As I started my bike and was about to drive away, I was pulled from my bike and thrown to the gravel. I looked up and saw a man standing in front of me laughing, the same one I encountered in the forest. He reached towards me and tore the helmet from my head, tossing it to the side. I tried to get up and just run, but was pulled back again. His hand gripped my arm tight and I tried to pry his fingers from me and pull away from him as he attempted to drag me towards my home. I reached for my phone that was in my pocket, but again, was too slow. He pushed me down to the gravel once again and straddled me, reaching for my phone and throwing it as far as he could.
"HELP! SOMEONE HE-" I tried to scream before I felt something hard hit my head. I had to blink to try to see straight and reached up to grab my head feeling the sticky, warm liquid dripping down onto my face. I saw another man approach as I was picked up, one man on either side of me, and drug into my cabin. Through the daze, I could pick up on what they were saying.
"You really think this will draw him out?"
"If not, it will weaken him for sure. He needs her, I'm sure of it."
"And what if you're wrong." I was thrown onto the ground once we were inside.
"She has no family. No one will miss her." Even though I preferred to live alone, the last statement still hurt. I managed to turn onto my stomach and tried crawling towards the kitchen. I was not going down without a fight. I didn't get very far when I felt the worst pain I had ever felt pulse through my body, starting from my leg. I screamed out in pain as I turned over to my back and looked down to my leg. I didn't see much, but I could no longer feel my toes and I figured my leg was now broken. One of the men bent down over me and just smiled at me.
"Your death will come soon. Don't you worry." Both men started to laugh as my heart started to beat out of my chest. I knew no one could hear my screams from way out here and now, I couldn't even walk let alone try to run away. The pain was intense from my leg and my head that my vision started to blur even more. I was about to pass out soon and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Then, the world seemed to move in slow motion as I saw a streak of black attack the man that was closest to me and bring him to the ground. I turned to see something brown on top of the other man. Jack? I tried to turn over again and crawl away, but each movement was too painful so I gave up and laid there trying to control my heart beat. I reached up to my head and felt more blood pouring from my head. Shit! I needed to stay awake! If I fell asleep, there was a greater chance that I wouldn't wake up. I looked over and there were definitely two wolves in my cabin tearing apart the two intruders. There was blood everywhere, but for some reason I felt a sense of relief. Then, another man walked through my door and walked straight towards me. I tried to prop myself up and move back away from him, terrified. He saw the look on my face and stopped walking, putting his hands up. He was tall with light brown hair and gorgeous lips if I may add and he had a bag slung across his shoulder.
"I'm not here to hurt you I promise. I'm a doctor and here to help." He paused for a brief couple of seconds and then tried to approach me once again. I had no other choice than to trust him. I couldn't really move anyway so he was going to be able to do whatever he wanted no matter how I felt. I laid down, letting out a deep breath. He came closer to me and knelt by my side grabbing his bag and opening it. He took out a cloth and wiped the blood that was all over my face. He moved my hair and inspected my head further.
"That's going to need stitches. Can you tell me your name please?"
"Umm Alanna. Alanna Fredrickson." I looked behind him and saw the wolves dragging the bodies out of my house. "What is going on?"
"Don't worry about that right now." He grabbed my hand and moved it towards my head. "Keep pressure on your head if you can. I am going to check your leg." I felt him lightly touch the leg that was fine and then touch the other one. I screamed in pain when he touched the supposed broken one. He reached for his bag and pulled out some scissors and other things that I couldn't see. He started to cut the pants that I was wearing and stopped right above the knee.
"How is she?" Another man entered my house. I looked over and I knew that face. He was the guy who came into the library. He was shirtless and just wearing shorts. I know that it's not that warm out so why wasn't he wearing a shirt.
"She's stable for now. She has a nasty cut on her head and could be a broken leg. Do you want me to heal her now?"
"Yes!" The shirtless man kneeled by my head and grabbed my hand. I felt a sort of tingle move through the hand he was touching and up my arm.
"I know you." I managed to speak, but it came out more like a whisper. I reached out to touch him, but he grabbed my hand and held it instead and looked towards the man who was by my broken leg. I looked down as well and saw him put his hands lightly on my skin and close his eyes. His hands started to glow and a light peaked through his fingers from his palms.
"What are you doing?" I was frightened and pulled my hand away from the familiar stranger next to me as I tried to sit up. The one by my leg turned to the other in other confusion.
"It's not working...try calming her down." I looked to my side and saw the shirtless man grab a hold of my head and close his eyes. I stared back at him wondering what in the world was going on as the panic started to well up inside me.. He opened his eyes and looked at me with confusion and worry then turned to the other.
"I can't see anything." The two exchanged looks as I looked back and forth between the two.
