Bodyguard, Reluctantly Yours || ONC2022

Chapter 11

It took me an hour to reach my destination and another to get us settled into the place I had never sold or rented.

Why?

Maybe, I wanted to leave a place for me to return to if my life went south, somewhere I could seek shelter without owing anyone any favors like right now.

The place I had brought Junjun to belonged to my mother when she was alive, but now, it was mine. No one, including Haoyu, knew about it.

I hid my car in the basement and checked it for bugs. Confident that none of the pesky buggers had tagged along, I carried the still unconscious idol inside.

The boy had caught a fear on our way over; with him burning up like a ball of fire, I had my work cut out for the night.

I cleaned and changed him into my clothes while my thoughts drifted to the beast.

Where did it come from?

How had it vanished so suddenly?

Was it responsible for the mutilated bodies I had found in the pit?

I was sure that whatever it was wanted me dead.

Why had it changed its mind?

Why had it let me go?

I laid my charge on the bed and returned with water in a bowl and a washcloth.

I checked his temperature; wanting to bring it down, I sponged his body with the cold, wet cloth. Repeating the procedure, I attempted to piece together what I had seen, heard, and been told.

Logically, the beast could be a mutated form of the native wolf; the reserve was, after all, an attempt at rehabilitating wolves.

If so, how was it that no one had spotted it yet?

It was kinda hard to miss something so freaking ginormous, right?

A low grunt pulled me back to where I was performing nursing duties, and I checked Junjun's forehead and was relieved to find that the fever was all but gone now. 

"Hey, sleepyhead." I cooed, stroking the top of his head. He seemed to enjoy it, as I, for some reason, knew he would. I was glad that I was in a profession where it was mandatory to have survival (and, to some degree) medical skills. The crease on his forehead smoothed out gradually, and he turned away from me, pulling my arm with him. I barely stopped myself from falling on top of him.

I was already in awe of his arm strength which he had displayed on multiple occasions, but it was the first time I had had the pleasure of experiencing it on my over-six-foot-tall, strong, yet lean frame.

With my chest pressed against his back, I could feel his muscles move under his skin. I tried to pull my arm back but failed. Not for the lack of trying, though. The boy had me in an iron hold. Even though this was the first time I had seen him in this level of undress, I could swear that the muscles were a recent addition. A very recent addition. I was not talking about days but hours.

I recalled how I had imagined the idol sprouting muscles out of the blue the day after I had met him.

'Zhao Laoshi, are you sure that what you saw earlier was your imagination?' The Bastard questioned. 'Maybe, it was real…just like right now.'

I gulped thickly and strangled the Bastard's voice. The first thing I needed now was to make sure that the boy was alright.

"Hey," I called softly, struggling to hold my stance with the idol tugging on my arm with all his might.