Saturday, April 6, 2013

Just for you Rachael !!!

First I just want to tell you that this a VERY ROUGH FIRST DRAFT, lol. Second, All I am looking for is to find out which, if either, sounds better. Do you prefer 1st over 3rd or vise versa? I also would like to know if you can hear the male and female voice as separate and distinct. Do you hear them more in one pov than the other, or not at all. It's okay if you think, "Man this completely sucks" Haha. I'm just so honored (and very embarrassed)  to have you read this for me. Anything you comment on at all, even if it is bad, will be cherished, and listened to. Jeesh, I still can't believe it's you!! Totally star struck!

Here is the 1st person pov chapter:


J.J. whimpered hanging his snout low to the ground. The packs heightened angst caused every muscle in my hindquarters to tighten. 
“Why are you so edgy?” J.J. sent me his thought.
I didn’t answer him. Hell, I couldn’t answer him. I felt Lily’s body tremble with fear and it consumed me. My body shook in response to hers. Every nerve in the pack’s bodies sizzled, intensifying the unwanted anxiety that snaked down my spine.
            “God, Rhett! Seriously? Is that her making you feel this way because I feel like I’m ready to explode?”
            “Oh really? Have you forgotten I can feel all the shit you guys feel? Dammit! Yes, Kat, it’s her, and I would fucking love to know why, but I don’t. Something’s off.”       
Kat pranced in a circle, her irritation vibrating through my chest.
            “Rhett?” Meg’s meager voice barely registered, as thoughts of what could be happening raced through my mind.
            I shifted my eyes from the forest floor to meet hers. “What, Meg?” The ache her chest raked at my gut.
            Meg nuzzled against Cowboy. “None of this makes sense, but if you don’t find out what’s wrong it will drive you crazy.” I cringed, already feeling deep within my chest, how she and the pack felt, even if they didn’t understand it.
            “We can’t, Meg.”
            “What did she say?” The demand in Cowboys question caused my anxiety to skyrocket. Cowboy’s obsessions to protect his mate often irritated the rest of the pack, primarily because they couldn’t relate to the bond the two shared for one another.
Brick growled. Out of all of us, I could feel him on the verge of destruction, ready to tear into something. “Something is going on. This is bullshit! What the hell are you waiting for!”
I leapt at Brick and hunched low to the ground ready to challenge him. The bristles on my back stood erect. “It’s not up to you!”
Brick curled his lips exposing razor sharp teeth. “Maybe it should be!”
He may have been the biggest out of all of us, but my speed couldn’t be outmatched. I lunged for his throat and sunk my teeth into thick black fur. The taste of his blood covered my tongue. He yelped, but snapped back latching onto my tail as I spun around ready to tear into the tendons of his back leg.
“Stop!” Kat slammed her body sideways into mine throwing me off balance. “Bricks not who you’re angry at. Knock off your Alpha bullshit and let’s do what we need to and then figure out why you can somehow feel her.”
I whipped my head sideways and glared at Kat. “If we expose ourselves, I’d be putting the whole pack in danger.”
Brick rammed me on the other side. “I’d rather be put in danger than feel this crap. If you don’t help her, then I will! Whatever this thing is you have with her is making the rest of us miserable, so quit being an ass and let’s go! We can handle ourselves. Well, most of us.” He narrowed his eyes at J.J. who pranced back and forth between Cowboy and the trees behind him.
“That’s enough, Brick!”
My overwhelming anguish about exposing the pack, possibly putting them in danger, to keep Lily from being harmed in any way, was tearing me apart. It didn’t make any sense to have such an extreme need to protect a girl I barely knew, but for some unknown reason, I knew a piece of me would be lost forever if something happened to her. Our savage nature, as wolves, was a thought that scared me. Could we contain the beasts within us if faced with danger? I wasn’t sure, but my decision to do whatever needed to be done to keep Lily safe had really been made long ago; coming to terms with it was the part I wasn’t sure I could face. Whatever the strange attachment was that I had with Lily didn’t make it okay to shove the anguish and physically uncomfortable feelings onto my pack any longer.
 “I’m going to find out what’s going on with Lily. If you don’t want to put yourself in danger, then stay back. I won’t blame you.”
