This story is fictional, I'm sorry (actually I'm jelous) if it resembles your life in any way shape or form. Constructive criticism is welcome. If gay relationships offend you, then "How did I manage to start reading this story?" is a good question to be asking yourself. However you're still welcome to read it!
This story is owned solely by Gaco and may not be copied by any means by any unlicensed individuals, groups, or organizations.
Copyright 2020 Gaco. All Rights Reserved.
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Chapter 16
Justin closed the door long enough to unhook the latch on the door guard then opened it and let in a naked Bryce and Alexi, both were carrying a limp body. It took me a moment to figure out that under all the blood and gore they were actually carrying John and Jackson.
"What the fuck?" I asked, aghast as they were nearly as covered in blood as Zeke's wolf.
Justin quickly closed the door as Bryce and Alexi set them both down on the bed closest to the door.
"What happened? And how did you get here without being seen. Jesus!" Justin exclaimed.
Bryce checked them both for a pulse and must have found one as he sighed with relief.
"They're alive. Barely." Bryce sighed out. "Brandon's dead. We found his body with these two in the basement. They were locked in the cells. I wasn't sure how we were going to get them out but the police pulled back a few minutes ago and we were able to load them into one of the other cars and pull out. Someone down the street was making a scene and managed to draw attention for us to escape."
"Dead? Justin asked angrily. "What the fuck happened to him?"
"It was Seth." Bryce growled. "His scent was all over all of them. I have no idea what the fuck happened, but I know it was him. Hopefully once one of these guys recover, or Zeke calms down we'll get some answers."
Bryce's eyes went to Zeke, whose ears flicked for a second at hearing his name, but Zeke didn't even open his eyes to acknowledge we were talking.
"This is my fault." I said, falling back into a seated position next to Zeke. "If I hadn't come, Brandon would still be alive, and these guys wouldn't be hurt."
"That's not even close to fucking true." Bryce growled out. "That fucker bit you, caused you to be turned, tried to kill you multiple times, and now attacked his own pack while we were away. There is no one to blame but that fucker."
While the sentiment helped some, I couldn't help feeling that this was directly my fault. Maybe if I hadn't reacted so willingly to Bryce's advances, or hadn't kicked Seth out of the bunkroom, or even hadn't went camping, none of this would have happened.
Zeke must have sensed my mood because he crawled into my lap, moving for the first time since we got done cleaning up in the bathroom. I stroked his fur idly while lost in my thoughts.
"Is it safe to head back to the den?" Justin asked. "I called Bill, he's probably the reason the cops pulled back. I told him you'd call once you were back in contact and we knew more."
"Let's give it a few hours. When we pulled out the truck was still flipped in the front yard. I don't doubt the cops will want to take Tom's truck into evidence. God what a clusterfuck. I really hope the cops don't look too closely at the house. I don't know how they could miss the blood trail in the back yard from Zeke's escape." Bryce said.
"Should Tom even go back for a few days?" Alexi asked. "With his truck right there in the front yard, it's more likely someone would recognize his face."
"I'm not letting him out of my sight." Bryce growled. "I'm not letting any of you out of my sight."
"Let's try and get these guys cleaned up." Justin said, gesturing towards John and Jackson's motionless forms. "I don't even know what we're going to do about all of the blood on the bed."
"Alexi and I will take care of it, since we're already covered in blood." Bryce said looking down at his still naked body.
Bryce picked up John and carried him to the bathroom. I heard the shower turn on again and I laid down on the bed, still thinking about the fact that this wouldn't have happened if it weren't for me. Zeke pushed up with me against my side, his wolf was curled up under my arm. I must have drifted off after a short time because I woke up later to Bryce laying down on my other side. Bryce kissed my temple softly as if not to wake me, and laid his hand across my body to rest in Zeke's fur.
"He feels safe with you." Bryce said to me softly when he saw my eyes open. "I'm not sure he's ever trusted anyone in the pack like that. He's always been pretty skittish."
I turned towards Bryce and looked him in the eyes, giving a sad smile in reply. After a few moments looking into his eyes I lean in and softly kiss him on the lips.
