39

A hard but warm pillow supported my head. Lucas held me on his lap, my cheek resting against his chest. Somehow, it didn't feel weird. The warm waves of calm that rolled off him and into me proved that he was trying to help me. His hand rubbed light circles of comfort on my back and it felt like heaven.

With a sigh, I wriggled out of his lap, not really wanting the moment to end. I took in my surroundings with my other senses, as the dark obscured everything. It was cold, damp and smelly. We were in some sort of cave.

Patting the floor around me, I found the remains of the zip-ties. Next I fumbled until I felt the warm, calloused skin of Lucas's hand. I was blind in here, so I was damn well going to stick close to him.

"Did they cut the ties?"

"No, we were still bound when I came round. I broke them."

So whoever had organised our abduction was happy to leave us bound and defenceless. It didn't surprise me. There was only one person I knew who worked with gargoyles – my father, Jonathan Device. And my welfare had never been his concern.

"How's your wound?" I asked, diverting my attention to somebody who was interested in keeping me safe.

"I heal fast."

"Okay..."

It was December, and the severe cold was infused with an evil damp that sunk into my bones, creating a paradoxical level of discomfort that entailed both aching and numbness. I was still wearing my ill-advised princess dress with Lucas's tux jacket draped over my shoulders. I started to shrug it off, it wasn't fair that Lucas suffered because I'd given in to an irrational need to dress like a frilly idiot.

"Get that back on," he said gruffly. "My body temperature runs hot. You really need to keep covered up right now."

"If you're sure?"

He didn't even bother to answer. My eyes had begun to adjust to the darkness now, and I caught a look that sent a different kind of heat flushing through my body. I pulled the jacket tight around me, adjusting the lapels so that it covered the exposed skin of my chest. Why did I have to choose such a low cut gown?

Dread filtered through me when my hand brushed over my skin. Where the hell was my pendant? Scrabbling around on the floor of the cave, Lucas's warm hand on my shoulder stilled my frantic movements.

"What is it, Alice?"

"Where is it? I need it. Oh God no," I muttered, jerking away from his hold. I was totally screwed if I couldn't find that pendant. He'd been ok so far, but who knew how long we were going to be stuck in this confined space. I could feel the fuzzy heat of his magic now, and I was damn sure that my life-force could feel it too.

My searching got more and more panicked, my fingers scrabbling through the loose dirt on the floor. When the grasp of a warm hand stilled my arm for the second time. I turned, certain that I'd be met with the grimace of a mind falling victim to my silver magic.

Instead, Lucas pulled me into his body again, encasing me in his reassuring embrace. For a moment, I stilled, worried that he was losing it. But that wasn't it. Lucas's warmth infiltrated every cell of my being, pushing out all the negative emotions that I'd come to associate with my unruly magic. My life-force purred in appreciation.

"What are you?"

Bright green eyes glowed in response. A low growl filled the space, making the air vibrate to its frequency.

"Wolf," Lucas said, "my pack will be tracking me."

My eyes widened as my tired brain tried to make sense of what he'd said. Sure, werewolf, why not? I should have expected it I suppose, it was only a matter of time. What would be next, fairies, dragons, what about unicorns?

"As in the animal, or the Hollywood horror idea of the hybrid man and wolf?"

Lucas snorted in response. "You'll just have to wait and see," he said, a grin lifting his full mouth into a quirky smile.

My stomach fluttered in response to his teasing. A totally inappropriate reaction when one learns that one's companion transforms into either a wild predatory animal or a monster in his free time.

Get a grip Alice, this was not the time to flirt.

"Ok, so do you have heightened senses, like a wolf? Can you sniff us a way out of this Godforsaken cave?"

"It doesn't quite work like that. I'd need to change to get a full impression of where we are, but I can tell you one thing. We ain't in no cave," Lucas broke off, as if hesitant to finish his thought.

"Come on Lucas, I promise I won't flip. Where are we?"

"The best I can tell, it's a crypt."

"What?"

Scrambling away from the wall, my hand brushed against smooth stone. Looking down, it took my eyes a moment to focus on the smooth white bone of a small skull.

My shrill scream bounced off the stone walls of the tiny room. Lucas covered his ears, a grimace twisting his face.

"And that's why I didn't tell you."

With his foot Lucas nudged the offending skull out of my line of sight and took my hand. Pulling me into his chest, and folding me up in his arms, he once again brought me down from the brink of a panic attack. It took only a few seconds for my heart rate to return to normal and my mind to focus on something other than being buried alive in someone else's grave.

"How do you do that?" I asked.

"What?"

"Make me feel warm and safe with a touch?"

"Just a little trick of the pack."

Lucas looked intensely pleased with himself about that. I was missing something.

"Go on," I said, cautious now that I knew he was keeping something from me.

"It means you've accepted me as your Alpha. That's how I'm able to calm you so easily."

My power purred within me as if in agreement to the statement. I couldn't deny that each time Lucas offered me physical comfort I immediately relaxed, despite the stressful circumstances and obvious danger. We were in a crypt for God's sake. And vampires really existed. That was not a good combination of circumstances.

And yet I felt safe. And cared for. Weird.

"Ok, so you're the Alpha. The pack will be frantic without you. Will they be able to find us?"

"Oh, I'm not the pack's Alpha. I'm the Beta. But they still should be able to track us, until the van at least. It should be enough. It'll tell them who took us." Lucas's voice turned into a growl at the end of the sentence, which didn't bode well for the culprit when they were finally caught.

"If you're the Beta, why do I recognise you as Alpha?" I asked, not quite ready to move on from that little snippet.

"Oh, well, I pushed my dominance when we were in the van so that I could offer you some comfort. I didn't know if it would work on a witch," Lucas explained, eyes shifting away from mine.

"Ok, but I felt the warmth and contentment in the library too."

"This is just a theory, Alice, don't get mad."

I motioned for him to go on, not promising anything.

"I think when we were drunk, I might have bound you to me."

Lucas tried to grab one of my hands to comfort me when my eyes went wide with surprise, I took a step back, not wanting to accept his warmth all of a sudden.

"It's never happened before, I didn't even do it consciously. Only the Alpha is supposed to be able to form a pack bond," he continued hurriedly, forgetting that I had no idea how all this pack business worked.

"You mean I'm in your pack now? What does that even entail?"

"Yes, I mean no, I don't have a pack. I'm part of one."

"Well, where does that leave me?"

Lucas offered me his hand again, a beseeching expression on his face. The urge to take it was overwhelming. My life-forced buzzed and hummed inside me, encouraging me to complete the connection.

When I finally grasped his hand a delicious warmth spread through me, starting where our skin met and rushing though my body. My life-force drank it in. It fed my power until my skin started to glow silver in that dark chamber.

Lucas gasped in surprise, but didn't break the connection. The silver slowly spread to him too until we both basked in the heat and contentment of our shared power.

Finally, I dropped his hand. The silver faded from Lucas's skin, to be replaced with a healthy glow of vitality. He bounced up and down a couple of times obviously enjoying the energized feeling that my power had given him.

"Wow," he said, amazement and something close to awe showing in his sparkling green eyes.

"I think we can safely say that I accept you as Alpha with everything I have."

Equally astounded that my power had taken a passive role, I decided to take it as a sign that this new development was a positive one. Something in me was looking forward to not being the centre of attention for once. I could leave that up to Lucas, my Alpha. I could follow his lead, and trust that he'd do his best for me.

Something deep inside me understood the truth of this. My heart eased at the acknowledgement.

Oh Alice! Surely it can't be that simple...

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