.” Bianca backed away, halting between her seconds. “What are you?”

“What am I?” Harry inhaled, exhaled. All the scent markers in the area were like beacons. He would never forget a single one of these people. “I'm your alpha-to-be, just like you wanted. Come over here and let's get this over with.”

She lurched forward at his command, stopping herself with some effort. “This isn't right. I don't want someone who can—”

“Who can what?” Harry grasped her arm, not hard, but enough to keep her in place. “Why did you hunt me? The truth this time.”

“Because you're weak,” Bianca confessed through gritted teeth.

“You thought I was weak? Pathetic?” That might not have offended Harry a day ago, but it offended the hell out of him now. Strength flowed through him like ocean currents. “Surprise.”

She cast her gaze at Susan, who radiated distress.

“Harry, you don't understand,” Bianca continued, a bit desperately. “No one thinks you're pathetic. We picked you because you were our guarantee. We didn't want the risks involved the application process, and we didn't want another Bert who expected to rule the pack. Me. Everything.”

He stared at her, not sure he was hearing her right. This was a whole new level of canniness on Bianca's part. “You picked me because you wanted a figurehead?”

“Most male alphas are archaic, at least the ones who want to be pack alphas. We hoped you'd step back and let us handle things.”

“You handled this great,” he snapped. Even as a figurehead, he'd be tied to the pack in a way he loathed. The bond could only change so much about a shifter's psychological underpinnings, not to mention his likes and dislikes. “I guess it's a good thing you're making me take over. I could hardly do worse. Thanks for ruining both our lives.”

“I don't want to—” Bianca clapped a hand over her mouth.

“What?” He couldn't believe how easy it was to force the words out of others now. It had never worked this way before. “Answer me.”

“I don't want to be with you,” she said finally.

“And I don't want to be with you, but you haven't given either of us a choice. Unless you want him.” He pointed at Gavin, on his hands and knees now, his body shiny with sweat. His skin rippled as he dry heaved, almost like he was trying to change into his wolf.

He was no longer a threat.

“I'd rather be stuck with you,” Bianca said. “Are you going to be an asshole?”

“Probably,” he growled, because he was angry, and because he felt like an asshole. So what if he'd never been much of one before this?

“I don't care if you're stronger than me, I won't marry you. Don't expect me to.” She regarded Harry warily. Harry, who was nothing but an independent. Harry, whom she claimed she'd wanted because he was weak and now didn't want because he was strong. “Him, on the other hand—he's a rapist. Kill him.”

“No.” Harry had to admit, he wouldn't mind if Gavin were dead, but murdering a man when it wasn't self-defense—no one could make him do that. “If he survives severance, get proof about the rapes and report him to the cops. That should be enough. I gather you're good at that.”

She kind of smiled, her teeth sharp. “It was for the pack, Harry. You'll see.”

He didn't want to see, and he didn't care why Bert was in prison. “Lock Gavin up until we have time to deal with him. Get him out of the circle.”

Bianca's lips tightened into a white line. “We'll get the chains.” She tilted her head at Susan, who dashed into the darkness.

“You there—reform the circle.”

Shifters leaped to obey, reassembling the pine in an unbroken circumference. Surprised comments trickled past Harry's ears as several looked for their herb shots and couldn't find them. He had no idea what the coven had wanted them for, but they hadn't done anything since they'd taken the cups.

They were just out there. Waiting.

Waiting like June, outside the ring at the edge of the firelight, her huge eyes focused on him.

Bianca touched his shoulder. “You have to send her away if she's not going to join us.”

“She can't join us.” He closed his eyes so he couldn't see June's face.
I love you. Be well.

“Harry,” June called to him, her voice quivering, “you need me. It's wearing off.”

“What is?” His energy level? His strength? Those were undiminished. He was buoyed by power. He didn't need his eyes to feel her fear. Waves of color and force swooshed behind his lids. He could sense the shifters around him, tension levels high; he could sense the coven, their essences an open book.

