We stop in front of the room and stand on a little stage, my head bent down the whole way up. But then the scents I never wanted to smell again starts to fill my nose and overflow my senses.
The wolves that killed Lindzey are in this room.
I immediately go tense and start to practically quiver into myself, taking a couple of slow steps back. That catches the twin's attention as they stop what they're doing and lean down a bit to be at my height level. "Hey hey, what's wrong Love? It's okay baby, we're here, calm down," I hear as Andrew coos. I look at them before I scan the room once more as he goes to grab my hands. "Wait, where's this blood from? Why are you bleeding?" He asks urgently, trying to pry my hands from a fist, but not succeeding.
"I-I," I can't even speak, not in front of everyone, not when everyone is staring at me so intensely. My breath starts to quicken as I shift, thankfully my paws don't hurt as much as my hands before I shifted. I run to the door, which is now being held open by a late person, thankfully! They jump back a little bit, more than likely not expecting a cat to run at them.
I run and run through the trees until two big wolves are surrounding me, slowly narrowing my way. I slow in my tracks, soon coming to a full stop, knowing I'm not getting past the two. Hesitantly, Cyrus steps toward me and gives me a gentle lick on the side of my face. I shift and quickly fall to my knees, completely exhausted from running and crying. I look down at my lap, breaking down right there, my sticky and bloody hands messing with each other on my legs.
My mind starts to flash through what happened that night to my sister, my heart pounding so hard in my chest that it feels like someone's squeezing it and trying to tug it out of my chest. I just let my tear fall down my face, the only thing audible to me being the buzzing of my eyes, my sight going blurry. Soon enough everything fades and all I can see and hear is the scene of my sister dying over and over again.
"Matthew, run! Get somewhere safe, Now!" Lindzey screams in a raspy and sleepy voice, still trying to fight with every last piece of energy in her body. I shift and run, feeling the breeze drift through my fur.
Once I get an okay distance away, I take a second to turn around, hoping my sister is behind me. Though she isn't. Instead, she's laying on the ground with two furious wolves hovering over her, claws and teeth ripping into her.
The smell of the wolves lingers in my nose as I turn back around and run until I suddenly drop to the ground. Falling into the dirt, sobbing, and curling into a ball.
In a blink of an eye, the person I love most in this world, the person who protects me and takes care of me is gone. Liz is dead! My sister is gone!
The next thing I know everything's dark.
No sound.
No sight.
No feeling.
No nothing.
Just pitch black.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ashton's POV
As we all stand in front of the room with our pack in it, Matthew has his head facing down at his feet. His whole body is tense from his place between my brother and me, then he's quivering and taking steps backward. I know he has Anxiety and isn't a huge people person so maybe it's his shyness? Social Anxiety? Not liking to be near so many people at once?
Andrew and I lean down a little so we are leveled with his height, "Hey hey, what's wrong Love? It's okay baby, we're here, calm down," Andrew coos, trying to calm Matthew down. Our mate looks at us then scans the room once more as Andrew's hands go to grab him, well until he pulls a hand back to himself, red slowly dripping down his finger. "Wait, where's this blood from? Why are you bleeding?" Andrew asks urgently as he and I grab a hand each, trying to pry his fists from their tight grasp, not succeeding at all.
"I-I," our precious mate stutters, before his breath picks up. Before either of us can comprehend, Matthew had pulled back, shifted, and is darting out of the door, only being able to, thanks to our future Beta, Seth, for arriving late as usual.
Matthew darting out of the door causes Seth to jump back, probably not expecting a Neko to be in here let alone dart out the pack meeting's door. Matthew keeps running as Andrew and I chase him into the woods, not letting him go alone this time. After a minute or two, we both realize he's not going to stop running unless we stop him ourselves so that's what we do. Andrew speeds up to his right side and I go onto his left, slowly we speed up and start to narrow into his path causing him to slow down and eventually stop.
Once Matthew stops, we stop too, Andrew hesitantly leaning closer to him and giving him a gentle kiss on the side of his face. After a moment, he shifts once again and instantly drops to his knees, breaking down into sobs as he looks down at his lap, where his hands lay, fidgeting with blood still slowly dripping off of them. This is the first time we've seen him like this.
