Jag was a man of passion, one ready to offer him his heart on a platter and shoot his arrows at the moon until he brought it down if that was what Dane wanted. But would he let Dane ever visit his family? So far, the only answer had been no, so Dane made his way through the vast tunnels and ravines created by junk, heading for the perimeter fence, the house, and the barking dog.
An invisible chain around his neck pulled him back whenever he thought back to the softness of the smile Jag offered him that morning, but Dane was determined to not give into his frazzled brain. He took the turn he’d missed last time, and entered a valley of discarded furniture.
There was something deeply unsettling about the stacks of broken chairs and eviscerated sofas, but he jogged forward, ignoring the warning beep at the back of his mind. The long, wooden limbs sticking out from each pile looked like massive spider legs. Despite them being just mundane objects, Dane was glad to leave that part of the junkyard behind. Only once he took another turn, the direction he was heading in no longer seemed as clear, and he muttered beneath his breath, staring up a heap of scrap metal.
Something creaked behind him, where all the monsters of wood and foam had congregated, but the birds that lived in the junkyard made lots of noise at times, so he took a deep breath and sped up the artificial hill. Blood buzzed in his ears as he neared the top, but when he reached a large wooden crate perched on the peak of the junk hill and looked to the other side, his chest bloomed with relief.
A white, well-cared-for house stood on the other side, and beyond its garden was the perimeter fence, complete with a small gateway in front of a car parked at the back of the dwelling.
With new hope, he took a step forward, but something swished through the air, and the wood under his foot cracked. He yelped and lost balance for half a second, but was able to save himself from falling.
He froze solid when he realized that an arrow was stuck inches from his foot.
Jag was already climbing the wooden cemetery, his face a mask of anger. “Next one goes in your leg, so don’t you dare move an inch!”
Dane’s chest tightened, but despite the fear pulling at his muscles, he was determined to take the risk this time. “You wouldn’t.”
“Don’t test me!” Jag was making his way up at increasing speed, proficient at climbing in his natural habitat. “Come down right now!”
Dane bit his lip, torn about whether the people living in a picture-perfect home in a junkyard were safe to approach in the first place. But above all else, he didn’t want to just run from Jag now that his escape had been discovered.
There was so much more than met the eye to this guy, so could he really not be reasonable about Dane’s need to see his family? They’d “mated” after all.
“Come on, I left you a note. You know I won’t be gone forever.”
“How am I supposed to trust you now?” Jag growled, grabbing Dane’s wrist as soon as he was at arm’s length. His chest was rapidly pumping air to account for the pace at which he must have followed Dane, and the sweaty sheen on his face betrayed fatigue, but his hand could as well have been a steel cuff. Still, Dane was not backing away this time.
“I told you I need to see my family, and you just refused! If you can’t trust me in this, there’s no future for us,” Dane hissed, yanking his arm from the slippery fingers. Thrown off balance, he fell onto his ass, sending a flattened soda can down the slope.
Jag’s eyes went wide. “Be careful! You’re coming home with me. I am your family! I am your man! How dare you betray me like this?”
Dane rolled away from him, fueled by the adrenaline burning inside him. “I’m betraying you? It’s you who won't let me think for myself! What the fuck? You only care about the things that are important to you!”
Jag leaped to his side like a cat toying with its prey. “You are important to me. And here I find you, leaving me at the first chance you got. After everything I told you about myself!”
"The note said I’ll be back, didn’t it?” Dane roared, and when Jag reached for his arm again, he kicked at his thigh, throwing him off balance. This was a now-or-never chance, and Dane wasn’t about to waste it because of Jag’s abandonment issues.
“I don’t believe you anymore!” Jag hollered, reaching for him.
“I don’t care,” Dane said, fed up with this bullshit. He’d put effort in understanding Jag’s perspective, and it was time for Tarzan to do some reciprocating. “You can’t make me do things! You can’t keep me from my family just because you chose to abandon yours! This is bullshit!”