The blood pack (book six)

Chapter eight

~Elliot~

I entered the church via the usual route, the window on the second floor. I was glad to be out of the jeep and have some distance between me and Jonny. We may have sat as far away as possible from each other at the dinner, but I still felt like that was too close. He was the kind of guy that got under my skin and, although that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, it was in this case.

With Jonny, I couldn’t be myself. I was literally hiding half of who I was, and if he was to find out, god knows how he would react. He may have done his own little recon on us, but I had also done mine on him. He wasn’t always part of the Blood pack, in fact, the Blood pack had only been up and running for a few years. I should have put two and two together when Diana originally told us which pack they were from, but it took an internet search at the library for me to realise Blood was just a shortened version of Moonblood. His alpha was the f*****g son of the lead lead alpha, the same lead alpha whos mate had been captured and tortured by the most famous witch, werewolf hybrid of all time.

If he found out who me and Julie were, he would have us off the shelter project so quick our heads would spin. At least at the moment, we were not on the witch or werewolf radar, given no one wanted to take responsibility for us, but that could quickly change. If they thought I would go quietly to some f*****g secret prison so they could deny my existance, seperate me from Julie, they had another thing coming.

No, Jonny and Paul had to be kept in the dark which meant that any confusing feelings that Julie and I had about them had to be locked away in a little vault until all this was over and they were out of our lives forever. It was the only way that I could keep her safe, the only way I could make sure that my own fragile heart would not be shattered. f**k, I even sound like a mushy love sick pup.

Prying open the window, I swung my leg onto the ledge, hoisting myself up, ignoring the angry growls coming from below me. Dominant wolves, can’t live with them, can’t express how much growling when you are doing splits in mid air is not the most helpful thing. Once inside, I quickly ran down the stairs, pulling away the barricade I had placed behind the door and undoing the locking spell before I yanked open the door.

Instead of Julie being there, smiling and waiting for me like she usually was, Jonny came barging into the room, almost knocking me into one of the old pews. “Get your stuff, you are coming with us.”

“What?” I hissed, catching myself before I fell on my ass.

“You really think that me and Paul will let the two of you stay in this place where you have to perform f*****g acrobatics to get in and out of the place while we work on the shelter, you have another thing coming.” Jonny growled, his eyes flashing to those of his wolf.

“If you think that after all this time I am going to let some dominant asshole make me and Julie go to some godforsaken pack, you have another thing coming.” I yelled back, poking my finger into his muscular chest, unsure if he even felt it underneath all those muscles.

“Get. Your. Stuff.” Jonny ordered, his dominance reigning down on me. f**k, it was hard to breath, my eyes begging for me to look down and submit, but I refused.

“You think commanding us to come with you is the best plan?” I gritted out, trying to keep the pain I felt locked up so he wouldn’t tell he had gotten to me, but failing slightly as a small whimper escaped me.

“Elliot!” Julie squealed, running over to my side. “Stop it! You’re hurting her!”

Jonny pulled back on his dominance, my lungs gasping for breath as I felt his grip on me recceed. My wolf lunged forward, seeing Jonny’s behaviour as a challenge, begging for me to swipe out at him but I managed to catch her just in time. “You should be careful little wolf, you would be no match for me in a real fight.” My wolf spoke through me, my teeth shifting slightly to snap at him.

“Elliot. Calm down. I’m here.” Julie whispered, trying to calm me down.

My eyes moved to her, my wolf feeling her familiar touch as she stroked down my back and relaxed slightly until I could pull her back deeper inside of me. I gave Julie a small smile, thanking her. “I think we can all agree it is not a good idea for us to go with you.” I breathed out, looking back to Jonny to see he had taken a small step back.

He smirked slightly, crossing his arms across his chest. “I still stand by what I said. I am not saying you need to join our pack, but we have empty cabins on our property that are warm and safe. It would be a place for the two of you to stay while we get the shelter up and running. It would make working together a lot easier.”

I could sense Julie wanted to go, she wanted to the moment Jonny mentioned it. I wish he would have spoken to me in private about this so I could tell him no and it would be done with. Now Julie knew and I could see hope on her face as she looked at me, her eyes wide as if begging me to say yes. This was not a good idea. One wrong move, one wrong word, Jonny digging a little deeper and starting to actually ask others about the strange wolf twins that were cast out and it wouldn’t take long for him to find out the truth.

