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.”