by Iva Britt
My younger brother, Jacob, was accustomed to my sometimes fiery temper. He hardly reacted, except for shaking his head and smiling with his eyes.
I hated that look. He was always so cool, always so damn cool. At times like this, I couldn't help but wonder why my father had chosen me to take over the clan.
“Let them talk,” I said, turning my back to him. “What do I care?”
“It's obvious that you do care. And that's a good thing.”
I crossed my arms tightly against my chest and gazed out the window at my ten-acre compound. This is where I felt safe. It was where I felt at peace with the world and far removed from it. A woman? A mate? Those things would only bring a man trouble. Especially a man like myself.
I could feel hairs beginning to sprout on my body, could feel my teeth beginning to grow longer and sharper. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths, desperately trying to calm myself. I didn't want to shift, to transform out of my human body into my animal shape.
Jacob placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.
“Colin,” he said. “It is not my intention to upset you. But these are serious matters. Very serious.”
After taking several deep breaths, I felt the hair beginning to retreat back into my pores and my teeth returning to their normal human sharpness and length.
“I know,” I said, “but this isn't the time.”
“That's what you've been saying for the last five years. At a certain point, you must make the leap. You must be brave.”
I turned around and stared at him. “You're questioning my bravery?” My lips quivered with rage. But he remained icy cool. Damn him!
“I know you have great bravery. More than I will ever have. That’s why father felt so sure that you would make the better leader out of the two of us. But I think that you're afraid of opening up to a woman.”
“And what do you get when you do open up to them?” I snapped back. “You see what I'm still dealing with.”
He smiled and shook his head.
“You must have really done a number on her in the bedroom.”
I frowned and turned away, disgusted. At this point, I hated even bringing up her name, hated the fact that she was a member of the clan and would be around me forever. That thought alone was enough to turn me off from women.
“All she's brought me is drama and trouble,” I said. “Why do I need that? Father was right to isolate himself from the world.”
“No. He was wrong.”
“No! He was right! I said, putting both my hands on his shoulders and peering deeply into his eyes. “He knew how cold and cruel the world was out there. He knew that you couldn’t trust anybody. He knew how difficult it was to trust people in the clan, let alone human beings. He knew that. He was right!”
“No, no,” he said calmly with a tinge of sadness in his voice. “He didn’t really believe all that stuff. He just never got over the hurt of Sadie’s…”
“Don't say that name,” I said. “Don't say the name.”
I turned away from him with my head in my hands. My baby sister. Kidnapped, tortured and killed. The memory ripped me in two.
Jacob walked to the other side of the room.
I had no trouble picking up on his energy. He felt bad for having upset me, felt bad for having brought up Sadie. We hardly ever spoke her name. The memories were too painful—like daggers being plunged into our chests, ripped out and plunged in again. Our family, our clan, nothing had ever been the same.
A war had ensued. We won. We had taken many of our enemies’ lives. We had enjoyed the adrenaline rush of bloodlust, enjoyed seeing our enemies suffer slowly and die disgracefully. But when it was over, the emptiness and the pain of a family member taken away far too soon, returned.
“As I was saying,” Jacob said. “There will be consequences if you don't marry by the end of the summer.”
“Consequences? I can handle people talking about me. I can handle stupid rumors.”
“If you don't find your own mate, one will be chosen for you by the clan.”
Those words knocked the wind out of me. The clan would decide on my behalf? A forced marriage?
“Haven’t we progressed beyond that? Forcing a leader to take a wife?”
“You know as well as I do that this is the way the clan has been run for the last seven centuries. It's part of the reason why we've been able to survive and continue our strong bloodline. It's part of the reason why we have been able to spread across the world, despite the intense hostility and hatred that so many carry for us. Our blood has persisted. You know that as well as I do.”
I let my head drop into my hands. There was nothing to argue. He was right. There were expectations and obligations that came along with being the clan leader. But it was still so hard for me to imagine being forced into a relationship with someone, forced to share my life, forced to open up my home to someone. All in the name of tradition and protocol.
I was supposed to be the most powerful person in the clan. But if I had no power over my own life, couldn't decide who I wanted to spend my life with, or if I wanted to spend my life with someone at all, what was this power worth?
Chapter 2
Emily
While my morning coffee was brewing, I walked out into my backyard. Birds were chirping and the sun was shining. It was another cool, beautiful spring day in the Northeast. I enjoyed spending some of the spring and summer months here instead of out West in the desert where I lived most of the year. I got to come home to the town I grew up in. When I was here, I mostly kept to myself. I really didn’t like running into too many people from my childhood. Besides most of the people who still lived here were the ones who didn’t make it out. They didn’t have the drive or ambition or even the curiosity to move down to the city so they continued the slow paced suburban lifestyle.
My parents spent this time of year traveling through Southern Europe, so I would have the house all to myself.
I was a city girl who had learned to love life in the desert climate of Southern California. There was no way I could have lived all year round in the suburbs. But for a few months in the spring and summer, I found my hometown to be the ideal place to rest, relax and gather my thoughts.
