Mundahlia (The Mundahlian Era, #1) (20 page)

Rini

17

Jett took me
back to his cabin.

Upon arriving, I immediately dashed for the bathroom to hurl. Or at least felt as if I had to. I didn’t, but I flushed the toilet anyway. As I cleaned myself up and splashed water on my face, I overheard Jett telling the others of the incident. His deep voice seeped through the gap in the bottom of the door as he explained.

“So now she knows?!” Ray growled. “Guess I’m gonna have to kill her now!” Quick and heavy footsteps sounded in the hall. “Hey open the damn door so I can kill you,
bitch
!” he pounded on the bathroom door, making it rattle on its hinges. I jumped and crawled to the farthest corner of the bathroom. “I’ll give you to the count of one before I kick this door down and drag you out myself!”

“
Ray!
” Martin called, entering the hallway as well. There was a shuffling of noises followed by a loud
thump
.

“Ow!” Ray stammered, “I’m just trying to help this family!”

“Then sit down and shut the hell up!” Martin ordered, ‘
that
is how you can help this family right now!” His voice was full of authority. The same pursed voice he had used on him earlier. Hell, I was even scared. Even more frightened than I was already, that is.

There was a gentle rap on the door. “Rini, come out whenever you’re ready, sweetie. It’s okay, we’re not going to harm you.” Martin said.

“I am!” Ray protested from the living room, his voice was distant.

“
Callate
!” I heard Del yell, then another loud thump sounded.

“Bitch!”
he yelled, ending it with the hidden sound of pain.

I put the lid of the toilet down and used it as a seat. The conversation continued. “Well, where are the bodies of both of them?” Martin asked.

Jett’s voice came next, “About a quarter mile passed the fallen tree, right after the large bush.”

I heard a clap of hands together. “All right family! Let’s go clean up the mess before any humans find the remains. Jett, you stay here with Rini,” Martin said. There was that
go check on her
tone in the words he spoke. “Max?!” he called right after. A door in front of the bathroom opened and faint footsteps headed toward the living room. “Come with us, we have to clean up a…” the conversation trailed out of the door until it shut, leaving only fading mumbles behind. Finally, silence. I let out a sigh.

The door knob jiggled lightly. I hadn’t even heard any more footsteps come into the hallway. I thought he’d stayed in the living room. “You can come out now, it’s just me,” Jett said. His voice was quiet, reassuring at most.

“Um, just a second.” I needed a minute—an hour—a day, maybe even a year to process what I’d seen.
What the hell just happened?!

“I promise I have clothes on now.” There was a metal clink as I heard something being inserted into the knob.

“I said just a seco-”

The door flung open. “I think that was more than a second.” Jett held out a small silver key to show how he got in. He was right. He had changed into a T-shirt and black shorts.“You can’t hide in the bathroom all night. Pretty sure we’re going to need to use it eventually.”

“I really just need a few minutes, okay.” I leant on the wall at the farthest corner of the bathroom. As far away as I could possibly be—from him.

“All right.” He hopped onto the counter at the other end and sat. “I’ll wait for you to calm down a bit more.” Calm down? I was nowhere near calmed down.

...

I paced back and forth as Jett watched in amusement, “I mean one minute, you’re dancing with me at a restaurant, then
poof!
you turn into a werewolf and kill another were-
thing
that was eating a human?! It’s just, just-” I paused to take in a breath. “It’s just too much to take in right now!”

“Well, that pretty much sums up today’s events, doesn’t it?” he laughed, as though it weren’t a big deal.

“It’s not funny!” I whipped back.

“Look,” he started. “I don’t expect you to automatically accept me as I am and be okay with all of this,” He pointed to himself with an inward thumb. “But-”

“—but you’re a
monster
!” I screamed.

His expression sunk. “Ouch,” he murmured, as though I’d taken a knife and plunged it directly into his heart, then shown him the bloody blade. I thought to myself,
monsters are vicious, evil—nasty creatures that thrive on the misfortunes of others.
He was neither of those things. He’d been nothing but nice, sweet, caring, and protective. A complete gentleman. Immediately after speaking, I felt regret loom over me like a dark cloud waiting to pour.

