Maya's Promise

Part 9

Without too much thought, she surveyed the area around her and once the coast was clear she bolted from her space of safety towards the cabin. Almost too conveniently the front door laid open, the jam broken and tilted. Maya crept slowly in the freeze frame stalk of the leopard and her mouth opened to allow her scent the air around her better. Her path led her past the kitchen, the window she broke still fractured and covered by a piece of plywood. She ignored the basement door and all that laid beyond and crept into the hallway that would lead to her son's room. The door all the way down and to the left was open and a moving shadow of a man could be seen from the light that illuminated the room. Lorenzo's scent was present but stale, so Maya could only presume to think this was the third male to Lorenzo's trio. 

With a deep breath, she approached the open door while preparing her body for a fight that was imminent. As she turned the corner into the room, she barely had a moment for her brain to register the layout before claws grasped her leopards shoulders and rolled them both into the bedroom. With a yowl she struck out, her own razor sharp claws struck flesh of the snow leopard male in front of her. Blood poured from both of their wounds, but it was much more obvious on the white and gray of the male. She wasted no time to allow him to recover and struck again and again with tooth and claw, trying with every move to grasp his throat between her canines. 

Just as she was about to be successful in her battle, he swatted at her with a heavy paw that caused her to stagger and hit the wall beside the wooden crib. She could hear her cub's cries and begged her goddess to keep him safe. In her dizziness, she watched the red tainted white leopard approach her, his teeth barred and growls ripping from his throat. She returned a hiss that she hoped was intimidating, but doubted it had much affect as he continued to stalk toward her, making a show of slowly approaching and batting at the wooden floors with his paw pads. Maya knew she had to keep fighting, to stay alive for herself and her cub, but the blood that pooled below her reminded her of her own wounds and how weak she was beginning to feel. The male crouched low, his tail wiggling side to side as he made minor adjustments to his stance to pounce on her once and for all. But right as he went to pounce, he was pulled backward with a painful scream. 

Maya didn't know if she was still conscious as she watched a solid black panther, with it's nails imbedded in the snow leopards haunches, pull the aggressive cat away from her. The fight lasted all of 60 seconds as the black leopard leaped onto the snows back, bit into the back of his neck and held on until the snow was no longer breathing underneath it. The black leopard leaped from the corpse to the bedroom door, where a backpack she just noticed was resting. The leopard shook out it's coat, then faster than a blink of an eye the leopard was gone, leaving Sebastien in his place. 

Sebastien quickly dressed into a pair of loose shorts from his bag before holding out a t-shirt in her direction. Very aware of her wounds, and the increasing sound of her cubs cries, she shifted quickly with a yell of pain. Ignoring her nudeness, she took the offered shirt that feel to her knees it was so large on her and whirled to face Beren. 

The black haired, blue eyed cub was sitting up in the wooden crib, tears streaming down his rather skinny checks. Maya picked him up and cuddled him against her chest, a hum already vibrating in her throat to sooth him. She felt Sebastien approach and look down at her and Beren, curiosity in his gaze, but she could also see the irritation and madness. 

"Is he dead?" she asked, not bother to say his name out loud in case it summoned him from wherever he was hiding. 

Sebastien released a low growl and scoffed, "I caught him trying to escape to the west. Seemed like he was trying to run back to his mother and father while his men fought and died for nothing." 

"If he was escaping, why didn't he take Beren?" the question took them both off guard, as Maya clutched the infant tighter and he just looked at the cub with even more curiosity in his emerald green eyes. 

"He is with Johnathan out front," was Sebastien's reply to her earlier questions. 

"He's alive?" 

He only nodded before motioning for her to walk out of the bedroom. She followed his orders slowly, her hold so tight on Beren that he began to whine at her. Maya loosed her grip, just slightly, before stepping through the fallen front door to a sight she never thought she would get to see. 

A good portion of the pack remained in their wolf forms, but a few were human, wearing just enough clothing to cover their private areas from the group. Those humans were surrounding the man of her nightmares, and he was currently giving her a menacing stare down as she exited the house with Sebastien behind her back. He roared at her, cursing her name, causing her to flinch and step back so quickly Sebastien had to catch her against his chest, his hands coming to rest on her arms in a protective hold. 

"He is tied up. Do not worry, you are safe." Sebastien spoke quietly into her ears, and that was when she noticed the iron chains wrapped securely around Lorenzo's body. 

"What will happen now?" she whispered back to Sebastien, feeling her body relax back into his warmth. 

She felt him sigh against her, the sound full of pent up aggression. "Now I try not to kill him before your father arrives for Lorenzo's trial."