Dangerous Desires

Dangerous Desires

“Oh- em- gee! Ash! You caught him where? With… Did you say your neighbor? I didn’t think old Mrs. Simpson would be up to bedroom antics, isn’t she like 90?” my best friend and confidant, Shana, said in a semi-serious tone.

Laughing so hard I thought my sides were going to split, I answered, “No, not Mrs. Simpson, silly, the other neighbor. Jessica Twilley- the short blonde with the enlarged upper area?” As I gestured big boobs. “The worst part is I found out they had often done it in my bed.” I shiver but continue, “At least Jessica’s cat got fed before I found them. They saw me, I ran out and slammed the door, upon locking Richard out. Not sure what they did after Richard finally stopped banging on the door, yelling, ‘It’s not what you think! Come on Ash, I love you, can’t we talk?’ I tuned him out and began packing my stuff in every suitcase and box I could find. I had more boxes delivered from a moving company, which surprisingly arrived the same day, so I packed everything that was mine. Then I was able to get Mrs. Simpson’s son, Jeff, who’s had a crush on me for about a year, to take everything except for what I brought with me to my storage unit. In the meantime, I met with the landlord and since my lease is about up. I told him I was not renewing and that Richard might be interested in the apartment, but that my name better not be anywhere on the lease or there would be legal actions toward both of them. After that, since all my stuff and I were out of the apartment, I turned in my keys and headed here before heading to Aunt Ursula’s. You know she’s been wanting me to visit for a long time. So, I figured it was time I took her up on her invitation- and before you ask, I did call her, and she knows I’m stopping by here first to visit. Oh, she said to tell you that you guys are invited for the weekend, and we can have a celebration party of sorts.”

“Ash, you know Mark and I love you. But we could never figure out what you saw in Richard, other than his looks. But you’ve never been one for looks only. What happened to wanting brains, a sense of humor, and treating you with respect? I don’t recall Richard being anything but eye candy. I NEVER… EVER… liked Richard. I am sorry that the break-up happened the way it did, but I am soooo glad it’s finally over. I get so angry thinking about how he whined like a baby to keep you from visiting us or doing things that made you happy. So much stuff that you loved doing, he thought it was a waste of time and when he said that your photographs were crap while at one of your showings, I could have killed him with my bare hands. I’m just glad he’s gone; you can do, and deserve, way better.”

“Yeah, I get upset with myself for allowing him to have such control. I’m not sure what I was thinking or why I was so wrapped up in him. I mean, the sex was only good for about six months then it went downhill. But to stay with him for almost three years- I don’t know what was up. In reality, I think we were together just so we weren’t alone, ya know? He wasn’t a bad guy deep down, but he still wasn’t good for me. Who knows, maybe he and Jessica are perfect for each other. I hope so anyway.”

“Well, are you going to at least stay the night and then head up the mountain tomorrow?” Shana’s hands lifted in a prayer pose.

“Not tonight, but I do plan on coming back down once I get settled at Aunt Ursula’s. I’m excited to see what she’s done with the place. She also said she has a surprise for me and you know I love surprises!”

Pouting, Shana agrees with a chuckle, “Yes, I know how you love surprises, well good ones anyway. Fine, don’t stay the night, we’ll have a girls’ night of wine, baking, and movies next time. Now that you don’t have to report to Ricard, we’ll have time to catch up. Oh, are you going to stay long enough to see Mark? He’d hate to miss you.”

“No, I want to get up the mountain before it gets too late, plus I’m going to try and get some shots along the side of the mountain, you know sunset over the valley. I’m thinking about a new series, and I want to see how these shots could work into my vision. Heading up to the mountain at this time should give me some great shots. And you know me when I have a vision, I want to see it come to life as soon as possible.” 

Still talking as I headed into the kitchen to put my coffee cup in the sink, Shana met me at the opening of the kitchen, and we both walked to the front door. “I promise I will come back soon, and we will have a catch-up baking and movie night. Maybe one of the weekends when Mark is out doing what I don’t like that he does, I’ll come stay with you and we can also go pamper ourselves with facials and massages. I’ll see if I can get Aunt Ursula to join us too. Now, I better get going.” I walk out the door, giving her a hug goodbye at my car and wave as I pull out of the driveway. 

An hour later I’m stepping out of my car to take a picture of one of the most picturesque sunsets I’ve seen in a long time. I’m not sure why I took this route to my aunt’s house but I’m glad I did. It is absolutely one of the most beautiful scenes I’ve been blessed to see on my travels. And the sounds of nature as the sun is setting are soothing, which is just what I need. Crickets chirping, nightbirds cooing, along with an owl hooting, I couldn’t have asked for a more serene moment. 

