AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Touching was inevitable.
I tensed for discomfort, and carefully slipped my hands into his fur.
It was… soft.
Really soft.
And the warmth of his body beneath the fur actually felt pretty heavenly.
I had come to despise Allen’s touch so much, I’d started to wonder if I’d ever enjoy physical contact again. But touching Amarok wasn’t so bad when he was in his wolf form. And his hands hadn’t felt bad on my face, either.
Not that I was going to think about that moment again.
“Are you ready?”he asked me.
“Yes,” I lied again.
Once again, he didn’t call me on my lie.
Instead, he started walking.
I had expected him to break out in a run, so it was nice to get the feel of his movement like that first. The rhythmic motion was relaxing, and I didn’t mind at all when he slowly picked up speed, until we were flying through the Peaks.
The wind dragged my hair out behind me, and my body pressed tighter to Amarok’s back as the initial fear faded.
His warmth soaked into my skin as black and red trees flew past us at ridiculous speeds, and I couldn’t help it—my lips stretched in a smile, and then in a massive grin.
Freedom.
That was what freedom felt like.
Despite the wildness of being in a new world and the fear still curling somewhere within me, I was free.
And that waseverything.
We ranthrough the rest of the night, and continued running as the suns began rising in the sky. Amarok finally stopped on an outcropping of the mountain we’d just crested, right beside another stream.
He shifted back, and I ignored his nudity surprisingly well. We drank water and ate another kind of strange fruit, then watched the suns rise in silence for a few minutes. The sky was a mixture of vibrant, molten colors, and I couldn’t help but be in awe at the beauty of it.
Something told me Amarok had stopped there just so I could see it.
Or maybe just sowecould see it.
I didn’t want to consider the implications of either option, so I didn’t ask, and he didn’t offer the information.
When he shifted back and sat on the ground again, I climbed on his back wordlessly. He took off into the trees, and we fell into the rhythmic movement that I was coming to love.
Exhaustion was creepingin by the time we stopped for lunch, and when the suns began setting, I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. I kept dozing off then jerking awake, and couldn’t seem to stop myself.
The suns were still setting when Amarok stopped near another creek—or another place along the same creek—where we could look out at more of the mountains and trees like we had in the morning.
“It’s still light out,” I murmured to him, as I slipped off his back.
I managed all of two steps before I stumbled.
A pair of thick, huge hands caught me by the hips, and my body flushed at the contact. His grip was firm, but gentle, too.
He was being careful with me.
