Give Me Courage (Give Me Series #4)

27 | Blueprints

Aiden scrambled backward across the linoleum floor of the boy's locker room until his back roughly slammed against the row of lockers behind him. His large frame cowered into a ball against the corner where the lockers met the wall, hands shaking uncontrollably in front of his chest, claws extended. His breath came out in large, ragged gasps with a trance-like expression glazed over his face.

The group parted like the Red Sea when I shoved past them and ran to Aiden, knowing better than to get in the way of an Alpha when their beta was injured. My knees slammed against the floor once I reached him, bound to bruise for a few minutes. My hands reached out to grab both of his shaky hands in mine, attempting to bring him a sense of comfort and stop the panic sweeping through his body for an unknown reason.

"Aiden! Hey, hey!" I clasped his large hands between both of mine, holding them against my chest as I attempted to lock eyes with him. "Aiden, can you hear me?"

His whole face filled with fear as his eyes flashed yellow, repeatedly. The look in his eyes proved my theory about him not mentally being here with us in the locker room. Somehow, the virus was capable of affecting the supernatural in ways that shouldn't physically be possible, yet here all of us were crowded in the locker room, hidden from the rest of the school, and experiencing shifting problems along with some sort of trances like the one Aiden currently found himself in.

I slid closer to my beta on my knees and gently stroked his face with one hand, deeply concerned for Aiden and his health. Our pack met up in the gym locker and not even seconds later, Aiden began freaking out, acting as if he was in the middle of a panic attack, except he never had a history of anxiety.

"You're okay, you're okay," I whispered to him, praying my voice would help coax him out of his wild thoughts.

"What the hell is going on?" Stiles asked out loud, referring to the half of the pack that was experiencing weird side effects, half expecting an answer from someone, but understood he probably wouldn't receive a plausible one.

Everyone wanted to know what was happening. Scott couldn't stop flashing his eyes. Malia's claws extended on their own and she didn't have the control to turn them back. The only ones who were still normal at the moment were Kira, Isaac, and myself. The virus was attacking humans and the supernatural.

"No, no, no," Aiden mumbled to himself, shaking his head defiantly. His eyes continued to flash between yellow and dark brown, zoning out on something past my head like he saw something no one else could. One of his hands slipped out of my grasp to latch on my wrist, fingers digging against my skin, yet not causing me physically harm like he was fearful of whatever he was seeing.

My right hand held the side of his face, angling his head to look directly at me. "Aiden, you're okay. You're here with us, okay? You're safe."

Desperation leaked in my voice while I strived to remain level-headed. I didn't know how to help him because I didn't know what he was experiencing inside of his head. All I knew was he was petrified and stared back at me with a distracted look. This was a side of Aiden I had never seen before.

I snapped my head over my shoulder, the unshed tears in my eyes clear to the rest of the pack and Mr. Yukimura behind me. "Isaac?" I whispered, hoping he had an idea of what to do.

The pack watched equally confused by Aiden's actions. Stiles met my gaze, pained he couldn't help me from feeling so clueless and terrified inside. He took a small step forward, prepared to comfort me in some way until I lightly shook my head at him. Now was definitely not the right time to show we were in a relationship just for him to comfort me in the way he wanted to. I could handle this.

My brother gazed down at Aiden's cowering figure, helplessly. He paused for a second before he lunged forward to step beside me and dropped to a crouched position. "What can I do to help?"