I couldn't leave you hanging, at the start of a good fight...
So next update, present, for you...
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Ben gently pushed the men that hadn't been inducted to the pack forward to where Juliette was bandaging the, now barely conscious, very pale victim of the attack. "You still want to be part of this pack?" She asked sincerely surprised.
"Hell yeah. I haven't had a purpose since I left my old pack. I never realised how much I'd miss it." The smallest man replied with a feral gleam in his eyes. He was still huge compared to Juliette but for a wolf he was small. "I was a tracker once upon a time. I'd be honoured to join your pack."
"We are under attack here." She said, looking closely at his face.
"Yes, Alpha Rhonson." He simply replied but she read his face when she asked.
"You are enjoying this!" She accused the man that she had only ever seen working in her father's fields. All the men chuckled, even her brothers.
"Yes ma'am." He replied cheekily.
"You're mad!" Juliette told the man.
"Oh. You can't help that... We're all mad here!" Harry quoted from Alice in Wonderland. This time all the men burst out laughing.
In the link Rianna silenced them all effectively when her voice entered their heads. 'Whatever you were laughing at in there, made it fun here too. The two that were supposed to draw you out lost their calm and came too close, too fast. Ry, I'm gonna take the targets at the orchard. Game on.'
Ryker sounded positively dangerous as he replied to his twin in the link that connected all of the Fringe Lunatic Pack. 'It would be polite to ask our pack mates if they would like to play. There are more out front. Benny boy, you kids wanna play too?'
'No thanks Ryker. I'd rather not introduce our Alpha to your games.'
'She's sinking into our world faster than you can think of an appropriate cursing word to address it with Ben. She knows we're not Boy Scouts.'
'Doesn't mean she'll appreciate what you two think are games. In the world she comes from death isn't a game.'
Juliette spoke in the link. 'She is right here and no... games don't involve death as far I am concerned. Ryker and Rianna, I would appreciate it if you remember that my brothers are still very young and raised human. They are also in this pack and our link.'
Guilt and shame flooded the link from the twins but they remained silent. Juliette smiled at the fact that they were sincerely apologetic, even without saying anything, so she quickly said.
'You two go play your game, just don't share the details in the pack link.'
'Thanks babe. Game on sis. Let's see take some numbers. On three.'
It was silent for a few minutes. Dangerous silent, like nature was holding its breath hoping the dangerous predators would pass. The Silver Heart blended into the shadows, everyone was holding their breath in the house but nobody heard Rianna move. The link suddenly buzzed with anticipation. 'I'm in position. One!'
Ryker answered. 'Two.'
They both said three at the same time. Their game had started. In the house not a sound was heard while six strangers lost their lives. Juliette started to induct the tracker into the pack and felt two new link come into being. The man that had been wounded gasped awake.
"I am pack?!" He stated in awe. "You let me in."
The others were just as surprised but Juuls grinned. "Two for the price of one inductions?.. Just lighten up people. I had a bleeding hand and stuck it into his wounds. I was still touching him when I inducted the other guy, obviously that's enough."
The fifth and last man was inducted very quickly because they could all hear the rumble of vehicles speeding up the driveway.
"Juliette, boys, get upstairs. Hide." Andy ordered roughly.
"I'll be right behind you two. Break as many bottles of perfume as you can find in my bathroom, dump some cleaning liquids in the hallway and hide!" Juliette ordered her brothers to everyone's confusion.
"We will have to take a stand in h_"
His words were cut off when a car crashed into the porch, the young twins were already running up the steps with Juliette close behind after a mad dash to the kitchen.
She started squirting detergent on the steps behind her as she ran and her brothers ripped open the door to bathroom upstairs. They each grabbed every bottle they could find and flung the glass bottles on the landing when their sister passed. Eddie rushed from the doorway to her desk in the office spilling scented body wash and cleaning liquid behind himself then he effortlessly, gracefully jumped over the stuff and out the door. "Well, I won't be going in there again if I can help it." He grinned rushing to his siblings that had spilled stuff everywhere else. Harry was coming from her tiny attic. Without a word they knew where they would hide. Downstairs the sounds of growls and clashing bodies was getting louder and louder.
The siblings ran into Juliette's room and she grabbed her favorite perfume. With a sad smile she threw the expensive bottle against the wall. It shattered and the three disappeared into her cupboard tipping out one last bottle before going up the shelves into the secret hiding hole. Even the best tracker wouldn't be able to find them in the insulated cubby because they had made sure any fresh scents were covered in chemicals. Even the two, mostly human, siblings were affected by it, the strong smell was horrendous.
Downstairs the fighting sounded like a wild action movie until Eddie pulled them back and closed the boards. 'Someone made it past our guys and is coming up the stairs.' He told them in the link.
'Just one?' Harry asked wisely while slowly pulling his phone out and setting it to silent.
Eddie listened closely while they sat quietly as possible. 'Sjit, I think another one just came up through the window in this room.'
Juliette saw what Harry was doing and thanked her lucky stars that her mobile was downstairs. Eddie didn't have his either, he had left his on the table with his schoolwork. 'You think that 'We were invaded by rogue werewolves that destroyed my sister's house while we were doing our homework there' will be an acceptable excuse for not being done?'
