Pawn Among Wolves Ch. 16

A shot of fear laced down her spine as she realised what made him tremble so.

What had contained him, banked the raging fire since she had 'died', had been his misery. Loneliness; despair; loss. And the faint breath of uncertainty: Mac had still, impossibly, hoped.

But now he was holding her; he was holding his picchu. He had got her back.

The burn to protect her was beyond her compass, but she felt it against every pore of her skin. The fire exploded when he feared he could not protect her. Feared losing her again. He couldn't hold it. Didn't want to. The pain was too great - the urge to kill too wild.

And -- he was too powerful. No-one else could hold him back now, either.

Except you, Mac nudged her softly with his reply.

Fealden has a theory, he continued idly. That an Alpha is condemned to love a human only when his people desperately need a Wolflord. The pain of her loss means that he does not care that his mind is being ripped apart by the demands placed on it; he is already partially insane.

Keeping her eyes closed, Gemma kissed his neck softly. The simmer within him was already subsiding, calmed by the humour rising in his thoughts.

I wonder what happens to said Wolflord when it turns out that his inordinately stubborn wereem-songmate actually isn't dead?

She was stubborn?

Well, for a start, she asks him to give some of those packs back to other Alphas, so that his mind can rest and begin to heal, Gemma returned. Sensing something in the air, she opened her eyes, and saw with incredulity that Mac was actually extending his hand toward the supplicating damn ex-Faulk. She nipped his neck sharply, fear jolting through her. She could now feel just how over-extended he was. Don't accept more wolves!

We're at war, my picchu. I will rest when-.

Both of their heads shot up as a noise of heavy furniture screeching across a floor suddenly burst the quiet, echoing down from the open doorway at the back of the auditorium balcony just above them. None of their Gems were in there: so what had caused that noise?

Mac's eyes suddenly crossed, Gemma heard an echo of a cry in his mind, and she was dropped back to her feet. Mac muttered, "Tasha," and set off bounding four at a time up the stairs, yelling, Guard her, back at her own damn pack.

For a second she just stared after him, incredulous, then Gemma sprinted in her mate's wake.