Finn looked over his shoulder when he heard Irena and Beatrice, looking terrified, but still trying to protect them. While he was distracted, the larger wolf grabbed him and tossed him aside, seemingly more interested in the humans. Teagan growled and jumped on him, biting down on the back of his neck. Finn dragged himself to his feet and, after hesitating for a moment, did the same. It took a few minutes, but eventually the larger wolf was either injured or sick of dealing with the twins, and they were able to chase him off.
Irena watched the wolf slink away and turned to the twins.
"Transform back, so we can look at the wounds." She said in her motherly voice.
"Now, or we won't be able to treat them and they might get infected." She said in concern.
Finn and Teagan looked at each other and then did as they were told. Finn was shaking badly, and it seemed like he was holding his breath. Teagan looked more irritated than anything. Both were bleeding, but neither appeared to have any injuries that were threatening. Finn closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around himself, trying to calm down.
Beatrice took Finn by the shoulders and sat him down, pulling a first aid kit out of her backpack.
She began to carefully dab a cut on his arm with alcohol and then pressed a band-aid on it, while Irena took care of Teagan's injuries.
Finn had a bite wound that spanned across his neck and shoulder that was pretty bad, but none of his other injuries were major. He still looked very pale, however, and was growing increasingly distant. "I c-can't… breathe…" He whispered, drawing in a sharp, shallow breath. Teagan looked over at him worriedly from where Irena was tending to his minor wounds.
Beatrice gave a look of alarm and then rubbed his shoulders.
"it might be a panic attack, just breathe in, hold it for a couple seconds, then exhale slowly." She told him.
Finn whined softly, but did his best to obey. He drew in a wavering breath, but it hurt his throat and he choked, coughing. This only stressed him out more and he held his throat with one hand, grimacing as he struggled to gasp for breath.
"Hey, hey, Finn. You're alright. That was just a random guy who was mad we were in his territory. He doesn't mean anything. We don't know him." Teagan assured, moving away from Irena to console his brother. He figured this must have something to do with Finn connecting this event to when he was attacked.
Irena came over, wrapping her arms around Finn from behind.
"Yeah, you're okay." She tried to reassure him gently.
It took Finn a few minutes to get his breathing under control, and he still seemed pretty nervous after that. Teagan sat beside him to soothe Finn until he properly calmed down, at which point Finn was completely exhausted. Teagan wrapped an arm around his twin and sighed, letting him rest his head on his shoulder.
"He should be fine… he does this sometimes." Teagan said softly. "I think it kinda messed him up when he was attacked when we were kids. But he can't talk to like, uhh… a therapist or whatever since they're scared of him or something. They don't want to be trapped in a room with a werewolf."
Irena frowned and began crying silently.
"This is so fucked." She whispered.
"Irena, calm down." Beatrice soothed, but Irena jerked away from her.
She took a step back from them, her eyes wide and full of tears.
Then she turned and ran.
Beatrice watched her until she disappeared.
"She is not running from you guys." She told the twins "she cries every time she finds out someone hates you, she usually hides it though."
"Irena!" Teagan called out, looking worried and feeling guilty. He and Finn didn't normally talk about Finn's mental health much since it hadn't come up, and Finn was a bit embarrassed about it. Finn hadn't had a panic attack in front of Irena before, so they didn't think it needed to come up. "Should… should we go after her?" Teagan asked. Finn looked up weakly, whining worriedly as well. He was too drained to do much else.
Beatrice shook her head and looked at the both of them sadly.
"No," she said "she'll come back. she always does."
The twins hesitantly nodded, and Teagan resumed trying to calm Finn down. Eventually, Finn seemed to be doing okay, but he was still exhausted and worried about Irena now.
Beatrice helped Finn up when she thought he could stand and patted his back.
"I'm sure she's fine Finn," she said, reading his face. "don't worry."
"She's been gone a while, though…" Finn said softly. "Shouldn't we go looking for her?" He looked around as though expecting to see Irena.
Beatrice shook her head.
"She probably went home." she said, pulling out her phone and checking it. "And she's only been gone for five minutes."
"Should we go to the house, then?" Finn asked. He pushed himself to his feet, still pretty unsteady. Teagan stood as well to keep Finn upright.
Beatrice slipped her arm around one of Finn's shoulders and nodded.
"Yeah, but let's go slow, I don't want you to like over exert yourself." She told him in a motherly tone.
"Okay…" Teagan got on Finn's other side so that he and Beatrice could get him home without him exhausting himself anymore. Eventually, they made it back to the house and started looking for Irena.
Irena heard them enter the house and hid under her covers more, she wiped her eyes and turned away from the door as she heard Beatrice bringing Teagan and Finn upstairs.
"Irena?" Teagan called out. "Where are you? Are you okay? Finn is fine now!" Finn followed him and Beatrice upstairs, going over to Irena's room to knock on the door.
Beatrice walked up to the door and opened it without bothering for her to open it.
Irena looked at them suspiciously with red rimmed eyes.
"Uhm hi…" she said quietly, staring at them as Beatrice helped Finn into the beanbag chair.
Finn softly insisted that he didn't need to sit, but he didn't get back up once he was in the chair. Teagan followed them into the room and went over to Irena. "You okay?" He asked, although he figured she probably wasn't. "You sorta ran off all of a sudden…"
Irena nodded and put her chin on her knees.
"Yeah, im fine, I didn't mean to make a scene." She said quietly, looking down.
"You didn't make a scene, it's fine…" Teagan insisted. Finn looked drained now that he was sitting, since walking couldn't keep him awake anymore. "We're all fine, see?"
Irena looked at Finn and winced.
"I think Finn looks terrible, considering the situation." She deadpanned, she then turned to Finn. "Have you ever had panic attacks before, or was this the first?"
Finn looked up weakly and then flushed a bit, suddenly very interested in his hands. "U-Um… it's not the first time…" He replied softly. "Not super often, though, and not usually that bad… I-I'm fine. It's normal."
Irena narrowed her eyes more.
"When's the last time you had a panic attack?" She asked curiously "and can you tell me why?"
Finn looked uncomfortable and cowered a bit where he sat. "I… I-I dunno, I don't remember…" He mumbled. "Last week, maybe? Usually s'just after nightmares n' such, but sometimes it's random…" Teagan looked over to him sympathetically.
"He doesn't really like to talk about it."
Irena nodded.
"I think…" she trailed off then shook her head. "Nevermind."
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