Seven

Like a balloon popped, Cobie jumps from Erik. His heart was still going wild and more than anything he wants to crawl back into Erik's arms, he wants to feel Erik's touch again and it was scaring the crap out of him. Erik remained silent, he was still sitting on the grass, staring straight at the flowers like he was trying his hardest not to look at Cobie.

Gabriel comes round a few seconds later and stops when he sees Cobie and Erik. From his distance, he could see the tension between the two of them and he wonders what happened between them. He opts not to ask now but later, knowing if he annoys Erik long enough he'd blurt out the answer.

"Are you alright?" Gabriel asks Cobie as he walks towards him. Cobie wonders if he truly was alright. He's been in Astir for a week and he feels different. He honestly doesn't know how to answer the question when he doesn't even know the answer himself. So instead, he settles for something else.

"Just a bit tired. Do you mind dropping me off?" Cobie begged. He wants to walk away but it felt like his legs had a mind of their own because they remained rooted to the ground. He glances briefly at Erik and wonders what was going through the man's head. Erik lets out a sigh and stands up slowly.

Gabriel watched the two of them. Curiosity was biting at his heels but he doesn't ask. Instead he holds out his hand and Cobie holds onto it. Almost as if Gabriel knew what to do, he grabs Cobie and pulls him forward. Cobie was forced to move due to the amount of force Gabriel had used.

"I am so sorry. I don't know what happened." Gabriel says, looking down at Cobie's hand to make sure he hadn't broken anything.

Cobie just remains silent. He doesn't know what to say or do in the moment but it seemed Erik did because he just walked past Cobie and Gabriel like they weren't there. Cobie watched Erik walk away, his eyes trailing down Erik's neck to his back and that's when he sees it. Erik's nails were digging into his skin, hard enough to draw blood.

"Take him home, Gabriel. "

Immediately a drop of blood rolls down from the Erik's hand and hits the ground, Gabriel's attention turns towards his brother swiftly. Cobie thinks Erik must have told Gabriel something telepathically because Gabriel doesn't ask about the blood and instead just leads Cobie out of the wood, to the car. With each step Cobie takes away from Erik, cold begins to settle into him, a chill going down his back and he feels his eyes turn black with fear. He needs to be alone. He needs the contact lens gone.

"Should I be concerned, Cobie? Are you sure you're alright?" asks Gabriel as he pulls out of the parking lot. Cobie looks away from the window -he had been staring at the trees- and turns to Gabriel. He places one hand on Gabriel's.

"I promise."

Gabriel didn't seem to believe and Cobie thinks it's due to how fast his heart was still beating. He doesn't try to convince Gabriel, he just taps on the radio and MGK's Alpha Omega came on. He loved the part that goes If you ain't living your life then you're dead and sleep is its cousin so I shot my bed.

Gabriel pulls in front of Cobie's place six songs later. Cobie doesn't say a word and he waves as politely as he could to Gabriel before making his way to the door. He pulls out his keys and opens the door. Immediately he gets up, he pulls off his lens and throws them wherever. He makes his way to the bathroom, he and splashed water on his face. He looks at his reflection in the mirror, he blinked rapidly but his eyes remained the same. They were a rainbow swirl.

His eyes had always expressed his feeling, so it made sense they were a swirl now. He was feeling a lot of things. He was feeling warm, he also has this soothing feeling, he was feeling tranquillity, heat, rage, the faint feeling of danger, cold, fear, sadness, anger but even though he felt all these, he also felt, good, comfort, sensitive and even though he'd ever admit it, he feels desire.

The gnawing want that was slowly spreading. What was it about Erik that kept drawing him closer? Why did he always have to be close? Cobie stared at his reflection for a few more minutes before walking out of the bathroom, he forgets about the fact that he hasn't eaten yet and reaches for his laptop. He falls onto the bed and pulls it open. He heads straight to the search engine and types in werewolves.

The result bring out what little he already knew and he falls back onto the bed frustrated. He didn't understand what was going and he has the urge to pull his hair. He sits back up and types into the search bar, why am I always drawn to a werewolf and it brought out about a million and more results.

