Fur vs Skin | on hold

4.

The aggression coming from him was surprising and quite hair-raising. Marcus ignores him either way and steps away from me.

"As expected, no bleeding or swelling, just soreness. The way you landed on that rock earlier, any regular human would have woken up with a splitting headache— seeing as you're not fully human," he breaks off as he reaches for the tray.

"Hungry?"

I blink up at him as he sets the tray on my lap, the smell of the food making my stomach growl and rumble in hunger but I ignore it, my thoughts too overbearing.

"What. . ." I pause, breathless, "All that was real. .? He really—" I pause, swallowing thickly, the words stuck in my throat as my mouth fails to form around the letters.

Marcus sighs and lowers himself to sit at the end of the bed, his weight causing it to dip. He reaches and sets the tray to the side of me knowing that food was far from my mind.

"Yes, everything that has happened was real along with everything I've told you before; all of it is true."

My heart stutters in my chest, my eyes betraying me as they glance towards the corner, where Arsen had his gaze on me — potent and dark. I could spot specs of yellow glowing around his irises, adding to the primal look he gave off. With a deep breath and confused thoughts, I face back towards Marcus, trying to disguise my face from showing the tiny ball of fear that planted itself in my chest, watered with each questioning thought, saving it for another time.

He scratches his head, the muscles in his shoulder flexing as his face sutured with regret. "It wasn't a good idea on my part to expose you just yet."

After a beat, he suddenly leans in and holds my eyes, genuine kindness shining through them still with the twinge of regret beneath the surface. They bore into mine, almost as if he was searching for something.

"I can assure you that neither I nor the male in the corner will do any harm to you," he affirms.

With that, I relax a bit at his words, the lingering effect of them putting me at ease and my head a little calmer than before. Seeing that my features relaxed before his eyes, he himself relaxes, slouching in his point on the bed and regarding me with soft eyes rather than caution.

"I assumed that you would have known about what we spoke about. I apologize."

My head a little quieter than before, I internally give this man a little bit of my trust, seeing that if he wished to harm me, he would have done it long before moving me to a different location. Somewhere deep within, he wouldn't have gotten the chance due to the fact we weren't the only ones that occupied the room: I refuse to cast a look toward the corner, giving Marcus my full attention.

"Known about what?" I finally voice out, after what felt like forever in the throes of my mind. "About what you were?"

He shrugs, "Kind of. It's a little bit of both and mostly about what you are, as I said earlier, you aren't completely human."

The side of my head begins to throb with the awakening existence of a headache, I wince, shaking my head in disbelief, as if to shake away his words. "What do you mean? I'm not understanding. I am human."

Marcus shakes his head, "I hate to break it to you, but you're not. Not completely; you're like me. I can smell it. Somewhere deep in you, there's a beast that is waiting to come out."

I silence myself from speaking any further, dropping my head in my hands, holding in a groan. I didn't want to argue, my head was already swimming with the reality that the two men before me are able to shift into some type of beast: lycan as he calls it..