Chapter five.

A dark voice, so close, sliced through the heavy blanket of sleep, and Celeste bolted up, fighting her way to consciousness. Gulping air, she surveyed the room only to find a ball of fur lying next to her. The fur was making a dreadfully scary rumbling sound.

A female werewolf, she sensed it before the fur ball let out a loud howl of pain.

It was the most miserable sound Celeste had heard. She reached out, on instinct, trying to calm down the wolf's pain but her hand passed right through it. She tried again and again but she couldn't touch the wolf in misery. Eyes wide, she stiffened when the wolf looked at her with pleading eyes, as though it could sense her there.

She knew who the wolf was, and right then, she awoke abruptly. Panting for breath, she realized that it was just a bad dream that she was having. Squinting her eyes in the bright light cast down at her from the panoramic windows, she stretched a little, stifling a groan as her entire body felt sore. She then froze, remembering where she was and what had happened with her on the previous day.

Unshed tears pooled her eyes, a lump clogging her throat. She could all but whimper as she did not have any ounce of bravery and hope left. This was going to be her life, forever. The thought left her trembling from her head to toes.

"Good thing you're awake, girl. Your master will be here in a short while. Make sure you're ready by then." Celeste could only see a blurry figure uncuffing her, but she recognized the voice. It was Victoria, the maid.

Following the previous day's routine, Celeste sat on the bed, resting her chin on her knees when the door opened. She prepared herself for the worst to come when a commotion was heard outside the wooden doors. She looked up to see Dante focusing hard on something, his eyes set in a frown. Then his face paled, followed by a string of profanities leaving his mouth. Not even a minute later, Dante had shifted and was out of the door.

Sitting up straight, she realized that in all his haste, Dante had left her uncuffed. Her heart leapt with joy, elated, she jumped off the bed and ran towards the door but stopped short. She couldn't make her presence known. She assessed the room, and then the panoramic windows. It took all her energy to shift into her lycan form, and when she did, she felt a sense of power roar inside her.

Growling, she took little steps back but before she could so much as move a muscle, something cold hit her head and then she felt a burning pain shoot through her, from her paws, spreading to the entire body. Silver. Howling, she fell to the floor and forced her body to shift back. It drained her of all the power and the last thing she saw before blacking out was Scott unbuckling his belt.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ

It had now been two days, and Elliot was still unconscious. After Elliot had shifted back, Elder Zachariah had been thoroughly infuriated by Malcolm and the news of Ben's pack capturing the rogues hadn't done any good to his mood. As per rules, Zachariah had contacted the Supernatural Council to report Malcolm's latest invasion when the others had informed him about Ben. It was rare to see an Elder look so agitated when all they did was keep their faces void of any emotion. Xavier could see that all these activities were taking a toll on the Elder and to make it worse, Elliot was not coming around. Greta hadn't been any better than Zachariah, if not worse. She kept pacing around, waiting for Elliot to open his eyes, and she was still at it when Xavier entered his son's room.

"I'm surprised that you haven't burnt a hole into the carpet yet." Xavier quipped in an effort to lighten the mood but it seemed to infuriate Greta more.

"Why hasn't he opened his eyes yet? The silver wolf had said that he would be safe, but it looks like my boy has slipped into comatose." Tears welled up in Greta's eyes. Xavier embraced her in a warm hug and rubbed her back. "He's fine, honey. The change took up all his energy, he needs to rest and he's doing just that." To that, Greta nodded, satisfied.

"He won't leave us, would he?" She asked Xavier, to which he shook his head.

"No, he won't because I know how to awaken him." Elder Zachariah said as he entered the room.

Hope-filled Greta's and Xavier's hearts as Zachariah sat by a sleeping Elliot's side. He then hovered one of his palm over Elliot's forehead and the other over his heart. Zachariah's lips started to move as he chanted Latin words over and over again. They couldn't see anything, but gradually the temperature of the room rose, making it intolerable for Greta and Xavier. What felt like an eternity later, the room cooled down and Zachariah retracted his hands, his eyes fixated on Elliot.

