King of Beasts

Chapter 8

There was an animal beneath her.

It was big, and loud, and didn’t hide the fact that it had her scent and was circling the oak Charlotte perched on.  Gabe?  No, she figured when Gabe found her he’d be a mess of fury and claws and snarling.  This animal seemed . . . curious.

She tried peering down through the foliage but in her attempt to hide herself from below, she’d effectively hidden everything from above, too.  She listened, ever so carefully, to the breaking of twigs and the deep inhalations of the animal before a horrendous sound seemed to fill the night air.

Cracking, breaking, tearing.  And then a man, panting heavily at the end of it.  Charlotte brought her fist to her mouth and bit down hard to stop herself from crying out in panic.  It was one thing to be trapped in a town of beasts.  It was another thing to be subjected to their change.

“Come here, girly.” A stranger’s voice whispered.  “Come here girly girly girly.  I can smell you.  Mmm, I can smell you alright.  You smell like Alpha.  You smell like strong Alpha.”

Alpha?  What in the holy hell was an alpha?  His voice was deep and gravely and had that thin lining of insanity around its edges.  If this beast knew how to climb a tree, then she’d be fu—

He was climbing the tree.

Charlotte looked around herself wildly, her reddish orange hair catching the moonlight and glowed like embers.  There was nowhere to go.  She’d thought—well, she hadn’t really been thinking when she climbed this tree.  But she had been tired from her running and she was terrified that if she rested on the forest floor the beasts would catch her while she napped.

It seemed safest to get up high, but she never really thought about the fact that the beasts were human, too, and humans could climb.  She could hear him grunting as he climbed up and Charlotte cursed, swinging her legs over to the other side of her branch. 

“Come here, girly, I won’t bite.” She heard him pause, then a deep, maniacal laugh.  “Well I guess I might.  You smell mighty fine, girly.  What nice old alpha let you roam out on our own?”

She couldn’t very well jump to another tree, could she?  Certainly she’d fall, and she was high enough for it to be fatal.  Her only option, then, was to descend on the other side of the tree and hope she was low enough by the time her and the beasts path intercepted so she could jump.

Where would she run to, though?

“Good girly, coming down to meet me.” The beast hummed, his voice greedy and crazed.  “Girly going to be a good girly.  Why do you smell like strong alpha girly?  Where’s your strong alpha?”

She hung from one branch with one hand until her good ankle rested on a branch below.  She’d hook her cast across a sturdy setting and then lower herself carefully.  When she heard the beast shifting so he was coming up the same side of the oak she was descending, she’d shift also so they were always opposite.

“Strong alpha.” The beast said again, although his voice was more unsure, more confused.  “Strong, strong alpha.  Strongest alpha.” He grunted, then climbed up again.  Charlotte heard a new fervor in his advances and she felt like screaming for—for Gabe.  She wanted Gabe right now.  Not her mom or her dad or anyone from town but the beast that had stolen her.

Finally, when she hadn’t expected it, his face came from behind the trunk just inches from her own.  A startled scream escaped her lips.  He was ragged and dirty and his breath smelled like death and blood.  His teeth were crooked and chipped, some missing.  Scars ran down his face and the length of his naked, gnarled body.  Charlotte gagged.

“Hey there girly.” He said, flashing her a toothy grin.  “You’re a pretty girly.”

He reached for her and she dropped.  Her good ankle slipped from the branch below her and she fell a good foot before her good hand found another branch to grab onto.  Gasping, heart beating wildly, thoughts all but nonexistent, she continued her decent.  Although now it was more falling than anything else.

“Girly, I thought you wren a good girly!” the beast called, his voice insane, although now angry.  “You smell like good strong alpha girly, you should be good!”

She couldn’t curse, couldn’t swear at anyone but herself, as a new type of fear ate her insides out.  Gabe had never hurt her.  He’d saved her, actually.  And the other beasts had done equally no harm.  But this beast, the one coming down after her—she didn’t want to imagine what he had planned for her.

The ground was close now, almost close enough to drop to but when she was releasing the old branch above her head she felt a surprisingly strong fist wrap around her wrist.  Startled, she glanced up at the beast.  “Gotcha, girly.” He grinned.

Charlotte screamed, and from below them a ferocious, earth shattering, bone breaking growl threatened to tear the night right in half.

Charlotte grinned, grinned almost as insane as the man whose face had suddenly drawn terrified.  Because the king of the beasts had arrived, and he was here for his queen.  And for once Charlotte was okay with that.