~Moon's POV~

"Wha...." Every limb has gone numb, my voice cracked and a dulling pain coursing the length of my arm. Eyes barely open I can only vaguely make out the interior of the green bedroom, the newly changed crisp satin sheets all too inviting in my time of confusion. "Where...why..." A firm hand grazes my bare chest before pushing my throbbing body back against the mattress, each attempt to sit upright canceled by Andrew.

"Moon," No. His tone is all too familiar, a dull ache in the back of his throat as he swallows nothing but air. A calloused palm falls against my shoulders before slipping to the scars painted across the pale canvas of my back. Andrew pushes me closer and with each inhale I drown a little deeper in his scent and the mind games of his cooling warmth. Please don't let it have happened again. Please. "do you remember what happened earlier?"

Earlier? Ignoring the distant pounding of my skull, I turn my head the slightest, night shining through the windows and blanketing us in a deep ocean blue. "Was I hurt?" I can't bring myself to examine the growing pain in my arm, to face a stranger's hand imprinted in my skin, a purple black reminder of a night that shouldn't of been. Already wetting with tears I pull my face closer into Andrew's maroon sweater, dampening the wool with each dew coated lash. Pulling the material between my teeth as I squeeze my lashes together until they become locked and intertwined, bound by some force between fear and the unknown.

"So you don't remember?" The blanket falls to my hips in rippling folds, the room overflowing with people pressed against the walls and cluttering the aging wood floors. Their stares rest on Andrew, a small phone pressed tight in his palm as he hands it to me, pressing play on the cracked and damaged screen before me.

"Should I?" My focus stays on the too bright light of the phone, the shaky camerawork revealing a poor quality forest, Mikayla's voice ringing out in an attempt to keep company. There's a rustle of leaves, a piercing scream before the screen turns black, lens face down in the snow. The hair coating my arms raises, muscles tighten and body flinches with each picture less noise, each growl and scream escaping Mikayla and her attacker.

"I don't get it..." But the picture returns, a lion and bear wrestling behind the house. The two exchange blows until the bear leaves and the lion nears the house, Mikayla backing against a corner until the injured beast draws near. Its nose twitches at the sight of her before it falls into her lap, a Shifter's mist submerging the creature until the only thing left is...

me.

With a deafening crack the phone breaks, paling fingers still curved as if the device hadn't slipped through the crevices. I can feel myself growing colder, a hollowness expanding from the core of my chest, branching and entangling around the length of each bone until I'm paralyzed with a fear of knowing, of understanding. The bed dips from Jesse's weight but the sensation feels distant, as if from two different places entirely.

He strokes each finger against my cheek, tracing the line of my jaw before cupping the space in his palm, tilting my head closer to his, close enough to see the eyelash lost on his cheek, the worry in his pupils and the creases around his mouth and brow. He leans himself closer until our noses touch and he shuts his eyes, resting his forehead against my own and pausing, breath warm against my lips and chilled skin, the humanoid heat of a werewolf thawing the frightened freeze of my skin.

"Moon," Jesse breaths against my skin, pulling back so our eyes meet in a clash of dulled color. "shifter's DNA only codes for one animal and that thing isn't it." There's pain in the creases of his eyes and the breath thawing the words from his too red lips as he bites back at the blood pulsing to the surface. "You're a dog not a lion but there's footage, there's proof that there's something more to your shifting." His fingers find their way to my hair, pulling the sweaty mass away from my eyes as he speaks, each word weighing against my bones and flesh until I'm drowning in his speech.

"What if I'm special? What if I can shift into more than just a dog and a lion? What if I'm some kind of breed or something?" The silence that follows is painful, all eyes on the floor or on their hands, excuses to not watch the boy in the bed, the boy who's gone against the world and disobeyed Mother Nature. "Could that be possible?" Each word is spoken with an air of caution, the once ordinary room now a haven for danger and the unexpected.

"I mean nobody really knows about us and we've never met another shifter so who says there isn't someone else who can do this?" With the growing silence my words quicken, panic setting in as I start to fidget. Fingers curling in and out of my palm, my legs begin twitching as I start to stress, worry setting in as the room stays draped in silence. Digging my blood crusted fingernails into my thigh, I begin scraping against the fabric for the familiar cutting sensation until my legs grow numb and tingly and my nails leave ripped and whitened lines across the sheets.

Andrew presses my head against his chest, wrapping his arms around my trembling shoulders as he holds me closer. "You're just like any other shifter out there. Maybe it was a glitch of some kind? A one time deal?"

"Or maybe he's just a fucking lion. Maybe even the lion."

"William-"

"What?" His tone catches everyone off guard, arms crossed his lips harden into a thin line bloody and chapped. Will kicks a leg up against the aging wall, wearing away the paint with the blackened sole of his weather worn shoes. "All I'm saying," With a light sigh he pauses for breath, pushing away from the wall and shrugging his shoulders up to his ears in discomfort. "is he's pretty powerful and we saw that just the other night. If Moon is...you know who...then we may actually have a chance of surviving this."

"I'm not Arehli."