With an abruptness in his actions, Elliot sat upright, looking around the room with scepticism.

"Wha-what happened?" He asked in a voice so hoarse, he wondered if he had fortuitously swallowed a dozen cotton balls.

"Lie down, boy." Zachariah firmly ordered while Greta brought him a glass of water to drink.

"More," he croaked which made Greta rush back to the kitchen.

"That was your first change, Elliot. And by the looks of it, your second shift is going to be harder than this one," Elliot gulped on hearing this, "but if you're ready enough, there's a way to prevent the pain."

Elliot pondered upon it for a moment, before he answered with a determination, "I'll do whatever it takes, but I refuse to go through hell again."

"It is not going to be any easy to control the feral beast inside of you," the Elder warned which made Elliot nod. "I'm ready."

Xavier was suddenly feeling guilty for keeping the fact about them a secret from his son. But he didn't regret it. At the very least, he was able to give a harmless childhood and youth to his son that he had never had, but for the suffering that Elliot was going through at the moment, Xavier would have turned back time if he could.

Three of the mature wolves snapped their heads in the door's direction as soon as they heard whispers outside. A sniff from each of them and their stances relaxed. Wolves from Xavier's old pack were finally there.

"It smells horrible in here. I really hope no one has been harmed." Elliot could hear the faint voice growing closer by the minute. To him, it was hard to adjust to the supersensitive hearing. He could feel his head throbbing, his heart beating. Hell, he could even hear everyone's hearts beating. The constant thump, thump, thump was getting unbearable for him.

"Oh my!" Someone exclaimed. Elliot was so busy trying to get every noise out of his head that he hadn't noticed that there were now five more people in his not-so-big room.

"He looks just like you, Xavier." An elderly woman, who looked to be in her early fifties, spoke with admiration for Elliot reflecting her voice. He felt uncomfortable with so many eyes on him, analyzing him.

Greta had her eyes on her son since the time he had woken up. She could feel his discomfort. Patting Elliot's head with motherly affection, she addressed the people in the room, "I think we should give Elliot and Elder Zachariah some time to talk. Let's take this to the living room, shall we?" She looked at Xavier who nodded in understanding.

Followed by the five members of his old pack, Xavier could feel their confusion and astonishment.

"You said that he still had a week." His former third in command, Donnan said as everyone else settled in the living room which still reeked of the leech's scent and blood.

"He did, but as Malcolm attacked Greta, he couldn't control his anger and hence his wolf," Xavier responded. While Greta and Agnes, the elderly lady from before, prepared dinner for the men, Elder Zachariah discussed the basics of shifting with Elliot and Xavier explained every little detail of the events from that unfortunate day to his friends.

"I don't want to suffer through that pain again, sir. I just want to go back to normal. These super-powers that I have somehow got are a pain in the ass," Zachariah cleared his throat, "Sorry, but it's seriously pissing me off. It feels like everything is being said and done right next to my ears. That bird chirping outside the window could have been peaceful once, if it didn't feel like the bird was sitting in the place of my alarm clock, shouting in my ear. Please make it stop. I don't want to be a wolf or whatever it is. I never asked for this." Elliot was on the verge of shifting again when Zachariah suddenly stood up.

"Get up." He ordered Elliot and strangely, Elliot couldn't deny the command in Zachariah's voice even if he wanted to sit there and sulk like a toddler denied of his favourite toys.

Trying to normalize his respiration, Elliot followed as Zachariah went down the stairs and out of the house. The wolves in the living room didn't question anything because the Elder had already intimated them about his plan, through his mind link. Greta, even though worried for his son, knew that it had to be done.

"Where are we going?" Elliot asked as a sense of déjà vu washed over him. They were walking towards the clearing where his father had shown him what they were. It felt as if it had been ages since he first witnessed the truth to their existence when it had been only a few days.

"We are leaving this place for a few weeks. You don't have to worry about your parents or about anything else because they have agreed to it and you agreed too." The Elder's voice was surprisingly reassuring. Elliot only wished he had a chance to hug his mother after what had happened to her a few days ago.