The answers were either, sex appeal, fright, your subconscious likes his subconscious. The last one left Cobie laughing for a good half hour. He kept scrolling until something catches his eyes. The blog simply said.

Let's not kid ourselves. If you're drawn to a werewolf it might be because you like the perso or its plain sexual attraction, there's nothing more and nothing less to it. The person isn't your one and only but we can only be sure after months and years of being together. That's the punishment bestowed upon by the curse on the night of The Great Cry.

Cobie stops at the last line. The Great Cry. He's heard Gabriel talking about it and he has half the mind to search for it but wouldn't it be better to hear straight from the source instead of believing online articles? It's best to just forget everything. He's better on his own, he doesn't need to start thinking, or worse, overthinking. All he has to do is stay away from Erik Tomlinson and he would be fine.

Better even.

--

Erik Tomlinson was anything but patient. He's been trying to understand what was going on. It's been a week since he and Cobie had almost kissed. It's been a week since had seen Cobie and it felt like his energy was being drained little by little. He wakes each day, more tired than before and it's beginning to irk him because all he thinks about when he's like that is Cobie Deckard.

"You'll feel better if you just go to him." Michel chirps from where he's seated on the couch in Erik's office. He's looking through some papers which Erik should be doing too but he just couldn't concentrate. All he sees are blue eyes and all he feels as he holds the pen is the ghost feeling of how soft Cobie's skin had felt under his fingertips. It's frustrating.

Erik walks over to the window and looked out. The view outside his window was of the garden that was being taken care of by literally everyone in the house. Some plants have been there before he became Alpha, before even his father was Alpha. Erik sighs as he looks at the flowers, the way they shined bright as the sun splashed them gold.

"I don't want to see him."

Michel snorts. "Yeah, that was very convincing."

Erik turns around to scowl at this Beta. "I wish had a receipt so I can return you to the store I got you from." He's partly joking as he says this but there are some times when Erik wishes he could put Michel in a box and dump him in front of an abandoned warehouse.

"You've said for eighteen years and yet, here we are." Michel says, waving a finger in the air. Erik just glares in response. He doesn't think Michel understands what he was going through, doesn't understand the kind of pull Erik was feeling. Every day, he has the urge to grab his keys and drive to Cobie's house. It was a scary feeling.

Erik walks back to his desk and takes a seat. He looks at the stack of documents that needed his signature that morning, then he turns his gaze to the pen. Hell, he's even scared to pick up a pen now.

"You just buy a cup of coffee and take it to him." Michel pipes from where he's still sitting. Erik in his rage picks up his cup holder full of pens and throws it at Michel, aiming for his head. Michel dodged the cup and tuts at Erik. "Don't take your anger out on me. It's not my fault you don't know how to woo your darling Cobie."

Erik scowls and slams his fist down on the table. "He's not my darling and I don't want to woo him."

Michel stares at his for a beat and leans down onto the couch. He smirks at Erik as he says. "So you want to fück him then? Do the do with him? Engage in coitus with him?" Michel wiggled his brow as he spoke.

Erik falls silent. He so desperately wants to say no but now that Michel's words were sinking in, he could see it. Cobie pressed down against his sheet, naked and writhing under his touch, his lips parted as he moans, lips swollen and wet from Erik biting and licking. Erik licks his lips as he thought about where his mouth could touch, where his tongue could lick and -

"My my, I can smell your arousal all the way from here. Hell, I think everyone in the house can smell it." Michel sings, a knowing smile on his face. Erik snaps out of it but he couldn't get his arousal to go down. He leans forward and rests his forehead against the table. What is going on with him? He asks himself but there was no answer to it. He just doesn't know why Cobie affects him so.

"Erik." Michel calls, the tone of his voice captured Erik attention. Michel rarely talks that seriously to him so now that he is, he has all of Erik's attention. Michel gets up from the couch and makes his way closer to Erik's desk and takes a seat on the opposite chair.

"Go to him." Michel says and Erik just listens. "You won't get any better. You haven't gotten any better this week. Ever since you left his side a week ago, you haven't been better."

"It's not him, Mich."

"No it's not." Michel pauses. "It's you both. Do you even wonder if he's feeling the same as you?"

