Читать книгу A Pack of Two - Jacky Russell - Страница 6

Chapter 2

Lucas

The sharp smell of antiseptic assaulted my nose and bright light needled my eyes. My mouth tasted like cotton and what the hell was wrong with my leg? Had a train hit me?

“Lucas? Can you hear me?” The worried words of my father rattled in my head. Why didn’t painkillers work on wolves?

“Turn the lights down, Josef. They’re blinding him,” my mother chimed in her feathery soft voice. “Lucas, you’re in the hospital. Your father and I are here.”

The fuzzy figures of my parents standing over me came into focus.

“Tell us what happened.”

“Oh, Josef, please let the boy wake up before you interrogate him,” my mother snapped. Only she could get away with talking to the Alpha of the Italian Pack in such a manner.

“Gemma, I am only trying to determine what course of action I should take.”

“Hey, Mom.”

My mother leaned down and smiled. “Oh, honey, we were so worried.”

“What happened?” my father demanded as he moved to the foot of my bed.

“I crashed my bike.”

Josef Benelli slammed his hands on the bed railing. “Why were you on the mountain road?”

And here we go.

“I’d been to see Tristyn.”

Not what he wanted to hear.

My father snorted and rubbed his temples. “Why were you not with your mate?”

I tried to sit up but stopped abruptly as sharp pain slashed across my side. “Tessa is not my mate.”

“You are to be joined at the next full moon,” Mom said as she perched on the chair beside my bed. “The Alpha has declared as such.”

I lolled my head in the pillow. “I can’t have a conversation with Tessa without it ending in a fight. How could I possibly take her as my wife?” I meant the question rhetorically but my father answered.

“You do not need to talk to her. You need to bed her and produce offspring for the life of the pack.”

Now I knew why he and Mom fought all the time. My father wasn’t exactly up on modern thinking.

“Is that why you went to see Tristyn, because you’re worried about your impending mating?” My mother’s brows knitted, her gaze darting from me to my father.

“No, I went to watch the hockey game.”

My father crossed his arms and frowned. “Lucas, it is time you took a greater role in this pack and spent more time with your own kind. I have tried to indulge your desire to maintain a friendship with Tristyn, but it is time you dedicated yourself to your pack.”

“This isn’t my pack.” Was there a jackhammer in my head?

Silver flakes appeared in his blue eyes. “You are the son of the Alpha. It is your role in this pack.”

“Josef,” my mother interrupted. “Please don’t do this now. We almost lost Lucas tonight.”

My father bowed his head, slowly calming his wolf. “We will discuss this when your injuries have healed. I will post a guard outside your room tonight. The doctors said you should be able to go home tomorrow. Your mother will prepare your room and you will stay with us.”

I ran my fingers through my hair. Every conversation with him ended in a fight. “I’ll be fine at my house.”

“It was not a suggestion, Lucas,” he replied as he turned to the door. “Your mate is waiting to speak with you.”

My wolf stirred at the sharp words of my father. We’d done nothing but fight since I returned over a year ago. At the time, coming back to Italy had seemed like the right thing. Now, not so much.

Mom watched quietly as my father left the room. “He is worried. You could have been killed tonight.”

“But I wasn’t.”

She pursed her lips. “Lucas, you need to try harder to work things out with your father. He loves you but he doesn’t understand why you stay so far from your pack.”

“You know why I don’t go around the pack.”

She handed me a cup of water. “You are an adult now. Stephano forgave you years ago. It is time to let go of your deranged childhood notions and take your place in the pack.”

The ghosts of long-buried memories strained against walls that kept them confined in a rarely visited part of my mind. I’d worked hard to lock them away and now my mom was coaxing them to escape.

Thanks for being on my side, Mom.

“They weren’t notions.” I put the cup back onto the tray and watched her face. She didn’t believe me now any more than when I was ten years old.

“You were confused about your…your…desires.”

