As they made their way back into his bedroom, Eric felt several conflicting emotions. He was greatly relieved that everyone in his and the Twist family was okay after Yvette had invaded their home. He also felt greatly relieved that Yvette wasn't going to be a threat to him or his family now that she was back in police custody. But the event had raised a great deal of fear in him. To watch his father's eyes glow with a harsh red light while his mother's and Frances' glowed green, to hear them snarl and growl as their faces pushed out into muzzles and their canine teeth lengthened into sharp fangs and were soon being bared, to hear Nate and Ben growl and snarl at Yvette along with the sounds of the battle had honestly scared him. And a part of him wasn't fully sure if he was actually scared of his family or scared of the situation that Yvette had put him in.
"You okay?" Ben asked to him as he and Nate moved Eric's bed back to where it had been, "Your eyes look a little red..."
"Red...?!" Eric gasped.
"Not glowing," Nate assured him, "you're still normal..."
"Did we scare you?" Ben asked.
Eric stood quietly for a moment as he looked to the two werewolves. Both were still in their wolven forms and clothed in only their fur, partially due that the clothing they'd been wearing had practically exploded off their bodies as they grew taller, and their muscles at least tripled in size. Eric chose to ignore the large sheath between their legs, though was also thankful that that sheath helped conceal his brother's equipment. It was like their fur largely acted as clothing for the moment. He only looked down after a moment.
Nate gave a low sigh as he watched Eric look down. To some degree that did say that they had frightened him. He'd thought that Eric was getting more used to Moon Lake and many of the ins and outs of its were-beast based society that now included most of the Anderson family. But then, the Andersons that had become weres had tried their best to show Eric the good parts of their new selves. They didn't show the parts that could be potentially frightening, and Yvette's actions brought that out. When Eric had reported to them that Yvette had invaded the home, Nate remembered feeling a strong and almost instinctive rage that someone who was not considered welcome by his family was trespassing on his territory. The image of Eric being attacked by Yvette only angered him further and made him all the more willing to take an aggressive posture with regard to Yvette Smith.
"I'm sorry, bro," Nate said weakly, "I didn't mean to..."
"We only wished to protect you," Ben added, "that vixen was a threat with whatever is going on in her head... and non of us were going to let her put you in danger. It may be a bit of a territorial thing that many were-beasts will have... but it is all to serve to protect home and family. My mom... Frances and her brother... my uncle don't see each other very often, but when they do it is friendly... and my uncle will also refer to mom as being part of the pack... even though mom is a werecat. Because they are blood family, my uncle sees my mom as part of his pack."
"And I feel the same for you," Nate got down onto one knee so that he wasn't towering over his brother while he was still in wolf form, "you may not be a werewolf... but you are still my brother and for that, you'll always be pack and family."
"You're sure?" Eric asked, whipping his eyes.
Nate only nodded, at which point Eric came forward and hugged him with his arms wrapped around Nate's shoulders. Nate only hugged him back, being extra careful to make sure he didn't nick his brother with his claws. Eric felt a bit of relief at that as he hugged his brother and feeling his brother hug him back. Sure some things could be scary, but know that his parents, brother, and family friends would fight to protect him eased a lot of those fears. And for the moment, he hugged Nate to him. Nate's fur was warm and while it wasn't extremely coarse, it wasn't very soft either. But being assured that he was safe and protected made that issue irrelevant.
Ben gave a relieved sigh when he heard his cellphone give a text beep in Nate's room. While the two brothers assured themselves that they were still brothers, Nate went to check his phone, which was still in the pants he had transformed out of. He excused himself quietly and returned to Nate's room and and moved to the clothing his body had ripped apart. Carefully retrieving his pone he found a text from Samantha. It read: "Check if E is Normal. JS concerned frantically." Ben figured this related to Eric's announcement related his relationship with Julie Stovall. Eric might have called her during Yvette's attack and she was now panicked over it. Ben carefully managed to operate his phone's buttons while in wolf form and texted his other mother back: "E IS normal. Will have him call JS."
With that, Ben then returned to Eric's room as the two brothers came apart.
"So, are we good?" Nate asked to Eric.
"Yeah," Eric answered, "We're good."
"That's good," Ben spoke as he came back in, "though... you might want to call your girlfriend again. She's apparently frantic over something..."
"Did you call her during the fight with Yvette?" Nate asked.
"I was scared and since she had done so much to help me... I think I called her instinctively in the hopes that she'd be able to do it again," Eric answered weakly, "especially due to the fear that I felt at the sounds of the fighting that couldn't be ignored. I... I just wanted to hear her voice."
"Well... I think you might have scared her," Ben answered, "because I got a text from my mom saying that Julie is frantically concerned. Whatever she heard on your call to her has her scared."
Eric only groaned and slapped his face, "God... I'm such a dummy..."
"Hey, if I were you and your position..." Nate assured him, "I would have called her too... tell her what's going on and call for help..."
"And in the end, things turned out well," Ben added, "but it will be best that you call her again and let her know that things did turn out well and why you called her in the first place."
"Okay," Eric nodded.