The Last Shewolf Ch. 63-69

"This is North Shore Pack land, kid."

"No shit. My Pack no longer exists." The second wolf had shifted, and I heard two more approaching. "Now what the hell are you guys doing on my land?"

The guys who walked out of the trees towards me were not happy they had missed the fight. "We ask the questions here," the one said as he picked up a thick branch. One of the men grabbed my hair just before the log knocked me the fuck out.

Ch. 66

Eve's POV

I had finished crying for now, and I looked around at the men surrounding my car as I sat in the back seat. Abaddon walked over to my window and tapped on it, he had just been talking with his men. "My men will be back here with Mitch in about five minutes," he told me. "I need to know what you think about him."

"Why?"

"It matters in how I handle him when he gets here. It also matters because your father will be here shortly after, along with Gabriel."

I looked down at my feet, wondering how I could face him again. "I don't want him hurt," I said. "He did save my life. What we did together, that was as much my doing as his, I mean, I started it. But..." I looked out at the woods where he would be coming from. "I need to break it off with him. I can't be alone with him anymore; my wolf won't let me, and it doesn't feel right."

He opened the door and helped me out, I leaned against the side with him as we waited. "I'll give you two a few minutes to talk when he gets here. If he behaves, I'll let him go."

"You will?" My mind had been filled with images of him being hurt, even killed.

"Snake will be pissed, Viper too, but I have to think of the good of the Club and of you. You're still alive, safe, and you don't need to go through this time thinking you're responsible for his death. He has to cooperate, though; if he can't leave you behind, there's not much I can do to help him. It wasn't healthy attraction, Eve, he was stalking you." I looked at him a little surprised. "We found the sniper hide he'd been using on top of an abandoned building, plus we broke the security on his laptop. He had a high-power camera, he'd been watching the Clubhouse for weeks. He had files on each of us, each Club member, but the stuff he had of you... let's just say he'd seen you naked before this little run of yours."

I put my hand over my mouth. "Oh shit..."

"Yeah. Break it off, quick and clean, because there is no way in hell he's going to be allowed around the Club or you. If your family doesn't kill him, we will. He's unstable, Eve, and he's a threat to you." I thought about it as he moved away. It was only a minute more before I heard them moving through the woods, Mitch was between two of the Knights, and he didn't look happy.

"EVE!" He started to run towards me; they let him, but they formed a loose circle around us. He tried to run into my arms, but I put my hand up and stopped him. "Baby, I'm so glad you're all right," he said.

"You were stalking me?" I looked at him, my face in pain at the truth of our relationship. "Taking pictures of me through the window?"

His shoulders slumped, his hands falling to his side. "I love you, Eve. I've loved you since I first saw you. Your Dad and the others wouldn't allow me close, so I did what I could to get closer to you."

"You invaded my privacy, Mitch. I thought more of you." I looked in his eyes, ones that just this morning I'd been looking into with lust. "I can't trust you, and you took advantage of me, Mitch. I'm thankful to you for saving my life, but this," I pointed between us, "this thing isn't going to happen. You're the one I rebelled with, not the one I'm destined to be with. I realized that during my run, I was just being a fool, acting out a fantasy," I said. "When I thought my life was over, I wasn't thinking about you."

He reached for my hands, ignoring me as I pulled them free. "We can leave here, Eve, we can be happy. We can go anywhere, do anything, without your Dad or the Club telling you no." He reached out for my face, I stepped back.

"There is no 'we' anymore." I kissed his cheek, then moved back. "Thank you for saving me, Mitch. I want you to leave, I don't ever want to see you again. Now get the hell out of Minnesota while you still can."

I walked back to the car, getting back inside. The window was still down, and I could hear everything as Abaddon pulled him away.

"Snake wants to kill you, Viper wants to kill you then have Meghan resuscitate you, just so he can kill you again. Hammer, he wants to get medieval on your ass. I'd choose about anything before that," he said. "Look, I'm going to cut you a break here because you did take a bunch of those assholes out, and as a warrior I respect what you did. Here's your keys, my guy will give you a ride to where you parked. You have two days to get as far away from here and St. Paul as you can. If you are ever seen in Minnesota or Wisconsin again after that, or you approach Eve or the clubhouses, we'll kill you and bury you in a shallow grave out here."

