by Sage Arroway
“Just tell me,” she insisted, waiving his choice to be polite.
Hesitating, he whispered softly, “You know, to…fuck.”
Allie waited a full five seconds before she broke out in another fit of laughter. “You’re kidding!” she said, once she was able to talk again.
He shook his head. “It’s not like that,” he disputed, even though he wasn’t totally sure what it was like. “It’s more like if you take away all the thinking, planning, reasoning we do all the time as people. And pump yourself full of rage and hunger. And that’s all you are, teeth and claws, fueled by basic animal instinct.”
“You make it sound so glamorous,” she said, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
“Yeah, it keeps the whole rockstar thing from going to my head,” he joked. Taking advantage of the reduced tension, he tried his luck once more. “Now will you untie me?”
She smiled, a soft but stern grin, “Not yet, Rockstar. I’m not done.”
Again, he relented while she continued her questioning.
“Have you ever tried to control it?”
“Control it? What do you mean?”
She lifted the shotgun from her lap and sat it on the bed behind her. Tyler took that as a good sign.
“You said you can’t control it. Have you ever tried?”
His eyes widened. “Why would I want to?”
“Well,” she began slowly, seeming to choose each word with deliberation, “maybe the wolf doesn’t always have to drive.”
The image of him pushing the wolf out of the driver’s seat made him laugh. “I don’t know about that, but if I ever find a werewolf who’s willing to scoot over, I’ll be sure to ask him to.”
“I’m serious,” she insisted. “Have you tried? Maybe if you learn how to control it, you don’t have to let it control you.”
“It’s not that simple,” he argued. “Look, I don’t expect you to understand. But when you’re like this—me—you just do the best you can. You keep track of the lunar cycle and make sure you’re alone when you change. And…” he paused, gazing into Allie’s big brown eyes, “hope that when you wake up, you haven’t hurt anyone you care about.”
She was silent for a few minutes more before asking another question. “So who shot you?”
Breaking his stare, “Honestly, I don’t know who they were.”
“They?”
He nodded. “Yeah, there were three of them. I’m pretty sure they drugged me. I woke up in some kind of warehouse and the next thing I know, they’re beating the hell out of me.”
“You’re lucky they didn’t kill you,” she remarked.
“It wasn’t for lack of trying.”
“They never said who they were?”
Tyler had been thinking about that, but he wasn’t any closer to knowing who they were than Allie was. Though he had a suspicion. “I’m pretty sure they were werewolves, too.”
“Really? What makes you so sure?”
“At first I thought they might be the Mafia, but something they kept asking me...." He paused, thinking back. "They kept asking me about who I was allied to. A friend of mine back in San Diego told me that some wolves organize into groups, and call themselves ‘Wolvens.’ Some of them control whole cities or states. He said that some of them even run small countries.”
She arched her brow, “Interesting. So who would be in charge of these Wolvens then?”
“I don’t know exactly. I never got her name.”
"Her name?"
He winced. He'd meant to avoid confessing that he had gotten his ass kicked by a woman. "Well, she had a couple guys there for muscle. And I got the feeling there were more, too."
“So, are you a part of a…Wolven?”
He shook his head, glancing down at his thigh, “Does it look like it? Only group I want is my band.”
She leaned back in the chair, as if pondering everything he had told her. After a long minute, she stood up. “So, you change every time there’s a full moon, right?”
He nodded.
“And you’re a werewolf who likes to kill, eat and…fuck,” she added, seeming to struggle with the word.
“Basically.”
She grunted softly. “Well, then, I guess we better get going.”
“Uh--” he stuttered, pulling on the ropes and chain, “where? I’m kinda stuck here.”
“We’ve got one more full moon tonight, right?”
He could feel it in his bones. “Yes.”
“Then we’re going to need some more meat, and that means we’re going hunting.”
She undid the chains that kept his feet and legs bound, and left them in a pile on the floor. “I saw some deer tracks yesterday, and I’m gonna need your help if I can track it down.”
He looked down at her, and could see the deep gouges cut into the wood floor where she knelt. “Don’t take this wrong,” he offered, “but you’re really good at tying people up. You don’t do this for a living, do you?”
That got a quiet laugh from her. As she loosened the knots around his wrists, he lowered his arms slowly, feeling the rush of blood back into his hands. He had never been hunting, but was surprised to find that he was prepared to do whatever this woman asked of him. She had earned that much, at least.
“Just tell me what to do,” he said.
They were standing close now, while she let the rope coil to the floor; their eyes met for a moment, and he could hear the breath going in and out of their lips. He thought for a moment that he would like to kiss her.
“You’re a mess,” she told him, breaking the tension. “Go get cleaned up. I’ll find you some boots and a better coat.”
She nodded through the doorway toward the tiny bathroom in the hall and he walked toward it. A few steps later, he paused in the doorway and turned around, planning to ask her where the towels were. But before he could speak, he caught her, a faintly distracted look on her face while her eyes rested directly upon his ass. She quickly tried to cover the rising blood in her cheeks.
