The Forest

Chapter Four

Willow's POV:

So, stupidly I stand up. The wolves don't notice, but the man does. Shock is evident on his face, I guess he didn't expect a young girl to be here.

I walk closer, the bushes rustling in my wake.

"Willow no!" 

I turn around and see Jasper running towards me.

"Jasper I need to stop them, they haven't even-"

"Hello, hello, hello."

Crap

I turn around, all three wolves are standing infront of me, grinning manically. One of them has blood dripping from his mouth, gross.

Jasper whimpers, hiding behind my legs. There goes my backup. 

"Hi there," I say cheerily gripping my knife harder. 

Two wolves tilt their heads in confusion, the 'leader' isn't fooled. 

"Sooo, what's going on?" I ask, keeping my oblivious/cheerful facade on.

The young man is slowly drooping his head, close to unconciousness.

"Well, Willow-"

"How do you know me?" I ask wearily.

"That's not important, now, what are you doing here? Surely you didn't just stumble across us."

Crap, "wellll, ya see....It's a funny story actually--"

Suddenly the smaller wolf lunges towards me, I quickly jump out of the way. Thrusting my knife outwards, stabbing his back leg. The wolf stumbles, standing back up and growling in annoyance.

I tense, unsure of what to do next. The tension in the air is thick, uncertainty from both sides. 

Luckily a howl pierces the air, the howl of the Alpha. Thank God, realisation dawns on the wolves' faces. 

Jasper who had sprinted off, returns. Followed by the Alpha Pack. 

The pack itself was quite large. The Alpha and Luna were supported by 30 odd wolves, all dedicated to protecting the forest. 

The Alpha leaps forward to stand infront of me.

"Willow," he growls, "get the boy somewhere safe. Some of my pack will help you."

"O-Okay, what about you?" I ask, inching around the cowering rogues.

The Alpha doesn't reply, preoccupied with the leader of the rogues, 'The Ultimate Stare Down.'

Some other wolves are circiling the remaining rogues, so I'm able to jog to the willow tree. 

The man is now laying down, his eyes are closed and he's shivering. I kneel down beside his head and check his pulse. It's faint, surprisingly he managed to stay alive. Even from all his blood loss.

"Jasper, can you go get our sleigh? Take some wolves with you, to help pull it."

Jasper nods and runs away, followed by two warrior wolves. I stand up and run to the man's backpack, zipping it open.

Okay; a waterbottle (half full), some food (an apple, sandwhich and a brown squared rectangle half wrapped in silver paper), extra clothes and a small first aid kit). 

I grab a jacket and the first aid kit (obviously) and run back over to him. I thoroughly wipe the blood from his injured leg and thread a needle. Stitches will be the best thing to do right now, I'll have to coat his leg in a herb mixture when I get back to the cave. 

After tightly bandaging his now stitched up leg, I assess his torso, there is one prominant clawmark, running from his shoulder to his stomach. Also some small scrapes, that aren't deep. Hopefully these remaining bandages are enough to cover up the main claw mark on his chest. 

My instincts kick in for the next 20 minutes, I soak up the remaining blood, clean up the cuts and bandage his chest. Luckily there are enough bandages to cover it up completely. 

By the time I've done what I can for now, Jasper has returned with the sleigh. Also the Alpha has injured the lead rouge and killed the other two. 

I manage to lay the man onto the sleigh and with the help of the wolves, drag him over to the others. I avoid looking at the dead wolves, their dark red blood soaking the white snow around them. 

"Thank you for helping Alpha, I greatly appreciate it." I say bowing lightly.

He returns the gesture, "of course. Now two of my pack will escort you to the bear cave. While the rest of us go back to our territory. My mate will be worried." He explains, growling impatiently.

"How is she?"

"She is fine. We are expecting...pups."

I squeal excitedly, the Alpha grins.

"Oh my gosh! Congratulations!"

I want to hug him but his front is covered in blood. Plus I need to be respectful, as he is an Alpha. 

"Thank you Willow. I will make arrangements for you to visit once they're born. Now you must go, heal that young man and lay low for awhile. Darius will understand if you don't visit him, as I sent Thomas to let him know."

"Thank you."