Chapter 3

I was sleeping alone these days. Not that Alec and I had ever done anything more than just sleep. Frankly I was still a little freaked out about the idea of crossing that line. Most girls my age seemed to do that kind of stuff without a second thought, but it wasn't something I was eager to jump into. Still, I really did miss waking up next to Alec every morning.

Alison and Sam had stabilized Jack and then we'd headed back to the house. The three of them actually lived in one of the smaller dwellings scattered around the grounds, but Alison had been uncharacteristically firm and demanded that I let her accompany me all the way to my room.

It'd been looking like she was going to camp out on my floor until Alec showed back up to release her from the assignment to protect me. Luckily Rachel had shown up and shooed her off. A normal human like me, Rachel shouldn't have really had any standing in the pack. If it wasn't for the fact that Alec had invested her with a hefty chunk of his authority as alpha, she would have been a second-class citizen.

From what little bit I'd been able to tease out of the various members of the pack it was an unheard of measure for an alpha to take. It was a sign of both just how much Alec trusted her and how much he loved her. Not every brother would put himself that much in harm's way just to make his sister's life a little more bearable.

When Rachel had told Alison that she'd accept responsibility with Alec if something happened to me, it was enough to reassure Alison she could leave.

Rachel hadn't had much in the way of news. Apparently Jess's wounds were a lot worse even than I'd realized, and the rest of the pack was busy dealing with the fallout.

I'd thought about calling Alec for an update. I'd really wanted to hear his voice at least, but given the fact that he had been forced to shift without stripping down to the stretchy ha'bit they all wore, his phone was probably still up at the training ground. I should have thought to grab it before I left.

Rachel had tried to reassure me that everything would be okay, but she was too worn around the edges for it to be very believable. The tip-toeing, waiting-for-the-other-shoe-to-drop feeling hadn't just been impacting the shape shifters. It didn't help that she seemed to have caught some kind of bug. Nothing serious, just enough to deplete her energy levels.

It was actually a relief when she finally left. Pretending that we weren't worried, that everything was bound to be okay was surprisingly exhausting. I'd nibbled on some of the dry food Alec had packed for the picnic, finished up some of the homework I'd been procrastinating and then finally turned in a good three hours early.

With a solid night's sleep behind me, lonely though it had been, I felt quite a bit better. I hurried through my morning routine and sighed in relief when I found Alec waiting for me at the breakfast table.

He poured me a bowl of my favorite cold cereal and a tall glass of orange juice and then held my chair as I sat down. He'd been on a real 'Adri needs to eat' kick ever since I'd been injured.

"Is Jess going to be okay?"

"It looks that way. We'll have to keep her home for a day or two to avoid all kinds of questions at school, but she seems stable. Past the point of us having to worry she's going to lose control and attack Dom or Donovan."

I nodded in relief and then started in on my cereal. Alec would either tell me more or not. I'd pretty much learned that there was no point pestering him for more information.

"It's going to play havoc with everyone's schedule though. Isaac was scheduled for a couple of business trips over the next little bit. We're trying to sweep up as much of Brandon's financial empire as we can before the vultures start circling. A lot of his factors aren't particularly trustworthy. Once they stop getting instructions from the top we can probably convince them to sell off pieces at huge discounts. He's always relied mostly on fear to keep his people in line."

The sudden concern with cash was the last thing I'd expected out of Alec. "I thought we, I mean you, were pretty much set for life."

Alec nodded. "Donovan's got more assets under management than any eight people could conceivably spend in a lifetime as long as they exercised a modicum of restraint. It's not about that though. Half of the reason we were able to hold Brandon off as long as we did was the fact that we had considerably more economic clout than he did."

Alec finished peeling his orange and shrugged. "Standing off a more powerful opponent is all about making them understand that although they could kill you, they'd get hurt too badly in the process to make it worthwhile. If we can't do that physically, there's always the chance we can do it economically."

"So we're not really out of the woods yet then?"

"I'm afraid not."

After news like that I really didn't want to eat. We'd barely scraped through our last near-death situation, and we'd been a relatively tight-knit group then. How could we possibly survive another if we were eating at each other like this?

"I got confirmation last night. Your mom will be flying back into town soon."

"Great. It's like knowing I've got to go back to prison."

