Run: Beginnings (6 page)

              Quickly, she put the car into gear and slid onto the main road. Instead of turning left towards the hardware store, she turned right towards home. She had to be alone. With how cripplingly humiliated she felt, there was no way she could look Eric in the eye.

              She drove without seeing the road. All she could see was Michael’s face, wet from the shower, as he looked lovingly down at blonde and beautiful Candace.

***

              The steam from the hot cocoa fluttered in the bracing cool night air. It probably wasn’t the healthiest dinner but that was all Natalie felt up for making. Plus, chocolate was a must tonight.

              Sitting out on her back porch, wrapped in a thick woolen blanket, Natalie held the mug between her hands, letting the warmth slowly ooze through her. Although she could see her breath hanging frostily in the air, the coldness somehow made her feel better, calmer. Her house sat on a sizable piece of land and her back porch faced a wide lawn that was fringed with thick woods. It was as if her house had been built right up against the edge of wilderness.

              Natalie hated herself for reacting the way she had at the clinic. And she hated how upset she still was. She didn’t want to give Michael and her past that much power over her current happiness. And unbelievably, she
was
happy.

              She had grown to enjoy and even love her tiny clinic, her staff, and her patients. It felt surreal to know she now was the proud owner of a dilapidated house in the Canadian countryside. And it was exciting and thrilling to know she had kissed another man besides Michael, made only more thrilling by the fact that the man was Eric. Overall, her life had turned around completely in the last few weeks. She had become happier and more settled than she could’ve ever hoped for when she had hopped on the plane at LAX, heartbroken and humiliated.

              And yet, hearing the news about Michael’s engagement burned a hole into her healing heart. How could he propose to someone he hardly knew when it had taken them over four years to become engaged? And of all people, it had to be Candace. She closed her eyes and remembered Candace’s surprised wet face when Natalie had walked in on them in the shower. But the surprise had quickly been smothered with a smirk once Candace had gotten a good look at her. She probably thought Natalie would be no competition compared to her beautiful blonde self. And really, wasn’t that true now? It was Candace who had the ring on her finger, not Natalie.

              Natalie sighed frustratedly as she threw herself back against the chair.
You
did
have the ring, Evers!
You’re
the one who walked away! So stop feeling so goddamn sorry for yourself!
But heartbreak was logic’s kryptonite and no matter how much her internal self harangued her for her pity party, Natalie couldn’t help but wallow.

              Natalie took a sip of her cocoa. As she leaned forward to rest her mug on the porch rail, she saw a distant flash of white against the dark edge of woods. Squinting her eyes, she waited to see if she’d see the flash again. What was that? It was a cloudy night, inhibiting moonlight from spilling across her lawn. There it was again! Except this time, Natalie was positive she had seen what it was. She quickly stood up, almost toppling her mug.

              Had she seen right? She was sure she had. She had most definitely just seen Eric’s face and naked torso slip around the trees into the dark woods. Even with the limited moonlight, Eric’s face and chest had gleamed and glowed eerily against the thick trees and brush.

              What was he doing here? At this time of night? And whyin heave
n’
s sake did he not have any clothes on in this chilly weather? Natalie was throwing off the blanket and running barefoot through the freezing grass before she could figure out an answer to the millions of questions flying through her head. It didn’t matter anyway. She would find him and ask them herself.

Chapter
Six

              It was the lack of silence that struck her the most. When indoors, if she didn’t play music or make noise renovating, the house was completely silent. There was no outside street noise or loud teenagers goofing off by the curbside. It was the mountains. It was silent.

              And yet, here in the woods, Natalie was nearly bombarded with sounds. She could hear insects chirping and owls hooting. She heard the soft flutter of wings and the crunching of dead twigs. Everything was buzzing with life and the energy vibrated from tree to tree.

              Having been too busy with the interior of the house, Natalie hadn’t yet taken the time to explore the exterior. And coming from LA, she wasn’t the most outdoorsy person. The nurses at the clinic and her patients often talked about bears and wolves roaming along the outskirts of the town and that was enough to keep Natalie safely tucked up in her freezing house.

              Natalie tried to step carefully through the thick brush. Her feet were freezing.
You couldn’t take a second and put on a pair of shoes, huh, Evers?
Natalie sighed, watching her breath puff out in front of her. “Eric?” she called out in a not too loud voice. She wasn’t sure she wanted to announce to the entire forest that a barefooted city girl was traipsing through their land.

              It was quite dark. Natalie was able to make out the outlines of the trees surrounding her but she couldn’t see beyond that. But she
knew
she had seen Eric. She was positive. “Eric?” she called out a little louder.

              She went a little deeper into the woods, hoping she’d find Eric before her toes froze off. “Eric, it’s me, Natalie!” she said. She paused, standing still and trying to listen for any response. Nothing. Just a distant hooting and the hum of evening life.

              Natalie shivered. “Ok, Evers,” she whispered to herself. “Chasing a ghost into a forest might be your cue for bed.” Perhaps she hadn’t really seen Eric. After all, why would he be walking around the woods half naked in this weather? The more she thought about it, the more foolish she felt. Sniffling from the cold, she turned around and tried to pick her way back home.

              It was harder trying to find her way out. She had gone further in to the woods than she had thought. And with her feet so frozen, she was having a harder time gaining proper footing over the exposed tree roots and large rocks.

              As she lifted her foot over what looked like a fallen branch, she felt her other foot catch in a tree root. With a cry, Natalie fell forward with a hard thud. She winced as she tried to roll to her side, the wind completely knocked out of her.
This is probably why shoes are so handy
, Natalie thought with a twitch of self-deprecating humor. She gave herself a few seconds to gather her wits before she heaved herself up into a seated position.

