3 Snuggling with the Wolf

An enemy? Roxie wasn't an enemy at all, but the shock made her lose her grip on the fork. She bent down to pick it up.

Once under the table, she felt herself being pulled all the way down by Hero.

“You have to be an enemy, who else are you?” He held her arms tightly as he sniffed her neck. “Perfume doesn't even block it, it's just an irritant. What is it?!”

Roxie tried to move away, but Hero was only holding her even stronger.

Hero was a good guy. She should have felt downright frightened, especially after being accused of being an enemy. Yet, she wasn't. Not all of her.

He sniffed her again. “Your scent is spiking even more. This isn't a trick. That's no perfume, it's from you yourself.” he groaned. “Do you want me to lose it?” His eyes stared into hers. Hungry as before, yet she discovered something new. “You have hard eyes of an enemy again, but you aren't one. So what are they? What are you?”

Neither of them moved right away. Roxie's breathing was getting deeper and far from relaxed. She didn't trust herself to talk.

“Oh, no. You're a project,” he whispered to her. “I know it.”

“Project?” Roxie shook her head back and forth. “I swear, I am not an enemy. I don't even know about fighting, you have to believe me.”

“Sir? Ma'am?” The waiter said from beside the table. “Are you alright? Will you be eating your meal down there?”

“Just give us a minute,” Hero said as he turned his attention back to her. “You were adopted around three, weren't you?” His eyes lightened up as he stroked her hair. “That's it, you're a . . .” He sniffed once more. “A type Z? Is this a joke?”

“I have no fighting ability, really.” Roxie felt her head. “I was adopted when I was three but I-I'm not a project. I can't be.”

“Sure.” He didn't believe her by that tone.

Roxie didn't know what to do. He thought she was the enemy, a project. “I wouldn't be here if I were a project. I'm telling the truth.”

“I get it.” He stroked her hair again, leaning more forward. “I'm not going to hurt you. You are definitely from group Z.”

“Does that make a difference?” Roxie asked.

“Yeah, you should be extinct.” Hero inhaled her scent again. “I don't remember much, I was only around five,” he admitted. “You aren't a hopeless wolf, you aren't my enemy.” His grip on her dress tightened. “Women projects aren't any nicer than the men, so the last new projects were created for an artificial purpose. Why did you have to be so close?” he complained to her. “When I was fighting, if you weren't there, I'd be right in the head. Why oh why did I follow your scent?” He tried to push her away, but he brought her back towards him. She didn't rebel. Her body couldn't. It trusted him.

Created. To be trustworthy. To be a trustworthy female for the dangerous projects.

“Don't, don't, don't,” he warned in her ear. “Roxie Malone, I don't know you. You don't know me,” he tried again. He grunted. “You need to get out of here. Don't even get close to me again.”

“No,” Roxie pleaded. “I can't do that. I can't leave now.” This man. This hero, the way he had looked at her. He was her future. Now and forever. Mrs. Hero the Wolf, that should be her name.

“Hero, what is going on?” Bose's voice came from beside the table.

Nothing. There was no answer from either one of them.

“Clear this area!” Bose yelled at someone. “Hero, get out here!” he commanded.

He had barely talked to her. He had barely known her. She had been an average girl until she had grown too close. Now she had love in her eyes, and she was trying to snuggle. He just couldn't help himself as he accepted her snuggles.

So sweet and so cute. So caring. So loving. Her odd behavior reminded him of the details a little better. Project Z would feel like a mate. The bad attitudes of projects meant reproduction wasn't good, but project Z made their chosen mates feel like they were the center of the world. Warm. Special. Her presence could drown out the whole world. Nothing else mattered but her right now.

He could barely open his eyes, but . . . there were no people around, except his usual team.

“I can't believe it. I can't believe it! Help him up!” Bose yelled as people pulled Hero up. Before he knew it, his clothes were being all straightened out? “What were you thinking?!” Bose gestured around the empty chair. “You are damn lucky I had everyone pulled out of this restaurant. That is going to cost you by the way. The owner is very upset.”

