Just as I’m about to go and find Jasmine I see her and Wulf making their way towards me.

“No Angel. I don’t want you to do it, just leave it alone.” It seems like they are disagreeing about something, I don’t know if I should wait for Jasmine or leave.

“Wulf!”

“No Angel!” he growls. “I don’t want you to have to do that. I don’t want you or our baby under any distress. Now I must go, I will see you later okay? Take care.” He pulls her towards him kissing her lips gently, then the cutest thing he bends down and kisses her stomach stroking it with his hand. “Take care of your Momma while I’m gone.” Then he turns towards me.

“Hey Gabriela!” I smile as he walks past. I make my way towards Jasmine as she’s now standing in the middle of the courtyard with her arms crossed frowning after Wulf.

“What’s up?” I can see even though Wulf was gentle and caring when he left she’s still upset.

“That man is so stubborn, he thinks I’m made of glass. Remember you told me about the experiment Celmund is conducting? Well I want to participate, but guess what?” she is tapping her foot while she relates what their disagreement is about. “He says he doesn’t want me to go into a trance if I can help it, because it distresses me and the baby.”

“He’s just worried Sweetheart.”

“I know, and I love him for it. But this is important for everyone, he can’t only be thinking of me,” she answers, stroking her stomach in her agitation.

“Well maybe Celmund can do the testing on you when you aren’t in a trance. Leave the one with the trance for when you actually get one, even if it takes a month or two.” I propose, trying to appease her.

“I tried. He said no. That he treasured his life and that he would only do it if Wulf agreed.” She states looking at me in dejection.

“Would you like me to ask Bjarni to talk to him? Maybe he will be able to appease his worries,” I suggest, hugging her.

“Would you?”

“Of course, now how about we forget about this and you go show me the spring Bjarni was talking about,” I ask, seeing a slight smile adorn her face. She nods taking my hand she starts walking towards a corridor I haven’t been through before.

When we get to the spring I can’t believe how beautiful it looks. There is light coming in from the top that is the same as the men have throughout the compound, but the water also shines on the walls, giving the whole place a fantasy feeling. 

“Wow, how had I not heard about the spring before? It’s beautiful, I could spend my day here.” I love water, when I lived by the ocean, I would take any opportunity to go into the water. “Do you come here often?”

“I come to the spring every day. Bion says that the baby will be a water bender, therefore I need to surround myself with as much water as possible. For the last month Wulf has started to bring me here twice a day. You will love it; the water is so nice and warm.”

I start to pull off my dress. I know Bjarni had said that I must wait for him but what can possibly happen, besides, Jasmine is with me. “What are you doing?” She stops me from undressing by placing her hand over one of mine.

“Don’t worry, I’m taking off my dress but I’m keeping my underwear on, just in case one of the guys shows up. Besides I’m a great swimmer.”

“You can’t go in there without someone to help you, the spring is really deep and the sides are slippery.  Usually Wulf helps me in and then pulls me out. We are both too short to reach the bottom and I wouldn’t be able to pull you out.” Damn! I can hear the concern in her voice. I was really looking forward to a swim now.

“I think we need to suggest to the guys that they make stairs for us to get in and out!” I grumble, letting my dress fall back into place. Jasmine giggles now that I have given up on my swim.

“If you want to get into trouble I can show you another spot that is just as beautiful, but it’s outside.” At her twinkling eyes, I start to laugh.

“Lead the way”

We make our way outside through the bar area, Gunner is sitting on one of the couches but Tina and Lidia are all over him so he doesn’t see us leave. There’s a guy from one of the other chapters who had stayed behind after the party, because he has some business to attend to in the area, and will be staying with us for a few days. He’s sitting at the bar drinking a beer and talking to Gloria as we walk past. I see him look around at us but he continues his conversation with Gloria.

“Well that was easy enough. I was sure we would run into Sven or Gunner and they would stop us.” Jasmine’s walking towards the trees dragging me behind her as she talks. We walk for a few minutes when I start to hear the noise of running water. We break through the trees into a beautiful field with different coloured daisies and a stream. Bending down I pick a few daisies as we near the stream.

“This is amazing, I love it here. Thank you for bringing me.” I hug Jasmine in appreciation for the gift that she has given me, the knowledge that at any time I can walk out of the compound and make my way here; to be surrounded by this beauty is heart-warming.

“I wish I could come here more often, but unless I’m with one of the guys I’m not supposed to leave the compound. You will find that these men can be extremely possessive, so the idea of me spending time with any of the other guys doesn’t sit well with Wulf. He does always try to walk with me outside everyday though, and if he isn’t able to he asks someone to come with me.”

“With you it’s understandable as you’re pregnant and can’t really be running around the countryside,” I tease, knowing that even though we don’t have any of the guys with us, Celmund is probably watching us on his cameras.

“Do your men know you are out here by yourselves?” I jump at the rumbly voice behind us. Turning I see it’s the guy from the other chapter. Damn, we’ve been busted.

“Are you following us?” At his quirked eyebrow I know I’m not going to get away with not answering him. “What is it to you anyway?” I ask, I know I’m being rude but it’s freaky having someone following you that you hardly know.