I whipped my body around and bolted towards where the forest ended. I could smell Lily’s blood the closer I got to Woodies. It made me want to puke. My chest tightened knowing she’d already been hurt to an extent. The pack felt my despair and howled running full speed just a few feet behind me.
The forest came to life as sticks snapped beneath twenty-four paws all clawing at the earth to run faster.
Breaking through the edge of the tree line, we skidded on the gravel a few feet away from Lily. Blood trickled from her neck as an older man pressed the sharp edge of a knife into her skin. A warning growl erupted from deep in my chest. Pure rage engulfed my body seeing Lily’s frightened face, and feeling the nerves in her body dance.
A rush of adrenalin washed through me when the pack felt my rage. They were ready strike.
We circled the man with our bodies pressed low to the ground, ears flattened, hackles raised. Lily and the man’s eyes widened at six sets of bared teeth all snarling and ready to attack. I began snapping my jaws and the others joined in.
Tears streamed down Lily’s face as she sobbed behind closed lips. The knife against her throat shook in the guys trembling hand. His face looked ghostly white. I could smell the fear that oozed from him.
The pack grew impatient. They maintained greater control of their feral nature than I’d expected. Knowing there was a connection to Lily, kept a piece of my humanity in tact. I analyzed the situation with a little more precision than if I was hunting prey.
Brick inched forward and the man stumbled backwards. He pulled Lily with him. His actions weren’t any different than that of the prey we hunted. Man or animal, they all tried to back away.
“Not yet, Brick! I’ll give the order.” Brick’s apprehension came through loud and clear, but he obeyed.
            The knife sliced deeper into Lily’s flesh with the jerky movement. She whined feeling the burn as the blade sliced deeper. I felt the painful searing at the base of my neck.
            My chest vibrated in reaction to the anger that engulfed me, which in turn caused my pack’s chest’s to vibrate. The attack was eminent. Twelve eyes narrowed, all pinpointing where we’d attack first. Our ferocious barking grew louder.
            The skin on the man’s knuckles grew taut as he tightened his grip on the knife. In one swift motion he moved his hands to Lily’s back and shoved her towards my seething pack. She screamed landing only inches from us. The man took off towards the back stoop of Woodies.
            “Now!”
            The pack bolted over Lily, a few digging their claws into her body, as they ran towards our intended target. Fire blazed inside me blinding any shreds of humanity that remained. The fierce beast within me took over. Before the man could make it up the third step towards the door, I bit deep into his calf scraping bone. A blood-curdling scream belted from his mouth. The man wailed as he reached forward and beat his fist on the door. Within seconds the pack began tearing into the man’s flesh. He kicked and swatted at us, be he was no match. We had him pinned. The more blood we tasted the more vicious we became, sometimes even snarling at each other. Just as I lunged for his throat charring pain sliced through my ribs. We all fell to the ground. The pain hadn’t come from me. J.J. yelped and howled writhing on the gravel. The man had stabbed J.J. in the ribs. The pack backed away, all feeling his pain through me.
            The door to Woodies flew open and Joe fired a shot into the air. The pack scattered into the woods leaving J.J. and me behind. Joe pointed the shotgun at me while J.J. bayed as blood flowed from his side. I lowered my head to the ground and snarled at Joe. Keeping his eyes on me, Joe dragged the scumbag halfway inside. Joe fired another warning shot, but I didn’t run. I couldn’t leave J.J. to die. There was a good chance he’d heal if I got him back to the woods.
            I crept backwards towards J.J. keeping my eyes on the double barrel shot gun knowing at any moment Joe wouldn’t hesitate to cock and shoot.
            “Lily!” Joe shouted, shear panic in his voice. I shifted my eyes for a second and saw her curled in a ball, her hand covering her head. My heart picked up pace in sync with hers. I couldn’t let myself be distracted by Lily; it was J.J. that was the one in danger.
Still lowered to the ground and one eye on Joe, I shuffled backwards. A slow steady growl vibrated through my exposed canines as I inched towards my fallen pack mate. When I reached J.J., I lowered my snout and bit down into the loose skin on the back of his neck. J.J. whimpered as my canines tore into his skin. My neck ached from the phantom pain.
