Chapter Six

When I awoke I didn't hear the sounds of birds chirping in the air like I usually would. There was no burst of light coming through the branches I laid under. And, I couldn't hear the activity of any of the animals that tended to roam in the day light. Moving the branches from on top of me to the side, I confirmed my suspicion. The sun wasn't beaming above me, emitting a bright glow around me. No, the forest around me was dim and quiet and the sun was only a couple hours away from setting. I had slept through the morning.

Not only had I missed morning but Aurelius was no longer under the branches like he should have been. It would be easy to find him since I had basically had his scent stored in me now but it was still annoying that he had left without telling me. And that also meant that he had woken up before me. He knew I had things to do and that I wanted to take him home in the morning but yet he didn't wake me up. Idiot.

Picking up my bag and fixing back the branches so it didn't look like someone had been there, I mentally prepared myself for the day. If Aurelius wanted to go home he would've woke me up. So, that meant that he wanted to continue going through my journey with me. That also meant that I had to somehow fit him into my plan. I could barely fit myself in though, so doing that was going to take a lot of thinking. Thanks to myself, I had plenty of time to think. I had no idea how long this travel was going to take. The length was increased now due to the fact that I was forced to make the trip using human speed. If I suddenly started dashing through the forests Aurelius would have many questions that I really didn't want to answer. For his safety, not mine.

"I'm convinced something is wrong with the way your brain works." I commented angrily once Aurelius came into my line of vision. I had heard him approaching half an hour ago but now he was finally near me and I could yell at him like I had been dying to do. He was ruining everything for me just by being here and he didn't seem to understand that. Aurelius smelt like sweat when he came to stand in front of me and the wolfsbane that I would usually pick up on him was very faint now. I was glad, the scent was annoying.

"And why is that?" He smiled at me, his white teeth gleaming. I was suddenly appreciative of the minimal light that was coming through the sky above us. I was able to see him much better compared to last night. With the sweat making his skin glisten and the way his cheeks pulled his lips into a perfect smile, I was enjoying the view. He may be annoying and horrible company but he was very good looking. That was the only positive thing I could say about him.

"How long have you been awake?"

"I woke up around eleven a.m. Why?" I shook my head at his foolishness. It was now past five. He had been up for that long and didn't even think to wake me? "You seem upset?" Aurelius chuckled, looking down at me with a joyful glint in his eyes as if this was a joke.

"Didn't I tell you we were taking you home in the morning? After our nap?"

"No, you told me you would give me until the morning to decide whether I wanted to go home." He corrected me. "And I made my decision. I do not want to go home, not unless you're going home too." What he didn't know was I no longer had a home to go back to. Or a pack. I was an orphaned rogue. I was alone now.

"Do you not have a family?" I asked him.

"No." I paused at his words. No family? That was strange for a human. Most of them had a family or at least one person to call their own. Him saying he had no family meant he had no one to look to and depend on. Or it could mean he was no longer close to the group of people he was born into. Mortals had a habit of disowning their own blood whether the reason was severe or not.

"Then how did you come to my school?"

"I'm eighteen; I don't need a guardian anymore." He was correct; he was an adult by law. He was allowed to do what he wanted to. And if he really did have a family he had no obligation to go back to them if he didn't desire to. And, I didn't feel like forcing him. If this was what he wanted to do then so be it.

"I'm not going to be your babysitter." I told him. I wasn't going to watch his every step and listen for his every breath while I was with him. He had to know how to fend for himself to make such a decision. I would protect him if need be but other than that he was on his own.

"Do I look like I need a babysitter?" He challenged, raising an arched eyebrow at me. Truthfully, he didn't. Aurelius was tall and he was built to the point where if you thought to touch him you would think you were touching warm steel. He wasn't overly muscular and he wasn't bulky but he was muscular enough to the point that you knew not to pick a fight with him. That is, if you were a human. It didn't matter how built a mortal got, they would never be a match to a werewolf in hand to hand combat. That's why his safety was such a big issue. He may know how to fight, and he may have strength, but his genetic makeup was a major liability. If someone were to kick me in my face it would be nothing to me. If someone were to do the same to Aurelius he might pass out. It was unfortunate. His skin was thinner than mine, his bones weaker, and his agility was minimal compared to me.

"You better hope we don't come across any supernatural beings. If that happens you're a goner." I informed him. If he was to fight against the hunters he might survive. But if he were to fight anyone like me, or worse, something not like me, then his life would be on the line. Just the thought made me uncomfortable.

"Shouldn't you hope for the same thing? We're both fragile little homo sapiens." He reminded me and I bit my tongue to stop any stupid quick remark I was going to make. In his eyes we were the same. And I needed him to continue to think like that. So, instead of answering I decided to change the subject.

