Under the Canopy of Trees

Written for my 2021 Halloween event.

Pairing: Werewolf!Riven x Male!Reader

Prompt: “werewolf riven x male reader were the reader is walking through the woods and one day Riven corners him. Reader happens to be his mate and they kinda fall in love after he changes back to human form”

A/N: This is the ninth piece for my Halloween event. The next piece will be released Thursday, October 21st.

—–

The road home from Alfea College had always been a little eerie with towering pine trees boxing you in on all sides and making the trail seem dark and isolated. You’d made the trek through these very woods for the last several years as you worked towards your degree, but in the last few weeks you had begun to feel as though you were being watched whenever you came too close to the treeline. A few times you had thought you’d caught sight of a large animal, but it always vanished too quickly for you to be sure.

Even now, as you were on your way home from a study group that ended far later than normal, the weight of eyes on you had the skin on the back of your neck prickling uncomfortably. You found yourself walking faster than you typically did and wincing whenever you heard a bush rustle or a twig snap.

After the third false alarm, you finally forced yourself to ignore the sounds of the forest and focus instead on making your way home before night fell. Your plan seemed to be going rather well actually, until a hand caught you by the strap of your backpack and tugged you to a stop just before you crossed the treeline.

“And where do you think you’re going?” A deep voice murmured, deep and smooth and far too confident, warm breath ghosting over the shell of your ear as he spoke.

You tensed at the sensation, heart sinking as you realized that all those suspicions of being followed had been correct. “I’m going home.”

“Then you’re going the wrong way,” the voice teased, grip shifting from your bag down your arm to take hold of your wrist and tug you around to face him.

Your eyes widened as they locked with a pair of dark chocolate ones before taking in the rest of the stranger’s appearance, from his wild brown curls and pale skin to the way his clothes seemed to have been torn and mended many times over to the light dusting of stubble across his jawline. He was undeniably attractive and you felt a strange sort of pull toward him, though you weren’t sure why.

Your brows furrowed as you glanced over your shoulder in the direction that you’d been heading, “I’m pretty sure that I know the way back to my own home,” you retorted.

“I don’t know that you do,” he said, grinning widely as he looked at you. You tensed as his smile revealed the sharp points of a set of fangs where a normal person’s canines would be. “Because you seemed to be under the impression that you’d be able to leave this forest.”

If the appearance of his fangs hadn’t been enough to set you on edge, his words certainly were. You less-than-subtly tried to pull your hand away, and his hold tightened reflexively. “Trust me,” you said, hoping that your voice sounded more confident than you felt, “I will be.”

“Trust me,” he echoed, smirk deepening as he looked at you, “You won’t be,” the words escaped him in a low growl.

Your eyes narrowed and you jerked your hand away, a rough breath hissing out of you as a sharp claw tore through the skin of your wrist.

“Fuck-” The stranger jerked forward reflexively, taking your hand in his and examining your wound. “I’m sorry- This wasn’t supposed to happen.” He huffed releasing you with one hand in favor of digging through one of his pockets and eventually pulling out a bandage.

“You say that like you had a plan?” you murmured, raising an eyebrow pointedly as he began to loop the fabric around your forearm.

He let out an embarrassed chuckle, dark eyes flitting up to meet yours, “I did.” He was quiet for a moment as his gaze dropped back to your wrist, “I thought I’d come up to you and say something suave and you’d fall for me.” He huffed out a despondent laugh, “Hell, if I hadn’t been watching you long enough to know that whatever this was wasn’t going to work.”

You were understandably confused, eyes darting between the brunet and the careful way his fingers were dancing over your arm. “Why were you watching me?”

He opened his mouth as though to say something before thinking better of it. “You’ve already noticed that I’m not… normal. People like me- werewolves- tend to find people that we’re drawn to. It’s kind of like fate, y’know?” He kept talking, like his question was more rhetorical than anything, “I think you’re that for me, but I just hadn’t gotten up the nerve to talk to you until today.” He glanced up at you with a flustered blush clouding his cheeks, fingers still toying at the end of the gauze, though he’d finished tying it off several moments prior. “I kept telling myself ‘tomorrow, Riven; you’ll talk to him tomorrow’ but then today you were so late that I was scared I wouldn’t get the chance at all.”

You couldn’t help the small grin that tugged at the corner of your lips, “You could’ve just asked me out for coffee,” you teased.

The stranger- Riven, you figured- looked up at you, shocked. “Would you have said yes?”

“Dunno,” you shrugged, a sudden playful mood striking you, “Maybe you’ll have to ask me on my walk tomorrow and find out.” With that you tugged your hand out of his grasp and turned back down the trail, shooting him a wink as you left the forest and a dazed werewolf behind you.

There was no way you could’ve known it, but as Riven stood there for a few long minutes after you took your leave, he came to realize that meeting you had firmly cemented what he had long suspected; that you really were the one he’d been Meant to meet. He had already begun to count down the seconds until he could see you again by the time he turned to head back to his own home deep under the canopy of trees.