How had he never realized his friends were kin? Annette and Peter and Vern and so many others. He knew each of them, and it was obvious. They were his network. His group. His circle. He strained for comprehension just out of reach.

They were his pack. His strength was coming from them.

A heavy weight crashed into his back and sharp teeth ripped his skin. Harry twisted and fell.

Unlike before, when the violence had elicited nothing but heavy silence, several shifters screamed. Gavin, in wolf form, snarled and howled. His saliva, Harry's blood, splattered in all directions.

Bianca cursed and barked out orders. “Son of a dog. He's feral. Hunters, find the Roanokers, make sure they aren't tainted. The rest of you, protect the children. I'll take care of this.”

Adrenaline buzzed in Harry's hearing. He hit the ground for the hundredth time that night. In wolf form, Gavin savaged him, more powerful and bestial than when he'd been a man.

Gavin had lost control. Lost his reason. Lost his right to call himself a shifter. He would kill anyone who got in his way now, starting with Harry.

It wasn't the first time. Harry knew that, even if no one else here did.

The only thing he could do to defend against Gavin was shift or he wouldn't last a minute. Didn't matter how strong he was, how much power was in him. Four-legs triumphed over two-legs every time in a fight.

In a fight without a gun.

Damn.

The change wasn't easy with Gavin tearing holes in his flesh. Unlike a normal shift, it took too much time. There was no instant flicker of transformation. He got stuck halfway, healing, being hurt, healing—he was losing his grip on the magic. Gavin closed giant teeth on his throat and he knew it was too late.

Harry was form stuck as a man. He was dying, breathing his last.

Until a surge of energy came from the coven, and he pushed himself into his wolf.

Gavin's teeth snapped on his ruff. Harry scrambled to his feet, his body sore, his wounds present but no longer life-threatening. Vitality streamed into him, a Zen calm that allowed him to assess the situation and everything in it.

June and the coven members stepped into the ring, power rippling off them in waves Harry suspected no two-leg could see.

Bianca, in slow motion, ran for the exit.

Violet, near the bonfire, fed it…something. Then ran.

Susan, with a set of chains, crouched on her knees as if she were about to shift.

Adult shifters dashed into the shadows, away from Harry and Gavin, no longer frozen by tradition. No one wanted to be near a wolf who'd lost himself to rage. They would secure the juveniles first, deal with the feral second.

All this Harry absorbed in a split second, and he chose his course of action.

Dominate.

Failing that, eliminate.

His gaze locked with Gavin's, the other wolf's eyes white as snow and just as cold. He was a big animal, bigger than Harry, his coat rough and dark. The red flesh of his scar had transferred to his wolf.

Back off,
Harry ordered.

Gavin shook his head, droplets of Harry's blood slinging free. He crouched, but not in submission. A menacing growl reverberated from him.

Harry hadn't interacted much with shifters in wolf form. Sometimes he ran with wolves, played. He'd never been in a four-leg confrontation, which wasn't unusual for an indie.

If he was an indie anymore. With the coven feeding him, he felt like something else.

Back off,
he ordered again, accenting it with a deep, commanding bark.

Gavin's ears flattened against his head and his reddened muzzle wrinkled.

This time Harry lunged first.

He bowled the other wolf over, snapping and growling. Gavin's movements were fast, lightning fast, but Harry was faster.

He set his teeth in Gavin's throat. Blood spurted into his mouth.

He wasn't expecting the metallic burst, and he gagged. His jaw loosened enough that Gavin ripped himself free.

Only long enough to jump Harry again. Sharp claws raked his back. Gavin's teeth clamped on his muzzle, cutting him from lip to eye. Red blurred Harry's vision on one side. He contorted his body, flipping Gavin off.

Instead of giving Gavin a chance to regroup, Harry trounced him. He missed the throat, latched on to an ear.

Gavin yelped, his first sound of pain. His claws tore Harry's foreleg to the bone. He wrenched away, leaving part of his ear in Harry's mouth.

Gavin tried coming at him from the side. Harry twisted into the air and landed on him, biting his neck. From the top, the ruff was thinner. Harry's teeth sank in.