Yes, he's been anxious and let all of his emotions and anxiety out but this is different. Nothing as we've ever seen. The fear I see is on a totally different level and it breaks me just seeing him like this. I like to show I'm tough and I have a reputation of nothing bothering me but when it comes to Matthew, it hurts me knowing there's something wrong and the facade goes away immediately.
I'll admit it, it hurts like hell seeing him like this and it's honestly to the point that I feel like I need to gasp for air. Seeing him dazed out, staring off into whatever the hell he's doing, fidgeting and shaking to all hell. This is scary. Who the fuck could hurt someone so delicate in precious, and traumatize him so badly? I swear to the goddess if I see those bastards, ever, they're fucking dead. And when I say them, I mean anyone that's hurt him.
Andrew and I shift back before also dropping to our knees, staying close to him. He's sitting on his knees, his feet tucked under his bum, tears quickly rushing down his cheeks as he looks out into space like there's something there. He doesn't move or do anything as we call out his name and gently shake his shoulder. Like he can't hear us. Like he can't feel or see us.
My heart starts to ache and clench in my chest as he won't even budge to us talking to or touching him. It feels like someone punching my chest over and over again to every beat my heart makes and I know damn well Andrew feels the same way as me. I feel so bad for being such an ass to his friend, only because he stopped being so clingy for so long. The worst three days of my life, it sucked not being able to be as clingy as I like to be. I'm just glad he didnt deprive me of my cuddles because Everest wouldn't shut the fuck up.
"No no no no! Liz!" Matthew yells out and I look over to Andrew with confusion, his face stuck with the same emotion. This is definitely more than just anxiousness or social anxiety. Something happened in that room that we didnt see or something triggered him so badly that he's like this. Either way, we need to get to the bottom of it.
"Kitten," I say once more but then, like it's going in slow motion, he starts to fall backward so I quickly put my hands under him before his head can hit the ground. I gasp and look up at Andrew, both of us saying the same words.
"Panic Attack!" We start to freak out.
I leave one hand under his neck, moving it so his head rests at the crease of my arm, and put the other arm under his knees, bending them over my arm in bridal style. Andrew and I start to run towards our Pack hospital where our Pack Nurse, Charlotte should be at the moment, also known as the family doctor as well.
Once we get to the building, Andrew opens the door and I rush through with Matthew still out in my arms. As we enter, I immediately start to yell out for Charlotte, a growl in my tone to show urgency. "CHARLOTTE! PLEASE HURRY!" I shout as we dart to the biggest room in the hospital, the family doctor's room.
Charlotte is, as I said before, the pack nurse and our family doctor but she's also Mine and Andrew's best friend, we grew up with her since we were just toddlers. She is also literally two days older than us but rubs in it our faces all the time, she's like our older sister and we love her to death. She is also very beautiful! She's 5'7 with black and blue hair, and deep brown eyes with light freckles over her nose that brightly sticks out.
Not long after I shout for her, she runs into the room and looks at us worriedly before spotting Matthew in my arms. "What happened?" She says as she rushes over to us and examines Matthew's petite figure. He looks so pale and little.
"W-we aren't very sure, to be honest. B-but we think it's another panic attack, this one caused him to pass out and he hasn't woken yet. Usually, he w-wouldve been awake by now!" I say in a shaky and panicky voice it seems to catch both Charlotte and Andrew by surprise since I never show emotion, but they both shake it off quickly as Charlotte examines him more, making sure he's okay.
"Yes, it seems to have been an intense panic attack so with him being so petite it could be dangerous to himself when he has one. So with that said, you'll have to help him and monitor him a little more than usual when he has one. Though depending on his natural instinct and the reason for th panic attack he can possibly either want more or less attention and physical contact at some points. Just remember that and don't take it personally if he starts to push you away for a little while, it happens with anxiety attacks, especially if it's triggered by trauma." She explains with a soft but cautious smile before going on to explain more. You guys can bring him home now and make sure he rests but before you go I'm going to wrap up his hands with a bandage," she says as she examines his hands covered in blood. "It looks like the anxiety got too much and his fingernails punctured into him but he'll be alright."
I smile with relief, looking down at him in my arms, I'm just so happy he's going to be okay. I may not show it much to the people around me, even to my mate, but I'm a sensitive person and get scared easily when things like this happen, especially to Matthew and my family. Though I can tell Matthew is making me go soft. The only person that knows about my soft side is Andrew, I hate showing it at all of course my twin would see it more than others would.
