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Four year old Jensen Ackles stands at the back of the room and watches the crowd of people gathered around Sherri as she pants and strains on the pile of blankets in the corner.
There’s a nervous excitement hanging over the gathered crowd, all of them talking over the top of one another, and Jensen really can’t tell what’s going on. He wishes he was closer, but he’d been told by Tracy to stay back for now, and so Jensen does as he’s told.
“There we go!” Samantha says suddenly, sounding both relieved and proud, rising to her feet from where she’s crouched on the floor. She has a tiny little bundle of fur in her hands and Jensen bounces on his toes, desperate to be closer, to see.
As tiny little yips fill the air, the unneeded people in the room start to get up and leave. Jensen looks up and watches them go. None of them pay him any attention, all of them smiling and laughing, passing out congratulations, telling Sherri just how beautiful he is.
Jensen stays where he is against the wall as they all leave, until Sherri and Gerry are the only ones in the room with him.
And the new arrival, of course.
Gerry gets down on his knees in front of his mate and runs his hand across the nape of her neck, one finger creeping out to tickle the newborn. Then he turns and looks at Jensen, a smile on his face.
“Come on, then, tough guy. Come meet Jared.”
Jensen doesn’t need to be told twice. He races across the room and drops down on the mess of blankets, his eyes glued to the wriggly little pup as he suckles from his mother.
“Hi, Jared,” he says quietly, his hand reaching out to take hold of one of his paws. Jensen giggles. “Tiny.”
Gerry laughs indulgently. “Well, he has only just been born, Jensen. It’ll take him a little while until he’s as big as you.”
Jensen blinks huge green eyes up at Gerry. “Can I play with him now?”
Another laugh. “Not yet, son. He’s too weak right now. He needs someone to protect him, care for him. Not someone who’ll pull his ears and make him chase after them.”
Jensen chews on his lower lip for a long while before he lays down on the blankets and turns his head so that he can look at Jared while the pup feeds from his mother. “I can be the one to protect him.”
Gerry strokes Jensen’s hair and Jensen leans into the touch, just like he does when his mama tickles behind his ears when he’s wearing his furry body like Jared is now.
“Of course you can, Jensen.” Gerry sounds proud, like he’s happy that Jensen wants to protect Jared from everything in the world.
Jensen smiles and presses his nose closer to Jared. “I’m gonna marry Jared.”
Gerry makes a funny sound in his throat and Sherri picks her head up from where she’s lying to look at Jensen. She can’t talk to him when she’s wearing her furry body and Jensen isn’t, but Jensen imagines that she’d be making noises like Gerry.
“I was afraid of this,” comes a voice from the doorway and Jensen glances up to see his father standing there, Uncle Clif right behind him like he always is.
Normally, Jensen would run to his father whenever he comes into a room, but right now he doesn’t want to leave Jared, so he stays where he is, his eyes on Jared’s tiny body, and uses his other senses to follow his father’s path across the room until he’s standing right behind him.
Jensen cranes his head back until he can see his father. “Hi, Daddy,” he says quietly.
“Hello, Jensen,” his father says, amused.
“Afraid of what, Alan?” Gerry asks curiously.
Alan sighs. “It’s not a common trait amongst our people. In fact, I think the last record of it happening was my great-great grandparents.” He sighs. “I’m sorry, Gerry, I was going to wait until Jared was a little older to tell you this.”
Gerry shifts his position on the floor to face the Alpha directly and his legs bump into Jensen’s as he turns to look up at Alan. “Tell us what?”
“That Jensen really will marry Jared one day.” Alan laughs, his voice happy and pleased. “I am sorry, Gerry, that you had to find out Jared’s nature from a four year old.”
“They’re…they’ve mated?” Gerry sounds shocked. “Before Jared was even born?”
“From the first moment Jensen saw Sherri after the conception I would imagine. Like I said, it’s not a common trait, at least not in our times, but this has happened in the past.”
Gerry shakes his head with a blissful chuckle. “Well, I can’t say I’m surprised, what with the way Jensen clung to Sherri throughout the pregnancy. Why didn’t you say something before now, Alan?”
None of this is making any sense to Jensen, so he turns all of his attention back to Jared, reaching out with one finger to tickle him.
“I wanted to be sure first,” his daddy says, “I wanted to check some things with some other packs. Very discreetly, of course. This will be the first time in centuries that a male mated pair will lead our pack – any pack. Jensen will be Alpha one day, Gerry, which means…”
“That Jared will be his Beta,” Gerry finishes. Jensen looks up at him, sees the happy smile on Jared’s father’s face. “My God, I never thought that a member of my family would someday be Beta of the pack. This is…I don’t have words for this.”
Alan claps him on the shoulder. “A proud moment indeed. But don’t think about it anymore. Jensen is a good century or so away from taking my place as pack leader; don’t think you’re going to earn that title so soon.”
“No, Alpha, I was merely…”
Alan’s laughter cut him off. “Relax, Gerry. There is no need to stand on ceremony. This is your day.” Alan bends down over Jensen’s head to look at the cub. “He’ll be a handsome Beta, Sherri, you should both be very proud.”
Sherri inclines her head at her pack leader, as does Gerry, despite what Alan had said about ceremony.
“Congratulations again, my friends. I look forward to getting to know my future son-in-law.” He shakes Gerry’s hand and bends down to rub his face alongside Sherri’s furry one, then he makes his way out of the room, Uncle Clif a silent as a statue behind him as always.
Alan stops in the doorway and turns back to face them. “Jensen, are you coming?”
“No,” Jensen replies, still not taking his eyes from the cub.
He can tell his father is rolling his eyes as he leaves.
Once his father is out of sight, Jensen shifts into his furry body, the clothes he was wearing bursting at the seams as his bigger body comes to the fore. He can hear Gerry scolding him, but he pays him no mind as he lies down on his belly, his head on his paws.
Jared shifts on the blankets, soft little cries coming from him as he searches the air for something.
Jensen presses closer, until his nose presses against Jared’s much smaller one. Jared calms down instantly, falling into a light slumber.
“Sleep, baby,” Jensen tells him softly. “I’ll protect you.” He moves a little until his bigger body is protecting Jared from the outside as he lays in the V of his mother’s body.
“Sweet Jensen,” Sherri whispers to him. “You’ll make a fine Alpha one day.”
Jensen thinks that’s something he should be proud of.
Six weeks later, just as Jared’s getting to be big enough that he can play with Jensen a little, Jensen doesn’t come to visit.
Sherri doesn’t think anything of it, for of course, as the only son of the Alpha, and future leader of the pack, Jensen must accompany his father to certain meetings and talks. There’s nothing unusual in his tardiness.
But when the bouncy little wolf still has come to visit his mate by the time dinner rolls around, Sherri starts to get worried.
She leaves her oldest son, Jeff, to watch Jared and makes her way across the reservation until she’s standing outside the Alpha’s cabin at the very back of the space in the mountains the pack calls their own.
Donna, Jensen’s mother, is sitting on the stoop, her head in her hands.
“Donna?” Sherri asks, hurrying over to her friend’s side. She’s never seen Donna so upset and she can’t for the life of her think of what could cause her friend such pain. The two of them had been friends long before Donna and Alan mated and they realized that Donna was to be Beta to Alan’s Alpha, and now that they’re sons were also mates, it made the connection they had with each other that much stronger.
When Donna looks up, her eyes are red and filled with tears and she reaches for Sherri’s hand almost blindly.
“He’s gone,” she says almost desperately. “Jensen’s missing.”
Sherri practically falls to her knees in front of Donna. “What? What do you mean?”
“He never came home last night. No one’s seen him since he left your cabin.” Donna sniffs as fresh tears fall from her eyes. “Alan has the Guard out searching the whole area, all of the reservation and beyond the border. But there’s nothing. No one can even catch his scent.”
Sherri’s own tears fall as she feels pain for her friend’s loss. Pain for her own son’s loss.
At four years old, Jensen Ackles disappears from the reservation.
The Guard – wolves who are chosen for their skill and speed to protect the pack and its Alpha from any perceived threats – searches everywhere, even venturing into the towns and cities that lie beyond the borders of the pack’s lands, searching for any sign of Jensen.
Even those not in the Guard join the search.
Life at the Black Foot reservation grinds to a halt as every available wolf hunts for the missing heir.
After a year, Alan Ackles hangs his head in shame as he comes back from another fruitless mission, the members of the Guard he had taken with him this time looking as equally defeated.
“It’s over, Alan,” Donna says with finality as the Alpha trudges up the steps to their cabin. “He’s gone.”
Alan wants to argue, he wants to say that their son is out there somewhere, lost and alone and needing his parents and his mate, but he knows the words will be useless.
After a year and not so much as a hint of Jensen’s scent on the breeze, Alan knows that their boy is lost forever.
“I’m so sorry,” Alan says as he falls to his knees in front of his Beta. “Please forgive me.”
Donna immediately rushes to his side, pulling him close to her as they mourn the death of their son.
Somewhere on the other side of the reservation, a wolf howls, a long and mournful sound. A second voice joins the first, and then a third. Soon the whole pack is howling out their sadness at the loss off one of their own.
Without a word, Alan and Donna shift into their wolf forms, giving little care to the clothes they ruin in the process, and they join in with the sad song.
Jensen Ackles is never seen again.
Seventy Years Later
“I just don’t understand,” Jared whispers to Genevieve and Chad and his parents as they watch the bodies of Donna and Alan Ackles and the Alpha’s Council members, burn on the pyre the rest of the pack had built for them. “Why did he have to kill them? Alan had already stepped down. Mark is the Alpha now. He didn’t have to kill them.”
“Because I don’t like leaving things unfinished, Jared.”
Jared looks up sharply to see Mark Pellegrino, the new Alpha of the Black Foot pack, and his council standing in front of them.
“He wasn’t a threat to you,” Steve says from somewhere next to Chris and Danneel.
Mark shrugs. “Call me paranoid, but I like to make sure.”
“Well, this is about as sure as you can get,” Jared’s dad spits.
Genevieve sniffs and Jared reaches out to put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in close. On his other side, Chad puts his hand on Jared’s shoulder.
Everyone knows how close Jared was to the Ackles, the people who should have been his family one day, if it wasn’t for their son going missing before Jared even knew what the word ‘mate’ meant. Having to watch the humiliation of Alan stepping down as Alpha to let someone younger and stronger take over was bad enough.
But to wake up to the knowledge that they were dead, murdered in their beds in the middle of the night, was almost too much for Jared to take and it’s taking all Jared has not to break down and cry where he stands.
“Alright, enough of this mourning shit,” Mark says suddenly. “Cormac, Jessica, put out that damn fire and bury the bodies somewhere I don’t have to look at them.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Jessica says and she and her mate, Cormac, hurry to comply with the Alpha’s request.
“What?!” Danneel screeches. “You can’t do that! The family have a right to mourn their loved ones.”
“The Ackles have no family, half-breed,” Mark reminds them. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t even be here.”
Jared watches as Danneel glowers at the Alpha, but he’s right. The Ackles only have Jared now, and it’s not like he’s a blood relative.
Had.
Mark’s eyes land on Jared and Jared can feel Chad’s hand tightening on his shoulder and Genevieve’s fingers that are almost claws bury in his shirt.
“Mitch, Sterling,” Mark says with a smirk. “Kill the little Omega bitch.”
“WHAT?!”
“I won’t have a dirty, disgusting Omega roaming around, infecting the rest of my pack. I won’t stand for it.”
Chad and Chris are in front of him before he can say anything more, blocking the path of the Alpha’s enforcers. Genevieve and Danneel are pulling him away, but Jared is stumbling over his own feet because he doesn’t know what’s happening right now.
“Jared, run!” Genevieve is screaming at him. Somewhere far away, his parents are yelling too, and Jared just doesn’t know why.
Mitch and Sterling make quick work of Chad and Chris. Jared isn’t surprised. They’re the Alpha’s enforcers, chosen for their strength and skill and speed. And with the rest of the Guard unsure of where their loyalties lie, it doesn’t take long for the two of them to get to Jared.
Mitch’s hand around his arm hurts like a bitch and Jared just about manages to refrain himself from crying out in pain.
Sterling pushes Genevieve to the ground when she tries to fight him, smacks Danneel hard across the snout when the giant red wolf lunges at him, fangs bared.
Jared starts struggling then, more concerned about the girls being hurt than his own welfare.
He kicks and punches, scratches at Mitch’s face. He tries to shift, but the hold on his arm is too painful for him to concentrate enough.
The last thing he sees is Mitch's huge hand falling towards his face.
When Jared wakes up, he’s lying on the floor of a one-roomed cabin at the very back of the reservation. He remembers Alpha Alan telling him that it was a jail cell. But there has been no crime of any kind on the reservation for as long as Jared could remember.
Well, nothing that deserved someone being sent to jail.
Jared realizes, as he sits up and looks around, that that’s what this is.
Jail.
Prison.
He remembers the Alpha’s words: “Kill the little Omega bitch.”
Unless this is Jared’s own private hell, he still feels very much alive. Alive enough that he can feel the way his skin prickles and he takes in the room with fresh eyes.
There are silver bars on the single tiny window, both inside and out, the bolts and hinges on the single door are silver and Jared can feel the way it crawls under his skin, the way it makes him burn and itch, like it does with any wolf, and suddenly a whole new fear overcomes him and he starts to wish he really was dead.
The door swings open just as Jared manages to quell his tears and looks up into the cold eyes of the new Alpha.
“Getting comfortable, are we?” Mark asks genially as he takes a sit on the too-small bed.
“You said you were gonna kill me,” Jared reminds him. He’s not going to focus on how much it sounds like a plea.
Mark shrugs nonchalantly. “I needed the rest of the pack to think that. I knew they wouldn’t allow me to separate you from the rest of the pack, so I had to make them believe I wanted you dead. No one knows this place is here. No one ever comes down here. It’s all good.”
Jared knows this. Alan had told him how he’d kept the cell from the pack, unwilling to inform them of its existence in case they took it as a threat rather than the protection from wrong-doers it was built to be.
Jared gawps up at Mark. “You’re just going to leave me in here?”
“You’ll be brought food, clothing, toiletries. You’ll be well looked after, Omega.”
“But…but why? Why are you…segregating me?”
Mark smiles, but there’s no warmth in it. “I don’t want you mating with anyone else in the pack. ”
Jared blinks. “But…I’m already mated. I mated as a pup.”
“No, you’re widowed. You’re a widowed Omega, Jared, and I am an Alpha without a mate. It would be…unseemly, to allow you to mix with the rest of the pack. If any Alpha from another pack were to find out…well. I’d be a laughing stock. Surely you can understand that?”
Jared feels ill. “Why don’t you just kill me? Wouldn’t that be easier than making sure someone looks after me in here?”
Mark cocks his head to one side. “I have…other uses for you, Jared. Uses that I hope in time will become apparent.”
Jared feels himself quaking all over. “Uses? What kind of uses?”
Mark smiles and gets to his feet. “It really will be better for you if you just accept it.” He reaches down to pet Jared’s hair, like the Omega is nothing more than a dog and he scowls when Jared ducks away.
Jared looks around the room. “You’re just going to leave me in here? Separated from everyone I love?”
“In the pack I was born into, you would have already been exiled. Either that, or you would be killed. Think of this as your Alpha being merciful. I’m already allowing the other same-sex mated pairs to remain on the reservation. It’s more than I would have done in my old pack. More than my father would have done.”
Jared can’t help the tears and he doesn’t even try to, just lets them fall as he looks up from the floor at the Alpha’s feet. “You are not my Alpha. You will never be my Alpha.”
Mark just nods. “I see. Well, time will change that. It’s not like you won’t have the chance to think it over. You’ll have all the time in the world to think about it, the rest of your life, in fact.” He crosses to the door, looking down at Jared as he passes like he’s mud on the Alpha’s shoe. “I’ll be back to see you real soon.”
