Page 7 of Wolf's Whisper

Chapter 3. Aspen

I shrieked and threw my bushel of firewood at him.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my camp!" I yelled at him as I covered my eyes. Oh no, now he could attack me! I quickly opened my eyes again, was met with —for the lack of better words — ding dong that burned my corneas and decided that covering up was still the better choice. If I died now, that was probably for the best. Then I wouldn't have to see him in all his “male glory”. In fact, just kill me now.

"Relax, it is just me," he called, his voice low and hoarse and oddly sexy.

With one hand covering my face, I felt around for my bag. Without really looking at anything, I threw it in his general direction. "Cover yourself up!"

"Alrighty, if you don't want a peek at the goods, your loss." I could just hear the smirk in his voice. After some ruffling, I decided to slowly peek through my fingers and was happy to report that at least he was somewhat covered up. But damn, that was one smooth chest.

Focus! Don’t go crushing on strangers, Akira!

Especially not naked, wolf-stealing strangers that were obviously trying too hard to look cool.

"Who are you and what did you do with my wolf!" I yelled at him as I pointed one of my longer sticks at him. As long as he didn't point his stick at me, I was good.

"Pumpkin, I told you to relax."

"I will not relax!" I bellowed, my concern for my wolf growing with the minute. He was hurt and wounded and couldn't defend himself. I needed to protect my wolf.

I inhaled deeply. "1... 2...3...4..." I softly muttered under my breath as I calmed myself down. I let out a sharp sigh and turned myself back to the naked Adonis. "I will ask you one more time. Where. Is. My. Wolf..." I spit out, my whole body tense as I prepared to attack him any moment.

"Princess, relax. I’m the wolf," he grinned, the smirk appearing on his face oddly wolfish and familiar.

I squinted my eyes and looked at his leg. His calf was heavily muscled, but I could make out the wound that I had been dressing for the past day. But then again, that could've been any kind of wound, for all I knew, he inflicted it on himself.

"Okayyy..." I muttered as I looked from his leg to his face and back again. So he was obviously crazy and Akira, if you know one thing, never mess with crazy. "Well, that is settled then. Oh, and my name is not baby, it's Akira." I dropped my firewood and strutted towards the fire, poking it up a little more.

"What do you mean: 'it is settled then'?" he incredulously asked.

"If you’re the wolf, you owe me at least a week worth of dried meat," I sweetly smiled at him as I broke some sticks for the fire.

"That's what you took from this conversation? You’re worried about food?" he asked, confused by how unimpressed I was.

"Baby, relax," I repeated his words from earlier as I threw him a bored look. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of riling me up again.

No, don't poke the crazy.

"Why doesn't this freak you out?"

"I've seen weirder things." I actually had.

"Oh, I see... Let me just get a good whiff of you," he mumbled as he sniffed the air surrounding me. "It is because you’re one of those people."

"Excuse me?"

"I know your tribe, you occupy the West," he added, his face lighting up as he saw he had uncovered my little secret.

"So that is why you smell so familiar. I knew something was up."

"Yeah, sure, whatever makes you sleep at night," I scoffed, not liking how he kept turning the tables on me.

"No, no, no, honey, now I get it. You helped me cause your tribe idolises anything Wolf related. In your eyes, I’m a direct descendant of your God, but you can just call me Aspen," he grinned, his smirk so sexy I wanted to slap it off his face.

"Don't mistake yourself, you’re nothing special."

He flashed his eyes. "Oh, but I’m. If I recall correctly, you aren't regular shifters. No, your tribe is the one with the chained wolves. None of you can shift at will."

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