by Xander Jade
"Max, get out of here, you’ll die!"
"Max, get out!"
I turned to the voices and bowed to them. "Will, Gordon, it was nice to see you again. Enjoy the show! Afterwards, let’s catch up." I yelled to them as I turned back to the fugly bastards.
"What are you talking about, Max? Get out of here!" Will pleaded.
"Max, for the love of the goddess, don’t do this! Cori will never forgive me if I didn’t coerce you to leave, please!" Gordon yelled out.
What the hell was he talking about? Why was he bringing the princess up at a time like this? I didn’t have time to deal with them, so I concentrated what was in front of me.
‘Reap, Herc, you guys ready?
‘Yes!’ They growled out at the same time.
"I agree with a tag team performance. My team is ready when you are."
T laughed, "HAHAHAHA! What team? I only see you, little human."
"Reap, Herc, come join the party!" I said not taking my eyes off the shit head that was laughing at me. The moment my two crazy killing machines came into the room, the wen's black eyes went wide. Gasps and shouts of terror were heard again. Jeez people, take a chill pill.
"How the hell did you get a siba and a kodiak to follow you?"
"I guess my ruggedly good looks and charm."
T snarled, "No matter, you could have everyone in this cave help you and still Ogg would be victorious."
‘Max, you’re going to need to shift for the big prick. We will take care of the other two, then assist you.’ Reap informed me, but I already knew I had to.
"Will, Gordon?" I shouted to them.
"Yeah?"
"Yes?"
"Whatever you see, don’t freak out!" I didn’t hear their response. I was concentrating on Ogg when he spoke.
"U, Ogg eat you puny human. Then I’ll eat other two when I’m done with you."
"Hey, what’s up big fella, how’s it hanging?"
‘With all the dead tissue, I would say short, shriveled, and a little to the left.’ Herc snickered.
‘Look at his loin cloth, he probably can’t even get it up. We should call him limp dick!’ Reap snorted.
I couldn’t believe it, the two knuckleheads are making dick jokes right before a battle. ‘Should I tell him what you said?’ I chuckled.
‘I dare you!’ Herc challenged.
Okay, let’s make the bastard angry. "Hey, big guy! My friend here says we need to call you limp dick instead of Ogg. He doesn’t think you can get it up, you know, with all that dead tissue you got." I heard Reap and Herc laughing in my mind. Of course, Ogg, didn’t like that, so he roared a challenge. I quickly concentrated on the feeling that I had when shifting and the magic came easily. I screamed out when my bones and limbs started cracking, then breaking. I’m not going to lie, it hurt. I could hear shouts or yells distantly, but my mind was on the pain, and it was tremendous. Finally the transformation finished, I got up on my two back legs and stared at the wendigorc’s eyes.
"Ogg, no like you. Even though you tall and bulky, he will end you." Ogg said.
"Well, Reap, Herc, let’s get this fucking show started!" They both roared their challenges and took off towards their opponents. I roared my acceptance too. I don’t like to brag, but my roar was better. The cave actually shook and debris fell from the ceiling onto the cages. Whoops! Sorry.
I couldn’t worry about them, I had a big fucking orc to deal with. I took a deep breath and ran toward limp dick.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sophia grew up in a pack where the strong survive. It was a hard life for someone who didn’t fight for what they wanted. Her being the alpha’s daughter didn’t make matters any better. In fact, it made them worse, because the males would always fight for her attention. She, being an alpha, was usually always more powerful than the jerks she had to deal with. Her pack had more females than normal, her father always had a soft heart for them. Most of them moved on from other packs, or their mates had died. Sophia was always surrounded by most of them, she befriended them and was always courteous. Even back then the males weren't one of her priorities growing up, so she never cared for the leering eyes on her body. She was undeniably beautiful, and made sure kindness was shone when she politely declined any affection.