I was able to get quite a few good shots with my camera and phone. So, I decided to head on up to my aunt’s. I’ll have to come back here at various times to get different photos, but this is a great spot. I found some landmarks so I’m able to find this exact location again. While I was walking back across the road to my car, I heard something that was almost like a scream mixed with a growl. Then I noticed,  about 50 yards up the road, a deer comes bursting out of the trees followed by a massively huge wolf-like creature.

The photographer in me immediately started shooting video with my phone and the scared part of me made sure my feet were moving rather fast yet not running to my car. Thankfully I did not lock my car- I was alone on a desolate road, so why would I?  The creature was occupied with the deer it had sadly caught and killed. Honestly the deer didn’t have a chance of getting away. 

As I shut my door the creature stopped what it was doing, slowly stood up straight and turned to face me. I was still recording with my phone but started my car and rolled up my windows. How I kept recording is beyond me, but I did, and I watched half through my phone screen and half straight on, switching back and forth to make sure I kept the creature in the frame. In the brief second it took me to glance at the screen, the creature had taken a few steps toward me, snarling, and looking like he thought I was his desert. 

I could hear and feel the deep resonating growl coming from this huge dog- no, wolf-like creature. The vibration went down my spine and then strangely hit somewhere I did not expect. The creature’s ears were pulled back making it look even more menacing, then it stopped and sniffed the air, picking up the scent of… apparently me. It took one slow calculated step toward me growling again except this time it was… What… wait… the ears were no longer pulled back and it’s… smiling. 

Smiling huh, wow, look at those teeth! Looking even closer I was torn between scared and strangely impressed. The creature was standing on two legs, its chest, legs, and arms were pure hard muscles. Its hands- not paws but hands- were human like except they had long claws.  My god. It was strikingly beautiful with surprisingly silky looking coal black fur. I had a strange desire to touch it but thank goodness I knew better than to do something like that and being in my car it would be extremely stupid of me to get out. It truly looked like a human with a lot of hair, a long snout, and oh my evidently it’s all male. The creature sniffed the air again and this time I knew it was smiling. I heard a deep gravelly voice in my head say, “Like me, do you? I smell your desire, human.”

Well crap, it can read my thoughts, and it talks! What the hell! Its voice was deep, dark, and scarily sexy.  What is wrong with me? I’ve been reading too many paranormal romance books lately. I can’t believe my body is taking the time to get turned on by this non-existent, wolf creature, an image from my imagination or nightmare. No more werewolf books… Shit, shit, shit, shit, what am I doing? I need to get out of here.

The creature is… oh my god… is it laughing at me? Now I feel insulted. I put my car in reverse, floored it and paused only long enough to flip a u-turn, and speed away. Or so I thought. Again, I hear his voice in my head, “You can’t run from me, I have your sent human. I will find you.” For some reason I answered the voice, with “Why would you want to find me, I didn’t do anything to you or your meal? Plus, I doubt I’d taste good and I’m probably not your type, so go back to your dinner and forget you ever saw me.” 

To my surprise the voice answered, “Won’t forget… You… are… mine.”

With that I sped away, hearing hear deep throaty laughter in my head. Screaming out loud to myself, “What the hell was that… a werewolf, a dog-man thingy, figment of my imagination, what? And now it’s going to come after me, for what? ‘You are mine’, what the fuck does that mean? No one’s going to believe me. God, I hope I got pictures or videos, something to prove what I saw.”

Flying down the mountain road, curves, swerves and all, was not the brightest idea, but I couldn’t slow down… not yet. Once I felt like I was far enough away I began to calm down and do the speed limit and once I was back on the main road, I was feeling better and had tried to convince myself that the creature didn’t exist. I’ll head back to Shana and Marks. I don’t care how late it is, I’m pretty sure they’ll be ok with me heading back. She wanted me to stay, well, now I will. As I pulled in the driveway, I was relieved to see that both of their cars were there, and the living room lights were on. They’ll find this interesting, I’m sure. Shana being a zoologist who dabbles in cryptozoology and Mark, her husband, a local sheriff, an avid hunter- which I dislike- and strangely enough also interested in some cryptids. Apparently, he and one of his deputies had a brief encounter with something which put him on a research journey to educate himself and his department just in case there was another run-in. Maybe they know of some new hybrid wolf that’s been released in the woods and can help me know I’m not going crazy. 

