Pack, page 16
part #3 of Five Fangs Series
"Shh. Rest. I'm not going anywhere. I love you, Cole."
His tears ran down my skin and soaked my shirt, and I hugged him tightly as harsh sobs racked him.
"I had the witches check over everyone here," Mason told us, "to make sure there was no more spawn. We're all good."
"Why didn't it get Posy?" Ash asked. "She hugged Cole."
"Did you touch his skin?" Poppy asked, and I shook my head. "That's why, then. A parasite needs skin-to-skin contact to dump its spawn into a new host, which it will do only when it senses imminent death or danger because it risks killing itself to spawn.”
Ariel and Maria joined us, and the betas formed an outer circle around our inner one. Ariel knelt near Cole's head and raised her hands, and soon a shimmer appeared in the air over him. After a minute, she finished and dropped her hands.
"He's going to be all right, luna," she said. "He's exhausted emotionally and mentally and needs a lot of rest, but his wolf has already healed the psychic damage. They need to sleep now. After that and a few good meals, they'll both be right as rain."
"Alphas, luna, I'm so sorry this happened," Maria choked out and my eyes flew to hers. It made me sad to see her cheeks stained with tears. "We should have prepped him better. We should have noticed that it spawned. We should have—"
"Maria, stop," I said. "It wasn't anyone's fault. Don't blame yourself. I don't, and I don't want you to, either."
"We're not used to working with anyone other than Gelo, and he would have known not to touch the infected host before we did our part." With a sigh, Ariel stood, and Tristan immediately gathered her into his arms. "We need to do some training with the alphas before we go on any more missions like that."
Cole's hold had slackened, so I sat up and speared each of my mates with a narrow-eyed glare. The sun had sunk below the horizon, but there was still enough light for them to see how serious I was right now.
"No more," I said fiercely. "No more missions. At least for a while. You are staying home and none of you are leaving my sight."
"Okay, honey." Cole reached up and cupped my face with hands that trembled, and I could hear the exhaustion in his voice. "Okay."
"We'll tell the king we're unavailable for the rest of the summer," Mason declared while nodding. "Like Ariel said, we need time to train with them. I don't want anything like this to happen again."
"Oh, yeah! We're on vacation for the next two months!" Wyatt crowed. "We'll take you on those dates we wanted to go on and to the queen's coronation and your mom's family reunion!"
"And to the beach!" Ash chimed in. "Then we can go shopping for your school supplies—"
"The beach?" I cut him off, that one word perking me up. "You promise?"
"I promise."
I smiled widely, flashing him my dimples, and he grinned.
"Sorry to interrupt," Crew said, "but Alpha Jay's team has returned. He dropped Sara off at Beatrix's. Emerson, Angelo's back at your place. Luna, with your consent, we'll leave you with your mates and go to ours."
"Of course. Thank you all so much." I stood up, wobbled a bit, and grabbed Mason's shoulder to steady myself. "I can't tell you how much it meant to me to have you by my side today."
"We will always be by your side," Tyler said and hugged me. Ducking down, he whispered in my ear. "Peri said you better call, text or link her soon, or she's going to raise hell until she finds out what's wrong."
Giggling a little, I told him I would contact her before I went to bed, but gave him permission to tell her and the parents what happened.
I hugged the rest of the betas and the witches and Leo, then they disappeared into the darkening evening.
Not too long after they left, I heard a vehicle was coming up the drive, but someone else would have to deal with whoever it was and whatever they wanted. I'd had enough for one day. All I wanted to do was curl up with my mates in our bed and sleep for a week.
"I'm sorry if I'm being selfish about wanting you to stay home," I told them, "and I know there are people who need help and I feel bad about that, but this was— This was just too much."
"I know, honey. I'm sorry I screwed up and—"
"No, Cole." I framed his face with my palms. "No blaming yourself. It happened and we got through it and that's what matters, but now I need a break. All of us do."
"You have to admit, it's been a crazy summer so far," Ash said. "Even for us, there's been a whole lot of weird shit going down."
