Chapter 8: Destiny
The four finished their dinners in record time. The loud sounds of their feasting had drawn many looks from the hotel guests around them. Small children had openly stared. Adults nearby were on edge, feeling an unstoppable tendril of fear crawl up their spines. Rabbits in the presence of even tame dogs will feel it. The natural urge to flee.
But it hadn't lasted long. Demyx had swallowed his steak nearly whole and had then downed numerous baskets of complementary bread sticks. He was the one paying, after all. Though his stomach surely called for at least three more steaks, his wallet protested otherwise. Namine was the second to finish. Axel the third. The last minutes of their meal together were spent watching the boy stuff chunks into his mouth as fast as he could. Even then, he was still the slowest eater of the table. Axel enjoyed the sight. Another mark of his humanity. He didn't understand why exactly he didn't want the boy to have Lycan blood.
Yes. That was what had gnawed at his mind as surely as his own fangs had gnawed at his steak. Was the boy a Lycan, or wasn't he?
Lycans are strong. Brave. You should be happy for him.
Axel sighed. His inner-wolf had spoken. A happening that always made his gut wrench in dissatisfaction.
Why? Why was he suddenly so apt to begrudge his instincts?
It's the humans. All these humans. They are changing you. It's time to leave.
Axel hid his clenched teeth behind a napkin. I can't leave. Not yet. The boy….
The boy has his wolf. He can fend for himself now.
The boy is not a wolf.
He is. You feel it. We both do.
I don't want this for him!
Because…?
The red-head twitched, his foot knocking the leg of their table and rattling the forks and knives. Because! Because that means….means he will have to live what I've lived through. Fighting off the Pack. Surviving the cold, the hunts. He is so young...
They were looking at him now. Axel sighed and found the boy's eyes. Crystalline blue eyes that had not witnessed death or suffering. Not yet. He is safer with the humans. Living a life here… Here with microwaveable foods and beds and..and..
Safer, without you? Stop lying to yourself.
He is part Lycan. Rejoice, Brother. Rejoice and admit him to where he belongs. At your side. In our New Pack.
"Enough!" Axel yelled, roaring to his feet.
A sea of gasps met his ear and he looked around, meeting the eyes of pale humans. A lady dressed in pink had a piece of lettuce raised halfway to her mouth. It hung forgotten as she gazed at him in breathless fright. Then the waiters. They stood huddled by the kitchen, sticking close to the wall with their trays pressed to their chests like shields.
The red-head let out a growl of frustration. Oh great. He looked to his two packmates. Demyx quickly stuffed the last piece of his bread behind his teeth and stood. "I'll…uh…I'll just leave the money here." He flipped open his wallet and planted a wad of cash in the center of the table. He left more than necessary. Wisely, since the latest spectacle would surely warrant the attention of his boss. The medic put a hand on Namine's back, helping her rise. "I'm so stuffed! Definitely time to hit the hay," he called for all to hear. He looked at the waiters, jerking his head towards the table staring the most. Responding to a senior employee, the men in black suits snapped to attention and resumed their paths amidst the tables. People continued eating. The noise level swirled back to normalcy. Demyx smiled tightly at Axel and his aqua eyes said it all. Let's not make any more of a scene.
"Whatever," he huffed. He jammed his hands in his pockets and used his long legs to get ahead. He bypassed tables and chairs like a winding snake. Soon, he was out in the lobby. Axel took in a clear breath.
He'd been stubborn for too long. Fighting his instincts was a losing battle. Fighting against his Brother Wolf, a signature etched across his every strand DNA, was even worse. It was sabotage. I'll ask him tonight. Green eyes stared out of the glass of the hotel's double doors. The darkness of night rolled out like a blanket upon the city. A thousand lights of stores and street lights were like fireflies under the sable fabric.
I'll…ask him to stay. A humming in his chest was the answer of his wolf. A firm approval.
Axel smiled thinly. His hands slicked back stray spikes of hair against his temples. Finally, we're in agreement.
Demyx and Namine entered his senses. They walked ahead of him and flashed blue eyes his way. If you wanted to leave, you could have just said so, Namine told him gently. He shrugged. My instincts. They're….they're making a choice for me. The girl stopped. The medic stopped too, his hand still on her back. Their ears pricked forwards as they waited expectantly. Obediently.
