12. Alec

Chapter 12

Alec

A lec sat beside Leif on the bed, his mate sleeping on his back, arms over his head, relaxed in a sexy sprawl. The lights were bright enough that Alec was able to see the cursed scar on Leif’s chest. He had no idea what time it was, though he knew they’d both slept for several hours.

He ran his fingertips over the scar, light and gentle, looking beyond the layers of skin and muscle to the curse that thrummed balefully beside Leif’s strong heart.

The curse was fractured, interrupted by the witch’s death hundreds of years prior. The curse’s purpose had been twisted, burdening Leif with the stolen lives of the witch’s victims. The amount of power coiled inside the curse was staggering.

Leif was going to live a very long time. Even when Alec unraveled the curse, Leif would still have all those stolen years—the original owners of those lives were dead, and Alec had no idea how to take away the years without killing his mate in the process. He wasn’t even going to try .

Leif was already past the maximum average lifespan of a powerful alpha. Alec guessed Leif had a few thousand more years in him before the stolen years ran out.

Alec pondered this, wondering if he would be around to see his mate finally grow old, rich brown hair turned silver by age and time. Alec was mostly fae—there was some human ancestry a couple generations back, but younger fae species lived long, long lives too. He hoped he lived as long as Leif, not wanting his mate to spend a lifetime without him.

“What has you so pensive?” Leif asked, voice rough from sleep. Leif yawned, stretching, and Alec admired his form.

“Just wondering about the future,” Alec sighed, refocusing on the task at hand. “The curse should be easy enough to alter. I think I can dismantle the portion that harms other wolves when bonds are forged. You could have a pack again, if you wanted.”

“Truly?” Leif pushed up on his elbows, wide awake. “How? So many practitioners tried and failed to break the curse.”

“They all went big,” Alec replied, placing the flat of his hand over the scar. Leif was hot to the touch, skin smooth and soft. “They tried to do too much at once…too grand in their actions. I work best in the tiniest of spaces—molecules and atoms and motes of magic that make up a spell. All I need is time, and I think I can unmake the curse.”

“Unmake it?” Leif asked.

“Breaking a curse requires an act of force stronger than the curse itself, literally breaking it, then destroying the remnants the same way. I can get down to the base foundation of a spell, to its components and pieces, and dismantle a curse by altering the foundation of what it’s made of and how it’s put together. Unmaking.”

“That sounds really difficult and complicated.” Leif worried, reaching out and putting a hand on Alec’s knee. “Is it dangerous?”

“If I do it right, I don’t even think the curse will put up a fight before I have it unraveled.” Alec paused, eyeing his mate. “I’d like to try it now, if that’s okay with you.”

“What do you need me to do?” Leif asked, looking a bit shocked but willing to listen.

“Just lie back down and relax. Try not to move, though I want you to tell me if something hurts. It shouldn’t, though. Pain would be a sign the curse is reacting to what I’m doing.”

Leif did as directed, easing back on the pillows, hands behind his head, those crystal blue eyes watching him intently.

Alec reached out a hand, hovering over the scar, when Leif moved so quickly his hand was a blur, catching Alec’s hand before it made contact. Alec froze, eyes wide. “What?”

“Something’s wrong,” Leif said, sitting up, eyes unfocused. “A group of humans just crossed into my territory.”

Alec tugged his hand free and rolled off the bed, hunting for his clothes. His underwear was ruined but the rest of his old clothing was relatively intact. Leif got out of bed as well, opening a section of the wooden wall behind the bed to reveal a closet. He tugged on a pair of sweatpants, but that was it, and he headed up the tunnel toward the cabin.

“Wait for me!” Alec called, tugging on his new boots, tying them hurriedly before hustling after his mate.

Leif

The boundary magic that told him when intruders were in his territory was going wild. There were several humans that had crossed the territory lines at the same place the previous group did—Leif suspected that whoever had sent the first group was there to find their missing people, and likely Alec as well.

Alec caught up to him at the door of the cabin, Leif waiting on the stoop. It was late; the sun had set, the moon was full enough that he could see a fair distance in the night. He breathed in deeply, searching for the scents of the intruders.

Alec shivered in the chill air and snuggled into his side, cold hands wrapping around his waist. “What do you sense?”

“Several humans crossed into my territory where the first group did,” Leif shared, catching hints of the humans on the wind, breathing deep. A growl rumbled out with his next words. “They’ll come across the bodies soon; they’re likely following their tracks. Huh. They’re trying to be stealthy.”

“Not surprising. They probably guessed the first group is dead, or at least in trouble. We should burn the bodies this time.”

Leif snorted out a surprised laugh. “This time?”

Alec hugged him tightly before letting go and heading to the laden bags, tugging out one of the new coats they got earlier. He yanked off the tags and shrugged it on, zipping it up before giving Leif a brilliant smile. “If they came in peace, we’d let them live—but if they’re trying to be stealthy, they mean trouble, and I say kill troublemakers. ”

Leif breathed in again, and caught the scents of gunpowder and old blood. “They’re here for violence.”

Alec nodded and returned to the door, both of them facing outside, the shadows deep. “Like I said, kill them.”

“My bloodthirsty mate,” Leif murmured, leaning down and pressing a kiss to Alec’s soft hair.

“Are they still heading this way?” Alec asked him.

Leif nodded. “They are. Anyone coming from that direction has to be the mountain mafia.”

“Alright, we should have expected this. They’re probably looking for their people.”

“And you.” Leif reminded Alec.

Alec grimaced. “Yeah.”

“They likely won’t find the path up the hill,” Leif said, tucking Alec under his arm. “And the cabin is far enough back from the cliff edge that they won’t see the interior lights if they’re down where the bodies are. We can let them pass.”