Werewolves live for centuries, her being a little over two herself, the word mate never crossed her mind. She chuckled to herself, remembering her father’s words. 'Don’t worry about finding a mate, one day when you least expect it, he will walk into your life. So, enjoy life to the fullest,' and she did. Not worrying about anything for the past two hundred years, she went through her life with little worry. After her father passed, she took over the pack, and found herself being challenged for alpha every so often; the males all thought they could tame her. She even had betas come from other packs thinking they could challenge her for alpha. Usually, it took little time for them to realize the error before she put them to the ground, making them submit. Sophia wouldn’t take any shit from anyone, but was always considerate to everyone. When it came to the pack, she was loyal and always made rational decisions. She had always preferred the wandering instead of settling down, wanting to run in the forest, and explore different kingdoms. She had plans, goals, and finding a potential soulmate wasn’t in them. Since Max had shown up, she didn’t recognize herself. She was acting like a teenager, with her first crush. Anytime he’s around, her heart flutters, and at times skips a beat.
Sophia sighed, "Damn, you just met him, get your shit together girl."
She was brought out of her reminiscing by someone tapping on her shoulder.
"You okay, girlie?" Her friend Nancy asked.
She sadly smiled and shook her head. No, she was definitely not okay. Those fucking idiots distracted her. Then started some bullshit of why she was talking to Max. She was the fucking alpha, nobody told her what to do. Just thinking about it made her angry again, and her wolf was about to show up. She got up off the ground and started pacing again.
"Sophia, he'll be okay," Felicity stated, trying to calm her alpha. "He’s got his two killing machines with him. Calm down, please."
"If those fuckers hadn’t degraded him and distracted me, I would be in there with him, helping. Stuck out here, not knowing what he’s dealing with is killlliiiing meeeeee," she growled the last part of her response.
Sam smiled, "Damn, girl, you got it bad!"
"Got what?" Sophia was confused by her statement.
Nancy chuckled out, "I see it now. You have been infected with the love bug!"
Sam giggles out, "No, it’s worse than that girls. I think it’s the dreadful mate bug."
Felicity and Nancy went wide-eyed.
Sophia turned her head away embarrassed that they knew. She didn’t care, so she smiled, and nodded. The girls all squealed.
"What are you ladies doing?" James asked.
"None of your fucking business, asshole!" Felicity yelled.
"It is our business if it involves the pack," Hank smirked.
"Shut the fuck up!" Sam bellowed. "You have no idea how bad she wants to rip your heads off."
"You’re still pissed about that shithead? Get him out of your head and look my way. I will make all your dreams come true, baby girl," Carl smugly said. That was the wrong thing to say. Sophia quickly got into his face breathing heavy, ready to let the wolf out.
"I told you never to call me baby girl again. Get this through your thick skull, you and I will never be. None of you can handle me, and you know it," Sophia hissed while the other girls were trying to hide their smiles.
"That piece of shit is beneath you, Sophia. What would your parents say?" James sneered.
"That I should have kicked your asses out of the pack years ago. Also, they would’ve loved getting to know him, as will I." The girls lost it at that statement and busted out laughing. At that moment, terrible, booming screeches came from inside the mine. Everyone stopped and waited in silence.
Sam spoke out, "What was
that?"
"Sounds like the end of the road for Maxie," Hank smirked and the other two males laughed at his comment.
Sophia shifted her right hand to a claw and got into his face. "I already told you, if he dies, you die painfully." She growled trying to keep her composure.
She was good until they heard a roar they had never heard before, a couple of minutes later they heard roars from Reaper and Hercules. Then Max let out his roar; she lost it then and shifted to her wolf, then sprinted to the entrance. The alpha she-wolf hit the doors full speed, trying to break them, but they held. She clawed, punched, and kicked the doors, hoping to at least crack them. To no avail though, her pack members dragged her away, but didn’t get far when she broke out of their grips. After a few minutes of pounding on the doors, Sophia and everyone around heard and felt the ground tremble.
"Get her out of the way!" Sam yelled.
Nancy shouted, "Something’s happening!"
