APOLLO RISING (The Apollo Saga, Book 1) by Sage Arroway Page A

still tight, but he could see that they had been pulled on hard during the night. “And..I’m still tied up,” he observed.
    Allie nodded once more, a hint of a smile appearing upon her lips.
    “I’m glad you find this funny.” It was then that he felt a cool breeze against his bare skin; a bleak reminder of his state of nakedness. “Well, this is awkward,” he said, glancing around the room and letting his gaze rest at last back upon Allie.
    Her expression was unreadable.
    “Can you untie me?”
    Allie tapped her thumbs against the barrel, glanced out the window and back as if contemplating, but answered matter-of-factly, “Not yet.”
    “Oh, okay. Well…do you happen to know when? ” he asked, fumbling to cover any part of his body with other parts of himself; to no avail, “because I’m feeling a little vulnerable over here.”
    Allie laughed aloud.
    “At least one of us is enjoying this,” he half-smiled at her, twisting his hips to shield his most private of areas from her direct line of sight. “No, but seriously,” he pleaded, “this is kind of embarrassing. Can you please untie me?”
    She didn’t return the smile. Her body language was hard to read and talking to her was proving to be a challenge. It didn’t help that he felt so exposed, physically and otherwise. He tugged at the wrist restraints one last time, hoping to see mercy in her otherwise blank expression. “Please?”
    Her eyes narrowed. “I can’t un-see what I saw last night, Tyler. I think you have some explaining to do.”
    “No problem,” he responded, all too eagerly. “If you help me down, I can get dressed and we can sit and have some coffee or tea, or even some of that soup you like, and have a civilized conversation about it.” His eyes moved to her lap, “Without the shotgun. That thing is making me nervous.”
    Allie giggled under her breath, “Civilized? That’s funny coming from you, Tyler.”
    “You know what I mean.”
    She seemed to like being in control. “I don’t know yet. I’m still trying to figure you out.”
    Tyler sighed. He could only imagine what might be going through her head about him. The way she was holding the shotgun suggested that she didn’t quite trust him, but it didn’t seem like she was completely terrified of him, either. A deep groan fell from his mouth and he finally gave up the fight, “Fine. Ask me anything.”
    Her head raised slightly. She looked as if she hadn’t slept all night, and he was sure she had a lot of things she wanted to ask him. Her first question wasn’t one he was expecting and she asked it almost too casually: “How long have you been a werewolf?”
    He flexed his fingers; they were a bit cold. “Since I was seventeen,” he admitted, a weight immediately lifting as the words came out. It was the first time he had disclosed any details of his condition.
    She seemed genuinely interested. “Go on.”
    “Seriously? You really want to hear this?”
    Allie’s all-too-familiar nod got him talking again.
    “Okay. I was dating this girl,” he began, clearing his throat again and taking a long, deep breath—it wasn’t going to be easy to tell her, “we were with some friends at a campground in Northern California, you know, drinking…sitting around the campfire. I got up to take a piss. I was only gone for a minute, maybe two, but on my way back I could tell that something wasn’t right. You know, like a gut feeling. I couldn’t hear anyone talking anymore.”
    Allie leaned in, a curious look on her face.
    “But then I did hear something, something strange – growling…eating. I ran to check it out, but by the time I got there, it was too late.” He swallowed hard. He hadn’t told this to anyone before, and the memories were hard to relive.
    “Too late for what?”
    Tyler paused, the details were painful. “It killed them all, so fast. There was so much blood, I couldn’t even tell who was who – I don’t think I even looked. I just stood