Love Bird's Bite // Keigo Takami

you just pissed your pants

"It's got to be a tracker."

Camie's eyes were on me despite her entire silence, like she knew exactly who it belonged to. Made sense since I had been the one to send her to seek him out so she obviously would recognize the feature from a mile away.

"Deal with Himiko."

Her last words were all that were spoken before she turned and walked down the hall and my eyes went to the stairs where Toga would be perched up somewhere. The others didn't dare to speak, simply bowing their heads and my fingers reached out to the feather to take back into my possession before I could think of it. Tucking the feather into my waistband, my blazer fell over it as I stepped off. I launched myself up the stairs, hissing at the sharp tear in my shoulder when I had pushed off of my hand to throw my body up into the air to go forward.

An arrow flew out before my feet landed on the ground.

"Himiko."

She didn't answer, my feet steadying being enough of a signal for her to not shoot another arrow.

"I'll leave."

Though the two words caught me off guard, a part of me wasn't surprised from her audacity.

"Do we mean that little to you? That you can just give your life away and leave us like that?"

"Himi-"

"Don't fucking speak."

"Watch your words."

My tone was sharp, not changing my stance as she still didn't step out from the dark.

"A team isn't a team without you. What do you not fucking get in that? How many more times? How many more until there's the time that you don't walk back into this mansion?"

Her words were chilling, her body not leaving the shadows.

"Because that's only going to take once. Just a single fucking time, and you're gone in an instant. What about us then? What's going to be left of us? Where's your fucking leadership going to go then? Doesn't that make you being an alpha absolutely fucking useless?"

My steps into the black hall were steady despite being unknown with no light.

"You think that you can die for us? Think the fuck again. Anyone can just go out and die! Why don't you fucking live for us? Not everyone can live, isn't that what alphas should aspire to aim for? Dying is simple, living is the hard thing to do, so tell me, are you still going to choose to live?"

By the time my body reached hers, my eyes saw her perfectly in the darkness. Her form was tense, arrow aimed right at me as her bow was pulled back, fingers on the end of the arrow to let it go any moment while her body quivered. Tears staining her skin made me speak.

"Let it fly."

Her arrow was snapped between the tip of my index and pad of my thumb the second it shot into the air towards me. My body moved directly in front of hers, simply staring at her. Watching the bow and arrow drop to the floor from her clenched hold, her body fell into mine, my arms going around her to cup her close to me.

"You're using your pheromones, aren't you?"

I pressed my lips to her hair, my hand on the back of her head to steady her form, cradled against mine. Her fists tightened around me, yanking at my blazer while she cried out. Resting my forehead over her head, I took in a breath. I took my time, noting her senses steady and regain their center as her body calmed down. Her sniffling breaths lulled to a gentler inhale, eyes fluttering shut as her heart rate fell out of its spike back to regular pulsing.