The Unexpected Inheritances

Chapter 13

Disclaimer:

- this - means thoughts

this means creature talking in head

"this" means normal talking

Severus's P.O.V.

Sevy, stop it, stop it, what the fuck are you doing, go back, go back!

-I can't, Nat, I can't.-

You have to, please, he''l take it as rejection, he's our mate, please, please, I need him, please.

-That is James Potter. He hates me, we're enemies!-

It hurts Nat. Fuck, it hurts me, to know that my mate, my dominant, hates me. Everything in me wants to turn myself around and make it right, but I can't. I can't be rejected. And the only way to avoid that is to fly away.

Please, Nat says, but it's resigned. Nat knows I'm right. Even so, you've broken. You've been breaking for a while, and now you just snapped. I can't feel Nat anymore. Maybe that's for the best. Nat deserves so much better than me.

I keep going, faster than I've ever flown before. I don't know where I'm going. Hell, I don't even know where I am with the tears that are obscuring my vision. I just want to get away.

I realize that the muscles in my wings are aching, burning, when I falter in the sky. I almost fall, but I force my wings to keep flapping. It hurts, but not as much as the rejection will.

I know I can't fly for much longer, so I drift lower, trying to find a gap in the trees. When I do, all I can bring myself to do is collapse, furling my wings around me tight, and letting the tears overcome me.

Now that I don't have the air rushing around me or my muscles protesting, all I'm left with is the pain of leaving my mate. And it really, really, fucking hurts. More than anything, more than the cruciatus, more than gaining my inheritance.

"Hello, little Veela." I snap my head up at the voice, and am greeted to the sight of a lion's head, the biggest I've seen. And then I realize, that's not a lion, we don't have lions in England, not even in the forbidden forest, and even if we did, they wouldn't have a second head, a goat's head, and a dragon's tail. This was no lion. This was a chimera.

I try to back away, before realizing my back was against a tree. I've been cornered. The chimera laughs, or as much as a lion can.

"Little Veela, so submissive, and all alone in the big, bad, dark forest. You shouldn't be here, little Veela, there are things that want to rip that pretty little head off for lunch." I watch as it digs its claws into the soil and imagine them tearing through my throat. I gulp.

A howl sounds in the distance, and I suddenly remember the kinds of things that live in this forest; werewolves, centaurs, and apparently chimeras.

The chimera in front of me must see the fear in my eyes, or maybe how my body tenses and shakes, as it chuckles lowly again.

"Don't you have a big scary dominant to protect you?" It's taunting me, it can scent that I don't. Probably trying to get under my skin. I try not to let it, but it works. I whimper, seeing flashes of my last mate dream, where Potter held me close and whispered comforts in my ear. "Oh, you don't have a mate? How sad. Well, I suppose that means there's nothing to save you when I take you back to my lair and gobble you up, plucking you like a chicken. Hope you taste like one, too. I hope you don't mind, I like to play with my food."

The chimera grabs one of my wings, taking it in his teeth, which hurt like a bitch, and tugs me onto its back, all in one movement. My scream makes the chimera chuckle.

"There's no point in screaming, little Veela. No one here cares enough to save you." 

I think that's what breaks me. How alone I am. I don't even have Nat anymore. No one will ever know what happened to me, or even worse, no one will care. My dorm mates will probably be the only people who care enough to realize I'm missing. And even then, they'd be better off without me. Luc will be able to worry about his own life and submissive rather than one that's latched onto him like a parasite he was too fucking scared to find a dom of his own. And then: I'm going to die without a mate.

And then I'm crying, and the chimera is chuckling, and I'm alone, all alone.

The chimera's den is hidden in the roots of a huge oak tree. When we get to the entrance, it throws me off its back. I land with a thump, pain ricocheting through my back, air thrown out of my lungs.

The chimera slowly starts making its way towards me, and on reflex I start backing myself up until my back hits the base of one of the roots. I wince as I do, making the chimera grin widely, showing off its teeth, the ones that will be impaled through the skin of my neck as it rips my head off.

"Don't look so scared, little Veela. I'm not going to eat you..... yet." A whimper flies out of my mouth before I can stop it. "Oh, hush, you pathetic thing. How a thing like you could ever endear yourself to a dominant is beyond me." How ironic. After all, I can't 'endear myself to a dominant'. That thought sends another sob racking through my body. The chimera growls, then goes back to grinning. "I thought I just told you to hush. It looks like I'll have to punish you."

In a flash, faster than I thought possible, it has me pinned, its claws digging into my wings and shins. It slowly runs a single claw down the length of my chest, tearing a hole in my shirt, ripping the skin, drawing blood from the wound and a scream from my mouth. It hurts.

It chuckles, delighted by my scream, and in one quick movement, slashes a paw of claws across my face. I can feel the blood dripping down my cheek, and squeeze my eyes shut so as not to get any in them.

This means I don't see when it bears its teeth, so feeling the sharp teeth bite into the flesh of my shoulder blade comes as a shock, and I scream out another sob.

"stop, stop, please!"

"Begging already? Oh, little Veela, we're not even-"

But its cut off by a growl, louder than any I've heard before, and it sends shivers down every inch of my aching body. Neither the chimera nor I have the time to react before the chimera is thrown off me, landing with a thump and a crack on the forest floor a few meters away.

I quickly scramble to sit up and back so far against the tree I'm surprised I don't merge with it. My body burns where the chimera bit and scratched me, and I barely stop myself from screaming with every movement. I slap a hand over my mouth to muffle my sobs. 

Sounds of growls and whimpers and hisses reach my ears, and to my surprise, it sounds like the chimera's losing. What could possibly be stronger than a chimera? How will I deal with something that wants to hurt me that is stronger than a chimera? Because it wants to hurt me, kill me, and feed me to its young. Why else would it save me from the chimera, but to have me for itself?  

With the hand not muffling my sobs, I slowly wipe the blood from my eyes, and blink them open.

Fighting the chimera, and without doubt winning, is the largest fox I've seen in my life. And suddenly, Nat is back in my head, and it's like I can breathe again.

Mate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1310 words. credit for inspiration to @cameronn__'s story "Be My Wings".)