Half Breed

EIGHT

"What the hell happened? We heard gunshots." Jonah rushed towards us.

Isaac and Ramona quickly follow behind, running down the steps of Nathaniel's home.

I faintly heard Nate growl at his beta in warning to stay away and he quickly stepped out of the alpha's path.

"Get some towels, Ramona, call Gabriel." Nate barked out commands.

"I'm fine." I whispered but the stinging in my shoulder had quickly begun to spread.

"They're getting closer." I faintly heard Nate say to Jonah.

"My uncle?"

"No."

I frowned but I had no time to ask more questions.

"Get some men out there, now."

"Already on it, Alpha."

I briefly saw Jonah from the corner of my eyes jumping into his wolf form and howling for back up as he disappeared into the woods.

"Let me go with them." I started.

Nate threw me an incredulous look and shook his head vigorously.

"You have a hole in your shoulder, Alyssa, you need a healer"

I wriggled out of his hold and dared to look at the gash below my collarbone. Whatever was in that bullet was not allowing me to heal quickly enough.

"Just patch me up, it won't kill me. I need to see the faces of whoever is attacking us, it could be anyone of Mikhail's associates and none of you would know."

Before I could let him argue with me, I sprinted off after Jonah and followed his scent back into the woods.

I briefly heard Nathaniel's growl of disapproval before whispers of his magic snaked around my arm and up to my shoulder to stop the bleeding. He quickly caught up to me which was around the same time we both caught the scent of the attackers.

"Humans?" Nate's brows furrowed as we came to a halt.

Four human males were surrounded by giant snarling wolves who had no qualms about ripping into flesh at the command of their alpha. But those men still had their guns pointed at us.

"You all seem to have a death wish." Nathaniel started.

My hybrid wolf was itching to spring out at a moment's notice, a twitch in the wrong direction from those men was enough to get her blood boiling.

To attack without provocation, not just the alpha but pose a threat to innocent people. They were asking for an excruciating death.

"It's time your kind left this land once and for all. Make place for the right kind of leadership." One of the men spoke.

I almost laughed at his feeble attempt.

"What the hell are you talking abo-"

A breeze hit the man's ashy blonde hair and the faintest hint of an all too familiar scent hit me like a steam train.

I advanced forward on a snarl, "You."

That scent was too specific to be an accident and it only had one person written all over it.

Nate's warning fell to deaf ears as I pushed past the wolves to get to the man. The gun that was now aimed at my head was quickly discarded as I grabbed the barrel and slammed it into his already crooked nose.

I yanked the dagger from his boot and twisted his wrist up to his back before his buddies could even blink. They exclaimed and aimed their stupid weapons at me. My shoulder barked in protest and blood started to trickle down my arm but I needed answers immediately

The wolves growled and Nate took a few more steps forward.

"You even try to pull that trigger on her and you're all dead." His voice was laced with every promise of a slow death.

The man in my grip struggled against my hold but the dagger I'd placed against his neck quickly stopped him.

"Why don't you tell us what Mikhail promised you and your little weasels to get you so riled up to kill us." My tone was venomously sweet.

"I don't know anything about a Mik- ah!"

The handgun that had been discarded on the floor was in Nate's grip and the barrel shoved into the man's mouth.

"Let's cut the bullshit here, sunshine," Nate said to the man.

"I picked up the boggy scent of my uncle's base on this one. They're his men." I explained.

At this point, Jonah and the three other wolves he'd brought with him had tightened the circle around the rest of the humans who were now trembling.

"That's more like it." I smiled.

Nate backed off to allow the human to speak.

"He promised us..." he gasped to catch a breath, "vampire blood if we made noise in as many packs as possible."

"For what purpose?" Nate demanded.

"To look for me."

It had already started, a puzzle for my uncle to enjoy solving.

"He's trying to flush me out, they'll probably report back to him and a witch will look into their memories to see what they saw."

"We all know what this means boys." Nate rubbed his hands together as he looked to his guys.

I sighed and threw the man towards Jonah who had no time to scream as he was caught in between talon-like teeth. The pain of my injury finally came crashing down and I stumbled into Nate.

"Woah there, let me get you back inside."

I nodded and let him take my full weight as my whole right side started to feel like lead.

"I shouldn't have let you go out there." Nate grumbled.

The sounds of screaming did nothing but grate on my nerves and I couldn't wait for it to be over already.

"You of all people should know better than to try and stop me when I'm ready for a fight."

"Maybe that's the problem here. I know you too well and it's affecting my judgment. You know you were right to say we should keep our past behind us."

I frowned and tried to dislodge myself from Nate's hold but he held fast. What the hell just happened?

"So what was it that happened twenty minutes ago?" I demanded.

"It shouldn't have happened, it was a mistake."

My brows shot up in surprise, "Oh so it was a mistake that you kissed me and couldn't keep your hands off me? Make up your fucking mind, Nathaniel."

He released me suddenly and ran a hand through his disheveled hair. I leaned against the railing to balance myself as I felt myself swaying from the pain in my shoulder but the hurt bubbling forth was spiraling.

"Say something!" I snapped.

"You don't get it, Alyssa. I can't do this." Nate snapped right back before walking into the house.

I took in a sharp shuddering breath before exhaling on an exasperated growl. I found Gabriel in the living room waiting for me. He stood as soon as he saw me.

"That's a nasty poisoned bullet wound right there." My cousin studied my shoulder.

I let him sit me down on a kitchen stool that had been brought in and I removed my ruined t-shirt. Anger bubbled up in my gut at the thought of Nathaniel's words and as much as I tried, the lingering feeling of wanting him stayed with me.

I let out a long sigh and smiled up at Gabriel.