“Which means you have, at most, a minute, little rabbit,” he whispered, grinning. “So let’s get to it.”
“No! I—” But before she could protest, Eric resumed his thrusting. Natalie’s entire body shuddered in response. She could feel her body quickly picking up the momentum that had been interrupted. Even with her embarrassment and nervousness, Natalie couldn’t help the hungry ache that was growing between her legs. She panted, needing something more to give her that extra nudge over the cliff and into that deep pool of bliss. Eric, seeming to hear her body’s cry, pulled his fingers out then thrust back in three large fingers, stretching Natalie completely. That bit of overload was just what she needed. Her back arched and her mouth opened in a silent scream as her body shook from the strength of her orgasm. Aftershocks of ecstasy rocked her from head to toe as she slumped forward on the counter.
She could hear Eric chuckle above her. “And with thirty seconds to spare,” he teased as he left to help Buck with his shopping.
When she wasn’t busy being fingerfucked, Natalie loved watching Eric work. Not only was he friendly but he was also knowledgeable and helpful. She could see that he was dedicated to his customers and in making sure that their own personal projects were successes, regardless of what they were. Natalie was proud to know that he was so well respected within the town. He had come from being an unknown orphan into a Lowell staple.
A few hours later, Natalie stood outside, her arms wrapped around herself, as she watched Eric lock the doors of the shop. Closing time. He looked over his shoulder at her shivering form. “What are you doing? Little rabbit, I told you to get your butt into that truck and warm yourself!” he said, giving her a gentle shove towards her truck.
“Well I thought I’d wait for you but I didn’t know you had so many locks on your door,” she said, sniffling her cold running nose.
“You can never be too careful,” he said, locking the third lock.
Natalie smiled to herself as she opened her truck door. In a town of less than 10,000, she was sure one could be a little lax in their precaution towards strangers. A gust of wind blew against her, knocking her back a step, as she tried to get into her truck. “God, it’s getting cold,” she murmured to herself.
Eric, finally done securing his closed shop, turned around. He opened his mouth as if to say something when another gust of wind blew, this time bringing with it the eerie howl of an animal.
Natalie shivered. Even the animals were crying out at how cold it had become. She was surprised more of them weren’t hold up for the winter already. “Eric!” she called out, her teeth chattering.
But Eric was frozen solid, his mouth slightly open in surprise. Natalie wondered if he had maybe forgotten something inside. But before she could ask, he quickly came up to her side, taking the car door from her. “You should head on home, little rabbit. It’s cold,” he said, his voice unusually low.
Natalie looked up at him searchingly. “But you’re coming over tonight, aren’t you?” she asked. She knew he had his own truck parked behind the street. Eric looked down the road in the direction of her house. His face seemed suddenly distracted.
“No,” he said. “Not tonight. But get home safe and I’ll see you tomorrow.” Before she could say anything else, he bent down to give her a quick kiss and then ran off towards his truck.
Perplexed and more than a little disappointed, Natalie got into her car. Shivering, she drove home, wondering what had so suddenly distracted Eric.
***
But it wasn’t just that day Eric was distracted. For the following two days, Eric became more and more remote. He hadn’t come over to her house or come to her bed at all. Although he still spoke with her and welcomed her when she visited the store, he wasn’t as present as he used to be.
Natalie wondered what was going on.
She knew that sometimes when she had a problem or a concern, she sometimes preferred thinking it through first before sharing it with others. Perhaps that was the case with Eric as well. And if it indeed was, Natalie didn’t want to crowd him while he gathered his thoughts in order. She would give him the space he clearly needed. For now.
As Natalie was putting away some of the week’s groceries, she heard a knock at the door. She recognized that knock. Running with absurd eagerness, she yanked open the door. Eric stood on her porch with a coat and hat on, and completely out of breath.
“Little rabbit,” he said, coming closer but not entering the house, “I want you to promise me something.”
Natalie nodded, wide eyed in curiosity. “Eric, what’s wr—”
He shook his head, cutting her off. “Promise me that until I say so, you won’t go wandering into the woods like you did that one night.”
