Fighting the Inevitable (12 page)

A startled cry escaped
Rhianna’s lips as the car spun completely around and then half way
again. Caleb gripped the wheel tightly, now using both hands to
halt the slide and shift down into neutral as the Porsche finally
came to a halt. He was snapping off his seatbelt even as he turned
to Rhianna.

“
Are you
okay?” he asked tersely, his eyes quickly running over her as he
spoke.

Rhianna placed a hand to
her chest as if doing so would slow her thundering heart. “I think
so.” Her voice shook slightly and her words came out sounding
breathless. “My heart feels like it’s going to burst it’s going so
fast. What was that, Caleb? Did we hit something?”

Caleb’s sharp gaze was
staring at the large grey shape in the road. Fuck, it was a wolf
and he was in the Hanlon Pack area! This was not good. Jared Hanlon
would not be happy with him if he’d just killed one of his pack. He
looked back at Rhianna’s anxious face. “Stay in the car, Annie,” he
said tersely. “I’ll go check it out.”

~~~~~

Jared’s wolf was quite
literally pissed at him and it was making life a tad difficult. He
sighed and rubbed a weary hand over his face as his wolf howled and
raged inside him. “Stop,” he groaned in exasperation. “You don’t
think I want to go over there and throw her over my shoulder and
bring her home with us? It’s not that simple and you know
it!”

Millicent Cooper was
driving both Jared and his wolf insane. She was their mate and they
couldn’t get anywhere near her. She had quite literally tossed them
out of her apartment that day and had so far refused to take any
calls. His wolf wasn’t willing to accept her actions. He was the
Alpha and she was his. It was so black and white to the animal part
of him. Jared had to contend with the practical side of things
though. Yes, Millie was his mate and he wanted her so badly
sometimes it felt hard to breathe without her. She was also Rhianna
Armand’s best friend.

He’d taken an instant
liking to Rafe’s little sister the moment he’d met her. He felt
protective of her and extremely guilty that she was going through
such a hard time over the loss of her brother. It didn’t help that
Rafe was very much alive and living with his pack and he couldn’t
let her know that. He had to think of the wellbeing of the pack
first. Their dual nature had to be protected at all
costs.

Then there was Rafe to
consider. He was a dormant Alpha, of that Jared was now sure. He
appeared to be content just to be another member of the pack
though. Jared surmised the man must have had a gentle nature when
he was still human. Not all Alphas wanted to lead a pack. It was a
hard role to take on and often required very difficult decisions
that ultimately led to deaths. Rafe’s nature seemed to shun the
violent part of being a Were.

If Jared brought Millie
here to the pack, he didn’t think Rafe would maintain his current
docile state of mind. He was adapting slowly to joining the pack
proper, now he was in better control of his shifts, but he would
know his sister would be in pain at the loss of Millie as well as
himself. There was no accounting for what he’d do if his sister was
hurt by any actions of the pack and more importantly, his
Alpha.

He sighed deeply again
and leaned on his desk, dropping his head in his hands. He had to
have Millie. He could only deny his wolf so long. She was his. His
wolf howled again inciting him to go and get their mate and Jared
had to struggle hard to push him back down.

“
I can’t,” he
said, his voice anguished. “Do you want to lose your Alpha status?
You know Rafe will challenge for leadership if we bring Millie
here.”

His wolf huffed, growled
and sent him images of them ripping out Rafe’s throat, before
jumping on Millie and dragging her into their bed.

“
I’m glad
you’re so confident,” he smiled at the animal. “I, on the other
hand, am not. Rafe is the biggest wolf in the pack. His lack of
experience of pack life will not hamper him much should he choose
to challenge.”

It wasn’t that Jared was
afraid of the challenge. It was part of pack life and, if he was
not strong enough to meet any challengers, he didn’t deserve to be
Alpha. His issue was the people involved in the whole mess. He
genuinely liked Rafe and Annie and he didn’t want to hurt them
because Millie was his mate. He had to find some other way to work
through this so that no one got hurt.

He heard a ruckus outside
and then his study door opened and Aaron strode in. “The rogue’s
been sighted, Jared,” the tall blond man said with an edge of
excitement in his voice.

Jared stood immediately.
“Gather the pack, Aaron. The rogue dies tonight.”

“
What about
Rafe?” There was a note of concern in his number two’s
voice.

Jared paused for a second
and then nodded. “Rafe too. He has to understand the animal nature
of the pack. He may not like it but it’s necessary. Plus the rogue
may be the best way to introduce him to it. He deserves to get a
chance at punishing the Were who did this to him.”

Aaron nodded and left the
room as Jared followed him out.

The hunt was
on.

Rafe was not happy at
