First Of It's Kind

12

I pushed and pushed and pulled on my leg but nothing. The sounds of motorcycles filled the forest. My mind wondered if the others had gotten away? Soon, the ones that were looking for me were getting closer.

"She should be somewhere around here."

"Man, I haven't heard the others have any luck."

"Shhh, keep your voice down."

My heart was beating like crazy in my chest, but I stayed as still as I could. Hoping beyond hope they didn't hear it. Until, I felt a hand cover my mouth. I yelped but when the scent reached my nose, I realized it was Logan. He was looking in the direction of the men too. We sat there for what felt like forever, until we heard the footsteps disappear in the distance. We both breathed deeply, I even found myself hugging Logan.

"Thank God, you found me!" I said, almost crying.

"Always." he said gruffly. I could tell his wolf was still on the surface, he had found a pair of sweat pants. He kissed my forehead,but then turned to look around at my situation. With no problem, he pushed the boulder away and freed my leg. He looked down at it. It looked like it had gone through a shredder.

"I tried to pull it out, but after I changed back I was too tired."

"Baby doll, what am I going to do with you?"

A warm feeling spread through me at his words.I had to chuckle, that was such an old-fashioned pet name. As he helped me to my feet, he handed me a shirt. I pulled it on.

"Now what, I won't be able to walk on this?"

He gave me a look, but bent down, giving me his back.

"Jump on."

"Um..okay." I said awkwardly and got on his back, he lifted me without any effort and ran toward the house. I couldn't help taking in the feeling of his muscles as he ran. Or be very aware of his hands on my legs. I shook my head and focused on my pain level, which had gone down. My leg would be healed by the time we got to the house.

When we got there, the house was quiet, the lights were out. Logan carefully put me down, and he looked at me.

"Stay here."

"Right." I said as he went off into the darkness. I sniffed the air, but couldn't smell anything. Nothing recent anyway. I looked around and found motorcycle tracks. They had come through here. My stomach dropped at the thought that they might've hurt Maia and Darcy, or Ruth and her husband.

I tested putting weight on my leg. It wasn't the best but I moved forward. I walked the same way Logan had, pressing myself close to the house and letting the darkness cover me, and almost had a heart attack when rounding the corner, and came face to face with Ivy and Eva, who were doing the same thing.

"s**t!"

"What the hell you two?"

"Same thing goes for you too, what the hell!" Ivy said, holding her chest.

"Tay, your leg!" said Eva, as she bent down to look at it.

"Yeah, I got caught between two boulders."

"They chased you that far up the mountain?"

"Yeah, how about you guys? How did you get away?"

"We spilt. We ran further into the forest, thank goodness the guys knew their way back."

Eva didn't meet my eye, but I was too tired to scold them, or more like I just couldn't bring myself to be mad at them anymore. I nodded and pulled them into a hug. They both held me a little confused.

"I'm just glad you girls are alright."

They finally relaxed into my hug, and hugged me back.

"We're glad to see you're okay too," said Ivy.

I pulled back, and they both helped me into the house. Once inside, I saw Maia and Walker deep in discussion. Ruth looked pale, her husband trying to comfort her. Darcy turned and saw us, and ran toward me.

"Tayla, some bad guys came to the house!"

I looked over at Maia, as she fought back tears of anger. She had been terrified.

"Well, now they're gone. We're safe now."

Maia scoffed and walked away, in anger. Walker looked up at me. He was also fighting down his wolf.

"I want everyone in the living room!" he said, a little sharper than needed. The girls helped me there. Once we sat down I realized that Logan, David, and two others of the pack weren't there.

Walker walked in and everyone came to attention.

"Where are the other's?" I asked.

"I sent them to follow those bastards. No one walks into my territory and starts threatening my people!"

I felt my stomach knot. What had happened?

"Did they try to hurt Maia and Darcy?"

"From what Ruth and her husband explained, if they hadn't been here...I don't want to think about what they would've done."

Flashbacks played before my eyes, and my throat went dry at the thought. If they are capable of doing what they do to others, I can imagine they'd hurt innocent people for no reason.

"We need to be alert, these guys are looking for us, and with Tayla as a witness. I can't even start to imagine what they want from us, and who knows us so well, they know who and where to look for us."

I sat there for a bit, honestly wondering who would hand over others of their kind like this. What would they gain from it?

"For the time being, we will only meet for the hunt. I don't want these people getting an idea of who all of you are. Your families are at stake. We will stay in contact...."

"Emails!" I suddenly said.

