Beautiful Redemption ━━ Teen Wolf [3] [Completed]

EPILOGUE ( ii ): THE QUEEN'S SAVIORS

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EPILOGUE, THE FINAL CHAPTER (PART TWO)

     THE QUEEN'S SAVIORS

❝ There's a reason the queen
is the strongest piece on
the chessboard and a
reason why you
win by killing the king.❞
― Anonymous 

( iv. echo house )

     "So I'm its tether."

     "― you're its tether."

     Clara glanced up, her eyes dried in starched redness and sore from even looking up, and remained silent after Deaton's response. Her head bobbed weakly, her stare faltering and drifting down to the wrinkled duvet clenched in her hands. It hurt to look up, to hold the blanket over her chest, to keep up a coherent conversation with the men surrounding her small hospital bed. Since the time she had first woken up, albeit sporadically and somewhat not one-hundred percent aware, and Melissa forced blood work (plus her demand that her previous visitors give her space), she had received bits and pieces of information concerning what happened after the clinic attack. Despite the perceived patience from her friends and the slow awakening of focus, Clara was still struggling with everything that was being thrown at her. 

     The familiar doctor cupped his hands together and nodded, balancing himself against the white railing in front of her. "When Jackson became a Kanima, he subconsciously connected himself to you in a way that in his primal and controlled state of mind, he was unable to severely wound you. He relied on you and therefore, took comfort it you presence when in his lizard-like phase. Neither you nor him knew this, but you gave him strength and provided him familiarity that grounded him, reminded him that beneath that animalistic exterior, there was still human."

     She gulped, attempting to soothe the soreness that uncomfortably clogged her throat, and spoke weakly, "No offense, doc, but I don't need a recap of sophomore year, I was there and we've had this conversation before ― I think."

     Luckily, he didn't take offense to her slightly snippy tone, though there wasn't much to notice considering she could barely hold up her head a couple of hours ago. His explanation continued fiercely, "This ability, this gift and curse, isn't natural within werewolves. It's not an everyday ability and while average werewolves can feel emotions of others more intensely, that doesn't mean a spiritual bound will form. However, there are some werewolves, such as yourself, that are born tethers and attach themselves to people like themselves. Jackson was an emotional and sensitive teenage boy struggling with the fact that he was an orphan, and no matter what, he didn't belong. He hated the world and you did too, at one point. Due to those stark similarities, the tether relationship formed." 

     The neighboring man cleared his throat and gradually, Clara's gaze drifted over to her former guardian, Tate. The man had stormed into the hospital, hours ago, frantic and confused after the rather panicked phone call he received from Scott all the way from Arizona. It was clear, judging from the thrown-on plaid shirt and his hair sticking up in multiple directions, he wasn't expecting to make a surprise hospital visit for his surrogate niece, or most likely, ever make an appearance in this curse-ridden town ever again. Clara hadn't said much to him since he arrived. 

     "We believe that given your friendship with Stiles, and the fact that the Nogistune feeds off of pain, that that's why he clung to you as his source of power." He recognized the sudden tightness in her face, how her eyes were stubbornly focused on a patch of the blanket. "I know you don't like what I'm saying ― but you've been through a lot these past couple years, you know you have, and the Nogistune sees that. He's taking advantage of that."