The Bachelorette Ch. 03

Thanks to everyone for all the feedback and comments. Some things had come up and I was unable to type for q while. Here is the next installment. Hope you enjoy.
HA

"Please, I know that I haven't earned my place in your pack, but I do have basic medical training. I was a OR nurse, I have seen a lot of damage and I can help. I can't just sit here and do nothing as those rogues destroy more life."

Leon looked at the woman in front of him. Her eyes were puffy and her face was red from holding in her emotions. Her sweat suit looked ragged, and thoroughly slept in, and he seriously needed to know why these women were neglected. The woman in front of him was Alpha female material, and his wolf knew it. He couldn't get a scent from her, but as a man he really liked what he saw, and what he had heard. He knew from Jack, that she was strong and a fierce protector. She would make a great Alpha Bitch for

his pack.

He had heard her conviction, and her honesty in her voice. He nodded slowly. "I know that you and some of the others would like to assist, and it would be good for the incoming women to have someone here they can relate to." He saw her slight smile and something in his chest shifted. "After lunch, I will call a meeting of all the newly turned females and see if you can help Devlin and Adam divide up the women and delegate, deal?" Sam nodded at him. He looked at his father. "A few of the Alphas might be arriving tonight with their hordes. Dayna and Sam have erected some temporary housing along the south edge of the forest."

"I will go see where I can be of assistance. I will grab my brothers and work in the East." Pierre got up and headed for the entryway. "Sam, I know that I'm not the best with sweet things, and Juliette would say the same. Things are tough now, and I know you feel for your friends. Things do get better." He touched the top of her head, and smiled at her. Leon nodded at him and walked out of the house with his father.

Sam sat there for a few moments, listening to Alana prepare Gina's tea. "Hello there!" Juliette said brightly as she walked into the kitchen followed by eight women, each carrying a large box. "I come baring gifts! Well, clothes anyway." She said nodding to the women, who promptly set the boxes down and exited. "Well, who killed the mood in here? It was sunny when I left, who let the clouds roll in. Wait, where is my mate? What did he say to you?" Juliette looked like a mother hen ready to baby her chick.

"No, really Juliette, he just asked a question. I answered and got a bit emotional. " Sam grabbed one of the boxes and looked at the name and carried it upstairs. She didn't want Juliette's pity; she had enough of her own. She knocked on Gina's door, which was right across from Val's. "Enter." She heard, although it was very soft. "Hey there Gina. These are those clothes Juliette sent over." Sam said as she entered the room. It was done in a pale lavender, as opposed to her bright yellow.

Gina was curled up on the window seat looking out at wilderness below. "Gina?" She turned and Sam saw the tears in her eyes. "Sweetheart, what's wrong?" Sam felt her maternal instincts kick in at the shattered look on Gina's face.

"I can feel him inside me." She sobbed as Sam wrapped her body around the smaller woman. "He's in my head telling me horrible things, I can't," The tears were falling steady now soaking through Sam's sweatshirt.

"Gina, did you tell anyone else?" Sam asked softly as she stroked Gina's head. She could feel Gina shake her head no. "I know Alana's coming up with some tea, and I talked to the Alpha, he said he was going to need our help later today. He mentioned a healer by the name of Devlin. Maybe I can ask someone to help you." Gina quietly mumbled a reply into Sam's shirt. "I'm going to go down and talk to Juliette and see if she can get someone out here for you ok?" Gina nodded and sobbed quietly. "I will be right back."

Sam untangled herself and headed for the door. As she opened it, she slammed into Alana, causing her to drop the tray with the tea on it. The tray clamored to the ground and the cup of hot tea smashed on the floor. "I'm so sorry Alana, did you get scalded?" Alana laughed lightly and started to collect the tea cup pieces and place them on the tray.

"What the hell happened out here?" Val asked as she opened the door.

"I bumped into Alana as she was carrying some tea up to Gina. Your box of clothes is down stairs." Sam inclined her head to the stairs.

"Can we go for a run? My wolf really needs to run right now." Val looked over at Alana.

