Page 18 of Into The Green

I scrambled up quickly, keeping my eyes lowered, knowing eye-contact was a threat to wild animals. And, also, maybe worrying it had some kind of sex-enslaving power too.

There was a loud crash and, unable to know what caused it, I flew. Pain was a foreign concept as genuine fear ripped its way through my body as I tore across the woods. My arm was tagged from behind roughly, almost pulling it out of its socket and then I finally found my voice, and I was screaming. Without realizing it was my intention, I was screaming Jasper's name.

"It's me. Hey, Cece, it's me," Jasper's voice said as his hand loosened on my arm. I swung back around. "What is it? Why are you..."

But then the wolf was back, bounding into the area with its snout scrunched up, revealing an abundance of razor-sharp teeth. Before I could even warn him, it charged forward, taking down Jasper in a leap.

I heard myself screaming, telling it to stop, the sound loud and hysterical. And then I was charging the beast myself, slamming my hands into its flank, grabbing handfuls of hair and yanking viciously upward. But it made no notice of me whatsoever as it snarled down at Jasper who was almost alarmingly calm.

"Cece, go," he demanded.

Now, I was no one's hero. But that being said, I couldn't just leave a man to be mauled by a freaking giant wolf in the woods. No way. Adrenaline making me either brave or stupid or both, I brought both my hands up above my head, clamped together tight, then slammed the force of them down on the beast's head.

It whined loudly, taking a step back and turning to look at me. And, I swear to God, the damn thing looked confused. And then... offended.

I took the short reprieve to throw myself down in front of Jasper, feeling his hands grab at me, trying to push me off. "What the fuck are you doing?" he snapped at me when I wouldn't budge.

But then the growling stopped. The beast's teeth disappeared back inside its mouth.

Too distracted by the change, I stopped holding myself in place, and Jasper pushed me to the side and made a move forward, making the beast begin to snarl again.

"Oh, for God's sake," Doyle's voice broke in leisurely as if we weren't all at risk for being body parts across the forest floor. "It's a barguest, Jasp."

"What?" Jasper hissed, taking his feet in a squatted position, looking very much like he was foolishly considering charging the damn thing.

"A barguest," Doyle said again, striding over to me and tossing me roughly back toward the ground.

"What the fuck..." Jasper yelled as the beast turned toward Doyle and started growling at him instead.

Doyle shrugged, unaffected. "It wants to protect her," he said, giving me an apologetic smile and extending a hand to help me onto my feet that suddenly hurt all the more from having to run from the damn creature. "They bring fair maidens to safety," he told us, watching the wolf thing curiously. "I've never seen one before."

Jasper took his full height, watching it too. "But she's not in danger."

"We don't know that for sure," Doyle said, uncharacteristically serious. "Who knows what might be lurking around for her."

As he spoke, the barguest crossed over to me, its weirdly expressive eyes calm, appraising. It dropped down in front of me, licking at the leaves on my feet.

"Oh," Jasper said.

"Yeah," Doyle agreed. I looked up at them, confused. "It knows you're hurt, and it thinks we're making you keep going. It wants to protect you from us."

"Oh," I said, reaching down and patting the beast's soft fur, feeling oddly attached to it suddenly. "They don't mean it," I said, and its ears perked up, listening. "We are just trying to find a friend. She's in trouble..."

"Oh, for fuck's sake. It can't understand you," Jasper snorted.

"He understands me just fine," I insisted, though I wasn't sure of that. It stood then, turning sideways against my body and nudging into me several times.

I looked up at Doyle questioningly, and he shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe it wants you to ride it?"

As Doyle spoke, the beast's eyes met mine, willing me to understand. With a shrug at the annoyed-looking Jasper, I slowly lifted one of my legs and put it over its back, hoping I wouldn't hurt it. But as soon as I sat down, gently holding its fur, it turned to the men as if awaiting instructions.

"I'm not giving orders to a fucking dog," Jasper snorted. "I mean I've seen a lot of shit, fae that turn into beasts. But never one that just... was a beast."

Doyle shrugged. "The Winters' compound," he said, and the barguest's head moved up and down as if in a nod and started away. "I'll be damned," Doyle said, moving in to flank my right, Jasper moving into my left.

"Do you think it would mind if I named it?" I asked when the silence stretched for an uncomfortably long time.

"It likes you," Doyle said. "It would probably consider it a compliment."