Daylight brought a slightly warmer breath into the forest, but inside that stone cave the air still felt damp and cold.
Sunlight slowly shifted through a narrow gap among the wild vines, forming a bright line that split the darkness of the cave floor.
Valerie still sat leaning against the rocky wall, hugging her knees.
It was so cold.
The chill crept up from the ground, piercing to the bone.
Her eyes felt heavy and sore from a sleepless night because of the exhausting escape.
But she didn’t dare close them even for a minute.
“If I sleep now, what if those hunters suddenly come?
Or…
what if this creature wakes up and eats me?” Valerie murmured with a trembling voice in her heart.
Every time her eyes blinked too long, the image of those cruel hunters and the half-wolf figure next to her made her heart pound hard.
Valerie turned her head, looking at the big man still lying on the ground.
The silk cloth she had torn from her beautiful white dress had now turned completely a deep, dark red.
That blood was already dried, sticking tight to the terrible wound on the man’s leather coat.
His breathing sounded a little heavier and steadier than a few hours ago at dawn, but he still showed no sign of opening his eyes.
Valerie breathed out long.
She tried to move her stiff fingers smeared with dried dirt.
Groooowl…
Grumble…
Her stomach began to make a faint rumbling sound, reminding her she hadn’t eaten anything since fleeing from her family’s grand house in the human city.
The hunger mixed with a choking thirst in her throat.
She looked out through the cave gap, watching the green leaves sway gently in the afternoon breeze.
Outside there might be a water source or wild fruit, but stepping out meant risking meeting those bastard hunters who might still be roaming around the slope.
“I must not be reckless,” Valerie whispered to herself very softly.
She turned her face back toward the wolf-man.
In the cave’s dimness, a pair of gray furry ears on his head twitched slightly, as if catching a distant vibration.
Valerie jolted!
She slid backward until her back hit a sharp stone jutting from the cave wall.
“Ah!” Valerie stifled a small cry so she wouldn’t make noise.
Her eyes widened when she saw the man’s fingers begin to claw at the rocky ground with fierce strength.
Screech!
His nails made a squealing sound on stone that made her wince.
His breathing suddenly turned ragged, like someone drowning and clawing for air.
His broad chest heaved drastically, making the makeshift silk bandage at his back stretch again.
Valerie could see the muscles in his arms tense hard, big veins popping under his pale skin.
Before Valerie could think what to do, he snapped his eyes open with a sudden jerk.
Those eyes…
they weren’t human at all.
His irises blazed a bright golden yellow in the cave’s gloom.
The gaze radiated such a thick threat that the atmosphere in the stone room grew heavy and suffocating.
“Who…” the man growled low, voice hoarse like a broken machine grinding in his throat.
Valerie froze.
She couldn’t speak a single word because her tongue suddenly felt numb.
He didn’t wait for an answer.
With speed impossible for someone who had just been dying and lost so much blood, his huge body lunged forward.
Pure predator instinct seemed to seize his recovering consciousness.
Snatch!!
Before Valerie could lift a hand to protect herself, an unbelievably strong grip locked around her neck!
“AAARGH!!!” Valerie screamed as her body was lifted easily then shoved back brutally.
Thud!
Her back slammed into the hard cave wall with force, leaving her vision dizzy for a moment.
The man’s grip on her throat felt like a hot iron loop, cutting off air to her lungs instantly.
“TELL ME WHO SENT YOU?!” he barked sharply.
His face was only inches from Valerie’s.
Valerie could feel his hot breath on her skin.
The wolf ears on his head stood rigid in fierce defense, while his sharp fangs showed as he growled.
His sharp nails began to bite into her neck, causing a burning pain.
“Le-let me go…
ahhh…” Valerie whimpered, trying to swat his muscular arm with the last of her dwindling strength.
“Was it those bastards who sent you to finish their job here?!” he roared again, ignoring her weak protests.
His golden eyes locked onto Valerie with hatred and high alert.
To him, anyone near his body when he woke wounded was a threat aimed at killing him.
The Alpha instinct inside demanded absolute defense, demanded blood from anyone deemed a danger to his survival.
Valerie felt her world spin.
Oxygen was nearly gone and the pain in her neck intensified as he tightened mercilessly.
Tears spilled from the corners of her dusty eyes and ran down her cheeks.
“Damn…
if this keeps up I’ll die choked by the creature I saved last night!” Valerie thought in panic and despair.
“I SAVED YOU, DAMN IT!!” Valerie screamed hysterically with the last air she could gather.
The high-pitched scream echoed through the small cave, bouncing between cold stone and creating repeated echoes.
That desperate, terrified cry seemed to cut through the fog of anger and defensive instinct gripping the wolf-man.
He suddenly stopped.
The growl died in the air.
His bright golden eyes blinked a few times, staring sharply at Valerie’s face now flushed from lack of oxygen.
He watched the tears soaking her cheeks, then slowly his gaze dropped to her torn clothing.
He saw the white dress shredded at the bottom.
The expensive silk that should have been part of an elegant gown was gone.
He turned his head just a bit, glancing at his own back where the burning pain flared.
There he felt the white silk wrapped around his back soaked with his own blood, an emergency bandage hastily tied.
“You…” he muttered in a much lower tone.
Disbelief crept into his hoarse voice.
“Let me go…
please…” Valerie begged in a voice nearly gone, chest hurting badly.
Slowly, the unbearable pressure on her neck eased.
He withdrew his big, furred hands from around her throat, releasing her completely.
Once freed, Valerie’s body slumped to the rocky floor.
Thump!
She supported herself on her hands, coughing violently as she sucked cold air into her starving lungs.
“Hack!
Hack!
Damn…i almost died!” Valerie cursed inwardly, holding her neck.