Jared can’t do anything but watch him leave through a blur of tears. The sound of the locks and bolts clicking into place is loud in Jared’s ears and it just makes him cry harder.
He’s being punished for something he can’t control, something he can’t change. Jared is an Omega wolf, yes, but he’s also a widowed one, and he’s never heard of any wolf, Alpha, Omega or not, being able to take another mate after their first mate has died. It’s just not how the life of a wolf works.
He gets up off the floor and looks around the room, noticing the toilet and sink in one corner, the bed in the other, facing the door and the tiny little stove. There’s a chest for clothes under the window and a rug on the floor.
And nothing else.
The room is small, barely twelve foot square, from what he can guess and everywhere he looks, silver. All of that silver will make shifting impossible, or at the very least, extremely painful.
It’s supposed to be a place for punishment, after all, and to deny a wolf the chance to shift…well, there’s no better punishment as far as Jared is concerned.
He’d just really like to know what he did to deserve this.
Present Day
Danneel stands in the shadows of the houses surrounding the main square of the reservation, trying to spot any members of the Alpha Council.
But all she can see are people doing whatever it is they do during the day. Genevieve and Sandy are marching the kids across the square to the school house, ready to start another day. Tom is yelling at the latest batch of new recruits to join the Guard. Everywhere she looks, men and women are getting on with their lives as if everything is great within the Black Foot pack, when underneath the surface, everyone is just waiting for the other shoe to drop and the Alpha to kick off again.
And right now, Danneel is tired of waiting.
With a deep breath, she holds her head up high and steps out of the shadows, hurrying across the open space to the street that will take her to her house, where she can lock herself away and pretend everything’s okay. Until tomorrow when she has to start everything all over again.
She hasn’t even made it to the middle of the square before the cat calls and whistles start, those pack members who have sided with the Alpha and his Council and treat Danneel the way they do, like she’s nothing more than a piece of meat to be passed around for everyone to have a turn with.
“Hey, baby, why don’t you come over here and let me show you what I would do with that ass.”
Danneel stops in her tracks. There’s no one else on the reservation that they would dare speak to in this way. Only Danneel, her human-born status making her lower than low when it comes to her rank within the pack.
Back in the old days, the old Alpha thought highly of her, told her she could be a fine member of the Guard, her feisty attitude and experience growing up in the human world more than enough to able her to hold her own against most, if not all, of the male wolves.
But those days are gone, the old Alpha is dead, and as soon as Mark was informed of her human-born status and the fact that she’d slept with men when she’d been human, he dismissed her, casting her aside as a wolf not worthy of anyone’s attention or respect.
If it hadn’t been for the friendships she’d already had – as well as the one she’s followed all the way to the reservation in the first place – Danneel would have gone insane long before now.
But enough is enough.
Pasting a dangerous looking smile on her face, she turns to see the group of boys lounging on the steps of the Alpha’s house. Teenagers, all of them, they leer at her like they have some sort of hold over her, or right to claim her anyway they want, and Danneel takes great delight in knowing that none of them will even get the chance to sniff at her without her permission.
“Little wolf,” she sneers at them, “I may have been with my fair share of men in my human life, but you’ll never know just how good that makes me.” She winks at them as she turns around again.
“What the hell does that mean?” the one who spoke calls after her, getting to his feet. “I could have you in a second if I wanted.”
Danneel looks back over her shoulder. “Because, sweetie, you can’t get it up for someone who isn’t your mate, and trust me on this, I will never be your mate.”
The young wolf’s hackles raise. “Bitch, I could mate you any time I wanted.”
“Pup, I helped to deliver you,” Danneel says with a roll of her eyes, even as she tries to think of the boy’s name. “There’s no way you’re getting into my pants.”
The boy is still spitting hateful words at her as she turns away again, and she slips down the alley on the other side of the square just as his friends start laughing at him.
Truth is, Danneel doesn’t even miss the sex from her human days. It was all meaningless anyway, one night stands she picked up as she followed Steve around the country. It was nothing like what it could be like if she’d been in a real relationship, and, as a wolf, a real relationship was the only way to have sex.
Wolves aren’t capable of having sex with anyone but their mate, it’s just how they’re wired, and Danneel really did think she’d be mated by now. She’s been with the pack for almost forty years, after all, and even though she knew age didn’t matter – hell, Genevieve had been more than twice Danneel’s age when she’d mated a decade ago – she’d still assumed that she would have settled down by now, maybe with one of the Guardians.
“I thought you were helping Misha.”
Well, not this Guardian.
The sound of the voice makes Danneel stop just in front of the back door to her tiny, one-roomed house. If it can even be called a house – ‘shack’ is a far better word.
Turning slighting, she looks over the fence separating her home from the one next door and finds her eyes glued to Chad’s very naked chest as he lies on the grass. She refuses to move her eyes lower.
“Chad, I know nudity isn’t a big thing with the pack, but I still haven’t lost my human modesty. Could you please put some clothes on?”
She can hear the grin she knows the Chad is sporting even as she averts her eyes, waiting for him to dress. When she looks back, he’s leaning on the fence wearing cut-off jeans and a too-big white t-shirt.
“I repeat,” he says with a smile, “I thought you were helping Misha?”
Danneel shrugs. “Skipped out. He doesn’t even need me anyway. Mark only makes me work for him because he thinks it’ll keep me away from the rest of the pack. Like I’ll infect the rest of the wolves with my human-ness.”
She can see the way Chad looks away for a second and knows it’s because he doesn’t want her to see the emotion – the pain – fluttering across his face. The last person Mark hadn’t wanted to infect the rest of the pack had been dealt with in a much more permanent way.
“I’m just tired of being treated like I’m nothing but a whore, ready for anyone to use whenever they want, just because I had sex when I was human.”
Chad wrinkles his nose and Danneel tries everything not to think of it as adorable.
“But they know they can’t, right?” he asks. “Have sex with you, I mean. Even though you were born human, you’re a wolf now; you can’t have sex with anyone but your mate. And even if you could, it’s not like they – pure wolves – can have sex with you.” Chad shakes his head. “God, what are these parents teaching their kids?”
Danneel sniggers. “I think it’s just the younger kids trying to be like the Council wolves, trying to get Mark to notice them. I just wish I could do something to make it stop.”
“Getting a new Alpha would be a damn good start,” Chad spits.
“Chad, don’t. Someone might hear you.” Danneel looks around automatically, though she knows that there’s no one around who would care about what they were talking about. It was a well-worn discussion amongst some of the older wolves.
Chad shakes his head. “If I knew that one wolf in this pack was capable of being Alpha, I’d take Mark out in a heartbeat.”
“But you don’t,” Danneel says loudly, before she makes an effort to lower her voice. “There’s no one in the pack strong enough to be Alpha. Fuck, Chad, the Alpha’s not strong enough to be Alpha. We take Mark out; we could end up with someone even worse.”
“Hard to imagine someone worse than Mark.”
Knowing what their so-called Alpha did to their friend, Danneel doesn’t have anything to disagree with that.
They’re quiet for a few minutes, comfortable in each other’s company in the way that only people who have known each other for decades can be. Danneel’s lived next door to Chad since the day she arrived at the reservation. She knows him almost as well as she knows Steve.
“I’m going to go for a run,” she says suddenly, standing up straight from where she’s been leaning against the fence.
“Dan,” Chad says with a wince and Danneel nods.
They aren’t allowed to run in the woods, forbidden by the Alpha decades ago, though it makes no sense to any of them. No one breaks the rule, for fear of the Alpha’s Council members more than the Alpha himself, but right now, Danneel just doesn’t care.
“I know, Chad, I know, but right now, I just don’t care. I need to run. I’m a wolf. You have to know what it’s like.”
Chad nods, albeit reluctantly. As a Guardian, they have certain training regimes that they must go through, and that includes making sure they keep their speed up. They’re not cooped up like the rest of them.
Chad sighs. “I’ll make sure no one knows where you are.”
Danneel reaches over the fences to kiss his cheek, then slips out of her dress before she shifts into her wolf form and races off towards the trees.
Danneel lets it all go as she runs, flying past trees so fast it’s like they’re not even there. She tries to forget about everything she deals with at the reservation and turns to the wolf that lives in her heart.
She gives into the animal inside her, lets it guide her, until she reaches a part of the forest she doesn’t remember ever seeing before. She stops, her claws digging into the rough ground as she skids, and looks around. There’s something that’s making her skin itch and her hackles rise as her instincts tell her to run.
Instead she looks around, sniffing the air, trying to figure out what’s going on, but her senses are dull, like there’s something blocking them.
Still, there’s something, a scent on the breeze, one Danneel hasn’t smelt in almost thirty years, one that she never thought she’d smell again, and she follows it, nose to the uneven ground and she’d laugh if this was any other situation.
The itch under her skin grows into a burn the closer she gets and she lets out a whimper when her snout comes into contact with something on the ground that shines and glints in the muted sunlight that filters through the trees.
“Silver,” Danneel says to herself, suddenly understanding what she’s feeling.
Looking up, she sees a small cabin, tiny really, barely twelve foot square, just a single room from what she can see. There’s a door with silver locks and a window with silver bars, and it just doesn’t make any sense at all.
Carefully, Danneel steps over the river of molten silver and pads carefully to the window. Pushing herself up onto her hind legs, she sneezes when her nose hits one of the silver bars but she ignores it as much as she can and peers through the glass.
There’s someone inside, a man with long, shaggy dark hair doing push-ups on the floor. He’s wearing nothing but a pair of ratty sweatpants that only reach his calves, and Danneel can see the sweat glistening on his back.
She lets out a quiet little bark, hoping to gain the man’s attention, but not alert her presence to any other wolves. Not that she expects many other wolves to be out here, it’s a restricted area, after all.
When the man raises his head, and her eyes lock onto the familiar hazel orbs, Danneel lets out a startled cry, wondering if she’s gone mad, or if she’s looking into the eyes of a ghost, and she stumbles, losing purchase on the ground as her legs give out from under her.
“Hello?” Jared’s voice is muffled, her senses are so dulled, like she’s listening to him from underwater rather than through a pane of glass, and Danneel scrambles back to her feet, shifting into her human form regardless of her nakedness, trying to stop the effects of the silver.
“Jared!” she yells through the window, hissing when her fingers touch the bars. “Oh, God, Jared! What the hell?! I thought…he told us you were dead!”
Jared’s eyes were wide like saucers. “Danneel? No, no you can’t be here! You have to get out of here before someone sees you!”
“Who? Jared, please, tell me what’s going on. Why are you in there?”
“He locked me in here; I’ve been in here since that day he told the Council to grab me.”
Danneel balks. “That’s…Jared, that was thirty years ago. How can you…oh, God, we have to get you out of here.”
“No!” Jared screams. “No, you can’t. Dan, you have to forget I’m even in here. He’ll kill me, and you, if he finds out you know about me.”
Danneel shakes her head. “You can’t expect me to leave you in there. You can’t expect me not to tell Chad and Chris.”
“Danneel, he will kill you,” Jared annunciates slowly.
“I won’t let him.” She presses her hand to the glass. “I’ll be back, I promise.”
Jared’s voice rings out behind her as she runs as fast as she can in her human form, ignoring the branches that scrape at her skin, until the back of her house comes into view. She ignores it, running instead to the house next door, screaming Chad’s name as she throws the door open.
“What the fuck?” Chad exclaims as he jumps to his feet.
“Jared,” Danneel gasps breathlessly. “He’s in a cabin, in the woods, surrounded by silver, bars on the window. He’s in there, Chad.”
Chad shakes his head. “Jared’s dead, Danneel. We saw it.”
“What did we see?” she counters as Chad takes off his shirt and pulls it over her head, fitting her arms through the sleeves even as she struggles to catch her breath. “Mitch dragging Jared off somewhere. Did you see a body? A burial? No, neither did I. He’s there, Chad, I saw him.”
“Why?”
Danneel frowns. “Why what?”
“Why lock him up? Why go to all the trouble of telling us that he’s been killed if he’s just locked away somewhere?”
Danneel shakes her head. “Who gives a shit, Chad? We just have to get him out.”
“It’s been thirty years,” Chad says, as if she needs the reminder. “Why hasn’t he tried to escape? If he’s really a prisoner, why would be put up with it?”
Danneel frowns. “Didn’t you hear me? There’s silver everywhere. Silver bars on the window, silver locks, a river of molten silver surrounding the entire cabin. My skin was practically vibrating.”
She watches as Chad grows pale and then he sets his mouth in a determined line.
“Show me.”
Chris marches across the reservation, anger and confusion rolling off of him like waves.
“We have to do something,” Chad hisses in his ear.
“We can’t talk about this here,” Chris scolds, but the truth is, he honestly doesn’t know what to say, doesn’t even know what to think.
When Chad had come to him, telling him that Jared was locked away in some sort of prison cell in the middle of the woods, Chris had honestly thought the Guardian had gotten hold of some of Riley’s home brew and had drunk so much he was hallucinating.
There are no words for how shocked and disgusted Chris was when Chad’s ramblings proved to be the truth. Looking through the window, Jared looked terrified, and it had been all Chris could do to hold on to his lunch.
Chris stops in the middle of the reservation and runs his fingers through his hair.
Life in the pack hadn’t exactly been easy since Mark took over all those years ago, but they managed, even though it was a struggle for Chris and Chad and the other Guardians to keep the peace between the Alpha’s Council members and the rest of the pack.
But this? Locking someone in a room surrounded by silver on all sides? There’s no justification for it, and Chris finds himself having to work at calming himself down enough so that he doesn’t go and tear the Alpha’s throat out right now.
“We need to talk to Morgan about this,” Chris decides and turns in the direction of the Guard house.
“What’s going on?” Jessica, an Alpha Council member, is suddenly in front of them, her hands on her hips as she glares at them.
Chad shrugs. “What’s going on with what?”
“I saw you come out of the woods. That’s a restricted area, not even the Guard are allowed. So, I’ll ask you again, what’s going on?”
“Security issue,” Chris says briskly, trying to push past her, “nothing for you to be concerned about.”
Jessica glares them. “If there’s a security issue on this reservation, I have a right to know.”
“No, actually, you don’t,” Chris tells her. “I answer to two people on this reservation, Jessica, and neither one of them is you.”
“I am a member of the Alpha Council and you will explain yourselves to me,” she says smugly.
“A pup escaped,” Chad says. “He ran off into the woods.”
Jessica looks at them. “I don’t see a pup.”
“Danneel took him back to his mother.”
Jessica rolls her eyes. “And why didn’t the mother go off to look for him?”
Chris smirks. “You said it yourself, Jessica, the woods are a restricted area. She thought it safer to ask two Guardians to look for her pup than risk the Alpha’s wrath by going herself.”
If Chris didn’t know any better, he’d swear that was smoke coming out of her ears.
“If you’ll excuse us, Jessica, we’re on duty and we’d hate to be late.”
“I’ll be checking up on this story,” Jessica promises and Chris reminds himself to talk to Danneel.
He stands with Chad and watches her walk away, before he turns and leads Chad to the Guard house.
“Everything okay?” Morgan asks as soon as Chris closes the office door behind them. The captain doesn’t even look up from whatever it is he’s reading.
Chris shrugs. “I just found out that the mate of the true Alpha of the Black Foot pack is locked in a silver coated prison cell in the middle of the woods, so I don’t know, you tell me if everything’s okay.”
Morgan looks up sharply. “What?!”
Chris sighs and waves a hand in the air. He doesn’t even know where to start with this.
“Danneel went for a run, caught his scent on the wind. He’s there. We’ve seen him,” Chad explains calmly.
