Warped

Chapter 32: Lukas

"No." Petra's words came out as growl as she snarls at Soren. "Absolutely not."

Soren huffs angrily, receiving a glare from me as well. He turns to Ellegaard, as if she could swoop in and save him. But all of us, Ivor too, are pretty dang pissed off at him. The tension in the library thicker than what the serene room is suppose to have.

It hasn't been seen the escape since my fur bristles against my clothes, or my tail snap around in the air, my ears pricked up at full attention, claws fully out, mouth bared to show what fangs I have. I'm kinda trying to control it, but the human part of me got ticked off first. Not the cat part.

Ellegaard clears her throat, most of our glares shifting to her. "Hey now, why don't we all calm down and-"

"No way!" Axel's deep and intimidating shout causes most of the Old Order to flinch. "We stick together! That's what we do!"

"Guys please," Harper makes a step towards us; Ivor crossing her arms at her. "I know you all want what's best for Jesse, but don't you think this is..."

She trails off, and Ivor sneers at her. "What? Hopeless? How dare you think that for even a moment that we should abandon Jesse when he never gave up on destroying PAMA!"

"But you have to understand the bigger picture here!" Soren stomps, glaring daggers at Ivor and the rest of us. "Jesse can't even be around other people! Who knows what implications there could be if we actively search him out?"

A enraged hiss flies out of my mouth, my muscles taunt in bitter hate. "Sssssso 'hat?"

I wish I could say more, just tear into them, but it's clear I've lost the ability to form words. So I snarl and hunch my shoulders further up, a growl resonating from my chest.

Olivia steps up beside me, red eyes flashing. "Jesse never gave up on us. Never ever. For you to think that we should abandon him when he needs us the most is just vile. Vile and disappointing."

Gabriel lowers his eyes away from us, but the others; Soren, Ellegaard, and Harper, just get more defensive than anything. Causing my fur to bristle even more against my clothes. Oh self control is very much so being tested right now.

"But those are all different." I snarl viciously at the engineer, seriously doubting her intelligence. "Those were all extrinsic obstacles, but this is intrinsic. Only Jesse knows this problem, and he has made it clear that it's best to stay away from him."

Petra makes a strangling motion at her, her nostrils flaring madly. "Why you scared little redstone rat! No wonder the Old Order has such relationship problems! You're all so ready to give up on each other on a moment's notice!"

Ellegaard and Harper both rear back, disgust and hate clear on their faces. They open their mouths for a quick remark back, when Olivia hisses furiously at both of them. Anger practically boiling in the air around us as we glare at our 'saviors'.

"Give up? Give up!" Soren's face turns redder than his hair, his shrill voice hurting my ears. "We were the ones who broke you out of that prison and this is how you repay us? By insulting us!"

Harper huffs, crossing her arms. "Yeah, I would expect a little more respect from the people who just got their butts saved by us."

None of us say anything, but all of us are at our wire's end trying to keep it together. Even Ivor, who doesn't even have any enraged primal instincts screaming at him, shakes and glares at them with a fury I've seen rarely in his eyes.

"Jesse has saved all of your butts multiple times in a row." Ivor's growls, his bread even quivering in rage. "If he wanted to, he could have made all of us outcasts. He could have had our names ridiculed for all of time. But he gave us grace and forgiveness, and you want to make him an outcast? You want him to be forgotten about!"