            Slowly, I began to drag J.J. towards the woods until my back paw bumped into Lily’s body. My muscles instantly tightened as her fear washed through me. I released J.J.’s neck letting him flop to the ground. For a moment I forgot about the gun and shifted my eyes to Lily’s. In that instant my heart swelled and pounded so hard feeling euphoric like with a first crush. Lily’s trembling disappeared as she stared into my eyes. The tension in my muscles relaxed. I bent towards her face and nudged her shoulder with my snout. Her brown eyes softened as she looked up at me from the ground. I saw my own sympathetic eyes reflected in hers. Lily lifted her hand slowly and reached for the top of my head.
            “Lily, no!” Joe cocked the gun ready to pull the trigger.
            Lily and I whipped our heads towards Joe.
            The lowlife we’d attacked gripped his calf and rocked back and forth grunting in pain. “Kill that mangy bastard!”
            “No! Joe don’t!” Lily thrust her arm out towards Joe, palm facing him and fingers sprawled. “Don’t shoot!” Joe hesitated still resting his cheek against the barrel of the gun squinting one eye. “He’s not going to hurt me.”
####
            “Lily, don’t move!” Joe’s voice scared me. I thought for sure he was going to shoot the wolf standing beside me.
            I shifted my eyes from Joe back to the silver-gray wolf. Something behind his almost human, blue-green eyes appeared saddened. My heart ached seeing the anguish behind them. He was there for me. Every fiber of my being told me that the savage creature would not harm me. It didn’t matter what I’d seen the wolves do to my attacker. Something almost magical connected me to the wolf. It felt like I knew him, however incomprehensible that seemed. Safety and security surrounded the wolf encompassing me inside his bubble. It was so weird, but I couldn’t look away from his eyes. If felt like he was drinking me in. That should have freaked me out, but instead it felt somehow intimate.
            I blinked, tearing my eyes away from the gray wolf, when the smaller tan wolf whimpered. Tears welled in my eyes, however bizarre it seemed, as I felt my heart throb painfully, pain that throbbed from the heart of the gray wolf, pain solely for the injured wolf. I felt a weird connection to the smaller wolf too, but it was a different kind of connection than that of the silver-gray wolf. Less intense, but still there. Sorrow filled my chest knowing that the tan wolf probably would not survive. Blood coated the whole right side of his body and his breathing had become less frequent. He closed his eyes before I could see if they looked human as well.
I peered back into the eyes of the gray wolf and lifted my hand, gently pressing it to the side of his neck. He flinched, but then slowly leaned into me. I could sense that he wanted me to touch him. His fur felt thick and bristly on the ends, but as I delved my fingers deeper it became warm and soft. I swirled my fingers around in a small circle repeating the motion in awe of how I could touch something so wild, so untamed. The wolf’s stare warmed my insides. His eyes penetrated deeper through mine as I pressed further into his fur. My breathing sped up to match his. It felt almost…erotic.
            I’d forgotten about Joe standing only a few yards away with a shotgun, and forgotten about my attacker, and forgotten about the slice across my neck, and even forgotten how scared I felt watching the wolves attack the man not knowing if I might be next.
            The wolf’s blue-green eyes moved from mine to my neck reminding me of the punctured skin on my throat. I lifted my hand from the wolf and pressed it against my neck. Salt from my skin meshed with the open wound and caused me to wince. I pulled my hand away to see a thin red line of blood covering my palm.
            The wolf inched closer to me dropping his head near my neck. The edge of his ear brushed against my cheek. My heart picked up pace, but not out of fear. I could smell his earthy scent of dirt and leaves. He butted his snout under my chin and a shiver raced down my spine as his cold wet nose touched my skin. I took it as a signal to lift my head. Under normal circumstances I would have yelled at anyone else for being so completely stupid enough to let a wild animal so close to them, let alone their exposed throat. Somehow it felt right to have him near me. I lifted my chin and heard him sniff. I closed my eyes as his rough, warm tongue slid across my throat. He whimpered and then licked my neck again. His tongue caused my insides to tingle and any pain that I had felt from the cut suddenly became numb, like he had put an anesthetic on my injury.
            I jumped when Joe shot the gun off into the air.
            “Go! Get the hell out of here!”
