Chapter Five

"Are we going to act like you didn't just kill four hunters?" We had only been walking for less than four minutes when Aurelius opened his dumb mouth. It was like he didn't understand that we needed to be quiet. Talking is noise; noise means people would hear us. And, people hearing us meant more deaths which was not a good thing. His mortal male brain couldn't wrap around that for some reason. To add to that he didn't even have the decency to at least whisper. His deep voice was at a high volume as if he wanted the whole forest to hear him. You would think he was talking to the trees and not me.

I ignored him and continued walking. My watch let me know there was only two hours left before sunrise. I would continue to walk for those two hours and then once day broke I would find somewhere safe for me to rest. For us to rest. I grimaced at the thought. I couldn't believe this man was now with me. I was supposed to be doing this alone with the only burden on my shoulders being myself and the fear of Psi's. Now I had another person's life added to that and I was incredibly annoyed.

If I was completely heartless I would have left him here in the woods to fend for himself and figure his own way out. If I had done that I would be able to stop worrying about him and his safety. But, since I wasn't heartless I had to make him continue on this quest with me. If I wasn't worrying about Aurelius with him standing by me then I would be worried about what was happening to him if I had just left him. None of the scenarios were good and it was all his fault.

"You did it so viciously too. Had me thinking you were a werewolf for a second." Aurelius continued, laughing nervously after his statement and I turned towards him. Even though I wanted to punch him in his face I couldn't ignore the heat that began to develop in me at the sight of him. He was so handsome it was almost unbelievable. If he was one of my kind I wouldn't hesitate to get him in my bed. But he wasn't my kind, he was human, and I didn't fuck humans. Aurelius was wearing the same clothes he had on in school. Black sweat shorts with a simple white T-shirt. His long feet were adorned in some expensive athletic looking footwear that went along with his color coordinated outfit. He looked comfortable yet styish. I hated it.

"I'm not." I responded after taking my time to look him over. His eyes narrowed at me curiously but I turned my head forward once again. I didn't care about what he had to say. I didn't even want him here.

"Then, how were you able to do all of that? I've never seen a regular human fight like that. You ripped them apart." He countered and I fought the urge to growl at him. He was so annoying and I barely spent an hour with him. He was almost worse than Dominic.

"You're not the only one training to be a hunter. Ok?" I grumbled, allowing the aggravation to drip from my voice.

"If you're training to be a hunter why did you kill four of them?" I let out a frustrated noise and stopped walking. Aurelius stopped his movement also and waited for me to say something. Closing my eyes I calmed myself down before speaking to him. I couldn't be doing irrational things in front of the human. His death was avoidable; if I allowed him to find out I was a werewolf he would have to die. I didn't want to kill him. He was annoying, and he was one of them, but he didn't need to die. He was no real threat to me. He was just dumb.

                "I've decided to switch sides. What we're doing to the wolf people is just disgusting. They've done nothing to us but yet we're trying to wipe out their existence. It's wrong and I want to stop it." Aurelius looked down at me with interest. He was calculating my words, trying to figure out if I was lying or not. My words were part lie and part truth, but mostly truth. Hopefully he would believe me and stop with the questions.

                "How are you planning to stop a whole society of humans from killing off the werewolves? You're only one person Cyra." He said after a moment of silence. I ignored the fact that he pronounced my name the correct way despite the fact that I didn't tell him my name in the first place. I ignored the way my thighs clenched together at the sound of my name rolling through his tongue. And I ignored the way his captivating gaze was making me want to pounce him. Instead I focused on the fact that he was still questioning me. My arousal was simply a distraction and a side effect of me being tired.

                "Do not ever doubt me." I growled out defiantly before turning away from him again. I was officially done talking to the imbecile. How dare he doubt whether I could do this on my own? Did he think I needed help, because I didn't. I could fix this all on my own. All I needed to do was destroy them and everything would be done. That was all there was to it. It was simple.

                But, deep down I knew I wasn't being smart. He was kind of right. Me killing all the hunters I encountered and blowing up their headquarters wouldn't do much. The humans would still have their toxic mindset and would just build another headquarter and mold more hunters. Killing them would do nothing. I had to appeal to their emotions. But, I didn't know how to do that. So, until I figured that out I would keep walking and stick to the original plan. This wasn't going to turn into a civil rights movement. I wasn't going to beg the mortals to see us as their friends and not their enemies. I refused to.

