Irresistible Danger

The Big Bad Wolf

You stared up at Negan, afraid to move despite the thorns still digging into your body. You ignored them, telling yourself that the living thorns behind you were preferable to the bloodied metal ones dangling in front of you.

"Care to fucking explain?" he growled quietly.

You wracked your brain furiously for some explanation that would appease him and keep him from blowing up on you. Your brain was screaming say something intelligent but your mouth went with, "berries."

You almost backed up further into the bush as he took one step towards you. "Wanna fucking run that by me again?"

"B-berries. I was picking them."

You saw his eyes flicker down to the basket lying on its side, the little red fruit spilling out all over the ground. He surveyed the berry massacre before raising his gaze to lock back onto your own, his face giving no hint as to his thoughts.

"This is what you were fucking doing out here?" His stare pinned you to the spot and you nodded your head slowly in response, afraid any quick movements might set him off or make him think that you were lying. The utter lack of emotion on his face was causing you to sweat even more than the scorching heat.

He again lowered his eyes to the basket, then up to the berry bush, over to the decapitated walker, and back to you, assessing the situation as if looking for cracks in your pathetic excuse of an explanation. After what felt like an eternity of silence, Negan threw his head back and laughed. You lay there stunned, feeling as though you had completely missed the punchline.

"So let me get this straight, doll. You fucking sneak past my men, leave the fucking sanctuary, and almost get fucking chewed up by a walker, all so you can play Red Riding Hood and fucking traipse through the forest picking berries?" A slow grin spread across his face as he lifted and opened his arms, "well darlin, say hello to the Big Bad Wolf."

It took a few seconds for you to process that he was actually joking with you. Instead of relief at Negan's humor, you felt the first sparks of anger. You had almost died, then had been saved only to fear you might die again in punishment, and now he was acting as if this was all some grand game of hide and seek. After the roller coaster ride of emotions over the past few minutes, you found you didn't appreciate being laughed at and then compared to some helpless fairytale damsel in distress.

Wincing as the thorns tore from your arms, you pushed yourself to your feet, grabbed the basket, and started marching back in the direction of the compound. You didn't make it more than a few feet before a strong hand closed around your bicep, halting you. He pressed his chest into your back before leaning down and whispering in your ear, "I say you could fucking go anywhere, Little Red? You haven't even seen what big teeth I have yet."

You felt a shiver go through you, and not in fear. His low, gravelly voice was so close that you could feel the puffs of air from his breath on the side of your neck. His hand was wrapped the entire way around your arm in an unbreakable grip, reinforcing how much larger and stronger he was than you. This was the closest you had ever been to him, and your brain was short circuiting in its attempt to process the situation. You closed your eyes and found yourself wondering what would happen if you let yourself relax back into him...his arrogant chuckle in your ear jolted you back to reality and you felt your cheeks burn in embarrassment. Anger at both yourself and at him, as well as a desire to gain at least some form of control over the situation, caused you to toss the words over your shoulder, "trust me, I've seen bigger."

He used his grip on your arm to turn you around so that you were facing him. He stood almost a foot taller than you but was still bent over from whispering in your ear. His face so close to yours was unnerving, and you tried to hold his gaze but your eyes involuntarily dropped down to his mouth. You knew that he was aware you were staring but you couldn't seem to stop yourself, especially when his lips slowly curved upwards before revealing a line of straight white teeth. It just wasn't fair that someone so terrifying could have such a devastatingly attractive smile. And voice. And...stop it! You mentally slapped yourself and drug your eyes up past his salt and pepper surrounded grin and once again met his tawny gaze, struggling not to let your inner thoughts show.

He opened his mouth to speak, but thankfully you never knew what he was going to say because it was at that moment you heard loud steps coming directly towards you through the trees. Both you and Negan turned towards the sound, all traces of his smile gone as he let go of your arm with one hand and raised Lucille up to his shoulder with the other. Reaching down, you grabbed your knife out of your knee-high boot and held it in front of you, expecting more walkers to appear. Instead it was Dwight who stumbled into view, out of breath and with blood smeared on the front of his shirt.

"Negan, you're needed back at camp. It's an emergency. That group at Alexandria, the one led by Rick, they ambushed our men when they went to collect half the goods. Only two made it back, and they're in bad shape."

The look that came into Negan's eyes made you instantly feel bad for this Rick and his group. Whoever they were, they were totally fucked.

Gesturing in your direction, Negan harshly ordered Dwight, "get her back to the compound and have someone look at her fucking arms." He then turned back to you, "sorry doll, looks like we'll have to put our rendezvous on hold. But don't worry, I'm not fucking done with you yet."

As he turned and walked off you realized your mouth had fallen open at his comment, and you snapped it shut before looking at Dwight. You clenched your jaw even harder at the look of pity you saw on his face. You straightened your shoulders and gave him your best authoritative glare. "Well, what the hell are we waiting for? You heard the man, get me the fuck back to camp."