I watched through the tinted glass, this was his one chance and he wasn't acting like he appreciated the gift he was getting. "I can't do that, Abaddon. I love her, I'm going to fight for her."

"You heard her, she doesn't want you," he said softly, but I could tell he was pissed.

"She will." He turned and looked down the road, sneaking peeks back towards my car.

I watched as Abaddon waved at one of his men. "Kushiel." The man came over, he was one of the two who had escorted Mitch out. "Take him to his motorcycle and follow him back here." He nodded and the two went off towards the other car, Mitch had his keys in his pocket. They drove off, and Abaddon walked back to me. "I tried, Eve, but some people just don't learn."

"He's stubborn, and he thinks he's in love," I said. "He won't give up."

"I know." His phone rang, he pulled it out and answered it, then handed it to me. "It's your Dad."

"Hi Daddy," I said. "Are you close?"

"We'll be there in twenty minutes," he said. "How are you doing?"

"I told Mitch to leave me alone, that I never wanted to see or talk to him again," I said. "Abaddon told me about what you found on his computer. I feel so violated."

I could hear him trying to get control as he spoke. "I know, and I'm pissed off I won't get the chance to beat the shit out of that pervert. Gabriel told me Abaddon was going to let him go."

"He did. I love you, Dad. I'll see you soon." I hung up the phone and closed my eyes while I waited for him to get here.

Abaddon's POV

I sent to Kushiel over the Pack link. "He just doesn't get it, does he?"

"Nope. He thinks he still has a chance to get her back."

I just shook my head, some people didn't learn. It's like the old line about how people learn that I'd picked up in warrior training. "Some people can learn not to do stupid shit by reading about it," my Beta told me back then, "while others have to see it happen to someone else. Then there are those stupid fucks who just HAVE to piss on the electric fence." Mitch was one of those guys. "Kushiel, grab a tracker from the glove compartment and plant it on his bike. I want you to follow him, make sure he actually leaves here and goes home. Call Mitch at the club, have him do his computer shit and set up an alarm if that bike gets within six blocks of the clubhouse."

"I'm on it, boss."

I ran my fingers through my hair, all this shit today and I hadn't even met her mate yet.

Meghan's POV

I was glad we'd brought the ambulance just in case, since a wolf had been hurt and he was Eve's mate. I'd been getting updates from Abaddon and his men on the drive up with Snake, since MY phone still was in one piece. His had shattered when he threw it out the window, after he lost his temper talking to Eve. We gave up looking for the other pieces after he found the biggest hunk in the ditch. At least he got his SIMM card back, he could always buy a new phone.

He did manage to calm down enough by the time we got to Silver Bay that I allowed him to use mine... provided he left it on the console of the old ambulance. We'd had the old ambulance professionally repainted, now it had the name of a medical transport company. It didn't attract much attention. "Don't scare her when you get there, Snake. She's going to need you."

"I know. I just don't know whether my first reaction to seeing her is going to be to hug her or put her over my knee."

"There's time for her punishment later, don't you think? She's safe, she's scared, she needs you. There's not much time left where she needs her Daddy more, she's growing up quickly now."

"I can't believe she found her mate." He looked out the window. "She's still my tiny little girl, I don't want to let her go yet. I thought I was ready for it in Chicago, but I've never been so happy to waste an entire night in my life."

"Next year this time she could be feeding her own baby," I said with a smirk. I got the reaction I expected, his hand squeezed the door. "She deserves her chance at happiness, Snake. And do you know what? So do you."

"I'm not ready to move on, Meghan."

I reached over and took his hand. "I loved her too, but it's been eighteen years. In all that time, have you even asked a woman out? Gone on a date?"

"No one could compare to my Vivian, and I've been busy."

I snorted. "Yeah, busy trying to bury the pain with work or booze or the club. What are you going to do without Eve here to live for?"

He looked out the window, his fingers rubbing his temples. "I don't know. Viper is retiring at the end of the year, you know what the problems are." I did, his arthritis was getting so bad he had a hard time gripping the handles, even after changing over to a Harley three-wheeler because his old motorcycle was too hard to muscle around anymore. "He's sixty-eight, he's done riding after this summer." If you can't ride, you can't vote, and you can't hold office.