            I whirled my head towards Joe who’d taken a step down the three short stairs of the back exit. He aimed his gun again, this time at the wolf. I wanted to yell, but the whole encounter with the wolf rendered me speechless. The wolf’s eyes focused on Joe and his ears flattened. He began to snarl. Adrenaline coursed through my body, afraid for the wolf, but I couldn’t sense any fear on the wolf’s part. He moved backwards keeping his eyes on Joe, then bit into the smaller wolf’s fur. Joe crept down another step, then the last step, gun cocked and aimed to fire. The wolf stood tall and firm with his mouth clamped onto the backside of the injured wolf. He shifted his eyes to me for a brief second, and then darted for the woods carrying the smaller wolf. I turned and caught sight of the very hind part of him before he disappeared into the forest.
            The sound of metal hitting gravel reached my ears. Joe had thrown the gun to the ground and then rushed towards me.
            “Oh dear God! Are you okay?” He babbled as he dropped to his knees beside me. “I was too afraid to shoot that wolf. It was too close to you.” Joe’s arms wrapped around my waist and he pulled me onto his lap. “I thought for sure it was going to rip out your throat.” Tears welled in his eyes.
            “Joe, it’s fine. He wasn’t going to hurt me.” I placed my hand on his shoulder to reassure him although I wasn’t quite sure that actually worked. Strange as it may have sounded, I felt completely relaxed and peaceful.
            Joe held me out at arms length inspecting my body. “Did the wolf do that to you?” He pointed at the slice across my neck.
            I turned my head and narrowed my eyes at the guy on the landing still grasping his leg. “No he didn’t. But you might want to ask the jackass over there to enlighten you.” Joe glanced back at the balding man and dipped his brows.
            “He did that to you?” A deep line left a vertical crease etched between his brows. “That’s Tom. He’s been coming here for years. I’ve never known him to hurt anyone.”
            “Well, Joe,” I used his shoulder as a hoist to stand. “Your good old boy, Tom over there, either has an evil twin brother running around, or a very twisted way of welcoming the new help.”
            Joe grabbed his gun from the ground. “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch!”
            I reached forward and snagged the collar of Joe’s shirt not intending for his head to snap back. “Whoa, hold up there, Wyatt Earp. Don’t feel like losing my job because my boss went all Wild West on some a-hole and got a life sentence for murder. Just get the drunken creep an ambulance. I highly doubt he’ll be able to jump any girls from now on.” I smirked rather proudly. “The way those wolves tore into him, he’ll be lucky to walk without a cane.”
            “You know, that was pretty stupid touching that animal. It could have killed you. Especially since you were already bleeding.”
            “Okay mom.”
            Joe sighed, “What am I going to do with you?”
            I really hadn’t thought about the blood thing and wild animals, but Joe would think I was crazy if I told him I knew in my heart that the wolf really wanted to protect me. How could I explain a connection between a wild animal and myself? It didn’t make sense to even me. It was best just to play things off.
            “Yeah. Guess that was kind of dumb now that I think about it.”
            Joe grinned and shook his head. “You kids these days. Act first, think second.” He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and squeezed. “Back in my day, my dad would have let that wolf attack me just to teach me a lesson.”
            I couldn’t help but to giggle. “I know, and bread was a nickel, Coke came in bottles, not cans, and the word gay meant happy. Yadda, yadda, yadda.”
            Joe swatted me on the behind. “Okay, I get it you little smart-alec.”
            “Ouch.” I grabbed my stinging bottom then snickered. “Enough already, George Clooney.”
            “Hey now. I’m not old enough to be your grandpa.” Joe’s mischievous grin made me smile.
            Joe reached out caught my wrist and twirled me around so that we were face to face. He tilted my chin up with a finger inspecting my neck. “I think we ought to clean that out before I take you home.”
            “Joe, Really? I only live a few miles from here. I’m totally fine, and when I get home my germ-a-phobe, hypochondriac roommate will insist on cleaning it out again anyway. Plus I’m not leaving Dani’s prized car here overnight.”
            Joe cocked a brow glancing at the 1984 Buick Skylark. “Alright, darling. But straight home and I’ll pay you a hundred dollars flat to stay home tomorrow and relax.” I began to object, but Joe cut me off throwing his palm in front of my face. “I’m not taking no for an answer. Besides, I have a feeling all this hasn’t sunk in yet. You’re going to need the day off. Sleep in, watch a movie, take a bubble bath. Whatever girly crap you girls like to do.”
            My lips curved up at ‘girly crap’. I bumped Joe in the arm with my shoulder. “You’re good peeps, Joe.”