But if I said no now, Julie would know that I was afraid, and if she knew that, she would soon be scared as well. “A trial.” I sighed, looking back to Jonny. “We will come with you on a trial basis. If we don’t like it or feel uncomfortable, then we leave, whether the shelter is up and running or not.”

I could see Jonny having an internal debate with himself before he finally gritted out. “Fine, get your stuff. I need to make a call.” And with that, he stormed back out of the small church.

“Are we really going?” Julie whispered, excitement lacing her every word.

“For now.” I nodded, watching as her whole face lit up.

“I’ll go and get our stuff.” She announced, skipping down the central aisle to the small set of stairs behind the pew and heading up to where we stayed.

I turned to Paul, noticing the small smile on his face. “You hurt her, and I will hurt you.” I warned, watching as his smile quickly fell, his head nodding as he looked down at the ground like he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. I didn’t know Paul or Jonny, which meant I did not trust them. Trust for me, was something that people earned, not something given away freely until it was broken.

As Jonny walked back inside, Julie came back down the stairs, her backpack on her back with her sleeping bag rolled up on the top, carrying mine in her arms. I walked over, taking it from her as Jonny looked between us. “Is that everything?”

“Yep.” I shrugged, not liking how many mundane questions he was asking. Again, his jaw tightened, a nerve that was working overtime today twitching slightly as he signaled for us to follow him out.

Waiting for the others to walk out first, I followed, placing my pack outside the door before heading back in, sealing the door and blocking it before walking back up the stairs. Oh I knew this would piss Jonny off more, but me and Julie needed a safe place to return to if and when things didn’t work out at his pack. I was not about to leave it open for just anyone to set up here.

As I deftly held onto the window frame while I closed it before jumping down, sticking the landing with a flourish which made Julie giggle, Jonny looked ready to explode. His eyes flashed wolf again, my own staring back at him, daring him to comment, ready to rip his head off once more. Instead, he settled for grabbing my pack, throwing it a little harder than what was necessary into the trunk before getting into the driver’s seat and slamming the door. It was a good thing I had nothing fragile in there!

We all got back inside, my eyes glued outside the window as we set off, memorising every twist and turn we took. Going to a pack’s territory was like taking a look inside their soul. Every pack was different, but their territory said a lot about what they were like as wolves. Some lived in houses, blending in with human society, others in caves and caverns, closer to their animal side.

The hustle and bustle of the town slowly faded away, the trees around us becoming thicker as we seemed to be driving into the middle of nowhere. Jonny turned off the main road, the jeep making good use of the suspension as it jostled from side to side until we came to a stop outside a metal gate. Jonny rolled down his window, the cold air making me shudder slightly as it quickly ate up the heat inside the jeep.

A male wolf, a little smaller than Jonny, came out of a small booth, opening the gate slightly before approaching. “Is this them?” He smiled, looking friendly enough as he looked at me and Julie in the back seat. “Welcome.” I gave a small nod, Julie waving slightly at the wolf before he walked back through the gate and back into the booth, opening the gate fully for us to continue on our way.

I could feel Julie begin to panic beside me as the gate closed behind us, sealing us in. I reached out and took her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. No metal fence would keep us locked in if we didn’t want it to, and even though Julie knew this, I could still feel her confidence in coming here start to slip away.

My own confidence, well, I wasn’t sure how I felt. My eyes stayed fixed outside the window as we started to move again, taking in the sight of the trees around us, the fallen leaves frozen on the ground. To one side, I could see a small lake, a deck made up at the side with a few covered pieces of furniture which they probably used in the summer. Further back, I could make out through the trees a few small wooden structures which I guessed were the cabins that Jonny told us about.

As we came to a stop, I looked through the windscreen, seeing a three story cabin in front of us that looked more like a mansion. The bottom floor was stone, with wood making up the top two floors. There was a small porch out front, three other jeeps parked up in the makeshift car park as well as two cars that looked out of place, like they had seen better days.

My eyes snapped back to the front door of the pack house as it opened, two wolves stepping out. I could tell straight away the male was an alpha, his mate at his side although small, giving off the same aura of authority and domiance. I gave Julie’s hand another squeeze before letting it go, pulling open as all of us got out and walked up to the power couple.