Getting out of my car I have a strange feeling like I’m being watched and before I realize it, I’m banging on their door and yelling “Shana, Mark, hello!” The weird feeling of being watched was growing stronger and my knocking more hectic. Damn, did the thing follow me? Mark threw open the door and was about to yell when he apparently saw the look on my face. “Ash… are you okay?” he asks as he steps out and starts looking around. But sensing my fear he quickly pulls me into the house.

“Ash, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Shana chimes in as she comes to the living room. Oh my god, girl, what is wrong? Sit down and tell us. I’ll get you some water first or do you want something stronger?”

Feeling a little silly, I mutter, “Stronger please.” 

Drink in hand and the two of them now sitting staring at me waiting for me to say something, except I’m not sure where to start. 

I cleared my throat, “Hmm, you know how I was going to go stay with Aunt Ursula, up on the mountain?”

They both look at me and shake their heads and say “Yes”. Shana adds in, “I thought you would have been there by now.”

“Well, I was on my way; and thought I might get some better shots from the old road route, so I stopped to take a few shots of the setting sun and the valley below it, the surrounding mountain view. It was beautiful and I got caught up in the view, until…”

Apparently taking way too long to tell the story, Mark leaned forward and said, “And what…?”

“Hmmm, until a deer came charging frantically out of the woods with something chasing it…”

Mark is now leaning in even closer, and his eyes are wide like a kid at a new movie, “Something? Please tell me you got a picture, and I hope you’re going to say it was what I’ve been hearing about…”

Shana smacked him. “Shhh, let her talk.”

With a slight grimace I carried on, “Not sure if it is but it definitely was some huge, crazy huge, beautiful, wolflike creature. Then I guess it either heard or smelled me… I don’t know which… but… did you know they can talk… well kind of. And it smiled, scary as hell, but it smiled.”

Mark was now about to jump out of his chair excitedly and asked, “It talked to you, what did it say, what did it do?!”  Before he could say anything else, Shana clamped her hand over his mouth, “Let her finish, then you can ask questions!”

Looking at the two of them and hearing my words I start to laugh, “Umm, I was scared and,” I whisper now, “…turned on all at the same time if that makes any sense. And please don’t say anything about this later, I felt weird enough. But the creature caught the deer and killed it. So I was slipping back to my car, it was like 50 yards away but when I closed the door… well it stood up on two legs, ears back, and it sniffed the air then slowly turned around to look at me. Of course, I was also trying to record at the same time, which I don’t think he liked, because he growled. His growl, I could feel it deep down, vibrating, and scary. Then I swear it smiled. It moved closer, sniffed the air again, a long deep sniff, and this time it definitely smiled. I’m pretty sure it knew my body was having a strange reaction. Which was, and is, embarrassing.”

Mark, now biting his lip and sitting on the edge of the couch, said “What… did… it… say?”

“Oh, that Hmm, it was rather cocky when it talked. If I can remember correctly, I believe it said… ‘Like me, do you? I smell your desire.’ and ‘You can’t run from me, I have your scent human. I will find you,’ oh and when I told it to forget it saw me, it said, ‘Won’t forget, you are mine.’ Other than laughing at me that was about it.

“So, what do you think he meant by all that?  I hope it didn’t follow me here. I was driving as fast as I could, but when I got here and stepped out of the car, I felt like I was being watched. Surely you don’t think it did… please no… it didn’t, right? Not possible with how fast I was going. It had to be at least 80, 90, maybe more till I reached the main road. I’d hate to bring it here to your house. God, that would be horrible. Oh, and Mark, forget about the speeding.”

They both looked at each other and Shana spoke first, “Well, if it is a ‘he’ like you seem to think, and it is what Mark ‘hopes’ it is,” Shana gave Mark a side eye as she continued, “Umm maybe he umm, how do I say this….”

Before she can formulate the words she wants to tactfully use, Mark blurts out, “He’s going to claim you as his mate is what it probably means.”

Looking at both of them and frantically shaking my head ‘no’, I say, “That’s not possible… is it? I mean he’s all furry like a wolf, and yes it was all male. I could tell especially as he took a few steps towards me. I mean even though it stands upright like a person and well built like a huge ass bodybuilder, he has fur and a head sort of like a wolf. So, it’s not possible, right? You two have been reading way too many werewolf romance books too, haven’t you?”

Shana, now putting on her “professor hat”, says “Well, yes, it could be. You’ve seen where dogs and even wolves have formed attachments or bonds with humans, some almost instantly, it could be like that. But since he may be a hybrid of sorts, he might think of you more as a mate, even though you don’t have hair all over your body or appear as it does. I guess with your body reacting to the growl vibration, you may have put off a scent.” 

