Page 10 of Lycan

“You were ordered not to touch.” The force of his words made me want to drop my eyes.

I needed to stop setting the monster off. Making him angry would get me nowhere.

“I’m sorry. I was trying to get the tangles out of your fur.” I peeked up at him and he watched me with his head tilted. “Who hurt you? You have dried blood matted to your body. Is that why you’re so aggressive? I was just trying to help . . .”

I trailed off and cleared my throat. He continued to stare at me. His gaze dimmed.

It was obvious he’d been hurt, and with how cautious he’d been, I could only draw to the conclusion thatsomeonehad been hurting him—for a while. It wasn’t some random fight, the wounds shouted captivity. Sympathy surged forward. The monster had been reacting from pain. I scanned the matted fur again.

“Do you want to bathe?”

His head tilted.

“You know, water . . .” I waved my hands around like I was cleaning my body. There was a lake nearby that I took dips in often.

“Fenrir?”

He continued staring at me and I would have thought he hadn’t heard me if the orange in his eyes didn’t flare brightly at my words.

My empathy would do me in. Now that I had built up this back story for him, I couldn’t help but warm to him. He cringed away from my touch but was it because he’d only ever been hurt?

The thought of this prideful, large male, fearful of touch caused my stomach to sour. I had no doubt he hated humans and thought them beneath him, but there was more here. I could show him we were not all that bad. Maybe then he wouldn’t attempt to kill us.

“I won’t touch you anymore,” I said, giving in. “I am sorry.” I slightly bowed my head like I’d seen him do. His head cocked. “I’ll take you to the lake?” I posed it more as a question and took one step toward the door. When he didn’t smack me down or drag me to him, I took another. Then another, keeping my eyes on him as I sidled to the door. He could easily stop me, I had no doubts about that.

The door had never shut properly, so all it needed was a nudge. The sun hung low, casting an orange light across the forest. I worked to keep my attention averted from the path leading back home. I would need to get back eventually, otherwise Jason would come seek me out. Sometimes we went days without seeing each other during harvest season, but I didn’t want to chance it. If I continued to be gone, they could grow curious as to why. But I had some time, especially since Jason saw me in bed last night.

At least I was pretty sure it was last night.

Inching out the door, I peeked over my shoulder where Fenrir loomed right behind me. I shuddered. The beast was much too quiet for his size.

“Lead,” he grunted, following so close that he stepped on the back of my shoe multiple times. I stumbled forward and worked to smooth the frustration off my face. Tension radiated off him and the hair on the back of his neck was raised all the way down to his long puffy tail.

“It’s not far.”

“Lead,” he said again in a forceful, biting tone.

I scowled and picked up speed, following the grooves I’d walked into the dirt. The path ran north of the property and led toward a lake. That was as far as I’d ever gone from the house and our land. I never dared step away from my haven and I never would. I relied on the safety my home provided. I could only attribute this single-minded desire to leftover trauma from when I was a kid.

All I remembered before Pam and Jason found me was the gut-wrenching feeling of being lost. Of not knowing where to go. Of sleeping on the ground, of starving. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been out here, but Pam told me I’d beenas dirty and thin as a dog, her words.

Pam was good people, she talked with me, shared stories of how life was before the catastrophic earthquake that tore theRiftinto the earth and ripped a new dimension through the west coast. The very reason for the monsters ending up here.

A familiar tall tree came within view, the wide branches reaching out to the sides. A bush with bright pink flowers scattered throughout the green leaves decorated the base. Cricket chirps became louder and the lake came within view, spanning until the other embankment.

“We’re here,” I said, more to fill the silence than anything else since it was quite clear we’d arrived.

Without waiting, he grunted and trotted forward on all fours. He submerged himself in the water until only his antlers poked above the water.

I settled myself on a flat stone near the edge of the water. As distracted as he seemed, I wasn’t fooled, he’d pluck me back in place if I tried to run. Lose all the progress we’d made? No, thanks, plus I didn’t want to test his strength.

I curled my legs under me, watching the monster rise from the water like some aquatic wolf god. Rivulets trickled off his slicked fur that seemed to hold a gallon of water—he was just so large. Even wet, his size didn’t diminish, the fur plastered to his body, outlining the hard indents of his arms . . . and the ones at his abs. With him all wet like this, his build looked more humanoid.

Lower down, there was a slightly rounded aspect beneath the slightly bulging pouch where his cock expanded from. His balls blended with his fur.

As he stepped out, pebbles grated against each other under his weight. He left deep indents of his long double-jointed legs. The limb was different than the two arms, or front legs—depending on how I wanted to think about it. Claws erupted from their tips, hooking into the earth. Steam rose from his fur like he burned too warm for the water to remain long. He shook himself and water went flying all over the place. Splatters hit my face, sending me into a sputtering fit.

He released a collection of deep, rumbling chuffs, showing way too many teeth. If I wasn’t wrong, he seemed to think it was funny.

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