Shaking himself from such nonsense, he forced himself to keep focused. He kept his human form since it was easier to blend in with his surroundings as he crept along behind Lily to her left while Tony, in his wolf form, followed her on the right. They both kept as much distance as they could from her. In an attempt to mask their scents, everyone involved had taken a nasty bath in vinegar. The smell was really nauseating to James, but he managed to keep his concentration.
They arrived at the spot where they were to await for the maker and his lackey. Lily sat down on the boulder that would put her in clear view. Time seemed to drag on while nothing happened and no one came and James was convinced that this plan wasn’t going to work. When she had been playing bait for nearly a half hour he noticed the imposter. The imposter looked around nervously before walking into the clearing towards Lily.
James frowned, something was wrong. The beasty creature before them wasn’t the imposter but yet different one. Damn, that makes three, how many of us are there? He wondered heatedly. The new beast was a reddish brown color and the scent seemed a little familiar but James didn’t have time to get into the details of the scent as he quickly shifted. Lily backed away from the other creature like she was supposed to and the beast rushed the brown beast.
The brown beast yelped in surprise when he saw James. Xavier and the others rushed out from their hiding spot behind him. The brown beast suddenly howled loudly and several other, normal werewolves appeared out of nowhere with three or four humans behind them. The beast looked at the new arrivals with a pleasant surprise. He was worried this pathetic excuse of a beast before him was going to be the only action he was going to see.
The brown beast leaped at Lily, but James’s beast knocked him to the ground. There was no way he was going to let this pathetic creature touch her. Tony let out a loud warning call to his father and just barely avoided a silver net thrown at him by one of the humans. “Lily, get out of here,” the beast roared to her mentally and continued to wrestle with the brown beast. He heard the alpha’s reply howl alerting that reinforcements were on their way to even out the numbers to their favor once more.
With a strong punch to the snout, the beast quickly subdued the brown beast before him and turned his attention to the battle around him. A human had Chris in a silver net and was laughing at him as Chris squirmed in pain. The beast let out a loud menacing growl and swiped at the man with his huge clawed hand. The human looked at him with horrified surprise as the man fell to the ground, dying almost instantly. He clenched his jaw as he painfully ripped the net from Chris and threw it away from him. Chris gave him a weak thanks, but the beast placed his attention on a new target.
After Andrew arrived the battle was quickly won. Nearly all the humans had perished, half the wolves working for the “maker” had died too, and despite his repeated attempts of escape the brown beast was captured as well. James’s beast glanced over the crowd happy to see all of them were alive and accounted for. Except for Lily, but she probably was at the alpha’s house. Feeling satisfied, he released his control and shifted back to James.
“James, go to the house and make sure Lily made it there safely,” Andrew ordered mentally, still in his wolf form. James nodded and raced off to the house.
“Did everything work out?” Sandy asked as soon as she saw him. She handed him a towel to cover himself with.
“Yes, nothing to worry about. Andrew wanted me to come and make sure Lily got here okay,” he replied wrapping the towel around himself but freezing when he noticed Sandy’s face. “She is here right?” He asked and Sandy shook her head no.
“She hasn’t been back here since she left; I thought she was still with you. Oh God, James you don’t think?” Sandy stared and James jumped off the porch, racing into the forest. This couldn’t be happening, he thought as he shifted. The beast quickly caught her scent where she’d left the battle and headed off towards the alpha’s house but half way there he let out a long howl of frustration as he came up on the familiar dilemma, her scent just ended. The beast slammed his fists in anger and distress like he hadn’t felt ever. James and he knew this was a bad idea and now she was gone!
“Lily, get out of here,” an animalistic voice echoed through Lily’s head and she gave a small squeak of surprise. They could honestly communicate telepathically; she thought with amazement but quickly realized this was not the time to think about it. She had to get back to Andrew’s house as soon as possible. So without another thought, she ran off into the woods.
She nearly stumbled in surprise by the fact that she had automatically oriented herself in the direction back to Andrew’s house by using the scents of the forest and that of the other werewolves. Lily knew everything would be different but never had she imagined the magnitude of the change. It was as if all her life she was seeing the world in black and white and now all of the sudden she was able to see in color.