"Right. Primitive methods it is." He dug into his bag and pulled out some pieces of what looked like plastic. He then looked at me. "This is going to hurt, but you need to stay still ok?" I nodded my head, but started to feel scared. I felt the familiar stranger grab my hand and squeeze tight. As two pieces of plastic lined either side of my leg, rope was carefully slid under my leg pinning my leg in place. As he pulled the rope together to make it tight, I screamed out in pain. I squeezed the hand I was holding and could feel tears stream down my face. Once it was done, I felt exhausted and started to breathe heavier.
"We have to get her back home. The car should be outside by now." My doctor stood up and put his bag over his shoulder. He came over to my other side as the shirtless one bent down and placed one arm under my knees and the other under my head. Without being told, I reached up and held onto his neck. As he picked me up, I felt the sting in my head and neck. I was carried outside where there was a truck waiting right at the end of the stairs. There was another man standing there leaning against the driver's side door. I barely got a look at him as I was lifted into the truck bed, well, my rescuer just jumped in and then laid me down. There was no way he could jump that high while holding me. My doctor jumped into the truck bed as well and then pounded on the back window, signaling for the truck to go. As we drove off, I was finally able to relax knowing I would be at the hospital soon. I looked out the back which was still open and saw a wolf running behind us. The brown fur with black streaks was a welcomed sight.
"Jack." I whispered and calmed my racing heart a little.
After about 5 minutes, I noticed we were still not in town and became confused. We were still in the woods and driving away from town.
"Where are you taking me?" I just wanted to go to the hospital. What was happening?
"Somewhere safe. I promise." The shirtless wonder patted my shoulder, trying to reassure me and then looked back into the forest. We ended up driving down a hidden road and as the trees started to thin, a large house appeared as the truck drove right up to the front. I was carefully lifted from the truck and back into the stranger's arms as he walked inside. A woman was right inside the door and turned towards us.
"What do you need?" She had beautiful blonde hair that flowed past her shoulders. My handsome doctor turned towards her.
"I will need some fresh clothes to clean up the cut on her head and some sutures."
"Sutures?"
"Yes, it's not working for some reason." The woman ran somewhere else as I was carried upstairs and placed on a bed. This bedroom was as big as my entire house and decorated very well too. It became very busy as my shirtless savior took a couple steps back allowing my doctor to take a look at my head. The blonde woman entered carrying a tray that had everything he had requested. She set the tray down on a small table nearby and brought the table closer to the bed.I was frantically looking around not understanding anything that was going. The woman came to me on the other side of the bed and grabbed my hand.
"My name is Willa and this is my good friend Jin. He is going to fix you up so you are good as new. You are safe here." She reached up and brushed my hair out of my face. I suddenly felt at ease around her.
"Why don't you take me to a hospital?"
"It's not safe for you right now. I promise we will explain in the morning. We need to focus on getting you better." I saw the man she called Jin hand her a syringe. I started to tense up. "This is morphine. It's going to help with the pain and help you sleep." She pierced the vein in my skin and I felt the cold rush of the pain meds enter my arm. I noticed that another man had entered the doorway, breathing heavy. He was also shirtless and had dark brown hair. He was extremely toned and was almost as tall as Jin. He didn't say anything but just looked around. He slowly stepped inside looking over to the man who had carried me in, nodding towards him and then walking over to Willa. Willia turned and looked up to him.
"She's going to be ok." He smiled at her and walked over the one standing away from the chaos. He whispered in his ear and then left the room. My rescuer walked over to Jin, placing a hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear. Jin nodded and then I was left with Jin and Willa. I don't remember how long it was before I closed my eyes and fell asleep.
As I blinked my eyes open I saw sun streaming through the windows and I had to remind myself of the events from last night. I was in a new place surrounded by strange people. I looked over across the room I was in and saw Willa sleeping on the small couch and the brown haired man asleep in a chair next to the couch with a shirt on finally. I pushed myself up so that I was sitting and felt the ache in my head and leg. I reached up to touch the cut of my head and barely felt anything there which didn't make sense since I know that Jin had to put a couple stitches in. I pushed back the blankets so I could look at what I thought was a broken leg. I was still wearing the same clothes from last night so I pushed back the cut fabric of my leggings to reveal a leg that looked perfectly fine. I lightly touched my skin, expecting pain, but felt nothing except the tips of my fingers. I slowly swung my legs over the side of the bed and tried to stand.
"Don't stand yet!" Willa got up and ran over to me, stopping me from getting out of bed. "Jungkook." The sleeping man didn't move. "Jungkook get up!" He then moved his head and jumped up. "Go get Jin." He left the room as Willa turned towards me. "We don't want you to walk until Jin looks at your leg. How do you feel?"
