Eight

Immediately Cobie feels Erik’s lips on his, it felt like is senses have been seduced. Like all he could feel was him. His heart fluttered as Erik kissed him slow, kissed him soft. Cobie pushes his fingers into Erik’s hair as he kisses back. As he melted into the kiss. Erik licks at the seam of his lips and delved inside my mouth, Cobie arched up and moaned into the kiss as Erik sucks on his tongue.

The kiss is soft and gentle, it was everything Cobie wasn’t expected and everything he wanted and more. With each clash of their tongue, through their lips and finger tips, a wave of warmth fills them up, light tingles soothing through their skin. The warmth of Erik’s lips spreading to every part of his body. It made Cobie’s toes curl.  It felt like his body craved more, craved him. It was a kiss with a promise of much more to come and all Erik could think about was mine mine mine. All Cobie could think of was mine mine mine!

Erik breaks away from the kiss and trails kisses down Cobie’s neck, the word mine ringing through his head as Cobie lets out moan after moan.  Erik nipped at the side of Cobie’s neck and hums when Cobie’s fingers in his hair tightened. He sucks on the skin greedily, with his hands still on Cobie’s waist and holding him by the small of his back, Erik could feel his every movement, his trembling body. He feels ache in his gum as he licks at the spot he had bitten.

Cobie was feeling too much, he wanted more. His chest rising and falling fast, one hand in Erik’s hair and one on Erik’s shoulder where his nails were digging into. His head is angled to the side giving Erik more room on his neck. He wants more, he wants to feel more. It felt like his skin was on fire.

Cobie stills at that.

Fire.

Fire.

He pushes Erik back but the man refused to budge and Cobie can’t stop seeing it.

“Colson NO!” Cobie screams at the house, the flames were spreading and it doesn’t look like the fire was going to end soon. Nails dug into the skin of his arm as he was held back. “COLSON COME OUT!”

His vision was getting blurry due to the amount of tears he was shedding.

Erik tenses when he feels Cobie’s lone tear dropped on his cheek. He moves back from Cobie and stared at him with worry. He cups Cobie’s cheeks softly and wiped the oncoming tears and it felt like his heart was being squeezed as tear after tear rolled out of Cobie’s eyes.  

“Stuart little…” Erik says, his voice coming out soft.

Erik wasn’t sure what to do. Cobie’s eyes weren’t glazed over but he felt like he wasn’t here in the present. Erik wasn’t sure what to do, Cobie was still crying hard. So Erik did what his instincts told him. He picks Cobie up, one hand on his back and one under Cobie’s knees and picked him up. He makes the short trip to the chair behind the table and sits down with Cobie in his lap, his face tucked into Erik’s neck.

This wasn’t the plan.

The plan was to watch Cobie through the window but that hadn’t been enough, he wanted to be closer and that’s how he had found himself walking into the clinic. Cobie looked like his every dream summed up in one breath-taking person and Erik had just wanted. He rubs Cobie’s arm softly and hums a random melody.

“One of the pups at home often gets stuck in his head and talking helps him, so I'm going to try with you.” Erik says, still rubbing Cobie’s arm softly. “I had pack training today, I sustained minimal injury. I was trying to get you out of my head and it worked but I just wanted to see you.”

Cobie’s breathing mellowed.

“Michel was being a pain today, he kept telling me to come talk to you, he even asked me to bring you a coffee. I wonder if you even take coffee. If you do how do you like it? Black and bitter? Black and sweet? Maybe you like one of those Starbucks drinks, those complicated ones?”

Erik doesn’t even know where he’s getting what to talk about from but he keeps going. “Do you take your coffee with snacks? Or tea, if you don’t like coffee? I personally like lemon squares and sometimes I like brownies, the sweet gooey kind that melts in your mouth.”

Cobie shifts closer and Erik grins.

“You know, you taste like watermelon. So sweet and It makes me want more of you.”

He gets interrupted when he hears Cobie snort. Erik frowns and looks down, ready to argue his point home when he finds Cobie fast asleep with his head resting on his shoulder.  His mouth open little, little snore escaping now and then. He looked so precious and all Erik could think about was mine.  He doesn’t move and lets Cobie sleep. Maybe it had something he did with the kiss? Maybe he bit too hard or he did something Cobie didn’t like at all?

He shakes his head. Now was not the time to think stupid thoughts. Instead he stays still and lets Cobie sleep to his heart content. He has the urge to take a picture of both of them and send it to Michel with the grinning emoji but like he had said earlier, now wasn’t the time for stupid thoughts. Erik doesn’t know how much time has passed but when the door was pushed open and a tall man with dark skin walks into the clinic with a cup of takeaway coffee in his hand, he knows it's been a while.

“Uh…”

Erik stares at the man in front of him with a frown on his face. He doesn’t know who this man was but hanging from his neck is an ID card with his picture, his name and the logo of Cobie’s clinic, yip! on it.

“Can you excuse us while I wake him? He’s going to be pissed as hell.”

