Page 9 of The Ashpaw: Part One

“Fern!” her mother yelled, sounding like she had called her name many times even though it was the first she’d heard it.

“Aye?”

Her mother’s cheeks were flushed as she bent over the stew, stirring it with a frown on her face. “We need more onions, go fetch them.”

With a nod, she excused herself from the table where she’d just delivered a few pints to head to the storage shed outside.

It was almost summer, but the night air was cool and refreshing compared to inside the tavern. She stepped out, taking a moment to close her eyes and let the sweat on the back of her neck evaporate.

Laughter quieted into something muffled and indistinct as she closed the door, the sound of crickets and katydids soon drowning them out.

Fern inhaled deeply, shaking her head to clear it of the fog that had settled since last night, and then paused when the scent of wolfkin wafted towards her.

They smelled different from humans. Humans were varied in their natural scents, with some smelling like soap or fresh baked bread, while others were ripe and in need of a long bath.

Wolfkin smelled like… she found it difficult to describe. They were muskier, like animals, but did not smell bad. The few wolfkin women she’d met also smelled sweet, but it was mostly men who came through town.

And the men just smelled like… like something she wanted to taste.

She whipped her head around, freezing in her spot as three of the wolfkin from yesterday approached her, the fourth one gone.

“Hello, little Fern,” one of them greeted. “Don’t you know it’s dangerous to be out alone at night?”

She swallowed, her eyes darting between them, fighting the urge to step closer. “Are you calling yourselves dangerous?”

He grinned, his teeth white even in the scant moonlight, and she shivered. “On the contrary. We’re here to protect you from the dangers. Come, we’ll keep you safe.”

Her body naturally swayed towards them, their scents deepening, an unfamiliar sensation heating in her belly.

Fern had good reason to suspect they did not know of her mark, because otherwise they would have taken her back to their alpha already for binding.

This was a different sort of predation.

“My parents keep me safe enough, thank you.”

One of the others stepped closer, tilting his head. “Do they, though? I don’t see them anywhere.”

She lifted a foot to take a step herself, using all of her strength and willpower to bring it back and not forward. “They’re inside. I can go get them.”

Another step back.

Another.

And then she hit a wall of muscle, her body seizing.

That was where the fourth had gone.

Hands held fast to her arms as he dipped his nose between her neck and shoulder, inhaling deeply. She couldn’t keep her head from falling back, her eyelids fluttering closed.

It would be so easy to go with them, she thought. So easy to give in…

“You smell delicious, little human. Almost like wolfkin,” he said, the timbre of his voice resonating through her whole body. “My alpha could mark and bind you for me. Make you mine.”

The thought made her stomach twist, her body reacting in ways her mind recoiled from, and her eyes shot open.

“N-no, please, leave me be.”

“We can smell you,” another one said, much closer than she remembered him being. He crowded her from the front, his hand grasping her chin and forcing her to look up at him. His pupils were fully blown. “You are aroused. Don’t deny it.”