“I’m a wolf,” I say through the excited, tender emotions filling me.
Narrowed eyes look at me like I’m fucking crazy.
“Fucking woman,” he whispers to himself as he walks off into the copse of thinning trees.
A flicker of a blaze hits the air just before Latham walks right out of nothing at all. His wild gaze searches me, his hands trembling against my tangled hair.
“You’re alright?” He lifts my hands then turns my head this way and that, pausing on the dry blood along my throat.
“I’m fine,” I whisper and swallow down the epiphany I’ve just had.
A smile still pulls at my lips, and I might never get over the fact that I feel like my best friend has finally come home to me.
It’s a strange, empowering sensation.
Wind presses downward, fanning the flames of the river before an enormous dragon touches down at my side. Thick legs are eye level with me, while his chest and body are well over two stories tall. Inky scales glint against the firelight. A swaying tail sweeps forward, and the torch at the end of it swooshes past me as the length of it curls around my hips, bringing me closer in small, inching steps. He drags me right up to him, his head lowering before dark, sliced pupils fixate on me. My own features shine in his beautiful, monstrous eyes. I lift a hand and ever so lightly run my fingertips over his chest. The ridges of his scales are like smooth leather. A beautiful armor.
Laughter hums from my lips.
“You’re the kind of beast who would hoard a girl like me away if this were a fairy tale,” I whisper quietly.
Scales shimmer brighter, and magic crackles with the scent of smoke blooming around us. His shift happens all at once, and Aric’s smooth arms wrap around me where his tail once was. But a part of his creature is still present. Large black wings take their time sinking into the flesh of his back as my hand drifts higher, sliding over the leathery feel of them before they disappear entirely. Soft skin is all that’s left, my fingers still skimming there lightly.
“Careful,” Aric warns, his words spoken so close I can feel them against my tongue. “I still might hoard you away and keep you for myself, Love.”
My heart free-falls harder than when I fell from a cliff just seconds ago. How does he do that? How has no one in my entire life ever made me feel the way this crazy killer of a man does?
The noise of someone clearing their throat rather roughly jars me, and I realize how lost I was in his fire-kissed eyes. I tear my attention away and clothing is shoved right in my face.
“How about we put a nice, safe layer of clothing on?” Latham offers me a shirt and a pair of jeans before shoving another round of clothing toward his friend.
It’s then that I realize how very on display I am.
Latham’s gaze dips low, but he looks away toward the sparse tree line.
When I glance back up to Aric though…
Ravenous hunger consumes his eyes, and that rawness trails down the length of my body before slowly meeting my gaze.
“I think we should clean up first,” Aric rumbles, his hot breath fanning across my collarbone.
Latham still doesn’t look at us, but he nods as he points toward the land where Torben is collecting full size trunks of trees over his shoulder like they’re just a bit of firewood.
“Should make camp,” Torben grumbles.
“There’s a sprite’s cove deep in the forest here,” Latham says as if he didn’t hear his grumpy friend.
“Should rest up before heading further,” Torben adds but is speaking to literally no one at this point.
My eyes narrow on the ash white trees Latham just called a forest.
“Sprite’s cove? As in a cove of water?” I ask, also ignoring Torben’s grumbles. If I’m prioritizing needs, getting clean beats shelter at this point.
Latham smirks at that question, but before he answers he disappears altogether. The fire barely has time to fizzle out before he’s back, holding my small grey cat who has now returned to normal. Including the unimpressed scowl on his little adorable face. He puts him down, and Loki shakes out his fur before trotting off to explore, fully content that I’m fine for now.
Even my cat’s a psycho now. Is this what Hell does to people?
Latham leads us after him, motioning toward the cover of trees.