“But…what…” Morgan stammers. “I don’t…”
“Yeah, neither do we,” Chris agrees.
Morgan blinks. “He’s alive? All this time?”
Chris and Chad both stay silent. Chris can see the guilt on the older man’s face and he knows exactly how his captain feels.
As Guardians, they swore to protect the pack, all of the pack, and to find out one of them has been locked away, locked up tight with no one to talk to, no fresh air, without the ability to shift…it makes Chris sick just thinking about it.
“Why?” Morgan asks suddenly. “Why did he do this?”
“Does it matter?” Chris snorts.
Morgan sighs. “You know what I meant, Christian.”
“Yeah, I know what you meant, Jeffery Dean, but knowing Mark’s reasons doesn’t make this situation any better.”
Morgan closes whatever book he’s reading and leans back in his chair to regard Chris as the vice-captain takes a seat in one of the chairs in front of Morgan’s desk.
“What?” Chris huffs when Morgan remains silent.
Morgan moves his shoulders in what Chris supposes is a shrug. “I was just wondering if you had a plan for fixing this.”
Chris shifts in his seat, suddenly uncomfortable. “I don’t need to have a plan to know that this is fucked up, Morgan.”
Morgan nods. “I agree. But in order to do something about it, we need to have a plan.”
“A plan?” Chris scoffs. “Like what? Taking out the Alpha? If that was the way to get Jared outta that hole, then I’da done it the second I looked into Jared’s terrified eyes. But you know why that can’t happen.”
“Because we don’t have anyone to take his place.”
“Taking out Mark would be easy, child’s play. Hell, even Chad could do it.”
“I resent that,” Chad quips from where he’s standing near the door.
Chris ignores him. “We wouldn’t even have to kill Mark. But all of that doesn’t mean shit, because no one in this pack is Alpha enough to take his place.”
Morgan taps his fingers on his chin for a few seconds in silent consideration. “Perhaps, if we were to take out Mark, the pack would be willing to accept someone else from the pack as Alpha. They might not have the inherent skills or attributes of being an Alpha, but if the pack were willing to accept him, it could work.”
Chris is shaking his head before Morgan is even finished talking. “No, because the minute someone else hears that a non-Alpha is running the Black Foot pack, you know damn well they’ll be up here, asserting their Alpha-ness, and we’ll be right back to where we are now.”
“Another Alpha from another pack might be different.”
“With Jared stuck in that place, we can’t take that risk, Morgan.”
Morgan throws his hands in the air. “Then I’m out of ideas, Chris.”
“So, we’re just gonna leave Jared in that hell he’s been living in for the past thirty years?”
Morgan was growing angry. “If you have another suggestion, Chris, I’m all ears!”
Suddenly, Chad moves away from the door, drawing attention to himself and dispelling some of the tension that has built up in the room. He grabs a chair from the nearby table and drags it over next to Chris’. “Alright, I’m in.”
Chris blinks. “You’re in?”
“Yeah, man. Jay was my best friend growing up. And if we’re gonna bust him outta that hellhole, you’re sure as hell not gonna do it without me.”
“Bust him out?” Chris repeats.
“You two said it yourselves,” Chad points out. “Getting rid of Mark won’t do a damn thing. The best idea I’ve got is busting Jared out and running as far and as fast as we can.”
There’s silence in the captain’s office as everyone thinks over the idea.
“You’d go with him, Chad?” Morgan asks after a few minutes.
Chris stares at his captain. “You’re considering this?”
“Chad’s right, there is no other option, and the boy has suffered enough. If getting him outta that cell means I lose a good soldier and the pack loses a good wolf…” Morgan sighs. “…well, let’s just say that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”
Chad whoops loudly.
“So, what?” Chris asks, still trying to work out the details. “Chad and Jared just run? Find another pack to join?”
Morgan shakes his head quickly. “No, that’s too risky. Jared is the widowed mate of an Alpha, that’s what being an Omega means and I’m guessing it’s the reason Mark did this to Jared. As much as it pains me to admit it, Jared got off lightly with Mark. All he did was lock Jared away. There’s no telling what other packs would do to a widowed Omega, especially one still untouched, like Jared.”
“Then…what? He just runs? Lives in the human world?”
Chad nods. “Get as far away from this place as physically possible. I hear England’s nice, and I’ll be able to speak the language.”
Chris scrapes his fingers through his hair. “This is nuts.”
“I agree,” Morgan concedes, “but it is the only option as far as I can see.”
“If we’re gonna do this,” Chad says, leaning forward in his seat, “then we need to do it now. As soon as possible.”
Morgan purses his lips and Chris narrows his eyes. “What?”
The captain sighs. “Mark left the reservation this morning. Mitch went with him. I don’t know how long he’ll be gone, but he’s gone.”
“Wow.” Chad’s voice holds all of the shock Chris is feeling.
With no idea when the Alpha will return, they need to do this now.
Chris nods, reluctantly. “Alright, then we need to figure out who’s going.”
Morgan smirks. “We do?”
“You really think I’m gonna let Jared out into the big, wide world with only Chad for protection?” Chris rolls his eyes. “You know me better than that, Morgan.”
“That I do, Chris. Damn, guess that means I’ll have to find myself a new second.”
“Steve’s gonna wanna take Danni,” Chad points out. “Can’t say she’ll be disappointed. This definitely wasn’t what she signed up for when she joined the pack.”
“We can’t have a whole mess of people running off into the night,” Chris reminds them. “It’s gonna be harder to hide a larger pack.”
Morgan stands up. “Then that’s it. Depending on neither Chad nor Danneel mating before we execute this plan, it’s the four of you and Jared. “
“Done,” Chris and Chad say in unison.
Morgan nods. “Alright, now let’s get down to the finer details of this plan.”
~///~
The town looks vaguely familiar when he steps off the bus, his suitcase in one hand, rucksack in the other.
He doesn’t know if it’s because he’s been here before, or because it looks almost identical to the picturesque painting his mother used to have hanging in the living room.
Still, it doesn’t really matter which it is, it’s been a long time since he was in Texas, almost seventy years. It’s not like there’s anyone around who’ll remember him.
He sighs as he takes in the town, so much smaller than the cities he’s used to. But as much as he loved Chicago, he’d spent too much time here, more than ten years. Long enough for people to start noticing.
Somewhere smaller, with more people he would see from day to day, was more likely to stop him from getting too comfortable, and remind him to move on before they all got too familiar with him. It was for the best.
It just made for a really crappy life.
He hefts his rucksack onto his shoulder and makes his way out of the bus station, heading down the main drag, taking in the sights. He spots a guest house at the corner, looking charming and empty if the vacancy sign in the window is any indication.
There’s a bar directly across the street that serves food and at least he knows where he’ll be eating tonight.
He holds the door open for a small boy, then makes his way inside, asking the old woman behind the counter for a room.
“How long for?”
He thinks for a second as he fishes his wallet out of his back pocket.
“Let’s go for a month to start with. Never know how long it’ll take me to find a place to live.”
She gives him a once over then, like she’s looking for some sign of weirdness or something, then starts writing out his reservation the old fashioned way.
“Name?”
“Ross,” he answers with a beaming smile. “Jensen Ross.”
Jared hasn’t moved from the bed since Chris’ face had disappeared from the window.
He doesn’t know how long it’s been since the Guardian had been led to his cabin by Chad – who’d been led by Danneel minutes earlier – but the sun is still riding pretty high in the sky, so he knows it can’t have been more than a few hours.
Time has sort of lost all meaning to Jared, locked away as he is.
Still, he sits on the bed, from where he has a perfect view of both the window and the door, and tries to stop the panic that’s rising in his throat.
But he can’t, because this is it. This was Mark is always warning him about, about what would happen if the rest of the pack found out that Jared was still alive, and Jared knows that his life – what little life he has – is about to come to an abrupt end.
Jared’s not stupid, he’s known Chris and Chad his whole life and he knows that there is no way either of them will be able to keep their mouths shut, now that they know about Jared.
He expects Chris to confront the Alpha, expects Mitch or Sterling to come thundering down the path that leads to Jared’s prison and take care of him before the rest of the pack can even think about rescuing him. Mark would see Jared dead before he’d see him back on the reservation, even if Mark himself were dead.
It’s not like it’s something Jared hasn’t contemplated himself.
Being dead would almost be preferable to being locked away like this, alone and cut off, fed three meals a day by someone he never sees through a tiny opening in the bottom of the door.
The only contact he has is the Alpha.
Jared likes to think that there’s about a month between Mark’s visits, but down here, he has no real sense of time. He wakes when the sun rises, sleeps when it sets, and after a while, all the days blur together, and Jared doesn’t even know how long he’s been in this godforsaken place.
He thinks it’s at least a decade.
“That’s…Jared, that was thirty years ago.”
Danneel’s words – spoken by the first voice other than the Alpha’s he’s heard in so long – ring in Jared’s ears and his stomach rolls and he just makes it to the tiny toilet in time to empty the meager breakfast he’d consumed hours ago.
He wonders when his next meal will arrive, and then tries to push the senseless thought away because there are other, more important things to think about right now.
Thirty years. Can it really be true? Danneel couldn’t have meant thirty years, right? She meant months. Or weeks. Or it’s some stupid human thing that Jared doesn’t understand because thirty years doesn’t make sense to him.
Thirty years can’t mean thirty years. Can it?
Thirty years locked away, staying the same, never changing while everyone outside went on with their lives.
He wonders if they mourned for him, his family and friends, when the Alpha told them he was dead. How long did it take his mother to get over her grief? Did his father try to get revenge for the death of his youngest son? Did Jeff have to comfort Megan while she cried salty tears over him?
Jared sniffs and wipes at his own tears as he looks back out the window. He doesn’t even remember what the outside world looks like anymore, it’s all sort of an abstract idea in his mind now, and he thinks that maybe he shouldn’t be so surprised to find out how long he’s been incarcerated.
He wants to get up and pace the limited floor space but he can’t bring himself to move. Pacing would mean he would have to put his back to the door, and then he wouldn’t be able to see when the door opens and the Alpha comes in, or whoever the Alpha’s sends to kill him.
Logically, Jared knows he’ll be able to hear the padlock being opened and the bolt being pulled back long before the door actually swings inwards, but there’s not much logic going on in Jared’s brain right now, so he remains sitting on the bed. His eyes flicking back and forward between the window and the door, just waiting. Waiting for the moment death comes to claim him.
He supposes jumping out of his skin at the sudden sound of voices drawing near is beyond stupid, considering he was waiting for someone to come, but he can’t help the shock that goes through him at the sudden certainty that someone has come to kill him.
“Jared?”
That’s a female voice, and if Jared’s panic level wasn’t somewhere around Def Con Two, he’d be able to work out that the only female who knows he’s down here – apart from that one in the Alpha’s Council – is Danneel. She was looking through the window earlier, starting at him in horror as she realized what was going on and Jared wants to take it all back. He wants to ask whatever God it is that they’re supposed to worship to start the day over and make sure Danneel doesn’t decide to do whatever it is she was doing that led her to Jared.
As it stands, Jared can’t do anything but stare at the door, the blood suddenly pounding in his ears so loudly that he can’t make out the heated conversation that seems to be going on outside. A conversation means people, as in, more the one person, and Jared’s so worked up that he actually screams and scrambles away from the bed when there’s a large bang against the door.
As he hurries across the floor to the corner of the room the banging on the door gets louder, huge, solid thumps against the sturdy door and Jared puts his hands over his ears, trying to block out the sound.
They’re being loud – whoever they are – and the Alpha’s going to hear them and come to see what’s going on and find out why someone’s trying to break into Jared’s prison cell.
It’s when that thought hits him, when he remembers that the Alpha has a key and if he’d sent someone to kill Jared he would have given them said key, that Jared realizes that it can’t be the Alpha on the other side of the door and is thoughts return to Danneel and Chris and Chad and his heart rate kicks up even higher.
He’s not sure he’s breathing by the time the door gives under the battering and a huge blond wolf practically falls into the cabin, carried on his own momentum.
“Jared?” That’s the female voice again and Jared can recognize it now as Danneel’s, but he can’t lift his head to look at her. He’s having trouble breathing.
“Jay,” someone else says and that just makes Jared panic even more.
“Jared, baby, come on, look at me.” Danneel is forcing his knees down until his legs are splayed out in front of him and then she climbs into his lap, one leg on either side of his thighs.
“You can’t be in here,” he says with a shake of his head, his hands still clamped over his ears.
Danneel takes hold of his wrists and pulls his hands down until she can take them in her own. “Jared, you need to breathe, okay? Deep breaths, that’s it.” She demonstrates for him, but it’s several seconds before Jared can make himself follow her instructions and even then, his heart rate doesn’t slow down even a little, but at least he can hear past the rushing sound of his blood.
“You with me?” she asks with a small smile that Jared can tell is full of worry and he makes himself nod.
“Alright, then, let’s get you out of here.”
Jared looks past the girl in his lap to see Chris throwing what meager belonging’s Jared has into a worn backpack. Steve, Chris’ mate, is standing on the broken door, holding a shirt out towards Chad, who’s trying to buckle the belt on his jeans and put his shoes back on at the same time.
“What?” Jared asks when no one adds anything to Chris’ enigmatic statement. “What’s going on?”
“Get dressed, Jared,” Steve instructs as he crosses the room. “Something comfortable.”
Before Jared can ask Steve what the hell he’s talking about, a pair of jeans and a hoodie hit him in the face and a pair of old flip-flops land at his feet.
“Get dressed, Jared!” Chris screeches at him and Danneel pulls herself away and gets to her feet.
“Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on?!” Jared asks, his voice wavering. He clutches the clothes to his chest.
“We’re leaving,” Chad says suddenly. “You, me, Chris, Steve and Danni. We’re outta here, just as soon as you get your ass in gear.”
Jared blinks, because…no.
“N…no.” Jared just about manages to get the word out, but whether it’s a denial, a refusal or something else altogether, he doesn’t know and doesn’t really feel the need to try and figure it out.
Danneel shakes her head, her red hair flying everywhere. “We’re not going to let this happen, Jared. We’re not letting you live down here like some second class citizen. So, we’re springing Rapunzel from the tower and making a break for freedom.”
“You…you can’t!” Jared springs to his feet. “I can’t. He’ll kill me! He’ll kill all of us!”
He’s panicking again, his pulse beating so loudly he’s sure they can all hear it. His throat is suddenly too dry and he tries to swallow as his eyes catch sight of the wide open space that used to be the door. He can see trees outside, muted sunlight, and there’s a cool breeze blowing through the cabin that feels wonderful to Jared.
But it all just makes him completely terrified. He doesn’t know how to be outside anymore, doesn’t know how to live in a world with other people, other wolves and it hurts just trying to imagine it.
“He won’t let me leave,” he tries again.
Chris sighs. “He’s not here, Jared. He left the reservation this morning. We don’t know when he’s coming back so we have to do this now. You have to let us do this now.”
“He…he left?” The words are almost foreign to Jared. He knows that Alan used to leave the reservation from time to time, something about meetings with the Alpha’s from the other packs. But even during their many – somewhat one-sided – conversations over the years, Mark has never mentioned leaving the reservation. He’s been proud of the fact that he hasn’t left, goading Jared with the fact that he’s been around all this time to see the things that Jared has missed out on.
Mark’s strange behavior makes Jared wonder if something’s changed, and suddenly he’s scared for a completely different reason.
“Why?” he asks, his voice so small it’s a miracle that anyone hears him.
Chris sighs, sounding almost sad. The vice-captain of the Guard – if he still holds that title – crouches down next to him and Jared has to remind himself that this is Chris, his friend, someone he knows – beyond a shadow of a doubt – will never do anything to harm him. None of the people in this room would ever hurt Jared and it’s enough for him to turn and look into Chris’ blue eyes, trying to find a reason in there.
