Calli

Holyshitholyshitholyshit.

A wolf.

I screamed again, louder this time out of fear rather than pain. The giant grey wolf narrowed its beady yellow eyes on me and growled again.

"Please don't eat me!" I screamed at the thing.

For a hot second, I almost thought it understood me. It seemed to pause and tilt its head to look at me. But that of course is insane because less than a second later it growled again and bared its teeth. It lowered itself onto its haunches and shoved his butt in the air, the typical position for my parent's cat Bernie when he was about to pounce on his favorite little feather toy. The last thing I saw before forcing my eyes shut was the wolf lunging at me. I screamed one last time, just to make sure this wolf knew exactly how unappreciative I was of its treatment and waited for the inevitable blow. But it never came.

I heard snarls, growls and thumps so I decided to open my eyes. I saw another wolf, a black one with white paws 'Awe he has socks. How cute.' on top of the grey wolf.

'Oh great. Two wolves. Even. Fucking. Better.' I took that as my cue to leave and hobbled as quickly down the trail as my injured ankle would take me. I ran for maybe ten minutes and I could no longer hear the sounds of the wolf fight I had barely escaped from. I turned to look behind me, so didn't see the man who came out of seemingly nowhere, until I ran right into him.

"Hey, miss, are you ok?" His voice was low and delicious and caused tingles in all sorts of places that were completely inappropriate for the situation I was currently in.

"You need to run! There are wolves back there and they were going to eat me!" He looked behind me, then back down at me, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have come out here lookin like a snack." He chuckled at his own joke. I narrowed my eyes at him and crossed my arms over my chest, which had the unintended consequence of pushing my boobs together and up.

The guy noticed.

"Hey! Eyes up here buddy!" I snapped my fingers in his face. That caused his eyes to snap up to my own and I think the world stopped spinning for a minute. We locked gazes and I couldn't tear my eyes from his even if I tried. They were a beautiful brown on the outside with a shade of green along the inside, almost matching the scenery of the forest around us. Eventually he cleared his throat, breaking whatever trance I was in.

"Can I help you get out of here?" He lifted his hand for me to take, which is when I suddenly realized he wasn't wearing a shirt.

"Um, why don't you have a shirt on?"

"Uh... I was hiking and got hot. It flew away on the trail somewhere." He flashed me a grin with his perfect teeth, strong nose, plump pink lips and a jawline I could cut bread with. As if that wasn't enough, he had the perfect amount of stubble and my knees weakened. Literally. Fucking. Weakened.

What fresh hell is this?

Men don't affect me. Ever. After that last asshole I promised myself I would never let a man in again. And here I am swooning over a half-naked stranger in the forest. I need a drink. No. I told my hormones to settle the fuck down and shook my head to clear my thoughts before facing the strange, yummy man again.

"No thank you. I'll be fine."

"Are you sure? That ankle looks pretty swollen." Now that he mentioned it, I turned my attention back to my ankle. There were no more sounds of wolves and the adrenaline from my escape had worn off, allowing me to feel the pain that was radiating through my foot and lower half of my leg.

"Owwww...." I moaned as I sat on the forest floor. He leaned down with me and helped me take off my shoe and sock. My ankle had already turned a lovely shade of purple and was double the size of my other ankle. I found myself oddly self-conscious of this gorgeous man thinking I had cankles. Which I don't. Of course not.

"No funny business. I promise. I'll just get you out of here and you can go on your merry way. If I had to leave you here, I'd never sleep again. The curiosity of how you got out alive would kill me." He looked genuine. Earnest. Not like a serial killer. Well, most serial killers don't look like serial killers. That's how they manage to get away with it and are able to kill more than one person hence, making them a serial killer.

'Oh my God, Calli. Focus.' My brain is running a hundred miles a minute and part of me thinks it has nothing to do with almost dying and more to do with this gorgeous stranger flashing me his abs and V thing that dips into his pants. Those always make me go stupid.

"What's your name?" I questioned him.

"Finn. What's yours?" I looked him over skeptically, trying to judge if he could be trusted with this information.

"Calli."

"Well, Calli. How about we get you out of here?" I nodded and started to follow after him. I could barely hobble, and the pace must have been too slow for Finn, because he huffed a little.

"Here, you can lean on me." He put one of my arms around his shoulder and wrapped his around my waist, taking the majority of my weight off my ankle. I had to admit, it felt a lot better.

"I think I'm dehydrated." I muttered, more to myself not expecting any response from Finn.

"Why's that?" Finn responded.

"My arm feels all tingly. Must be from lack of hydration." I shrugged a little, which was difficult.

Finn's head snapped in my direction and his eyes widened ever so slightly.

"What?" I snapped at him. I wasn't in the mood for histrionics. He cleared his throat before responding.

"Nothing, that's just concerning. Where'd you park your car?"

"At the north entrance." Finn stopped all of a sudden and I squealed when I felt myself being lifted. Out of reflex, I wrapped my arms tightly around Finn's shoulders so he wouldn't drop me.

"What are you doing?!" I asked, my voice dripping with surprise and annoyance.

"You're going too slow. We'll never get out of here at the rate you were going." He carried me bridal style as if I weighed nothing. As much as I hated to admit it, it was super hot.

"Can I ask you something?" I inquired.

"Sure."

"Are you a serial killer?" I wasn't anticipating the loud, barking laughter, or the way Finn threw his head back and nearly had tears streaming from his eyes, but I was enjoying the sound. It was deep and melodious. I nearly joined in.

"No. I'm not a serial killer. But even if I were what makes you think I would tell you?"

Yeah, like that's not suspicious.

I narrowed my eyes at him and studied him intently.

"What are you doing?" He asked with a furrowed brow.

"Trying to decide which actor is going to play you in the Netflix documentary after you murder me. They got Zac Efron for Ted Bundy you know. Which, in my opinion, was a compliment to Ted Bundy. I mean, he was a six. MAYBE a six and a half. But Zac Efron? He's a solid ten."

He chuckled and I got the impression he wasn't taking me seriously.

"Well, who do you think it would be?" I continued studying him, his light brown hair, chiseled jaw line, broad shoulders, delicious abs.

"A slightly taller Jensen Ackles. Circa season three of Supernatural."

"That's oddly specific."

"It's the eyes. He doesn't have brown in his, but they are freaking gorgeous. Like a Disney princess." I said wistfully. What I wouldn't give for big, beautiful doe eyes.

"Don't worry, sweetheart. I'd never hurt you." I scoffed.

"Who you callin sweetheart?" He wiggled his eyebrows at me suggestively.

"The pretty girl I'm currently carrying." I huffed again and stayed quiet. All I could think was 'he thinks I'm pretty!!' and I certainly did not want him to know that's all I'm thinking.

After what felt like hours of walking and after repeated offers of walking on my own, the entrance to the forest finally became visible and I could once again see my old beaten up car sitting in the parking lot. I was equal parts grateful for this adventure to end, and a little sad to see Finn go.