Juliette stifled a giggle when Harry asked that while Eddie looked somewhat constipated as he tried not to laugh but glare at his twin instead. Amusement leaked into the link from several other pack members despite the fact that they were still engaged in a fight.
Juliette was worried about her pack, the new members and the twins that weren't with her, everyone felt it. For the wolves it was quite a surprise to have an Alpha that cared so much for all individuals after being lone wolves for so long. Ben was proud of the fact that she, without being aware of it, broadcast her faith in everyone that was fighting. She was positive that her pack members were smarter, stronger and better than anyone dumb enough to attack her pack. Even her brothers could feel it and felt more confident for it.
By the time Ben called them down from hiding Juliette had more wolves to fix.
"Do we have to call cleanup services?" Juliette asked while immediately beginning the job of restitching the man that had been shot at the start. Ben told her he already had. She had tipped the pillows from the couch and collected her surgery bag. Thankfully most of the things were still in it. Andy started limping to the door but Juliette's voice stopped everyone. There was a power in it that hadn't been there before.
"Andrew, don't you dare walk out. Your wounds are the worst so you're next. I only did William first because his wounds were bleeding and older, I'll be quick. I don't want him bleeding out or getting infected. Stuart, I'll get to you when I'm done with Andy."
"Yes, Alpha." Stuart smiled. In the link Juliette checked in with everyone, Harry and Eddie started picking up broken bits of furniture and sweeping up glass. Ryker and Rianna weren't back yet but answered her in the link that they were fine. Ben and the tracker, Oscar, went to run the boundary. The last two men Russel, the biggest one of the five new members, and Joseph were battered and bruised but not in need of medical assistance. They were carrying bodies out of the house, something all three siblings did their best to ignore. The moment she started working on Stuart everyone felt a flare of pain, they assumed it was her working to fix one of the pack members. nobody mentioned it.
Juliette was working on Stuart when she felt a new intrusion, she wasn't even trying now. In the link she immediately snapped to everyone that there were people coming. Ben quickly assured her it was the cleanup crew and he was leading them in. The people with Juliette had moved to the veranda, she had put the pillows down as a makeshift bed for her patient. Her brothers stayed inside. She continued working on Stuart but the wolves could smell her anger and anxiety increase when they heard the vehicles. Lots of them. Juliette started to stress and to everyone's surprise a low growl escaped her when the first car doors opened. She looked up and relaxed a bit when Ryker stepped out with Ben but her heart stopped when they reached black in and pulled a bloody female mess out of the backseat. Rianna had been hurt. In a hurry, she finished dressing Stuart's wounds, ignoring the people streaming from the other cars until someone set foot on the steps behind Ry and Ben, that were holding Rianna.
"Stay of my veranda!" She snapped without turning around.
Ryker tried to joke. "Don't you love me anymore."
"Not the time for jokes Ry, bring me your sister and shut up. Anyone that is not my pack can stay the hell away from this veranda until I am done fixing up Rianna.... Ri, honey, what happened. You said you were fine after the fighting finished."
Rianna managed a weak smile. "I'm sorry Alpha Rhonson. I was shot."
Ryker added. "They had another team outside our boundary. Same M.O. they used with the Hill pack, sniper and small chopper as a getaway. They just didn't get to torture or kill anyone."
Juliette wasn't sure how to give anesthesia to the hybrid creature. She'd never seen them as anything other than human but it was clear with the damage the bullets had done that a human would have been dead.
"I need to get in deep Ri. How do I knock you out? I don't even have human anesthetics."
Ryker gently moved his sister's hair aside. "Just do it like this Juuls, we've been through worse."
Rianna chuckled huskily. "Maybe not worse, Ry-Ry. I fed enough to sustain me but that steel and silver combo of their bullets is killing me from the inside out. Just do what you can to remove the bullets Juuls."
In her desperation Juliette looked Rianna in her eyes and snapped. "You don't understand, I'll need to cut you open much further to find the bullets, this isn't like the other guy when the bullet was right under the skin at the front. I'm not a surgeon Ri! I need you to sleep so deeply that you don't feel anything... and I need you to sleep until I'm done with this."
Rianna suddenly went limp. All the supernaturals had felt the Alpha command and the immense power it carried, felt it come from the small, human female.
"Well, looks like she finally listens to someone. Dad will be surprised.... You better fix her while she's out." Ryker grinned.
"This isn't a joke.. I don't even understand what just happened!" Juliette answered, trying to understand what happened. She glanced at Ryker when she said it and he looked back. His bad boy persona melted before her eyes. For the first time she saw the supernatural side of her dangerous friend looking back at her. His narrowed eyes were glowing a strange, liquid silvery blue, his skin seemed to have changed colour and he had wicked looking fangs gleaming in the lights of the veranda. His voice was low and strained.
"Her life is in your hands Juuls. She is sleeping like you ordered, you do not need to understand anything. We chose to follow you, you chose to care for us. So, just.. Fix my sister."
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XG