11.
Lex
He loped along at a solid clip, neither exerting himself nor conserving all of his energy. The pace had swiftly gotten him to a nearby cabin on the far side of Sonnett’s Creek, and he’d managed make contact with Vince and told him to organize a rescue party. That done, he’d headed back up the hill, not wanting to leave Petal alone for any longer than absolutely necessary.
With the sun warming the earth now, he knew that the dangers of freezing would be past. The very unseasonal cold was dissipating quickly, unable to hold up for much longer. Lex was starting to grow suspicious of the weather patterns, but so far he’d not seen anything else to indicate that he should be worried. He hoped it stayed that way.
He leapt atop the fallen log where he’d changed the first time around, noting the hidden crevice where he’d kept his clothing. Preparing to resume his human form, he lay down, so as not to lose his balance during the change and fall into the muck below. A hazy memory of how he’d learned that lesson floated the surface, and he smiled.
Well, the wolf approximation of a smile, which looked almost the same as a snarl, but without the angry glare in his yellow eyes. It was still pretty scary.
Okay, time to get this over with. Petal will be going crazy waiting for you by now. You can reminisce later.
The fog started to blur over his mind as he initiated the change.
“LEX!”
The scream was distant, but easily understandable to his wolf’s ears. The white and gray tufts flicked up and in the direction of the cry. A cold which couldn’t be dissipated by the warmth of the tree he lay upon filtered into his system.
That was Petal’s voice. And she sounded like she was in trouble.
Ignoring his clothes, Lex launched himself from the tree, hitting the ground and accelerating to full speed in the blink of an eye. Mud churned beneath his paws as he shot up through the trees and out into the cleared hillside beyond.
What he saw in front of him made his stomach turn. Petal was backed up against a giant rock outcropping, swinging a branch she’d found somewhere in a large arc in front of her, trying desperately to keep the five wolves that had surrounded her at bay.
Lex noticed the pack was led by the same charcoal beast he’d encountered the day before. He thought he’d driven them off, teaching them a lesson not to mess with him. But obviously they were more stubborn than he’d counted on, and once he’d left the area, they had come back in search of Petal.
I won’t make that mistake twice.
The sounds of his passage were unavoidable. The pack would know he was coming, even with Petal screaming at them. Their hearing was just too good. But he didn’t care. Not only had the alpha disobeyed him, coming back to the area from which he’d driven them, but they had also threatened Petal, instead of coming after him.
Lex snarled a challenge, hoping to distract as many of them as possible. He didn’t want Petal to see this, and if he could get all of their attention, perhaps she could run away, or at least get out of sight. She was tougher than he’d given her credit for if the fresh blood on the alpha was any clue, but she didn’t need to see what was about to happen.
These hills were Lex’s territory. He’d been rather lax in enforcing that claim lately, having thought his reputation preceded him. But apparently a lesson needed to be taught to his wild kin, and the rest of the Underworld as well, if his other suspicions about certain other things were correct. He was going to start here.
The first wolf to turn was one of the smaller females on the outside of the circle. Lex hated himself for what he was about to do, but sometimes when delivering a lesson, the harshest way was best. He leapt onto her back, taking her down and rolling them away from the rest of the pack. Blood filled his mouth as he clamped down on her neck, his preternaturally strong jaws holding her tight despite the violent struggle.
Lex pinned her to the ground, holding her there while she whimpered pitifully. His eyes focused solely on the alpha, though he kept some attention in his brain on the others, in case one of them came after him. The alpha stepped forward, snarling. Lex could smell the connection between the two. This was one of his daughters.
You shouldn’t have come back.
Without taking his eyes off the smoky-colored animal, Lex calmly snapped her neck. The whimpering stopped immediately as the body went still. The alpha barked his anger at Lex, who calmly stood up, blood dripping from his bone-colored teeth as he advanced on the rest of the pack.
None of them flinched, but neither did they respond to his challenge. The remaining four wolves just stood there. The alpha was looking at Lex, but the other three had eyes only for their fallen family member. Lex calmly let his gaze slip from the alpha to the only other female in the pack. His mate. The unspoken threat was clear. If they didn’t leave, she was next.
The alpha shook with fury, growling and snarling, his paws digging deep into the mud. He didn’t want to back down twice to the same lone wolf. But he also had to know on some instinctual level that Lex was beyond any, or all of them.
Lex simply stood and waited, watching all of them. Finally the alpha turned and snarled something at his pack. They too began to turn and head back down the slope. Lex looked over his shoulder at Petal, as if to say “what are you waiting for?” No sooner had he done that than Petal took off, no longer confronted by the wolves. Lex waited until she was gone, then he made his move.
Shooting forward, he was among the pack members before they realized he’d started to move. The alpha and his largest son moved to protect his mate. Unfortunately for them, this was exactly what Lex had planned on. Sometimes it wasn’t fair, having a human-level intellect in the wolf’s body. But if it meant keeping Petal safe, he was going to use every advantage he had.
He angled to the smallest remaining male, likely the youngest out of all of the wolves, including the female he’d already killed. It wasn’t even a contest. The wolf was dead before he hit the ground, most of his throat hanging from one of Lex’s teeth. The coppery metallic tang of blood once again filled his mouth, making his stomach threaten to revolt.
Lex hated the taste of blood. Killing didn’t bother him, not anymore. But one thing he’d never been able to get over was the taste of blood in his mouth after a fresh kill. It still made him want to hurl, even all these years later.
The alpha spun and made a pained-sounding noise as he saw the second of his children lying limply on the ground, having breathed its last breath, hunted its last meal. Lex stood over the dead animal and very calmly spat what had been its throat at the alpha.
Yellow eyes blazed with hatred, narrowing to slits as the charcoal alpha nearly lost control, driven to an uncontrollable rage by Lex’s murder of his offspring.
Too bad. You shouldn’t have threatened my mate. Now get out of my hills.
Lex took a step forward. The female and remaining male visibly flinched. The alpha didn’t, but his noises tapered off. He let out a snarl from his throat, trying to communicate with the wild animal, hoping he got the point to leave and never come back. Otherwise Lex would kill the others, leaving only him alive to live with the hurt.
Contrary to public opinion, Lex knew full well that the wild wolves could feel the pain of losing a family member, and that they would mourn their fallen ones later that night. But they would mourn them somewhere else. Not here. That was his command.
Lex took another step forward.
The alpha gave one last snarl, then reluctantly dropped his head and turned it to the side, exposing his neck as he backed away, his mate and remaining son already heading back down the mountain at a quick lope.
Lex snarled and flicked his head after the retreating pair. The alpha spun and raced after them. When he got to them the trio picked up speed and disappeared into the forest shortly thereafter, angling hard to the east, headed out of Lex’s hills. He made a mental note to track them after he got Petal back to safety. Not because he feared they might come back, but because he wanted to know what—or who—had urged them to enter his territory in the first place.
He stood like that, lips pulled back, eyes wide and scanning slowly from left to right for several long minutes, giving the wolves plenty of time to head on out. Then, with one long last look behind him at where Petal had disappeared back up the hill, he darted forward, wishing not for the first time that he didn’t have to strip every time he changed. But the transformation never applied to clothes, which meant that if he wanted to show up dressed, he needed to go get his clothes first, then go get Petal.
After all, showing up naked might just freak her out even more. She was going to be stressed enough; a naked giant trying to hold her and soothe her probably wasn’t the best thing for her just then. He reached the log, still lamenting the fact that he had to leave her alone, changed, donned his clothes, and raced back up the hill in human form as fast as he could.
Petal needed him, and by all that was powerful he was going to show up.