Chapter 15
Chapter
Fifteen
When my eyes finally opened again, I was alone.
In a world without clocks, it was almost impossible to tell how long I’d been out, but it must have been a while—long enough for the mix of sunlight to shadows in the room to shift and for my hair to fully dry. So a few hours, at least.
Apparently, it had also been enough time for whatever weirdness that had locked Tauren and I together to dissipate. I still didn’t know what to think about that.
Hell, I didn’t know what to think about any of it.
I hadn’t been prepared for Tauren’s savage style of lovemaking. By the time it was done, I was exhausted, bordering on delirious. I wouldn’t have been surprised to find out I’d passed out after the first earth-shattering orgasm and dreamed everything after.
But that was just wishful thinking.
Even if the graphic memories seared into my mind weren’t enough, the soreness in my hips and legs was undeniable proof that I had been an enthusiastic participant in every physical act.
There was no denying it—I’d fucked Tauren.
An alpha.
A ferus.
And I hadn’t just done it. I’d loved it.
Even alone, my cheeks started to burn as I remembered just how wet I’d become. Oh God, there was probably still a puddle on the floor.
Mortified at the thought, I pushed myself up and peered over the edge of the bed. Sure enough, there was a dark spot on the floorboards. The second I saw it, I flopped back on the mattress, more embarrassed than I’d ever been in my life.
But at least I wasn’t left to stew in my own shame for long.
Tauren must have heard me moving around because only a few seconds later, a hard knock startled me upright. I grabbed the top sheet and quickly wrapped it around my naked body, but the door didn’t open. Instead, Tauren’s voice sounded from the other side.
“Hannah, Calindra sent you a dress for tonight. I draped it over the bed frame.” I glanced down at the foot of the bed and, sure enough, there it was—a simple, light blue linen dress. “You’ll want to make sure you put it on before you come out. We have company.”
We did? “Who?”
“My friend Kyre,” he said. “He’s going to walk into the village with us.”
Right…Calindra’s son. Extra muscle for the fight that might break out when Tauren’s pack finally saw me.
“Okay,” I called through the door and awkwardly slid down off the ridiculously high bed. “Give me a minute to get ready.”
Who was I kidding? This was going to take a while.
My only pair of underwear was ripped to shreds, all my regular clothes were still next to the waterfall, and while Calindra had been amazingly kind to lend me something to wear, we were nowhere near the same size.
That last point became painfully clear the moment I pulled the long, elegant slip dress over my head.
The smooth, straight lines probably looked gorgeous on Calindra’s waifish figure, but on someone made of soft, round bits, the elegance of the cut was lost. Instead, the fabric stretched tight around every curve and clung to every valley, somehow making the swell of my chest, hips, and ass even more pronounced than usual.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, the difference in our heights meant that the hem of the full-length dress pooled at my feet.
“Um…” I moved back to the door, opening it just a crack so I could poke my head outside. “I’m not sure this dress is going to work. I know it’s a pain, but would you mind going back to the waterfall to get my clothes?”
“I already did.”
Oh, thank God.
“Great. Where are they?”
“I have no idea,” Tauren answered. “They were gone when I got there.”
Gone?
“Someone took my clothes?” Why the hell would anyone want a ratty pair of jeans and a bloody T-shirt?
“It was probably an animal,” Tauren said. “Squirrels and crows are always stealing rags for their nests.”
“Okay…actually, that’s great.”
“It is?”
Of course it was. Those were the clothes I was supposed to die in, and if they were gone, then…maybe other parts of the dream could change too. Maybe this was another link in the Fates’ precious chain breaking apart, and every other part would shatter after it.
“Okay,” I said. Then, “Just give me a minute, and I’ll do the best I can with what I have.”
Though swimming in material, it would take a minor miracle to make me look decent.
I got to work, rummaging around Tauren’s shelves until I found a thin strip of leather to use as a belt.
Then, hiking up the excess material, I folded it as stylishly as I could around my waist before strapping the pleats in place—even though I had to wrap the leather belt around me twice to make it work.
Without a mirror, trying to fix my hair was out of the question. So I did what I did in every bad-hair emergency and pulled it back into a simple ponytail, even though the only thing I had to secure it with was a length of twine.
After a few more minutes of fussing and worrying, it was time to throw up my hands in surrender. I’d done everything I could with the tools available. It was time to get this over with. I opened the door and stepped out into the fading light.
