All because she's too dumb and easily distracted by shiny things.
She makes a shrill, panicked noise when a paw comes out of nowhere and whacks her, hitting her across her chest so hard that she is sent flying into the air. She hits the wall with a sharp pain, and then slides down to the pavement, her whole body throbbing in pain. She's soft and light enough that it doesn't hurt too much for long, more the shock of it than anything else, but she curls up in panic, not moving at all.
She closes her eyes when she feels a paw press against her neck, and then a second later, it's gone. She sound of chaos only makes her clench her eyes shut even harder, afraid to see what's happening. She curls into a ball, trembling violently with her eyes clenched shut. The sounds of growls and snarls, let her know all she needs to. The wolves are fighting each other. Probably for the honor of getting the first bite. She's probably delicious.
It's over as abruptly as it begins and there's the sound of people running away, leaving only the victor behind.
When she opens her eyes again, she is looking up at a pair of bright green eyes, pupil a spot of black in the middle. There's blood on his jaw, dripping steadily down his chin and onto the pavement. There's blood all over his fur too. She's never seen a fully shifted wolf before. She doesn't think there's anyone in the village who're capable of such a shift.
He doesn't smell like any of the guys who had been going after her earlier, but that doesn't make him any less of a threat. She flinches when he noses at her, sniffing and nudging her with his snout. It's wet with blood, smearing pinks and reds on her fluffy white fur. It's gross and she doesn't want to know where that muzzle has been. He smells like blood and guts and for all she knows, he probably ate the other werewolves.
She freezes, staying completely still as he continues doing whatever he's doing, tipping her over until she's exposing her belly to him. her paws dangling in the air, hind legs folded up properly. Her long ears flop onto the ground and she tilts her head back, hoping that if he plans to chew her up, he'd do it quickly. He noses at her belly too, sniffing and nuzzling her. It's actually kind of nice up until he licks up her whole body, the flat of his tongue lick up her again and again. She yips and turns around abruptly. That's a little too intimate, even in her rabbit form. He rubs his snout to her body over and over again, covering her with his scent.
Then, he opens his jaws and carefully picks her up by the nape of her neck, though his muzzle is so big that he has half of her body in his jaw. For a moment, she's too shocked to do anything, but then she's kicking and squirming, trying to get free. Her hind paw catches his nose and he glares down at her like she's a misbehaving pup, letting out a low rumbling growl that shudders through her entire body like a massive engine. She knows he's not an actual wolf and he's not going to eat her, but her rabbit brain isn't capable of such rational thought and she's worried about being eaten.
He growls again, the sound rumbling and more than a little terrifying, and tightens his hold on her, teeth digging into her fur tightly enough to render her limp and useless, but not hard eno
ugh to break skin. He growls again, as if telling her to stay still and she's not stupid enough to try struggle more. He's so much bigger than her, after all.
She curls up, legs folded up to her chest and little arms dropping uselessly at her sides as she's carried through the crowded alleyway and towards what looks like a huge bin. She worries for a second that he's just brought her here to throw her away, but then he lowers her down onto the floor gingerly and licks up her body again, his rough tongue messing up her pristine fur completely. She's already really dirty, though. There's gravel and bits of red clinging to her fur. She watches with wide, curious eyes as he turns his face to the pile of clothes thrown haphazardly by the bin, like someone had undressed in a hurry. A second later, she realizes that those must be his clothes and he had thrown them on the floor in his rush to get to her.
He shifts into his human from there. The transformation from animal to human is always a little bit slower. The animal brain clings to being in this form better, where things are simpler and easier. The crunch of bones reforming and fur receding is never pretty, but he manages to make it look almost graceful. Grey fur melt into tanned skin, muscles redistributing until she's looking at a really attractive-
She squeaks and looks away. She would have blushed if she was human. A second later, she glances back because she's only human and the man's body is kind of perfect. He's not one of the men who had cornered her, she can be sure of that now that she sees him. He would have been the tallest man there and she would have recognized him because he's the same guy she had seen at the hotel earlier, the guy staring at her from the upper floor. He's really attractive, even with specks of blood clinging to his chin and upper chest. He finds a napkin amidst his clothes and wipes them roughly before throwing it into the bin. She watches as he turns and she would have gasped if she could. His wolf tail is still there, long and fluffy and looking so very soft that she kind of wants to reach out and touch him. She takes a few steps forward before she manages to stop herself.
