Chapter 5 A Sign Of War

*He left.*

Faye mused.

The door creaked open to reveal Mabel. She leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed as her eyes examined Faye with quiet intensity.

Faye avoided Mabel's eyes, wiping the blood from her face.

"I'm curious to know your story." Mabel sauntered in and stopped a few inches from Faye.

She lifted her hand and froze when Faye flinched; cowering at the thought of Mabel's hand descending in a violent blow.

Mabel tilted her head, then held the palm of her hands out in front of Faye with a soft smile.

"You know," she started. "Though these hands are stained with the blood of countless enemies.."

She slowly reached for Faye again, then gently patted her head.

"They wouldn't harm just anyone."

Faye bit back a sob as she stared as Mabel caressed Faye's silky white hair, then pulled her in for a warm hug.

Faye melted into the kind stranger's arms and squeezed her eyes shut.

*So much pain inside such a small and young girl.*

Mabel mused.

*Where did she come from, and what exactly did they put her through to create such a mess? *

Mabel's curiosity danced around her mind in questions that only bubbled up as sympathy in her heart.

•°•∆•°•

Gwen jumped up from the Sofa of the large study room when Mabel walked in with Faye clutching unto her hand. She hurried towards Faye, then grabbed her for a hug.

Faye pulled out from the hug, then mustered up a smile.

"You didn't bully her, did you?" Nick teased Mabel and she shot him a look.

"Is this how little you trust my people skills, Nicholas?"

"Little?" He let out an amused scoff. "I don't trust it at all."

"How long has she been awake?" Gwen asked.

"About two hours now." Mabel shrugged and plopped down on the Bean Bag chair. "We spent an hour talking, she took a bath, and now we're good friends."

Gwen smiled, relieved that Faye found someone else to get along with.

"Oh!" Mabel exclaimed. "Do you know she's actually twenty four years old?"

Gwen and Nick's jaws fell to the floor.

"What?!" Gwen's head snapped towards a confused Faye. "She looks no older than sixteen!"

"My words exactly" Mabel shrugged. Then she sat up, crossing her legs as her smile suddenly shifted to a frown.

"There's more." Her voice carried weight, a hint of rage that captured both Nick and Gwen's attention at once.

"It's not my place to reveal this, but Emris is most likely to keep it to himself in order to end it quietly," Mabel sighed. "It turns out that Faye is his mate."

A heavy cloud of silence floated through the room, bringing with it a drizzle of ice cold confusion and a building dread in the pit of their stomachs.

It was something that almost never happened; a Werewolf and a Lycan being linked by fate.

"Of all people.." Nick breathed, his fists clenching and itching for a hit at something.

*It had to be Emris.*

Faye felt the air around them thicken, foreshadowing a thunderous storm.

She knew for a fact that her link with Emris was a formidable thing. It was because of the age long war between their races that took thousands of lives, thickening the animosity between them in every passing generation.

Gwen's eyes immediately widened.

"Did he-!"

"Reject her?" Mabel cut in, and Faye tightened her fist at the mention of the word.

"No." She continued. "Emris may be hard headed and impulsive, but he was raised by you two. He's not cruel."

Gwen let out a relieved sigh.

Nick's sigh followed, and he ran his hands over his head in a bid to understand their situation better.

"It gets worse."

"Worse than this??" Gwen exclaimed.

"The prophesied doom, the one who is said will be born to the Werewolves and wipe the Lycan's out, already exists."

An eerie silence floated by, and Nick leaned against his table as he swallowed.

Faye felt Gwen go tense as her hold on her hand tightened.

Mabel searched their pale faces; haunted and troubled looks that had long hoped that the war was close to being totally avoided, then she breathed her next sentence as her eyes fell on Faye;

"And Faye knows who it is."

Faye clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palm as the weight of the room's silence pressed down on her like chains.

She didn't just know this person, she loathed her.

*Aysel Aster. *