PERIL [Werewolf BXB]

Chapter 8

Kace's POV

I was baffled by the sight. I froze and was unsure of what I was supposed to do, but once I saw Amare struggle, tears streaming down his face as he weakly tried pushing Mertle away, I at once knew what was happening- harassment. The thought of the precious Luna being abused in this pack still lingered in my mind and now seeing another member being harassed made me fume.

I blindly rushed forward and pushed Mertle away from Amare, hard enough to make her fall to the ground. She gave out a shocked scream but I ignored her. Mercia quickly went to Amare's side with the rest coming out of the room to see what was going on.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Tears started streaming down Amare's face, making Mercia panic a little. Angel came forward and pulled him to her arms, stroking his back while whispering, 'it's okay,' repeatedly to his ears. Amare's body shook as he cried harder, clutching onto Angel's clothes and pushing his face to her chest, almost as if he wanted to hide from the world.

He was wearing a simple t-shirt and sweatpants, which were now dishevelled. There were spots in his body which seemed to be darker than his brown skin tone and I knew that those were bruises which were slowly starting to form.

"Mercia, go and get your first aid kit." I heard Angel say. She probably saw those bruises too.

"It hurts...so much..." Amare's soft, pained voice tugged my heartstrings making my anger rise. Angel's body tensed and her eyes furrowed, then she picked Amare up and walked to her room.

"Liam, come with me. William, tell Mercia to come to my room and to please hurry," and with that she left while still comforting Amare. William quickly mind linked Mercia and soon enough I saw her rushing straight to Angel's room.

After she left, I turned my attention to Mertle who was now standing and glaring daggers at William and I. Rage swirled in her brown eyes, her long brunette hair covered half of her face and at that moment she looked like a ghost out for revenge. She was wearing a short blue summer dress which showed off her arms and legs and I could see a bruise forming on her pale right hand, the hand she blocked her fall with.

"What were you doing?" I didn't beat around the bush and directly asked her my question. William was standing next to me, arms folded as he controlled his anger. We, no rather all of us were on the edge right now and if Mertle says anything stupid, I can't promise that I would be able to control my actions.

"What was I doing? I was obviously giving him my essence! Why the fuck did you interrupt us? Now I'd have to start everything all over again!" Her voice was filled with rage and I ticked my jaw. I was getting more and more restless with each passing second and Arctic was on the verge of fighting for control to put her in her place for her disrespect and utterly bullshit reason.

"Essence? I hope you know that essence can only be exchanged between mates and from what I know, you're not his mate." I said, my voice strained from anger.

"I know he's not my fucking mate. But it's my job as the Luna of this pack to exchange essence because none of the members have mates! If I don't, they'll die!" She scoffed and flipped her hair while mumbling low curses at us.

"Who in the whole wide world gave you this absolutely wrong information? Exchanging essence with someone other than ones' mate will kill them instead. Exchanging essence is something totally different from comforting or helping a mate-less person. No wonder Amare said that he's hurting. Your essence was practically burning his insides!" William's voice rose by the end of his speech. My hands were clenched by my sides as I controlled my anger. Exchanging essence with someone other than ones mate is a very painful experience. The council allowed only one experiment to be done to see the effects of exchanging essence between two mate-less wolves. The two people involved suffered serious internal burns and respiratory problems, which all occurred in just 30 seconds into the exchange and were hospitalised for three weeks.

It was a very dangerous act and many fake rumours such as, 'one can die if they do not exchange essence,' and, 'if one does not exchange essence at least once in a month will lose their werewolf abilities' were believed by almost half of the werewolf population, endangering their lives. In truth, mates who do not exchange essence even for a whole year do not experience any changes in their body. The purpose of exchanging essence is to exchange power and health. It's normally done when one's mate is severely injured or in other dire situations when one partner in the relationship is in danger of losing their life.

"For how long have you been exchanging essence with Amare?" I asked Mertle, a bad feeling rising in my gut. If just exchanging essence once can have such negative impact on the body then what if... what if Amare had to go through this for a long period of time? What would the state of his body be right now?

William's words must have left a heavy impact on Mertle as her eyes were wide opened and her body was shivering lightly.

"I-I didn't...know. I s-started exchanging essence with Amare three months back, I did it three times..." Her voice grew softer and softer until it became a whisper in the end. She had an incredulous look on her face; she was probably remembering all those times she did the exchange.

I hear William mutter a low 'shit' as he turned back and walked towards Angel's room. 'Three times...'I muttered to myself. It's surprising that he's still even alive. Those bruises...there's a high chance that they weren't external ones but a side effect of the exchange.

"How many people have you done it with?" I looked at Mertle, who was now crying as she clutched her hair. She looked like she was going crazy.

"I...only Amare. He sacrificed himself to be the first one. I wasn't sure at first but Mercile urged me to do it...saying that it'd benefit the pack. I'm sorry! We didn't know...!" She buried her face in her palms, her loud cries attracting a few people.

I saw Lilius coming towards us from a distance and Mertle probably heard her too since once Lilius was close she slid down to her knees and cried louder, acting like the victim. I held the urge to roll my eyes when I saw Lilius kneel down and whisper a few things to Mertle.

Lilius knew I saw through Mertle's fake pretence as I looked at them with uncaring eyes. I stared at Lilius for a bit before turning back and walking away from Mertle's soap opera moment. I sighed, shaking my head I made my way towards Angel's room. This situation...has a lot of dark shit going on underneath.

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'I'm lost, save me.

Who am I, a child?

I'm lost, heal me...'

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