Doc left for a few minutes and came back with Kelly. “Since you’re feeling better, would you mind if Kelly stays with us tonight?”
“Not at all. Come over here, girl, they got us food and beer!” She sat on the bed next to me, and we had a great time getting to know each other better until it was time to sleep again.
The guys kept me close the rest of the trip. Crash volunteered to ride back with us as extra security, so we made room in the back seat for him. He and Snake would alternated driving, since I was still healing. Doc took out my stitches on our last night, allowing me to spend time in the Jacuzzi with Snake. I wasn’t very active, but we still had a lot of fun our last night in the room.
I had one last thing I wanted to do before we left, knowing that even if they traced the call, it would be too late to do anything about it. I called the clinic up at the Northwoods Pack, nervously waiting for an answer. “Hello?”
“Jessica? Is that you?”
She answered in a whisper. “Vivian? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Jessica, I wanted to see how you were doing.”
“Hang on a minute.” I heard a door close, then she came back to the room “Don’t say anything about where you are, there’s still an Alpha command out there to tell him if we find you,” she said. “He doesn’t want to kill you, he’s worked past that now. He’s frantic because we’re going to go into heat season again soon and he has no Pack Doctor. No one does, at least none that they will admit to.”
They probably wouldn’t tell, especially if the Doctor was female, I thought. “Not surprising, there may only be a handful left in the country. I am still technically under contract, but I don’t feel safe there anymore. My home Pack is gone, Jessica. My parents were killed, all the males killed, the women taken.”
“I’m sorry. It’s the same up here, we get stragglers sometimes, people looking for a new Pack because the old one is gone. Same story everywhere. The strong Packs are grabbing all the women they can before spring.”
“Yours too?”
“Well, in a way. We haven’t taken over Packs, but smaller Packs see the writing on the wall. Three have joined us already, and one more is in talks.”
I guess that was better than the alternative. “This heat season… we don’t have a cure, we didn’t even figure out what was causing it. Getting pregnant is a death sentence. Talk to the women, tell them they can’t get pregnant, no matter what their wolves say.”
“That’s a tough ask, but I’ll tell them. I’ve heard rumors, though.” I could tell she was nervous. “The senior leaders… they are going to take mates before the heats start. If they die, they’ll take another, even if they have to kill the woman’s current mate.”
My heart sank, how could they treat us like breeders? Killing mates in your own Pack? “If you ever feel threatened, Jessica, pack anything from the clinic that might be helpful and run. Make sure to bring the preemie unit and the drugs and blood. Make your way to the Twin Cities and go to Bill’s Gun Shop in Robbinsdale. Get a message to Moose, he can get a message to me. Don’t die on me being a hero,” I told her. She was like a little sister to me.
“I will. I have to go, you take care of yourself, and stay safe.”
“You too.” I hung up and Snake took my hand. “Let’s go home,” I said.
************
Snake’s POV
February 12th
“I love her,” I said as I nursed the beer, looking over at Teri as we sat in the booth together. Vivian was out with a couple of the guys, picking up some medical equipment from a clinic near Rochester. “I don’t know when it happened, but when that man was choking her… I knew right then I’d die rather than have her be hurt again.”
“She loves you,” Teri said. “We can all see it, we’re happy for you.”
“You don’t think I’m moving too fast?” I was turning the box over in my jacket pocket, the one with the ring Teri had helped me pick. It was funny, the people at the jewelry store all thought she was my mother and ‘how nice it was’ that a young man like me had his Mom help him with something like this. Teri was that way to everyone, she was the woman who had been in the club the longest as a member. In all biker organizations you could marry into having the club patch, and in our club get a jacket that said, “If Found Return to Hammer,” but she wanted her own Harley. If you could ride, you could vote, and she wanted to be at the table. Through sheer force of personality, she made the all-male club take on their first female member.
“I think she’s scared. Sometimes she looks like a frightened animal. Is she still having flashbacks to the rape?”
“Yes, but not as often now.” We shared a room upstairs now, and occasionally we got some sleep there. It could take an hour to calm her down before she could go after sleep if the nightmare was particularly bad.
