Chapter 5 A Sign Of War

He...left.

Faye mused.

She expected it, but she'd be lying if she said she hadn't held unto hope.

Afterall, he was her long awaited mate.

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, her body still trembling from Emris' lingering scent and the replay of their encounter.

"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 have slain enemies, carried the bodies of fallen comrades and loved ones- and are stained with the blood of countless lives.."

She slowly reached for Faye again, earning a low gasp from her as she gently patted her head.

"I'd sooner cut them off than harm you."

Mabel's words sank into Faye's heart like an anchor into the Sea, and her eyes stung as tears welled up.

Mabel's's brows shot up when she watched the tears run down her face.

"Oh good, no bloody tears this time." She teased. "That actually freaks me out."

The grin on Mabel's face flickered with a slight empathetic frown as her hands caressed Faye's silky white hair and gently pulled her into a warm hug.

And Faye melted into the kind stranger's arms.

A choked sob escaped her lips, and her body shuddered against Mabel as she whimpered.

So much fear and 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.

"But, fire hurts.."

Faye's heartbreaking statement crossed her mind, and she clenched her fists.

"You're noone's doormat." She whispered just above Faye's ears. "You're noone's dog. You're just you, and you deserve to be loved."

Faye broke out into a cry when her chest felt too tight, and her heart too heavy to hold her pain. She wrapped her arms around Mabel; gripping tightly unto her top as the ends of her golden hair tickled her frail hands.

I want to be loved..

Faye mused as she nuzzled her face into Mabel's chest.

•°•∆•°•

Gwen jumped up from the Sofa of the large study room when Mabel walked in with Faye clutching unto her hand.

Nick rose up from behind his desk, studying the extra stains of blood on her dirtied white dress as his brows wrinkled at Mabel.

"Did you feed on her?" Nick surmised, earning an 'are you serious' look from Mabel.

Faye hurried towards the one person she missed the most since she awoke, then grabbed her for a hug.

Gwen froze still- shocked by Faye's sudden physical contact, then looked at an amused Mabel.

"What's this?" Gwen breathed in a low chuckle as she awkwardly patted Faye's back. "She barely looked me in the eye before."

"I'm guessing she's the clingy type." Mabel smirked. "She just hasn't opened up enough to show it."

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

Nick's brows wrinkled further, and he looked at Mabel once again.

"Did you use mind control on her?"

It was Mabel's turn to crinkle her brows and she shot Nick a glare.

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

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

"You two stop it." Gwen rolled her eyes at Nick, then looked at Mabel.

"How long has she been awake?"

"About two hours now." Mabel shrugged and plopped down on the Bean Bag chair. "We spent an hour talking and now we're best of friends."

Gwen chuckled in amusement.

"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!"

"Acts like it too." Nick chimed in, and Mabel only laughed at their reactions.

"My words exactly" Mabel shrugged.

Then she sat up, crossing her legs as her smile suddenly turned to a frown, and her eyes held a glint of sternness rarely seen on her.

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

"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.

It was something noone wanted, least of all them.

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

It had to be Emris.

Faye felt the cloud above them thicken and darken, foreshadowing a thunderous storm. She had no clue why her link to Emris was such a formidable thing, or why the hatred between such similar creatures stood so strong.

She knew one thing for sure; it was a war that spanned for over a thousand years, taking lives and thickening in animosity with every passing generation.

Gwen let out a gasp in realisation, then turned to Mabel with even wider eyes.

"Did he-!"

"Reject her?" Mabel cut in, and Faye flinched at the word.

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

Nick and Gwen let out a sigh of relief that took both them and Faye by surprise.

Nick let out another sigh and ran his hands over his head in a bid to understand the situation better, thinking that the worst had passed.

"It gets worse."

Nick and Gwen froze, their ears peeled and their hearts throbbing against their chests.

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

The cloud released a heavy downpour on them, drops of water falling over their heads in the wails and roars of a bloody and terrifying war.

Nick grabbed the edge of his table, and Gwen stumbled back, gently falling on the Sofa behind her.

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 a silent and squirming Faye;

"And Faye knows who it is."

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

Aysel Aster.