It took at least a half dozen of them to pin her down and move her safely away from the mine. The ground shook again, a loud crack was heard, and then the mine collapsed in on itself.
After the dust settled, the entrance was just gone. Everyone was shocked, Sophia grievingly howled out, and collapsed on the ground. She shifted back and just laid there, thinking it was a dream. Tears started flowing, she broke down and sobbed. The girls came over to comfort her, astounded that young Max had died.
***
Limp dick ran towards me and swung his tree trunk sized club at me. I ducked under the club and elbowed him in the back of the neck. Ogg fell on his knees, so I kicked him on the back of the head, and he landed face first in the dirt. I cackled, and kicked his club away from him. He got up and started to punch and kick at me, but I started boxing with him. He was sloppy, and over extended his punches. I would side step and jab him in the face every time and was tired of playing defense, so I started punching his ribs and face. I couldn’t get a good shot in though and glanced around to find Reap and Herc handling there parts. Ogg came at me, so I side stepped again and raked my clawed hand down his back. He yelped and let out an angry bellow. Limping over, he picked his club up and ran at me. He swung his club wildly, hitting the cave walls, and debris started falling. I punched him hard in the face and he ended up going through the wall into the tunnel.
Ogg got up slowly, swung the club again and missing me, but hitting the tunnel wall which in turn started groaning and rumbling. Limp dick didn’t seem to notice, so he kept at it, missing me again. The third time he swung, I was ready. He lifted the club above his head, so I got crouched down, and hit him square in the nuts as hard as I could. The wendigorc squealed like a bitch and fell to his knees. Since he was incapacitated, I did a roundhouse and hit him in the head; the bastard collapsed flat to the floor. Seeing my chance, I picked up the club, and pounded the fuckers head with the club until his brains were all over the floor. Climbing on top of him, I punched through his back and grabbed the bastard's heart. Wrenching the large organ out, my mind worked on its own and instantly burned it to ash. When that was done, I scanned around the tunnel to find the two that we ended earlier, went over and picked them up, then threw them on top of limp dick. With some concentration, I conjured up fire, and burned their bodies, it took a couple of minutes with the white hot flames to turn them to ash.
Taking a deep breath, I went back in to see if my help was needed. My eyes located Herc having trouble with T. He had him backed up with an axe, so I sprinted across the cavern, and picked the wen up, then slammed him to the ground numerous times until his head was caved in. I picked the corpse and impaled him with my hand, pulling the heart out, and lighting both body and heart on fire. Checking on Reap, he and Herc took the last one out, so I went over and pulled the heart out to light it and its body on fire. In minutes both wens were piles of ashes. Breathing hard, I went over to where the duo were sitting.
‘You guys okay?"
‘Yep, thanks for the assist." Herc stated. I nodded and looked around the cavern noticing the shocked looks, and mouths agape.
‘Looks like we have a fan club. Think they want autographs?" Reap chuckled. I was about to respond but didn’t get a chance. The tunnel started shaking and grumbling.
‘Shit, the tunnel is about to collapse. Close the door, I will seal the hole.’
They agreed and ran. I stacked some rock in the hole that Ogg made, then tried to melt the stone together. It wasn’t perfect, but hopefully it would hold. The rumbling suddenly stopped, and the tunnel sounded like an explosion when it collapsed. Dirt and debris also came down in the cavern where we were. When the dust settled, I had to light several lanterns around the cavern to see and found the door caved in on itself from the ton of rocks that slammed into it. Fuck, we’re sealed in. I sighed heavily, and looked around for another exit, but couldn’t find one.
‘Max, we need to get these people out of those cages.’
I nodded and started to make my way over, ducking to miss some of the ceiling that was sagging. People saw me coming and fled to the back of the cages with looks of terror on their faces. I grunted and shook my head; guess I can’t really blame them, we could invoke terror on most people. Reap and Herc came up and stopped behind me.
"Calm down, everyone. We aren’t going to hurt you, just stay back so we can get these doors open."
