CHAPTER 2

“Can I ask what you might be doing underneath a tree?” The voice sounded curious and held no malevolence. Lola was confused for a moment. Was this some sort of trick? Was her attacker trying to lure her out of hiding instead of coming in for her? The werewolves hunting her didn’t seem like the subtle type. Also, this new voice sounded nothing like the harsh, almost growling tones of the filthy man from before. “I think I have begun to understand,” the man said. Definitely a man, she reasoned. His voice was deep but also alluring. She heard him move closer toward her. “You are being hunted, yes?” he asked. Then she heard him sniffing the air like a… Werewolf, her mind screamed. He’s a werewolf too! That made her heart start rampaging in her chest again and she completely freaked out. She tried to roll away from him but in her panic, she didn’t realize how close she was to the trunk of the fallen tree. She bashed her head into it so hard, she felt the impact travel all the way through her body. “Easy,” the new werewolf said but this time his voice was quiet. It held none of the slight humor from just seconds before when he thought all he had come across was a peculiar girl in a remote part of an equally remote forest. “I am going to give you instructions and it is imperative that you follow them without question.” She groaned, her head still hurting, but this command of his struck her as offensive. As if she’d blindly trust a werewolf. “Why would I do that?” she hissed, still trying to edge herself away from him, albeit much stealthier this time. “Because if you don’t, Drake and his band of mongrel dogs will rip you limb from limb,” he explained, his voice still quiet. “I am assuming they are the ones hunting you?” “Who are you?” she asked. “I can tell you that at a later time, assuming you aren’t killed in the next few minutes,” the man responded. “Now I am going to cause a distraction and you are going to find a better place to hide. The trick with the mud was impressive but it’s fallen mostly off your body now. Your scent is coming through. You will need to think of another clever move like that if you want to get safely away from him.” “Why are you helping me?” she asked. “The simple answer?” he replied and although she couldn't clearly see his face, she imagined him with a sly, devilish smile. “Because I hate him and his entire kingdom. They’re nothing but unhinged, psychotic maniacs. No better than feral animals. He wants you dead and I want to not let him get what he wants.” “Fair enough,” Lola told him. “And by helping me, you don’t mean to get rid of him and then murder me for yourself?” “I think I'm more than capable of murdering you right here and now if it suited me,” he answered. She imagined him with that devilish grin again. “For someone getting rescued you certainly ask a lot of questions and are quite distrustful.” “I suppose so,” she told him. “But then again, a pack of werewolves just raided my village, burned it to the ground, and slaughtered everyone in it including my parents. I guess that had a lasting effect on my mental state.” “Ah,” the man responded thoughtfully. “Fair enough.” A hand suddenly appeared through the fallen tree’s branches and after a minor second or two of hesitation, Lola gripped it. She felt the strength in her rescuer immediately as he pulled her out with ridiculous ease. One second she was safe and securely hidden and the next she was sliding easily over the wet, muddy ground. The branches scraped along her body but she threw her free arm over her face to protect it a bit. “Stay low to the ground and try to move as quietly as possible,” the man explained, his dark, stormy blue eyes piercing into and through her. The deep, alluring tones of his voice had given her a little bit of a mental image of the man but what she imagined and reality were two completely different things. In her mind’s eye, she had pictured a slim, proper man dressed in a dark-colored suit with gold or red accents despite the fact that wearing a suit in a forest like this was absurd. She even imagined him with a fancy gold pocket watch, its gold chain draping from a buttonhole and into the pocket where it lived. He’d also been dark of hair with a streak of gray and a pointed goatee. In reality, her savior was less dapper and more sensible. He wore a pair of thick, denim pants that had seen a lot of wear and tear, tanned hiking boots made from leather, and a navy and gray flannel over a simple white t-shirt. His hair was actually more of a light brown and had no gray streak in it. He did have facial hair but not a goatee. It was a full, thick beard that covered the lower portion of his face. “There you go,” the man told her. “That’s right.” At the same time she was coming out from under the fallen tree, the werewolf pack that burned down her village found them. They must have been a lot closer than either one thought. “Well, well,” the one called Drake muttered, stepping out from behind a tree a dozen or so yards away. “Caught up to you didn’t I?” He caught sight of the new guy and his eyes narrowed with intense, fiery hatred. “What the hell are you doing here, Russel?” Drake snarled. The others with him fanned out, each one keeping their eyes locked on Lola’s rescuer. “Came for a bit of a stroll and wouldn’t you know it, I came across the scent of a rabid animal. Had to see what that was about,” Russel said, smiling somewhat. It does look a bit devilish, Lola thought to herself. It was a totally weird and inappropriate thing to think at that moment but she was reasonably sure her mind was starting to sort of shut down. Or something like that. All the horrors of recent events were compounding inside her head until she felt deadened inside. Numb almost. “You can go back to your weak ass kingdom. Go play it safe with the humans behind your borders. This has got nothing to do with you,” Drake said, letting his body drop into a sort of hunched-over crouch. He held both hands out and both Lola and Russel watched the nails at the ends of his fingers elongate into vicious, black claws. “You really want to do this?” Russel asked. He looked at Lola and then back at Drake. “You want to risk all-out war with both my kingdom and the human kingdom over an insignificant girl from a backwater village in the middle of nowhere?” “I don’t have to explain myself to you,” he shot back, spit flying from his mouth. His face started to sprout more hair. His nose and mouth gradually elongated. He was shifting and as he did, the harsh growling tones to his voice became more pronounced. “Now get out of my way before I slice open your throat.” Russel smiled and dropped into a low crouch too. His eyes flashed with amber light and claws grew out of his fingertips too. “Let’s go then,” he said.