Here is the 3rd person pov chapter:

J.J. whimpered hanging his snout low to the ground. The pack’s heightened angst caused every muscle in Rhett’s hindquarters to tighten. 
“Why are you so edgy?” J.J. sent his thought to Rhett.
He didn’t answer him. Hell, he couldn’t answer him. Rhett felt Lily’s body tremble with fear and it consumed him. His body shook in response to hers. Every nerve in the pack’s bodies sizzled, intensifying the unwanted anxiety that snaked down his spine.
            “God, Rhett! Seriously? Is that her making you feel this way because I feel like I’m ready to explode?”
            “Oh really? Have you forgotten I can feel all the shit you guys feel? Dammit! Yes, Kat, it’s her, and I would fucking love to know why, but I don’t. Something’s off.” Kat pranced in a circle, her irritation vibrating through Rhett’s chest.
            “Rhett?” Meg’s meager voice barely registered, as thoughts of what could be happening raced through Rhett’s mind.
            He shifted his eyes from the forest floor to meet hers. “What, Meg?” The ache her chest raked at his gut.
            Meg nuzzled against Cowboy. “None of this makes sense, but if you don’t find out what’s wrong with her it will drive you crazy.” Rhett cringed; already feeling deep within his chest, that what Meg said was how the pack felt, even if they didn’t understand it.
            “We can’t, Meg.”
            “What did she say?” The demand in Cowboy’s question caused Rhett’s anxiety to skyrocket. Cowboy’s obsessions to protect his mate often irritated the rest of the pack, primarily because they couldn’t relate to the bond the two shared for one another.
Brick growled. Out of all of them, Rhett could feel him on the verge of destruction, ready to tear into something. “Something is going on. This is bullshit! What the hell are you waiting for!”
Rhett leapt at Brick and hunched low to the ground ready to challenge him. The bristles on his back stood erect. “It’s not up to you!”
Brick curled his lips exposing razor sharp teeth. “Maybe it should be!”
He may have been the biggest one in the pack, but Rhett’s speed couldn’t be outmatched. He lunged for Bricks throat and sunk his teeth into thick black fur. The taste of Brick’s blood covered Rhett’s tongue. Brick yelped, but snapped back latching onto Rhett’s tail just before he spun around ready to tear into the tendons of Brick’s back leg.
“Stop!” Kat slammed her body sideways into Rhett’s throwing him off balance. “Bricks not who you’re angry at. Knock off your Alpha bullshit and let’s do what we need to and then figure out why you can somehow feel her.”
Rhett whipped his head sideways and glared at Kat. “If we expose ourselves I’d be putting the whole pack in danger.”
Brick rammed against Rhett’s other side. “I’d rather be put in danger than feel this crap. If you don’t help her, then I will! Whatever this thing is you have with her is making the rest of us miserable, so quit being an ass and let’s go! We can handle ourselves. Well, most of us.” He narrowed his eyes at J.J. who pranced back and forth between Cowboy and the trees behind him.

“That’s enough, Brick!”
Rhett’s overwhelming anguish about exposing his pack, possibly putting them in danger, to keep Lily from being harmed in any way, tore him apart. It didn’t make any sense to have such an extreme need to protect a girl he barely knew, but for reasons he couldn’t explain, he knew a piece of him would be lost forever if something happened to her. Their savage nature, as wolves, scared Rhett. Could they contain the beasts within them if faced with danger? He wasn’t sure, but his decision to do whatever needed to be done to keep Lily safe had really been made long ago; coming to terms with it was the part he wasn’t sure he could face. Whatever the strange attachment was he had with Lily didn’t make it okay to shove his anguish and physically uncomfortable feelings onto his pack any longer.
“I’m going to find out what’s going on with Lily. If you don’t want to put yourself in danger, then stay back. I won’t blame you.”
Rhett whipped his body around and bolted towards where the forest ended. He could smell Lily’s blood the closer he got to Woodies. It made him want to puke. His chest tightened knowing she’d already been hurt. The pack felt Rhett’s despair and howled running full speed just a few feet behind him.
The forest came to life as sticks snapped beneath twenty-four paws all clawing at the earth to run faster.
Breaking through the edge of the tree line, the pack skidded on the gravel a few feet away from Lily. Blood trickled from her neck as an older man pressed the sharp edge of a knife into her skin. A warning growl erupted from deep in Rhett’s chest. Pure rage engulfed his body seeing Lily’s frightened face and feeling the nerves in her body dance.