“Because, Jared, it took me far too fucking long to find out you were down here and I’m not leaving you here for another second.”
Jared shakes his head. “No, I mean, why would you do this for me? It’s dangerous. You could get killed. Why would you risk that for me?”
Chris’s eyes narrow and Jared has to force himself not to shrink away.
“Is that what he told you when he locked you in here? That you weren’t worth anything?”
Jared shrugs. “He tells me that every time he comes to see me.”
Chris opens his mouth to say something else, but then Jared’s words must register in his mind, because he pauses, his expression and odd mixture of surprise, confusion and anger.
“He…he comes to see you?”
Over Chris’ shoulder, Jared can see that Danneel, Chad and Steve are all suddenly very interested in this conversation and he nods his head slowly, almost reluctant to tell them the truth.
“Once a month, maybe.”
Chris swallows hard, like he’s swallowing down his rage. “Alright, that’s it. We’re leaving now. Whatever shit the Alpha’s been filling your head with, none of it is true, do you understand me, Jared?”
Jared nods his head again, but the truth is, he doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand anything at all. The Alpha has told him many times about how the pack has forgotten all about him, how they moved on with their lives and never gave him a passing thought, not even on the anniversary of his supposed death.
And yet, these four people are here, standing in front of him, all of the ready to risk their lives to get him out of here, to get him somewhere new, where they can all start fresh.
And even though he’s shaking so hard he’s practically vibrating, Jared doesn’t think he has it in him to argue with their plan, never mind say no altogether.
Instead, he shakes out the clothes Chris threw at him and strips out of his sweats and pulls on the jeans with unstable hands, reaching for the t-shirt as he slips into the flip-flops.
“Are we heading for another pack?” he asks as he looks from one person to the next. Chris has finished packing, everything Jared owns shoved into a tiny little backpack. It’s depressing and – not for the first time – Jared wonders what happened to his old stuff, if someone he knows inherited it, or if the Council claimed all of it.
“No,” Chris answers. “It’s just us. For better or worse, this is our pack now.”
Chad grins and throws an arm around Chris’ shoulders. “Say ‘hello’ to our new Alpha! Ain’t he a pretty one?”
Chris shoves Chad away with a growl.
“So, we’re just gonna…what? Run?” Jared watches as each one of them nods. “What about my family? Everyone else?”
Chris takes a step forward. “I’m sorry, Jared, but it has to be this way.”
Jared just stares at him. It’s one thing to know that his family and friends are just on the other side of his prison bars. He always thought he’d see them again, when a new Alpha took over. Mark is still unmated as far as Jared knows, and with no heir to take his place, he could be overthrown at any time.
Just like Alan was all those years ago.
But to run, to live in the human world, just the five of them. He’d never know if Mark was replaced, there would be no way for anyone to get in touch with them, and he really would never see his family again.
It’s a hard choice to make.
Jared frets as he chews on his lower lip because this is all just too much too soon and he feels like his head is about to implode. In one day, his life has been turned upside down, and walking out that door and into the human world will change it even more.
“Come on, Jared,” Chad tries when he’s been silent for too long. “Big, wide world out there. We could go anywhere, do anything. You won’t be alone.”
Just the thought of having company, people he can talk to every day, about anything that crosses his mind, is enough for Jared and he lets out a breath and tries for a smile, almost certain he fails.
These people are risking everything for him. The least he can do is risk something, too and he gives them a reluctant nod.
“Atta boy,” Steve says with a grin.
“Are we ready then?” Chris calls from the doorway. “The longer we hang around here, the bigger the risk that someone will spot us.”
Jared looks around the small room. For better or worse, this has been all he’s known for the past thirty years, and now he’s leaving it, leaving the reservation, to live in the human world. And even though he knows that Chris, Steve and Danneel have all lived in the human world and survived, he’s still more than wary about what they’re about to do.
In fact, he’s downright terrified.
He pauses in the doorway, feet refusing to move, to take that last step that will see him leave his prison behind. The future is spreading out before him and Jared finds it pathetic that he can’t make himself move.
“We’re just going to the car,” Danneel says softly in his ear. “You have a little more time to freak out after this part’s done.”
Jared looks at her over his shoulder. She’s smiling, tongue between her teeth to let him know she’s teasing, and Jared’s missed her so much that it takes everything thing he has not to hug her tight. He figures there’ll be time for that after the escaping part is done. Instead, he lets her take his hand and together they walk out of the cabin, Jared blinking against the sunlight, muted as it is.
“Hey.” Jared flinches, startled, when Morgan steps out of the trees to stand in front of them. They’ve been caught. Less than thirty feet from the door of the cabin and they’ve been caught. Jared can’t even begin to imagine what punishment he’ll face for trying to escape. He knows the Alpha won’t believe him when Jared tells him it wasn’t his idea.
“Everything okay?” Chris asks, worry tingeing his voice and Jared’s shocked when Morgan smiles.
“Everything’s good, you’re all in the clear as far as I can tell, but it won’t stay that way for long, so you need to get moving. Now.”
Wait, Morgan is helping them to escape? Jared supposes that he shouldn’t really be surprised. After all, if Chris hated the Alpha as much as he seems to, surely that would mean his captain didn’t like him much either?
Morgan presses a set of keys into Chris’ hand. “She’s all gassed up. I loaded your things in the trunk, so you should be good for a while. Just get as far away from here possible tonight, you hear me?”
“Yes, sir,” Chris answers confidently, and he turns away from Morgan without another word.
“For what it’s worth, Jared,” Morgan says, stopping Jared with a hand on his shoulder, “I’m so sorry about all of this. I only wish I’d known of this sooner.”
Jared doesn’t know what to say to that, so he just gives Morgan a tight smile before he allows Danneel to lead him into the trees.
He stops just before he’s out of sight and looks back, seeing Morgan watching them, Guarding them until they’re gone.
“Don’t let my family take the fall for this,” he shouts back to the Captain. “Promise me you’ll keep them safe.”
Morgan nods his head once, but there’s a sadness in his eyes that Jared can see, even from so far away. “I swear to you, Jared. I’ll take care of them.”
With nothing more to say, Jared follows the others into the trees.
“Alright, we need a plan,” Danneel says suddenly from her place between Chad and Jared in the back seat.
Behind the wheel, Chris frowns and glances at her in the review mirror. “What? Why?”
He can see her roll her eyes. “Oh, so what? We’re just gonna drive around for the rest of our lives? Live outta this rust bucket that can barely fit Jared’s ginormous legs never mind the other four of us? Come on, we need to talk about this. Getting Jared outta there was the right thing to do, of course it was, but we’ve done that, so now we need to figure out what we’re going to do next.”
Chris sighs. He hates it when she’s right.
Next to him, in the passenger seat, Steve sniggers, like he knows just what his mate is thinking. After almost forty years he probably does.
“So, what do you suggest?” Chris asks her.
“Getting outta this car for five minutes would be a good start,” Chad grumbles and Chris nods.
They’ve been stuck in this car for the best part of six hours, nothing in Chris’ head but getting as far away from the reservation as possible. But the sun is sinking lower and lower with every passing minute, and he’s man enough to realize that they need to find somewhere to spend the night at the very least.
“There’s a town up ahead,” Steve says, pointing to the sign at the side of the road and Chris has to actually force himself to make the turn for the exit.
Everything in him is screaming at him to keep driving, to put another couple hundred miles between them and the reservation. Coming down off the mountain, he was able to breathe easier, just knowing he was out of the limits, well past the boundary lines, but even six hours of driving later, it still doesn’t feel like enough.
Steve reaches out to put a hand on his thigh. “It’s just for tonight,” he says soothingly, kneading the muscle of Chris’ thigh. Chris takes on hand from the wheel and threads their fingers together, glad to have the support of his mate next to him.
When Chris first met Steve, he was on a leave of absence from the pack. Alpha Alan had allowed him some time away so that he could explore the world before he decided if joining taking up the position of vice-captain of the Guard was the right thing for him.
Chris got as far as New Orleans and that was it.
Steve was singing on stage at some bar off the main street and Chris thought that it was as good a place as any to grab some food before he looked for somewhere to lay his head for the night. As soon as their eyes met across the crowded room, they mated, and Steve had jumped off the stage in the middle of a song just to get to Chris.
At the time, Chris didn’t even know it was possible for their kind to mate with humans, but Steve had dealt with it all rather well, considering he’d just been told werewolves – for want of a better word – existed and he was not only mated to one, but would have to become one in the not so distant future.
He’d agreed to accompany Chris back to the reservation so that they could figure it out with the Alpha, but with one condition.
Danneel would be coming with them.
Danneel had been Steve’s best friend his whole life. When Steve said he was going to tour the country playing music, Danneel had told him she was tagging along.
When Steve said he was leaving with his werewolf soul mate to live with his pack high up a mountainside in Texas, Danneel had told him she was tagging along.
At the time, Chris didn’t really argue, wanting to get his mate back to the reservation so that he could talk things through with the Alpha and find out if it was possible to mate with someone who wasn’t a wolf.
The fact that Steve was male didn’t even register.
Once everything had been confirmed by the Alpha – it was rare for a wolf to mate with a human, but not unheard of – Steve demanded to be changed pretty much straight away, and Chris had done the deed personally, when they fucked for the first time in their bed.
Danneel had taken a little longer to come around.
The Alpha indulged her, allowed her to live on the reservation as a human, and asked that everyone treated her like she was one of their own, like she was already a wolf.
It had taken two years before she came around to the idea, and that was only after she found out that wolves aged differently and that every one of her close friends was a lot older than they appeared.
It had fallen to Genevieve to be the one to change Danneel, after getting her wasted on the way too strong beer Riley brewed up in the old jail cell.
The very jail cell that had become Jared’s prison.
Chris is pulled out of his memories with that sobering thought. Not many people knew about the jail cell, only the Guard were told about it, just in case it was needed.
But that need never arose, and so not many people gave it more than a seconds thought. Except Riley, when he needed somewhere to hide the beer he was brewing where no one could find it drink it, and when Mark arrived and declared the woods off limits to everyone – including the Guardians – Riley just didn’t feel the need to sneak around for some cheap alcohol
The stuff was nasty anyway, so no one was really missing out on much.
Still, as Chris looks at Jared through the rearview mirror, watching as he gazes out the window at the landscape speeding by, he can’t help but wish that someone had wanted that beer so badly that they snuck into the woods to get it. They could have had Jared out of that place years ago. It makes something in his chest pull tight, something that feels strangely like guilt.
“Hey, Jay,” he calls, his eyes flickering between Jared and the road, “you okay back there?”
“Yeah,” Jared answers dully. He’s fidgeting in his seat, wringing his hands in his lap, like he’s unable to sit still.
“Awfully quiet,” Chris goes on, not sure why he’s pushing Jared. “I seem to remember a time when we couldn’t shut you up for all the candy in Traci’s store.”
“I’ve had no one to talk to for thirty years. Guess I’m outta practice.”
It’s like someone dropped a bucket of ice cubes down the back of his shirt, and Chris turns his attention back to the road. His hands grip the steering wheel until his knuckles turn white and he can feel tears of rage prickling at the back of his eyes.
He wants to turn back, drive back to that reservation, the only place he’s ever called home, and he wants to rip Mark’s tiny little head off and screw the fucking consequences.
No one deserves what Jared’s gone through because of something that’s out of his control.
Steve squeezes his thigh again, solid and reassuring, like Steve knows just how upset he is, and Chris forces himself to take a deep breath, to calm the rage he can feel simmering in his gut. Jared’s sitting on a knife’s edge as it is, lost and insecure and scared of his own fucking shadow. The last thing Chris wants to do is upset the poor guy even more just because he can’t control his own fucking temper.
Chris smiles a little when the reach the limits of the small town, marveling at how it can look different and familiar all at the same time.
It’s been a long time since Chris was in this town, back when he was still a rookie in the Guard. It’s the closest town to the reservation – remote as it is – and back in those days, it had been up and it was his job to escort some of the women down to the town to order the supplies that were delivered to the reservation by the humans of the town.
The town’s inhabitants don’t know about their wolf side. Chris isn’t really sure what they think, maybe some weird cult or some sort of bastardized version of a Native American tribe. But whatever it is they think, they don’t make comments, just deliver what they’re asked to deliver and leave the rest alone.
Of course, that was before Mark cut off all ties with the town and forbade anyone from stepping foot off the reservation. He wanted them to be self-sufficient, living on their own, not depending on humans for anything.
To Chris, it just feels like segregation.
He drives through the town, trying to reacquaint himself with the streets and buildings and finally finds a place to park, down an alley behind the bus station, out of the way of any passers-by.
“What are you doing?” Jared asks, soundly slightly panicked.
“We’re just going to stop here for a little while,” Steve says softly, turning in his head to look back at Jared. “We just need to talk about some things, what we’re going to do now, where we’re going to go. Stuff like that.”
Jared swallows and Chris can see through the rearview mirror that his eyes are wide with something that looks suspiciously like fear.
“Can’t…can’t I just stay here?” he stutters, pressing himself back into the car seat.
“Jared,” Danneel says sweetly, “you’ve been locked up in that room for years. Don’t you want to get a little fresh air? Be outside for a while?”
Chris nods in agreement. If he had been in Jared’s shoes, the only thing he would want to do would be to shift and run as far and as fast as possible, stretching out all his muscles.
“I don’t…” Jared gulps hard, the sound of it echoing in the close confines of the car, “I don’t know how to be outside.”
Chris frowns. He seems to be doing that a lot over the last day, but Jared’s words really don’t make any sense to him. Chad, however, speaks up before Chris can say something.
“What about you talking about, Jay?” Chad says, leaning forward on the back of Chris’ seat so that he can see past Danneel.
“It’s so…big,” Jared says and Chris can tell by the way he twists his mouth that the Omega thinks that his own words are stupid or that they make no sense but he presses on regardless. “I’ve forgotten what it’s like. I’ve seen nothing but the same four ways for so long I’ve forgotten what the outside looks like. And everything’s changed so much, I’m scared of…I’m just scared.”
“Acrophobia,” Steve says suddenly.
Chris blinks at him. “What the hell is that?”
“It tends to happen to people who’ve had some sort of traumatic event,” Steve explains calmly. “Like a mugging or something. They crave the safety of being inside and fear being outside because of the unknown.”
“Jared wasn’t mugged,” Chris points out and he can almost hear Chad rolling his eyes.
“No, but I imagine being beaten and dragged to that cell and then locked inside it for thirty years wasn’t exactly a life affirming experience.”
Chris can feel the blush crawling over his face and he takes a minute to get himself under control before he turns to look Jared straight in the eye. “You know you’re safe with us, right? We’re not going to let anything happen to you.”
“There’s just so many people,” Jared tells him in a small voice. “I don’t know how to be around them anymore. It’s just all so…big.”
Danneel reaches out and takes Jared’s hand. “No one’s going to leave you on your own; we’ll be right next to you the whole time. You don’t even have to talk to anyone if you don’t want to.”
As he looks from one person to the other, Chris can see the wide-eyed look of panic Jared is still wearing, but he nods his head slowly, and Chris really wishes there was an option of leaving Jared in the car. But this was Jared’s life as much as anyone else’s and he deserved to have a say on what they were going to do now, on where they should go and Chris forces himself to get out of the car, the others quickly moving to follow.
When everyone’s out of the car, stretching out the kinks as they stand on the sidewalk, Chris locks the car up tight and pockets the keys before he falls into step next to Steve at the back of the group.
“Should we pick up extra supplies?” Chad asks from where he’s leading at the front. “You know, like, clothes, toiletries, some food for the road.”