Everything was so much more alive. Everything appeared to be sharper and brighter and that was just her sight! The world of smells she could now detect was abundant if not overwhelming. Some smells were familiar and simply grew stronger while others were so new she had no idea how to describe or name them. Lily was so caught up in the little details of the forest and the new capabilities of her senses that she didn’t notice the werewolf behind her until it was too late.
A low growl sounded behind her and she instantly froze, turning around slowly to see the monstrous form of the blond shifter that had pretended to be Greg. “Not good,” she muttered, turning back around running off in a sprint but the beast was much quicker than her. She only managed to take three steps before he had wrapped his burly hairy arms around her, trapping her in his grip. “Let go of me Fluffy or you’ll regret it,” she threatened but he made a sound she assumed would be the equivalent of a laugh.
“I doubt you are in a position to make threats… Lassie,” his voiced echoed in her head as she felt a sharp prick on her neck. Even though she knew her chances of getting away from him were near impossible she continued to struggle against him. Lily shook her head as everything started to get blurry. With a growl, she fought to keep consciousness as she realized he’d drugged her. How did he know where to find her? Lily wondered, fighting to keep her eyes open. The sedative was too much for her to overcome and she fell into darkness.
Lily groaned and felt her sluggish body slowly start to wake. Her head pounded and her mouth was parched. She pushed herself into a sitting position and noticed that her clothes and skin were incredibly sticky. “Ugh, what is all over me?” She croaked hoarsely scrunching her face in disgust. She heard someone laugh in response. Lily jerked her head towards the sound and saw the blonde werewolf sitting over to her far right at a small wooden table, staring at her.
Remembering what happened, she glanced around at her surroundings. Lily was in some sort of log cabin. It was disturbingly quaint in decoration and didn’t look anything like a mad scientist lab or evil lair. “It was my parents place,” he told her as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. A pit in her stomach grew as she worried if werewolves could read each other’s minds since they could communicate telepathically.
Nervously she returned her attention to him. “Why I am here and why am I so sticky?” she asked, eyeing the door that was about twenty feet to her left. She wondered if she would be able to get to the door and out run him.
“You’re here so I can screw over a lot of people at once and you’re sticky because I drenched you in a special liquid to mask your scent. We don’t want them finding you just yet,” he told her with a teasing tone and she scowled back at him. That explained why the scents suddenly disappeared. All thanks to another one of Dr. Frankenstein’s marvelous experiments, she thought acidly.
“How long will I be like this, can I wash it off?” she asked, prying off a piece of her hair that was glued to her cheek while discreetly keeping an eye on the door.
“It comes off easily with water, but you’re going to be staying like that for a while. I can’t have you stinking the place up with your scent,” he replied and she grew irritated, but she simply huffed with a frown, tugging at her clothing that was plastered to her skin.
“So what’s next, Fluffy? You hand me over to the “maker” like a good lap dog?” She asked bitterly and once more cursed her big mouth. He angrily narrowed his eyes at her but gave her a smug smirk as he stood up. She stood up as well and backed up into the wall behind her. He quickly crossed the room to stand in front of her.
“Not exactly Lily, he just happens to be on my “screw you” list,” He told her as he unsheathed a long knife from where it was holstered on his belt. She swallowed loudly, pressing herself against the wall not being able to take her eyes off the knife, it shined brightly and she suspected that it was silver.
“Not so mouthy are you now?” The blonde teased.
“What happened to make you turn against him?” She asked feeling horribly curious. “I thought you had the whole Dr. Frankenstein, monster bond?” She blurted before she realized she had said it. He narrowed his eyes at her again and she eyed the knife still in his hand. For a moment, she was sure he was going to plunge it into her chest, but instead he smiled and returned the knife in its leather sheath.
“Well, I already told you part of it when you so kindly offered me coffee the other day. I didn’t lie about anything but my name that day,” he started moving back towards the little wooden table. “Here’s some water if you like, those damn sedatives really can dehydrate you,” he told her indicating to a bottle of water on the table. Lily stepped away from the wall eyeing him skeptically but instinctively licked her dry lips. “I didn’t do anything to the water, scout’s honor,” he told her holding up two fingers with a playful smile.