Julius's POV
I woke up with the sun shinning in my eyes.
I turn my head to the side groaning form the light and snuggle closely with the person next to me. Wait. I open my eyes and in fact there she is. My mate. Sleeping peacefully in my arms, a relaxed expression in her face. I take this time to properly look at her. She truly was a beautiful sight to wake up to in the morning, her golden hair, all tangled up from the improved swimming last night, shined in the sun; her eyes, now shielded in the darkness of sleep, are so expressive they have their own language; and perhaps my favourite aspect of her, her wicked tongue. She can tempt a man to the most devilish of actions let them be murderous or luxuriously sinful. I would very much like to think about what else she can do with her tongue. And her rocking body does go appreciated, she sure is a temptress to my eager eyes. If only she wasn't my enemy.
I slowly remove myself from her hold on me without waking her up. I gather she will be hungry when she wakes up so I better go look for something to eat before she wakes. We both need to gather our strengths.
I scavenge the area carefully. There was nothing that pointed to hunters near our location, but that can change very quickly. The sooner we get moving the better.
I gather some berries I found and a few herbs I recognise are good for fighting infections. I grab them without thinking and put them in my short's pocket to keep safe, right next to the berries. I find my way back to the camp, where I had left my mate sleeping, hopefully she will be awake by now. Although I am surprised when I get there and find her gone.
I can't contain the growl that escapes my lips. Fuck. I knew she would do this. I knew it! She's a bloody hunter and she can't be trusted. A fucking night with her in my arms and I allowed myself to fucking lower my guard. Fuck! I curse running my hands through my hair trying not to release my frustrations on a tree. There are after all still other hunters in this forest. Hunters who wanted to kill my mate.
I avoid shifting so I don't destroy the clothes on my body. They were the last ones I had, and although it would be easier to track her in wolf form, I can still do it as a human. Besides, she's injured, she can't have run off that far, all I had to do now is catch her scent.
Hayley's POV
So maybe I haven't thought this trough, I think as I try to keep as much distance between me and Julius as possible. I had no idea where I was, where I was going and if I even was running in the right direction. I just woke up saw I was alone and took the opportunity presented to me to escape the beast, hopefully find a phone and sort everything out with my father, so he could call off the strike team and I could finally return home.
A good idea, just terrible executed.
My leg hurts from the extra effort, and my limp was making me slower than usual. But I wasn't ready to give up. Julius will notice I'm gone sooner or later if he hadn't noticed already and he would come after me, of that I had no doubt.
I stop for a minute just catching my breath. I was breathing rapidly and I could literally feel my body temperature rising, and other signs that tell me there is a mighty chance that my body is fighting the beginning of an infection.
I chuckle tired, just what I fucking needed right now.
But giving up was not an option.
I grind my teeth and I push forward despite the pain. I lasted 10, maybe 15 minutes before finally allowing myself to rest. My leg was throbbing, and I could feel a fever trying to break through. I lean back in the shades of a large tree and close my eyes. I take deep breaths in and out, the cool air felt wonderful against the heat of my skin. I knew there was a very large chance I wasn't going to make it in time before finding any sort of civilization and sending for help. Nobody would find my body and my father would be left to wonder what happened to his daughter for the rest of his life. *I scoff internally* If he even cared enough to do that.
My depressing thoughts are interrupted with the sound movement to my left.
I am immediately on edge.
Could it be Julius? The hunters?
Friend or foe?
That was the question of the day, isn't it? How could I tell one from the one from the other?
I stay still, not even daring to move a muscle or breathing too loud. I hear something again. So not my imagination then, good to know. There was definitely something making those noises. I look around quickly and find a rock and a tick wooden branch next to me. They wouldn't do much, but they might do just enough for me to survive.
I decide to take a quick peek to see what I'm dealing with.
I gasp when I see who or better what was there. A large hungry wolf. Worse, a large hungry werewolf.
Fuck.
I'm definitely not equipped to handle a werewolf right now. I can't even outrun it, not with my leg the way it is. Not that I could outrun it on any other day, werewolves were unfortunately very fast. Faster than any human that's for sure.
I hear him getting closer. The growls coming from his mouth getting louder.
Well...I'm definitely not going to just sit here and wait to be eaten by a beast. I do my best to get up as quietly as I can, and hold on tight to the rock and stick in my hand. And then just as I knew he was close enough to almost see me, I step out of my hiding place and stick the branch right into the beast's left eye. He roars in pain as he stumbles back and I take the opportunity to run as fast as I could in the opposite direction. It would do no good to stay and try to fight him off, only the element of surprise allowed me to injure him, and that wouldn't happen again anytime soon. It took less than a minute to hear him running through the woods, tracking me. And he was definitely pissed off.
