Zara's Wolf (Book 1 of the Zara's Wolf Trilogy) BWWM

16. Rise and Shine

The bed shakes, throwing me into the realm of consciousness with enough force to make me fall off had I been close to the edge.

Whirling around, I gape at Cody as he stands on the bed with a rabbit hanging from his jaws and dripping blood on the off-white sheets.

Horror washes over me as I recoil against the bed's headboard. "Oh my god! What the heck are you doing?"

He drops the rabbit and it falls on the bed with a light splat.

Clutching my heart as I stare at the dead animal, Cody's front legs drop to the mattress. With his rear pointed to the ceiling, his tail wagging, he grins at me with playfulness.

I can't get past the dead animal on the bed, and I grimace as I scoot to the edge of the mattress and gingerly put my weight on my feet. My twisted ankle is still sore, and my entire body aches from over-exertion yesterday.

Groaning, I stretch my tired achy muscles, while shooting him a glare. "It's your fault my body hurts so much."

His grin vanishes and tilts the left side of his head up.

I hate it when he does that. He just looks too darn cute.

My eyes travel down to the limp rabbit and my stomach churns. That's not for me, is it? Gross.

I walk out of the room and head straight to the bathroom, where my suspicions from last night are confirmed-no running water.

Ugh, looks like it's the bushes again this morning.

Carefully, I amble out of the cabin to do my dirty business in some nearby shrubs before returning inside in search of food.

If he thinks I'm eating that disgusting thing, he's got rocks in his head.

Although, I have never eaten roast rabbit before, it might be good? With a wood-burning stove and boxes full of matches, I could easily cook meat now.

Skinning and gutting that thing on the other hand... I shudder.

I pull open the curtains in all the windows of the main living space as I make my way to the storage room to see what kind of canned food there is-and if any of it is still good. I find mostly spam, canned beans, corn, and stew-all of which doesn't entice my appetite.

Being devoid of sustenance for so long, combined with blood dripping from a rabbit's corpse flickering in my mind, makes my stomach twist and churn almost painfully.

Groaning, I decide to finish off the blackberries in my khaki backpack for breakfast instead, if only to try and regain the loss of my appetite.

Cody watches me from the bedroom door with the rabbit lying in a heap in front of him as I walk out of the storage room and flop down on the sofa. The khaki backpack lies next to me in an upside-down position from when I tossed it last night. I know I'm hungry and should eat, but the memory of that slaughtered rabbit dropping on the bed still makes me shudder.

What a wakeup call that was.

Cody trots over to me with the rabbit in his mouth, and stops seven feet away. Dropping it, he whines as his head lowers a little, but his gaze is fixed on me.

I don't know what to say to him. Good morning? Thanks for the rabbit? What does he want from me?

"Yo," is my most intelligent response. I brush a loose strand of hair from my face before allowing my gaze to explore the main living quarters.

It's not a huge space by any means, but it's good enough for what it's worth. The walls aren't insulated and are relatively bare aside from the multiple square windows and curtains. The roof meets up to a point, like a triangular prism, with wooden beams crossing overhead for support. The sofa and reclining chair in the living room are in better shape than I thought they were last night. There are no holes in the fabric, but there's dog fur in the crevasses, and the cushions are a little sunken. There's a thin layer of dust on everything, and I can see dust particles floating in the sunlight streaming in through the windows. The floors, although worn with scratches all over them, are still strong looking and hold no cracks or chips.