He comes closer, but crack of thunder echoes, followed by something brightening the sky, and that’s when water starts pouring from the clouds.
I gasp and quickly cover my mouth, watching it all in wonder.
This is rain!
“There is no one and nothing outside for miles, you little fucker,” he mutters, spitting on the ground, and then I hear shooting sounds. Does he have a gun? He brought it sometimes to Mom to scare her. “I should have shot you when you were born.” His voice comes closer and closer, and my body trembles. I have nowhere else to go without him seeing me.
I hear a rumble, and then something growls in the distance. And then there is a howl, causing him to laugh. “Ah, the wolves. They could be fucking useful on this land for once.”
The wolves? Like the ones Odin had, Geri and Freki? Mama told me all about them.
I press my back harder to the tree and allow for the tears to mingle with the rain because Mama’s face flashes in my mind. I wish to hug her so tight right now, but she’s gone.
With the gods, as she once said.
Another howl echoes, and that’s when I see the big creature, my heartbeat speeding up in my chest. Another gasp slips past my lips when the gray animal comes closer to me, his eyes glistening, and he’s so huge.
He flashes me his pointed teeth, and the trembling intensifies. I scrunch my eyes shut when he comes closer until I feel his breath on my cheek, and then there is a hard thud.
I slowly peel my eyes open to see him settling beside me on the ground, shifting even closer until his warm fur surrounds me, and he’s almost wrapped around me, leaving me no space to go anywhere.
He glances at me for the last time and then faces the other way while I just stare at him, seeping his warmth as the night gets cold.
What did Mama say about animals?
“Always be kind to them because that’s what they recognize. Nature will always protect those who need it the most, but you have to have pure intentions. Never be afraid.”
Did Odin send the wolves to me to help me?
I don’t know what are pure intentions either. I tentatively brush his fur, hugging the creature and exhaling when more warmth seeps into me.
Since the huge creature stays immovable, I let myself rest against it and cry my heart out because my mama is dead.
I’m alone in a world that I don’t know and understand.
What will I do now?
If I had known what was coming next, I wouldn’t have cried so much.
For what came next created someone my mother never wished for me to become.
Lavender
For a second I freeze in shock from the question, but the earlier anger quickly replaces it, fueling my blood with fury. “Who says I need your permission?” I twist around in his grip, my back hitting against the cold tile, and the air hitches in my throat at the sight of him.
Stuck in his embrace, I have no choice but to admire him as water cascades down on him, giving him an almost ethereal look.
A villain straight from the fairy tales who came uninvited to take what he thinks is his given right.
His loose blond hair, and his blue eyes blazing with fury and desire so strong it pulls at the strings of my heart and sends tremors all over me, awakening every hair on my body and buzzing with an urgency that knows no bounds.
Because only the carnal cravings reside in it.
I trail my gaze down his naked form, the muscles on his arms straining, and my cheeks burn at the various hickeys and scratches all over his six-pack, the possessive and passionate imprints marring him serving as a warning to whoever would want this man in the future.
A hot flush washes over me, my hands forming fists while I bite on my lower lip because he’s mine and his body is living and breathing proof of that.
“Like what you see,moy cvetochek?” His amused yet harsh tone snaps me out of my ridiculous fantasies that have no place between us because we are nothing.
