Page 55 of Feral
“I hurt you last time…” he murmured.
“Look at me, Fraser.”
After a moment, he did, and there was so much sadness there that I couldn’t help but press the palm of my other hand to his cheek.
“I trust you and I am not afraid of you. The question is, do you trust me?”
“Why would that matter? I’m the one that’s…that’s a monster right? Isn’t that what Mundanes think of us?”
My chest squeezed at the words, spoken with such hardness yet laced with pain.
“I don’t. I don’t think I ever could.”
“Ya don’t know me, how can ya be sure?”
I gave him a little smile, trying to ignore the heat blooming in my body.
“Call it an instinct.”
Somehow, I’d gotten closer to him, the tips of my breasts almost brushing against his bare chest as I breathed. It was so tempting to lean into him, to let my body do what instinct had me barely refraining from. The bite mark let out a little pulse of heat and Fraser’s nostrils flared.
“Ya best step back,” he said, pushing me away from him slightly.
It hurt in an unexpected way to have him treat me like this. It was stupid to feel the sting of rejection when this couldn’t be a relationship. It was business, work, save the world kind of stakes. And here I was, gritting my teeth against an all too familiar pain that was only made worse by this damn bite.
“Very well,” I said with a deep breath, “but the fact remains that I need to see your true form in order to tend your wound. Now, you don’t have to keep the glamour down if you’re not comfortable with that but for just a few minutes, I would appreciate your cooperation.”
He let out a long breath and nodded.
“Fine,” the word was full of defeat.
And when he let it drop, I didn’t notice the way he squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for me to be repulsed. I was too overcome with wonder at the primal beauty in front of me. I’d caught a glimpse of him last night and this afternoon, but it was all a bit of blur between the mating bite and running for our lives.
But now I could take him in, see the hulking strength that I’d only felt before.
His glamour gave a very good estimation of his height and breadth, though like this, he was still a bit bigger than that. His muzzle was indeed short, and his intense yellow eyes stared at me, waiting. His chest was bare of both clothes and fur, but was exceptionally well defined and covered in a very short, fine layer of hair that continued down to his stomach where his skin was as dark as his fur. A tartan kilt was wrapped around his waist, hitting him at the knee joint. A long tail that curved up at the end swung at the back, the fur longer than on most of his body and I longed to run my hand over it. Under the fur of his arms and legs were clear definitions of muscle, that made my body heat with desire. Just when I was about to reach out and feel the bulge of his bicep, his foot started to tap, claws clicking on the bare floor.
“Had yer eyeful yet?” he growled.
I looked up to see that he’d folded his huge arms across his chest and had cocked his head to the side.
A nervous giggle broke free of my lips and I shook my head.
“I’m sorry, it’s just…you’re extraordinary. And the glamour is actually not that different from your true form, I mean in terms of size and shape and…well, I, uh…what I meant to say is…”
Fraser made a sound that was very much like a wolfy version of a chuckle and heat raced into my face.
“I suppose I should be happy that yer gawkin’, not screamin’ in terror.”
“You’re beautiful, Fraser, not terrifying.”
Now it was his turn to be uncomfortable as he turned away and shifted from foot to foot.
“Thank ya, lass,” he whispered. “Now, how about ya bandage me up?”
“Yes, of course, sorry.”
Fraser raised his arm and I heard the barest hint of a hiss as I gently probed the knife wound. It wasn’t all that deep or large, but it still seeped a bit of blood and there was probably some bruising around the site, though it was hard to tell with the dark fur.
