Page 4 of All's Fair in Lion and War
Another lion roared on his right. Then another.
Dalmeck.
He turned fast enough to get a solid swipe at the attacking lion’s stomach. And knocked him onto the ground with a satisfactorythud.
Teeth and fangs and fur went in every direction. Pain sliced through his flank, but he returned the favor, tearing a chunk out of his opponent’s shoulder. They rolled in the snow, staining it dark with their blood.
Mate.Soul call. Follow her.His lion clamored in his head. Her scent was burned into his brain now. She was a lion, too!
The opposing male slammed into him again, knocking him from his thoughts.
Kill.
Oh, that was exactly what he intended.
His jaws opened and snapped and opened and snapped again, the second time finding the other male’s neck. He ripped out tuffs of mane and then bit again. And again.
Finally, he found a true grip and tore using the added adrenaline from every emotion he carried deep inside him. Every memory of what the Ka’lagh had done. Every scream he’d heard when they’d attacked his home. Every moment of pain. He allowed it all to fuel his rage. Fuel his ability to continue to fight even past exhaustion.
A shot whizzed past his head and Saul leapt into the shadows between the trees in the direction the woman had run.
Dalmeck.
He clung to the shadows and trees, moving quietly. This was his home and he knew this mountainside better than them.
But he still needed to put as much distance as possible between them and himself and he needed to get the woman to safety too. But she was running erratically.
In the dark. In a black coat with a hood.
The wind was starting to pick up.
He could smell the storm coming. He breathed in, looking for her scent, then leapt forward into a ground eating run. He needed to hurry.
A few moments later he could hear her struggling through the snow. She was limping. Every step looked like agony and yet she kept moving.
Brave little thing.
He looked ahead through the trees, looking for markers.
A knotted tree with low-hanging branches stood out in the moonlight. One of Douglas’ most remote cabins wasn’t far. If he could get her there without being seen. They would be safe for a while. And there would be some supplies and first aid there.
She could use the rest and needed to get out of the weather. He needed somewhere to hide her for the rest of the night. And a little time to figure out why Fate would dare tease him with the prospect of another mate.
There was an exclamation of distress and she fell. One moment she was there. The next she disappeared over the crest of a hill.
Dalmeck.
Saul’s heart choked and sputtered like a snow machine that wouldn’t turn over. For a moment, nothing moved forward. Not time. Not his breath. His heart refused to beat.
Then everything snapped into motion faster than before. His heart. His lungs. His fear made his paws churn the snow.
He had to get to her.
2
Lorelei
After her fall, Lorelei remembered the sensation of being carried.
