Divina didn’t bother getting back into the river. Her injured foot would only cause her more trouble. She started limping slowly back to the trail which led back home, she had to treat her injury before any infection could get to her.

She had been walking around for almost an hour at a slow pace and she was already weak. Counting her steps didn’t help any way but it had served its purpose to some extent.

Her mind was far from reality to the extent that she had missed the trail which would take her to the field which was behind Pa’s house. She had wandered so far away that she couldn’t really say where she was.

Divina noticed that she was now in the middle of thick long trees without leaves. This was far from the woods she knew.

Not sure of where she was she became terrified but her determination to find her way home kept her moving. The next five minutes was spent wandering around the woods until she found a castle up front. She was familiar with the rumor that the castle was inhabited by demons and spirits. Anyone that entered never returned. But someone had bought it and must be living there. It didn’t look dingy or scary as they claimed it to be. It looked like the place had been renovated recently with new roof tiles and glistening windows.

Maybe she could get some help and find her way home. Besides there was a car parked outside it would be very easy for her to get home. It had no gate or fence. She walked up to the door and just as she was about to knock, someone pushed open the door. Surprised at whoever must have done that, the answer was right in front of her. The handsome guy with his dark hair and seductive eyes was definitely no-one else than Kane. His eyes diving into hers like he was trying to get to know her inner thoughts.

She shifted on her feet uncomfortable with the way he was looking at her.

What now? He thought Humans can’t just stay away from danger

“Uhm . . . Hello” Divina tried to muster a few words.

“Yeah, what do you want now?” Kane sounded very rude. Divina flashed him a glare.

“Just a little help that’s all,” Divina could pick out the offensive tone that was laced with heat.

Before Divina could say anything else. Kane had slammed the door on her, made use of his super speed to get an antiseptic bottle, cotton and some bandages.

Although it was hard to find items like that in the house because its inhabitants never made use of them for any reason, Kane was able to ransack the house in split seconds and was at the door with the items.

The urge for blood had now gotten so strong. His dark pupil’s morphed into a red color.

A thick line of deep blood circled around his eyes, which spread to his eye lids and which almost enveloped his face. Quickly he turned back to hide his face from Divina.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Divina asked still very confused.

Kane dropped the items and pushed them with the back of his heel to her. It was very easy for him to do so because all first aid items were placed in an old dusty basket.

“You really need to get that cleaned up,” Kane spoke with urgency in his voice. And shut the door again.

Humans! They can never stay away from danger. Naïve souls. He thought as he ran back to the back of the house, far away from Divina as possible until she had wrapped her injury neatly. Even though he could smell her blood then, the urge would have subsided. Somehow when he was around her, he could feel something he couldn’t explain.

Not like butterflies in his stomach, his heart didn’t skip whenever he saw her, it was something more than that, like they were destined to be together but a mirage of problems and impossibilities stood between them.

“She is still out there,” Kane looked up to see his nephew leaning against the doorframe. To look at them both you would say that Byrd was older than Kane. He had a more mature look to him.

“You could have helped areole,” 

“With the girl or snooping Lycan?” Kane gritted his teeth.

“Both!” he snapped.

What a jerk! Divina thought as she dressed her injury. After taking good care of her injured leg she contemplated on knocking on the door or walking back home. Then she remembered that she couldn’t really find her way home except through his help. Her knuckles hit the door in two quick knocks.

This time it wasn’t Kane who answered the door. Divina couldn’t get her eyes off the person who showed up. Okay, he wasn’t her type, but certainly he was a piece of eye candy. A rugged breed of a male having a complete set of bulging muscles, tattoos and faded scars. Divina could only guess where he had gotten the scars and the hardships of life he had faced.

Divina’s body was reaching supernova levels of heat in an embarrassing, shocking, completely unforgivable act of pretence. The person standing before her now had hard, sleekly muscled physique attested to what she could have called an athletic lifestyle. His body was more than what she could imagine.

Even his forearms were marked by ropey muscles and lean lines of sinew.

Accentuating this look was his dark body hair lying flat against the deep, sun-darkened color of his skin.

