Leviathan
Rainier hurried to keep up with me as I made my way through the undergrowth.
All I could think about was what would happen if this huge force descended on Hidden Grove.
In the years I’d been dealing with the Red Maw, there had never been any real violence.
A few skirmishes here and there. The worst was when I’d fought one of them nearly ten years ago.
I’d crossed into their territory, but that fight had ended quickly when I’d realized I was in the wrong.
Nothing had ever been as blatant or terrifying as what they’d tried with June.
I couldn’t allow them to push into our territory unquestioned.
“Levi.” Rainier grabbed my arm. “What are you thinking of doing?”
“I told you. I’m gonna go talk to their alpha.”
Rainier looked like I’d told him I was about to throw myself off a cliff. He pointed over his shoulder toward the encampment. “There’s over a hundred guys back there, Levi. There’s no way you can take on that many.”
“They can let me talk to their alpha. If I need to, I’ll kick all those fuckers’ asses until they do let me talk to him.”
“Oh, you can try, big dog, but I doubt you’ll get far,” a voice drawled behind us.
Rainier and I jerked in surprise, turning to find a broad-shouldered man emerging from the trees, a cocky grin on his face. I snarled at him, flexing my arms as I clenched my fists.
“Who the fuck are you?” Rainier asked, adjusting his stance.
The man looked less concerned than he should have, given the fact he was staring down a pissed-off alpha and beta from a rival pack.
“My name’s Carlton Briggs,” he said, touching a finger to his sweat-stained black baseball cap in a version of a salute. “Beta of Red Maw. And you boys are a long way from home, ain’t ya?”
My jaw muscles ached as I gritted my teeth. My wolf raged and screamed, demanding to be let loose. Both of us remembered the way these assholes had attacked June, and it was making it hard not to fly off the handle. I was seconds from losing it and letting my wolf out when Rainier patted my arm.
“What?” I snarled, never taking my eyes off the man. His shit-eating made me angrier by the second.
“Levi,” Rainier whispered. “We’re in a bad way here.”
Finally tearing my eyes from this Carlton person, I glanced at my friend, then froze.
A dozen other men had emerged from the forest all around us, oozing out like oil squeezed from a dirty rag.
Shit. I could take half of them for sure, but Rainier couldn’t.
He wasn’t nearly as strong as I was. Best case, he could take out three or four, and if by some miracle we did fight our way through, we were only a hundred yards from their camp.
One shout, and dozens would come running. We were trapped.
Carlton must have seen that realization dawning in my eyes. His smile grew wider.
“Yup. You ought to listen to your right-hand man,” he said, pointing at Rainier.
“How’d you know we were here?” I asked through clenched teeth. My jaw refused to unclench.
Another man, maybe twenty years old, stepped up and waved. “You aren’t the only ones who know how to hunt downwind.”
“You did good, Patrick. You did real good,” Carlton said and pointed at the young man with his thumb.
“Young, but our best tracker. He’s the eagle eye that’s been watching your little enclave down there the last few days.
Spotted you and your pal headed our way.
Trailed you the whole way.” Carlton shook his head in wonder.
“Came and told me what was up about ten minutes ago. You’re good, Demon Wolf, but you ain’t no real demon.
No hellfire and brimstone magic to keep you one step ahead. ”
“I want to see your goddamn alpha,” I said, taking a step forward. “Now.”
The smile slid off Carlton’s face, and the men around us moved in a few feet.
“Easy there, dickwad,” Carlton said, eyeing me warily. “My boys are touchy, ya see? Don’t like strangers rolling up on us all unwelcome-like, you dig?”
“We dig,” Rainier said, still looking warily at all the other men, obviously trying to figure a way out of here.
I’d already come to the conclusion that there was none.
“We only came to talk,” Rainier went on.
“Talk to your alpha. Meet him, discuss some stuff, and then he and Leviathan can work out a deal.”
Carlton’s eyes glimmered brighter than ever, as though Rainier had told a joke. The other men let out a low chorus of snickers that only proved to irritate and anger my wolf more. It was all I could do to hold him in control.
“Well?” I said. “Are you going to take me to the alpha? Or bring him here, for all I care. A meeting in the woods works for me.”
The beta glanced from me to Rainier, and then around at his men, eventually nodding to someone behind us.
