She Came From the Forest (James and Tera: book 1)

24

I lay there agonizing in pain. I was laying on the wet grass, underneath the opening of trees that allowed the moon to shine through. The stars were shining, but I couldn't tell if it was getting darker.

I was laying still, not trying to move out of fear that I would further pain myself because of my arm. I had never broken an arm before, so this was new pain, and new pain is never good pain.

My heart was beating hard. Harder than it ever beat. It was from adrenaline, exhaustion, and now, pain. I felt my eyes starting to close, and my body wanting to pass out from the pain. But I couldn't just sit there and die, and I couldn't just sit and listen to the sounds of Tera and Kurt fighting.

I managed, with my other arm, to drag my body towards a tree and leaned my back against it to keep myself up and try my best not to pass out. I looked on and saw two figures, one black and one burgundy under the moonlight, fighting viciously.

Tera was gnawing at the back of Kurt's neck, and he had her by her hind leg. They were in that position for a while, both growling viciously at one another. Suddenly, I hurt a snap, the same snap I had heard when my arm was broken.

Tera, who I heard yelp a little, clamped her jaws almost unnaturally around the back of his neck and threw Kurt really far away from her, causing him to hit a tree horizontally hard. I'm sure it hurt him pretty badly.

Tera had started limping pretty badly. She had limped her way over to the tree I was leaning against, edging her bloody snout close to smell me. I looked into her yellow eyes, and she looked back at Kurt. She wanted to check up on me while still fighting him.

Whenever I saw him again, he was naked. He must have switch. His body was bloody, and he was holding his ribs. "You weren't kidding when you told me you held your dominance inside." He said. "I just thought you were kidding."

He looked down at me, and back at her. She was snarling at him, daring him to come any closer. He shook his head. "We both know it takes a while for a broken bone to heal." He said. "Just stop. Come home."

She stood where she was. She was still, but her snarls stopped. She made sure she was in his way from me. Her back was to me, and she was tense. Why? Why was she trying so hard?

"Tera..." I called to her. She didn't respond, but I knew she was listening. "Please. Don't get yourself hurt anymore."

Kurt's eyes locked onto me. I stared at him, but continued addressing her. "You don't have to get yourself hurt or killed because of me. You could run away. Run far and fast."

Kurt's eyes were still bright. "You hear that? Even your little human toy wants you to leave."

"Shut up." I told him. "You don't really know her."

He rolled his eyes. "After all this time, you still think you know Tera better than I do?"

I used my one arm to pull myself up on the tree. I stood almost stumbling, using the tree to support myself. Tera turned around and growled low at me. I patted her lower back to reassure her. "I'm fine."

I held my arm. It was aching and the pain throbbed very painfully. I couldn't even believe I could get up while in this much pain. It was unbelievable even to me.

"What do you think you can do to me?" Kurt asked. "Why are you trying so desperately to fight me? For her?" He nodded towards Tera. "She'll rip your head off. Most interspecies couples always ends with the wolf killing the human. I'm trying to save you."

I shook my head. "No. You're only trying to satisfy your greed."

"What?" He asked. "What the hell are you talking about? Don't act like you know me."

I heard strange little crackling sounds, and I looked down to see Tera's broken leg start to move around on the inside. Was she recovering? Is this how werewolf healing works?

I looked at him. "You're a greedy bastard." I told him. "You're self centered on your own wants and won't give a damn to do what it takes to get it."

Kurt growled. "Shut up. You know nothing."

I put a hand on her lower back, and I used her as a railing for support. "You're sick. You'll do whatever it takes to anyone to get what you want. You don't want Tera, you just want what she could possibly give you without giving her a chance to have what she wants."

He snarled at me. "And what is it I want from her?"

I looked down at her, and back at him. "You want her as a slave to give you a child, and then you'll end up throwing her aside once it's over."

He shook his head angrily. "That's not true. You fucking dirty human. You're trash. You don't understand us." He looked at Tera. "Tera, please, come back home. I miss you and love you. I would never dare use you. I'll give you anything you want. Marriage, love, anything."

I looked at her, and saw her watching him. She had aggression in her gaze, but also there was a hint of something else. I felt something, like I knew how she felt. I felt pain from her.

I think I understood it. "That's what hurts her the most." I spoke. "I think she's hurting so much by just fighting you, Kurt." I looked back up at him. "She loves you still. Even after all you've done she still loves you. You two grew up together, and now you're fighting to kill."

Kurt stood silent, saying nothing. I had to go through more of it to make him understand. "You're hurting her because you don't understand. I don't even understand. It's the fact that someone she loved while growing up turned so cold and careless. She loved you, and now you only want to use her but you're blind because you think you love her. You love her for what she is."

His eyes turned an even more fury blue, and I saw hair starting to grow on him and his bone structure started to change. "You shut your mouth! You'll die for that!"

Tera jumped ahead in front of me. I walked beside her. "No. You run. I'll stay here and keep him busy." I told her. I looked on the ground beside me and saw the blade. I bent and picked it up. I turned and smiled at her. "I'll happily die for your dream of happiness."

"That won't be necessary." I heard a low voice say.

I turned and saw a man. He was fairly tall and was decently buff. He wore a button-up white shirt with dress pants and was bare footed. He had short light-brown hair and a bit of scruff on his face that looked well shaped and cut. He was a middle aged man, around 30 or so. He looked like a nice looking guy.

"Damn." He said. "I was having dinner when these two idiots came to me for aid. They didn't even let me get myself changed, they were so desperate." He sounded like he wasn't talking to us, but he was talking casually as if the situation wasn't serious.

"Listen here you old grey hound." I heard a familiar woman say. "You owe me this much for helping your damned people those years back." Flower?

"Yeah, and you know you can't turn down an old friend." I heard another familiar voice speak. Charles?

I looked closer and I saw them both standing with the strange man. Tera and Kurt had their eyes locked onto the man, but they had their heads down a little, avoiding direct eye contact with him. Who was this guy?

He took a good look at the area, his eyes going over all of us and our conditions. Once he was finished, he smiled a little. "Man, you two raised some tough children."

"Shut up and go down there and fix this." Flower demanded, heading down herself towards me. Her eyes were fired up and were hungry looking at me. "James Alexander Carson, if that werewolf hasn't killed you yet then I sure as hell will."

Damnit. Why did she have to use my full name? And why does she always look so angry? Especially now, because she looks worse than Kurt does right now. Can Kurt come kill me now please?

The strange man came down in the middle of the fighting area. "What's going on here?" He asked. "Someone tell me the story, the 'whats', the 'whys', the 'hows', EVERYTHING."

He looked at me, and he smiled sinisterly. "Everything." That smile gave me chills. I felt like I was outnumbered for some reason, because of these four werewolves and just two humans.

He continued staring. "It's a pleasure to meet you, boy. I'm the main Alpha of North America."

The North American Alpha?