[ P ] Sins of our past

He walked in utterly silence. He didn't look at her, he didn't speak to her. Their pace was slow and the summer storm had soaked everything. Mud dried and caked to his legs and belly though he ignored it. His expression was blank, his posture advising others to clear his path.

He had waited until the cover of night. He couldn't just trot Merrin out through the streets when she was a wanted criminal and he was a high ranking officer. It was a black mark on his record whether or not anyone else knew about it. And while that alone made his thoughts churn unpleasantly, his thoughts were already racing.

What in the fuck am I doing?

The question repeated over and over in his head.

Merrin had completely lost it at the cliff. Tears flowed endlessly from her cheeks and she wailed in terror. The solider in him wanted to throw her back in the cell she had escaped and throw away the key, never thinking of her again. But when the time came, he found himself unable to commit. They couldn't just leave her on the cliff, though she likely would have eradicated herself and ended all their suffering.

With Ashers help, he would locate Argent and the place they called home. Of course it was in Yorkshire... Tension drew his shoulders tight as he wordlessly nudged Merrin around corners and down alleys until they stood on her front porch. Looking over his shoulder, fluorite eyes scanned the street once more before his heavy knock landed against the door.

art + code: clae

Merrin was a lost sheep and Kenzo had taken on the role of shepherd, directing her this way and that as they moved through the night. She trembled with each step, the horrors of what lay ahead swimming around in her skull. Only once did she dare whimper, "Where are we going...?" He wouldn't answer her, he wouldn't even look at her. She withdrew then further back into herself, trying to sift through her most recent memories and finding that she was having great difficulty. She had no clue when they had left the cliff by the raging sea. She hadn't noticed when Asher or Ryker had left them. Merrin had lost all concept of time some how...perhaps it was because none of it mattered now...not without...

Tears blinded her vision once more as she walked, her gait slowing as she tried to hold back her tears, visions of her family dancing in her mind. Her happiest moments with them and then her own horrifying imaginings of their deaths as a result of her foolishness. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I'm sorry..." She muttered, shaking her head and squeezing her eyes shut until Kenzo was nudging her forward again.

After a time, she grew silent, staring down at her paws and the endless steps she took to nowhere at all. Merrin nearly bumped into him as he came to a halt and she stepped up onto a wooden surface that creaked beneath her weight. The sound...the familiarity of it caused her ears to flick to attention and when she looked up, the cabin...their cabin loomed overhead. Of all the places that her eldest son could have taken her, she had not expected it to be here.

A panic burst in her chest and she began to backpedal until she fell from the porch and into the earth, shoving it away from her as she tried to scoot herself backwards. She instantly began wailing, imagining the bodies of her mate and children stacked high awaiting her within the walls of what had once been home. "NO! No! I don't want-! I don't want to see!! Nooo...no, no, noooo...!" Her sobbing became hysterical and she curled up, shielding herself away from the atrocities of this world.

@Kenzo @Argent

table ; bunny - - art ; Raven

Countless days in the dungeon had changed the noble ex-captain. Worn away the softness in his heart into jagged edges. Grief in Merrin's absence, worry for Lenora who had caught Nalik's eye. His whole life had been turned upside down and he was still reeling from the sudden flip. Obey the law and it will always protect you. All his life he had served obediently, in the military and after. What had that loyalty gotten him? Iron bars, a crippled body and an empty home. Where was she? He couldn't bear the thought of her suffering. It took all his willpower to stop himself from storming into the barracks and demanding her safe return. So he waited..and waited ..and waited for her to come home.

A jolt at the door forced him awake and jerked it open with his jaws so roughly that the door frame trembled. Iron eyes saw Merrin looking more wretched than he'd ever seen her and her begging a man stood beside her. He was in no condition to protect her. Hunger had stripped muscle and fat from his flesh, leaving him skinny and gaunt, but as long as he had fangs to bite and the will to stand he would be her shield. With a growl he stepped in front of Merrin to protect her from the man she cowered from. "What did you bastards do to her?" he demanded, shaking with rage and hatred. Not even on the battlefield had he felt such a strong desire to kill before. To hurt them for hurting her.

Art by Ashon

He didn’t think today could get any worse. She had tried to ask where they were going, but his cold shoulder eventually had her staying silent. Standing on the front porch of her home felt wrong, it didn’t feel like a place he should be. Maybe that was because he shouldn’t be standing beside to begin with, she was a wanted criminal, even if her crimes were justified. His position in the army was in jeopardy. Merrin was stumbling backward then, trying to escape him and her home, hysteria parting her lips as she desperately pleaded with him. Her pitiful wails filled the streets, the shrill sound seeming even louder in the quiet of the night. Brows furrowed and he couldn’t swallow the sigh that parted his lips in exasperation. ”Merrin.” He tried to get her attention, wanting nothing more than for her to shut up. Warily, he scanned the streets, hoping she didn’t draw too much attention to them. There was no telling what she was talking about, her choice of words were confusing. She didn’t want to see? See what? Her family? The family that she loved so dearly, the family she had chosen over him, Ryker and Asher. Now she was running away from them too. Jaws clenched in an effort to keep his growl silent.