"We'll get through this." I say, knowing it's what he needs to hear.
I can instantly see him relaxing. It appears that as much of a calming effect as he has on me, I have an equal effect on him as well. He lays his head down against mine and snuggles his body up closer to me as his eyes close.
"Get some sleep Bryce. You need it as much as any of us. We're safe here, together." I whisper softly before drifting back to sleep myself.
I woke up a couple hours later to whispering across the room. From the light around the curtain I could see that the sun hadn't quite risen yet.
"We can't leave them all here asleep." I heard Justin hiss out. "Bryce said no one can leave."
"We can't let anyone find the room this way after we leave." Alexi replied in a disgruntled hiss that told me that they had been having this argument for a while now. "We have to get supplies to at least destroy the DNA in the blood. Plus we still don't even know what's happening at the den."
"Not now!" Justin says a little too loudly and I decide to get up before they wake anyone else up. I carefully extracted myself from between Bryce and Zeke, doing my best to not wake either of them up as I got out of the bed.
"What are you two arguing over?" I asked softly, eyeing them both before glancing around the small hotel room at the rest of our sleeping pack.
"We need to get cleaning supplies, clothes, and medicines if we're going to help John and Jackson recover and avoid suspicion from the authorities." Alexi told me softly while glaring at Justin.
"And I told you we can't leave." Justin hissed again growing louder.
"Stop." I said, my voice somehow resonated throughout the room even though I had spoken at a bare whisper.
"You can't tell..." Justin began again before a rumbling growl from deep inside my chest shut him up.
"Here's what's going to happen." I said quietly, my glare daring either of them to speak again.
"You two are going to go out together, buy what we need without going by the den, and come back. Quietly. These guys need rest if they're going to recover. That can't happen with you two fighting." I continued in the silence following my glare.
The two of them just stared at me as if they were unsure of what was happening.
"Bryce gave you plenty of cash as we were getting Zeke into the car last night. It should be enough for whatever we need." I said, turning to look Justin in the eye.
"I'm awake now. I'll stand watch here while you're away. Bring back enough food for every one of us when you return. The sun will be up soon so I doubt you'll encounter any vampires." I whispered while looking deep into each of their eyes.
"If you weren't..." Justin began.
"Not. Another. Word." I punctuated each word through gritted teeth, not noticing that my fingers had shifted into claws and were digging into each of their shoulders. "Go."
The two looked at each other for a moment, seemingly having a silent conversation about something, before coming to a decision and headed silently to the door. I watched as they left, the door softly closed behind them before I turned around to see Bryce opening his eyes and smirking at me. I walked back towards the bed and climbed back in between Bryce and Zeke, only this time I was sitting up with my back against the headboard.
"You did well." Bryce whispered, arching his eyebrows. "I really didn't expect either of them to listen to you."
"Yeah, well, someone had to be the adult in the room. They were acting like children." I replied quietly.
"When you told them to stop you were..." He paused, clearly thinking about something. "I haven't heard many wolves speak or growl quite like that before."
I shrugged, not entirely sure what he was trying to say.
"I just did what I felt needed to be done." I said as I ran my fingers through his hair. "My wolf was getting very angry with them."
Bryce just smiled at that and nodded, wiggling closer to my body to get comfortable and closing his eyes again.
"Go back to sleep." I whispered to him as I listened intently to our surroundings.
Bryce must have been exhausted because within minutes he was back asleep, leaving me to wait for the others to return.
It took longer than I expected for Justin and Alexi to quietly return to the room, arms laden with fast food bags and what appeared to be half the contents of a grocery store. I was out of the bed before they even opened the door, taking the aluminum tray of food which was precariously sitting on top of Alexi's arms. I carried it over to the small table near the door and set it down just in time to hear the door slam shut loudly behind me.
"Jesus fucking Christ." I hissed, glaring at Justin who looked around sheepishly and shrugged.
I turned to check the rest of the guys. It looked like John and Jackson were still out cold, but when I turned towards our bed Bryce was already sitting up. Zeke, too, had his head up, eyes and ears alert.
