“I’m a terrifying monster, little greenbough,” Leif grumbled, pretending his tail was not wagging.
“Of course you are.” Alec dropped his hands to his waist, looking around. “Which way are the people coming from?”
Leif pointed with a long, clawed finger to the west, in the direction Alec had come from the day before.
“Let’s go,” Alec said, and surprised Leif again when he took one of Leif’s drastically larger hands in his, holding firmly, not at all put off by the inhuman fingers or long claws.
He took a few steps but his stride was far too long for Alec to keep up without running. Leif grumbled, but knelt beside his mate, who smiled wide and climbed back up on Leif’s back, and Leif helped arrange him so Alec could tuck one knee into Leif’s left armpit and he could help hold his mate up with light pressure on the bent leg with his upper arm. Alec’s weight was negligible.
Mate secured, Leif took off in the direction of the trespassers. The wind was quiet but there was just enough of a current that he was easily able to follow the scents of the mortal men to their position in a couple of minutes. He took his time, not wanting to get into the line of sight of a rifle, not with Alec on his back.
There weren’t many shadows for the intruders to hide in—the leaves had fallen and the forest floor wasthick with them, which helped him pinpoint their position with ease. Sunlight hit bare gray and brown trunks, making the dark forms of the mortal men shrouded in black from head to toe stand out in the autumnal palette of the forest. Leif’s coloration helped him blend in with the trees and the leaf-covered ground, and he moved fast enough that if anyone thought they saw him he was gone before they could turn their heads to double-check.
A slight rise from an uprooted tree gave Leif a safe place to crouch without being seen, and he let Alec slide from his back. Leif held still among the twisting roots that still clung to the base of the tree, giving them plenty of cover. They were about fifty feet from the six armed men loudly walking through the woods in their general direction, and one was sucking on a mint-scented vape that irritated his nose.
A seventh man stumbled along behind the group, middle-aged and out-of-shape, bald head covered in sweat despite the cool temperatures, face pale and cheeks flushed from exertion. He was breathing loudly, clearly winded, and he wore gym shoes, holey jeans, and a thin denim jacket over a stained white t-shirt, standing out like a sore thumb from the rest of the group.
Alec peeked through the roots and hissed in a sharp breath, pulling back quickly into Leif’s side, as if seeking protection. He wrapped an arm around his mate and ducked his head to Alec, who whispered into his ear. “The guy sweating his life away is my stepfather, Stu. The one who sold me to those guys,” Alec pointed to the men in black who were kicking at the ground, probably trying to find tracks or any sign of Alec’s trail through the woods. “I recognize all of them. All mafia men.”
“They’re trespassing in my territory,” Leifgrumbled as quietly as he could—he was a bit too large to whisper well. “And they harmed you.”
“I did try to blow them all up,” Alec replied quickly. “I don’t care if you kill them. Leave Stu to me, please.”
“As you wish,” Leif eased away from Alec slowly. “Wait until I call for you to come out. You’re not bulletproof.”
Alec nodded and stayed behind the tree.
Crouching on all fours, he waited for the group to pass their hiding spot before slinking out from behind the tree, none of the humans looking in his direction. He paused, eyed the distance, and then leapt.
Alec
WatchingLeif attack the men who held him prisoner for weeks was both liberating and shocking. It felt great to see threats to his freedom and life get struck down with such ease, and only shocking because it was way better than anything he’d seen in a monster movie featuring werewolves.
Shots rang out, and Alec winced, but if a lucky bullet or three found their target, Leif had no reaction, not even a flinch. He picked up one man who fired an entire clip at Leif without reaction from the werewolf, and then bit the screaming man’s head clean off and spit the skull out. Three men screamed in terror and split from the group, but Leif was on them instantly, two others shooting at the werewolf but hitting one of their own with friendly fire.
It was over quickly after that. Two men ran, but Leif caught up to them in seconds after dispatching his previoustargets with quick slashes of his claws across throats. Leif squashed one of them by leaping several yards and landing on his back, the crunching of many bones loud in the woods, that man dying with a gurgle from a crushed chest. The last man died with a wail of terror when Leif hamstrung him a few feet from Stu, Alec’s stepfather having fallen on his ass in the leaves, frozen, staring in horror as Leif decapitated the last man with a wrench of his jaws, blood spraying in a fountain over Stu.
Steam rose from hot blood scattered over disturbed leaves and damp earth, the harsh breaths and whimpers of Alec’s stepfather the only sound in the woods.
“It’s safe, little greenbough,” Leif called out, and Alec stood carefully, then made his way over to his mate, doing his best to avoid the worst of the gore and pooling blood.
“Are you alright?” Alec asked, eyeing the numerous bullet wounds on his mate. He was amazed to see the bullets be slowly pushed out by Leif’s healing ability, falling to the ground like bloody stars, loud as they hit the leaf cover. The holes closed, and there was barely any blood on Leif that was his own. His jaws and arms were soaked with blood, and his mate would need another bucket shower from the well before he went in the cabin.
“I am well, my mate,” Leif declared, standing as tall as his lycanthrope form allowed. His voice was a deep rumble of thunder among the trees, blood dripping from his red teeth.
Alec finally turned to his stepfather. “Hi, Stu. Been awhile. What’re you doing out in the woods?”
Stu shivered, a whole-body wrench as his mind tried to re-engage after shutting down in terror. “I..um..they said you ran away. I was… I was looking for you. Worried about my stepson.”
Alec rolled his eyes, and Leif growled so loudly the dry leaves shook at their feet. “I bet they made you come out here to help find me, or else they’d demand a refund of my purchase price. You were worried about your own hide, not mine. You did sell me to them in the first place. I haven’t forgotten that.”
Stu’s face morphed into a rictus of anger and greed. “You ruined everything, you fucking fairy. Should’ve stayed where you were told. At least your stupid mother made me a profit before she died.”
Alec had never felt rage like that moment—it didn’t cloud his vision or his thoughts, not like it would for a human. For him, the rage fueled his gifts. The world was bathed in light all around him, even the odious Stu, whose blood coursed through vessels nearly clogged by cholesterol and a brain and liver damaged by lifelong bad habits.
Lief roared, a terrible sound that shook the world, and Stu flinched back and tried to crawl away, but Alec moved to stand in his path. He knelt down, and held out his hand. He smiled, and Stu, confused and disgustingly hopeful, took it with a slow motion. Alec squeezed, but instead of helping his stepfather stand, he unleashed his gifts.
It took almost nothing to dislodge several clumps of white flakes in the arteries of the heart, making them denser, heavier, bulky enough to lodge in deeper and block the flow of blood to the muscles of the heart.
