0062
Dane
"Look, it's down to you. "Jenson mutters. "All the elderly and youngsters have relocated."
"It's been a week!" I snap. I was fully expecting Trey to have attacked by now. Yet there was nothing, no stray Lycans, no threats, nothing. I didn't like it.
"They can sweep the forest again," Jenson suggests.
"They are looking in the trees?"
He snorts, "Of course, we are not making that mistake again."
My eyes move to the calendar on the wall. The next full moon was looming.
"You think they will attack then?" Eric murmurs. He had been quiet, listening to me and my brother's heated discussion.
"When are we most likely not going to be here?" I sigh, "It's exactly what Devon did. He waited until we were gone. He took out the few guards I had stationed around the house. He almost took Neah." The very thought of almost losing her that night made me sick to my stomach.
"Others should have arrived by then," Jenson tells me. We have put in the call."
"They will need to run too."
"Then I will stay with her." Jenson offers.
Eric and I stare at him. I still didn't like the idea of him being alone with my mate. Only now, I was certain Neah would be able to defend herself, but that didn't mean I wanted her to kill my brother.
"You need to run too. The moonlight empowers us."
He slowly nods his head at me. "But I don't need it as much as you. You are the Alpha, you need to lead the pack and I am an excellent fighter."
"One Lycan took you down." Eric muses
Aero's laugh rattles in my skull at Eric's words. 'It's the same each and every time.'
"Hey, I was trying to defend Neah and my sister!" Jenson scowls at Eric "Out of all of us, and after you," he points at me. "I am the next best thing."
"Really?" Eric cocks an eyebrow, "You want to test that theory."
"OUTSIDE!" Jenson yells.
At least once a year this happens. And each time, I let it play out because Jenson needed reminding that he was skilled in the tactics of war, but not the fighting. Still, Jenson could never accept it. He always had to try and prove himself
I follow them out of the house and watch them square up to each other. I roll my eyes as they begin to move in a circle. Eric had his hands in his pockets, moving around like this was the most boring he had ever been. While Jenson is crouched, trying to choose his perfect moment to attack.
"If I win, I get to babysit the Luna!" Jenson snaps.
"Alpha." Eric muses. "If you win, you get to PROTECT the Alpha."
I watched my brother roll his eyes and I knew that would annoy Eric more.
Jenson charges at Eric and Eric simply sidesteps. Jenson skids on the grass and quickly turns lunging at Eric. It was like watching a kid's cartoon, where the younger ones never got their way.
They end up wrestling on the grass when I pick up my mate's lavender scent. She comes to a stop next to me. "What...what are they doing?"
"Deciding who is going to keep an eye on you on the next full moon."
I feel her blue eyes on me.
"Don't worry, it will be Eric."
"Then why are you letting them fight?" I hear the alarm in her voice.
"Jenson does this all the time. He likes to try and challenge Eric or myself. He never wins." I mutter just as Eric plants a fist on the bridge of my brother's nose. "It's easier to let them battle it out."
I pull Neah's back against my chest, locking my arms around her and resting my hands on her stomach. Every day I had fucked her, filling her with my seed and there still wasn't a change in her scent to signal that she is carrying my pup.
Raven had told me the same as what she had told Neah, that it was still too early to tell.
"How are you feeling?" I whisper in her ear as she watches the fight.
"Sore." There was a warning in her tone. A warning not to try anything today. She tilts her head back to look up at me. Her eyes are almost pitch black. It was more than a warning, it was a threat.
I hold back the chuckle bubbling in my throat and kiss her forehead. If Nyx thinks she can threaten me on Neah's behalf, she better think again.
Kissing her again, I kept my mouth shut, but my eyes probably told her everything she needed to know. I don't take kindly to threats.
Her attention goes back to the men who are still wrestling. Jenson was a little bloody and the blood that was on Eric was also Jenson's. Not a single bruise colored Eric's skin.
"Guys that's enough. You've been going at this long enough."
