My throat felt drier than it had ever felt in my life, as if I had dragged my body through the desert without a drop of water. I could hear a faint buzzing sound of the florescent light overhead but other than that it seemed quiet. It was like the worst hangover a person could have, my senses seemed sensitive but my mind was too foggy to interpret all the information they were feeding me. I swallowed trying to wet my parched throat as I forced my heavy lids to open.
"I think she's waking up. Someone hurry up and get in here!" A familiar voice whisper-yelled into the quiet. I frowned, "Where am I?" my voice sounded like someone had taken sandpaper to my voice box. My vision was a bit blurry and I blinked in quick succession to focus my vision. A female with pink hair shaped into a pixie cut stood beside my bed, tinkering with some equipment. She gave me a strained smile, "Hello...Uh—I'm Libra—the pack doctor..."
Her anxiety assaulted my senses and I gritted my teeth in annoyance, "Libra? Don't worry I'm not going to hurt you—even if I wanted too, I couldn't. I'm a little indisposed at the moment as you can see." I lift one of my hands and gesture toward my body with strain. Her brown eyes moved over my body and she relaxed slightly. Letting out a nervous giggle, "Of course. I knew that..."
I let my eyes scan around the room, "What pack is this?" Hopefully it wasn't any that were in league with my uncle. I felt my nerves surge at the thought but as long as they didn't know my connection to him than I'm sure I would be fine.
"Oh—uh—We're a new one. Too small really to be known of I'm sure." Libra dismisses with another round of nervous giggling.
"I see." My uncle would never make an alliance with a pack of low standing, so for the moment it seemed I was safe. I try to push myself up but groan when a sharp pain rushes through my side. Libra's hand is suddenly pressing me back down into the bed, "You should try to avoid movement for a little while. You sustained a lot of wounds some of which were more serious than others. Like that silver bullet—and thanks to whatever strain of wolfsbane you ingested your healing abilities have been dampened. Until it's completely worked out of your system you'll have to deal with the average healing abilities of your human body."
I grit my teeth together in frustration, "Damn hunters." I had been making good time on getting back to my pack but thanks to them I was now going to have to rethink my approach. My uncle would surely know for certain that I was coming for him and he would have time to prepare. Time that I hadn't wanted to give him.
The door to the room opened and the young girl from the clearing came rushing in her doe eyes fixating on me. I stared back at her in surprise as she cracked the biggest smile I think anyone has ever given me, "Oh thank god you're alive!" She practically sang and all I could do was stare in light confusion. She started to close the distance between us but was stopped when a pair of large arms attached to an even larger male wrapped around her, "Bunny! You have to stop running off like that. I'm seriously thinking of chaining you to my side..." I recognized the voice a one of the people who had helped rescue me.
Bunny frowned and let her shoulders sag, "But I only wanted to see her." She whined.
The male placed Bunny back down on the ground turning her to face him, "Well next time just tell me before you decide to take off. I would have come with you."
"I don't need you to go everywhere with me Marshall. I'm a big girl if you hadn't noticed..." She announces with a little bit more confidence. Marshall removes one of his hands and runs it through his hair, "Oh trust me—I've noticed..." He mumbles with a tone that makes me want to crack a smile. His reaction to her made me believe that they must be mates or something.
Another male comes rushing through the door. He isn't as large as Marshall. In fact he is on the leaner side of the spectrum but you can see from looking at him that he's probably a lot stronger than he appears at first glance. He is wearing an anxious expression, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news but—"
"Where is everyone?!" A raspy female voice growled loudly. Everyone in the room tensed looking around at each other and than to me.
"Shit! I thought she was out looking for Silver—" Marshall cursed as he ran his hand through his hair again. He looked like he was trying to come up with a plan as he looked around the room frantically, "Alright, Leo come with me—we will distract Valerie. You two—" He points between Bunny and Libra, "Will stay here and fix her up so that she's at least presentable." I might have been offended by that comment if I didn't feel like shit, so I'm sure his assessment wasn't too far off.
"Marshall, we shouldn't move her yet so soon after—" Libra suggests.
"I don't care Lib. We don't have the time to worry about that." Marshall points his finger than towards me, "You're going to say you are Bunny's cousin. You wanted to come see her after you heard about what happened to her brother. If anyone asks that's the story, You will say nothing about the hunters or about us being at the clearing. You hear me?" He looks at me with serious eyes. My wolf growls in my head about someone telling me what to do but I know that I need their hospitality for a while longer at least until I'm completely healed. I nod my head.
"I hear you." I croak out.
He turned his attention to Bunny and whispers, "You be careful. Remember we don't trust people we don't know. And we don't know her." He looks like he wants to kiss her for a moment but than he turns and leaves quickly. Leo looks us over before leaving the room rushing after Marshall.
