Page 9 of Fighting For The Pack

“It’s me, Violet.” He smiled. “And I’m not alone.”

Her eyes, just as vibrant and green as I remembered them being, swept across the room until they settled on me.

I immediately dropped to her side and gently set my hand on her arm. “Mom, how are you feeling?” I asked. “What do you need? Are you in pain?”

She weakly pulled her hand free of Doc’s so she could wave my words away. “Shut up with all these questions,” she rasped. “And go and get me some damn water.”

I was shocked that the first words she said to me after such an ordeal would be a string of commands, but then I pressed my lips together to keep from smiling. I should have guessed as much. She was my mother after all.

“I’ll get some water, Violet,” Dom said. “You just sit tight.”

She sighed. “I don’t care who gets it as long as I can get something cool down my throat.”

As Dom left, she tried to sit up. Doc took one side and I took the other. He adjusted the pillows behind her and I helped her sit up. I glanced at him as he fluffed the pillows, and wondered again if this was his typical bedside manner. When he was finished, Mom eased back against the extra cushion with a long sigh. By the time we got her settled, Dom was returning with the water.

She took it from him and downed it in a few large gulps, water pouring from the sides of her mouth and soaking into her bandages. If she noticed, she didn’t care. When the water was gone, she held the glass for a few moments, staring into the mug. Suddenly, her hand tightened around the pottery tight enough that it cracked. She threw the mug across the room and it shattered against the wall.

The sound of it caused both Dom and I to jump. I no longer felt like smiling. Neither of us had seen her so pissed since the night the Kings raided our village.

“Violet,” Doc said, speaking quietly. “It’s alright.”

“It’s not,” she snapped. “Damn it all. Damn him. I’m an idiot for letting him get the jump on me. All I could do was sit there and watch as he took them.” Her voice cracked, and her eyes shined with tears. “I’m sorry, Damon. I shouldn’t have bitten your head off like that.”

He shook his head. “You don’t have to apologize to me or anyone, Violet. You’ve survived something awful.”

She took his hand again, squeezed it, and then looked at me. “Night, you better make sure that you get my girls back here safely. Because if you don’t, I can’t be held responsible for what I do.”

I nodded. “Of course, Mom. I’ll kill anyone who gets in my way.”

“That’s my boy.” She eased back against the pillows. “That’s my boy.”

“Violet, please,” Dom said, “tell us what happened. As much as you can remember.” His eyes took in her face, her wound, and her hands as they clenched and unclenched. “And take things slow. We don’t want you to give yourself a migraine.”

She sighed, her frown deepening as she forced herself to remember the events of the night. “Troy and two other male wolves kicked in my door. I confronted them to get them to leave, but obviously, I was useless when he bit me.”

My eye twitched. I loathed the idea that the fucker had touched her at all. “Do you remember anything else, Mom?”

She nodded. “I couldn’t move, but I was conscious. Through the pain, I heard everything that happened next. Tavi sprinted into the room, shouting something, but one of them slammed her to the ground. I think he hit her—”

A low growl filled the room, but it wasn’t from me. It was Dom. I watched him closely. I hated hearing this, too, but I wouldn’t have expected his reaction to Tavi’s pain to be so...impassioned.

Mom continued, “After that, Tavi was still. Bryn was standing on the stairs, and they started going after her. She shouted at them, tried to run, but one of those bastards grabbed her and dragged her down the stairs. She tried to fight them still, but Pax—” She cut herself off with a gasp. “How is he? What happened to him?”

I wasn’t sure. My chest throbbed with guilt for not asking after the pup who’d alerted me to Bryn and Tavi’s kidnapping in the first place, but as usual, Dom was on top of it.

“He’s fine—or, as fine as he could be given the circumstances.” His voice was tight and clipped, like he was speaking from the deepest part of himself, the part that still held some control. “He’s with his parents now.”

“Thank goodness,” Mom breathed.

“What happened after Pax?” I asked. “What happened to Bryn?”

She turned to me, her eyes large and bright green. “Troy used Pax to make Bryn agree to go with them. Not that he needed to make her agree. Shortly after that, I smelled something in the air—some drug—and I think they used that to knock Bryn and Tavi out.”

I bristled, seconds away from shifting. Bryn had once told me after we made love that Troy had convinced a pup to give her the spiked drink that led to her ending up tied up in his bedroom. It made me sick to my stomach that he would do that to her again—that she would have to suffer through it again when Troy was just going to drug her anyway.

“Night,” Mom said, pulling me from my thoughts. “I’m sorry, but Troy knows that Bryn is your mate. He would have smelled it on her the minute he stepped through my door.”

That was too much for me to hear.

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