A heart to heart with Eliseo was not something Inaaya had expected to have. But in his books, it was the next step to her having a meltdown in front of him. With much persistence on his part and much reluctance on hers, Inaaya told him all about how his mate had caused her most recent panic attack.
Inaaya flinched at his smallest movements as the whispered left her mouth, afraid he'll lash out at any moment. Dielle was one person Eliseo didn't hear anything against, and here Inaaya was, telling him just that.
However, to Inaaya's utter surprise, Eliseo had patiently listened to her, his face bare of any emotions. Silence reigned in the clearing once Inaaya had finished. She rested her back against a tree, eyes fluttering closed. The silence was calming, lulling her to sleep. Emotions did take a toll on a person, after all.
"I'm sorry," Eliseo uttered and Inaaya's eyes opened in surprise, "for Dielle's behaviour. She shouldn't have said what she did. I'll speak with her."
Inaaya gave an awkward nod, floored at having an alpha apologise to her. She had learned enough about them to know they were usually a storehouse of dominance and ego. Had it been Dielle apologising to her, it might not have come as that big a shock to her as it had when Eliseo apologised. He was the last person Inaaya expected any sincerity or respect from.
Eliseo rolled his eyes and shook his head as if disapproving her childishness. Inaaya quickly schooled her features into a neutral expression— as neutral as her tiredness permitted.
It was several moments later that Eliseo spoke again. "Do you love him? Do you want to be with him?"
Inaaya bit her lip and gazed down at the sparse grass on the ground. Lazily, she picked at the grass while gathering her thoughts. Did she love him? Yes, the feeling was as near to love as it could be. Did she want to be with him? Yes. A definite yes. But could she be? Now that was another question altogether.
When she didn't answer, Eliseo continued. "You can say no and we can figure out the way forward from there. But if you think you can get passed him marking you in the cowardly way he had, then you need to say something. Make up your mind."
Inaaya sighed, looking into his blue eyes. It was just like Eliseo to insult Axel at every given opportunity. A part of her felt defensive over him calling her Axel a coward but she resisted the urge to tell him off. After all, hadn't she thought the same of Axel?
"It's not the marking I can't get over. It's the killing. I have nightmares of him decapitating a man and then coming for me, ready to tear my throat out," Inaaya muttered, eyes downcast and fingers digging into her bent knees. She brought her knees further into her chest and rested her forehead against them, hiding her defeated expression from Eliseo.
"You can't bear violence, then."
Eliseo's statement made her look up again. She rested her chin on her knees and moved a hand through her chaotic hair. A guilt was clawing at her chest. She knew her answer and she knew it wasn't one a sane person would give. But it was the truth.
Carefully choosing her words, Inaaya framed the truth as far from its bitterness as she could. "I can deal with his predatory nature. I guess I just can't deal with the barbaric visuals that come along with it. I begin feeling unsafe around him, which then triggers a panic attack."
Eliseo's head tilted to the left and his eyes narrowed infinitesimally. Inaaya felt small under his scrutinising gaze. Her back pressed against the bark as she rested her head against it. Unable to resist his silent, judging gaze any longer, she blurted, "What?"
With an unchanged expression, Eliseo straightened up and shrugged. "You can get rid of the visuals." At Inaaya's confused but piqued expression, he added, "Ask for Talisa's help."
A soft gasp escaped her lips as something clicked then. The solution had been right there all along. Now, it was up to her whether to reach for it or not. She could ask Talisa to manipulate her memory, wipe the scene off so she and Axel could go back how they were.
Of course, she couldn't keep asking Talisa to hypnotise her every time Axel killed someone in front of her. But they didn't know it would happen again, and she could always take precautions. Avoid going to places that endanger her or would involve violence. She could avert her eyes and hope to God it would work if Axel had to resort to violence in her presence. As insane as she sounded to even herself, a small smile was beginning to curve on her lips.
Eliseo gave her a half smile, tying his wild blonde mane into a rough bun before standing up. He extended a hand to her and she gratefully accepted, allowing him to pull her up. Wordlessly, they began making their way back to the castle.
When they had neared the back entrance to the pack house, Eliseo broke the silence. "You should train. It might help with your panic when you're in a threatening situation." Inaaya halted, turning to him, and he mimicked her actions.
"I do train. Every morning. Well, except for the past month but that was because..."
Eliseo shook his head and pointed towards the woods. "With them. The hunters." Inaaya looked on with him, watching as the three hunters made their way back to the castle from the woods. "If you want to fight against supernatural beings, they are the ones to learn it from."
Eliseo turned back to Inaaya while she busily studied the profiles of the three hunters. "I am not sure if this will help but perhaps knowing you can defend yourself will distract your mind from its panic. Instead of freezing up, your body might go into action."
Inaaya looked back at him and pondered over his words, nodding slowly. This might actually work. It had worked when her brother had taught her some basic self-defense moves so she would feel safer when returning from her tuitions alone. The thought of Amol created a pressure in her chest. It had been six years— six years since she had seen him on his deathbed. Six years since her panic attacks had started. For six years now, she hadn't been able to give her dearest brother a proper goodbye, all because of their father.
"Inaaya, hey?"
Eliseo's hand on her shoulder broke Inaaya out of her reverie. Blinking and shaking her thoughts away, she focussed back on Eliseo. "Sorry, what were you saying?"
Eliseo's eyes narrowed for a second before he let his curiosity go and looked at the hunters again. This time the hunters stared back as they made their way towards the odd duo.
"Dae-Nuri Kang, the lead hunter," Eliseo muttered, nodding his head towards the Asian man leading the group. "Get him to train you."
Inaaya looked in the man's direction to immediately look away as she met his attentive eyes. With a good height, a muscular built and sharp features, Dae-Nuri looked every bit of the hunter he was. The group was soon catching up to where Inaaya and Eliseo were, adding to her discomfort.
