Hunter and the Hart

In Protection of the Pack

I woke up in a large room that was painted in a deep sapphire color, with a pain that felt like someone was trying to split my head with an axe. I groaned softly as I tried to sit, pain shooting from my shoulder to hip.

"Oh, my god, Elissa! Alex, she's awake!" Clarissa grabbed my shoulder gently, forcing me back down onto the bed. "You shouldn't be trying to get up. You took a nasty fall." She brushed her fingers over my forehead and I winced, flinching away from her hand. "Yep, that's a pretty nice gash on you head. You hit the desk when you fainted. Alex was probably more freaked out than I was. Johnny had to be detained." She laughed softly as she adjusted the lights around me.

"How long was I out?" My throat felt like I had tried to gargle chalk, and I ended up coughing violently. Clarissa rushed a cup of water to me, hovering as I drank it down. "Why are you acting like a mother hen?"

"It's only been a couple hours. And I'm being a mother hen because I just am. I always was, if you remember. How long has it been since you've eaten anything? The pack doctor said you had severely low blood sugar."

"I don't know." I mumbled, pulling myself to lean against the headboard. "I was trying to get food when tall, dark, and broody over there kidnapped me." I waved my hand in frustration at the man in the corner, the same one who had ushered me into the suburban earlier. "I think it was a few days before that?" I rubbed my eyes slightly, trying to ignore the migraine.

"Days?!" I rolled away from Clarissa, covering my ears as her voice continued to ring through the room. "Damon, get her some food, now!" She snapped her fingers at the man in the corner. He flinched slightly, bowing to her before scurrying out of the room like a whipped puppy. If I weren't in so much pain, I would have found the image hilarious. "Why did you go so long without eating? Do you have any idea how stupid that was?"

"No more than anything else I've ever done." I rolled my face into the sheets and tried to ignore the throbbing in my back.

"What the hell?" Clarissa pulled up the bottom of my shirt and ran her fingers over the pain. I bit my wrist to keep from screaming as she ran from the room screaming for the doctor.

The doctor was a surprisingly young woman with a bubblegum pink pixie cut. She ran her fingers along my back hesitantly. "I've only ever seen anything even remotely similar to this on the mate of one of our warriors. He got into a fight with a rogue and when he came back, his mate had a mark in the same place he was bitten, but it was just barely there, like when you scratch your arm with your nails. It leaves a mark, but a very faint one. This, though-" She let out a shaky breath backing away from me "-this is bad. You see this here?" She touched just past the edges of the pain. "This means that the wound belongs to someone else. But I've never heard of someone getting more than the faintest hint of injury through the mate bond. Who's your mate, honey? More importantly, where is your mate?"

"My what?" I couldn't help the whimper as the injury on my back started throbbing. The pulsing pain that ran through it felt like an animal running. 

"Your mate. Soulmate. Your destined. Whatever you call it." She sounded almost panicked.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I curled into myself slightly, stifling a sob.

"She hasn't had her ascension ceremony. It should have happened on, or at least around, her sixteenth birthday. It's only after the ceremony that the council of elders will give her the option of them leading her to her soulmate." Clarissa shook her head. "But, this would only be possible if she'd already met them, wouldn't it?"

"That's right. They might not have been fully bonded, but to receive her mate's pain in any way they would need to have at least met." The doctor began pacing around the room. "She-"

An alarm began blaring throughout the entire pack house, immediately followed by a plethora of running footfalls and the snarling and howling of wolves.

"Donna, keep an eye on Elissa." Clarissa strode out of the room, fists clutched and shaking at her sides. "Anyone who fucks with my pack will learn the hard way that I don't tolerate that behavior."

I pulled myself out of the ball, breathing heavily. "So, Doctor Donna, got any painkillers?" I tried for a smile, but by the look on her face I completely failed. She gave me a shot of something that completely numbed my body. During the half hour I was waiting for the painkiller to kick in the sounds of angry wolves outside had only compounded. 

I stood up, stretching myself as much as I could without exacerbating the wound in my back before walking outside. Donna was pacing the hallway, and followed me nervously as I walked down the stairs, ignoring her requests for me to return to the room I had woken up in.

I stepped out onto the porch, the dawn light streaming through the trees. The whole clearing was filled with wolves who were testing each other. Stepping forward and snapping, then jumping back out of the reach of the pack wolves as they lunged forward. 

"So, what's going on here Clare-bear?" I bumped against Clarissa's shoulder and she jumped, her head snapping toward me. 

"What the hell are you doing out here?" She glowered over my shoulder at Donna, who whimpered slightly before stepping back.

"I came to help. Can't exactly rest with this many wolves making a racket." I smiled at her playfully. "So, again, what exactly is going on?" 

"The neighboring pack likes to come around and test the waters like this. As if coming around here and doing this won't negatively impact their relationship with this pack." She rolled her eyes, strengthening the barrier between her pack and the other.

"So, they're just her to cause trouble?" I looked around, surveying the forest around us.

"Pretty much. And unfortunately, my affinity is barrier spells. My attack magic is pretty much nil." She dropped her hands against her legs in frustration.

"I guess that makes it my turn." She gave me an odd look, but motioned me forward with an exhausted smile. 

I stepped forward, drawing on the magic around me, feeling the forest come alive as I stepped off the porch.

"You haven't had your ascension ceremony, so I don't know what you're planning to do." Clarissa sighed softly. "But at least you'll be safe in my barrier."

I zoned her out, feeling the magic gather around me, a series of small gasps rippling around me. I reached my hands out, the magic around me nearly tangible as I let my head fall back. The way that it ran through my body reminded me of the first time Jaime gave me vodka. The delicate buzz and the way that my head felt both light and fuzzy, like it was full of cotton. I smiled to myself as the world seemed to hush around me. "Come to me," I whispered, the language of magic dripping from my lips as soft and sweet as honey, "Protect the blood of my blood, and the bonds she has forged."

All at once, the forest came alive with the furious screaming of animals. Birds swarmed the sky with such numbers that they blocked out the sun, diving repeatedly at the encroaching wolves. A series of snarls drew closer, a couple of black bears lumbered out of the forest. I opened my eyes, turning my face to the wolves outside of Clarissa's barrier. They were snarling at the birds diving at their backs from the sky. 

"This is protected land." I stepped toward them, energy crackling around me with each step. "You will leave now, or you will learn what happens when you rouse the anger of nature herself."