This time he was ready for the blood.

Gavin rolled. Harry slipped to the side but hung on to the skin, chewing and choking his opponent. He shook his head brutally, whipping Gavin back and forth. He wasn't bigger, but he was smarter. And he was, right now, stronger.

Gavin stumbled to the side but couldn't free himself. They crashed into a table, sending condiments in every direction. When he fell, Harry slashed his side. His claws scraped Gavin's ribs.

Gavin let out a series of yelps, frantic to escape. Harry bit harder. Salty, hot blood rushed into his mouth.

The other wolf coughed and whined. After one last attempt to lurch away, he rolled again, onto his back, as far as he could with Harry gripping his skin. Gavin's tail wrapped around his privates and he ceased to struggle.

It was over. Harry shook and released, leaping on the other wolf and poising over his underbelly. If he dug in, he could disembowel Gavin in seconds. He'd never done it before, but unlike in human form, fighting as a wolf was instinctive.

Blood matted them both. Harry could only see out of one eye, but the skin at Gavin's throat flapped open. Harry was clearly the victor.

He growled and affixed his teeth in Gavin's throat.

Gavin urinated on himself, the acrid stench filling Harry's nostrils, cutting through the copper whang of blood. The other wolf made no move to fight back. His body shivered beneath Harry in fear. One crunch of Harry's jaws, and Gavin would be history.

And he, Harry, would be a killer.

With another growl, he hunkered away from Gavin, shaking his head. Blood dripped from numerous wounds. He stared at Susan, who still had the chains, and barked. Things might get dicey because he wouldn't be able to shift anytime soon. As he understood it, the upcoming ceremony required him to be on two legs.

After holding his gaze for a minute, Susan nodded. Harry didn't miss that she failed to lower her gaze in submission. A strong, quiet one, maybe a recessive. She began unlocking the thick, iron bindings in order to cuff the vanquished wolf.

Harry glanced around with his single eye. Besides Susan, the only people in the clearing were coven, but he could hear the shifters whispering, wondering, waiting. They'd return with guns if the alphas and their seconds couldn't handle the feral.

Good. That meant fewer people would notice the coven lending him strength. How had the witches known they were his pack and could give him power? Had they bonded to save him or was this one of their spells?

What would happen to them when he switched allegiances to the new pack?

Harry trotted to June, who stood between Annette and Vern, and stared up at her. She kneeled in front of him. “You don't have to do this. Let the pack dissolve. They don't deserve you.”

He couldn't answer her, so he licked her face. The smell of the other man's shirt nearly made him snap at the cloth. Her dried tears were saltier than Gavin's blood.

Beside them, he heard Susan advance on Gavin, still passively on his back. Harry hoped Gavin appreciated the fact he'd been spared. Other packs might have terminated him and Harry both for succumbing to the shift during a challenge, but Millington didn't have that luxury. They needed two alphas in place before this night was over.

“Since you're so good at shifting, it's time to shift back,” Susan told Gavin coldly. “Or you can go in a woodshed. Your choice.”

Instead of obeying, Gavin vaulted off the ground, straight for Susan's throat. She was a small woman. Gavin was a large, fast wolf.

Harry darted for them, but he was too late. Gavin landed on Susan and bit down. Her terrified keen faded quickly to a gurgle.

And then a succession of deafening cracks exploded through the clearing, sending Gavin tumbling to one side as if a sledgehammer had struck him.

It wasn't a sledgehammer. Bianca stood at the edge of the clearing with Harry's gun and a black expression.

Susan's body shimmered as she tried to shift away her injuries. It was taking too long. Veils of color radiated over her body. She struggled for breath. Harry could smell death on the air, death on the wind. Gavin alone? Or would Susan join him?

June started forward, but Annette grabbed her arm, stopping her.

“We can't,” Annette whispered. “I'm sorry, honey, we can't.”

Bianca glared at Harry, her scent marker fierce and wild. Susan's body finally collapsed into a small, pale wolf, her coat wavy and her throat bloody.

