Claws

Chapter Nineteen

Zale stuck his snout in the air, inhaling the scents of the forest, searching for the direction of Mae's pheromones. He could instantly track her scent coming from the south. It was so strong he could almost see a trail of her pheromones. His eyes blurred, and his face began to heat up. Her scent was intoxicating. It was so strong it was making him dizzy. Was it because of her hypersensitivity?

Zale shook his wolf head and blinked a couple of times before running in her direction. He needed to focus. Every time his paws hit the forest floor, Mae's scent grew stronger, and another smell arose. Male pheromones. Two of them, and they didn't smell like they were eastern wolves. Zale let out a vicious snarl. She probably couldn't move by now from the amount of pheromones they were emitting. She was defenseless.

Zale cursed over and over in his head as he drew closer, picking up two voices from not far ahead.

"Easy now! We can't let a pretty face and figure like that go to waste, now can we? Look, her eyes are already glazing over from our pheromones. She can't even move now. She's all ours," he heard one of the guys muse. He could hear Mae crying and the sound of thick fabric ripping. No.

"Mae!" Zale closed his eyes and pushed himself as fast as he could, finally reaching the trees where Mae was just ahead. When he reached the edge of the lake, he spotted her and the two men. They were laughing, tearing at her dress, which had already lost its straps. An indescribable wave of rage coursed through him, and before he knew it, he had lunged himself at the two men and clamped his teeth down on both of their arms, throwing them away from her. When he let go, he immediately tasted their foul, bitter blood. They were slightly undernourished, which meant they were southern Claws. The southern territory didn't have a good hunting supply, so only their blood would taste as low in iron as theirs did.

Zale snarled at the two southerners, who had shifted. They were large but definitely not as herculean as him. It would be an especially easy win. "How dare you lay your hands on her," Zale snarled, snapping his teeth. "You two are dead."

"Who are you? Her mate?" The darker wolf chuckled, licking his bleeding paw as it began to heal itself. "Or do you want a taste of her first? We can share."

"Shut up, you freaking idiot," Zale snarled, lunging at the loudmouth first. It wasn't hard to pin him down and rip out his throat. It took about two seconds to end his life. Zale had never killed anyone up until then, but he felt no sympathy for the man. Blood spewed everywhere, sticking to his black fur and covering his muzzle as he felt bones break beneath his teeth. He turned to the second wolf, who had his tail tucked in between his legs. Zale bore his blood-stained teeth. "Do you have anything you'd like to say before I rip your throat out of your neck?"

The southern wolf just smirked with dead eyes and looked Zale straight in the eye. "Daddy says hi."

Zale snapped his neck with his teeth in less than a second after hearing those three words. "Screw you," he snarled, hovering over the two lifeless wolves.

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I couldn't move. I couldn't talk. I couldn't breathe. Laying on the freezing forest floor, all I could do was watch as Zale tore apart the two wolves, looking like a nightmarish demon with blood staining his paws and face. His breaths were raw and heavy as he turned around with glowing blue eyes. For a brief moment, he truly terrified me. I whimpered out as he trotted to me, almost forgetting he was the one who came to my aid. What I had just witnessed was truly the work of an outraged beast. I'd never seen so much blood in my life.

I clenched my teeth together and winced as he shifted, his face and hands still stained with the blood of the assaulters. When he saw my terrified expression, he looked down at his hands and immediately rushed to the side of the lake, scrubbing off as much blood as he could as fast as he was able.

The back of my wet head throbbed, and my throat and ribs ached. Not only that, but I was in heat too. My whole body felt as if it was on fire, and my ears began to ring while my breathing became shallow, making my ribs ache even more. The cold burned my skin as I shivered, undecided on whether I felt hot or cold. I shut my eyes, tears rolling down my cheeks. It hurt. It hurt so bad.

"Mae!" The sudden sound of Zale's panicking voice made my eyes open, even though they were heavy. As I watched him run towards me, I realized he had cleaned his face and hands up. The tips of his dark hair were wet, and his blue eyes brimmed with a mixture of worry and anger. He was taking his jacket off with a strange, frantic look on his face, stumbling by my side. What was he thinking? Worrying about me so much when all we did was fight? Zale threw his heavy jacket over my body and knelt down next to me, feeling my forehead. "Geez. You're burning up."

When his hand left my forehead, it instantly went up to cover his nose. His cheeks looked flushed, and his lip was bleeding because of how hard he was biting down on it. My pheromones were getting to him. "Geez, you're lucky I've built up a high tolerance for pheromones. Any other male alpha would be eating you alive right now, in the pack or not."

I looked up at him, mouthing slut, despite how much I didn't want to move. He clicked his tongue at me and rolled his eyes. "And this is the thanks I get. Look, you need to take some of my blood. It'll at least heal your external wounds and stop all that bleeding. Robin is going to get your parents, so they'll be here in a little bit."  That's right. Alpha's blood had healing components in it. Disgusting or not, it was a good idea and fast thinking on Zale's part. I had to give him that.

I looked up at Zale's disheveled appearance as he bit down on his forearm, clenching my jaw as tears began to roll down my cheeks again. I couldn't get ahold of myself. "Make it stop," I whispered right before he pressed his bleeding arm to my mouth.

When his blood hit my lips, my eyes grew wide. I sharply inhaled. It tasted sweet, like honey and sugar. I shut my eyes with a sigh, using all my strength to grab his arm and press it harder against my mouth, eager to get more. It was so good. My entire body slowly filled with warmth as I felt the wound in my head close up.

"It's alright. Take it easy. It's not going away," I heard Zale sigh as he carefully lifted my head up and set it on his lap. I felt his fingers travel to the back of my head after he adjusted his jacket over my shivering body, checking to see the condition of my wound. I winced but kept on drinking his blood. "You're going to be sore. Alpha blood can only close up external wounds, not anything internal. You'll have bruising on your neck along with swollen vocal cords, so you might not be able to talk for a few days. Three of your ribs seem to be broken as well. You'll probably fully heal in a week or two, even with rapid healing so--"

Zale stopped, looking down at me as I finally quit drinking and released his arm. My head was spinning. I couldn't focus on anything. My head felt light, and my eyes began to blur...I was...Loosing...consciousness...

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Hello, my lovely readers!!! I hope you enjoyed that chapter! It took me a while to write this chapter for some reason:() I don't know why I had such a hard time with this one🧐Thanks for y'all's patience!

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