The man, Toby –according to his card, just nods and walks back out of the building. Erik battles between carrying Cobie back to the table where they were or if he should just wake Cobie up as he was in his lap. Erik threw all fucks out the nearest door and gently shakes Cobie awake. He stares in wonder as Cobie rubs at his eye and let out a yawn.

Erik’s breath was taken away as he watched the man in his lap. From within him, he could feel something stir. It felt like something was inside him as if trying to wake up. His heart picks up the pace when he stares at Cobie and sees that his eyes… have shifted. What?

He must have been staring because Cobie’s hands fly to his eyes and in less than a second Cobie was out of his lap and running to the closest door. Were they contacts? Why was he wearing contacts? Erik gets up and began to pace as he began to think. He knows nothing about this man his heart, body and mind were going crazy for. Were blue even his natural eye colour? What in the sweet name of Serene is going on?

Cobie walks back in with a pinched expression a few minutes later, his hands pushed into the pockets of his pants.

“Get out.”

Erik stares at Cobie. “No.”

Cobie glares at him and walks closer and with each step, Erik keeps thinking mine mine mine! He wanted to growl, grab Cobie by the neck and kiss him again, let him taste the sweetness of Cobie’s mouth but instead he stands his ground and just watched. 

“You’ve kissed me. You’ve gotten it out of your head, so now, get the fück out before I make you.”

Erik walks closer to Cobie until they were a few feet away from each other. “Yes I kissed you but I want to do it again and again. I want to do it for a while. So no, I can’t fücking leave until I at least kiss you goodbye or get a date with you.”

Cobie startles at that. He tilts his head to the side and stared at Erik like he was trying to understand what the fuck was going on. He doesn’t know when or how but Cobie ends up laughing. It started out as a giggle until it grew to loud guffaws. Erik stands his ground even though each laugh felt like he was being pierced in the heart by tiny needles. 

“Tell me that you’re joking.”

“I am not joking.” Erik quips. “So, yes or no?”

Cobie snorts. “Is this how you ask out those many creatures fawning over you? Do you expect me to say yes and jump into your arms and we’ll skip into the sunset?”

“I need an answer. Patience is not one of my best qualities, Cobie.” Erik says, taking one more step closer. Had he been the only one feeling it? Feeling the pull and connection between them? No, it can’t be. Cobie kissed back with as much vigour as he, Erik, did. He had even moaned Erik’s name out loud. Erik definitely hadn’t been dreaming when Cobie pushed his fingers into his hair, hadn’t been dreaming when Cobie’s body trembled against his. So what in sweet name of Serene is going on?

Cobie stares at the man in front of him.

He wasn’t even sure what had happened. One minute they had been kissing, the other he got a flashback and in the next he was passed out. The soft timbre of Erik’s voice guiding him into a blissful state. He had been so comfortable in Erik’s lap, he had felt safe. When he had woken up, he hadn’t wanted to move, even when he had realized he was in Erik’s lap. The one thing that made him fly out was when Erik had been looking at his eyes and that’s when it felt like ice cold water was thrown on him.

Werewolf or not, fairy or not, vampire or not, no one seemed to want to stay after they find out his eyes were like that. They either thought he was a freak or he had made a deal with a witch and it had gone bad or the popular one, he was a walking, talking, breathing bad omen. He’d rather protect himself, his heart and mind than have some big headed Alpha use him and throw him away like a used condom when he finds out about his eyes. People tend to run away from something they don’t understand. So why not cut it off now, than later when he has to move to another freaking town.

So his answer was… “No.”

Silence settles between them. They just stared at each other and didn’t speak a word but they both felt the same thing. It felt like something had cracked between them and to their ears, it sounded the same as a cloth being ripped in two. It was so powerful and loud within them.

“I’m going to go now.” Erik says, his voice coming out hoarse. It was so unexpected that it made Cobie blink in confusion but he couldn’t take his words back.  Too afraid of what his voice might sound like, Cobie just nods and walks away. As he walks away it felt like his legs were made of steel, they were too heavy to raise and his knees were starting to ache. He didn’t make it very far, he ended up falling against the door of his office and with all the strength he had he pushed the door open and made it to the sofa before lying down on it. Fear started to creep in, he didn’t understand why his body was suddenly behaving this way.

Thankfully, Tobi knocks and walks in when Cobie gives him the okay. The man raised a brow when he sees Cobie lying down on the couch with a somewhat pained and confused look on hs face.

“Toby, do we have any more appointments today?” he asks his employee.

“None. Mrs Garcia rescheduled her appointment for Friday, she had something-“

Cobie rests his hand against his forehead, using it to shield his eyes. He really needs to take the contacts off.

“We are done for the day, Cobie. Why don’t you go and have fun and I’ll see you tomorrow, alright?”

Toby paused and stared at his boss. “Alright. I’ll flip the sign to closed on my way out.”

--

Erik was a different case entirely. He made it to the car in record time. Due to the anger brewing in him, he doesn’t feel the difference. He couldn’t differentiate from the two kinds of pain he was feeling. He wants to break something, smash something into pieces.