It was also a great place to get exercise. There were wooded trails that stretched for miles through different towns. Whenever I walked along those trails, I felt a sense of calm and tranquility, which was very difficult to find in a modern, hyper-connected world. Those hour-long walks allowed me to get away from the busy, hectic life I was used to living. It was a return to nature, a return to a more primitive way of life.
One of my favorite things about living so close to nature was the range of wild animals I would get to see rabbits, groundhogs, coyotes and deer.
Even though I had lived in cities all around the world, I had never lost my love for animals. Growing up, I always had several pets like cats, dogs, turtles, hamsters and birds. But when I came east, I would always leave my cats and dogs with friends and neighbors in my Southern California town.
This was the one drawback to coming back home. Without my animals, I often got lonely. When I got lonely I would eat and continue eating until I got completely stuffed. I would always get angry with myself after pigging out, but I always had trouble controlling my appetite. It was something that I had struggled with since my childhood. I had always been on the chubby or plump side. For most of my life, my weight had been a great cause of insecurity. But over the last few years, I had learned to appreciate my full breasts, wide hips and plump ass. I no longer thought of myself as fat.
I had come to realize that I was a Big Beautiful Woman. When I started carrying myself with more confidence, I noticed that more and more men seemed to be paying attention to me. I’d always had a pretty face, but a lot of guys had refused to date me because of my size. That had begun to change over the last few years. But as my twenty-ninth birthday approached, I was still single.
I promised myself before I came
out here that I wouldn’t worry about dating or guys during the few weeks I had of rest and relaxation. There would be plenty of time for that once I went back west. For this little bit of time, I was going to focus on myself.
I lounged on the couch for a couple of hours, flipping through channels trying to find something that could hold my interest. But I finally gave up and decided that I would be much better off going outside for my walk before it got too warm.
I enjoyed walking in the morning hours because the trails were mostly empty. It was sometimes strange and awkward to run into another person in such an isolated place, especially as a single woman. It could be a creepy place, particularly as the sun started to set.
I could still remember the terrifying experience of getting lost deep in the trails as dusk began to descend. I was just a little girl at the time and I was scared out of my mind. I tripped, stumbled and screamed for help. I felt all alone and completely helpless. Every sound scared me and seemed fraught with danger.
There was a man who I would often see tramping through the trails alone with a backpack and headphones. He was mute and homeless and could often be seen walking around town. But I think he preferred to spend his days, at least, when the weather was favorable, in the dense, isolated wilderness. People around town would always say disparaging things about him. And I had been warned on numerous occasions not to even look at him, let alone talk to him. But those warnings only served to peak my interest.
Every time our paths crossed, I made sure to say hi and smile at him. The first few times he ignored me. He probably thought I was like most of the people in town. But I wasn’t. I felt like I could relate to him. We both enjoyed the solitude, isolation and mystery of the trails. We both found sanctuary among its dense foliage, small rivers and rocky paths.
So I never really feared people when I walked those trails, but the animals back there were a different story. Nobody knew what animals lived back there. When the sun went down, there was no telling what feral creatures came out of their hiding places.
A human being could easily cross paths with the wrong predator and quickly end up becoming prey.
I walked through my backyard and onto the path. I loved the sound of the leaves and branches crunching under my feet. All the bright spring foliage dazzled and delighted me. It was a welcome change from the barren, colorless landscape of the desert.
As I walked, I pumped my arms at my sides. I always tried to work up a good sweat. I’d grown more and more comfortable with my body over the years. But what girl didn’t want to take off a few pounds here and there? After about a half an hour of walking, I stopped to take a drink of water. I sat down on a rock and slowly sipped from the ice-cold bottle. The water tasted delicious as it rolled down my throat. My whole body felt refreshed.
I heard footsteps in the distance. I turned and looked to see where they were coming from. It was a man jogging. He was too far away for me to get a clear look at his face, but I could tell that he was running with his shirt off. Just a glimpse of his nude upper torso sent waves of excitement and desire throughout my body.
I suddenly felt a strong urge to go after him. I had always been attracted to tall, lean men. I couldn’t get a good look at him but he seemed to fit the bill. So I set off in the direction that I’d seen him running in. I pumped my arms faster and faster. I was hungry for him. I had promised myself not to worry about guys while I was out here. This was supposed to be about personal time, figuring things out for myself and recuperating from my grueling work schedule. And there I was chasing after the first piece of masculine flesh that I encountered.
After about fifteen minutes of fast walking and scanning the wilderness for traces of the mysterious jogger, I gave up the search. There was no way I would find him.
I leaned up against a tree and took a few sips from my water bottle. There wasn’t much left and I knew that I didn’t want to be out here without a good amount of water. I had no interest in getting sick and dehydrated.
As I prepared to start the trek home, I heard what sounded like footsteps coming my way. I could feel my heart beating in my chest. Fear and excitement coursed through my veins. Could this be him? Would I be able to get his attention?