"What were you doing this whole time? And why are you all sweaty?"

"Oh yeah," Aurelius clapped his hands once and licked his lips as if he was truly excited to tell me about his whereabouts and was anticipating this all day. "I went walking around the woods. I wanted to sight see until you woke up. I ended up finding this cave that's right behind this waterfall. You just walk through the water and you're in. It's truly beautiful. I was going to wake you up to come see it." He smiled happily and I can tell he found real joy in his mini-adventure.

"If you had woken me up before we would have found the waterfall together."I reminded him. Aurelius rolled his eyes, exasperated from my constant attitude. I couldn't help it, I didn't like him.

"That's beside the point Cyra. You looked so relaxed sleeping and I know you had a long day yesterday so I wanted to let you rest. Are you going to keep yanking my dick because I tried to be nice?" He asked me sarcastically, a scowl of aggravation appearing on his face. I had to admit I was being a little bitchy since I found him and it wouldn't hurt anybody if I toned it down. I mean, I could try. Aurelius just rubbed me the wrong way. He made it hard.

"Are you going to show me the waterfall or not?" I asked, ignoring his little rant. He glared at me but nodded.

"It's not too far from here and when we get there please strip immediately. I can't take the smell anymore." Now it was my turn to glare at him. I knew I reeked of blood and death but he didn't need to keep pointing it out. The blood had dried on me now and felt like an itchy second skin. I didn't like the smell either but it wasn't because of its iron scent. It was because of the fact that it wasn't my blood, it was someone else's. Hunters. Scum of the earth. It was disgusting. But then again, no one told me to kill them in the messiest way possible. That was my choice.

"Is the water clean?"

"It practically glistens. And I wouldn't ask you to bathe in dirty water, Cyra. That defeats the point. I'm going to bathe too, so don't worry. All this sweat is making me feel icky." Aurelius replied, walking at a fast speed as if he was in a hurry to get back to his treasured waterfall. Or, maybe he was trying to make sure we got there before the sun went down. The sight wouldn't be worth seeing if you couldn't actually see it.

I said nothing else as we walked to the destination of one of nature's many creations. I liked hearing the sound of our feet crushing leaves as we stepped and the way each breath passed Aurelius' lips. The closer we got to the waterfall the more noises I began to hear. The bird chirps that I had missed in the morning were now prominent as we neared the water. I could also hear the water hitting the river we were approaching and smiled at the sound of it. I loved nature. If it wasn't for the humans I would've spent every day outside in the forest.

"Here it is," Aurelius introduced once we made it past the bushes and long branches that blocked the path to the waterfall.  I gasped at the sight of it. He was right, it was absolutely beautiful. The water fall was tall, but not too tall to where I couldn't see the top, and came rushing down into a river that looked endless. The current didn't look strong and as the water hit the river it didn't seem drastic so I assumed going through it wouldn't be painful. Looking passed the water I was able to see a darkness that had to be the cave Aurelius spoke of earlier. Rocks surrounded the area and vibrant green grass grew on every inch of dirt near the water. Moving closer I noticed I was able to see through the water and the bottom of the river. Just like Aurelius said the water glistened and my reflection was slightly visible. I had dried blood splattered randomly on my face and my hair was frizzy and unkempt, the bun I had made earlier now loose. I looked a mess.

"This is amazing, Aurelius." I breathed out, at last looking up at him. A smug expression rested on his face and I couldn't help but laugh at him. This was truly a great find, he deserved to be proud. I stopped laughing once I noticed Aurelius was staring at me. His gaze made me uneasy and made my stomach feel light. Or maybe it was feeling that way because I was hungry. Some fresh rabbit meat was sounding amazing right now. Too bad I couldn't go hunting. Now that Aurelius was here eating raw food was out the window. We were going to have to go through the hassle of building a fire, finding fruit, and hunting using human skills. I wasn't looking forward to it.

Without a word of notice Aurelius quickly took his shirt off. My eyes widened as it came in contact with his structured abdomen. The bumps and ridges and the 'v' line that led into his shorts had me biting my bottom lip. Next Aurelius swiftly took off his shorts and his underwear at the same time. A patch of faint pubic hair and an endowed but yet flaccid penis now coming into view. I almost gasped. Just almost.

Aurelius didn't even look at me as he walked away and stepped into the water. His strong calves and thighs disappeared beneath the element along with the rest of his body. That was...weird. I had seen the male body many times before. Being naked wasn't a big deal in the wolf community. We didn't immediately connect exposed skin to sex. Nudity was only sexual when we wanted it to be, other than that it was just our natural state. When the body would transform back from a wolf to a human we would be naked; despite whether we had clothes on prior or not. Those would rip or stretch anyway so it was preferred to strip before shape shifting. Everyone in my pack had seen each other naked at least once.

