It was the most Alec had ever said to him, and Mark lay there unable to believe he was telling him all this. He wanted to know what happened next, wanted to know all of it. “What did you do?”
“I trained fucking hard. I knew I had everything to prove and wanted so desperately to fit in, to be accepted. They were the best at what they did. And I wanted to be one of them.” His arm tightened around Mark’s shoulders. “I might have been part of their unit, but they refused to take me out with them until I was ready. But I was a quick learner, and our alpha at the time wasn’t as discerning as Cam.
“Pack family homes were supposed to be off limits—some things remain sacred even in war—but one of our buildings got caught up in the fighting. Everyone got out except for one little girl. She’d managed to get separated from her family in the chaos and confusion. Our pack immediately called for a truce to go search for her. Both alphas agreed. They gave their word.”
A sense of dread crept over Mark, vague recollections coming back to him. He’d heard this story before.
Alec’s breath hitched, but he carried on talking. “My beta, Dominic, decided it would be good experience for me to go out on patrol with our unit. It was a rescue mission, no fighting. It should have been safe.” He sounded so much younger to Mark in that moment, as though retelling the story transported him back there. “Even so, Dom was cautious. We left our Jeep half a mile away and walked the rest of the way. The police stayed out of the pack wars as long as no humans were injured, so we had to be careful to keep the fighting away from them.
“This particular pack building was on the edge of our territory—one building split into four flats. Foreign shifter scents were all over it from the fight, but Dom warned us to be on our guard all the same. Then we heard her—soft, whimpery cries from inside the building.
“We went in as a unit: Dom first, and me in the middle flanked by the others. We found her in a ground floor flat, crying in the centre of the living area and clutching a cuddly wolf cub. They were very clever, staying in the areas where the fighting had occurred so it masked their scent. Dom walked over to get the girl. He must have realised the scent was fresh because the next moment he’d grabbed her, thrust her into my arms, and half-shifted. The rest of our unit followed his lead, roaring their outrage as shifters spilled in from the other rooms. I wanted to stay and help them fight, they were badly outnumbered, but Dom said I was the fastest and ordered me to run, to take her back to the Jeep and wait for them there. He said we had to save her, that was our mission. So I grabbed that little girl and I ran.
“I ran all the way back to the fucking Jeep, and I waited. But they never came.” He drew in a deep shuddery breath and Mark wanted to comfort him, but he daren’t move. “Turned out I waited too fucking long because, by the time I went back, they were all dead. No sign of the shifters who’d killed them, just the scent of enemy pack, blood, and death.
My whole unit, fucking dead.
“I carried Dom’s body back to the Jeep and then went back for the others. I couldn’t leave them there.”
“Fuck.”
Alec wiped a hand over his face, and Mark was pretty sure it came away wet. “There was a pack meeting the next day to plan our revenge, because an attack like that couldn’t go unanswered. Nathan was there, so young and hurt and angry. His parents were both in my unit.”Oh Shit.“He demanded to know how I’d escaped alive when everyone else in my unit had died. Accused me of running away at the first sign of trouble and leaving them. In front of everyone.”
“Didn’t you tell them that you were ordered to go?”
Alec’s sigh sounded resigned, like he’d been over this a thousand times. “I gave a full report of the mission to our alpha and his betas.”
Realisation dawned slowly. “But not the whole pack?”
“No.” Our alpha thought it made us look weak as a pack. What sort of fighters were we if we didn’t notice there were other shifters in the house until it was too late? He ordered it kept quiet. As far as the pack were concerned, we were attacked when there was a truce in place and that was all anyone needed to know.”
Mark pushed himself up one elbow. “But what about the girl?”
“She was young, and her family were just grateful to have her back.”
Silence stretched out between them, and Mark wondered if Alec was finished. He had questions, though. Before he could ask, Alec said quietly, “I was given my own unit, made a beta, and sent back out. I think our alpha saw it as a sweetener to keep me quiet.”
“But you didn’t want it,” Mark guessed.
“No. I hadn’t earned it.” His grip on Mark’s shoulder tightened again. “But I worked damn hard to make sure I deserved it. I wasn’t going to lose another member of my unit. Not again.” He spoke with such conviction, Mark didn’t doubt it for a second.
When Alec remained silent, Mark figured that was it. Running his hand over Alec’s chest, he whispered, “I don’t know what I did to warrant it, but thank you for trusting me with that.”
Alec laughed, soft this time, most of the bitterness gone. “For some reason it was easier to talk to you than the rest of my pack.” He slid a hand into Mark’s hair and tilted his head for a kiss.
Deep and long, it left Mark breathless. He sighed when Alec trailed kisses down along his throat, remembering the moment Alec had set his teeth there earlier. Too caught up in the moment, he asked, “Do you ever think about it?”
“About what?” Alec bit down gently with human teeth.
“About biting someone.”
He smiled against Mark’s neck and nipped him again. “I’m thinking about it now.”
“No, I mean a mating bite. Do you ever think about bonding?”
When Alec’s whole body tensed, Mark knew he’d said the wrong thing.Fuck, why did I bring that up?Trying to backtrack, he added, “You said you do this a lot. Don’t you worry about accidentally biting someone in the heat of the moment?”Like I thought you were going to do to me.The thought alone made him shiver, but he tried to hide it. Shifters didn’t need a bite to feel the need to bond; their wolves helped with that. Instinct was a bitch sometimes. And although a single bite alone wouldn’t have bonded them, it would have set the wheels in motion.
If Mark felt the same, it would have been a possibility.
