The Vampire and the Goth Ch. 17

I could see Jadwiga drop her head and start to cry. Carlos put his arm around her and pulled her into his chest to comfort her.

"But the vampire you invited in did hurt someone else, didn't he, Michelle? He tried to take a female vampire against her will. And he tried to hurt you, didn't he?" Patrick gently asked.

Michelle began to sob in earnest now. She was unable to speak, but she nodded.

Then, Patrick gently said, "And Laura isn't your mate. Her mate is Skye, one of the wolves who attacked the vampire you invited into your house."

Michelle picked her face up. "What?" Then she looked over at Laura. "Is that true?"

Laura looked at her and said, in a clear, steady voice, "It's true. Skye is my mate."

Michelle let out a strangled cry and stood up. Reaching behind her, she pulled out a gun from the back of her jeans.

There were a lot of things that happened at once -- Skye knocked Laura over and shielded her body, Ben yelled at his sister to stop, Caleb ran toward Michelle, and David and I put ourselves in front of Elizabeth. We were all expecting Michelle to shoot either Laura or Skye, but instead, she put the gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger.

The sound of a gunshot, even outside, is painfully loud, especially when the listeners are people who have extremely sensitive hearing, like werewolves and vampires. The crowd was momentarily frozen in place.

Caleb was the first one to reach Michelle's body, kneeling over her and screaming her name repeatedly. Meanwhile, in the circle behind Michelle, a young male wolf who had been grazed by the bullet as it exited her head started screaming hysterically. Patrick stood, in shock. Then he began to walk over to Michelle's body.

Only Marcia, acting as a Madam Alpha should, remained calm. She went to the young wolf who had been grazed. He was also wearing a fair amount of Michelle's brain matter and blood on his shirt. She looked at his shoulder, evaluated the wound as not serious, and pull him tightly to her in a hug, speaking comforting words in a low voice.

Caleb was holding Michelle's body and sobbing. He seemed unaware of the fact that much of her face and the back of her head had been obliterated. He looked at me with imploring eyes. "Stosh, you've got to save her!"

"I'm sorry, Caleb. I can't."

"Why not?"

"There isn't enough left to save," Patrick said, putting his hand on Caleb's shoulder.

Caleb seemed to lean into his touch for a moment, then he backed away and groaned in horror. He stood up without acknowledging Patrick. Instead, he gently picked up Michelle's body and carried it over to where Laura was lying, still protected by Skye's body. He gently laid Michelle's body at Laura's feet, and fixing her with a burning gaze, stepped back.

"Laura Black, I charge you with the death of Michelle Beauchamp. You led her on. You made her believe you were her mate, and when you rejected her, her grief drove her insane. The grief that killed her is the grief that you caused. You're as responsible for the death of Michelle as surely as the bullet she sent through her brain. And you should share her fate!" Caleb suddenly sprouted fangs and stood, half-shifted, in front of everyone and growled at her.

I yelled "NO!", and as I stepped in front of Laura, ready to defend her, I realized I wasn't alone. Angus, David, and Skye stood directly behind me, shifted and ready to fight, and Honoria and William were behind them.

Patrick said, "CALEB SUBMIT!" in an alpha command voice, the kind of voice that made every wolf in the pack bare their necks in surrender -- except for Caleb. He bent his head back and let out a tremendous roar, and turned toward Patrick.

"I will not submit to you, Patrick! You brought this trash to our pack, these vampires. They confused Michelle's human and you welcomed them with open arms. You even want to add a vampire to our pack!"

The look on Patrick's face was resolute. "Angus is pack and David is his mate. That makes David pack, and we don't turn on pack, no matter who they are or who they love. If you don't like it, you can leave."

The pack sat in silence, enthralled by the conflict. Patrick looked at me, and I knew that this was the moment he had been thinking of when he asked me to back him.

"I'm a vampire. I've lived with a pack and I know werewolves well enough to understand that there is no denying the mating pull, for either side. A human might not know why they're feeling what they're feeling, but they know when it's right. More importantly, they know when it's not right. No one can fool someone out of feeling the mating pull, or fool them into feeling it if it's not there."

There were nods and murmurs of agreement, but otherwise, the crowd was quiet. Ben stood up and walked next to me, also in front of Laura. He gave me a big hug, and I felt his tears on my shoulder.

"Don't do this, Ben," Caleb said quietly, but Ben ignored him.

"I love my sister and I will miss her for the rest of my life. But she was mistaken about Laura. She had been looking for a mate for so long, and even though she knew that something wasn't right, she fooled herself into believing that it was."

"No, Ben," Caleb said softly.

"Laura was not Michelle's mate, any more than you were. I'm sorry, Caleb, but she fell for the wrong person, just as you did. She wanted Laura to love her as much as you wanted Michelle to love you. And it was just as hopeless."

"I'm not a female," Caleb said flatly.

"It was more than that and you know it. You weren't her mate. And neither was Laura."

The room was filled with shocked gasps and murmurs. Patrick held his hand up. "That's enough of that!" he said, and the crowd fell silent.

Caleb stood frozen, with a shattered look on his face. Ben came over to him and hugged him, and they both cried together. Patrick and Marcia came over to him as well, to touch and comfort. Other pack members slowly came up to hug Caleb one by one.

"What's happening?" Elizabeth asked me in a whisper.

"They're a pack. They're mourning Michelle and they're mourning Caleb's loss," I said.

David asked, "What should we do?"

Angus replied, "We're pack. Let's show our support."

And so, we went up and hugged Caleb. As I turned away, I realized that Laura was behind us. She stood in front of Caleb with an uncertain look on her face. He put his arms around her and buried his face in her shoulder.

"I'm sorry I acted like that," he whispered.

"It's okay," she said, tears beginning to fall. "I wish it had worked out differently for you two."

"I'm glad you've found your mate," Caleb said, and Patrick put his hand on his shoulder again.

"You'll find your mate, Caleb. She's out there."

Caleb nodded sadly.

We stood there for a moment, not sure what to do next. Marcia, ever the Madam Alpha, came over to us and hooked her arms between Laura and Elizabeth. "There are still plenty of drinks and food from last night at the alpha house. Why don't we go back and see if we can lighten the mood?"

Carlos said, "That sounds like a good idea!"

And with that, we headed back to the alpha house.