“That’ll be fine,” Carlton said. “The alpha has been wanting to talk to you anyway. This little meeting was bound to happen sooner or later. Alan, Rick, escort our friends to the camp.”
Two hulking men stepped forward and grabbed our arms. I growled at the one holding me, my wolf sending me mental images of what this man would look like when we’d torn him open.
The man holding me put his lips to my ear, and I could smell the awful stench of peanut butter on his breath. “Give me a reason, Demon Wolf,” he sneered, mocking the nickname the area packs had given me over the years. “You can still talk to the alpha even if both your eyes are swollen shut.”
Reluctantly, I relented, allowing him to guide me onward.
The other shifter shoved Rainier forward.
My friend and I exchanged a look as we went.
He didn’t have the look of a helpless sacrifice, which was good.
As long as we were breathing, there was still a chance we could talk or fight our way out.
If it came down to it, I’d sacrifice myself to ensure Rainier got away.
He could warn everyone and prepare to retreat or defend.
“I can hear you thinking, Demon Wolf,” Carlton said, calling over his shoulder as we walked. “Y’all ain’t going nowhere, and that’s a fact. Not unless we want you to.”
The man wasn’t psychic, but it was still unnerving to have my thoughts called out like that. Though, what else would we be thinking at that moment?
As we exited the forest into the encampment, the sheer number of shifters here startled me.
Down here, there looked to be even more than I’d estimated from above.
Every man—for that was all that made up Red Maw—glared at us as we passed.
With their eyes boring into us, I felt like a prisoner on display, walking the final hallway to the electric chair.
Carlton led us to the largest of the tents and stepped aside, taking up his spot beside the flap of a door.
“Boss? We got ’em. Mister Leviathan here wants a word with you,” Carlton called through the doorway.
The men holding us tightened their grips on our arms, obviously assuming we’d try to attack the alpha as soon as he stepped out.
There was no need for that, though. As soon as the flap moved aside and the alpha walked out, I had no fight left in me.
Hell, my knees buckled, and it was all I could do to stay upright.
“What the…” Rainier muttered beside me, as surprised as I was.
A woman stood before us. She looked to be in her thirties, pretty but in a hard way, a faint scar running along the bottom of her chin.
The only thing that marred her beauty. Her hair was cut close in a short pixie cut, the strands pale enough it could have almost passed for white rather than the blonde that it was.
She put her hands on her hips. The muscles in her arms bunched, showing strength and power that belied her femininity that she exuded.
“Welcome, Leviathan Cross.” Her voice was deep for a woman but smooth and calm, with a faint musical lilt. “My name is Desdemona. I’m the alpha of Red Maw.”
“But…you’re a woman,” Rainier said lamely.
“Very astute of you,” she said, turning a sarcastic smile upon Rainier. “You didn’t even have to look up my skirt to tell for sure.”
Rainier blushed and averted his eyes. Female alphas weren’t totally unheard of, but they were somewhat rare.
The thing that made this the most surprising was that the Red Maw was a pack made up entirely of men—at least, that’s what I’d thought until now.
The thought that this woman had bested every man in this pack was shocking.
Impressive? Yes, but still astounding. Several of the men standing around us dwarfed her.
“I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a long time.” Desdemona studied me. “The legendary Leviathan Cross.” She squatted down and picked up a pebble at her feet, tossing it back and forth. “Is it true you devour virgins like they say? Do you at least fuck them first?”
“Those stories are bullshit,” I said. “I’m not a monster. Unlike you and your men.” I sneered the last word, recalling the intentions of the group that had cornered June.
Her smile vanished in an instant. “Yes. I heard about that,” she said, standing tall again and tossing her stone away. “The men who returned looked like they’d seen a ghost. They’ve been handled. No need to worry about them.”
“Handled? What does that mean?”
She shrugged. “When they were pressed about why they’d gotten that close to Hidden Grove without permission, it was revealed that they were…
how should I say it…looking for some fun.
If you think I will suffer rapists in my pack, then you are very mistaken, dear Leviathan.
They knew they’d fucked up. Honestly, I’m surprised they even came back.
Perhaps they thought I’d be lenient. Not to worry. They died screaming.”
A chill spread from my stomach down to my balls. This was a hard woman. Harder than many men I knew or had ever known. There was no pity in her eyes.
“What do you want to talk about?” I didn’t want to extend this any longer than I needed to.