Chris hums non-committedly. They never really had much of a chance to pack more than the bare essentials, so Chad probably has a point about needing things. Still…
“Kinda need cash for that,” Chris points out. “I doubt they’re gonna hand over the things because Danni flashes her tits.”
Danneel snorts, offended by the comment. “Actually, I have some cash, but it’s in my bank account, and I don’t have any identification that says I wasn’t born in 1944. Despite how I may feel, I do not exactly look like I was a war baby.”
“Can you get at it?” Chad asks, turning to walk backwards so that he can see Danneel.
“Short of robbing the bank,” she says with a shrug, “I can’t really think of anything.”
Chris tunes out their banter as he lets his mind drift for a minute. He’s not sure if he’ll ever be able to relax, if he’ll ever stop worrying about Steve and Jared long enough to even think about trying it, but he can’t help but admit to feeling a little bit calmer now that he knows that Jared is out of that prison cell.
A glance to his left brings Jared into his vision, and Chris wonders how long it’s going to take Jared too relax, to realize he’s safe. Right now, the Omega is fiddling with the hem of his worn out t-shirt, twisting and stretching the fabric between his fingers as he gazes at the town with wide eyes. It only takes a few seconds for Chris to remember that Jared has never visited the town. He’s never even been off the reservation, no need for him to even think about it.
Chris wants to ask Jared what he’s thinking, seeing the town for the first time, but a teenage girl walks by them, giggling behind her hands as she stares at them, pointing at them and whispering something to her friend. Chris frowns.
Chris has never really taken any special interest in the clothes that he wears every day, but it doesn’t take a genius to know that the outfits that they’re wearing aren’t exactly high fashion. Jared’s jeans are too short and end inches above his grey flip-flops, Chad’s shirt looks like it was last fashionable in 1982, and from where Chris is walking behind her, he can tell Danneel’s dress doesn’t fit her properly, the waist hanging low on her hips.
Anyone would take one look at them and know there’s something different about them.
Before, when their visits to the town could be seen as being regular, the townspeople had gotten used to them. It didn’t seem to matter much back then. But times have changed, and people obviously aren’t the same anymore, and children, it seems, aren’t afraid to make fun of strangers in the street.
Chris watches as Jared curls in on himself, fearful of the unwanted attention, and Chris just wants to bundle him back up into the car and take him away. But Danneel had been right; they need to find somewhere to stay, for tonight at least, while they come up with some sort of plan for the future.
“Can we hurry this up, please?” Steve mumbles loudly, like he’s reading Chris’ mind. He’s glancing around them at the people passing them on the sidewalk, and he seems to be getting more uncomfortable by the second. Chris moves close, so that their arms brush every time they take a step and it seems to calm his mate a little, but it’s not enough and Chris knows he won’t be able to relax until the five of them are back in the car.
“There’s a coffee shop,” Danneel says suddenly, pointing to a small building across the street. “I think we can scrounge up enough cash to pay for at least one drink each while we come up with at least a short term plan.” No one has a better idea and she turns to cross the street, already hunting through the small purse she has thrown over her shoulder.
Jared follows her without pausing, and, with his head hanging low, staring at the sidewalk, he doesn’t notice the man coming towards him.
Chris reaches out, hoping to pull Jared out of the man’s path and avoid a collision, but it’s too late and Jared and the stranger crash into each other, the force of impact knocking them both off balance.
“Oh, God, I’m so sorry,” the guy apologizes instantly, his hands reaching out to steady Jared. “Are you al-?”
Jared starts, his body going rigid with nervous tension as he tries to pull himself away from the stranger, his eyes on the ground.
“Hey,” the guy says softly, ducking his head a little to look into Jared’s eyes and Jared flinches again, looking up through his lashes.
Chris bursts into motion, hurrying to Jared’s side, needing to make sure that Jared is alright. It doesn’t matter what Mark has told them all, Chris was raised to believe that an Omega was to be protected and cared for above all else, and locking Jared away for three decades hasn’t made that instinct go away.
“Jay? Are you hurt?”
But as Chris looks up into Jared’s eyes, he can clearly see that Jared isn’t paying the slightest bit of attention to him. His eyes are locked on the stranger, his pupils blown wide with something that looks suspiciously like lust.
“Jared?” he tries again and Jared moans.
Behind him, the man Jared ran into lets out something resembling a growl and before Chris knows what’s happening, he’s being thrown bodily to the side as the stranger throws himself at Jared.
Chris’ training kicks in and it takes everything he has not to shift right here in the middle of the street as he tackles the man, doing whatever it takes to get him away from Jared.
“NO!”
Jared’s voice startles Chris, and he looks away from the guy he’s trying to wrestle to the ground to frown at Jared, giving the stranger the distraction he needs to slip out of Chris’ grasp.
He moves past Chris and towards Jared before the Guardian can even figure out what’s going on and he growls as he reaches for the guy’s collar, intent on pulling him away from Jared before he realizes that the guy is kissing Jared.
The stranger is kissing Jared, like they’ve been mated their whole lives.
Oh…
Danneel’s screeching, but Chris is having a hard time thinking.
“What the hell is going on?!” she yells, tugging at Chris’ sleeve and he can do nothing but shake his head.
Even as he watches – as they all watch – Jared and the newcomer continue to make out in the middle of the sidewalk, their arms around each other, pulling each other close as they grind against each other.
“We gotta get them outta the street,” Steve whispers into Chris’ ear. “We’re drawing too much attention.”
Chris snaps out of his shocked state and looks around, not really surprised to see a lot of people staring openly at Jared and his…friend. Some people look far too disgusted for Chris’ liking and he realizes that Steve’s right.
“Chad,” he calls, “get Jared.”
Chad looks like he wants to be anywhere than standing watching Jared stick his tongue down the throat of a guy whose name they don’t even know, but he follows his vice-captain’s instructions and grabs Jared by the biceps, pulling him away quickly and turning them back towards the direction of the car.
“No!” Jared yells. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Let me go!”
“HEY!”
Chris rolls his eyes at the stranger’s outburst, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him along as they following Chad and the still struggling Jared.
“We’re not taking him away from you, we’re just going somewhere a little less public,” Chris tells him, although, right now, every single instinct he has is telling Chris to get this guy as far away from Jared as possible.
The guy relaxes a little, going with them willingly, even a little eagerly, as he quickens his pace to catch up with Jared, who has put quite a gap between them, thanks to Chad’s momentum.
“It’s like I need to touch him,” the guy says, his voice high and panicked. “I don’t even know his name. I don’t know what the hell’s the matter with me.”
“You and me both, buddy,” Chris assures him.
“Oh, come on.” Chris can sense Steve rolling his eyes.
Chris sees Chad leaning against the car, one hand holding tight to Jared’s arm, so that the Omega doesn’t take off running just to get to them. Chris tightens his grip on the guy and risks a glance over his shoulder at his mate.
“What the hell are you talking about, Steve?”
“You remember when we mated? At that dirty bar back in New Orleans?” Steve asks.
Chris snorts. “Of course I remember.” Really, that’s not something he’s ever likely to forget.
“You remember what it was like? That first rush of feeling, like you’ll combust if you don’t touch that person within the next half a second? That feeling, like you’re one fire and the only way to put out the flames is to feel that person’s hands on you?”
Chris nods. “Yeah…but I’m not really getting your point.”
“God, you can be really dense sometimes.” Steve waves his hand and Chris turns to see that they’ve made it to the car and Jared and the guy are kissing again, even though Chris and Chad are both still holding onto them.
Chris’ eyes widen as he looks at the pair and then back at Steve. “Are you seriously trying to tell me that they’ve mated?”
Steve waves a hand at the pair. “Chris, look at them! Are you seriously going to try to deny this?”
“Steve’s right,” Danneel says, speaking for the first time since the street. “They look exactly like you and Steve did that day in New Orleans.”
“But…no!” Chris stammers. “Jared already has a mate. This is the whole point, because if Jensen was still around, we wouldn’t even be in this fucking mess.”
“I’m gonna make a wild assumption and say that we’ve found Jensen,” Chad says pointedly.
“No,” Chris shakes his head as he forces himself between Jared and…the guy. “No, it isn’t possible.”
“Chris,” Chad put his hands on his hips. “Think about it. You know as well as I do, Jared and Jensen might have mated when they were kids, but they were kids, man. When they both came of age, the mating had to be sealed, the same way every other mating is confirmed…sex!”
Chris points a finger at the guy. “If he is Jensen Ackles, I will eat your shoes.”
“My name is Jensen Ross,” the guy says, his voice shaky and unsure.
Chris blinks at the guy while Chad laughs.
“So, maybe just one shoe then, huh, Chris?”
“Oh, God,” Jared groans, bending forward to put his hands on his knees.
“Will one of you please tell me what the hell is going on?” Danneel asks, waving her arms in the air. “How can Jared suddenly have a mate? And a human one at that?”
Chris swallows hard and turns to face Steve and Danneel, ignoring the fact that Jared and Jensen have returned to their make out session now that Chris has let go of them.
“What do you guys know about Jared’s mate?”
Danneel shrugs. “They mated before Jared was even before born, but he died when Jared was a baby.”
Steve nods. “Yeah, that’s why there was no heir to the position of Alpha, because the Ackles’ only had one son, and why Mark was able to come in and take over.”
Chris shakes his head. “Well, yeah, okay, that’s mostly true, apart from the bit about Jared’s mate dying when Jared was a baby.”
Danneel frowns. “What? But, that’s…that’s what we’ve always been told.”
“Because that’s what we always assumed happened,” Chad explains, taking a step forward. “What really happened was that Jensen Ackles went missing when Jared was a baby. He was never seen again.”
Danneel gasps. “There was no body found?”
“No,” Chris confirms. “I think the Alpha and the Guards just assumed that he’d wandered too far outside of the reservation’s borders and an animal had gotten him.” He chuckles slightly. “We were kids at the time, and we used to laugh about how ironic it would be if he’d been eaten by a wolf. We never realized what his death would mean for the future of the pack.”
“But…everyone always said he was dead!” Danneel yells. “They all talk about how terrible it was that Jared was widowed before he could even mate properly.”
“It was easier,” Chad explains. “It was easier for everyone to think that Jensen was dead than to know that they had just failed to find him.”
Danneel swallows hard as she stares at Jensen, like she’s suddenly understanding the significance of him being alive. “This changes everything.”
“It changes nothing,” Chris tells her forcefully.
“Chris, the rightful Alpha of the Black Foot pack is standing right in front of you! How can you say nothing’s changed?”
Chris smiles sadly. “Because, if he remembered anything, he’d know what the hell we were talking about.”
They all turn to look at Jensen, who’s leaning against the car, one hand on Jared’s shoulder, with a terrified expression on his face.
“If he remembered anything,” Chad continues, “he would have found his way home before now.”
Danneel scrapes her fingers through her red hair. “We have to get him back to the reservation.”
“Do we?” Steve’s voice is quiet and when Chris looks up at him, he looks sad.
“Well, of course,” Danneel argues, “I mean, he’s Alpha, our true Alpha. Don’t you feel it?”
“I feel it,” Steve confirms, and when Chris takes a step back from the situation, he can see that he feels it, too, that deep sense of loyalty and protectiveness, and Chris knows that if it came right down to it, in that very moment, he would do anything to keep this man safe, including giving up his own life.
“It’s taking everything I have not to fall to my knees out of respect right now,” Chad says through gritted teeth.
“But just because I feel it and you feel it,” Steve goes on, pointing a finger at Jensen, “that doesn’t mean that he feels it.”
“Feel what?!” Jensen yells. “Will someone tell me what the hell is going on right now? And why the hell can’t I stop myself from touching this guy?!”
Chris scrubs a hand over his face. He so isn’t capable of dealing with this shit.
“Look, Steve’s right.”
Danneel scoffs. “Oh, yeah, take your mate’s side.”
“Danni, think about,” Chad urges, taking a step towards her. “What’s going to happen if we take Jensen back to the reservation right now? You think Mark’s just gonna step down as Alpha?”
“He has to,” Danneel insists. “It’s the law! Pack law!”
“The same pack law that Mark violated when he murdered Alan and Donna and the rest of the Alpha Council as they slept?” Chris spits. “You think he’s gonna give up his position without a fight?”
“Well…no,” Danneel mumbles grudgingly, like the thought is only just occurring to her.
“Exactly, and right now, Jensen couldn’t even take Jared in a fight.”
“I resent that,” Jared mutters quietly. “Pretty sure I can still kick Chad’s ass.”
“Try it, Omega Boy.”
Chris rolls his eyes. “Chad, he was kicking your ass when he was still in diapers.”
“So, we’re not going back to the reservation?” Danneel asks, chewing on her thumbnail.
“Why? So Mark can kill him where he stands and then have his fucking henchmen kill all of us for daring to plot against him?” Chad laughs. “Yeah, no thanks.”
Heaving a sigh, Chris just looks at Jensen. “Not until we find out for sure if this guy is who we think he is.”
Jensen narrows his eyes. “And just who is it you think I am?”
“Honestly?” Chris smiles. “The answer to all of our fucking prayers.”
They’re all insane.
Really, it’s the only explanation Jensen has for whatever the hell is going on, and he is clearly insane, too, because he’s following them all as they leave the relative privacy of the alley the car is parked in and back onto the busy main street. Jensen’s holding on tightly to the hand of the guy he can’t seem to stop wanting to touch, and taste and…
Oh, God, he’s losing his mind.
Jensen has found out, somewhere between the car and now, that the guy’s name is Jared, but that’s not really making the situation much better, especially since they all seem to think they know Jensen, or at least, they think Jensen is someone they used to know.
He’d be upset that they keep talking about him with a different last name, but he can’t see to get past the need-want-now that’s clouding his mind every time he gets a hint of Jared’s scent on the breeze.
And if it’s weird that Jensen can smell the guy, even though he’s not wearing any cologne, Jensen’s just not going to think about that.
“We need to get off the street.” The guy with the long dark hair seems to be the one in charge, everyone turning to him for advice or instructions.
“I have a room,” Jensen hears himself say, “at the guesthouse.” He points to the other end of street and the guy follows his gaze with a shrug.
“Guess that’s good enough for now,” he says and leads them all off again.
The old woman behind the front desk gives him a sharp look when he marches past with five other people in tow and it’s on the tip of Jensen’s tongue to point out that none of these crazy people are in anyway associated with him, but Jared chooses that exact moment to run his hand up and down Jensen’s forearm, and for reasons Jensen can’t even begin to contemplate, he wants to take Jared to his room right now, lock the door and then fuck him until neither of them can walk.
He’s not sure what’s wrong with him.
That plan is quashed when the other four follow him as he pulls Jared towards the room he’s been renting for just a few short hours.
With a hard swallow, Jensen reaches into his pocket for the room key and unlocks the door with fumbling fingers and all but falls into the room and into the room’s only chair and Jared attacks his mouth again.
At this point, Jensen gives up fighting and caring about the other people in the room and just pulls Jared in until the taller man is straddling his thighs, pressing their groins together.
“Oh, for the love of…” he can hear someone groan off to the side. “Do I have to get a bucket of cold water for you two?”
Someone else laughs. “Wouldn’t really do much except get them a bit wet.”
“It would make me feel better.” Suddenly, Jared is gone from his lap, and Jensen looks up to see the guy with long brown hair sitting him down on the side of the bed furthest from the chair.
“Sit,” he orders Jared. “Stay.” Jared glares up at him.
“Hey, he’s not a dog,” Jensen scolds, confused as to why the taller of the two blond men finds that funny enough to double him in two as he laughs.
“We’ll get to that in a little while, son, but I cannot think straight with the two of you going at it in the corner.”
“You know, this isn’t right, Chris,” Jared says, speaking for the first time in a while. “You’re keeping me away from my mate. You would have killed me if I’d tried to stop you from claiming Steve.”