“Jett, I-I didn’t mean it. I’m so sorry,” I tried to reach out to his arm, wanting to take back my words, but stopped midair and retracted it. I’d seen these arms. These very arms in front of me—grow to abnormal sizes. Once covered in thick dark fur, but now bare, as though it were nothing more than a large furry overcoat he’d taken off. He bore the qualities of a human standing before me, but he was much
much
more underneath.

“It’s fine. It’s just that to us,
monster
is sort of a derogatory term.”

“Jett I—”

He lowered his head, his lengthy hair falling on his shoulders, “You know, all my life I’ve felt like one—a
monster
. A freak of nature.” He sighed and pinched his brow with his forefingers. “When I was younger, I would always curse whoever, or whatever it was that made me like
this
. Unable to fit in, unable to talk to other people longer than I wanted to—or even find love. I thought that for the rest of my life, I’d be alone. Live a life, secluded here in the forest, always on the run until I’d eventually die an old man that no one would ever bother to find. They’d just leave me out wherever I passed to rot into nothing more than just a pile of bones and dust. Sure, I’d have my family, but I wouldn’t have that special someone to make a connection with. I’d be without a spouse. A grueling feeling of emptiness and curiosity that would linger on throughout my life as a
what if?
Never finding that someone who could love me and let me love them in return. Someone I knew I had to make mine—” He blinked a glossy eye and recomposed himself. “—and
collect
.” There it was again. The word
collect
. The way he used it made me tingle in a strange way.

“Oh,” was all I could utter. I was being filled with all this information pouring into me. It was as if he took the words straight from my mind. Never being able to find someone, and fearing of living a lonely life.

He sniffled, then replied in normal tone, “Like I said, I thought all that when I was younger. Now, I’ve learned to accept my fate as it is dealt to me day by day.”

“I had no idea, Jett.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s okay.” His hand met mine. “Just please,
please,
” he pleaded in a somber tone, “don’t leave.” He set my palm on his warm cheek and I felt as his body heat wrapped itself around and traveled down my arm. “I like you, Rini,” he began. “A
lot
. And I know I’m not the guy you thought I was, but this is just a part of me. I didn’t choose to be like this. For the most part, I’m just like you—or any other human,” he uttered in that soft romantic voice he’d used during our late night chats. “I’m just trying to work with what I was given.” He pulled me closer, and I set both my hands on his bulging triceps to stop.

Stains of vivid red marked my hand. “You’re bleeding,” I noted, turning my gaze to the side of his arm where I’d set my hand. I spotted a fresh wound.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. It’s just a baby cut,” he smiled, mimicking the words I’d used the night I’d first met him. The mysterious and peculiar man who rode in with the wind.

“Hey, that’s my line,” I smiled back, blotting away the excess blood with a hand towel I’d been handed by him. “Besides, it’ll get infected—then you’ll have a problem there.”

“That’s
some
of my line,” he joked.

I rolled up his sleeve to get a better view. Using the small towel that I had dampened in the sink, I pressed into the cut and soaked up the stained areas, leaving a clean area that showed the slice that divided a piece of skin in two. “Where’s your medical stuff?” I asked.

“The third one down,” Jett pointed to the set of drawers between his dangling legs. Suddenly, the tone of things had changed and the tenseness had disintegrated away, leaving behind the feeling of how things were on the porch before the shock. When I’d thought he was just a normal hot guy that lived in a secluded cabin in the outskirts of a city that I happened to stumble upon while—
Oh, geez Rini, really? You fell right into that one.

In the drawer were: cotton balls
and
swabs, alcohol, antibiotic spray
and
cream, and bandages. I opened the alcohol and dabbed it on a cotton ball, then pressed it over the cut. I then, uncapped the antibiotic cream and squeezed a small amount on a cotton swab, spreading it over the bubbling area as well.

