Chapter 13

Selena’s POV

The beast carried me up like I weighed nothing and ran into the woods. Its grip wasn’t rough—it was firm, but there was something about the way it held me. Not cruel. Not violent. Almost… protective.

But I wasn’t calm.

My heart was not even trying to be a bit calm. It was pounding so loud that I could say the trees heard it. I could not even breathe well. My eyes were blurred with tears as I kicked the air weakly, as I was crying and begging the beast in a shaky voice not to hurt me. 

“Please… don’t hurt me. Please.” 

But the beast did not stop. 

My voice broke. My chest was burning badly because I was scared. And my stomach was twisting, but the beast just continued running. Its heavy feet were hitting against the earth, and its body was so fast that I felt the way the wind was slapping my face. 

Then after an awfully long time, the beast started slowing down. 

We arrived at a location that was fairly inside the woods, well away from the road that I could not even hear the noises that came out from the campus site. It was just the blowing of the leaves and the noise of how I was breathing. 

The beast finally stopped, and gently, it dropped me on the floor.

My legs started to shake so badly where the best kept me down. My cheeks were wet because I was crying. My chest was beating so fast inside, like I ran for long. Fear was all over my face, and the beast was looking down at me. But something was different in how it was looking at me, it was in a way that made me to stop. 

Its eyes were shining in a weird way. But it did not look like it was hungry. They did not look wild too. 

They looked… guilty. 

The beast’s head lowered, almost like in shame. Then as I was looking at it, it started to shift. The bones cracked, the fur turned to skin, the fangs entered back. The huge form of the beast was not reshaping back, until it was in its human form again. And it stood in front of me. 

My mouth fell open.

It wasn’t just any wolf.

It was Cullen.

Cullen had saved me. He had not been trying to hurt me whatsoever. All the terror that was in my chest began to become confused and it conflicted with the new surge of heat that was running through me. 

He was there, scratching the back of his head, awkwardly. His eyes were scanning the trees, like he did not know what to set his eyes on. “Sorry… for scaring you,” he said. 

I did not answer. My throat was too dry.

Because Cullen—was standing naked right in front of me.

And my eyes… oh God, my traitor eyes dropped down to his manhood before I could even stop them. My body started to feel very hot, like I was burning. I pressed my legs together, and my pussy was beating harder than my heart. My mouth became very dry. 

I wanted him.

But not like this. Not now.

Even with everything, I could not take my eyes away from his cock. My breath caught in my throat and I opened my mouth just a little. 

The second Cullen realized where I was staring at, his expression set into a stiffness. His hand shot down to cover himself, his ears even turning a little red.

Reality snapped me back in an instant. My face immediately became red. I blinked my eyes and I forced myself to look away from it. “I’m… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have… I mean, I wasn’t—”

He cut me off softly. “It’s fine.”

The way his voice was so calm, made me even more nervous than I already was. Not anything lesser. 

I stumbled to my feet, stammering, not sure whether to run or just sink into the ground. My hoodie suddenly felt too warm, suffocating. I needed to do something, anything.

So I tugged it off, leaving me in just my crop top. The hoodie was enormous, gigantic. Without deliberation, I stepped forward and held it out to him. 

“Here. Wear this.”

In spite of the chill wind biting against me, he needed it more than I did. 

He pulled it on slowly, his fingers brushing across mine as he took hold of it. My breath froze at the touch. 

“Thanks,” he said quietly, slipping it on.

I turned around, giving him my back, waiting until the sound of fabric moving told me he’d put it on.

“All done,” he finally said. His voice was low, steady. “Now… what were you doing out there, Selena?”

I turned back to him, my hands twisting together without me realizing. My thumb brushed over the scratches on my other hand, my skin still stinging faintly.

“I… went to find you,” I admitted, keeping my eyes low. “I checked your room, but you weren’t there.”

When I looked back up, his eyes weren’t on my face.

They were on my hand.

His expression shifted instantly. Cullen quickly walked to where I was standing. Before I could even do a thing, he was already holding my hand. His arms were holding my wrist very gently but I still could not remove my hand from his hold. Then he raised my hand up to see the scratches very well. 

“What happened to you, Selena?” His voice wasn’t calm anymore. It was sharp. Demanding.

I panicked. “It’s nothing,” I whispered, trying to pull my hand back. But his grip stayed firm.

He didn’t let go. His eyes locked onto mine, and it felt like he was digging deep into me, pulling the truth out.

“You’re having nightmares,” he said quietly, almost like it wasn’t a question.

My stomach dropped. My heart stopped.

What the hell—how did he know?

“No, I’m not,” I lied fast, too fast.

But Cullen’s gaze didn’t waver. “Your eyes say something else.”

I swallowed hard. “What do they say then?”

“That you’re lying,” he answered simply.

My chest tightened.

“I’m not,” I insisted weakly. “It’s nothing. Just a scratch.”

I tried to cover my hand with the other, like hiding it would make the conversation disappear. But Cullen didn’t look away. His stare was heavy, unrelenting, like he wanted to see straight into my soul.

Then, without warning, he pulled me closer.

His arms wrapped around me, strong and warm. His chest pressed against mine, his body heat seeping into me, his manhood brushing against me even through the fabric of the hoodie.

But I did not move. I could not.

For the instant his arms were wrapped around me, the trembling ceased. 

The world simply froze. 

My body yielded. My arms wrapped around him also, holding. 

He let out a deep breath against my hair, his chest rising and falling slowly as if holding me gave him peace too.

His voice dropped to a whisper, low against my ear. “I care about you, Selena. Please… tell me the truth.”

My throat tightened. My chest was hard. The words quivered inside me but I could not let them out. 

So I also whispered, softly, “I’m totally fine.” 

Cullen pulled back, just enough to see my face. His eyes searched mine, his jaw tight. He exhaled long and heavy, like there was something sitting on his chest that he was scared to release.

Finally, he looked down to the floor. His voice was now very soft. 

“I have lost someone that I was close to before, because I did not pay attention to her nightmare.”