Monster
Rick's POV

Fuck.

Hearing what Kat went through was heartbreaking. No wonder she is how she is. I wouldn’t have survived it. I don’t think any of us would. My reservations about her are gone and now I want to protect her.

Jason was on the brink of tears when she stormed out of the library, and I can’t blame him because I think we all were. He ran after her, leaving me and Janet alone. Dalton comes in and looks at us with furrowed brows. “Everything alright?” I sigh. “Not now Dalton.”

“I saw Kat running out-.”

“I SAID, NOT NOW DALTON!” He bows his head and leaves. Janet wipes her eyes and looks at me. “Poor girl. Going through all that. Killing children...” I lift her onto my lap, wrap my arms around her, and kiss her temple. “Yeah.” That’s all I can say. I try not to think about it but fail miserably. Six years...

I sigh again before I say, “we need to up our security. With the attack and now knowing about the hunters. If they are looking for her... We also have to warn all the packs around here.”

Janet wipes her eyes again and stands up. “Yes. Call all of them now, Rick. I’ll go make dinner.” With that command, she leaves. I wanted to wait until tomorrow but when Janet gives an order, you better follow it. Doesn’t matter that I’m the Alpha. If I don’t do as she says there’s going to be hell to pay, so I pick up the phone and start calling people.

----

About midnight I hear Kat screaming. Oh fuck, what now?

I leave my office and are about to go into the large living room, when I hear Janet talk about laundry and I have to hold back my laughter. Okay, don’t fuck with Kat in any way. Even Janet sounds apologetic and timid.

Going to bed, I lie and think about the phone calls I made. Most of the Alphas didn’t believe me when I told them about hunters, but I still asked them to spread the word. I don’t think they will do it though. Maybe I should arrange an Alpha meeting and talk with them face to face. I also think about whether I should call the Elders or not.

I hate those fuckers and all their laws. Should I ask if Kat would come with me to meet them? No fucking way. They are sneaky as hell, and I think they would want to use her. Then again, if Kat is the ruler over all supernatural, she could put them in their place.

Not if. She is the ruler because when she roared after the attack, she almost made me kneel.

Then I think about the attack where she shifted and jumped in front of me and Jason, taking the bullets intended for us. She was huge. Bigger than a horse. We’re larger than normal wolves but she’s much bigger and on freaking fire. She was actually quite beautiful but scary as fuck. Black with orange stripes that looked like lava, spilling on the ground, scorching everything it touched. We had to use a fire extinguisher to put out small fires.

Janet walks in, sighs and lays down next to me. I wrap my arm around her and give her a long kiss. “Hey babe.” She smiles and runs her fingers over my cheek. “Hi honey.”

I smirk and ask in an amused voice, “how did it go with Kat?” She chuckles “Ah, you heard that. It was fine. I got her something to eat and she left with her clean clothes. She only has three sets of clothes and it’s all the same. Panties, sports bras, hoddies, tights and sneakers,” she says before she rests her head on my chest. “Do you think we should buy her some clothes?” I raise an eyebrow. “And how do you think that will go?” She chuckles again. “You’re right. Bad idea.”

“Where do you suppose she gets her money from,” she asks. I think for a moment. “I think she wins them in fights. Charlie fought her and said she was a beast.”

She smiles, “yeah, if she can take Charlie down, she can kick all of our asses.”

“Hey,” I say. “I’m supposed to be your big bad Alpha.” Now she laughs. “Honey, if you ever get into a fight with Kat, I’m putting my money on her!”

I flip her over and crawl on top of her “Is that so?” She bites her lip and nods, making me growl and give her a heated kiss.

-----

The next day the whole pack sits out on the front lawn, eating breakfast. We do that every Saturday. We eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner together and catch up on what everybody is doing. We can mind link, but we don’t do it about every little thing we do.

Kat jogs over the lawn and I wave her over. She hesitates a little before she does.

“Good morning, Kat. Are you hungry,” I ask. She looks at all the food, swallows, and nods. “Good. Help yourself to whatever you want.” And she does. I’ve never seen so many pancakes on a plate before. Surprisingly she sits down next to me and starts to eat. She keeps looking around, like she’s expecting trouble at any moment.

I can’t blame her because some people are looking at her like she’s a ticking time bomb which I guess she is, but I don’t think she will explode without a reason.

“How big is your pack,” she asks. Her starting a conversation with me surprises me. I didn’t see that coming. She must be warming up to the thought of staying here and it makes me happy. Especially for Jason because I can see that he’s hurting. It must be unbearable that his mate doesn’t want him. I don’t think it’s about Jason though, but maybe she doesn’t see herself as worthy of him.