"There is a village far from here, in the Adirondack Mountains and my people will help you to practice control over your wolf. The people in the village are also lycans, but what makes them so different from the other lycans is that they have a link to the moon angel Qaphsiel, that none of the other lycans can achieve."

"How do you know all of this?" Elliot asked, curious to know everything.

"Has your father taught you nothing, pup?" Zachariah mocked, to which Elliot grimaced. He was still upset over the fact that if he had known of their existence before, he wouldn't have been going through all of this.

An awkward silence hung over both of them, as they walked faster towards the direction of the Adirondack. It was almost midnight by now. Despite the wind which had started to pick up its pace, Elliot wasn't the least bit cold even though he wished he could have a bath because he was feeling mucky and his appearance was a mess. Not that he cared about his looks at a time like this.

"We're getting closer to the pack-village. It's time to warn you about a few things now." Elder Zachariah had a stern expression that made Elliot wonder why he had agreed to this in the first place.

"This pack is the most ancient one to survive through the centuries, people call them The Indigenous. The eldest member of the pack is three thousand years old. The story of its origin is for another time, what's important is that they are not fond of weak wolves. Their way of training is harder than the training given to an army. They'll make you shift a million times if that is what it takes to make your pain go away, I'm not even exaggerating. Never try to cross them, they'll know it before you're able to speak the first word of your lie and by the time you're uttering your second word, you'll be a corpse. They will reach into your brain; maybe even try to mess with it to know how you'll react. They'll manipulate your mind, you might even hallucinate but once you're able to pass their tests, you'll be unstoppable."

For a moment, Elliot thought he had made a mistake but then a thought crossed his mind, "What can be more torturous than bones breaking and never being able to shift back?" Little did he know of what was waiting for him on the other side of the huge mountain.

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"You should have told him before," Donnan voiced out.

"You think I didn't consider it? You think I've been having the time of my life looking at my son suffer so much only because I wanted to give him a normal life where he didn't have to look over his shoulder continuously to see if Malcolm was following him or not? Think about it for a moment Donnan, what if your son was in Elliot's place and you were in mine? What would you have done?" Donnan didn't reply, Xavier knew then that he had been able to make them apprehend why he did what he had done.

After a few moments of silence, Gayle asked, "How does his wolf look like?"

"Beautiful!" Xavier exclaimed, "His fur is almost silver, it's difficult to put the wolf's beauty into words. Something is astonishing though. He has the mark of Qaphsiel around his left eye." A collective gasp filled the room, "I don't think that it has got any hidden meaning though."

Even though sceptical, everyone in the room nodded but Agnes had heard everything and she didn't think that it was a coincidence at all.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ

This time when Celeste came around, it was because of the constant shaking. At first, she thought that there was an earthquake but when she opened her eyes, she could see Scott's face inches away from hers, she screamed in realization.

They didn't care if she was still a minor, they didn't care if she was unconscious, they'd just never stop harassing her. But this time, she didn't cry. She knew they enjoyed seeing her cry and if she couldn’t do anything else, she was going to deprive them of this pleasure. She turned her face away from Scott's and then she noticed that it was only him in the room. The other three were nowhere to be seen.

"Looking for me, baby girl?" A voice spoke from behind Scott. Dante was sat on the sofa, looking extremely comfortable as though watching a movie.

"Off now, Scott," he ordered and without giving it a second thought, he slid out of Celeste. She was disgusted when Dante, who was already naked, slid inside her.

She didn't speak, she didn't even ask him to stop. She kept her eyes on the view outside the windows, wishing she was out there with her family and friends. It wasn't long before Dante came on her stomach and both of them locked her inside the room with one handcuffed against the headboard.

That was when the tears came flowing down her eyes.

She wished to be free, so much that eventually, her sobs turned into screams. She was worried for her family, she wanted to see her parents, to hug them and protect them but she couldn't do a thing.

She could only wait for a miracle, a desire for someone to come save her.