Adam's POV (6 AM)

Waking up to the sunlight beckoning me awake I gaze upon my mate, stroking his hair and noticing the sheer blissfulness of his sleep. He hasn't slept like this in so long, I can't bring myself to wake him. Delicately sliding out of my bed I dress myself, grabbing a pen and paper to write a quick note for him. Placing a small bag around my waist to carry some clothes in and Kissing him on the head, placing the note beside his head I make my way towards Yasmine's and Alex's room, knocking a few times and waiting.

"Adam-please, 5 more minutes" Yasmine's afro pops through the door frame, practically smashing her hand across her face in response to me.

"Sorry, my father wanted me to visit today and I needed to pick something up from the old pack anyways. Mind telling Alex I'll be out and if he could possibly catch up to me it'll be great?"

"Sure, if he isn't up for it I'll make my way there myself so you aren't scared and alone" She winks before closing the door on my face. Still not a morning person huh, that's one thing her and Percy share for sure.

-

Making my way to the edge of the village I notice Arthur patrolling while walking with Ryan towards what I believe to be Keyon's temporary home. Not wanting to waste their time I simply continue on my walk, passing a tree and stripping down a bit to my underwear to avoid ripping these clothes up. Shifting and beginning my dash back to the place I once called home, to the man who refused to come along with us and create a better life.

-

Ryan's POV

"Ah there's the man himself escaping and pretending not to notice us" I point towards Adam's accelerated speed knowing damn well he saw us.

"It's fine, It's just gonna be a little bit more work for us this time around. There hasn't been problems as of late anyway, we shouldn't be the ones to complain" Arthur tugs me on the shoulder before creating an increased distance between us. "I'll be heading along these borders and we should meet up eventually. I'll leave the other side to you and Keyon, yeah?" He gives a thumbs up before jogging away, not even waiting for my confirmation.

Sighing a bit I knock on the door to Keyon, noticing it slide open a bit I poke my eye through. Spotting his already made bed, "Guess he got up early and left without me huh". I open the door wider, sliding myself through and standing in the middle of the room. Looking down at my feet I spot the flickering lights of black shining through the rug. Moving it away from the ground with my foot I line my hands up with the scratches within the wood, human finger nails and blood trailing down it as if dug out of desperation.

"Ke-" I hold my breath at the sound of something dropping behind me, a hand being placed on my shoulder and twisting me around.

"We heading out?" Keyon's smiling figure stuns me, staring from above me with an overly open posture as his whole arm extends to me.

"Y-yeah I guess" I stutter out, eyeing the scratched and bloodied floor once more before he takes notice.

"Did you see something?" He questions once more

"I-I thought you left ahead of me so I entered, I'm sorry" I lower my head while exiting the door first.

"Well I didn't Ryan. I was in the room the entire time." He half-heartedly responds as if disappointed in something. "Nonetheless, let's get this job over and done with!" He strides forward as we make our way towards the lining forest. Holding a hand to my back he turns his neck to look back with a whisper under his breath, "I guess it's just too early...for anyone to see us. Huh?"

"See us doing what?"

"Our jobs, don't we want the recognition from it!?" He claps his hands together, stunning me for a moment as an intensity fills me. Something heavy and yet causing a growing feeling of hollowness within my chest. I watch as this man freely treads into the shadow of the trees, his posture welcoming and yet...each step he takes is illuminated by a deep purple flame of envy.

- (9 AM)

A few hours have passed since we've been walking, time and time again he'll bump into me and ask if I'm okay. As he just did, "Are 𝘺𝘰𝘶 okay? I get it's dark but we wolves have a natural sense that just picks up in the dark to let us see better. Why are you sticking so close?" I watch as he steps cautiously through the branches.

"Haha believe it or not, and don't tell anyone this...but I've never had that ability" He smirks at me.

"Seriously? I've never met a wolf who couldn't" I laugh out with him as if it's the best thing I've heard.

Making his way behind a tree and leaning from it, "What did you see in my room. Ryan?" his words cut me off like a hushed candle light.

"No-"

"I've been around for...too long. I know a liar when I see one. Ryan." He continues to lean from the tree, only revealing his eyes from them.

"Sc-scratch marks...and blood. Why were they there Keyon?" I try to question him but he ignores it.

"That future reading gift is a real nuisance to deal with, you know that?"

"What-"

"But then I realised through your behaviours...you truthfully saw nothing" He laughs out while remaining completely frozen behind the tree. "Do you want to know something about yourself...Ryan?".

"Keyon wha-" I stand further from him as his eyes begin to swirl and fade from colour.

"Your gift enables a connection that reads the future of those touched. But you didn't see anything, did you Ryan?" His voice begins to distort itself.

"No"

"So what if I said you did see something, something you just weren't able to decipher with the eyes of an unknowing. Afterall, you can't describe something you've never seen before. Right, Ryan?" He laughs again.

"Are you threatening me?" I stand my ground at the lack of respect. Taking an advancement step by step towards the figure with white eyes.

"Far from that Ryan...in fact. I'm promising you. You're not leaving this forest alive. I'm sorry-" My snapping bones don't wait for him to finish from the sheer fear striding through me, shifting and slashing the figure. My claws hitting their mark as I pounce on him, revealing his form into the light...showing off nothing but a hollow sack of flesh in the shape of the man I once recognised.

Shaking my head back and forth to scan the area I focus on the echoing voice, "It started as nothing more than simple possession, the spirits around us had other plans, forming me into something more...physical." I hear scratching along the partially stoned floor. The hairs on my body dancing with an icy chill in the air.