Completely captivated, she watches as he tugs his pants on. It's tailored a certain way that allows his tail to slip out. He looks comfortable and unashamed. And then he turns around and she sees his wolf ears, sharp-tipped above his head. She doesn't know how she's missed it the first time. Maybe she had been too busy staring at his face then. In her defense, it's a really lovely face.
Her ears tilt back worriedly when he finishes putting all his clothes on and it occurs to her that she should have taken the opportunity to run away while he was busy. Then again, where could she have ran? He seems safe enough. He did fight off the guys for her earlier. He smells kind of nice and her body moves without permission, crawling slowly towards him.
He smiles when he notices her approaching him. He lets her come to him, squatting down to make himself a little bit less intimidating.
She considers running for another few seconds before surrendering to her instincts. He smells really nice and she has no trouble shifting towards his hand, nuzzling him a little. She breathes in deep. He has a scent that fills her head, consuming the space like she's been waiting for him her entire life.
She's completely unprepared for the way her scent mixed with his, that the joint scents smells so nice to her. She steps closer to rub her face all over his face.
"Aren't you going to shift back, little rabbit?" he asks, letting her rub herself all over every inch of his hand she can touch. "You're safe here," he continues. "You don't look injured. Did they hurt you?" His voice dips low at the end, like he's considering going after the werewolves if they had done something to her.
She doesn't hear most of the things he say, too busy chasing after the scent of them together. She squeezes her eyes shut and tries to shake away the fog, but then he's petting her, fingers scratching between her long ears and over her whole body.
She is tense for a moment, unsure of what to do, but then he does it over and over again and she melts. It feels really good. He cradles her carefully with his palm and lifts her up. He holds her in the curve of his arm, pressing her to his his sculpted chest and she melts even more. He smells so impossibly good.
"It's alright, rabbit," he hums. "I've got you now." He has a nice and steady heartbeat. She presses her ears close to his chest and focuses on listening to that. The sooner she calms, the easier it will be for her to shift back. Not that she's going to shift here, though. She doesn't have any clothes to wear and the last thing she wants to do is cling to him while she's naked. The mental image of that is already enough to make her body heat up.
She doesn't know if had just come across her accidentally or if Darnell had asked people at the hotel for help tracking her down when he realized that he had drifted away.
It takes her a lot longer than it should have to notice that he's brought her back to the hotel. She waits for him to be stopped for bringing an animal into the hotel. Surely they're too classy for pets, but nobody stops him as he makes his way to the elevator and up.
In fact, he gets her to his room without any fuss at all and then she's deposited neatly onto the sink. She tries to jump down off the counter and onto the floor, but he captures her midair and puts her back into the sink before her paws touch the ground.
"I don't want you to hurt yourself, darling," he asks, his brows furrowed, expression stern.
If her paws were long enough, she would totally cross them and glare at him to show him just how much she appreciates being manhandled like this, but then he gets hold of her scruff and she melts again be cause she's weak.
He gets the water running first, making sure it's a warm enough temperature before lowering her into it. "Just getting you clean, darling," he says, his voice soothing and soft.
The warm water does feel really good, so she just stays limp in his hand as he rubs soapy water all over her body, carefully maneuvering her so that he doesn't get water into her ears. She kind of hates how much she purrs when he massages underneath her fur.
He even gets her little paws cleaned up and then blow dries her clean before putting her on top of the bed. "Stay, alright? I'll be right back," he instructs and she's kind of too tired to do anything but curl up on his bed, pressing her nose to his pillow. He smells really good.