Natalie was brought up short. Of all things she thought he’d ask of her, this was the last thing she expected. “Oh, um, okay. I promise. But—”
Eric grabbed her arm, squeezing tightly. “I mean it. I want you to promise that under no circumstances will you be going into the woods by yourself.”
Natalie slowly nodded. “I promise.”
Eric gave a quick jerk of the head in acknowledgment. Giving her a quick kiss, he turned around to leave.
“Wait!” Natalie cried out. “Where are you going?”
But Eric didn’t turn around. She only heard his voice call back out. “No woods! You promised! Stay in the house!”
Chapter Eight
“What time will you be landing?” Amber asked for the third time.
“Eight o’clock,” Natalie answered patiently.
“Okay. I should be able to pick you up but if not, Danielle for sure can,” Amber said.
Natalie gave a small laugh. “And if Danielle gets struck by lightening or eats a poisoned apple and can’t make it, Alice for sure, for sure can,” she said, finishing her friend’s thought for her.
Amber’s rueful chuckle crackled through Natalie’s cellphone. “God, I must sound like a babbling idiot. I swear, this pregnancy is making me dumber every week.”
Natalie shook her head in understanding. “It’s all perfectly understandable, Am. It’s normal.”
“I just want to make sure you’ll make it,” Amber said anxiously. “I don’t think we’ve ever been apart this long before.”
Amber’s baby shower was this weekend. Natalie had booked her ticket weeks in advance thanks to Amber’s insistence that she would forget to purchase it otherwise. When she had initially bought the ticket, she had been excited to go back home and see her friends and family after the long separation. But then she had met Eric and suddenly she felt less eager at the idea of being away from him for several days. She had already told him about her trip but a week ago Natalie had had the idea of perhaps asking him to come along. It was probably too early in their relationship to be asking him to meet her family but she didn’t see the harm in just asking.
But that was before he had begun to act so oddly. She had tossed and turned in bed all last night trying to figure out what Eric had meant by having her promise to not go into the woods. Since that first fateful night when she had seen Eric as a wolf, she hadn’t gone back in. He knew she had never been a much of an outdoorsman so why have her promise?
“Are you sure you have to go back so soon? You’re stay is so short,” Amber said.
“The sick people of Canada can’t do without their only doctor within a hundred miles, I’m afraid,” Natalie replied. She would only be back in LA for four days. Although that had seem like a fraction of a visit before, now it seemed like ages. She did not want to leave with things the way they were. Not for four whole days.
“Hey, Am, let me call you back. I need to finish packing and wrapping stuff up at the clinic,” Natalie said, already grabbing her car keys. The nurses had already been notified and the clinic would be doing a half-day on Thursday then closing for all of Friday.
Throwing on her coat, Natalie slid into her car and started the engine. It was Mr. Big Bad Wolf who had talked about total
honesty to her in the woods that first night. Well it was time he took his own medicine and learned to be more honest about his own feelings. And Natalie was just the doctor to make sure he got his proper dose.
***
As she drove into the quiet town, she noticed the outer trees looking…fuller. Lowell was completely surrounded by thick woods and distant mountains. It made the town look like a picture perfect postcard. But somehow today, Natalie notice the woods taking on a different hue. The leaves seemed darker, the trees larger, and the mountains somehow sharper.
Natalie leaned over her steering wheel and peered up at the craggy cliffs. Was she just stressed from work and her personal life? How could trees or mountains look different in the space of one day? But, her rational mind argued, how could there be men that shift into wolves? A few weeks ago you would’ve brushed that off as the stuff of stories. Natalie couldn’t argue with Inner Natalie’s logic. “But c’mon,” she muttered aloud, “you’re telling me now there are were-trees?”
Several yards away from Mitchells Hardware Store, Natalie could already tell something was off. The windows weren’t glowing with the warm light of the store. And the front door still had its blinds down.
She parked the car in front of the store and whipped out her cellphone. She rarely ever called Eric since they were rarely more than a stone’s throw away from each other. Dating, Natalie mused. Can you still call it dating when it’s with a werewolf? It sounds so normal for someone so un-normal. But her phone only rang and rang with nobody picking up on the other end.
