The Forest

Ayan and Zara quickly went through the field of flowers and into a thick forest that seemed to go on forever.

"Hey!" Zara shouted from within Ayans arms. He seemed to pay no attention to the upset Zara.

"I said HEY!" Zara angrily shouted at she punched him underneath his jaw. Finally he had stopped running.

"Put me down I'm getting tired and you still haven't even told me where we are going." she said in an annoyed tone.

"We're going home where else?" Ayan said with a confused look on his face.

Zara looked up at Ayan, although the forest was dark she could still make out the outline of his masculine and handsome face. She blushed, hoping that the darkness of the forest concealed her face.

"Look to be honest I'm not from around here, can you please explain where we are, and what is going on here exactly?" Zara asked Ayan.

"Have you been sheltered your whole life? Did the family clan you come from not let you go outside?" He asked.

"There you go again with that word, I don't know what you mean by clan and I don't know what's going on.." Suddenly Zara had a flashback. "That's right, I was going down the road on my bike from track practice, I was already so angry from something that happened at school that I didn't notice the car coming towards me.."

She shook her head violently, "No, no no no no! I know for a fact I'm not dead so where am I exactly?"

Ayan as confused as Zara had no idea what she was talking about, he didn't understand the words she was talking about.

"Can you please let me down and just explain to me where I am?" Zara asked Ayan.

Ayan looking to calm down this young girl decided to explain things to her as simple as he could.

"You're near the city of Alma, a city filled with different Beastmen just like me. In our world we have clans that fight to be in power. Every clan has a female that controls that clan. The more popular the female the more males she has. Of course every male fights for the right to be in the best females clan. Some females have as many as 7 or 8 males others as lowly as 2 or 3, it all depends on that female. Ideally it's better to have as many males as you can, when you give birth to children the father usually watches the children while the other males bring in food. And of course the more powerful males tend to follow the best females."

As Ayan was explaining more and more, it seemed Zara was understanding less and less of it.

"There's not that many females around as the birth rate for females declined, so naturally there's an overwhelming amount of males fighting for the affection of the females." Ayan continued.

"Many times throughout the year the head of the city throws a contract match where females who are looking to add another male to their clan can choose and pick from the winners among the contenders."

"As I said before the the birth rate for females have declined so another reason for having many males is to improve the chance of giving birth to a female. But the most important reason would be for protection. If a female can get a strong and powerful male among her clan, her protection from other predators is guaranteed."

"Predators?" Zara asked.

"Beastmen who instead of joining a females clan either torment them or feast on them." Ayan said in a dark matter.

Zara tried to take in and understand what Ayan was saying to her but it all seemed like something straight out of a book!

Could she really trust this handsome stranger? He didn't seem to be lying but what if he was one of those so called predators he was talking about? Should she run? Should she scream? But where was she going to go on an unknown land?

Zara decided to take her chances and go with the handsome man who called himself a wolf, it was a gamble but it was all she had at this point.