Malaika's taste in women was such.

They should be breathing. She made exceptions for asthmatics but that was it. She was open but not that open. If she was going deeper into the aesthetics, well, they should be well within the range of her age group which was forty to sixty. All else could alternate and combine and break.

In front of her stood the most breathtakingly beautiful woman she had ever seen. She was naked but this seemed to not perturb her in the least bit; much like the fact that she had shifted from wolf to human.

Because a lot of things were remiss in Malaika's brain, she focused on what was before her. She was a woman with hair the colour of a moonless sky, rich, dark and so long it was almost sinful. With the wind, it flowed as though it were dancing, understanding that nothing would ever compare to its beauty. Even the bronze tint of her skin seemed to have been made exclusively to show off the dark of her hair. Then the face of the owner almost put it all to shame. Her features were sharp almost to the point of being accused of deliberateness. Their lips were full and a wonderful shade of pink. Eyes so dark they were almost glittering. A nose strong and slightly crooked - the crook giving to such a regal and refined look they would have passed for some kind of powerful royalty. Her features combined seemed to give way to timelessness as she could not, for the life of her, guess how old she was. She looked twenty in the same way she would look forty.

Malaika made it a point not to look at anything beyond their neck because she was a woman of decorum and women of decorum did not give way to lust all willy nilly.

She was to say something. She knew she was yet nothing was coming forth. How could it, anyway? She was seeing things that did not make a lick of sense and she wanted to know what she had done for all that to happen. They stayed at an impasse long enough that the woman's shadow stretched well onto Malaika's feet. "Are you a devil worshipper?" she finally asked.

At first, the woman was taken aback. Then, as though fully understanding what had been asked of her, she fell into a fit of laughter so strong, it had her bending over, trying to catch her breath. Malaika was not impressed with this.

"Don't laugh," she found herself admonishing before she could think any better of it and was flabbergasted when the woman apologised instead of turning into a wolf and finishing what she had started.

"I am sorry," she said. She sounded American. "It was not intentional." She was still breathy from laughter. "It's just, no one has ever asked me that. It was so unexpected."

"That doesn't answer my question."

The woman nodded. "You are right." She took a step forward and Malaika pushed herself back. She might look like a human being but everything about her was not. She raised her hands, looking at Malaika as though she was a wounded animal. "I am not going to hurt you. I made an ass of an introduction but I want to do this again." Malaika said nothing and she took this as a cue to continue on. "I am Hanwi and I am what you would call a werewolf."

Malaika took the news as well as anyone in her position when she said, "I am sorry to tell you this but, werewolves only exist in shifter romances. I would know, I have too many of them."

Hanwi smiled at this. "There really are a lot of shifter romances. I love them too. Which one are you reading right now?"

Why, thought Malaika, did they sound so fucking normal? Nothing about any of what was happening was regarded as normal. "No," she said firmly. "You are not going to bring my guard down so that you can eat me. You think just because I live here there is no one else? They'll find me any minute now."

The earth, she decided, was also her enemy because a soliloquy led by toads and crickets rented the air, advertising that it was a lonely place to stay and she was lonelier still. So alone, in fact, that had Hanwi decided to eat her, it would probably take a year before someone thought of her in passing and wondered where she was.

"Okay then, let us assume someone is coming. I shall be on my best behaviour until then." Malaika was sure that hidden somewhere in that tone, was mockery. "Before then, can I help you up?" She did not move close even though she had half stretched out her hand. Malaika was not keen on taking it so she pushed herself up to her feet and tried to dust herself off.

She could feel the tremors about her. It didn't matter how much Hanwi tried to put her at ease. Erasing the idea that she had been a wolf that had pinned her down as though she was no more important than a rabbit in the wild, was terrifyingly difficult.

"Well," Malaika was proud there was almost no tremor to her voice, "before they come to find me, what do you want from me?"

Hanwi smiled and much like the wolf, cocked her head to the side. "It's simple, really. You are my mate and I simply desire to exist around you."