"What do you choose, Alpha?" she whispered. Her blood was racing. A sharp smile held her lips. Demyx watched him guardedly. "Whatever it is," the medic said, his grip tightening on Namine ",-let it wait till' morning." Axel sobered. He watched the face of his old friend. I will not force you to leave this place, Demyx. This is your job. I won't uproot your life here. I have already asked too much of you…. The medic stiffened.
Then, his shoulders relaxed and his signature, languid smile came out.
Ax, you know I must follow. Blue eyes lowered to rest on the palest head of blonde hair. He inhaled her scent soundlessly and his smile widened. When he looked back to Axel, Demyx's face was dark with purpose. "Truthfully, I'm getting a bit bored of this place anyway." The red-head grinned and clapped the other man on the shoulder.
Life was rolling forwards, as it always did. Change was biting at their heels.
"Thank you for dinner, my friend," he said and they nodded. The two Lycans continued down the hall and up towards the abandoned lounge. Namine cast a silver wink over her shoulder. Axel frowned. Suddenly, she looked so much older to him. Her body close to Demyx's as she walked, the night casting her skin several shades rosier. Where is the little wolf who collected pinecones and chased her tail? The girl had matured since they left the forest. With the absence of Pack, she seemed to change every day. To bloom and grow into the exotic flower she was.
The two Lycans were almost out of sight. But before they turned a corner, Namine tripped and pitched ungracefully forwards with a yip. Demyx caught her, of course, and the two laughed softly to each other. Axel shook his head. Ah. There she is.
His lips twisted and turned to watch Roxas detach himself from the restaurant doors.
OooOooooOo
"Um- what was all that about?" the boy asked. He came to a stop by Axel, wiping steak juices form his chin. He hadn't yet been finished when Demyx chose to briskly usher them out.
Axel smiled apologetically. "I don't mix to well with crowded places," he offered lamely. This was true once… But he had long ago accustomed himself to the stink and noise of human bodies crammed into one place. The human experience was part of the job. They were his targets and his victims. Adapting to their fumbling, graceless ways was a trail that all Pack….all of Xemnas' Pack had been forced to undergo.
Roxas responded in empathy. "Oh….oh right. I forgot that your senses are…so much sharper than mine." Axel smiled. The boy confused him, delighted him. He may have grown used to their stink, but he would never grow used to their emotions. Their ability to feel. The prey feeling bad for the predator. Just another of the boy's many quirks.
Axel started walking towards the doors. "A walk outside should help me clear my head."
His heart warmed slightly as he heard the boy trail after him. "Yeah, me too."
Axel pushed open the doors and reveled in the brisk air. He hadn't been outside in a couple days. Underneath the smells of exhaust and metal and sewage, he smelled it. Smelled the moist mixture of snow and soil. The green shards of cold pine needles. Even the diluted wisps of furry animals foraging and sleeping. The forest. His only true home.
It took in a heavy lungful and let it all out as a puff of water vapor.
The two of them walked down the sidewalk and around the massive hotel. They walked until the main building was behind them and a fence enclosing the property was a foot away. Axel leaned against it, straining towards the trees so far away but not out of reach.
"You miss it?"
Axel looked up. The dark clouds of winter blocked out the sea of stars. But he knew they were there. Spheres of light blazing in the black sky.
"Yes."
He turned to the boy. Roxas had crouched down in the clipped grass. He rolled a blade between pink fingers. "That's your home, right?" Axel said nothing. "There's no way you live in the city. That's why we're in a hotel. Because you don't live here and you never have. You live out there." He motioned with his chin to the forest miles away.
Axel smiled, glad for the darkness. Something had happened over dinner. A barrier had been crossed. Axel no longer felt like he was drowning in an ocean of confusion. For, dealing with a human that called to his instincts but confounded his reason was indeed a stressful ordeal. Did the knowledge that Ventus was the boy's grandfather provide the answer to all his questions? What that the reason he was so drawn? Axel couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it instantly. He eyes. The hair. They were nearly identical.
But Ventus is a blur to me. A specter of my past. This boy is here, now.
And, best of all, the boy had learned to talk to him, too. No longer did they fumble with social schemas. They had, whether they knew it or not, saved each other's lives. Roxas freed me from a life I didn't want. I gave Roxas the life he was searching for. This was a bond that didn't need analyzing or dissecting. It was there, strong.
