Sixty Four. A Terrible Idea Leading to a Terrible Misunderstanding

I wipe Jase’s memory of ever having met me. I wipe away his memories by offering up my own two thousand plus years of experience in exchange. I take Jase back to that morning in the woods, fighting Mike and chasing after some mysterious girl’s screams. I cut away everything after he spotted that kitten cowering in its tree. Then I leave this dead body I’ve been wearing around for years with nothing but Cassi’s mind and identity.

Jase instantly blacks out from the shock of it, and-- Shit. I do too. That was not supposed to happen. I was at least supposed to have time to get away from him before our memories went all--

Blackness. Then…

“Why is it so freaking cold?” I mutter, teeth chattering, as I curl up against that warm--

Naked man, lying right beside me. There is a naked man lying stretched out beside me. I start screaming, and he starts awake, piercing blue eyes locking right with my own, and...

God, those are such dreamy blue eyes.

Irrelevant detail, Cassi! This is a psycho creep who hauled you way out into the freaking woods before doing who knows what with your helpless, unconscious body!

Was I kidnapped this morning?

I’m pretty sure I was kidnapped. It’s all fuzzy, but I remember being dragged into that car on my way to work today. I was kidnapped by this dreamy, hella toned nudist, with his eight pack abs and gorgeous tan. He’s even got a manly-ass scream (more of a shout of alarm really), as he pulls his knees to his chest in self-conscious cover and scrambles back, away from me.

I am dressed for my part at least in – a sleeveless, toga-style crimson dress, stitched with Greek lettering? “What the hell kind of weird fantasy is this?!”

“Fantasy?” My kidnapper seems just as flabbergasted as I am, his cheeks burning bright red in… an admittedly adorable expression of embarrassment. Good god, this boy is hot. And I know what you’re thinking; Cassi, now is not the time for such thoughts, but it has been a long ass time since I’ve been laid alright?

Or… has it? Considering the state of the boy right across from me, and considering how wet I am down there… “I am calling the cops!” Soon as I find my cellphone that is.

“Calm down! I am not going to hurt you--”

“Like you haven’t done something already, you naked, psycho creep!”

“I haven’t!” he swears. “I heard you screaming, alright? So I came running on over here to help--”

“Likely story! And what the hell is up with this dress?!”

His eyes narrow, seeming to be just as baffled by the strange, Mediterranean style garment as yours truly. “How would I know? I mean, is that a Halloween costume? Doesn’t look that warm, but…” He bites his tongue, quickly cutting off his next admission but looking petrified regardless.

“What were you about to say?” I press, self-consciously pulling up the straps, even though they seem designed to hang off the shoulders.

“You, uh, don’t need to hear that you look nice in that. But hey, at least you have clothes. And I know it is… alarming that I do not have anything on right now. So I get you being freaked out. I am a little freaked out too… Did Mike hit me so hard I blacked out?” he mutters, seemingly talking to himself as his eyes dart back and forth in frustrated reminisce. “I can’t remember it clearly, but I thought I knocked him out, throwing him into that tree…”

“The hell are you talking about?!”

“Nothing. Sorry. I will… I’ll drive you home, alright?” He reaches for my hand.

“Like hell you will.” I should be sprinting off into the trees already, despite the fact that this full frontal view of his perfectly sculpted…

Okay, I am hard turned on right now, I’ll admit it. This situation should be crazy upsetting, but I can’t manage to feel afraid of this man. I just keep picturing us having sex, right here on the forest floor, ridiculously good sex, and in my mind I am a more than willing participant in that lovemaking – I’m even thinking of it as lovemaking…

“Look, I swear to you, I have not done anything like what you are probably thinking of,” the sexy nudist swears. “I would never do that! I was out here hunting down my psycho brother. He’s… He’s a serial killer, alright?” I balk. “So you were in real danger. And I am only naked right now, because…” He sighs, palming at his forehead. Then he raises his hand, and I scream all the louder. His eyes are burning bright yellow now, his hand tipped in thick, animalistic claws.

I go sprinting off into the woods in an instant, but wolf-boy comes spiriting right after me, grabbing my arm. “Wait--”

I swing at him, a respectably hard jab right into his perfect nose.