What was going on? The other shops were open for business. There was no weather disaster or national holiday preventing Eric from opening his store. And she couldn’t imagine such a meticulous and hardworking man suddenly deciding to be lazy for the day.
“He came into town several years ago—from out of nowhere really!”
Nurse Marcia’s words suddenly flashed across her mind. Eric had come into Lowell quite suddenly apparently. What if he had left just as suddenly as well?
Oh god, Evers, get a serious grip. You are redefining the word ‘drama queen’ right now.
Natalie nodded. Yes, there could be a myriad of reasons why he wasn’t at his store right now. She couldn’t let herself dwell on all the possible what-ifs. And she couldn’t just keep running after this man while she put the rest of her life on hold. She hadn’t completely lied to Amber; she really did still need to pack. Natalie pulled the car out and back towards the house. She would be leaving for LA in two days. Hopefully there would be somebody waiting for her when she got back.
***
Feeling ridiculously nostalgic, Natalie took out the bottle of wine she had served for Eric’s first dinner at her house and poured herself a glass. She took it out with her to the back porch with a blanket in hand, prepared for the cold night air.
But what Natalie was not prepared for was the magical sight of thousands of tiny white snowflakes floating down across her lawn, leaving small patches of white fluff. She gasped as she took in the singularly stunning sight of raw wilderness receiving its first snowfall. Natalie was sure she had never seen anything so beautiful before.
Slowly, she set down the wineglass on the porch rail. Natalie couldn’t sit down. She couldn’t just sit and watch this beautiful sight. It somehow felt wrong. The night was silent and the sky completely black. Yet she could see the dim glow around each flake through the moonlight. Each little flake was floating down so slowly, the whole lawn seemed to be covered in a beautiful snow curtain.
She wanted to touch it. She wanted to feel the snow melt on her face. Natalie hesitantly took a step down when something in the distance caught her eye. Squinting through the snow, she saw it again. A flash of a face. A face in the woods. It was hard to make out through the haze of the snow but she was positive she had seen a male face weaving through the wooded trees.
Eric. What was he doing in the woods? And after he had just made her promise to stay away.
Natalie had one foot still on the porch step with her other foot hanging over the grass. Her instinct had been to run towards him and to grab him, feel his heat, and to ask him why he was suddenly pushing her away. But would that just rock the already rocky boat? He had had her promise to stay away from the woods.
A snowflake fell on Natalie’s shoe. Natalie stared at the perfect white fluff. She would soon be going back to the land of 70º winters where snow like this would never stand a chance. She wanted answers now. Throwing her blanket away, she ran down the porch and across her lawn, into the dark woods.
Chapter Nine
Brush and branches clawed and clung to her as she tried to run through the thick forest of trees, trying to catch up with Eric. She had this irrational feeling that the faster she found him, the less time she’d be in the actual woods. And the less time she spent in the actual woods, the less upset he’d be at her for breaking her promise.
But the snow was beginning to fall faster now. Clumps of it were clinging to her hair and eyelashes. Cold flakes would blow across her face, making her have to squint to find the next suitable footing.
She ran till she found herself in a small clearing. She didn’t remember coming in this far into the woods last time. “Eric?” she called out hesitantly. Looking around, Natalie realized that she had come so far in that she couldn’t recognize anything around her. And with the addition of snow, the bark and rocks had taken a darker, wetter color, making it even more disorienting.
“Eric?” she called out again a bit louder. Would it be better for her to stay and wait a bit or to try and head back home? Going back home sounded more reasonable yet she was afraid to try. Nothing looked familiar and she was sure she’d just get even more lost.
Natalie didn’t know if it was the snow, the air, or the moon but she could see that the trees indeed did look different. Up close, she could see that the leaves were all pointed outwards, like a cartoon character who’d had their hair shocked stiff. The pointed leaves made the trees look fuller and thicker.
