by Cynthia Hart
“It’s just your infatuation stage,” Dana said when I told her about what had happened. We were in the convenience store together. Other friends spent time at café’s having drinks and catching up. We were both sick of the café. We ran errands together. “It will blow over, and then you’ll see everything differently.”
“Like how you saw everything differently with Josh and now you guys are engaged?” I asked.
Dana shrugged. “The reality was just as good at the fantasy with Josh,” she said. “I don’t know about Hemming, though. There are rumors around town.”
I rolled my eyes. “There are always rumors around town. Just because he’s different doesn’t mean he’s wrong.”
“People are saying he’s weird. He keeps to himself. He doesn’t want to talk to anyone – besides you – and the cottage seems scarier now that he’s there, not better. Who would take up an abandoned cottage instead of one of the places in town, anyway?”
I chuckled. “People have nothing better to do with their time than mind other people’s business. And I happen to like the cottage, I don’t blame him for wanting to stay there.”
Dana looked at me with an oh-really face.
“What?” I asked.
“You just like the cottage because he’s staying in it. You were a frontrunner on how haunted it is.”
I laughed. “Yeah, when we were kids. Come on, Dana. There’s nothing wrong with the guy.”
We’d walked through all the aisles in the convenience store, stocking our baskets. Murray paged through a magazine. He closed it when both our baskets were on the counter.
“Morning, ladies,” he said.
We both smiled at him.
“Did you hear about the attacks?”
I frowned.
“What attacks?” Dana asked.
Murray raised his eyebrows. “The police station has issues warning. John Farley got attacked yesterday at the bottom of his farm. You know he flanks the forest. Apparently, it was a man that grabbed him, pulling him into the trees.”
“Is he okay?” I asked. I knew John Farley – we used to steal fruit from his farm when we were kids.
“He’s in the hospital in Dunfair. It’s not good. They issue a warning to all the town’s folk to stay away from the trees. You should watch out, Alice, what with you running that way all the time.”
I swallowed. What kind of danger had I been in without knowing about it?
“That’s creepy,” Dana said. Murray rung up our things, first Dana’s and then mine, and Murray filled us in on the details. Farley had said that the man had had super human strength. He’d tried to fight back – Farley wasn’t a small man – but he’d been crushed like he was nothing. The attacker had sharp teeth and eyes that glowed in the dark.
By the time we paid and left the attack had become a ghost story with blood and gore.
“That’s crazy,” Dana said when we got into her Jeep. “I’m so glad I live in the middle of town. You have to watch out, though. Maybe change your jogging route?”
I shook my head. “Don’t be silly. It’s not a monster or anything – you know how rumors can grow. It was probably a robber or something, and he had already moved on. Farley is so far out of town he would be a great target.”
Dana shook her head, hands clutching the wheel as we pulled off.
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to watch out, though,” she said.
I nodded. I wasn’t thinking about my own safety, though. Hemming was on my mind. His cottage was nestled so far in the trees it hard to tell where the cottage’s land ended and the forest began. Would he be in trouble? He was muscular and taut. He would be able to take care of himself, I was sure.
When I finished my chores around the home – cleaning and washing and some gardening work – I got onto my bicycle and pedaled down the road. My little route went faster now that I was on wheels and I reached Hem’s cottage in no time. I leaned the bike against the gate post and walked into the garden, following the path that cut through the grass. The garden was unkempt, neglected for years. The grass was knee-high, the shrubs taking over the garden and two trees desperately needed a trim. If I hadn’t known for a fact that Hemming stayed here while he was in town, I would have thought the place was as abandoned as always.
It was definitely as creepy as always. I had told Dana that I quite liked the place, but it had been a lie. She’d been right, the statement had been because of Hemming.
I had forgotten how run down and neglected the cottage was. I was surprised the inside was still intact enough to live in without freezing to death or getting wet during our rainy season.
