More Than Just a Fairy Tale Ch. 12

"Yeah, the confirmed bachelor finally gets tripped," said Luc from the table.

"Watch it buster, or she'll give you back to that bear," said Ginny teasing him.

"You know, that would save on meat," said Meg.

"Noooo! Not da beaw! He gets a tummyake if he et Unky Woffy Luc," said Sara with a smile.

That made everyone laugh. Five minutes later, Ginny had the kids packed up and in the car for the trip home. Meg and Luc stood in the door and waved goodbye.

*

Meg wrapped her arm around Luc as they headed back into the house. He had put on a good show when Ginny and the kids were leaving. He slumped against her once they were out of sight.

"Meg, this being wiped out after ten minutes on my feet sucks," he said.

"I noticed. Let's get you back to bed," she said. "Then I'll show you what I bought."

"Okay, and can I have a cup of tea? I'll share the last of the peanut butter cookies with you," he promised.

"Sounds good, but get in that bed," she said as she headed to the kitchen.

Luc got into bed and tried to adjust the pillows. He leaned back only to have the bed erupt in 'baaaa, Beeeh, baaa, Beeeh' noises as he squished the sheep that Sara and Joe had brought him. He started to giggle.

Meg could hear the noise in the kitchen and giggled. That sheep was a riot. She was looking forward to when he shifted again and the wolf got to play with that toy. She got the tea ready and headed for the bedroom. She handed Luc his tea, set her own down on the nightstand and went to get her bags. Ginny had hidden them when they came in the house earlier.

"Hell, I thought you bought out the town with the groceries. I didn't see those bags," he said as Meg sat down on the bed.

"You weren't meant to see them," she said. She reached into the first bag and pulled out the teeshirt that Ginny had bought him. "Here is your prezzie, as Sara would say," she said and handed it to him.

Luc took it and read the front. "Never moon a werewolf?" he said.

Meg smiled. "You should have seen the one she got."

"Oh, what did it say?" he asked.

"It said, Forget Princess, I want to be a werewolf!" she said. Reaching into the bag again, she pulled out her shirt. "And I got this one," she said showing him the shirt that said, 'I date werewolves'.

Luc started laughing. He fell to one side and the bed started to 'baaaa, Beeeeh, baaa, Beeeeh' again. That started both of them laughing.

Once Meg caught her breath, she then pulled out the silk nightie in the style of a flannel shirt.

"Hmm... I look forward to seeing that on you," he said.

"Well, what about these?" she said and held up the three bra and pantie sets.

"Damn woman, you're going to kill me before I get a chance to heal," he gasped.

Meg laughed and noticed that her little show and tell had given him an erection. "I'm glad you approve of my selections," she said as she tossed them across his lap.

"You are so mean," he said.

"Well, I got some boring stuff too. Jeans, and a flannel shirt for you and some other bits and pieces," she said as she took stuff out of the bags and dropped them on the bed.

Luc looked at all the stuff and wondered how she and Ginny had managed to do so much in the three or four hours of shopping. "Wow," is all he could say.

"I did get one other thing," she said softly.

"Oh?" he asked. " Wonder what she's being hesitant about," he thought.

"Yes, I got something you might like," she said and pulled the tissue wrapped box out of the last bag.

Luc looked at the package and he took it from her hand. It was heavy. "May I?" he asked.

Meg nodded.

Luc unwrapped it and when he saw the box, he knew what was inside. He opened the box and blinked when he saw the clasp at the end of the chain. He picked it up and it flowed like water in his hand.

"Meg, you didn't ..." he started.

"Yes, I did. I looked at all the boring ones and then Andrew showed us that chain. Then he showed us the buckle he made just for you to go on the end of it. He's the one who silvered the claw too," she said.

"I love you," he said. "You really must have impressed Andrew. Otherwise, he'd never have shared one of his creations with you"

"That's what Ginny said. He even did some sort of blessing when I paid for it," she said.

"Wow, I guess we better invite him to dinner when we plan things out," said Luc.

"Definitely. Ginny wouldn't settle for anything less than a dinner party," said Meg. She took the chain from him and put it around his neck. It lay across the scar and down onto his chest. Then she kissed him.

Luc wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. Slowly they fell to the side. The pillows under them began to make a very familiar 'baaaaa...Beeeeh, baaaa.... Beeeeh' sound. To say that it broke the mood was an understatement. Both of them giggled as they untangled their arms and sat back up.

"I am putting the sheep on the dresser," said Meg.