Without a doubt, he was the most masculine, athletic person Divina had ever seen. His features couldn’t hide the truth that he belonged there, to the wild, rugged terrain of the forest where the house was situated. As Divina watched him, he flexed his big hands at his sides on purpose of cause. Like he was working out a cramp, his arms rigid, herculean biceps stretched the seams of his white T-shirt. That T-shirt was just a transparent glass for Divina to see through. It was like a fierce wave of tension originated from him, blasting against her face like a hot wind or a cold rush of air in the snow. She was both hot and cold at the same time. It was uncanny and not quite right.

Well, despite all the predatory intensity he seemed to radiate all around him, all but oozing from the least pores to the largest on his body, she wasn’t afraid of him. Somehow, she didn’t think he was bloodcurdling or menacing.

Divina knew how she was feeling, but out of her innumerable vocabulary, she couldn’t just find a word to describe what she was feeling now.

It was like something dark and uncomfortable- yet warm and charming. This didn’t help, it only bolstered her sense of emotional insecurity.

“Well? Am . . .” she snapped from what would have been a fantasy in the unadulterated utopia. Her voice-wispy, having an iota of fear which actually purred at him.

“How can I help you?” His voice hard, developed, delicious and deep embellished around with some roughened edges.

Divina fought the urge to roll her eyes, thinking they certainly grew them breathtakingly big around here, but truth be told-her eyes could do more than that but her concentration had been buried long time ago in the pits of lust. For some seconds, the pain from her injured leg had dissolved.

“What. Do. You. Want?” she asked slowly, mumbling each word incoherently. She regretted that absurd question after she had vocalized the last syllable. She was in no position to ask him what he wanted.

He blinked, a conspicuous corner of his mouth suddenly twitched. A smooth spill of surprise which did nothing but to warm her inside followed. His reaction was more sarcastic with a touch of humor.

“No, am sorry. Kane, I need to see him” Divina tried this time to make sense.

NO! It wasn’t Kane she wanted, all she wanted now was for him to leave her alone. She wanted to just disappear into her room at home to get some sleep. He had been rude and.......  She hoped she would be able to forget this fluttery feeling he had placed in her belly.

Although it felt so damn good. Hazardously delightful-this only propelled her thoughts to a nervous primitive intensity of sexual desire. This was a dangerous trap, she couldn’t have fallen for it, and she didn’t need to fall for it.

In her head she began searching for a successful defensive mechanism. She had to ignore it fast, no matter how good it felt, no matter how the rush in her pulse fondled.

God, he is as sexy-as-hell

“Kane is occupied right now,” he answered. Divina was about to say something but he read her mind and provided an answer before she began her incoherent spree of words.

“I am Mr. Steel,” He said as he stretched his hand to her.

Divina’s eyes almost popped out from its socket, she couldn’t hide her bewilderment.

He is Kane’s father! He was undeniably out of her league, yet he didn’t look old enough to be a father to a young man, maybe that is what living amongst nature did for you.

Byrd was tired of all her fluttery. He was taking her home immediately.

“Am taking you home now,” he said firmly, not aware of the fact that the human may pick up some hints about his feelings.

“Okay,” Divina answered abruptly.

They walked to the car, parked a few strides away from the house entrance. Byrd got in likewise Divina. The car was cozy and looked expensive. But she couldn’t tell the brand. After they got into the car, a thunder suddenly rumbled in the distance, beckoning on an approaching storm. The crisp scent of rain filled the air. They needed to get home fast. Fifteen minutes later, they were on the high way leading to Divina’s home. She hadn’t realized she had wondered that far out.

How was he able to know that I needed to go home? Divina wondered, maybe it was just a lucky guess. But as they approached the untarred road leading to her home, more questions crept into her fact-finding searching mind.

He didn’t ask her for her address, but he was able to get there. How was that possible? The journey had come and gone with a heavy presence of silence. But Divina needed to know more about him.

“Thank you Mr. Steel,” she said calmly. She had gotten over the fantasy of his body.

“No, you can call me Byrd,” he answered briefly.

“If I may ask, you just probably made the guess that I needed to find my way home then?”

