“Am I hurting you?” she asked, her face so close to mine that I was tempted to kiss her a second time but, for some reason, I stopped myself from acting upon that impulse. It didn’t seem fair to me that I would get all the action and Landon none of it. We were mating partners and that meant finding the right balance when it came to sharing.
“I’ll be okay,” I assured her. “Believe it or not, I’m pretty tough.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt it.” She grabbed some peroxide and poured it over my gashes.
I sucked in a lungful of air and squeezed the edge of the table I was currently sitting on.
“You know, when you told me you were a wolf, I thought you were kidding.”
“Of course you did,” I responded. “Humans aren’t open-minded about the supernatural world but I can guarantee that it exists. Most of it is right underneath your nose but you just choose not to see it because it’s easier that way.”
“What else is out there?” she asked.
“Well, there are all different kinds of shifters. There are wolves, bears, tigers, you name it — they exist. There are even rumors that a couple of dragons are still lurking around, hoarding their piles of treasure.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously,” I confirmed. “And then there are fairies and mermaids and vampires. Pretty much, anything you originally thought of as myth, probably has some degree of truth laced in there.”
“I can’t believe it.”
“I know, crazy isn’t it?”
“No, I mean your injury.” She was examining it with a keen eye. “It’s already healing.”
“Oh, yeah, that happens. Wolves are among the fastest in the healing department among all shifters. It usually takes a day or two for us to recover from something critical.”
“Wait… so why did you have me go through all the trouble of helping you?”
“Because I like the attention,” I admitted. “It’s nice to know that you care about me.”
Her cheeks reddened. “Well, I’m just glad that you’re going to be okay.”
“Yeah, I’ll be as good as new come tomorrow morning.”
“So, can you tell me more about this world of yours? I have so many questions.”
“Fire away.”
“Okay, so, first of all, how does shifting work? I mean do you just think about becoming a wolf and bam, it happens?”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Landon had suddenly joined the conversation. I hadn’t realized he had been standing there the entire time. I was so transfixed on my time with Jane that everything else had ceased to exist. “But you will learn about that in due time.”
“What does that mean?” Jane looked at Landon in an attempt to get the answers she so desperately wanted.
“Come on, we’re all a little filthy. There’s a river nearby that we can bathe in and I’m sure it will make all of us feel better,” I suggested. “And any questions you have, we’ll be more than happy to answer so long as you’re willing to listen.” I jumped down from the table and landed lightly upon my feet. “But I must warn you that there might be a few things you won’t want to hear.”
Chapter 13: Jane
There were about a million and one thoughts going through my head. I wanted to make sense of it all but all of a sudden, I had been thrown into a fantasy world and I wasn’t sure whether I’d ever return to reality. I was in too deep.
“So, who were those guys and why were they so keen on killing you guys?”
“Well, first of all, that guy wasn’t very keen on having you off his plate, if you know what I mean,” said Roman.
I shivered at the thought of what might have happened to me if Landon had failed to intercept his advances.
“But that wasn’t enough to start an all-out war, was it?” I turned my head slightly to look at Landon. I had felt his presence before hearing the crunch of his feet against the forest floor. His shoulder gently brushed against my own and the friction was enough to send sparks of electricity shooting through the air.