Bonded to the Pack (Born to be Were) (17 page)

“Before this goes any further, how did
you find out about Mercy anyway?” Gregory asked.

“Someone tipped off Valdis that you were
harboring the Born Were and he sent one of the guard to take a look around.”

“Shit,” Alec said feeling guilty for
alienating Rich until he remembered Mason telling him about Jaden and him meeting
at the prom. “What about Rich, I was told that he was seen talking to you?”

“He didn’t exactly talk to me, I read
his mind at the prom, but he didn’t know anything more than we already knew,”
Jaden told him.

 “If you didn’t get any information from
him, then why did the Elders move in here so fast after that night?” Alec asked
suspiciously.

“I read Mercy’s mind that night and
found out you were planning to take Mercy away and bond with her before we came
for her,” Jaden said, her face flushed with embarrassment.

Mercy stared hard at Jaden, seeing that
night clearly, remembering her shooting something into her hip before
brainwashing her to forget their meeting.

“What is it, Angel?” Alec asked
worriedly.

Mercy walked to where Jaden stood and
slapped her across the face. “You bitch, how dare you!”

Alec yanked her back against him and
held her firmly in his arms as she struggled to get free and go back after
Jaden who watched, stunned by Mercy’s reaction.

“What did you do to me?” Mercy demanded
angrily.

“What are you talking about? Alec asked,
still struggling to maintain his hold on her.

“At the prom, in the bathroom, she shot
me with something. Somehow she made me forget that night, but I remembered just
now when she admitted she was there that night,” Mercy told him angrily.

 Alec was across the room in seconds
trying to get past Alaric, who blocked him from getting to Jaden.

“Enough!” Alaric bellowed.

“It’ll be enough when I kill her for touching
my mate,” Alec yelled.

Alaric lifted his hand and Alec flew
backwards across the kitchen into the wall, rattling the shelves that hung
there and sending a glass vase crashing to the ground next to him.

“Are you done now?” Alaric thundered. Alec
nodded and he dropped his hand to his side, releasing his hold over him.

Mercy rushed to his side and checked him
over, looking to Alaric with disgust.

“Now, Jaden came to confirm what we had
been told at our orders. We needed to verify Mercy was indeed a Born Were
before we acted.”

“I’m sorry, I never meant to harm
anyone,” Jaden said, her face white, her hands clenched at her sides.

“Get her out of here,” Alec said through
clenched teeth, his wolf rumbling just under the surface.

Mercy looked down at his amber eyes, and
knew he was close to losing it. “Go, Jaden, we can deal with this later,” she
said angrily.

Jaden looked to her grandfather, who
nodded, and fled the house wanting to get as far away from Alec as she could. Nothing
was worse than a mate wanting justice for a wrong done to their partner and she
didn’t want to be around him until he got over it.

“Alec, calm down, I am alright,” Mercy
whispered in his ear, taking his trembling hands in hers. “She didn’t hurt me.
I promise, I was just upset when I realized what she had done.” He looked up,
his face taut and slightly distorted and she knew he needed to release his
beast. “Go run,” she said softly.

“Will you go with me?” he asked
hoarsely. Mercy nodded and he placed his arm around her shoulders, walking out
of the house without saying another word to Alaric or his father.

“He’s got to control himself, son, the
other council members will not look upon his quick temper fondly,” Alaric said.

“They are trying to rip his mate from
him. How would you react it were you?”

Alaric shook his head. “I loved your
mother, but she was not my Bond Mate so I don’t have any firsthand experience
with how he must feel.”

“That’s right, and not a single one of
the Elders has a Bond Mate either, so how can they decide something that they
can’t comprehend?” Gregory pointed out before walking out, slamming the screen
door behind him.

“I don’t know son but I hope to make
them understand,” Alaric said sadly.

****

“What
the hell happened today?” Lucan asked Alec as they sat down to dinner later
that night.

 “Apparently,
I have a grandfather who is alive and quite well. He showed up this afternoon,
and surprise! He is one of the Elders,” Alec explained, glaring at his father.

Mercy
took his hand and squeezed it, knowing even after the long run they had taken he
was still irate with his father for keeping his grandfather from him. “It also
turns out that Jaden is Alaric’s granddaughter, which makes her Gregory’s niece
and Alec’s cousin.”

“She’s
no family of mine,” Alec growled, bending the fork he held with his free hand in
half.

“Son,
she is family whether you want to admit it or not. She was only following
orders and she didn’t know she was related to you at all until today,” Gregory
told him sharply.

Alec
raised his eyebrow, staring daggers at his father. “Really, Dad, you’re going
to educate me about family? You, who hid the existence of my grandfather for
most of my life, are telling me to accept the female who stuck something into
my mate without her knowledge?”

Alec
rose from the table looking dangerous and out of control and Mercy rose alongside
of him, fearing he actually might go after his father.

Gregory
rose to his full height a tactic that intimated most lower Weres, but not his
son. “Don’t tell me about my family, Father because you destroyed it a long time
ago,” Alec told his father angrily.  

“Son,
I am still your Alpha, and I won’t have you speak to me this way.” Gregory said
sharply.

“Well,
maybe I don’t want to be part of your pack anymore,” Alec growled. Mercy gasped
loudly beside him and Gregory paled, but Alec didn’t care. His father had
betrayed him and he wasn’t sure he could ever forgive him for that.  

“Son,”
Gregory reached out for him, but Alec moved out of his reach.