A rush of adrenalin washed through him when the pack felt his rage. They were ready strike.
They circled the man with their bodies pressed low to the ground, ears flattened, hackles raised. Lily and the man’s eyes widened at six sets of bared teeth all snarling and ready to attack. Rhett began snapping his jaws and the others joined in.
Tears streamed down Lily’s face as she sobbed behind closed lips. The knife against her throat shook in the guys trembling hand. His face looked ghostly white. Rhett smelled the fear that oozed from him.
The pack grew impatient. They maintained greater control of their feral nature than Rhett had expected. Knowing there was a connection to Lily, kept a piece of Rhett’s humanity in tact. He analyzed the situation with a little more precision than if he was hunting prey.
Brick inched forward and the man stumbled backwards. He pulled Lily with him. The man’s instinct for self-preservation wasn’t any different than that of the prey they stalked. Man or animal, they all tried to back away.
“Not yet, Brick! I’ll give the order.” Brick’s apprehension came through loud and clear, but he obeyed.
            The knife sliced deeper into Lily’s flesh with the jerky movement. She whined feeling the burn as the blade sliced deeper. Rhett felt the painful searing at the base of his neck.
            His chest vibrated in reaction to the anger that engulfed him, which in turn caused the pack’s chest’s to vibrate. The attack was eminent. Twelve eyes narrowed, all pinpointing where they’d attack first. The pack’s ferocious barking grew louder.
            The skin on the man’s knuckles grew taut as he tightened his grip on the knife. In one swift motion he moved his hands to Lily’s back and shoved her towards the seething pack. She screamed landing only inches from them. The man took off towards the back stoop of Woodies.
            “Now!”
            The pack bolted over Lily, a few digging their claws into her body, as they ran towards their intended target. Fire blazed inside Rhett blinding any shreds of humanity that remained. The fierce beast within him took over. Before the man could make it up the third step towards the door, Rhett bit deep into his calf scraping bone. A blood-curdling scream belted from his mouth. The man wailed as he reached forward and beat his fist on the door. Within seconds the pack began tearing into the man’s flesh. He kicked and swatted at the wolves, but he was no match for them. They had him pinned. The more blood the pack tasted the more vicious they became, sometimes even snarling at each other. Just as Rhett lunged for his throat, charring pain sliced through his ribs. The whole pack fell to the ground, but the pain hadn’t come from Rhett. J.J. yelped and howled writhing on the gravel. The man had stabbed J.J. in the ribs. The pack whimpered and backed away, all feeling J.J.’s pain through Rhett.
            The door to Woodies flew open and Joe fired a shot into the air. The pack scattered into the woods leaving J.J. and Rhett behind. Joe pointed the shotgun at Rhett while J.J. bayed as blood flowed from his side. Rhett lowered his head to the ground and snarled at Joe. Keeping his eyes on Rhett, Joe dragged the scumbag halfway inside and then fired another warning shot, but Rhett didn’t run. He couldn’t leave J.J. to die. There was a good chance he’d heal if Rhett got him back into the woods.
Rhett crept backwards towards J.J. keeping his eyes on the double barrel shot gun knowing at any moment Joe wouldn’t hesitate to cock and shoot.
            “Lily!” Joe shouted, shear panic in his voice. Rhett shifted his eyes for a second and saw her curled in a ball, her hand covering her head. Rhett’s heart picked up pace in sync with hers. He couldn’t let himself be distracted by Lily; J.J. was the one in danger.
Still lowered to the ground and one eye on Joe, Rhett shuffled backwards. A slow steady growl vibrated through his exposed canines as he inched towards his fallen pack mate. When Rhett reached J.J., he lowered his snout and bit down into the loose skin on the back of his neck. J.J. whimpered as Rhett’s canines tore into his skin. Rhett’s neck ached from the phantom pain.
            Slowly, Rhett began to drag J.J. towards the woods until his back paw bumped into Lily’s body. Rhett’s muscles instantly tightened as her fear washed through him. He released J.J.’s neck letting him flop to the ground. For a moment Rhett forgot about the gun and shifted his eyes to Lily’s. In that instant his heart swelled and pounded so hard feeling euphoric like with a first crush. Lily’s trembling disappeared as she stared into his eyes. The tension in Rhett’s muscles relaxed. He bent towards her face and nudged her shoulder with his snout. Her brown eyes softened as she looked up at him from the ground. He saw his own sympathetic eyes reflected in hers. Lily lifted her hand slowly and reached for the top of Rhett’s head.
