Hunted

Chapter 20 - Instinct vs logic

"I'm all he's got left. Who's going to protect him if I can't?"

"If you're all he has left, and you're apart of our pack, then he's also got Pack. Which is even more reason to calm down and focus on doing it right. Don't think I don't want to go take care of it. Any man that tortures a child and calls himself Alpha-" He was still tense but so calm, so damn calm, like he was somehow managing to keep it all boiling under the surface. Clayton's neck was tense, I saw veins throbbing, but he wasn't panicking. He wasn't hunting.

"What would you do if it was Logan? Katherine? Elena? I can't just ..."

"I'd be doing exactly what you'd be doing." Clayton growled as he spoke, cutting me off, the idea flashing through his face, and for a brief moment the calm surface was disturbed by what he was feeling underneath. Just a moment. "Jer would have force fed me enough sedatives for ten werewolves before he told me. We're not going to ignore the kid. We're just going to be smart about how we do this."

I hesitated and slowed, the rage fading slightly, and didn't pull back when Clayton moved closer so that he could pull my hands off the wheel. The second the car stopped he turned it off and yanked the key out.

"They killed my family." Grief was trying to creep in, take over the empty space that rage had left, and I put my head in my hands. I couldn't cry. I just shook, like the shock of it was finally there, this awareness that I wasn't going home. I didn't have parents. I didn't have a sister. My nephews were all gone except one and I didn't know what they were doing to him. I was an orphan and they had died not knowing if I was alive or dead. They'd died not knowing if I'd abandoned them, or I'd been murdered, or hurt, died not knowing if I loved them.

Clayton didn't say anything. He slid out of his side and went to open the driver's side, standing there patiently, a hand on my arm.

After some time I managed to get out of the car and he moved into the driver's seat. I went around to sit in the other side, legs trembling.

We drove back in silence. It only took a minute before we were back in the driveway and the sense of security, of calm, of home came back over me. It didn't help as much as it had the first time I'd come here.

Antonio's car was missing, and another car, one of the ones I hadn't seen. Jeremy was standing on the porch still but he was on his own now. He seemed to relax slightly when he saw Clayton waving to him from the driver's side.

"Where's Nick?"

"Nick's a better driver than you. Elena might take a little bit longer to bring him home." Clayton pulled up and slid out of the car.

"He ..." I hadn't noticed him. Had forgotten about him even, I'd been so busy trying to get going, get moving.

"He took off. Something about needing to buy you chocolate and vegemite. Or finding you. I was a bit busy getting in your car to listen. Elena followed him in her car, they passed us a few minutes ago. He lost your family too." Something was there in Clayton's face, empathy, emotion, maybe even pity. I couldn't tell.

I understood then, I thought, and wished I'd thought before I'd jumped in the car intending to wage single war with the entire group of mutts. Nick had spent his whole life longing to know his own mother. My mother, while not his, would have become something to him more important than most men needed from a mother-in-law. I think she would have loved it too, this charming son-in-law that adored her, as she'd never gotten to have a son. I hadn't had time to even think about that. He was so much more used to the idea of this 'mate' thing than I was, putting together the pieces faster. It was giving family to each other from both sides.