"You don't sound so sure."

"I would know if I was, okay Will!?" I can't help the anger flooding through my ever changing veins, what I thought was solid, reliable, the only thing I had left that had stuck through is now just a lie. As if the blood that pumped through them yesterday has dried and spoiled. "I just...just-"

Weary eyes connecting, Mikayla gives a weakened smile as if I'm not the only one who's changed. Her skin has paled to a sickly yellow, hair dry and breaking with ice crystals forming on each strand, the cold claiming her as she wrings her brittle hands and coughs into the withering fabric of her graying sweater. She's grown colder over the night, the life inside her gone when her eyes leave the light of mine. "I want to be alone." With the winter blowing through the cracks of the wood, I draw the blankets closer, wrapping them around my neck as if dawning a cape. "Can...can I just...be alone for a bit?" My eyes stay drawn to the bed, wrapping stray strings around my thumb and forefinger, trying too hard to distract myself from them, from myself.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

The string breaks under the force of my sudden movements, the blanket skipping onto my shoulders as I bounce up, coming face to face with Andrew. "But-"

"Too much has happened for you to just be left alone unsupervised."

"Then leave me with Julius." Golden eyes soften at my tone, a desperateness in them that even I can't pretend to ignore. The shuffling of feet fade to mere background noise, the memory of the video replaying in my mind becoming priority. Each vivid growl and movement coming to life until the room lies in silence once more, the bed sinking down with the weight of Julius's body next to mine. His fingers paw at the crinkling green sheets beneath us, tracing the wrinkles until his palm finds the bare scarring of my thigh.

"Are you alright?" His breath kisses the shell of my ear, lips resting on my shoulder as his body curls into mine.

"N-no." Voice cracking, I wipe the tears before they come, Julius draping his arm over my hip and pulling me closer into his chest as I cry.

"Is it the video or something more?" There's something calming in his voice, the scent of oranges brushing through my hair and filling my head with a sense of security, as if maybe everything in the world isn't really falling apart.

I bite back my quivering lip until liquid metal brushes my tongue and Julius's arm constricts a bit tighter. With an already wet hand I dry my tears, saltwater dripping down my cheek and chin and staining the sheets in mis colored blotches.

"It's too much in too short of a time. First Faramund and then the house fire and the migration." I turn to face him, violet eyes filled with sympathy at my shattered state, my lip trembling and bloody from the constant attempts to still it. "My fucking jewel gets stolen and I get attacked by the Vedil and now my family is dying and Niko can show up at any time and now I'm a fucking lion." His thumb brushes beneath my hollowed eyes, his scent filling the room as he blows away scattered lashes and misplaced hairs. I can't help the tears begging to fall, throat burning from trying to hold it all in. "It's just too much."

His eyes find my lips, swollen and bruised in their defeated state before traveling to my eyes in no better conditions. With light hands and lighter strokes, he brushes away my hair, sweeping each strand behind my ear until it falls smoothly in place one after another.

"I can't lay here and say I know how you feel, Moon because I honestly don't. I have no clue. But I know I hate seeing you like this and I want to make it better for you," His eyes find my lips once more, softening as his finger trails over the cut my teeth had made mere moment earlier, spotted blood marking his finger as he draws away. "even if it's only temporarily."

"I'd really like that."

{Go to Crossblood Sexy Scenes}

~Julius's POV~

His breaths have slowed to normal, harmonizing with the wind brushing against the cracked glass of the windows, a melody all in it's self as he tosses in my arms, onyx hair tussled and frayed against my chest. Curled into a ball tight against my frame I hold him closer, pulling a feathered comforter over the both of us.

His skin instantly warms, the trapped air beneath the blanket becoming a furnace. With a look of unease on his face he starts to squirm, nails digging into my bare skin as he attempts to avoid the heat. Ignoring the raising lines across my forearm, I kick the blanket away, the ink like markings fading away from his ankles and toes, seemingly dissolving into a mist as he calms.

A knock on the aging door, its paint chipped and yellowed, disturbs the peace of the room, A head of auburn hair peeking out of the adjacent door frame. "Are you two alright?"

Clide.

He doesn't wait for an answer, but rather marches in proudly, head high, shoulders back, and seats himself on the end of the green and brown bed. Raising a hand he pets down his brother's hair, trailing the side of his face until he reaches the end, cupping the resting boy's chin before immediately drawing back from the heat. Moon twitches the slightest, turning over groggily, sleep bright in his eyes as he mumbles something unintelligible.

"Stay here." Pure panic has overrode his features, a jolt in his step as he races to the creaking oak door, turning at the last minute to whisper back a warning. "Do not wake him up."

As if on cue he gives a groan of protest, raising his head and squinting as if facing the morning sun. "I feel weird..."

I start to speak but he's already asleep again, drool trailing down my chest and settling in my lap. Slowly, I rock our bodies, swaying to the tune of the weary mattress, it's tenor springs growling as our weight shifts forward and back. My lips find their way to his head, kissing his tangled hair before tucking his head back into my chest, holding him against me even tighter as the door blows open with the softest hit.

