Athena's POV
Passing through that dead desolate land, continuing on with our goal of getting to this Moonlit Sky pack which is seemingly like all too much effort if I'm honest. We stay in our human forms for the sake of our own patience I guess, we sort of are in a rush to get there I guess but after what just occurred we all have this kind of emotional weight on us.
"How much further Adam?" - Percy
"I'm not sure" - Adam
"Okay"
"What do you mean Okay"
"What?"
"You said okay in a tone that makes it sound like you're disappointed in me for not knowing the precise time that we arrive in this location that I haven't been in for quite some fucking time" He angrily responds to Percy as he visibly flinches back
"Adam calm down, what the hell is up with you!" I yell out as Percy backs up a little, putting distance between him and Adam
"I was just told my mate has the word death written all over him, we're being told shit that we've never heard before in a world we've lived in for quite sometime, we were recently just finding out that this Moon goddess isn't the only one of her kind which was cause our Elders sucked at their sole job. We're expected to just take this all in at once and continue moving without thinking of the possibilities that another one of these unknown gods could just be pissed one day and tilt the world." He blurts out in an increasingly harsh tone, his eyes retaining his hazel colour but beginning to flux.
"You make a good point...multiple at that fact but Adam, what the hell are we supposed to do other than keep asking questions?"
"I. Don't. Know."
"Then do your mate a favour and don-" My words ending as we all stand still, responding to the same sound in the distance. Leaves crunching and twigs snapping as very vivid sounds of thumping on the ground comes closer to us.
"Shift" Adam orders which Yasmine follows in response
"I can use my hair in wolf form but I won't be able to continue holding Thomas in it once I do."
"Fine, I needed this anyway. Percy?" He asks as we look towards Percy who's squeezing just a little bit too hard, his eyes closed and body shaking as he tenses.
"I-I can't. I'm sorry Adam, I don't know what's wrong. Crest hasn't been responding to me either"
"Stay with Athena, don't worry about it. And I'm sorry for earlier" Adam says while shifting into his jet black wolf without another moment of hesitation, dwarfing the approaching wolves in size. 4 Rogues appearing from the depths of the forest clearing that we currently stand in, I can only focus on defending both Percy and Thomas for the time being. Fuck me. Their mouths drooling with an insatiable hunger and eyes varying shades of light red, they should be fine with these level of rogues.
"Take that one" Adam calls out to Yasmine, leaving him with the 3 to handle on his own...I've never truly gotten to see Adam fight for better or worse but I hoped it never needed to happen.
Adam's POV
My hairs visibly standing up and a sense of dread oozing from me, albeit these puppets are incapable of feeling anything other than the meat between their teeth. One loses it's patience as it leaps towards me, effortlessly I gather the water from nearby plants, draining their life but it matters little when the price would otherwise be my own life. Curving it into a blade as I cleanly slice through it's body, nothing but blood and organs falling on my head as I remain motionless and unphased by it. "You...were simply weaker" I feel a sadistic toothy smile forming on my face, Loch's personality slowly taking over more and more. Two more, this time both more aware than the first idiot. Walking around me probably readying for a pincer to attack at once, 'You clearly want to fight this one, go ahead' I give the encouragement to Loch as I swap him into control.
Athena's POV
Adam's eyes shining an even brighter gold...did he just give control over to that egotistical animal. Loch looking away from the two wolves arching down as they ready to attack him, busy playing with the intestines of the previously killed wolf. A sudden thud along the floor sounds out as they both charge after him at once. The first managing to bite down his ankle but no acknowledgement of the pain as Loch's previously gathered up water comes down to slice it once more. "What!?" The water dropping onto the wolf as his fur just gets drenched, all previous momentum and force fading into nothing. "ADAM!" Percy calls out in worry as the stench of blood hits us. My hair coming undone as I get surprised by the sound of Thomas' body falling to the floor...what's happening.
"Percy, I'm helping him" I say while darting off to fight
"NO!" Loch's deep voice says before I could fully commit and shift, "I don't...need it" he continues on. The much smaller rogue wolf still munching on his leg as Loch picks his paw up with it still attached, bringing it's head up to his mouth with a grotesque spine chilling sound of a collapsing skull cracks out. The rogue not even whimpering in pain as it continues gnawing at my brother's leg, Loch's teeth sinking deeper and deeper into it until his teeth meet and the rogue's head splits in two down the middle. "Why hasn't the other one attacked" I ponder out loud, it made it seem like they were going to work together but apparently not. Such is the immorality of a rogue seemingly capable of thought.
