author's note
edited
Before you guys are like: wtf Lenn why you thinking that way, remember, Lennox was a man who has came a very far way, and things like, oh I don't know, meeting his mate, can break his walls he's put up. There is a very slim line of him being human, and him being wolf. He has more wolf instincts than human, he was literally raised to destroy his humanity. So Len, he's come a far way, and you may not think he's a good guy, but I do, given the circumstances.
sorry for mistakes, i'll fix them later ;) (and the short chapter :0 )
Werewolves don't sweat.
There are things they do that are more wolf than human. And Lennox owned being as wolfish as any werewolf could be.
But he was almost positive he was sweating.
"Tuck your tongue back in," he could hear Quin's voice in the back of his mind. She used to scold him when he was eighteen, coming back from runs and bending down all the while with his tongue literally flapping around.
For werewolves, the only thing that should tell you you were even breaking a sweat was the palms of your hands and feet.
He was thanking the universe he kept 'Hunters' in his car, knowing full well that if he had it in his hands, ink would become so damp from him, they'd stain his skin. And he didn't need that. Not when he was looking at this beautiful thing that stared up at him.
It had been three minutes. Three minutes and one second. Three minutes and two seconds, since he met Schuyler. Three minutes since he was so nervous he literally introduced himself twice, and then realized that she was hanging off of Giles's arm.
Giles's arm.
It should be his arm.
Irrational anger, that he never felt before, bubbled at the back of his mind, spilling over as he counted back from a thousand and tried to remember that Giles's was probably saying something he didn't care about.
"Lenny, you alright?"
He hated it when he called him that. His name was Lennox, and even though he'd growl every time his friend threw it around, he kept his lips shut because he feared what they'd do if he let himself open them.
He'd dig his teeth right into her shoulder and let everyone see that she was his mate. His damn soulmate, not Giles's ornament.
"Lennox, buddy?" A hand wrapped around his shoulder, and he blinked, realizing that the only thing he could focus on were the fingers that gripped at Giles's letterman jacket and spun it closer to her neck. Hiding it from him.
Lennox didn't dare say anything, keeping his lips in a straight line as he thought of how much he just wanted to push her into the ground and growl at anything that came near them. Quin never talked much about the soulmates that wolves would inherit, just quick dabs like, "you'll love her a thousand times more than anything else in the world," or "When you see her crying, you'll see if you're a real man by destroying anything just to keep her from tearing up."
Keep your biology in Lennox, no matter how much every bone in your body is screaming at you to take her and run. He blinked; hopefully his eyes weren't flickering with more gold than green- that wouldn't be easy to explain.
"Hey, you're scaring me man, c'mon. Let's go for some fresh air," Giles said, his hand trapping him as he turned them to steer them away from his mate. "Stay here, Schuy, for just a minute."
Even though all of the bones in his body were telling him to turn back around, and just stare at his mate in fascination for hours if he couldn't touch her, he let Giles's steer him out to the front balcony that hung over nine feet of air. Two werewolves were hopelessly trying to get-off on the side of the wall, grinding on each other desperately before Lennox let out a low growl and the pups were parting and flattening hair while pushing clothes down.
"Man, what's going on with you, Len?" Again with the nicknames.
"Nothing," his voice came out strained as he leaned on the edge of balcony.
Beneath them, the view of the yard had strings of people, both human and wolf, sitting with red solo cups.
"If it's Schuyler, I'll just say you weren't feeling good and left so it won't make her fee-"
"It is Schuyler," Lennox cut, bottle-green eyes turning to his friend. "I want you to stay away from her."
"Wait- what, why the hel-"
"She's mine, Giles," he was saying it in the nicest way he could manage, his voice trying to stay steady and his more primal side growling at Giles. If he had more time to think, he would've knitted together a sentence that expressed him better. Right now, the only thing he knew was mine, mate, keep safe.
"Yours? Whaddya mean, you're talking like she's your mate, man-" Giles cut himself off. "She's your mate, Lennox she's human- honest to God, she won't understand!"
"I know. I know that!" He said, voice frustrated when all he wanted was to slip into the tongue of wolves, but to do that, he'd have to let his other side take control. And if he let his wolf take control, no doubt would he race to the girl and drag her off to the woods to never be seen again. "I'm not going to...kidnap her or anything...just, keep an eye on her for a while," Lennox growled out, growing impatient of how much his brain wouldn't let him think with his new mate in the next room over.
"What are you going to do, Lennox?" Giles wondered out loud to his Alpha.
"I can't, I'll say my goodbyes, but I have to go- it's...the full moon, tomorrow night, I won't be able to rein him in," I'll do something I regret.
"Shit, Len," Shut up with the names. "I'm sorry; I shouldn't have brought her-"
"No, no you did the right thing," he murmured, putting his face in his hands. "I would've sensed her either way, moon or by meeting, and if that happened...." The college campus would've had a giant wolf dragging a freshman out of her dorms.
