Alex slowly rose to his feet; brushing long blonde hair back from his face he wearily kept an eye on the two wolves circling him. If he hadn’t seen it for himself he would never have believed that ten minutes ago those were two fully-grown, young men. He’d guess their age at somewhere between 19 and 21 but he couldn’t be sure. Even in human form they’d seem bigger then other young men he’d come across. The rest of the males surrounding him seemed the same; no matter where he looked Alex was confronted by large men of unhuman size. The women were smaller but by no means petite.
Nafarius stepped forward this time putting himself between the man and his mate. “You know this human?”
The word human was said with such disgust that Sam flinched. “Yes, I knew him when I lived in the city. Alex, what are you doing up here?”
Reassured that (for the moment) he was relatively safe, Alex stood to his full height. Unfortunately, despite being almost six foot tall he stood several inches shorter then the shortest man around. He decided to ignore the others and focus his attention on Sam. “I came looking for you. Well, actually, I came looking for any information regarding your disappearance.”
Sam was stunned. Her and Alex had been close once but by the time she’d embarked on her hiking trip they had been separated for several months. “How did you find this place?”
“When you didn’t return to defend your thesis I started to worry. Eventually I contacted the police and filed a missing person report. Since you didn’t have any family the cops were willing to let me have your things after they were through with them. They didn’t find anything useful and after a while your case was shuffled away in a drawer some where.” Alex took a deep breath; it was hard to explain how he’d come to be there. He had cared for Sam but when she disappeared it was as if he was being punished. He’d never been able to give her what she needed in their relationship and her disappearance seemed like the ultimate failure. “When they finally released your belongings I started going through all your old paper work. I knew that most of it related to your thesis but I also knew that you liked to visit the places where the stories originated. At first, Wolf Lake seemed like all the rest, until I read your thesis. I noticed it wasn’t mentioned at all so I started thinking that perhaps the information was there for a different reason. After a while I decided to come up and have a look.”
“You shouldn’t have come Alex.” Sam whispered softly; she was a little bit shaken at finding her old lover here in her new home. It wasn’t just the fact that he was human and she no longer was. It struck her that someone had cared enough to come and look for her. She was an only child and her parents had since passed away. Alone in the world, Sam tended to keep to herself. The fact that Alex would come all this way meant more to her then he would ever know.
“What I would like to know is how did you find our home?” Nafarius could see the emotions warring on Sam’s face but he couldn’t let that stop him from his duty to the pack.
Alex shrugged. “I got lost.” He ignored the snickers of the other members that had overheard his comment. “I found the lake but after a year there was no sigh that Sam had ever been here. I decided to search the surrounding area and lost my direction in the forest. I’ve never seen trees grow so close together. I wondered around the woods for three days before he finally found me.”
Alex had gestured to Roland with his chin. It was obvious that he was embarrassed about the fact that he’d gotten lost but at the same time his sense of honor required him to acknowledge Roland’s help.
Roland acknowledged Alex’s appreciation with a simple nod. “No need to thank me, you’re not out of the woods yet.”
Nafarius glared at his second-in-command. He hadn’t relaxed his stance in the slightest; if anything the tension in the clearing had risen several notches in the last five minutes. Finally, he looked at his mate. “What am I to do?” Shaking his head in mock exasperation, “Nothing is ever easy with you, is it?”
Sam smiled, she knew when she had won. Nafarius wouldn’t order Alex’s death, for now. He would grant her a reprieve, time enough to come up with some other solution. But one thing was for sure, Alex wouldn’t be leaving.
Sam’s smiled faded; she’d forgotten about Rei and Craig, the two young men that had changed into animal form.
Rei’s voice was slurred as he spoke through an elongated snout but his intention was clear. “He’ssss human; he musssst dieeeee.”
Sam stepped forward before Nafarius had a chance to say anything. “He’s mine Rei; if you want him then you have to go through me.”
“Sam, no.” Nafarius stepped forward and grabbed her arm. Sam shook it off.
Rei was looking at her with a new-found sense of respect. He’d thought her weak for wanting to save the human, despite the fact that he was someone from her past. In his mind all humans were a threat but if Sam was willing to fight for the human then Rei’s thirst for violence (which had been raised by the human’s presence) would be satisfied.
Sam saw Rei consider and she knew when he’d made his decision. “First blood?”
“Deal.”
Sam shifted, shedding her clothes, and leapt across the clearing before Rei had time to prepare. Her black coat rippled in the sunlight filling the clearing as her muscles bunched and sprung. She was on Rei, her front paws braced on his chest and her teeth sunk into his next before he had time to move.
Quickly, sensing her easy victory, Rei rolled and used the momentum to force Sam off of him. This time it was he who pinned her down and with a fierce growl sent snapping jaws towards her neck.
Rei outweighed her by at least seventy-five pounds, all of it muscle but her smaller size allowed for greater agility. Sam let her body go loose catching Rei off guard and throwing him off balance. She had a small window of opportunity and she took it. Not bothering to try and pin him down again, Sam turned, reached out and struck.