"Language," Mason muttered, "but yeah, there has. My little baby is right. We need a nice, long break, and we're taking it together."
The lush smell of roses wafted under my nose, and I turned to see Jayden jogging up the walk. His dragon eyes went to me first, then swept over his brothers sprawled around me on the grass. With a frown, he kicked the bottom of Cole's shoe.
"What's wrong with you? What did I miss?"
"Aw, nothing much." Wyatt shrugged his shoulders and squinted up at him. "Cole touched another luna and caught a disease that made him yell mean things at Posy and fight me and Ash before the witches cured him."
Jayden's mouth opened, his face full of questions, but Cole raised his index finger and spoke first.
"For the record, I'd like to clarify that it was a parasite, not a disease."
"Same same." Wyatt shrugged again.
"Mase?" Jayden stared at his eldest brother.
"No, that pretty much summed it up. Lacked all details and skipped a few important bits, but accurate nonetheless."
"Yeah, I'm thinking I need to hear those details and important bits." Jayden sat down next to me and draped an arm around my shoulders. Drawing me against his side, he leaned down and kissed my forehead. "Missed you, sweetness. Are you okay?"
"I missed you, too." I rested against him with a sigh. "I didn't expect you back so soon, but I'm really glad you are."
"And are you okay?" He lifted my chin with two fingers so I'd look at him. "You've been crying."
Staring into his beautiful eyes, I felt too many things at once and couldn't untangle them enough to begin processing anything. Shaking my head, I held up a hand, silently asking for his patience. He nodded, caught my hand, and held it against his heart.
The rest of my mates crowded around me. Cole laid his head on my other shoulder and Mason, Ash, and Wyatt sat criss-cross applesauce in front of us, as close to me as so many knees would let them get.
As the final rays of light faded, I lifted my face to see the first of the evening stars twinkling in the velvet sky. Taking a deep breath, I started talking.
"I got knocked down pretty hard today. It wasn't anyone's fault, and it didn't help that my mind got so clouded by my past and low self-esteem that I focused only on the negatives and couldn't remember any positives."
I swallowed hard and looked around at my boys, meeting each of their eyes before I continued.
"I didn't want to tell you this, but I think you need to know. I thought about ending it all. When I ran from here, I told Lark that if this didn't kill us, I'd find a way to do it myself."
Five waves of anguish, solid and heavy, hit my mate bond. I acknowledged them with a small nod, but hoped they wouldn't interrupt me while I had the courage to speak.
"But I didn't." I lifted my chin. "I'm done crying, but I'm still working on getting up. I don't know how much time that will take, but when I do, I'll keep going. I won't give up. I'll keep going because—"
My voice choked up, and I stopped to take a few deep breaths until I could speak again.
"I'll keep going because I am stronger than anything that tries to keep me down."
Before the others could react, Ash unfolded his grasshopper legs, got to his knees, and leaned in to cup my face in his hands. His eyes met mine for several long seconds, then a brilliant grin stretched across his face.
"There she is. There's our amazing, beautiful, strong mate. She gets knocked down, she cries, she gets up, and she keeps going." His grin disappeared, and I saw dead seriousness in his chocolate eyes for the first time ever. "And you know what that makes you, princess?"
I shook my head, my cheeks warm from his praise.
"Yes, you do. You're our bad-ass bitch, baby."
"Damn right she is," the rest of my mates chorused.
And this terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day finally ended with a round of laughter under a star-filled summer sky.
19: Consequences
Lark
As our humans fell asleep under the stars, my wolves and I talked about the many things - good and bad - that came out of today.
Of course, we started with the mission to Cold Moon, since it had the biggest repercussions. As Topaz slept, I shared everything I knew, and Garnet added in details that he'd seen. Granite and Sid didn't have too much to contribute, other than commiserating how awful it was to be controlled by Cole, then shielded from their humans. Quartz asked a couple of questions, then decreed none of us would have anything to do with magic until we had a chance to learn about it and train with Angelo and the witches.