“Well for one if you were my woman I would expect my brothers to protect you, when they know you are up to something you shouldn’t be doing.” I am standing right in front of him as he answers, my head reaching just under his chin. All these freaky Elemental men are all giants, intimidating us with their impressive presence. This one is looking down at me as if I’m a child. Jasmine moves next to me bumping my arm which makes me drop the daisies I had collected. Bending down I start to pick them up as I want to arrange them in the kitchen.

“Get down!” I hear him scream as he pushes me further down onto the ground, I see Jasmine fall on her ass. The bastard must have pushed her. I’m about to start screaming at him when I realise he has fallen back, with a wide red spot spreading on his chest. I hear a bang and become conscious that someone is shooting at us.

“Jasmine?” Looking around at her I see her lying on the ground in a tight ball. Shock written all over her face.

“Someone is shooting at us,” she whispers as if the person is going to hear her. “Is he dead?” she asks now starting to sound more hysterical. Damn! We need to get out of here, but what if he shoots as we get up. Looking over at the guy that had been trying to help us, I see his chest moving but the bloodstain on his chest is growing. If we didn’t help him soon he was going to bleed out.

I start to try and get closer to him when I hear another shot that whizzes right past my head, embedding itself in a tree that’s a few meters away, breaking away half of the bark. Jasmine screams at the shot and to be honest I feel like screaming too. I can’t move while whoever it is, is trying to kill us.

Then I feel the floor tremble as if we are having an earthquake. “Damn, that’s all we need as if someone shooting at us isn’t enough!”  

“It’s Wulf, he’s coming!” Jasmine states tears streaming down her cheeks. Wow I know that they can bend the element of earth and I thought they could lift a bit of sand into the air or something. I’m astounded if they can do that. 

“We need to help him, he’s bleeding out. I don’t know how long the guys will take to find us but he needs our help now.” I can see his breathing is now shallow; his colouring pale. I start to slither towards him, I feel the ground scrape my elbows and knees as I push myself forward. When I’m in line with his chest another shot rings out, this one embeds itself in the ground a few meters away from where we are lying.

Placing my hand over his chest I press down to try stop the bleeding, when I hear Bjarni shouting my name. The ground is still shaking periodically, I wish they would stop. It’s difficult enough putting pressure on his wound on stable ground; nearly impossible when it’s moving. Just then I hear movement coming from where we had come. Looking over I see Wulf and Bjarni breaking through the line of trees.

“Stop! You’re going to get shot!” I scream so they can hear me, but they not slowing down. Just then I see the rest of the guys, but instead of running towards us they are headed towards Wulf and Bjarni. Draco throws himself against Wulf bringing him down and then Caelius is there helping him. Bjarni gets further but Cassius, Ceric and Burkhart are there holding him down. Damn! My man is strong, he is pushing against all of them still making his way towards me.

“Stop! They are going to shoot you!” I call just as another shot rings out going into a tree opposite where the men are. They are still in the copse of trees so I don’t think the shooter can see them yet.

“Jasmine,” I hear Wulf call in a distressed voice. Looking behind me, I see she is still in her little ball, the tears still running down her cheeks but she doesn’t seem as distressed.

“I’m fine!” she calls out to him her, voice choked. Looking around I try to see where the bullets are coming from. All I can see is the field surrounded by trees. In the distance, I can see another mountain but that’s quite a distance away. I don’t know where he could be hiding, therefore it’s difficult for me to know how to move around, but I need to get up and put more pressure on his chest. The pressure I am placing now isn’t enough, as I’m lying next to him.

Looking back at the men I see Bion and Celmund have joined them. Bjarni is bent over, his hands on his knees, his head thrown back and his eyes watching me. I can see Celmund has his hand on his shoulder and must be trying to calm him. I relax a fraction. For now he’s not going to try to run towards me.

“Bion, he’s been shot. He’s losing too much blood, what must I do?” I call out, hoping that he’ll be able to just take over from me. I know when all of this is over I’m going to fall apart, that is what I usually do but for now, I need to stay focused.

“Where exactly has he been shot?” Bion asks.

“To the left of his chest, but his breathing is very shallow. And there is blood everywhere!” His blood loss was worrying me.

“You need to put pressure on his chest, Sweetheart.” I guessed that I would have to do something as the pressure I was placing wasn’t enough. Lifting slowly from my position until I was kneeling besides him, I place both my hands on his chest pushing down. Just as I start flattening my body against his, another shot rings out hitting the ground right in front of me.

“Motherfucker!” I hear Bjarni’s roar. Glancing back I see them holding him back again. “Stay down!” he growls. I feel the wind starting to pick up; that’s a good thing, isn’t it? I’m sure I heard somewhere that if the wind is strong enough the shooter has a higher probability of missing.

Glancing back again I see Caelius, Celmund and Draco with their hands up in the air moving their arms in a circular anti clock wise direction. If I wasn’t practically lying on top of someone, trying to save their lives I would be gawking at them right now. I realise that even though I’m in more danger then I have ever been in my life, the knowledge of having these men in my life reassures me. 

I am now a part of this club, and I know that to them and now to me I’m a part of a family.