“I saw that,” he teased her. “Maybe you need a cold shower, too?”
“Shut up,” she laughed, waving him on toward the bathroom. But once he was out of sight, she let the breath leave her lungs and sighed, Omigod, what the hell am I going to do with him?
Chapter 14
Allie bit her bottom lip in a moment of frustration.
Tyler’s feet crunched through the snow and the amount of noise he made had already scared off a pair of late-migrating ducks, a rabbit and a squirrel.
“Shhh,” she turned and motioned, placing her finger up to her lips.
He shrugged his shoulders at her. He seemed to be looking everywhere but where he was walking.
She came to a stop behind a large white trunk and waited for him to catch up; trying to convince herself with every breath that it was a good idea to bring him. It was a surprising choice—even to her—but now that they were this far out in the woods, she was committed to the idea.
He clomped up behind her.
“Why’d you stop?” he asked, a bit louder than she would have liked.
She shook her head in aggravation and pointed at a pair of tracks in the snow.
“Oh nice!”
“Quiet,” she shushed him. “You’d think you’d never been hunting before.”
“I haven’t.” he confessed. “What are those?”
“Deer tracks,” she whispered back, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“They look pretty small,” he said, squinting.
“What did you expect?”
He paused, clearly uncomfortable with his ignorance. “I just thought they’d be bigger.”
“We’re hunting Bambi, not Bullwinkle.”
His cheeks darkened, either from the cold or his embarrassment.
“So.... have you ever come across something larger? Like a bear, or bullwinkle…or people?”
"Like hunters? No. They used to come up here when I was younger, but Moll chased t
hem off. Nobody else ever comes up here but us."
“Us?” he inquired.
“My family,” she amended. "If someone else was up here, I'd know."
Her answer seemed to reassure whatever was troubling him, and she brought their attention back to the deer tracks. They were fresh, still crisp holes in the snow. With the rise in temperature and the fresh green shoots poking up through the snow, it was a good chance that they might find the deer that made them foraging for food nearby. Assuming they didn’t scare it off.
Tyler leaned up close behind her, looking over her shoulder at the woods ahead. This time he spoke softer; so near her ear it made her tremble.
“What do you see?”
Allie turned her head, stole a quick glance at his face and caught the visual contrast of a few days’ growth covering his jawline, and how it played against the soft laugh lines at the corners of his mouth and eyes.
She shivered—maybe from the cold, but more likely from the instant attraction she felt toward him and how it warmed her to her core. Against her better judgment, she touched him lightly on the arm to get his attention. He turned to her, bringing their faces nearer than she’d expected. Allie looked away from his mouth, fighting the sudden urge to lean even closer.
“Step where I step,” she whispered. “We’re getting close and need to make less noise.”
She could see her breath dissipate between them, fading away like her resolve to keep this man away from her. But he was close. Closer now than she wanted, but still further than she desired.
He nodded, his stare fixated upon her lips. “Okay,” he said, less quietly than she had spoken.
Allie frowned briefly and placed a finger against her lips.
She turned and led him further on, until she suddenly stepped behind another thick tree and pulled him quickly with her.
“What is it--” he began, but she quickly placed her fingers against his lips to silence him. A slight tingle shot up her arm, and settled in her chest. She withdrew her hand instantly.
They were standing even closer than they had before, and she could feel the firm musculature of his chest beneath his jacket, rising and falling with each breath. He was threatening to become a serious problem. She liked her life. She often felt like the cabin, far away from the land of men, untouched, un-intruded upon, alone. She liked it that way, but now they were stuck together until the roads were safe enough to drive out, and there was still that one unavoidable character defect he had. She pulled herself away and noticed a flash of disappointment cross his face.
“Sorry,” he whispered, surprisingly.
The corners of her mouth hitched briefly. “Don’t be,” she assured him, noting how adorable he could be when he wasn’t trying so hard.
Changing her focus, Allie leaned out on the opposite side of the tree and peered into the distance. A smudge of brown movement caught her attention and she froze. She saw Tyler open his mouth to ask her something, and she held up her right hand to silence him once more. She didn’t dare touch him again, though. It was just too distracting.
She waited, until the shapeless brown smudge in the middle of the landscape moved again. Two steps, three, and with a fourth step emerged into unobstructed view. It was a decent-sized deer, nervously stepping from the protection of the underbrush to nibble at some wildgrass it saw along the edge of its path.
She motioned with her eyes for Tyler to look and she felt him go tense beside her. She couldn’t help but smile at his excitement.
Allie lifted the bow from its case, and considered her best angle. She was about to suggest they change places when she noticed an expression of strange urgency on Tyler’s face. He held up his hands and glanced meaningfully toward the bow.
She held it up to him, the offer clear. “Ever use a bow?”
“Boy scout,” he said softly. “But I’ve never killed anything with one.”
