The Order Of Transcendence

17.

Tonight is not a good night for Mason to learn his bride has been abused by the man who should have been a protector.
Not tonight when his muscles itch for action, not when he is already pumped for a fight.

To kill.

Until a few hours ago Mason had only ever taken a life in his imaginings.

Now...

Would his bride hold him so if she knew how his hands ripped limbs from torso? How his own had dripped with blood blacker than night?

Only minutes before her return had Mason heard the footfalls of a man he can grimly confirm to be Jorogumo.

Suspicions confirmed. They want his bride for their Queen.

Blake has her queendom, right here with Mason and he will kill anyone who thinks to take her from him.

Right now as she sleeps wrapped tightly to his body, Mason can hear the sound of muscle and sinsew being ripped from bone as the pack of wild wolves, who seem to have taken up residence on the borders of his property, consume the evidence of his crime. The hungry mouths only too eager to take the body from under his feet.

Mason knows more will come, the fallen just a scout for the betrothed. He searches for any hint of remorse within himself but finds none, only resentment that his prey was not the one who laid his hands upon his wife.

His hands brush Blake's hair with a slow rhythmic quality, and lips pressed gently to her forehead he closes his eyes.
It doesn't stop the images replaying in his head. The thrill of the chase, the feel of the ground beneath his bare feet as he ran... really ran, anything not in his focus was a blur, the speed pumped blood through his being so strong that it brought strength to his body. It seemed as if Mason had grown a full foot in height as he pounced on his victim, not unlike the way Blake pounced on him, but Mason was not playing nor was he initiating intimacy.
Mason pinned him with his teeth in the disgusting creatures neck, Mason held him down while he tore arms from sockets. The scream still echoes in his mind, the way it screeched until the moment Mason snapped the Jorogumo's neck silencing the monster once and for all.

Mason did not have his Queen to quiet the monster within but this time he is glad.

He holds his beautiful woman dearly knowing tonight there's one less person in the world who would hurt her, and for that his is proud.