That thought startled Erik and he ends up thinking in a different direction. What if he wasn't the only one feeling this way? Even if he wasn't the only one feeling this way, then what was he supposed to do? He knows nothing about Cobie except for the little he found out after having a background check done on him. He's practically a stranger. How could he be feeling this way towards a man he doesn't even know? What in sweet Serene's name was going on!

"You might be conflicted but why don't you just go, see his face and come back. Heck, you don't even have to walk into his clinic, just watch him from the windows or something."

It's times like this that Erik can remember why Michel is his best friend and beta. He hesitates, he doesn't know if seeing Cobie would be enough for him. What if he wants to go closer and look into those gorgeous blue eyes of his? What if he wants to touch to, what then?

Rather than replying, Erik gets up from his seat and walks out of the office, he headed straight for his room and locks himself in. He shuts the doors to the balcony too and smiles when he remembers the silver knobs on Cobie's clinic doors. It was obvious Cobie had a bad encounter involving werewolves and Erik couldn't help but wonder what had happened exactly.

He sits on his bed and lays down, his feet tapping away on the floor. He closes his eyes and all he sees is the fierce look Cobie had looked at him with as he pointed a gun straight at his head. He feels a pull as he stares at Cobie's face, he feels tingles shoot up his body as he remembers what Cobie had felt like in his arms, how pliant and soft he had been.

Erik growls and sits up. He wanted to scream, to hit something. He could hear the shouts and grunts of pain as his pack trained and he decides to join them. Maybe this would be the perfect distraction. He goes down the stairs, feeling partly glad that he had just thrown on a pair of shorts and a thin white shirt this morning. The backyard was the size of four stadiums and it was connected to the woods for when the pack go hunting and if any member of the pack wants to go running.

Michel was overseeing the training today. He yells pointers to the others, telling them to put their feet forwards as they fight, telling them to stand their ground and not move as they strike. Immediately Erik walks onto to grounds, the training stops and everyone gives him a small bow in greeting.

"Shift!" he orders and they do without hesitation. It felt like slow motion as Erik watched them shift. He sees their snout stretch out, fur pushing out of their skin, their legs bending and stretching and in less than a minute he had an army of wolves standing in front of him.

"Good."

Michel seemed to sense where this was going and with a smirk. "The first person to pin Erik down gets an entire deer."

This is why Michel was his best friend. There was a bit of a hesitation but one wolf let out a growl and leaped forward. Erik doesn't move from where he's standing, he calculates the steps of the wolf and when it leap and went for his throat with a claw, Erik dodged and punched it on the side of the head. The wolf let out a whimper as it rolled on to the side.

One by one, they come forward and one by one they were defeated, each of them sustaining an injury that would take a couple of hours to heal.

"Alright, enough!" Michel calls out, just as Erik grabs the final wolf by the throat and is squeezing. The sound of Michel's voice snapped him out of it and he looks at the wolf in front of him. It's smaller than the rest of the pack and it had a scared look in it's eyes. Erik loosened his grip and let the wolf drop. He kneels down before the wolf and run his fingers through the thick brown fur.

"Shift." He orders and in a second there's a boy lying naked on the grass in front of him. His rich mocha skin contrasting against the green of the field.

"Amir." Erik says as he lifts the seventeen year old boy up. "You did good today, you're getting stronger and stronger every time I see you."

The field is quiet and everyone is watching and listening. Yes, Erik is the human personification of the hulk but times like this are what remind people of why he was their Alpha. When he's gentle and takes care of the weaker ones, when he plays with the children, when he helps to cook the meals and many other things like, building school, investing in stores struggling financially and the most important of all, treating his pack like equals, respecting Omegas and keeping everyone safe.

"Thank you." Amir says, there's a small smile on his lips and all Erik can think is, cute.

Erik turns around and stared at the wolves lying on the ground, watching him. "Is this a fücking cinema? Why in the hell are you lying down?!" he screams so loud, the vein at the side of his neck bulged.

"Go to him, Erik. Just go and see his face." Michel's voice flit into his head, through the link. Erik doesn't look at his friend but watched as his wolves got up. Even Amir had shifted back and was standing beside Erik. Amir wasn't as big as the other wolves, as a wolf he was up to Erik's shoulder while others towered Erik's 6 foot 5 frame.

