When No Doesn't Cut It (28 page)

“MINE!” Damien roared.  Every wolf on the compound dipped their heads at the power in Damien’s voice.
  This was the Damien that other wolves feared.  His eyes flashing, his teeth bared and his muscles straining with the effort not to change.  His whole being screamed raw power and while Scott couldn’t understand why Damien was so upset, given that both of them had a sexual past, he could still be impressed by the display.

As were the challenging wolves it would seem.  Matthew recovered first and said with a shaky laugh, “Okay, so the rumors about you getting soft are obviously untrue
, my friend.  If anything you’re stronger than before.”

“I have something precious worth fighting for,” Damien said smugly, his humor restored in the face of so much submission.  “I will always give my life for the pack, but for my mate, I would give up everything.”

“Yeah, well, I… er… don’t think I want to challenge after all,” the one Scott had called Slick said.  “I yield.  I’ve no desire to take on a crazy wolf.”

No substance that man,
Scott pushed across to Damien through their mind link, as Damien accepted the man’s submission and sent him on his way. 
His strength is as flabby as his ass.

I don’t want to think of you with him.  Got it.

Get over it, lover. I had to. 

Scott flashed an image
into Damien’s head of the twenty subs the man used to own, all sitting in Damien’s office.  The subs that had been servicing Damien sexually for goodness knows how long.  To his surprise, Damien laughed out loud.

“
Point taken, mate,” Damien said, as the wolves around them looked at the pair of them curiously.  He shrugged and then pulled Scott over to the side of the circle.  Scott looked up at him and knew that the anxiety he was feeling, even though he was sure his mate would win all three of the challenges, was shining through his eyes.

“I’m going to close our mind link,” Scott said softly, surprised at the look of hurt that flashed over Damien’s face.  “I don’t want you to become distracted by me, okay.  I’ll stay right here until you are finished
, and I won’t say a word, no matter what happens. I’ll do my bit as Alpha Mate and not let you down. But I don’t want you to worry about anything else, except what is going on in that ring.  Okay?”

“Probably a good idea,” Damien rumbled quietly.  “I’ve never fought a challenge with my mate in my thoughts before.”

“Exactly,” Scott said, pleased that Damien understood.  “Now go out there and get this over and done with quickly.  We have unfinished business to attend to before tonight’s pack meeting.”

Quirking his eyebrow at Scott, Damien stepped back and slipped out of his jeans, striding into the pack circle with no embarrassment
, whatsoever.  On the side of the circle, Scott saw one of the contenders, a thick set bull of a man, get out of his clothes and step into the circle as well.  Remembering what Damien had instructed him at breakfast, Scott stepped forward, although he didn’t go into the circle.

“Contenders, this is an Alpha Challenge for the San Antonio pack.
  Fight will be till first blood, or submission.  The fighters must remain within the pack circle and anyone who leaves it, or is forced out of it, will be immediately disqualified and deemed loser by default.  Is that clear?”  Scott called out in a loud voice.

Damien had the audacity to blow Scott a kiss, which made Scott blush even more than he had been.  He wasn’t one for public speaking, even on pack grounds.  Remembering his job, Scott checked that the three contenders knew the rules, and then yelled out, “Shift and begin.”

Chapter Thirty

Damien loved to fight, especially in his wolf form.  His wolf was as cunning and as strong as he was, and while Damien was dithering about whether or not he loved his mate, his wolf had no problems with his feelings.  His wolf loved Scott, just like he should
, and so when presented with an opportunity to show off, his wolf did exactly that.

The first two challenges could have been over a lot quicker, except that playful Damien teased things out longer than he should have done.  The grey wolf with silver eyes was far bigger than either of his opponents.  He nipped, and ran, and jumped and growled when necessary, but without much malice. 

His two contenders were vicious fighters, or they tried to be.  But it was really difficult for them to get a grip on Damien because he moved so quickly.  Into his second fight, the smaller brown wolf had tried to nip Damien’s leg, hoping to draw blood.  Damien pulled out of the way just in time, then lunged back, catching the smaller wolf off guard.  One swipe with his paw later and the brown wolf was dripping blood from a flesh wound on his side.

Scott’s head went up at the first sniff of blood, and he called it.  Damien moved to the side of the circle and
Scott briefly ran his hand over Damien’s fur while they waited for the third contender, Matthew.

“Do you have to play with them, Damien?” Scott whispered into his ear.
  “You remind me of Diablo playing with his food.  I’m waiting for you to fuck me, in case you’ve forgotten.”

Damien could tell that Scott wasn’t worried about him as much any more, which was a good thing.  But the smell of Scott’s arousal was distracting and not in a good way.  Sniffing at Scott’s crotch, he barked when Scott pushed him away, the grin on his face evident. 

“Go on Alpha, do your stuff,” Scott laughed as he waved his hands in a shooing motion.

Tail up and a prance in his step, Damien went back into the center of the ring where Matthew was waiting.  Matthew was a big man, almost as big as Damien and his wolf was much the same.  As Matthew shimmered into his black wolf form, Damien knew he was going to get a good work out.  Matthew had challenged him before, more than once, and although Damien had always come out on top, Matthew never made it easy for him.

