Page 10 of Planet Wolf

Had I cried out? Disturbed him? How did he know I needed him right then?

He rocked me back and forth in his arms, making sounds that were similar to the sshh I might do to someone waking from a bad dream at home. The sounds of Doctor gently snoring reached me, and I stifled a giggle. Hunter must be awake, too, but I couldn’t see him right then. Not from the safety of Leader’s arms. Had anywhere ever been so safe? I breathed the scent of him deep into my lungs.

It must have been the leaf, because I fell asleep in his arms in a way that no one had ever held me before. While I slept, I didn’t dream again.

Funny how whispering could sometimes be louder than screaming. I lifted my head from the bag turned makeshift pillow. I was alone on the floor, but I could see the three guys whispering to each other in a language I couldn’t compute. Despite not understanding their words, I had a pretty good idea they were talking about leaving the cave.

All of them were shirtless, and all of them wore serious expressions. Currently, Hunter pointed at the entrance with rapid movements of his strong, muscular arms. He gestured in a big way that meant he was being very, very intense. Doc shook his head. No, whatever they were saying he didn’t like, but Leader nodded. He agreed with Hunter.

In an equal movement to Hunter, Doc pointed at me, although he didn’t turn to look at me or he would’ve seen I was awake.

I could guess their argument had to do with me. Leader and Hunter wanted to leave the cave. A quick glance proved the snow stopped, but Doc didn’t think I could do it. He’d have reason to believe that, since it wasn’t like I was in great shape.

I got to my feet. “We have to go?”

They all swung around at the same time, brows furrowed, when I did speak, which might have been funny if I hadn’t been determined to get a move on. I couldn’t sit around waiting to detox while enjoying loopy leaves. We had to get to the mountain. These guys had to get on with their lives. I hoped they didn’t have wives or husbands. They’d all been very affectionate with me, although who knew what that even meant on their planet? Standards of behavior might very well vary.

I began to walk past them. “Which way?”

Leader grabbed my arm and shook his head.I need to thank him for what he did last night. I’d probably disturbed the only night of sleep he’d had in a while. I knew at the very least he’d been up the night before.

Hunter took me from Leader and swung me onto his back. It was a good thing I had the sense to grab onto him.Okay. Apparently, this is how we’re going. But he couldn’t hold me forever. I was small, but even my weight was going to be too much for him to Bear. Wouldn’t it? How strong were these guys compared to regular Earthborn-human men?

Doctor threw his hands in the air but followed when Hunter ran out of the cave. Snow might not have been falling, but the evidence from the nighttime snowstorm coated everything in pillowy softness. A wonderland had taken over the whole area. All the big trees bent from the weight of the sparkling sea, and the ground was like a blanket of white nothingness. No sharp edges existed anymore, everything softened by it. Of course, if I spent too much time touching it or out in the elements, I’d die. It was deathly pretty, lethally gorgeous, like so many other things in the world.

Hunter, however, was warm. Like a furnace. He grabbed the bag from Leader, who shifted the second he’d handed it over. Doctor did the same. They ran ahead, and where they were going or what they were doing, I had no idea, but they must have preferred to do it in Wolf form.

That just left Hunter and me. He carried me like it was no big deal and headed easily in the direction of the others.

I wished we could talk. It would be such a good time to get to know one another. Like I could ask…Do you kiss all the girls?No. I wouldn’t ask that. So silly. I would have more interesting things to say. I was actually great at parties and meetings. I could get people to open up about all sorts of things. I’d start off by asking him what he did for a living. What sorts of things made him happy. Had he read any wonderful books lately?

Those sorts of things. I certainly wouldn’t obsess over whether or not he went around kissing lots of women, and why it was okay with him that the other guys had kissed me in front of him. Didn’t they have jealousy on their planet? Nope. Not those sorts of questions.

La. La. La. I wasn’t going to be this ridiculous, was I?

The longer we ran, the more I became aware of two things. The first was that the sun actually felt beautiful on my skin, like it could warm the universe. Well, Hunter and the sun could warm it together. He was practically a furnace. And my stomach was empty. It groaned, and he skidded to a stop.

Hunter kicked away some snow and set me down in the space he’d cleared. The trees dripped down on us, but it was gentle and not constant, just an indication that nature was thawing out the storm.

With swift movements, he opened up the bag and handed me some of the meat from the night before. I took small bites, chewing each piece a long time and swallowing gently. Then I’d pause to make sure my often-annoying body accepted the offering as food and wasn’t treating it like poison it immediately needed to expel from my system.

I seemed to be keeping it down, which was so wonderful, I had to grin at him again. “Thank you.”

A Wolf howled in the distance, and he turned his head to stare in that direction. Was it one of our Wolves? Could he actually understand what they were saying in Wolf when he wasn’t one?

What was I going to do with all these questions and no answers?Well, I’m going to store them away and probably make him nuts with them when I canactually ask them.

He shook his head, rolled his eyes, and then turned back to me. Without warning, he kissed me. It wasn’t even so much a kiss as his lips met mine, he tugged me against his body and off the ground, all in practically one move. And he didn’t kiss me as he owned my mouth. Minute after minute, he took my lips as his. I could hardly keep up to breathe, but who needed air, anyway? He consumed my very senses. When he finally pulled back, we both panted. Hunter tugged me into a hug, pressing my head onto his shoulder. I clung to him. My senses had never been so awake, so aware. Every nerve ending in my body cried out for more as my brain decided to give up on understanding what was happening.I could just stay like this. Who needs to move?Until he kissed me again.

I didn’t see the Wolf that banged into his legs until it did just that. I squirmed to be able to see him—Doc? Leader was gray and this one was brown. Hunter groaned and then nodded.

In another swift adjustment of my body, I was back where I’d spent the morning traveling and we were on our way.

This time, Doc didn’t leave us, circling as we ran forward. It looked like Hunter had broken some kind of rule, and he was being watched now. I smiled against his back. Who knew I would so love being kissed?And kissed. And kissed.

4

The sun melted the snow away. By late that afternoon, it was all but totally gone, and I was too hot riding on Hunter’s back. Really, the weather here was astronomically weird. Shouldn’t there be storms or something, due to the change in temperature? None of it made any sense, and we still weren’t at the mountain. Just as I was feeling like I really, really needed to get down to cool off, two Wolves that I recognized right away appeared next to us.

---