Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
That was the worst thing I could have thought of. I needed to focus on the present. On the fact that he’d felt comfortable enough and safe enough to spend time with strangers after the things we’d been through. He seemed happy. Weren’t those all signs of emotional stability?
The side-by-side slid to a sharp stop. By the time I realized it, Henri had already unbuckled himself and jumped out. Leaving me there.
“Don’t get in the way,” he called out over his shoulder.
I sat there for a second. Then I snickered. That was more like the Henri I’d known.
Taking off my seat belt, I slid off the bench. He’d stopped us on the other side of a fallen tree trunk that had to be two feet wide. He’d already leapt over it, as well as several other similar logs covering the forest floor, those long legs really helping him gain some distance.
What is going on with me? I needed to stop creeping on him. Have some dignity.
His face might belong to a Greek god—though as far as I knew he didn’t have any of that ancestry in him—and his body might as well have been molded from an inspiration of Hercules, but—Stop, Nina.
It had to be this place doing something to me. The magic was making me horny. My hormones and I were going to need to have a serious talk later when the object of our fascination wasn’t around and couldn’t sense me getting squinty over him in fine-fitting jeans.
I wasn’t ashamed of being attracted to him, but that would only complicate things. So, I had to keep it in moderation.
Unless he started openly flirting with me.
That would be the day.
He was barely talking to me now. And he hadn’t even hesitated to leave me behind. I almost laughed.
Ahead, I could see in the distance there was a small group. Two people…? And they were…?
Were they talking to a tree?
I blinked and squinted when the tree seemed to bend in half a split second before the loudest roar I’d ever heard in my life erupted from it. It would have given a T-Rex a run for its money, I bet. It made the Jenny Greenteeth’s growls sound like a hissy fit.
That was no tree though, I decided when one of the people leaned forward right back and growled loud enough that I could recognize the very werewolf sound.
What was that thing? I wondered. I climbed over a big fallen log, a branch poking me hard in the ass. I had to stop and make sure it hadn’t torn my pants. Gaining distance from me, Henri’s movements sped up as he literally prowled forward. How in the world a body that size could move so soundlessly was beyond impressive, and I kind of wished I wasn’t so intrigued by the talking tree that I could settle for watching him in that denim.
But I was curious.
In less than twenty-four hours, I’d seen a river creature, a cyclops, and a satyr. What was the rest of my time here going to be like? The possibilities made me excited, and it wasn’t like I hadn’t occasionally met interesting beings.
I jumped and climbed over every other trunk as I tried to circle the long way around where Henri was going so I wouldn’t break my word. He was too pissed to notice I was following, I thought, since he didn’t tell me to go back. The direction of the wind helped too.
…or maybe he just didn’t give a crap what happened to me. Hmm.
Another one of those T-Rex-like roars blasted through the forest, and I heard Henri snarl like he had in my face the day before but ten times louder. “I’m not in the mood for your shit today.”
He was talking to the tree.
I inched closer, trying my best to avoid making more sound than I needed to. It wasn’t that I thought I was going to get away with being sneaky—Henri had exceptional hearing and sense of smell since he was what he was after all—but hopefully he’d be too distracted to pay attention for a little while. If I was lucky.
“I am not in the mood for your shit any day,” a low, inhuman voice replied. Deep voices were one thing, but this one was in a league of its own. If a mountain could talk, that’s what it would sound like.
I finally got a good shot of the talking branch.
That was no tree.
What I’d thought was bark was hair. Lots and lots of long hair. Like a Yorkie on steroids. A bigger and less gross-looking version of the river crone with brownish hair.
And that was when I gasped. It was a bigfoot. A bigfoot.
Ohhhh, I wished Duncan was here to see this!
Now that I was close enough, I could tell the two figures I’d originally spotted were a man and a woman. I was pretty sure they were both the same people from the night before, the woman the one who had growled at the bigfoot after its first roar. It was right then, that the man turned his head in the direction where I was standing. His hair was shades lighter than Henri’s, his frame closer to Matti’s leaner build.