being made to shift into wolf form to hunt the rogue who had
forcibly turned him. He was given little choice in the matter by
the Alpha. Jared had been firm and resolute when he’d balked at the
very idea. Pack life hadn’t been as bad as he’d expected up until
now. He was basically left alone to do his own thing when he wasn’t
being taught the pack laws. He could now change at will and no
longer lost it when he got angry at the changes happening to him.
The rest of the pack seemed to treat him with some kind of special
status at the moment and left him alone.

Well, the males did. The
females strutted up and down outside the small log cabin he was
currently staying in. They were usually naked when they did
this which was rather disconcerting to say the least. The whole
pack setup was a complete culture shock to him.

The Alpha had his own
private residence set a bit apart from the other buildings in the
compound. It was an imposing wooden building that served as his
office as well as his home. Rafe had been inside it a few times and
was surprised how modern the inside was. From the outside, it
looked as if it was just a larger cabin but inside it was clearly a
proper home as well as a place of work.

The rest of the pack
seemed to live more communally, with sometimes two or three
families occupying some of the bigger cabins dotted around the
compound. Meal times were a communal event, taking place in the
largest building in the centre of the compound that served as
kitchen and dining room as well as meeting room for the
pack.

Rafe knew he was lucky to
have his little cabin that only consisted of two rooms: a sitting
room and a bedroom with an adjoining bathroom. He knew Jared was
allowing him some privacy as he gently eased him into pack life. In
addition, the cabin was right next to Aaron’s, who appeared to be
his minder and was one of the handful of betas who had yet to
mate.

Getting the hierarchy
right in his head was a major confusion for Rafe. The alpha and his
betas seemed almost guaranteed to mate for some reason and
therefore automatically had their own private dwellings. They still
ate in the communal dining room but essentially, they had more
privacy than the rest of the pack.

Clothes seemed to be
optional in the pack but most people wore something to cover their
nakedness, usually. It just seemed to be the females who liked to
bare all in front of his modest home.

He had asked Aaron about
it and his friend had laughed loudly and started talking about the
very sexual side of pack life. Rafe was rather shocked at the level
of promiscuity which went on in the pack. He wasn’t exactly a
prude. He’d known his fair share of women before the change, but
he’d always been discerning with his partners. He preferred to have
relationships rather than one night stands as a lot of men
did.

From what Aaron had told
him, he would have numerous women coming on to him until he
‘mated’. Rafe didn’t like the sound of being mated. It was just so
animalistic and he still wasn’t comfortable with the wolf half of
his nature. He didn’t want to be ruled by a mating instinct. He was
a man first and a wolf last. He wanted to choose his partner or
‘mate’ with his human side.

The Alpha chuffed loudly
breaking into his reverie, and he turned to him as did the rest of
the assembled pack. Aaron stood beside Rafe and nudged him slightly
with his long snout. His friend was impressive in wolf form. Not as
large as Jared or himself but his markings were beautiful. Aaron’s
wolf was a light brown with golden highlights. His markings made
him very popular with the females.

Rafe would have sighed in
resignation if he could have in wolf form. He nodded to Aaron and
followed the rest of the pack into the forest. His wolf was in
control and he wanted to howl his pleasure at running through the
densely packed trees. Rafe reminded the wolf that the Alpha would
not be pleased if he alerted the rogue to their
presence.

Rafe couldn’t help but
enjoy the feel of the rich soil beneath his paws as he ran, or the
way the wind whistled past his ears. The moon was full tonight and
it called to his beast. Maybe being a pack member wasn’t so bad
after all if he could run free with the moon guiding his path. It
felt so liberating.

The scent of the rogue
was soon caught and the pack stepped up a gear, low growls coming
from those around him. Rafe was surprised to hear himself emit a
low growl as a stab of pure rage surged through him. He recognised
the scent of the rogue. It was most definitely the one who had done
this to him, who had taken him from his beloved Annie.

Rage he’d never before
experienced overcame him and he took off, flying past the rest of
the pack. He was going to catch the rogue; he was going to rip its
fucking throat out. He was going to tear it limb from limb as it
howled its pain into the night.

He was vaguely aware of
the Alpha calling to him but the red mist of rage fogged his mind.
He heard a loud bang ahead of him, heard the sound of squealing
tires as he scented blood and heard an agonised howl. He burst
through the trees and onto the hard surface of a road.

