Niklaus Wade
I'm taken aback but what I'm even more taken aback by is Xander, and Xavier diving onto the couch by Nash which ends up squeezing me into the corner of the couch with Nash firmly pressed against my right side while my left side is pressed into the arm of the couch. Nash immediately notices my discomfort and roughly shoves Xavier who sits directly beside him on his right side.
"Where the fuck did you all come from?" Nash asks as he punches Xavier on the shoulder.
Xavier pouts and rubs his shoulder.
"Heard you were having a party without us," Aiden says as he walks over to Caspian and proceeds to snatch the remote away from him and in return, Caspian glares at him and reaches desperately for his device back but Aiden is much taller.
Aiden, Xander, Xavier, Hunter and Nash are the tallest in the room with Nash and Xavier standing the tallest at over six foot seven inches with Xander in second place at six foot four inches, and Aiden and Hunter standing at maybe six foot three inches.
Hazel is cuddling with Hunter on the floor and I can just barley hear Hunter whispering jokes that Hazel giggles at. I watch with a small smile on my face as she turns her head and presses a loving kiss onto his lips. Asher is taunting Easton despite the fact that he's her 'older' brother by only a few minutes, they are the two of quadruplets.
Aiden is still getting under Caspian's nerves as he sits on the armrest of the loveseat Caspian sits on and I can tell that this truly irks his nerves but Aiden pays no attention to it. Eros continuously glances at Aiden with his first finger anxiously adjusting the circular lenses slipping down his nose.
Kaylee remains on the phone speaking to Jaylin I'm now assuming because I can distantly hear his voice, but she's also nudging Archer away from Easton because Easton is getting annoyed but isn't bold enough to scream at her to stop because of the amount of people in here.
Xavier, and Xander are punching each other like they're having a strength match of some sort but they're laughing like meat heads so I'm not quite sure what they're doing. Maybe it's a dom thing.
This felt nice. Despite the fact that I haven't hung out with people before, this felt natural. Like we all belonged together. I mean our parents are all friends who grew up with each other and fought together so maybe we were all destined to be together. Either way, I felt like I was apart of something. With Nash by my side I feel complete.
As if to literally rain on my parade, Elijah and Elliot burst into the house and everyone visibly jumps in fright, startled by the sudden interruption. Elliot is frazzled, his eyes darting every which way with his hands clutching his abdomen but there's no outward indication of assault to the area.
Elijah supports his mate with an arm firmly wrapped around his waist to keep Elliot upright but he looks completely drained and angry at whatever happened before they stormed in here. Fear infiltrates my entire being as my breathing becomes uncontrollable, and I can feel my pupils begin to dilate. This feeling of impenetrable horror paralyzes me, the amount of terror mounted with every step Elijah and Elliot took into their own home.
With everything in me, I try to fight the rising panic. Nash clutches my thigh with a vice like grip and I try my hardest to allow the warmth he spreads through me, the calming scent he emits purposefully, and the tingles that's shoots up my spine to relax my nerves but something about the look in Elijah's eyes makes me stand on edge without the possibility of ever climbing off that edge.
"Niklaus, you've got to get to the basement now," Elijah booms, the demanding tone of his voice causing my heart to hammer profusely against my chest.
"They're relentless, Elijah," Killian bursts into the room behind Elijah and Elliot.
"Dad?" Eros stands but his legs are shaky, his bottom lip trembling, "what's happening?"
Xander immediately stands by Eros and wraps his arms around his brothers shoulder to comfort him the best he can. I felt so uncontrollably tormented by the fear racing through my veins that I felt like I was moments away from throwing up. Nash takes his arms away from my shoulder and wraps me in a tight embrace around my waist.
'Baby, breathe,' he whispers comfortingly through mind link and I tried to swallow but my throat felt like it was stuck.
Somewhere deep inside me, I felt like I knew what was happening but begged to the moon goddess that my thoughts and gut feeling was wrong.
Please be wrong.
"Fuck, those two are relentless Elijah!" Declan hollers as he rushes inside our home.
Elijah pinches the bridge of his nose, his eyes closing shut as the vein on his temple pulsates.
"I think I've heard that—"
"Elijah, those two are relentless!" Chris and Marcus exclaim almost simultaneously as they stumble inside the home rapidly breathing and Elijah growls at the two of them.
Nash stands up but his arm remains around my waist despite the way my body is bursting in continuous and relentless shivers. I'm not cold, far from it actually, my body is shivering from the fear that's crawling through me without any means to stop it. Nash had a soothing affect on me but in this moment nothing could fully subdue my nerves.
"What the hell is going on?" Nash barks out in question, his eyes stuck on Elijah and Elliot's form.
By now, Hazel, Hunter, Caspian, Aiden, Xander, Xavier, Archer, and Kaylee have all stood up. Kaylee is no longer speaking on the phone, her device is still in her hands and she hasn't hung up yet which explains why Jaylin continues to yell out, 'what's wrong?? What's going on, Kaylee?' From the tone of his voice, it's clear as day that he's aware that something awful is going on on the other side of the line but he's left on the receiving end waiting for something to either confirm his suspicions or deny them.
Elijah allows Vera, who came into the house a second or two ago, to wrap her delicate arms around Elliot and pull him away as they embark on their journey upstairs.