"Whose Valerie exactly?" I ask curious about who could cause such a reaction out of them. She must be one hell of a wolf.
Bunny looks to me with her wide eyes, "She's one of our friends." She says before casting her gaze towards the ground submissively. Libra rolls her eyes, "Yeah and a total pain in the ass..." She mumbles under her breath and I let out a small chuckle which makes her eyes widen. Her gaze connects with mine, "Oh—don't tell her I said that. She'd totally kick my ass. She's the beta for a reason after all..."
"Your secrets safe with me—I mean you saved my life. It's least I could do." Libra cracks a small smile at my words. She turns away from me, "Bunny can you grab some of the spare clothes from the cabinet over there." She points to a small cabinet on the other side of the room. Bunny happily moves across the room and starts looking through the cabinet.
"Where's your Alpha?" I ask out of curiosity as Bunny makes her way back over to me with a pair of sweat and a plain t-shirt that looks a couple sizes too large. Libra looks back to me with a strange expression, "Oh I'm sure he's around somewhere. He has the habit of disappearing and appearing at a moments notice..." She let out a nervous laugh again as she grabbed the pile from Bunny. I could tell that from her reaction that there was something off but I let it go.
"Let's get you up—uh..." Bunny stops mid sentence, "What's your name?" She asks in a soft whisper.
"Grace."
She smiles big again as she stretches a hand out towards me, "Let's get you up out of this bed Grace."
I take hold of her hand and allow her to pull me as I lift my body up. The pain rips through my side but I breathe through it. Nothing could ever be as bad as those two years that I spent in captivity with Kellan and his rogues. Once I was sitting up completely Bunny let go of my hand. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and scoot off with one push. My bare feet hit the cold title with a jarring force that cause me to lean backward into the bed with a pained hiss.
Libra grabbed my elbow in a supporting hold, "Careful there tiger."
"Thanks." I groan out as the pain slowly subsides.
"Grace?" Libra calls my name and I look towards her as I push myself to my full height which is a head taller than her, "Whats up?"
She holds out the change of clothes towards me, "When I was taking care of your wounds I noticed you had quite a bit of scar tissue on your body—" I clenched my jaw tightly and took the clothes from her, "Thanks for these..." I say shutting down her question before she could ask it. I didn't know these people and I didn't feel the need to share my sob story with them. As if understanding my feelings she gave me an apologetic smile, "Of course."
I stiffly moved away from the bed trying to keep myself from making my limp look obvious. I stripped out of the hospital grown and pulled the large shirt on over my head, noting the bandage wrapped tightly around my ribs. I pulled the sweats on over my legs and rolled the waist a couple times until I was sure they weren't going to fall off of my body. I turned back to the girls, "Well how do I look?"
"Like you took on a horde of hunters and survived." Libra said quickly, which received a light elbow to the side from Bunny. She frowned at Bunny as she rubbed her side, "I mean you look great—"
They're strange, My wolf says slightly perplexed.
I like them. I think back with a small hint of a smile on my lips.
The sound of arguing voices brought me back into reality and I turned my attention to the door as it flew open. My body immediately tensed detecting any possible threats to me. I held back a growl as a woman with ebony hair barged into the room looking like she was on the hunt. Bunny cowered into Libra, who was wearing a tight expression, "To what do I owe the pleasure Val? Are we in a hulk smash kind of mood today?" Valerie growled a warning clearly not finding the humor in her comment.
Her gaze moved from them to me, her nostrils flaring in anger. Marshall and Leo came into the room together, "Calm down Val. She's only Bunny's cousin! It was a total surprise to us when she showed up this morning." Marshall proclaimed as he stepped between the two of us blocking her view of me. I would have been surprised by the action but subconsciously he was defending an alpha out of instinct--even if I wasn't his alpha and even though he didn't know I was alpha.
"You know the rules Marshall!" Valerie snarls, "Any visitors must seek permission to be here from the Alpha!"
"I know Val, but—"
"No buts! There are rules for a reason! They're to keep all of you safe—something clearly none of you seem to care about!" I couldn't blame the beta she was only trying to protect her pack. I mean I wasn't going to hurt any of them but next time it could be a different wolf or something worse. The thought of something happening to these people didn't sit well with me. I cleared my throat, "She's right—"
"Damn right I—wait, what?" Valerie peeked around Marshall with suspicion in her gaze.
"I said, you're right. I should have asked permission before I showed up. It's just that—uh—" I looked around the room and everyone was staring at me with wide eyes, "It's just after I heard about—you know—what happened...I wanted to make sure Bunny was okay?" Real smooth Grace, yeah I'm sure that you don't sound suspicious at all.
"See Val, it was all just a simple misunderstanding." Marshall jumps in quickly before Valerie could ask any questions. I could still see the suspicion in her eyes as she stared at me.
