The faceless number 18 - the wild wolf and his pack

keeping control

*Lance*

I stroked my fingers through her palm and could see her shudder a little. My gaze was fixed on her eyes, and she didn't break her gaze for a second either.

"Do I scare you?", I whispered.

"I don't know." she replied "I feel a little like I'm the prey facing the wolf and thus her death." her breathing slowed but she didn't break her gaze for a second.

Her fingers caught my hand again, wrapped around my hand. "Maybe you're also the she-wolf who's about to jump down my throat after hypnotizing me with her warm, harmless-looking eyes," I returned.

My breathing became as slow as hers.

You could almost feel the tension between us. But it wasn't this unpleasant tension, it was something else. We didn't trust each other. We were really like wolves, circling around each other without attacking.

We probed each other's boundaries without crossing them.

"Maybe.", her voice had become much softer.

"Or maybe we're both not here to hurt each other," I growled.

"Because we belong to the same pack.", she uttered the sentence that had been buzzing around in my head

"And we have to protect each other," I whispered.

Might as well be that we didn't trust each other, that we were both absolutely wary of who we let get close to us, but I knew just as well that I would protect her in a heartbeat. It was completely stupid.

I knew nothing about her, but I was drawn to her.

Everything about her.

Her quiet voice. Her warmth. Her smell.

I would protect her and I knew she would do the same for me without knowing why.

For a long moment there was silence between us. It seemed like each of us had to process this thought first. It was like something I had always known would happen, like I had known she was coming, because it didn't even surprise me that it was happening to me. But I had never known when she would come.

I felt her loosen her grip on my hand a little.

"Does it hurt much?" she asked, and I shook my head.

It was just a cut that maybe bled a little more. I had this horrible habit, though, that too much blood always made me sick. A couple of times I had fallen over because of it. It was uncomfortable, most of the time, but not particularly bad.

"You're a little pale. You should drink something.", she said and now finally let go of my hand.

Only now did I realize how warm her hand had been, because I missed her warmth when she left.

I watched her disappear from my sight and let my head fall back. I hadn't let anyone get that close in a long time.

Not so intensely, at least.

And I knew exactly where this road would lead us. It would end at a fork at some point. A two-part path where I had to decide how I wanted to go on. And so far there had always been only one path for me. I had always turned in the same direction. And it would not run differently also this time. I would choose the path I knew.

"Here." she squatted in front of me again and held out a Coke bottle, then straightened up and turned away from me.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. I understood only in the second moment why she had turned away. I would have to pull down the mask to drink.