After the fourth or fifth time, he finally made it happen.
“Thank you. You helped me. Thank you.”
I beelined for my room and pulled out a pair of baggy sweatpants to cover him. I wasn’t shy about nakedness, none of us shifters were, but this was a male and I was alone at home. No male had ever come into my cabin, much less a naked one.
“Oh, thanks. I shredded my clothes when I...I’m Dean, by the way.”
He stuck out his hand. I swallowed against the rock in my throat, tamping down the desire to take his hand in mine, to touch him and be touched. It had been so long since I’d been touched.
Instead, I lifted my hand and waved, like a complete loon.
“Not much for words, huh?”
I breathed out and shrugged one shoulder.
It wasn’t just him. I didn’t speak to anyone. It wasn’t like I didn’t want to—I simply couldn’t.
I’d never spoken, as far as I could remember.
Trying desperately to change the subject, I pointed at my stew still over the fire. My cabin was only one bedroom and tiny at that. In a few steps, I’d gotten him a hand-carved bowl and spoon and was dishing him out warm venison stew that steamed and filled the space with its decadent scent. My cabin was made of logs from the forest around me, and I survived on what I could find from the land. Being a wolf who hunted certainly helped, but my belongings were few, and my life was simple. I kind of liked it that way.
“Oh, thank you. This smells really good. Aren’t you going to eat?”
I shrugged and nodded. Yeah, I was going to eat. Right after I got some clothes on. In my haste, I’d remembered him but forgotten I was stark naked.
Not talking and naked. What a sight I must be to him.
Almost to my bedroom, I stopped in my tracks when I heard him take a first bite and groan at the taste. He liked it. It warmed him and fed him.
Tomorrow, I would make him leave before I got into trouble with the alpha. Tomorrow, he would be gone. And, for some reason, that made my heart ache.