"You've figured me all out then, have you?" Axel said softly.
He wondered how much the boy had questioned his strange savior's motives. How many nights red hair and green eyes had kept him awake at night, staring at the ceiling. Don't flatter yourself, fool. The Alpha's hands tightened on the metal links under his fingers. He could snap them like threads if he wanted. He could run and run and never return to humanity. Demyx and Namine would follow and we would cross back over those mountains, away from this wretched place. I'd never see those blue eyes again..
"No, I haven't." Axel looked down and the boy was looking up. He raised a crimson brow. "I don't know if….if you're going to leave now."
Axel swallowed thickly.
The boy continued. "I'm healed. Of course that's thanks to you. And you have my thanks. I owe you my life." Without looking, Axel could see the human so clearly in his mind's eye. He was curled, facing the ground. His muscles were tense, his mouth a hard line. His hands uncurled from their sweaty fists and slipped under his sweater. Axel almost felt those fingers run over his own flesh. He shivered. The boy touched his chest where the lacerations once split the skin. Now, he felt only whole flesh. Beautiful, unmarred flesh. A healing akin to that only of a Lycan.
Axel kept these thoughts to himself. The boy had no idea of his second bloodline. It was up to Axel to teach him. Wasn't it? Wasn't it already catalogued into his master plan to take the boy into the forest and help him discover claws and fangs?
The image this inspired was upsetting.
He didn't even know if the boy could transform. Sure he could heal, he could eat. But, what was naked skin and blunt, human teeth in the harsh depths of the pine trees..
He blinked when the boy's voice rung out again in the chill air.
"I owe you everything, Axel." Green eyes met blue. "But, you don't owe me a thing."
Roxas got to his feet. He rubbed his hands and breathed a misty breath onto them. Axel kept his face blank as the boy watched him. "You have your friend, Demyx. A Lycan like you, right? Because you're all Lycans. A pack." The redhead nodded slowly. The boy had never spoken this much before, and certainly not with as serious a tone.
Here we go.
The boy's heartbeat was quickening. "You have Demyx and you have her." Roxas smiled blandly. "Namine. She's your girlfriend right?"
Axel frowned. It took him a moment to recall the human meaning for the word 'girlfriend'. It was roughly the equivalent of a Lycan mate. The image of his Namine as his mate was a jarring one. It turned his blood to ice. Namine? The wolfling he had protected and cared for like a sister? No. Never would such a thing occur between them. He cared for her more deeply than any of their former Pack. Demyx of course, occupied the second largest spot in his instinctual heart. Both wolves were lives he had taken ownership of. They were his to protect and his to nurture. He was Alpha. But anything more than that was out of the question. Demyx and Namine were practically mated as it was.
Axel rubbed his eyes and forcibly recovered from his shock.
"Roxas, Namine is my packmate. Not my mate. You misunderstand."
The boy's eyes widened. Then he looked away, the tips of his ears heating.
"I've seen you two together. Hugging and…and..," he said softly, picking at the dry grass.
Axel sat down besides Roxas, refusing a grin. The human's misinterpretation of Pack affection was slightly amusing. Thinking back, Axel and Namine hadn't been the chastest of packmembers in front of Roxas.
Axel leaned down to nuzzle the patch of skin underneath her ear. "Thank you, Namine," he whispered. Had she been in wolf form, her tail would have been wagging uncontrollably.
Namine leaned against Axel's shoulder and he watched her gently. "It feels right. Feels like a home." Her face retreated deeper into her hood. Axel gently tucked some hair behind her ear.
Then, she balanced on her tiptoes and smeared the scent jelly across Axel's nape. She stood, supported on his chest, for a minute a two before she was done. Roxas cleared his throat noisily and the two stepped apart.
Axel looked back on these moments and shook his head with a smile. Hugging and nuzzling and touching were not amorous in nature for wolves. It was simply Pack bonding. Physical contact only strengthened bonds. And Axel had watched Namine grow up. They were practically 'family' by human terms and consequently had a very strong bond.
"Roxas, she is more of a sibling to me than anything. We are Pack. That's how it is." He hoped those words would clear it all up. He wasn't the best at explaining. Because, these days, he hardly understood anything at all. Pack rules go without saying. They can not be explained easily… Especially not to mortals.