“The injury you had, told me so,” Byrd responded sharply. He had hoped that there wouldn’t be any cause for a conversation but this was what she needed.

“Uhm, I got injured in the woods and couldn’t find my way back. But thanks to you . . .”

“What was your business there all alone?” Byrd asked. He thought that the only way he could stop her from further questions was to place the focus on her. In some micro seconds before Divina gave her response, she had noted another thing.

How did he know that she was alone in the woods?

“I just needed a place to be alone. Going through some hard times. My Pa has grown wild. . .”

As much as Divina wanted to gain some bits of information from him. Byrd was working towards the same goal.

“Your Pa had grown wild in what sense?”

“Road accident-It affected some parts of his brain,” Divina responded deliberately withholding the truth and feeding him with her abridged version. She noticed that Byrd’s eyes were keen with interest, so she needed to hide something’s from him.

“Any sign of an animal bite on him?” Byrd asked.

Divina’s suspicion had just been confirmed. He had something to do with the bite or why else would he be asking? And truly there was an animal bite. Or he knew something about what happened to her Pa.

“No,” Divina lied.

Byrd was ready for this game of wit, but a little child was no match for him.

“How was it possible for you to-” Divina was interrupted by the rapid patter of the rain. They pulled up outside her Pa’s house and she quickly, got out of the car and made her way to the doorway. Amy was waiting for her, worry dominated her look.

Amy saw the car leaving, but she couldn’t make out who the driver was. When she saw that her daughter was injured, all thoughts of yelling at Divina were temporarily dispelled. Amy ran to her daughter, placed her arm on hers and attempted to aid her locomotion. Divina shrugged off her arm and walked in without saying a word.

“What happened? Where have you been? I have been worried sick,”

“I take that as a ‘how are you feeling?’” Divina retorted.

“How are you Pumpkin?” Amy asked softy. Exactly what Divina needed.

“My leg . . .” Divina raised her injured leg but was surprised she didn’t feel any pain. Quickly she rolled off the biding just to meet her leg as good as new not even a trace of the scar was seen, the cut had been deep and evidence still lingered on her leg in the form of dried blood.

“Impossible . . .” she said slowly.

“What is it Pumpkin?” Amy inquired.

“My injury, it’s been healed all this while . . .”

“Where did you get, what you used to dress it?”

“Kane, it can’t be Kane . . .” Divina said slowly

“Who is Kane? Tell me what is going on,” Amy now had one hand on her lip and her face a mixture of worry and anxiety.

“Nothing serious Mom,” Divina finally answered.

“You failed to provide me with some answers and you say there is nothing serious . . .”

“Mom, am fine. Everything is okay,”

Amy was now getting irritated. Her daughter was talking in riddles.

“I feel you are hiding something from me, you walk in here with your leg all wrapped up. And all of a sudden you are healed-it’s no magic tell me what is going on!”

It could be magic, but Amy knew that healing spells could only be executed by a superior witch with pungent powers. Even if Divina’s power suddenly surfaced, it would be something deadly.

“I met Kane in the mansion within the woods. . .”

“In the Mansion?”

“No! Not really outside, I didn’t go in,”

“He gave me all I needed to take care of my injury and was off before I could say anything.”

“Then?”

“I met his Dad, who brought me here,”

“That’s all?”

“Yes Mom,”

“Go wash yourself,” Amy told her. What the hell had happened today? Amy was worried. She was confused and in that moment she was scared. Her daughter had changed overnight. Asking questions Amy had hoped she never would. Talking in riddles, she wasn’t the same. Amy had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that nothing would be the same again. Her make believe life would soon crumble around her. The question she asked herself was. Would she be able to stable what was left? Would Divina forgive her once she learns the truth? Or will their relationship be shattered? When she was sure Divina was up stairs. Amy picked up her cell and dialed a number.

“Aiden, a lycan is in town. We need to leave. Call me as soon as you get this message,” Amy left the voice note.

Fifty yards away, Byrd’s ears had picked up their conversation and the voicemail.

Divina wasn’t to be trusted and if his gut was right then they were in deep trouble. He would have to sort the problem before it occurred.