The wind picked up, only a slight breeze but it was enough to make me shiver. The leaves rustled in the trees, and it sounded like whispers that carried bad news. The feeling of fear and desperation hung in the air. I hadn’t picked up on these things as a child – it was scary, and it was enough reason to stay away – but now that eerie, haunted feeling was distinct. Even as a grownup I could feel it.
I rubbed my arms. This was silly. The place couldn’t be haunted – we had believed in ghosts as children.
The cottage loomed over me when I neared it, the windows seemed like soulless eyes, the door a mouth stretching into a silent scream.
I swallowed hard and pushed my silly fears away. I lifted a hand and knocked three times. The wood was worn, almost silver with age and my knock sounded hollow. When nothing happened, I knocked again. Maybe Hem wasn’t in. The place seemed deserted.
I was just about to turn around and walk away when the door creaked. I jumped, fear licking up my spine. Hem stood in front of me.
“God, you’re here,” I said. My heart hammered in my chest, my breathing was shallow. It was like I had gotten the fright of my life even though I shouldn’t have been that bad.
Hemming nodded. Everything about him was the way it always was when I saw him, but something was a little off. I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“Alice, hi,” he said. He sounded unsure, his voice deep. His eyes darted around his neglected little garden and the beyond. “What are you doing here?”
I frowned. “I came to visit. Unless it’s a bad time?”
Hemming looking haunted himself. His eyes were wild, darting back and forth, not resting on my face a moment longer than was necessary to make eye contact.
“Uh, no. Of course, come in.”
He stepped back and let me in. I hesitated before I put my foot through the door. The cottage was neat inside, albeit old and neglected for many years. Hemming had been keeping it clean. The little front room barely had any furniture – save for a wooden rocking chair, a cooler box and a moth-eaten rug the place was empty.
“Are you okay?” I asked Hemming. He stood to the side, and he seemed jumpy. He fidgeted, his hand never staying still.
“Fine, perfectly fine,” he said. I didn’t believe him at all. I nodded and walked toward the rocking chair, sitting down.
“I wanted to say thank you for the other morning,” I said. “It was great.”
Hemming flashed a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Something was wrong but if he wasn’t going to tell me I wasn’t going to push for it.
“I have the day off if you want to do something,” I said. Yes, I was being forward and initiating contact. I wanted to spend time with Hemming though. I wanted him to know that I was as interested as he seemed to be.
Hem walked to the cooler box with long strides and sat down on it. The box groaned under his weight.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to spend time together, today,” he said. “I have a couple of things to do, people to meet.”
I nodded, not knowing what to say.
“I thought I should tell you,” I said after a moment of silence, “Apparently there has been an attack a bit further down at the edge of the forest.”
“What?” Hemming said, his eyes locking on mine. They were dark and restless. “What did they say?”
He was being weird. Parano
id.
“Just that John Farley – you remember him, right? – is in hospital in Dunfair. They say it was a monster, but you know how they exaggerate around here.”
Hemming nodded and looked down at his hand. He picked at a thread on his jeans.
“Anyway, I thought you should know since you’re so close to the edge of the forest. They’re saying the thing lives in the woods.”
Hemming’s eyes darted to mine and away again. Whatever was bothering him was bad enough to interfere. After another moment of silence, I got up.
“Anyway, I just wanted to say hi,” I said. “I’m going to get going.”
Hemming nodded and stood up, too. He opened the front door for me. It felt like he was throwing me out even though I had been the one to decide to leave. I turned around as soon as I was outside. Hemming had already closed the door halfway, and it felt like a slap in the face.
“I apologize for imposing,” I said in a tone of voice that suggested I didn’t think I was the one that needed to apologize. Hemming nodded, his eyes vacant, his attention somewhere else. When he didn’t answer, I turned on my heels and marched away.
I heard the door close behind me, and a part of me turned to stone. If he wanted to be like this… maybe the rumors about him were true. What did I really know about him, after all? I’d been on one date, and nothing more and anyone who had been in town before Hemming had left could see he had changed.