Sure enough, Matthew lunged at him, teeth bared and growling fiercely.  Forgetting about Scott for the moment, Damien focused solely on the wolf in front of him.  Jumping, he met Matthew mid flight, his own lips snarled back to reveal his wicked teeth.  The two wolves snapped at each other, as they passed in the air, and landed with a thump on the ground below.  Before Damien could catch his breath, Matthew was on him, barreling him from the side and knocking Damien off his feet.  Damien rolled and came back snapping and the two men, snapped and snarled their way around the ring, always conscious of the white stones that marked the edge. 

The fight seemed to go on for hours, but in effect it was probably only about ten minutes
, when Damien heard a gun shot ring out across the compound.  He and Matthew both froze in wolf form, as Damien sought out the source of the sound.  What he saw sent a chill right through him. 

Fucking Jacob, with
an arm around Scott’s neck and a gun pointed firmly at Scott’s head. How the hell had that fucking pedophile got past Damien’s enforcers? Without thinking about it, Damien made to run out of the circle.  He had to get that man’s hands off of his mate.

“Damien, no!” Scott yelled, as Jacob hit him across his face.

Damien stopped, just inside the circle, Matthew at his side.

“Come on out and fight me Damien, if you want your mate to live,” Jacob taunted
, as the hand holding the gun twitched against Scott’s skull.

“No Damien. 
Don’t do it,” Scott yelled again.  “That’s what he wants.  He wants to see you lose the pack. You have to stay and finish the fight.  He just wants you to be a fucking nothing, like him. Fucking finish the fight, Damien!”

Scott’s
fighting words earned him another smack around the head, and Damien’s heart stopped in his chest as he saw the trickle of blood coming from Scott’s mouth.  He couldn’t do it.  He couldn’t stay in the ring, fighting to stay the Alpha of his pack, if it meant losing Scott.  Fuck, he did love the man, and he wasn’t about to let scum like Jacob take him away.

Looking at Matthew, Damien shook his head.  He shimmered, allowing his change back into human. As he went to step out of the circle, he heard Matthew behind him.

“Damien, wait.”

Confused, Damien looked around to see Matthew was also naked in human form.  Matthew had always wanted Damien’s pack - he had fought hard enough, often enough
, for it.  Damien didn’t have any problems leaving Matthew the victor in this.  He would be a good Alpha with similar values to Damien, so the humans and the gays in the pack would be protected.

“I yield,” Matthew called out strongly so everyone in the pack could hear.  “I yield. You win.  Now save your mate.”

“Thank you Matthew,” Damien breathed out, as he ran to where Jacob and Scott were standing.  But even as he ran, he heard a shot ring out and Scott slumped to the ground.  In a rage, Damien shifted mid stride and landed on Jacob with a sickening thud.  It was all over in seconds.  Nothing left of Jacob, but a bloodied, unrecognizable lump on the ground.  It was only when Damien was satisfied that Jacob was dead, that he shifted and crawled over to where Scott was laying on the ground, Troy by his side.  Scott’s head was lying in a pool of blood and the man looked pale and lifeless.  Only the tiny rise and fall of Scott’s chest indicated the man was still alive.

“I’ve phoned Shawn,” Troy said
urgently.  “He’s gonna be alright.  Shawn’s coming.  He’ll make it all right.” 

Troy looked as wrecked as Damien felt.  Damien had never been so helpless in his life.  Carefully he picked up Scott’s head from the ground and laid it on his lap, slowly stroking the man’s hair.  There was so much blood and Scott wouldn’t wake up.  He was dying in Damien’s arms, and none of Damien’s power or money, or resources was going to save him. Damien broke inside and he knew if Scott died then his life would be over.  Not because of some mating bond, but because he loved this man more than life itself, and life without Scott wasn’t worth living. 

For the first time in his life, Damien cried.  As he sat, naked on the ground, stroking his mate’s still, pale body, he thought about how he’d wasted so many opportunities to tell the man in front of him how much he was loved. All because of a stupid, stupid vow he had made so many years ago. Tears pouring down his face, Damien would have given anything - anything at all to have the chance to tell Scott that he loved him. 

“Damien,” Shawn’s soft, firm voice came from his side.  “Damien, you have to let me see him.  Let me help.”

“He’s dying,” Damien whispered.  “He’s dying and I haven’t told him I loved him yet.”

“Scott’s not going to die, Damien. You’ll have years to love him. But you have to let go of him.  I have to see where he’s been hurt.”

“He took a bullet to the head,” Troy said, still sitting on the other side of Scott
, his own face wet with tears.  “Not many wolves can recover from that.”

“If the shot had been fatal, Scott would have died instantly.  Scott’s still breathing, but I have to see where the bullet has gone.  Damien
, help me, please,” Shawn’s voice finally got through Damien’s fugue and he carefully lifted Scott’s head so that Shawn could see the bloody mess. 

Shawn waved his fingers and the blood disappeared, leaving a very definite
gouge in the side of Scott’s head.   Now the blood was cleaned away, it was clear the wound wasn’t very deep, but it was big.

