“I beg you,” Sonah gasped, taking several halting steps forward until she stood next to the brindle wolf. “I beg you, Melanos. Do not harm him. He has done none to me.”
Melanos continued to scowl at the wolf whose hackles stood on end. It lowered its shoulders.
“Please!”
“You’ve not told her, lycanthropo?”
“Who are you talking to? Who is ‘Lycanthropo’?”
“Your wolf is no wolf, little one,” Melanos said softly. “Shift. Now.”
This last was said to the wolf, Melanos’s anger ratcheting to a dangerous point.
Feeling faint, every hair on Sonah’s body stood on end and fire raced down her body. Her mouth opened and, in an otherworldly voice, spoke to the wolf.
“Do as he says, my friend.”
Melanos’s head jerked to her, his mouth dropping open. Sonah gasped and put a hand to her mouth.
What just happened?
A moment later, the wolf began to rise, its body twisting, reshaping, pulling and pushing in a grotesque dance until a man crouched where the wolf once stood. His naked body was hunched over and his dark brown hair shielded his eyes.
Stunned, Sonah gaped at him, then snapped her gaze to Melanos.
The silence dragged until it pressed on her chest and she opened her mouth to suck in a breath. It seemed to break the moment, as Melanos took a step toward them. Tilting his chin in the slightest of acknowledgement, the man lifted his green eyes to Sonah.
She was now certain she would faint.
“You?”
The Rivermanwho’d captured Sonah looked down at her, green eyes narrowed, before dropping his gaze once more. He stood before her stiff, hands clenched at his sides, and Sonah blushed to the tips of her toes when she realized she’d been staring at his nakedness.
Slapping a hand over her eyes, Sonah unclasped the buckle at her throat and thrust the garment at him. She sighed gratefully when she felt the weight of it leave her hand and turned around.
“Why are you here? What could you possibly have hoped to gain? You must know my friends outnumber you. Were you mocking me? I called you my friend! I thought you were my friend.”
Sonah’s mouth snapped shut after vomiting every thought in her head, the heat of her embarrassment deepening as she thought of her quiet conversations with the wolf. How this man must’ve laughed himself sick at her foolish mutterings.
When the silence stretched to the point she could no longer bear it, Sonah pivoted, relieved to see the warrior’s form covered partially with her much-too-small cloak. His bare legs stood rooted, the muscles bunching as he shifted his weight and Sonah cursed herself for looking.
Lifting her eyes to his, arching an eyebrow as she waited for his response, she saw Melanos move closer to her from the corner of her eye.
The Riverman tilted his head ever so slightly in the god’s direction but looked at her finally.
“I didn’t mean to deceive you,” he started, then pursed his lips as if rethinking his words. After a moment, he returned her gaze. “At first it was to ensure your safety after you left the camp and then?—”
“My safety!” Sonah scoffed, glancing at Melanos whose thunderous expression would have leveled a lesser man. As it was, the Riverman’s attention was solely on her. “Youwere the one who kidnapped me! My safety seemed the least of your concerns when you took me from my friend!”
“I hadn’t planned it,” the man snarled, his nostrils flaring. “I thought you were one of their victims at first.”
“Victims?”
“Explain,” Melanos growled.
The Riverman opened his mouth, glancing at Melanos. Pursing his lips, he took a step forward, meeting the sharp end of Melanos’s spear.
Sonah gasped, her head snapping around to Melanos. “What are you doing?”