Alec's expression solidified into the mask he'd always used when dealing with Brandon. "Actually I think it would be a good idea for you to go home today after school. Given how things have been recently it would be safer for you there."

It was like being dunked in ice water. He continued on while I was still trying to come up with the right protest.

"Donovan had your house cleaned last week so you won't need to worry about that, but it'd probably be best if you were there for a couple of days to give it a more lived-in feel. I know that Rachel will want to spend some time over there if you'll have her. She's been chomping at the bit to exercise some of the freedom available her now that the threat of Brandon's pack isn't continually hanging over us."

I nodded, not because I was convinced, but because I knew fighting with him over something like this wasn't the way to go. Whoever had said that bit about picking your battles had probably been thinking of Alec when they'd said it.

"Will you come over too? Maybe stay the night?"

A trace of longing flashed across his face before the mask mostly settled back into place. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. Things are still too unsettled around here. I'd thought maybe they were cooling down a bit, but you saw what happened when we left on that picnic."

It was probably even true, but it wasn't the only reason. He was still fixated on that Ja'tell bond, still trying to do what he thought was the right thing.

**

The drive into school was more subdued than normal. Rachel even forwent her usual plea for Alec to put a better stereo system in her car. When our motorcade rolled into school it was to more of the furtive looks and hushed conversations I'd come to expect.

I kept telling myself that nobody our age was going to be able to keep the disappearance of nearly all of Brandon's pack at the forefront of their minds forever. It was hard to believe that with the police in the school every day though.

I'd been pulled in for questioning twice already. I'd stuck to the story Alec had outlined. We'd all been together roasting marshmallows around a campfire to finish out our Ashure Day celebration. I hated lying to the cops, to anyone really, but the police especially. Alec was right though, it wasn't like we could tell them the truth. Nobody would ever believe that Brandon had been an evil shape shifter out to kill Alec and enslave the rest of us.

The well-known rivalry between Alec and Brandon made us immediate suspects. If not for the fact that apparently the local judge and chief of police both owed Alec some pretty huge favors things probably would have gotten worse.

I'd expected Alison, Sam and Jack being with us to take some of the pressure off, but so far it hadn't helped. Still, Jasmin was right. As long as we all stuck to the same story eventually the police would have to close the case. Alec apparently had a whole team of very high-powered lawyers on his payroll and they'd already started making noises about police harassment.

Some of the pack members had swapped their classes around now that Rachel and I didn't need constant babysitting, but I still shared Biology with Alec. Mrs. Sorenson had seriously mellowed out in the last few weeks, so as long as we kept it down we pretty much had carte blanche.

Normally Alec used the time to tease more details out of me regarding my life before Sanctuary. He was just as attentive as ever, but I could tell there was something bothering him. My mom coming back? The escalating tension among the rest of the pack? I discarded a dozen different ideas on how to pull him out of his shell, and then class was over.

Alec gingerly hugged me, no skin on skin contact, as he dropped me off at English and then it was time to face Britney again. Actually it was all much less dramatic than that, but outside of the pack, Britney was my biggest concern.

She'd taken Brandon's disappearance incredibly hard. Not only had she liked him, apparently he or one of his pack had let slip that they were headed over to kick the crap out of us. Given the way her father had been poking at some of the inevitable anomalies that had surfaced lately, it seemed only a matter of time before he started believing her. Her history of lying to manipulate him had so far been working against her, but she showed no sign of backing down over her claims that Alec's friends had to be involved in Brandon's disappearance, and the uncharacteristic determination was bound to eventually convince him. He wasn't in law enforcement or anything, but he was pretty well-respected. So if he really started pushing, it was bound to cause more problems.

"Killed anyone lately, Adri?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

I should have just ignored her.

"Eventually the cops are going to come up with evidence that Alec won't be able to suppress. When they do I'll be first in line to testify against you. Brandon was twice the man Alec is."

"Look, Britney, I'm sorry that we had that falling out. I'm sorry that you're all alone now, but you need to understand that Brandon never loved you. He never even really liked you. He was using you, and whatever might have happened to send him away doesn't matter. What really matters is that you've got another chance to do something with your life instead of just sitting here and pining after him."