The wolf-man stepped back two paces.
His huge frame swayed as he tried to stand on his own.
The ragged tear in his back pulsed painfully from his aggressive movement.
“Arghh—” he made a muffled sound of pain, holding the cave wall with one hand to keep from collapsing again.
“Where is this?” he asked, eyes sweeping the narrow cave with wary confusion.
“Inside a cave, on the forbidden slope,” Valerie answered after regaining steady breaths.
She still sat on the ground holding the reddened marks on her neck left by his fingers.
Her eyes never left the large figure, ready to move if he attacked again.
“How did I get to this filthy place?!” he demanded, voice rising with frustration.
“I dragged you in here last night!” Valerie snapped loudly, anger flaring because her kindness felt utterly unappreciated.
“A mere human like you dragged my body?” he asked scornfully, looking at Valerie who seemed tiny and fragile compared to his towering size.
“If I hadn’t dragged you into this rock gap, those hunters outside would’ve cut your head off at dawn!” Valerie shot back, suddenly bold with a surge of indignation.
He paused, staring at Valerie with an expression hard to read.
He tried to recall what happened before losing consciousness, but his memory held only fragments, blood, brutal fighting, and pain like a whirlwind shredding his body.
“Who are the hunters you mean?” he asked, probing for details.
“I don’t know their names!
I was running from them when I found you collapsed on the wet ground,” Valerie told the truth, voice back to normal though trembling with fear.
He glanced at the cave mouth blocked by thick vines.
His sharp sense of smell started working, trying to catch scents from outside.
He sniffed slowly but didn’t pick up his kind, only the smells of wet earth, pine sap, and the faint sweet tang of human blood near his body.
“This is not my kingdom…” he muttered, frowning at the unsettling realization.
“Of course it’s not your kingdom!
This is the forest at the edge of the human town,” Valerie replied, thinking he might be delirious from his wounds.
He turned back to Valerie, his golden eyes flashing under messy black hair.
“Human, you’re not lying to me to save your life, are you?” he probed, stepping closer in an intentionally threatening way despite his pain.
“What would I gain by lying?!
Look at my neck, you almost broke the throat of the one who hid you from your enemies!” Valerie snapped, pointing with shaking finger.
The wolf-man stopped one meter from her.
He bent, staring at the red mark on her white neck with slight softening, though his cold face hardly changed.
He knew his Alpha strength could snap her fragile neck in one small motion if he wanted.
“What’s your name?” he asked more like an order than a question.
“Valerie,” she answered curtly, still unwilling to be friendly with the creature who nearly choked her to death.
He was silent a moment as if spelling the name in his confused mind full of rage and betrayal from his own world.
“I’m Caleb,” he introduced with a deep, authoritative voice, though his body swayed from sudden dizziness.
“Caleb…” Valerie repeated softly, feeling odd saying the name of the mythical being before her.
Before Caleb could reply, the wound in his back pulsed violently, sending a wave of sharp pain through him.
His face went pale.
“GAHH!!!!” he groaned loudly before both knees gave out.
Valerie gasped as his huge body crumpled forward, collapsing to his knees on the rocky floor right in front of her.
He braced on both palms, breathing rapidly, cold sweat beading on his stern face.
The silk bandage at his back began seeping fresh blood again, the aggressive choke having reopened the tear.
“Hey!
Are you okay?!” Valerie asked in panic.
Fear turned into worry seeing him worsen.
“Don’t…
touch me!” Caleb growled weakly, trying to pull away though he had no strength.
“Don’t be stubborn!
You’ll die if you keep moving like that!” Valerie said firmly, ignoring his warning and crawling closer to the trembling man.
She saw the silk bandage now soaked with bright fresh blood.
The wound was horrendous, and Valerie knew if this bleeding wasn’t stopped again, Caleb wouldn’t last until sunset.
“This wound is too severe…
the black magic keeps burning my flesh…” Caleb mumbled weaker, his eyes dimming and the golden color turning to dark brown.
“What magic?” Valerie asked, confused and not understanding the term.
Caleb didn’t answer.
His consciousness faded again from blood loss.
His heavy head sagged, falling on Valerie’s shoulder before his whole body went limp and unconscious on the cold cave floor.
Valerie supported Caleb’s bulk on her shoulders and arms, feeling the heavy burden on her small human frame.
She panted, trying to reposition him to lie more comfortably without pressing his back wound against the stone.
“Damn!
This is such a bother!” Valerie complained breathlessly, wiping sweat from her forehead with her dirty hand.
She looked at Caleb’s closed face.
The fear from the choking earlier still throbbed in her neck, but seeing him helpless now, she couldn’t leave him alone.
She knew she had to find a way to treat that awful wound before it was too late, even if it meant risking danger outside for clean water or plants to stop the bleeding.
Valerie slowly slid out from under Caleb, letting him lie on his side.
She stood on legs still weak, then crept to the vine-covered cave gap.
She parted the green leaves with her fingers and peeked into the pine forest now flooded with bright noon sunlight.
Outside the slope was quiet and calm, no more shouts or boot steps from the hunters chasing her since last night.
It seemed the armed men had been fooled by the false escape route she made near the marsh before turning up to the hidden cave.
“I need to be quick,” Valerie whispered to herself.
She steeled herself to leave the safe cave zone to find emergency medical help for the strange being whose life now hung in her hands.
With careful, alert steps, Valerie slipped through the vine gap into the thick pine forest, stepping away from the darkness of the stone cave and into the uncertain future that lay ahead.
In the quiet cave, Caleb lay unconscious.
His wolf ears twitched now and then, catching the sound of the wind outside, the only sign that life still lingered in his battle-scarred body from a world far from the human earth he now found himself on.