13. Wolf
Our back and forth had us both aching and breathless as I blocked Emi’s latest attempt to hit me in the face. I might have been a little dazed by the bright fire in her cheeks and the sparkle in her eyes, but she obviously had no compunctions about messing with my pretty face. Normally a smile and flick of my eyebrows could get my friends to snap out of the draining pull of the Mist and start talking again, but Emi was immune to my charms. She’d been mostly silent since we started.
The good news was she had yet to make it to the ax, although she didn’t seem to be trying particularly hard. The bad news was, my own feelings for her had me getting frequently distracted.
I shook out my arms and pulled my attention back from her snug waist where my hands itched to touch. It was an unfair advantage to be fighting me while wearing that corset belt. I should even the odds.
Taking a step back, I pulled my shirt over my head and used it to wipe the sweat from my brow before tossing it aside.
“You’re getting better. I might have to start trying,” I teased.
If I expected an immediate retort, I was disappointed. Emi stood frozen with her eyes on the middle of my chest. Considering how much fur my wolf wore, I was rather hairless as a man, with only a smattering of reddish hair over the dusting of freckles between my pecs. Her gaze locked on that spot.
My stomach floated as I chuckled at her blush. “See something you like?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You sure? Your face is starting to match your hair over there, kitten.”
“It is not.”
I stepped toward her. “If I’d known this was all it took to get you to stop hitting me, I’d have taken my clothes off sooner.”
Her breath hitched, but she recovered with admirable speed. “You’re imagining things. I wouldn’t look that way at you if you were the last man alive.”
I gave a pointed look around us, isolated as we were. “How do you know I’m not? We haven’t left this place in nine days. Plenty of time for the world to have gone to the clouds out there.”
“It’s gone clouded in here too,” she muttered.
“Come on, I’m not so bad once you get to know me, am I?” I meant to tease her but it came out borderline needy. “You can’t say you’d rather go back to your awful family than stay and play with me.” There, that was better, though now I had that familiar surge of hatred for her family. Her stories made me so angry, and she barely seemed to know there was anything wrong with it. It was as if she thought she deserved their neglect and belittling. I wanted to show her she was worth more, but I wasn’t the one she wanted that from. I could never be that person to her.
It was a grounding thought to go with the fresh aggression in her glare. I had pushed her too far this time.
“Don’t pretend to know anything about my family, Wolf,” she accused. “Just because we’ve swapped some stories while we’re stuck here doesn’t make us friends. Whatever you think you know about me, you don’t.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“Just stop talking. Every time you open your mouth, you make it worse. You make my head all jumbled and foggy.”
I was probably wrong about a lot of things, but I wasn’t wrong about her family being terrible. That poison garden was evidence enough. But I bit my tongue. Her family didn’t deserve Emi and her irrepressible kindness and curiosity.
I must have been projecting anger in the tension of my muscles, and Emi misinterpreted it. Because of course, she assumed she would be the object of anyone’s frustration.
The pure, swaggering fun I’d been having sparring with Emi dried up in a heartbeat. We’d spent the time moving and feeling and breathing—just existing together in a way that wasn’t so hate-filled for a while. There was no reason for me to think it had changed anything for her, certainly not the direction my own feelings had changed, but I supposed part of me had hoped we could co-exist without this crackling tension.
She rounded on me with fire in her eyes. It was enough to make me want to reach into the flames, not caring that I’d get burned if only I could graze her body with my fingers one time. I fought the wild idea and let her come to me.
Her fists landed together on my chest and my nerves danced at the brief pain and then lingering contact as she left them there.
“I haven’t forgiven you. I haven’t forgotten what you did just because I decided to take advantage of the knowledge you offered. Don’t think this changes things between us, Wolf.”
“I don’t.”
“I am out of here the first heartbeat the Mist lifts, and you’d better be gone if I ever return because I won’t come alone or unarmed. That’s a promise.”
“I know.”
“No, don’t be all understanding about it. I mean it.”
“I know you do.”
“Uhhh. You’re so frustrating.” She bared her teeth, coming close enough that her elbows dropped between us so that her entire forearms pressed into my chest. “Why am I even listening to you?”
My heart stuttered. “Calm down, witchling.”
“Calm down? Calm down!”
I melted back a step in surprise as she pressed into me. Everything in my nature called for me to grab her and flip our positions, crush her to my body, but I resisted the urge and let her do…whatever she was going to do. I deserved her wrath. Maybe it was time to take it.
“Sorry, carry on,” I said with a smirk.
Her outburst was doing inconvenient things to me. Wicked things.
Emi’s hands were flat on my chest now, lifting with each of my quick breaths. Warnings blared in my head as I closed the last bit of distance between our bodies so that we touched everywhere, knees, hips, and chests. I knew she could feel me against her, my desire obvious. She knew what she was doing to me.
Her lashes fluttered, then Emi’s gaze met mine across the insignificant space between us. A spark of connection locked us together and stole both our breaths. My chest went tight, full of something beautiful and terrifying that I couldn’t name, but I could see it reflected there in emerald green staring back at me.
It was impossible. A crazy dream. A wild interlude to something tense and brittle.
She wasn’t for me. I knew that.
But it didn’t matter; I was already gone for her.
I held my breath and licked my lips while Emi’s chest rose and fell against me. My own pulse was a thundering stampede in my ears as I noticed the racing beat at Emi’s neck. Her gaze dropped to my mouth.
Fear and thrill and want spilled through me in equal measure, but I wouldn’t move first. After what I’d done, this had to come from her.
