Alpha's and Eiffel towers [On Hold]

-||17|| nine letters

My eyes were almost burning through his hands, hoping the sudden change would disappear by itself, as if it were a daydream. Unfortunately, the reality remained the same. The male that had spoken to me had followed my line of sight, grunting shortly after seeing what was scaring me so deeply.

"Tu n'as pas besoin ceux, Maximus. You don't want to scare her off," a sudden voice from the other side of the hall boomed. Heads turned to the new figure, an aged male I haven't seen before, leaning against a wall. He took a moment to look at me before slowly coming into motion, the two men who were already in the center backtracking a bit. Max closed his hands into a fist, only turning around to me shortly before picking up eye contact with the new man once again. "What was that?" I tried to ask, my voice quivering. Max looked back helplessly, while the elder male now looks rather interested," so, you haven't told her yet?'. His hands rested behind his back, slowly pacing in our direction, but not ever quite reaching us. Max bowed his head, shaking slowly, to the adoring of the man who had been vocal before.

"Oh, tu vas mourir," he grinned, which made the elder turn towards him. "Nevada, bring this gentleman outside of the property, s'il vous plaîs," The oldest of the two escorted him out, the youngest quite frustrated with that decision, needing a nudge in the back to send him on his way. When the side door closed behind them, sending an echo through space, Max positioned himself towards the remaining male, he who now had a dangerous smile expressed on his face. "It is Jane, right?" He asked, not truly expecting an answer. I still nodded, and he softly waved me to stand up. As I did, a dizzy spell fell onto me, but I tried to bite through it. It couldn't have come from anywhere else but the fall I'd just made. Max withheld me from taking another step, slightly covering me with part of his body. "Young blood, I presume?" He asked, to which I frowned. I'd no idea what that meant.

"Maximus, please step aside. I don't reach for my claws nearly as quickly as you would," he said slowly, Max reluctantly doing what he was told. I couldn't help but question his choice of words, was what I'd written off as a hallucination actually claws? It would explain it, well, at least partly. How they could appear and disappear at the rate of flicking a light switch as an even bigger mystery to me. I caught Max's eye, but I could find no evidence in his expression that what the man was speaking nonsense to him.

When he'd literally put Max in his place, he turned on his heel to face me once again, a sort of interestedness glazing over his eyes. "So, Max didn't tell you anything," he said while casually coming closer, his footsteps perilously echoing through the room. "Nothing about the claws, fangs, transformations?" I felt severely threatened, scared to move a muscle. His words were spinning around me, confusing me even more; I couldn't place what he was talking about.

"Dad," I weakly heard coming from behind, when I turned, I saw his eyes almost begging for mercy from the male. He'd brought her to his father, this couldn't end well. The man had returned to fixate on him, waiting for a plea or something. "Please," Max's voice said, cracking, remenants of the word piercing through my heart. Whatever he was about to reveal, it was something that Max didn't want to be out there.

"Well then, Maximus. Say it," he dared him, as calm as it was frightening. Max swallowed with difficulty, attempting to avoid my gaze. If this man was my father, I wouldn't have come home for a long time. "Say it now, with no hesitation," his voice had gotten so stern, I almost physically flinched. The tension in the room was rising, not knowing if this space could actually contain it. "Now, Maximus," he commanded low and loudly. The words had glided through me, making me shiver. I tried to keep my eyes on Max, not knowing what to do, or rather expect. Max didn't even flinch; he stood there, not saying a word. Only his eyes managed to tell me that he was incredibly sorry. Something in me wanted to bolt towards him, hold him tight, feel some sort of protection by said contact; but my mind told me that every step I'd dare take was one too far. That this male may own a gun, or worse.

I heard the male come closer, which made me turn back to him. He'd entered far more than my personal space, but that wasn't what made me stumble back. He had his hand raised, lifted in my neck level and close to my skin. Pulling away didn't matter, he wasn't afraid to get closer. Yet he stopped his attempt to reach after a few seconds because Max had spoken.

"Nous sommes des Loups-garous," he said, making his dad freeze. I turned to him, every muscle in my body tensing up. The male pulled back, now turning on his heel and staring daggers at Max, recklessly. "Tu te fous de Moi?"
he responded, low and loud. He walked towards Max but left distance. I finally felt like I could breathe again as if he'd swallowed up all the air around me before.

The man looked ready to snap someone's neck, yet Max only gave away his threatened state in his eyes. "You know she doesn't speak French," his dad spat," and you dare pull my strings?". Yet what they failed to see, was that I understood. Clear as day, every syllable. I knew what it meant, but I couldn't fish the words onto my tongue. Thinking saying the translation would make it all a reality, as if I still had some sort of control over the outcome, making it non-existent before. But I knew what he said, exactly:

"Werewolf?"