"If he's calling this trial, he's definitely up to something. It could be for his son?"
"Well, her symptoms are fascinating! It has to be what it is, he think she's a rogue!"
"But if he did, he would've just killed her!"
"He can't! She's with us. Plus, she's not a rogue, obviously, so why the fuck would he care about a trial? He's connected to them. He has to be!"
"We don't know for sure until we get to the trial. We'll just have to wait and see."
"May, just prepare foâ"
"All three of you, shut up! We're not preparing for shit until she wakes up! None of this matters right now!"
Well, with all of this noise, I'm bound to wake up!
I get up with a groan, but it's quickly cut off with a gasp as a sharp pain stabs the right side of the body. I immediately go to cup the area and find it's covered by a large wrap that trails around my stomach.
The clothes I'm wearing are not my clothes. The large black sweatshirt and sweatpants positively drown my body. I pause after evaluating my clothes. This bed is not my bed. I snap my head up to inspect my surroundings and zero in on the 4 people standing at the foot of the bed.
Or should I say, 4 lycans.
Corban, a male and female lycan I've never seen before, and Kairos.
I eye them suspiciously. Before I can say anything, Kairos flashes to my side, carefully brushing the area where my torso is wrapped with his hand.
"Are you alright? Does anything hurt?"
He's touching me. Oh my Goddess, he's touching me!
Wait. Why is he touching me?
My eyes widen as I inadvertently slap my palm to the side of my head.
What the fuck happened?
I squeeze my eyes shut as I try to recall how I got here.
I saw Blessing and Maxton together. They were kissing. Then I fought with my parents and Blessing. Oh Goddess, I threw the side table at the wall. Then I was at the Archives. Then I was dying.
I was dying.
And then he-
"Hazel?" His voice is soft as he raises a hand to mine, which is still clutching the side of my head. My eyes widen at the movements and I finally meet his silver eyes.
Silver.
The same shade that the sapling was. The sapling in my bonds. How is that possible?
His touching is so comforting, so peaceful. With little thought, my muscles relax, and my hand drops.
He marked me.
Before I can think of a response, the door to the room slams open, and I jump away from his touch. Cora and Sabrina come rushing in, beelining to the other side of the bed. Allistar breezes in after them, making sure to hold the door open for his mate.
"Hazel! Oh, thank goodness, you're alright!" Sabrina cries out, throwing her arms over my shoulders to pull me into a hug. I pause and awkwardly pat her on the back.
"Give her some room," Kairos says quietly but distinctively, prying her hands off of me. She doesn't seem to register his words but lets go of me anyway.
"I'm sorry, Hazel! I'm so sorry!" Sabrina exclaims again, clutching one of my hands.
"Me too! We shouldn't have let you go," Cora says with a shaky breath, gripping my other hand.
"They're right. Apologies are in order." Corban declares, rounding the foot of the bed to where his packmates are standing, "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have told them to let you go. I thought we had more time. But I grossly misjudged, and then this happened. We should've done more. I'm sorry, Hazel."
What the hell is going on?
"You-you don't have to apologize. I didn't know what was going on either," I stumble out, very taken aback by their words. "What happened?"
They all exchange looks with one another, clearly trying to figure out where to begin.
"Apologies, sir, if I could step in here," the unknown female lycan asks, stepping towards me. She's tall and pale, with impeccably neat brown hair pulled in a slicked-back bun, and she's wearing a perfectly tailored pantsuit. Her aura practically screams don't fuck with me!
"Hazel, my name is May Essa. I am the Royal Messenger and Ambassador of King Lycanus VIII. What is the last thing you remember?"
What the fuck is the Royal Messenger doing here?
"I was dying," I pause, glancing over at Kairos. "And..."
"And?" She prods, gesturing me to continue.
"Did Kairos mark me?" I question, not sure if it was real. I can feel the marking humming between my shoulder and neck, bonding me to him. But I need to ask anyway. Just in case, I imagined it in my delirious haze.
"He did. If he didn't, you would've died. May I ask why you were dying?" She prods again, making the bizarre question sound normal and polite.
"Why I was dying?"
"Why or how? Either works."
"I did it."
"And why did you do it?"
"And how?! Bloody hell, that wound could have been extremely nasty if it was deeper!" The unknown male lycan next to her exclaims, pointing at his clipboard. "Would've hit this major artery! Lots of internal bleeding, I'll tell ya'. Would've been a mad bugger to fix! And look-y here, you got all these puncture wounds-"
"Dr. Yechelstein!" May hisses out, barely maintaining her perfect composure, "Perhaps we let Hazel do the talking?" With a roll of his eyes, he just mutters out a "yeah, yeah" and nods his head.