The walls quivered but the memories stayed inside. Even twenty years later her disregard for what had happened sent shockwaves through my stomach. How could a mother not believe her son?

“What happened had nothing to do with my desires.”

She crossed her arms. “Stephano has scars yet he has worked hard to remain a part of his pack.”

I had scars, too.

She crossed the room to the window. “Stephano could have asked the Alpha for your life, but he chose to forgive your indiscretions.”

“Just leave me alone, Mom. I don’t want to talk about this.”

Her shoulders heaved. “Your father deserves more from his son.” Tiny flickers of silver appeared in her eyes. “It is up to you to right the wrongs of the past with your father and your pack. Any other Alpha would have killed you for what happened, but Josef saw fit to let you live. You have no idea how trying that time was for him and the pack.”

She stormed out, leaving me with an even bigger headache. I should have kept my job with the Divine Council and stayed away from this place. Trying to rebuild the relationship with my father was not worth all this. It didn’t matter what I did. I was not my brother.

Tessa Del Vigglio burst through the door, practically knocking it from its hinges. The statuesque blond bombshell turned her wicked blue eyes in my direction.

“I thought you were working late and now I find out you were at that freak vampire’s house. What the hell is wrong with you?” she demanded, shaking a perfectly manicured red nail at my face.

“I’m doing fine, thanks for asking.”

“You’re an idiot. You were supposed to be with me, helping plan our mating ceremony. I’ve had it with you. My father is on his way to speak with the Alpha about your behavior. Do you have any idea how many wolves wanted me as their mate and your father declared I was chosen for you, to bear children for the future Alpha?” She threw her hands into the air in true drama queen fashion.

I gritted my teeth and looked out the barred window, so tired of this conversation. “I am not going to be the next Alpha.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Of course you aren’t. You don’t have the balls to lead and nobody would listen to you, anyway. I deserve so much better than a pathetic loser like you. If your father wasn’t the Alpha, I wouldn’t have given you a second glance and you would have been dead the day you returned to pack territory.”

And now that I had stepped foot back into pack territory, I was stuck. The son of an Alpha was not generally welcome in other pack territories. My mother had already lost one son and didn’t deserve to lose another.

“Tessa, we both know we are not mates, regardless of what my father may have said. If you wish to mate with another, I will gladly relinquish a challenge for you.”

She’d never looked at me with anything but disdain and money signs in her eyes. Now there were silver flecks in the icy blue depths. “You are too much of a coward to fight for the privilege of being with me.”

“Would you fight to be with me?”

She cackled. “I don’t have to fight for anyone.”

The bedside phone interrupted my “go to hell” response. Tessa snatched the receiver off its cradle and out of the grasp of my outstretched hand.

“Ciao,” she answered in feigned sweetness.

My werewolf ears picked up the voice of an American woman. “May I speak with Lucas, please?”

“Who is this?” Tessa snarled. The heavy scent of rage filled my room.

“Um, just a friend calling to make sure he’s all right.”

Tessa slammed the phone hard enough the bell cried.

I cursed and tried to grab the phone. My broken ribs voiced their disagreement and I fell back into the bed, gasping for breath.

“Who was that?” Tessa demanded.

“The most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. Her name is Breanna.”

All the color drained from her face. “You are a bastard. I wish you had died on that mountain road.”

“Sorry to disappoint you.”

Tessa threw the water pitcher across the room and slammed the door on the way out. My wolf rumbled. He’d always hated her.

With a lot of effort and discomfort, I managed to reach the phone.

My nurse, Anira, quietly entered the room and knelt to clean up the spilled water pitcher. “I’ll bring more water for you, Mr. Benelli. How are you feeling?”

“Better since she left.”

Anira laughed softly as she placed another pillow behind my head. “Are your stitches pulling? They may be ready to come out.” With my werewolf metabolism, even deep gashes like the one on my leg would heal within hours if properly attended.

