Seeking Solace

Ch. 7 Where the River Flows

The ochre eyed man backed up, more so out of awe rather than fear. The foxman held Grey tight to his chest; the pup was wrapped in blankets and clenching a piece of fabric. The wolfman sat down on the bed, the foxman quieted his snarling, seeing as the large man had sat down, a rather vulnerable position in such a situation yet no less vulnerable than clutching a child in your arms.

"My name is lumaire lunguard. I am Grey's uncle..." The wolfman waited for a reply, the fox hissed. "Look, I don't know what Grey told you, but I'm not a threat, I just want my pup to come home. We've all been worried sick." The colassal man pleaded, and fox shifter responded, eyes, fur, and teeth going back to the way they were. The pup stopped burrying his head in the fox's chest. He looked at Lumaire, "Who's we?" Lumaire looked at the boy's despondent face. He smiled to try and cheer him up, "the pack, Grey. They miss you." The pup glared at the man, "I don't know the pack, uncle, just you and the other officials, and they are all your age or older. I don't know anybody because you never let me go outside by myself, I can't make friends or talk to people with a big scary alpha ALWAYS ON MY TAIL! SO WHO IS GOING TO MISS ME, HUH? WHO UNCLE, MOM DOESN'T EVEN MISS ME!!!" Grey roared, catching both men off guard. Lumaire stood up slowly, and the foxboy backed away. He glanced at the door and tried to make a run for it, but the ochre eyed man beat them to it, effectively trapping them. The foxboy snarled viciously. The Sable wolf had had enough, though. He snapped at the foxman, releasing pheromones. He stomped foward, muscles tense as he snarled at the young fox shifter, who backed up with every step until he had finally hit the wall.

Terror pried itself into Elliot's heart; he couldn't stand up, not with the pheromones suffocating him, he sunk to his knees curling around the wolf pup protectively. He didn't want Grey to live a life like his, drowning in loneliness, hope constantly being hung above his head just for it to be yanked away by the cold, merciless hands of despair; so even if it were the last thing he did, he would protect this boy until the end. "If I give him back..." The wolfman flared up, "IF?!!" Elliot had felt the pup in his arms go limp. The pheromones were beginning to be too much, and even Elliot succumbed. Grasping at consciousness, Elliot struggled; it was like swimming against a river current; eventually, you let the river take you.

The wolfman looked down at that fox shifter; he had gone limp, finally passing out. Lumaire tried to pull Grey out of the foxman's arms, but he had death gripped the sleeping pup. Lumaire could barely move the fox boy's head, let alone his arms away from Grey. He growled, "FUCK!" The wolfman held his hands in his hair, sitting back down on the bed.

No FUCKING way, I find my mate something that almost never happens to shifters and he's trying to take my nephew from me...

Lumaire looked back at the foxboy and nearly leaped from his skin!

He-he-hes a-a-a he. My mate is a boy, A FUCKING BOY! Why hadn't I realised earlier!! Goddess!! Boy's can't be that pretty, no... not like that. Boys are homely beasts and goofy fools to let loose with, not angelic fae and swoon inducing succubi that make you feel like jelly. This is impossible. My mate is trying to hold my nephew captive; so what the HELL am I supposed to do.

Two wolves obediently followed a towering wolfman through the woods as he carried the small body of a fox shifter and wolf pup. And behind the three was a sneaky little red fox following close behind, feeling undetected, but they all knew; Lumaire just figured it was easier if the fox came to their village on its own, rather than kidnapping it, though he was not sure how the fox didn't pass out from his pheromones but he would leave that issue for another day.

The sun had gone down, and the moon hung carelessly in the sky, not that you could really see it in the dense forest but it wasn't until the middle of the night or more accurately, early in the morning did the alpha, beta and head scout make it back to the heart of their territory, Lungaurd village. The three had been welcomed by some of the wolves on patrol. The Sable wolf was rather irritated, though, so they were quickly shooed away as he trudged to the pack house. He placed the sleeping fox shifter and pup in Grey's room, which had been newly fit with bars on the window and a lock on the outside of the door. He sent someone to stand guard and staggered off to bed.

The sun shone through a giant window, creating a heavenly atmosphere as one woke up, but it was ruined by the shadows of the bars over the window. Elliot had awoken, he was in a large room with a massive bed, a tall bookshelf with a reading nook, tonnes of toys displayed on shelves and in bins and to the left was a huge bay window, and a wolf pup sitting on the cushions, staring out the window, clutching the bars in silent fury. He yearned for the outside; in his eyes, there was a culmination of hopelessness and despair clawing at his insides, leeching his will to live ever slowly but surely.

"When was the last time you talked to somebody your age?" Elliot said. Grey looked down at his feet. "Maybe when I was eight... Uncle wanted me to show some newcomer's kids around the pack house. They were very nice, but I never saw them again, after that." Elliots put his head down, "I'm nineteen years old, and the last time I talked to someone my age was when I was fourteen.... The last day of middle school, four weeks after my mother died." Grey looked up at Elliots bright orange pools of despair, resentment threatening to making an appearance. And for once, Grey was not alone in his loneliness. Grey had someone who hurt just as he did.... And he was never going to let go of this blossoming connection because he had seen just how determined the fox shifter was in protecting him, and so he would return the favor ten fold because Elliot deserved no less in his eyes.