"I should be in a cast and my head should have stitches." I reached up to feel my head again. "I don't understand how I feel perfectly fine." Willa smiled at me which only made me even more confused
"We will explain to you, but first we want to make sure you are healing properly." I scoffed at her response.
"I'm not healing properly. I should be in the hospital with real doctors." Before she had a chance to respond, Jin walked into the room.
"Good Morning Alanna! Let's see how your leg is doing." I was still sitting on the edge of the bed as he walked over and kneeled down so he was eye level with my lower leg. He gently grasped my leg and ran his hand over the top, closing his eyes. Then, he looked up at me. "Are you feeling any pain at all or numbness?" I wiggled my toes a little and moved my leg then shocked my head. Jin then stood up and looked at the cut that was supposed to be on my head. "Everything looks good. Let's have you get up and start walking." Both Jin and Willa helped me to my feet as I started to walk across the room, feeling no pain at all. I turned back to them and stared in awe unable to come up with any words to say. Jin towards Willa, "Breakfast is ready." He then nodded towards me and left the room.
"Right. Let's get you cleaned up so we can go eat." She walked towards another door that I hadn't opened yet. "This is your bathroom. It has been fully stocked with any toiletries that you may need. I am going to grab some fresh clothes for you and set them on your bed. When you're ready, just take the stairs down and follow the loud voices to the kitchen." She started to walk away.
"Hey Willa?" I turned towards her and she stopped walking and faced me with the biggest smile on her face. "Umm thanks." Her smile somehow got bigger as she nodded towards me.
"You are welcome Luna." And then bounced out of the room.
Did she mean to say Lana? She did know my name right? Whatever. I shook the weird encounter from my mind as I walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind me. I had a good habit of locking doors. I turned on the water and took off my dirty and now blood stained clothes throwing them to the floor. The shower was relaxing and once I was finished, I grabbed a towel wrapping it around myself. I cleared the mirror of the steam that had gathered and looked at my reflection. There really was not a cut on my head, but I could see a small scar. Weird. I grabbed a brush that was on the counter and combed through my hair. I stopped suddenly when I noticed a section that seemed a little lighter than the rest of my already light brown hair. Great...now I'm going grey at an early age. I pulled my hair half back and let it dry on its own. My hair was a little curly and when it air dried, it had small beach waves. Heather always told me how jealous she was of my natural curls. Shit Heather! I was supposed to work today. I opened the bathroom door and found the clean clothes on my bed and quickly put them on. Willa had provided me with a pair of skinny jeans that were dark blue, a plain white t-shirt and a button up shirt, or flannel, to pair with it as well. I did as Willa said and walked out of my room trying to locate the stairs. I saw other rooms along the hallway and followed the railing to the large grand staircase. This looked like a very old house with the old paintings on the walls and a large chandelier over the staircase. As I began to walk down the stairs, I did hear a large number of people talking and laughing. I reached the bottom of the stairs and saw the large door in front of me. It was actually very tempting to open it and run, but I was hungry and everyone had been so nice so far. I turned to my right, following the sound of laughter. I passed by a couple more doors, one of which was open and I peaked in. This room looked like a giant library with bookshelves lining the walls filled with books from floor to ceiling. There were couches and chairs scattered throughout the room as well. I continued walking down the hall as I met the end, which opened into a large kitchen and dining area. I stood in the doorway, not knowing where exactly I should go or if I should say anything. I saw Jin leaning against the kitchen counter talking with a red haired girl sitting on a stool on the other side of the counter along with someone else who looked familiar, but I couldn't place where I had seen his light pink hair before. There was also something familiar about her that I couldn't figure out either. At the dining table sat Willa and Jungkook and a face that I was not familiar with. This man had blonde hair and was not smiling at all, but looked like he was going to fall asleep. Willa noticed that I had walked in and jumped from her seat.
"Alanna! Let's get you something to eat and I'll introduce you to everyone." She grabbed my arm and pulled me to the table she was sitting at. I sat in an empty chair that was next to Jungkook. I turned towards him and smiled and he had the cutest smile on his face.
"Did you sleep ok?" Jungkook asked.
"I did actually. Thank you. I see you are finally wearing a shirt today." He chuckled at my statement.
"Ya. Sorry about that. Hope being shirtless doesn't bother you." He nudged me a little and gave me a wink. I don't know what it was, but it felt like I had known him for months. I felt comfortable being around him. Willa came back and set a plate in front of me. It was filled with eggs and some toast. She set a bowl of fruit down as well.
"Do you want some coffee?" She asked.
"Please." I started to eat as Willa came back with a mug of coffee. She then sat down across from me next to the one who was falling asleep. She nudged him and he glared at her then looked over to me.
"Hi. I'm Yoongi." He took a sip from the mug that was sitting in front of him.
