Page 19 of Entering a New World

My mind screamed at me that I was crazy for actually believing he was my wolf. My Wolfie. The rational part of my brain was trying to come up with a logical explanation to what I’d seen. The wolf, then him in the wolf’s stead. Could they have just switched places? Maybe. I wasn’t sure. Actually, I didn’t think so, but my memories were still fuzzy, only the highlights were clearer.

Though, my wolf turning into a naked man was definitely a highlight I remembered vividly.

“Are you okay?” the man asked me, turning towards me after searching the room thoroughly, looking for a threat that wasn’t there.

“I—” I wasn’t sure how to answer the question. Hell, I wasn’t sure if I’d lost my damn mind or not. The rational part of my brain kept insisting I had, but another part of me was certain I’d really seen what I thought I’d seen last night. And in a weird and completely, utterly ridiculous way, it actually made sense. Hadn’t I questioned why the wolf seemed to understand me? Hadn’t I been wondering time and time again why he was behaving the way he had?

If it hadn’t been a wolf at all, but a man, the wolf…man’s behaviour actually made sense.

A little.

Maybe.

The guy approached the bed and I automatically scrambled back. It wasn’t a conscious decision, just my body reacting to the buttload of stress it’d been under the past couple of days. Being abandoned in the wilderness, meeting a wild animal, almost dying, watching said wild animal turn into a strange man, waking up in a completely unknown location.

The man immediately stopped dead in his tracks, holding up his hands, but he couldn’t hide the hurt flashing on his face, the disappointment flickering in his eyes.

Those warm, brown eyes… they really looked exactly like the wolf’s eyes. The only difference was that this set of eyes wasn’t surrounded by sandy, light-brown fur, but tan skin, full lashes and the barest hint of laugh lines in the corners of his eyes.

“Wolfie?” I finally asked, even though actually voicing that question felt incredibly stupid.

“Uhm…” The guy raised one hand and scratched the back of his neck, a deep blush creeping up his neck and settling on his cheeks. “Actually, my name is Rhett.” His hand wandered to his face, his fingers combing through his short, well-groomed beard, lightly tugging at the strands. “I’m sorry. I think I forgot to introduce myself yesterday, but it was…” He shrugged, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat as he swallowed a couple of times. “… a stressful situation.”

I barked out a laugh.

A stressful situation?

We almost died. Calling that stressful was the understatement of the year.

The guy, wolf-man—Rhett —briefly smiled at me, but his expression soon turned serious again.

“How are you? Does anything hurt? Why did you scream?”

He cocked his head, waiting for me to answer, but I didn’t know how. Well, in theory, I did know how to answer—by opening my mouth and speaking. But I didn’t know what to say.

There were too many thoughts racing through my head, too many questions waiting to burst out of me, too many bits of memories I wanted to ask him about.

So in the end, I just looked at him, studying him silently.

He didn’t look like a wolf at all; he looked like a regular human. A pretty tall human, but a regular human, nonetheless. If not for his eyes and the fact that I’d seen him changing from wolf to man, I would never even think that he might be something else than one hundred percent animal-free human.

Tan skin, brown hair, brown eyes, sandy-brown beard, a short-sleeved black shirt, grey sweatpants, bare feet… He looked completely human.

I mean, yeah, he was well built with lots and lots of muscles, but they looked real. Like he actually used them. Like he’d gotten them by hard, physical labour, not by spending hours upon hours in the gym.

“Levi?”

He knew my name.

Oh, wait. Right. I’d introduced myself to Wolfie.

Oh, my god…

“You must think I’m an idiot,” I whispered, mortification settling in as the realization hit me that he was the wolf, which meant he knew everything I’d said and done in Wolfie’s presence.

“What? No! Why would I think that?” He raised his eyebrows at me.

“You… you’re the wolf,” I said, then stopped to swallow a couple of times. My throat was still burning and felt like I hadn’t had anything to drink in at least a week. Still, I powered through, ignoring the fact that my voice turned into more of a hoarse whisper with every word I said. “It feels weird saying that out loud. You really are the wolf, right? You… you can turn into a wolf.”

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