Alec scoffed, looking up at him with a dubious expression on his face. “Like you’d let the mafia stomp through your territory without stopping them.”

“You know me so well already, little greenbough.” Leif gave Alec another kiss to the top of his head. “What’s our plan then?”

“Hunt them down.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Ale c

He was dressed for shenanigans in the woods this time, with properly fitted boots, gloves, a warm coat, and a beanie. Leif was distractingly hot, dressed in just his sweatpants, the waist elastic enough to handle it when Leif Changed into his lycan form and got huge.

Leif was huge everywhere.

His mate was enticing, but the situation they were in was dangerous, so Alec made himself set aside his lustful thoughts.

They stood at the cusp of the cliff overlooking the forest below. Leif pointed in the direction of the intruders, and sure enough, Alec could make out the beams of flashlights cutting through the trees in the distance. The woods were pitch black but for the gilding of silver from the moon, making the humans easy to spot.

“They aren’t worried about being seen.” Alec mused. “Didn’t you say they were trying to be stealthy?”

Leif waggled one massive hand tipped in claws. “My ears tell me they’re split into two groups. The main group is the one with the flashlights—a few people have moved ahead of the bigger group, likely the trackers. They might be using magic or have night vision goggles.”

Alec focused intently on the ambient magic fields—the fields of energy that existed everywhere on the planet, accessible to human practitioners of sufficient skill level and certain younger species of fae—like Alec. His mixed bag of genetics allowed him access to the energy of the world around him, letting him absorb power from the ambient magic fields, or directly from objects like a living tree, the earth, or a magical object. He didn’t need any energy, but the fields would react to magic being cast by practitioners, like stones thrown in a pond, the surface rippling in waves .

“I can’t sense any magic,” Alec told Leif, dropping his focus and rolling his shoulders, trying to relax. He was keyed up, adrenaline making him anxious.

“I can’t smell any, either,” Leif agreed. His voice was deeper and rumbly in his lycan form than his human.“Shall we?”

Leif knelt, and Alec climbed on his back like he had before, arms clinging to Leif’s shaggy shoulders and thick neck. Leif was warm, even through Alec’s coat, and he buried his nose in the thick fur of Leif’s lycan form.

“Comfortable?” Leif rumbled, one big hand coming up to clasp Alec’s wrists in a firm but gentle grip.

“Yup.”

Leif jumped into the darkness below.

Leif

The journey down the cliffside was easy, Alec clinging to him like a burr. He made it down in two jumps, not wanting to hurt Alec by trying the full distance in a single bound. The inertia could dislocate Alec’s shoulders or risk Leif losing his grip on his mate.

Alec lifted his head from Leif’s shoulder when they reached the bottom of the cliff. Leif took deep breaths, the air filled with the scents of approaching humans. The scent of death was on the wind as well, though not overpowering; the cooler temps were keeping decomp to a minimum.

His sensitive ears picked up the careful tread of at least three humans, the scent of steel and gunpowder coming to him at the same time .

“Three humans ahead of the main group,” Leif growled softly to his mate. There was a faint sheen of moonlight, not enough to help humans all that much, but surely Alec’s vision was better than a human’s, and he pointed in the direction his senses told him the intruders approached.

“Can we spy on them? See what they’re doing?” Alec whispered quietly, nearly silent, Leif’s hearing sharp enough to hear.

“Let us beat them to the killing field,” Leif replied. “They’re heading in that direction.”

“Okay.”

Leif took off at a lope, claws finding purchase in the soft earth, the faint crunch of leaves too low for humans to hear, his speed too fast to follow in the darkness. He was careful, though—the three scouting ahead likely had infrared night vision, meaning they would see him and Alec with ease if they weren’t careful.

Leif got them to the killing field quickly, and he set Alec behind the large fallen tree, same as before, and he covered Alec’s body with his own, his much smaller mate crouching beneath his huge form. Alec peeked around the root ball ripped from the earth, the myriad roots obscuring his view, the darkness heavy and oppressive.

He put his muzzle by Alec’s ear and spoke as quietly as he could manage. “Stay hidden until I come back for you. Infrared can see you even in pitch black.”

Alec nodded and crouched even lower, obscured by the huge roots and branches of the fallen tree. Leif licked Alec’s cheek, his mate chuckling quietly, and a swift kiss met his nose before he slinked away from his mate, staying low.

The humans were a few hundred feet away. Leif hunkered low to the ground, keeping behind trees and thick blackberry brambles.

Alec

There was little Alec could do in the darkness; though he could see better than a human, he was no match for infrared goggles if Leif was right.

He stayed there on the ground, leaning on the fallen tree, the trunk higher than his head and the roots and branches thick and dense. He was idly wondering what felled the tree to begin with when there was a crack of a stick breaking.

Alec froze, listening. A faint step, then another, from the far side of the clearing by the bodies. Too large of a footstep to be a coyote or raccoon, and the critters would have cleared out with Leif so near.

A harsh crackle like static came, then Alec heard voices. “Sir, we found them. Checking the bodies now. Looks like animals got to the bodies, too.”

A man’s voice, with a local accent from the hills. There was a faint chirp from a radio, then a deep, angry voice came over the radio, and he too sounded like a local. “Is it all of them?”

There was a new voice, another man speaking in the clearing. “Yessir, it’s all of them, even Stu. Not sure how he died, though. The others are torn apart. Something big got the entire crew.”

“The rumors of this being werewolf territory might be true then. Keep an eye out, we’ll be there in a few minutes,” came the disembodied voice of whoever was in charge over the radio.

Alec recognized that voice. He didn’t know the face to match it, but the voice and name he knew. He’d heard it outside his cell several times during his captivity, or on the phone when one of his jailers got a call checking on production when he was in the lab being forced to work.

That was the mountain mafia boss.