“Hello pretty lady,” one of the guys drawled at her as he walked toward the couch. He was in his early thirties and about 6’ with black curly hair. Lyanne didn’t speak, she simply smiled.
The second guy was shorter, 5’10” slightly stocky, with blonde longish hair; he was about the same age as the first guy. He didn’t speak to Lyanne.
The girl sort of shuffled into the room with her head down. Lyanne could make out that she had ginger colored hair tied back in a ponytail and was around 5’4” she shifted her glance briefly to look Lyanne’s way. Darian had told her he didn’t have a lot of female company, so who was this girl?
She got the impression she was being checked out by the three of them and it was reminiscent of the wolves checking her out in the forest. They almost looked like prowling wolves. Lyanne felt very uncomfortable until Darian came back into the room. She noticed the animals started to creep back once he was there.
“Lyanne this is James, Daniel and Lisa. This is Lyanne,” Darian said as he perched on the edge of the couch. Lyanne instantly felt safer with him beside her and she relaxed a little.
“So Darian said you ran into some trouble Lyanne,” James, who was the first to enter the room, said.
“Yes, our snowmobile crashed and there were some wolves, I fainted and woke up here,” Lyanne answered feeling very intimidated by the three people standing in front of her.
“Lucky for you then that Darian came along, we all know what wolves are capable of, don’t we Darian?” now it was Daniel who was speaking in a very condescending manner, Lyanne didn’t like him at all.
Lisa giggled and glanced over at Lyanne, “Yeah we sure do, you were lucky to make it out with your life.”
“Enough, Lyanne’s been through a lot. She doesn’t need you lot reminding her of her ordeal,” snapped Darian, as he stood up straight, facing them. When he spoke the others dropped their eyes toward the ground, and almost seemed to cower away from him, they didn’t make eye contact with him at all.
Lyanne whispered, “I’m okay Darian, I know how fortunate I was. Your friends are only echoing my own thoughts,” he turned to look at her and smiled with warmth showing in his hazel eyes. He sat down again on the edge of the couch and touched her arm gently with his hand. Lyanne heard Lisa take a sharp breath of air into her lungs, so sharp she ended up spluttering.
“Are you okay?” said Lyanne.
Lisa glared at her as though she’d asked her something sinister, “What’s it to you, how I am?”
“Lisa, kitchen right now,” Darian ordered. Lyanne was taken aback by his abrupt tone; he was speaking to Lisa as though she were a child. In spite of his brusque manner, Lisa obliged and shuffled into the kitchen with James and Daniel following her.
Darian turned to face Lyanne and squeezed her arm tenderly while standing up, “I won’t be a minute, excuse my friends they can be rude.”
“Why did Lisa gasp when you touched my arm? Are you two an item, is that the issue here?”
Darian sat down again, and looking into her green eyes as he whispered, “God no, my sweet Lyanne. Her issue is she’s just ignorant at times, but I don’t like them being here right now. I will go and speak to them, you rest,” he touched her face lightly, and with that he was gone.
Lyanne could hear raised voices drifting in from the kitchen, she couldn’t catch what was being said but she could tell by the pitch of their voices that the exchange of words was heated. The main voice she could pick out belonged to Darian. She felt guilty. This was all her fault, if she hadn’t been in danger he wouldn’t have rescued her and then been dragged into her predicament, and none of this would be happening now.
The kitchen door flew open and Daniel stomped by the couch and straight out the front door, he didn’t utter a word to Lyanne. Lisa was next; she turned and glanced toward Lyanne with pure resentment in her eyes. Lyanne was conscious of how pretty Lisa was even though her face was twisted with bitterness when she scowled at Lyanne.
Lisa had a small, pixie-like face and her eyes were a stunning green, not like Lyanne’s dark green but the lightest shade of green Lyanne had ever seen. Lisa flounced out of the front door behind Daniel.
James came out of the kitchen in a more dignified fashion than his predecessors did. He sauntered out with Darian following close behind.
“Well goodbye Lyanne. It was a pleasure meeting you,” he said in a caustic and scathing way.
Lyanne kept quiet. She just nodded at him. James put the hood up on his jacket and went out into the cold night’s air.