Julius POV
Everything was silent for a minute.
That's a lie...
There was this insistent ringing... My hears were ringing. Right...the car...explosion...mate... MATE! I push myself up fighting off the dizziness and the sound came rushing in all at once. There were screams everywhere and guns being shot. Flames were blazing violently where our car once stood. I look around frantically. I had her in my hold just before the explosion. Where was she?
I hear someone coughing nearby. Careful of the bullet's flying around me I follow the sound. I found her laying on a pile of burning rumble. She was still dazed from the blast, but that didn't stop her from kicking up a storm when I grabbed her.
The tingles were electrifying at first touch. Romeo had tried explaining what it had been like when I asked him once, but he always had trouble putting it to words.
"It's like the world shifts beneath your feet. Nothing else matters, just her. And you know that she is the one for you."
These were his exacts words.
I laughed in his face.
Yeah well...I'm not laughing now. Karma is a fucking bitch. And the Moon Goddess must have lost all her marbles because there is no way in hell she considers a fucking HUNTER my mate. No way. Nope. Not happening. I refuse to even consider it. Even if she is hot.
I try holding on to her, but she takes me by surprise when she elbows me in the face and gets free of my hold. Now, in any other day, that would not have been enough for me to lose my hold on her, but as it happens my head was still spinning a little bit, and my control over my balance was not as it normally is. So a hit like that? I saw fucking stars.
I groan at the pain and take a second to get my baring's together.
I see movement from the corner of my eye and duck on instinct. A bullet came flying exactly where my head used to be. I attack the shooter, in a series of quick movements. He never had the time to react. When he realised what was happening, my hands where already on his neck, a second later, he was dead.
"I'll take that for you." I can't help but speak as I remove his gun from his hold. I check the bullets and although there weren't many of them left, I could still do some damage to the bastards. I place the gun in position and start making my way as silently as I could in the direction my mate ran off to.
Night had come already, giving me an advantaged in the field since werewolves could see perfectly in the dark. I pass by the bodies of fellow werewolves, always checking to see if anyone of them were alive. No luck so far. I don't even bother checking the fallen hunters. The fight had apparently been moved deeper into the forest. I could hear the occasional scream and bullet flying. I shoot two hunters on my way, but I am jumped from behind, making me loose the weapon on the forest floor.
I immediately defend myself against the threat. This hunter was a trained one, but so was I. He manages to put in a good couple of punches in the beginning as I laid in the ground, but I manage to throw him off me, pushing him backwards far enough for me to grab a piece of log next to me and hit him straight in the skull.
I stand up properly and look down at him on the ground, spitting the blood on my mouth to the ground.
"Fucking hunters" I curse them whishing I could just kill them all.
I am removed from my murder plots when I hear a female scream pierce the forest air. I snap back into focus. Could that be her? Is she in danger? I mentally curse myself for showing so much concern for an enemy. She was a hunter. Her kind should not belong to my kind. It goes against everything that we stand for. But her scream still lingering in the back of my head. And it turns out I'm not that good at controlling my wolf after all.
I rush through the high trees following her scent, turning myself into my wolf. He was the one in control. Our protective side screaming to protect our mate. She is ours. Nobody is allowed to hurt her and live. I run fast, and then I finally see her. She was on the ground backing away from a fellow hunter? A hunter who was smirking at her as he advances towards her, knife raised and ready to kill.
I growl enraged, so loud that the hunters snap their heads towards me, their eyes filled with terror as I leap towards the male hunter who dared raised a knife at my mate and intended to kill her. I bite his jugular and rip off the flesh of body. His screams of agony where a symphony to my soul. Nobody hurts her and lives. When the body stops moving I let him go. His body dumped on the forest floor. Eyes open in terror. His throat turn off by a vicious animal.
I turn around towards my mate. She was crawling backwards as fast as she could, but the blood coming from her leg, told me she was injured, and unable to stand and run. I growl at the sight. She was injured. Mate was injured.
"Stay back!" she screams a fierce look in her eyes.
If I could chuckle I would have. Even in her state she was fierce and strong. My wolf was very pleased for having such a strong mate. He loved our mate. Me? My head was telling me to kill her, that leaving her alive would only cause trouble but my heart was telling a complete different story. The thought of not having her was simply too unthinkable.
I approach her slowly, trying to appear less threatening, but she was having none of that.
"I said stay back!" she yells throwing a rock at my head.
I growl displeased from her attack, but I don't stop approaching her. I had this urging need to be close to her, to make sure that she was alright.
I'm close enough to her injured leg. Slowly I move my nose to her wound, embarrassingly making a whining noise in the back of my throat. She looks at me angry mixed with fear, and maybe a little bit of confusion? What was she confused about? That I wasn't killing her? Join the club darling.
I hear someone running from behind me and my wolf detecting a possible threat turns around and growls threatening.
"Easy Julius, we're on the same team." Mike, a fellow pack member says and he makes himself seen. I keep growling not knowing what his intentions were. All I could think was that he was a danger to my mate. My injured mate. "It's just me man, why are you growling?" he asks confused
He tries coming closer but he hesitates when I growl at him again. He takes a glance behind me to see who I was protecting.
"Is that a hunter? Did you catch one of them?" he asks looking around noticing the mangled body of another hunter not far away from where I was standing. "I can see that one wasn't so lucky. Nice catch." he tries to take another step closer but I don't let him. "Okay, okay I get it. Don't come any closer. You're acting really weird you know, man? Why don't you turn back? This would be a lot easier if we could communicate."