"If you take me to the Alpha—I'd gladly explain everything myself and take responsibility for my actions." I suggest. I did want to see the Alpha and explain everything, the truth of everything and what I was doing on the territory. There's no way an Alpha would believe such a terrible lie, not a good Alpha anyway.
Leo snorted at my comment and I looked to him with surprise over his reaction. Did they have such little respect for their Alpha? Valerie turned her head and glared in his direction, "Unfortunately, our Alpha is away at the moment so I'm in charge—" She looks back to me. I was beginning to believe that perhaps their Alpha might be just as unconventional as the rest of them. I gave a tight lipped smile, "Of course. So I'll leave then—" I could tell from the look in her eyes that she wanted to run me off their territory. I wasn't a part of their pack and deep down I'm sure she could sense that I was no weak wolf which in her mind translated into me being a threat.
"What?" Libra and Bunny say in unison.
"Val, please she came all this way to see me—" Bunny steps forward her voice shaky. It was obvious that she wasn't used to speaking up against those above her, "At least let her rest here for the night. It was a long trip and she ran into a bit of trouble along the way..."
"You know the rules and you still let her into this house. I'm disappointed in all of you. Don't think that I won't report this to Silver when he returns. I hope you're all ready to accept any punishments he gives out for this infraction." Valerie says in a low tone. Bunny bows her head and digs at the floor with the tip of her dirty sneaker. I feel annoyed by the Beta and her show of power that was completely unnecessary in my mind. I tried to smooth it over, "Don't worry about it—I'll come see you soon." I say with a forced happiness. Bunny looks back toward me with those big eyes of hers and I give her a wink, "I'm just glad you are okay." She knew that I was talking about the situation with the hunters. I might not have known her but my instinct to protect her had been strong which was new thing for me considering I wasn't her Alpha.
Her lips pull up on one side, "Yeah—I'm glad you're okay too."
"Well, I'm pretty hard too kill." I joke. Libra looks like she wants to punch Valerie but she holds herself back, turning her attention to me. I make my way across the room and around Marshall. I do my best to walk tall even though my body is screaming at me to sit down and rest. I put my hand out towards Libra, "Thanks for everything—"
She looks at me with a bit of shock before shaking herself and gripping my hand in hers, "Take care of yourself Grace."
"Always do Doc—" I wink.
"Right..." She says with a disbelieving tone that makes me crack a smile.
A strange surge of energy rushes over me and my wolf becomes more alert than I was expecting considering the amount of wolfsbane that was still in my system. "Why didn't anyone tell me we were having a party in Libra's office?" A deep voice questions humor hinting in his tone. The sound sends a shiver racing over my skin. I swallow hard, afraid to turn around and look at the speaker who owned such a sinful sounding voice.
"Alpha!" The room chorused in surprise and nervousness.
I collected myself and slowly turned around. In the doorway stood the devil himself in a pair of tight fitting blue jeans. I'm sure my mouth must have been hanging open but he looked like a drink of cool water in the desert. His body was filled out with lean, taunt muscles, that you see through his fitted jeans and t-shirt. His hair was an odd color of blond that it almost looked white under the florescent light. His jaw was covered with a smattering of facial hair, probably hadn't shaved in a couple days. My eyes seemed to have a mind of their own as they ate up the godly image before me.
"And who are you?" He voice seems to travel across the room and resonate itself in the core of my being. A tiny sweat breaks out on the small of my back and I looked down to the ground, "I'm Grace—Bunny's cousin." I almost smacked myself for continuing with the stupid lie. Of course he was going to know I was lying to him. I bit the inside of my cheek as I felt the heat of his eyes roaming over my body. He stepped into the room and made his way towards me with long strides. I tried to keep my heart from jumping out of my throat.
"I wasn't aware Bunny had a cousin..." I wanted to look in his eyes but for some reason I couldn't. I might be an Alpha but in this moment I felt like a young girl, all my courage completely evaporated. He must be a very powerful Alpha to cause this type of reaction in me, which did cause curiosity over him to stir inside me along with other strange emotions I wasn't accustomed too. He stood before me and I waited for him to call me out on the silly lie I had told. Instead he stuck out his hand in a calm greeting, "Welcome—Grace." The way he says my name has me holding back a soft moan. He made my name sound so decadent falling from his full lips. I swallow hard and put my hand into his hesitantly as I look up towards his eyes. The moment our skin comes into contact with each other a zap of electricity runs through me straight to my heart. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end as I stare into a pair of green eyes that are darkening quickly.
OUR MATE! My wolf howls with excitement.
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song: 'Voodoo'- Oh Land
A/N: In celebration of finishing His to Claim today I decided to post the next chapter of Grace's story!
WOOT! So excited! Can't wait to share more with you guys! Let me know what you think so far :)