Of Cubs and Lasting Pain

Chapter Nine

(River's POV)

I looked to my teammates for assistance. I had no idea how to start this conversation. I mean one can't just come right out with it. Especially to a newly freed torture victim with inhuman shifter abilities, who by the way is always on edge. Various scenarios could play out with numerous repercussions NO ONE wants to deal with. Like, 'Hey, I know this is sudden but I'm your older step brother. Oh and by the way you have another one. We never knew you existed. Too much?'.

'Yeah, not happening.' I thought bitterly and sighed as I rubbed the skin between my eyes near the top of my nose while glancing at Nyxton.

Anyone could tell a mile away that he was not in the least bit comfortable at the moment. He was on the verge of freaking out. His body was so jittery with nerves it was like watching a cell phone vibrate. Cole and Marcus informed me of what went down when they tried to get him into or even near the building. His cat tail and ears kept twitching this way and that just sitting, or in his case standing, in this room. PTSD is right. So how would he take the news I wonder?

I was brought out of my thoughts when Ty nudged my left shoulder. "Hey man, I think you should give the rest of that left over meat to Nyxton or something. It might distract him from blowing a fuse. He's not looking to good bro."

I nodded my head in acknowledgement before making up my mind. I'll just tell him when there are less people around. What's a few more hours...or a day, right? Calming Nyxton down took precedent at the moment. That little girl isn't here to ease him. Now it's up to us grown Navy SEAL men. He IS my little step brother after all...

(Nyxton's POV)

You know that feeling when someone has something to say to you but decides not to say it and you know it's probably important information? Then when they don't say anything your interests are piqued? Yeah well that's what just went down. River and his team had been seated for over ten minutes now after the scientist left. He said he would give us time to talk. So far no one said a thing. And it was making me very very anxious.

'Why can't Genie be here?' I thought desperately. These males were no help. Being in this god forsaken place was no help. And the fact the scientist closed the door on his way out, making it feel smaller in here, wasn't helping even more.

I glanced around the room to see if there was anything to distract my overactive mind. This 'Jax' scientist had numerous stacks of papers strewn atop his desk, balled up trash on the floor near the trash bin, scattered medical equipment, even days old clothes by the smell of it. But what slightly held my interest was the various foreign objects on a shelf hanging on the wall to the right of me. One looked to be a pair of shrunken fuzzy bear things. Next to them was something I'd seen before, a plastic tea set in pink and white. A few kiddish books sat in a pile just beside the bears along with a few other weird trinkets. But the one that I was most curious about was the smallish- medium metal box sitting on the books. It had the writing 'Jack In The Box' in yellow cursive on a red background. A metal handle, or krank, of some sort protruded from one side.

Without a care if the males were watching me, I walked over and picked up the box in my hand. It didn't smell dangerous but then again the metal container was slightly concealing the contents' scent. There was no telling what I'd find in it but I've never seen any of these trinkets in my life. I started to turn the small handle and in doing so noise flowed from the machine (cue Pop Goes the Weasel music).

'That was interesting.' I thought. And now I was even more curious as to what this box held within itself.

...To bad curiousity always killed the cat...

Just as the noise(music) came to the climax, out of nowhere the box lid pops open with a klang! and out shoots a creepy smiling small clown. All this happening at the speed of light in those brief moments it took me to walk over and turn the handle.

My cat ears pin themselves back to my head, my tail puffs up like it was rubbed with static balloons, and my whole body jumps in fright as I hiss and toss the contraption hard across the room. It smashes into the far wall with a clattering bang. I feel satisfied that the damned clown was out of my face and hopefully broken to pieces, but that machine made my condition worse and what little control I was holding onto slipped away being replaced by fear and pain.

I growled as I clutched my head. My inner cat was trying his hardest to fully turn me into my cat form and run rampant. The males in the room looked panicked and a few rushed out of the room. I'd say probably to fetch the scientist. If so, he wasn't getting anywhere near my body. There's no telling what he'd do.

From my peripheral I could see River, Cole, and Leonard making their way slowly toward me with their hands up. I snapped my teeth in their direction hissing viciously to scare them away. Volts of electric pain shoot up my spin and bring me to my hands and knees with a grunt and growl. The shift was threatening to force me to change.

I was huffing and puffing and my arms were shaking slightly. I dug my claws into the carpet hoping to steel me in place. I didn't want to lash at some innocent that didn't deserve to be hurt just because I couldn't control my fear.

By the time the scientist got here, with the rest of the members following, I had given up control and lay on my side on the carpet in my last cat form trying to catch my breath. Everyone just stood taking in my huge snow leopard form.

(River and Teams' POV)

It was like in slow motion. Everyone was staring at each other before Jake and Marcus started discussing ways of escaping with the rest of the boys and leaving me in this awkward situation. I mean, okay yes he's my brother. But come on, what am I suppose to do alone with him when he doesn't even trust that he's safe even after we rescued him and brought him here. No one has caused harm to befall him as of yet but he still refuses to believe we are good people. How is he going to trust that I'm telling the truth about being related?

Anyways, while we weren't looking Nyxton took it upon himself to peruse the children's toys that Jax kept around for the young patients he took care of. From his reaction to the 'Jack In The Box' I'd say he didn't like them very much and didn't even know what they were.