“I’m
sorry, Angel, but I need to be alone for awhile.” He brushed Mercy’s lips
lightly and walked out of the door, leaving them all staring after him, shocked
by his outburst.

“He
didn’t mean it,” Mercy told Gregory as he slumped back into his chair. Gregory
met her gaze and nodded, but didn’t look convinced. “You two will work this
out. I don’t know of any father and son who share the kind of relationship you
two do,” she said, placing her hand over his.

Gregory
stared at her, completely undone by how much she had changed. Not too long ago
she would have ran from the room in fear when they argued, but now she sat next
to him offering him comfort when her own life was in such turmoil. Again, he
was impressed by how much she had matured and he wondered if his son really
knew how lucky he was to have her by his side. “Thank you,” he said patting her
hand before rising from the table. “I think I will go home and wait for Alec to
return.” Mercy hugged him and he left, leaving her and her brother alone for
the first time since he arrived home.

“You
all right?” Lucan asked worriedly.  

Mercy’s
bottom lip trembled and she threw herself into his arms letting go of the tears
she had been holding back all day long. “No, I’m not, but I have to be.  Alec
needs me and I can’t let him down.”

Lucan
held her in his arms, hugging her close, his hand running through her long
curls as he did when she was a child, offering her comfort she so badly needed.
“You need to remember that although Alec needs you there has to be space for
your needs, too.”

“I
know, it’s just too much, you know? I mean first the Elders, now Alec and his
father fighting. I don’t know what’s happening anymore and it’s killing me.”

“I
know, baby, but it will all work out.”

Mercy
looked up, tears running freely down her face. “Will it, because right now I
don’t see it.”

Chapter Ten

Alec
reappeared a few days later on the front porch of Mercy’s house, where she was
sitting on the swing by herself looking off into the forest. Her gaze swung to
his the moment he reached the top step and she stood, waiting for him to approach.
He said nothing, stopping a few feet before her and staring into her eyes, all
the pain and hurt he felt, easy for her to read. Her heart broke for him and
she rushed to him, enfolding him in her arms, hugging him as close as possible.
 He groaned softly and gathered her in his arms then carried off into the heart
of the forest, and laid her down by the river, before lying next to her and
pulling her against him, wrapping her in his arms.  He didn’t say anything, he
didn’t need to, she knew he just needed to hold her and know she was there for
him.

They
lay that way for a long time before she turned to face him, running her
fingertip down his cheek, saddened by the lost look upon his face.  “I’m
sorry,” she said softly. His eyes glistened with tears and she felt his pain as
if it were her own. He was hurting badly and there was nothing she could do but
be there for him like he had been for her all the times she had been frustrated
or upset in the past, which were far too many to count.

“I
can’t believe he never told me about my grandfather,” he said softly.

“He
was in so much pain back then, Alec. He needed someone to blame and unfortunately
it was your grandfather, but he didn’t do it to hurt you.”

Alec
met her eyes and he smiled wanly. “Isn’t it ironic that not so long ago I was asking
you to forgive us for deceiving you, when all along he had been lying to me?”

Mercy
frowned. “What, you think this is payback, that Karma really is a bitch?”

Alec
chuckled. “Of course not, but I don’t know if I can face him right now. He was
the one person I never thought would lie to me, and it sucks.”

“Yeah,
I know how that feels,” she mumbled.

Alec
grasped her hand, bringing it to his lips to brush her knuckles with soft
kisses. “I am sorry, but we were trying to protect you. This is entirely
different.”

“What’s
different? Your father thought he was protecting you by keeping you away from
your grandfather. Gregory has always tried to do his best by you even if you
can’t see it right now.”

“I
don’t want to deal with it right now. I just want to be with you for awhile and
forget about everything else.”

“I
think that sounds great,” she said, laughing when he pulled her back into his
arms and flipped her onto her back.

“Now,
if you’re willing to indulge me, I think I would very much like to kiss you,”
he said with a grin.

“Kiss
away, I have no problem indulging you in the least,” she told him.

Alec
smiled and swooped in for long searing kiss that left them both breathing
heavily as they lay on their backs looking up into the sky. “Do you think my grandfather
can help sway the other Elders?” he asked, stroking her hair as she lay with
her head on his chest.

“I
hope so, but if not, we will find another way. I won’t be separated from you,
Alec, no matter what the Elders decide.”

“We
should just go away and forget all of this. Find a place where we can live
alone and start our lives together,” he told her.

Mercy
propped herself up on her elbows and looked at him, her heart wanting to agree
with him, her brain knowing if they ran it would be a huge mistake. Alec had
been groomed his entire life to be the next Alpha of his father’s pack and she
couldn’t let him walk away from that. It was a piece of him, just as she was,
and she knew he couldn’t live happily without it. “Alec, I know things are not
going the way we planned, but running away isn’t the answer. We have to face
this thing with the Elders and you have to face your father and forgive him
before it becomes too late for apologies.”

Alec
groaned in frustration. She was right, the longer he waited to speak to his
father the harder it was going to be, but he just didn’t know what to say to
him. The bond they had as father and son had been shattered, and he didn’t know
how to forgive him for years of hiding the truth from him. For once, he could
empathize with Mercy and how she must have felt when she found out they had
kept the fact she was a werewolf from her. He pulled her down on top of him,
tired of talking wanting only to kiss and cuddle with her for just a little
longer before he had to face life again. “I love you,” he whispered in her ear,
as he nibbled her neck playfully. “You are my life and the only person I need
to be whole and happy.

“Ditto,”
she said as their lips met.