Chapter 1

SPIKY LOVE

DEEP WITHIN BURNT SIDE FOREST, MORNING HOURS.

"Mmmm" Anna moaned softly as she woke up and stretched her body on the forest floor.

Anna slowly took a study of her surroundings, the little birds were flitting noisily from tree to tree while deers walked gracefully around munching on the dew soaked grass.

Anna stood up and brushed her dress while checking her body for any bruises or insect bites.

After a short body check,

Anna began wandering farther into the forest to continue the search for her rabbits.

"Bunnies, Bunnies" Anna yelled gently into the forest as she trudged on.

"Bunnies, Bun...."

Anna came to a halt and held her chest as she saw a young man lying on the forest floor with blood on his shirt.

"Oh dear, I wonder what may have befallen this man."

Anna mused to herself as she crouched a little to feel the man's neck for a pulse.

As Anna's hands touched the man's neck, he let out a weak groan of pain and turned his head aside, still unconscious.

Anna out of fear withdrew her hand from his body and stood with arms akimbo.

"What will I do?, I can't just leave him here, in his present condition; he probably won't last another day out here"

Anna said while looking at the man all over.

After thinking deeply,

Anna shrugged and began searching for light but sturdy branches around the man.

After a few minutes of searching around,

Anna was able to get a couple of branches then she ripped off the flowing lower ends of her dress and after some effort,

Anna fashioned out a makeshift stretcher and nodded to herself in satisfaction of her work.

"Pheew, now" Anna said as she stood close to the slowly breathing man on the forest floor.

"Time to lift you outta here to someplace safer and get you cleaned up"

Anna said while she crouched down and began lifting the man onto the stretcher.

"Ughhh" Anna groaned in exertion of physical strength and she strained to lift the unconscious young man onto the stretcher.

"Whoa, Stefan's spirit! You must weigh like a ton"

Anna joked to the sleeping man as she set him on the stretcher and grabbed the front facing handle and began dragging it along with her on the forest floor.

"Ughhh" the injured man groaned painfully on the stretcher as he shook on it due to the uneven nature of the forest floor while Anna pulled him along.

"Shhh, don't stress yourself. We're almost there.

I'll get you cleaned and patched up in no time" Anna whispered to the man as she dragged the stretcher along hurriedly towards the North Eastern part of Burnt Side Forest.

After some time,

Anna heard the sound of rushing water and birds chirping as she approached Burnt Side's North Eastern edge.

Anna along with the stretcher and the wounded man on it finally broke into a large clearing in the forest.

Surrounded by trees which little monkeys also swung agily from, a transparent stream flowed within the clearing with fish leaping in it whilst swimming by.

Some birds of prey like the kingfisher occasionally swooped down to the stream and picked up a fish or two

and flew back up into the surrounding trees to feast on it's bounty.

Anna paid little attention to all these natural happenings as she drew the stretcher and laid it a couple of paces away from the stream.

Anna, upon setting the stretcher down, rushed down to the edge of the river and searched for anything that could hold water.

After a few seconds of looking around,

Anna finally set her eyes on a discarded coconut shell and picked it up.

She then rushed down to the stream's edge and dipped her arms elbow length into the calmly rushing stream.

"Mmmm" Anna moaned softly as the coolness of the water permeated her arms.

She then began washing her arms and face and after she was done,

Anna took the coconut shell and filled it up with water and ran back to the wounded man she had laid out on the floor.

Anna hurried up to the man and knelt beside him, raised his head with one hand while she gently brought the dripping coconut shell to his blood crusted lips.

"Hack, hack, hack" the man coughed as Anna gently nudged him on to continue drinking from the coconut shell.

After the shell got empty, Anna gently laid the wounded man gently on the floor and hastened back to the stream to get water again.

After she got the water, Anna hurried back to the man on the forest floor and gently removed his tattered shirt from his body, soaked it in water and then proceeded to use it to swipe the grime and filth from his body.

After a few minutes of scrubbing off the blood and dirt from the man's face,

Anna turned the man unto his side and flinched when she saw the stab wound on his back.

"Ughhh" the man moaned in pain as Anna treated his wound with natural herbs she had found growing along the banks of the stream.

Anna fashioned out a very long thread from the injured man's shirt, broke a piece of iron from his shirt button to substitute for a needle and used it to sew up the man's wounds.

The man shaked a couple of times but managed to stay still as Anna rounded up the sewing and used a piece of cloth to tie the sown area lightly.

The wounded man then drifted into a deep sleep.

Anna, as exhausted as she could possibly be at this point, dragged herself to the side of the stream, took off her clothes and walked into the cool waters of the stream to wash up.

Anna dove into the deeper part of the stream and swam below its surface for a while and came up to wash properly.

During her wash up, Anna who had her back towards the bank of the river

immediately felt someone's eyes on her and lowered the exposed upper half of her body into the stream as she turned to look at the figure that stood gazing at her.

Anna beheld the most handsome and muscular man she had ever set her eyes on standing with his right hand clinging protectively to his left arm as he swayed slightly from loss of blood.

"... you're awake" Anna said warily to the man standing half naked upon the edge of the stream.

"Yes, I'm awake.

Who are you and what do you want?" The man questioned Anna.

"My name is Anna and I was walking through the forest when I saw you lying on the forest floor bleeding out." Anna said while her hair floated all around her.

".....I brought you here to treat your wounds and wash you up" Anna whispered to the man standing before her.

The man looked at Anna for a moment and then turned back and began walking back to the spot he had been lying down on.

"You can at least tell me your name stranger" Anna yelled from the stream.

"Lucian....my name is Lucian The Bold, Alpha Wolf and Lord of Werekult" the man said to Anna as he sat down on the forest floor.

Anna gasped and gulped a bit of saliva as she tried to gain confidence to talk back to Lucian.

"You're a werewolf" Anna said in barely a whisper.

"Yes I'm a werewolf...an Alpha Wolf to be precise"

Lucian said to Anna as his eyes were fixated on Anna's naked back.

"My books usually say that you're kind and are very powerful.

So who would dare attack you from behind like that?" Anna questioned Lucian.

Lucian opened his mouth to speak then stopped himself.

He turned his head sideways and lifted his right arm to touch his already healing wound.

"Someone I trusted, someone I respected... that's the someone that did this to me" Lucian answered Anna coldly.

"I'm sorry about that, Lucian" Anna said apologetically.

"No need for apologies, he will pay for his treacherous act" Lucian said with a straight face.

"Very well then, you should be on your way"

Anna said to Lucian as she focused on getting herself cleaned up.

Before Anna's senses could register a splash in the waters around her,

Lucian ran in and spun Anna around with her breasts facing him.

Anna tried squirming away from Lucian's hold but his grip was vice like.

Lucian got so close to Anna that his nose was almost touching hers.

"Wash up quickly fair maiden... you're coming with me" Lucian said to Anna while he smiled slyly and bared his fangs a bit.