Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 38179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 191(@200wpm)___ 153(@250wpm)___ 127(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 191(@200wpm)___ 153(@250wpm)___ 127(@300wpm)
I shook my head, denying what he said.
It—he—placed his hands on either side of my body, caging me in with all that muscle and fur and unworldly appearance.
It was hard to make out the details of what he looked like because the cave, which I assumed we were in, was so dark. But when he lifted an arm, I flinched.
With my eyes shut and my head turned, I expected a strike. When nothing came, I slowly opened my eyes and tentatively looked back to see him staring down at me, but I couldn’t read his motives.
He looked between me and his raised paw and then back at me. I could imagine his brows—if he even had any—lowering in apparent confusion.
“What is this?” He rumbled out and then slowly lowered his hand to his side. “You think I would hurt you?” His tone took me back because it was so… gentle, if that was even a word I could use to describe him. “You think I would ever harm my mate?” He sounded almost aghast.
There was that word… mate. I could tell just by his tone it meant a hell of a lot.
Oh God. This beast has taken me because he sees me as what, his girlfriend? His wife? His fuck toy?
When I didn’t respond, he leaned back, his gaze almost softening. It had my defenses lowering just marginally.
“I’m not yours,” I whispered.
The grin he gave me was slow and almost ominous. He didn’t have lips, didn’t have a mouth like a human would. But the flash of his teeth once again had me laying as still as possible. All I could think about was not making any sudden moves.
“Oh, Little One, you are mine. And,” he leaned in close, and I once more smelled that musky, wolf aroma that made me feel all kinds of things. “You have nothing to fear from me because I would kill anyone who even thought of hurting you.”
I slowly lowered my arms but kept them pressed to my chest, terrified of what this creature would do, even if it was very clear he wouldn’t hurt me.
For a moment I just lay there as he still hovered over me, his body so much bigger that I couldn’t help but feel like this little doll beneath him.
My eyes had since adjusted to the darkness and I could actually see a little firelight flickering around his shape.
“What are you? What do you want with me?” I didn’t expect him to answer, but I had to ask. I wanted to pretend like I was dreaming, thrust into some nightmare where this big sinful creature crawled out from the deep woods and snatched me away.
He cocked his enormous head to the side, his ears twitching. The creature didn’t have blunt teeth, but sharp ones I envisioned he needed to tear into the flesh of his prey. Dark fur completely covered him. He had a long snout, pointed ears, and large, round black eyes.
His shoulders were impossibly broad, his arms muscular, bulging and thicker than my thighs.
I refused to look any lower than his defined abdomen, but I didn’t have to notice that what he was sporting down below was huge and very hard. I snapped my gaze up to his face to see him looking at me almost inquisitively, as if he were just as curious about me as I was about him.
“What are you?” I whispered, asking again because he hadn’t responded. It was a prolonged second before he huffed out a breath.
“Wolf,” was all he said.
I pushed myself up and scooted all the way back until the rocky wall stopped me from retreating. After pulling my legs up to my chest and wrapping my arms around my knees, I just stared at him, trying to make myself as small as possible.
All I kept thinking was, don’t make sudden moves, don’t make him mad. And then, on the heels of that thought, I remembered the look he’d worn when I thought he was going to strike me.
“I am me,” he said matter-of-factly.
“You’re not human,” I stated the obvious. “What are you?”
He didn’t answer for long moments, just stared at me, and I could tell by looking into his dark eyes he was highly intelligent. It was the way he watched me with this probing stare, like he could pick up every single little nuance that made me... me, and dissected it all.
“My kind has always been here. Since the beginning of time.”
I let that sink in. Okay. So he was just different from me. Although it might be hard for some to accept that, how could I deny it when he was a living, breathing wolf-creature right before me? I hadn’t seen a lot of things in my life, but that didn’t mean they didn’t exist.
“I am what I am.” If he was the type to shrug, I had a feeling he would right now, as if what he said was the simplest of facts. “I've seen humans come and go through these parts over the decades. I learned their language, listened to the stories they told each other, and learned about their world. They would call me a monster, but the things I’ve heard these men say, the way they spoke of their females… and they are the ones that are the beasts.”