Chris – apparently – nods. “Yeah, I see the similarities of the situation, Jay, but I have the benefit of hindsight and I know now that it would have been better to explain things to Steve before I fucked him blind.”
Just as Jensen is wondering which one is Steve, the taller blond groans. “So not an image I wanted in my head.” The long haired guy blushes and Jensen’s sort of pleased that he’s got some names to work with.
“Oh, please,” the only woman snaps, “just be thankful you didn’t witness the live show. They caused a real scandal. It wasn’t every day that two men were seen getting busy in the middle of the street, even in New Orleans.” She cringes. “Of course, that was in 1970, so that could explain the outrage.”
Jensen gapes. These people don’t look like they should be any older than thirty, and yet this woman is talking about Chris and Steve and 1970 as though they were there, as if they really had been making out in the middle of a street in New Orleans in 1970.
Jensen was in Alaska in 1970, trying his hand at crab fishing, a job he never wants to think about again, and he dismisses the thought to look at these people anew, trying to find out if there’s any outward signs that would tell Jensen that they were…different. Just like he was different.
“Will you shut up?” Chris growls at the female. “We’re not here to talk about mine and Steve’s mating story.”
“No,” the blond says, “we’re here to talk about Jensen and Jared’s mating story.” He gets a faraway look in his eyes and he sighs. “There’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.”
“None of thought we’d ever see this,” Steve agrees and all of them grow silent for a few seconds as they turn to look at Jensen.
Jensen growls. “You know, this whole secret ‘I know something you don’t’ bullshit got old really fast. Will one of you please tell me what the fuck is going on?”
The woman slaps her hands across her mouth and sits down on the bed next to Jared.
Jared looks at her and laughs. It’s the best sound Jensen’s ever heard and he wants to spend the rest of his life making Jared make that sound, and he doesn’t find it as distressing as he thinks he should.
“Wow,” Jared says in a pained whisper, “your loyalties switched fast.”
She pulls her hands away and glares at him. “I never had any loyalties to Mark in the first place. This is just me finally having someone to be loyal to.”
Jensen blinks, because that right there? Made absolutely no sense to him.
“We’re all just a little confused right now,” Steve admits, waving a hand. “It’ll get better once we’ve all calmed down.”
The blond snorts. “Easy for you to say.”
“I’m sorry,” Jared mumbles suddenly, dropping his head into his hands. “None of this would be happening if it wasn’t for me.”
“Shut you’re damn mouth, Jared,” Steve says and Jensen bristles, getting to his feet, but he goes on before Jensen can do anything. “No one is blaming any of this on you. You’re the victim here. This is in no way your fault.”
“Okay, stop,” Chris practically orders, his hand on Jensen’s chest. “I need to talk to you and I can’t do that if your tongue is half-way down Jared’s throat.” It’s only then that Jensen realizes he’s been moving across the room, pulled in by the need to be able to touch Jared.
“But I…” Jensen cringes, closing his eyes as he takes a deep breath. “I need him. I don’t understand and it’s scaring the shit out of me, but I need him.”
Chris nods. “I know, believe me, I’ve been right there, where you are now, and I know how you feel. But I can’t let you go through with this if you don’t know what’s going on. You could end up hating us, and that’s the last thing I want.”
Jensen narrows his eyes, studying the man standing in front of him. “You think you know me, don’t you? You think I’m someone else, and I can tell you right now, I’m nobody. I’m Jensen Ross, from Laramie, Wyoming. I’m nothing special.”
Chris nods and scratch at his chin. “Nothing special, huh?”
“No.”
“So, Jensen, if you’re nothing special, you won’t mind telling me how old you are.”
Jensen can actually feel all the blood draining from his face because that’s a question he never likes to answer.
“Um…twenty…twenty-eight?” he tries, and he knows that no one in the room is going to believe. The blond even laughs outright as he falls onto the bed next to Jared.
“Right,” Chris nods. “You just heard Danneel say that she had to watch me and Steve making out in the middle of New Orleans more than forty years ago.”
Jensen looks at the woman, Danneel. She simple cocks an eyebrow at him, looking almost smug.
“Steve?” Chris calls, glancing at the man over his shoulder. “How old are you?”
Steve shrugs. “I don’t know. Seventy-three, maybe? I stopped counting a while back.”
“Me, too,” Christian says with a nod. “I think I’m over a hundred now. I mean, I’m older than Jensen by about three years, and he’s been gone for a century, so.”
Jensen gawps. He’s never spoken to anyone about the fact that he doesn’t age like everyone else, and yet these people knew without him even saying anything. In fact, they’re just like him, never aging, living beyond their years, and suddenly Jensen isn’t so scared about what was going on. Confused as hell, yeah, but not so afraid.
“Oh, God,” the last remaining nameless person groans, interrupting Jensen’s thoughts. “I was really hoping I hadn’t hit a hundred yet. I feel so old. And I’m not mated.” He glares at Jared. “You know, I was planning on mating with your sister. Clearly she’s defective if it’s taking her this long to get her act together.”
Jared grins at his words, but his eyes stay on Jensen and it’s like the whole room lights up. “Maybe she’s just not the one for you, Chad.”
Jensen takes a step across the room, even as Chad – a name at last – is still talking. “Well, who the hell else I’m gonna mate with on that reservation? There’s, like, no one.”
“Hey!” Danneel pouts just as Jensen reaches for Jared’s hand and then Chris is pulling him away.
“Alright, this isn’t going to work,” he says as he guides Jensen back to the chair. Jared whines and buries his face in a pillow.
“They can’t do anything if one of them shifts,” Danneel says calmly.
Jared sits up straight, looking at Danneel with a horrified expression on his face. “Please, Danni, I can’t.”
Jensen frowns. Something’s changed, the atmosphere in the room, where before it had been mostly confusion that Jensen was feeling, is now thick with fear. Jensen can feel it clawing at his throat, trying to choke him and he watches as Jared turns pleading eyes to Danneel.
Danneel smiles. “It’s just for a little while, Jay, you’ll still be here, we’re not taking you away from Jensen, we would never do that.”
Jared shakes his head, his hands griping hers tightly. “No, you don’t understand. I can’t shift, literally.”
Chris turns to him. “What do you mean, you can’t?”
Jared has tears in his eyes. “I haven’t shifted in thirty years, Chris, I don’t…I don’t know if I even can.”
“Well, don’t you think it’s time you relearned that skill?” Chris all but barks at him.
“Hey!” Jensen exclaims, jumping to his feet again. “You can’t talk to him like that. If he says he can’t shift, then he can’t shift.” He frowns. “Wait, shift? Shift what? I don’t even know what that means.”
Chris sends him a look over his shoulder that Jensen can’t decipher before he gets down on his knees in front of Jared. “Jay, look at me.” He waits until Jared looks up from where he’s staring at his hands clasped tightly in Danneel’s. “That bastard has taken away the last thirty years of your life. He took Jensen’s parents-”
“Jensen’s what?” Jensen asks, because that part doesn’t make sense. He rolls his eyes. As if anything that has happened to him today has made any sense at all.
Chris ignores Jensen. “Are you going to let him take your wolf as well?”
Slowly, Jared shakes his head, but Jensen can see his lower lip trembling from across the room.
“It hurts,” he says quietly.
Chris cups the side of his face and Jensen can actually feel his blood pumping in his veins at the need to do something about that.
“I know, but I’m right here,” Chris promises. “We’re all right here and we’re never leaving you alone again. And look.” Christ winks at Jensen. “You have Jensen now, that’s all you ever wanted, right?”
Jared looks at Jensen and Jensen tries for a smile, tries to support Jared with whatever the hell it is he’s going through, because that’s what his gut is telling him to do.
The cloying fear dissipates a little, but it’s still thick enough that Jensen thinks he should be having trouble breathing. It’s only when Jared’s gaze catches his own that Jensen realizes that what he’s feeling are Jared’s emotions. Well, not feeling, exactly but it’s like Jensen just knows what emotion Jared is feeling at any one time.
It would be fascinating if it wasn’t so terrifying.
“You can do it, Jay,” Chad whispers, but Jensen can see he’s gnawing on his bottom lip, like he’s nervous.
Jared nods and closes his eyes. He takes a deep breath and suddenly, instead of a stupidly tall man sitting on the bed, there’s an oversized black wolf that’s moaning in pain, bits of tattered clothing laying all around him.
Jensen falls out of his chair.
“What the fuck?!” he exclaims, pointing at the animal. “What the actual fuck?!”
Chad waves a hand at him. “Pipe down, one crisis at a time. We’ll deal with you in a minute.”
“Jay?” Steve asks. “Are you okay?”
“It’s all the silver,” Chad says. “That place is surrounded by silver. It was never intended to be used any longer than a night or two. Jared has been stuck inside that room, encased in all that silver twenty-four seven for more than a quarter of a century. It’s gonna be a long time before he can shift again without it causing some pain or discomfort.”
Chris, Steve and Danneel all gawk at him.
“What?” Chad says, exasperated. “I might act like an overgrown child most of the time, but I do actually have some smarts, you know? I never would have made it so far up the ranks of the Guard if I didn’t.” He slumps down to sit on the floor in a huff.
Chris nods his head, like he’s conceding the point.
With a loud whine, the wolf climbs down from the bed and crosses the small expanse of the room to lie at Jensen’s feet. Jensen scoots back against the wall, his wide eyes filled with fear as he looks up at the other four people.
“Is it dangerous?”
Danneel all but growls. “It’s Jared, you bastard; of course he’s not dangerous.”
Jensen stares at the animal, unsure what to make of the fact that Jared was a wolf. And then he realizes.
If Jared’s a wolf, then that means the rest of these people are wolves, and if they’re all like him, then that means…
“Am I a wolf?” he asks the question before he means to, the words practically falling out of his mouth in their haste.
“Give the man a cigar,” Chris mumbles. He looks at Jared and his eyes soften. “Someone should really keep him company.” Steve starts stripping out of his shirt and Chris balks. “I didn’t mean you!”
Steve just smiles. “As much as it pains me to admit this, Chad has just proved that he’s gonna be more useful in this situation than I would. And Danni really isn’t capable of sitting this one out. I don’t mind talking to Jared for a while.”
Jensen averts his eyes when Steve goes for the fly of his pants and ends up looking down at Jared, those same hazel eyes looking back at him. He isn’t even aware of his hand moving until Jared tips his head, leaning into the touch as Jensen strokes over the top of his head and behind his ears. His fur is so soft and Jensen digs his fingers into it, startling only a little when a huge sandy colored wolf strides over and drops down to lie next to Jared, nudging his side a little with his snout.
“Alright,” Chris claps his hands. “Let’s get down to business. Since we’ve established that Jensen is a lot older than he looks, let’s move on.”
“Yes,” Danneel agrees. “What sort of moisturizer do you use, Jen?”
Chris glares at her. “Really? That’s where you’re going with this?”
“What? I can’t inject a little levity into this very awkward, and I’m sure, very confusing, situation?”
“I’ll make you go sit with Jared,” Chris threatens.
Danneel’s snorts. “You can’t make me shift.”
“Try me.”
Danneel just scowls and sits on the bed, picking up the remnants of Jared’s shredded clothes and tossing them into the garbage.
Chris claps his hands again. “Let’s get with introductions, shall we? You’re Jensen, which we all know, that’s Jared.” He points to the black wolf. “The other one is Steve. The girl is Danneel.” Danneel squawks at being called a girl. “The moron on the floor is Chad, and I’m Chris.”
Jensen nods. “Yeah, we’ve been in this room for a while already, I know all of that.”
Chris’ shoulders sag. “Oh, right. Sorry, this is kind of unexplored territory for me. I mean, we all know you, but you have no idea about any of this, do you?”
Jensen turns his eyes back to the wolves. “You mean the fact that I’m apparently a wolf? No, I had no idea.”
“The term is werewolf, actually,” Danneel corrects.
“No, the term is lycanthrope, actually,” Chad tuts. “Fucking human-borns.”
Danneel leans forward to smack Chad upside the head.
Chris ignores them. “What do you remember from your childhood, Jensen?”
Jensen chews on his lower lip for a second while everyone stares at him and he sighs.
“Fine, I don’t remember much before I was about eight years old.”
Danneel nods. “Well, that would be why he doesn’t remember that he’s werewolf.”
“Lycanthrope!” Chad corrects loudly.
“Oh, shut up! I’ve actually lived in the real world, it’s werewolf!”
“It’s shapeshifter, actually,” Chris says calmly. “Werewolf or lycanthrope implies that we’re tied to the lunar cycle, which we aren’t.” He glares at both of them before he turns back to Jensen, studying him closely. “I just wanna know where he’s been all these years and where he went in the first place that he couldn’t come back.”
Chad moves a little closer. “Did you have parents, Jensen? Siblings?”
“Parents, yeah, no brothers or sisters.” He clears his throat. “My mom and dad were…let’s say they were at the mature end of the parenthood scale when I came into their lives, and they died before my not aging really became much of an issue, so if they knew anything about this, they didn’t think I deserved to know.”
“You don’t remember anything from your life on the reservation?” Chad looks a little sad when Jensen shakes his head.
Chris sighs and stands up, running his fingers through his hair. “I don’t even know what to do about this. I mean, it’s not like we deal with this situation every day. How do you explain to someone that, hey, you can turn into a wolf at will, and also, while we’re discussing weird things, you’re also kind of our long lost king, and the big black wolf on the floor is your husband, for all intents and purposes? It’s like something out of a novel.”
Jensen blinks. “Long lost king?” The fact that Chris blushes does little to calm Jensen’s nerves.
“Uh, yeah, technically,” Chad explains. “The term is Alpha. You were destined to become Alpha of the Black Foot pack when your father stepped down, but then you went missing, and now we’re in this mess.”
“What mess?”
“That’s not important,” Chris says quickly, but from the looks the other two throw him and the snort that comes from one of the wolves – probably Steve – Jensen thinks it probably is.
“No,” Danneel agrees. “What’s important is that we found the missing Alpha and now we’ve got no idea what to do about it.”
No one seems to have a comeback for that.
Jensen rakes his fingers back through his hair as they all sit in silence. He can’t take all these people glaring down at him, trying to make him believe something that sounds like the plot from a teen movie. He needs some time, some breathing space to get his head around all of this. What they have to say might sound fantastical and ridiculous, but Jensen can’t deny that some of it goes a long way towards explaining his whole crazy existence.
Not to mention the pressure in his chest that seems to be tied to Jared.
“Can you guys just, um…go away?” he asks finally, his eyes locked on Jared’s front paws. “I just…need some…I can’t breathe with y’all staring at me like I’m your savior or something.”
“You…you want us to go?” Chad asks almost hesitantly and Danneel squeaks and shakes her head, but she’s looking at Chad, like he’s just done something extreme.
“Yeah,” Jensen says as casually as he can. “I just need some time to myself, so maybe you should go get some dinner or something.”
Jensen looks from one human-shaped wolf to the other. They all look nervous and Jensen’s not really sure why.
With a grunt, Steve gets up from the floor and pads over to the bathroom. He comes out a few minutes later, completely human with a towel around his waist.
“Look, guys, calm down. It’s not like he’s asking us to leave and never come back. He just needs a little while to process all of this. You have to admit, it’s a lot to take in.”
Steve might just be Jensen’s favorite. After Jared, of course.
“But…” Danneel starts, but she clearly doesn’t have anything to add to that and she shuts up pretty quickly when Chris sends her a look.
“We need to figure out how to get that money out of your bank account anyway,” Chris says as he takes her by the shoulders and turns her towards the door. “We’re gonna need somewhere to stay. We can’t all camp out in Jensen’s room.”
Jensen perks up at that comment. “You can’t access your bank account?”
