The Human She Never Was

Fun with Toxins

I awoke to the sound of my brother calling my name from outside my room. I glanced at the clock on my desk. 9:21 am. I groaned and rolled over trying to get back to sleep. I was up all night and hadn't fallen asleep until the sun began to rise. Thankfully that meant all my homework was done- it's an art school so we do a math subject, English A or B, a language and then the art form of our choice- and it was just my spring portfolio to complete. Unfortunately, that meant that once a month I was completely off my game.

I had just fallen back to sleep when the same brat that I unfortunately called my sibling dove on top of me. I fought him off of my bed but he pulled me down to the floor with him. We continued to spar a bit- knocking stuff off my desk in the process- before I was on top of him, with his chest to the floor and his arms almost pinned. His nails scratched my arm, drawing blood but eventually, he gave up. With the noise, we made I was surprised our dad's hadn't barged in yet.

"I landed an attack on you," he smirked. "No moon still keeps you up, huh Angie?" I groaned and got off of him. He'd accidentally found out when I was ten. I had been wide awake and in the kitchen trying to make a sandwich but had made too much noise and woke him up. The only other person who knew was Jaden.

"Yeah. It does." I cracked my neck and examined the three lines across my upper arm. They were surprisingly deep, but I had gotten mostly immuned to Chris' toxins. "But I've finished all the spring fu-"

"Language, Angel." I cringed. I didn't have to look up to know who spoke, and from the look on my half brother's face, he was in trouble too. "Christin, training, now," I smirked.

"He can't." He growled at me. "He's injured. Quite badly too."

"And so are you." I stopped and turned to see both my dad and papa there.

"Dad, I-" I winced as the toxins suddenly seemed to take over my arm.

"Go to Hades," my dad looked up at papa with a quirked eyebrow but he just pressed the heel of his palm into his forehead. Mate link.

"Should I tell Merlin to ready the moonpool as well?" I asked. They turned to me sharply as if I heard something I shouldn't have. "So yeah?" Papa numbly nodded, glancing between dad and me. "And no I can't hear your link."

I walked away, wincing at the pain that shot through my arm with every step. Unfortunately, the warlocks lived across the training grounds. "Sleep-deprived and wounded? Oh, darling Angel!" I was snapped out of my thoughts by Hades' voice. The healing warlock floated beside me as I walked to their home, their green eyes closed and small pink lips in a relaxed smile. Being of nature magic, they were always calm outside.

"You know," I started. Hades turned their head slightly towards me with a hum. "The faster I get there, the less likely I faint on you." Their eyes popped open, flashing purple for a second, and we were in the healing room. "Thanks," I exhaled. My brother's toxins had gotten stronger all of a sudden and it hurt almost as bad as when papa accidentally scratched me. Chris' big eighteen was coming up and based on the pain in my arm- and the way that Alpha Avan reacted to him scratching me- he will be an alpha soon.

"You and your brother need to stop the sparing. I have enough to deal with, with Leonardo training the warriors." Hades scoffed, cleaning the still bleeding wound with a cloth drenched in pure alpha healing enzymes before wrapping my upper arm with a bandage. "Welcome, Alpha Avan. All is fine," the warlock greeted without looking up from tending my wound. I knew how the wolves did it, something about the personal scent, but Hades and Merlin refused to explain warlock magic to me. They claim understanding is a dangerous gift at a young age.

"How did you get him to stay down?" I looked up at papa with the look of innocence in my eyes. There's a reason they call me Angel. My icy blue eyes met his glowing blue and I dropped the act.

"I hit him in a weak spot and got him in a position he couldn't get out of," I shrugged. Hades snorted and I immediately couldn't hold back my laughter. The alpha, however, sighed knowingly.

"You hit him in the groin."

"I hit him in the groin."

"He limped out of your room. How many times?"

"Three times."

"Atta girl!"

"Don't encourage her!" The outburst just made us laugh more. Hades ran a hand through their straight, almost-white, cropped hair, inhaling deeply to calm down. We had almost stopped until my dad walked in and asked what happened and we were back to square one, this time with my dad. It was worse now that the alpha's mate joined in because papa's immaturity shone through when his love was there. "Is it so funny that I want my only son to have an heir?!" He stormed out leaving us to calm down ourselves.

"I came down t-" my dad was interrupted by Merlin's appearance behind his lover.

"The moon pool?" Merlin confirmed after greeting Hades with a kiss. "The wolf in him is due. Hopefully, his mate's already a wolf. Corey won't be back till a week past Christin's birthday." Corey Lockne was the son of Hades and Merlin. He was never around recently because his duty as a higher power was training the new warlocks.

He was basically my big brother growing up. He'd braid white and blue flowers into my hair and let me braid the golden brown locks he always kept the same length as mine. We grew especially close when the Annas got their first mission and I was the only female. (Ema was going through this "treat me like a boy- my name is Nae" phase)

"He isn't here?" I pouted. "He's always here for my birthday," I whined. "Which is before Christin's. So what are we doing for my birthday?"

"A princess party like we did when you were five if you don't start acting like your age." My dad gave me a pointed look.

"But Hades acts like a twelve-year-old and- wait...How old is Hades?"

"A woman over thirty never reveals her age."

"Not a woman." Dad pointed out. Merlin did his weird huff-laugh-thing, which earned him an elbow to the gut. He whispered something into Hades' ear that made the 'not a woman' bite their lip and my dad go red and me happy for not having wolf hearing. Hades smirked and promptly kicked us out.

So...My brother's about to be a fully-fledged alpha and damn do the toxins hurt.

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Hay hay! I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Just to clarify any misunderstandings, Hades is androgynous and doesn't really mind any pronouns used to refer to them. This may not be how all androgynous, non-binary or gender fluid people feel so be aware, please. If you're unsure of someone's pronoun just ask.

Question: Are you an indoor or outdoor person? I like the outdoors. Especially at night when everything is quiet.

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