Strange Eyes

It was the wolf. It was him.

It was him who had been standing there in my backyard, on the fringes of the forest. He had been watching me. They all had. This was what they had been waiting for. This is what Hunter and Les had been trying to tell me. I didn’t know why I was there. My mind was a flurry. My skin had erupted with heat, as though it had escaped from Adonis, the wolf, and bled into me.

Adonis’s eyes were there on the creature. The beautiful wolf with the hide that blended into the night itself, turning jet black and blue and a shimmering violet. Power radiated off of him. The creature’s breath mixed in with the night, just as Adonis’ had moments before.

I was astounded.

I stood there, breathing quickly. My body was so tense that I surely would have shattered if anyone would have disturbed me. Hunter hadn’t released my wrist. They all stood around me, staring at the creature that was somehow standing where Adonis had been. But there it was.

It was huge. Menacing, yet graceful all the same. Staring at me with those caramel eyes, standing out yellow against the shade of night. The moon shone down on the sheen of its coat.

Oh my god.

It was all so quick I had no time to react. One moment, I was seeing Adonis there in front of me, yet it wasn’t Adonis. It was something else. He was something else. And then, the next moment, there were flashes of bodies and heat coming from all around me as the others sprang to life.

“Get back, Jane.” A voice said. It sounded like Hunter. I couldn’t be sure of anything as I let them push me behind them, the pack, as they spontaneously filled with movement. They were rigid. A body within themselves. Unified. It was all so strange. My heart was racing, my head was swimming. Blood sang through my veins with shock and adrenaline.

Wildly, I looked around to see them all standing near Adonis, unafraid. They were all connected. One of them, I didn’t know his name, reached out and touched the wolf’s forehead. He muttered some words under his breath that I couldn’t understand. The tongue sounded ancient. Otherworldly. I was so afraid yet so enthralled that I couldn’t move. The way that they stood was protective. Animalistic. I had no idea what they were doing so close to the creature. To Adonis. Whatever it was.

It was then that the wolf howled.

The sound was so loud, so earthshattering, that it seemed to make the woods come alive. The trees moved, animals scurried off. The earth took a breath. Everything moved. It was almost like music, but ragged and untamed. Wild. I couldn’t see the wolf through the circle of bodies.

In the next moment Adonis was there.

He emerged from within them, standing to his feet. He was bared. Stark naked. I had never seen a man naked before. The heat was almost too much. It felt as though I was seeing so many things at once that I wasn’t supposed to be seeing. That weren’t meant for my eyes. He looked wiped out. His body gleamed with sweat. To my horror, he kept eye contact with me as the group broke away from him, one of the men handing him a sweatshirt off of his back.

His muscled form gleamed in the light of the moon. Everything was silver in contrast to his golden aura. His golden eyes. Adonis moved the balled up bunch of fabric onto his lower region, his muscles flexing and gleaming. His face was severe. Serious. He looked at me, as though he weren’t sure how to respond to me. The all-knowing Adonis was stumped by me.

I breathed hard. I didn’t know what had just happened. It was like my brain couldn’t comprehend anything that had taken place in the last forty-eight hours. It was all becoming too much.

I didn’t realize that I had just been standing there until one of them spoke.

“She needs rest.” I didn’t know who he was. He looked the same as the rest of them, dark hair. Astounding physique. He was mysteriously Caucasian-looking, just as the rest of them were. I found Les’ eyes. He looked at me with a strange kind of pity.

Wordlessly, he broke apart from the rest of them. They all watched as he led me back inside of the house. The woods had gone silent but for the rush of the wind in the trees. Adonis had brought it to life, and it was just winding down. I followed Les mindlessly until I was back in my bedroom. I didn’t know what else to call it. A part of me was wide awake. My mind. But the other part of me, my body, was dead tired.

“I don’t want to sleep.” I lied. Les looked at me. “Yes you do.” He said, his dark eyes challenging. He was more serious than I had ever seen him. His face was like stone. Much different than the last I had spoken to him, all smiling and easygoing. Whatever had happened that night, it had completely changed something.

There was a shift. Something was different. Altered forever. I just didn’t know it yet.

As I lay down and began to drift away, Les stood in the doorway, watching me. Always watching.