            “Lily, no!” Joe cocked the gun ready to pull the trigger.
            Lily and Rhett whipped their heads towards Joe.
            The lowlife they’d attacked gripped his calf and rocked back and forth grunting in pain. “Kill that mangy bastard!”
            “No! Joe don’t!” Lily thrust her arm out towards Joe, palm facing him and fingers sprawled. “Don’t shoot!” Joe hesitated still resting his cheek against the barrel of the gun squinting one eye. “He’s not going to hurt me.”
####
            “Lily, don’t move!” Joe’s voice scared Lily. She thought for sure he was going to shoot the wolf standing beside her.
            She shifted her eyes from Joe back to the silver-gray wolf. Something behind his almost human, blue-green eyes appeared saddened. Her heart ached seeing the anguish behind them. He was there for her. Every fiber of her being told Lily that the savage creature would not harm her. It didn’t matter what she’d seen the wolves do to her attacker. Something almost magical connected her to the wolf. It felt like she knew him, however incomprehensible that seemed. Safety and security surrounded the wolf encompassing her inside his bubble. It was so weird, but she couldn’t look away from his eyes. It felt like he was drinking her in. It should have freaked her out, but instead it felt somehow intimate.
            Lily blinked, tearing her eyes away from the gray wolf, when the smaller tan wolf whimpered. Tears welled in her eyes, however bizarre it seemed, as she felt her heart throb painfully, pain that throbbed from the heart of the gray wolf, pain solely for the injured wolf. Lily felt a weird connection to the smaller wolf too, but it was a different kind of connection than that of the silver-gray wolf. Less intense, but still there. Sorrow filled her chest knowing that the smaller wolf probably would not survive. Blood coated the whole right side of his body and his breathing had become less frequent. He closed his eyes before she could see if they looked human as well.
Lily peered back into the eyes of the gray wolf and lifted her hand, gently pressing it to the side of his neck. He flinched, but then slowly leaned into her. She could sense that he wanted her to touch him. His fur felt thick and bristly on the ends, but as she delved her fingers deeper it became warm and soft. Lily swirled her fingers around in a small circle repeating the motion in awe of how she could touch something so wild, so untamed. The wolf’s stare warmed her insides. His eyes penetrated deeper through hers as she pressed further into his fur. Her breathing sped up to match his. It felt almost…erotic.
            She’d forgotten about Joe standing only a few yards away with a shotgun, and forgotten about her attacker, and forgotten about the slice across her neck, and even forgotten how scared she felt watching the wolves attack the man not knowing if she might be next.
            The wolf’s blue-green eyes moved from Lily’s to her neck reminding her of the punctured skin on her throat. She lifted her hand from the wolf and pressed it against her neck. Salt from her skin meshed with the open wound and caused her to wince. She pulled her hand away to see a thin red line of blood covering her palm.
            The wolf inched closer to Lily and dropped his head near her neck. The edge of his ear brushed against her cheek. Lily’s heart picked up pace, but not out of fear. She could smell his earthy scent of dirt and leaves. He butted his snout under her chin and a shiver raced down her spine as his cold wet nose touched her skin. She took it as a signal to lift her head. Under normal circumstances she would have yelled at anyone else for being so completely stupid enough to let a wild animal get so close to them, let alone their exposed throat. Somehow it felt right to have him near her. Lily lifted her chin and heard him sniff. She closed her eyes as his rough, warm tongue slid across her throat. He whimpered and then licked her neck again. His tongue caused her insides to tingle and any pain she’d felt from the cut became numb, like he’d put an anesthetic on her injury.
            Lily jumped when Joe shot the gun off into the air.
            “Go! Get the hell out of here!”