But, this type of behavior was not usual with humans. They found the bare human body to be extremely inappropriate. Their minds were full of sex all the time so that was probably why. Mortals didn't just strip in front of each other as if it was the most casual thing to do. Especially if they were doing it in front of the opposite gender. His behavior reminded me of my kind. It was weird.

Ignoring the feeling I was getting I followed his lead and began stripping. I wasn't insecure about my body so Aurelius seeing me naked wasn't a problem. I was fit, I had to be. Being an out of shape werewolf in these days was just reckless and lazy. We were forced to push our bodies beyond its limits daily to maintain our strength and health. I wasn't muscular but I had abs and my iliac furrow was faintly prominent but visible. I had curves due to my background and genetics. My mother was a curvy black woman with wide hips, a fleshy butt, and a large bosom. I wasn't that curvy but my hips were obvious and my butt was anything but flat. My breasts were not large, they were big enough to fill my own hands and I was content with them.

Aurelius didn't witness my exposed skin since he was now deep in the water and his back was facing me. He had given me privacy. I completely submerged myself in the fresh water and relished at the feeling of the cool water. Without hesitation, I began to rub my skin and get the dirt off of me. I had no soap so I wouldn't be completely clean but I would be clean enough. I had taken my clothes with me so I could wash them too and I planned on letting them dry on the rocks over night. If the cave was safe I was going to sleep there tonight with Aurelius. Today had been a complete waste but it didn't matter. I was enjoying what I was doing.

Aurelius and I continued to relax in the water for what felt like hours. We hadn't looked at each other or spoken to one another since we touched the water and I was fine with that. I was basking in the silence and his rich, smooth, and deep, voice was something I didn't want to hear. All I wanted to hear was the birds and the water; it was like music to my ears.

Once the sun had gone down I knew it was time to come out the water. I wanted to go check out the cave but I could smell that there was blood in there. Some animal must have died going in the cave meaning whatever was in there had to be dangerous. A danger to Aurelius, not me.

"Did you look inside the cave already?" I spoke to him after our hours of silence. His eyes widened at the sound of my voice, almost as if he forgot it during the lapse between our communications. Turning towards me and walking closer so that he was a foot away from me Aurelius nodded.

"It's a good size and completely empty, just a couple of rocks here and there. Are you planning to camp there for the night?" I could understand the underlining question between the words. He was wondering if I was going to really waste the night in a cave instead of continuing my walk west. It was dark and I didn't want a repeat of yesterday, I had just cleaned myself. And if I slept tonight then I was sure to wake up early in the morning tomorrow. Then I could continue waking again without any problems, plus my clothes would be dry by that time.

"Yeah, is that a problem? Did you want to keep walking?" I asked him. If he wanted to do that I was fine with it. I just didn't prefer it. I wasn't in the mood.

"This is your adventure not mine. I'm going to get my clothes and your stuff and meet you in there." Then he began to swim towards the perimeter of the river, getting out of the water, and grabbing both of our things. I turned around once he had everything secured in his hand and swam towards the cave to meet him there like I was told. I had assumed correct earlier, the pressure of the waterfall wasn't powerful at all; it was like passing through water coming from a showerhead. I stood under it for a second, enjoying the feeling of water running down my body, before completely going through and looking at the cave. I had to climb over a couple of rocks to get in it but once I made it I was happy with what I saw. The cave was the size of small bedroom and was tall enough for me to stand and reach my arms up without being able to touch the rocks above me. The blood I detected earlier came from two dead rabbits that lay on a pile of wet leaves in the middle of the cave. Crouching down I touched the head of one of them and shivered as I felt how cold it was. They had been disemboweled and drained already and there was no one else but Aurelius who could have done it. But I wondered how, there were no knives around, or any sharp rocks for that matter, for him to cut open the rabbits. How did he even catch them in the first place? Maybe that was why he was so sweaty before.

"I hope you have some matches or a lighter in here. Sadly, we can't eat them raw." Aurelius joked. But I could. The waterfall served as a door to our cave and when Aurelius came though it with our stuff he got them wet. It wasn't avoidable so I didn't get upset.

"I actually do. Thanks for catching these by the way. I was starving." Aurelius shrugged as if it was nothing and dropped my bag next to me. He was still naked so when I looked up from the bag and straight ahead, I was face to face with 'little' Aurelius. I could feel my mouth begin to salivate as I stared at it and was shocked to see it slightly move. Was it growing? Gawking, I looked up at Aurelius' face to see he was smirking down at me. Asshole.

