Atonement (#2 of the Spike pack)

what now?

Luke’s P.O.V.

My mind was all over the place. And I was standing smack in the middle of it, being torn and having no clue about what to do with myself here. On one side, I had this girl, whose name was Bree, who turned out to be my f*****g mate! s**t! I had another mate, a second chance at love here, and I had been lucky enough to even find her in this life. I didn’t know if I needed to start crying or call myself the luckiest asshole alive, but I had found her, my second chance mate! And on the other hand, my best friend, my brother, was hurt, badly. And I was f*****g torn, not knowing what to do. I wanted to stay with Bree, get to know her, talk to her, hold her, find out what had happened to her, to, every time I looked at her and saw those bruises on her, not to forget about the black eye she was carrying around, I wanted to flip out, go back to the f*****g haunted mansion and bring that mother f*****g Robert back to life, just so I could kill him all over again, for laying as much as a finger on what was mine. But deep down, I knew I needed to be with Jamie, I needed to know that he was OK, first. If I went with Bree and spent time with her, and something would happen to Jamie, I would never have been able to forgive myself. And that was a fact.

I looked next to me. We had just been flashed back to the pack house using magic. Within one second, we had used magic to travel for miles and miles, and while my body was still running on pure adrenaline, looking next to me, I saw that Bree’s was not, as she leaned over and puked all over the grass. My immediate reaction was to step over to her, gently take her hair and pull it back. And I couldn’t help but notice how pale she looked, how fragile she looked as she was leaning forward.

What the hell did that fucker do to her?

“LUKE!” I looked up, seeing that Lottie, who was like my baby sister, was standing at the front door. And as I looked up at her, I knew it right away, because her eyes said it all. Whatever it was with Jamie, it wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all.

“What?” I asked her, and once she started to cry, I knew enough. And so, I let go of Bree and stepped over to the front door. No, I fullout ran!

“Can you please keep an eye on her, until I’ve seen Jamie. She can’t run off. Alpha's orders.” I told Lottie, who nodded, her eyes looking red from crying. Her mate, Matt, came running and gave me this look. This 'sorry for your loss' look, which I hated to the core and made me want to punch it right off his very good-looking face. So, without even looking behind once again, I stormed inside the pack house, following Jamie’s scent, which was now combined with the scent of too much f*****g blood. I got drawn into the formal dining room, seeing how Alpha Ash was inside, speaking with one of the hybrids, Jamie was lying on top of the table, looking grey as a corpse. While Lana was holding his hand and trying her best to stay strong in this whole situation of pure madness.

“Can we take him to bed? Make him more comfortable?” Alpha Ash asked one of the hybrids, who nodded his head. It was a sign for me to start moving and help my brother out.

*Is he still alive?* I mind linked to my Alpha, knowing these were words I didn’t want to say out loud, especially around Lana, his mate. And I honestly didn’t know if I was even strong enough to say them out loud, it would make them real. This couldn’t be real. I could not be losing my brother here, not after everything that he had done to get to this point.

* Yes, for now. But the dagger was covered in wolfsbane. He has to heal on human strength and time* Ash linked back at me, a frown on his forehead. He hated this just as much as I did.

*s**t* I sighed, walking inside the room, as I would help to get my brother upstairs inside his room. Wolfsbane was a f*****g b***h and a poison for wolves. The one who did this, would better be hidden somewhere far away from me, by the time I would have gotten Jamie upstairs.

Once installed, all I could do was look down at my best friend, my brother. While I held on to Lana for support. s**t, if anything happened to him, if he would not make it out alive here, what the f**k were we going to do? I sighed, seeing how the door opened and Luna Addie walked inside, her eyes meeting mine. I could tell she had been crying as well, but she had found the strength to pull herself together again. We all knew we needed to be strong, for Jamie and Lana’s sakes. I nodded, as she gave me a small smile and went to sit down, letting me know that she wouldn’t let Lana alone for now. Her family would have her back. Always.

“I’ll be right back, OK?” I told Lana, who nodded her head, even though I wasn’t quite sure if she had even heard me, she seemed to be in shock. Her body was here, but her soul was not. She only had eyes for Jamie, who looked more like a corpse every passing minute. And with one comforting squeeze on her shoulder, I left the room, closing Jamie’s bedroom door right behind me to give the women and Jamie some privacy.

I walked down the stairs into the living room, meeting Lottie and Matt on the stairs on their way up.

“I’m sorry.” Lottie cried, and as I saw her, I panicked.

Where the hell is Bree?

“I really need to see him.” She told me, to which I nodded. Totally understanding what she was saying here, Jamie felt like a brother to her as well. If anything, we needed to be together right now. So, I just gave her a hug, as I looked at Matt, telling him with my eyes that he would better take care of Lottie tonight, or I would kick his ass in big-brother style. Before, I ran down the stairs and jumped straight into the living room, seeing that Bree was sitting on one of the sofas, while Ross, our chief warrior, was sitting next to her, holding his face in his hands in despair. They both weren’t saying a word, both just staring out in front of them. And I couldn’t help myself but to sigh out in relief as I ran my hands through my hair, looking at her. If Bree would have run away now, I would have seriously lost my s**t. I sighed again, seeing Ash walk into the living room as well. He looked troubled, as if he had just witnessed something that he hadn’t really wanted to see.

