Enter the Shadows (1st Edition) [SAMPLE]

Purest Heart - 1 | iii

Covered in cold sweat, Penny woke up from her nightmare. It took some time for the ghastly images to clear from her mind, and for her eyes to adjust to the dim light streaming through the windows into the room. This was not her apartment. She looked down where she sat on a bed that was not hers, wearing a shirt that was several sizes too big to be her own. Penny froze where she sat the panic tightening her chest. She moved nothing but her eyes now scanning the room, most of which was in shadows. To her left the shadow shifted. Penny sat there staring into the darkness; she felt it staring back. Two eyes, the shade of pure gold, came from the shadows walking towards the bed.

What she saw confirmed that it had not been a nightmare. The whole thing had been real. He had been real. Penny was up and off the bed, running through the door that had been left ajar. Down the hall, down the stairs, and through the front door. Out into... the woods? Penny stood in the small clearing in front of the house spinning in circles. Overhead the clouds shifted, allowing more light to come streaming down. She was definitely in the woods.

Black came to the door of the massive log house and sat there. Cast in shadows, a dim light at his back, all she could see were the glowing orbs of his eyes. He didn't make a single move to come towards her, but she took a step back. From her right the man emerged from among the trees. One step, two step, Penny was forced to come up short when her back came up against the trunk of a tree.

Lochlan stepped out into the open, pushing the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows. Penny noted his walk was steady. There was not a single scratch or bruise on his face. Maybe it hadn't been his blood. Penny had an internal debate concluding that it had to be. Some of it at least. He had been hurt, and badly.

"You're— alive." Penny was not sure if that bode well for her, or not. So far she was still alive so she took that as a positive.

"So are you. How are your legs feeling?"

Penny looked down at her toes curling them into the moist earth. Gasping she looked up at him. "I was paralyzed."

To her response, he only smiled. "Come inside; it's about to rain."

He turned walking towards the door. As if on cue a drop of rain landed on her nose. Penny looked up as one drop became a steady drizzle. Setting aside the question of how, Penny spread her arms out, her face turned up as she laughed, the rain washing over her. It was the first time she had ever been so happy to see the rain. To be able to stand in it.

Drenched, and slightly shivering, she went into the house. Black sat up from where he had been sleeping beside the plush, cream sofa to look at her. She paused not closing the door completely. Slowly she turned the knob, pushing the door slowly to close it. Now she was locked up inside of a house out in the woods with a wolf and a werewolf. He hadn't forced her to stay, not exactly. She wasn't a prisoner— which was debatable. If he did tell her to leave all she would have been able to do was wander around the woods until she became a meal. And with her luck, she wouldn't have to wander far.

Light was coming through an open archway to her right leading into another room. To get to it, she had to pass the wolf. Soaked, Penny started to feel chilly. She hugged her elbows keeping her position at the door.

"You're not going to hurt me, are you?" she asked of the wolf.

Black tilted his head to the side his eyes never leaving hers. Penny hoped that was a no. Hugging herself tighter she walked towards the opening to the other room. As she walked past Black, he got up walking beside her. The archway opened up to a massive dining area that flowed into a spacious kitchen. It was all hardwood, muted colours, and chrome. She jumped, a startled sound escaping before she could stop it as Lochlan draped a towel over her shoulder.