one is the loneliest #
The night it all started, the night that brought her to this moment when she felt about as weak as she possibly could, that moment felt like ages ago at this point. It seemed like years had passed since the curse was laid upon her that nearly pushed Selene to the point of no return. Though it had only been months and she knew that to be true, it seemed like longer since they were both caught off guard at the most inopportune time that led to this moment and many before where she struggle to even take that last step towards the only thing that would keep the rest of the world safe from her. She was once the one to do that, the woman to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves from the beasts that hunted anything and everything in sight as she hunted them, but now she was becoming that beast once again after the many times before that steered her in the way she never imagined would happen.
Life couldn’t be considered simple in a world full of monsters that threatened everything around. It couldn’t be a basic place to live when she knew the truth of the beasts that were out there. The things that really went bump in the night that weren’t just tales to tell when they were true nightmares were also the same things that Selene knew to hunt better than she knew most other things. The world might not have been simple, but it was her life and the only thing she could consider ordinary in a world that was full of anything but that. It was a steady life, even one that was full of the knowledge that anyone might leave the compound for a hunt and never return because they very well might not make it past the beast that night. It had happened a number of times as she made her way with the very partner beside her, but they always returned the same way the left. There might have been cuts and bruises left behind, yet they always came back as the same people who left — until now.
The moment she felt the curse weighing on her when that mark was left behind, that was when Selene knew there was no returning to the only place she had called home. There was no going back to the place or the people that were still there. As the nights passed with Brayden driving the truck as she sat in the passenger seat, or the even worse nights when he pulled over as she became the monster that took over, she knew there was no going back to something she once had because it was lost. While Selene had never been one to give up and was always the one to push on, even when some considered her to be stubborn for it, that hadn’t been the case since the instant she fell to the cold and wet ground and waited for a bullet that had her name written all over it. Even though it never came and still had yet to reach her, the fact still remained that she had given up that night as she felt torn by the weight she only let press down on her more and more with each full moon that came and went.
Selene could feel his hands on her again when Brayden did everything to get her to take those final steps because now he was the one who couldn’t give up. It seemed like he couldn’t and he also wouldn’t let her, but they both knew the point it had gotten to and even more so in this moment when she could barely even push herself towards the back of the truck, let alone actually get in it. They took too long and knew the consequences, even if it hadn’t gotten to this point before. More broken bones that soon shifted and set themselves back into a new position for the night that couldn’t pass quickly enough. It never could and she knew that, while also knowing that it wouldn’t matter soon when the beast had nearly pushed her aside completely. Her body shook less, her hands remained practically steady at her side and that only meant Selene was no longer herself until the moon set and morning came.
If they had only been earlier, if they had stopped sooner and she managed to push herself into the cage while he helped, then it wouldn’t have gotten to the point where she was standing outside of the enclosure that locked her away as the beast made its way to the surface. But that wasn’t the case as her eyes became dark and heavy while a growl rumbled through her chest the same moment she took a quick step forward to lash out at the only person still there to help. The only problem was that he was there to help Selene and she was gone in this moment when the beast took over and grazed the surface of his skin with extended claws that would leave the same mark behind.
Bray wouldn't give up. If it took him the rest of his life to find a way to help her, he knew that he would. There was nothing else for him to hold onto other than a chance to rectify what he hadn't been able to prevent in the first place. The years they'd spent together, the time that she'd put into turning him into the hunter that he'd become, Bray couldn't let it all come down to this moment. He couldn't let it end like this, not the life of the woman that deserved more than they'd been handed in a world that wouldn't let them be oblivious to what lurked in the shadows. They stayed there too, tainting them with the shadows and the creatures that they hunted, until he could see some of the rest that would come back changed for the worse. The ones that took no pleasure in what they did and neither should they, but the ones that did, the ones that took back heads as trophies and held up their number of deaths as something to be aspired to, those were the ones that Brayden could never stand to become.
He'd fought to be heard, to be listened to, but most of the time it was ignored by the ones that viewed him as weak when Selene had been the only one to pay him any attention. It was then that he knew that there was no better place for him than by her side, proving over time that she'd been right to listen and take a chance on him. If nothing, it would have kept her from looking every bit the fool that others believed her to be. Not when she could have her pick of the partners that trained up with her and she picked the one that'd been at the bottom of every class and last to be assigned anything other than domestic duties back at the compound. Duties that were for the old and young, the ones that hadn't gone out or died in the line of duty. That was where he thought he'd belonged, but that was before he'd met her - before he'd gone out to hunt with her and before he knew better.
He knew where he belonged and it was by her side, whether she wanted him there or not as he pushed and shoved at her changing body to put her in the cage. Finding the gun in his hand as he squeezed the trigger and sent the dart directly into the side of the beast that was Selene. It was too late, a few seconds at most, as another mistake of his own doing would change the course of their partnership once more. It was then that he knew, watching the light disappear from her eyes as she changed slowly, the tranquilizer not moving fast enough to stop her dead in her tracks, that he'd lost her again. Maybe she was in there somewhere, but he couldn't see it as her claws shot out to knock him back again.
It burned where she'd swiped at him, lost was the woman and the partner that he'd known for years and replaced with a figment of most's imagination. The wolves were more terrible and terrifying than anyone could imagine, but not them, not the people that went out there to hunt them to protect the rest of the world. Brayden had seen what they were capable of and to let them roam freely, he knew what must be done, but there was another part of him that knew better. A part that knew that beneath the fur and the teeth was the people that'd once been whole. Not that he could prove it yet, not when every time that she changed, Selene was gone and replaced by the wolf that stood before him. As his hand grasped for his chest, finding his shirt town and the skin broken while blood poured down and stained what was left of his shirt, Bray knew then what would happen next. Now he wasn't fighting for her life, but for the both of them.
