Merome: Wild Animals

Apologetic

--= Still Vikk's POV =--

Four men stood before me. There should have been five. But that was my mistake. One was looking at me with an odd, unreadable expression. 

The other cradled the first one close. The third stared at me, with wide eyes and I could see some tears hiding inside of them ready to spill out. 

And the fourth, kept glancing back at the others, then towards me with a nervous look on his face clearly not wanting to be there but somewhat relieved that the pressure and attention was off of him.

"I want to apologise." Jerome laughed coldly, his eyes narrowing quite angrily might I add. His arms squeezed tightly around Mitch, making sure I was at a nice distance away from them as he spat words at me harshly.

"For murdering your friend?" I flinched inwardly, biting my lip as I glanced at Mitch, I was blocked off from his sight when Jerome covered Mitch's eyes in anger. Mitch didn't speak up.

"I didn't think I had a choice, it wasn't my fault guys." Reaching a hand out towards the four of the men, my hand immediately drew back when I saw Mitch's lips twist into a sour frown.

"Of course you had a choice." He spoke up. Anger sawing inside of my chest, I shoved it away and let myself drown in desperation instead. I would rather beg than take.

"Yeah? Then you all would've been dead. I wasn't aloud to choose myself as a target, so I picked Rob because I knew he would understand the most." 

I heard a snort, and whipped my head in the direction of the noise to see Preston's eyes glowing the colour of dying embers in a fireplace. Raising an eyebrow to question him, 

Preston just shook his head not wanting to interrupt. Bobbing my head to urge him to speak, Preston realised what I was saying and cleared his throat earning the other three's attention.

"I don't want to get in trouble or anything, but uhh, I forgive him." Lachlan's eyes widening at this, he whipped his body over to Preston's and clamped his hands on his shoulders tightly.

"You out of all people forgive him?!" Lachlan nudging over into my direction, I felt hurt pang in my chest when he used the pronoun. Preston staring at Lachlan, he cringed back a small back, clearly uncomfortable.

"Umm....Yes?" Jerome letting out a large groan, I turned my face in his direction and was instantly shot daggers from Jerome and a hesitant look from Mitch.

The room was silent after that, Lachlan's eyes took in every single little detail of Preston's face with an unreadable, concentrated expression trying to look for something. 

Not seeming to find it, he sucked in a breath, letting his hands drop to their sides letting go of Preston and swinging himself over towards me. Looking me up and down once, he shrugged.

"I guess I do too."

"Are you serious?!" Jerome laughed loudly. Opening my mouth to try to reason, Preston's body flashed by me and before I knew it Preston had his hands gripped on Jerome's collar.

"Got a problem with it furball?!" He yelled. His spit flying into Jerome's fur, Mitch managed to shove Preston off of Jerome causing a wave of heat to wash through the room.

"Leave him alone!" Mitch's eyes narrowing, Preston head swooned threateningly, making it seem like it was going to fall off at any moment and his hands balled into fists as he growled.

"Come on, I'll just trim around the edges."

"Stop Preston." Preston's eyes widening, he looked back over to me to see a worried expression on my face. His softening, I saw the colour die down back into a calm brown.

"If you don't want me here, just say so. Don't set Preston on fire along with you and more than likely Mitch." Jerome finally listened to that, and he just hugged Mitch even tighter than he had before.

Preston shot daggers, cursing under his breath something about how he didn't even know why he had come back and that he just wanted to be outside under the stars again.

Guilt gnawing bit by bit, tearing away every inch of confidence I had before I knocked on the door. Lachlan walked up to me and slapped a hand encouragingly onto my shoulder.

If Mitch and Jerome don't forgive me, then at least I have Preston and Jerome. The conversation ended there, and I ended up leaving the house that day along with Lachlan and Preston.

We were making our way to the house Lachlan and Preston had lived in for a year or so, but when we were just about there, Preston had stopped in his tracks leaving me confused.

"Preston?" Preston switching his gaze in between me and Lachlan, I took a step closer towards him trying to out stretch my arm but he stepped back, not wanting to be forced.

"....I don't want to live in a house." Lachlan furrowing his eyebrows, not seeming to understand what he was saying. The blondie cocked his head to the side as he spoke, struggling to comprehend.

"Why not?"

"I'll just burn it down." Preston shrugged. Taking in the point, I found the next question to ask but he was already way ahead of me.

"I'll stay by the campsite we had, with Aussie? It'll be better for me there, and the water balances me out too."

"...Are you sure about this?"

"Positive." He nodded. His face was straight and expressionless, his eyes lit up into a sunset colour and I could see the tears welling inside of his eyes as he waited for an answer.

The silence dimming around us, I scrunched my eyes shut, knowing I would have to be the one to give it to him. Raising my hands in defeat, I opened my eyes and stared at him.

"...Alright, but we'll come and visit no matter what." Preston grinned, and before I knew it I was enveloped into a big hug from him. 

Something wet and warm slid down my shoulder, and when I pulled away Preston was teary eyed with a wobbly smile on his face.

 "Thank you Vikk." He whispered. Shutting my eyes and humming a response, knowing I was going to start crying since my lungs were choked up. 

He pulled away too quickly for me, not wanting to let go, and he went to go and hug Lachlan. Turning myself around and walking down the path slowly.

After around three minutes, I could hear footsteps on the ground and sooner than I knew it Lachlan had rushed to my side and continued dabbing at his eyes. Trying to wipe away the tears only to no avail.

"He'll be better there Lachy." His sniffles ringing inside of my ears, I brushed my fingertips into his and intertwined our hands as we steadily walked down the path, the house finally in sight.

Wiping away at his eyes and nose every few seconds, collecting everything that fell, he breathed out a small laugh, and forced a smile at me.

"I know Vikky, I know..."

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Ah I actually teared up there for a few seconds, so, guys, this book will be finished. We just have the epilogue to put up and then, well, I was thinking of a few books but I need to ask that in the epilogue. Save it for something special huh? 

XD Umm, yeah, this is it guys. Thank you so much for reading this book, it really has been an, absolutely amazing journey and this is one of the very first books I have ever written. It's so sweet to see how far we went. 

From 100 reads and right now it has 39.1 K reads! That's insane! And I know with due time once it's complete it will only get bigger. Thank you so much, I will tell you in the epilogue what book will be published after this one and what ship it shall be. 

I love each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart, and I am so happy to see you all in the Epilogue.

Bye bye Guys <333