Allie quietly maneuvered dangerously close behind him, placing the bow in his hands. He took it easily, and she curled his fingers into proper position, nocked an arrow and moved him slowly into position. Wordlessly, she guided his arms, showed him how to draw back the string and hold it, quickly drawing on its target. She pointed to her own head, and then to her chest, indicating the latter as the better mark on the deer. He nodded softly and looked again towards the animal.
Allie leaned in closer, guiding his hands, her breath falling on his face and neck. She inhaled the scent of him—the city mixing with the lush and dusky aroma of the wild. Something untamed and primal began to stir inside her. Against the calm of the woods, her heartbeat pounded inside her chest, creating chaos from within. His lips parted only slightly, and she knew, somehow, just how they would feel on her skin if she were to take the chance. He was close enough now, so close, she could almost taste him.
“Now?” he whispered, breaking her concentration.
It took Allie a moment to realize he was referring to the hunt. With some effort, she pushed her thoughts to the back of her mind and struggled to refocus on the deer. And when she nodded to him, his fingers released the arrow. It covered the distance between hunters and prey in the span of a single heartbeat and found its mark.
Claimed, the animal uttered a single moaning cry and fell, bringing a sudden stillness to the forest around them. It may have taken only one of them to bring it down, but Allie knew it was going to take both of them to bring it home.
Chapter 15
They made good time returning to the cabin.
Allie had done the bulk of the fallen deer’s cleaning in the woods, and it was mid-afternoon by the time she bundled up the useable parts and set them in the icebox. She had been so focused on recalling her old skills that she hadn’t even noticed Tyler was gone until the lights in the cabin’s interior flickered to life.
The back door opened, and Allie heard the familiar rumble of the generator as Tyler stepped back inside, stomping his feet against the doorframe. He smiled triumphantly at her.
“You got it working!”
Closing the door behind him, he rubbed his palms together to warm them. “Figured I’d better try to earn my keep.”
She wasn’t sure what to say to that, so she thanked him.
He approached her, looking around the kitchen at the various pieces of deer still in various states of preparation. “Okay, you’re definitely not like any other girl I know.”
“Not used to seeing your girls covered in blood, huh?” she joked, but regretted the statement as soon as she remembered his date at the campground. “Oh, Tyler - - I’m…I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”
He waved his hand. “No, I know what you meant, it’s cool.”
A long and awkward pause ensued.
“But yeah,” he finally spoke, “you’re pretty good with a butcher’s knife. You learned all of this from your Grandma, huh?”
Allie shrugged, blowing a stray hair from in front of her face. “It’s not like she only taught me crazy stuff like this, she made me stay in school and get an education just like all the other kids. But it’s important in our family to know how to do things, you know? I know people – like my roommate, for example – who I think really believe that food comes from the grocery store.”
They both laughed briefly at that.
“For me, I guess it’s the connection that makes a difference. You have to know where everything comes from, or else it never matters to you.”
Tyler seemed to weigh this, as if it had never really occurred to him. “I’ve never really thought about it like that, but….yeah, you’re right. And if everything is connected…”
She completed his thought. “Then everything matters.”
After a moment, the smile returned to his face. “Is that why you stayed with me last night?”
She looked down at the section of meat she was cutting, avoiding his gaze. “Something like that.”
Her eyes locked in on the annoying strand of hair. Tyler reached out and brushed it back from her face, tucking it beh
ind her ear.
“Careful,” she warned, “I’ve got a knife.”
She let the smile on her lips betray the casual flirtation behind her words.
Feigning surrender, he raised his hands and took a step forward, “You wouldn’t hurt an unarmed man…would you?”
“Maybe,” she lied, holding the knife between them. She was positive her grin was a dead giveaway.
“Maybe?” he repeated. “I think you already did.” He was moving closer still, his voice velvety smooth. “But I don’t think you’d do it again.”
His words were so convincing—enough that she almost forgot that he was the more dangerous of the two of them—and he was close enough now that his magnetism was already pulling her in.
“Back up,” she teased, taking a step backward herself, “I’m warning you.”
He stepped forward twice, the blade now pressed against his shirt. “I’m not afraid of getting a little dirty,” he admitted, all too seductively.
Allie needed to catch her breath. Tyler’s flirtatious tone was making her more nervous than ever. She swallowed hard, trying to take her eyes off the last word still hanging from his lower lip. Dirty.
Yes he was, she reminded herself—the deliciously handsome kind—and the next words barely made it out of her mouth as she locked into his stare, “Oh really?”
“Really.”
He was too close.
“I don’t wanna be dirty,” she whispered, shaking her head.
Tyler lowered his hands and wrapped them around her waist. His fingers grazed her curves as they made their way to the small of her back. “I know,” he agreed, “but you are really dirty.”
A brief moment lingered where she thought he might kiss her. She lowered the knife instinctively, closed her eyes and held her breath.
“So dirty,” she surrendered, but his lips never met hers.
“Settle down, tiger,” he chuckled, tugging on her apron strings, “I was talking about the blood on your clothes.”
Flustered, Allie opened her eyes and looked down at herself. She was a mess.
