Disclaimer: Ugh I know you want to read the chapter so see previous chapters if you need to be reminded of the disclaimer.
Chapter thirty-five! Are you excited? I was after I read the nine reviews I had for chapter thirty-four! SO here is the next chapter hope you enjoy! (And those nine reviews pushed Later in Life over the 100 marker! So thank you all for reviewing!)
35
Novalee stayed in the cave just as Alex had said. She strained her ears for some sort of sound. Nothing. It sounded as if all the animals in the forest had run away. That's what she wanted to do, run away. But the thought of Alex fighting some unknown threat scared the shit out of her. She was rooted in place.
Her ears cocked forward as she heard footsteps. She couldn't move she was frozen in place.
Sweet moon please let it be Alex.
The footsteps got closer to the entrance of the cave, she didn't breathe.
A snarl greeted her and told her that it was not Alex.
She tensed readying herself for an attack. The snout of a dark russet wolf peeked in at her, teeth bared.
Loud echoes erupted around her. It took her a minute to realize they were coming from her. Deep threatening snarls. The snout turned into the full wolf, larger than she thought it would be.
She snapped at him trying to get him to back away, but it was no use, he had the upper hand.
She felt the teeth sink into her leg before she saw it. She yelped as the wolf bit deeper into her flesh and began to pull her out of the cave.
She snarled and kicked at her attacker's face. He huffed and bit deeper. When they were out of the cave she felt his grip loosen. She scrambled to her feet. She felt the blood running from her leg. She pushed the pain away and stood shakily. Her attacker was standing in front of her, with blood dripping from his muzzle.
She bared her teeth and tried to take a step. Her injured leg quivered and she stopped. She didn't think her leg would be able to hold her weight for long.
The other wolf lunged and she felt teeth graze her neck as she ducked. She whipped around and bit down on whatever she caught. She opened her eyes to see what she had, and she had his front leg.
She bit down harder and shook her head and then let go. Her attacker stumbled backwards growling fiercely. Then he lunged at her and they met with teeth. She tried to get to his neck but he was a skilled fighter.
He backed away and snarled at her. She returned it.
She took a step forward and winced, her leg was throbbing.
There weren't any other words to describe what the expression on the other wolf did except for laugh.
He lunged and grabbed her injured leg. She yelped and immediately started kicking at his face. It just caused him to bite down harder, and then she heard the crunch. She whipped around trying to ignore the pain and latched down on her attacker's front leg. She dug her teeth into the muscle and heard him yelp. She felt him release her leg just to feel more pain. All her hope of surviving this vanished as her attacker clamped his jaws around her throat.
He rushed through the woods with her by his side. Timing was not always evident with her. They ran as fast as they could and that was pretty fast compared to most.
They heard the snarls before they saw the dark wolf with his jaw clamped around the pure white wolf's neck.
He lunged at the wolf taking his powerful jaws and wrapping them around the dark wolfs neck. The smaller wolf instantly let go of the white wolf. He didn't wait for anything. He snapped the younger wolfs neck with one fast movement.
He watched as the little worm changed back into his human form as all loup garou do when they die in fur.
He sniffed at the small figure of Russell Montgomery.
The female beside him shifted to her human form to examine the white wolf that was still in her fur which meant she was still alive. That was comforting.
He changed to his human form.
"This is our only judgment," he said looking down at the boy.
"There isn't anyone here that can hear you that doesn't know about the laws. So shut it and get going," Vivian scorned.
And Gabriel did just that. He changed back to fur and took off through the forest. He followed the young wolfs scent to a clearing. He could smell his son's blood mixed with another. He growled and took off after the scent.
Vivian inspected Novalee's wounds. Her back left leg was broken and her neck had deep bite marks. She had lost her oxygen flow. But she was now breathing thanks to the fact that she wasn't being strangled anymore.
She shifted back to her human form and sounded like she was going to cough up a lung.
"You're okay now," Vivian said trying to comfort her.
Novalee coughed once more and then stifled a scream.
"Don't move," Vivian urged.
"What happened, who was that?" Novalee spluttered.
"Sh, it doesn't matter now."
"Yes it does, Alex went after them!" she said wincing as she tried to move.
"Gabriel is going after them," Vivian countered, "Things will be taken care of."
"What happened?" Novalee asked settling into a position that didn't seem to hurt.
Vivian studied Novalee's face. She was very pale, her skin almost matched her hair. She sniffed at the blood that was steadily dripping from the girl's neck wounds. She didn't like the tinge of Alex that she smelled within it but she let it go due to the circumstances.
"I need to get you back to the inn."
Novalee glanced through the trees and then back to Vivian.
"I'm sorry Novalee, there isn't anything you can do."
She saw Novalee's eyes wander to the body lying behind Vivian. Vivian had hoped that she could have gotten Novalee away without her seeing the body.
Novalee's lip trembled, she tried to speak but couldn't.
"Yes it was them, they are the ones that were committing the murders, we just don't know why."
She stood up and grabbed Novalee up in her arms. Novalee bit her lip and stifled yet another scream.
Vivian ran in the direction of the inn praying to the moon that Gabriel could save their son in time.
So I hope this answered all the frantic questions about Gabriel's life. As you can see he is not dead. But Russell is...
Thanks for reading! Review! I want to see if anyone can guess why those people are doing what they are doing! Hehehe, yes I know, another cliffhanger!