With his back to the door, ears would tip towards the sound when the wood door was ripped open with enough force to shake the frame. Argent stepped out, looking not much better than Merrin. The once large man had wasted away to skin and bones, his fur hung on his frame likes clothes several sizes too big. But that didn’t stop him from vibrating with rage as he placed himself between mother and son. What did you bastards do to her? Kenzos eyes narrowed. ”We only kept her from jumping off a cliff, then from falling off that same cliff.” Was his surly retort. ”Oh and let’s not forget that I haven’t taken her back to the jail cell she escaped from.” Pale lips twitched, resisting the urge to curl back and expose his fangs. He didn’t pretend to fully understand the fury that coursed through the man’s veins, though he understood it on some level, knowing he burn this world to the ground if someone showed up with Adeline in such a condition.

With a huff, he would attempt to shake some of the aggression from himself. He wasn’t here to fight with Argent. He tried to smooth his features. But today had been too much and he still hasn’t returned to Adeline. It felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders and only now was he struggling to carry it. Clearly Argent had no idea who he was, not that he had expected him to. ”I’m her son.” The words almost never left his mouth, but the last thing he needed was Argent attacking him and drawing even more attention to their criminal activities.

art + code: clae

She heard her name, but did not dare budge rooting herself to the cold earth. Kenzo would have to drag her across to get her anywhere near the house that only promised ruin of what her life once was. She squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face into her own tail, muffling the crying and terrified mutterings. “Why won't it stop...make it stop..." It never would. Never.

There was sound and movement that brushed past her with heavy steps, halting just ahead of her. What Hellscape could have possibly been constructed especially. Hadn't Nalik had enough fun? He had clearly won whatever game he was playing and she still didn't even know the rules. She shrunk away from the form that entrted and whimpered, keeping her eyes shut for fear of seeing what it might be. Until she heard it.

“What did you bastards do to her?"

There was no mistaking the gravely tone that she knew almost better than her own voice. The sound completely shook her to her core and she lifts her head, ears stop her head swiveled forward as wide, lilac orbs flickered up to focus on what she could only deduce was a figment of her own imagination, a ghost. “Luciel...?" She whispered, her body beginning to tremble as a renewed sorrow brought forth another wave of tears while she mourned the ghost of her love.

But, then, Kenzo spoke and she blinked in utter confusion when she realized that he was not addressing her. Completely bewildered, Merrin looked between the two of them as an impossible conversation began to unfold. She shuffled herself backwards in a fright, putting distance between them until her back hit the edge of the porch. “N-no...you're...you're dead!" Her mind struggled to rationalize the scenario she was witnessing and what news she had been told of Luciel's death, which in turn only began to cause her more distress


@Kenzo @Argent

table ; bunny - - art ; Raven

Angry Townsfolk

Your presence causes catches the eye of two elderly wolves, an old man and an old woman. They both sneer as they catch your scent. Then, in a fit of anger, the old man starts yelling at you. "We do not need your kind here! Leave, get on now! You have brought NOTHING but plague to this land!"


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Wrong or right didn't seem to matter to Argent anymore. Everything had gotten so twisted inside that he just didn't care. The only thing that mattered to him was his family and protecting them from harm. I failed. Seeing Merrin shaking and trembling in a heap on the ground felt the very flesh of his heart was being flayed, bloody and raw. Someone had broken her and someone was going to pay dearly for that.

The whites of his eyes flashed with horror when the man flippantly remarked that Merrin had tried to - Argent felt a wave of dizzy heat rush to his head and his stomach tightened with nausea. He had almost lost her. I'm her son, The revelation did nothing to soften his rage or hatred towards him. It hardened it. He didn't see Merrin's child. He saw Nalik's son and he hated him for that. "You did this to her. All of you. I don't want to see you or your family again. Fuck off and leave us alone," he replied, words thick with hate and disgust towards the son of Nalik, feeling no gratitude towards him, not even for bringing Merrin back. He blamed them for hurting her. Hated them for it.

The cold steel in his eyes only softened when he looked upon her. "Merri. It's me, Luciel. Look at me," he lowered himself down and softly touched her with his nose. Whatever it took he was going to help her get through this just as she had helped him through his darkness.

Art by Ashon