"Niklaus, you're—" Elijah is cut off by the ferocious growls that rip through the air and rattle me from inside out.
I didn't want him to finish his statement because I knew exactly what he was moments from saying. Despite knowing, I didn't want him to utter the words that would make me crumble down in fear with the inability to revive myself from the horror that begins to capture my heart in a steel cage.
I surely did not need him to give me that look of sympathetic pity and worry that told me to run away because he, as well as everyone in this room, would risk everything to make sure I remained in safe hands. Months ago, I had the prominent raging belief that I would cower just like this and hide like the puppy everyone saw me as.
There was something inside me that told me to run into the basement with my eyes glued shut, my lips shut tightly as if someone sewed them together with the strongest thread and needle, and my body convulsing as my panic attacks became the death of me due to the panic that began to rise within me but I—I couldn't, I won't.
While I run away like a damsel, these people will risk their lives to overcome an obstacle meant for me. What did that make me? I would become the equivalent to the dirt beneath my feet that rubbed against my soles and held little to no value. Months ago, I would have allowed myself to do that, I'd allow my fear to take over me and allow me to become incapable of moving or even thinking but now things are different.
I have people that I care for now, things I don't want to lose, optimism, and joy. And I'm just going to let those...those demons that call themself my parents snatch away everything that I've developed away from me within a blink of an eye?
No, I refuse.
There was another growl that echoed, the sound drifting into my ears to alert me that they were closer than ever.
"Niklaus, we can go to the basement and hideout until everything is dealt with," Hazel suggests in a rush as she glances back at me.
I shake my head adamantly, and I see the surprise fill her pupils. I see the shock cloud everyone's eyes as they peer at me in wonder like I was a fire breathing monster, spouting fire from the tips of my ears down to my feet. Nash glances down at me, his hands slowly slipping off of my waist as I move away from him to look at him.
The amount of determination my body began to radiate made him look at me with uncertainty, his hands grasping my wrist as he brought me closer to him. I felt like I could melt into a puddle with the love that shined through in his eyes every time he glanced at me like I was an irreplaceable treasure he couldn't afford to lose.
I have value, worth, and I meant something more to someone, and yet I hadn't realized that until Nash came into my life and made me grow to accept that I'm more than just a being forced to live upon this earth amongst others. That's why I had to do this, that's why I refused to run, and will not run even if it's the last thing I do.
'I want to do this,' I mouth firmly to Nash and he stares at me for a few moments.
I can feel his worry, his fear, and his skepticism but what laced through those emotions was the amount of pride he was feeling that outshined every other feeling that made his heart skip a beat. Knowing that this sudden courage in me made his chest itch with an irreplaceable amount of pride, I can't help but feel my lips twitch until I'm forming an unsure smile. He leans down and presses a soft kiss against my forehead and I feel my eyes softly flutter close.
'I believe in you,' he says in our private mind link and my heart pounds reverently, 'but just know that I won't hesitate to end their life, Niklaus.'
Hearing him utter my full name makes me move back as I've come to know from that look in his stormy green eyes that he meant nothing but business. There was promise weaved through those words, and I swallowed knowing that that option didn't hurt me as much as I expected for it too.
I remember Kai speaking with Hazel and I about the death of his sister and how despite how much he hated her with everything he had left in him, he still felt his heart thunder inside his chest. He still felt undeniably torn apart, and there was still that pain of what could have been. Everything in me screamed that I would not care if my parents, who only made my life hell, died a slow and torturous death.
However, Kai's words made me think maybe those were just meaningless thoughts and the 'what if's' that plagued me would make me weep their death. I don't know. I wouldn't know until the time came and that's what scared me.
Before I can make any choice or reply to his declaration, Marcus is thrown across the room as if he weighed nothing more than a plain sheet of paper. Eyes wide, I whip my head around to see that both of my parents stand at the front door. Their pupils shine a brilliant blue that mimics my own ocean blue eyes, but the difference is that there's are void of emotions, their eyes hold nothing but contempt and wrath.
My mother's long blonde tresses are in loose curls that drift past her waist and just gingerly tickles her buttocks. In my youth, those curls with tight ringlets that danced about whenever she moved around even when her hands descended down on me to whip me and leave bruises to paint my pale skin.
Those rosy pink lips of hers that she used to spit out hateful remarks that tore me apart on the inside were now a pale pastel pink with wrinkles decorating the perimeter. Her body, as thin as a child starving faced my position beside Nash with a look of anger attempting to pin me down and make me wither underneath her gaze.
My father was once the tallest person I knew as he towered above me and made me feel like I was the smallest being on earth who wasn't worth scrapping his dirty feet upon, but now he felt nothing short of a teenage boy reaching puberty. Though still tall, he appears weak with his brittle body amongst the great wolves in here that made him look ancient.
That blonde hair of his was now as white as snow, the hairline plucked with exuberance and he was left with nothing more than patches of bald spots. Those mighty hands of his once used to lash my body until I was battered and bruised, weeping sower-fully into a corner are now unstable by his side as old age has taken away their girth and power.
These people are my parents.
We hit 1 million reads guys!! Thank you so much for loving The Alpha's Mute, I can't thank you enough for all of your love and support. I hope that you continue to stick by my side as I produce more and more work. I love you guys so much! Stay safe during these dark and scary times.
~xoxo, Babybird.