"Are you going to run for his spot?" When someone stepped down, the Club would vote. It would be more normal for Tiny, the Vice President, to step up.

"We've talked. He's getting older as well, we all are. He's happy as Vice President, he doesn't want all the hassles of being in charge."

"Well, you should get out a little more, and live a little. You're still young and good looking, even if you have to color your hair."

He smacked my hand away, a little miffed at the dig. "And what about you? Homeschool, graduating college at eighteen, medical school, residency, private practice, and I've yet to see YOU out on a date. There's more to life than your career, young lady."

I looked out over the road, I'd been thinking about this so much lately. I was always a prodigy, always focused on my goals, always putting my personal life last. I was always the outcast, too young for my peers in class and not interested in the same things as my age group at home. My parents had been on me as well, they wanted grandchildren and I hadn't even found a decent guy. I let out a breath. "Fine. I'll make you a deal. Let's see if we can each find someone by the Jacksonville trip." I looked over at him, the trip was always tough for him because that's where he and Vivian fell in love. He went, but he wasn't the same. "Two dates a month until you find someone."

He didn't look happy. "Two a month?"

"It's not THAT much, there are at least two women hitting on you every time we go for a run. I'm sure you can scare up enough interest to get a date every other Friday."

"Fine." I smiled to myself, it was awkward enough to have to answer questions about my personal life. At least this way, I'd have someone to commiserate with.

"That's them," I said as I spotted the naked men in the woods next to the stretcher, where Gabriel and his men were pulling over to the side. "Let's go meet her mate."

Ch. 67

Snake's POV

I hopped out the passenger door of the ambulance, meeting Meghan at the doors in back. As soon as I had the first one open, she had grabbed her emergency medical kit and started to jog over to the men with it. I grabbed a bunch of extra scrubs and flipflops, stashed inside for situations like this where werewolves had to shift, and put them on top of the stretcher. I followed her into the woods, where the guys grabbed the clothes and pulled them on while I put the stretcher next to the man. I heard Gabriel and the others ride off, they were going to Eve to protect her.

He was a big guy, strong and obviously used to being outdoors and working hard. They weren't gym muscles, they were muscles of a guy who lifted logs and did manly things. Meghan was giving him a quick head-to-toe check. "How hard did you hit his head, and with what?"

"About a four-inch branch, bloop single strength to the base of the skull," Samsiel said. "He dropped straight off, no issues breathing, bleeding stopped in a few minutes. Pulse and respirations have been steady."

She carefully felt around the base of his skull with her gloved fingers, finding only a bump. Moving down, she listened to his chest, then checked his arms before going down to his legs. "Man, you guys tore him up," she said.

"It's not as bad as it looks, it's just that we weren't able to clean the dirt and stuff out before he started healing," he said.

"Yeah, this will take some time, and we're going to have to reset these breaks because they've started healing wrong. Come on, load him up." We moved him carefully, placing him face down on the stretcher. We then followed her as she walked us back to the ambulance. She hopped up, helping guide him on top of the rolling gurney before strapping him down. The straps were extra-strong nylon, and she also had nylon cuffs on his wrists to protect herself in case he started to wake up.

Using a portable ultrasound, she located the breaks and reset them. I looked away during this, the snap of bones and grinding made my stomach churn. When she was satisfied, she packed towels around to keep it from moving while she worked on the deep cuts. Using wet gauze, she soaked the wounds to remove the scabs before digging out and cleaning all the dirt and fragments that could cause infection later. I looked at the clock, she'd been at it for forty minutes already. He started to wake up as she was stitching his left calf. "Huh who? LET ME GO." He was struggling against the straps.

"Relax, please. I'm Doctor Meghan, you're in the back of my ambulance, and if you keep struggling you'll tear out those stitches I just spent twenty minutes putting in." She got down into his field of view and kept a hand on his shoulder as he relaxed. I saw him take some deep breaths, a little confused. "Yes, I'm human, and you're not," she said. "You took a good knock on the head, I need to assess that quickly. Can you tell me your name?"

