Guardian - 5. Chapter 5

Raoul shot awake as a scream echoed through the sky straight to his ears. ‘Gabriel!’ He cried in a barking howl as he stood quickly, stumbling when the blood rushed to his head from the quick bolt. He ran straight to where he saw the male holding his human and snarled loudly. Gabriel’s eyes went wide, seeing his friend leap at them both, the wolf’s jaws locking on the man’s shoulder and with a cry, he let the teen go. Gabriel, in a panic was also happy that Raoul had found him as he ran and skidded to a stop.

“Raoul!” The wolf only shared a glance when before the human’s eyes he watched the other man morph into a wolf and he felt something spray him. The smell told him what it was and a sharp yelp made the teen turn and run. Out from around the corner bolted the first man and he saw the guardian holding his companion off.

“Kill the guardian! I’ll get the Jarkla!” Raoul snarled and jumped to grab the other male’s leg, not wanting either one of them to get near his boy. But the feel of sharp fangs cutting into his flank caused him to cry out in pain, the morph coming quick as his hands grabbed the scruff of the wolf and slammed him down on the ground. Like Raoul, he quickly morphed after whimpering, his shoulder making a popping sound. His clawed hand reached and grabbed Raoul’s hair, their snarls still very vocal as they fought. Meanwhile the other was running after Gabriel, quite surprised the teen could even run so fast for such a long distance.

Gabriel’s lungs burned and cried for more oxygen as he bolted down the streets in his sneakers and pajama slacks. His calves burned and it felt as if he hadn’t run in years because it was true; Gabriel hadn’t done track in two years and the sudden burst of adrenaline made his track days come back to life. He was always considered the endurance runner and even the sprinter on the 100 meter. But right now the purpose of running wasn’t to win. It was to get away. He could hear the echoing paces behind him of the man catching up to him. Panic fueled his muscles and he pushed himself harder. Instinct told him to just continue running, but his body was tiring and fast. Not exactly watching on where he was going, he gave a yelping cry as he hit a pot hole, feeling the sudden dip of his body he lost his footing and fumbled. He lifted his arms to avoid scratching his face, wincing and giving a soft cry when he landed with a sliding thud. He sat up, staring at his arms that held scrapes, the blood flowing from his cut skin. He gave a painful whimper through his lips and another gasping scream when arms grabbed his shoulder. It was the same man who had grabbed him earlier but something caught his eyes when worry and concern filled the iris pools of the adult’s eyes.

“Shit..shit…are you ok?” The next thing he saw was the male stripping off his shirt and tearing it to shreds to wrap around Gabriel’s cut arms. “Look I didn’t mean to scare you alright? We were sent by our Alpha to find you and bring you to our pack.” Gabriel, his breath hard, his heart beating in his ears, watched him wrap his scraped arms. “Please don’t run alright? It makes things easier if you just come with us.” Gabriel’s breath was still catching up but he stared at him.

“I have no idea who you are, and you scared the fuck out of me. And obviously you want my wolf dead. So I think I’ll just have to fight against you at the moment.” Still winded, it took a bit to actually say the full explanation that despite the fact he was caught, he would run when he had the chance, every chance.. The adult only frowned.

“Fine…” He gave a grunt and grabbed Gabriel, manhandling the smaller teen as he tried to fight against him. Getting slightly frustrated with the Jarkla, he used the rest of his shirt straps to bind Gabriel’s hands behind his back. “I really hate doing this to you.” Gabriel fought slightly, wincing at the scrapes on his arms.

“Then don’t.” The man gave a soft growl to the teen’s answer.

“I have no choice.” He heard the Jarkla snort, surprised that he wasn’t screaming yet.

Raoul slammed the other male into the wall of the building, snarling and trying to bolt after his boy. In mid morphing jump, he was tackled again by the other wolf. He felt the fangs break through his skin on his neck, the strength alone busting the buckle on the collar around his neck. He gave a yelp as the wolf, slightly bigger than he was, lifted Raoul off the ground and tossed him like a rag doll. The way Raoul hit the side of the building made a gasping crack and suddenly he was still. Not knowing if he was dead or not, the other wolf morphed back, his naked body of no concern as he went to catch up with his companion. Raoul lay unconscious, the hit knocking the wind out of him and the crack of his spine causing his world to go completely black. His collar was off and laying a few feet away. Landing near him, with a slight pain in his wing, the sparrow saw the guardian and feared for the worst. He took off, searching for the same strays that helped him earlier. They were swift to comply with the sparrow. Several cats were already lying with the unconscious body of the guardian, laying and sharing their energy with him. The dogs too moved to lie around him. Their heads rested and eyes drooped. For the rest of the night they shared their energy with him. Sparrow perched himself above, watching over the huddle of strays around the werewolf.

