RUNT

conundrum

Sorry for the slow update, i had the flu and then my toddler did. Its been a rough two weeks but its finally over. Back to your regualarly scheduled update.
Also thinking of posting the first few chapters of another story, let me know whst you think.              ~furballmews

Christian

‘Go back to our room, I will bring our mate back.’ I mind link Gabriel while we are taking a moment near the pond the trackers have stopped at. I can tell they lost her and if not for the bond I might have too. Our brilliant little mate rubbed her scent and the blood on so many things, spreading the scent so broadly that the trackers cant guess a direction. Apparently its been years since anyone has been able to catch her and I can hear the trackers cursing her skills.

‘I want to come too.’ Gabriel growls, bumping his muzzle against my hip.

‘She is still blocking you?’ I tilt my head in curiosity, though I can guess the answer.

‘Yeah, but I am still coming.’ Gabriel sounds almost desperate even through the link and I can't help but nod.

I am not sure what she saw but I can smell the sex scent rolling off him. I would be mad but I can feel the guilt and shame pouring off of him as he tries in vain to make sense of what had happened. Those women drugged him, no question, but I wonder if he wasn’t a willing participant.

I shake the thought from my head, she has to accept us both for this to work. Both of our wolves are scratching the surface fighting to get out and I catch the unusual anger that rolls through him. I start running without warning, knowing my brother is on my heels. We can play off our absence by going for a run.

‘Rebekah?’ I try to link our sister only to feel her sudden embarrassment. ‘Climb off the boy for a minute, I need you to let that damn Alpha that we went out for a run to spare his pack.’

‘You okay?’ I can hear the worry. ‘I heard some people were dead..’

‘I just hope your mates not to close to his father because when we leave tomorrow I will have shown him exactly how I feel about this place and how he and that woman have treated my mate.’ I grumble trying to keep my calm but I wanted his blood and that woman’s head on a pike.

I follow the scent of water and run north, dropping the link with Rebekah. By right I could slaughter every one of them and the only ones who could question me are the other royal alphas. This involved destined mates so it is doubtful any would care but there is always a chance. I think my wolf can be satisfied by just killing those two or at least I hope, my wolf is a bloodthirsty monster sometimes.

‘Little one?’ I probe the link. ‘How do we find you?’

‘Follow.. the river. Just past the territory line is a smallish waterfall with a cave behind it…..there is a bigger one but those caves are to narrow…’ Her voice is muddled, sleepy. ‘go down the right path past the pool is a small old fallout shelter from the forties… don’t touch the pool if you can help it…’

‘I am not alone…my brother..’

‘I know…’ she whimpers softly, interrupting.

The link falls silent for a moment and I almost think she has blocked me again but I can feel her hurt. I hear Gabriel whimper behind me and I know he can feel it too. She let him back in, it was a good start.

‘Be careful in the cave… both of you.’ Her voice rings out in the silence and I can see my brothers head jerk.

‘Cave? Where are we going?’ he asks but she has actually dropped the link this time.

I huff. ‘To get our mate from her hiding place.’

‘Do you think she will forgive me?’ Gabriel sounds concerned.

‘We better hope that is the case or else you will have been the one to ruin this for the both of us. I don’t know if I can take being apart from her now that we have found her.’ It was the truth.

I slow my pace as we find the rock shore of the river, the scent of wet earth and moving water covers everything else and I can see why this is where she has hidden. Small caves dot the edges of the rapidly moving water. The roar of a waterfall can be heard in the distance.

‘It really wasn’t me…I didn’t want any of it…I know I don’t have a great track record with this kind of stuff but I swear, Christian, I would never willingly betray our little mate. She is everything to me… I was only trying to get information on the pack so when you killed them I would have something to give the council…’ Gabriel frantically explains in a genuinely honest manner.

Its then I know he is telling the truth. Those girls raped my brother. My sex addicted, man whore of a brother. This was going to be an issue.

