When night fell over us, the oddities of the island came out to put on their best show.
Grayson propped himself against a boulder just out of the fire light and I curled myself up below the log I had been leaning against.
I was unable to sleep, screeches and chirps louder than I would have chosen for a nature sleep scape. The night was comfortably warm but a draft meandered across the bare spots on my shoulders and cheeks.
It wasn’t cold enough to make me shiver, only just enough to keep me from being able to get any sleep. I tried inching my way closer to the fire, fresh pain aching throughout my body. I glared at Grayson who was looking too peaceful in his slumber.
I tried adjusting my position without moving too quickly, the hard ground pressing at my hip bones. My chest grew anxious with restless unease. "Go to sleep." Grayson’s dark voice interrupted the night.
"I can’t. You should have built a shelter." I couldn’t toss and turn with the bruising across my body, I huffed with annoyance.
With a sigh, Grayson lifted himself from his position on the other side of the fire. Without a word, he sat beside me against the log and pulled me into his lap.
I groaned from the pain, "What are you doing?" He was leaned back, positioning me on his chest to where I still faced the fire. The soreness in my bones automatically ebbed under the cushion of his muscles. I was sat on his thighs, my head resting between his pecks, just below his chin.
His heat radiated underneath me and every fiber inside me relaxed into him. He was like a human hammock, drowsiness immediately setting in. "You women are all the same. Restless without the touch of your alpha." He chuckled to himself.
I wanted to make some snide remark at him but ultimately found myself too exhausted, the rise and fall of his chest beneath me too melodic. I had never felt more relaxed, more at ease. It was like breathing underwater. I drifted into the darkness, feeling his breath blow across my ears.
When I woke, the birds were excruciatingly loud. They wizzed past my head, dipping into the water. Grayson was still fast asleep beneath me. I had shifted through his legs, he now straddled my lower half. His arms wrapped around my shoulders, resting gently against my stomach, the edges of my shirt wrapped in his fingers.
I looked at the alien hands, scarred and thick. They weren’t what I expected for royalty hands. His skin was rough and dark, like he was hard-working and not just someone who spent all of his time bedding women and barking orders.
I carefully moved the hands away from where they gently brushed the skin below my belly button. I braced myself on the ground beside either side of his legs. I had slept hard and the pain had turned from sharp stabs to a dull ache.
Gently and slowly, I began lifting myself away from his chest when a hand bolted to my throat. With a movement so quick I barely registered, I was pulled up by his grasp on my neck. My own hands moved instinctively to grab at the pressure around my throat, pinching at his fingers with all my strength.
His cheek was pressed against my cheek from behind and a low growl rumbled deep in the chest beneath, vibrating through my back. I gasped, waiting for him to rip my throat out in his animalistic rage. He panted heavily, holding me tight against him, and I could feel the quick thumping of his heart.
A few moments passed before his grip eased slowly, as though he was finally realizing I wasn’t the threat in this frightening land. When he released his hand from my neck, I took a sharp inhale, my own heart racing with the tension.
He stood wordlessly, pushing me from his lap. I fell onto my side, the adrenaline too much for what I was used to in the early morning. He didn’t check on me, didn’t even care that he had just scared the living crap out of me. He walked straight towards the trail that disappeared into the forest, refusing to look back at me.
I stretched my arms beneath my head to process the morning. I had never been so close to a man for so long and the heat of his soft yet rough skin lingered on mine despite his callous awakening.
My fingers reached for the places his hand had twisted around my neck, firm but not painful. The memory of his breath on my cheek still fresh.
I moved my hand down to my chest, taking slow deep breaths until I could feel my heartbeat soften. He had been gone quite awhile and when Grayson returned, a large bird dangled from his belt and he carried another load of firewood in his arms.
He busied himself at the fire, his disdain evidently giving him enough energy to be so productive first thing in the morning. I worked my way into a sitting position while watching him work. He cut into the bird with such ease, goosebumps raised on my arms.
Once the bird was roasting, the smell made me nauseous. I missed coffee and bagels with cream cheese, donuts or tea. Anything that wasn’t just charred meat. Grayson spun the bird on his handmade spicket, his eyebrows knitted together with what looked like upset.
I didn’t understand what he had to be angry about, I was the one enduring his abuse. Who wakes up grabbing throats and growling anyway? He acts like he has slept with more women than I’ve probably met yet he’s so cold and brutal towards closeness.
When breakfast was ready, he handed me my share while avoiding my eyes. "Why are you mad at me? I didn’t do anything."
He glared at me. "You exist."
This guy was so unbelievable, I rolled my eyes at him. "I never asked for any of this. It’s not like I want to be here either. Last week I was comfortable with living my ordinary and boring life at home with my mom and now I’m stuck here with you."
His glare turned more curious as did his tone. "You didn’t live with your father?"
"Never met the man until the day he sent me to you, and wish I never had." I held the food in one hand and started flicking tiny pebbles into the creek with the other, wanting to figit and distract myself from the memory of my lost home and lonely mother instead of eating.
Grayson made a noise that could have been a hmm but also could have been another small growl. Looking at him I saw he was blinking at the ground, deep in thought.
"What?" I asked.
"It seems like your father is a stranger to the both of us." Confusion wrapped around my brain while I tried to decipher what that meant.
"What do you mean?"
"He told me things that are apparently, not true." He looked up from his food to lock eyes with me while I wondered what my father could have told him.
"Are you even a wolf?" The question threw me off. I never in a million years thought anyone would ask me that question.
My father must have told him I was. Did that mean my father was one? Is that why my eyes glow? Grayson watched me carefully as I let my dumbfoundedness look obvious. I had never had any wolf-like tendencies. The full moon never enticed me or made me feel any different.
Didn’t you have to get scratched to be a werewolf or could you be born into it? I had always known I was different but could never figure out why past the glowing of my eyes.
Grayson’s own eyes were dimmed and serious, waiting for my answer. I shook my head, only able to tell the truth under his scrutiny, "I don’t know."