My voice fell short at the end as the truth of my words hit me again. Something had changed for them, and they were sure of victory or they would not have exposed themselves. Each one of us involved knew this for fact, even if we had no clue what the change had been. Unfortunately, they didn’t want me dead. I’d only wish I were dead once they took me, I was more than sure. If I had to mate with suit guy… the thought fell short with the turn of my queasy stomach.
“You are ever a smart one. I am going to enjoy having you for my own. Yes, we do now have something worthy of exposing ourselves for, a sorcerer finally fit to make one of you into our savior. Otherwise, yes, you are right, we wouldn’t have risked all of this. We had to be sure of the abilities of our guy before we started a full-out war with your people. We’ve searched a long time for such an ace in the hole, but before it has just been fun to toy with your wolf’s kind.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I asked, shaking my head at the gravity of my situation.
At this point, I wanted Lex to start talking more, or moving, or something. I touched his back, but he didn’t seem to notice. Instead, he just stared ahead. Scared frozen, I couldn’t believe. Surly he was formulating some sort of plan to save me, us.
“Many things, my dear, and only you can fix them,” suit guy added.
With a mere wave of his hand, his wolves lunged at us in unison. Lex pushed me back into the bedroom and slammed the door shut. Stunned, I’d actually stumbled back and fallen on my amply padded rump. Angry now, sweating actually, I stood up to run toward the commotion I heard in the other room.
Opening the door, the fight seemed a mere game. The wolves had Lex surrounded in the middle of the room. They’d already tossed aside the new furniture so they could circle him. One jumped in at that moment, and Lex now showed himself as a wolf, too, and attacked back. Just as Lex gained the upper hand, another of the wolves jumped on his back and bit him. Not hard, but enough to soak a little blood into his fur. My wolf shook that wolf off, only to have another jump his way and roll him to his back. This wolf also got a bite in before my wolf threw him off.
I stood there, sick and helpless as they took turns taunting him, biting him, knocking him down, but always two on one. If he lunged to hurt any of them, there were four more to knock him back down or injure him in some way. Finally, at one point, my wolf looking tired but at the breaking point, he threw off one wolf into another wolf in the circle.
My wolf, fearless, dove on them both, and in seconds ripped their throats out. Two other wolves came and tossed him off. Before I realized what had happened, the wolves had divided us up. Down to four. Suit guy leaned against the wall, still human and seemingly uncaring. One of his wolves blocked me so the only place I had to go was back in the bedroom. Another had come to stand by the suit, using his body as a shield to protect the guy in charge. And, two stood on either side of Lex, making an angle with their bodies so he’d have to take them out to get through.
“What is this?” I screamed, startling even myself. It didn’t matter, though, as my heart already beat hard, and my entire body already trembled with some lethal mixture of fear and rage. My body’s reactions I swore would end me before they even got the change. I’d go down of a heart attack or breathing event before they could get what they wanted from me. I have to admit, the convoluted theory had some appeal, if only to make suit guy lose.
“Well, we thought it would be amusing to take your wolf with us, as well. You see, he has killed enough of our pack now that a little vengeance would be more than warranted, healthy for the continued moral of my pack. Which leads me to the start of that plan.” The man in the suit said as the wolves arranged themselves, keeping me and my wolf apart as this man walked to me.
I watched, trapped in my corner, as three of the wolves jumped on mine. He went down, pinned beneath their weight alone, so outnumbered, and so weak from loss of blood, as they had teased and played with him first. I hadn’t exactly understood the game then, but they’d meant to wear him down to a physical exhaustion born of numerous injuries, as well as exertion. All the bites, all the blood loss, all the fighting... he looked practically dead already even as his body continued to jerk to fight his way free with whatever he had left in him.
The chill of fear and loss melted into the hot bluster of my fury, luring me into the pelting thoughts of blind retaliation born of the mere suggestion of a world without him. The man in the suit pushed at me. My hands went out to protect myself, but he easily overpowered me and brought me to the ground. I squirmed to no avail. I heard Lex, as my wolf growl and groaned, fighting against the paws that trampled him back down. Looking over through the tears in my eyes, I could see my wolf’s eyes, dim, barely gold anymore.