Outside the city, the man waited with Gabriel who was now gagged after screaming when he took one step from where he had fallen. Gabriel was pissed and he knew why. First, it was probably his adrenaline rush. Something inside told him that once it was over he’d be cowering like a puppy that was being beaten. But his soul had lifted when he saw Raoul. His friend had found him, but now, despite his jumbled thoughts, he was worried. When he saw the other male who grabbed him, he felt his pounding heart drop from his chest to his stomach. And then he blushed. Hard. The man was naked and Gabriel’s eyes were quick to look away but he really did want to see, that was until his eyes were covered and the two began to talk.

“Is he dead?”

“I think so. I don’t know. He wasn’t moving so I just left.” Gabriel heard the other growl.

“You were supposed to kill the guardian.” The other one was panting; he could hear it from his heavy breaths.

“Who cares, once we get to our territory he won’t be able to find the Jarkla. Let’s head back…and... Why did you gag him?” He heard the one who held him sigh.

“He started screaming.”

“What happened to his arms?”

“He fell.” Gabriel gave a scoffing noise behind the gag. No shit he fell. The two were quiet and with his eyes being covered he had no idea what was really going on. When his eyes were uncovered he didn’t have much time to react as the gag was untied and Gabriel was happy to have function of his mouth back. Slightly grunting he just slumped when they wrapped it around his eyes.

“What the hell,” he said and received a flick on the ear, flinching away from it.

“Don’t talk. And don’t scream either. It’s not like anyone could hear you anyways if you did.” Gabriel again gave a huff as he was lifted and pretty much tossed over one of their shoulders. Great, now he felt like a sack of potatoes.

Gabriel had fallen asleep purely due to the fact he was exhausted from the nights activities. He awoke with a start however when his legs were planted. Stumbling a little he felt the hands holding him up. He heard hushed voices and soft cheers as his eyes were uncovered and since it was still night time, his eyes had little trouble adjusting. All around him were other people, girls, boys, ladies and men. Some were naked and his cheeks quickly flushed. His eyes however went straight to the largest man he’d ever seen. His wide blue eyes watched as he made his way toward them and Gabriel was completely dwarfed by the man. His small height of five foot six only reached to the man’s upper abdomen.

“Holy crap it’s Goliath.” He muttered and those who were close gave soft chuckles and giggles. The man looked down at him and raised a brow.

“This is him? Completely tiny.” Gabriel’s cheeks flushed darker.

“Hey, you’re just extremely huge. How do you even fit in clothes?” Gabriel found himself saying and suddenly his voice was caught in his throat and he planted his back against the man behind him when the big guy bent down to stare him right in the eyes.

“And spunky.”

“No...not spunky…” He muttered to the adult. He felt the breath of the man’s snort and was glad that it was just that. Breath. Breath that made his whole body tense up.

“Unbind him and bring him inside.”

“Alpha…he was hurt when he tried running.” Gabriel never really knew what fear was until he saw the look on the ‘alpha’s’ face. He felt as if his heart absolutely froze. The sheer fury in the man’s eyes made Gabriel want to crawl in a hole and disappear. He gasped and went still, the large hand on his shoulder as he was quickly unbound and his arms assessed. The next thing he knew he was being hauled into the abandoned barn they occupied. He gave a whimper as he was picked up and carried up to the highest part of the barn and then promptly dropped on a makeshift hay bed full of furs.

“Someone get the healer now before I decide to take it out on the fools who let the Jarkla get hurt!” Gabriel scooted away and sank into the fur, no such luck on staying far away from the man as possible however. He joined him, the bed perfectly capable of fitting them both quite comfortably. Gabriel gave a yip again when the man possessively held him. He wanted to get away but when he tried he was just held more firmly. “Don’t move.” He heard the man say, his breath on his neck and chills crawled down his spine. Gabriel had stilled but held a look of annoyance, his lips frowned and his brows creased. He was tempted to even mutter but refrained from it. He heard the creaking planks and watched a woman walk up to the make-shift bed. First thing he noticed was that she was naked and when she knelt her breast were in plain view. He gave a squeak but in an attempt to cover his eyes, his arms were taken by the male behind him and held forward. He kept his eyes closed and felt her soft hands attending his scrapes. When he dared to open his eyes, he didn’t even really see her because his eyes focused on her hands working with herbs and plant leaves that she wrapped around his cuts. He was actually fascinated with it and watched her closely. When she finished she bowed her head and a sounding growl from behind him made her scurry. He frowned a little and dared to look back. He didn’t get far in turning his head when the large callused hands holding him began to groom his hair. ‘Awkward’ Gabriel sang in his head. He did it for a bit longer but Gabriel continued to stay tense in the man’s lap.

