by Amelia Jade
It wasn’t so much a guess as an accepted reality of what was going to happen. But for now, she needed to maintain her composure while she waited for Lex.
Lex, who had left hours earlier and still hadn’t returned.
“Where is he?”
The sound of her voice was reassuring in the silence that had become her constant companion since his departure.
She sat still, waiting. The seconds ticked by like hours. Petal looked at the fire, and then at the entrance. She could vaguely see a small outline of snow around the blanket, illuminated by the dancing yellow-orange light.
“Fuck this.”
She snatched up the blanket, the remaining ration bars, a bottle of water she’d filled with melted snow, got to her feet, and went to the entrance where she took the other blanket down. Putting it lengthwise, she wrapped it around under her armpits, tucking the edge into itself to keep it in place. Then she held the second one in front of her and used it to push down on the snow. There was already a hole in place for the smoke to escape, and she widened it now, coughing several times in the dirty air until she created a hole large enough for her to escape.
Petal emerged onto the hillside and stopped, staring in stunned surprise at the landscape even as she shivered intensely against the sudden and frigid temperature change.
The stars overhead shone with a brilliance that she’d never seen before. It took her a second to realize that the absence of city light was providing her with the sort of view she’d only ever seen on the internet or in pictures before. It was stunningly beautiful. Stars in their millions were visible in the sky. A large faded-white band wrapped across the sky. Petal had heard of such a sight, but this was her first time ever witnessing the Milky Way in person.
“It’s beautiful,” she said to herself, able to see the air condense in front of her face by the light of the sky, aided by its reflecting off the snow.
That reminded her of the fact that the temperature was much lower outside the cave, and she needed to keep moving if she was going to be okay. Thankfully she’d worn actual shoes instead of heels. Moving through the knee-high snow in four-inch heels would have been impossible. But in flats, she was able to pick out Lex’s trail in the snow and follow it down the hillside.
While Petal began to descend, in the east the sky began to lighten as the sun started its ascent. The light became useful the farther down she went, because she could still manage to follow Lex’s tracks. He was a big figure, and his footsteps were easy to follow. But as she moved in among the trees the sun continued to rise and the snow began to melt, turning to mud. The tracks became harder and harder to pick up.
Petal wondered if she was making a mistake, if she perhaps should have let Lex do his thing. She turned to look back up the hill in what she assumed was the general direction she’d come, and knew without a doubt that she couldn’t have stayed in the cave any longer. She needed out. The silence, the utter stillness of the rock and the various stray noises from outside had been too much for her to handle. She would have lost her composure staying in there.
No, she’d had to strike out after him, to make her own way back to civilization. Besides, with the sun coming up she no longer felt like she was going to freeze. So what was the big deal? She could do this now, without the cold to worry about! She needed to believe in herself. It was just a simple walk back to town. It might take her six or eight hours, and she’d be exhausted by the end, but it was absolutely doable. Besides, at some point she’d meet Lex coming back, and he’d have someone with him, or maybe an ATV or something.
Finally she came to a huge tree, easily six feet across that had fallen to the floor of the forest. The tracks disappeared at the tree. She looked for signs that he’d perhaps climbed up and over it, but the wind had kept the top of the trunk clear of any snow, depositing it around. Since she couldn’t see anything else, however, Petal had to assume he’d gone up and over. After all, the town was that way, she was sure of it. The trees obscured it, but she was positive she was still heading in the right direction.
Wincing at the further damage to her outfit, she climbed up onto the tree, eyes scanning the ground on the far side as soon as she was stable. There were no boot prints in the mud. Lex was a big man, his tracks were easy to spot, and she was positive she’d be able to see them. If he’d hopped down from the trunk, his weight would have driven him into the muck. She was no expert tracker—not even an amateur one—but that much occurred even to her.
Probably too many episodes of that show on TV where the cowboy-wannabe tracks down two contestants with nothing but his horse.
So she had some guilty pleasures, big deal.
“Think, Petal. Use your brain. His prints come right up to the tree behind you.” She looked down just to confirm that yes, there were bootmarks right up to the tree, right where she was standing. “But nothing on the far side.”
She peered over again, confirming that there was nothing.
“Oh. Shit.”
Petal was forced to correct herself. There were no boot marks on the far side. She’d been so busy looking for them, that she’d missed what was there.
Four paw prints. Big ones too.
“Wolf,” she whispered, going still, hoping that maybe they wouldn’t see her.
