The boss had his handgun out and pointed at the ground with one hand, sweeping the area with his high-intensity flashlight with the other; he paused with the light illuminating the killing ground where Leif had left the corpses of his men.
“Come out and face me, you monster!” the man shouted, firing his gun into the air twice.
Leif rose from the shadows behind them and reached out, claws raking across the throats of the two henchmen from behind. They managed to fire a few times, narrowly missing their own boss as they jerked and flailed, dying as they hit the ground.
“Fuck!” the mafia boss swore and he turned, firing point blank into Leif’s chest, emptying the gun.
The shots hurt, but he began healing immediately, the bullets forced out of his chest, bouncing like fat raindrops of blood onto the leaves as his body healed.
He loomed over the human who was sweating and shaking; terror made him keep pulling the trigger even after the click signaled it was spent. He tossed aside the handgun and struggled to move the rifle off his back into his hands, but Leif ripped the rifle away from him as the human stumbled back and then fell on his ass, flashlight falling to the ground, the beam lighting up Leif as he roared in challenge and rage, bending the rifle in his clawed hands, the wood of the stock shattering and the barrel bent in half.
“Thank you, my mate,” Alec said from the shadows, though Leif saw him easily. He still sat on the trunk of the fallen tree, hands in his pockets, watching intently. Leif puffed up, growling happily—his mate was pleased.
“You...what…what the fuck!” the mafia boss shouted, scrambling at his waist for a large hunting knife, struggling to get it free.
Alec’s grin in the shadows was sharp and deadly.
Alec
Leif was amazing.He was deadly and powerful and Alec wanted to give him the world.
He would, too, once he dealt with the human monster in his midst.
Leif grabbed Rodgers by the throat and dragged him to where Alec sat on the tree. The flashlight was bright enough that it lit up the clearing, one of those huge high-intensity lights poachers used lazily to shoot deer from the road.
Rodgers was wearing hunting gear that looked brand new and never used, and the knife he struggled to pull from his belt seemed to be stuck in the sheath.
“Let me help with that,” Alec said, leaning forward as Leif lifted the struggling human off the ground. Alec brushed the man’s hands away and unlocked the sheath guard, pulling the huge hunting knife free. “Leif, my mate, this is Dale Rodgers, boss of the mountain mafia in these parts.”
Leif pushed Rodgers to the ground on his knees, making him look up at Alec. His eyes were wide with terror and anger, and Alec thought he smelled piss. That pleased him.
“You know who I am?” Alec asked casually, holding up the knife to the light, admiring the serrated edges near the hilt and the sharp point.
Rodgers gurgled a bit and Leif loosened his grip just enough for the human to speak. “I don’t…who…monsters!”
Alec smiled, the motion a bit crooked but genuine. He pointed the knife at Rodgers. “You’re here with two crooked cops, henchmen, and armed with automatic rifles and tricked-out hunting gear. At night. In the deep woods. No one hunts at night with automatic rifles unless it’s for hogs, and there’s no hogs on this mountain, not with it being werewolf territory.”
Rodgers rolled his eyes in an attempt to look at Leif, but Leif’s grip on his neck made it hard. Alec tsked, holding the knife, waving the point a bit. “He isn’t your biggest worry right now. I am. Do you know who I am?”
Rodgers flailed a moment before he gasped. “That fae mutt I got from Stu.”
Leif growled, squeezing tight for a second, Rodgers’s eyes bulging.
“Careful, Dale. Can I call you Dale? He’s my mate, the wolf who has you by the neck. He’s very protective of me. Which is wonderful, since no one has cared about me since my mother died.” Alec gestured to the nearby corpses with the knife, Rodgers’s eyes following the steel as the edges caught the flashlight beam like fangs under the moon. “Are you going to answer my questions? Or is Leif going to eat you, one piece at a time?”
Leif growled low and long, Rodgers shaking in his grip.
“Alright! Alright! Call off your dog!” Rodgers screamed.
“Rude,” Alec said, tapping Rodgers on the nose with the flat of the knife. “My next question is an easy one. Who doyouwork for?”
“Work for? No one. No one tells me what to do!” Rodgers all but shouted, anger and fear strangling his voice,his hands scrabbling at the grip Leif had on his neck to no avail.
“You sure?” Alec sighed, looking around him at the carnage. “I don’t want more bodies in these woods. Is anyone gonna come looking for you if you don’t come back?”
“Lots of people! Everyone is gonna tear these woods apart if you kill me!” Rodgers spat out.
Leif grumbled and leaned over Rodgers, sniffing at his neck and face. “His scent is full of lies, and his heartbeat agrees. He is lying.”
