Damn it. He really shouldn't have come this way. The overcast sky had urged him onward. If there may be just something waiting to be found in the looming darkness. If all he had to do was stetch himself one or two more wolf lengths and all this distance would be worth something. What found was disapointment. The deer's trail he'd been most after led him to only a severed limb. The murderer had left its scent and he felt his blood turn cold. The long course hairs around his nape raised. Screw that! This was where he hid his victims and he wasn’t gonna play around.

Heart thudding in his ears he eagerly pushed deeper into the thicket. If he’d been smarter he would have turned around. Sudden fear had provoked his system into preservation and he only cared about putting as much distance between him and the tom mountain lion’s kill.

The brute ran until he felt his heart ease against its cage,and his toes pained. Numb by the frost he’d collected with his miles. Not to mention the several, new miscellaneous cuts from forcing paths. This ought to do. The lion wouldn’t care now. His icy blue stare roved the tangles of bramble,bush, and trees. What was this place? The shadow made it all hard to discern. Had he come from that way?

Terrified, shrill cries forced him to jump. His hair in sudden disarray again. Something was clawing it’s way to him. With lips raised he took a strong stance. Ready. Or so he thought until he saw her.

A rough wheeze of a cough erupted from his throat upon collision. Stunned. But, his paws remained rooted as his instinct. Ready to fight. A growl ready to roll from his chest. Her fear, he thought may just be a deceptive ruse, and she'd snap his nose first. Disappear. The longer he stood, looking into those eyes,a rich red in the darkness, he felt tension lift from his stiff limbs. The wariness of him gone. What would she have to gain by hurting him?

Tucking his fangs away, he attempted to unlock his stare as she seemed to shrink closer to the ground. He wasn't seeing fear any more.Something more menacing.

Horror. A trapped bird unable to escape to the sun. The evidence more prominent on her pale muzzle lined with streaks of blood. What was she running from? If to answer she looked behind her, and the brute stretched on tiptoes, looking past, if he might see. They didn't see the same thing. Not exactly. It might have looked like an endless stretch a thicket. Morning would come.

Ready to assure her, his words had no chance to form. Her whisper ignited dread back into his bones, and his hair began to stand on end again. He thought he knew what it might just be, and eyes began checking for movement. They wouldn't get much of a warning.

Suddenly the brute blinked with a twitch of his forehead. Taken back, as his eyes pulled toward her. "I won't," he softly spoke in confidence. He wasn't that cruel. He was sure of at least one thing;they both really wanted to get the hell out of here, and he'd get them through. Though he'd never been anyone's savoir he wouldn't let that stop him. He brushed his shoulder to hers. "Come on, we're getting out of here." He breathed deep, trying to find relief there wasn't a lion's scent on the breeze. It was just mind over matter.

Like he had promised he did not falter from her side. He pushed through the nettle, and trampled goose grass. Pausing to hold a low branch in his teeth so she could slip past.