It was a long shot. I had no real way to know for sure she was addicted to him, but Alec wouldn't have gone on and on about the Ja'tell bond if it hadn't been real, hadn't been dangerous. Not every human who got entangled with a shape shifter was going to end up like his mom, but none of us really came away completely unscathed.

Britney stared at me for a moment and then the hate melted away into something else. It was like she was five again and I'd just taken away her brand new kitten.

"I'm not pining. I'll have you know I've started dating a guy from Reno. He's varsity football and his parents are as rich as Alec's mom."

The words were too practiced. She wrapped her arms around herself even as she said them.

I opened my mouth to respond but she opened her book and turned away from me.

I spent the rest of the class pretending to read The Count of Monte Cristo. It was actually a pretty interesting story so far, but my mind was too full of thoughts of Alec and Britney, strife and Ja'tell bonds.

When the bell finally released us, it was a relief to go to Algebra. Mrs. Campbell ran us through a new concept in record time and then released us to work on our assignment. Jasmin hadn't ever changed out of the class after Brandon's pack had been eliminated. We still weren't as close as Rachel and I, or even Dom and I, but it'd been a definite peace offering.

When one of the aides brought a note from the office and Mrs. Campbell left, Jasmin scooted her desk right over so we could whisper.

"Was that a crazy fight last night or what?"

"I guess. I mean I still don't really know what's normal."

Jasmin seemed to consider what she could get away with telling me and then shrugged. "It varies from pack to pack, but Jack must have a death wish or something. Isaac could rip him in half without breaking a sweat. Once we got back to the house, Alec had to all but sit on Isaac to keep Jack and Sam both alive for another day."

"Things were still tense after the fight then?"

"Yeah. Alec and James forced Isaac out of the house to keep him out of Donovan's way. Then while Donovan was trying to sew Jess up, her dad showed up."

"Oh, poor Andrew."

I'd always liked Jess' dad. I hadn't had much to do with him, but every time our paths had crossed he'd been the epitome of good breeding.

Jasmin snorted. "Poor Andrew nothing. It's us you should be feeling sorry for. He completely freaked out."

Confined as Andrew was to the wheelchair that provided his only source of mobility, it seemed hard to believe he'd been able to cause Jasmin much in the way of problems. Some of my disbelief must have shown through.

"He's all messed up from what Agony did to him, but if he's angry enough not to notice the pain when the scar tissue pulls, he's still dangerous. He took one look at Jess bleeding away on the operating table and shifted. I barely had time to knock him out of the way. I tried to back him down with a display of power, but I'm not in Alec's class so it got ugly."

That last sentence had just the barest trace of resentment. Jasmin hated not having control of her destiny, hated that she had to take second place not just to Alec but also occasionally to Isaac and James too.

I waited expectantly. I could generally draw more information out of Jasmin if I was patient. It was probably another form of peace offering.

"You have no idea how hard it is to restrain someone when we're…furry. I had to just grab a hold of his neck and hope I could hold on tight enough to control him without going too far and killing him."

The picture of Andrew lying on the floor bleeding while his daughter was doing the same above him on the table sent chills through me.

"Everyone's okay now though?"

"More or less. Jess is going to make a full recovery and Dom got Alec to us pretty quickly. Alec was able to force Andrew back down into his normal shape. Good thing too. When Donovan checked the old man he found all kinds of internal bleeding. Apparently the scar tissue pulls on his organs when he gets out of control like that. He could actually bleed himself out internally if he kept ignoring the pain."

It all fit with the kind of craziness I'd seen out of the pack before, but it just didn't make sense. "Why would he attack you guys when you were busy helping save Jess? It doesn't make any sense!"

Jasmin shrugged again. "You have to remember that our beasts don't think the way you and I do. To us it's ludicrous, but it's the same kind of thing that made Isaac attack James while Alec was helping calm Andrew down. By the time all was said and done last night everyone but Dom and Donovan were bleeding."

Jasmin slid her desk back to its normal place a split second before Mrs. Campbell came back through the door.

If there was one teacher you couldn't get away with talking during their class, it was her. I was halfway through another problem when Jasmin passed me her cellphone. There was a text from Alec on the screen.

Please let Adri know her mom is on a flight back to the U.S. She'll be home tomorrow.