Really? Going still? You aren’t being hunted by a T. rex. Which you know from the Discovery Channel that the movie got that scene wrong. They could see you even if you weren’t moving. Stillness is not camo with a T. rex. Or a wolf for that matter.
Petal shook her head so violently is hurt, something it hadn’t done in quite a while. She needed to keep her composure, and not let her mind explode in seventy-three different directions all at once.
Think, woman. It might save your life.
Lex had clearly come to this point. But if he’d been confronted by a wolf on the far side, it was unlikely he would have jumped down. There was no blood, nothing that she would assume were signs of a fight, though she wasn’t really sure what to look for anyway. So that meant, since Lex wasn’t on the trunk still, that he’d jumped down somewhere else.
Maybe he’d found a way to rid himself of the wolf?
Feeling her hope rise, Petal got up and walked the length of the trunk, from one end to the other. It had to be a two-hundred-foot tree at least, and she walked it once, then twice, and finally a third time, moving slowly, her head turning side to side while she kept her ears open for anything suspicious-sounding.
But by the time she got back to where she started, it became clear. There was no other tracks she could follow. Dejected, and starting to doubt herself that she knew which way to head for town, Petal hopped down from the log and leaned against it to consider her options.
The sun was growing warm. She wasn’t going to freeze, and she had enough food and water to last her several days. Lex was an expert outdoorsman if what he’d accomplished up until then was any sign. Could she trust him to get to town and bring help back?
Yes, she decided at last. She could. But if she was going to put her trust in him, Petal had to ensure that he hadn’t misplaced the trust he put in her. Which meant going back to the cave.
“Fuck me,” she cursed, pushing off the log and starting back up the hill. Her tracks in the mud were easy to follow and she quickly reached the edge of the forest.
Which is where she realized that the snow had melted under the sun’s warmth, wiping her path. Her initial reaction was despair. Petal looked wildly from left to right, eyes scanning the hill in front of her, trying to recall if she’d come straight down into the forest, or if it had been at an angle.
There, that rock up there. That looked familiar, didn’t it? She’d walked past it. Right?
Unsure, Petal started walking, hoping that she might come across some sign of her previous path. But the warmth of the earth and the warmth of the sky had combined to accelerate the process of melting the snow, until it collapsed upon itself and hid her tracks.
She reached the rock, but
now that she was there, Petal wasn’t so sure. It looked familiar. But had it been on her left, or on her right? The other way was still up, which she knew she had to do, but figuring out which way she’d gone was near impossible.
“What have I done?” she moaned, resting her arms on the rock and burying her head in them. “Petal, you idiot. Why couldn’t you just stay in the cave and do as you were told!”
Down the hill, a hundred feet or more in the distance, a branch cracked loudly in the forest. Petal jerked upright and turned to stare. Moments later she heard something that made her hair stand on end. The wolf’s howl was echoed by another. And another.
Shapes began to move in the bushes below, and a massive charcoal-colored wolf emerged from the tree line, its yellow eyes fixated on her.
“Lex,” she moaned. The wolves must have already gotten him, and now they were coming for her!
She wasn’t sure what inspired her, but before she knew it, Petal had reached down, and grabbed a stone that fit comfortably in her hand. She shrugged her shoulders, lifting her arms above her head, ensuring her suit would move.
The wolf came closer. Eighty feet.
Wait for it.
Sixty.
Hold.
Fifty.
Almost there. Just a little closer, you big prick.
The wolf paused at approximately forty feet away. Petal wasn’t an expert at judging distances, but she knew this one very well. Very well indeed. It had been nearly fifteen years, but she closed her eyes, dug deep into muscle memory, and willed her body to remember.
Please.
Petal’s legs split, one forward, one back. She held both hands out in front of her at waist height. Then, channeling all four years of Division 1A softball pitching experience into her much older body, she skipped forward, whirled her arm around, down, and released the rock with a furious shout.
The stone hurtled forward, smashing into the wolf’s face and forcing it to turn aside.
“Yes!” she shouted.
The gray snout whipped back around as the wolf snarled at her, blood streaming from what she supposed was its cheek. It made a barking-like noise, and several more shapes came out of the forest below at a swift lope, moving up the slope and fanning out.
“Oh. Shit.”
Petal began backpedaling, holding her hands out in front of her. “Good boy.” She doubted it would do any good, but all she’d seemed to do was make the animal even angrier with her by hitting it with her best shot. Calming it down seemed to be her best bet.
The wolf took a step forward.
“LEX!” she screamed, knowing he would never hear her.
The pack charged.
12. Her Secret Protector
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.