"I don't think there would be a problem. Come on, if you come out the back door you can run in the woods behind the house, in front of the house is the training fields, and they are chalk full of Zetas right now." Alana gestured to the steps and Val and Sam followed.

"How old are you?" Val suddenly asked.

"I turn eighteen in a month, but everyone treats me like I'm ten... I'm the youngest of the Comeaux line, and so I'm like everyone's little sister." Alana sighed and headed to the back door, while Sam headed into the kitchen to speak with Juliette.

"Sam, what's all over your shirt?" Juliette looked up from the mug of tea she was preparing for herself.

"Gina is going to need some help. I think the man who changed her mated with her and was one of the rogues that got away." Juliette raised her eyebrow. "She claims she can hear him inside her head, telling her things."

"Hmm... We had a case similar a few years ago. Though, the females mate had passed she could hear him and felt like she was going crazy. Devlin knew someone who was able to help the poor dear. I will go see if he can contact her again." Juliette got that far off look that meant she was speaking to someone in her head. "Devlin will contact her tonight." Juliette nodded and set about taking boxes up to the other women.

~~~~~~~~~~

Leon scanned the area Jacques had told him about. Not long before he started receiving cryptic messages, he had heard of the collapse of one of the neighboring packs. The pack had at one time been a part of his grandfather's pack many years ago. He had heard the story as a pup. His grandfather's head beta had been a latent Alpha, and when he had met his mate he knew he needed to branch out. Leon's grandfather had sold them a piece of his land at a low price for his friend and allowed him to take a few craftsmen and such to create his own pack.

There had been a quiet understanding between the larger Comeaux pack and the smaller pack, and when the communications became less and less, no one seemed to notice. About six months ago, a pack to the north told him that a smaller pack had disbanded and a few refugees had come to join their pack. At the time Leon had thought nothing of it and assumed that the wolves had just joined another pack. Now, it was obvious that the refugees that had clamored to the new pack had been the ones that were able to escape before the madness took over the Alpha.

"This was the main building a long time ago. My brother thought it better to vacate and move his living quarters to the hills a mile or so back. That happened before the takeover. When the rogues came, he lent them use of this house, as it was no longer the center point to our day to day operations. The leader took the old Alpha quarters for his own and went about ordering things about. It should have been the first sign..." Jacques looked defeated.

"It is often hard to see what is going on when you are so close to the situation. You did what you could do when the situation was clear to you. Do not fault yourself for that." Leon looked over at his beta Dominick and nodded. The first round of Zetas entered the building flanked by a Gamma and an two Delta's. The taking of the house was quick and effective. In total six men were captured with evidence of many more living in the house.

"You know for an operation of this magnitude, you could have called in some re-enforcements Leon..." A lusty voice sounded over to his left.

"If I thought that I would need your unique services Petra, I would have called." He rolled his shoulders and didn't even acknowledge his old friend as his teams moved forward with the raid into a few of the outbuildings he could see in the clearing.

"You and I both know that there is some unwanted and unsanctioned mating here Leon. On top of that you are dealing with some old were's. You could use my help." Leon could almost hear the pout in her voice.

"We didn't know we were working against old ones Petra, I'm thankful for your assistance, but I do have one question for you." Leon turned to face her fully and gave himself a second to look at her. She was striking in anything she wore, and no matter how close they had been as he was growing up, it still affected him, and seeing her in her fighting leathers almost made him drool. Her eyebrow was raised in question waiting for his question. "What did you know about this situation?"

"If you're asking did I know exactly what was going on? No, I had caught wind that the small pack here was disbanding. Never thought to look into it.." She put her arms behind her back and cocked her hip inadvertently emphasizing her curves. "From what I recall this pack had, at one time, been apart of your own Leon. I assumed that you had heard about it and took in the stragglers. Besides the last time i thought to look into one of pack matters i was led to believe that there was a system in place to take care of things like this. The disbandment I mean." She looked out over the empty expanse of land in front of her. "I came here to help. This situation needs to be taken care of before it gets anymore out of control than it already is."

