Page 27 of Witchblood

No bacon. Dinner was roasted chicken with vegetables. Apparently Stacey and Leigh had taken over the kitchen, deciding to once again feed the pack. My lips ached as though Liam’s kiss had bruised them, and I felt like everyone was staring at me. Did they all know their alpha wanted a guy for a mate? Did they care? Maybe thewitchbornthing bothered them more. I’d heard of packs hunting downwitchbornand wiping them out. It wasn’t a sanctioned practice, but some packs took out vampires too.Apadidn’t regulate them so long as they kept off his radar and out of the news. Oberon dealt with the ones who didn’t.

“Kevin called,” Dylan said as he walked into the kitchen with the first tray of four roasted chickens. “He’s just about to town. He was hoping to make it by dinner.”

“Has the trip been eventful?” Liam inquired. He stood only a few steps behind me, staying in my bubble. It should have bothered me since it normally would, only I kind of liked his presence at my back.

“Nothing that he brought up.”

“Who’s Kevin?” I asked again.

“One of our submissive wolves,” Stacey answered absently as she prepared some sort of potato salad.

“One of your submissive wolves? How many submissive wolves are in the pack?” I asked. Submissives were rare in general among wolves as wolves were dominant by nature. Not as rare as omegas, but not much better. Most packs had one if they were lucky to have one at all. I’d never heard of a pack having more than one. Not evenApa’s pack.

“Four,” Leigh answered this time. “Liam has a hero complex. Rescues strays a lot.” Her eyes flicked over me. It wasn’t a disapproving look, more an unimpressed one. “Submissives usually spend a lot of time jumping from pack to pack until they find their mates. The ones who find their way here just stay.”

Four was a lot of submissives. Four submissives and an omega. Was Liam trying to set himself up like the Volkov? Dominant wolves surrounded submissives to protect them. It was their nature. Instinct. It also kept them from fighting amongst themselves as they had a duty to create a solid and safe home for the submissive wolves. Having four would draw more dominant wolves to the pack. Liam had said it was a growing pack. The Volkov’s pack was the largest in the country with over two hundred wolves, most of them mad as hatters in old English tales. Packs were usually fewer than fifty. Hard to hide a large pack in the modern world.

The more dominant wolves in one place, the more fights and death there was. Only no one in Liam’s pack seemed to be fighting. Except maybe Carl who happened to be missing from the dinner set up.

The sound of a truck pulling into the long drive interrupted the chatter. The mysterious Kevin, perhaps? Liam glanced my way only once before leaving the kitchen to head for the front door. The feeling of his warmth leaving me, made me shiver. I caught the glimpse of a giant Chevy pick-up truck from one of the front windows, but couldn’t see much about it until I followed Liam out the door.

The man getting out of the driver’s side of the truck was unfamiliar. He was ordinary looking enough, mid-twenties, with sandy brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. He dressed like a college student but stood stiff through the shoulder like a soldier. His submissive presence preceded him and distracted me so much that it took me a full minute to realize there had been someone in the passenger seat. This time it was someone I recognized.

The second man got out of the truck, a large black man with rows of beautiful half-bleached braids that flowed down to his shoulders. His skin wasn’t as dark as my grandfather’s, but only just. He was almost six foot five and broad through the shoulder, a big enough man to make anyone pause. His dark black eyes sought me out, but were wary. I’d know him anywhere since he’d been a big brother to me for years. Oberon. He was alsoApa’sfixer, cleaning up messes like me for years.

I must have made some noise because when I turned to run, Liam was already there, arm around my waist, pulling me against him. His heat surrounded me and sent the power pulsing through me again. Liam’s scent, body heat, and touch soothed the instinct to run. Calming me as an alpha should not be able to do. Not unless he really was my mate. Instead I clung to him trying to breathe. His presence just rolled over me like a wave of protection, home, and safety.

“You sure you didn’t mate me?” I grumbled, lost in the comfort of Liam. It wasn’t fair that his touch could unravel my sense of self preservation. Oberon could snap me in half without breaking a sweat. Running was a good idea, snuggling with Liam…

“Oberon is no threat.” Liam held me tight.

“I’m wounded, little brother. I have never offered you harm,” Oberon called. “And after all the work I did to bring home to you, I’d think you’d be more welcoming.”

My mind still screamed: Trust no one! While my body said: Liam is home, mate and fuck! But slowly the calm sank in. Liam overtaking my senses with his quiet strength. I’d heard alphas could do that sometimes. SeenApado it a time or two in his pack. He’d tried it on me more than once, but it never worked. Omega overruled alpha. I didn’t have to submit. But in Liam’s arms, Iwantedto.

