Jack

 

Once again, I find myself in the line of fire. This time, instead of pushing the arrow away, I only lift my hands in surrender and smile at Riley.

“Jack!” She eases off the string and lowers the bow. “You came!” The joy in her voice and eyes is sincere. I didn’t expect anything less. From her whimsical message earlier, I figured she wanted me here.

Still, it didn’t make me come any faster. I drop my hands and tuck them into my pockets. Frankly, finding a stork at my window after Phillip left was quite the surprise. Her message made me laugh, though. And it made me sad at the same time. For a solid hour, I paced my apartment, trying to make a decision. Erase Riley from my life completely, or start something entirely different with her?

A friendship outside of our tale.

I think that’s what she was asking me for in her SMS anyway—if we could have this tiny thing between us, even though we stopped playing our story every day.

Last night was tough. I’ve never had to fight against the call of the forest before. This must be what it feels like to break an addiction. There was a point sometime after midnight when I cursed Riley for doing this to me. But a life totally without her after being bound to her from the onset of fairy tales? It was hard to imagine.

Well, I’m here now, so I guess my decision is clear.

A sigh wants out of my throat, but I force it down. “I can’t let my girl shoot somebody without me, can I?”

She laughs. “Your girl?”

“You’ve been that for centuries, yes,” I answer sentimentally. But then I let a smirk take up residence on my face to ease the annoying lump in my throat. “And I believe it entitles me to co-determine the right happily ever after for you.”

Riley takes a step back and leans against the tree, bow and arrow crossed in front of her thighs. The red cloak accentuates the mischievous spark in her honey-colored eyes. “Oh, you want voting rights in my choice?”

“That’s what I’m saying.” Cocking my head, I tilt my eyebrows once. “And that guy”—I nod toward Arthur in his garden a couple of hundred feet away from us, totally unaware what kind of fate awaits him—“isn’t the right one for you.”

“Thanks. Your concern is duly noted.” She sticks out her tongue at me, which makes me want to teach her another lesson. But she turns away from me, laughing, and draws the bow again, pointed in the same position as before. “Too bad there’re only two of us. And if it’s a tie, it’s my choice that counts since it’s my H.E.A. we’re voting on.”

“H.E.A?”

“Happily ever after,” she explains gossip girl talk to me. Then she utters a curse under her breath.

“What is it?” I whisper, coming to her side to have a closer look at the palace garden. King Arthur isn’t alone anymore. Some of his knights, among them Sir Lancelot, gather around him. That’s a problem for her, indeed.

“Tough luck. Looks like they’re starting a new play.” I don’t know why I’m grinning now. Okay, that’s a lie. I do know why. “This can go on for days, you know. And you can’t shoot Arthur out of his tale.”

“That’s what you think?” Her question sounds very much like a dare. Bow drawn right beside her jaw, one eye closed, the other narrowed for aim, she pulls at the string so hard that the wood bends. The sound gives me chills of the uncomfortable kind.

Riley is an excellent archer. She can shoot a cherry off a tree from three hundred feet away. Six feet of king flesh a short distance from us isn’t a challenge. If I let her fire this arrow now, though, I’ll lose her. I’ll lose our tale and my job. Damnit, she’ll turn my whole life upside down with one shot.

Panic rises inside me, hot like the coals in her granny’s stove. I can’t let her do this. Not so fast. Not today!

Short of a better idea, I lean in to her ear just when she’s ready to let go and drawl, “They say Guinevere ran off because he stinks like a polecat.”

Her eyes jerk open, and she stiffens in shock, but the arrow is gone. Holding my breath in terror, I whip around and track its path. It’s a short miss on Arthur, the arrow zooming past his face, embedding in the tree behind him. The thud echoes loudly, the sound carrying over to us.

Riley and I stand rigidly in the bushes, staring at Arthur like ghosts shut out from a haunted castle. Tracing the direction where the arrow came from, he swings around. I don’t know who’s more shocked, him or us. But he sure gets out of his stupor quicker than we do. Arm stretched out, a finger pointing at our hideout, he yells at those who swore him fealty, “Invaaadors!”

