Alec hugged him tightly before letting go and heading to the laden bags, tugging out one of the new coats they got earlier. He yanked off the tags and shrugged it on, zipping it up before giving Leif a brilliant smile. “If they came in peace, we’d let them live—but if they’re trying to be stealthy, they mean trouble, and I say kill troublemakers.”
Leif breathed in again, and caught the scents of gunpowder and old blood. “They’re here for violence.”
Alec nodded and returned to the door, both of them facing outside, the shadows deep. “Like I said, kill them.”
“My bloodthirsty mate,” Leif murmured, leaning down and pressing a kiss to Alec’s soft hair.
“Are they still heading this way?” Alec asked him.
Leif nodded. “They are. Anyone coming from that direction has to be the mountain mafia.”
“Alright, we should have expected this. They’re probably looking for their people.”
“And you.” Leif reminded Alec.
Alec grimaced. “Yeah.”
“They likely won’t find the path up the hill,” Leif said, tucking Alec under his arm. “And the cabin is far enough back from the cliff edge that they won’t see the interior lights if they’re down where the bodies are. We can let them pass.”
Alec scoffed, looking up at him with a dubious expression on his face. “Like you’d let the mafia stomp through your territory without stopping them.”
“You know me so well already, little greenbough.” Leif gave Alec another kiss to the top of his head. “What’s our plan then?”
“Hunt them down.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Alec
He was dressedfor shenanigans in the woods this time, with properly fitted boots, gloves, a warm coat, and a beanie. Leif was distractingly hot, dressed in just his sweatpants, the waist elastic enough to handle it when Leif Changed into his lycan form and got huge.
Leif was huge everywhere.
His mate was enticing, but the situation they were in was dangerous, so Alec made himself set aside his lustful thoughts.
They stood at the cusp of the cliff overlooking the forest below. Leif pointed in the direction of the intruders, and sure enough, Alec could make out the beams of flashlights cutting through the trees in the distance. The woods were pitch black but for the gilding of silver from the moon, making the humans easy to spot.
“They aren’t worried about being seen.” Alec mused. “Didn’t you say they were trying to be stealthy?”
Leif waggled one massive hand tipped in claws. “My ears tell me they’re split into two groups. The main group is the one with the flashlights—a few people have moved ahead of the bigger group, likely the trackers. They might be using magic or have night vision goggles.”
Alec focused intently on the ambient magic fields—the fields of energy that existed everywhere on the planet, accessible to human practitioners of sufficient skill level and certain younger species of fae—like Alec. His mixed bag of genetics allowed him access to the energy of the world around him, letting him absorb power from the ambient magic fields, or directly from objects like a living tree, the earth, or a magical object. He didn’t need any energy, but the fields would react to magic being cast by practitioners, like stones thrown in a pond, the surface rippling in waves.
“I can’t sense any magic,” Alec told Leif, dropping his focus and rolling his shoulders, trying to relax. He was keyed up, adrenaline making him anxious.
“I can’t smell any, either,” Leif agreed. His voice was deeper and rumbly in his lycan form than his human.“Shall we?”
Leif knelt, and Alec climbed on his back like he had before, arms clinging to Leif’s shaggy shoulders and thick neck. Leif was warm, even through Alec’s coat, and he buried his nose in the thick fur of Leif’s lycan form.
“Comfortable?” Leif rumbled, one big hand coming up to clasp Alec’s wrists in a firm but gentle grip.
“Yup.”
Leif jumped into the darkness below.
Leif
The journeydown the cliffside was easy, Alec clinging to him like a burr. He made it down in two jumps, not wanting to hurt Alec by trying the full distance in a single bound. The inertia could dislocate Alec’s shoulders or risk Leif losing his grip on his mate.