It is a prime opportunity for me to just keep on running now, as he lurches back from me with eyes tearing and nostrils streaming blood. But I just stand there frozen with fists raised, because… I feel insanely bad for hitting this guy, even though it was arguably self-defense. I feel a stab of physical pain in my chest, seeing him hurt and bleeding like this, so I just stand there, frozen in awkward fight stance, until he manages to compose himself.

He stops clutching at his maybe broken nose and-- What the hell? It’s not even bleeding anymore. He wipes the blood on his hand off on the grass and now it’s looking like I never even made contact with his face, despite his genuine praise, “Solid punch. You have good technique. But I am not going to hurt you, alright?”

“What even are you?!”

“That’s what I was trying to show you by shifting back there. I’m a werewolf. That’s why--”

“A freaking what?!”

“A werewolf. A supernatural human who shifts into a wolf under light of the full moon. That transformation means I come to each morning with no clothes on though, k? That is the only reason I was naked. And I was fighting my brother, who is also a werewolf only much more violent, and I guess he knocked me out. Though I really do not know why you were…” He blushes. “lying right on top of me like that.”

“Somebody kidnapped me this morning,” I mutter, forcing my mind to think back and remember relevant details. “A black Bentley, parked right outside my work, and some guy who just hauled me right into the backseat…” Though he smelled nothing like this clean-shaven male-model looking boy. I’m pretty sure I felt a beard tickling my neck when he growled in my ear… *“Be good or get bit.”* I remember it now, a seriously unhinged threat. Though if it came from a werewolf...

“That’s Mike’s car,” my supposed rescuer offers. “The Bentley. I guess he kidnapped you, drove you out here and…” He gives a nervous swallow, gesturing to my saucily designed toga dress. “dressed you in that.”

“He does that to all his victims?” I press, crossing my arms.

“Uh, no. Not that I’ve seen. That outfit might have something to do with his witch.”

“His witch?” I repeat.

“Yeah, he has this… master of sorts. A witch. I can smell her nearby whenever he’s out hunting. So maybe the two of them had you kidnapped for some sort of ritual.”

“Like a ritual sacrifice?” I mutter, remembering like a foggy dream my nightmare of some business lady getting upset with me for messing up her latte, then whipping out some satanic looking knife after lashing me to a tree right out here in these woods…

I can’t process this. It’s all too unbelievable, and way too overwhelming. I look to the morning sun filtering down through the trees around us. “I am so late for work.” That’s a monumentally stupid thing to be worrying about right now. I know that, okay?

But my savior gives a consoling little grin. “So can I drive you back to the city at least? I parked my car right at the turn-off to this hiking trail. We’re farther out than I thought now… Still, I know where we are.”

“So we’ll just go naked hiking back to that parking lot, then you’ll naked chauffeur me right to work?” I try to joke.

He casts about for something to cover up with, but there’s nothing out here but dead leaves and sticks way too small to cover up that far above average sized piece of equipment between his legs. “I have clothing, in my car. For me. So I will cover up, with them, as soon as we get there.”

‘Do you have to?’ is my completely irrational, instinctive almost answer, as I find myself staring at him again. I manage to keep that creepy craving censured, but then I still go blurting out insanely, “Are you sure we’ve never slept together?”

“No!” he vehemently snaps, and I flush, turning away. “I didn’t mean that like... I just, I did not kidnap you, or like touch you, at all. Today. Not that I wouldn’t want to sleep with you if…” I turn all the redder, wide eyes glued to the dirt and most solidly unable to ever meet his gaze. “Stop talking, Jase,” he mutters in conclusion, and he is so endearingly awkward that I can’t help my spreading grin.

“That’s your name? Jase?”

He rubs a hand across his head, shuffling his feet. “Yeah. And... you are?”

“Cassi.”

“Cassi.”

Shit. Hearing him breathe my name like that… I definitely want to sleep with him, right now. Does that make me a psycho slut? Maybe. But maybe I met him in a previous life or something, because when I look into his eyes… I swear we were not only destined to meet, but that I know him already.

I feel so weirdly safe out here alone with this nude stranger. Though there is a voice screaming at me I need to run for the hills, turn my back on him and never look back…

That’s not fear talking. It’s this deep and poignant grief, like I’m the one who has done something terrible and needs to be punished for it.