Next thing I know, a hoard of knights in tinny armor raise their swords and comes barreling toward us. My heart kicks into gear. Because Riley still stares at the lost arrow, paralyzed, I grab her hand and drag her with me. “Run!”

It takes half a second before she switches into flight mode, and I don’t have to pull so hard on her hand anymore. As we jump over the underbrush, she straps the bow to her back. The weapon out of the way, she finally moves faster, and we have a chance of escaping our pursuers. But with my supersensitive hearing, I realize there’s a whole new problem behind us. Hoofbeats. King Arthur sent his mounted henchmen after us, and they will catch us in less than a minute.

Great! Just what I wished for when I decided to seek out Red Riding Hood here. Becoming a target myself.

Riley runs fast, but her legs are a lot shorter than mine. I could be out of here in three seconds. She can’t.

“Get on my back!” I shout as we reach the beaten track.

“What?”

“Don’t question! Just do it!” I let go of her hand and will the Wolf inside me to the surface. Falling from a two-legged sprint into a four-legged one without missing a beat, I sidle up closer to Riley. A little screech escapes her, but at my nudging on her hip with my flank, she finally catches on. Her frightened hands clasp my fur. Two more steps and she throws herself on top of me, slinging her arms around my neck. I give her another second to straddle my back, then I really accelerate, pounding my paws on the dirt.

Because she keeps me in a terrified chokehold, I’m confident that she won’t get lost if we go cross-country. It’s the only chance we have to outdistance the galloping army closing in on my haunches. As we slip through the bushes and jump over some fallen wood, Riley whimpers in my ear. “By Grimm’s undying soul! Jack, you will kill us.”

No, her lovely King Arthur will kill us. And it’s all her fault. I refuse to be the impressive wolf hide hung on the wall in his cold throne room tonight.

With a good lead on the horsemen, I keep an eye out for a hiding place and skitter to a halt when I spot something like a fox’s den or a badger’s burrow in the roots of a giant cypress tree.

“Why did you stop?” Riley hisses, and it feels like she’s anxiously turning around to look out for our followers.

Because I can’t speak as a wolf, I shake her off my back. With a protesting humph, she lands in the moss. Sniffing the den for residents, I find nothing. There’s no animal in it—probably hasn’t been for several weeks. I hustle Riley toward the entrance, and when she’s finally crouching in front, I push her inside with my snout. Fortunately, the den is big enough for both of us. I crawl in after her, careful that my tail doesn’t stick out when the hooves of the kingmen’s horses tromp past outside.

We huddle together in the darkness and stare out. Riley is shaking like a leaf. Her erratic breaths puff into my ear, which is quite uncomfortable because, so close, it has the power of a wind gust. My ear twitches uncontrollably at each blast.

Well, I’m sure she didn’t imagine that her first encounter with her adorable king would end in a deadly hunt.

After a couple of minutes, the sound of galloping fades away, and no more knights seem to follow. Phew. That was close.

“Do you think they’re gone?” Riley hisses in my ear.

I wasn’t prepared for that. With a tortured yip, I cringe away. Riley jerks, too. And suddenly, her shriek breaks through the den behind me. The little light coming from the entrance is just enough to highlight that she’s falling—or about to.

Zooming after her, I only catch her cloak with my teeth. I have to dig all four paws into the ground to keep from being pulled after her as she dangles in the air. Crap, I have no idea where I maneuvered us but, apparently, this is not a badger’s nest. In the darkness behind us is an abyss, and Riley is hanging over the edge with only my hold on the red fabric keeping her from plummeting to her death.

“Jack! Get me out of here!” she cries in sheer panic, her weight dragging me closer to the edge. I get a glimpse down and, holy twisted hat of the Mad Hatter, the hole must be sixty feet deep. There’s a little coffee table with a peacefully burning candle casting a faint light at the bottom of the abyss. The black-and-white-checkered floor spans the length and width of a tiny, square room with one small door on the left.

Awesome! I guess we found the rabbit’s hole.

“Jaaack! Please!” The shriek assaults my ears. Instinctively, I flatten them.

Oh, right. Red Riding Hood! I start pulling at her cloak until she comes back over the edge. A relieved breath wheezes out of her lungs once she’s safely back on the ground. We should really get out of here. The entrance to Wonderland is not a place to toy with. I lower my muzzle and whine, giving Riley a push with my forehead.