‘Reap, Herc, let’s break these locks and get these people out. It is definitely about to be crowded in here.’
We went around to the cages and popped the locks off. It took a little while, but eventually we got them all done.
"MAX!"
I looked over to see Gordon, Will, and their entourages coming towards me. I smiled, and crouched so they didn’t have to look up at me.
Gordon had an ear to ear smile, "Holy Shit! That was awesome, man! I am at a loss for words. How the fuck did this happen?" I laughed at my friend, always upbeat. Before I could say anything, Will chimed in.
"That was amazing, Max. I would also like to know how you ended up like this. Damn, your parents are going to freak." I took a breath; realized other things had priority, and we needed to talk later.
"We will sit down and have a much needed conversation later. Right now, we need to get those shackles off."
They nodded and jumped to action. We went searching for the keys, and finally found them on a table not too far from us. They had divided up and went around to unlock them, my big ass paws would hinder more than help. I gazed around the cavern and saw lots of faces gawking at us. I suppose not many people have seen a 12 ft. tall shifter before. Huh, guess we’re the traveling circus now, oh well.
Movement caught my eye, I looked over to find individuals carrying unconscious people away from the cages and laying them down gently beside each other. I went in search of any clothes that were about my size: pants, socks, and boots, but couldn’t find any shirts that would fit me. I found a pillar to duck behind to change and shifted back to my human side. I took many calming breaths to concentrate on the magic and felt myself getting shorter. After getting dressed, my healing side of the brain took over, so I went over, and crouched down to check on them. People gave me a wide berth as I was examining them, most of them evidently were some race of shifter if the burns around the wrists were any indication, and probably some mages. I counted around fifty resting faces, so checked their heart rate, and injuries. I couldn’t do much since I didn’t have my backpack, but did what I could when finding supplies in some crates by the work table the wens had. Man, I was exhausted. So sitting down, I laid my head against the wall to shut my eyes for a couple minutes.
A tap on the shoulder startled me awake, and I looked up into the most beautiful emerald green eyes I have ever seen. Her pale complexion, long silver hair, and pointed ears could only mean one thing. She was an elf, and a gorgeous one at that. I was mesmerized for a moment as we both were checking each other out, but got my shit together to see what the lady elf needed.
"Hello. Can I help you?"
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"I’m sorry to disturb you, but I would like to thank you for saving us," she said as gestured to the others behind her. I looked behind her and found about 20 elves staring at me with different emotions: joy, lust, exhaustion, adoration, and contempt. The last two threw me, and as I scanned the group, they all seem to let the lady in front of me talk for them.
"No problem, I needed to get up anyways."
I glanced around, wondering how long they let me sleep, coming to where the unconscious were. Most of the spaces were empty, so I must have overslept. Groaning, I got up and stretched my back out.
"Pardon me good sir, can I know your name?" I hadn’t noticed the elves were still here. Hmm…what do they want?
I took a deep breath and answered, "Max."
She smiled and replied, "Max, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Tiatha, but you can call me Tia, if you like," the others around her stumbled and gasped at her name. Must be an elf thing.
I bowed and said, "Tia, if you don’t mind me asking, how long have you been here?"
"I’m not sure Max, the days have grown together. We were taken in the middle of the day, headed to an arranged meeting. Our numbers were in the upper sixties, now we barely make twenty." Tia sadly explained.
‘Max?’ Reap interrupted.
‘Yeah, what’s up?’
‘We need to find a way out. Herc and I looked for another tunnel, but to no avail.’
Tia was still talking as I was nodding long, ‘Okay, meet me by the cages in five.’
‘Will do.’
"…..stuck down here. Any ideas?" Tia pressed on.
"I have a few. Excuse me for a moment, I need to meet with someone to discuss our next movements."
"You know a way out?" I smiled and winked at her while walking away. I heard one of the elves yelling at me for being insolent and rude. Who cares? We’re trapped in a damn cave with a limited amount of oxygen. I walked over to the cages where Reap and Herc were waiting.