“You OK?” I asked him, seeing how he swallowed hard and nodded.

“The witch who did this to Jamie, she’s dead. I’m going up to tell Lana the news.” He sighed, and I sighed with him. Finally, feeling some sort of justice here.

Good riddance.

“We need to talk to the other girl. We need to know who she is, how she fits into all of this.” Ash spoke to me, and I swallowed, looking at my Alpha.

“Yeah, about her…” Ash looked at me.

“What, what do you know?” I sighed, running a hand over my face. I felt exhausted at this point. This day seemed to never end.

“I know that the second we ran into that place, that I sensed her. And when I saw her, it f*****g clicked inside of my head.” I whispered at my Alpha, whose eyes flew open as he looked at me.

“She’s your mate?” He asked me, looking shocked. And all I could do was nod back at him.

“Shit.” Ash sighed, now running his own hand through his hair as he kept looking at me.

“What do you know about her?” My Alpha asked me, to which I shrugged.

“I know that her name is Bree and that she has bruises on her body and a black eye, which makes me want to kill somebody right about now.” I admitted with a soft growl, seeing how Ash looked back at me.

“ OK, so let’s find out what her story is, just give me a few minutes to go up and tell Lana what happened.” Ash nodded, stepping past me and right towards the stairs, where he was back again after a good three minutes, making his way towards Bree, whose face filled up with fear, as soon as she saw the Alpha walking up to her.

“Ross, thank you for watching her, you can go to bed now. Bree, can we have a chat in private, please?” Ash asked her, to which she nodded her head at him, even though her eyes moved to look at me for help, and I couldn’t help but feel a lump in my throat as I looked back at her. She looked so freaking fragile right now, I just wanted to put her in a glass box to keep her safe. And at the same time, I wanted to throw myself at her. Her lips were plump and f*****g hypnotizing me. I wanted to kiss them, feel them, taste them. Even though before tonight, I never wanted to kiss anyone. I never even had the time to think about kissing Francesca when I knew that she was my true mate, because before I could have thought about that, she had already rejected me completely. And now here I was, contemplating every way I could possibly kiss Bree, while upstairs, my brother could have been dying right this second.

Shit.

You’re a real fucker, Luke…

Bree swallowed hard, as she slowly stood up from the sofa and followed Alpha Ash, as he led her towards his office down the hall. I didn’t even think twice, as I followed the both of them. And Ash just looked at me, before he nodded and let me inside his office as well, knowing damn well that I needed to be here to hear this. I needed to know exactly what the hell had happened here, and I needed to know every single detail. Alpha Ash waved at one of the chairs, and Bree hesitantly walked towards one and set herself down, her eyes looking from me, to Ash and back, as I noticed her pulling the sleeves of her sweater over her hands. Probably doing it because she was nervous, but still, it made her look f*****g adorable. But her eyes, those blueish grey eyes. They were big and though still filled with fear, it was probably the first time that I had ever been truly able to look at them, to really see them, and I felt how I was losing myself, just by looking at this girl. So, I clenched my jaw shut, before I would run over to her and pull her in my arms for real.

“So, Bree is your name?” Ash asked her, making her look away from me, which made me feel awkward and, for some unknown reason, angry. I had wanted her to keep looking at me.

“Yes.” She nodded, her voice sounding angelic, though soft like a whisper.

“And which pack did you come from?” Ash asked her.

“The Grey pack, sir.” I saw her swallow as she looked down at her sweater-covered hands.

“That’s the same pack where Robert came from, Alpha Trevor’s pack.” Ash spoke, giving me a quick look.

“Yes,” Bree sighed.

“And what was your role inside the Grey pack, Bree?” Ash asked her, seeing how she reached up to pull some strands of hair behind her ear, making me able to see her long, lean neck, where a spot of skin was calling out to me, as if it was a treasure map, and a part of it had a big red X marked on it. Waiting for me to dig in and find the treasure by marking her there.

“I am just a simple Omega, sir. I worked inside the pack house, helping with the highly ranked wolves’ laundry.” She answered Ash.

“Were you working for Robert inside that place where we were just now, or did Robert take you as a prisoner as well?” Bree swallowed hard, her mouth opened a few times, just to close up again, as if she was struggling to find the right words here.

“The last… the last one, sir.” She sighed. Her words came out all shaky.

“Do you know why Robert took you and not some other Omega?” Ash asked her, to which she nodded.

“Because I was his mate, sir.” And Ash looked up at me, as I felt how all the color left my cheeks.

Shit

This can’t be…

This can't be true!