Golden Bonds

Pack and Family

As promised. A bonus chapter this week to make up for not posting for a while and leaving you guys in suspense. I'm sorry my lovely's. Enjoy.

Happy Reading.

Love
NJ Kuhr
XOXO

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Jake hadn't woken up yet. I spent a few hours with him after Lance's team secured his transport and they had him safe in Laurel's cabin.

He was healing slowly. It was strange seeing the damage Bradley could inflict on someone else. Seeing it was worse than when it happening to me. I couldn't stop remembering all the times I woke up in the kennel with broken bones or a fractured skull. I remembered waking up to Laurel's face in a full body mold numbed and immobilized so I could heal. Seeing Jake like that was worse than living through it myself.

A hand gripped my shoulder and I yipped, jumping near out of my skin.

"Sorry, love." Bash pulled a chair up next to mine where I was sitting next to Jake's bed. "Laurel said he won't wake up for a while. She hasn't taken him off the drugs yet."

"I know. But he's pack and I think he can feel me through the bond. I'm trying to send as much Omega as I can to him and his wolf so when he does start to wake he'll know he's safe."

"You can't send him any peace if you don't have any to give."

I leaned into his shoulder. "I know. It's hard being on the other side."

"Yes, it is." A soft sadness filtered through our bonds. "I couldn't bear to see you when you were like this. After Phoenix that first week before Laurel agreed that you'd healed enough we could wake you. I'd found you, my mate and I didn't even know you. When Laurel told me she wasn't sure if she could save you, the damage was so severe it would be up to you if you came through or not it nearly killed me."

"Did you love me then."

"Not the way you mean. I didn't know you. I knew about mate's not long after I was turned. For the first decade or so I wasn't interested in finding my mate. I was angry at the world for what had happened to me. I traveled from pack to pack refusing to become Alpha. I was challenged but wouldn't take over a pack. I lone wolfed it for a while but that only made me more uneasy, more aggressive."

He pulled a strand of my hair, weaving it through his fingers before bring it up to his lips and breathing deeply of the smell. "I like it when you use my stuff. I came across Alek in Vietnam. We'd both enlisted under false names, traveled up the ranks quickly and became leaders of our own unit. After a few years other werewolves heard of our division and before long half my men were wolves. It took me a few years of fighting in the forest alongside them before I realized I'd become an Alpha of a pack. Conner and Wes were both under my command; Alek was my Beta without even making a conscious decision to become a pack. Michael joined soon after."

"No wonder the pack's ran like a military base."

Bash nodded. "That's how it started. There were six of us originally, we lost Tony to a mine field and Hank found his mate in a military hospital in Spain. He stayed to be with her. She was human and didn't handle the truth of what he was very well. It took him a few years of gentle stalking to win her over. They've been married now for, I don't know, gosh forty plus years. They waited for their children to grow and were adults before she tried to make the change. He nearly lost her but she pulled through in the end."

"That was the first time I saw the mate bond in action. Sitting in the crowded army hospital and here comes this dark curvy Latina girl and Hank was a goner. We all saw the change that took over him when he smelled her coming. It was like watching a blind man see for the first time. Camila was a force of nature, hauty and quick witted. She gave Hank a chase that's for sure. I'll never forget the slew of profanities she slung at him in quick thick accented Spanish when he kissed her. She was leaning over him adjusting his IV and he laid one on her. The look on his face as he smiled at her cursing him and threatening him with castration was profound. I was jealous."