I consider it for a few seconds and then I feel my body turning back to human. My back towards my mate, and completely naked. I hear a gasp coming from behind me, but I refrain from turning to look at her.
"Are there any other survivors?" I ask him, my wolf still present in my eyes. The danger wasn't over yet.
"Many casualties on both parts but we're outnumbered by many. They knew we were coming." he explains serious "I haven't found any other wolf besides you alive, but there is still a team of hunters scavenging the forest."
"The king?"
"He got out unarmed. His van was the only one left unscattered so they managed to speed off at the first sign of attack. He will send reinforcements but it will take a while for them to get here." he says.
"Are you injured?" I ask accessing the situation.
"Just a few bruises here and there. I'll live." he says. His eyes turn to the girl behind me "What are planning to do with her? She was one of our prisoners right?"
I hesitate for a second.
"I don't know yet". I finally turn to look at my mate. She had a defiance look on her face as if she was daring us to harm her. "Why was a hunter trying to kill one of his own kind?" I ask her but she remains silent "Lost your tongue goldilocks?"
"I have nothing to say to you mutt." she spits out, but I just chuckle at her attempt to be threatening. I crunch down to her level.
"Yeah I don't think so. I think you know something, something that the other hunters don't want you to speak."
"I would never betray my people." She spits out
"Clearly they think you will. They killed all of the other prisoners, and the wolves guarding them. Some of them friends of mine. So what do you know?"
She just glares at me, and if looks could kill I would be seven feet underground right now.
"Keep your silence goldilocks, for now." I tell her with a smirk. I get up and I see her averting her eyes so that she wouldn't stare at my southern region, which was at full display.
"So what do we do now?" Mike asks waiting for directions.
I access the situation and make a plan in my head. The pack had to be warned about the strike team of hunters running in the woods. There is no way I'm leaving my mate so Mike had to be the one to warn them.
"All our communicating devices were destroyed in the explosion, so there is no way to contact the pack. We need to warn them of the danger. Can you run?"
"What?" Mike asks "You want me to run?"
"The hunters are tracking us. Too many for us to fight on, but we have an advantage they don't have. We know these woods. And they are outsiders." I tell him
"So what is our plan? To run?" he asks not understanding
"No. Just you." I tell him "One wolf is more likely to go by undetected, and your fast Mike. I've seen you run before. I need you to run to the Royal Pack and warn them before the reinforcements get here. We don't want to lose anymore wolves to the hunters. We've already lost more than enough these last months."
"And what will you do?"
"I'll stay with her." I tell him pointing at my mate who was glaring at us hatefully knowing full well there was no point in escaping. "They want her dead too. I want to find out why." Among other reasons.
"You sure?" he asks unsure "We're in No Man's Land. We never know what we can find among these woods."
"It's our only option right now. We'll be okay." Hopefully.
"Alright, man. Good luck to you then, it looks like you're going to need it." he says with a chuckle taking a quick glance at the feisty blond hunter behind me.
"You too man. Be safe." I tell him giving him what my sister likes to call "a man hug".
"Here man, put these on." he says taking off his shorts and t-shirt and giving them to me "Wouldn't want you to freeze your balls off in the forest."
Being naked in the forest or in front of another pack member was no problem for us, but it could be unpleasant if we decide to stay in forest for a long period of time. We already had too many people complaining about barbs in unpleasant places, not to learn our lesson.
"Thanks man" I tell him as I put on the shorts but leave the shirt in my hand.
"Stay alive." he says running off and transforming into his wolf.
I turn to my mate who had been watching our interaction attentively.
Finally, alone.
I try not to smirk when I see her eyes lingering on my bare chest for a second longer than they should have, but then again, I really can't help myself.
"Do you see something you like goldilocks?" I ask her as I make my way towards her.
She huffs indignated.
"As if, mutt." she spats back "So now what? You kill me? Torture me? Rape me? Is that what gets you off?"
"Is that an offer goldilocks?" I ask her trying to control back my temper.
"Please...you probably wouldn't even know what to do with a woman, even if she was naked in front of you." she taunts me trying to get on my nerves.
"Are you that desperate for a fuck? What, the hunters don't know how to please their women?" I taunt back "Want to have a go with a werewolf, goldilocks? I could teach you a thing or two about fucking like animals".
"I would rather die than let one of your kind that close to me." she spats flushed. For anger? Lust, perhaps? Probably not. Although if we keep arguing about sex, my wolf just might decide that he has had enough and show our mate what it means to be mated to one of our kind, and the pleasures it brings. I wonder if she would blush everywhere...
"What are you doing? Don't touch me!" she tries to remove my hands from her leg but she just ends it up moaning in pain from the frantic move.
I assess her leg, noticing that the bullet when through and through. A clean wound. Good. If the bullet had still been inside her, then we would have had bigger problems.
"The bullet got out, but you're still losing a lot of blood." I tell her ignoring her protests. "We need to stop the bleeding and treat the wound, or else it might get infected."
"No shit Sherlock." she curses clearly in pain. "What are you a freaking doctor?"
"I don't think it hit any major artery, but the wound still needs to be cleaned. Here." I say ripping the shirt to pieces and creating a makeshift bandage around her leg. "This should buy us time for a little while."
"Why are you helping me?" she asks suspicious
"I still need to take you to the Royal Pack, and I need you alive for that." I tell her, omitting a little bit of the truth.
"Who's to say I won't run before we make it there?"
"I'm positive you'll run goldilocks, but I'm also positive that I'll catch you." I promise her, even if she won't see it as one. "There is nowhere you can hide where I won't find you."
Julius and Hayley alone in the woods. What could go wrong?
Don't forget!
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