Got my claws in you

Chapter 9- small things, big impact

JIMIN POV:

Joon hyung and I return from our break to find a familiar figure waiting for us on one of the benches, head bowed and ears twitching slightly, legs locked at the ankles.

"Ahh sir, you have a visitor. Something about the case." One of the junior officers speaks up from his desk, eyes flitting to the curved figure, who straightens, uncoiling and standing up, stiffness to her posture and a slightly watery quality to her wide doe eyes but gaze firm and determined as she meets ours.

But immediately I can sense something is wrong. Can see it in the way her face expresses both hardness and guilt and sorrow- a mixture that has a growl threatening to build in the low of my throat, because every instinct is screaming something's happened, something that has managed to unsettle the firm, strong-minded doe that (Y/N) is. And that despite being surrounded by a mixture of humans, hybrids- predator and prey alike, she seems to be far away in thought, unaffected whereas usually our presences still caused her tail to twitch with instinctual alarm. Something that pushed even those instincts aside.

It causes the ease in our gaits to vanish, smiles vanishing as Joon hyung leads the way to her, the others parting for us- sensing the urgency in the stiff ears and alert body language.

"What is it? Has something happened?" Namjoon hyung asks, voice tight and barely restrained the waves of protective anger, scent spiking slightly, his hand reaches out to touch her shoulder- her stiffness not melting and she looks him in the eye. Vulnerability and anger in her eyes as she meets his gaze levelly.

"We need to talk about the case. I'd prefer it if it was in the privacy of your office." She replies.

And once the door has shut behind the three of us, her scent seems to fill the room with the clear taint of fear and concern in it. In the closed room, the scent seeps out; riling up my instincts to assess what danger she's in, to take it away.

Because in the short time I've known her if there's one thing I've known, is nothing gets her frazzled. Never have I seen her like this.

She doesn't take the proffered seat, legs fidgeting where she stands before she takes a deep breath.

"I did what you asked Namjoon." She says shortly.

Namjoon hyung straightens, eyes wide and alert all of a sudden.

Leaning forward with a hopeful air around him, tail wagging slowly.

"And...did it work?" he asks, eyes sparking with new optimism, new hope.

To be levelled with an unimpressed look tinged with sorrow. A hardness in them that belies the sweet personality I've grown to see glimpses of.

She nods.

And reaches in her bag to pull out a soft plush toy, mind stuttering in confusion at the sight, as she sets them down with force on the table. Moving her hand back quickly but not quick enough that I miss the tremble to it.

"One rhinoceros hybrid is confirmed." She says.

My eyes widen.

She identified one of the traffickers' species? I feel hope fill me, rhinoceros hybrids are rare in Seoul, in South Korea- that hint alone would help narrow down so many options.

But Joon hyung is looking at her in a silent assessing manner- as if trying to see what else her eyes hold, at the stiffness that still remains.

"And what else (Y/N)?" he asks softly.

She sighs.

"I don't know which hybrid species it is exactly but we're also dealing with a bird hybrid of some kind- my guess is the person has a sharp hooked nose that fits with the predator bird sort. And the third one is a doglike species." She reveals.