xxsariayoung:
“No – wait, Roan – w-why would we go talk in private w-when… w-when we need to tell them – !” Her mind was working faster than she could comprehend it. The only vampire she really knew was Joel, with his sweet smile and the way he sometimes smelled of dusty books. She hadn’t ever dealt with a dangerous kind – he would never hurt her, yet she’d always been told his kind didn’t like her’s. They were natural enemies, pitted against each other since the beginning of time. And if they were sneaking in and out of the castle and changing memories – and after the wedding travesty – they needed to go straight to the rest of the guard.
She looked frantically over her shoulder one last time at the milling werewolves. Had any of them woken up with a similar bite on their shoulder, not knowing where they’d been? Saria wanted nothing more to turn around and keep trying to tell Roan to tell them straight away, but something in his tone felt strange. Why wasn’t he has panicked as she was?
Reluctantly she let her mentor steer her away from the crowd and into the shade of the building. The collar of her dress still hung low, and every now and then, it throbbed dully. It wasn’t painful. It was more… like a different feeling all together, yet she couldn’t find the words to describe it.
“What did… what did you mean by n-no? What else could it be?” Her heart was still beating hummingbird fast. “Oh… what if someone else is hurt? We need to go help, and tell, o-or look!”She thought he’d know what to do. Roan always had thee answers. He was kind, and smart. Responsible and willing to take care of other people – and so she looked up at him, praying he might know what the mark was, and maybe… maybe even tell her she was going to be alright.
As he lead her out of the gate and into the shadow of the barracks, Roan tried to kick his brain into gear so that he could give Saria a coherent explanation for the new bite mark on her shoulder. After all, there was nothing else that bite could be. He’d seen what bites from vampires looked like on werewolf skin—their unique venom left ugly red scars that would never fully fade, just eventually dull into dark scars that were hard to look at. The bite of a vampire and the bite of another werewolf were as different as night and day. But not only had Saria never seen a real vampire bite scar, she apparently had never seen the kind she now possessed. It made sense that the inexperienced omega was in a panic, but Roan wouldn’t be able to help her if he couldn’t explain in cohesive sentences.
He let her speak, nervous energy practically vibrating off of her, until to a stop under the eaves. “Okay, sunflower, steady on.” Roan patted her hair gently, trying to soothe her the same way he soothed his sister or his brother when they got worked up. “No one else is hurt, and I promise, if there was a vampire runnin’ ‘round biting people, we’d all know. You haven’t been attacked. ‘Kay?” He looked into her eyes, searching for a sign that she was processing what he was saying, that his words and his tone were helping her settle down. This was a big moment for a werewolf, and it hurt his heart that she didn’t have anyone else in her life to help walk her through it. But it was also a kind of honor to be the first person she’d come to, and to be the one to help her through this.
“Right, so, first things first, love,” he went on, his hand moving from her hair to her other shoulder, the one not newly marked. It was more of an instinct, his need to avoid touching the pale scar, but even as he thought about it, he knew why he couldn’t bring himself to touch it. He didn’t make it, obviously, so he had no right to do so. “Has anyone told you about True Bonds?”
