Feral - Hybrid!Taehyung x Reader

Chapter Thirty-Six - Discharge

In the two days that you were held at the hospital after you had awoken, your friends had only left to go get good food that they snuck into your room to share with you, and to get fresh clothes. Otherwise, they had stayed in your hospital room with you, children arguing with the nurses each night about visiting hours.

But finally, finally, you were discharged. As much as you wanted to go straight home and take a nap for three days straight, you knew that you had to fix something. You sent Taehyung home with the others, telling them that you wanted to go and check on the hybrids that were now staying at the shelter.

They had bought it. You took your car over to the police station, parking and tentatively pushing the doors open. You walked up to the reception desk, telling them that you wanted to see the wolf hybrid that they had recently detained.

They took you to a room that looked all too similar to the back room of the shelter that you had saved the hybrids from, bars and cells lining each wall and only leaving space for the door. You saw Xiumin instantly, he was straight across from the door in his own cell. Your heart cracked and broke as you saw that he was muzzled and chained again, cowering in the corner of his already too small cell.

"Are you sure you want to go in there ma'am? He's recently attacked a young woman. He's extremely dangerous."

"That young woman was me. It was a huge misunderstanding, I'd like to talk to him before I talk to you all about it."

The officer escorting you looked less than happy about your calm demeanor, nevertheless letting you into the cramped cell. You sat in the corner opposite Xiumin, not wanting to overstep your boundaries more than you already had.

"Xiumin? It's Y/N. I came to get you out of here, I'm so sorry that this happened. You didn't deserve to be locked up in here, the entire thing was my fault. I'm.. I'm just so sorry." Your eyes began to fill with tears as all that Xiumin did was cower away from you. He was so different from the surly, 'aggressive' hybrid you'd met nearly a week earlier. Instead, he was a scared, trapped, quivering man cowering away from only your voice.

"Why.. Why are you here? I hurt you, why are you here?" You saw him peek through two of the fingers that were covering his eyes, a cautious glance thrown your way.

"You had every right to hurt me. Hell, even more than that, I told you that if I hurt you that you could hurt me back. It's not your fault, and I don't blame you for what happened. It was my fault, I pushed you."

"You were just trying to help... I haven't hurt anyone like that in a long time. My old owner, he was a part of the fighting ring. He made me fight every single day. I hated hurting people, but he beat me close to death every time that I didn't win, and I learned my lesson. I just... I thought I was better now. I deserve to be in here. I deserve the death that I know they're planning for me."

You had long since started crying in the cell, saddened by his violent past.

"Can I hug you?"

"Yes please." He couldn't move as he was chained to the wall, but you closed the distance, ignoring the way the muzzle hurt slightly as he dug his face into your neck. Tears wet your skin and you felt him shake in your grasp, clearly crying as well. You wrapped your legs around his quivering figure, enveloping him in your touch. You could tell how much he was straining against the restraints that bound him to the wall, but you reached behind him, grasping his hands in yours so that he wouldn't hurt himself. He let himself relax in your hold, going limp in his bindings so that he was almost melted on you. You felt him breathing in your scent, so you tried to shift your head to the side to grant him better access with the clunky muzzle strapped to his face.

"Ma'am? Your time with the hybrid is up, um, would you like to have just one more moment to say goodbye?" You could tell that the officer felt guilty tearing you away from the so obviously broken hybrid, and you nodded.

"Yes please. Afterwards, may I speak to the officer in charge of the case? I'd like to share my side of the story."

"Of course, I'll get an appointment set up."

He retreated through the door and you turned back to Xiumin.

"I won't be gone for long, hopefully. But I'm gonna get you out of here, okay? I'm gonna make sure that they get this straight. Even though I don't really want you to, you gotta let go. I promise I'll hug you for real when I get you out of here, okay?"

A whimper came from the hybrid that sounded so pathetic you'd have never guessed he was a wolf. But he reluctantly lifted himself off of you, sniffling and trying to wipe his eyes on his outfit. You reached over, drying his tears with your thumbs and using a spare tissue to reach through the muzzle and wipe his nose. He leaned into your gentle touches, leaving your heart even more broken when you had to step out of the cell. You walked with the officer back towards the front, trying to ignore the pained howl from Xiumin as you stepped further and further away from him.

You were lead into a small room off the side of the reception area, where a man sat facing a large window overlooking the city. As he heard the door open and close behind you, he turned, flashing you a bright smile as he spoke.

"Good afternoon Miss. I'm Chanyeol, how may I help you today?"