"Thanks. I know the kids were trying to be kind, but the whole 'baaa, beeeh' thing gets old after a while," said Luc.

Meg nodded. After she put the sheep on the dresser, she gathered the new clothes up and put them in the laundry. Then she came back and sat on the bed. Her tea had gotten cold, but she drank it.

"You tired enough to want to go to sleep?" she asked.

"I was thinking a movie would be nice," he said. "Sex would be wonderful, especially in that little nightie, but I just hurt too damn much," he thought.

"How about Ironman 2?" she asked.

"That would be great, but we don't have it," said Luc.

"Yes we do. I got a copy today," she said as she pulled it out of the last bag.

"What's taking you so long to load the movie then," he said with a smile.

Meg laughed and shredded the shrink wrap and then got the movie into the DVD player. She grabbed the remote control and crawled into bed next to Luc. As she leaned back, she paused for a moment. When the pillows didn't baaa, she settled down and turned on the movie.

*

Friday rolled around and Luc was getting restless. He had almost full range of motion and was down to aspirin for pain. The only thing he hadn't done was shift. Jeff had told him he had to stay home until he could shift. He'd tried, but the pain kept him from being able to shift. "Dammit!"

Pacing up and down the living room, he waited for Meg to get back from work. She had gone into work on Wednesday. Ginny said she needed the help and Meg had a client to visit this morning. He heard a car pull up and looked out the window. It was Kevin. "What the hell is he doing here?" Luc wondered as he opened the door.

"Hi Kevin," said Luc.

"Sorry to bother you Luc, I know you're suppose to be resting, but..." was as far as he got.

"Come inside before you tell me your woes. I think I will need to sit down for this," Luc said. The two of them sat down in the living room. Kevin pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. It was a list.

"Luc, Duke is driving everyone crazy. He's contradicting things you have set up, fought with Ginny, pissed most of us off, and today he started hollering at Meg," Kevin said. He hadn't wanted to mention the last bit, but knew he needed to do so.

"What the hell has crawled up his ass?" asked Luc, trying not to growl. His neck started to pull as he tensed.

"Not certain, but I think he decided that if you hadn't started dating Meg, you wouldn't have gotten mauled by the bear and therefore Alpha Wolf Tech wouldn't be in chaos right now," Kevin said. "This is a list of the stuff he's been saying or doing that is pissing the rest of us right off." Kevin handed the list over to Luc.

Luc took the list and read it. He nodded over some of it, like he expected it while other bits made him growl under his breath. "I take it that Duke is transferring all of his anger about Penny onto Meg," he said quietly.

"Yes. Ginny ripped him about it today. When Meg showed up, he went off on her and while she stood up well to it, we got in there as fast as we could. He was beginning to shift and Ginny hit him in the ear with the canned air," said Kevin.

"Canned air in his ear?" asked Luc trying to figure out how that would stop Duke.

"Yeah, believe me, she's deadly with that damn stuff. Blasted him right in the ear canal and nearly gave him frostbite. Couldn't hear out of it for over an hour," said Kevin.

"Hmm,... I'll have to remember that for later," said Luc.

"Once Ginny got his attention, she hauled him out of the office, took his keys and told him to go pick a fight somewhere else far away from work, town and even the county," said Kevin.

"So why are you here if Ginny took care of him?" asked Luc.

"We both figured that Duke would show up here. We wanted you to have both sides of the story, knowing full well that Duke wouldn't provide it. Plus, the last thing I wanted him to do was ambush Meg after work. You're in no fit shape to protect her. Ginny said you haven't shifted again yet, so I decided to take first watch," Kevin said.

"When is Meg due home?" asked Luc looking up at the clock.

"Ginny was going to keep her there until I had time to come talk to you," answered Kevin. "Peter from the warehouse was going to follow her home."

"Okay, I'm not happy about this," said Luc.

"I knew you wouldn't be, which is another reason I'm here," said Kevin.

"You are about the most neutral shifter at work, aren't you," said Luc.

"Yeah... me, the beta," Kevin said with a bit of disdain.

"Hey, not everyone can be an alpha," said Luc. "Hell, I'm glad I don't have to deal with issues at work, because you are there. You're dominant enough when needed, and I appreciate that too," said Luc.

Kevin just sighed and fell back against the couch cushion. He wasn't sure which he hated most, politics or pack issues. Either way, they drove him crazy. His cell phone chirped. Opening his phone, he read the text message, replied and sent it. "Ginny just asked if we'd had time to talk. I told her we had and she's sending Meg home," he said.

