An Alpha's Revenge

Heal

J

Sat beside her brother with her grandmother opposite her and Callie curled into a chair at the end of the bed, J was once more reminded how quickly everything could change.

One minute, she'd been surrounded by her loved ones and the next she'd been wrapping Callie in a blanket and escorting her into the medical centre with Leah and Kelsey at her side. They'd checked her over and although the alpha hadn't managed to hurt her too badly physically, mentally, the wounds would take time to heal.

J glanced at the young she-wolf and hated that she'd seen that kind of violence. J knew the toll it would take and the lasting impact it would have on her psyche. Maybe if J hadn't been distracted by Logan and by the baby, then maybe she would have dealt with that wolf differently.

Cassidy had survived an attempted forced mating. J had too. It took its toll each time but Callie was young. She hadn't, as far as they knew, experienced the kind of childhood that both Cassidy and J had. And even if she had, it didn't mean that she was prepared to face this violence, in a place where she should have been safe.

J scowled. She hated that Callie's moonmate's pack had been invited to the gathering - no one had known what the pack was called and so they hadn't realised that they'd invited the wolf into the hen house.

J hated that this had happened. That she'd let it happen.

She told herself that if this had happened a few years ago then she'd have hunted him down when he first tried to claim Callie as his and she'd have killed him too. She knew in her gut that part of that was true.

Historically, that's exactly what she'd have done. Because J was, as all the visiting packs around her whispered, a killing machine. Or, she had been.

Now she didn't know what she was. Beyond trying to hold onto all of the threads of her life and yet managing to let them all go anyway.

She felt new and different. She had done ever since she'd found Logan and got her wolf back. It was a new chance, a scar-free existence that gave her hope. And then now there was the cub, and more change was flooding her system as she adapted to the idea of being a parent. A mother. But how would she be able to protect her daughter if she couldn't even protect her pack?

Her life felt out of control and she felt like she was never in the right place at the right time.

For example, at this time right now, Leah was attempting to heal Logan. And instead of being by her mate's side, J was sat beside the prone body of her brother.

Trevor had tried to warn him but hadn't had the chance. Killing that alpha had made Caleb the new alpha. Only, unlike J, he didn't know how to refuse the pack link. She'd done so for as long as she could before eventually giving in to the Wild Mountains pack, as she'd renamed them. Caleb, however, was immediately hit with it, severing his tie to the Black Oath pack and making him the new alpha of the Magnum pack, as they'd since learnt it was called. And Callie, Callie had been Callie Magnum, the alpha's daughter.

Until she wasn't.

And now, Caleb was the alpha of the Magnum pack – the same pack that Callie was pathologically scared of.

J didn't know what was going to happen next. Sure, Caleb could try and find someone within the pack to accept the alpha position peacefully and avoid a challenge to the death, but it normally didn't make for a smooth transition – the alpha considered weak for not being able to win the leadership. The only reason that it had worked with Rayna and J was because Rayna had already practically been their leader.

J stared down at Caleb's sleeping form. He might find it easier to stay asleep because the world he was waking up into was going to look a little different. Beginning with the she-wolf he'd risked his life to save.

Because J knew in her soul that Callie would never rejoin the Magnum pack as sure as she knew that her brother was in love with the she-wolf.

In saving Callie's life, Caleb may have just lost her forever.

*

LOGAN

At this point, Logan had lost all hope of ever fully recovering.

Elenor had helped to lessen the dark clouds that hung over him on a permanent basis, but the chaos in his mind was still there. His wolf untameable as it rioted beneath his skin. And yes, he hadn't had a night terror but even his own mate hadn't trusted him enough to sleep beside him yet. Instead, he was left to take the main bedroom in the house while J slept downstairs with the rest of the pack.

It tore at him because he knew there was no other way.

And yet here he was, facing the possibility of another round of healing – only this time it was Leah and the rogue she called a man hovering over her shoulder glowering at Logan. This only worked to infuriate him further and push his wolf to fight harder against his restraints.

Subject-6, or Jack, or whatever the hells he liked to call himself these days, had helped Logan escape from captivity at a time when he was moments away from giving in. He'd saved his life but then proceeded to lay waste to innocent lives and nearly killed J. Yet now, despite all of that, he stood before Logan, mated and sane.

How, in all of this world, was that fair?

Two quick healing sessions and he's saved. Yet Logan felt like he was barely holding on.

So here he was. For his mate and for his cub, he would try again.

"Right, OK. So, if you could lie down Logan, I'll begin. Jack I'm going to need you to go outside, this isn't going to be pretty and you can't touch me while I work."

Jack went to protest but Leah levelled him with a gaze and to Logan's surprise he fell silent and left.

He eyed Leah warily as she walked around towards his head. "How do you do that?"

Leah, busy checking a book she'd been consulting for the last half an hour, glanced over at him before returning to the book. "Do what?"

"You control Jack, his wolf."

Leah paused thoughtfully. "I don't know. Not really. He submitted to me, I guess that's why."

Logan nodded, tucking the piece of information away for later. Perhaps if he submitted to J's wolf then that would help him...

Leah settled her hands on either side of Logan's head and began to chant. Logan took a deep breath and readied himself for whatever happened next.