Jackson's POV
We pass to the opposite wing of the mansion that they insist on calling a simple house, entering an entirely secluded area completely void of life. The room itself dull of any light other than the flickers of crystals embedded within the walls.
"We can get to formalities later, place him on the centred piece and then stand against the wall with the others please" The white haired woman I've come to know as Yue, signals to the other Alpha while Nimue pulls me and Keyon beside her to stand from a decent distance.
"Adam I'm sure he's fine" She tries to encourage him but his saddened eyes linger towards the body still.
"Ryan get in here!" She screams to the closed door as we watch a man gradually creep it open.
"Do...I really need to be here?" He pouts a bit but ultimately stands beside her.
"You're one of the last we have for those that can even use our pack's gifts, so I'm sorry this is such an inconvenience for you" Her frowned face makes him fix his posture, standing up straight and holding onto her arm.
"Why does she need two people?" I whisper out to Yue, not understanding what's even happening.
"Her pack members are able to see the emotions of others as well as see into the future under some circumstances. She's came to learn that directly seeing the emotions under a wolf's skin or more specifically...Percy's, Is a task in itself." She sighs a little bit before tapping my chest and putting me closer back to the wall. "And this way, all of us can see what she's seeing."
A large hush quieting the room when she closes her eyes, deeply breathing in before Yue places her hand on the wolf's back, and opening her eyes back up to reveal the bright yellow glow to them. Visibly tightening her grasp on Ryan's hand and gazing upwards as a darkened haze spirals from the body, "You only checked him a few days ago!?" Adam blares out, disturbing the process a bit as she scrunches her face but remains in control.
The haze beginning to twist its way up her arms, engulfing her head but nothing seeming out of the ordinary considering her friends are still standing by. That breath she was holding in, now exhaled and projected above Percy's body as the smoke jumps from her own. The once fluid motion of gas now tightly packed together to form an eye of gold, its gaze jumping from person to person before satisfyingly landing on me. "Isn't that...?" Adam ponders out loud as the eye's pupil expands and shrinks as if trying to adjust its vision.
"Fenrir...?" Nimue completes before pushing me further back to the wall.
"No, that is without a doubt Crest despite the worrying shared attributes" Yue corrects them.
"What does black even mean Yue?" The confused man calls out with pain in his voice, "Why are you able to talk to us unlike before? I thought the emotions of another essentially strained you beyond the point of being able to communicate!" He continues to shout out.
"Adam...I feel nothing. He isn't scared, he isn't mad, he isn't sad. He's just there...feeling absolutely nothing." She explains with defeat written across her face.
The room filled with a heavy silence as the eye continues to adjust itself, "You can help them Jackson, can't you?" I hear Irene's voice from behind the closed doors.
"Jackson wait" Nimue tries to reach for my shoulder but gets forced back to the wall as the large eye switches to her briefly. Standing in front of the door I place my hand on it, "You can do it Jackson!" She cheers again as that rare feeling of a pulsing heartbeat fills my ears. Picturing what Yue did just now and what I've done before...maybe I 𝘤𝘢𝘯 help her.
The heartbeat's panning suddenly appearing to the wolf on the table, the static within my head changing shape as it tries to fit pieces together...I know this person.
𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱
"Jackson stay back!" Nimue again tries to reach for me but again fails to move.
𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱
I hear a voice resonating within the body, calling me to be released. "I just have to...contain it this time, like she did" I whisper to myself. My hand gradually extending, inches from the body until Yue grabs me. "Don't do it" She advises but that expression of sympathy quickly turning to one of focus as she gazes into my eyes.
I look back at the body, noticing the heartbeat disappearing, its tremors instead forming inside of Yue's chest. "You...weren't the one I was meant to touch...I'm sorry" I beg to her while she locks our hands together.
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"RYAN MOVE!" She screams out to him as a ribbon releases from her back, wrapping around my arm as she sternly focuses on me.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I can't control it." Is all I can call out. Unlike the rest who gave me access to their hearts...she's denying it. The sensation of weight being piled on me as she restricts my hand tighter with the ribbon. Her yellow eyes starting to shine with her growing concentration.
"NIMUE WHAT DID YOU BRING INTO OUR HOME!?" She shouts out...causing a realisation to hit me , 'they're all going to kick me out, aren't they? They're going to leave me alone. Again.'
A sudden empowerment filling me when a hand weighs onto my shoulder, looking back and catching sight of a grinning Irene. She leans closer to my ear, "Not if you silence them all...you can do that Jackson..." The mental walls Yue set up, exploding and bursting one by one as the ribbon begins to tear...the fragments of the walls seeping out from the ribbon and colouring the air around us..."You aren't happy here" My lips begin to move.