"Don't be a twat and go." Michel says his voice coming through the link again, his voice echoing in Erik's head.

Erik takes one look at his friend and he knows. He knows he should. His legs begin moving before his brain caught up. He walks back into the house, shoved his legs into a pair of boots, grabbed his keys and of he went. As he drove he wondered if he was doing the right thing, what if Cobie isn't even feeling an inch of what he was feeling?

"Bitch, don't doubt and just go."

"I really don't thin-"

"If you had a wolf, you would know this is the right thing to do. If you had a wolf, he'd be as restless as you. So think of it as appeasing yourself and your inner wolf." Michel says through the link, his voice going a bit quiet as he explains to Erik.

Erik takes a deep breath and let it out. He takes another one and let it out. He knows what he wanted, can feel the ghost of it on his fingertips. He presses his foot forward and drove as fast as he could towards Yip! Cobie's clinic.

--

Cobie waves goodbye at the little who had come in with her cat who had a limp. The little girl's mother thanks him again and together they walk out of the clinic. It's a bit past one and Cobie feels a bit guilty because Toby hadn't gone for lunch yet.

"You can go for lunch, Toby. You didn't have to stay." Cobie says as he walks towards Toby with his hands pushed into the pocket of his white doctor coat. It's been a week since his clinic opened, a week since Toby had started working with him and it's going smoothly. No, he doesn't know a lot things about Toby but he knows enough to know he's not an axe murderer.

"I'll go now if it's okay with you. I just didn't want to leave you alone in case something went wrong." Toby says as he stands up from the table. Cobie nods in smiles in appreciation. He watches as Toby grabs his phone and wallet.

"Have fun!" He beams at his co-worker.

Toby nods and leaves the clinic. Cobie pulls off his coat and throws it on the desk, he then proceeded to hop on it and lie down on it. He had on a light blue shirt that was tucked into a pair of black pants that stopped at his ankle and white converse on his feet. He pulls out his phone from his pocket and ignores the familiar itch in his eyes as he unlocks his phone.

He hasn't seen Gabriel since the incident with Erik. He also hasn't seen Erik. He has been restless for days. It felt a part of him had gone missing, like there was an itch he could not scratch and it was driving him crazy. He scratches his head as he stared at his phone. There's one person he wants to talk to but he just couldn't. It wasn't safe yet.

He's been texting Gabriel non-stop since then but he's pushed back all their meetings and he's grateful the man hadn't come to look for him at the clinic since it seemed like everyone in Astir knew it was open. He wonders what he should eat for lunch. He's got enough stuff upstairs for him to make sandwiches and he could also order something light from the Just Eat app. He's still contemplating when the door to his clinic was pushed open and in walks in the man he has been going to sleeping thinking about and waking up thinking about. The man who had invaded his every thought.

Cobie pulls himself up into a sitting position and stares at Erik. His shirt was torn and it looks like it was done by claws and, he had dried blood on his legs and going up his arms but his face, his face remained immaculate. Not one scar and not one spot of blood. He was staring at Cobie like a man who had found an oasis in the desert. He takes a few long strides until he's in front of Cobie, who hadn't moved and was watching Erik with a stunned expression.

Had Erik been feeling the same thing he has been feeling for the last week? Is that why he was here? Erik steps closer, stepping between Cobie's legs and pushing them apart. Cobie's heart was going crazy and he knows Erik could hear it but his care, any fûcks he has to give were thrown out the door as he stared at Erik who was looking at him. No words were passed between them. Cobie wanted to move closer but there was nowhere to go, Erik placed his hands on Cobie's hips and breathe. His heart was beating fast and words were non-existent to him. All he wanted, all they both wanted to feel was each other, all they wanted to taste was each other. It seemed that now they were close to each other their feelings were intensified.

"Erik..." Cobie moans. It sounded so soft, so gentle that Erik's heart skips a beat. "Please."

Erik's eyes turn dark as he stares at Cobie, his gaze falls to Cobie's lips. His hands on Cobie's hips tightened and without hesitation, he leans down and claimed what was his.