The boy regarded his face critically. The blue eyes were drops of ink in the night. Axel allowed himself to be studied. After a moment, the boy looked away. "Oh…," he breathed quietly. The Lycan felt the boy's relief permeate the air.
It clicked. Green eyes expanded. Axel new the boy's next words before he said them.
"Well…. It doesn't change anything. You guys are a pack. I know that… But I'm not. I'm just an outsider. You saved me but now you all will leave and…and well. Well I've gotten' kinda' used to you guys…" The boys smirked coldly, trying to detach himself from the emotions toiling in his chest.
Axel moved.
A hand closed over the boy's shoulder. Roxas jerked beneath the palm, face twisting as if burned. Axel noted the reaction belatedly while speaking- seeking to remedy the boy's fears and his own.
"Roxas, I understand that you are on a journey. Believe me. You left your home. Now, your have no where to go back to. But if you really wish to stay with us, I will allow it. We all will."
The boy's face was hot. Axel could see the blood swirling like currents underneath the skin. Blue eyes shed their veil of darkness, glowing once more like crystals of sapphire. The Lycan frowned as the boy let loose a blinding smile. "Really? You…you'll let me stay?"
Axel should have been pleased by the boy's obvious delight. He wanted to stay with Axel. He actually enjoyed their company. Axel should have been completely content. Finally, his most secret hope had been confirmed.
But Axel wasn't.
More than just excitement was moving in the boy. It had started when Axel touched him. Now, his brow was perspiring at an unusual rate. Even in thrall, humans did not sweat this much in such low temperatures. Axel removed his fingers and the boy swayed towards him.
"I…I wanna' thank you again Axel," the boy said, almost slurred. He blinked his eyes slowly and when they opened, his eyes were brighter than ever. Iridescent- actually emitting their own light. Human eyes did not do that. "You…you saved me. Healed m-me." Axel was alarmed now. He caught the boy's arms in both his hands and held him at a distance. Roxas had seemed to lose control of his muscles. He dropped limply in Axel's grasp, his neck struggling to support his head.
Was he reacting to medication perhaps? Was fatigue from his miraculous healing kicking in?
"Roxas. Roxas what's wrong?" Axel asked harshly, giving the boy a small shake. He needed feedback. Resorting to instincts, the red-head let out a breath and filled is lungs with a new one.
He gasped, fingers tightening like steel.
No. No, it can't be….
How?!
The boy's scent had changed. No longer was it solely human.
He smelled it.
Smelled the authentication of Roxas' theorized lineage.
Lycan.
It had entered the boy's skin, had dripped its way down into his muscle and skeleton.
Axel snapped to action. He dragged the boy into his arms, running his hand over the boy's burning forehead. "Roxas talk to me!" The boy was no longer smiling drunkenly. His wet face was contorted in concentrated pain. Pain like he had felt upon Xemnas' claws entering and ripping into his body. He vibrated against Axel's chest, a squirming and cracking of flesh and bone moving under his skin.
It was the transformation. It was possible, and it was happening. To Roxas. His Roxas.
Axel sprung to his feet. He knew what needed to be done. It was all happening so fast. But, he would stick to the plan. There was no returning to the hotel and parading under a façade of humanity any longer.
Roxas was coming with them to the forest. He would be shown his Lycan blood and taught how to live with it. And it starts now.
Axel crouched and summoned his massive stores of strength to his legs and feet. He rocketed off the ground and over the 10-ft fence. He landed liquidly; rolling into a sprint so fast, a human eye could not have followed it.
Behind him, he sent out signals to Namine and Demyx.
I somehow activated Roxas' Lycan blood. We are going to the forest. Meet me there and bring blankets, food and medicine. Take what you need.
We're not coming back.
Axel cast one more look at the boy in his arms, a being that never for a moment had stopped surprising him. His blonde hair was lengthening. From the wall of his clenched teeth, sharpening canines gleamed eerily. Axel felt his own wolf respond and push against his spirit. With a cocktail of fear and excitement brewing in his heart, Axel pushed off the ground with a burst of speed- zooming across the land like a bullet.
Together, they charged into a new destiny.
This time, I will protect him. I will protect us all.
OooOooo
Hello everyone! Sorry this update took so long. School, work . You know how it is. But I will always make time for this story when I receive a nice weekend of freedom. Sooooo, anyone see this coming? Ha ha let me know your thoughts :P