"Then time to say goodbye, for now, Lennox," Giles told his friend, giving a small grin to him as he propelled them back into the pack house.
*
"It was nice to meet you," Lennox told Schuyler, giving her a smile and he prayed to any god out there that if his canines were showing, the dim light would cover them in shadows.
"Thanks, I'm just happy I didn't have to use my taser tonight," it was obvious the girl was trying to make conversation, her eyes wide when she didn't understand why she didn't want him to leave so soon.
"Taser?" He was supposed to say goodbye and leave.
"Yeah," her blue eyes lit up as she dug in the bag that hung on her shoulder, "a taser." She took it out, happy that she had tranced him for another minute longer.
"What... does it do?" Lennox asked, curiosity getting the better of him; finding himself grinning when she practically jumped into a story of where she bought it and with who. If Lennox was a writer, he'd describe her like autumn, her hair the color of the leaves just as they begin to fall, and her eyes a cool blue that promised an icy winter.
"See, if I press this," she began, her words began tumble to off as she spun the taser to face Lennox, the small device in her hands clearly off, but she still kept her finger off of the trigger. She was careful, Lennox thought to himself. "It'll shoot electricity into them, but only if I'm close enough."
"Why do you need it?" He asked, feeling stupid as he said it.
She looked down, before fishing something else out of her purse. "My dads, they're really big on safety- because a lot of sexual assaults happen on college campuses," she took out a bottle that had a tip that could spray. He was familiar with that one- Quin had used that on a handsy man on the bus step when she took him to the mall for the first time. "And each time I'm away from home, they always tuck in a few bottles of these- I swear, I have like, seven of these back home," she showed him the label, grinning a bit as if showing off your extensive collection of on-hand weapons was normal.
"So, you know how to protect yourself?" He'd be lying if he wasn't secretly bouncing inside of himself, pride bubbling up at the thought of his mate standing her ground like a true Alpha mate. The idea was conflicted over with the thought of her having to actually use it.
"Yeah, took some martial art classes when I was a teenager, but it didn't really go anywhere- but I know how to get out of most situations," Schuyler continued.
"That's pepper spray, right?" He began again, staring at how she dangled it in her hand.
She nodded. "Yeah, I haven't ever used it on anyone yet- but my roommate has," she shrugged, looking up at him with a hopeful expression.
"It's good to know that you're protecting yourself- but shouldn't the college campus be doing something about it tenfold?" He was going to talk to his pack about the issues at the college- if it was as bad as she made it out to be, he'd assign a patrol for the campus.
"I have to go though," Lennox said quickly, realizing he had engaged in a conversation when he should be in his truck, driving miles away from her- because her scent was intoxicating.
She smiled sadly. "Yeah, just- uh, do...I don't usually ask, but I mean, you sound like a cool guy-"
He was already taking his phone out- the one he didn't really know how to use other than calling Giles, Quin, or his Beta, and slipped it into her hands. "Just put your number in," he already typed in Schuyler, hopefully spelled correctly, and waited for her to take it.
She grinned at Lennox, tucking her pepper spray back in her purse, and moved to catch his iPhone.
She was watching the phone, leaving him time to watch her.
It was like each time he looked, she become something else. The first was autumn, somewhere between their conversation, he thought of how much she reminded him of the pansies that Quin would plant in front of his house after he'd beg her not to. Now she just looked like home, and pack, and mate.
She handed him his phone back, a blush apparent on her face and he began to count down from a thousand again.
"Thanks, Len, I'll talk to you later," Schuyler whispered.
He didn't mind it when she used his nick-name.
*
He spent the rest of the night in the woods.
After going home to park his truck, he left a message for Quin on his phone not to look for him for two days. He wouldn't be anywhere near the territory for the next few nights- he was going to put as much distant between himself and Schuyler.
His other side was already begging to be let lose, to run back to Schuyler, and never let the girl leave him again. It was a selfish feeling- but he didn't mind it.
All of the things he's been taught in human society, like not to growl at someone when they walk over your toes, or not to put your face in someone's neck to make them show submission, were beginning to wipe out of Lennox's system. The only thing that stuck was it isn't nice to drag out your human mate into the forest and do exactly what you were dying to do.
Because his train of human thought was being short-circuited by her... telling him to take her. It'd be so easy too, she may know how to protect herself- but that wasn't from an Alpha werewolf.
He stuffed the feeling in the blackest pit of his mind and began to pace in his drive-way, before getting the better of himself and letting his wolf out.
They were both pining for her, the two sides of his mind- but he wouldn't let his other half have anywhere near the control he usually let it. Not until he was miles, and miles away from the territory, away from her.
The full moon was rising tomorrow night- it'd leave him defenseless against all of the barriers he's put up, and his wolf would want one thing: his mate.
That was something he'd make sure they weren't going to get.
Song on the side: It's like Lennox's theme song right now.
Comments make me happy.
Read my new book Beast of America, another unique werewolf story that you might like *smiles shyly with begging eyes*