Yes, he was dangerous. Yes, he was the opposite of anything I'd ever considered in a relationship, but he was security and I had no more pride left in me.
"Colt!" I screamed out as the snarls grew louder again.
"I wondered how long it would take you." Came a voice from the jungle.
The words were said coldly, but relief shot through me at the sound of Colt's voice anyway.
Everything would be okay now. I didn't know why, but I just knew that it would be.
There was a pained yip and then the corresponding death cry of one of my savage tormentors. Its cries were closely followed by another's and with a yip of fright I heard the other one take off through the heavy understory growth.
My hands holding the pistol had fallen and numbly I let the pistol slip from my grasp. My ordeal wasn't over by any means.
I had a very angry male on the prowl and I was as helpless against him as I had been with my other tormentors. He had reason to be angry and I didn't fault him for it. If he'd been my uncle I could even now have expected the hard backhanded slap that would've knocked me off my feet followed by the hard kicks given to my stomach and back by my cousins.
Colt wasn't my uncle though and mad as I knew that he was I also knew that he'd never hit me.
How did I know that?
I just did somehow.
If I knew that, then, why was I so afraid?
I knew the answer to that too. Things had just changed radically. I'd essentially just made myself his, when I'd called out to him for help.
Despite what I'd done to him he'd come back for me and as a reward I was his. It was scary and thrilling all at the same time.
All the veneer of society had been stripped away and the truth was that I really was Eve to his Adam if he deemed it so.
Did he still want me though or had he come back out of noble ideals alone? He was a far nobler person than I was if that was the case.
I hugged myself with my arms and involuntarily shivered as I saw the blurry outline of my rescuer come closer. Fittingly he'd dispatched my attackers with a spear made out of a pole with a knife blade strapped to the end of it. This man was truly in his element here in this violent sunken world, even as I was out of mine.