Chapter Two

Chapter Two

They had come up over a rise, running full-out, bigger than any damn foxes Finn had ever seen. These weren’t the skinny, rangy little creatures he’d seen online either. These things were right out of a nightmare, and way too big to be real. Before he could convince himself it would be a really bad idea to run, they were on him, coming right up within twenty yards of him with one of them in the lead, closer than any of the others, sniffing the air. Its eyes glowed red as it lowered its head and showed Finn its teeth.

“N-nice fox,” he babbled. “Stay where you are, and I’ll just move along, okay?”

A long rope of saliva fell off the incisors of the fox in the lead and sagged to the ground. The thing began making a low-pitched whining sound that all of a sudden turned into an awful, barking scream that was unlike anything Finn had ever heard before.

Fighting down the almost overpowering urge to turn and run, he made himself step slowly backward. He remembered a movie he’d seen once, where some guy said never turn your back on a wild animal and run, because then they’d think you’re prey and chase you. It was probably good advice, but when that fox took another menacing step toward him, his nerve broke. He turned and took off, running like hell.

The problem was, he had nowhere to go. The only thing behind him was the edge of a cliff. He had some crazy idea of jumping and hoping there was water below him. Freezing water, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, and it was better than being torn apart. Marginally. Hell, the fall alone would probably kill him.

From behind him, he heard a shout, and he turned in abject relief at the sound of another human voice. But that was before he saw who’d shouted. It was a huge guy—like six-five or so, with muscles everywhere, stalking toward him.

“What the fuck are you doing out here?”

A damn good question.

And then there was the naked thing.

Cold as it was, with the icy wind right off the sea, the man stalking toward him wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing, and he had a furious expression and blood in his eye. Where the fuck had he come from? Finn hadn’t seen another human being since the boat dropped him off hours ago. He stumbled back a few steps, staring at the guy in confusion.

“Well? What do you have to say for yourself?” his rough, smoky voice shouted.

Finn blinked a few times, just to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. But no, the naked man with the impossibly stacked abs and a huge erection still stood there, his hands on his hips as he demanded Finn explain himself. Which he’d love to do if he had any kind of an answer or if he could get his tongue unstuck from the roof of his mouth.

“Uh, what? Say for myself? What do you mean?”

The foxes were gone, trailing over the hill, and he was all alone again, except for this naked man staring down at him out there in the middle of fucking nowhere.

Finn took a step toward him and discovered yet another cleft in the rocks, only this time he found it with his foot. A sharp pain streaked up his leg, so he fell back on his ass and stayed where he was for a moment to give his brain time to figure out whether or not this was all some kind of dream or hallucination.

The guy squatted down in front of him, giving him a stellar view of his impressive balls and massive thighs. He narrowed his eyes.

“What’s the matter with you? Don’t you speak English? Did you hit your head?” He rattled off something in some other language that sounded like Icelandic, and Finn gave him another blank stare and blinked again. The man tilted his head to one side, no doubt considering whether he was crazy. Finn cleared his throat and finally found his voice.

“No. I mean, I didn’t hit my head, and yeah, I speak English.”

“Then answer me.”

“I-I was on a hike around the Hornstrandir and got off the trail by accident.”

“What do you mean, ‘by accident?’ The trail is well marked.”

“I got off the trail to take some pictures and dropped my camera. I went to retrieve it, but got on the wrong path and … look it’s a long story, but I’m lost, okay? I’ve been trying to find the trail for hours, so I stopped to eat a sandwich and rest a few minutes. Those damn foxes started chasing me. I didn’t know what to do so I …”

“Ran toward the cliffs. Genius plan.”

“I didn’t have a lot of time to come up with it,” Finn snapped. “Those fox things came out of nowhere.” Finn gave the big man another once-over. “So did you. Why are you …? Have you been swimming or something?” He looked around for some passage down to the water but didn’t see one. “I mean, why are you naked?”

“Let me ask the questions. You’re the one trespassing on my land, after all.”

“I am? Fuck, how did that happen? Did I somehow wander off the nature preserve? I’m sorry. I had no idea. I thought there was nothing out here for miles. No private property anywhere around.”

“You were wrong. And you almost got yourself killed, in case you hadn’t noticed. Those ‘fox-things’ as you called them would have torn you apart.”

“Oh, believe me, I noticed.”

It obviously hadn’t been one of Finn’s better ideas to leave the marked trail that wound through the huge reserve. He wasn’t even sure why he’d ever even remotely entertained the idea in the first place, though in his defense, the terrain looked easy at the point he’d left the trail. His only intention had been to get a camera he’d dropped while trying to climb higher on the rocks.

“Look, if you could point me in the right direction, I’ll get off your land and out of your way.”

He got to his feet, pulling his leg out of the cleft, ignoring for the moment the fact his leg didn’t seem to want to cooperate.

The guy was still staring at him, but his brow creased as he looked down at Finn’s leg, and his whole demeanor changed. “You’ve cut yourself.”

“I have?” He glanced down and saw a little fountain of blood spurting out of his leg, just above his ankle. “Oh shit, look at that. I-I guess I’d better …” His knees went suddenly weak, and he sat down again hard on his ass, pain he hadn’t even noticed before shearing up the whole length of his leg. He landed with a jolt that made him gasp. The man reached for him with a gravelly curse, but consciousness spun away like one of the sea birds overhead.