The full moon shown down on the clearing, bathing everything in a pale grayness. Those assembled looked like ghosts to me, just out of my sight so that I couldn't see their faces. But I knew they were looking at me. I was standing with my back to the bonfire, the heat contrasting with the cool night air to make my whole body shiver. I had been stripped of my clothes, they had been ritualistically added to the fire, consuming my essence in a sense. I only heard the cackling of the fire and the rest of the night noises that came from the surrounding woods. Animals, kept at bay by the fire, predators and prey going through the nightly ritual of survival were all around me. Insects landed on my skin, drinking of my blood but I stood still, afraid to break the spell that had seem to come over the crowd. Then he came forward.
He was too rugged to be called handsome. Standing well over six feet, he towered over me, making me shrink in his presence, like a fawn before the wolf. He looked at me with the same hunger in his eyes as the predator he reminded me of. Stripping off his shirt, he came toward me. The desire to shrink back, to flee from the wolf that had taken the form of a man was almost overwhelming. But, I knew that if I did, he would only hunt me down and drag me back here. If I ran, he wouldn't be so gentle. He stopped in front of me, gripping my shoulders with his calloused hands. I could smell his scent, mixed in with the other scents of the forest, the rotting leaves, the dirt I was standing on, the burning cedar from the fire. They all combined to overwhelm me. I pressed my naked body to his bared chest, my hardened nipples poking his stomach, the hair on his chest tickling my cheek as he embraced me, holding me tightly as if to say I am not here to harm you, little one. I am here to make you mine, to protect you from all that would do you harm.
I broke the embrace, pulling back so that my hands could undo the buckle on his belt. Thick, worn leather. The kind that my father used when he punished me. Undoing the button on his trousers, pulling down the zipper, I lowered his pants, kneeling in front of him as I did. He kicked off his shoes and raised his legs, one at a time, so that I could finish removing the last articles of clothing from his magnificent body. I felt heat rising to my face and it wasn't from the fire as I gazed at his nakedness. I had seen men nude before but to be this close to such perfection made my whole body go flush with desire. Still on my knees, I looked up at his face. There was an expression of animalistic lust carved into his features but I saw in his eyes, hidden behind the desire etched on his face, a certain kindness that put me at ease.