The question was, would she let herself crash into me before her thoughts dragged her away, or would I be feeling the sharp stab of a blade when she came to her senses. Because she would. Even if our chemistry meant she wanted me for this heartbeat, the next would bring her swinging back to revenge. Even if she didn’t kill me, she would leave me. A witch and a wolf were never meant to be.
My ears rang with the rush of my blood. Every muscle tensed, waiting for her to break our precarious deadlock. I could practically see the battle waging behind her eyes like they were windows to the deep and hidden parts of her soul. I lost myself in them until the forest faded away, leaving only Emi’s warm vanilla scent, Emi’s breaths and beating heart, Emi’s heat on my skin, and the most beautiful thing of all, the sound of Emi’s soft sigh before she closed the last hair’s breadth between our lips.
When she moved, it wasn’t some meek leaning in. No, Emi leaped as if the decision, conscious or not, was the last strand of a frayed rope. She snapped and slammed her mouth into mine with all the ferociousness of the tiger I’d told her she was. Her lips were softer than I’d imagined when I lay in bed at night, but the intent behind them was firm and strong as they moved unyieldingly over mine. This was a new fight between us.
When her hand closed around my neck to pull me harder into her, my control fled and my arms circled her waist, finally finding the place on her hips that they’d longed for.
My fingers tightened to drag her against me, and I loved how she was nearly my height so our hips almost aligned. The kiss deepened, letting me taste the sweetness I knew I’d find in her. With the swiftness of a striking snake, her other arm wrapped around me too. We were as close as we could be, all tangled limbs and desperate breaths, and I still wanted her closer. I slipped one leg between hers and she let out the gentlest of moans. I captured it with a flick of my tongue and delved into her heat.
I could have stayed like that, kissing and holding Emi, all day and all night. But the doubts and guilt began to wriggle their way in. She might want me in this moment, but it was nothing more than a release of the overwrought chemistry that always crackled between us. I backed off so she could pull away. The moment was coming when she would realize who she was kissing and then horror would take over. I wouldn’t regret a thing, but she would. Our lips parted in a dimming light that reflected the fall of my hopes, snuffing out the dream that was kissing Emi like she wanted me.
“Witchling…”
“What was that?”
I wanted to say it felt like fate, but my gaze caught on the sight over her shoulder.
Emi pulled away. “What is wrong with me? I should have run that first day, Mist or not.”
“Emi, stop. There’s more imp—”
“You.” She stabbed a finger at me accusingly. “Are you happy now? You can run back to your friends and tell them how pathetic I am.”
“No, Em…”
“That was a mistake. I should never—”
“Emi, behind you!” I pointed to the looming Mist that had blocked the meagre light from above. A huge crest of it stood poised over us, ready to break. “Run,” I told her, shoving her hips toward the cottage. “Run and don’t look back.”
Her eyes went comically wide at the tower of white that swept down. One step at a time, she backed away from me, moving too slowly. The Mist dove over me. Emi’s eyes dropped to where I stood, powerless against it. She had to get away. “Go!” I yelled.
Her back-pedaling quickened, then faltered as her heels hit the log pile. Her fingers clenched in the fabric of her hood she’d left there earlier, and that was the last I saw before the world whited out. My body went rigid, Mist cutting off my view of Emi while pain roared in my ears.
The change seared through me. Mist wrapped me up, setting my bones and muscles on fire as the transformation ripped my body apart to reshape me into the monster I was. I thought I whimpered for Emi to run again, but I couldn’t be sure of much as the curse took me.
My vision brightened, and from the corner of my eye, I caught sight of dark red hair flying over a green hood as Emi ran deeper into the Mist.
The curse might not affect her, but I knew what else was out here. Fenrir could tear her apart. So could many of the others depending on how much the beast was in control when she encountered them. If Bear hadn’t eaten… If Lynx felt threatened… If Hawk spotted her scurrying across the forest floor… And me…
My trousers fell away as I dropped to four legs and stalked forward. A howl ripped from my throat, and Emi’s frightened squeak rang out. She froze in the middle of the path, Mist on all sides, staring at me in terror.
“W—Wolf…?”
I didn’t care if I scared her as long as I stopped her from going further into danger. All I could do was growl and bare my teeth.
It was enough to send her fleeing again. I would have to head her off, herd her back to the cottage. But the wolf was strong, instincts sharp, and it was a fight to stop the chase from turning into a hunt. Emi’s strides faltered as she cast a horrified glance over her shoulder, her mouth open on a silent scream. I could only imagine what she was seeing, her terror at the monster I’d become.
Her hood had fallen back and red hair whipped around her face while Mist billowed in front of her, pushed by her panicked strides.
Run, Emi. Run to the cottage. Run to safety.
Run from me.
Then my heightened senses picked up an unfamiliar scent ahead, sudden and strong. My legs drove faster despite my best efforts to hold back. Control was slipping. Protective instincts raged at me to hunt the threat. I didn’t recognize the scent, but I could imagine another beast like the fenriswulf, prowling ahead. The drive pounded through me, wiping the last of my human thoughts.
Eliminate the threat.
I was in full hunt, catching up to Emi with every stride. She hadn’t sensed the new presence and ran blindly on. Emi was so focused on fleeing from me, hunted by a wolf and the horrifying shadows all around us, that she didn’t spot the protruding root across her path. The Mist opened to a clear patch of trail, but she only had enough time to cry out as she tripped.
She crashed hard, skidding on the packed dirt. Then the new scent intensified and a figure emerged from behind a tree. A man. But where had he come from? How was he here?
I didn’t have time to make out his features. Emi shouted, and before another heartbeat thundered in my chest, the man grabbed her and pulled her with him.
Then, they disappeared.