Marabella
I am overly warm and squashed as I wake up. I try stretching, and my eyes flutter open to sharp teeth and fur next to my face. My eyes widen at the sight before me, and a scream works its way up my throat, threatening to rip out of me, when suddenly, a hand goes over my mouth.
“Shh, it’s just Kaif,” Jonah’s calm voice whispers behind me, next to my ear. I turn my head to look at him over my shoulder, staring straight into his eyes as he gently shakes his head.
“How? Where?” I sit up, glancing around.
I rub my eyes and peer over at Kaif, then back at Jonah. I do remember coming to Kyan’s last night. But I don’t remember Jonah being here. My movement seems to startle Kaif because the next second I feel hands and claws grab me, ripping me toward him and onto his furry chest. His quick movement nearly makes me shriek.
A growl tears out of Kaif, and he sniffs my face, pushing his nose into my eyeball, and I push off his chest, not knowing where to put my hands without grabbing his fur. He licks my face, his tongue goes from my chin right over the eye he just jammed his nose in. I think my eyelashes are stuck to my eyebrow, which makes me blink rapidly to unstick them.
“Great, he is taste-testing us before eating us. Good to know he likes to play with his food before he eats us alive.” Kora worries about his weird behavior.
“He won’t eat us!” I scold her for her silly thoughts. At least I hope he won’t.
This is strange, and my main focus is to remain calm right now. But it does little to keep my heart from racing when something supposed to be extinct has me in his clutches.
“Kaif, settle down; you’re freaking her out!” Jonah hisses at him, and his chest rumbles as I scramble to push up underneath his tight grip that is suffocatingly painful.
I groan and try to haul myself higher when I feel his teeth graze my shoulder, and I freeze as he growls. Please don’t eat me! What is he even doing?
He is huge, way more prominent in person, and animal-like; of course. I knew he was a Lycan, but seeing it up close, and now feeling his oversized body, are two very different things. He is petrifying. And it is taking everything in me not to panic or start screaming.
I have half a mind to run and another to freeze, not wanting to be hauled off and eaten by him. The stories of giants and grinding bones for butter come to mind. I would be a toothpick to him; the little red riding hood was definitely eaten by a Lycan, which is more plausible. No way could a werewolf eat an entire human. Yet meeting Kaif, I have no doubt he could eat me in three bites. I’m confident someone twisted that story.
There is no accurate way to describe how monstrous Kaif is compared to a typical werewolf; he makes my father’s wolf, Maddox, look like a pup, the runt of the litter. That is how freaking big this Lycan is. Kaif is terrifying and makes monsters seem real. And the last thing I want to do is make a wrong move and become his breakfast, especially now I know Little Red Riding Hood got it wrong and was eaten by a Lycan. Now I know why that story never made sense.
Jonah’s hands touch me, the simple light touch pulls me from my rambling thoughts. However, the movement also makes Kaif snarl and snap his teeth at Jonah. I try to suppress the shriek that leaves me. I squirm while trying to free myself from his tight grip on me, which grows tighter, squeezing the air from my lungs.
My heart is racing a million miles an hour, as he rag-dolls me around like I’m a puppet on strings. I am defenseless and weak compared to him, and I dare not to anger him. But, despite his suffocating grip compressing my lungs, he is pretty gentle.
Which I find surprising because you wouldn’t think something as scary looking as Kaif would know the meaning of the word, or even how to practice it. However, saying that his grip is tight, I don’t think he realizes his own strength.
“Kaif,” I choke out, as he squeezes the air from my lungs.
“She can’t breathe, knobhead, loosen your grip on her!” Jonah exclaims. Kaif sniffs me, and I feel my face changing color when he huffs, blowing hot air in my face, but his arms slacken a little, and I sit up.
My entire body trembles and my hands shake as I reach for Jonah. Kaif snarls, and I freeze, looking death in the face. He then grabs my hips and my hands fall onto his wondering what he will do.
“Kaif, you’re scaring her. You need to remember she isn’t used to you. Of course, she wants to come to me. You’re a thing of nightmares. She is probably worried you’ll eat her!” Jonah tells him.
Kaif looks at him and huffs. “I not eat people?” Kaif says to me, but his voice almost sounds angry.
“I think that is his normal voice,” Kora tells me.
“That isn’t totally true. I saw you-” Jonah begins, but he is cut off.
“That one time… and I spat him out. I not eat the humans!” Kaif snarls, and my stomach drops.
“You want…” he pauses like he is trying to articulate his words. “You want to go to Jonah?” Kaif asks, and I glance at Jonah. Too afraid of his reaction, I say nothing. Kaif huffs, places me between them, lifting me under the arms as though I am a child and not a grown-ass woman.
“Shh, you’re fine,” Jonah says, pulling me over to him, and Kaif growls, his eyes watching Jonah’s hands on my waist. His nostrils flare, and the way he makes huffing sounds creates more worry in me. Would he hurt Jonah again?