“Shana, what am I going to do? When he- it- whatever it was, spoke to me, it was in my head and when I was talking to myself, it understood and heard me or my thoughts, I don’t know which, but it heard me. When I got out of my car, here, I felt like I was being watched- hence the loud banging. What do you think it’s going to do?” I’m scared and I’m not ready for any kind of relationship regardless of whether it is a man or some sort of beast.

This time Mark spoke up, “As you should be, scared, I mean. The tales I’ve heard, well, wait a minute. If it’s a dogman, I don’t recall hearing of them ever killing anyone. Scaring the crap out of people, definitely, and maybe hurting someone, but not killing. Who knows, maybe it just wanted to scare you away from the deer. You did seem to have interrupted its dinner.”

“Ew, poor deer. Maybe so, but I’m definitely not going to my aunt’s tonight, maybe never. I wonder if she has ever had any run-ins with it. I’ll ask her tomorrow, for now, I’ll just text her that I wasn’t able to make it. Is the invitation to stay still open? I… I don’t want to leave the house, especially in the dark.”

“Of course, hon, you know you can stay.” Shana said, “And tomorrow the three of us can drive up to your aunt’s house. I’ll ride with you and Mark can follow us in our car. Then if you don’t feel safe you can come back here and we’ll figure something out from there, okay?” 

Taking a deep breath, I sighed, “Yes, but I’m thinking I might not stay with her now. Might look into a few Airbnbs, hotels, maybe another town, possibly a different country. I’m not sure I want to drive up there again… ever, but I can’t leave my aunt stranded. Can I? No, she raised me, and I love her too much, but maybe I can get her to move somewhere else with me. That place is huge and too much for her to handle alone and that’s why she wanted me to move up there. Maybe…”

Pulling me in for a hug with a slight chuckle, Shana said, “You’re just being silly now, and you know your aunt would never leave that place, dog-wolf man or not. Hell, she’d make it move first. She can be scary too, you know. Now sleep on it tonight and then tomorrow morning we can figure out what to do, okay? Come on, follow me and I’ll get you settled upstairs. We turned Jamie’s old room into a guest room after she moved to England and Tyler won’t be home from camp for three weeks. Oh, do you want your suitcases from your car?”

Not hesitating, I blurted out, “No! No, no, thank you, but no! I’ll be okay till the morning, I think.”

Laughing, Shana guided me upstairs to the hall closet, where she grabbed me a toothbrush, blanket, pillow, towels, and one of her sleeping shirts. While gathering the supplies, she said, “Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out, okay? Just get some sleep, or at least try.”

I gave her a hug and thanked her before going into the, now, guest room. I heard Mark come up the steps and he said goodnight through the door, then his and Shana’s bedroom door closed for the night. While getting ready for bed I kept running over the day’s events. I stepped out into the hallway and quickly darted into the bathroom. After taking a soothing hot shower and brushing my teeth, I quietly slipped back into my room. As I changed into the sleep shirt, I noticed the house seemed overly quiet, strange, but I’m also used to the busy noise of the city, not the outskirts where there’s no sirens, loud people, etc. Now I’m definitely ready to lay down and try to forget as much as possible. As my head hit the pillow, heaviness took over, and out I went.

Chapter Two ~ Dream One

Nightmare or Dream…

I found myself standing in the woods, under the light of a full, blood-red moon. The sky was a dark blue/black, it reminded me of a jeweler’s velvet cloth where they’ll pour out the diamonds to show their vibrancy. There weren’t very many stars, and the moon was so large and bright that I felt like I was on a silent stage where the spotlight shone only on me. There were no sounds, but I could sense I was not alone. I knew the creature was in the shadows, watching me. He was the predator, and I was his prey. Sensing him I turned to look in his direction, and I heard a low guttural growl. I felt there was heaviness to the darkness, I knew it was him, and then he opened his eyes. Brilliant scarlet eyes pierced through the darkness to find their target. Feeling heat travel through me, igniting a fire that seemed to give me courage, I yelled, “Come out and face me, stop hiding like a coward!”

He slowly stepped out of the shadows, stalking toward me, each step vibrated through the ground and ran through my body as he came closer. Glaring at me the whole way, his snarl was slowly turning into a wicked smile. Once he was in front of me, never taking his eyes away from mine, he lifted a claw and tenderly ran it down my cheek. He began a slow, predatory walk around me, touching me almost sensually. Leaning in and breathing in my scent as he went. In my mind I heard, “You smell like mine”. Then he vanished in a black cloud of fog.