I run and run always checking behind me to check if he hasn't caught up with me yet. Won't take long now. And then just to complement my bad luck, I trip on a tree root, making me groan in pain by the sudden fall.
I push my torso up, rubbing my hands together trying to clean away the dirt and tiny rocks imbedded into the skin. I check my foot and sigh in relief for not having broken it. But I don't lose much though in it before the werewolf rushes into where I am fallen on the ground, and rushes to where I am.
I yell in instinct and raise my arms to protect my face, not that they would do much. But just as he was about to pounce and eat my face, another wolf knocks into him, pushing him out of the way. I look up surprised by the unexpected rescue.
A wolf with a reddish brown fur jumped in front of me as if to protect me from the other wolf. He growls threatening to the other werewolf, who responds violently and attacks him. The wolf tries to go the other wolf's jugular but he is easily thrown back into a tree by my rescuer, who growls at him as if to determine hierarchy. If this wasn't such a life or death situation, I might have actually been interested in the power play that these wolves were demonstrating, but as it were, I really just wanted to see the beast dead.
I see my attacker somehow become affected by the growls and start submitting to the other wolf. And then he just walks away, and the other wolf just lets him.
"What are you doing? He's walking away! Kill him!" I yell at the wolf with the reddish brown fur, it didn't take me too long to find out his identity. It didn't really take a genius to find out which werewolf would jump in front of another werewolf to protect me. Whatever his reasons were, Julius seemed almost compelled to save me, time and time again. And I hate that I need to be rescued as it is. "Kill him God damit!" I yell at him.
He growls at me instead.
And I will never admit to anyone how that frighten me.
For what is worth he seemed to have noticed my reaction and stopped growling, and then he suddenly starts changing back to a human. A naked human. Again.
"Put some bloody clothes on, you freak!" I yell at him getting tired of having to be confronted by this situation one more time.
"Is that the thanks I get, for saving your life goldie?" he asks with a stupid smirk I would like to punch out of his face.
"I didn't need your help" I lie
"Sure you didn't." he says casually not even bothering to hide any part of his body from my sight. And I sure as hell not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me flustered. "You were just out for a morning walk, weren't you?" he teases me
"None of your business" I counter back annoyed at him
"I told you I would find you darling." he says crunching down next to my foot so he could see the damage. "I knew you would run; it was only a matter of time until you did. You're predictable like that."
"I'm not predictable" I tell him, hissing when he starts checking out my foot and moving him around trying to access the damage.
"Oh but you are. You did exactly what I thought you would do." he tells me as he massages the tender muscle of my ankle. "But I warned you goldilocks, I'll always find you. And I keep my promises."
I don't bother responding to him, I just give him one of my best angry glares and leave it at that.
"How's your leg?" he asks after being done with my foot, that unfortunately was actually feeling better.
"Pulsing like a bitch." I respond honestly for a change.
"I got something for it this morning, but I need to make sure it's still were I left it. You made me have to drop everything I had when you decided to take your chances alone in an unknown territory when there is danger lurking in every corner. Quite smart of you, but what can a person really expect from a hunter?"
"Fuck you." I curse him
"You will, soon enough."
"In your dreams, mutt."
"Oh but the things we do in my dreams..." he teases with a heated look on his face, that I am ashamed it left me feeling hot in places I should definitely not be feeling. Must be all this near death adrenaline that as all my wires crossed wrong.
He proceeds to crunching down next to me and placing his arm beneath my knees and the other on the end of my back. I immediately tense up.
"What.Do.You.Think.Are.Doing?" I ask him with clenched teeth.
"Picking you up, what does it look like?" he asks as if I were an idiot.
"Take your hands off of me, before I cut them off." I order him.
"I'm just trying to help you." He tries to explain but I am not having it.
"I don't care. Get off!" I yell punching him back. "This is all your fault! You and your kind, you're all mutts and you all should be fucking dead!"
This is it for this chapter! I admit I really struggled with writing this chapter, I kept coming and writting a paragraph and then I would loose my will to write or loose all my imagination for the story and I would just log off, and come back the next day just for it to repeat again and again.
But It's done!
And Hayley is pissed and angry and just lashing out really after a near death encounter. Can't really blame the girl, can we? We'll see how Julius deals with this next chapter.
Don't forget!
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