She nods, understanding my hint. On her hands and knees, she crawls out of the den first. Because there’s next to no room in the burrow to move, my snout presses to her skirt-covered bottom. In wolf form? That’s asking for trouble.

As the sweet scent of innocence drifts to my nostrils, my head gets a little woozy. Weird thoughts spring to my mind. I salivate. If there weren’t a dress and her cloak between us, I would probably be lashing out now and stealing a taste of the forbidden apple.

I can barely shake off the urge when Riley disappears from the exit, and sunlight blinds me. For a brief second, I can’t see anything. Heck, where did she go? I need to breathe that fragrance in again. It’s so delicious.

Shaking my head once, I find her standing a couple of feet away from the tree, patting dirt off her cloak. Don’t bother, babe, I like it dirty. I can do nothing about the low growl that rumbles from my throat as I prowl closer to my prey. Heat sizzles through my entire body, raising my hackles and putting all my senses on high-alert. Damn, I need to screw or eat someone. Preferably both, in that particular order.

Riley’s wary gaze finds me and lingers. Right, that’s the perfect mix. Innocence and a dash of fright. She couldn’t tease me any more than this if she tried.

“Jack? Is everything all right?”

It will be, honeydrop, when you bend over for me.

“Could you please stop that?” Her hands flash out defensively, and she stumbles back a few steps until she hits a tree. “You’re scaring me.”

I’m not going to hurt you. My eyes turn to slits as I sneer. Well, not very much.

Body and hands flattened against the trunk behind her, she’s trapped. Nice. A luxurious snarl escapes from between my teeth. I’m really hungry.

“Okay, listen! This is not funny!” The anger in her voice doesn’t override the fear in her eyes. And it sure won’t make me stop. She denied me a decent granny dinner yesterday, so I guess it’s only fair that I swallow Red Riding Hood now instead. She looks much more tender than the old lady anyway. I bet she tastes devilishly good.

Taller than the average wolf, my eyes are at the level of her perfect, apple-shaped breasts when I reach her. Her chest lifts and falls with her anxious breathing. A titillating sight, and a good place to sink my teeth in, but there’s something else drawing me in harder.

I dip my head low and search out the wonderful scent of the sweet innocence between her legs again. Shish kebob or shag? What do I go for? My mouth waters. Would she scream if I tore her clothes off with my teeth right here against the tree?

“Good Grimm! Are you sniffing me?!”

Her outraged voice echoes around us, but I don’t hear what she’s saying anymore. This other part of her speaks to me much louder and clearer. All right, so the shag it is. The thick fur at my nape rises in anticipation. Finally, I have this girl exactly where I’ve always wanted her. At my mercy. And from the tearing hunger still boiling in my veins, cooking my blood, I can no longer promise that I’ll have any patience with her. She’s mine. To take. To play with. And to eat when I’m done with her.

Except, Riley tugs her cloak closed in front of my muzzle as if she’s shutting a door. “Lay off, you pervert! I’m not a dog!” And then a sharp twinge shoots from my nose up to my eyes as she boxes me on the snout.

Yipping in pain, I back down, crossing my front paws over my muzzle on the forest floor. Tears spring to my eyes. I actually forgot how much this hurts. Like someone’s doing a root canal without anesthetic. The smack was enough to clear the haze from my mind. I’m back in control but, hell, that was close.

As the pain eases, I lift my head to look at Riley. She’s still pressing against the tree, and the fright is quite apparent in her eyes. Only now, she’s holding her bow, arrow aimed at me.

To give her the proof of safety, I change back to the man I am ninety percent of my life. Slowly coming to my feet, I don’t let her gaze escape mine. She’s good at trailing tracks. The apology in my eyes shouldn’t be hard for her to read. “I’m sorry. You can lower the bow now. I won’t hurt you.”

A weak, almost hysteric, and very, very insecure “huh” escapes her.

I step up to her and carefully lower her weapon. “Promise.”

After some resistance, she relents with a deep sigh. But then she runs a hand through her wild hair. “Holy land of plenty, Jack! What got into you?”

