His long look told me he wasn't kidding.

He never is.

And we both knew how likely it was I'd travel with a woman. All I'd ever met did not want to be my friend. Far from.

And despite that I wasn't his, and he was the only man that could seem to willingly let me go, he seemed even more possessive than the others when it came to me keeping male company.

Or he tries to be.

Now, I wanted to surround myself with male Skins just to defy him.

Certainly not male monsters though!

I could control the Skins.

"Oh." He popped his head back into the door. "Is this you escaping me again?"

My eyes narrowed on him. "You do know your particular manner of humor, isn't actually funny, right?"

Those dimples flashed again. Though I saw no hint of those flat square teeth he so often nipped me with.

Never a real smile.

Odd.

I hated that I'd even thought that. Physically shaking myself, I slid on my shoes and peeked out to make sure he was gone.

And this wasn't a trap.

He could've had the Pyre Army moving all night to get here.

If he hadn't, then we were now engaged in a race. Him, to get back to them and return my direction before sunlight could peer through the canopy of trees above us, to hunt me down. Me, to run like hell!

I stepped outside and had to squint through remaining darkness. Careful to circle wide of the lingering puddle from last night.

I've had enough of Orin for now.

Or always...

Hearing my stomach gargle. I walked only a short distance before I found a bit of cooked meat on the forest floor. I bent to inspect it.

It wasn't the first time I'd seen such a thing.

"Thank you, Lionel."

I heard the shuffling of a bush nearby and an animalistic grunt. I collected it and chomped around the bits of bone. Identifying it as some kind of a large bird leg.

He'd probably spent a good portion of the night cooking it.

"You might as well come out, Pup. I know you're there." I summoned resignedly.

I saw the hairy man stroll from the brush. Not bothering to put on clothes.

He usually doesn't.

Brown hair and a brown beard adorned his face. Signifying that he was a Hound.

More dog than human.

But Lionel was a good Hound.

One of the rare few.

I reached out to him, knowing how shy he was, and he hesitantly took my hand, like a small child willing to walk with me.

He was a grown man, a young one, but grown, nonetheless. His fleshy bit resting along one of his legs and swinging as he moved. I concentrated on not looking at it. Knowing he was so much younger than me.

We strolled together in quiet companionship.

I leaned down by the river and Lionel rushed over to greedily hump against my hip. Whimpering with need though he made no effort to sincerely invade my woman's hole, it was annoying, nonetheless.

"No!" I pointed a warning finger at him. Shouting it again more sternly.

He ducked his head and flushed but still gripped my side and waist to hold me still until he spurted along the side of my dress.

"Dammit, Lionel!" I swore at him.

He dropped to all fours and hid behind a boulder. Avoiding my scathing look.

"Shoo!" I chased him off. Annoyed that he always did this.

"This is why I never let you walk with me!" I shouted after him.

Seeing his hairy backside retreating on all fours.

Stupid Hounds.

I went a bit further before seeing a powdery blue cloak hanging from a branch.

I stopped and put a hand on my hip to study it. Peering around carefully. Now, how'd he get that there?

And worse, how'd he know which direction I was going?

Discomforted by that, I veered West. Heading as far from Frost's Hold as I could get. And though I was no longer going the complete opposite direction of the Eternus Realm, I was still putting angular distance between me and them.

Which is good.

I didn't really have a particular destination. I was really just looking for some dark, waterless, soundless place I could hide, that none of the men that hunted me could find me.

A place of peace.

***

I knew I couldn't keep running forever. My life would eventually come to an end, either because some creature that lusted for me killed me.

Or because I'm taken captive by someone who never lets me go.

That was my worst fear. Made more terrifying because of its terrifying reality.

I wanted to escape Gray and the Eternus King that hunted me.

They were truer enemies to me then anyone else.

I was so lost in thought that I didn't notice the man in the dark mask stepping from the trees and into my path.

"Hold it!" He declared.

I gave him a disgruntled look. Huffing in annoyance and rolling my eyes.

His blade lowered slightly, and he seemed put off by my reaction.

"Give me your coin." He said weaker then he'd originally intended.

"I have none."

He tipped his head in clear skepticism. Making the black fabric over his face twist enough that bleak eyeholes slid out of alignment. Making him quickly gather it and adjust it back to where it needed to be.

"I don't believe you!"

I shrugged. "I can't prove I don't have it by showing you what I don't have."

He stalked over, wielding his dagger at me.

I lifted my hands in surrender as he walked behind me to grip the top of my cloak. He began feeling his way down my dress. Ripping it near the hip in his rough haste to search my form beneath my dress.

I growled in aggravation.

"I'm sorry to inconvenience you, My Lady!" He said sarcastically.

"Would you just hurry up?"

He rounded to face me. His brown eyes behind the mask wide. Only then did he look straight at me.

I saw his pupils dilate and everything other than my face vanishing from the reflection in them.

Ugh... I thought boredly.

More malcontented because I thought I didn't have time for this.

The dagger slipped from his hand, and he reached out to touch my face reverently.

I caught his wrist and peeled his touch off my skin. Giving him a long look. I lowered my lashes and let my energy emanate from my gaze to his. Luring him into my sway.

But I saw the brief flash of orange flame in his eye and reared back.

Oh, no.

He was snarling in sudden aggression. His teeth going pointed and the skin around his eyes blackening to a sheen like a raven's wing. His nose elongating enough to rip through the fabric of the mask.

A goblin.

I turned to run from him, but he caught the cloak flowing behind me and jerked me backward off my feet. Tossing me to the mud.

"Breed." He grunted in an animalistic voice.

I wondered if he'd even known he had the goblin blood in him. Likely not.

This was my sick power.

If a monster touched me skin to skin, then something in my pheromones sparked in their blood. Drawing out whatever beast might lurk there.

In humans it was vanity. Lust. Whatever their weakness was.

But in monsters...The personality of their darker self was set free.

I'd just sparked this man's goblin blood.

He tore the mask off his face and tossed it aside. Revealing eyes which were now sunken and razor sharp teeth.

He ripped open the fabric of his worn breeches, freeing himself.

He was already thrusting the air as if his root believed it was inside me already.

I crawled backward shaking my head.

Goblins were what I hated most.

They're absolutely brutal.

I didn't want this thing to touch me.

Normally goblins could hide in human form for centuries until they caught the pheromone of something powerful enough to bare its young.

But in my case...

It just wanted in me.

"I'm not suited. I've no power!" I showed him my hands. Still crawling away.

He leapt. Clearing several feet to land on me. He gripped my neck violently to hold me in place.

I gripped his fingers trying to peel them away as I gasped for air.

With his other hand he was ripping through my new skirt and the tunic beneath. Clawing with his long black fingernails, to touch soft womanly flesh.

I watched his four other spindly arms unravel from his back like the legs of a spider, ripping through skin to splay before crawling across the ground to tear at my dress.