Page 8 of Meeting Her Mate
“Lexie, where were you? Everyone here at the commune thought you’d done a runner,” Vince said.
“Vince, look who I found,” I said weakly, pointing a wavering finger at the unconscious man lying by my feet.
“Who is it?”
As Vince turned around Will’s unconscious body, he gasped and staggered.
“I can’t believe it,” he whispered.
“He looks just like in the pictures that Fred showed us, doesn’t he?” I asked.
“Lexie, how in the hell is he still alive?” Vincent had his hands on his head, the first signs of someone considerably freaking out.
“Vince, I’ll tell you everything, but first, you gotta take me to my home. Help me,” I said faintly. Now that the bursts of adrenaline had subsided, I could feel how much pain I was in and how much each muscle was strained—moving felt like an impossibility. My body refused to budge. My foot throbbed with agony. But lucky for me, Vincent was a man with great emotional intelligence. Rather than pester me about what had happened and what I was doing with the long-lost alpha of our pack, he simply hoisted Will’s body on his shoulder and assisted me in walking as we headed into the commune.
The commune was a collection of cottages and homes built around the commune center, where everyone gathered on the weekends for a bonfire and pack meeting. My house, luckily, was close enough to the entrance of the Grimm Abode. It was the house where my parents and I used to live before they died. Now, I lived here alone.
Vince kicked the door open. He took most of Will’s weight under him and took him to the bedroom beyond the lounge. Meanwhile, I sank into the sofa in the living room, my body’s weakness and pain prohibiting me from moving an inch further.
Vince came running back from the bedroom. He didn’t say much as he looked at me and then shot a look at the kitchen. He nodded as he ducked behind the shelf and reappeared with a bottle of whiskey and my first aid kit. He passed me the bottle, which I first used to sterilize the injury on my foot, then used to sterilize all the wild thoughts that were bouncing around in my brain.
“Let me fix you up,” Vince said.
“Vince, I can do it myself,” I protested.
“No. You let me do this while you explain yourself to me. We weren’t exactly very secretive as we came to your house. Someone’s bound to have seen us come in, and someone’s bound to have told my dad. He might be on his way right now. So, if you want me to cover for you, just give me the barebones of what happened,” Vince said.
I swallowed the remaining whiskey in the glass and watched as Vince patched me up with bandages and gauze from the kit.
“Promise you won’t tell a soul?” I asked once he was done.
“Scout’s honor,” he said, extending his pinkie. I coiled my pinkie around his and tugged, then smiled at him.
“I was trying to run away,” I whispered.
“In the middle of the night?!” Vince gasped.
“Shh, you idiot. Yes. In the middle of the night. Long story short, the vamps caught up to me, but I still managed to escape. As I’m about to leave the forest, I come across this guy…Will…just stepping out from behind a couple of trees as if he’s…I don’t know…out of a daze or something. So, yeah, I saved him, and here he is, lying on my bed. Oh, and here’s the absolute kicker. We freaking bonded with each other,” I said. I poured myself some more whiskey and downed it, letting it sedate me into a calmer state.
“What the…” Vincent’s mouth was gaping open and shut, and no words were coming out.
At that moment, before I had any more time to clarify the details of my adventure to a confounded Vince, the door of my home banged open.
There, standing with his face fuming and his muscles twitching, was Maurice Grimm, the pack alpha.
“You…” He growled at me. “Tell me, girl, what were you doing out at night beyond the hours of curfew?”
On ordinary occasions, my faculties tended to freeze whenever Maurice approached me. But today, I had just been through hell and worse, which lent me a false sense of courage, allowing me to stand up and face Maurice and say, “Let’s just say I was rescuing one of our own.”
“What?” Maurice snapped in confusion. “Speak no lies, girl. I can smell them off you.”
“Oh, that’s just whiskey, Maurice. And I’m not telling any lies. Here, let me show you,” I said, heading into my bedroom, where Will lay unconscious.
“Who is this hobo you’ve brought into the commune?” Maurice asked loudly as he prodded Will’s body and turned him around.
“You mean you can’t tell from looking at his face?” Vincent asked from behind.
“Quiet, boy. I’ll see to you later!” Maurice roared. “As for you, you’ll have to answer for your actions in front of the pack.”