I rubbed the small mark left behind from the IVs in my arm, my mind drifting as I laid my head against the wall and anticipated Fox leaving his office. I had been sitting on the floor for an hour now because he had told me to not come in, but I was starting to think he'd forgotten.
Or maybe ignoring me.
I huffed out of frustration and finally barged straight in after standing up. Fox looked straight over at me with his arms crossed and his body leaning against his desk as he talked with Striker, Aira, and Ekon, all of the titles. My eyebrows furrowed at the sight and I crossed my own arms at the sudden silence that crossed the room.
"Fox, what's going on here?" I asked to break the silence that everyone else seemed uncomfortable with. He ran his hand through his hair before looking at me.
"We're discussing the upcoming war. I told you to wait to talk with me later." He didn't seem too lenient to continue this conversation with me, but I wasn't having it. Being out of the loop was annoying enough before, but after being kidnapped it's gotten worse.
"I want to help." I declared, not budging. Fox didn't even sigh or excuse himself from the room before he took quick strides over and grabbed me by my arm, forcing me to follow him out of his office until we stopped in front of my room. "Fox, what the hell?" His jaw clenched and he grabbed my hands, sternly looking me in my eyes like he was about to scold a child.
"You're no longer helping with the whole war stuff, Naomi. I need you to hold the fort down with the pack and keep the town together and happy." I made a disgusted face at that and ripped my hands out of his, the shock from our bond vanishing.
"And I need you to stop babying me. I have just as much knowledge as you-"
"But you don't have the war experience, do you?" I frowned at his quick, snappy words and before I could react he grabbed my hands again. "I've taken over other packs through battle and managed them from a large distance away, meanwhile keeping them in my name." I struggled to free my hands from him before he just altogether grabbed my waist and held me against him. "You have no business with it anymore, do you understand?" I scoffed and opened my mouth to say something before he growled and repeated his question. "Do you understand Naomi?" I bit my tongue before nodding. "Good. Then I need you to hold the fort down with the pack-" I turned my head away from him as he continued. "-and keep the town together and happy." I finally pushed against his chest and tore my body from his, heading straight into our bedroom before slamming the door in his face.
Lucky for me, I was stubborn. Unlucky for him, I wasn't going to give this up so easily.
•
After a whole day of not seeing Fox I decided to look for him to talk in hopes he'd see the reality of our situation. I picked up his scent coated in another and I perked, moving outside to the backyard. He was standing at the edge of the cliff holding a cigarette and taking drags from it, facing the mountains and trees. I didn't know he smoked.
I looked down at my barefoot and at the dirt before stepping onto it and making my way over to him. I couldn't blame him for smoking though, he had a lot of pressure on his shoulders and I wasn't exactly helping.
I put my hand on his shoulder and my other hand on his other shoulder, moving so that I could see his front. His eyes looked foggy, but he knew who I was.
"You never told me you smoked." I stated, watching him take another long drag before he looked at me, blowing out the smoke but making sure it didn't hit my face while my hands dropped from his broad shoulders. He dropped it in the dirt and smashed his foot over it without looking down, making sure our eyes were connected.
"Trying to not taint you even further." His voice was flat, like he was tired.
"I'm not tainted. Do you see me killing people?" Maybe I shouldn't have used that as an example. But he grinned anyway, more in a sarcastic way, as he moved his eyes over the forest and back to mine.
"Not yet." My eyebrows furrowed. He moved closer to me, his mouth nearing my ear. In instinct I wrapped my arms around him, feeling him do the same. His chin rested on top of my head and I felt the coat of unnatural warmth wrap around me, my head resting against his chest. His heart beat was slow, although his small growl said something else.
"You're starting to cave to the bond." He noted and I laughed lightly. "It's about damn time." We stood there in silence for a few minutes.
"I don't understand you completely yet." I looked up at him and he gave me confused and serious eyes. I let go of him and took a small step back.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that I don't know you still. You haven't shown me your darker parts, and that's a big part of you that I hear from everyone. It makes me feel like they know you better."
"Don't worry about what that. You know more, I can at least assure you that Naomi." I furrowed my eyebrows and frowned.
"That's not what I meant-"
"I can't show you that side-"
"You can, Fox." I crossed my arms. "You just don't want to 'cause you're scared." His eyes darkened and he growled. "Be angry, I don't care. It's the damn truth."
"No it-" His voice was darker.
"You're scared of me running the minute I see it." His jaw clenched and he tried to look anywhere but me. "Stop hiding everything from me. I can take more than you think." He suddenly met my eyes.
"You'll hate me." This time he didn't sound hard, just afraid. I reached out and grabbed his hand.
"You can't assume your mate will hate you because of who you are." His eyes were a living fire, and it was hard to look away. When I thought what I was saying was working he abruptly ripped his hand away from mine and walked off to the house, leaving me alone.
•
I rubbed my arm as the Cleo and I roamed around the town, attempting to find the restaurant Striker gave us directions to so we could actually meet up with the boys after their business meeting.