The wind picked up again, and the whispers that came with it carried a warning. I fought the urge to run out of the garden like a scared child, but I walked faster and faster, letting myself out of the gate. I got onto my bike and pedaled away as fast as I could.
I wasn’t running away, I told myself. I was just leaving something behind that never was in the first place.
Chapter 5
He was a werewolf. Maria had known that from the start. It was Gina who she’d discovered first, and Gina had taken her to the pack meeting so the alpha could find out more about this human who wanted to know about the myths that were true.
Embermane wasn’t just a wolf, though. He was something more – maybe it was the alpha side of him that showed. Or maybe, just maybe, it was his magic that made Maria feel like she was the one that had been chosen. Embermane’s magic sought her out, and she couldn’t escape it, no matter how hard she tried.
The power had gone out. The house was dark and quiet and the night had an eerie quality to it, something in the air was so strong and so heavy she felt she could touch it if she reached out her hand.
She was too scared to, though. It was like when she was a child, and she wouldn’t hang her arm or her leg down the side of the bed because what if something under the bed grabbed it? Even if she knew for a fact, there was nothing under the bed, and there never would be.
A sound in the kitchen made Maria jump. Scraping against the kitchen window gave her shivers. Foreboding hung in the air. Fear clutched at her throat. The kitchen was empty. She swept the flashlight across the room, the beam grazing the edges of the appliances. There was nothing there. At least, not in the light. In the darkness, beyond the edges of the flashlight beam though, anything could be hiding.
A loud knock on my door made me jump. I slammed the book shut and squeezed my eyes closed for a minute. It was just a story. None of this was real. I swallowed hard and opened my eyes. The knock on the door sounded again, and I got up. It was almost completely dark, and I flicked on lights as I walked to the front door, chasing the darkness away. This was what I got for reading stories about monsters and magic well-passed sunset.
“Coming,” I said when the knocking on the door started up a third time. When I opened the door, Hem stood in front of me
“Hi,” he said.
I folded my arms over my chest. I wasn’t in the mood for him and his mood swings.
“Hi,” I said tightly.
“Can I come in?” he asked.
I didn’t want to let him into my space. I wanted to be mad at him for treating me like I was an intruder in his world. Okay, so we didn’t know each other very well, and maybe I had been intruding. But I’d thought he liked me. That kiss…
I shook it off.
“Yeah, okay,” I said, giving and stepping to the side. Hem walked passed me and the night following him in, clinging to his clothes. He smelled wild, like the forest and the little creatures that lived in it. Maybe it was because of the cottage, the fact that he was so close to the forest he was practically in it.
“I came to apologize,” he said. “My behavior earlier was uncalled for.”
I nodded. It had been uncalled for.
“I guess I shouldn’t have arrived unannounced,” I said. “I just wanted to warn you about the attacks. You know, with you being so close to the forest.”
Hem shifted his weight from one foot to the other and looked over his shoulder to the closed front door like he was looking for an exit. What was his deal?
“If you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to be,” I said. It came out more hostile than I meant it. Hem looked at me.
“No, no. I want to be,” he said. His voice was low. His eyes were piercing, boring into my soul. The atmosphere changed. The night, the wild feeling, turned into something warm. Something warm and strong and… home. Hemming’s eyes were Mercurial, a silver so bright it was unnatural. No one could have eyes like that, could they? Something slid behind them, and it made me shiver.
Hem lifted his hand and touched my cheek with his fingers. It was a small gesture, very similar to what he had done in the shop, almost as if he couldn’t help but touch me. Something about the scenario felt uncomfortably familiar.
I didn’t have time to think about it.
