As soon as the game was over, Bates was on his feet.
"I think I'm gunna head home, boys and girls," he said, stretching. "I've endured a trauma tonight that has left me needing some rest."
Luca just shook his head as he stood up, Blaine following suit with a wide yawn. We followed each other upstairs to the living room.
"It is way past my bedtime," I said looking at the clock and noticing it was nearly midnight.
"You're an old woman," Bates told me, walking towards the front door.
"I like to get up early," I defended.
I flipped on the porch light.
As soon as I stepped out onto the front porch with Bates, I froze.
There was a mangy, ash-blond wolf in Luca's front yard, staring at us with eyes that glowed in the porch light.
Before I could say a word, Luca ripped past me and leapt from the porch, skipping all three steps down as he shifted mid-air into a large wolf with thick, black fur.
His clothes landed in strips of fabric next to me, but I hardly had time to notice before a growl that was deep enough to cause shivers down my spine echoed throughout the clearing.
Luca and the wolf, which was puny in comparison, circled each other for a moment. Luca snarled and snapped his teeth before the stranger shifted back into its human form.
Shocked, I recognized the man who now stood naked on the front lawn.
"Johnathan?" I couldn't help but whisper.
His blond hair was a bit longer now, compared to the cropped style he normally kept, but he still maintained the sharp cheekbones and blue eyes I knew him for.
Hearing me, he turned to glance in my direction.
That was when Luca lunged.
"Stop!" I screamed, running off the porch.
I was tackled into the grass from behind as I watched Luca's teeth sink into Johnathan's shoulder, sending him to the ground as well.
Turning, I was shocked to see that it was Bates pinning me to the ground.
"The hell's the matter with you?" He yelled. "You don't jump in between two fighting wolves, especially when one is an Alpha!"
I turned back over to see Blaine had shifted also, carefully circling the pair as though he were waiting for his turn to jump in.
Although, it didn't seem like Luca needed the backup.
Johnathan was screaming as Luca crouched from behind him, his teeth still embedded in Jonathan's shoulder as he yanked and ripped him backwards.
"Stop!" I screamed again. "I know him!"
To my surprise and relief, Luca released him and let out another low growl.
Johnathan laid on his back in the grass for a moment, trying to catch his breath before sitting up slightly and groaning in pain. Blood dripped down his shoulder and was smeared against his neck and the side of his face.
Despite this, he stood to his feet.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked him, pushing Bates off of me.
I wasn't quite prepared for his answer:
"I'm here for you."
Luca growled and moved his body between myself and Johnathan, his form low to the ground as though he were spring-loading himself in preparation to lunge forward at the bloodied man again.
"How did you find me?" I asked him, standing to my feet.
"I followed your scent."
My eyebrows furrowed.
Across two state lines? I don't think so... I thought.
"Yeah, and I followed a rainbow to find a pot of gold and a dancing leprechaun," Bates retorted. "How the fuck did you get within the gates?"
"The answer to both your questions is the same," Johnathan told both of us.
He turned his attention to me, his ocean-eyes glaring into mine.
"Your father sent me. He told me I could have you if I brought you home."
Before I could utter a response, Luca let out a ferocious bark.
I saw Blaine move behind Johnathan, shifting quickly back into his human form and coming up behind Johnathan to knock him out with his fist.
I gasped as Johnathan hit the ground, unconscious.
As Luca began to shift back, a hand covered my eyes and turned me around.
"No, ma'am," Bates said. "You don't get to see Luca's corn dog until after you're inducted."
He pushed me up the porch steps and back into the house, where I paced the living room anxiously.
"What the hell was he doing here?" I asked, aloud. "What did he mean my dad said he could have me? That doesn't make any sense..."
"Calm down," Bates told me, gently pushing me down by the shoulders to sit on the couch.
"Don't tell me to calm down!" I shouted, standing back to my feet, watching him go into Luca's bedroom.
Bates came back out with a pair of gym shorts in each hand, his serious expression made him look like a stranger.
He opened the front door and tossed out both pair of shorts before coming back inside.
"What just happened?" I asked, my head spinning.
Luca came storming through the front door, now covered by the shorts but also covered from his nose down to his neck in blood.
"How do you know him?" He asked me, eyes glowing with anger.
"I know him from home," I answered. "We went to high school together."
"What the fuck does he mean when he said your dad told him he could have you?" Luca questioned.
I stumbled over my words, drawing my shoulders up in a shrug.
"I honestly have no idea," I said. "I'm just shocked that he's here-"
"Did you tell anyone besides that girl where you were?" He asked me.
"Mady?"
He nodded.
"No, she's the only one I've talked to," I said defensively.