The footsteps came closer and closer. I looked up and saw a man coming towards me. He was about forty feet away. It was the shirtless jogger. I stepped into the middle of the path to ensure that he noticed me.
I could now see him clearly. He had long legs and a lean but muscular upper torso. His legs and chest were covered in thick brown hair. As he was about to pass me, I raised my hand and said hi to him. He grunted and nodded his head as he continued his run. I was struck by how hairy his face was. He had a full beard and a full head of long hair.
I couldn’t remember ever seeing such a hairy man. In this town, most of the men were clean-shaven with neatly trimmed hair. He didn’t seem to fit into the place at all. But he had to be from around here if he was jogging through the trails. As beautiful as this area was, people generally didn’t come from very far away to enjoy it.
The thought passed through my mind that maybe he was homeless. But that didn’t make any sense. Homeless people didn’t jog on the trails. And there really weren’t homeless people around here anyway. The only one I had ever seen was the mute who used to walk through the trails alone. But that was in my childhood, almost twenty years ago.
Chapter 3
When I got home, I went straight to the fridge and grabbed another cold bottle of water. While I sipped on it, the image of the mysterious, hairy jogger came surging back into my mind. I desperately wanted to see him again. But who was he? What did he do? If he wasn’t homeless, and I didn’t think he was, then why wasn’t he at work? None of that made sense to me. And I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about him until I got some answers.
The sound of the doorbell ringing snapped me back to the present. I had no idea who it could be. I hadn’t told anyone that I was coming back into town. I never did. As I walked to the door, I sighed in frustration. When I opened it, my mood only got worse.
It was my childhood bully, Melissa. When we were young she had made my life hell. She was the last person I wanted to see.
She smiled and opened her arms. “Emily, how are you?” she screeched.
I plastered on my best fake smile and tried to hide my dislike for her.
We sat down on the couch and reminisced for a bit. We talked about our former classmates—marriages, divorces, children. But the whole time I kept thinking about how mean she had been to me growing up.
She was part of the skinny girls’ club. All the hottest guys followed them everywhere they went.
Skinny girls were very popular and they were also cruel, especially if they were in a pack. They would never pass up an opportunity to tease any girl who wasn’t part of their club. And their favorite targets were the fat girls. I definitely fit into that category so I was always afraid of running into them.
I tried to push those thoughts from my mind. I didn’t want to be angry with her. That was the past and it was time to move on. I figured that it would be a good idea to find out if Melissa knew anything about the man who I’d seen jogging earlier in the day.
“I was walking on the trails this morning,” I said, “and I saw this man jogging.”
Melissa smiled lustily. Her green eyes lit up. “Was he hot?” she asked.
“Hold on a second,” I said. “I’m getting to that. “And yes, from the little that I saw of him I could definitely say that he was hot.”
“Did you talk to him?” she asked.
“As he ran towards me, I waved and said hi. But he didn’t respond. I mean he did respond but it was sort of with a head nod and a grunt.”
“So why are you bringing him up now?”
“Because there was something about him that seemed so different from most of the men around here.”
“Do you mean the out of shape dad bodies that most of the men here have?”
> We both covered our mouths and giggled. That’s exactly what I meant.
“He was tall and lean with a ripped chest,” I said. “But what really caught my attention was how hairy he was.”
“Hairy?” Melissa said with a frown. “Like with a beard hairy?”
“Yes, he had a beard. But there was a lot more hair on him than that.”
“How much?” Melissa asked. Her eyes were full of curiosity.
“I didn’t get the best look at him because he ran by me pretty fast. But from what I could see he had hair on his legs, arms, chest, face and head. Thick brown hair.”
“Are you sure you didn’t see a homeless guy?” she asked.
I shook my head vigorously from side to side. “No, he definitely wasn’t homeless,” I said. “He was a jogger. A very hairy jogger.”
Melissa frowned and shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve never seen anyone fitting that description around town.”
I was more confused than ever. I’d really been hoping that she would be able to give me some answers that would help me figure out who he was. But it seemed like I would have to do the digging on my own. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy myself on this month long vacation if I didn’t figure who that man was.
“Emily, I have something that I really want to talk to you about,” Melissa said, putting her hand on my arm.
She had a very odd look on her face. And I wasn’t sure how to respond. I didn’t know what to say so I kept my mouth shut.
“I know it was a long time ago,” she said. “And maybe it’s silly to talk about it now. But I’ve always felt bad about how I took Jason from you.”
I stared at her with my mouth open. Just when I thought that we were getting along well, she had to go and bring up Jason.
“He really liked you,” Melissa said. “He thought you were a good person. But you know boys tend to prefer the skinny girls.”
She covered her mouth and began giggling. I felt like a complete fool sitting there listening to her talk about the high school boyfriend that she had stolen from me. He was the one guy who would actually pay attention me. He was a jock and ran with some of the popular crowds, but he was also extremely kind and sensitive.
