Chosen by the Goddess

Chapter 4

    Rhys is stroking my hair, making humming noises every now and then. I don’t know for how long we were sitting like this, but I begin to calm down.  When I finally stop crying I raise my head and notice that I got his shirt all wet with my tears. 

    “Sorry” I whisper. He takes my face into his hands looks down into my eyes. 

    “Are you alright?” I nod, 

    “Thank you.” He looks confused 

    “for what?” 

    “knowing how to catch me” he smiles softly before pulling me closer, I lean against his chest, his chin resting on my head. 

    “I’m sorry I brought this up” he says after a while, “the last thing I wanted to do tonight was make you cry.”

    “You couldn’t have known” I reassure him. 

    “Lets talk about something else, maybe you can tell me a little bit about yourself, you know to focus my mind on something that is not my terrible past.” My voice has a slightly joking sound to it and I notice Rhys’s body lose a little bit of the tension I didn’t notice he was holding. 

    “There is actually one thing I really wanted to talk about with you tonight.” He sounds serious, I slip off his lap and bring some space between us so I can see him better. “Shoot” I say, looking straight at him, to let him know he has all my attention. 

    “I don’t know how to tell you this” he starts “mostly because I never thought I’d have to have this conversation. ” he rubs his neck, the suspense is killing me, I have no idea what he is hinting at.

    “Do you remember when we first met, in that dark alley?”

    “Of course I do, that was like 17 hours ago” damn, I’ve known this man for two minutes and here I am bawling my eyes out in his lap. 

    “Yeah right, and do you remember when I asked you, if you were a human and you called me a walnut?” I did actually forget about that. 

    “What was that all about? You seemed unusually confused, like what else would I be?” I suddenly get a bad feeling about this. He is probably some psycho about to tell me that he can see ghosts or some bullshit like that. Too bad, I kinda liked him. 

    “Well, the reason I asked was, because I’m not”  knew it. 

    “You are not What?” I want him to clarify. 

    “I’m not human, at least not entirely, I guess” I don’t answer, I just stare at him, waiting to continue. Partly because I don’t know what to say, also because I’m tired of him talking this way. 

    “I’m a... hm how do I describe it. You could say, I am a kind of shapeshifter, and-” I watch him struggle, trying to find the right words. 

    "Well I mean, not really a shapeshifter although you could probably describe it that way, but there is not a lot of shapes I can shift into..." I sigh, raise an eyebrow and take a demonstrative glance at my watch. When is it acceptable to leave? It doesn't seem like he would get to make his point any time soon. He looks around nervously, as if trying to find someone to help him out. We are alone. Then, he looks straight into my eyes and with a surprisingly stable voice says "I'm a werewolf". 

     Mic drop. I don’t know how to react. I know there are crazy people walking around in this city, I had just never met one to this extend. He looks at me, I can see he is nervous. Unfortunately, I left the dog treats at home, maybe that would’ve helped to calm him. 

“Alright Rhys listen, I am sure you are a great guy. I appreciate your honesty, I wish you all the best finding a girl who wants to keep up with that, someone who is a little more into dogs than I am” I get up. “I’m going to leave now, thank you and good bye”. I turn around. 

    “You don’t believe me” I hear him whisper, but I don’t give him the satisfaction of looking back at him. Because attention is what these guys want, right? I walk around the chimney and towards the door. Just when I reach to open it, I hear cracking noises behind me. Great, what’s he doing now. 

    I turn around, and there he is. My heart skips a beat and I miss a breath. I stare, with eyes as big as plates, at what I see standing in front of me. A wolf, a real big one, taller than me and I am not a small person. I stumble backwards until I feel my rear pressed against the door. The beast has dark brown fur and is looking right at me with it’s chocolate-colored eyes. I stand there, frozen gawking at the creature. 

    What would I give to faint right now, or to wake up from a bad dream. Without being able to control it, I feel my bones turning into jelly and my muscles giving up. I slide my back down the wall until I feel the gravel providing support below me. I watch the wolf in front of me sitting down as well and after a while, lowering to lay on the ground.

    I try to come back to my senses. I blink a couple of times to make sure, really sure, that what I am seeing is not an illusion. It wasn’t. Do I have to be afraid? If it wanted to eat me, I’d probably be dead by now. Also, an animal like that, can probably find better hunting grounds than a rooftop in a major city.  

    Then it dawns on me, no of course it wouldn’t eat me, after all, this was Rhys sitting there, right? And he said he would never let anything happen to me. Turns out, he is not psycho, I was just small minded, not even giving him the benefit of a doubt, or time to explain himself. I feel bad all of a sudden, I feel guilty that I might’ve hurt this gigantic beast’s feelings. 

    I push myself up and take a couple of shy steps towards him. He lifts his head, eyeing my every move. When I get there, I drop down to my knees next to him. I have to lift my head slightly, because his is above mine now. I have no clue what I am doing here, but something tells me, that he doesn’t either. 

    I reach out to gently feel his fur. It is softer than I expected, I begin to slowly pet his neck. It feels weird to me, and unfamiliar of course, but he seems to enjoy it. I watch him slowly close his eyes and lower his head down for me to be able to reach it better.

     I begin to play with his ear, which earns me a low growl, hoping that’s a good sign, I take it as such. This moment feels surreal. I look over his shape. I notice white dots on his front right paw. Curious, I place my hand next to it and spread out my fingers, it looks tiny in comparison. 

    “Okay, I believe you now” I whisper. Abruptly, he raises his head and pushes himself back to a standing position.I am still sitting on the ground, and standing right next to me, I realize again how massive he is. I get up quickly. I am almost six feet tall and my head does not fully reach his shoulder blades. 

    I jump back in shock as I hear the cracking noise from earlier again. I watch his body falling into unnatural, painful looking motions, as he changes back into his human form. I stare at him. There he was again, standing in front of me, naked, in all his glory. I let my gaze roam over his well built-body, not realizing how obvious I was being. 

    “You know, you could at least have the decency to look away” he says, with a dirty grin on his face. My eyes shoot up. 

    “I feel like, this is bad planning on your part, you could have brought some pants” I tease him, two can play this game. Just as I say that, he disappears behind the chimney. Seconds later, he comes back, wearing shorts, which, I must admit, disappoints me slightly.

    “So, tell me-” I start “are unicorns real too?” He tilts his head.

    “Are you making fun of me?”

I shake my head, a little maybe, but I’d still like to know. Rhys chuckled. 

    “Come on now, I’ll take you home, it’s pretty late already and I think this is enough for one evening.” With that, he walks towards the door and holds it open for me to pass through.