Got my claws in you

Chapter 76- and even when I'm yours...

HOBI POV:

"How's (Y/N) doing?"

"Fine..." my answer unconsciously guarded and protective, eyes reflexively narrowing as I appraise the elder wolf, the mentor I've been assigned under whilst she's on heat-leave.

But there's only a knowingness in his eyes, a smile quirking at my unconscious defensiveness, a protective instinct flaring to life at the mention of my mate, my kit at home with our youngest feline.

"I suppose asking about Tae-calm down Hoseok-ah, maybe the better question would've been how are you doing with all this?"

I shrug my shoulders, though the gesture is light, neither Ji Soo misses the tightness in it, neither do I fail to feel it, an unconscious stiffness that seems to have settled into my skin, buried itself deep with the constant prickling awareness that at home I've got two kits who are vulnerable and holed away and I'm not there.

"It's hard isn't it? Being away from your nest, your pack."

I nod.

"So why didn't you take the offer of pack-leave? Of all places trust that a hybrid centre would know Hoseok-ah."

And his words only remind me of that same conflicting unease that's been warring with my senses since Tae was slammed into a full-blown triggered rut.

Ever since those meds had been accidentally given to (Y/N). A flicker of searing anger burns through my veins at the thought.

"Of all places I'd have thought the med-bay would be more careful when dealing with hybrid medications." Voice tight, rumbling with a low growl that bleeds into my tone, that has his posture, despite being loose and unthreatened, coiling the slightest fraction.

And it takes a moment to place it as frustration and protectiveness for (Y/N).

"I'll be looking into that personally too. And making sure the complaint goes all the way. It could've been much worse, and it could happen for any of the hybrids we tend to."

"Did you find out anything yet? The receptionist at the pharmacy only had apologies but that doesn't change the fact it sent my mate into a triggered rut."

The sound of his sigh is weary and drained, a hard unwavering intensity in his eyes even as he draws the door to his office open, ushering me through before closing the door behind him.

"She kept crying because she was so sure she organised the medications correct. That it must've accidentally been mixed up by some of the new staff we have floating around working. She was mortified and I think... I think I believe her. But she'll have to go through the official processes for such a complaint. It can't happen. Medications being mixed is one of the most volatile things that can happen in a treatment centre."

There's sympathy bleeding into his voice but there's also a firmness to.

He's truly firm in his beliefs, his personal code even if it pains him to think of the almost matronly figure who'd been working at the front. The one who'd issued the medications to (Y/N).

"Has it happened before?"

"Not for a good long while. (Y/N) was lucky she was with Tae when it happened-if she'd have been outside... if it had been perhaps any hybrid with less restraint-"

The implication is heavy and weighted. Rumbling with the anger and fury that claws at me so viscerally from the inside, my lungs feel raw with the weight of the horror of what could've been.