"Adam. Adam Johnson."

She was checking his pupils with a light. "Where do you live, Adam?"

"I'm not sure I want to tell you that until I know who you're working with," he said. "The guys who did this to me, I can smell them."

I laughed a little, causing him to look over towards me. "Yeah, I don't blame you. They're a little overprotective of their young shewolf, just like I am." I looked at Meghan, getting her nod to undo his cuffs. He wasn't violent, so this would help calm him down. "My name is Snake, I'm her father."

He looked at me funny as the straps came off. "Don't roll over yet, Adam," Meghan told him gently. "Your legs are not splinted or cast yet, and you don't want me having to move the bones around again."

He pulled his hands up and I handed him a pillow he could get a little more comfortable. "She's my mate," he said matter of factly.

"She told me," I said.

"She should go home," he said softly as his eyes closed. "I won't stand in the way of her happiness."

I relaxed a little, I had all these fears about what her mate would end up being like. Would he be one of these cocky, self-centered guys who would try to dominate and control her? Would he treat her as his equal, or would he see her only as a breeder, a source of power and prestige? Or would he be honest and selfless, putting her first. Adam had a good start. "She doesn't want him," I said.

He snorted. "His scent was all over her, his essence on her skin," he said. "I could smell it from across the clearing, they had just sex a few hours ago."

"She didn't know, and she didn't expect to meet her mate," I said. "I shouldn't be defending her, I'm wanting to kill the guy myself for daring to corrupt my daughter. There is more to the story, and it is a discussion she should be having with you. I talked to her earlier, she broke up with him because he took advantage of her."

"Who went after me?"

"The Knights of the Moon, they are her protective detail and Pack."

"Those freaks are her protection?" He closed his eyes.

"So you've heard of them." He nodded. "They protected her mother, and they have protected Eve since she was a newborn until now, when as an adult she has found her mate. They will now protect you."

"I don't want them around, they trespassed on my lands and attacked me when I had done nothing." I could see his fists clenching.

"They were doing what they pledged to do, Adam. Every one of them took a vow to find and protect the Promised One until she could find and mate her true mate and break the curse. It hasn't been easy, there have been many close calls. They will be around until the curse is broken." I sat back a little. "They are good men, I've known them since she was a baby. If things had gone a little differently, they would have known you were her mate and they would have helped you."

Meghan had finished splinting his legs while we talked. "Well, Adam, we have a few choices here. I would like to bring you back to St. Paul where I can monitor you properly, and you can meet Eve and her family properly."

"NO." He looked at her. "Take me home, my brother and his wife will take care of me." He gave me the address, and I went and put it in my phone. It wasn't far away.

"Can Eve see you first?"

He shook his head. "My wolf won't react well to that scent on her. Better I just go home."

I called Gabriel and let him know. Ten minutes later we had our new plan. Abaddon was going to take his motorcycle and meet the ambulance at Adam's house, after that he would go back to Silver Bay and find a place the Knights could use as a base for operations. The rest of them, Eve included, were going to go on a long run and scout out the territory around his house. "No playing Chase the Shewolf," I warned.

"Never again," Gabriel said. "She will remain in the center of the Pack. It will be good for her to stretch he legs out, to work with her wolf. We'll be out a few days, Abaddon can get us if there is a problem."

"Fine. We'll take the ambulance back to the clubhouse, and I'll bring my bike back up. I need to be here for her when this finally goes down." At some point, Eve and Adam were going to have to meet and work things out.

Meghan stayed in the back with him while I pulled the ambulance back onto the road. I followed the directions until I came to the mailbox and the long driveway for his cabin. The trail was rough and it took a while for the big vehicle to make it to the end, where it opened to a nice-looking log home and detached garage, a pole barn with a tractor and a wood mill in it in the back yard. I stopped in front of the stairs, where a big male in his thirties was standing, his wife holding his waist from behind him. "We're here," I said.

I hopped down as the man came to the cab. "What's going on?"

"Adam was mistaken for a threat and was injured by the Knights of the Moon," I told him. "We patched him up but he won't be able to walk for a few days." They followed me around to the back as Meghan opened the door from inside.