"Is that everything?" Bryce asked Justin in a normal tone.
"Yeah." Justin replied quietly, still unsure of how loud to speak.
"No reason to be quiet anymore." Bryce smirked at the pair. "If that didn't wake them, talking won't either. What did you bring?"
"Uh. Food, clothes, cleaning supplies, basic meds, a couple extra disposable phones, and some extra ammo. Would have been here sooner but we had to wait for the restaurant to open." Justin said, eyes flicking to me for a second. "We didn't make it by the den."
"I know." Bryce nodded, a slight smirk on his face.
I turned back to the food and began peeling back the cover of the tin, revealing fifty or sixty chicken tenders, some buttery toast, and dipping sauces.
"That smells so good." Bryce said while stepping behind me and pressing his front against my back and burying his nose in my hair.
"Me or the food?" I asked, and smiled back at him.
"Both." He grinned before giving me a kiss.
Zeke jumped out of the bed and brushed up against our legs, his pleading eyes looking back and forth between us and the steaming chicken.
"You're going to have to shift if you want to get any of that food." Bryce laughed down at Zeke's adorable begging eyes.
In defiance Zeke just sat down at our side, body still pushing up against our legs, and looked up at us while licking his chops.
I sighed and rolled my eyes at Bryce and silently mouth "Nice try" towards him. He just shrugged in return as if saying it was worth a shot.
I searched through the other bags to find a couple containers full of fries and emptied most of the them into the tin with the chicken. I then pulled out ten chicken fingers and a few slices of toast and placed them into the Styrofoam fry container before setting it on the ground for Zeke. As I began to stand back up Zeke licked my face before diving down into the food.
"Has anyone told you that you take good care of your pack, mate?" Bryce whispered into my ear.
I smiled back at him and gave him another kiss and whispered back as quietly as possible.
"Once things have calmed down you and I are going to have a long chat about this mate business. You've used the term several times now, and my wolf did too when he first saw you after I shifted yesterday." I squinted at him in a mock glare.
Bryce's eyes grew wide for a moment in shock and he started to open his mouth to respond before a groan from across the room grabbed everyone's attention.
Everyone's eyes snapped over towards the second bed in the room as Jackson lifted his hand to his head, scrubbing his face as if attempting to wake up.
Bryce was at his side in an instant, softly helping him sit up and get his bearings.
"Are you ok Jackson? How are you feeling?" Bryce asked gently.
Jackson let out a racking cough as I searched through the groceries for a moment. Justin found what I was looking for first, however, and handed me a bottle of water which I twisted open and handed to Jackson.
He took it with an appreciative look in his eyes before tilting it back and drinking the entire bottle in one go.
"Fucking hell." He croaks out. "I feel like death."
"You had us worried, man. We weren't sure if you were going to make it." Bryce replied.
"Why haven't you healed me?" He asked and looked to his left.
"Us." He amended looking sadly at John's still immobile form.
"Forced healing like that takes a ton of energy and I'm not sure that it's not safe right now to do that." Bryce said tersely, glancing at the rest of us in question, as if wondering if Jackson remembered anything.
"Not safe? Why would..." Jackson trailed off. "Seth."
"Yeah..." Bryce responded, lightly squeezing Jackson's shoulder.
"God he was so crazy. I've never seen him like that before." Jackson said. "It was unreal."
"What do you remember?" Bryce asked softly.
"Not much, honestly..." He said, eyes looking to some far off place. "I remember him coming in, screaming, fighting, and... pain."
"Any idea where he went?" Bryce asked.
"Not a clue... I'm not sure I lasted for more than a minute." Jackson answered morosely.
Alexi started handing out plates of food to everyone. Just as we began to calm down and eat Jackson's head jerked up, eyes wild.
"Oh fuck." He said, haunted.
"What is it?" Bryce asked quickly.
"Seth. He wasn't alone." Jackson said gravely.
He turned to the rest of the pack aghast and spoke one word.
"Wolves."
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