"I thought I was turning rogue," I respond quietly, and they pause.
"Thought? Why?"
"I mean, I was," I insist. May gestures for me to go on. "I had all of the symptoms. My bonds were gone. I wasn't feeling any pain. And all I could think about was how angry I was and how I wanted to kill everyone. My eyes were yellow, too. I was becoming a rogue. I know it."
"And you tried to kill yourself before you fully turned?" She clarifies.
"Yes."
It's quiet for a moment.
"How'd you know how to do it?" Dr. Yechelstein speaks up. His curiousness is obvious as he leans to look at me like I'm some prized specimen behind his large glasses.
"I read about it in some scientific journal that my father had ages ago. If you pierce this major artery-"
"You don't have to explain it to me, girly! I know at least 10 different ways to pierce every major artery in the human body! But how were you in the state of mind to think and do it if you were turning rogue?"
It's my turn to pause as I think about how to answer
"Hazel remembers everything she reads," Corban answers for me. I nod. That's a good enough explanation.
"It was really hard. But I tried to think about anything other than how angry I was. I forced myself to recall random facts from things I read. Then I remembered that. And I used my claws."
Dr. Yechelstein hums to himself as he leans in closer to me.
"Fascinating! No wolf has ever resisted turning into a rogue for that long, but it seems like you have! And it also seems like," he peers down at his clipboard again, "all your rogue symptoms are gone."
Rogue symptoms are gone. Gone. GONE?
"What?! That's impossible!" I exclaim. I've read almost every case study on rogues ever, and no one, has ever come back from being a rogue. No one. There's no way. There's no cure.
"Well, you certainly aren't acting like one. Do you feel like a rogue?"
"No?"
"Thoughts of revenge?"
"No."
"Thoughts of biting my head off or scratching my eyes out?"
"No!"
"Feel this?"
He harshly pinches my shin, and I jump. Kairos growls in warning.
"Ouch! Yes!"
"Then you're not a rogue," he declares, ignoring the silver-eyed male glaring at him. "I believe it has something to do with being marked by a lycan before fully shifting into a rogue. It established a new bond. You can't be a rogue and still have bonds, obviously. Plus, when a regular wolf is marked by a lycan, they also begin the process of turning into a lycan. Lycans have amazing regenerative abilities, which explains how the fatal wound in your artery healed. Of course, you still have the external wound on your stomach, but it'll be fine in a couple of days."
I'm turning into a lycan?
"I believe you're done here then? Dr. Yechelstein?" May asks dryly, obviously itching to have the peculiar man out of the room.
"Well, if Hazel's isn't so sure about being a rogue, there is a way we could test it," he grins with a gleam in his eye, his giddy attitude resembling that of a mad scientist. "We could see how Hazel reacts when her bonds are taken away! You know, I have the perfect drug for this! Worked on it me-self. It's this little pathogen that mimics the feeling of no bonds, nasty lil' bugger, but I just want to see what happens if we-"
"Absolutely NOT!" Kairos roars, and Dr. Yechelstein immediately shuts his mouth with a frown. Kairos pinches his nose and lets out a sigh, regaining his lost composure. "You are dismissed, Doctor."
"Just a little test? A teensy weenie tiny little test?" He begs with a small grin.
"You. Are. Dismissed." Kairos grits out. Dr. Yechelstein lets out a huff as he turns to walk out of the room. Not without complaint, though, since he's mumbling about being forced to travel thousands of miles to stare at a girl on a bed for eight hours. May rolls her eyes and turns to me.
"Hazel, can you tell us why you were turning rogue? Typically, there is a trigger?" May takes the conversation again.
How do I tell them I was rejected? That my mate left me for my sister? That my parents took her side? This is humiliating!
"I heard your mate rejected you, but that was before Kairos and Allistar traveled to the Lycan Palace, so that couldn't have triggered it. Something else must have made you lose your bonds. Can you please explain?" May carries on, ever so politely and calmly.
Well. There it is. I have been thoroughly humiliated before I even knew I was thoroughly humiliated!
"My family," I mumble. "I got into a fight with them."
"Please describe this fight?"
I squeeze my eyes shut and suck in a breath. I really don't want to talk about this.
A comforting brush on my shoulder makes me flutter my eyes open, and I see Kairos looking at me. On my other side, Sabrina and Cora are still gripping my hands, squeezing them lightly as to say, it's okay. Go on.
"Hazel," Kairos calls out in the same soft voice, causing a shudder to run down my spine.
The way he says my name sounds so nice.
I blink.
Now is not the time to think like a horn-dog, Hazel! Focus!
