Bound by Blood

Chapter 110- pains of the past, pains of the present

TAE POV:

I frown as I watch (Y/N) tug on her shoes, frown at the high collared blouse she's wearing to hide the bruising on her throat, frown as she avoids eye-contact as she straightens up.

"Tae stop staring please." She says, voice slightly hoarse but enormously better than it had been the past few days, where one sentence in her pained slightly rough voice made us wince and feel the same simmering anger reach a boiling point. She sounded worlds better but I knew what lay under the fabric, what she was hiding. I knew the smattering of bruises in the shape of fingers, in the shape of his hands mar her throat. And I hated it. Hated him.

And hated that I could see her in pain even as she desperately clung onto her idea, that she wanted things to go back to normal, that she wanted to feel normal by immersing herself in her lessons and her work. In doing normal things she'd said, looking at us as she'd picked at her iron-rich food, barely touching it. 

"But why?" I ask, ignoring the fact that I know my words came out as a whine, that my words sound huffy and I've got a pout on my face.

If that's the way I'll get her to stay or get a straight answer that helps me understand, then I'll do it.

I reach out to gently grasp her wrist, where Yugyeom's blood bond mark sits on the inside, fingers brushing against it tenderly. It doesn't have the same effect as it would've if Yugyeom had touched it, but it does make her loosen slightly, eyes turning towards me finally.

"Because I want to feel normal. Because I want to remember what it was that was at stake, what life I was about to give up. Because I want to know that my life is still mine. Is that too much to want Tae?" she asks, softness in her tone and a sense of fragility in the uncertainty in her eyes, in the way they flicker red as she awaits my response.

I sigh.

When she puts it like that then I have no choice but to concede.

I tug her close, wrapping my arms around her.

"Fine. You've got me wrapped around your little finger baby mate." I mumble, trying to sound put-out but I can't help the fondness that creeps into my tone, the feeling of rightness of holding her. And I know I'm a goner when she leans back, eyes sparkling a beautiful red with happiness that I've understood, happiness to be with me. 

And I'm most definitely lost when she stretches up a bit to brush her lips against mine in a sweet kiss, a brief pressure of her soft lips- a taste of her sweetness before she moves back.

"You're acting like Minnie wasn't standing here, ready to go with me." she quips slightly teasingly as she moves back, where Jiminie shoots me a petulant look, reaching to intertwine her hand with his.

"Tae I'm hurt." he pouts, only smiling fondly when he nudges me away after I've smothered his face with kisses as an apology.

But before he leaves he shoots me a silent message, a silent look of understanding between us that comes with decades of time together.

I'll look after her his eyes tell me, promise me.

And I let them go, knowing perfectly well that he will, that the threat over her doesn't exist anymore.

Because I'm going to go see the threat that hovered over her, that believed it could get away with harming my mates on numerous occasions.

Maybe it's time to give Chul a taste of some more venom.

----

I spit out the mouthful of blood that had flooded into my mouth, stale, cold and vile, floor splattering with crimson droplets. My hand goes to scrub at my mouth viciously, violently as I glare at the man in front of me, at the man who sits  and screams and within a minute, the same man loses all his energy and it drains out of him as the venom fills his body and courses through his bloodstream.