Luca turned to Bates.
"Stay with her," he told him. "I'm going to Lincoln to see how that bitch got across the borders, much less into my yard."
Bates grimaced.
"You got a little something..." he said, pointing at his own face to indicate Luca was covered in blood, but Luca didn't seem to notice or care.
He stormed off into his bedroom.
"Wait," I said, following him. "What are you going to do with Johnathan?"
I followed him into his bedroom where he went into his closet.
"Blaine is taking him to the Cellar," he said.
"What is the Cellar?"
"A holding cell."
"What's going to happen to him?"
"I don't give a damn."
"You're not taking him to an infirmary? You chewed his shoulder to shreds," I said.
Luca walked out of his closet, now dressed in jeans, a t-shirt in his hand.
"Here's hoping he's a quick healer," he said, pulling the shirt over his head. "He'll likely be dead before morning if he's not."
That sentence paired with the wild look in Luca's eyes and the blood smeared across the bottom half of his face made me take a few steps backwards, away from him.
"He's the only one who knows how he found me and got inside the borders," I told him slowly. "It seems like you'd want to keep him alive."
Luca leveled a glare.
"He won't have you," he said.
I wanted to slap him.
That's what you're focused on? I thought. The safety of your pack has been compromised and that's what you're focused on?
Luca stepped forward and pulled my body roughly against his.
I tried to push him away before his lips pressed against mine.
Biting his lower lip as hard as I could, I also pushed against him with both hands. Pain shot up my broken wrist as I did so.
Luca jerked away, freezing when he saw Johnathan's blood that now also covered my face.
"Ah, fuck," he muttered, wiping his own mouth with the back of his arm.
I gagged as I put my hand to my lips, pulling it away to see the crimson stain on my fingers.
Luca reached out and I swatted his hand away.
"Don't touch me," I told him, walking to the bathroom.
I scrubbed at my face and brushed my teeth, hoping to get rid of the sight and taste of Johnathan's blood.
When I came out, Luca was gone and Bates was standing by the front door. I walked over to stand next to him, looking out into the yard to see Blaine and Johnathan were also gone.
"You can go to sleep," he told me.
I looked down at my shaking hands.
"I'm not sure I can now," I admitted.
"Try," he told me.
I was taken back by his abrasive tone.
"Are you okay?" I asked him.
He sighed before closing the front door and locking it, flipping off the porch light as he did so.
"Fine," was his answer.
Bates sat down on the couch and pulled out his phone, clearly not interested in a conversation.
"You sure?" I asked again.
He looked up at me.
"That scared the shit out of me," he said finally, putting his phone down.
I nodded, taking a seat next to him.
"Me too."
"But you didn't just stand there like an idiot," he said. "I completely froze up until Luca had jumped between us."
"Luca reacted almost instantly," I told him. "Don't be so hard on yourself."
"What would have happened if Luca didn't, though?" He asked. "If he wasn't here? That wolf saw us before we saw him. He could have attacked you and I wouldn't have been quick enough to stop him."
"Johnathan wouldn't have done that," I said. "Besides, Bates, I'm fine."
He just shook his head.
I knew the point he was trying to prove, but there was no reason to be so hard on himself for something that didn't happen.
"Luca was mad at me when he left," Bates told me. "I know that I'm going to hear about it later."
I drew in a deep breath.
"He wasn't mad at you," I admitted. "He was mad at me."
Bates snickered.
"He couldn't be mad at you," he said.
I shrugged.
"Biting his lip when he tried to kiss me and pushing him away, telling him not to touch me seems to do the trick."
Bates grimaced.
"You guys aren't doing too good?" He asked.
"Some days are better than others. Sometimes I feel like I'm fighting a riptide. I take two steps in the right direction and then, next thing I know, I'm swept back out to the deep."
His eyebrows furrowed.
"I thought things were supposed to be easy for mates?"
I scoffed.
"They would be if our mate bond hadn't been broken when Luca couldn't keep it in his pants."
I froze as soon as I'd said it.
"Shit, I didn't know you knew about that," Bates said softly.
We were quiet for a few moments.
"I figured it out when I went into Heat and he didn't," I muttered finally.
"Have you talked to him about it?"
I shook my head.
"Not really."
"Probably isn't the best that you guys haven't been able to mate yet, either," Bates offered. "I'm sure that would help."
I nodded.
"Yeah, I guess it would."
We were quiet for a few moments.
"I do think he's trying, if that's any consolation," Bates said. "I've never seen him so invested in anything before besides the pack."
"I know he is, we both are," I sighed. "It's just hard right now."
Bates smiled.
"I'd give you a hug, but he'd kill me. So how about a comforting high-five?"