Danneel pouts. “No. I don’t have any identification that doesn’t say that I look really good for my age. “
Jensen manages a small laugh at that. “If you leave your details for me, I can transfer the money into my account and take it out for you tomorrow.”
She narrows her eyes. “You can do that?”
Jensen shrugs. “I’ve had to learn some…uh…backdoor options when it comes to accessing my money and back accounts. It’s not like I can provide proof of identity. I don’t even have a birth certificate.”
Danneel stares at him for a few moments before she gives him a slight nod. Picking up her purse, she pulls out some pieces of paper and reaches for the notepad and pen next to the bed.
“Those are all my details,” she says, leaving the notepad on the nightstand. “Name, account number, all that shit.”
“I’ll get it done as soon as I can.”
Another nod and she’s heading for the door, Chad’s arm coming up around her shoulders in a move that looks so casual and instinctual that it makes Jensen wonder how long they’ve been friends.
Steve smiles at Jensen, his discarded clothes bundled in his arms. “You want us to bring you some food back?”
“That would be great, thank you.”
“Just promise me you won’t have sex,” Chris almost orders, his hand on the doorknob.
Jensen blinks. “Uh…I wasn’t really planning on it. Yet.”
Chris chuckles. “I’ve been in your shoes, Jensen. I know how hard it is to keep yourself from touching Jared right now.” Jensen feels himself blush and Chris just laughs harder as he leaves.
Jensen waits for a couple of minutes before he turns to Jared, still lying on the floor at his feet.
“You gonna stay like that all day?” he asks with a smirk.
Jared’s huge hazel eyes look up at him, and he lets out a low whine, shifting a little closer to Jensen.
Jensen reaches out and runs his fingers through Jared’s dark fur. “It hurts, right? When you change?” Jared’s head moves in a jerky nod. “But it’s not supposed to, is it? I mean, Steve didn’t seem to have any problems.”
Jared just whines again and pushes closer to Jensen, laying his head in Jensen’s lap.
The man sighs. “Look, Jared, I can’t…y’all say I’m like you, but I don’t know how to do that…shift thing. And I figure y’all can talk to each other when you’re both wolves, but I’m not a wolf yet, and I’d really just like to talk to you. I promise not to make you do this again if you just come back to me.”
He waits, for what seems like an ungodly amount of time, before he feels something moving under Jared’s fur and he realizes that Jared’s whole body is trembling. He runs his hands soothingly over Jared’s back, whispering soft words in his ear, until Jared lets out a wail, and suddenly he’s human again, shivering in Jensen’s lap.
“Jesus,” Jensen breathes, reaching up behind him to pull the comforter off the bed, wrapping Jared up as tight as he can without letting him go. “That can’t be right.”
Jared lets out a shaky laugh. “I’m all kinds of fucked up, Jensen. You might wanna rethink this whole thing.” He takes a deep breath as he tries to ride through the waves of pain. “’S why Chris doesn’t want us to have sex. Sex seals the mating. He wants you to have an out.”
Jensen pulls him close. “Something tells me I couldn’t rethink this even if I wanted to.” He presses a kiss to Jared’s hair, then pulls back to look him in the eyes. “You gonna tell me what’s going on with you?”
Jared starts to nod, but then he stops, his eyes shifting to the other side of the room where the bathroom door is still standing open from when Steve came out.
“I promise, Jensen, I promise I’ll tell you everything, anything you want to know, but…” Jared trails off and bites at his lower lip.
“But?” Jensen prods when Jared stays quiet.
“Can I take a shower?” he asks in a voice so small Jensen didn’t think someone Jared’s size should be capable of.
Jensen blinks. “You wanna take a shower? Now?”
Jared chuckles. “When you know how long it’s been since I took a shower, you wouldn’t think my request was so unreasonable.”
“Why? How long has it been?”
Jared looks back at him, and there’s such pain and sadness in his eyes that Jensen wants to hunt down and kill whoever put it there. “Thirty years, give or take a few weeks.”
Jensen gasps and pulls away. “What? What the hell does that even mean?”
Jared reaches up and kisses him, soft and slow. “Please, shower first, and then I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”
What else could Jensen do but agree?
Jared can see the shadow of Jensen’s body through the shower curtain as he stands under the pounding hot spray. He’d left Jared alone only long enough to fetch some of his own clothes for Jared to wear, and although he knows that whatever pants Jensen has to offer are going to be way too short, there’s still a little part of him that’s excited by the idea of wearing his mate’s clothes.
His mate.
Jared still can’t believe it.
Right now, his mate is sitting on the closed lid of the toilet with some…thing in his lap. He’d told Jared it was a notebook computer, and Jared was completely amazed by it, if a little terrified and apprehensive.
The whole world has changed so much when he was locked away; he doesn’t even know how to start catching up, especially if they really were going to stay in the human world.
He doesn’t even know if their plans should change now that Jensen’s back in their lives.
The steam from the hot water that’s pounding down on Jared fogs up the glass walls of the shower until Jensen’s nothing more than a colored blur that Jared can just barely make out and he worries his lip a little.
“You know, I can pretty much guarantee you that I’m gonna be in here a while,” Jared shouts over the sound of the spray, tipping his head up to let the water hit his face for a few seconds. “You can go and watch TV or read or something. I’m really okay in here.”
The idea of Jensen being that far away from him makes something in Jared’s belly clench painfully, but he feels like he needs to make the offer, for Jensen’s sake. The last thing Jared wants to do is crowd Jensen and make him feel uncomfortable.
He can hear Jensen snort. “Jared, it’s taking everything that I have not to strip down and climb in that shower with you. I don’t think I’m capable of leaving the room.”
Jared pauses. “Oh.”
Now that he thinks about it, just the idea of Jensen not being right there is creating a weird sort of pulling in his gut, something that’s telling him exactly how anxious and confused Jensen’s feeling as he watches Jared through the fogged up glass.
It’s fascinating and while it’s beyond amazing that Jared has found his mate after all this time, he can’t quite get over the aching pull in his chest, the constant need to be near Jensen, to touch him, kiss him. It’s almost surreal and he wonders why he never paid more attention to all the couples who mated when he was still a regular part of the pack.
He certainly wouldn’t have made fun of them so much if he’d known that they felt like this.
Jared knows that the things he’s feeling now will simmer down eventually. Instead of a constant throbbing pain in his chest if he’s further than two feet from his mate, it’ll be just a dull roar, white noise at the back of his mind to remind him that his mate’s out there somewhere, a quiet echo that will allow him to at least sense how Jensen is feeling at any given moment.
As Jared reaches for the shampoo – Jensen’s shampoo – Jared wonders where that dull roar has been all his life. People have always talked about him and his lost mate, he’s always known that he mated before birth with the wolf who should have been their Alpha, but…Jared’s never felt it. He’s never felt Jensen’s presence like Hilary did that time Morgan left with the previous captain to check out wolves to join their Guard. She had longed for Morgan, her body instinctively seeking a mate that was far away from her, and it had taken everything they had to keep her sane.
Morgan wasn’t much better and upon his return, they locked themselves away in their house for almost a full week before the pain of their separation had dissipated.
Jared feels like a failure, like he’s let Jensen down in some way and he doesn’t know what to do to fix it.
“You okay in there?” Jensen asks, his voice pitched high.
Jared clears his throat. “Um, yeah, I was just…I’m just…thinking.”
“Thinking about what?”
With a sigh, Jared reaches out a shuts off the water, sneaking his arm out of the curtain and grabbing the towel that Jensen is already offering.
“I was thinking about this whole situation,” he says as he steps out of the shower, towel tight around his waist. “This isn’t exactly the normal way mates find each other.”
Jensen respectfully turns his back as Jared reaches for the clothes Jensen has picked out for him. “It isn’t? How’s it supposed to go then?”
“Well,” Jared starts as he hobbles around, trying to pull on Jensen’s sweatpants while still keeping the towel around him, “normally, mates have known each other for years. They most probably would have grown up together. Just, one day, something clicks, something inside them switches on and they’re mated. And that’s it.”
Jensen nods his head and hums, like he’s taking in the information. “Is it unusual for people our age to still be…unmated?”
Jared rests his hand on Jensen’s shoulder, letting him know he’s free to turn around. He shakes his head. “No, it’s not uncommon. Chad’s older than me and he’s still unmated. We live for so long, everyone just matures and grows at a different rate.” He gives Jensen a tight smile. “And, anyway, we’re not unmated.”
Jensen laughs, blushing. “No, but, we’ve been separated all this time. Shouldn’t that…I mean, doesn’t that cause problems?”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking about.” He leads the way out of the bathroom, curling himself up on the bed. “I’ve known my whole life that I was mated before I was born, but I never felt that. I never really understood why everyone was so sad for me, why they always mourned that I was a widower, because I never felt that I’d lost anything. I never felt that there was anyone out there who I needed to be with.” He shrugs. “Guess that’s why I always just accepted it when everyone said that you were dead, because there was nothing that was telling me any different.”
Jensen sits down next to him and scratches at the back of his neck. “You feel it now though, right? ‘Cause I sure as hell feel something.”
“Oh, yeah, I feel it now, of course I do!” Jared’s quick to correct. “I just…didn’t feel it then, and I’m just wondering why.”
Jensen laughs and shifts, until he’s sitting as close to Jared as he can get. “Alright, I have no idea if what I’m about to say even makes sense, but I’m pretty much just going on how I feel right now.”
Jared narrows his eyes, wary. “Okay…?”
“Jared, sitting here, right now, it’s taking every little bit of strength I have not to tear your clothes off and lick every inch of you.”
Jared swallows hard. “Oh.” He’s saying that a lot around Jensen. “Me…um, me, too.”
“Right, so…little kids? Don’t think they’re so much into the ripping and the licking and the kissing.”
And suddenly, Jared gets it. “We were kids, babies,” he whispers softly. “So, while we were mated, we weren’t old enough to know what that meant, so our bodies didn’t know it either.”
Jensen beams at him, like he’s proud that he could help Jared figure something out. “Exactly. My guess is, we probably would have gotten to this stage,” he waves a hand between them, “when you hit puberty. You know, if I’d still been around.”
“And because you weren’t, that part of ourselves wasn’t triggered until we saw each other again.” Jared reaches forward and pulls Jensen into a tight hug, relieved to have at least a half-assed answer for whatever is going on between them.
His hands move up to Jensen’s hair, softly carding through the short brown locks for several minutes before he can hear Chris’ voice in his head telling him to knock it off and he pulls back reluctantly.
“Sorry,” he says with a blush, moving up on the bed to sit with his back against the headboard.
Jensen gives him a bright smile, like he’s not at all creeped out by this whole situation. “’S okay. I don’t mind.” Jensen looks away and scrunches up his nose in the most adorable way. “Which is actually what’s freaking me out, the fact that I don’t mind being pawed at by a complete stranger.” He blushes. “In fact, I kind of want to do a lot more than pawing.”
With a sheepish smile, Jared ducks his head, wrapping his arms around his middle in order to keep himself from jumping Jensen, but Jensen gets the wrong idea, and suddenly he’s up off the bed, crossing the room to pick up the comforter from where it was discarded next to the bathroom door when Jared went to take his shower.
Still, Jared doesn’t correct him when he comes back and wraps the comforter around his shoulders; he simply relaxes back into Jensen’s arms, taking comfort in the new, yet familiar feeling of having someone to hold him.
“Jared?” Jensen asks after a few minutes of silence. “You said you’d explain after you took a shower. About the thirty years thing?”
“I can’t really tell you about that until I tell you some other stuff first,” he says quietly. “You’re gonna need to know all this shit anyway, but knowing Chris, he probably wanted to be the one to tell you.”
Jensen nods. “Alright, but I think I’d rather hear it from you.” He smiles, but it’s almost sad this time. “Just…start at the beginning?”
Jared sucks in a deep breath. “Right, so, Chris mentioned that you’re father used to be our Alpha?” He waits until Jensen nods before he goes on. “Well, in pack cultures, the position of Alpha is passed down from father to son – first born son. That’s why you were next in line.”
He can see the frown on Jensen’s face. “Okay, but I wasn’t there. Was there someone else to take my place?”
Jared shakes his head. “You’re an only child.”
Jensen looks a little sad at that. “Wow, it must have sucked for them when I disappeared.”
Jared shrugs. “I tried to help, you know? I was the closest thing to a son they had left, but it wasn’t really the same.”
Jensen nods. “Okay, so what happens then? If an Alpha has no heir?”
“Well, it’s kind of a rare thing, at least that’s what your dad said at the time, and he said usually the Alpha would start looking amongst the pack, that he’d pick a dominant from the rest of the pack that he could train up over a number of years to take his place as Alpha. I could see him starting to look, before everything went to hell. He was getting ready to choose his successor. At the time, the smart money was on Chris.”
Jensen’s eyebrows rose. “Chris? As in, our Chris? Chris who’s here?”
“He’s vice-captain of the Guard, sort of like our version of a security team, I guess. He would have been great. Not so sure Steve would have liked the conditions.” Jared laughs at Jensen’s confused look. “I’ll get into that later.”
“So, since Chris is very clearly not the Alpha and y’all seem like you’re running away from someone or something, I take it things didn’t exactly go to plan?”
All the humor in Jared dies instantly at Jensen’s curiosity and he shakes his head.
“About thirty years ago, a lone wolf showed up at the reservation.” He points a warning finger at Jensen. “Don’t laugh.” Jensen rolls his lips between his teeth and Jared presses on. “His name was Mark, and he said he’d been cast out of his old pack. He never really gave any specifics, but Alan – your dad – he was a gracious man, kind, so he allowed Mark to join the pack, gave him a place to stay, and everything was great. For a couple weeks anyway.”
“What happened then?”
“Mark challenged for the position of Alpha. Another five wolves came out from where they’d been hiding in the woods, and it became clear that Mark had planned everything. Word of Alan not having an heir had reached the other packs, and Mark was just the first who decided to leave his old pack and come take over ours.”
“He could do that?” Jensen asks. “Just, come in and take over?”
Jared nods. “Pack law states that if an Alpha without an heir or without the ability to produce an heir is challenged by another dominant wolf, then he must step down. Since your parents were past their breeding age, Alan stepped down, he didn’t even put up a fight.”
“By the look on your face, I’m guessing it wasn’t that easy,” Jensen says softly and Jared shakes his head.
“The next morning, I went to see Alan and Donna, ‘cause that’s what I did. I had breakfast with my parents and then I had brunch with yours.” Jared’s voice broke. “Only, that morning, I didn’t have brunch. There was no one around, so I went upstairs…God, there was so much blood.”
Jensen jerks away, his face pale. “What? He…he killed them?”
Jared swallows hard. “Ripped their throats out. I screamed so hard, couldn’t make myself leave the room. Steve and Danneel had to carry me away, everything was such a blur. I found out later that Mark had also killed the Alpha Council, wolves that Alan trusted, helped him run the pack. He’d wiped them all out.”
“What did you do?”
“What could we do? He was the Alpha, and the first thing we’re taught is that the Alpha is to be respected and obeyed above all else.” Jared frowns. “That was a really hard time for everyone. I’m kinda glad I didn’t have to deal with it for more than a day.”
“What does that mean?”
Jared moves away from Jensen and stands up, crossing to the window. Pushing aside the drapes, he gazes down at the people on the street below them. It doesn’t seem like a particularly big town, but there are a lot of people bustling around down there, going in and out of stores and the bar Jared can see sitting on the corner. It’s more people than Jared has seen in over thirty years and part of him is terrified by them while at the same time he wants to run outside and just stand in the middle of the sidewalk and let the people fly past him.
Jensen’s hand on his shoulder reminds Jared that he can’t do that, at least not yet.
Jensen is owed an explanation, and Jared would give anything to not be the one to give it to him.
