We fall to the ground and he’s wolf again. It’s as if an animal has just…kind of… burst from his skin. It’s mind-blowing and reminds me of that Michael Jackson music video, when faces just… morphed.
“No, please.”
I’m on my back on the ground and the massive black furry animal with the humongous teeth is standing over me. I crab-crawl backwards a few steps and it lets out a loud, deep bark. I scream and flip, then scramble to my feet and run.
I get three feet, max, when I feel something furry land on me and pin me with its body. Oh no. This is it. He’s going to rip me to shreds. I hear the deep rumbling voice. “Shh. You’re safe.”
He’s a man again and he’s what’s pinning me to the ground.
No. No! I’m pinned on the ground and his mouth is at the back of my neck, smelling me. What? He turns me and lifts me up into his arms like I’m a bride and then I’m being carried back to my car. My poor crunched-into-a-tree car.
We approach the side I escaped from and he slides me in through the still open door. He lays me on my back and climbs on top of me.
Oh no. Oh dear God, no.
Pinning me to the seat, his nose moves across my throat to behind my ear. He’s so wet from the rain that it’s dripping on my face. My face is also wet with tears. Is this how it goes? The end? I can’t let this be the end. What a fucking waste. I save the f-word for when it really counts. This feels like it really counts.
“No!” I shout. “Help!” I scream in case by some miracle there’s someone that can hear.
My car is little and he’s big and he’s on me but only half-way in, so the door is open. If I can get out from under him…
I bring my knee up and catch him by surprise as I hit the target. He grunts. But he doesn’t roll off. The space is too small; we’re just too confined.
He looks away and grits his teeth.
I struggle as he tries to recover from the nut-kneeing; I’m completely pinned and worried because … am I about to be backhanded for that?
His eyes meet mine. It’s dark in here, but they’re reflective like a cat’s. Or I guess… a wolf’s.
Duh. Of course they are.
“What are you called?” he asks, voice husky.
He’s obviously recovered from my knee to the groin and he doesn’t seem angry. In fact, the way his chest rises and falls while he’s looking at me? Like he wants to eat me alive. And not in a wolf for dinner way… in a naked man on top of a woman way.
The sky is bright. It’s still night, but through the sunroof I see there are so many stars and such a bright moon that it’s as if things the moonlight touches are almost glowing.
I shake my head. It seems important to him to know my name, but I’ve decided that I won’t be telling him.
I do my best to shove and he doesn’t budge. I try to go for his face again. He huffs and pins both my wrists down while giving me a look of admonishment. He looks around for a minute and then grabs my bag and fishes through it with one hand, holding my wrists pinned over my head in his other massive hand. I try to kick and squirm but he’s so heavy on me. He puts more weight down as he pulls my wallet out of my bag. I see a bunch of other things fall out as he flicks the snap open and the contents of my wallet fall all over me. He lifts a card and drops it. He lifts another one that I assume is my driver’s license.
“Ivy Adeline Brennan,” he says and then he smiles. “Ivy Adeline Brennan,” he repeats, and he says my name as if supremely pleased or something.
It’s not bright enough to read something in this dark car interior, even if the moon seems ridiculously bright tonight. I don’t even know how he made my name out. But I kind of do. It’s very obvious that I’m having a nightmare. A nightmare where a wolf turned into a naked man and a wolf again, then a man again, and he has night vision.
“This is a bad dream,” I whisper. “Wake up, Ivy.”
Maybe I didn’t go to that stupid cabin with Megan. Maybe I’m at home in my bed and just about to wake up from this ridiculous –
“It’s not a dream,” he tells me as he leans in. “Ivy,” he adds in a deep voice that makes funny sensations trill up my spine and across my breasts. His face is only inches from mine. “It’s real. You’re real. And you’re here, finally. From now on, you’re mine.”