Hidden Lycan. (COMPLETE)

Chapter Thirty

I stretched and yawned as the sun began to rise. None of the guys stirred during the night, none woke up in pain or from anxiety or fear. They all seemed to sleep unusually well considering our surroundings, which makes me even more thankful I decided to stay awake and make sure things were alright. Well, more like make sure the guys were alright, though I would have done my best to take care of any threat. 

I was however thrilled with how they all looked. Eli's skin was back to it's deep tanned color, Xavier's color was back to normal as well. I caught Lucas turning over and moving in his sleep telling me the paralytic had worn off. And Alaric looked like the venom had finally ran the rest of the way out of his system. Out of all of them Alaric had been the one closest to death. I doubt he would remember, venom as potent as the Cerberus has a way of doing that to a person. 

So when I heard a low groan and caught his movement from the corner of my eye, I sprang to my feet and made my way over to him. Unfortunately not fast enough. The second his eyes opened he was on his feet growling, his eyes scanning the sleeping beasts surrounding him. The Cerberus's peaked up at him, and I swear they rolled their eyes before chuffing and going back to sleep. 

"Alaric, it's alright." I told him standing at the edge of the beasts circle. Alaric's blazing blue eyes landed on me, anger, concern and relief flashing through before they stayed on anger. He crouched low to to the ground and growled. "It is far from alright." He snarled. "The creatures attacked us, almost killed us." I rubbed the back of my neck nervously. "Yeah, well, about that." 

My shoulders slumped and a heavy sigh escaped me. I was too tired for this. "Get up." I snapped at the six beasts around Alaric. All their heads snapped to attention instantly before landing on me. Seeing me there they sprang to their feet and moved to stand behind me forming a semicircle. Alaric straightened but I didn't miss the suspicious look he shot my way. "What's this?" He asked, motioning to the compliant beasts behind me. 

"A long story." I replied. "One I am thankful happened, otherwise you'd be dead. Come on and I'll explain." I told him, walking passed him to sit down. Alaric eyed the beasts as they followed me, and watched as they sat on their haunches behind me, giving him space to sit at my side. Eventually Alaric gave in, but he didn't sit beside me, he stood in front of me, braced against a tree with his arms crossed against his chest. I just shook my head at his behavior. 

"You can be suspicious of it if you'd like Alaric, but I had no involvement in the attack. If I had, I would have let them kill all of you and not saved your lives. If my intention had ever been to want any of you hurt or dead, I would have let the wolves from the first attack go without intervention, or when the witches attacked. Either would have been a lot easier than being here." I looked up to him after I finished speaking. Regret sparked in his eyes and he ran his hands down his face with a sigh. "I'm sorry Fallon. It's my nature to be suspicious." He said as he finally sat beside me. 

"I know it is." I said smiling. "As for the Cerberus. When they attacked the one that was supposed to attack me didn't. He seemed almost curious about me, even allowed me to pet him, as odd as that sounds. And while I was distracted with it all of you were hurt. But it was Eli's who cried out getting my attention. When I saw everything I got mad, but when I saw you were poisoned I was furious. My lycan rose. Her growl stopped the battle, making all the beasts whine and bow in submission. 

I made one heal you, forcibly and not to nicely I might add. But my lycan was torn between wanting them punished and wanting them in her pack. I could feel that she wanted their power, to control them, have them beneath her. Then I told her that adding them to her pack it would punish them. Cerberus are not pack animals. They are lone creatures and only work together to guard the gates to the underworld. Telling her that was a mistake. She added them to her pack, so now the beasts listen to me, to us. 

They were surrounding you because I was with you when they fell asleep. I stayed with you for hours before I was convinced you were alright and in no danger from the venom anymore. Then I moved and helped everyone else. Lucas was paralyzed, and Eli and Xavier were clawed up pretty badly, but everyone seems to be okay now for the most part." I yawned again when I finished explaining everything, the previous day and night catching up to me faster than I would have liked. 

"And what about you? Why are you so tired?" The concern in his voice made me smile. "I stayed up and kept an eye on everyone. Which turns out was a good thing. Everyone seems to have slept pretty hard because of their injuries." I could see the surprise in Alaric's eyes as he looked from me to the still sleeping forms of the others. His face scrunched up as he took in his friends. "They look fine." He said turning back to me. 

I couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, now they do." I said. "Last night Xavier and Eli hardly had any color because they had lost so much blood. Lucas couldn't move because he'd been bitten by the paralytic head of the Cerberus." I stood and grabbed the blanket that I had used to cover Alaric and shook the dirt and leaves off of it before folding it and placing it back in my bag. Alaric watched with widened eyes, I guess realizing how he ended up covered up in the first place. 

"We should wake the others up." Alaric said shaking his head as he stood. "We need to get an early start so we hopefully don't run into anymore trouble before we get to the gathering grounds." I snorted. "Expect troubled there too Alaric. The creatures that live here are not happy with what the council has done. I expect them to retaliate. We are just easy targets right now because we haven't made it to the larger group yet. So I would expect more trouble along the way and even more at the gathering. Though at the gathering I think the attack will be on a larger scale." 

Alaric tilted his head and studied me. "You may be onto something." He said rubbing his jaw. I quirked a brow at him. He said it like he was surprised I noticed the situation we were in before he did. With how I grew up analyzing my surroundings, knowing what situation I was in at the time was a survival skill. "Yes, well. Let's get on with it. Everyone will be hungry and we didn't bring food. None of us expected to spend the night in the forest." I said turning and walking over to Eli and Xavier, while Alaric went to Lucas.