Got my claws in you

Chapter 14- hurts and aches

EUNWOO POV:

I watch with my heart in my throat, a steadily growing lump that makes it hard to breathe, hard to stay calm and not give in to the prickling sensation in my eyes, as Binnie latches onto (Y/N), his shiny wide eyes now glassy with tears and hurt, trying to stop her from her mechanical sorting of clothes, body stiff and coiled up and scent so, so sad and miserable that it yanks at my heartstrings, makes every instinct riled up and aching with the need to protect my own.

"Binnie please..." she whispers voice broken and devastated, thick with what I knew were the onslaught of tears she was trying to hold back as she tried to detach herself from our clinging packmate.

"Noona no, don't leave. We'll find another way. All three of us will move. Don't leave." He pleads, voice wavering and trembling, his usually bushy perked up tail wilting and his soft brown ears curving downwards.

"Binnie love I want there to be another way. This is the easiest solution. I will not have my pack uprooted and affected because of me." she says, voice trying to be firm, head ducked down as her fingers fretfully try to sort out her clothes, frustration apparent in the way her hands tug and pull at them, unsatisfied with how they're fitting.

I move away from her bed, body aching with the very physical tangible need to protect her, to hold her close and hide her away. To keep her safe because she's mine, ours and it tore at me to know we had to let her go, that to protect her- we needed to let her go into protection.

From the moment she'd stepped through the door she'd been immediately tugged into our arms, Jinyoung hyung smiling sadly at the sight as he entered behind her and shut the door.

"Thank you hyung." I remember saying over and over again, that blinding consuming feeling of panic slowly abating the more my instincts got to feel her close, got to hold her close even if her scent was still sharp and on edge.

Jinyoung hyung had already called the pack, all of them arriving and currently occupying the living room as they gave us the space to spend these moments with her, every instance too precious to pass up with not being near each other.

"But noona, pack doesn't break up. Packmates don't just leave each other." he retorts, voice taking a distressed angry tone and I watch as she flinches away from it. On a normal day she'd have coddled him long before he'd reached such an emotional point but everyone's nerves are on edge, instincts fraying on the edge and control slowly shredding away.

The air is already thick with our scents. It's no surprise that I notice the slight tremor in her legs as she stops packing, head ducking down.

"I'm sorry Binnie, I really, really am. I'm sorry for thinking I could handle it alone. I'm so, so sorry." She whispers but before her legs buckle, Binnie's face is already steeped with guilt and contriteness, sliding an arm around her and hugging her from behind murmuring apologies back, their voices equally pained and aching.

And I watch as he lowers her onto the bed, nudging aside the luggage to draw her into his arms, nosing at her throat and jaw, her head tilted back and eyes glassy as they meet mine, as her hand stretches out in silent plea.

And I rush forward, legs stable and firm before I'm closing the distance, as I'm sinking onto the floor in front of her to rest my head on her lap, feeling her hand brush through my hair.

"Why didn't you tell us? Why did you hurt alone? Why did we have to learn from Jinyoung hyung and not you?" I ask, voice trembling with hurt.

She exhales, a shuddery shallow sound as her hand stills in my hair.

"I wanted to deal with it myself. I wanted to keep you from it." She confesses.

"(Y/N), your hurts aren't just your own. They're ours too. That's what pack means. It feels like...like you didn't trust us to help, to keep you safe." And the sound she makes is so grieved and pained that I regret the words the moment they slip out.