With a cold hand, Natalie gingerly touched a nearby tree. Immediately, she gasped and yanked her hand away. The tree was humming! She could feel a steady buzz vibrating through the entire trunk. Down by the tree was a clump of three large rocks, wet with snow. Somehow, Natalie knew that if she were to touch the rocks, she’d feel the same vibrations humming through them as well.
The small hairs on the back of Natalie’s neck stood up. Something was different in the woods tonight. There was a tension that was hot and alive in the air. She could feel herself striking against it with every turn of her body.
“Eric, it’s me!” Natalie called out, noticing the slight elevation in her pitch. She couldn’t help it. Every muscle was worn out from the extra exertion it took to run in the cold yet each part of her body, from her fingertips to her heels, was strung tight like a violin. Then tension of the outside seemed to be diffusing into her insides.
Natalie shivered as more snow began to fall, quickly covering the ground in a thin layer of powdery flakes. Eric was not here. And if he was, he clearly did not want to be bothered. Natalie’s teeth chattered as she wrapped her arms around herself. No need in freezing for the man. She’d just have to find her own way back somehow.
As Natalie looked for steady footing to begin her journey home, a hard thud fell across her back, making her stumble and fall. She landed hard against a huge fallen tree, scraping her hands against the bark as she tried to break the fall.
Ignoring the stinging pain in her palms, Natalie quickly flipped around to see what or who had hit her. Facing her was a large brown wolf with his snout in a menacing snarl but emitting no sounds. It was just as big as Eric when he shifted into his wolf form. His chest was broad and with Natalie on the ground, he towered over her. With an animal so large, you’d think you’d hear them coming but Natalie had heard no sounds except the chilly wind blowing through her.
At first, Natalie had felt a burst of delight at seeing the wolf until she saw its co
loring. The fur was brown with fringes of gray instead of Eric’s gray and black. His yellow brown eyes were large and his brow was furrowed threateningly. This wasn’t Eric. But was it another shifter wolf? Or was it a regular wolf?
Given its size, it couldn’t possibly be a normal wolf. And she could see the way the eyes watched her with a keen intelligence far beyond the level of a mere animal. Would this werewolf shift back into his human form? Could he see that she meant no harm to him?
“Um…” Natalie chattered, shivering from more than just cold, “I-I was just trying to get back h-home.” She didn’t know what to say to a foreign shifter wolf, especially one that might potentially mean ill will against her.
She scooted back, using her palms for leverage. “I-I just got lost,” she continued, unsure if her words were having any effect but unable to stop talking.“I couldn’t find my way.” She tried to push herself up into a seated position.
But as soon as she did, the wolf jumped on her, pushing a heavy paw down on her chest, shoving her back down. Natalie shrieked, surprised and frightened by the sudden movement.
With the wolf completely on top of her now, she could fully appreciate the size of him. And the weight. His paw kept her firmly pinned to the ground leaving her without any chance of her squirming away. The wolf lowered his massive head, which was longer than the length of her thigh and certainly more than twice as wide. Natalie could hardly breathe as she looked straight into the pointed teeth of the wild and vicious beast.
“Pl-please,” she whispered, scared to speak louder lest she angered the wolf even further. Her heart seemed to be beating with her whole body. Even with the cold, a hot sweat dripped down her neck.
A low rumbling growl emanated from the wolf. Natalie could feel it vibrate through the paw of the animal and into her chest. Exposed underneath a curling lip, each gleaming white fang of the animal caught the moonlight, making them glow with a blinding viciousness.
There was nothing she could do. She couldn’t possibly fight this animal. And no one knew where she was. If she were killed tonight, no one would think to come look for her. Her clinic would think she was in LA. Her family would worry when she didn’t land in LAX but they didn't know anybody in Lowell. Amber and her mom only had the number to her cellphone and her clinic. If they happened to catch a nurse before they closed up shop for the week, they’d still be too late. Her body would be lying cold and frozen in the woods, if not half eaten. Did shifter wolves eat people? she wondered inanely. Oh god, Evers! You’re about to be killed and you’re wondering about feeding the killer. Who cares!
Run: Beginnings Page 6
