The Unlikely Mate

Chapter 29

Lennox actually stumbled when he felt that Jennifer was somehow feeling his own emotions. He had a sense of relief, because he felt confident that she was at least still alive, but he could also feel anger and frustration coming from her. What he didn't feel was fear. He knew had had his own fear, finally with something to live for and death literally pounding at his door. But he could tell that Jennifer, wherever she was, she wasn't afraid, at least not for herself. He could tell she was afraid for him, relieved that he was ok but that she wasn't afraid for herself. He didn't know if that amounted to recklessness on her part, or just awesome confidence, but it made him feel stronger.

"I'll give you to the count of 5 to surrender" came Mark's voice from outside.

"Count to 1 if you'd like" Lennox shouted back, "It won't make a difference, I won't go quietly!"

Lennox then heard the pounding at the back door, and knew the woman was trying to get inside. Then came the pounding at the front door, it would only be a few seconds before they had broken the door completely off its hinges and they would be inside, but Lennox was ready.

The door splintered with a crash, and the smaller man walked in confidently. But his confidence was soon eradicated when he was met with a blinding light, and he stumbled backward. Lennox had discharged a flash grenade that had temporarily blinded the man walking toward him, his sensitive wolf eyes even more susceptible to the brightness of the flare. In that second of weakness, Lennox seized his opportunity and jumped at him, immediately plunging his knives into the chest of the unsuspecting werewolf repeatedly. It was only a moment, but it was long enough to render the first attacker immobile.

Mark then attacked Lennox, even though he had been disoriented by the light for a second, but not enough to stop his movement forward, and he immediately had Lennox off of the other wolf and pinned to the ground, his fangs beginning to elongate.

Lennox swung his fists wildly, hitting Mark in the face a couple of times, but he was no match for the Alpha who had already begun to shift. Lennox took one more swing that hit the Alpha in his ribs, but soon felt the bite as the Alpha sunk his teeth into Lennox's swinging arm.

Lennox still had a silver knife in the other hand and slashed several times at the wolf that was pinning him down, but with his other arm caught in the vicelike grip of the werewolf's teeth, he didn't have much range of motion to cause any damage.

He continued to struggle, even though he knew he couldn't last long, and he could hear that the female werewolf had made her entry through the back door and was quickly approaching. He felt Jennifer again, pushing her emotions to him. Courage, he could feel it. And then he felt an urgency to go for the eyes. He took a wild swing, at the face of his attacker and was able to cut a long gash across his face and eyes, causing him to release the biting grip on Lennox's arm, yelping at the wound to the face.

Lennox quickly scrambled to his feet, and put his arms up defensively in front of himself, as he backed into the corner, with the female who had shifted into her wolf form and the Alpha werewolf stepping carefully toward him, cutting off any avenue of escape.

It was a different snarl that caught Lennox's attention, and before he could even process what he was seeing, Jackson had shifted and landed on top of the female wolf, biting into her throat and shaking her violently. Blood was spraying everywhere, and it was a mere second before the female had gone completely limp, dead at Jackson's attack.

The Alpha wolf lunged at Jackson, and the two wolves fought each other, fangs out with blood and saliva spraying across the room as they bit and clawed at each other. The fight was over almost as soon as it had begun, when the Alpha wolf decided to run. He quickly ran through the shattered doorway and disappeared into the outdoors that was quickly growing dark.

Jackson shifted back into his human form and collapsed on the floor, trying to catch his breath. He had several cuts and wounds even from the few seconds of fighting, and the knife wound in his chest was also bleeding, although it was far more healed than it had been just about half an hour before.

"Are you ok?" Lennox asked, not sure what else to say. "Thank you for saving me" he added.

"Same to you" Jackson said as he winced with pain. "I don't know what you did, but it saved my life. I'm pretty sure I was just about gone when you got to me."

"I'll get you some clothes" Lennox said, as he walked into the other room and came back with something for Jackson to wear.

Jackson was already beginning to heal, and his breathing had returned to normal. He still had the remains of the stab wound in his chest, but even that was healing again and he quickly put on the clothes that Lennox had brought him.

"We need to get to Jennifer" Lennox said.

"Yeah, I have a pretty good idea where he's taking her" Jackson responded, and the two of them went quickly out to Lennox's truck and drove off quickly, Jackson giving quick instruction for the direction to head.

"I need you to tell me what is going on with you and Jennifer" Jackson then said, not bothering to beat around the bush.

"I don't even know where to start" Lennox said, rubbing the back of his neck wearily.

"Were you hunting her?" Jackson asked. "What are your intentions?"

"My intentions" Lennox scoffed to himself, chuckling at the true reality behind those words. "No, I wasn't hunting her" he then said, staring directly ahead at the dark road ahead.

"Ok, I get that William and these thugs took your fiancée, I'm sorry about that, by the way. That sort of thing should never happen. But why is she helping you?" Jackson asked. "How did she even get involved?"

"I don't know if I should say" Lennox finally said. "I mean, I'm still trying to make sense of it. I don't really know what to tell you."

Jackson sighed, and continued to stare at Lennox, trying to decide what to do.

"How long have you been hunting us?" Jackson finally asked, trying a new approach.

"I want to clarify, that I wasn't hunting you" Lennox began. "I only ever wanted to get those involved with Amy's murder. I know this town if full of werewolves and I haven't bothered any of them. The only ones I've gone after have been the three that were there that night."

"So you've already taken out the first two?" Jackson said, trying to hide how impressed he was that this human had successfully taken out two werewolves previously, one tonight and was surviving the attack from an Alpha just a few minutes before.

"Yes," Lennox said. "I killed both of them, and then when we met your friend William, I recognized him as the other one there that day. Once I've killed him, I won't need to kill any more of you."

"Easier said than done" Jackson responded. "And he's not my friend. We've crossed paths before, and I never really trusted him, but today was the first time I'd seen him exhibit punishable behavior, which he will be held accountable for."

"I am going to kill him" Lennox said. "And if he hurts Jennifer in any way, it won't be a quick death."