                "I just feel like no thought has gone into this 'plan' of yours. We're walking through the wilderness for Christ sake. What are we supposed to find in the woods? A bear? And what's that's going to do for us? Absolutely nothing. We should just head back and you should forget bout thi-"

                "No. I will not give up. I refuse. If you want to go back home feel free. No one asked you to follow me! Why did you follow me anyway? Are you some kind of stalker?"

                "Stalker?" He stuttered over the word but still gave no answer. I wasn't going to ask him again. But he was going to answer me. Using quick movements I kicked behind m so that my foot hit Aurelius and he would fall onto the ground. My assault proved to be successful and merely a second later Aurelius was grasping his shoulder in pain on the floor of the forest. I felt the urge to comfort him but ignored it. He would be fine; I didn't hit him that hard.

                "Were you sent to go after me?" I asked aggressively, placing my left foot on top of his chest and pressing down slightly. It wasn't enough to cause pain but it was enough pressure to make him uncomfortable. He was in a vulnerable position and it would be in his favor if he answered me.

                Aurelius grunted, grasping my ankle that rested above him. Anger flashed in his eyes and for a mere second I thought his iris had glowed. But it must have been a trick of my imagination or the moon shining through the trees. His eyes were dark, just like his skin, and if it wasn't for the moon and my great eyesight I wouldn't have been able to see him unless he wanted me to. I would barely be able to see the trees around me if it wasn't for my werewolf anatomy.

                A growl rumbled from his throat and abruptly my foot was yanked and I was swept onto the ground. I hissed out in pain as my back hit the rocky floor. Before I could even attempt to get back up Aurelius was looming over me, his strong hands on either side of my face and his thighs entrapping my legs under him.  Maybe he was being trained.

                "That was cute." I said sarcastically, looking up at his face that was only six inches away from mine. I could feel the warmth of his breath as he hovered over me and fought the urge to pull him closer or roughly push him way. What was going on with me?

                "I didn't like that, Cyra. It wasn't nice." His deep voice chastised me and I rolled my eyes. I didn't care what he liked. He could fuck off.

                "Is there a reason why you're still on top of me?" I pondered; the real question was why was I allowing him to still be on top of me. I could've easily switched positions long ago. He was still on top of me because I wanted him to be. And that was gross.

                Biting his arm, I successfully distracted him and was able to lift my upper body up, hitting my chest and shoulder against his. His body lost its balance and Aurelius tried to fix himself but before he could I used my legs to maneuver us so that our positions were reversed. He was once again lying on the ground and this time I was straddling him. I didn't lean over and put my face above his like he did to me. I didn't need that kind of proximity.

                I gasped as I felt something hard underneath me once I had fully seated myself on top of him. I couldn't fight the blush that harassed my face as I realized I had seated myself right on top of his member. I bit my lip as I realized he wasn't hard but yet his size at the moment was somewhat impressive. If I allowed my mind to go where it was going things were going to take a drastic turn and once again, I didn't have time for that. Using logic and sense I decided to scoop my body up to rest on his lower stomach. This position was comfortable for me but not so much for him. I was 130 pounds of curves and muscle and added to the weight of my back pack I was sure Aurelius was having some difficulty breathing. To prove my point Aurelius let out a wheeze, grasping my hips, trying to move me back down. I stayed put. I refused to sit on the devils chair again.

                "Who sent you?" I let out lowly, taking a little of my weight off of him so that he had enough air to form a response.

                "No one sent me; I just got worried about you. Now get off me." He demanded angrily. I didn't move. Worried? Why the hell was he worried about me? I didn't even know the guy but yet I got him worried enough to follow me into the woods. Humans were weird. I would never worry myself into stupidity.

                "What?" Was all I could say as I was still very confused. Aurelius sighed before forcefully gripping my hips and pulling me down his body so I was sitting on top of him again. I bit back a reaction but stayed still. I wasn't going to let him think he affected me in any kind of way. I wasn't weak. Aurelius lifted his upper body up so that his face was near mine again and we were sitting chest to chest with me straddling him in the middle of the forest. Who knew that two strangers that didn't even know of each other's existence before yesterday would end up in this position? Not I.

