[uno]
“Lacey, darling,” My mother knocked on the door softly before opening it and giving me a warm smile. “Your father got back from the Alpha call he was on and he wants to tell us something.”
I nodded, standing up and placing my palette on the desk. I wiped my dirty hands on the apron and turned to my mother. She was looking at my painting carefully, her light blue eyes scanning it as if she searched for something.
“I really like the colour you added there,” she pointed to an old man, sitting on a wooden bench, “It gives him more of a realistic feel.”
I grinned in return, stepping back to admire my art and said, “Thanks, ma.” I was no Frida Kahlo, but my painting was pretty decent. At least it was better than the average stick figures. “So does dad want to talk now?”
Mom nodded, linking her arm with mine and pulled me out of the attic. “Yeah; he says it’s important and that he wants us to be informed from him and not some other wolf.”
We walked down the wooden steps, just making small talk about nothing in particular and a sudden smile grazed her lips as my father came into view. Sometimes I forgot how amazing a bond between mates was.
The love my parents had for each other was indescribable. The way they stared at each other as if they were the only people in the world was beautiful. I wanted something like that whenever I found my mate.
“Hi, pumpkin,” Dad hugged me tightly, pressing a soft kiss to my forehead and motioned for us to sit down on the couch.
Derek, my father’s Beta waved our way politely before sharing an unspoken message between him and my father and then left. He never said much, he was more of a violence kind of guy. He’d rather rip your intestines out than interrogate you if you seemed a threat.
“So what was it that you wanted to talk to us about, hunny?” Mom placed her hand over my dad’s, caressing his fingers lovingly.
Dad smiled, entwining their fingers together and said, “As you know I was called because the Scouts found something near our boundaries.” We nodded, “I just wanted to let you guys know that the wolf will be staying with us.”
My mom automatically frowned. “Is he or she staying here with us or the pack in general?”
Dad shook his head, patting her hand in comfort and said, “It’s a ‘he’ and he’ll be staying with us.”
I raised my eyebrows in interest. My father never let anyone sleep in the Alpha house; not even my best friends for a sleep-over. So whoever this person was must’ve been important. “Why is he staying with us?”
“He’s in a pretty rough shape; boy can’t even wake up. It’s customary to help any wounded wolf or human near your lands and I wasn’t going to let him rot to his death. I can sense his Wolf and he’s pretty strong, but I can’t get a clear connection with him.”
I frowned. I was going to eventually be Luna; it was in my blood, which also meant that I felt somewhat protective of my pack. “Is he a threat?”
“No,” Dad shook his head, “I’m telling you, the guy won’t be able to get up on his own for months. Derek will be near if anything happens and we have fighters outside his room.” He turned to my mom, “Linda, do you think you can take a look at him? You can determine whether he’ll make it through the night or not.”
Mom nodded and I felt my Wolf buzzing with excitement. Anything that my mom had to do for Luna duties, I had learned. But I had never seen my mom in this kind of action. I learned the basics; cooking, cleaning, patience, etc. but we had just skimmed through the “nursing” part.
Every Luna was required to have some type of nursing skills; it was tradition. The men got wounded and returned to the women for consolation and care. Of course, there was a pack Doctor, but ours was away on a business trip and my dad didn’t exactly trust the person he left on charge.
Not because he was bad, but because my dad was a very reserved person. If he didn’t know you well, then he’d have another person that he knew better get the job done and in this case my mother was that person.
“Can I go?” I blurted out.
My dad quickly shook his head, clenching his jaw and said, “No. It could be dangerous.”
I narrowed my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest and said, “But mom can go? Come on, dad! I’m going to be Luna someday and I need to learn! Besides, you can’t protect me from everything.”
“James,” my mom smiled, running her hand up and down his taut shoulders, “loosen up, hunny. She’ll be with me and she is right; she does need to learn. If the wolf is as beat up as you say, then there’s nothing that could happen.”
“Fine,” he pouted his lips, looking like a child instead of a 47 year old Alpha.
I squealed, jumping up from the couch and hugged him tightly. “Thank you so much, dad!”
“Now go on, don’t make me regret this.”
I grinned, waiting for my mom to return with the aid kit and other supplies she needed and said, “Dad, I’m eighteen now, don’t you think you should loosen your hold on my reigns?”
