Finder Herself Part 2

Phoenix's POV:

I was taking a bath in the river. The moon was nearly full, and my wolf and the magic in me vibrated with strength and contentment.

I had an ache or some weird feeling of something happening tonight, but Nat assured me I was being paranoid, so I buried the thoughts as I cleaned myself off.

After washing up, I lay flat on my back, floating there in the pool of water I had warmed up while staring up at the moon, wondering why it felt that it, too, was staring back at me.

"Hello Moon," I sang into the dark sky lit up purely by the moon. I watched as the moon flickered back at me—or at least that's what it looked like.

SNAP.

I jolted upright in the water, looking around. I tuned into the sounds around me. Past the crickets and the wind rustling, I could hear a heartbeat.

It was beating fast.

Hmmm, were they nervous? Scared? Eager to kill me? I couldn't really tell. 

As I slowly moved toward the bank of the river, closer to the heartbeat, I could smell them.

They smelt like dark chocolate and raspberries.

Call it wishful thinking, but I was hoping maybe they were just a friendly passerby with home-cooked muffins. My stomach growled at the thought of it, and I laughed internally at my ridiculous thinking.

I could sense them coming closer; thanks to my night vision, I could see them duck behind a tree.

"You know I can see you. What do you want?" I asked, looking at the distance towards my camp, contemplating my next move. 

"Miss, it's not safe in these woods alone at night. You really should find your way home." The voice said, coming closer.

I was in the middle of the forest, at least 180 miles from any settlement in any direction. What was this guy getting at? Where could he possibly think my home was?

I could feel the sensation of my purple rings emerging, which I had learned to control but still didn't fully understand.

Nat said it had something to do with feelings of connection. I started tuning her out when she spoke of such things.

The man finally emerged onto the bank of the river. He moved slowly, as if there were warning signs down his path saying, "Steer clear of predators."

The thought made me laugh.

I had to defend myself from real predators in these woods, one man had nothing on me.

"Are you okay, mam?"

Awh, he was cute.

Or maybe being in the wilderness alone with Nat was messing with my head. 

'Well at least, if he does try to kill me, I'll have a nice view for the short time I let him live,' I remarked confidently to Nat. 'Mate,' she purred so quietly yet so bold it made a shiver run down my spine. 

You've got to be fucking kidding me right now.

Something in me must have snapped at her comment because before I knew it, I was stomping out of the river like a child throwing a tantrum.

"Look man bun, I'm not interested in mates right now. I don't know what this Moon Goddess was thinking when sending me not just one but two damn mates. This whole, tingle my skin when you touch me crap and my annoying need to touch you and be touched by you, yeah, I'm not into okay? So go back to wherever you came from!" I rushed out, my arms flinging around, frustrated as I stood there naked, acting like a complete idiot. 

He cocked his head to the side, looking at me amused as he watched my fit. His lips curled up with a big grin on his face. 

'Phoe, he isn't a wolf, he might not know what you're talking about,' Nat said, obviously way too late.

It took me a minute to respond and react to her sudden realization.

"You couldn't have told me that before I made a fool of myself?" I groaned out loud, embarrassed and suddenly aware of just how naked I was.

I quickly put my clothes on over my wet body as he turned around, patiently waiting for me.

Did he not hear what I said? 

"I'm fine out here alone; you don't need to worry about me. So, you can just move along now, okay?" I said, turning around and heading back to my camp.

"How many mates does a person get in this world? One felt like entirely too much." I said to Nat, stomping off into the cold earth.

'Usually just one, but in some rare cases, you will get two, sometimes more,' she said as if that were good news.

She has always been such a hussie. Ugh.

I groaned again, unsatisfied with her revelation. 

I time jumped back to camp, holding the hope that my second mate wouldn't follow me.

I hadn't spent six months away from my first mate and family to stumble into another one.

I went into the small yurt that I now call home.

After peeling off the clothes that were glued to my wet body, I dried off and changed into dry clothes.

I could smell the damn fool, so delicious, as he walked into my camp, and I hesitated to leave my yurt. 

When I peered out of the entryway, I watched as he lit the fire with a wave of his hand causing Nat to jump forward in my mind with intrigue.

'I thought you said he wasn't a wolf?' I asked internally. 

'Phoe, most wolves don't have gifts like you, and I promise, he isn't a wolf.' Her voice was neither excited nor nervous. 

He looked over at me with a smile as if he'd known I had been watching him this whole time.

"I could sense your magic; it led me to you, which means you have the gift of the internal flame. It's a... "mate" as you so eloquently put it earlier... to one of my more prominent powers." I gulped.

He was so casual about this that it made me nervous.