Page 27 of Cursed Wolf

Keeping the blanket close to my face, I inhaled and then...oh wow.

My nose pulled in the scent of fresh leather and bright green moss. Those two scents mixed together in a chemical cocktail that was like crack to my brain. I wanted to wrap this blanket around my shoulders and become enveloped in this scent. Something about it conveyed warmth, contentment, and safety. Screw the blanket actually, I wanted to bottle this up and bathe in it.

“Almost there. Not much farther,” Tryn informed me.

It’s his scent, I realized with an odd mix of giddiness and shame. It was a major plus that he smelled so damn good, but now I felt like a weirdo for being so entranced by it.

“You good, Emmaline?” He paused and turned back to check on me.

I lifted my face away from the blanket just before he saw. “Yeah, perfect.”

“Great.” He resumed walking the trail. “It’s just through here.”

We walked in silence for another hundred or so yards. Tryn made sure to hold low-hanging branches out of my way while I huffed his picnic blanket as discreetly as I could.

Suddenly, it felt like invisible threads dragged over my skin and hair. I saw nothing, but they felt soft, wispy and fragile like spiderwebs.

“Oh, fuck!” I dropped the blanket and cups as realization hit me and started frantically batting at my own face and hair.

“Emmaline?” I heard the concern in Tryn’s voice but couldn’t see him through my squeezed-shut eyelids.

“I just walked into a spiderweb!” How the web missed him and hit me square in the face, I had no clue, but now my skin was crawling from head to toe. “Is it still on me? Oh fuck, get it off!”

“Come here.” Callused fingers took hold of my hand and gently pulled me forward. Immediately, the webbing sensation was gone. “I think you got it all.”

I peeked one eye open, and then the other. Tryn was still holding my hand, trying to hide the amusement in his face. “Are you sure it’s all gone?”

He nodded and leaned over to inspect the top of my head, struggling to make his expression serious. “Yup, not a web to be seen.”

I checked myself over once more, then turned back to look at the way I came. “Stealthy fuckers. I never saw a thing.”

“I take it spiders are the one animal you don’t like?” he mused.

“That’s a nice way of putting it. I actually like that they eat flies and other bugs, I’ve just never liked the feel of their webs on me—oh, shit.” I picked up the blanket and cups I dropped, running my hand over it to scrape off the dead leaves and dirt. “I’m sorry, I messed this up when I freaked out.”

“It’s supposed to get dirty.” Tryn chuckled. “We’ll just put that side down for our picnic. Look, we’re here.”

We had emerged from the woods to a rocky ridge overlooking more forested mountains, as well as a grassy meadow and a small lake that reflected the mountains like glass.

“Oh wow, I had no idea this was here!” Nearby, there was a slope down to the meadow and lake that looked gentle and not a far walk. I almost wanted to picnic near the water instead of back here. “What lake is that? I must have missed seeing it on the local maps.”

“I’m not sure of its name.” Tryn set his things down and gently took the blanket from me to spread it on the ground. “It might be too small for any maps. But it’s pretty, isn’t it?”

“It’s gorgeous.” The late afternoon sun cast long shadows and made the water shimmer. The moon, just past half full, shone high in the sky while its counterpart, the sun, began its descent.

When I turned away from the scene, Tryn was already sitting on the blanket, pouring beer from the swingtop bottle into the red cups and smiling at me. My whole body heated, wondering if he’d been looking at me the whole time I was staring at the lake.

“Thirsty?” He held out one of the cups to me.

Man, you have no idea. “Thanks.” I accepted the drink and sat next to him on the blanket, sighing at the beautiful scene. “How did you find this place?”

“Just exploring.” He pulled our food containers from the bag and held one out to me with a grin. “Did I guess your favorite right?”

I opened the styrofoam lid and couldn’t hold back the laugh that burst out of me. “Did Joey tell you?”

“No, I swear.” He held up his hands. “You just seemed like a steak sandwich girl, so that’s what I went for.”

“Buck definitely makes the best tri-tip sandwich in all of California. What did you get?”

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