Truly Ours ✔️

Chapter Ten

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓣𝓮𝓷 / 10 / 𝓒𝓸𝓶𝓪

A couple hours before...

"So it looks like we've got you cornered." Taz stumbled, tail curling around his wrist tightly as he was shoved. Derek's eyes were glinting with a malicious light, and Alex and Christopher were snickering next to him. Taz's green gaze darted between each one, desperately trying to find an escape. How did he get in this position?

Taz had been walking home early from school, since he'd had a free period, and Trinity had asked him to help out with dinner. Pyro, Nanook and Mikael were coming over later in the day, and Trinity was making a lot more food than usual. Taz had been fairly certain he was aware of his surroundings, but he had suddenly been tackled, pinned into a pile of snow and a pair of sharp teeth broke through the skin of his neck.

The shifter had immediately kicked out, tail lashing out and he heard a snarl of pain. Taz had then been roughly yanked by his hair, and thrown on the pavement of the sidewalk. Derek, Alex and Christopher had followed him from school, and he was alone, now trapped in a snowy alley. Taz's breath hitched, and he tried to scramble to his feet, but Alex stepped down firmly on his tail with both feet, and Taz whimpered.

His neck was still throbbing from where Christopher had bit him, and he could feel the blood trickling down his throat. His head was slow and blurry, his thoughts incomprehensible. The pavement was freezing, and Taz's hands felt frozen from being pressed into the snow.

"How much venom did you inject into him?" He heard Derek grumble, and Christopher grunt. Taz blinked, trying to draw in on Imp to see if it was there. Terror seized Taz's throat when he couldn't feel Imp's presence at all. Derek suddenly crouched, grabbing Taz's chin and wrenched his head to the side.

"Don't you fucking dare to try to call that monstrosity out." Derek sneered. Taz swallowed thickly, and squeezed his eyes shut. Imp was scary, but Imp wasn't a monster.

Please... someone help me. Taz wanted to scream, but he couldn't.

"I want to know what everyone sees in you." Derek's lips curled back in disgust, releasing Taz's head abruptly. "You're practically nothing, a nobody that was thrown away because you weren't loved." Taz's breath hitched and he shook his head wildly.

No, that wasn't true. Cadence loved him. Trinity loved him. Micah loved him. I have a family, I have friends. They all care for me. Taz wriggled, his tail beginning to throb from the weight of Alex, but he was only rewarded with a swift kick to the ribs. A choked and broken gasp left his lips as Taz's body convulsed in pain.

"You think you're so mysterious." Christopher sneered at him, and Taz's blurry vision caught sight of his own blood speckled his lips. "You never talk, and I bet you're so desperate for attention that you're just pretending. You write in your 'super cool' hellfire, to make people forget about that monstrosity that hides inside of you."

"What else are you hiding?" Derek came closer, grabbing Taz around the throat and slamming the smaller boy into the sidewalk. Pain exploded through Taz's skull and his vision swam. "What makes you so special?"

"I bet he can talk perfectly fine." Alex's lips pulled back in a feral grin, and he crouched, putting more pressure on Taz's tail. Through haze in his mind, Taz could hear the faint snarl of Imp, but he couldn't feel Imp rising up to the surface. Taz's head throbbed, and he struggled to get up. Christopher stomped a foot down onto Taz's chest, pinning him down. Taz's eyes widened with fear.

"Speak." Derek ordered. Taz shook his head, feeling his pulse pounding in his veins, head throbbing in pain. "I. Said. Speak." Derek sneered. Taz swallowed down the lump in his throat, and shook his head again. He was kicked in his stomach, and he was thrown back into the wall from the force of it. His tail was ripped out from beneath Alex's feet, and a gasp of pain escaped his lips.