I can’t smell her at all but continue with my nose to the ground as we trot along the shore. After some time we come to the edge of the Lupus Major territory and into a neutral zone spotting a steep incline among the thick trees. This was the base of a mountain range that worked as a border between this pack and the next.

A few meters in and I can spot a small waterfall, only about ten feet or so high and pouring into a deep pond before feeding the river. Several fallen trees lay on one side covered in thick green moss. It was quaint but pretty.

Gabriel charges at the falls and disappears behind the rapid curtain of water with a thud and after a moment I follow. Inside it is dark and damp, the cave is narrow and my wolf has to slide through the passage on my belly. I sense my brother ahead somewhere as the space slowly tapers into a larger space with some dull glowing moss along one wall. He is stopped in the middle looking between several smaller tunnels and I snort to get his attention nodding to the right most side.

‘She said there is an old fallout shelter down here…and to avoid touching the pool ahead…’

He nods back at me before hurrying down the path I had indicated.


Serenity

My skin itched.

A strange tingle shoots through me as I roll off the cushion and onto the cool metal floor trying to chill my body. A sigh escapes me as I feel my temperature lower in response. Something was wrong with my body but this wasn’t the time for it.

I take in a deep breath and get up brushing myself off. I look over my meager possessions and shake my head. Some stolen cooking tools, three tarps, a pile of books and stolen files from the pack. I had kept some things that they had tried to destroy that I knew I could use as leverage if I ever got caught. It was mostly out of curiosity that I had even found them but Lupus Major had some serious secrets.

Biting down on my tongue till I taste blood, I try to focus and after a minute I am able to push the strange feelings away for now. I have to focus for right now or I might screw something up beyond repair. I first need to deal with the whole mate thing.

How did I, a girl who everyone shunned and hated, end up with two mates? I didn’t even know what to do with one, seriously what am I going to do? This isnt something I can ignore. They didn’t reject me and they were the first in a very long time.

Christian was more beast than man and that was something I could wrap my head around. I was a wild thing too. Even if I would still be at a loss with how to deal with his human side I think I could work things out with time.

Gabriel though, I have no idea how to deal with someone who is so human. He has so much experience that I will be sure to disappoint him, I am so out of touch with the world at this point. I don’t have the know how to flirt, how to be a girl, any of it. How does one react to people?

It’s a great mystery to me.

I hear the murmur of voices and fear shoots through me for a moment before the scent of the brothers hits my nose. I feel my wolf purr while I sit down wide eyed in confusion. What the hell was going on?

I pull a ragged blanket over my head and try to focus again but the closer the scents came the harder it was to ignore the strange sensation that seemed to buzz through my entire being.  I bite down until I taste blood and it hits me. I am so stupid.

I had torn into those women. Gotten blood in my mouth. Those women had been plotting this, they had done it before and I had read the files. I dig through the pile beside the cushion and fish out a previous report that Alpha Collin had been told to look into. Instead he covered it up.

Those women had used several drugs in their attempts to catch strong genetics. A skin cream that was a strong aphrodisiac, an ingested drug that increased their chances of getting pregnant, and a fairly dangerous cocktail that was fed to their victims.

I had ripped through flesh, swallowed down so much blood. I had drugged myself when I killed that woman and mauled the other. How foolish.

I flip through the file, looking at the photos of the women involved. Nine in total in three reported incidents, the council had been pretty concerned. They had sent investigators but not enough evidence was found. Alpha Collin had covered it all up, but it wasn’t hard for me to find enough evidence that I can at least help put a stop to it now.

If that wasn’t enough I had death records for an orphanage full of p.o.w. children. I had files on blackmail material of other alphas, of council members, of enforcers and even a prince. I had taken it all and stored it here.

I had to forgive Gabriel. I know it wasn’t his fault but how did I go about forgetting it. I could always make sure it couldn’t happen again, the thought makes my wolf happy. It would take some work and I would have to not drug myself this time but only if those women are dead can I let it pass.

I can’t go back to the pack house first. I will have to stop in the infirmary to finish the one I had started on.