As I realize I'm staring at Matthew, I hear Charlotte in the background, whispering to Andrew so she doesn't disturb me. "So that's you two's mate?" She asks as she gently starts to wrap Matthew's hands up with cotton pads and wrap to keep them in place.
"Yep! Our precious, amazing Mate, Matthew!" Andrew practically squeals with adoration in his voice, I have to hold back a laugh. I haven't heard him squeal since we were seven so that was a catch.
Once she finishes wrapping his hands, Charlotte back up with a confused and interested expression on her face/ "He's not a wolf or a natural human, so what is he? I can't smell it on him, he smells human-ish but there's something else there. All I smell on him is your guys' scents with a mix of strawberries, cocoa, and..." She says, leading off as her eyes widen, hurrying to the door and closing it. "HE'S A VAMPIRE!?" She whisper-shouts.
My eyes go wide and I let out a low growl, "no, he's not a vampire!" I accidentally snap, feeling bad when I see her face become shocked and a tinge of fear in her eyes. I silently apologize to her, looking back at Matthew.
"He's a Neko, Char. You smell vampires because his best friend and her family are vampires and we are also going to a school full of them. Plus you wouldn't smell his scent because you can't identify a Neko by a certain scent. They don't have a specific scent and you can't smell the scent on him that we smell because you're not his mate," Andrew calmly explains to her.
"Oh, A Neko!? I've never met a Neko! I didnt know there was a Neko within cities!" She squeals making me chuckle a little and smile at her, shaking my head.
"Well, our mate is the Neko within cities now," I say softly, looking over at her. Our mate, I never thought in a million years he would be a Neko if I'm being honest. Don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic that he's a Neko, it suits him to the next level of logic but we just have to keep an extra eye on him at all times. A lot of different supernatural species, mainly consisting of Vampires and Wolves attack Nekos, especially rogues. But if someone at all even thinks about hurting him, they're dead. Even if they are in our pack, they'll get banished with an intestine removed.
I look back down at Matthew's precious face, listening to them continue to talk. "Well, I have to go check up with the boys that got into a fight, one of them needed several stitches in his leg. Someone fucking stabbed his ass! UGH, BOYS!" She exclaims, laughing which makes us laugh at her.
"For real, ugh boys," Andrew playfully mocks back to her, which causes her to laugh but also look at him with a raised eyebrow.
"You three are boys Dumbass!" She bursts out as I gasp and look at her offended.
"Hey! We are men, excuse me, Char! Just because we happen to have been friends since we were little doesn't mean you can disrespect your alphas by calling us boys." I laugh a little and smirk at her.
She looks at me and rolls her eyes, "Mhm, sure. I'm your big sister, and I'm supposed to pick on you! Keep dreaming about me being nice to you 24/7," she says with a smirk before walking out of the room.
"Well, that's rude!" Andrew says, trying to say it loud enough for her to hear but not loud enough to wake Matthew up, smiling in the process.
"Guess we should get back to the house before everyone freaks out and sends a search party," I say as I stand off the chair with our mate still in my arms.
Andrew nods in agreement, looking at Matthew and then back at me are we start to walk out of the pack hospital. "He still out?"
I nod and sigh, "yep. Like as light, sadly.
"When he wakes up I order a well-deserved date and day out! He's been through so much in such a small amount of time," he excitedly says with a laugh, excited for a date with our mate.
I almost facepalm at my brother but I'm holding onto Matthew right now so I just shake my head with a smile on my face. "Yeah, I know he has, and that's a good idea. We should but we just have to be careful about what we do or say, let him tell us what he wants first. I don't wanna push him away after just getting him."
Once we arrive home we go inside and hear shouting from our little sister, "Matthewww!" Then pitter-patter as she runs in our direction.
Andrew and I pout, "What about us Ella?" I ask her, faking offended.
"Well hewwo to you guys too but MATTHEWWW!" She giggles and squeals as we shake our heads.
"Our mate stole our sister and our sister stole our mate!" Andrew whines and I laugh, walking up the stairs.
"Yeahhh but I guess we'll just have to get used to it but at least they absolutely love each other!" I say laughing as we reach the top of the stairs. Once we get to the room, I lay Matthew on the bed and lay down on his left side while Andrew slips in on the left.
"Our mate, he's so beautiful." I mumble, a hand gently swiping hair off his forehead, "the one we've been waiting for is so perfect."