We were all on board with that.
Garnet talked a bit about what happened at Gray Shadows, but it didn't need much explanation. The king found Alpha Bellamy and Luna Ivana Jones guilty of killing an innocent wolf and abusing their pup. There was only one outcome for that, and Mason had taken care of it. End of story.
Quartz, how it go at the prison? I asked. You save anyone?
I didn't ask about the human guards because I knew he wouldn't have allowed any to live.
Seventeen alive. Most were very weak and in poor condition from being dehydrated and starved. We brought all but one back with us.
Why leave one? I frowned.
Two were wolf shifters. One from Bright Star and the other from White Pelt. Jayden contacted both their packs, and the Bright Star alpha himself came to pick up his wolf and thank us. As for the White Pelt, it will take some time for someone to retrieve her, since that pack is in northern Canada. She is too weak and scared to go so far alone, not that I'd allow her to, anyway.
Then I happy you brought her home. I gave him a smile. If there only two wolves, what kind of other shifters?
They aren't all shifters, my love, but there were three jaguars from Brazil near the Amazon. A mated pair and their cub.
Cub? Sid frowned.
He will be fine. As I said, all the shifters are weak from hunger, but have no physical wounds. Quartz blew an amused breath out of his nose. Once we were far enough away, we stopped at a grocery store and bought out the meat section and several flats of water.
Bet that was fun to explain to cashier, Granite snorted.
No one asks Gelo too many questions when he has his work face on. Quartz shrugged. There was also a pair of chupacabras that Zayne killed, a gremlin that Zayden killed, a mated pair of coyote shifters, two thunderbirds, two pixies from the Woodland Realm, a black bear shifter, a peryton, and a dragon.
Silence.
A dragon?
Yep. The Goddess alone knows how a group of humans managed to drug and imprison him. Gelo says he's very young, though. He's not quite what we'd consider mating age.
Cool! Sid chirped. Even if only for a bit, I bet Five Fangs is only pack ever who can say a dragon lives there!
I meet him? I asked Quartz.
Sure. I don't see why not. He is pretty interesting.
What a peryton? Sid asked.
I was glad he did. I had no clue what it was, but felt shy about asking. I didn't want my mates to think I was dumb.
Deer with wings basically. Quartz sent us an image of it. Neither Jayden nor I knew what it was, either. Gelo had to tell us.
You said seventeen alive. Garnet looked thoughtful. Did some die in the fight, or you found them dead?
A trio of python shifters died before we could prevent it. The humans started slitting the prisoners' throats when they realized we were attacking.
I shivered. I wasn't too fond of any kind of snake, but no one deserved to die at a human's hands for no reason.
Were they the only deaths? I asked, sensing they weren't, but not wanting to push Quartz if he didn't want to talk.
A mermaid and a merman were dead in their tanks. The stupid humans hadn't kept the water fresh enough. Quartz frowned. It upset Jayden, but what could we do? They'd been dead for a couple of days before we got there.
Quartz went on to explain that the king's inspectors arrived to clear out the office space and find clues as to who the human mastermind was behind the prison. King Julian wanted to shut down the whole operation - including the lab Poppy had heard mentioned - as soon as possible. He also wanted to know how the human leader had discovered shifters in the first place.
After that conversation, we were all tuckered out and drifted off, only waking up when we heard our humans complaining about being covered in dew at dawn.
Many, many people came by after breakfast to check on Posy The alphas, too, but mostly Posy. Everyone in the pack felt her pain through the bond yesterday and wanted to link or drop by to see that she was fine with their own eyes.
Cole took the day off and rested with her, although we all knew he needed more time than one day to get his head sorted out. He was so eaten up by guilt, it would probably take several visits with Dr. York for him to be okay again.
The whole family came over at dinner time and passed Posy around and around in hugs until she'd laughed and told them to stop before her mates got jealous. When the questions got too much, she changed the topic by asking about the prison survivors, wanting to make sure they had what they needed until they were ready to leave.