The moment his fingers touched my skin my body charged with that same electric current as before. Heat flooded my body. Hem’s pupils were dilated, lips parted, his eyes sliding down to my mouth. I knew what he was thinking, what he wanted. And I wanted it, too. The heat that surged through my body pooled between my legs. Somewhere at the back of my mind, a little voice shouted that I barely knew this man, that there was something about him…
I pushed it away. The atmosphere charged. Hem closed the distance between us, hand hands cupped my cheeks, and his lips landed on mine. The kiss was as magical as it had been before. Everything fell away – the room we were standing in, the feeling of foreboding, the strange events earlier in the day – and it was just us and the strange sensation that hung in the room and pulled us together.
Hem’s tongue darted across my lips, asking. I opened my mouth, letting him in and he kissed me harder, tasting me. My breathing was erratic and shallow. Hem pressed his body against mine, and I felt the urge in his pants. It mirrored my own.
We stumbled through the house, knocking books off the shelf in the passage and bumping the door to the bedroom against the wall. We collapsed on the bed in a tangle of limbs. Hem clawed at my clothes, pulling them off clumsily. I returned the favor and bit by bit, and a flurry of passion and something I couldn’t put my finger on, we stripped down until we were skin on skin.
Hem was everything he hadn’t been when we’d gone to school together. I paused to look at his body in the dim light of the bedside lamp. His muscles bulged on his shoulders, his chest, narrowing into individual squares on his abdomen. The muscles rippled under his skin when he moved. He was well-endowed, his body eager for me, reaching out hard and urgent, the tip slick with lust. I let my gaze travel up to his face.
Hem’s eyes had been on me all this time. There was something primal about him – rugged and animalistic. I shivered. I wanted him. I wanted this… I didn’t know what it was. But I wanted it, needed it. I knew that I had to think about this. I knew if I jumped with my eyes closed now I would make a mistake.
And I knew that if I passed this up, I would never have it again. I didn’t know how I knew, but Hem wasn’t here to stay. I had him now but where would he be tomorrow?
I pushed everything away. My mind was a mess tha
t only distracted from the ache at my core, the urge to have him all to myself, to have him inside of me.
As if he knew what I was thinking, Hem kissed me again. It was sensual this time, without losing its urgency, and he crawled over me. My thighs fell open for him, and I gasped into his mouth when I felt him at my entrance.
He only gave me a moment to anticipate what was going to do before he pushed into me. I gasped, a low moan escaping my lips. He slid into me, filling me, my body yielded and gave way to his size.
When he was all the way into the hilt he paused, and I gasped, relishing the feel of him between my legs. I felt full. I looked into his eyes and something passed between us. The atmosphere that had surrounded us had closed in, and the same thick, heavy air was inside my lungs now. I breathed deeply, in and out again.
Hem started moving inside me, and I forgot all about the atmosphere and focused on what I felt inside me. The friction was delicious. I couldn’t remember when last I’d felt this satisfied and in the moment. He pulled out almost all the way before he pushed into me again. I cried out, feeling him brush against all my good spots. I closed my eyes and surrendered to the feel of him and the control that I was willingly giving him.
Slowly, Hem picked up pace. The sex became harder and faster, more intense. Hem’s body moved over me, covering me, his hips bucking against mine. He thrust into me and pulled out again in a rhythm that, for that moment, defined my existence.
An orgasm built up inside me. It started at my core. My muscles twinged, and I relished in anticipation of what was to come. Hem changed pace, slowing down. He drew it out, teasing me, making me want it so much more.
I complained and protested. I lifted my hips and moved with him. After a while of agonizing, Hem picked up his pace again. My orgasm kicked into a new gear, and I closed my eyes, allowing it to take over.
It happened suddenly. It washed over me like a wave and my muscles contracted and released. I grabbed onto Hem’s shoulders, my nails digging into his skin. My body curled around his and I opened my mouth in a silent scream.
When the orgasm finally faded I breathed in and out hard. Hem’s eyes were on me, an expression I couldn’t read on his face. He picked up his motion again. I was sensitive now, tight, my muscles clenching around him. The movement was that much more intense.