“There you go,” I said, smoothing out a bandage over his skin. “Good as new.” I lowered his shirt sleeve back down and tossed the papers and used items in the trash.

“Thank you,” Jett said. “Now your turn.” He hopped off the counter and patted the empty area.

“My turn for what?”

“The small cut you have on
your
arm.” He pointed to a little red gash I had procured from a twig that had impaled me in the bush. I hadn’t even felt it. I was so numb with fright, I guess my body had said
Screw the pain! You can feel that later! What the hell is going on?!

He lifted me onto the counter and opened the drawer again. “Um, okay?” I managed to get out. Things with Jett were getting pretty handsy as they usually were. The sleepover, the truck ride, the porch, and right now when he grabbed my hand as though we’d been going out for months.

As he cleaned up my cut and bandaged it, I couldn’t help but notice how gentle he was. Focused on making sure everything was disinfected and covered and all while the tip of his tongue stuck out the side of his mouth. “There. Good as new too.”

“Thank you.”

He turned those gorgeous brown eyes of his to me and smiled. “No problem.” He didn’t move away. Instead, our eyes met once more. And again, I was lost in them, as he was in mine. He smiled slyly and leant in—his hands, in fists, on both sides of my thighs. I moved my head back sheepishly, watching as he pulled away slightly, looked from my eyes to my lips twice, and flashed a quick smile before leaning in again. My head hit the mirror behind me and I couldn’t go back any farther. As soon as his soft lips met mine for the second time tonight, his hands caressed the side of my face keeping me from moving from his lips. I wanted to pull away, but didn’t. What happened on the porch earlier shouldn’t have happened. It was a mistake. But, even though I knew this was wrong, it somehow felt right. His scent, his lips, his now sweet breath with only faint undertones of alcohol—him. I was sinking deeper and losing my grasp at the surface. I was drowning. Drowning in an emotion, I’d never felt before. Never wanted to feel—until now. Something so fresh, so new. Even as I tried to place this emotion to something, it left me feeling bewildered. I needed more.
More
of this toxic sweetness I couldn’t help but indulge.

“May I collect you?” he whispered into my lips and went back in for more.

“
Hmm?
” I didn’t bother pulling away to ask.

“May I collect you, Rini?—” he said, softly pulling our lips apart. “—as mine?”

I leant in and pulled him back in. “
Mhm.
” It was a muffled agreement.

He smiled into my lips, then set his hands at my sides. Keeping our lips together, Jett pulled me off of the counter and onto him. The heat between us bounced from body to body. I was melting, or so it felt like it. Like bars of chocolate over a double boiler.

More.

Jett

18

That watermelon flavor drove me wild.

I couldn’t resist it. On top of that, her soft body against mine felt sensational. Her scent was captivating—tempting the animal instincts inside of me. That pleasant tropical aroma of pineapple or orange and coconut and lime. It was subtle. Lingering only a few inches off her skin. I thought of an old phrase I’d picked up from some Mundahlian literature that my mother had packed, along with other things from our land, in a sack on the night she was forced to let us go.
Thou shalt never tempt the beast, for there is no stopping what should come of it once you do.
Personally, I didn’t want it to stop there. I couldn’t—
I won’t
.

Rini pulled our locked lips apart once more, “But wait,” she said. “I have questions.”

“And I’ll answer them, but later,” I kissed her again to seal her into silence.

I walked us out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, where I gently laid her on my bed—lips still intertwined in a lusty, sensual dance.
More.

Rini didn’t show signs of stopping there as she climbed to the center and pulled me toward her. I crawled over her, meeting my lips to hers again as my hands explored the rest of her sexy body. Her breasts were soft as I felt them under my hands. Soft and supple. She moaned with pleasure into my lips.
More.

“Wait!” she said.

The animal inside of me was already beginning to show. I was getting aggressive. Not too aggressive, but noticeably different.

Peeking from the bust of her dress, I spotted a lacy black bra. That was all it took to send me into overdrive.