Tauren had been standing with his back to the cabin, deep in a hushed conversation with the other alpha at his side, but as soon as the hinges creaked, he swung around to face me. The already serious look on his face only deepened as his dark gaze swept over me. His whole body stiffened.
His friend was slower in turning, but once he did, suddenly I had two giant alphas staring at me—their gazes intense and their silence heavy. Almost immediately, I crumbled under the pressure.
“Sorry, I did the best I could,” I rushed to say. “But the dress isn’t my size, and I don’t have anything to fix my hair or do my makeup. If I look too ridiculous, we could always just stay—“
“You look amazing,” Tauren cut me off. I thought he was simply trying to placate me, but there was no denying the sincerity in his voice. Before I could say anything else, he turned to the other ferus at his side. “This is Kyre.”
The alpha didn’t say a word, but inclined his head in greeting.
He was just as large as Tauren, just as masculine as well, but the pair were hardly twins.
His coloring was slightly softer than Tauren’s, his hair and short beard more rich chocolate brown than midnight shadow.
But more than anything external, there was an internal stiffness to the alpha, a deep-seated reserve that made even his smallest movements seem deliberate and controlled.
“Hi,” I said, waving from the porch. “Thank you for coming out and bringing me something to wear. I really appreciate it.”
Kyre nodded. “It’s my honor to help a friend.”
Even though I knew he was referring to Tauren, there was a warmth in the alpha’s voice that was undeniably comforting. As if any friend of Tauren’s was automatically a friend of his.
“We should head off,” Tauren said. “The sun has almost set, and it will take some time to get to the heart of the village.”
“Yeah…about that. There’s one more problem.” I lifted the hem of the dress just far enough to show my bare feet. “We forgot my shoes on the shore.”
“I know,” Tauren said, pulling something from his back pocket as he started toward me. “That’s why I made you these.”
He showed me a pair of soft brown leather slippers.
“I’m sorry—you said you made these?” I asked as he kneeled down in front of me, wrapping a hand around my calf and gently lifting up my leg to help me into them.
“While you were sleeping,” he said. “I had the deer skin and the time. How do they feel?”
“Wonderful,” I answered honestly. Thick and strong enough to protect my soles from the forest floor but still buttery soft against my skin. “Thank you.”
“No need to thank me.” Tauren’s eyes stayed on mine as he rode back up. “I told you I’d take care of you, Hannah.”
Yeah, but I’d thought he’d meant it the way everyone in the kirre world used the phrase—the vague kind of “care” that included refilling a coffee cup or patting your shoulder when you were feeling down. Not anything truly tangible, like hand-stitching a pair of shoes when you needed them.
A strange new kind of warmth kindled deep in my chest at his words. I tried to tamp it out, but it stubbornly refused to be smothered.
“But you don’t have to,” I whispered, hesitant to share the intimate moment with a stranger.
“Of course I do,” Tauren said, tenderly running the back of a finger down my cheek. “You are my woman, and I am your man.”
He spoke the words like they were an undeniable fact. Like they’d been chiseled somewhere in stone. Like no force on earth could ever change that truth.
“Tauren,” Kyre’s regulated voice sounded after a few silent seconds had passed. “We should go.”
Tauren gazed down at me for a heartbeat longer before nodding.
“Agreed,” he said, before slipping his hand into mine and leading me into the darkening forest.
We were deep inside the tangle of trees when the last rays of daylight were finally extinguished. Like a candle sputtering out in a closed room, the dark took over with brutal efficiency, making it difficult for me to see even a few feet ahead.
As terrifying as my dreams of the Wilds were, at least they took place during the full moon. The light might have been faint and pale, creating more shadows than bright spots, but at least it was there. With no moon at all, the landscape was nearly pitch black.
Even sandwiched between two gigantic alphas, my primal fears of night and nature still found a way to creep in. I found myself pressing in closer to Tauren’s side. My head whipped around at every crack and rustle.
“Do you sense something?” Kyre finally asked after I’d flinched at the whisper of wind through the treetops.
“No,” I admitted apologetically. “That’s the problem. It’s unsettling not being able to see anything.”
“You can’t see at all?”
“Kirre eyes aren’t like ours,” Tauren explained.
“Then how do your people move around at night with such dull senses?” Kyre sounded genuinely curious.