I laughed and held out my hand.
"Go to bed," he told me. "These things are always better in the morning."
I certainly hope so, I thought.
- - -
"Would you stop digging through my underwear?!"
Bates withdrew his hand from the box grasping a nude thong.
"This shit looks like dental floss," he laughed as I snatched it away.
We were upstairs organizing all of my clothes into boxes; underwear in one, shorts in another, tank tops separated from t-shirts, and so on.
It had been three days since I'd seen Luca or anyone else for that matter besides Bates and I was going crazy.
He was like the younger brother I never had, except he was older than I was and a very large, grown man. Yet I still felt like punching him in the face half the time.
"You're so annoying," I told him, as he placed one of my bras over his chest like he was trying it on.
"Are tits like dicks for girls?" He asked me.
I scowled.
"What kind of a question is that?"
"Do girls measure bra sizes the way guys do their dick? Like, if someone has bigger boobs than someone else, does that make her more alpha?" He clarified.
"Maybe in middle school," I answered.
He looked down and cupped the bra in his hands.
"You've got porn star titties," he said, "these things are massive."
I grabbed the bra and smacked him over the head with it.
"I will tell Luca you're abusing me," he threatened.
"And I'll tell Luca you're talking about my boobs and we'll see who he gets mad at."
Bates leveled a glare.
"Touché."
He began to look through my Lululemon bag and pull out the items inside.
"Who in the hell pays this much money for leggings?" He asked, staring at the tags.
"You're wearing four-hundred dollar sneakers," I pointed out.
"Paying a lot for tires is not the same thing as paying a lot for a steering wheel cover."
"They make your butt look nice," I said defensively.
"Oh, makes sense."
I rolled my eyes as I began to take the tags off of each item and put them into their respective boxes.
"You know, you could just move this stuff downstairs to Luca's room and put them in his closet. It's going to get wrinkled in cardboard boxes," Bates pointed out.
I sighed.
"Seems kind of pointless while I'm sleeping and showering upstairs."
He shrugged.
"I mean, no one says you have to do that."
I looked at him suspiciously.
"Did Luca put you up to this?"
"I plead the fifth."
I rolled my eyes.
"But, seriously, are thongs not uncomfortable?" He asked again.
"Not as uncomfortable as I am," a voice said from the doorway.
We looked up from where we sat on the floor to see Blaine.
"Any news?" I asked, standing to my feet.
He shrugged.
"Maybe."
I gave him an unamused look and he smiled.
"I told Luca I wouldn't tell you," he told me. "I just came to update Bates."
"Ha ha," Bates said sarcastically, standing up and following Blaine from the room.
He patted me on top of the head as he passed me and I jabbed him in the side of the rib cage.
Following Blaine out to the loft, Bates talked with him in a low voice for a while before turning around and coming back to the bedroom.
"Johnathan wasn't the only wolf from your pack that got in the borders," Bates blurted out. "They found another wolf about a mile away."
Blaine looked at Bates incredulously before banging his head against the wall.
"I wasn't the one who promised Luca I wouldn't tell her," Bates defended.
"Who was it?" I asked quickly. "Is it a man or a woman? Do you know their name?"
"I don't know. I forgot to ask for his driver's license," Blaine said sarcastically.
"So it's another guy?" I asked.
He nodded.
I couldn't think of who it would be.
"Could you take me to him?" I asked Blaine.
"No."
"We'd lose our toes," Bates said. "Plus, I've been given strict orders not to let you leave the house. My babysitting privileges would be revoked."
"Oh no," I said dryly.
"What?" Bates asked. "You don't like hanging out with me?"
"You have to take me to the Cellar," I said to Blaine firmly, ignoring Bates.
"No," he answered again.
"I'll take credit for it," I offered. "We can tell Luca it was my idea."
"Credit? You mean blame?" Blaine asked. "This isn't going to go over well."
"Please," I said again. "I need to know who it is. I may be able to get answers."
"How do you know we don't already have answers?" Blaine asked me.
"Because you're here and Luca's not."
Bates looked at Blaine and smiled.
"Please," I begged.
"Absolutely," Bates said.
"-not," Blaine finished, glaring at him.
"We can get there in twenty minutes if we take the bug," Bates said, already turning to leave the room.
"The bug?" I asked.
"No," Blaine reiterated.
Bates turned and smiled at me.
"You're going to love the bug."
- - -
Gotta love the bug... you'll meet that in the next chapter ;)
Don't forget to comment and vote on this chapter!! Tomorrow's update will come tomorrow morning at 8:30am EST (New York time)!
Hasta mañana, iguanas!
MaybeManhattan .x