Full Moon Rises

Chapter Four

My head was hurting, f**k, everything was hurting.

My body felt like it had been shoved in a furnace while my head felt like somebody stomped on it repeatedly and then let a herd of elephants does the same.

I groaned and tried to get up but couldn’t really move very far. My limbs ached and refused any movement.

Reluctantly, I blinked my eyes open, trying to adjust to the harsh light surrounding me. Where the hell was I? What happened? s**t, it was so bright that it hurt my eyes.

“Hey,” a soothing voice caught my attention. I felt safe in an instant upon hearing that voice and turned to find myself face to face with the most attractive man I had ever seen in my whole twenty-three years of living.

“Uh, hi.” I croaked out, wincing at the pain in my voice.

The man smiled, untamed yet floppy hair, and his dimples made it irresistible not to smile back.

Everything about this man caught my attention, but it was the eyes that stood out the most. They were a golden amber, almost yellow, but there was something so warm about them. So human yet so… not.

I didn’t know what was happening to me to be so weak, but I had the weirdest urge to bare my throat for the man. Which. Okay. Weird. But a part of me was screaming at myself about how right it was, how I had to submit myself to the man, and that was just stupid. So unbelievably stupid.

Yet it didn’t stop me from doing it, though. It was as if my own body acted without my permission as I tilted my head back and bared the expanse of my throat.

The other man simply smiled and nudged my bared throat with the tip of his nose in approval, and something inside of me sang with delight at pleasing the other man. Meanwhile, the rational side of my brain was screaming at me to pull myself together and run! The rest of my brain stomped out that thought pretty quickly.

“Did she just submit to you!?” a disbelieving voice broke the silence, and I tilted my head slightly to see a man standing across from us.

He had short spiky blonde hair, and his eyes were a similar color, golden amber, almost honey-like. I would have passed them off as brothers, but they looked nothing alike.

“Yes, she did. Is there a problem, Alex?” the man next to me spoke as the other man huffed out an unclear response before leaving the room.

“W-what happened?” I finally spoke, and the man’s gaze drifted back towards me, filling my body with unexplainable warmth.

“What do you remember?” his rich voice responded.

“I was... I was out in the woods, and it got dark, so I was heading home... and then there were twigs breaking... I don’t remember much after that,” I felt my head hurting again, so I paused, looking at the man.

“It’s okay, take your time. Do you want something to drink?” he looked worried. I didn’t understand why he was being so nice to me, but I found it comforting in the midst of this whole bizarre situation.

“No, it’s okay... the last thing I remember was running from this thing with yellow eyes and… it attacked me… I thought I died... how did you stop it?” I was confused and scared, and my head was killing me.

“The wolf was on my territory. It sensed my pack and me. It ran away. Lucky wolf, or else I would have killed it,” the man stared at me with open curiosity. “What’s your name?”

“J-Jia.”

“Well, J-Jia, I’m Daniel.” he grinned at me, and I couldn’t help smiling back at him. At least I tried to. I didn’t know whether it was a grin or a grimace. Probably both.

“Why can’t I move?”

Daniel’s brows furrowed. “You should be able to soon. Lane injected you with something to keep you weak until sunrise, but the sun’s nearly up, so it shouldn’t be keeping you down still.”

“You injected me!?” I tried to struggle, to get away once I sensed how utterly bizarre this situation I had found myself in, but my body wouldn’t let me.

“Lane!” Daniel yelled, ignoring my outburst as a female brunette entered the room. Her eyes were slightly darker than Daniel’s, but they were the same tone.

I wondered what the hell was going on here.

“Yes?” she replied, her eyes switching to me, “Oh, freckles, you made it!” she beamed, and I cringed at the nickname.

Lane quickly rushed over to my side, got out a stethoscope, and checked my heart before flashing a penlight into my eyes and taking my temperature. “You’re doing excellent,” she turned towards the window, “The sun’s nearly up, so I can inject you with an antidote now to speed up how quickly the wolfsbane and silver get out of your system.”

My eyes widened at the thought of injection, but Daniel seemed to sense this and took my hand reassuringly.

The brunette girl returned with a needle and syringe, gently feeling her way over my arm before pushing in with surprising pressure. I hissed at the sharp sting, wondering why the hell she had to push so hard. “Sorry, sweetie,” she apologized, “Your new skin is a little tougher than your human one.”

“Human one?” I asked because, yeah, what the hell?

“Daniel will explain once this has worn off. It’s going to be like coming out of an anesthetic. You’re going to be like a baby dear on an ice rink and feel all drunk and dopey to top it off.” she laughed sweetly, “It will only last around half an hour, so you don’t have to feel awful for too long.”

“Thanks, Lane.” Daniel smiled before turning his attention back to me as the brunette, Lane, left the room.

***

It took a grand total of fifteen minutes for me to go stupid.

My head was lolling to the side and I was talking animatedly to the empty chair that Daniel was no longer sitting at.

Daniel smiled down at me before he’d gone to check the computer on the other side of the room for any records of Jia Evander, me. A wolf just wouldn’t turn me randomly. There had to be something... Or so, Daniel had said. But who would care about a nobody like me? Care enough to hurt me? I didn’t voice my thought to Daniel.

It took a further five minutes for me to realize that Daniel wasn’t on the chair, my eyes scanning the room until I found him.

“Hey!” I grinned, trying to sit up and actually succeeding, “Whatcha doing all the way over there?”

Daniel laughed out loud at my happy tone. The sound of it was contagious.

“I’m checking the computer. What are you doing over there?” he retaliated. He seemed like he was enjoying my playful nature.

“M’sitting,” I smiled stupidly. Swinging my foot back and forth... before stumbling to my feet and falling flat on my ass. “Fuck...” I groaned.

Daniel reached my side in a millisecond, but it wasn’t fast enough to stop me from landing on my ass.  I noticed Daniel staring at my bum before he helped me to my feet. I narrowed my eyes at him. Is he secretly a pervert? I had to keep an eye on this guy.

“Thanks,” I grinned dopily. “You’re strong...” I noted.

Before I could stop myself, my hand came to grab Daniel’s arm to steady myself, groping his bicep in the process, “And firm.”

Great, Jia. Who was the pervert now?

Daniel blushed deeply. The desire to lean forward and kiss the guy senseless was overwhelming me suddenly and this guy really had to put me down before I actually did that.

“Why m’I shirtless?” I stared, confused at my body, only having a bra on, “And what the hell is that?!” I noticed the bite.

“I’ll explain soon,” Daniel promised, helping me back onto the bed. “For now, you need to rest.”

“Hm’kay. Yes.” I saluted him. Daniel shook his head fondly and went to continue his work on the computer, but I grabbed his wrist. “Stay,” I whispered before falling asleep once more.

***

Daniel knew he could move if he wanted to, now that Jia was asleep, but he didn’t. Jia had asked him to stay, and so that’s exactly what he would do.

For ten hours. Daniel stayed.