“You’re good for her, Snake. Give her a night to remember. Her upbringing was different than ours, she’s never dated or had romance before. Show her how much you love her.”
I couldn’t wait. I had a bunch of stuff to do if I was going to make this a proposal to remember.
Vivian’s POV
I was sitting in my clinic room at the desk, searching eBay and Craigslist for medical equipment I could use. I looked out the window, it was February 13th, and a winter storm was raging outside. I closed my eyes and let my senses out.
The howl of the wind called to my wolf. She missed the woods, the freedom, and the camaraderie of her Pack. She never thought she’d be hiding out with humans in a suburban industrial park, the smell of gasoline and pollution irritating her nose. She wanted a mate, not a fuck buddy.
Even if he COULD rock my world, my wolf missed her mate.
It tore my soul apart. I had never felt such a gulf between us; I was repulsed by my rapist, I hated what he did to me, I hated how he ruined me. My whole life I had dreamed of finding the perfect mate, of running together through the woods, claiming each other, and raising our pups together in a house over the Zumbro River. In a few minutes, that rogue had stripped that all away.
My wolf saw it different, she had bonded immediately with his wolf when he claimed me. She had been giddy, she was chosen by a strong male who could subdue her, one strong enough to protect her and her pups. The bond wove into me, it was for life, it was only through the mating bond that my soul could be complete. It didn’t matter what the human would think. The bond was there, working its magic in my mind, and it would eventually bring the human side around.
When the boys killed him, they killed a part of me too. There was an empty part of my soul, and she wanted to howl her loss to the stars, and I wouldn’t let her. I hated fighting myself, I hated the way I felt. I shouldn’t long after something I tried so hard to prevent.
Tears ran down my face as I was lost in my mind, trying to find peace with the wolf inside me. I heard the door open, and Teri poked her head in. She had become the mother figure I needed, a shoulder to cry on when I couldn’t talk to Snake about how I was feeling. How could I tell a man who looked at me that way that I was dreaming of another? You can’t, but I could trust Teri.
Terri smiled, “Hey, I just stopped to see if Fluffy was coming by today?”
I giggled, the kids in the daycare loved my wolf and I loved them. I was in an impossible situation, and my wolf didn’t like it. Mating with a werewolf was a death sentence, sleeping with a human would never get me pregnant, but my wolf wanted pups to care for. When Snake had brought home the collar and leash, I almost slapped him for making fun of me before he could explain. He wanted me to be able to spend time in my wolf form, and our options were limited. This way, he could pretend to be dogsitting, and my wolf would get to be in the clubhouse and with the kids.
I just wish the collar he bought didn’t have “Fluffy” on the nametag. I was pretty sure Doc had a hand in that, but I couldn’t prove it yet.
“Did Kelly ask?”
“Yes, they are having their snack, then they are going outside.”
My wolf was pushing forward, she wanted to play in the snow, to run around with them. “I think I can do that,” I said.
I thought about everything going on right now. In six months, I had lost my family, my job, my confidence and my mate. I was reeling, and I no longer had my parents or pack mates to help me. I was doubting myself, wondering once again how this all was supposed to work. Did Snake feel for me like I hoped he did? Was I was doing the right thing? Would it really be that bad to go back to the Boundary Waters Pack and take a choice mate? Or did I belong with the club? The emotions snuck out, just for a moment, but Teri saw them on my face.
She pulled me into her arms as the tears started to flow again. “Terri, can I ask you something?” I chewed my lower lip, my nerves showing through. “Has Snake said anything to you or Hammer about… me… or us…” I blew out a breath, shaking my head before chickening out. “Never mind, I’ll just go back to our room and shift.”
“Are you okay? Are you and Snake having troubles or something?”
“No, it’s… it’s just there is something off. He’s been acting squirrely, distant. He practically ran out of our room this morning and left with Viper right after breakfast without saying goodbye. I never dated so I don’t know… I mean what if he’s bored with me? Or maybe he found someone else? Someone he can have babies with?”