Jake and Marcus rushed out of the office in search of Jax with gusto. I informed them to tell Jax we may need a sedative strong enough to relax Nyxton seeing as we couldn't knock him out.

One look at Nyxton on his hands and knees seemingly out of breath made me rethink the relaxant. Heck we didn't even need it at all by the time Jake, Marcus, and Jax returned. Nyxton was fully transformed into his last but newest cat form and utterly exhausted. It said a lot when he didn't even fight to keep us from approaching him. He just growled weakly and tried to shift away. He didn't get far.

"River I can't do much with him this way. We will need to bring him to a vet if he is to get the best and most accurate readings on what's wrong. I know of one." Jax stated with a troubled face as he kept a few feet of distance between him and Nyx. It was commendable that he was respecting Nyxtons space.

Sighing I nodded and said, "I agree but we need to get him out of here without anyone noticing. We don't know any information on how Nyxton got kidnapped the first time. We need to be wary of anyone outside of us in this room. Can we trust this vet of yours?"

"Definitely. I trust her with everything I've got. She is the best vet I know."

"Alright, then let's go. Jake and Leonard see if you can grab his back legs. Marcus grab ahold of his middle while Ty goes and gets a gurney to push him on. Me and Cole will hold the front part." I instructed.

"Oh fucking great. Give me the end that bites. Thanks a lot guys." Cole exclaimed with sarcasm.

"He won't bite you in his condition and even if he did you wouldn't die because it wouldn't be strong enough as he is too weak. Now hurry your ass up." Jax chided as if scolding a child.

Ty came back with a gurney and numerous blankets. With great, and I mean great effort, we lifted Nyxton onto the gurney and concealed him with the blankets. We then proceeded to quickly wheel him out of the office, down the hall to the elevator, used for patients beds, then out the back of the building without anyone noticing anything. We loaded Nyxton up into Jaxs' personally bought medical van then we booked it to this unknown, hopefully trustworthy, veterinarian.

I turned around to see how the guys were doing with a kind of conscious Nyxton in the back. They were chatting but staring at Nyxton as if he was a rare animal in a zoo but also worry. Worry he was okay and it is nothing seriously wrong with him.

I turned back around at the sound of Jax clearing his throat. "I found out some information I thought you may want, probably need, to know."

"Alright, what do I need to know?" I replied as I rose my left eyebrow.

"I read through the rest of the records you guys collected and brought back from that facility. Everything in them is seriously twisted and fucked up. I mean what they did to him...! I just.. From a doctors, and frankly a humans perspective, that's inhuman and scientifically dark shit. Way deep, and I literally mean deep deep in those files, I discovered the scientists conducted a specific experiment with Nyxton. A couple years ago, two specifically, they forced Nyxton to mate with both a female leopard and a female human. Separately of course and in both forms. Then they waited to see if either could produce a cub, as Nyxton refers to children as, from the mating." Jax gripped the steering wheel till his hands were white as he explained what he read.

"...Did they do it?... Create a child I mean." I asked staring straight at the side of Jaxs' face. A sense of foreboding and a pinch of fear gripped my stomach. I don't think I want to know any more. But there is no backing out now. This is life and life doesn't work the way we hope.

"....Yes."

I turned away and closed my eyes tight. It's obvious that the baby either didn't make it or is somewhere other than at the facility we raided because it wasn't with Nyxton or found among the other experiments. God this is fucked up..

"River... the files detailed that the human female bore the child. It was a little girl. She was completely healthy and even looked human except for the cat like eyes and fangs. Records showed that she had blue eyes and light brown hair. She weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces. She was also born with a cat tail; breed of a mountain lion."

While taking all this information in I turned to look at Nyxton and found him staring at us with hazy but pained, understanding eyes. The knowledge of the topic... and the meaning of my stare...

I realized the whole crew heard what the doc said by the way their fists were clenched and their heads were down. They knew this wasn't just learning something new about my brother and his time at that hellish place. It was also about finding out the level of pain he went through. It made his like towards children undeniably clear.

It was quiet in the car for a good couple of minutes until Jax continued what was in those damned record books. "The little girl was named 'Experiment # 0002'. They killed the mother right after birth. She was then given to Nyxton to care for for a few weeks before they ripped her away from him. He never saw her again. At this point they started experiments on her, small but painful. At two months and four days old..... she died. The scientists tossed her corpse in front of Nyxtons cage the moment she died during a surgery. He went crazy— worse than any rage he has had before. That same day they told him they were going to do the same experiment over and over again. They didn't care if every baby died as long as they got what they needed. Nyxton, of course, didn't care for the idea. He slaughtered ever female they threw in with him. He didn't have any cubs after that."

"....Jesus Christ...." Ty muttered as Luca tried to hold his tears in. It didn't work.

By the time the conversation ended Nyxton had already passed out. Everyone's minds were still on the new information when we arrived at the animal clinic run by, in Jaxs' words, "the best vet I know since birth". We all scurried to put Nyx on the gurney and wheel him into the clinic through the emergency doors.

I put my hand on Nyxton, my little brother, for the first time since I met him. I patted his hind leg as we walked through the halls and appeared in the surgical room of the clinic. There standing and talking to an assistant vet tech was a petit woman.

'Lets hope this vet can save Nyxton from the pain he's experienced his whole life.' I thought not knowing how right I'd be.