“You did this,” Bianca spat. “I told you to kill him. We know how to deal with dead bodies. Is that what stopped you or are you missing your balls?”

Harry lowered his head but felt no guilt for his mercy. He'd do the same thing again. He was, indeed, going to make a terrible pack alpha. These weren't decisions he wanted on his shoulders. They weren't decisions he felt equipped to make. But here he was.

Bianca cursed him, stroking the side of the small wolf. “You could have prevented this. Now she's dying. Oh, God, she can't die! Susan, no. Susan, don't die.”

Tears streamed down Bianca's face. Harry had no urge to submit to her, but because he wasn't slave to his instincts, slave to a pack—yet; because he knew it was the right thing to do, he crept to her side, sank to the ground and whined.

Bianca waved him off. “Stuff it, Harry. I know you're faking.”

“You love her,” June said to Bianca. “She's your mate.”

“You're a genius.” Bianca wiped tears off her face, her movements abrupt. “Sorry we won't be adding your vast IQ to the betterment of the pack. Who are these people, more indies? Just what I need in my territory. Organized indies. We're not city wolves. We're not sharing our space. I will tell you right now, I have no problem killing people who get in my way.”

What Harry could smell belied that. Her scent was pungent with grief but also horror. She had wanted him to kill Gavin so she didn't have to do it herself. Just like she hadn't been able to arrange an unfortunate accident for Bert, so she'd arranged something less deadly.

“If she dies, I will never forgive you,” Bianca told Harry, her voice cracking. “I will never obey you. I will never support you. I will never rest until you suffer. I will never—”

“You will never shut up.” Vern squatted on the other side of the small wolf. “Who wants to live with that? Give her this.” He held out a large brown pill.

Bianca glared at him. “Why would I do that?”

“Because you don't want your girlfriend to kick it?”

She sniffed, eyes narrow. “You're the busboy at the tea room.”

“And you're a bitch. If you won't do it, I will.” He pried at Susan's slender muzzle, shoving the large pill into the back of her throat. Her ribcage heaved up once and her body stiffened.

And then nothing.

Bianca vaulted over Susan's body and flattened Vern quicker than Harry had ever seen anyone move in his life. “I just killed one bastard. I don't even know you and I can tell you're a bastard.”

“Erk,” Vern said. “I hef to…” He coughed and gasped. Bianca growled in his face. If she'd been in wolf form, Vern might already be dead.

“I can do it,” June offered.

“Save your strength, sugar.” Annette rolled up her sleeves. “Vern, I swan. Two hundred years old, and you're still an impulsive idiot. Pete and I will handle this.”

Annette and her husband sat by the wolf. Harry licked Susan's throat, wishing he could help. He couldn't even dial 9-1-1, and they wouldn't treat an animal anyway. He didn't know Susan well, but she tasted like someone who deserved to live.

Annette and Pete placed their hands on the wolf. A shrill whine pierced the air that none of the two-legs appeared to hear.

Harry howled in pain. June limped to his side, touching his fur. Then his ears popped.

Annette quirked an eyebrow at him. “You're sure sensitive. Okay, well, I'm fresh out. You out, Pete?”

“I'm more than out. That was close.” Pete rose, knees creaking. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. “She'll be okay.”

The wolf beneath their hands rolled stiffly into a sitting position. She nuzzled Bianca on the neck.

Bianca released Vern with a disgusted heave. “You're still a bastard.” Then she hugged Susan, burying her face in the wolf's ruff.

Harry had felt the vigor of those pills himself, but this was incredible. Was it the pills, then, that made him feel so strong?

He didn't think so. His wounds were not all healed and he felt the same connection to the coven that had boosted him through his confrontation with Gavin.

He was right. They were his pack.

And he was about to leave them for another.

They smelled regretful, as he knew he did, but he sensed no worry from them. Not anymore.

When June straightened, Harry stuck to her, pressing her legs. If this was his last chance to be around her while knowing how he felt about her, he was going to touch her as much as he could. The coven wanted to make him forget after he joined the pack. He hadn't agreed, but he wasn't sure he could stop them.