"Okay, I think I'm going to get dressed. If this is headed where I think it is, there are going to be too many people here to be sitting around in my sleep pants," said Luc.

"I agree. I had hoped we'd avoid this, but Duke is such a loose cannon lately," said Kevin.

"Be honest, when hasn't he been a loose cannon?" asked Luc.

"When he was actually in bed with Penny screwing like coyotes?" said Kevin.

Luc smiled, nodded and headed for the bedroom. He got dressed slowly and carefully. Duke was being a right pain. While very beta when all was well and right in accordance to his universe, Duke tried to be an alpha in all the wrong ways when things were chaotic. Like now. That list Kevin had brought wasn't bad. For the most part, the bits that Duke was complaining about were things he never dealt with in any way shape or form. The unfamiliarity with the business was Duke's downfall. Duke didn't know that Ginny handled all the dispatching as well as ran the front office. Nor did he understand that Peter ran the warehouse and Kevin managed shipping and receiving with Peter. Somehow, Duke had gotten it in his head that Luc did all of this, and that the interplay of people was in fact chaotic. Luc knew from the IM chats and other bits of information from Ginny that things were really rather quiet. The only real chaos was Duke interfering.

Luc walked back out into the living room to find Kevin watching out the front windows. He walked up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"How soon until Meg should be here?" Luc asked.

"In a few minutes. I figure that if Duke was heading this way, he'd get here early," said Kevin.

"I agree. At least I don't have too many shrubs or trees to hide behind," said Luc as they stood there waiting.

"No, that is a good thing. No parking garage either. Is that her car pulling up?" Kevin asked.

"Yes," said Luc as he looked out. "I'm going to go out to meet her. This way the door will be open and you can be ready too."

"Okay, I'm not exactly comfortable with this, but it will work," said Kevin.

Luc nodded and slowly walked out to meet the Neon as it pulled up in the drive way. He waved at Meg, and she waved back. Looking around, he didn't see anything. So far, so good.

Meg was curious as to why Luc was outside. She was about to ask him why when he opened the door.

"Meg, come into the house as quickly as possible," he said quietly. There was a sub-vocal quality to his voice that Meg noted.

"Okay Luc. Let me grab my bag and we will get inside and you can explain this," she said. She reached over and grabbed her laptop bag and stood up out of the car. She heard a noise behind her and tried to turn.

"Watch out!" Kevin hollered from the doorway. He was out and moving as fast as he could towards the car.

Meg felt the car slammed into her and the scrape of claws on metal. Then she felt Luc shove her back inside the Neon and slam the door. The top of her car started to cave in with the weight of whatever had attacked them. There was a thump, and then what looked like a large dog slid off the side of her neon. Watching from the inside, she saw Kevin tackle the sandy colored animal. Meg realized a second later that it was a wolf. Kevin didn't shift, but he and the wolf were locked in battle. The wolf grabbed at his ribs and bit. Kevin grabbed the wolf by the ears with one hand and thumped it around the snout and jaws with the other. The wolf let go and went for Kevin's hand that hit him. Kevin delivered another punch to the wolf's skull right between the eyes. The wolf was stunned for a moment and then lunged for Kevin's throat. Kevin blocked the attack with his fist. By this time the wolf was trying to squirm away from the hold Kevin had around it's middle. Peter from work appeared from the other side and waded into the fight.

Meg looked to where Luc had been a minute ago and saw his body pressed up against the door. "Good! At least he has the brains to stay out of this fight!" she thought. Looking back at the fight, she saw Peter pull a thick baton from his back pocket and hit the wolf. The wolf went limp, and collapsed on top of Kevin.

"Stay put," said Luc as he walked away from the car door towards the limp form of the wolf and the two men. She didn't move.

Luc helped Peter heave the wolf off of Kevin. There were some bites and his shirt was torn, but he didn't look too bad. Peter grabbed the wolf by the scruff of the neck and started dragging him to the back of the house. Luc helped Kevin to the door of the house and then came to get Meg. He opened the door and held out a scuffed and bloodied hand to Meg. She took it and they moved quickly into the house.

"Who in the hell was that?" she asked once they were inside and the door was closed. She was shaking with adrenaline and noticed that Luc was going very pale. "Luc, sit down," she said, all concern transferred to him.

"I'll be okay. Go see to Kevin. He's in the bathroom," he said as he reached for his phone.

