Enforce Me

Chapter 37: Warmth

Merry Christmas everyone x

Jaidan

Someone clicking their tongue woke me up as my hair was shifted away from my eyes like a curtain opening to the bright afternoon sun.

''They didn't hold back did they?'' Pale fingers left my face as River brushed my hair back out of my eyes and placed a bowl of what looked to be porridge in front of me. ''You slept for a long time, it's late afternoon.''

River smiled at me softly as I sat up and took the bowl from the dirt covered stone that served as my bed for the night.

''It's not bacon and eggs but it's food.''

''Thank you.'' My hand rubbed my sore throat through the collar that sat uncomfortably digging into my neck.

''It'll come off soon enough, the bruises may take a while though.'' He pointed to the collar as he knelt down a foot or so away from me.

''Does this happen often?'' The porridge was dry and clumpy, hard for my sore throat to swallow between words.

''Not really.'' His eyes seemed to be preoccupied with searching the forestry behind me.

''Often enough for you to know how long I'll be wearing a collar for.'' A soft wind blew past my ear rushing towards River, blowing my hair across my face and into my bowl of what tasted like glue and cardboard.

Suddenly his eyes snapped to mine, the golden colours seemed like they were being chased by fire, like they were moving within his iris trying to run away from the new swirling colour washing over it like waves.

''I know because the last person wearing that collar was me.'' His tone was flat and bored as he stood from the ground and glared over my shoulder as if calculating the way the trees danced in the wind.

My eyebrows scrunched together as I stared at the goo in the wooden bowl. Had River also been taken from his family and been subjected to this kind of cruelty?

''Why?''

''It seems you'll find out soon enough. Consider yourself lucky that it's only the collar.'' I caught a glimpse of his canines flashing but they were strange, his incisors lengthened almost as much as his canines did which wasn't a tell sign of a wolf.

A wolf's top and bottom canines lengthened slightly and sharpened, River's lateral incisors sharpened and lengthened to the same as a wolf's but his canines also lengthened considerably, he had two sets of sharpened teeth whereas a wolf had one set.

Maybe he was a shifter like Charlie was? I didn't spend much time staring at his teeth so I couldn't compare them at all, but he definitely didn't smell wolf.

''They're going to brand you tomorrow morning.'' River's voice was raised louder than necessary, or maybe it was just how quiet the forest had become, his voice almost echoed in the shade of the nearby trees.

My shoulder itched like it burned already from just thinking about a hot metal rod melting away the flesh and scar of my mating bond. A wolf's soul was bound to its partner, the pain of tearing a soul from another was something I would never want to imagine and now I was going to have to experience it.

I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs about how unfair it was. I wanted to dig my claws into that feral man and rip the life from him. I wanted to take it out on anything; on anyone. Anyone that my body could reach I wanted to destroy to keep my connection to my mate intact and my bond unsullied.