Within the Forest (Werewolf Solangelo AU)

Chapter Twelve: Living a Nightmare

Will's POV

It was difficult to try and get to know Nico. Especially since not even a few minutes after I brought him to the house, my father came back yelling at the top of his lungs. I hid Nico under my bed, sitting at the foot of my bed as my father burst into my room. Now saying he was mad is an understatement. This was the first time in my life either of my parents have raised their voices at me. They've never been the yelling type. The only things I've ever done wrong was breaking and/or messing things up. My mother would be more worried about the thing I broke, unless I was hurt of course, than scolding me. My father.. He would just laugh. He'd laugh until he cried and I'd laugh with him. Then my mother would snap at us and he'd just halfheartedly tell me to help her clean up. But yelling? That's never happened.

"JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE EIGHTEEN DOESN'T MEAN YOU ARE IN CHARGE!" He rambled on and on.

After a few minutes, my mother came in. She let him go on for a bit, not looking at me. Once she did, her expression softened and she kicked my still fuming father out of the room. A pang of guilt hit me as I noticed the bandaging on his shoulder. Once he was gone, my mother closed the door behind him and looked at me. We shared a heavy silence for a few minutes until she was the one to break it.

"Why did you save the human?"

I bit my lip, knowing I couldn't just tell her about Nico. It was too risky. I didn't know how she would react. Me coming out to her was one thing. She's my mom. It's fine to do that. It's normal. But.. Tell her my male mate is actually the human my father tried to kill in front of my eyes.. That was a different story. I couldn't do that. I didn't want to do that. So I just lied. I told her I was tired of seeing humans get killed, just for being on our territory. They don't know about us, so why should we punish them for a mistake. It's not like every human I've watched my father kill was purposely looking for us. I just told her I chased the human, That's what I called him instead of Nico, out of the territory and threatened his life if he told anyone. I'm sure humans would have probably thought Nico was insane if he told them there were werewolves living in the woods by their homes. She thankfully accepted the lie and left. 

After she left and the house went quiet, I let Nico come from under the bed. He was pretty shaken up, but I don't blame him. It was going to be hard having him stay here. He was human. He's scent was so much different than a werewolf's scent. We were going to have to be extra careful in order to keep him alive. I don't even want to think of what would happen if I wasn't able to calm my father in time. That is, if he finds Nico. I can't let that happen. I won't let that happen. Even if Nico could never love me the way I lo- The way I'll grow to love him then he should still be able to live.

Nico immediately sat next to me after crawling out from under the bed. I couldn't help but feel good about that. It might not mean anything, but it just feels nice (Almost put Nico) to know that he isn't afraid of me. He said so, but I wasn't sure how true that was. He was so quiet. Shy maybe? He kept looking at his hands and he doesn't speak much. I know for sure not all humans are like this. Maybe it was just him. I took this time to study him as much as I could. He still smelled like blood and tap water. That bothered me. Maybe he fell- no there aren't any water sources in the direction he came from. Blood is easy to explain. Maybe he tripped in the woods and scraped his knees or arms. I wasn't sure, but the water was what was bothering me the most. I examined his face. His hair covered a lot of it, but I could still see his pale skin from between the strands. I pushed back a bit of it, Nico gasping and trying to pull away as I did that, and froze when I saw a strange mark. It was on his nose, or around his nose. It looked like.. A bruise.

"What happened here?" I whispered, touching his nose a bit.

Nico flinched, pushing me away. I don't know what came over me, probably Sol.. Again. The next thing I know, I'm grabbing him by the shoulders and examining his face more. He struggled but it felt like he wasn't really trying to get away from me. I ignored his pleads to be let go and continued to look at the bruise on his nose. I looked down and noticed other small bruises. On his chin, his left cheekbone, his right cheek, even on his neck. I couldn't help but growl at these marks, making Nico squirm a bit more.

"Did the patrol guards do this?" I let go of his right shoulder and touched the bruises on his throat. It was almost like he had being strangled.

"No-" I only payed attention to Nico saying no. He said something else, but I didn't hear.

"Then who?" I asked impatiently, wanting to know who had did this. It couldn't have been Lou and Cecil, right?

Nico didn't answer my question. He just asked to be let go again. I held him tighter absentmindedly putting my hand on his side. He gasped, pushing me away more violently. Did that hurt him? Why? I stood up, pulling him up with me. His pleads didn't get louder, but more desperate. He sounded tired, like this has happened one too many times and he knew he couldn't stop it. Who hurt my mate?

"Take off your shirt," I asked him, crossing my arms in front of me.

I continued not to pay attention to what he was saying. When it was obvious he wasn't going to do it himself, I did it. It wasn't very hard. The shirt was loose on him. Once it was off, I saw why. I froze when I saw all the bruises and scars on his torso. He hugged himself in an attempt to cover it, but I pulled his hands away. I've never felt so angry in my life. Even when dad tried to kill Nico. This was different. He continued to fight me, but I pinned him against the wall. I took my eyes off  his beaten body and looked him in the eyes. It was hard to ignore the fear in them. 

"Who did this to you?" I hissed, preparing myself to ignore more pleads.

What he did next was unexpected. He started to cry. It was soft, but he still did it. He was shaking. He stopped trying to fight me. My heart sank, but sprang back up again at the next thing he said.

"M-My b-boyfriend."

I didn't know what to say. Sol was howling and snarling in my head. If I could physically see him, he would probably be foaming at the mouth. But I was just frozen. I didn't know what to say. I was trying to prepare myself for Nico saying something like this. That he was already dating someone. But that wasn't what I was worried about. The fact that this guy Nico was dating was hurting him. That's what I was worried about. I let go of him, turning and seeing the ripped remains of his shirt. I sighed, taking off my own and slipping it on him. He was so small. It was like a dress on him! It ended at his knees and the shirt sleeves went to his forearms. He stopped crying, staring at him in confusion. I could see the blush creeping onto his face. Ignoring it, I pulled him into a hug and tried my best to avoid any bruises. He tensed up for a moment before melting into my embrace. He sobbed silently into my chest as I held him. 

"I'm going to kill him," I growled into his hair.

"Please don't."

I sighed, nodding and continuing to hold him for a bit. 

After we separated, he began telling me what he meant by "his boyfriend". Apparently he was (emphasize was) dating this guy named Nathaniel. He was great at first but then turned abusive. I asked him why he didn't tell anybody when Nathaniel got violent and he said he thought (emphasize thought) he still had feeling for him. It sickened me to hear Nico say the reasons he was hit. And what made Nathaniel get violent in the first place. It the stupid. That guy was obviously dangerous. But when Nico did tell me his age, 16, I guess I understood why he refused to leave. People would question why a 16 year old was leaving on his own. According to what Nico says, that's also too young to get a "job" in the human world to. Whatever that was. 

After we talked, I told him he could live with me. He was worried about my parents finding out, which he should be, but I assured him I wouldn't let either of them near him. He saw what I could do to my father. If I had to, I'll do it again. I'll hurt him worse if needed. I don't care if the pack shuns me fore having a human mate. As long as I'm around, he's living here.

Nico deserves to feel safe after living a nightmare...