Meg nodded and headed to the bathroom. When she got there, Kevin had the remains of his shirt off and was trying to mop up the blood with a wet washrag.

"Here, let me help," she said. He nodded and she took the washrag from him and started to clean up the deep gash on his side. The teeth grazed over the ribs before biting into the softer flesh near his stomach. It wasn't bad, just bloody. She rinsed the washrag and repeated the process over his other scrapes and bites. His hands and arms were covered in scratches and teethmarks.

"Ow!" hissed Kevin as she worked on one deep bite.

"Sorry," said Meg and tried to be more gentle. There was a flap of skin that tore and no way to clean it gently. It was just an ugly bite. She finished and looked into the medicine cabinet. Nothing. Then she remembered, the box under the sink. Meg pulled Luc's first aide kit out from under the sink and found what she needed. She remembered how fast they healed, but still, some of those bite marks were going to hurt for a few days.

"I've got the antiseptic to put on these bites and then I'll bandage the bigger ones," Meg said to Kevin.

"Fine," hissed Kevin. "Just hurry up and finish before I loose any more blood."

"Hey, I got most the bleeding stopped," she said. "Besides, once I get you cleaned up, I have Luc and Peter to see to."

"Shit, " Kevin said with an intake of breath as the antiseptic cream stung. "Didn't think Luc got hurt," he said through clenched teeth.

"He hurt his hand from what I could tell. Don't know if he caught it in the door or what," Meg said as she wiped her hands off and started to apply bandages. She tried to be gentle, but knew that it hurt Kevin. "Who attacked?" she asked.

"That was Duke," Kevin said as he watched Meg wrap his ribs with sport tape over the bandages. He winced as she snugged it up. "Careful, I think I cracked a rib or two."

"Probably, considering the way you landed and rolled about," said Meg. She stood up having finished with the sports tape. Kevin looked a bit chagrined with bright pink sports tape wrapped around his ribs. She smiled. "Now let's see how the others are and I want some explanations," she said walking out with a fresh washrag and the first aide kit.

They found Luc and Peter in the living room. Duke was nowhere to be seen, so Meg figured that he must be locked up somewhere out of sight. At this point, she really didn't care. Peter was cradling his hand and an arm. She didn't see any gaping wound, but she knelt beside him first. She knew that if Luc was badly hurt, Peter would have said something.

"Okay, what's wrong?" she asked Peter.

"I think I dislocated my shoulder when I threw Duke in the cage," he said. His voice was thready with pain. "He woke up and got aggressive," he gasped.

"Um, I don't know how to put a shoulder back in," Meg said. "Should we call Jeff?"

"Already have," said Luc. "He's on his way as well as Ginny and about half the family," he finished. Luc didn't sound happy.

"And how is your hand?" Meg asked.

"Just scratched from punching Duke in the nose," Luc said and held up his hand. It was already scabbing over.

Meg nodded and wiped at it with the washrag since there was nothing she could do for Peter. When she was done, she took the kit back to the bathroom. She heard the door open as she turned back to the living room. Jeff walked in followed by a few people she didn't know. Ginny was the last one in and closed the door. Jeff went straight to Peter and started working on his shoulder. Ginny walked over to where Kevin and Luc were sitting.

"Where is he?" she asked.

"On the back porch," said Luc. He pointed towards the back of the house even though he knew she was familiar with the house.

Ginny nodded and two of the men followed her. As she got close to Meg, she stopped. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Meg nodded. "Just confused and coming down off the adrenaline rush," she said.

"Get some food for you and the guys. I'll start some coffee when I'm done with numb nuts," she said with sub-vocals coloring her tone. Ginny was pissed.

Meg nodded and proceeded to grab crackers, and cookies out of the cupboard. She went into the living room and handed out snacks. Kevin took a handful of crackers and Luc snagged a couple of maple cookies. She put the rest down on the table and then went to answer the door. There were more people at the door that she didn't know.

"Hello?" she said looking at a tall man.

"Hi, I'm Sandy. You must be Luc's mate," he said and held out his hand.

"Yes, I am," said Meg still confused.

"My son here will answer the door for you," he said before she could say anything. A smaller version of Sandy stepped in behind him and smiled up at Meg. "Let's go see Luc," Sandy said and prompted Meg to head into the living room.

Meg went in and sat down next to Luc. Sandy followed, said hello and then seated himself next to Peter who had his arm wrapped mummy style against his chest. Jeff was checking her handy work on Kevin in another corner of the room.