Alma

Chapter Eighteen: Alma

Alma:

I knew it. I knew it when I saw the two of them in front of the library. I mentally reach into the pack bonds, and find the sly fox, a branch from Heather’s bond. I grab the string, feed power into it, and create a replicate of it, effectively stealing Mark from his pack and placing him in his own, like wolf had wanted. Then I grab his location.

He was still at the school. But, he was in a sensory deprivation chamber, in the infirmary. Damn. Looks like I am breaking in. Again.

Nao comes back around eight o’clock that night, with take-out and groceries. I make a plate for Heather and run up the stairs, lessening the magic hold I have on her. Basically, I made her a sedative to prevent her from going feral. At her room, I enter, finding her sitting there, staring off into nothing. Lost.

“Hey, I know you don’t want to, but you have to eat.”

Dante was busy helping bring in and put away groceries, so I explain to Heather what I was doing. “I am going to get him tonight, sweetie. But, you have to eat, and be quiet for just a little longer.”

Heather snaps her eyes at me, fully alert now. “Hi. I’m bringing your mate to you, okay?”

“I want to go,” she whispers.

“With me?” She nods.

“I need you here, darling.” I explain after she scowls. “If you’re gone too, they will know where I went, and then everyone will get caught.”

“That would be bad.”

“Yes, H, it would.”

“Please be back before sunrise.”

I smile. “Of course. Now, you hold up your end and eat.”

With new hope, Heather clears her plate and goes back to sleep.

I return downstairs and see everything taken care of. Eating my own dinner to satisfy my wolf for the time being, I clean my plate and then head into the bathroom.

Like I figured, the bathroom has an adorable little window I can escape through. I coax my wolf, phasing fully on my own, and jump out of the window. Then, I am on my way.

***

The school is creepy at night, but easy to get into. I quickly make my way to the infirmary, and finally slip away through the shadows and sleeping guard to the sensory deprivation chamber. My wolf lets me phase back, mostly, and I unlock the door. I slip in and see Mark, and smell blood. Mark is in his animal form, easy to transport. Walking up to him, I find him badly hurt. With a quiet snarl, and feeling exhausted, I continue with my mission. I place my hands on his side and heal him, looking for other injuries. Finding none, I again slip into my fur and pick up Mark, who wakes up and starts growling. I tug on his pack bond, effectively shutting him up. Thank god. Then again, I grab him like a pup, and begin to run. I steal out of the campus with my prize, and don’t stop until I get to the out edge of the forest, where I phase and open the locker. I open it, and grab changes of clothing. “Phase so you can have some clothes.”

Mark obeys, and as a human, he looks like s**t. “I’m bringing you to Heather, if that makes you happy. Now, put these on.” I throw pants and a shirt to him, and when he dresses, we run.

When we get back to the lodge, I open the front door, letting us both in. I enter the building first, and running toward the stairs, only to run straight into Dante. I take a deep breath and let my guard drop. Then I hear snarls. “Stop it, Dante. It’s just Mark. I got him out for Heather.”

Dante wraps his arms around me, but feels… different. Cold. I back up, and Mark turns on the light.

In front of me isn’t Dante. It’s a damn selkie. “Hello, mo ghraidh. Dante is still asleep. I thought you would be happy to see me.”

I notice he is wearing Dante’s shirt and I want to puke. I grab all of my pack bonds, and pull them. Yelps and growls ring out upstairs, and I gesture Mark to let them know what’s going on. Then I lunge forward.

Bad idea. Selkies are crazy strong. “This is more the reaction I was expecting. Did you think I wouldn’t find you? I am your mate, I can find you anywhere.”

This time I do gag. I need Dante. I hear his snarl as the Selkie spins me around, giving himself open access to the connection between my neck and shoulder where mating marks go. No. No, no, no.

I begin to thrash, refusing to let the damned selkie bite me. Mark slinks off, and I want to scream at him, call him a traitor, but I don’t. Instead, I begin talking in Gaelic, remembering something my aunt taught me a long time ago. Just one word really. I fill it with power, and utter it:

“Air falbh.”

Off, b***h.

The selkie is launched off of me, the limbs that were holding me broken. But, I also feel a few ribs break too. Ouch. I hobble toward him, the real Dante beside me. The Selkie is barking, literally. “I am not yours.” I tell him, and Dante attacks, ripping his throat.

I sway a little bit, my ribs hurting, but am steadied by Dante, his wolf body around me in a half circle. He pushes pack magic at me, correcting and healing my ribs.

“Thank you.”

I say the phrase at the same time as Heather, who is at the bottom of the stairs, Mark at her side. I nod, but say nothing. I lean my head back, closing my eyes as I rested against my now human mate’s bare shoulder. I feel my canines descend as I think the words, but push my wolf back. She would need to wait until the full moon.

***

I must have fallen asleep while standing, because I wake up in bed, Dante sitting next to me. “Hi.”

He lifts one side of his mouth, and I see his canines. “Hey.”

“Put your teeth away.”

Dante shakes his head. He can’t. “Tonight’s the full moon.”

Wow, I think. Then I smile. Mark, Heather, Bet, Rod, myself, and Dante would all be completing our bonds tonight then. “Good,” I think of poor Garv, Nao, and Jeff, alone.

I realize that after tonight, our pack will have more mated pairs than a majority of the packs in the region, and tell Dante as much.

“Not bad for a bunch of outcasts.”

Nao yells for everyone to wake up. I hear shuffling across the floors to the staircase. “Yes, Nao?”

“Look at this.” She hands us a newspaper, claiming that we ran away. “Good, they won’t be looking for us then,” Mark pipes in.

“Oh no, they’ll be looking for us alright. Look here.” I point at a sentence. “There is a nice amount of money for each of us. Dante, yours is sponsored by Aubrey! A whopping twenty grand for you, O Alpha.” I tell him.

Heather’s reward was about ten thousand, sponsored by Brent. Bet and Rod were given twelve thousand a piece. Mark, nine grand. Marv and Jeff both came in at fifteen thousand. My price wasn’t listed.

Dante growls at something. “What’s up?”

“Apparently your ‘uncle’ is very concerned.” He points to the very bottom of the page.

“Five hundred thousand dollars! Holy f**k. The Selkies must really have him by the throat, huh?”