It wasn’t fair or safe. Not even Liam could stand against the Volkov. And why would he? We barely knew each other. Just because some year ago trauma had called him to me didn’t mean we were mates. It didn’t mean Liam had to die for me. And he would die. I felt that like a knife in my gut. Oberon was bigger than Liam. More dominant? Oberon’s rank was somewhere just belowApa’s. Maybe one of the strongest wolves in the country. IfApahad ordered Oberon to end me, no one could stand in his way. I didn’t really want he and Liam to fight. Fights meant death, and I loved Oberon like a brother. Liam I barely knew, but wanted to bask in. The war of my emotions storming inside me, made it hard to breathe.

I had to close my eyes and just suck in air for a minute. Center myself. Even if I ran right this second, shifted to my fox and just bolted, Oberon could catch me. He wouldn’t need to shift. As big a man as he was, he could move. His intelligence and ease with money made people underestimate him. I’d seen him fight. I’d seen him kill alpha wolves who stepped out of line without hesitation. I thoughtApamight send Felix to kill me. I never thought he’d send Oberon. This hurt more. Was so much more overwhelming than I’d ever imagined the moment to be. A thousand scenarios I’d imagined, and not once had Oberon been the one to end me.

Liam turned me into his embrace so his arms encircled me completely. I was trembling. Freezing. Heart pounding in terror while ice poured through my veins. Liam whispered something. I had to work to hear him, fighting through the noise in my own head, my own stabbing voices, to hear his. “You’re safe. Breathe. I will protect you. Breathe. That’s right. In…one, two, three, four; out…one, two, three, four. Does your arm hurt? Breathe. You told me when someone means you harm, your arm hurts. Breathe.” Had I told him about the wards on my arm? I didn’t remember telling him. “You talk in your sleep,” Liam whispered. “Breathe. That’s good. Slow down your breathing. Focus on my voice and your breath. Much better.” I still struggled for breath, gasping for it in huge gulps, but I could work at making each one a conscious effort.

“Is this new?” Oberon asked. “These panic attacks?”

“I suspect it has something to do with his departure from your pack,” Dylan said as he took a couple of bags from Kevin. “Since he’s ours now, we’ll sort it out.”

“Watch it, pup,” Oberon growled at Dylan.

“I’ve seen you fight,” Dylan said. He dropped the bags just inside the door and came back out. “I know I can’t beat you. But death doesn’t scare me. Boss has declared the omega his. Even without them being mate-bonded the whole pack feels it. Not everyone will like it, but we will all defend what is ours. We’re not a large pack, but we are close. A family. He needs a family to help him heal. The Boss just has to convince him to stay. What you do to me won’t change that.”

“Not yours,” I grumbled into Liam’s chest, though the words felt like a lie. Liam’s chin rested on the top of my head. He’d practically wrapped himself around me, becoming a physical shield against my emotional monsters. At least I could breathe again, even if all I could smell was how fucking fantastic Liam’s natural scent was. I tried to mold my breathing to his, focusing on the movement of his chest against me. He didn’t respond to Oberon or Dylan, didn’t focus on anything but me. Counting breaths with me, while I tried to calm my racing heart.

“I’m going to move the trailer since we’ve got the pad set up. I’ll pull it around,” Dylan said. He must have been talking to Liam because he was close again. I had to work to pry myself away from Liam’s warmth. I felt him nod. The truck restarted, engine making that distinct Hemi sound. It was only after it started to move that I could see what was attached to it. A camping trailer. My camping trailer. There was no mistaking the silver bullet-like body, and technological upgrades I’d made. Hell, Oberon had helped program some of them. I’d remodeled the whole thing, adding a few windows, which hadn’t been in the original design, but it still looked like the 1960s era family vacation hauler on the outside.

I shoved away from Liam’s chest while still clinging to him just to be sure. I told myself it was just to push him at Oberon if Oberon decided to attack, but that was also a lie. If Liam went anywhere at that moment, I’d likely go with him.

“Is that my trailer?” Really, a dumb question since I didn’t know anyone else to have an ugly beast with modern additions like retractable awnings, solar panels, and satellite dishes.

Dylan pulled it off the drive and around toward the lavender field. Kevin walked past us, stopping only long enough to nod to Liam before disappearing into the house. Oberon kept his distance. “Your third assures me he knows how to set up the water and power connections,” Oberon said. “If not, I’m sure Sebastian does.”