“Whoever tied the tourniquet around your leg saved your life. When the femur broke, it ripped your femoral artery. With all the internal injuries you sustained and the blood loss from the artery, you would have bled to death before your body could heal itself.”

“Her name was Breanna.”

Anira looked over her shoulder at me. “The one in the helicopter?”

“Yes. I hoped she would come in.”

Anira snorted. “Of course she wouldn’t come in. She’s a witch.”

“So?”

“The Alpha would have killed her on sight. You know how everyone feels about witches.”

I folded the cover back so she could get to the sutures. “Not all witches are evil. The dark witches are, but the white witches are very peaceful.”

“She didn’t look or feel peaceful to me. We were all rather shocked someone like her was helping you.”

I barely felt anything as she removed the sutures. I asked if there was any way to track the number that had just called my room and Anira shook her head. “Sorry, the switchboard has no computer backup. However, you are in a cellphone-safe zone if you would like to use your own phone.”

After she checked my vitals, Anira fished my phone out of my jacket pocket. I stared at the scratched screen, ridiculously hoping Brenna would call. Even if she had managed to find this number, why would she call after what Tessa had done?

The phone came alive in my hand. Without thinking, I answered it. “Breanna?”

The familiar laugh of my best friend, Tristyn Ziccardi, came through loud and clear. “Sorry, buddy, it’s just me. I heard about a motorcycle wreck on the mountain road. You okay?”

I spent the next hour trying desperately to remember the details. What I remembered most was Breanna. Incredible amber eyes, beautiful auburn hair, the gentleness of her fingers along my face. She was an angel.

“How’s your mom?” Tristyn asked.

“She’s doing all right. Tired, but all right.”

“And your dad?”

“Humph, don’t ask.”

“How much did he yell?”

“Only a little. I’ll hear it tomorrow when I leave the hospital. He expects me to stay with them for a few days.”

“That’s a good idea, Luc. If you don’t really remember what happened, there could be a lot more going on than you know.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll call you when I get back home.”

“All right. I’ll do some checking and see what I can find about this witch you met.”

Sleeping with broken ribs and a broken leg was almost impossible. Anira tried her magic but my werewolf blood would have none of it. My body was healing itself and with that healing came pain.

Somehow I had to find Breanna. My wolf always bristled when anyone, werewolf or not, came near, but he craved her. We both did. I wanted to smell that intoxicating blend of strawberries and honey so uniquely Breanna.

She had been gentle and my wolf listened to her. Hell, he didn’t listen to me most of the time. For her, my wolf had settled.

I slid off the side of the bed and limped toward the adjoining bathroom. My ribs and leg were mending. My head still thumped, but now it felt like it was a small car rather than a train that hit me.

A soft rap at the door preceded a tentative, “Lucas?”

Vinnie Petrazzini’s blond head appeared around the corner. The subordinate wolf had stayed at my door all night. “A vamp came by last night asking about you.” Vinnie stuffed his hands deep into the pockets of his khaki pants.

“A vampire?”

Vinnie stared at the floor. “Dark hair, French accent, wearing camouflage.”

That didn’t sound like any vampires I knew. “Did he give his name or leave a number?”

Vinnie shook his head and chewed his bottom lip. My wolf stirred at the scent of apprehension.

“He asked if you were all right, if your injuries had been attended, and if you remembered what happened.”

I waited for him to continue but Vinnie was fascinated with the linoleum. “And what did you say to him?”

“Um, I told him you were doing well, your injuries were healing and you didn’t really remember what happened.” Vinnie looked around, shifting his weight foot to foot. “I probably shouldn’t have said anything.”

My wolf hated his meekness. “It’s all right,” I mumbled, limping toward the bathroom.

Vinnie slipped out the door without another word. He was the lowest ranking wolf in the pack and the only one my wolf didn’t want to kill just for breathing. A part of me wanted to be nice to Vinnie but nobody treated a subordinate wolf with respect and if I did, it would only confuse him.