I stared at it; it stared back at me, muzzle to nose.
It is not a common occurrence for me to be shocked, but despite myself I could not comprehend how the words, even as unintelligible and unformed as they were, had slipped past its jowls. If I was correct in my assumption that this thing was a lycan - and therefore part of the werewolf family- then as a human I could not be its mate, the genes just didn't cross right. This creature was deluded, quite possibly insane.
I crawled off in an awkward backwards crab walk; it let me. It silently sat observing me like a statue. From my new position I could take in its hulking appearance. There was nothing elegant or quaint about this creature, it was- for lack of better words- a block of muscle carved into the odd offspring of man and wolf. The body was humanesque, following the anatomy of any other overbuilt man, albeit covered in black pelt. Its face was incredibly lupine, from the canines bulging from its maw to the tips of its twitching ears on the top of its head. It wasn't the ugliest thing I'd ever seen, in fact, it emitted an air of curious charm, but it was also exceedingly intimidating.
I lifted my chin, not particularly fond of having to crane my neck to meet its eyes.
"What are your intentions? Am I your hostage now?" I had to steady my voice, trying not to show that my throat burned with every word.
It blinked languidly, looking completely uninterested and placid.
I felt ignored so repeated myself, a little louder, in a much more authoritative tone.
This time it moved. I reached behind me, ready to grab the piece of ceramic from before only to find it missing- must've been washed away in the water.
Shuffling close to the floor it advanced slowly, nose twitching but eyes never meeting mine. It continued to creep forward until its great head awkwardly rested on my lap. Too stunned was I that I couldn't comprehend a way to react, my hands halted mid air, not sure if I would be able to push its gargantuan form away before its teeth could snap at me.
Its face nuzzled into my thigh as its arms came round to hug my waist; the oddity that was its tail thumped against the floor. In that moment it wasn't a Lycan but a dog pinning for attention.
Maybe I had succumbed to madness or the stress of the situation had finally fried all of my brain cells, nevertheless my hand somehow found itself combing through the fur behind its ear. Conjuring up images of the german shepherds we occasionally used in raids, who would always delight in a good scratch beneath the chin.
In my musing I had drifted into a disturbingly calm state and stopped my ministrations to its fur, it wriggled impatiently, letting out a small whine before nipping my leg.
The short but sharp pain made me flinch; before I could even stop myself, my hand descended and flicked its nose in quick reprimand.
It yelped. But pulled away, sneezing before it rubbed its nose. It stared at me with a look that could only be described as flabbergasted- as if it couldn't believe I had the audacity to flick it. Such a face wouldn't look out of place on spoiled child denied of its sweets. A hairy child albeit. A puppy perhaps.
Like twine pulled to tight, it seemed my sanity had snapped. The more I thought, the more my amusement grew, the laugh started as a chuckle then grew into a ferocious fit of guffawing and snorts; a grin stretching from ear to ear as I held my aching ribs in an unstoppable tide of humour.
Through my laughter I could hear its faint growl, and then I was on my back. The not so gentle motion jarring me and making the increasingly irritating pain in my side flare to life. I glared at the creature as it hovered above me.
I was about to shout, punch, kick or all of the above but a sudden rush of cold air hit my chest accompanied with a loud rip – the sound of wet cloth landing on the other side of the room enlightened me to my predicament.
Shirt and bandages shredded I was left in my sodden bra. It all happened so fast that it took me a moment to realise that the warm sensation lapping at my side was the creature's tongue, that moment was all I needed to start thrashing in my lame attempt of escape.
The creature wasn't having any of this; it grabbed both of my hands and held them above my head whilst pinning my bucking hips with its own, it's incredibly large body making the task look easy.
It stung, each time its tongue moved over the bumps of my ribs the bruised tissue felt tortured; when it's tongue passed over a sensitive spot I instinctively lashed out and managed to catch the creatures ear between my teeth- I bit down on the hard cartilage, but even as I tasted the iron of its blood the creature did not falter nor flinch.
The whole situation was embarrassing, exasperating and awkwardly mortifying; I should've been able to escape or at least flip this beast off of me by now, I am – or was- the top of the top when it came to combat. So why did I suddenly feel so helpless? Why was I letting myself be helpless?
I gritted my teeth, the action meant to embody my anger doubled up as a way to inflict pain on my captor.
This time the beast spasmed and backed away hastily.
Sitting up, I looked down at my side. To my utter astonishment the bruise was fading before my very eyes, slowly but surely it turned from a garish mottled blue to a blush skin tone.
My eyes found the beast as it sat against a wall, fiddling with its torn ear.
Suddenly a wave of guilt washed over me, a grimace came to my face as I almost stumbled at the feeling's magnitude. It had healed me and in return I had unwittingly almost bit off its ear.
Rising to my feet, I walked over to where my bandages and shirt had landed, the top did little to preserve my modesty but was better than nothing. I took another glance at the creature, it was staring at me now, an expression that could almost be called sombre on its face.
Fingering the damp linen bandages I walked out, towards the tunnel that led to the spring – it whined behind me, now crouched with arms outstretched.
I raised my hand in a stop motion, "Stay." I said.
Then I turned, using the wall as guidance I stumbled my way through the dark to the spring.
When I arrived I wasted no time in going to the water's edge and scrubbing my hands and the bandages in the near boiling water.
A tremendous howl sounded from inside the cave, followed by a series of crashes and fits of snarling. As if possessed, I swung around and sprinted back down the passage. Almost launching myself into the room I narrowly missed a piece of wood that was flung through the air.
The beast was raging. It prowled around the room on two legs occasionally picking something up then throwing it to the other side of the den.
It let out another bout of howling, this time I had to cover my ears to stop my eardrums from rupturing. I groan left my throat; my ears were going to explode.
It stopped.
We caught each other's eyes, it stood straight and still, panting in great huffs.
Cautiously I took a step forwards, then another, and another until I was a few feet away from the creature. It looked down at me, bewildered.
I gingerly took its hand, careful of its claws, and led it to the furs where I told it to sit. It complied and stiffly sat cross legged. Now stood behind the creature I gently dabbed the scabbing flesh of its ear with the wet bandage, it had already healed somewhat, no doubt thanks to the werewolf's superior healing. Lucky sod.
As I finished cleaning the wound, as from unfortunate experience I knew the dangers of the bacteria that resided in a human's mouth, I noticed the creature was shaking. Its whole form almost vibrating, was it going into shock? Not entirely sure what to do, I ran my hand through the fur on its shoulder in attempt to calm it.
It had occurred to me that, in reality, it would be near impossible to get back to the army base, and to be honest I now no longer saw the point in trying to get back to the pack house- I didn't even know where in their vast territory I was- but when I had finally let my mind calm I realised I no longer needed the wolves anymore.
The lycan took my hand into its own before rubbing it into its cheek and giving it a small lick of self reassurance.
I had solid material to learn from right in front of me, I just had to manage my study carefully.
AN: Please tell me if this is getting too repetitive, I'm writing without a plan so not even I know where this story is going. Anyway, thanks for reading and voting, I love every single comment. Hope your enjoying this book as much as me xxxx