He glanced back at her and for a moment she was caught in those eyes, deciding if she was falling into the intense gaze or being sucked into darkness. It was unnerving and for the first time she really shivered with nerves about the monster predator that she was snuggled next to in the dark.
Werewolves were somehow less terrifying. Her brain could get around people turning into bigger-than-normal wolves, but Aldric's huge dark eyes and angular face were enough to trigger all her horror movie heroine instincts to just fucking run.
"Are you well?" Aldric frowned.
Faith swallowed and tried to blink away her sudden nerves. She tried to speak, but the words caught in her throat and she had to swallow again before speaking. "Yeah. Just kind of freaked out," she answered, tactfully leaving out the by you her mind added to the end of the statement.
She felt the warm and reassuring weight of his hand land on her shoulder, and he smiled slightly, keeping his fangs covered. It was a very strange moment of mental dissonance between the sheer terror at being this close to what was unquestionably and lethally not-human and the deep feeling of safety that bloomed in her just from being around Aldric.
After a very short moment, the feeling of safety won, and she relaxed slightly under his hand.
"It is understandable to be anxious," he said. He leaned close to whisper, his breath brushing her ear as he barely spoke the words out loud. "But I will be with you, and our clanmates are with us as well. We will get everyone back safely."
Faith managed a small smile and they turned their attention back to the lodge. They were back in position just in time for Aldric's reassuring hand on her shoulder to turn into a warning seconds before the door opened. A large, greasy man stepped out and looked around with a cocky grin.
Jesse Honeyford.
"You can come on out, I know you're there," he called. "Get out here so I can kill you and get out of here. I've got better places to be than this bullshit backwater."
A low rumble vibrated through her body and Faith sucked in a breath as a sharp howl suddenly echoed through the trees. Something about the sound spoke to Faith’s hindbrain, and a fierce determination and pride swelled in her chest as she knew it was Marc calling to his clan.
Dozens of howls answered, first several from nearby and then in a wave, howls from further and further out. Beside her, Aldric leaned back and added to the sound, and while it was clearly not a wolf's howl, it sounded right mixed with the wolves’ voices.
The pride and determination and sense of– of pack she guessed– filled her and without even thinking, she found herself leaning back, too, and adding her voice to the chorus. Inside the lodge, very faintly, she heard two smaller voices calling out to their people. Jake and Kaylee.
The man's grin faltered for a moment before he rolled his eyes and scoffed. "You think a few wolves and whatever the fuck those other two are will get through me and my boys? Keep dreaming. I know all about you weakass Frostwalkers." Honeyford leaned over and spit on the ground by the door. "We won't even have to work for the win. You want to die? Come get us."
The growl that rumbled through the woods this time was clear and angry, and was joined by several others. Every fine hair on Faith's body stood on end and her brain reminded her once again that she was very definitely prey for these creatures. Aldric stayed silent now, and watched rather than adding to the intimidating noise, but his hand tightened on her shoulder again for a brief moment and her fear once again ebbed somewhat.
Honeyford stepped out from the doorway and three other big guys followed him. One of them was the driver from the car that hit Simon.
"Where's Justin Simmons?” Aldric asked, his words more of a breath than an actual question. He scanned the front of the cabin and grimaced. "I'm seeing two more bodies inside now, but I can’t see the children. Damn. They must be further in the house.“
"You're going to have to tell me what the hell you're looking at when we're all done here," Faith grumbled.
"I will answer any question you might have for me once we are home, I promise you," Aldric answered. "Right now we should move."
He helped her stand and took her hand to lead her quietly around the trees, keeping the three Goldfang wolves in his sight. They worked their way around to near the corner of the building. It was a short, clear dash from where they were hidden to the door Honeyford had walked out of.
Almost as soon as they stopped moving again, a gigantic black wolf stepped out of the trees on the other side of the small clearing in front of the lodge, a continuous growl rising and falling with his every step.
Faith hadn't actually seen the werewolves' non-human forms before. Even tonight they had been disappearing into the forest already before they started their shifts. Marc now was something of a shock. Had she really thought that the wolves wouldn't terrify her?
Marc's furry head would be able to stare her right in the eye, if he was inclined. His fur was mostly a deep midnight black, but in the late evening light she could pick out threads of a fiery red. His lips were pulled back in a snarl revealing teeth that had to be at least as long as her whole hand, wrist to fingertip.
Golden amber eyes full of fury glared at Honeyford and Faith had to admit that if she was in his shoes, she would be a cowering, gibbering lump on the ground, not standing there tall and stupid, glaring back.
Honeyford laughed, a cocky, greasy sound. "Marc Keller, I assume?