"Alright." Leon nodded at her and focused his attention back into the clearing. Now a total of eighteen men have been rounded up and knocked out in a pile in the center of the clearing. So far no sign of the women being held. "We need to move further in." Jacques nodded and signaled to move forward. Leon was entering the clearing with Petra hot on his heels.

"I've done some digging and came up with a few names. One jumped to my attention. Edward Renaldo. Edward was once a nobleman with a wife and four sons. His wife was attacked one night and beheaded because the people feared she was a witch. Her son's one by one were poisoned as Edward was off in London doing his duties to the king." She moved to her left and squatted as she caught some movement out of the corner of her eye. "Are those our men Leon?"

Leon looked over and saw what she had seen. A group of men were approaching in the shadows. "No" He contacted his Beta's and had a few Zeta's circle back and surround the would be attackers.

"Wait!" Jacques looked over at the approaching men. He stood from his crouch and approached them .

"Jacques." One of the men spoke in a deep voice. "We knew you would come back to help the women, we wanted to do what we can. We may not have been able to help all the women before. But we want to do what we can now." The other three men nodded and looked over to Leon. "Sebastian needs help, he needs to get away from those evil bastards."

"As we were helping the women some of Edward's men spoke to us, bragged really. They were working on a project for Edward, and human women were the key. They wouldn't tell us much, but they noted that something in the nearby lands was another crucial piece of the puzzle." The middle man spoke.

"The first was to get rid of the one who was standing in their way." The deep voiced one spoke again. "Jacques, they brought about the death of your father. I don't know how, but I know that this man Edward was involved. It's just not right how they just happened to be in the area at the time that things were going so awry.

"I agree with you Simon, I believe that they had something to do everything. Roland, where is everyone? Why are all the houses vacant?"

"They have been moved closer to the Alpha's den. A few tried to stand up to Edward's cronies and they were severely beaten. So Edward thought it a good idea to have everyone somewhere that he could keep an eye on them." Roland growled.

"Edward has taken over Sebastian's home hasn't he?" Jacques looked over at his childhood friends who hung their heads in shame.

"Jacques, Sebastian hasn't been seen in awhile. Edward has been commanding everyone telling them that the Alpha has been sick, and most just agree with him so they aren't beaten. I don't even know if he is on this earth with us anymore my friend."Simon put his hand on Jack's shoulder.

"He needs stopped." Leon approached the group of men. "I am Alpha Leon Comeaux. I am here to help you stop this madman. Where are they holding the women? We have some people here to take care of them, they are a priority."

"They are kept in the prisoner barracks about sixty yards that way." One of the men turned around and pointed to the right. "Only a few men guard them, maybe ten at the most for the whole building. Edward looks down on them and sees women as nothing but a means to an end." The big man shuddered. "There are very few of our original kinswoman left. The few that are have been trying to keep the humans safe."

Leon nodded and sent the message across to his men as to where the women are. "I'm going to have a look around." Petra spoke from behind him. All the men turned to look at her, and were just as blown back by her appearance as he always was. 'I'm going to circle around and check the building before you send your men over. Something just doesn't feel right about all this." She looked pointedly at Leon. "I will be fine, just like a ghost." With that she smiled and sped off into the foliage.

"Who was that?" Simon gawked at the spot where Petra once stood.

"That was someone that no words can describe." Leon smiled and shook his head. One of the Sigmas approached and he shifted attention. Leon alerted the others to the slight change in plan and shifted gears back into rescue mode.

'This place is like a ghost town. Leon could hear Petra's voice inside his head. 'There are so very few people here, and to be honest, the rogues seem to have been dispersing from this place. It almost looks as if Edward has moved on and left some men here to maintain order."

"Who is in charge?" Leon looked out at his twelve man team that was about to take the outbuilding with the women in it. Before anyone could speak a word he heard Petra's voice inside his head. 'Looks like the man you are looking for is currently inside the building in front of you. Tall and bulky, you won't miss him. He's about to walk through the door.'

Leon tensed as the door to the building opened and a brute of a man stepped into the night. The smell of fear and sex permeated the air. The man rolled his head back on his shoulders and leveled his gaze to the tree line.