Inaaya turned to Eliseo, biting her bottom lip. "Can't you just order him to?"
Eliseo gave her a half smile that claimed he knew something she didn't. He probably did. She still had a lot to learn about his world.
"I can ask him but I can't command him. Hunters aren't legally a part of the pack, so to speak. They're more like friends of the pack. They are the channel of communication between the hunters and our pack."
Just as Eliseo finished, Dae-Nuri and the two hunters reached them. The three nodded in Eliseo's direction while Inaaya tried not to hide behind him.
"Alpha Reuben," Dae-Nuri greeted, his voice deep and heavy, much like his personality. He hadn't even agreed to train her yet and already Inaaya felt like a bad student in his presence. Unlike the other two hunters, who were friendly to her, Dae-Nuri had always been silent and ignorant of her. He didn't show a dislike either as Eliseo had until today, so Inaaya didn't know where she stood with the man. It made her feel uneasy.
"Hunter Kang." Eliseo nodded with a respectfully stoic expression. Then, he gestured towards Inaaya. "This is Inaaya, our newest Psi."
Inaaya gave him a nervous, out-of-place smile, which he responded to with a mere nod before going back to ignoring her existence. Any hope she had of him agreeing was slowly sinking now.
"I'd like you to train her."
The three hunters glanced at Inaaya in sync while she fought the impulse to step backwards. The second and the third hunters, Annie and Henry, had a surprised look on their faces, while Dae-Nuri appeared to be mentally rejecting Eliseo's request.
Turning back to Eliseo, Dae-Nuri clasped his hands behind his back. "Alpha Reuben, I hope you'd understand when I decline. I fulfil your requests as I deem fit and I believe this one isn't necessary for me to, so I—"
"Please!" Inaaya cut him off, stepping forward and imploring Dae-Nuri to change his mind.
He looked at her for a moment, then he voiced a simple but significant question, "Why?"
Inaaya fisted her hands by her sides as she stared back into the man's nearly black eyes. "Because I'm a human in the world of supernaturals."
Dae-Nuri's eyebrows rose a little then furrowed, causing creases to form between them. Annie bit back a smile while Henry simply burst out laughing, only stopping with a side glance from Dae-Nuri.
Nervously pocketing her hands, Inaaya glanced from the three hunters to the Alpha standing beside her. "What?" she mouthed seeing his smirk directed at her.
Shrugging a shoulder, he let his smirk widen. "That wasn't cheesy at all."
Inaaya's lips parted in embarrassment and her hands fisted inside her pockets. Looking away, she attempted to keep the colour from rising on her cheeks.
Dae-Nuri cleared his throat, distracting everyone from Inaaya. Not that it was his intention, Inaaya was sure. He probably couldn't take any more of that light-hearted conversation. Dae-Nuri seemed to be a no-nonsense kind of a man.
"Alright. We start tomorrow." With that, Dae-Nuri walked away, quickly followed by the laughing due that was composed of Annie and Henry.
A few minutes after the hunters had disappeared, Inaaya turned to Eliseo with a slight smile on her face. For the first time in a month, she felt like she'd be okay. Things would be okay. "You're good at this, you know." Upon Eliseo's confused glance, Inaaya elaborated. "At giving advice, at handling difficult situations, at simply taking care of people, I suppose."
Eliseo gave her a half-smirk. "You sound surprised."
Inaaya gave him a smirk of her own, shrugging a shoulder in nonchalance.
Eliseo shook his head. "Well, I'm not the Alpha for nothing." Fully turning to Inaaya, he let his smirk melt into a genuine apologetic smile. "Look, Inaaya, I know I haven't been much of a caring Alpha figure to you, in fact, I've been the opposite. You're a part of my pack and I ought to have remembered that above everything else. I will, starting now."
His words left Inaaya pleasantly surprised and before she could express how she'd like that, Eliseo continued, "Also, you're not that bad. You might actually be nice even."
"Gee, thanks," Inaaya uttered, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. Turning back at him with a smile, Inaaya burst out laughing just as Eliseo let out a short chuckle. Reaching forward, Inaaya hugged him, just as she would have Amol. Eliseo was reminding her more of Amol than ever.
"Thank you. Thank you for helping me, for taking care of me today. It's..." Lost for the right words, Inaaya pulled back whispering another 'thank you'. Sniffling slightly, she looked up at him as he smiled down at her.
Eliseo shook his head. "It was nothing, kiddo." His hands went down to his pockets, only to find them ripped from his torn pants. "Uh, I should get going, get cleaned up," he muttered, nodding to himself.
Inaaya chuckled, looking at his dishevelled state again. "Yes, you should. I won't even ask."
With one last smile, Eliseo turned and disappeared from Inaaya's sight within seconds. Exhaling and wondering how life would be if she could have that speed, Inaaya turned towards the castle, just in time to see Axel's angered expression before he too sped away.
A/N:
Hey, guys! I'm so, so sorry for this late update. I absolutely, completely forgot that it was Saturday already yesterday. Yeah, I never really got around to setting up that reminder that I talked about previously. Oops! :p
(Did that just now. I swear!)
So, what did you think of this chapter? Of Eliseo's advice? Do you think Inaaya should ask Talisa to erase that one particular memory?
And what did you think of Dae-Nuri, the lead hunter? Any theories about him?
Lastly, Axel. Our hero most definitely mistook that situation between Eliseo and Inaaya. Didn't he? Or would you agree with him, somewhat?
And finally, now that all the important characters have been introduced, I'm going to be updating the cast within the next couple of days. So excited to know your opinions! :D
Please don't forget to vote and comment if you enjoyed this chapter. Thanks for reading!