“There’s about five hundred wolves in this pack,” I say, making her raise her eyebrows. “Isn’t that a lot? My old pack only had about fifty.”

“Yeah, we are one of the biggest packs in this area. Which pack did you come from,” I ask. She freezes “Doesn’t matter:” That makes my brows knit together. Is she that scared of her old pack? I know of some bad packs, and some are really sketchy.

“You know you’re safe here, right? I won’t tell anyone if you don’t want me to.”

Scoffing, she glances at me. “Like the attack? Is that what you call safe?” I quirk a brows. “Touché. I thought they were our allies. We were supposed to make a deal with them about some new bikes for our club. We usually buy them from their club. They have an amazing mechanic.”

“Hm. Regardless, you need to up your security. How many warriors do you have?”

“Almost two hundred, “ I say, and she slowly nods. “Do you train every day? And how do you train?”

“We train five times a week and it’s close quarter combat, weapons training, and wolf on wolf.”

She raises an eyebrow. “No man against wolf training?” I look at her like she's insane. “No, that’s impossible. It doesn’t end well in real life.” She chuckles humorlessly and raises her voice a little. Shit.

“It’s almost impossible to fight a wolf and get out alive,” I say again. She clenches her jaw. “Are you stupid? Man against wolf training is what’s important. You need to know how to survive that shit!”

I’m starting to get annoyed. “Fine, if you know so much about it, then show us how to take down a wolf. I would like to see that!”

“You’re on! Give me a wolf to fight and I’ll show you but be prepared for broken bones and cuts because I won’t hold back!” With that she storms off towards her cottage.

What the hell was that? Fighting a wolf in your human form is suicide. On the other hand, she sounded so sure and that scares the shit out of me. Did the hunters really make her fight wolves?

Jason comes out of the pack house, carrying a large tray of scrambled eggs and bacon. He puts it on the table and sits down. “I thought I heard Kat out here?”

“She was,” I grumble.

“What happened?”

“She flipped out because we don’t do man against wolf training.” He raises his eyebrows. “That’s insane. It’s suicide.”

“That’s what I told her, but she wouldn’t listen.” I scratch my neck before I mumble, “and I guess I challenge her to show us how to do it:” His eyes widen, almost in horror before he says, “are you fucking crazy? She’s going to get hurt!”

“Not according to her.”

“Fuck,” he growls.

-----

Later, almost the whole pack is gathered in a big circle around Kat.

“Who wants to challenge me,” she asks. Silence. A smirk forms on her lips as she shouts, “COME ON PUSSIES, WHO WANTS TO FIGHT ME?”

Jason steps forward, but she stops him. “Not you,” she says. He furrows his brows, and she looks at him, almost begging him not to do it. “Please...” she says. He steps back, but he’s tense to the point where he’s almost shaking.

Then Charlie steps forward with a smirk and she rolls her eyes. “I’ll fight you,” he says. “Fine, but don’t hold back!” He chuckles, “Oh I won’t, sweetheart.” She lets out a rumbling growl and crouches down.

Charlie shifts into his white and brown wolf and immediately attacks her. She sprints towards him, throws herself onto the ground, slides under him and punches his kneecap on the way, popping it out of its socket, making him whimper. Sliding all the way out under him, she punches his hind leg hard, breaking it. Charlie falls down flat on the ground and she jumps up from behind him, lands on the back of his neck and pulls his ears hard. His head snaps back and she wraps her arm around his neck, makes a twisting motion to show us she could break his neck.

Well, fuck!

Jumping off him, she makes sure he’s okay, despite the broken knee and bone. A lot of us run to him to help him up. Then she looks around the crowd.

“You have to learn how to protect yourself! The opportunity to shift into your wolves isn’t always there. Now I will show you how to defend yourself with a knife. Any volunteers?”

Mike, who’s almost as big as Charlie, steps forward. She straps a knife around her thigh and crouches down again. Mike shifts and circles around her to see if she has any weaknesses.

He attacks by jumping towards her. Again, she sprints towards him, but this time, she jumps up to meet him in the air. She grabs ahold of his snapping jaw and swings her legs around his neck from under him.

Still, with a hand grabbing his jaw, she pulls out her knife and makes a fluid motion, showing us that she could cut his throat. Just for good measure, she now swings herself up so she’s straddling his neck and puts her knife away. Then she wraps her arms around his neck and holds him in a choke hold until he passes out.

Again, she jumps off him and looks at us. I can see the skin on her fingers are ripped off because she held onto his jaw. That must hurt like hell, but she doesn’t even flinch.

“This is only some of the ways to do it. Always use knives, because then you can do more damage.” With that, she pushes herself through the crowd and walks away.