Chapter 3
Ali was already small, but she tried to make herself invisible. She had heard the creature crashing in the woods behind her, and for some reason, she knew that it was coming for her. At one point, Ali could have sworn that she’d heard two of them behind her.
Her mind was shattered, and Ali didn’t know what to think anymore. Her life had all gone to hell in less than half an hour. Everything that she thought she knew was now wrong, and Ali was scared out of her head.
When the sounds behind her stopped, she could only hear a heavy breathing that she knew belonged to the thing behind her. She pulled her body in closer, trying desperately to make herself disappear into the backdrop so that the night would be over. Maybe it would tire of looking for her and go away, but somehow Ali knew better than to believe it. Something told her that her destiny was going to present itself whether she liked it or not. She wasn’t sure if this was the end of the line for her, but it sure felt like it at that moment.
“Come out.”
It was a voice that she didn’t recognize. It was male, and it was somehow coming from the beast that was waiting for her on the other side of the log. None of it made sense, but vampires biting people’s necks in front of her was hard to take in as well. It didn’t make it any less true though.
“Please, just go away. Thank you for your help but leave me be.”
She said it out loud, and her voice carried more than she intended it to. Ali’s voice shook because she feared what was going to happen next. She knew that it was the same creature that had burst into the bathroom and saved her from the terrible man. But he was just as scary as far as she was concerned, and Ali just wanted it all to go away.
“I can’t go away. I must see you and speak to you. I will change for you.”
Ali had no idea what he was talking about, but soon heard leaves crunching under his feet. It wasn’t the same sound as before, and she looked up to the man in front of her. It was a man now, and she knew that he was the beast from before, even though it made no sense.
“What do you want?”
“I need to make sure you’re okay. Were you bit?”
“Was I what?”
“Bit, by that man.”
“Was he really a man?”
“No, he wasn’t. He was a nightwalker, and he wanted to bite you. Did he?”
Ali didn’t move from her hidey hole, but she did indicate that she was okay. She hadn’t been bit in the neck like the man and woman she’d seen back at the club. Running away was to make sure that it didn’t happen.
“No, I think I’m okay.”
“I need to make sure.”
“You don’t have any clothes on.”
Cal looked down at himself and then back at Ali. He shrugged and told her that he didn’t have anything to wear out here. “I can change back into my true form if that would make it easier.”
Ali shook her head vigorously. The last thing that she wanted was to be back in the proximity of that. While it was hard to move her gaze from between his thighs, she was doing the best that she could to not see what was in front of her. He was hard and standing upright. She knew that he was turned on for some reason or another and a slight desire was the only thing that could get through the shock of the present and recent past.
“No, no, that’s okay. Please don’t.”
“Does it frighten you?” He sounded disappointed, but there was no denying how scary that side of him was. Ali didn’t know why he cared what she thought, but it appeared that he did.
“Yes. Isn’t that point? Intimidation?”
He agreed but said that he didn’t like to think of it that way. “I don’t want you to be intimidated by me.”
“It’s kind of hard not to be. We’re in the middle of the woods, alone, and you are naked.”
Ali said it all with the same mindset, and it was incredulous, to say the least. She had to do what he wanted so that she could get home and somehow make sense of it all. Ali had an unbelievable desire to sleep more than she could describe.
“What do you want from me?”
“My name is Calum Rivers. I don’t want anything but to make sure you’re okay.”