At the sight of Andrew I tense, his hair frayed and unruly, eyes drowning in pain as he rushes to the side of the bed and pulls Moon from my grasp. Hastily he flattens away my kiss, Moon's eyes blinking open as he's handed over to Jesse, Andrew's attention purely on me. I haven't given any thought to the damage brought from holding a scorching boy in my arms. I wince at the white hot blisters scattered over my chest and arms, Andrew pressing a cool cloth over the damaged skin while Jesse holds on to Moon, a quite Kaiien and Clide slouched over in the corner of the bedroom.

"Everything hurts." I can't help the stabbing pain coursing through me at his words. A feeling rooted deep inside that I'm the cause of his pain. "W...Why am I in pain?" His words slur and he can barely support himself sitting upright, one hand on Jesse's waist as the other wraps around his own, eyes squeezed shut and brows furrowed in confusion.

"Can you lay down?"

He moves to lay Moon on his back but Moon's hands are quickly wrapped around his forearm, fear settling in his eyes as his chest heaves with newborn tears. "What happened to me?! Why can't I remember anything?!"

"Moon-" Andrew reaches out a hand only to recoil as Moon lets out a low growl, shaking as he curls into a protective ball and both Andrew and Jesse step back.

Kaiien quickly takes his place as savior, a sly smile crawling to the tip of his chilled and chapped lips as he turns to me, wrapping his arms around the scared boy until the growls fade out to whimpers, Moon clawing at their arms absentmindedly as he slowly calms down. "You're awfully hormonal." With a pixie's laugh Kai jumps out of the way of his brother's swatting arm, moving towards me and my aloe scented chest. "You had sex, consensual," He adds in as an after thought. "with Julius for a very long time." There's a bitter taste on the tip of the tongue, worse than ancient wine and cocoa as he draws out my name, tiny hands forming fists as he conceals them in his lap, biting down on his lip as his brother does.

"Why can't I remember? I mean I know I topped you but after that it's just a blur." Physically, he shakes his head as if the fog will evaporate and leave him with all the answers to his questions. Jesse, finally stilled from pacing the bedroom, sits at the foot of the bed, legs curled up under him as he looks at us both, eyes landing on Moon one last time as he takes a shaky breath.

"You can't remember because you went into heat."

"But I didn't hurt him!" His tone has me taken aback, a dangerous cocktail of fear, anger, and utter confusion. With the pads of his fingers pressed against his forehead he starts to cry, tears disappearing to smoke the second they roll off his thick coal lashes.

"The first two or three times you won't, Moon, your body isn't just going to automatically make that change. Your memory has been coming and going for a while we," He shakes his head at the thought, crossing his arms over one another and folding into himself. "I, should have known."

The room rests in silence, powdery snow sticking to the windowsill and blocking out the little sunlight left in an icy eclipse. Our breaths show in foggy clouds, Moon's hand clutching the sheets as he stares into his empty lap, ignoring Jesse's words completely. "Moon doesn't have a mate..." Leave it to Kaiien to be oblivious to the elephant in the room, his fragile body trembling with the lack of light and artificial warmth. "He'll die..."

He's answered with silence, Andrew wringing his fingers and avoiding the room's gaze, lips slightly trembling until he stands, shoulders broad and chest up as if the matter of the situation means nothing. "We'll contact an agency, find him a mate but until then, Moon, you're going to have to manage."

"How the fuck am I supposed to do that." His lips have curled up into a snarl, fists pressed into his legs as he leans back hard against the cool side of the pillow, Kaiien leaning into him as he flips his hair from his eyes.

"No drugs, no sex, no alcohol."

From the corner of my eye I notice Kaiien drawing into himself, inching away from Moon the slightest but not enough to draw the attention of the others. There's fear in his eyes as Moon protests, a side I've never seen of the both of them, though angry I've never seen Moon brutal or vicious, in the light of the Moon that attacked Andrew. Even though he's shy I've never seen Kaiien terrified, shaking against the headboard of the bed and curling up until he seemingly disappears into himself.

"You and I both know that isn't working out."

He turn his back from his son, scribbling onto a notebook near Jesse. "Maybe you'll finally learn not to depend so much on substances and-" Slowly, he turns back around, handing the slip of paper to Jesse before walking towards Moon and sitting before him, Kaiien inching away even more as Andrew draws nearer, the attitude of a father overtaking him. "You don't growl at me, I don't care how mad you are, Moon." His tone has chills running up my spine, the thought of being reprimanded having me backing up into the wall, Moon running out the room leaving nothing but the patter of footsteps behind.

Then a scream.

It's bloodcurdling, goosebumps settling against my skin like a brisk fall day, adrenaline coursing through my veins as I launch myself out the room, black dotting my vision as I sprint to the staircase, skidding across the carpeted hall as I spot Moon lying on the stairs, small blood stains spotting the wood where his head had fallen and a figure hovering over his.

As it lifts his head I can make out its features, it's blackened eyes and long coal hair matching that of the boy's beneath it and the connection finally comes, the words rolling off my tongue like summertime tar.

"Niko."