Hero shrugged. There was nothing he could say. Bose seemed to get the wrong idea about the giggles and moans. Those had just been his – er – Roxie's instinctive sounds of happiness.

Bose grabbed his own head. “Okay. Okay. Just tell me what happened?”

“She's a Z,” Hero said, “and nothing happened under that table except snuggling.”

“Snuggling?”

“She attracts projects with her scent, but then two things happen. First, her scent changes the senses into making her feel like a mate, even around multiple projects. The second thing is that she will feel like a mate herself to one of the projects closest to her.”

“Wait.” Bose was starting to get it. “You mean she becomes docile and loving with them the longer she stays around them?”

“Yes. I figured it out, a little too late.” Even he felt lovey dovey inside, his view of the world askewed. “All I could sense was her, nothing about being pulled out from the table.”

“Great, she dulls even your senses? Ugh. One of you ladies, please help the young woman out,” Bose said gesturing to one of the female team members that had been assigned to help watch the date.

As she went in, she heard Roxie scream.

“Get away from me!” Roxie yelled. Her voice was panting and she was fixing herself back up. She turned to try and leave the table, but more people came by and held her.

“It's okay, nothing to be ashamed of,” they tried to tell her.

“Ashamed of? What? What's going on?!” Roxie yelled. “What was I doing under a table?” She looked toward Hero. “What did you do? What can't I remember? What did you do to me?!”

“What?” Bose looked toward Hero.

“Oh. Shit.” Now Hero remembered. “Since Z is so powerful with the emotions of projects . . .” He covered his face again. When they became docile and loving, their mind blanks out. Only after a proper mate is found would time spent together release their memories. “She doesn't remember, and she won't.”

“Oh. That is a blessing.” Bose sighed as he looked toward Roxie. “It's okay, you are fine. You were placed under a sort of spell and projects attacked. Notice that no one is here? Hero saved your life. Everything will be fine.”

Biggest lie of all time. What could Hero do though? He didn't need a companion to stress about in his line of business. “You better get home.”

Hero had been so small when he had been with other projects. So much information had jumbled in his head, but pieces he had forgotten were coming together.

Roxie Malone wasn't safe. She had struck maturity in her scent, and when every female project wolf was just as terrible as any other, there would be more than one of those project wolves that would want a sweet, gentle companion.

They'd be killing for it. They'd be killing for her.

Ugh. What to do?

---

Hero lied in his blankets, thinking about Roxie. Hero had dug up everything he could on her. Scent attraction or not, she was beautiful. He tried hard not to think about his own pack. His mother, she had been beautiful, but Roxie was even more gorgeous. Not just that but smart, cunning, and loving. Roxie wanted to study Zoology. Her taste in clothing and accessories, it showed her primal side. But she was raised as human and communicated well with them.

As loving as his own family before they were brutally murdered. The whole pack. At five years old, he still remembered it. His father had called out for his mother. Calling for his tigress.

Tigress. Hero had already referred to Roxie that way. That was right, memories were spurning him to remember. Hero's own mother was not a normal wolf, and his father had his own name for her. He had chosen it well, it seemed fitting. Roxie was not a raw primal wolf, but she was a project. His father had said some were not the exact same, but he never mentioned why or if they were a different species. Just, tigress. Human. Half tiger? Hero didn't know.

Hero leaned on his side. Even though he was the hero of the human race, he didn't always feel like he was a part of it. His own home was buried in a mountain, in the middle of nowhere. Even his closest friend, Bose, had not visited. Only one had ever visited, and it was not as a friend. Hero didn't want to deal with the burden of a pack after losing his original one. He wouldn't let anyone come close.

He'd held his tigress beneath that – not mine. His hands turned into fists and his breathing became heavy. Why? She had a wonderful life planned out for herself, but she was destined to become this thing project wolves would be fighting over.

She needed to have a proper mate to end it. He already learned many years ago that there was no human that appealed to him. But maybe he didn't need to be alone. He wouldn't have to take out her own future family, if they were his . . .

Ugh. Hero turned back around, willing himself to go to sleep. He didn't even know Roxie Malone! How could he be thinking this? He had to get some sleep.