His eyes open slowly, the environment is blurred at first but his eyes soon adjust to the surroundings around him. He wonders where he is and how he ended up here but the answers seem to swirl in his head, the pieces refuse to join together to make him recall what happened. He closes his eyes again and takes a long breath in, he tries to lift his hand but it responds with numbness. His whole body ached solely, his legs were heavy and his head still hurt. The scramble across the room he’s in catches his attention, he turns slowly to see a young woman coming in with firewood.
Their eyes met and like a thunder flashing through his head, Jax recalled all that happened recently. He would have sprung to his feet if not for his numb body, his energy had been drained from fighting too much. Her face is mutilated on the left side, with a bold scar on her cheek. Her eyes depict how dangerous this woman might be, her spongy black hair is the only thing that Jax could admire. The woman looks like an assassin.
“You’re awake,” she says calmly.
He nods, wondering if he can speak or she took his voice. She looks at him strangely again, Jax squirms uncomfortably in his position. He is vulnerable to this woman if she suddenly decides to kill him.
Jax makes his first attempt to speak, “Who are you?”
She chuckles lightly, “So you can talk, huh? By the way, I’m Iris.”
“Were you the one who hit that wood on my head ?”
“Yes and I’m sorry for that, I was paranoid when I saw you for the first time,” she says.
Jax grunts in pain, “You are rogue…”
It is more of a statement than a question and she rolls her eyes.
“Do you want me to help you out or not?” she snorts rudely.
Jax gulps, “How are you going to help me? I’m sure that these woods are full of ferocious and hungry rogues.”
“You have a lot of words to describe people like me,” she mumbles.
Jax realizes instantly that he has made a mistake by saying that, he apologizes, “I’m sorry for calling you that. It’s just that we’ve been told all our lives about rogues and the stories are not good.”
“The rogues are not friendly, if they told you that in the story then it’s true. Your pack warriors infiltrated our walls and started making jest of us, that’s what led to the series of attacks,” Iris explained.
Jax cusses Eli silently for not revealing everything to him, he swears to straighten up his mistakes if he’ll ever see the light of day again. But it was strange for Iris to help him out, she is a rogue, and judging from her manner of speaking, she does not look like someone who is ever willing to help someone outside her circle.
“If the stories are true then why did you choose to help me out, Iris?”
She sighs, “You will find out when the time is right.”
Suddenly, voices are heard from afar. Iris panics and looks around frantically.
“They must have started a search party for your house to house, you must hide,” she says hurriedly. She finds a perfect dark corner to hide him.
Jax manages to get up and squat in the corner, Iris closes it up with a huge curtain. Since it is a cave, the interior is very dark and hard to see through.
“Please do not say a word,” she warns before going out to meet the rogues. Jax listens to their conversation quietly.
“Well, if it’s not Iris the freak,” they taunt her.
“Just shut up and tell me why you’re here,” she snaps.
“We are looking for a man, a bit tall with dark curly hair, he’s severely injured and might have come in here for shelter.”
Iris snickers, “And why do you think that I will help such a man? If I had seen him, he would have been dead by now. So leave…”
“Not yet, freak! we want to search your place to confirm that he is not here,” they press on.
“I have told you that he’s not here, period.”
“We must search…”
“Don’t you dare take another step or you’ll be the next dead man,” she growls.
Everyone backs away, they have known Iris to be a woman who doesn’t like to be messed with even though she is always taunted by others.
“Very well then, we shall leave. Don’t forget to raise an alarm once you see him or better more, kill him.”
They laugh hysterically as they retreat, and Iris sighs in relief. She waits patiently until she is sure that they have left before uncovering the curtain and putting Jax back on the bed.
“Won’t you thank me for saving your life again?” She asks him when he is silent for long.
“Did you mean what you said back then?”
She understands what he is asking about and sits beside him to stare into his eyes, “I meant it back then but like I told you, I saved you for a reason which you’ll find out soon enough.”
Although she is a rogue and not to be trusted, somehow Jax feels like she is telling him the truth. He relaxes his nerves and soon forgets about Iris killing him.
“You will leave by nightfall. No other person was hurt except you so your people will be able to take you back to your pack for treatment,” she informs him.
He dozes off for a while and wakes up when he perceives a salivating aroma – food. Iris brought to him a plate of hot soup and meat, he hesitates to take it at first.
“It’s not poisoned,” she snaps, she is slightly hurt that he doesn’t trust her yet.
“Thank you,” Jax finally accepts the meal.
He downs the bowl of soup and seems to get his energy back, Iris helps him to stand up and head for the escape route. Jax is relieved when the base comes into sight, Iris truly meant it when she said he would help him out.
The security beam detects intruders and raises an alarm, Iris has to leave immediately.
Jax holds her back for a moment, “Thank you for saving me, Iris.”
She nods in panic and leaves hastily then remembers to ask for his name.
“Wait! you didn’t tell me your name!” she yells.
“Jax!” he yells back, he did not even remember to add his Alpha title to his name.
Iris smiles and runs until she gets to a safe distance, she watches him as his people come out with blankets to cover him and take him inside the base. He was safe at last and she finally found her peace, tears dropping down her cheeks.
“We will certainly meet again. Jax, my mate.”