98: Little thing.
**Aife pov**
I blinked up at the stranger that sat next to me, completely out of it. I felt like I had taken at least ten times the healthy dosage of sleeping pills and the world before me doubled.
“What,” I managed to choke out, but the strange, large man placed a hand over my mouth and shook his head.
“Shh,” he whispered. “Don’t say a word. You’re burning up, the cold got to you. You luxury shifters can’t take the mountains barefoot and nearly naked. Crazy girl, what were you thinking?”
Although he just told me to keep quiet, he still asked questions, so I frowned at him. What was the point of wanting answers and silence at the same time.
Slowly, he pulled his hand away from my mouth and chuckled. “Silly me, I sometimes forget who I am and who others are, my apologies. My name is Alexander and I am a mountain lion shifter. We don’t get outsiders here often and most of us communicate using mind-link. Of course, you can’t communicate with us like that, you’re not a lion.”
I nodded carefully, mainly because my head was pounding and my body seemed to shake. I had never gotten sick, at least not this bad, so the feeling was equally as foreign as it was weird.
“I need you to consent, yes,” Alexander whispered and my frown only deepened. “Oh, shoot, I should’ve told you to what, right?” He giggled like this was funny. Really, he could’ve started with what he needed me to consent to.
Alexander watched me for a brief moment and then kept talking. “I’ll take you in my arms, okay little thing? I will carry you out of this cave and to our pack shelter. We have a healer there, she will help you and once you’re better, you will tell us how a frail little thing like you ended up in these harsh mountains, yes?”
I didn’t really have any other choice, so I nodded in agreement and didn’t protest as the large man slid his hands under me, carefully as if I was something breakable, lifted me and then pressed me against his chest, which I only now realized was bare.
“Shh, little thing, we don’t mind nudity in the mountains. You posh shifters need clothes, we make due as we see fit. Think of it like this - I can share my body heat with you, so the travels won’t be half as bad.”
I let out a choked sound, unable to find my voice and for the first time, it was Alexander who frowned, not me. He looked around, groaned and then carefully repositioned me in his arms before he reached behind his back for something.
The next moment, Alexander was holding a flask in his hand. I watched how he popped it open and brought it to my lips. “Drink, little thing, it will help you,” he encouraged me, voice surprisingly smooth and gentle.
I glanced between the flask and his face, so he grinned and me and brought the flask closer to my lips, “it won’t harm you, it’s only some herbs and vodka, it’ll help to keep you warm and maybe make you sleep while I carry you to the shelter.”
My eyes widened at his words and I instantly shook my head. Somehow, I managed to bring a hand to my belly and weakly choke out, “pregnant.”
Alexander’s eyes widened to the same size as mine, his cheeks turned bright red as he pulled the flask away and nodded sharply. “No vodka for you, little thing, bad for the cubs. We will make due as we are now, I’ll get you something to drink when we’re at the shelter. A glass of water or tea, anything the healer says is healthy for growing cubs.”
Relief washed over me at his words. I had trouble trusting anyone, but nobody could really blame me for that, given how my life had changed within the span of a couple of months.
Just because a stranger smiled at me didn’t mean they meant good and didn’t have any ulterior motives. Especially a stranger that found me inside a cave, freezing my ass off.
As soon as Alexander closed the flask and tucked it back inside wherever it was supposed to fit, he carried me out of the cave. It wasn’t snowing anymore, thankfully, but he still held me a little tighter, pushing my face against his hairy chest.
His skin felt like fire against mine, but I didn’t mind it much. His scent was weird, yet comforting, like marshmallows and coffee combined - the bittersweet not many liked, but I kind of craved right now.
I didn’t feel any attraction to him, of course, I had a mate whose child I was carrying, but there was something oddly enchanting about Alexander and his caring nature.
Yes, I didn’t know if he really meant well or if he was playing a role of worried onlooker, but did I really have many options in my situation?
The friend group had been separated; well, okay, I separated myself from them pretty selfishly, but to my defence, they weren’t around when I ran away. So, technically, for all I knew, everyone could have gone their separate ways as well.
That aside, Bane, or his monserious self, was literally hunting me down and if I decided to stay in that cave, there was no telling how long it would take him to find me. Plus, it wasn’t like I was in any condition to move around freely and escape danger on my own either.
“I wonder if you talk lots when you’re not sick, little thing,” Alexander grumbled under his breath. Then, a little louder, he added, “not that I would mind, of course. I always wondered how the posh shifters live. Once even considered leaving the mountain for a day or two just to have a look, but chickened out. Around here, we are the bigger ones, you know, mountain lions, but down there, fuck knows if there’s something bigger than us.”
I listened to him ramble about his assumptions. At some statements, I even chuckled, especially when Alexander started wondering out loud if unicorns could be real since he had read about them in some books he found in old campgrounds where humans left them.
Eventually, as he kept talking and walking, rocking me in his arms like some child, I realized that I felt so naively safe and warm that at one point, I slowly drifted off, still listening to his neverending rambling.
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