"Nice to meet you Yoongi." I took a couple more bites of my food and Jin and the red haired beauty walked over and sat down in some empty chairs. Willa motioned towards the others in the room.
"You have met Jungkook and Jin." I nodded towards both and then she pointed to the other two at the table. "This pink haired boy is Jimin and this fierce beauty is Dakota." I choked on my food a little, covering my mouth. When I finally swallowed properly I turned towards Dakota.
"Dakota Mullen? From Clarmore?" I saw her nod her head. "But you're missing. You have been for years! Your face is practically plastered all around town.
"Surprise." She had a sarcastic tone. "I'm not missing."
"I am so confused right now." I put my fork down and rubbed my head.
"And that seems to be my cue." I turned to see two more men enter that I had not seen before. The one who spoke had bright orange hair which was actually really good on him and he bounced into the room and immediately I felt his bright energy. "I'm Hosek and I'll be answering all the questions that I know you have."
"Thank goodness because I have a ton!"
The other man had bleached blonde hair and reached out his hand to introduce himself. "I'm Namjoon." I shook his hand.
"Alanna. Nice to meet you both."
"Whenever you are finished, we can take a walk and I will tell you everything." Hosek stated. I had actually managed to eat most of my food and was pretty full.
"I'm finished now if that's ok." I stood up and grabbed my plate so I could wash it, but Jungkook stood up and reached for it.
"I will take care of this. You go ahead with Hosek."
"Thanks." I grabbed my coffee mug and followed Hosek out of the room.
"I know you like to be outside so would you want to sit on the porch?"
"Sounds perfect." We walked out the front door that I passed earlier and sat down at a small table that was on their large front porch.
"What do you know about these woods Alanna?"
"Umm well, I know that it's beautiful and the townspeople are afraid of it. They are superstitious and believe there are creatures hiding and taking people. People seem to go missing like Dakato, but she's here so now I feel like I know nothing." He laughed.
"You're not wrong. There are creatures within these woods. Supernatural beings that are either here to hurt or protect Clarmore. We are the beings that are here to protect your town against those who want to hurt you." I stared at Hosek and burst out laughing.
"I'm sorry? What? Supernatural beings that live in the middle of the forest protecting an entire town from some other type of thing that wants to hurt people?" I started laughing a little and looked around. "Were you hired by someone to scare me out of my cabin? I know I may be the only person in town that doesn't believe the stories and legends, but this is a bit much to try to get me to drink the kool-aid don't you think." Hosek smiled at my response and shook his head.
"Last night you had a hairline fracture in your leg and this morning you don't. What's your explanation for that?" I paused and thought for a bit.
"I was hit on the head pretty bad. I don't even know if my leg was actually broken or not. For all I know, you put on a show to make me believe my broken leg healed in a day." I saw Hosek shake his head and saw his frustration with me.
"We can do things. Things that cannot be explained by human sciences. Jin has the ability to heal. He was able to heal your leg and the cut on your head." I still didn't fully believe him, but then started thinking back to events of last night.
"So what happened last night then? Did you know those men? I thought I saw dogs, or wolves that attacked them." Hosek nodded and calmly continued.
"Those men are the other supernatural beings that don't care about hurting others. They specifically want to eliminate our kind."
"Your...kind?"
"Yes. We are werewolves." He looked at me waiting for a response. I stood up and stared at him.
"Werewolves, nice. I am going to leave now." I tried walking away, but Hosek grabbed my arm.
"Alanna please." I jerked my arm away.
"You are crazy! Two men attacked me last night and then I was kidnapped by another group of people. I am going home." I saw Jungkook and Willa come out the door and stand in front of me.
"It's true Alanna. Please believe him." As Willa stepped toward me, I backed up, shaking my head, not wanting to be a part of any of this.
"You are in on this too? This is ridiculous. I'm out of her." I tried to move passed her, but stopped when I heard Hosek.
"Jungkook, do it." Hosek commanded him. I turned toward Jungkook as he took off his shirt, tossing it to the side and then jumped off the stairs to the ground. I saw his smooth skin, turn fuzzy and brown as a wolf landed on the ground.
"What the.." I backed up and hit the side of the house, frightened. The wolf slowly walked up the stairs in my direction. My heart was beating rapidly, but started to slow down when I took a second look at the creature in front of me. Brown fur with black streaks. I knelt down as he got closer and held out my hand. His nose touched my fingertips and nuzzled into my palm.
"Jack?"
A/N: Really wanted to get you all hooked a little more so here is the rest of the "cast" for you. Alanna has officially met them all...well, all but one ;)
The next chapter will be an interesting encounter between Taehyung and Alanna. Do you think it will go well? Alanna will also be reading more about the history of their kind and what her part to play is.