Betrothed

Chapter 30: Not Rock Roll

Willow

It rained above us as we kept running. Fiercely we ran like our feet were on a floor of lava until we crashed into a wall within the tunnel approaching us with a new obstacle of a divided path to choose between. I look at Brayden hesitantly. If we choose wrong, we likely will end up stuck down in this tunnel buried with nowhere to escape. I closed my eyes as quickly as I could to try and calm my senses, still holding each other's hands with a firm grip, I imagined Arashnic and where he was. I tried to envision the path he chose to take. I let my ears search for his voice. My nose searches for his scent. Finally, I let my heart guide me where my mind was unable to in this quick-thinking decision.

I pulled Brayden to the left and we started to run again. The walls of this winding tunnel kept growing smaller and smaller. As we got a few minutes into the new tunnel we no longer could hold each other's hands we just had to hope they kept running. I led the way and Brayden followed. Together we made up for the lost time of having to choose a path. I could hear Brayden struggling as he grunted and let out deep breaths once the tunnel shrunk in size again as he had to duck down a lot more than I had to as we continued to run. I felt bad for him knowing that I have more endurance than he does being our opposing genders.

I started to lose hope. How could anyone make the perfect decision within this crappy allotted time? I shifted my focus around me and felt the walls of the tunnel as I continued pressing on trying to go as fast as I could possibly go without losing Brayden. Brayden who was now using my hips to hold onto as we made our way through the tunnel so he could continue to crouch his way through the tunnel while I ducked some but not nearly as much as he was. Height was not in our favor at the moment, especially his. I felt all the bumps and knicks in the walls of the tunnel as I continued to speed walk as running was off the table now that we were both doubled over. I wanted to bring myself to shift but I knew that when I did it would be impossible to recover from having to walk around in the nude human form along with the dealing of too much untended desire that lurks inside myself. I am so sure that I am not the only one dealing with these emotions, but the more urgent thing being what lies ahead of us when we reach the end of our doomed tunnel.

"I can barely fit anymore, Wills." Brayden said with agony in his voice. "At least if I am going to die now it will be by your side knowing that you will not be alone." He sighed.

Brayden stopped moving as my hips were pulled back when I had previously stepped forward.

"Bray Bear, please don't say that! I want to get out of this with you by my side, not with you gone from this Earth." I told him with misery seeping through my voice.

I felt a sharp burning sensation in my hands and my arm started to feel warm. The smell of it alone started to seep through the air. I was certain that when I had stopped walking my adrenaline was running out, leaving me without caring about any injuries I sustained during this adventure of peril. I looked down at my hands and sure enough they were cut up in different spots. The cuts I will survive as for Brayden not fitting down this tunnel I won't. The tunnel behind us started making crashing noises.

I shifted around in the tunnel to look behind a crouched Brayden and to look him in the eyes. I could see fear seeping through not a lot, just some. I grabbed his face which stung my hands, but I did not care. I enveloped my lips with his and showed him that I cared too much to be able to keep going without him with me. I do not see a world in which I do not have Brayden and in that moment, I had completely forgotten about Arashnic. That had been the first time since I met Ash that I had forgotten about him along with the reason we were in this tunnel was because of him. Our kiss grew frantic trying to fit all of our love, feelings, and unsaid words into the kiss so passionately that the tunnels crashing grew louder and nearer. I pulled away from the kiss that made me forget about Ash. I suddenly started grabbing at Brayden's shoulders and started to squeeze them.

"Take your clothes off and hand them to me." I told Brayden in a hurried voice.

He made a quick face of a questionable expression and then the ah-hah moment followed. Brayden started taking his shirt off and handing it to me. As he handed it to me, he picked up on the scent of blood. He urgently grabbed my hand and then pulled the other closer, taking back his shirt in the process so he could examine them. He held both of them, turning them up so he could see the palm of each of my hands. His shirtless image was not hard on the eyes with his abs pronounced and, in that moment, I felt some more of the unsaid desire rolling up inside of my body. I tried shoving it down, but his touch made it irresistible to ignore.

"You're hurt, Wills." Brayden brought them both to his chest and placed a kiss on them.

He let go of my hands and started ripping his shirt into strips. He then wrapped the strips of his shirt around my hands to prevent them from bleeding much more and provided a barrier so I could continue to feel my way out of the tunnel. He placed another kiss on each of my hands creating a jealousy inside of me until he surprised me with a quick but passionate kiss on my lips. Sparks igniting were quickly shut down with the tunnel collapsing only a mere four yards away from Brayden and me.

"This is the best I can do, now let's get going." Brayden quickly threw off his shorts and handed them to me leaving him in his boxers. I felt my cheeks blush as I turned around and started speed walking. "I will catch up with you as soon as I am done shifting." He yelled over the crashing tunnel. I was worried he would not shift in time with the tunnel being that close to him.

Suddenly as I was trying to feel and walk, I felt fur and heard panting behind me. Brayden had made it behind me just like he said he would. The tunnel got narrower, and I was losing my breath. I started to hyperventilate. Brayden behind me in wolf form decided it would be a good time to nudge me. I collapsed fully to the floor of the tunnel and had my head between my legs trying to calm my breathing as I was not getting enough air as it felt like my lungs were not filling up but rather collapsing from all the dust and debris filling the air.

My lungs could not take this long. We needed to move. Thudding and loud noises opening my ear drums back to the present. Brayden was in my face, his wolf form was beautiful every chance I had to see it. The beauty never ceases to amaze me. I started coughing. Brayden whimpered and eyed me and threw his head to the direction of his shoulders.

"You want me to ride on your back?" I asked him and then got thrown into another coughing fit.

He glanced at me and nodded. He stepped forward giving me some room to climb onto his back. I was not able to sit up fully so I lay flat on his back and caressed his abdomen with all my limbs. I tried to hold on as tightly as I could. Brayden started jogging carrying me on his back. Our wolf forms are bigger than the regular wolf you might see in the woods by the fact that our backs while we are in wolf form stand four and a half feet or more into the air depending on genetics. My hands were getting tired and sore after a while. Trying to hold on I shifted my weight slightly. My body was holding on for dear life. Brayden's wolf form was soft and slick. I closed my eyes hoping for an exit from this mayhem.

Eventually, I slid to the side of Brayden's wolf body and let out a deep breath causing Brayden to try and jump to slide me back up onto the middle of his back. If only the intent outweighed the reality. He jumped a little high and hit my head off the wall of the tunnel's short ceiling after it spun me around back to the middle of his back. "Ouch." I said wishing to rub my head but couldn't as it would make me lose my grip.

He slowed down and in a matter of seconds decided to go faster. My closed eyes started to incise me to open them as I struggled to keep them closed with sudden light reaching through my eyelids clawing at me. I opened my eyes to find us finally outside the tunnel. Brayden turned to face the tunnel we just came out of just in time for us to witness the grand finale of its complete collapse. I smiled and held onto Brayden tightly feeling his soft fur beneath me letting him decide on what he wants to do next.

The light was bright and the pace calmer than before. I slid off of Brayden's back and stood up as he grabbed his shorts. I sat on the ground moments before so he could shift back to his human form.

"Had it not been for our impeccable decision-making skills in a crisis I can safely say we would have not rocked but rather rolled out of that one." Brayden snickered.