He takes two deep breaths and let it out, he took one deep breath and let it out and repeats it. He pushes the start button in the car and drives off. The radio off, leaving him in silence. He was getting angrier as he remembers the one word Cobie had said, no. his anger heightened as he remembers the way Cobie had laughed when he had asked him out to dinner. There was a sharp pain in his chest and took his breath away. Shocked and scared, his anger subdued, he pulls to the side of the road and that’s where everything rushes to him at once. His legs felt heavy, his heart pounding faster than usual, sweat pooling on his fore head and side of his neck, the piercing pain in his chest. Fûck. His throat felt thick and he found it hard to swallow.

Not sure of what was happening and since his hands were stiff and he couldn’t reach his phone, he opens the pack link and reaches out to Michel.

“Something’s wrong.” Was all he could muster.

“On my way.”

Erik doesn’t move and just stays as is. The pain was slowly spreading and he wasn’t sure what to do. He wondered if Cobie was feeling the same too but he shakes the thought away, it seems anything he feels now, he feels alone. Cobie doesn’t want anything to do with him, Cobie wasn’t interested and this, whatever Erik was feeling couldn’t solely be heartbreak. Heartbreak isn’t supposed to feel like this.  He has gone through it, so he knows. So what was happening?

Rejected.

Erik’s eyes widened. He looks around the car and out onto the stretch of road in front of him but no one was there. So who had said it? What does rejected mean? Well yeah, his date was rejected but who had said that? How did they know?

Rejected.

It’s sound like a cry this time and Erik’s body shook with the intensity of it. Yes, he was rejected but where was the voice coming from. The voice wasn’t coming from the pack link, no one was within hearing distance, his phone was in his pocket and he doubts he pocket dialled someone and it would be impossible to know what had taken place in the clinic and furthermore, it felt…it felt like the voice was coming from…

Inside him.

He doesn’t have time to think about it because there’s a wolf standing in front of the car. By the black and brown fur Erik knows it’s his best friend and Beta, Michel. He watched as Michel shifts back and runs to the driver’s side of the car, naked as the day he was born. Erik was able to use a finger to flip the button to unlock the car.

“What the fück?!” Michel yells as he kneels down beside Erik.

Erik frowns at the tone of his friend. It wasn't serious was it? Yes, he wasn’t moving but it’s not like was dead… right? He takes a deep breath and that’s when he feels it. Something was trickling down his nostrils.

“What’s going down my face, Michel?”

“That… You shouldn’t worry about that. What’s wrong with your legs and your hands? Are you stuck? Did that motherfucker do something to you?”

Erik attempts to shake his head but it hurt so bad. Takes another deep breath and almost chokes on whatever was trickling down his nostrils. He scrunches up his nose and that’s when he could smell it. Blood.

“Michel…”

“I swear I’m going to punch that little bitch so hard, his children’s children are going to fe-”

“He didn’t do anything.  Was on my way home and this shït happened. Get me home and call Han Se Ju for me.” Erik says, his voice coming out weaker with each word he says. Michel growls, he didn’t believe the little shït didn’t have anything to do with this. Instead he focuses on his friend, he gently pulls off the seatbelt on Erik’s body, he opens the backdoor and gently places Erik in. one wrong move would have resulted in a lot of pain and he wanted to avoid it for his friend.

Michel drives home like a man being chased by the devil. He watches Erik through the rear view mirror, trying to monitor if he had gotten worse on not. He sends a message to Han Se Ju through the pack link meet me in front of the house. It’s an emergency.

“It’s going to be fine, Erik.”

Erik lets out a groan and winced as pain surged through his body, like his every pore was being stabbed by needles. “Stop… spouting shit and drive.” 

Michel gets to the house in record time. Gabriel and Han Se Ju were already waiting at the entrance. Immediately the car stops, the two rush towards it. Gabriel lets out a gasp when he sees his brother, his eyes stinging with oncoming tears.

“We can’t jostle him, it causes him pain.” Michel says and Han Se Ju nods.

The Korean man turns to Gabriel. “I need you to quickly get the stretcher.”

Gabriel didn’t need to be told twice, he runs as fast as he could towards where the clinic was situated. Han Se Ju took Erik’s pulse, wincing when Erik let out a groan. It seemed like the Alpha was going in and out of consciousness.

“I need you to be awake for me, Erik. Can you do that for me?” Se Ju asks as he lightly pats the Alpha’s leg. Erik lets out another groan and Michel is close to grabbing Se Ju by his collar for adding more to Erik’s pain. Gabriel returns in record time and it takes effort pulling Erik onto the stretcher. Not jostling him was practically impossible and thus Erik had screamed a couple of times. The pack members were walking out in troops, wondering what had happened to their Alpha. They each had the expression of worry on their face and it doubled when Erik began to let out what sounded like really painful coughs.

Gabriel lets out a scream so loud that it echoes when Erik turns onto his side and vomited a large amount of blood onto the floor.