It was when I opened my eyes that I realized I never hit the ground. Well, not directly. 

Somehow, Xander transformed back into a human being and caught me before I made contact with the forest floor. He took the full impact; being the first to strike ground. 

With me tucked in his arms like a precious package, we were carried by his momentum a good twenty feet. Snow and fallen dry leaves covered us as we rolled over them, some of it making its way into my open mouth and up my nostrils. 

When we finally stopped rolling right before we struck a solid-looking tree trunk, I spat out the snow mixed with dry leaves and coughed a couple of times, feeling the need to clear my chest. 

I looked down and finally realized that I was lying on top of Xander. 

For a few moments, I couldn’t move. It was mostly from the shock than any injury I had sustained. 

Xander was staring intently at me. In this position, our faces were naturally inches apart, and I could clearly see the milky clouds and silver and green specs in his eyes. How could a male have such long eyelashes? It was criminal. 

I expected to find anger or at least annoyance on his face for having suffered such a comical fall, but Xander was looking up at me with a strange look I couldn’t quite name. It was awfully disconcerting. When I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, that was when Xander went and did something terrifying, like force me to ride him in wolf from across a forest. We wouldn’t be on the ground with a face full of snow if it weren’t for him. 

He reached up a large hand and I instinctively flinched away from it, my heart fluttering nervously. 

“There’s snow in your eyelashes,” he explained, his voice as strange as the look on his face. A shiver raked me, its abruptness startling me as much as Xander’s gesture. 

I didn’t say anything and forced myself to hold still as he brushed away the snow from my eyelashes with a gentle hand. It was always surprising when he exhibited gentleness of any kind; he was a werewolf after all, half man, half beast, so one did not expect to see this side of him at all. Yet he’d caught me midair like a superhero and had borne the full impact of the fall. He probably didn’t feel a thing, but it was still nice of him. 

“There.” He said and tucked an awry strand of hair behind my ear, the warm pads of his fingers brushing against my cold skin. 

After all I had been through today, I knew I looked like a car wreck, but Xander was looking at me as if I was Cleopatra herself. There was so much …emotion in his eyes that I wanted to look away, but it was another thing I couldn’t do while I lay on top of him. 

A blush colored my face, no doubt striking and very, very noticeable against the whiteness of the snow covered my face. 

A slow smile drew the corners of his mouth upward. His mouth. His sinfully-full mouth, another feature no man should have been allowed to have. 

At times like this, when he was staring at me so intently, it was almost difficult to remember he was my wolven kidnapper. Almost. 

A bird shot out of a tree and took flight, startling us both out of our trance. 

I scrambled to get off of him, but Xander pushed me off him first and rose to his feet, tossing me to the side like a log. 

“Ugh!” I hit the ground with a thud. 

What a jerk. 

****

It took some convincing to get me back on Xander’s back, but when it looked like he was going to overpower and force me again, I relented begrudgingly. It was no use resisting; he was much more powerful than I was and I’d only be wasting my energy and both our times. 

“This time you walk.” I told him sternly, squeezing his fur. “I can’t risk another fall like that; I hit my hip and it’s sore now.” I lied, but what else could a girl do? I was looking out for my best interests here and found this little lie justifiable. It wasn’t all a lie; I really couldn’t take more of the running. It was like being on a rollercoaster, except it never stopped.

Xander looked over his shoulder at me and nodded once. 

I sighed and my shoulders dropped; I had been expecting some protests. Okay, so he was at least giving me this. 

He started moving and I reflexively held on, wrapping my legs around him tightly and practically squeezing him. If he minded at all, he didn’t let on. 

At the pace we were going now, I could see more of Evergreen Forest. The farther in we delved, the thicker and darker it got. Even with a full moon, this place would still be eerily dark and creepy. 

“So the myths are all right? You guys are the man-eating monsters?” I asked, but it was pretty obvious. 

We don’t eat humans. Xander said exasperatedly.

 “But you kidnap them.” I couldn’t help but get that one in. It was still a sore spot, and I thought I was justified in still feeling so. 

But we don’t eat them. 

“Then what do you do with the humans who wander too far?”

Nothing, really. Unless they find us, that is. 

I frowned. “What happens then?” I almost didn’t want to know. 

We keep them.