"So, the Alpha's brother decided to get help for his wayward pack? Doesn't look like it will do you much good here." The man was searching for Jacques, who stepped out of the bushes to confront the man. "There you are whelp. When that house over by the river was taken, we knew something was wrong." The man grinned and crossed his arms over his chest. "Those women we captured from town were in there, the ones from that bus. We kept them as far from civilization because the pathetic human police were looking for them. We knew that the raid was were."

"Those women you stole had lives, families. You destroyed them." Jacques spoke calmly, but there was a quiet conviction in his voice. "Just like you destroyed my pack."

"Destroyed is such a hard word. We gave them an opportunity. We took them from their meager existence and threw them a bone. Besides, we needed the women to re-populate the pack and our species." The man laughed.

"Where is my brother? What have you done with the rest of my pack?" Jacques was barely holding his wolf in check, Leon knew that there would be a fight on their hands for this house. "You have taken our pack down the road of ruin. Our women are scarred and our men have gone mad. You have imposed evil on a once close knit pack. Nothing will ever be the same, you have destroyed us. You have exposed our secret to the humans, they will come looking for answers, and when they do they will be led straight into the belly of our world. Is that what you want? Is that what Edward wanted when he took over this pack? As he raged a sickness over our land and destroyed everything my family has worked so hard to build? You have led us to utter ruin."

"You can think what you want brat. We got what we came here for. It doesn't matter if you kill me, or you wipe out Edward's influence here. Truth is, he has influence everywhere, and it won't matter in the end. He always gets what he wants." The man smiled and cocked his head to the side. "It was easy taking over this pack. The weak Alpha was so easy to dispatch and your brother was no better. His mind was so easily manipulated, he was blinded by greed."

"My brother was not blinded by greed. He wanted to help his people and you dangled salvation in his face then snatched it away as he reached for it. You are a pathetic waste of were blood." Jacques lunged at the big man and slammed him back into the wall of the outbuilding. His nails lengthened into vicious talons around the man's neck rivulets of blood were dripping from the wounds.

"You can say what you want brat. Luna favors all her children. You can kill me, but I will be reborn and I will come after you."

"There is no favor in mother Luna's eyes for one such as you." Petra chose that moment to stand beside Jacques. She reached out her hand and touched him on the shoulder. "You can let him go. He is no threat to you and yours, not anymore." Jacques released the man and took a step back, but the brute never left the wall. "Byron Foist, you have joined into the company of someone doing evil, and for that you will not be reborn unto this earth. There is a special seat in hell with your name on it. Justice in your case will not be swift and merciful as many others will be. You take great pride and honor in what you do. The kidnapping and rape of human women to support your twisted fantasies does not sit well with mother Luna."

The big man's eyes shot wide with the use of his name, and the more Petra spoke the more the color drained out of his hulking face. "What you have done with your time on earth does not show me that you are worthy of the gift of reincarnation. You will die, not tonight, and not by my hands, but you will die for what you have done and you will suffer greatly." With that she paced her palm to Byron's shoulder and he slumped forward in unconsciousness.

"What did you do to him?"

"Nothing that will kill him. We need him alive for now; I just did something that will make his transport much easier." Petra looked over the building and sighed. "You're going to want to send the women you brought with you in there. They are not going to want male attention, especially that of males that they don't know."

Leon nodded and called to Dayna to bring the women forward. A loose ring of male protection was erected around the building as the women went in. Leon headed over to where Petra stood. "What is it you know that you aren't telling me?"

"There are things in this world that are supposed to be a mystery, Leon, even to me." Her shoulders slumped. "I might only be able to help you so much in this one old friend. I am not sure how deep this goes, and if it as deep as I think..."

"What are you talking about?" Leon turned her so he could see her face. "Who do you think is behind this?" Her voice is so low that even his advanced hearing had a hard time catching it. "Petra?"

"My instincts are screaming at me but I have no proof. What I do know is that the man behind the take over here, this Edward that took over here, was once a human man. He was turned sometime in the 1800's and is looking for revenge against the one who turned him and also against the world that turned their back on him and his family. He is searching for something. What I am not sure, but he seems to think that these human women are key to something."