“Looks like the bullet has sheared off of the skull, rather than penetrated it.  Good thing your mate’s got a solid head,” Shawn said smiling up at Damien. “It looks messy, but it’s not fatal, by any means.  I’m more concerned with him being unconscious.  Was the bullet from close range?”

“Yes,” said Damien, fighting not to remember the moment Scott was shot.  The rage he’d felt in that fragment of time was so consuming, his need to kill Jacob so driving, that it drove all other thoughts out of his head.

Troy spoke up.  “Jacob had Scott in a head lock and a gun pointed right at his head.  But he
must have got nervous when he saw Damien coming for him and maybe his hand jerked when he pulled the trigger?”

“Or maybe the Fates weren’t ready for him yet,” Shawn said with a smile.  “Scott
’s quite a handful.”  His hands were waving over the wound, and Damien could see that slowly little pieces of Scott’s head were knitting back together.

“I have to do this slowly,” Shawn explained, “because there are tiny metal bits in the wound and I don’t want to leave any of them in, as the skin
would knit over it and could cause an infection.”

Damien sat silently as he watched Shawn work.  He didn’t care what Shawn was doing, he just wanted his mate to open his eyes.
He heard the pack behind him, and he knew he should speak to them.  But he had nothing to say.  He should go and thank Matthew for his actions, but he didn’t want to move from Scott’s side.  Feeling numb, Damien was breathing only for the moment that Scott woke up.

“Damien,” Kane said from behind him.  “The enforcers want to talk to you.  They… they’re understandably devastated that Jacob got in here and got so close to Scott. They kinda think you’re going to kill them all and are…”

“I don’t care how they feel right now,” Damien snarled.  “I don’t care why it happened, or what caused it.  Right now my only fucking concern is my mate, and if they can’t get that through their thick fucking skulls then they might as well kill themselves.  I will deal with them later.”

“Sure, Damien.  Will you let me handle things while you get Scott sorted?” 

Taking a deep breath, Damien tried to make himself care.  Malacai was in the city and his enforcers were all in the shit.  It made sense for Kane to get things sorted until he… Fuck he didn’t know what he was going to do.  He just wanted Scott to wake up!

“Yeah, Kane, thanks.  Unusual, I know, but Malacai is in the city
and the enforcers, fuck I don’t even want to think about them right now.  If you can get one of the enforcers to ring Malacai and tell him to get back here, and maybe get some men to sort out the mess on the lawn, I’ll deal with everything else…soon.”  That was all Damien would commit himself too. 

He wanted Scott
to come right and as far as he was concerned everyone else could go to hell.

Shawn straightened up and rested his hand on Damien’s shoulder.  “I’ve got all the metal bits out.  The wound is healed.  I’m guessing that Scott is still out of it because of the impact of the bullet at such close range, but I’m not sure.  He doesn’t have any more physical damage anywhere, so I think now he just needs to rest and I’ll check him again when he wakes up.”

“Can’t you wake him up? With your finger thingy?” Damien asked.

Shawn shook his head.  “No Damien
, its too risky.  His brain took a nasty knock, and while there’s no swelling that I can tell, the brain is a funny organ.  Plus he did lose a lot of blood.  If I try and shock him awake, it could do him more harm than good.  It would be better if he just rested until his brain has processed what’s happened.  Once he’s awake, we’ll try and get him to shift, and that should put everything right again.”

“When? How long till he wakes up?”

“I’m sorry, my friend.  I don’t know.  I’m not an oracle.  But I do know he will wake up and he will be fine.  Now, do you want me to zap him up to your room, or do you want to take him.  You need some clothes, and a shower, and probably some food.”

“I’ll take him,” Damien snapped.  No one was touching his mate except for him.  Carefully laying Scott’s head on the ground, he stood up in one fluid motion.  Picking Scott up, being careful to support
Scott’s head against his chest, Damien strode through the pack grounds, making his way to their home. 

All around him, pack members came up, made comments, touched Damien lightly, or simply bowed thei
r heads as Damien went by.  Damien didn’t notice.  He honestly didn’t care.  He had looked after his pack for all of his adult life and while he might not have been the best Alpha in the world, he had never intentionally let his pack down.  He knew the people around him were shocked by what had happened.  He knew he should be helping them to feel better, and he knew that they probably needed him to take charge.  But the only person of importance was in his arms and that was all Damien could focus on.

/~/~/~/~/

A few hours later, Troy knocked and came into the bedroom.  He saw Damien sitting on the bed, with Scott laid out - his head resting on Damien’s lap.  Damien was stroking Scott’s hair and when he looked up at Troy, Troy was shocked to see the man’s haunted expression. Damien looked like shit.

“I bought you some food, Damien.  Shawn said you should eat
something,” Troy said quietly.

“Not hungry.”

Putting the tray on the dresser, Troy walked over and sat in a big chair, facing the bed.

“You know Scott’s going to be pissed off, when he wakes up and finds out you’ve not been looking after yourself.”

“I’m fine.”  Damien had gone back to staring at Scott’s face and was carefully tracing Scott’s features with his gentle fingers.  Troy watched Damien for a minute, and then said, “You love him, don’t you?”