~~~~~

Caleb knelt down beside
the grey wolf and checked it over carefully. He sighed deeply and
ran a hand through his hair. It was dead and it was most definitely
a Were. Hanlon was going to be pissed at him. It wouldn’t matter to
the Alpha that it hadn’t been his fault. The stupid Were had come
out of nowhere. Even if he had been watching the road he wouldn’t
have been able to avoid the bloody thing.

“
Caleb, is it
dead?” Rhianna asked nervously, stepping out of the car and taking
a couple of hesitant steps towards him.

Caleb’s head snapped
round quickly and he frowned deeply. “I told you to stay in the
car, Annie,” he said tersely. “Go back to the car now.”

Rhianna blinked at him in
surprise for a second, and then she frowned. Who the hell did he
think he was talking to? She wasn’t a child to be ordered around.
His tone shocked and hurt her, and she took another step closer to
him in defiance just as a large ball of some kind of wild animal
burst through the trees.

“
Annie!”
Caleb shouted, momentarily at a loss to what to do. He had time to
get to her side but in doing so he’d reveal his nature. The enraged
Were who was bounding out of the trees could be the mate to the one
he’d killed, which would seriously endanger Rhianna’s
life.

Rafe scented the vampire
kneeling beside the rogue’s carcass as he cleared the trees and
growled loudly. His wolf reacted instinctively to the danger the
other predator posed and his strong body immediately prepared to
defend itself. He was vaguely aware the vampire wasn’t alone, but
he didn’t scent the human female properly until he heard her name
being shouted.

“
Annie!”

The wolf recoiled, the
red mist of fury shattering around him as Rafe clawed his way up
frantically as he barrelled towards the petite female.

No!
He screamed
silently inside his wolf’s mind as it fought with him for control.
His wolf scented danger, fear and death, and he didn’t want to give
up his control.

No!
Rafe roared
the word hoarsely; his claws digging into the hard surface of the
tarmac as he brought himself to a shuddering halt less than a foot
from the human female who was staring at him with a look of abject
horror on her face.

He sniffed slowly and let
out a low whine as his Annie’s unique scent engulfed him, lavender
and jasmine with a hint of coconut. She must have showered with the
coconut buttermilk gel he’d bought her for her last birthday. She
loved the disgusting smelling stuff that he’d always hated. It took
a fraction of a second for these thoughts to seep through his rage
and then he whined loudly again. His Annie was right in front of
him and she was terrified at the sight of him in wolf form. He
wanted to shift to human, to go to her, tell her everything was
going to be okay but he knew he couldn’t.

He was amazed he was
managing to hold down his wolf without automatically reverting to
being human. He had been practising this with Aaron for the last
week, the delicate art of being in wolf form whilst having his
human consciousness in control. Apart from the very first time he’d
spoken to his Alpha, he had been unable to do so, either changing
back to human or being fully the wolf. Perhaps necessity was the
key to his mastering this skill? He just knew he couldn’t allow his
wolf to hurt his sister, and he couldn’t reveal himself to her in
his human form.