Dad chuckled, shaking his head and pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead. “You can be 144 and you’ll still be my little girl.”
“Typical,” I muttered, grinning as he rolled his eyes and gave a light hug to my mom.
“I’ll be in the studio if you need me. I have to sort some issues with Alpha Bryce.”
Mom frowned, giving me the aid kit and said, “Is something wrong?”
“Nah, he’s just having issues with some Rogues and was wondering if I could help. But don’t worry, it’s nothing big.”
Mom nodded, pushing me towards the stairs that led to the lower floor. This floor was usually were family members stayed if they came to visit or other Alpha families. It was like a small home in a house.
The previous Luna decorated the mansion beautifully; it was grand to an extent. We didn’t display our wealth like snobs; we liked the simpler things better. Not that being rich was bad; I wasn’t complaining.
“Luna,” One of the guards nodded his head at my mom in respect as she stepped through the door, where the stranger was.
Mom closed the door and I widened my eyes as I took in the sight before me.
“Oh my god,” I breathed, staring at the man on the bed.
Purple and blue coloured bruises were scattered all over his face, his strong nose was crooked and his long eyelashes sat atop his battered cheekbones. Dried blood was smeared all over his rugged jaw and his light brown hair was tangled with leaves.
“Poor man,” My mom clicked her tongue, walking around the bed and pressed her hand against his forehead gently.
“He looks horrible!” I followed her, watching curiously as she took out a pair of scissors.
She nodded, slowly cutting his almost torn shirt completely off and placed the fabric in the trash. “Whoever did this to him must’ve mean business. I mean look at the gashes on his chest; it was obviously a wolf attack; I wonder what this man did…”
She kept on muttering under her breath, working on the stranger and I felt my cheeks heating up profusely. His body was…incredible.
It was almost god-like or as if a god had carved him out of pure stone. Even with all the contusions and gashes across his stomach and chest, he looked utterly amazing. A tribal tattoo was inked unto his chest, covering most of the top of his broad right shoulder with wolf claws right on his breast.
The design was gorgeous and eccentric; lines overlapped each other in different ways, just completing the overall picture and I had to hold back the urge to trace them with my fingers.
His stomach was ripped; not in the sense that he looked like he was on steroids, but good enough to wash my jeans—or the naughty thoughts entering my head. Honestly, just by looking at them, I felt like I was going to melt.
“Lacey,” my mom snapped me out of my thoughts, raising her eyebrows as she looked at me, “did you listen to anything I said?”
I smiled sheepishly, slowly shaking my head and whispered, “No…sorry! I just—wow, I mean…look at him, mom. He’s gorgeous!”
She laughed, letting her black hair fall behind her shoulders as she shook her head at me. “Darling, stop drooling over our patient and come over here to cleanse his wounds. It’s time you get some real practice.”
I nodded, biting my lip as I took one last longing look at him and grabbed the cleaning gauzes. My hands trembled slightly as I dabbed the cleansing solution over his lightly tanned skin and forced myself to touch him in a completely professional way.
I sure as hell had to give credit to some doctors. It was absolutely hard to touch a half-naked person the way I was and not want to jump their bones.
His skin was warm, as if he had a light fever and I could even feel the warmth emanating from him through my gloves. The more I dabbed peroxide on his gashes, the harder I had to bite my bottom lip. I couldn’t understand how much lust I had for this man; it was unbelievable!
I mean, there wasn’t much to question! He was the epitome of sexy! I’d have to thank his parents for creating someone so damn attractive. Even girls that weren’t interested in men and straight men had to admit that this stranger was worthy of a good pantie-dropping.
“Alright,” I muttered as I finished cleaning up the dried blood, “do we need to stitch him up?”
Mom shook her head, looking over my work and said, “The gashes are bad but they aren’t deep enough to sow. We’ll have to let his Wolf heal him.”
I nodded reluctantly taking my hands away from the Adonis in the bed and turned to her. “So what do we do now?”
“We leave and let nature take its course.”
Thank god, because if I stayed there any longer, there wouldn’t be enough cold showers in the world to calm my hormones down. That man was too attractive for his own good.
~*~
On the side is a picture of what Lacey looks like. More to come if anyone likes.
xx Kit & Haley xx