"I don't remember who I am, I don't remember what I did to end up...there. But I'm out, and I hear his calls."

"Who's!?" I bark out before prancing onto a nearby bush I assumed was his location, guessing wrong and forced to stand here like a hopeless idiot.

A sudden rush down my bones as chilling vocals pan through my ear, "Do you not hear the whispers...he wants the one who never returned to him." I swipe back, definitely hitting something that time I stand firmly to the ground.

"I even considered letting you live...but you just had to go and check that damn rug, Ryan" He openly sighs, making an audible movement through the dirt and showing himself standing across the shadowed trees.

"Wh-"

"Hideous, aren't I?" His lanky pitch black arm gestures to himself. The thin awkward stance his legs are shaped into, unfitting to his large sized claws, distracting to the swirling pure white eyes that eerily hide his murderous intent. "I was here before, I was here before you. Before all of you. I-"

His own screams muting his thoughts as he takes deep grotesque scratches at his own head, no blood or flesh scattering however. "I woke up within his body...I was so hungry. So so hungry. The boy...he was like you, he saw me. Such a small-deliciously-delicate boy." He starts to sob. "Breathing...I could breathe again, do you know how that felt? To be suffocated, robbed of your right to breathe?" He asks me repeatedly.

His eyes slowly close into a blink, forcing me to mimic the action on instinct. Opening them up a destroyed wake behind him, his hand now crushed to my throat as he forces it to close in on itself. "Ke-" I scratch and claw at the figure as it continues to sob.

"Do you feel it? Do you not like it? I didn't like it, one moment...I was here. And another I wasn't. What could do that to me!?" He rams me against the tree with my vision beginning to darken. "Who has the right to take the life from another!?" He slams me to the ground, now strangling me with both hands.

"You're stronger than me Ryan, I've seen it. So why am I beating you-" A blade swings down across his arm, not slicing it off but nonetheless he climbs off of me.

"Ryan are you okay!?" I lazily move my eyes to Arthur's panicked state stares at me. Shifting back to a human stance, throwing myself over and aggressively coughing out.

"Why, why would you-oh it's...it's still here. I forgive you." The figure twists its hand around where a wound should of been, seeming confused itself.

"Why-are you even-here Arthur?" I cough out as he picks me up but I drop back down to shift.

"I thought you called for help? Then I saw this figure!" He shouts out with more fear than courage.

"Thank you" I state although knowing I definitely wasn't the one to call him over.

"I...do not need to be here." The dark figure dashes to Arthur as he balances its claws against his blade. Giving me the chance to bite down on his side, crunching down but there's little to no grip to his body. My teeth feel like they're chewing on rubber as each tooth gets rejected.

"Miscalculation" The figure states with a groaning pain of annoyance. Pushing Arthur away and slashing down my open stomach with his newly freed arm. Kneeing me and throwing me into a tree, my own blood and spit covering my vision as I watch the figure fade towards Arthur.

"NO!" He screams while charging towards it, slashing upwards only to be caught off guard by its sudden low uppercut. His body practically rag dolled as it flies through the air and crashing to the ground.

"I never did have anyone to test myself against...did I. Maybe I wasn't as weak as they say." The figure laughs with an overjoyed look of insanity. "A human and a wolf, odd." He raises his fist to Arthur's figure crawling backwards.

"WAI-" He screams out, pausing the figure from striking him. "Pl-" He tries to speak again but it places a claw along his lips.

"Shhh, I'm listening." It places a hand on the side of it's head as if closing an ear. "I see" It speaks out before gently melting into the ground. "I never needed to kill you apparently. Goodbye." His pearl white eyes drill into the ground, sliding off back towards the husked meat of Keyon, dragging it into the pool of itself and speeding to the direction we started our route from.

Kicking off the ground I shift back, limping myself back to Arthur as he gives me a shoulder to lean on. "I...don't even know" We both stare at each other with bewilderment.

-

Yasmine's POV (8 AM)

Alex's stressed out form causing me to be tense, "Yasmine, what do you mean he went back to talk to his Father?" He throws on clothes one by one.

"I know they hated him but is it that big of a deal?" I try to reason with him

"Get up, we're going after him." He tries to leave through the door but I hold his arm to stop him from leaving. Causing him to hold my hand and hold it tightly.

Looking down at our grasps I notice something, his hand, shaking. "Alex why can't he go to see his father?"

His next words forcing him to take an visible gulp of air, "I was there...Adam was there. His father killed himself Yasmine. He told me to not tell anyone, he told me that he'll manage to tell Athena at some point. So, what do you mean 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘮?" I feel my heart sink, not understanding any other way to express myself I dress myself with the clothes he offered me, taking his hand and rushing towards the trail of his Alpha.

- (8:30AM)

"Nimue we're heading out! When you see Arthur tell him that we shouldn't be too long and that we're sorry to leave him with so much work on sudden notice!" Alex knocks on the door, not waiting for a response and already stripping down. Bursting into his wolf alongside mine as we run through the trees, faintly smelling the remnants left behind from Adam's natural scent.

-

Adam's POV

Feeling the cold drench of my fur brings me a sickening nostalgia of the cursed zone, wandering up through the packhouse I open it up to view the place lit up and full of life unlike before. Following his scent to the back of the house I open up the doors to see him crouched down by the dirt. "Father, I'm here" He stands back up, clearing the mud from his hands and twirling around to view me with a smile.

"Adam, I missed you"