Lara stepped out of the flowing water first, as she had been unable to sleep. The sun had only set a few minutes ago, but she just couldn't snooze like the rest of her pack was.
Goddess, she just wanted to sleep. Part of it was pain that she was absorbing from Ajax, and part of it was that she felt guilt in the first place. The last thing Lara thought Metas would do was scar her mate.
Granted, Ajax scarred him too, but...whatever, she didn't understand male friendships, or even what they talked about.
They both came back happy though, and that was all that mattered to her. To avoid using her dirty mortal hands, she took to paw pads so that she could drink from the river with some sort of elegance to it.
It may not have mattered to anyone, but it did matter to Lara. She had always been one to adore beautiful things and care about her appearance far too much. It was part of who she was, though - and all of her friends loved her for who she was.
The water was so crisp and cold, and each luscious lap from her tongue brought needed relief to her dry, sore throat. It was so good that she found it hard to stop herself from scooping lap after lap of water into her mouth.
Lara would have probably kept going had her ear not flicked at the sound of pain coming from her own kind. Quickly, the white wolf lifted her head and payed attention to the direction the cries were coming from. She was so consumed with finding the direction, that she didn't even notice the drips of water that dropped from her muzzle and whiskers from her assault on the river.
There it was again - a whimper, a scuffle, and a yelp. West, towards the mountains - that's where the source came from! Lightning charged her feet as she took off like a bolt towards the sound of the scuffle.
It wasn't far off. She could only tell because of the fresh blood that was in the air, which made it so much easier to track the source. Her pace quickened just a bit more until she was giving all that she had until the the darkness wasn't enough to stop the scene so close to her nose.
Lara snarled at the creature that currently had their mouth clamped into the skin and muscles of a brown and white wolf - and bared her teeth for good measure. Her white ears folded back, and her jowls fluttered with jagged breaths.
Her hair stood on end like a Pomeranian dog from the human's time as fury electrified her fur.
The creature looked like some form of large bat-like demon with long, sharp finger nails. Too bad Lara didn't have a light, otherwise she could flash it in the thing's eyes and make it run. Instead, she had look at the disgusting creature, and regardless of her fear, advance towards it as she hunched down to pounce.
The long, loud snarl that came from her mouth was thick with vicious intentions, and she didn't bother to hide the long strings of saliva Lara let run from her gaping maw.
Lyrica wasn't an idiot, and she had gotten a good little feeding off of the female wolf she personally felt she deserved after the hunting run she had finished. However, she needed that favor - and the only way to get it, was to live today, change her form, and come back a little later as though she hadn't been apart of this fiasco.
To really pull off her 'scene', the actress hissed and let out a dreadful cry that was filled with two or three tones that echoed from an abyss in hell. Lyrica let her wings out wide and pushed off into the trees to escape the wrath of Lara's snapping teeth.
Once the wings stopped beating in the air in her ears, Lara looked over the mysterious female wolf who was torn terribly down her lower body. Her tail was even missing splotches of fur that presumably had been torn out from the demon-thing that was gnawing on her.
Whoever she was, she had lost a lot of blood. Lara could tell the poor wolf had struggled very hard against this predator, and it had only injured her further. The faster she could get the chocolate-colored wolf to the cave and to Veltar, the better chance she'd have for survival.
The mysterious identity of the wolf didn't matter. All that did count to Lara was that she was harmed, and if her sense of smell was right, she was pregnant, too.
'Oh no....you vapid bitch, how dare you attack a lycan, but a pregnant one is outrageous!' she screamed behind her eyes as she moved to Cassandra and put her nose under the white belly of the injured female.
Beauty didn't matter when it came to saving someone. If she was going to be at Metas' side and rule as a trusted 'right' hand, than the sacred duty to protect their own.
The once pristine, white coat of Lara became smothered with bright red blood. Her rescued comrade let out a soft whimper and wheeze of pain through her nose, and while it was alarming to harm the poor female, at least it meant she was alive.
"Hold on, hon. I'm going to get you to safety. Just let your head hang next to mine, and if you feel like you're going to fall off, just transform and grip my fur. Do not let go, please" Lara snuffed out of her nose as fast as she could, and waited for Cassandra to droop her head down as instructed before she took off with the same speed she came in with.
"M-M-metas....warning...weapons..humans...nnhn.." Cassandra tried to summon enough breath to communicate with Lara, but it was impossible. It hurt far too greatly to do so, and she abandoned the goal entirely.
Lara couldn't understand what she tried to relay, all she had running between her ears was the thought of 'keep going, don't stop, keep running, get safe' over and over again as though it was an incantation to bless her paws to jolt by faster.