"What?"

"That's what the girls and I did. Emails, or secret group chats. Eva will set that up."

Eva nodded and the others agreed. Walker sighed but nodded.

After a while, he let us all go. The guys left, and the girls stayed downstairs waiting for their men. My foot was mostly healed, but I had dislocated it and it hurt to put my weight on it. I didn't feel comfortable asking any of the guys to help pop it back into place. As I slowly made my way up to my room I could hear Maia rant, I guess you could say. She was making bags. I can hear the jingle of a zipper.

"Maia, you need to stop." I heard Walker say, the sounds of stuff moving stopped for a moment. Then she dropped onto the bed, and sobbed.

"They actually pointed a gun at Darcy's head! Walker, they were going to kill our little girl, they kept asking for you and...for Tayla!"

I felt as if a bucket of ice-cold water fell over my head. They were looking for me and were willing to kill others to find me.

"I'm sorry, I didn't..."

"Walker, I have no problem helping those of your kind when they need you. Tayla is an amazing woman, but I really think..."

She trailed off, but I knew how she felt. If it were me, I'd be thinking the same thing.

I kept walking away toward my room, and closed the door. This had been my fear this whole time, but we were so far into this there was no going back now. I sighed and dropped on the bed, now exhausted. These people were looking for me and just being here was putting others in danger.

Eventually, I fell into a uneasy sleep and just hoped for the best.

I wasn't asleep for very long when I realized it was freezing in my room. I sat up and, to my horror, I was strapped to the close metal table, and a guy in scrubs and a face mask started to walk toward me, with a scalpel. I screamed and fought against the straps.

"Tayla, wake up!"

I opened my eyes, and found Logan holding me tightly, and I was covered in sweat. I was shaking really badly too. My eyes darted around, and my racing heart settled a little as I recognized the room. Logan loosened his hold, and just let me settle in his arms. His warmth and scent finally pushed the nightmare away.

"I was walking by when I heard you talking in your sleep, then you suddenly started to scream and writhing on the bed."

"Yeah, damn nightmares!" I said a little snappy.

"Darcy told me what happened. Maia and her want to move to a different location, but Walker feels if we move too fast, they'll know what we are."

"I get Maia, especially after what they were willing to do."

Logan looked at me, and I looked up at him. Our eyes met, and there was a moment. Just a slight moment, and it was gone. There was still heat and fire in those eyes. It took my breath away to see it, and know that that's what he felt for me. I tried to slide out of his arms but winced when I felt the pain in my leg.

"What's wrong?"

"I dislocated my leg."

He let me go and knelt by the bed. Tugging my leg toward him, his touch was light, careful, tender. Without warning, he placed his fingers around my knee, and with a sharp tug. A sharp pop later, my leg and my knee were back in place. A sigh came out of my mouth, as I fell back on the bed.

"Better?"

"Yes, much better." I said, looking up at the ceiling for a moment.

That moment seemed to come to me for once. There was just so much right in the room, but I knew that I would regret it if I didn't take it. My fear was still there, I would put all of myself into this. Would he break my heart? Something just told me that it would be a rough road, but worth it.

"Tayla?"

I looked at Logan, and knew that he loved me from that night til now. I took a deep breath, and sat up looking him right in the face. He looked at me a little curiously.

"I accept." I finally said he seemed a little lost, then realized what I meant. "Under one condition."

"I figured there would be." He said with a chuckle, but looked up at me.

"I want us to really get to know each other, before we make it official. I've heard things about the mating bond, and if something happens I don't want to be used against you."

"Dating. What about the other stuff?" he said, a little too playful. I had to smile.

"Holding each other, and stuff is fine for now. Kissing will be allowed a little while later. As for s*x, we're going old fashion, not until the official day."

"We'll just see about that, Baby doll." he challenged, kneeling on the floor between my legs. I had to laugh a little, but after a while he got up. Kissed my forehead and walked toward the door. At the door he turned to look at me, and with a big smile said,

"We'll take it slow, I'll give you that time."

"You'll be the first to know when I'm ready," I said with my own smile.

"I look forward to it," he said, and opened the door and walked out of it. Once the door closed behind him, I released the breath I had been holding. I was a goner for sure.

After a while, I got to my feet, grabbed my clothes, and headed to the showers. My mind was spinning. Wondering if I had done the right thing, what was really going to happen, and if we would really work out well. That's all I wanted.

"Trust yourself for once." I heard my wolf say.

"I'm not there yet." I replied back, finishing up and headed back to bed.