"It's tiny. That's why I was staring." I tried to cover up my behavior. I was sure I was blushing ferociously.

"Sure, that's the reason." Aurelius continued to smirk knowingly and I rolled my eyes. Standing up fully, I completely expose myself to him. This time, Aurelius was the one being caught in a trance. His dark eyes moved over my body slowly and heatedly. I felt my nipples tighten and the area between my legs come to life as he devoured me with his strong gaze. I wanted to do that with body parts south of his orbs. And that was revolting. He was a mortal. The fact that I was attracted to him made me feel like there was something wrong with me.

I sucked in a short breath when my eyes moved away from his and down. If there wasn't proof I was lying before there was definitely proof now. Aurelius was anything but tiny. His member was engorged, long, and thick and it was making me want to just lie down on the floor of this cave, spread my legs, and let him take me. If he kept looking at me like I was a meal I might just do exactly that. My urges resembled a cat in heat.

"Aurelius, are you done?" I snapped, my voice coming out a lot raspier than I expected. Aurelius looked up at me, his expression not changing, and it looked like his eyes got even darker. Strange. Aurelius growled at me, the sound rumbling from deep in his chest and past his closed lips. I think I got wetter just from the sound of it.

I didn't know why he was acting like this. I had seen him naked already and my first reaction wasn't to growl or stare at him the way he was staring at me right now. I was way more controlled than him. But I guess boys will be boys. No type of control of their emotions at all. So barbaric, it's almost shameful.

"Aurelius," I called again and this time he answered, but not with his words. He started stalking towards me with determination and my eyes widened in shock. I was perplexed, why on earth was he getting closer to me with that pole sprouting out of him? I had no intentions of getting anywhere near that thing. In my head, sure, but not in real life.

Growling again, Aurelius grabbed me, pulling my body so that our skin was pressed against each others. I gasped as I felt the heat of his body pressed hard against mine and almost moaned at the intense pleasure that I was already beginning to feel. We hadn't even done anything. What was this mortal boy doing to me?

"Aurelius," his name left me in a moan this time and I gripped his arms tightly. I didn't know if I wanted to pull him closer or push him away. I was conflicted. But, Aurelius made the decision for me, grasping the back of my thighs he lifted me so that my face was level to his and my legs were wrapped around his hips before pressing his plump lips against mine. I closed my eyes almost immediately and groaned in ecstasy at the feeling of his lips. Not only hat but I could feel his hard member against my stomach and I wanted desperately to feel it somewhere else.

Our mouths moved quickly and passionately and it didn't take long for our tongues to join the erotic dance. I bit down gently on Aurelius' bottom lip when I felt him reach up and grab my butt, squeezing the flesh in his hands firmly. Moving his lips from my own, Aurelius began to press kisses down my jaw to the sensitive area of my throat and then to the juncture between my neck and my shoulder. I gasped as his teeth grazed me and felt my own teeth begin to elongate as a reaction. I didn't know why though, never had my body unwillingly morphed itself during any of my sexual encounters. I didn't know why that was happening now. And since it was happening, this needed to stop. Forcing my teeth back into its original state I composed myself and pushed Aurelius away from me, dropping down and standing on my own two feet.

Aurelius looked down at the ground once our bodies separated and I watched as his shoulders rose and fell as he took in deep breaths. His fists were clenched tightly and I could almost feel the arousal radiating off of him. It must have been ages since he last got some for him to be acting like this. But, I couldn't deny I practically felt the same way. All I wanted to do was jump his bones and ride him till the sun rose again. But I refused, that was against all my morals and values. I didn't care how attracted I was to him, I wouldn't give into it. That kiss was a short moment of weakness.

Walking away from me and picking up his black shorts Aurelius pulled them on, covering his erection. The bulge was still very visible but it wasn't as exposed as it was before. Picking up his t-shirt next, Aurelius reached it out to me, still not looking at me.

"Put it on," he was growling yet again. He was acting like a damn werewolf. Dominic's voice had gotten like that many times. I was familiar with this behavior but not from a mortal. Aurelius was a strange character. Snatching the shirt from him I put it over my wet body, covering myself up.

"It's on." I grumbled and Aurelius finally looked up at me. I could tell he was still aroused but at the sight of me wearing his shirt he had calmed down considerably. I wanted to take off the damn thing. It smelt like him and it was intoxicating. I rather be covered in wolfsbane than his scent.

"Let's just get the lighter, eat, go to bed, and forget that just happened." I couldn't agree more.