The dense space around us becoming unbreathable for her, "You think your mate is weak, you deserve something better. You are better"
"Stop" She weakly speaks
The numbness to my body making it foreign to me, "You think Percy's to blame for all of this, you still resent him" She falls to a knee with tears in her eyes.
"Jackson!" Nimue wraps her arms around my body, "Stop this please!" She continues to beg as my vision zooms into nothing more than the teary eyes of Yue.
My mouth opening once more to silence her...permanently, "You wish Per-" a blood curdling howl breaking us apart, throwing us to either wall as everyone in the room freezes. The once singular eye, now nearly pieced together as facial features formed from the sparks released between me and Yue.
-
Nimue's POV
A sight to behold as the figure Yue released now holds a near physical form compared to the hazed one, one that we all recognise. "Crest...isn't a Lycan" Adam extends his hand out to the half formed beast.
"Yue if that isn't Fenrir then what the fuck is that!?" He screams to her body. "Shit" He kisses through his teeth, realising she's no longer conscious. "You don't have to do this again, fuck I'm sorry" His guilt obvious as he brushes her hair from her eyes, staring back at the beast that still hasn't moved.
Its floating stature holding the same gold and violet eyes that sting through my embedded memories. No longer waiting for the commotion in the room to die down, it speaks with a distorted voice. "This will do. For now." Placing its paw on Percy's head, flowing back into him and shifting him back into his human state. The faint grey that flowed around the figure now completely dissipated as the room's lighting fades back to black.
I make my way to the doors, hoping to find a lantern from just outside to bring in. Noticing them already slid open and the two I brought here, now missing. How badly did I just screw up...
"He didn't-mean to" Yue coughs out, getting back up but leaning against Adam. "He just thought he could help"
"Wasn't he trying to harm you?" Adam questions, setting her down on a chair.
"No, 𝘩𝘦 wasn't. I felt nothing-but guilt and sadness from that boy." She stutters a bit as some tears form from her.
"What's wrong?" I kneel down to her, feeling like I'm partially to blame for this.
"I mean what he was saying was false right? Even you can't see that deep into people" Adam awkwardly laughs it off, rubbing his hand on her back.
She looks at him with her normal eyes, standing back up to near equal his height. "My gift is to see the emotion of others...that wasn't what he was doing. He saw 𝘮𝘦, he was pulling 𝘮𝘦 out of my own body" She breathes out a final time to compose herself. "Ryan, go find the two that left this room. And Nimue can you explain where exactly you found them?"
"Will do" He gets himself up from the floor, darting out through the doors and down the hall without another word.
"I mean sure, anything you want. But I have to say I don't know much other than that's Alpha Keyon. The man who went missing and eventually found his way back here to what remnants of his pack were left." I answer as best as I can while Adam leads us to his room on this side of the wing. Picking up Percy under his arm while Yue leans on me.
"And the boy?" I set her down, handing her a glass of water by Adam's bed as he tucks Percy in.
"He was with Keyon when I saw him, he doesn't remember much of where he came from or who he was but he jumped up on the pedestal with Oracion's sword...Oh! He said he was looking for his friend?"
"And the girl?" She places it down, staring at me but mimicking my confused expression with a tilted head. "The girl with white hair!?"
"I haven't seen any girl, Yue"
"She was in the room with us, holding his shoulder!"
"I didn't see anyone, I promise you" I assure her
"She was staring right at you..."
"Maybe you just saw something in the heat of the moment, we can ask him about it once we find him again. Yeah?" Adam gets up from the bed to leave the room.
"And where are you going?" She quickly jumps to her feet at the thought of being left behind.
"To find them? Or do you want me to watch over you like a baby, Mrs Alpha" He smirks knowing her pride wouldn't allow that.
"I'll stay within the pack house to ensure they aren't hiding inside, let me know if anything happens."
"Will do!" He waves off, closing the door behind him.
"Well...I'm probably gonna stay here with Mr Luna to make sure someone's here when he wakes up." I speak as she fixes her hair in the mirror. "And Yue, even if what he was saying had the slightest bit of truth within it. I won't believe it for your sake, don't let anyone read your life for you as ironic as that is" I laugh out alongside her
A hint of guilt hits her eyes but she shrugs it off, "Thank you Nimue, I'll be going now. Goodbye" She copies the same wave as Adam, once again closing it behind her.
Leaving me to monitor sleeping beauty..."babysitting duty for someone the same age as me", damn does that have a weird ring to it when spoken into reality. Oddly fancying something sweet I dull the craving with the rest of Yue's water...only to find an unmistakeable sweetness hitting my lips, huh. Knowing my luck I just indirectly sucked the blood of a rabbit from her hunt outside, yay...god I quite literally live with animals...don't I.