“Knox?” July called his name, her voice trembling as he approached her. His dark eyes were fixed on her and he didn’t even blink as he walked closer and closer.
For some unknown reason, at this moment, July feared him, the same feeling that she felt when he acted out of his character before. He had shown this side of him once in the past when there was a small pack of werewolves, who wanted to ask for shelter in the McKeltar mansion.
However, Knox turned them down and that was the first time July saw how cruel Knox could be. He didn’t feel like himself at that time, but because that was just a one time event, she brushed it off and didn’t think much about it.
But now, Knox happened to become like that again.
“Knox, stop it,” July said, her voice was trembling, but from the corner of her eyes, she could see Flo fly out of the room. Good, at least she was safe right now. “It is me, don’t you remember me?”
July was afraid that she made a wrong move, so she didn’t initiate anything. She stayed still and let Knox approach her.
At first, he just stared at her and then growled viciously, but when he didn’t get the reaction that he wanted, Knox tilted his head, as if he was trying to assess the woman before his eyes.
“July...” Knox called her name. His voice was a little bit rougher than usual. He then extended his hand to touch her face, as he caressed her cheek. “July...”
He kept calling her name, as he stared at her.
.....
At this point, Knox looked like he was fighting with himself, he tried to keep this memory in his head and didn’t want to let go of it completely.
“Yes, it is me,” July replied to her. She was a little bit surprised, but she liked the way he called her name nonetheless. It meant he remembered her and that was all that mattered. “It is me. I am here.”
Knox nodded and then leaned over to rest his head on her shoulder. He breathed heavily, as he wrapped his arms around her body.
July’s body was so warm against his and her scent helped greatly with the headache Knox was fighting right now.
“Let’s move you to the bed, okay?” July rubbed his back, in order to give him comfort.
Knox still remembered her, even though he lost himself for a moment a little bit earlier, but for her, he would always find a way back.
“Stay away from that little girl...” Knox whispered to her. “Stay away from her.”
Little girl? Did he mean Flo? But, why?
July blinked her eyes. Did Knox mean what he said or was it only him talking in his delirious state? She couldn’t confirm anything from him because after that, Knox lost his balance and fell to the ground. He almost knocked her down to the floor as well.
If it was not for Sebastian, who rushed into the room, with Flo behind him and a few shifters, July wouldn’t be able to take Knox back to the bed.
In this mess, July took a glance at Flo, she looked at her in puzzlement. Knox’s words bothered her greatly.
“Aunty, are you all right?” Flo asked July with her innocent voice, as she looked at her with concern. “I am so surprised that Uncle Knox suddenly woke up and choked me.” She slightly teared up when she said that.
“Is that true?” Sebastian turned around to face July when he heard that, after he put down Knox on the bed with the help of the other shifters.
“What?” July snapped back to reality. “What is true?”
“Knox wanted to choke her?” Sebastian narrowed his eyes when he heard that. He could feel it, there was something wrong with Knox, ever since he heard the massacre that he did outside of the McKeltar walls when a small pack of werewolves came looking for shelter.
“No,” July replied lightly. She lied blatantly, but it sounded like a fact. “I think Flo was just startled, so she didn’t really know what was happening. She is just a child after all.” July smiled at Flo and tousled her head. “You must be surprised, I will treat you to ice cream, okay?”
Flo narrowed her eyes slightly, but then she smiled sweetly at July. “I love ice cream.”
This was the first time for Sebastian to finally talk to July again, but she didn’t really think about it at all, as she walked past him with Flo.
======================
Eros accompanied Emily to meet Ariana, so she could check her wounds and put new ointment on them.
For now, Emily was still reluctant to walk out of their bedroom. She didn’t even want to meet Ariana at her place if she was not accompanied by Eros, since she didn’t want anyone to stare at her or mock her.
Eros couldn’t blame her for that. He was aware of how bad these shifters had treated her because she was human and now, she literally had scars on her face. It wouldn’t be easy for her.
No. It would never be easy for her at all.
Because Emily didn’t want Eros to see her face clearly when Ariana cleaned her wounds, she asked him to wait outside of the room.
And so here Eros was, leaning his body against the wall adjoining the infirmary door when he heard people were talking in the distance. He recognized their voices, after all, he had heard them enough to memorize them, even though he didn’t want to.
At first, Eros didn’t mind it at all, because he didn’t want to socialize with them. Aside from the fact that they used to bully Emily, he didn’t like them in person either.
However, his ears perked up when he heard them mention Emily’s name. They were talking about her and this made his blood boil in anger because they mentioned her name in a lewd way.
Eros was still deciding whether or not it was necessary for him to approach them and make them stop talking about her in such a way, when he heard the context of their conversation.
Inside the room, near the infirmary room, where Ariana was tending to Emily’s wounds, there were Josh, Derek, Kyle and another three young warriors, talking about how pitiful it was for Emily to have deformed appearance now after Eros attacked her.
Yes, the whole pack knew about this and no one could confirm from where they caught wind of this, but now they were well aware about Emily’s scars. No one would be bold enough to talk about it in front of Eros directly, though.
“What a pity. She got a scar on her face.” Derek clicked his tongue, as he talked to the other boys there.
They just finished their training and came to chill in one of the rooms, while talking nonsense to kill time until dinner was ready.
“Yeah, she should have known better than sleeping in the same room as that young lycan,” Kyle chimed in.
“Agreed, she should sleep with one of us instead!” Derek threw a lewd joke, which made the other boys laugh out loud. “But, don’t worry, I have a picture of her when she still had her beautiful face.”
Derek pulled out his phone and showed it to the other guys.
Emily was a human, but in this whole pack, she could be said as the most beautiful young girl here. It was a pity that she was a human, because if she was not, every boy would line up to wait for her seventeenth birthday to know who would be her mate.
“Look! I also have her picture in her undies...” Derek said with bright eyes, as he showed it to the other boys, who were not there when he took this picture.
They went to Emily’s room when Eros was away with the alpha and bullied her.
“Where!?” The boys looked excited. “I should have been there to see her myself. You should invite me next time.”
Derek waved his hand. “It will be difficult now because Eros is here.”
The six of them were too engrossed with Emily’s pictures that Derek took. Some of the pictures were from when she was bullied, some were candid shots and some were better if left untouched and not shown, since it was inappropriate.
They immersed themselves in this moment, until none of them was aware that Eros had been in the room and caught a glance of what kinds of pictures that Derek had.
Needless to say, he saw red and marched toward them, as he snatched the phone and looked at the pictures himself.
“WHAT THE HELL?!” Derek was furious because someone took his phone, but his anger immediately died down when he saw Eros had his phone. He was now swiping all the pictures furiously.
Eros saw everything. From the pictures that he saw, he could determine what kind of sordid things that they had done to Emily.
On the other hand, Derek was dreading to see how mad Eros was. He had fought him countless times, but not even once could he take him down.
It was as expected from the person, who had taken down the previous beta in an Atbikai fight, right?
However, he didn’t want to back down, it would be embarrassing to do that now.