Chapter Twenty-Two The Voice
Twenty-two – The Voice.
As he laid on the ground, cold and sand rubbing against his skin, a still small voice spoke to him in his subconscious.
“Nathan! Get the hell up!”.
It words didn’t match it’s calm voice and Nathan felt behind his head tugging, like it wanted to rip away from him. He was jolted back to conscious and his body rose from the ground.
“Don’t stay unconscious or people would wonder why you fainted! You aren’t supposed to be affected by wolfsbane, idiot!”.
Nathan wondered how he even got on the ground in the first place. His memories filtered in and he jumped to his feet. Ashley was still unconscious besides him.
Whatever they had drank, it had a good amount of wolfsbane that’d weaken an Alpha wolf and make them pass out for hours.
He crept past the lying bodies towards his sister, Luciana. She had passed out while on her seat. He felt her pulse and realized she was gaining consciousness.
“I don’t think you know how you look like, do you?” the voice spoke in his head again. Nathan scrunched his face, being conscious of new features on it.
He felt his jaw and neck and surprisingly, hair had sprouted from his skin, small soft hair covered his jaw to his face’s sides.
His vision was bluish green. He loved it. Everything seemed more pronounced. But it wasn’t normal, he knew.
“Am I shifting?” he looked away from Luciana and into space.
The voice tsked. “You aren’t strong enough to shift. And I am too tired being dormant in here to shift you either”. It had a lazy speaking tone.
“Where’s Stephanie? Who did this to us?”.
“Is that a rhetorical question? Johnson, of course! Don’t you use your thinking or has my training been in vain!”.
Nathan rolled his eyes as he got scolded, he picked up his suitcase and studied it, frowning upon not finding the bid inside.
That crazy CEO boldly drugged them just to steal the bid. He must’ve been so affected on losing it. And he chose Garcia’s birthday party to do it, he was that desperate.
He quickly took out a sachet from his suitcase and added it into the glass of wine he remained on the table. It was a drug. That’d serve as a diversion to what actually made him faint.
“Nathan! Won’t you leave before someone sees you like this! Run off! I feel consciousness returning to the wolves around you!” the voice yelled.
Nathan cornered to the basement as indeed Ashley was almost waking up.
“Run!”.
“Run to where?”. Nathan ran his hands through his hair, confusion eating him up. Should he run back to the pack?
“Not to the pack! Run to your clan’s house!”.
Like a flash, he zapped past the basement and the cars, and jumped into the fields. He made sure he didn’t use the sidewalks of someone would have seen him.
How have there been lying there and no police officer come to their aid? Did Johnson buy all of them, it was a really sick plan.
His location, a dead looking house, came to view so Nathan stopped his twelve minutes continuous running, his heart threatening to break out of his chest.
“Why do I feel this tired?”.
“Because you are tired?” the voice replied.
“No, I mean,” he flung the door open and walked into the dark house, “I don’t feel any energy”. He fell few steps away from the couch.
The voice snickered, “Silly human, how do you expect to get energy from your weak body. I’ve been the one giving you the energy and wits lately. Of recent, you’ve been tasking your body. Boring me! Do you still want my help, for me to take over you? All you have to do is ask”.
Nathan groaned, “You’re a witty fox but you can’t trick me. You know what happens if someone anyone sees you, right?”.
The voice whimpered. “Yeah, I know. It was worth the shot. Here’s your energy.”.
A flowing surge swam inside of Nathan and he felt for a moment he was flying. He balled his fists gently and they felt powerful. He staggered to his feet and fell on the couch, “Thanks. You didn’t give me your name, you know?”.
The voice humphed.
Nathan continued. “Well, I thought I was crazy for hearing voices, at first. I dreaded you. But now you’ve forced yourself on me…”.
“Forced myself on you? No, you wanted my help to survive orphanage. You wanted my help to be the smartest kid. I helped you. You needed me” The voice sounded hurt.
Nathan rolled his eyes while wiping off sand and dust from his fact, he felt the small hairs on his face again. “Oh, and can I shave these off?”.
“Of course, why did we run out of there? Moon goddess, was this the dumb human you gave me?”.
Nathan chuckled, getting up from the couch heading upstairs, “I am sorry about Stephanie. But I’d try to make it up to her!”.
The voice sighed but stayed mute.
“Being a playboy while having an allergy to skin touch is hard, you know. Don’t blame the plan for failing but I needed life-force and that secretary was cheap enough to give me”.
“Yes but now My Stephanie is distant from me. You should really up your game. And you have bad taste!”.
Nathan scowled at his words. His Stephanie? Like he could have her while not being human.
“You know I know your thoughts right? Even if I’m not human, Stephanie belongs to me as she should belong to you. If you can’t make her remember it, I’d prefer you leave her so she’d get someone better.”.
Nathan accidentally cut himself with the shaving stick he was using. He groaned, placing it down. This voice better shut up before he’d lose it. He can’t lose Stephanie for many reasons.
“Don’t threaten me. Without you, I’d still be my father’s son. Just not with his abilities” he said matter of fact.
“And without your abilities, you’d be a useless son” the voice retorted.
Nathan was about replying again when he’s phone buzzed. “It’s ‘your’ Stephanie” he said to the voice and it made a whimper sound.
“Um… hey? How… how are you?” he tried to sound like he was half conscious.
“Oh, are you still unstable? I thought Garcia would called the police. Anyway, I have the bid. I’d return it tomorrow.”.
Nathan blinked, “How… how do you have.. have it?” he stuttered, unintentionally.
“Well, we’d speak on that when we meet. Tomorrow? Or…?”.
A warmness engulfed him when Stephanie suggested coming tomorrow. He cut the call just when she wanted to ask again.
“Really?? You hung up on her?”.
“No, I want her to get a bit worried. Maybe panic and look for me. She’s been here before. It was the first place we met. She’d find me.” Nathan explained.
He finished off his shaving and admired his clean shaven handsome face again.Exclusive © content by N(ô)ve/l/Drama.Org.
“You know I gave you the looks too?”.
Nathan gagged. “You gave me speed. Fast thinking. Strength. Reflexes. But nope, my genes gave me this face, Mr. No Name”.
“I am Keon. Third Level Werefox. Only one of my kind I’ve seen around since the war!”.
“And good. Or else I’d be tasked to protect more than one Werefox!”.
Keon tsked and went back to his usual dormant self. Nathan continued in dressing his hair.
If the fox knew how dangerous the society deemed him, he’d just shut the hell up about meeting more of his kind.
Author Note: Are You Surprised To Know Nathan’s True Identity? Did You Have Suspicions? What Gave It Away?