The Ritual To The Beast | ✓

Chapter 12: What Are You?

Chapter 12

"Where are you taking me?" I asked.

"To show you what I am. To tell you my secret."

"Which is?" I asked even though I could probably guess.

"You'll see. Just don't hate me." He said looking back at me with plea full eyes.

After walking a short distance, we were surrounded by trees and completely alone.

Then without warning, Thane started to strip. Full on removing his clothes piece by piece.

"Thane what the hell are you doing?!" I whisper shouted to him, afraid someone will find us and get the wrong impression.

He just gave me a cheeky grin and continued on with his weird actions. When he removed his shirt I couldn't help but drool a little over his eight pack abs. I was sure he's been putting in hours at the gym. However when he started removing his pants I looked down at the moss covered floor, letting my hair cascade over my face to cover the red tint of my cheeks.

"Emery for you to truly understand what I am you need to look at me." He called over.

I hesitantly obliged and lifted my head up while I averted my eyes to focus on his while trying not to look anywhere to the south region of his body.

"Show me." I said after he waited for me to be ready.

And as if in slow motion, I heard the sound of bones cracking as Thane bent on all four of his limbs. His hands and feet changed into the shape of legs of an animal while pitch black fur sprouted from his skin and dagger like claws came through his nails on his now animal like feet. This head transformed into a skull shape of a wolf as his entire human features reshaped into that of a wolf. He had wolf ears, a snout and round crimson blood red eyes which I instantly recognized.

Thane was the Beast.

I wanted to scream and cry, I wasn't sure which emotion was stronger at the moment.

Terrified was definitely my main emotion as I thought about it.

My soul was internally screaming and pushing me to run but my physical body just stood there in one spot without showing an ounce of emotion.

I looked at it...him, unsure what to do. Should I yell at him? Should I run away like the scared little girl I felt like I was on the inside? I felt exposed and vulnerable as if he was to rip my throat out, but I knew better, Thane would never hurt me.

Oh so he claimed.

But how does one feel seeing their greatest fear in front of them, staring directly into their eyes. A single tear escaped my eye unconsciously yet I didn't know why. It may be because I raised my expectations of Thane. I wanted him to be a normal guy with a reasonable explanation for this whole messed up scenario, yet here I am with him in front of me without him being actually in front of me.

The animal and the man that stood before me had me questioning life and existence, was anything not real? Were all the fairy tales true?

Most importantly did I still feel the same way about Thane knowing the truth?

He approached me slowly as if gauging my reaction before he scared me off. Somehow knowing who the beast actually is behind all the fur and scary eyes didn't have me as scared as I should have been.

But what was this monstrous creature before me? He was too big to be a dog or a wolf. He was the size of a lion...no he was definitely larger.

I was still a bit shaken up though, frozen on the spot, but as he came closer my brain suddenly connected to the realistic part of me and moved a step back.