The Alphas' Bliss (14 page)

Bliss

D
evin loved me. He loved me. I didn’t know what to do with that. We’d grown closer in the weeks since my transition. I hadn’t lied when I told him I was proud to be his mate, but did I love him in return? I was definitely attracted and enjoyed spending time with him. I missed him when he was gone, though, we often spoke through our connection when he was at the club or here at the Ranch. Did I love him though? Could I love a wolf? He’d been nothing but good to me. He’d never hurt me in any way. He treated me like gold and a precious treasure. He
loved
me. I realized I had a goofy smile on my face.

I found myself wandering from the clearing and headed toward the tree line. We weren’t far from the Ranch house and I felt perfectly safe. I lifted my head to the moon and took a deep breath. My skin felt looser. I felt content and happy, until I heard the growl.

I stopped dead in my tracks. Two large black werewolves stood before me, fangs exposed, claws extended. The one on the left snapped at me, making me back up against a tree. The other one reached for me with his claws.

“Don’t!” I yelled at him, pushing my back further against the tree.

He made a growly noise that I thought sounded much like a laugh, before reaching for me again. I felt my fangs lengthen and I hissed at him, exposing the length of my fangs. I snapped at him much like he’d done to me. He backed up a step.

The whizzing sound registered first, then the pain in my shoulder. I looked down to see my shirt turning red. I fell to my knees just as another bullet hit the tree right behind me, right where my head would have been. The two wolves who’d stood before me, let out a gruff growl, then ran off.

I flattened my body on the ground, worming my way around the tree trunk to use as shelter.

“Devin!”
I screamed in my head. I was a sitting duck out here. “
I’m being shot at!”

“Bliss, stay down. I’m coming for you baby
.”

“Be careful!”
I applied pressure to my shoulder to hopefully stem some of the bleeding. The wolf howls that broke through the night had chill bumps breaking out on my skin. They sounded downright deadly.

It couldn’t have been more than two or three minutes since I called out to Devin, but it felt like forever, when I heard his voice.

“Bliss!” Devin called but I wasn’t brave enough to stick my head out from behind the tree.

“Here. I’m here, behind the apple tree,” I called. Two bare feet landed right before my eyes. I looked up to find a partially shifted wolf looking down at me. I scurried back, forgetting I had a bullet in my shoulder. I cried out in pain.

“Baby, it’s me, it’s ok.” Devin stooped down, reaching for me.

I went into his arms willingly “I’m sorry, you just surprised me,” I tried explaining.

He held me tight for a moment then pulled me away from him. “It’s ok. Let me see your shoulder.” He felt around it for a moment letting out a growl.

I heard several more wolves approach, but I didn’t take my eyes off Devin.

“Billy and Jordan are following the trail. Let’s get your mate into the house. Doc Rick is headed to the main house,” someone from the other side of the tree told Devin.

“I’m going to carry you to the house. We’ll get there faster, ok?” Devin explained as he picked me up in his arms. I tried to stop the groan but it came out anyway.

When Devin stepped out from behind the tree with me, we were completely surrounded by Werewolves. All, with the exception of one, was fully shifted. They were enormous and armed to the teeth, but I wasn’t frightened. They were protecting their Alpha and his mate.

Everyone moved at once, in complete unison. We made good time getting back to the house, with no more gunfire. As soon as we entered, the doctor was there giving instructions.

“Here Alpha, put her here on the table.”

Devin gently placed me on the hard kitchen table. It was big enough that my feet didn’t dangle off the end. The doctor proceeded to rip my shirt away and I screamed. Devin growled as did all the other wolves in the room.

“Careful doc. I don’t want to have to hurt you,” he threatened meanly.

The doc didn’t so much as blink at the threat. He proceeded to probe and prod the hole in my shoulder. I tried to stay quiet, I really did, but, when he inserted a tool into the hole, I let out what could only be described as a groan and a growl mixed together. My fangs extended and I grabbed the doctor’s arm, squeezing it.

“Do that again without numbing me and I’ll rip your throat out,” I hissed.

The doc huffed at me but took out a syringe inserting it into three different places around the bullet hole. Devin held my hand, squeezing it lightly.

The doc went back to probing and prodding but at least I didn’t feel it this time. “The bullet didn’t come out the other side and I can’t locate it, so I’ll need to operate.”

