Chapter Thirteen
When I stood from the bed to use the restroom, a soft ting registered in the silence of the dead of night. I patted my ears to ensure I hadn’t lost an earring. Still perplexed, I turned on the bedside lantern, causing Dianus to groan as I crouched over the floor.
“Oh my god.”
“Yes?” he said groggily, scrubbing his face with his mannish hand.
In disbelief, I plucked up the telltale T-shaped IUD from the floor, holding it up in horror. “It fell out of me!”
He did a horrible job hiding his smirk. “Imagine that.”
“How?”
He gently took it from me as I bolted to the bathroom. In private, I slid a finger inside myself to see if there was blood. Everything was normal, so I did my business and returned to Dianus, who held open the blankets in invitation with a sleepy smile, his long legs and wide, hairy chest on full display in all their tempting glory. I curled up against him, loving the low hum vibrating his warm chest.
“Are you feeling okay, my love?” he asked, punctuating it with a kiss on my forehead.
“Yeah. I feel . . . strangely calm about it.”
And a part of you wants this man’s baby.
I pushed away the delusional little voice again and snuggled in closer, the scent and warmth of him lulling me back to safety and sleep.
A couple hours later, I woke up alone with a glass of water on my nightstand and a woven basket filled with berries. They must be from Dianus, his way of saying sorry for bailing. I wondered why the man didn’t leave notes, and then I remembered it was because the only paper I had in the cabin was my journal tucked away in my bag. And my phone was all but obsolete until I drove back to town. Come to think of it, I never saw Dianus with his phone either.
Another four or so inches of snow had dumped overnight, so I took it as a sign to forage and hike while I could using the snowshoes. By late morning, I had layered myself for the cold and left the cabin with my new basket in hand. The sun was popping out between fluffy clouds and the air was brisk. The deeper in the forest I got, the calmer I felt, which was unusual. Back home in Connecticut, the woods at times felt eerie. But today, it was as if a gentle hum were emanating from them. If I stood still, I could’ve sworn my teeth slightly rattled and the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stood up.
I held my breath and carried on, rounding an old stone wall.
A maddening buzz filled my ears as I peered around a tree, only to see a man crouching over a doe, his hands splayed wide as the deer trembled and twitched in a bloody pool on the snow. A stream of sunlight poured down from the sky, directly onto the deer’s chest. It was then I noticed a bright beam cut through antlers . . . that weren’t on the deer’s head, but the man’s.
The memory of my first morning here slammed into my mind.
I wasn’t imagining it. I was never imagining it.
My gasp caused the man to jerk his head to look at me. It was then I saw an all too familiar face.
“Dianus?” My question was barely a breath.
His amber eyes shot wide, an ethereal sheen lighting them in a way I’d never seen before. “Shea! Wait!”
Before he could even stand, I turned to run. I flung my stupid basket as white-hot panic blistered every vein in my body as I bolted around trees, cursing my damn snowshoes that now felt like clunky nuisances.
“Shea! Wait! I will not harm you!” His voice echoed all around me.
I chanced a glance back to measure how far he was, and with my move, I felt something cold hit my shin, causing me to dive ass over head, tumbling over part of the old stone wall.
Stinging shock radiated up my spine as the breath expelled from my lungs in a cloud, followed by a loud swooping noise batting my ears. It was either his footsteps or my own heartbeat. It didn’t matter though.
I was done for.
Something soft cradled me. I was weightless in a way I had never experienced as an adult. It was akin to when I’d fallen asleep in the car as a kid and my dad would carry me into the house.
I cracked my eyes open, only to scramble when the realization that I was suspended in the air caught up to me. I was naked with vines wrapped around my body. The second I moved, the soft, ferny vines caressed my arms and legs, wrapping around my thighs and forearms, as well as above and below my breasts, like a harness.
“Relax. I had to undress you to check for injuries. You are safe.”
I knew the voice, but it was far off in the distance. Still, it was a gentle tone, so I guessed that was a good sign, but it didn’t lull me into a calm state of mind.
I glowered up at the tree canopy from where I was suspended. Instead of my surroundings being stark and wintery, it was lush with bright green leaves and a warm breeze.
“Get me out of here!” I yelled, unable to process everything.
“No.” With his proclamation, the vines creaked and ruffled as they gently lowered until I was hovering five feet above the ground instead of what felt like twenty.
A glen of lush trees surrounded me, the warmth of the summer sun heating my bare skin along with the quick woosh of my pulse still bulging in my temples. The nostalgic song of a mourning dove filled my ears as a couple of white butterflies danced past my face.
These were all signs of comfort, surely, but I couldn’t take peace in any shred of it. I swallowed hard. “I won’t tell anyone what you are. Please let me just get to my car. I will leave immediately and never come back. I promise your secret will be safe with me.”
“My secret?” His voice came out cool and unnaturally smooth.
I squinted ahead, to the patch of the forest just past my feet. It was dark and shady, but I could’ve sworn I saw movement along the trunk of a giant oak tree. The burls and swirls of the grayish bark shifted before branches bobbed up and down. It was then I saw Dianus all but appear, turning out of the trunk, the branches morphing into his antlers with whips and cracks sounding off as the last of his transformation fell into place. Now fully sprouting from his head, his antlers were wide and dark, stately and virile.
He was stark naked, his brawny chest covered in his usual hair along with the brown bands and Celtic knotwork tattoos on his arm. Delicate, tanned ears peeked out from his curls, coming to points at the tops. And his hair was even wilder, with streams of vines and tufts of moss laced in. His beard was slightly longer than usual, with braids woven on the sides with dangling charms. A large torc necklace settled on his clavicle, the twisted metal curling in the shape of a U around his thick neck.
His cock swung heavily with each step as his muscular thighs and hips shifted. Even soft, his dick was enormous. His large feet padded through the forest floor, mushrooms springing forth in the wake of each step.
“My secret?” he repeated with a wry look. “And what is that?”
“I dunno, that you’re some type of d-demon?”
He threw back his head with a throaty laugh. With the movement, his antlers splayed behind him, causing a zap of terror within me. When he sobered, he bit his bottom lip pensively before stepping even closer to me, hovering his face over mine. “You honestly think I am a demon?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, pretty woman, you are so wrong.” His eyes blazed yellow as the birdsong and wind ceased. “I am a god.”