Page 34 of Malcolm

It took him a twenty-minute cold shower to calm down, just as he stepped out his towel slip off his shoulder. Bending down he paused at the sound of a gasp.

“Oh, wow.” The feminine exclamation made him glance up in surprise over his shoulder. He quickly grabbed it, bringingit back up to his waist. He flushed to his ear, “Sorry, I-I…” he trailed off, still struggling to lift the towel up.

Eliza laughed shortly. “It’s okay, just—” She covered her eyes. “Go get dressed. I’ll wait.”

He nodded, quickly grabbing the outfit he’d set out and running into the bathroom. He wasn’t usually worried about being naked; in fact, one could say it was the opposite. Most werewolves enjoyed their nudity and didn’t see anything wrong with it. The problem was being naked around Eliza put ideas into his head he couldn’t act on. It was already becoming a problem holding his wolf back in her presence.

Since he’d changed back to a human, he’d felt his wolf scratching at the corner of his mind wanting to be let out. The damn beast was eager to show off, but it only made him tense and worried he wouldn’t be able to allow her time to get used to him before he pushed onto her some claiming she may not be ready for.

Finished changinginto grey sweats and a T-shirt, he exited the bathroom to find her in shorts and a T-shirt, her hair loose and down her back. The mass was thick and hovered around her shoulders. He felt special at seeing her fully uncovered face like he’d told her he wasn’t bothered with the script that ran there or the scars. She looked up from the book she was reading and smirked. “Well, I can’t say that grey sweat makes it better, but it’s an improvement.” She shifted, so she sat cross-legged on the bed, “So, what did you want to talk about?”

He moved to her side and sat down and laid down.

“H-hey, what are you doing?” she demanded, lifting her arms just as he laid his head on her thigh.

“Shush, I’m trying to see something,” he said, closing his eyes as she ignored her wriggling.

“Oh really.” Her voice was thick with sarcasm. “And just what is it you’re trying to see?”

He squeezed his eyes shut. “They say laying your head on a pair of thick thighs will soothe a man's sad heart. I need to test that theory.”

He could feel her stomach trembling, as she tried to hold back her laughter. “And here I thought you had something important to ask me.”

“I do, but right now. I don’t want to think about it.” He wanted to pretend for a moment that none of it mattered, but he couldn’t, not really. Three things were bothering him: his claim on Eliza, the possibility of an outsider being the one kidnapping the teen wolves, and the Alpha tryouts, his only chance at becoming the Alpha. He squeezed his eyes shut; he didn’t want to think about any of it.

He let himself drift, the silence was interrupted by the occasional flipping of a page by Eliza, and her lighthearted chuckles. Soon, he was asleep, followed by the woman he’d been lying on.

Eliza

When Eliza awoke, she found herself once again in Malcolm’s arms. Looking from his sleeping face to the window, she saw that it was dark outside. Surprised, she pulled away from him slowly.

Her body must have been tired after everything she’d been through; she slipped from the bed and walked over to the window. No matter what time, anytime she saw the moon, she couldn’t stop herself from looking at it. It reminded her of Ashe, and too often, she wondered if her dead friend was watching her.Then she’d look at her hands and remember that she’d been the one to kill her.

Curling her fingers, she looked away from the moon to the small village below and spotted something odd at the front gate: a woman with raven-colored hair standing there. Her eyes focused directly on her, and she felt a chill run down her spine before the woman turned and continued down the path, disappearing from sight.

“Follow her.”

Eliza headed out of the room, trying to move quietly. Her body moving of its own accord, the feeling of chill was sharper at night. She’d been tricked by the warm sun of the day. Her movements were quick, and soon she was walking out of the yard and onto the well-worn path. The night air filled her lungs, and before she could fully appreciate the empty yard, she was running.

“Where are we going?” she asked as she watched her body move towards the woods.

“What I desire has been hidden in the slight cracks of here and there.” A figure with no shape appeared next to her. Their face was missing, along with their arms and legs, and the only thing they had to denote they were there was a blood-red dress. “The minute I woke in your body, I knew what needed to be done.”

“Killing,” Eliza said, looking away from her bodies scrabbling through the dirt. “You wanted to kill and hurt…everyone.”

“I did.” The voice held amusement. “My people lived centuries for the ability to no longer wear flesh, and here come fools with a bit of magic, binding us and tying us to it again. Killing was the nicest thing I planned to do. Luckily for you, I held back in my desire to see blood.”

Eliza scoffed. “Is it luck?” she asked, just as she watched herself stop before a large boulder where the pale moonlight danced along its smooth surface. Her hand lifted and pressed against the flat surface of the black stone that resided next to her. A tingling sensation invaded her arm, making her gasp as her body was surrounded by light.

“W-What’s this?”

“Do not panic; we are merely leaving your world behind,” the goddess responded calmly, just as warm light covered her. The view of the forest fell away, exposing the gleaming view of tall pillars and polished floors. The goddess walked forward, her body thrumming with energy as her arms became solid within the sleeves of her dress, just like the rest of her body.

Eliza followed her, watching her own limbs turn to shadow and smoke. They were switching places in the world. The weight of their existence changed, and as the goddess moved forward, her black curls fell to her back. And her long thin fingers reached out to skim along the wall of gold, each indention empty.

“The wall.” Her brow creased in confusion. “Someone else has been here,” she said, turning away from it. She clapped her hands together, and the gold and pretty cover fell away. Turning into a dark cave, the walls held purplish stones that glowed ominously.

The goddess released her hold, her eyes turning red with anger. “I can see it,” she sneered as a round flat mirror lowered in front of her. Its surface became blue as the letters on it bled across the mirror. “They stole it—” Her mouth opened inhumanely as she released a high-pitched scream

---