Eric pins Jenson down, sitting on his chest with his knees dug into Jensons shoulders. "Do you give up?"
Jenson bares his teeth, "Never."
Eric digs his knees in more and Jenson winces but he still tries fighting back. I had to give it to him, he wasn't someone who backed down from a fight.
"I'm sorry Jenson. You lost." I call out
He thumps the ground with his fist and relaxes. "Fine."
""Happy?" I whisper to Neah
She nods her head and whispers. "I need to talk to you."
Her hand links with mine and she pulls me to the house and into my office. Her hand drops from mine and she sits in her usual spot, only this time she doesn't pull her legs up to her chest. "Is everything okay?"
"There is a flaw in your plan." She doesn't hold back. "You said and Raven said that you would be able to scent that I'm pregnant, that my hormones will change." ""I did."
"What about the guests? They will be able to tell that I'm not."
"We still have a couple of days."
"And if I'm still not?"
"Then we tell them your Lycan half is masking your scent." I lean against my desk, watching her. "Who would have thought that you would be concerned that you are not carrying my heir?"
Exactly two days later, I smell the subtle changes in her lavender scent.
Neah was curled up asleep, hugging a pillow as I showered.
The moment I turned the water off, I could smell the change.
Walking over to her, I was half tempted to wake her and tell her the news.
Instead I settle for sliding my hand between her and the pillow and resting it on her flat stomach, enjoying that I was the first to know.
'Well, it finally happened.' Aero muses.
'Years we have been waiting for this.'
I agree, but I also internally sigh. 'It was a pregnancy of convenience.'
'Doesn't matter. It is still our pup. Neah will be a great mother, if anything, her past trauma will make sure of that.'
'I hope you are right.'
Pulling the blanket up around her, I quickly dress. Raven would be the first that I would tell, after all, she is the pack doctor and my baby sister.
"You have to tell him." I hear Raven as I push the door open
"He is your brother!" Klaus's words come out in a rushed whisper.
"And he is our Alpha. It doesn't matter who tells him, he needs to know."
"I need to know what?"
Both of them jump, which makes it even more infuriating. They would have done well if one of Trey's assholes had crept up on them.
"Well?"
"You need to see for yourself," Raven mutters, scurrying around the station. She grabs my hand and leads me to the room at the far end. "I don't know how to help her."
"Her?"
She pushes open the heavy door and I'm hit by the smell of iron. Blood splattered the walls, floor, door, and cupboards. Sat in the corner rocking, is a naked Jess. Deep wounds littered her arms, face, and body. They were slow to heal, most likely because her body was tired. "Eric left her with me last night," Klaus mutters. "She cut her finger opening a tin. She watched it heal and just fucking lost it."
"She keeps shifting, and ripping into herself with her claws," Raven whispers. "As soon as she is healed, she does it all over again. I can't get near her to sedate her. Putting her in here is all I could do." "Why didn't you let me know sooner?"
Raven's eyes shift to Klaus. "Well, uh, you have been a little preoccupied."
She was referring to me trying to get Neah pregnant.
"You should have told me, both of you! Get me a blanket!"
Raven runs out into the hallway and comes back with several blankets. "What are you going to do?"
"Leave me."
"But Dane....."
"Leave me."
The door closes behind me. I quietly move towards Jess. Crouching down, I wrap the blanket around her. "Hey, it's okay, you are safe."
She continues to rock, seemingly oblivious to my presence. Grabbing a cloth, I begin to clean the blood from her face and she stills. Her hands clutch the blanket tightly.
"I'm a monster," she whispers.
"No," I state it simply and clearly. "You are a kid who has been thrown into the unknown. Why didn't you leave with the others?"
"I don't want to run."
"But you want to hurt yourself?" I was so grateful that Neah hadn't gone down this path, something tells me she would have done a lot more than just claw at her skin. Especially when she has a habit of going for the heart. "Death would be better."
"Yours or the people that did this to you?"