                "I was worried. Ok? You looked really upset and alarmed in that class we had together. The one about werewolves. I felt like something wasn't right so I followed you. I assumed you were going to head home but you took me off guard by walking into the freaking woods. I heard it's dangerous here so I continued to follow you to protect you. I guess. I think? I don't know." He let out a heavy breath of air due to his frustration with himself and then continued. "Then I watched you kill those hunters so now I know that my presence is useless. You can fend for yourself, I shouldn't have followed you. I was going to head back out the forest and back home when you found me." He finished. I could hear the sincerity in his voice along with the confusion. He didn't understand why he followed me as much as I didn't. The only possible reason was the strong will of his human curiosity. It got the mortals into so much trouble very often.

                "You were right," I started, "I don't need you. Your presence is useless and you've just become a liability. That's all." I remarked, standing up and moving from over him so he could get up. Aurelius took a couple of seconds to finally stand. I didn't know if he was actually struggling or if my words had affected him in some way. But, when he stood up his face was stoic and void of emotion. I assumed the hesitation was due to the former. "You're here and there's nothing I can do about that. If you want to go back home I can take you tomorrow morning after I rest." I offered. I was trying to be nice. It wasn't his fault he wasn't intelligent and decided to follow a stranger into the woods. But, I didn't want him to get hurt and I didn't want him here with me. If he wanted to go home I would risk the chance of anything happening and take him. I would protect him until he was no longer near me. Once he left these woods he was no longer my problem.

                "I'm not leaving you here." He said seriously, leaving no room for me to question. So I didn't. Instead, I told him I would give him until the morning to decide what he wanted to do and ended the conversation. We had talked too much and for too long. The sun was coming up soon and I still hadn't found a resting place. Looking around I noticed a small hill of broken branches not too far from us. We can sleep under the branches and the leaves. That way, if anyone came across us we would be hidden from their sight.

                Light began to seep through the crowns of trees around us as we got closer to the dead branches and I breathed out a sigh of relief when I was finally able to see clear color again. Moving the branches around and listening in for any animal or bugs I checked if the area was safe. I didn't find anything, only a few ants here and there. But it was the woods and this was the ground we were talking about. Ants were to be expected.

                "We're going to rest under here. The leaves and branches will serve almost like a blanket." I told Aurelius, motioning for him to go under the branches I had held up.

                "A blanket?" He gasped incredulously. "Cyra, this is hard and scratchy branches. Not a damn blanket." He complained, crossing his muscular arms over his chest and looking down at the branches with distaste.

                "We don't have time to find anything better. Now, get under." I ordered, leaving no room for argument and he let out an annoyed grunt before obeying and crouching under the branches I held up for him. Surveying the woods once more with my ears and my eyes I checked to see if there were any more hunters lurking around. The sun had almost fully risen so I had no problem seeing anything. My vision went beyond that of humans so everything was in plain sight for me. I detected nothing strange so I followed Aurelius under the branches and lay down onto the earth.

                As soon as I pulled the branches completely over us Aurelius grasped my waist and pulled me flush against him. "What the fuck, Aurelius." I ground out, trying to push away from him and put some space back in between us. His scent was already suffocating me; if I got closer I would just die. I didn't find sleeping next to the smell of wolfsbane preferable. Not only that but I was still trying to tame my strangely intense attraction for him. I had to be pmsing because my behavior wasn't making sense.

                "I'm cold." He was lying out of his ass. The woods were not cold since we were in the spring season almost approaching summer. It might get windy occasionally but not cold.

"Aurelius, it's spring."

"It may seem warm to you but I'm cold. So just stop fighting me, please. I'm tired and annoyed and I just want to sleep." He grumbled, pleading me with his eyes to just let this one thing go. To be honest, I didn't feel like arguing anymore either. I was tired and sleep was begging for me to succumb to it. So sucking up my complaints I moved my body so it was flat against his, rested my head on his broad shoulder, and allowed him to wrap his arms around me, nuzzling his face into the crook of my neck. We were tangled in each other's bodies and I had to admit it was quite comfortable. I hated it.

"By the way, you smell like blood. It's disgusting. We have to find a lake as soon as we wake up to clean you up. Now, sleep tight, Cyra." He muttered and then his breathing began to slowly get shallow and I knew he had fallen asleep. Listening in for any threats one more time, I checked if we were safe. I heard nothing again so I allowed myself to fall asleep in the arms of a stranger.