"Do they all have somewhere to go?" Peri asked the alphas.
"We'll find out," Wyatt told her and patted her on top of her head.
"Stop, doofus!" She swatted at his hand. "I'm a mated woman now, not a kid!"
"Mated or not, you're still a kid in my eyes, Periwinkle," he teased her. "You'll always be our baby sister."
"Until she has a baby," Posy giggled. "Then you get to be an uncle!"
"She ain't having a baby," Cole argued.
"Eventually, I want to be a mom." Peri rolled her eyes at him. "Ty and I want lots of pups!"
"No, you don't." He crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at her. "You have to mate to have pups, and you're not ever mating with anyone."
"Well, I have news for you, big brother!"
"Uh, Peri? I don't want to die today," Tyler interrupted.
"Ty and I have already mated plenty of times and—"
His face and ears burning red, Tyler covered her mouth with his hand.
"Are you trying to get me killed?" he whisper-yelled.
"You've done what?!" Cole glared at Tyler, making Posy, Ash, Mom, and Mama giggle.
Throwing Peri over his shoulder, Tyler carried his mate to their car.
"Tyler James!" Cole roared.
Laughing, Posy wrapped her arms around him and distracted him with kisses, and Tyler and Peri made their getaway.
So it seemed like everything was back to normal at Five Fangs - except for one big problem that made itself known at bedtime that night.
Posy had a panic attack when her mates tried to touch her intimately.
I was confused, the alphas were shocked, and their wolves were heartbroken. She leapt out of bed, huddled in the corner, and shook like a leaf in a hurricane. It took the alphas more than an hour to calm her down and get her to sleep.
The next morning, they talked about it, and Posy couldn't explain why it happened. To be honest, I had an idea, but I kept my mouth shut to let her mates handle it. I mean, what did I know? I was just a wolf who'd been isolated from everyone for my entire existence except the last few months. Before our mates found us, I'd never even talked to another wolf except Agate and Slate, and then only before Alpha Briggs forbade me to talk to anyone.
When Posy panicked again the next night, we all realized the problem wasn't going to resolve itself on its own. She could hug and kiss and cuddle them and their wolves, but froze when things became passionate. The third night, despite the alphas telling her that they wanted to wait until they found the cause of her panic attacks, she insisted she wanted to try again and chose Ash.
Hesitantly, he agreed. He went slowly and kept checking in with her verbally, and we all relaxed a bit as things went along with no problem. Then I felt her begin to freeze up and told her to tell him to stop, but she forced herself through it until he slid her panties down. With a scream, she pushed him away, threw herself off the bed, and sobbed in the corner again.
Eventually, Mason was able to convince her to let him get close enough to pick her up. Wrapping her in a blanket, he cradled her in his big arms and rocked her until she fell asleep. The other alphas huddled around them, disturbed and upset, and the devastated look in Ash's eyes broke my heart.
The next morning, the alphas invited Dr. York to the house. They took him into the home office and talked to him for about an hour, then their wolves talked to him for another hour, although one of them - cough, Quartz, cough - wouldn't interact with him at all.
Finally, it was Posy's turn.
It took a good while before Dr. York earned enough of her trust, but once she opened up, he skillfully mined every last nugget of her past without her even realizing how much she was revealing.
Then he sat back, steepled his fingers in front of his face, and stared at the ceiling for a full five minutes.
"Luna," he said at last, "do you want to improve this situation with your mates, or are you content to continue your current platonic relationship?"
"What does platonic mean?" she asked. "I can make a guess, but I want to be sure."
"Friendly and loving, but no mating."
"I thought so. I want things to go back to the way they were. I—" She swallowed hard and her cheeks burned red. Keeping her eyes on her tangled fingers, she whispered, "I like being with them that way."
"Enjoying intimacy with your mates isn't anything to be embarrassed about or ashamed of," he told her gently. "It's normal and healthy. If you didn't enjoy it, this would be an entirely different conversation."