“Lucy. I want Lucy to be here,” I told Devin.

“Baby, I don’t know that we have that kind of time. You’re kinda bleeding all over the table here and that wound will start to close soon. You are half vampire,” Devin said with a frown.

“The bullet is silver, the hole won’t close,” I informed him.

“How do you know it’s silver?” The doc asked before Devin could.

“Because it’s burning the inside of me like fire. Unless you have a blow torch in there, the bullet is silver.”

“Son of a bitch!” Devin exclaimed. All the enforcers growled in unison.

“Please, I can hold it together till Lucy gets here. No offense doc, but I doubt you know how to treat vampires so I need our doctor here,” I said looking over at the wolves’ physician.

The doctor nodded. “Understood, however, we need to get you to the clinic so I can put a pressure pack on that wound to help stop the bleeding.”

“Ok, let’s head out. Then I’m going to call Micha,” Devin gently picked me up from the table and we were once again surrounded by wolves. I held my torn shirt closed in front while we made our way to the cabin that was used as the pack’s clinic.

When Devin set me down on the bed, I didn’t immediately let him go. I looked him straight in the eye. “This was not your fault, understand?”

He kissed my forehead and sighed. “It happened on my watch, it’s my fault. If I would have been with you, maybe this wouldn’t have happened,” he said sadly.

“Devin, don’t do that to yourself. This isn’t your fault!” I cupped his cheek, kissing him softly. “You couldn’t have known someone was going to take a shot at me.”

“You are never going to be alone again,” he declared gruffly. “I’m going to call Micha.”

The doctor came into the room with what looked like a long, thick ice pack. He gently wrapped the long pack around my arm and shoulder, tightening it till I squeaked. He then gently pushed me to a lying position. “Try to lie still. It will help stop the bleeding.”

“Thanks doc.” I was feeling a little woozy so lying down sounded like a grand idea. Through the window on the door I saw Devin pacing back and forth in front of my door. I occasionally heard a growl. Micha was probably giving him hell.

Devin

I
reached for Micha through our connection. Once again, being the bearer of bad news.

“Why does my mate have me blocked Devin?”

“She’s been shot Micha. I left her to go run with the pack and she was shot.”

“Shot? What the fuck? Is she ok? Of course she isn’t. She was fucking shot!”
Micha screamed in my head.

“The doc has stabilized her. She wants Lucy here to help with the surgery. As soon as you can get her here, do it
.” I growled back.

“Who did this Devin
?” Micha asked more calmly.

“I don’t know.”
I ran my hand through my hair
. “My best two trackers are on the trail but they haven’t caught the bastard yet. We will though Micha, and he’s going to die a painful death
.”

“Good. I want the bastard’s fangs. Let me talk to Bliss, she has me blocked.”
I walked back in her room to find her lying down on the bed. She was a little gray and it brought back the horrible memory of her transition. My phone rang so I put it on speaker.

“Bliss, baby, Micha wants to talk to you,” I said rousing her. She blinked a few times bringing me into focus. “The phone is on speaker.”

“Hi Micha,” her speech was a bit slurred, like she was buzzed.

“Hi Sweetheart. Hang in there ok? I’m on my way and Lucy will be there in less than twenty minutes.”

“K. Don’t yell at Devin, ok. It wasn’t his fault,” she said trying to protect me. I smiled.

“I won’t baby. Devin?” Micha called.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Give her blood. She’s sounding a little weak. I’m almost to you”

“Will do. See you soon,” I hung up the phone, then sat on the edge of Bliss’ bed.

“Baby, you need to feed,” I told her lifting her to a sitting position.

“I’m okay,” she groused sleepily.

The door opened a short time later to reveal a very pissed off vampire. He must have been dematerializing through space to get here so quickly.

“You’ll feed mate,” he said gruffly coming to Bliss’ bedside.

“Too tired,” she barely opened her eyes this time. I looked at Micha in concern. He didn’t respond, just bit into his wrist and put it to her mouth. Instincts took over because she latched on and drank deeply. Her color was improving immensely with just a bit of Micha’s blood.

“She’ll need to feed again after surgery.” He told me. He played with her hair looking down lovingly at her.

