Hi!! I'm back with a part two! I was very sleep deprived when I wrote the last one, so let's see how this goes when I'm more lucid ;-;
Hybrid!141/ Bear Hybrid!Reader (reader is gender neutral)
Poly 141 heavily implied, maybe a pt 3 if people want it?
Cw: angst with a happy ending, hurt/comfort, reader was abused by a previous team but no one knew how bad it was, including reader, still pretty fluffy? Reader is even more anxious and a mental mess this time oops
Enjoy!
You had been hibernating for days at this point. Snuggled into the den, waking up for an hour at a time just to eat more food and go back down. Thankfully, you didn't seem to mind not having someone in the den with you constantly due to being so out of it. It gave the taskforce enough time to do some research and form a game plan for when you woke up. They knew falling into your insticts was neccessary for you, but would be hell of your mental state. Price had damn near paced a hole in the floor, tearing himself up with guilt.
Meanwhile, you dreamed in your deep state of hibernation, mostly about your past. Glimpses of being alone as a cub, to being put into a training facility for feral hybrids. The military.
Flashes of the cage- the prongs of a tazer- training and beatings and shoving your bear down- clawing at your ears- only being allowed to indulge when it was useful- when you killed-
It made you want to wake up with a scream, to cry for help or tear something apart- but the hibernation was too deep. Stuck in a neverending carousel of your past. You could barely tell when you woke up, animal hindbrain taking over, trying to keep you alive when you were living in constant fight or flight. There was nothing more effective at keeping a hybrid unthinking than stress.
Days more passed, with the team unknowing of the torture your mind was going through. Afterall, it was very uncommon for any hybrid that hibernated to dream during it. Unfortunate that you were a fringe case.
At the end of almost two weeks, you clawed and fought your way out of the deep murk to the surface.
You finally fully woke up with a gasp that was almost a scream. Disorented. Where were you- you didn't know this place- why- how did you get here- Price will be so mad- you were supposed to stay awake-
Gaz startled as you shot up. His feathers ruffling as he twisted onto his knees in a split second. A croon bubbling in his throat. He knew you weren't a child- a cub- but you looked so much like one. Fluffly little ears, underdeveloped as price said, your eyes wide and helpless, curled up into a non existent larger figure to protect you. To shield you from all the things that should have never happened in the first place.
Gaz crooned again, but didn't move any closer.
Gasps clawed their way up your throat, choking and desperate and burning. You didn't know what was happening, or why- you knew you had been dreaming, that it had been bad, but not exactly what. You didn't even notice Gaz with his worried expression looking at you. A noise followed the gasps, a mix between a roar and a whimper. A desperate cry for help, one you hadn't made since you were a cub. That you were never allowed to make even when you were a cub. All you knew was that your instincts were screaming at you that someone would come- to help- to make it all better-
And the door slammed open, revealing Price. His chest heaving, hair still dripping wet from the showers. Soap and ghost followed closely behind.
"Kid- what the bloody hell happened?"
"No idea sir- just woke up and started panicking-"
"This was nae in the plan-"
"Pipe down Johnny, you'll only scare er-"
The cacophony of voices surrounded you, making your calls louder, more desperate. Curling into a little ball, clawed hands pawing at your head and ears, trying to block out the sound.
Price finally quieted the racket with a sharp "enough!", and walked over to you. Carefully. Slowly. He lowered himself into the den, and curled behind you, tucking your head into his neck. Rumbling lowly.
Gaz sucked in a breath. The move was risky- planned for if you did wake up in a state like this. But it paid off.
All you knew was that things went from loud and so so scary to quiet and warm and musky in an instant. Snuffling at Price's warm neck, seeking out the faint scent there. You knew that scent- it had kept you safe, you were certain of that. Big eyes blinking slowly, pupils expanded widly, making them almost entirely black. Slowly, you relaxed, chuffing softly into Price's big, warm body.
"Thas it cub- calm down- I know you can't talk righ' now, don't expect you to. Just breath, nice an' easy, olrigh'"
Slowly, your heart rate calmed down fully. Shaking your head, clearing some of the fog away. Bits and peices of what happened flowint back to you. Price bringing you here, how safe it felt, how warm. And the feeling of home with your team curled around you.
You tried to say something, to apolagize, or explain, anything, but your voice got caught in your throat. The only thing coming out being a low grunt.
Price expected it. They all had, doing research for days on what condition to expect you to be in, what challenges, how to help. Behind you, Simon had slid into the nest to soothe Gaz, still ruffled and panicked by how you had woken up. Soothing down his feathers and doing his best wolfish imitation of a coo into his ear. Your own heightened hearing picked up on it, and instead of other hybrids being near making you feel frightened, it soothed you. This was okay. Needing help was okay. Afterall- Gaz was getting comfort, and he had been on the team for years- so maybe, just maybe it would be the same for you.
