Well, this was unexpected. “Araya, what are you doing here?” He asked nervously, clearly surprised. He scanned the room then looked back to me smiling. “You look beautiful, by the way.” His eyes slowly lingered over my body then met my own. Maybe if he hadn’t just ditched me last minute claiming to be busy and then popped up at a club, that sly grin would have done something to me, but there would be none of that now.Yeah, nice try. The initial shock of seeing him was now shifting to anger. “I could ask you the same thing,” I fired back. “I thought you said something came up.” I sounded a little more snappier than I intended, but I was never great at holding back my emotions. My eyes trailed over his body. He wore a black suit that did nothing to hide his muscular build and broad shoulders. He looked good and that irritated me. We were supposed to be together, but instead he was here looking like this. I noticed his eyes moving around trying to find something.. or someone. Then it

Standing a few yards in front of me was a big, black.. dog of some sort. It was huge, like the size of a bear. I had never seen one that big. Maybe it was a wolf. I think I read they were larger than dogs, but I didn’t think they would be that much bigger. I wasn’t even sure if there actually were wolves in this area. Again, I should have done more research about this place, apparently. The dog/wolf.. thing snarled at Acelin showing his teeth. Frozen in fear, all I could do was stare. Was this the animal that had been responsible for the attacks? I was sure I was about to find out. My hand slowly slid into my purse searching for my taser never taking my eyes off of the animal in front of me. I realized it was probably a useless effort unsure if a taser would do anything to phase an animal this size. It was stupid of me to be out drunk wandering around in the middle of the night when I knew these attacks had been happening. I had let my anger get the best of me and it caused me to

My towel dropped completely to the floor and my arms fell to my sides. I had to fight the instinct to cover myself. I couldn’t believe I had mustered the will to do this. I had always been so shy and timid and self-conscious about my body, but there was no turning back now. My heart continued pounding and my chest moved heavily up and down as I took deep breaths anticipating Adrian’s reaction. He was now on his feet. His eyes were wide and on fire again. The golden yellow now burning like a flame I had seen before. He eyed my body up and down slowly. I stared at his face trying to read him and watched his jaw clench tightly. Would he reject me again? What would I do if he did? I imagined myself running away naked or scrambling for the towel on the floor and I cringed. The anticipation was making me light headed. I needed him to give me something now before I lost it. The tension in his jaw eased up as he had seemingly gained control. Finally his lips parted as if to speak, but no w

Acelin. Just as fast as the woman was behind me she released my hair. “Apologies, Acelin. That’s our mistake,” the man seemed to quiver now unable to meet Acelin’s gaze. His head was facing down to the ground. They were afraid of him, but why? He hadn’t taken his eyes of me and was now slowing making his way over. He searched my face with a furrowed brow, concern filling his eyes. My cheeks were flushed with frustration and anger his concern quickly turned into fury as he looked back to the culprits. “Scatter.” He said through a clenched jaw. The words came out of his mouth stern and cold and they scurried off like rats. “I hope they did not harm you, little one.” Towering over top of me he reached down brushing the back of his fingers against my warm cheeks. His cold touch sent a shiver down my spine and I knew my cheeks were a darker shade of red. “I’m okay.” “How did you - where did you” I stumbled over my words trying to gain composure, but cut me off. He shushed me with a f

It was like a needle prick, quick and I barely noticeable. A small drop of blood had formed in the spot then quickly dropped down the side of my thumb before landing into Acelin’s mouth. He jerked my hand away from him a second too late. “Araya, what did you”- his suddenly stopped in the middle of his sentence but I wasn’t paying attention to him. I had stuck my thumb in my mouth to help stop the bleeding thinking about what an idiot I was. Who does something like that?I glanced back to Acelin to see his eyes rolling back into his head, a sigh of pleasure escaping his mouth. When he opened them they were dark, midnight black again. I stepped backwards knowing this probably was not a good sign. His body tensed up, fists clenched. I could see the veins protruding from his forearms and neck. He was fighting something. “Your blood.” His voice was deeper now. Oh, shit. Definitely not good. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”“So sweet. I’m losing control. You need to get away from me. M