            She whirled her head towards Joe who’d taken a step down the three short stairs of the back exit. He aimed his gun again, this time at the wolf. Lily wanted to yell, but the whole encounter with the wolf rendered her speechless. The wolf’s eyes re-focused on Joe and his ears flattened. He began to snarl. Adrenaline coursed through her body, afraid for the wolf, but she didn’t sense any fear on his part. He moved backwards keeping his eyes on Joe, and then bit into the smaller wolf’s fur. Joe crept down another step, then the last step, gun cocked and aimed to fire. The wolf stood tall and firm with his mouth clamped onto the backside of the injured wolf. He shifted his eyes to Lily’s for a brief second, and then darted for the woods carrying the smaller wolf. Lily turned and caught sight of the very hind part of him before he disappeared into the forest.
            The sound of metal hitting gravel reached her ears. Joe had thrown his gun to the ground, and then rushed towards Lily.
            “Oh dear God! Are you okay?” He babbled as he dropped to his knees beside her. “I was too afraid to shoot that wolf. It was too close to you.” Joe’s arms wrapped around Lily’s waist and then he pulled her onto his lap. “I thought for sure it was going to rip out your throat.” Tears welled in his eyes.
            “Joe, it’s fine. He wasn’t going to hurt me.” She placed a hand on his shoulder to reassure him although she wasn’t sure that actually worked. Strange as it may have sounded, she felt completely relaxed and peaceful.
            Joe held Lily out at arms length inspecting her body. “Did the wolf do that to you?” He pointed at the slice across her neck.
            She turned her head narrowing her eyes at the guy on the landing still grasping his leg. “No he didn’t. But you might want to ask the jackass over there to enlighten you.” Joe glanced back at the balding man and dipped his brows.
            “He did that to you?” A deep line left a vertical crease etched between his brows. “That’s Tom. He’s been coming here for years. I’ve never known him to hurt anyone.”
            “Well, Joe,” Lily gripped Joe’s shoulder using it as a hoist to stand. “Your good old boy, Tom over there, either has an evil twin brother running around, or a very twisted way of welcoming the new help.”
            Joe grabbed his gun from the ground. “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch!”
            Lily reached forward and snagged the collar of Joe’s shirt not intending for his head to snap back. “Whoa, hold up there, Wyatt Earp. Don’t feel like losing my job because my boss went all Wild West on some a-hole and got a life sentence for murder. Just get the drunken creep an ambulance. I highly doubt he’ll be able to jump any girls from now on.” Lily smirked rather proudly. “The way those wolves tore into him, he’ll be lucky to walk without a cane.”
            “You know, that was pretty stupid touching that animal. It could have killed you. Especially since you were already bleeding.”
            “Okay mom.”
            Joe sighed, “What am I going to do with you?”
            Lily really hadn’t thought about the blood thing and wild animals, but Joe would think she was crazy if she told him that deep in her heart she knew the wolf really wanted to protect her. How could she explain a connection between a wild animal and herself? It didn’t make sense to even her. It was best just to play things off.
            “Yeah. Guess that was kind of dumb now that I think about it.”
            Joe grinned and shook his head. “You kids these days. Act first, think second.” He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and squeezed. “Back in my day, my dad would have let that wolf attack me just to teach me a lesson.”
            Lily couldn’t help but to giggle. “I know, and bread was a nickel, Coke came in bottles, not cans, and the word gay meant happy. Yadda, yadda, yadda.”
            Joe swatted her on the behind. “Okay, I get it you little smart-alec.”
            “Ouch.” Lily grabbed her stinging bottom then snickered. “Enough already, George Clooney.”
            “Hey now. I’m not old enough to be your grandpa.” Joe’s mischievous made her smile.
            Joe reached out caught Lily’s wrist and twirled her around so that they were face to face. He tilted her chin up with a finger inspecting her neck. “I think we ought to clean that out before I take you home.”
            “Joe, Really? I only live a few miles from here. I’m totally fine, and when I get home my germ-a-phobe, hypochondriac roommate will insist on cleaning it out again anyway. Plus I’m not leaving Dani’s prized car here overnight.”
            Joe cocked a brow glancing at the 1984 Buick Skylark. “Alright, darling. But straight home and I’ll pay you a hundred dollars flat to stay home tomorrow and relax.” Lily began to object, but Joe cut her off throwing his palm in front of her face. “I’m not taking no for an answer. Besides, I have a feeling all this hasn’t sunk in yet. You’re going to need the day off. Sleep in, watch a movie, take a bubble bath. Whatever girly crap you girls like to do.”
            Lily’s lips curved up at ‘girly crap’. She bumped Joe in the arm with her shoulder. “You’re good peeps, Joe.”