Loch losing focus once again as he stomps the carcase of the wolf's head over and over, not satisfied with the kill. "Next" He lifts his blood soaked paw back onto the ground as it drenches it in the rogue's blood. "This scent...it's the exact same as the first rogue I encountered, it's spreading with a will of it's own...the human village's smoke as well, back with Lucas" Percy goes on which causes me to feel the clicking in my brain as I connect the dots, my eyes darting between the dead field of grass that Adam pulled water from to him being soaked in blood. "It's the blood...a gift? A gift they all share!? That's impossible!" My words stumbling over themselves as I become astonished by the conclusion
'Athena quiet' Loch enters my head as I regain my focus and observe the rogue as it bites the floor until teeth it's teeth crack and fall out, more blood seeping through it's wounds as the air becomes more thicker with the same hazed scent. Loch standing completely still, watching the rogue slowly lose itself more and more. The sight of flames in the distance away from the blood still being ignited over and over which I presume to be Yasmine cooking the other rogue. "YEAH COOK BITCH HMMM SIZZLE!" I hear her chant over and over although grumbled with the wolf tongue, glad to know someone's having fun here.
"Why...us" The voice weak and clearly fragile...rogues can't speak. It spits out the loose teeth as it gurgles on it's own blood before charging towards Loch. But his minor frame being shoved to the side, the power of an alpha can't be contested when the power difference is that great. It wiggles along the floor, coughing up blood and gasping from air from the tackle but there isn't much else it can do...
"Loch let's leave it, we're done here" - Athena
"No" - Loch
"No?"
"I need this" He says, as Percy gives me a concerning look. Loch placing his paw on the Rogue's head, smiling harder than before. "Weak...weak...more" he calls out, the Rogue's eyes bulging out of it's skull as Loch places more and more pressure on it until he releases it...lifting his paw up and slamming it back down over and over and over an-, "ADAM!" Percy visibly displeased calls out to his mate, unaware that it's not Adam. The power hungry wolf slamming down for the final time as a rain of blood squirts up, Loch shifting back into Adam's human form and looking up into the sky at the falling blood running down his body.
"Percy wait" I try to grab his arm, unprepared for the next actions that Loch may take. But I miss his arm and he immediately runs up to him and loops his arms around my brother's naked figure. "My beautiful mate...I'd do anything for you" He lowers his head to meet Percy's, placing a kiss on his lips before swapping off to Adam.
"Adam why" Percy says with tears forming in his eyes
"I'm sorry...that wasn't how I intended for you to meet Loch, please don't think too bad of him. He's selfless and takes all my emotional weight onto him so he just comes off as an unstable beast once he's out. Even from when I was younger he kept taking it physically...those beatings...those lessons that remain scarred within his soul, cause of me."
"Uhhh...what the fuck happened here" Yasmine breaks the tension as she drags the burned up rogue, was it's blood not stopping her from using her gifts? I lean down and examine the body, it's wounds appearing cauterized by her flames as it was cooked from the inside out...yeah she probably doesn't even realise how bad of a death she caused him but I'll skip the details this time.
"A mess, now can we please get out of this death soaked arena to a more suitable campsite for the rest of the day? I did nothing I admit, but that was too alarming for my poor little alpha heart." - Athena
"Poor little? You used to break the arms of pack members who looked at you wrong, don't you dare try and play innocent" Adam calls me out, which I admit I can't deny
"Over there I saw a nice lake to chill by, let's move while there's still some daylight left and there aren't any sudden encounters like these lost souls here"
"Race?" Percy asks as if we didn't just fight for our lives
"No, Percy" Me and Adam respond in unison as Yasmine sighs as if she actually wanted to?
"What about Thomas" - Percy
"Oh, good point" I reach into the bushes where he dropped and pull him out, once again wrapping into a cocoon nearly making me jealous at how cosy my own hair looks, damn what I beauty I am.