There’s no use lying to her now. That was a close call, and with her stupid idea of going on tale strike, she’s not only casting a painful spell of abstinence on me but also putting herself in deadly danger.

“Instincts took over. It’s a damn struggle, and it hurts. I don’t know how much longer I can withstand the call of the woods. Or the story.” When she tucked the arrow back into her quiver, I take her hand, pleading with her. “Don’t you feel it, too?”

Her eyes widen in shock, but not from fear like before. I think there might be sympathy shining in them now. “Well, yeah. Probably. It feels weird. Like someone’s constantly trying to meddle with my mind and make me go in another direction than what I want. But I guess it’s harder for you than for me because you also have to fight against the Wolf inside you.” Her gaze turns a notch softer. “I’m sorry, Jack. I didn’t mean to hurt you with all this. But I can’t just turn back now. Can you understand that?”

Yes, I can. It doesn’t mean I have to like it. And since we’re obviously going on with this odd adventure, we need to take some precautions—put rules in place—for her safety. Because it won’t be long before the Wolf comes out again. And the next time, I’m pretty sure he’ll choose food over the shag. I tug at her hand and head off along the path leading back to her house in Glitter Hollow.

My strides are fast, and she’s falling in and out of a jog to keep up with me. “Where are you taking me?” she demands, panting.

“Home.”

“Why? I haven’t caught me a prince yet.”

“Your love arrow is lost, and it’s getting late,” I growl. “You can go on a prince hunt again tomorrow.”

I don’t know if it’s my commanding voice that shuts her up, or the sympathy she still holds for me because of what I told her earlier. Whichever, I’m just glad we don’t have to start a discussion over it now.

A little while later, her hut appears in front of us. Pulling Riley up the steps of the small porch, I open the door and then push her inside.

She whirls around to me with worry in her eyes. “What’s going on?”

Sweat is beading on my forehead. Shit. I was hoping I could hold the Wolf back for a little while longer, but it’s rebelling inside me so hard that I’m actually thinking about eating Riley in the form I’m in right now.

Get a grip, Jack!

Squeezing my eyes shut, I shake my head once. Then I turn back to her with stern insistence in my gaze. “Lock the door and all the windows. And if I come to you tonight, you better not open.”

Her lovely lips part with shock. Good. Finally, she understands the gravity of her decisions. I force my hand to remain steady as I gently stroke my knuckles over her pale cheek. “Riley?” I rasp, demanding her acknowledgement.

Reluctantly, she nods, giving me her promise. Releasing an actually painful breath, I turn around and trudge down the steps, walking away.

“Jack?”

At her quiet voice, I stop but don’t turn around, only grumble, “Mm?” with my hard gaze on the dark forest in front of me.

The sound of her soft footsteps on the wooden planks drifts from the porch. “Will you be all right?”

Without giving her an answer, I leave.

Hopefully, the girl does what she’s been told for once. Since I have no idea what my Wolf will do if freed in this agitated state, I better not take any chances with her. She’s so breakable and innocent. In her naivety, a simple lie might be enough for her to let me in. And that will probably be the end of Red Riding Hood altogether.

I don’t want to hurt Riley. Desperately running my hands through my hair, a deep growl erupts from me. Fuck. It already begins. In this unpredictable state, I can’t return to my own apartment. A locked bedroom door won’t keep me trapped for long.

The forest hazes through my vision as I take a turn to Castle Grove and forge on through the clutter of trees and bushes, stumbling from one side to the other, sometimes catching hold of the rough bark of a tree trunk, other times just falling to my knees. It takes an immeasurable amount of willpower to fight against the Wolf on the rise. He can’t come out yet.

Rubbing the sweat from my face, I try to figure out where I am. The pink tips of a castle loom behind the crowns of a line of ash trees. Thank Grimm, it’s not so far anymore.

As I fight forward, my breathing becomes increasingly labored until I cross a stone bridge over a moat and finally fall against a heavy wooden door. With a weak fist, I hammer against it as hard as my waning strength allows.

Even though it’s probably only seconds, it feels like hours until someone opens up. A shooting star of relief zaps through me as I look into the shocked blue eyes of the only person in Fairyland I trust my life to.

Grabbing the doorframe for support, I pant, “Phil! You need to help me!”