The door opened again and much to my relief, Lucy was there with her ever present black bag. Doc Rich was right beside her.

“I’m here Bliss. We are going to take you right to the operating room,” Lucy said walking up to the bedside and removing the pressure pack. Micha pulled his wrist back, licking the wounds closed. He bent giving Bliss a kiss on her forehead, then backed away from the bed. I took his place, repeating his action, but I lowered my mouth to her ear and told her I loved her. A faint smile appeared on her lips.

“Give us an hour,” Doc Rich said releasing the brakes to the bed. They wheeled Bliss out of the room and down the hall. Micha let out a roar that would make any wolf proud.

Micha

I
was seething. My fangs wouldn’t retract and I was fighting blood lust. I wanted to drain dry the person or wolf who’d hurt my mate. Devin and I were sitting across from each other in the room they’d taken Bliss from. Low rumbling growls were coming from Devin, his claws fully exposed. At least his fangs had retracted some.

“I’m sorry,” he voiced gruffly. He ran his hands through his blond hair, leaving it standing on end.

I tried to ease his suffering by saying, “Like Bliss said, not your fault man.”

“One of my wolves shot my mate,” he growled viciously. “When my enforcers find the fucker I’m going to skin him.”

Before I could say anything, two of Devin’s enforcers walked through the door. They each had a young man by the back of the neck. The boys looked scared shitless.

“The scent at the scene led us to these two, who were hiding in the barn,” one of the enforcers announced.

I was out of my chair in an instant. I approached the two slowly. They were no more than boys. “You dared to shoot my mate?” I hissed.

Their heads immediately started shaking. “No, no. We didn’t shoot her. We were there when she was shot, but we weren’t the ones to do it. I swear it,” the older of the two proclaimed.

Devin approached, standing next to me. “Why were you even with my mate?” His voice was gutturally, deep.

“We’ve never seen a vamp up close. We were trying to get her to go all vampy on us. Show us her fangs and stuff,” the younger confessed.

I let the monster in me overtake me. I know my eyes turned red, my fangs extended to their full length and I nearly doubled in size. “Is this what you wanted to see?” I was in their faces, letting them get a good view. They both took a step back, bumping into the enforcers. Their fear permeated the room.

“I can drain you both dry for even daring to approach my mate in such a way. You deliberately tried to scare her and then you ran when she was attacked. Cowards, the both of you!”

“Thirty lashes for the both of you and you will apologize to Bliss. You aren’t children anymore, it’s time to grow up and become productive members of this pack. Get out of here before I decide to kill you both instead,” Devin said calmly, deathly calm. I could feel the rage he was holding back.

“Alpha, sir, permission to speak?” the oldest asked, looking down at his feet.

“What?” Devin growled.

“We can show you where the shots came from,” the boy announced.

“Show us,” I demanded. Devin nodded to the enforcers who turned the boys around and led them out of the room.

We followed the boys through the clinic, out past the Ranch house, up a hill and behind a line of trees. Looking over the field, the large apple tree that Bliss had been standing near when she was shot could be seen. The enforcers were looking the area over and Devin’s nose was twitching. He followed a scent to a large tree, going up close and sniffing it. His hand reached out and touched an indention on the tree.

“The shooter stood here and took the shot.”

“We have a trail out,” one of the enforcers called from about six feet away.

“Follow it,” Devin directed. He turned to the boys. “Get home and rest up. Tomorrow won’t be good for you.”

They scurried off through the field. “Come Micha, I want to show you something,” Devin said turning to me. I nodded, following him from the field. We returned to the ranch house and Devin led me down to a wine cellar, then further still to a large steel door.

He opened it to reveal a warmly decorated room with a large bed, and wooden furnishings. There was a small sitting area, a large screen TV and desk with a computer.

“There’s a bathroom to the left and a closet on the right. This was a safe room until I met Bliss. Then I had it converted to another safe room of sorts. No sunlight can get in; the door is made of steel. I know you won’t want to leave her today so you are welcome to stay here,” he waved to the room.

“Thank you Devin. I appreciate it.” I extended my hand to him and he shook it. “Let’s get back to our mate,” I said, tugging on his hand.

We exited the room and headed back to the clinic. There were still a few hours before the sun would come up and I would have to return to the safe room. Until then I wanted to spend the time with Bliss.