              Right into the face of a wolf.

              Natalie’s body instinctively broke out into a cold sweat before she had even mentally grasped the situation. Right in front of her, just a step behind the sneaky tree root, stood the most enormous wolf Natalie had ever seen. She’d been to museums and had seen stuffed ones but even those were no comparison to the one that stood before her now. Its head probably stood close to her shoulder and its chest was as broad as her entire body. It was a light gray wolf with a streak of black fur down its head and snout. Natalie’s breathing became shallow and rapid. She gulped as she looked into the large dark eyes of the wolf. They were brown, almost black, yet they had an eerie glow to them. They seemed to radiate some kind of mysterious force that seemed beyond animal, beyond even human.

              What was it you were supposed to do when confronted with a wolf? She had grown up with skyscrapers and traffic. The most strenuous hike she had ever done was through the Hollywood Hills.

              Feeling her heart beating in her throat, Natalie quickly rifled through her mind for any survival tips. Didn’t they say to play dead? Wait, no, that was for bears. Natalie looked at the hulking wolf before her. She felt like she could safely bet that this wolf was probably close to the size of most bears. So is that what she should do? Play dead?

              The wolf gazed at her steadily, not blinking. He wasn’t growling but he certainly didn’t seem like a passive animal. Natalie had a sneaking suspicion this wolf might be too smart to fall for the old possum trick. God, what was she supposed to do?

              Natalie could feel her blood racing through her veins, pumping her muscles full of adrenaline.
Run
. It was a dumb idea. A wolf as large as this would have no problem catching up with her and yet the instinct to flee and run was deep and alluring. Slowly, Natalie brought herself up into a squat. The wolf stood still, not taking its eyes off her yet making no other movements than a swish of his bushy tail.

              Closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath, Natalie threw out a prayer to the heavens. Then without another moment of hesitation, she jumped up and ran as fast as she could back towards the house.

              The air ripped through her lungs as she ran as fast as she’d ever run before. She could hardly feel the ground beneath her feet as she tried to navigate her way through hanging branches or clinging bushes without losing speed.

              There! Less than fifty feet away was the little opening between two bent trees that Natalie had taken to follow Eric. Maybe she could make it. Her lungs burned from the exertion. She was so close. Before she could stop herself, Natalie turned around, unable to quench her curiosity. The wolf surely coul
d’
ve caught up to her by now. But instead of seeing a large wolf chasing after her, she saw a…form.

              The form looked like the wolf she had seen, yet it was slowly changing. The snout was receding while the limbs grew longer. Natalie felt her pulse beating in her ears as she watched in silence the body of man slowly emerging from the shifting form. The body of a running man.
Run!
Natalie turned around and ran for all she was worth. She didn’t know who or what that was but she knew she didn’t want to find out.

              Suddenly the large form closed in around her, wrapping a massive arm around her chest, bringing her down. Natalie screamed as she felt herself pulled down. But instead of landing on the cold ground, she landed on her back on top of her captor, the nameless form taking the brunt of the fall. Before she could try and scramble away, the heavy form rolled over, pinning Natalie onto the cold ground.

              “Little rabbit.”

              Natalie looked up, her eyes wide in shock, unable to believe she was hearing
his
voice. “Eric?” she croaked, too shaken to find relief in seeing someone familiar.

              She was completely pinned under him, her face cradled between his warm hands. Although the ground was wet and cold, his body was like a furnace. She immediately felt her shivering body thawing against him. Looking up, she could see Eric searching her face. His expression was completely indiscernible. Natalie breathed slowly.
Eric
was the…form?
He
was the shifting wolf? What in the hell
was
he?

              Eric brushed away some clinging hair from her forehead. “You’re not hurt,” he said, leaving room for a question.

              Natalie gulped, unable to bring herself to respond.

              Those well-molded lips twitched as he looked down, shaking his head a bit. “Well I guess this is one way to explain myself to you,” he said. “I had been hoping to do it in a less dramatic fashion though.”

              Natalie’s eyes widened. “So…so…last night,
this
is what you meant? This is what you wanted me to know?” A wolf. He was a wolf. Werewolves only existed in horror movies yet here was someone she had just seen transform from animal to man right before her eyes.

              Eric looked up, his face grave. “I wanted you to have the truth. I wanted you to know the whole me.”

              Natalie looked up at him. Less in fear now and more in awed wonder. “Why?” she breathed.

              Eric never broke his gaze. “Because when you finally came to me, I wanted you to have all of me. Just as I will have all of you.”

              The humming of life surrounded them as they lay on the forest floor. With his body pressed so closely against her, she could not only feel his incredible heat but also the intimate thumping from within. His heart.

              “When I come to you?” she whispered.

              Eric nodded. “Freely and willingly,” he said. Brushing his thumbs across her cheeks, he looked down at her with a kind of infinite tenderness that made Natalie’s eyes suddenly burn with tears. “Will you be mine, little rabbit?”

              Natalie closed her eyes and nodded, wrapping her arms around his neck, bringing him closer to her. Exhaustion and relief only heightened her thrilling happiness. “Yes, yes,” she said. Releasing her hold, she smiled up at him. “I will—”

              Eric, face darkened with delighted lust, swooped down to capture her lips in a possessive kiss. No longer feeling the cold or the dirt, Natalie threw herself into the kiss, willingly falling into the drugging haze of his mouth.