"Alpha Briar called a trial. A trial on you. Because he thinks you turned rogue. We need this information to prove your innocence. Any information you feel comfortable sharing would help us in fighting this. But only if you're comfortable." Kairos explains. Alpha Briar called a trial on me? On me?! Why?
"Lord Kairos is right," May interjects. "We're presuming he'll use this trial to control you in some way. Either give you the death penalty, investigate you, or force you into mating his son, who I understand was originally your wolf-shifter mate?"
I nod.
"We doubt he'll get anything on you, especially since we're intervening. But if we can prove that his pack shunned you, he'll be held responsible, and you'll be free of any consequences. But in order to do that, I need to understand what happened." She continues.
I look at Kairos again. He gives me an encouraging nod and lays a light hand on my shoulder. I look at May.
"Alright. I walked in on my mate, Maxton Briar, and sister, Blessing Wren, on the couch together. Kissing. I knew he rejected me for someone else, but I didn't know it was her. My parents took her side. We fought. My bond with them broke. It was the last strong one I had. That was the trigger."
The room is so quiet you can hear a pin drop.
After a breath, I launch into the tale, explaining how Blessing almost died at birth, my mom's favoritism, and my dad's cowardice, and how it created a hostile dynamic between my sister and me. I narrate all the way to my rejection and what happened after. How Arthur recognized the shunning and vowed to do something about it. May adds that Arthur is an outstanding trainee at the Lycan Palace and was recently asked to return for some extra training, which explains his absence.
I tell them about my symptoms and how the three weeks after my rejection felt. Sabrina and Cora squeeze my hands when I explain how being around the two of them and Corban kept me afloat and mention how Florentine also provided support. I finally tell them what happened last night, how I rushed to the Archives to die but was marked by Kairos instead.
"Thank you for sharing, Hazel. We definitely have a case with this," she nods firmly. Then, interestingly, she turns to Corban. "What do you suggest are the next steps? The trial starts in an hour?"
"Allistar? With this information, how long will it take you to make the case?" He defers to Sabrina's mate, who's leaning against the wall next to the door.
"I'll need to reach out to Arthur at the Palace and get in touch with this Florentine. Probably an hour. Maybe less. I'll need May, you, and Kairos. Rina and Cora should go with Hazel to the trial." Allistar responds, his deep voice rumbling with a tone of finality.
His packmates nod, seemingly trusting his plan without a word, but Kairos seems hesitant.
"I want to go with her. Sabrina can stay back?" he suggests. Allistar pushes himself off the wall.
"I knew you'd say that. And I get it. I'd be the same. But I need you on this. Okay? I can't make this case without you. The quicker we finish this, the quicker you can be with her," He says, comforting his friend. Corban nods along with Allistar.
They're not just friends. Their bond seems much closer. They're like brothers. Kairos releases a heavy sigh and whispers out an agreement.
"Great!" May claps her hands. "Let's get to it. We'll start working on this. Lady Cora, Lady Sabrina, please grab some suitable clothes for Hazel." She ushers the rest of the lycans out of the room. The door shuts.
Then it's just me and Kairos.
Me and a lycan.
Me and the lycan who's supposed to be my mate!
Me and my mate?
Me and Kairos, who is my mate?!
How could all of this happen in 24 hours?!
Word Count: 2487 words
yall we are SOOOOO BACK (back from the dead that is) (bc hazel almost died) (but she didn't) (she's so back)
sorry for the somewhat long wait! i don't think I'll be able to keep up with the biweekly updates aka 2 updates a week. I think biweekly is the word? if its not I profusely apologize. English is actually my first language but I'm just an idiot. also I'm too lazy to google it.
I'll most likely only be able to do weekly updates but worry NOT I will still try my best to update twice a week here and there!
also guys. i logged off this app for like 4 days and when I came back THERE WERE SO MANY COMMENTS. AND READS. ITS AMAZING. HELLO NEW READERS! I HOPE YOURE ENJOYING!!!!! I HOPE YOU LIKE THE BOOK!! THANK YOU FOR PICKING IT UP!!! I LOVE YOU!! (imagine me saying this outside your window with a megaphone after throwing rocks at the glass to get your attention bc I love you)
ANYWAYS. ik this chapter wasn't that crazy but it was for the PLOTTT. worry not tho, we will see more of kairos and the lycans soon ;).
there was SO much dialogue. i hope it wasn't too confusing!! what do yall think of May and Dr. Yechelstein???
UNTIL NEXT TIME MY JAANSSS PLEASE REMEMBER TO COMMENT AND VOTE AND LIKE AND READ AND COMMENT AND VOTE AND DRINK WATER!!
I hope you have a wonderful day jaani!
love, libahrary