I had explained the difficulties of trying to get through to Fox to Cleo and she agreed that I had to find some other way to force him to let me in on the planning. It was vital I did this, because whether Fox wanted to accept it or not I'm an important key factor in battle.
"Do you even think we're going North? Neither of us have a compass." Cleo pointed out and I shrugged.
"I'm just going to put the place in gps on my phone because obviously this isn't working." I muttered as I whipped out the phone from my pants and typed in the restaurant's name.
"We've been walking for at least thirty minutes. I thought we would've been there by now."
"Yeah, and now we're late to meeting them." I sighed. "Knowing Fox he'll lose his shit and personally send out an amber alert message or something."
"You can't blame him. We're in the middle of war." I shrugged and started walking in the direction it directed which happened to be the opposite way we'd been going.
"Maybe I just need to find another way to show him I'm not a puppy that's being potty-trained. I know how to protect-" We stopped when an older lady with white hair stood in front of the two of us and I stopped talking.
"Luna-" Her black eyes lit up before she turned her head slightly to the right to look at Cleo. "And you- you're the Beta's mate. That-that little witch?" Cleo gave an uncertain smile and I decided to take control of the conversation for her.
"What's your name?" I asked politely.
"Unimportant in comparison to you, Luna." I opened my mouth to say something, but she quickly continued and took a step forward, grabbing my hand as if to analyze it in wonder. "But you-you're a very special girl, aren't you?"
"I-I don't know about that." I laughed in uncertainty and gave a look to Cleo.
"You weren't gifted the powers you possess like the Bloodrose Dusk pack." Her black eyes snapped up from my hands to my own, a darkness surrounding them. "Unfair for your species to acquire such a quality when so undeserving."
"Excuse me-" I pulled my hand back just before her own extended to the right into Cleo's cheekbone. Before I could react the old lady hit her again, making Cleo fall to the concrete path and hit her head to unconsciousness.
Without thinking I raised my hand and slammed it in her direction, my fist along with my lightning colliding into her with a loud cackle that echoed across the town. She stumbled and slipped on her butt, and before I gave her another go she pulled a vile out of her pocket and crushed the glass in her hand over Cleo's face, liquid pouring across her flesh.
I grabbed the woman by her arms and threw her back before pinning her against the ground, knocking her unconscious with my own fist.
I cringed at the glass shards piercing my legs that laid over her hands before reaching out telepathically to Fox. It didn't even take a solid minute before both boys were jogging down the sidewalk and stopping in front of me. Striker went straight for Cleo and started using his shirt to get the mysterious liquid off of her face.
Fox helped pull the glass out of my skin and every now and then I'd flinch, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. The only thing I was worried about was the liquid used on Cleo and what'd it was supposed to do. Also the fact that it was now embedded in my own body thanks to the glass.
Fox and I decided to take it to the lab and test what the liquid was, Striker taking Cleo to the hospital for urgent care and treatment.
Fox paced the waiting room as they did rapid tests and I sat in one of the chairs, rubbing my arms. Maybe it was just something small to hurt Cleo and wasn't so serious. Or maybe it was, and we'd both be affected gravely. Either way, I was stressed and frantic, and Fox wasn't helping.
"Can you please sit down?" Fox stopped pacing and looked down at me.
"How the hell am I supposed to stay sane sitting down and waiting for news about what is in your body and how it's going to affect you?"
"I feel fine right now, that's what should matter." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair before giving me another look and finally sitting in the chair beside me. Without having to look over I grabbed his hand and held it in my lap with both of my own hands, drawing soothing circles on his palm.
"Thanks." He finally muttered and I leaned my head against his.
The silence was killer, and as each second ticked by I began to hear Fox's heartbeat harder and harder. It didn't make sense, but the beating of his heart was slowly driving me insane.
And eventually, a voice in my head was itching and scratching at me to just kiss him.
So to get the itching feeling out of my system, I turned my head and planted a kiss on his lips. But before I could control myself, I felt myself go for his shoulder and fangs grew from my mouth. Without stopping myself, my teeth dug into his flesh and he yelled slightly, pulling our bodies apart.
The fangs went away and my fingers rapidly went up to touch my teeth in confusion, but it was the sick look on Fox's face that had me worried rather than what I had just done.
His body fell from the chairs, causing a few of them to fall over and crash loudly. His veins stuck out of his face and body, the color of his face slowly turning purple. He was choking.
I crashed to the floor next to him and screamed for help, desperate to somehow fix what I did. But before I could even try to help him breath foam started pouring out his mouth.
And then his eyes closed slowly and I was screaming for him to stay with me, but he wouldn't listen. Just as I was about to try helping I was pulled back and people swarmed him.
And all I could do was watch in self-agony.
•••
It's been TWO MONTHS??!! Wow, I'm evil
sorry about the wait and how the chapter is kinda disappointing
i got a puppy and have been helping potty-train and whatnot but also stress cause school
I need to fix my priorities.
hopefully a new chapter will be up soon!!
also it's unedited if you COULDN'T TELL HAHA cause again, priorities ;)