The man in the suit pushed past me, where I huddled, dazed, transfixed on only one solitary spot in the room. He threw open the door after a few seconds of wrestling with the knob. I watched as he opened my bedroom window and crawled out, one leg at a time until he’d stepped onto my balcony. I don’t know what he did from there. He couldn’t jump three stories, but I assumed he had an escape plan. The thoughts went through my head in wisps as my grief took them out. Even fear of the unknown and this latest war in my living room barely registered. As no one touched me, even so much as turned my way, I fell to sitting and softly sobbed.
Care for my safety gone, I let the vicious ache take me as the disturbance of his mental state faded from mine. My thoughts, my reactions to the growling and biting and wrestling in the room, registered and went, though I didn’t react to any of their abrupt and rather harsh noises. In time, however short or long, the fight died down. Six wolves remained standing as others laid bleeding on the floor. My new carpet was red already, a deep crimson shade that looked only wet with blood. My Lex, my wolf, my lover, my thoughts cried as the wolves turned into five men and one woman by magic, all as naked as the day they were born.
The woman moved to me as the men went to Lex.
“Don’t hurt him anymore,” I screamed.
“No, honey, they won’t. We are your family. We came to help,” she soothed as she laid a hand on my cheek.
Family?
“Lex?” I begged, unable to think through anything else.
One of the men moved to me then, slowly, with obvious trepidation.
“He’ll live,” the man said. “While unconscious, his wolf form, the magic it’s brought from, is healing him. Any step from absolute death, we can heal from. It is only when our hearts stop beating that we can die. His heart is weak, but it beats.”
“Can I?” I got out, reaching out my hands toward my wolf.
“Of course,” the woman exclaimed, though she’d kept her voice low and gentle.
My nerves appreciated the effort. My legs grew thankful too, as the man and woman helped me to my feet and guided me to Lex. I crumbled down beside him, placing a gentle hand on his bloody snout. He stirred under my touch. I looked up at the man and woman with fresh tears in my eyes.
“He feels you,” the man said. “And, it will help him to heal to know you are there. If you don’t mind, will you please excuse us to grab the clothes we stashed in the next apartment before we turned? Then, Vivian, and myself, my name is Riker by the way, will come back in. The rest of them will make the calls, get the cleaners back in here.”
I nodded and then looked back down at my wolf. I could see his breathing in just that short span of time had grown more stable. Placing a shaking hand on his heart, I cried again to feel its steady thump under my fingers. Still weak, it beat.
“I love you,” I cried as I gently petted the fur over his heart. “Thank you, my brave warrior. You nearly gave your life for me against unspeakable odds.”
He groaned then, and I felt a tremor shake his body. Before I knew it, my hand rested on the man, my Lex. Still battered and bruised, his flesh torn at his neck, as it was up and down his arms and at various places on his chest, but at least none of the wounds seemed to bleed anymore.
“I love you, too,” he said, his voice weak.
He didn’t move, just stared up at me with those amber and gold eyes of his growing brighter.
“I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you,” he mumbled, though I could tell that each syllable hurt.
“No, the odds weren’t fair. You tried. You’d have died trying. You nearly did,” my voice broke over the last word on a stray sob.
“I failed,” he whispered.
“No, you didn’t,” I stated, putting power behind my words.
“I saw you, though. You saved yourself. I’m so proud of you.”
“I don’t know what I did. One moment I focused on the energy, and the next, the burden of his slimy weight was off of me.”
“Your magic, your power, it ripped from you in streaks of bluish-white light. It threw him from you and onto the couch,” he said, his voice already getting stronger.