4.
“The Yulli pack?” questioned Xander, a confused expression on his face. Seeing everyone else wearing mirror expressions Buffy hastened to elaborate.
“You probably haven’t heard of us, we live a long way away from here. I’ve been running for a few days.” Taking another deep breathe she continued on. “Well, the two boys who attacked me tonight are pretty well known where I’m from. Their the sons of the leader of the Triven pack, Parker and Riley. Have you heard of them?”
Seeing everyone around her shaking their heads, she continued on.
“Well, there’s basically been conflict between the three of us for about seven years now. We-we met at a banquet about seven years ago and they asked about arranging a marriage between me and one of them, but my parents refused them. Well, I-I guess they didn’t want to take n-no for an answer because they wouldn’t leave me alone. They kept trying to see me a-and they started to harr-harass me.”
At this point Buffy was unable to continue and looked helplessly down at her feet, her eyes welling with unshed tears. Over her childhood her entire pack had been so supportive of her, always looking after her and protecting her. Even so, the ever looming presence of her stalkers had at times dampened her spirits, and they were the reason for her current predicament. She was among strangers in a foreign land, tired and injured, and they were still out there, searching for her.
Jenny, upon seeing the emotions coursing through Buffy, decided to step in and end the conversation, at least for now.
“Okay, it’s okay sweetie,” murmured Jenny as she stepped forward, rubbing the young girl’s back gently just as one tear escaped from her eye and rolled down her cheek, staining her already dirty face. “It’s getting to be pretty late and I’m sure that you’re just exhausted after the ordeal that you’ve been through.” Looking up, Buffy smiled tearfully at her savior.
“Now, off to bed for all of.” Standing up and planting her hands firmly on her hips, Jenny stared down the teenage portion of her pack.
“Mommmm!” whined Faith, rolling her eyes. “I think that we’re a little to old to be having a bedtime.”
“Yeah,” grinned Spike, rubbing one of his hands across Faith’s belly. “This ‘eres so much more exciting then sleepin’.”
“Come on guys!” interjected Willow. “It’s well past midnight and I’m sure that Buffy will still be here in the morning.”
Smiling at her hopefully new friend, Willow continued. “All of us girls are heading off to bed, so we’ll see you in the morning. It was really nice to meet you Buffy.”
With that she hopped off the couch and proceed to drag both Faith and Cordelia out the door, followed by an amused and willing Fred. Seeing that all of the girls had left, the boys stood up and decided to follow suit, heading of to their bedrooms which were located in various areas of the numerous caves that made up their home. Murmuring their goodbyes to both Buffy and their pack leader and his mate they exited after the four girls. Upon reaching the door Angel paused for a moment to turn back to Buffy, glancing at her for a few seconds and then proceeding out. This left only three people in the room.
“Well, our guest rooms aren’t much but at the moment we don’t have anything else to offer you,” declared Giles, shrugging apologetically and breaking through the previous silence.
“Oh really, I don’t want to intrude…” began Buffy, only to be immediately cut off by Jenny.
“Oh come on! You’re clearly in no shape to be leaving tonight and you are in no way putting us out. We would love to have you stay with us, for as long as you want. Anyways, Angel and his friends seem to be quite taken with you already.” She added this part with a bit of a teasing smile.
“Angel?” asked Buffy with a confused expression.
“My son, the one who found you. He and his sister, Faith, are my only two children,” provided Jenny lightly.
“Oh, okay.”
Deciding that it couldn’t hurt to stay here for a while, just to regain her strength, Buffy offered and sincere smile of gratitude and nodded her head gently, adding a small statement of agreement to their plans.
“Great! Oh, by the way, I’m Jenny, and this is mate, Giles.”
“It’s really nice to meet you,” replied Buffy.
Getting up, moving forward, Giles brushed a quick kiss against his mate’s lips and then moved towards the door.
“Well, why don’t I leave you two so that Jenny can show you your room Buffy. It’s a pleasure to have you here Buffy. I’ll see the both of you in the morning.”
With that he was gone and Jenny was up and on her feet, beckoning to her newest guest to follow her down the hallway, supposedly to where the guest room were. Carefully easing her body up and off of the couch, Buffy followed her at a cautious pace, all the while being mindful of her newfound injuries. As she passed various rooms she would chance a glance inside of the ones that were open, and what she saw astounded her. Each room was decorated with rich, beautiful colors and had a warm, welcoming air about them. Her pack had lived in a system of permanent tents situated between the trees, and her current surrounding were a bit new to her.
Looking back behind her shoulder, Jenny grinned upon seeing Buffy’s wide-eyed expression, starring open-mouthed at all of the rooms they passed. Coming to the end of a short hallway right off the main one, she stopped and gently turned the door knob, allowing it to swing open, revealing the room within. It was fairly small with a minimal amount of decorations, but that didn’t matter as the only thing that Buffy saw was the medium-sized, welcoming bed situated against the side of the room. She suddenly felt just how tired she was and could feel all the muscles in her body just screaming out for rest.
“Sorry about the room, but our usual guest rooms are under some construction right now. They got a little water damage after the big storm we had last month and this is the best we’ve been able to put together so far. Anyways, I hope it’s okay.” Jenny could tell how tired the young blond was and couldn’t help but smile at the way Buffy was eyeing the room.
“Oh no! It’s great, really,” assured Buffy. “Thank you, it’s really great.”
“I’m glad that it will work for you for now. Well, I can tell your tired so I’ll just leave you to go to bed. If your hungry when you wake up just come on down to the kitchen, it’s right down the main hallway to your right,” she gestured with her hand back the way they had come. “I’ll see you in the morning. Good night.”
“Good night,” Buffy replied as Jenny retreated down the hallway and then once again focused her attention on the bed.
Slowly entering the room, she glanced around once more before rushing to the bed and gently lowering her body down onto it. It had been several days since she had slept in a bed, or slept at all for that matter, as she had been running through the woods. The last thought that passed through her head before drifting off to sleep was how easy it would be to drown in Angel’s soulful eyes.
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