Orion loved the feel of Gabriel’s hair and at first glance knew he was in fact the Jarkla. He was tiny, petite even for his age. And what caught the wolf off guard was his spunky comment. Of course that completely vanished when Orion had leaned down to really look at him. The boy obviously showed him fear and he could practically lick it from the air when he yelled at his subordinates and stared at them in fury with the news that the Jarkla had been hurt. But it didn’t worry him now. The Jarkla would be safe with him, and never leave his side. Now he just needed to get the boy to accept him, but it was proving to be difficult. The teen would not relax. Even the 10 to 20 minutes of petting and coaxing him to relax did nothing. Orion figured he was just stubborn. Knowing he would have to tell his pack what would happen now that the Jarkla was here, he finally picked up the boy and moved him out of his lap. He saw the furious yet confused expression on his soft face and smiled at the bright eyes that stared at him. Soon, when the bond would be complete those eyes would turn a bright lavender color.

“I’ll be right back. Food will be brought to you shortly, do not leave this area,” he said, in a slight authoritative voice. It was rare he spoke so calmly and nicely but this was the Jarkla, and he had to be on his best behavior to get him comfortable before he could start corrupting him. He got out of the bed and left the top canopy, heading down the ladder. To make sure the Jarkla didn’t get any ideas, he removed the ladder and placed it on the ground. Moving away he walked out of the barn and the others followed, leaving the boy alone in the building besides a babysitter and some pups.

Gabriel sat there after he left and slumped more when he noticed the top of the ladder disappearing. ‘Damn’ he thought, jumping out of the bed and going to the edge of the level where it fell off. He laid on his stomach and glanced down at the woman who sat with a bunch of children. He watched them interact until all their heads turned up and looked at him. It was all in sequence and it freaked him out to say the least. He moved away from the edge and out of their view. He explored the area given to him and noticed the make-shift bed of furs and hay took up most of the area. He kind of figured that since ‘Goliath’ was the one that occupied the bed usually. Alpha. That’s what they called him. He remembered watching one of his captors transforming into a wolf and though he didn’t watch much TV, he read a lot of books. Shifters, werewolves, were-creatures. Glancing at his arms he noticed the leaves were pretty secured but he still was careful, moving around until he noticed a small window that didn’t have any glass. Walking over to it, he stared at it for a bit then glanced around to see what he could use since he was obviously too short. Not knowing he actually stuck his tongue out as he assessed a plan, he decided to use as much strength as he could muster to move the bales of hay. Of course he had no idea how heavy they actually where and got frustrated when he couldn’t move one. Giving a rather upset huff, he stretched his arms a bit then tried again.

It took him fifteen minutes to finally use his head and get behind the bales to use his shoulder and leg muscles to move the bales to the window. Happy that he got one moved, he climbed up and peeked out. The vast fields that he saw with a forest line far in the horizon just told him that he was somewhere deep in a rural area. He didn’t see anything else besides the landscape. He did however hear a deep ‘ahem’ and froze, his shoulders going up and tensing. Crap. He heard the soft tapping of the bare foot on the wood and turned his head slowly to see Goliath staring at him with narrowed eyes, holding a wooden bowl with food in it. He saw the tapping foot and so quickly he bounded down and jumped in the bed like it hadn’t even happened. He gave a nervous laugh, straining his eyes to even look at the man.

“I told you not to move.” Gabriel heard him say between gritted teeth. He cowered in the bed, not really knowing what to say. His eyes not looking at him, he heard a grunted sigh and he saw the bowl given to him baring fruits and some jerky. Gabriel took it slowly, placing it in his lap. Staring at it his stomach did give a knotting feeling. When he looked up he felt his body jump. Goliath wasn’t a man anymore, but a huge dark grey wolf. His bright amber eyes stared at him and the streaks of silver made a beautiful pattern around his face. He stepped in the bed and curled himself around the teen and Gabriel, thinking his fur would be coarse, was surprised when he felt it against his arm. It was soft as can be and he even found himself leaning back on him. Not being able to help making the comment, Gabriel spoke.

“I like you better as a wolf…” He received a snorting chuckle, or at least what sounded like one. Gabriel decided that he would have to wait until he gained the trust of this guy before he’d be out of his sight. He grabbed a piece of jerky and took a bite. Whatever the wait, it was going to be a long one.