“Jared, what happened to you?” Jensen’s voice is soft as he presses kisses to the side of Jared’s neck.
Tears well in Jared’s eyes, not for what he’s been through at the hands of Mark, but because he’s about to take away just a little bit more of Jensen’s innocence.
“It was up to me to sort out your parents funerals,” he says, picking up where he left off. “We burn the bodies; it releases the souls back into the world so that they can be reborn.” Jensen just nods, not interrupting. “We were standing next to the pyres and…Mark appeared. Told his Council to put out the fires and…” he trails off, the scene burned into the backs of his eyelids, Mark’s words still echoing around his mind.
“And?” Jensen presses.
“Mark said, ‘Kill the little Omega bitch’ and suddenly, there were hands on me, pulling at me, taking me away.”
“Take…taking you away?” Jensen spins Jared around until he can look into his eyes. “Where did they take you?”
“My own private hell,” Jared tells him, voice rough with emotion. “I was locked in a room, smaller than this.” He gestured around the hotel room. “Nothing in it but a bed, sink, toilet, one of those little…camping stoves and a chest to keep my clothes in. That was it. Mark told the rest of the pack that he’d had me killed, and he would come see me, once a month. He was the only contact I had.”
“What about food?”
“There was a hole in the bottom of the door. Plates of food were pushed through three times a day. That was it.”
It hurts to look into Jensen’s eyes and see the pain there, but Jared forces himself to hold that green gaze as he watches the flurry of emotions in his eyes.
“How long?” Jensen asks in a tight whisper. “How long where you locked in there?”
“Your parents were killed thirty years ago. Chris and the others broke me out this morning.”
Jensen growls and stalks away to the other side of the room and Jared’s a little worried about what he’s going to do. He doesn’t know Jensen, not really, and seeing him so angry is more than frightening.
“Why?” Jensen asks through gritted teeth. “Why did he do this to you?”
“We don’t know. He never told me why. Just said he didn’t want me around the rest of the pack.”
It’s quiet for a while, like Jensen is digesting the information.
“So, Mark, is he, like, mated or whatever? A son to take his place?”
Jared shakes his head. “Like I said, when he arrived on the reservation he was alone. I’d have heard if anyone mated with him, because it would have caused riots.”
“Alright, so why doesn’t one of you, one of the other wolves, just say ‘fuck this, I’m taking over’? That’s what he did to my father, right? That’s how it works according to you.”
Jared smiles sadly. “Yeah, that’s how it works. If there was a wolf in the pack who is capable of being Alpha, but there is no one.”
Jensen blinks. “You just said that the old Alpha was considering Chris to take his place. Why can’t he just do that now?”
“With a lot of help, a lot of guidance from Alan, yes, Chris could have been Alpha. On his own, as he is right now? He doesn’t have what it takes. He’s not a natural Alpha, Jensen. He’s not like you.”
Jensen takes a step back, looking a little shocked. “Not like me? What are you talking about?”
“Jensen, look at you. You’re Alpha, I knew that the second I saw you in the street. The others know it, too. It’s not something that you can’t learn, Jensen. Being Alpha, it’s instinctual.”
“I don’t know if I can wrap my head around this,” Jensen says in a small voice, his hands clutching at the back of his neck, like he’s looking for something stable to hold onto.
“Jensen, it’s not like we’re asking you to go straight to the reservation and take your place as Alpha right now.” Jared scratches his head. “I’m not really sure if we’re asking that at all.”
Really, as far as Jared’s concerned, they could just bundle Jensen into the car with them and stick to whatever plan Chris had when he broke Jared out. Going back to the reservation and forcing a confrontation with Mark seems like a stupid plan at this point. With Jensen not knowing or remembering anything about his wolf side, he could end up seriously hurt, and Jared’s not willing to risk his mate’s life for something that might not work out anyway.
But when Jensen turns to face him again, there’s a look in his eyes that Jared hasn’t seen before, and for the first time, Jared realizes that he’s not looking at Jensen Whatever-His-Name-Is and he shivers, although not in fear, because he knows who this is.
This is the Alpha of the Black Foot Pack.
“I’m going to kill him,” Jensen says calmly, steel in his voice. “You know that, right?”
Jared just nods slowly, because really, what else is there to say?
“What’s Omega?” the words pop out of Jensen’s mouth as soon as the thought passes through his head, surprising himself as much as Jared.
It’s been quiet in the room ever since Jared’s confession, both of them needing some time to deal with it all.
The rage that Jensen felt after finding out about Jared’s imprisonment surprises him almost as much as it doesn’t surprise him at all, and there’s a small part of him that’s worried about what he’ll do when he finally comes face to face with the animal who kept Jared locked up for thirty years for no apparent reason.
But the bigger part of him is almost crawling out of his skin with the need to avenge what was done to his mate, and if Jensen still needed proof that this is all very, very real, he doesn’t anymore.
Jared sits up from where he’s been lying on the bed next to Jensen and throws his legs over the side, and Jensen regrets speaking, ready to take the words back if only Jared would lie down again.
Instead, Jared runs a hand through his long dark hair and lets out a dry chuckle. “Really? You wanna talk about that now?”
Jensen pushes himself up to sit with his back against the headboard. “Well, I figured it’s probably something I ought to know about, and from the looks of things, you’re more than a little embarrassed by it.”
“I’m not embarrassed,” Jared snaps, glaring at Jensen over his shoulder. “One thing I am not, nor will I ever be, is embarrassed about being an Omega. I might be a lot of things, Jensen; I might have a lot of issues, but trust me, that isn’t one of them.”
Jensen pauses for a second, startled by Jared’s outburst. He hasn’t seen the other man so passionate when they weren’t trying to play tonsil hockey.
“Okay,” he says quietly, his hands held up in a sign of peace even though Jared isn’t looking at him anymore. “I just thought, it seems like a…sensitive subject. I just wondered if you wanted to talk about it before the others come back.” Jensen cranes his neck to see the clock hanging on the wall. “They’ll be bringing dinner soon.”
Jared dry washes his face. “I would’ve thought you’d learned enough today without piling more on top of it.”
“Is it…I mean, you’re my mate, and you say that I’m the Alpha of your pack. So, you’ve gotta have a title, too, right? It’s like, if I’m the President, you’d be…whatever the male version of the First Lady is.” Jensen tries for a smile, hoping to get Jared to at least not look so sad about everything. The last thing Jensen is feeling is sad.
“Beta,” Jared says softly. “You’re the Alpha, and I’m your Beta. First and second highest ranking members of the pack.”
Jensen takes that in, thinking over Jared’s words in terms of the human world, the words make sense. “But, that’s not Omega? That’s something different?” As far as Jensen is aware, Omega means nothing more than being the last letter of the Greek alphabet, but he doesn’t understand how Jared can be both the second highest and the lowest ranking member of the pack.
“Mark took it literally,” Jared starts. “Omega, the lowest of the low, but that…that’s not what it means. Not to us, not to…me.”
Jensen reaches out and takes Jared’s hand in his, squeezing gently. “Alright, so tell me what it means to you.”
“I’m…different to other male wolves, all of them,” Jared says. “The term ‘Omega’ was created to recognize that difference.”
“Because of you?” Jensen shakes his head. “I mean, was the term created for you specifically?”
“Oh, no, no, it’s not like that. The term has existed within pack culture for…hundreds of thousands of years probably, but, as far as I know, I’m the only Omega in existence right now.”
Jensen lets out a frustrated breath. “Jared, baby, that doesn’t really explain much to me. I’m still in the dark here.”
Jared scrapes his fingers through his hair again. “God, I know, I’m sorry, it’s just…I know this is probably going to freak you out and you’ve been freaked out enough today already and I’ve never had to explain this to anyone before. Everyone just already knew.”
“Just spit it out. I’ll deal with whatever it is. I’m not going to run out on you, Jared.” Jensen squeezes Jared’s hand to show that he’s serious right now and his mate sucks in a deep breath.
“The term ‘Omega’, in pack culture, means ‘less than male’, that’s the official definition of the word. At least, that’s what Alpha Alan told me.”
“Okay…” Jensen says slowly. He looks Jared over from head to toe as best he can when Jared’s sitting on the edge of the bed. “You look all man to me.” And a really fucking gorgeous one at that, he thinks to himself. Jensen’s still having problems keeping his hands off Jared.
Jared chuckles again. “Oh, I’m all male; got all the equipment, and it all works as far as I know…I just have a few extra parts is all.”
Jensen can feel himself pale at the words. “Extra? Extra like what?”
There are tears pooling in Jared eyes and Jensen can hear the emotion in his voice, like he really is expecting Jensen to be so disgusted that he’ll run the first chance he gets, so Jensen just tightens his grip on Jared’s hand and braces himself for the worst.
“You remember how we told you that the position of Alpha was passed down from the father to the first born son?” Jensen just nods, not willing to distract Jared by speaking. “Well, how do you think that works when the Alpha mates with another male wolf?”
Honestly, Jensen hasn’t even thought about it at this point. “Adoption, I guess? Surrogacy?”
Jared shakes his head. “It’s a bloodline, Jensen. Unless there’s no other choice, it’s always passed through the bloodline.”
“But, we’re both male, we can’t…I mean, it’s not like you can get preg – oh.”
It’s like the proverbial light bulb just came on, and Jensen looks at Jared just a little bit closer.
“Yeah, I…that’s what Omega means. I can get pregnant, carry a child to term, and give birth. Less than male, but…well, you get the idea.”
“Wow.” It doesn’t seem like enough, but it’s all Jensen is capable of right now.
Jensen’s never thought about children, he didn’t even know he could have any, given his apparent disinterest in anyone in a sexual way. Until he literally ran into Jared, Jensen had always considered himself asexual. Sure, he found people attractive, but he was never interested in having sex with any of them.
Except Jared.
And now Jared’s telling him that he’s capable of giving Jensen children…it’s more than Jensen could have hoped for.
“I know this freaks you out,” Jared barrels on before Jensen can find better words. “If you’d grown up in the pack it would have just been one of those things, just part of our lives together. But you grew up in the human world, and I’ve learned enough from Danneel and Steve to know that that human men can’t get pregnant under any circumstances. But…but this could be a good thing. Or it doesn’t have to mean anything at all, I mean, you haven’t even decided if you want to stay with us, and this could be the thing that pushes you over the-”
Jensen cuts Jared off with a kiss, just presses his lips to his mate’s and kisses him soundly, smiling a little when Jared melts into his arms.
“I’m not freaked out,” he tells Jared, holding him so close their lips brush when he speaks. “I’m really, really not freaked out.”
“Then what are you?” Jared asks, a little breathless.
“Amazed. You’re like this amazing guy, and…and you’re kinda mine.”
Jared rests his forehead against Jensen’s. “Not ‘kinda’. I’ve been yours and only yours since the day I was conceived. My mama used to tell me stories about how you would follow her around all day when she was pregnant.”
“You’ll have to tell me all of those embarrassing stories one day,” Jensen tells him. “I don’t remember much about my childhood, and I was already four years old when my mom and dad…well, they say they adopted me, but now I’m wondering if there’s more to the story than that.”
“Guess we’ll never really know now.”
“Yeah, I guess we won’t.” Jensen kisses Jared again, pulling away as something occurs to him. “So, can Chris and Steve have kids? I mean, they’re a gay couple, right? Mated?”
Jared laughs and shakes his head. “Well, yes, they’re mated, but no, they can’t have kids. Same sex matings aren’t…well, we have a few in our pack, put they aren’t exactly the norm.”
“I guess that’s just like the human world,” Jensen cuts in.
“Right, so, it’s not like we need them to keep the species going. We have over a hundred mated pairs in our pack, and only a handful of those are same sex pairs. But, being the Alpha and his mate, that’s different. We need an heir; we need to keep the bloodline going. Hence the need for a mate who can bear children.”
“That makes a certain kinda sense.”
Jared beams at him, turning on the bed to face Jensen head on. “So, it doesn’t bother you? That I’m…different?”
“No, why should it? Yeah, all of this has completely blindsided me and thrown my whole world out of context and I’m suddenly questioning a lot of things, but oddly enough, you, and our relationship, isn’t one of them.”
Jared ducks his head. “I mean, I don’t even know just how different I am. I’ve never…well, you know…been with anyone, but I think it’s…I think there has to be some differences than…God, I don’t even know what I’m trying to say.”
“Hey, it’s not like I’m gonna know if there is anything different about you. It’s not like I have any experience with that.”
Jared smiles that shy smile again and Jensen’s heart melts.
“I don’t even know if it’s going to matter, the fact that I can get pregnant. If we decide not to return to the reservation, if we just keep moving, then we won’t have a pack and there’ll be no need for me to have a child to continue the bloodline.”
“Well, maybe we can start our own pack; pick up some other lone wolves along the way.” Jensen doesn’t say that there isn’t much of a chance of him not returning to the reservation, if for no other reason than to rip Mark’s heart out of his chest with his bare hands. But Jared doesn’t need to hear that.
Instead he smiles when Jared lets out a loud yawn, and runs his hands through his long dark hair. “Tired?”
Jared smiles sheepishly. “It’s bit a bit of an exciting day. I mean, when I woke up this morning, the most exciting thing in my life was the fifteen hundred sit-ups I was planning on doing.”
Jensen blinks. “Wow, so, you’re kinda…into the whole keeping fit, activity thing.”
Jared blushes. “Well, I mean, I’ve been locked away for thirty years in a room that didn’t even have a TV. There wasn’t much to do but exercise. I’m probably gonna freak out about a lot of things, now that I think about it. Your little computer thing…that’s sort of blowing my mind.”
“Remind me to show you my iPhone later,” Jensen says with a laugh. “Right now, I think you could maybe use a nap.”
“You might be Alpha, but this is one wolf you can’t boss around,” Jared says with a laugh, but he heads for the bed all the same.
Jensen frowns as he follows after him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You saw how freaked out Danni was when you gave them an order earlier. The only reason they were able to fight against it was because you don’t really believe that you’re the Alpha yet. But once you do, your influence over them will grow and they won’t be able to ignore a direct order from you.” Jared points a warning finger at him even as he gets comfortable on the pillows. “But if you abuse that power, Jensen Ackles, I will kick your ass. Mate or no mate.”
Jensen’s still having problems processing the idea that he’ll have access to this much power one day to notice Jared’s use of his real name. “Them?” he asks suddenly, the only real point from Jared’s confession that is sticking with him for the moment. “I can’t…it doesn’t work on you?”
Jared snorts. “Not really fair if you can order your mate around, is it?” Jensen supposes he has a point. “How am I supposed to keep you sane and grounded if you can tell me to shut my mouth if I don’t agree with you?”
“Mark has this power?” It sort of makes sense now why Mark was able to keep Jared locked up for so long, especially considering the loyalty the other wolves in the guest house had shown Jared in breaking him out.
“To a certain degree,” Jared says, he’s voice growing soft and warm as sleep clawed at him. “The more mature wolves aren’t as susceptible to it. We always just assumed it was because he wasn’t off the bloodline. I have no idea if his influence got stronger over time, but I didn’t really feel it when I was around him. Now I know why.”
“Why?”
Jared reaches out and takes hold of Jensen’s hand. “Because you were out there. You’re the real Alpha of the Black Foot pack, and now it feels almost like Mark was – is – just holding your place until you claim it. If you claim it.”
“Oh, I’m gonna claim it,” Jensen promises. “Mark is not going to be in that position for much longer. I just have to get a handle on my wolf side. Or find it, I guess.”
Jared’s snores tell Jensen that he’s really not listening anymore, which is fine as far as Jensen is concerned.
He really doesn’t need Jared knowing just how upset this whole mess has made him, and now that Jared’s asleep, he doesn’t have to try so hard to keep his emotions in check.
He lets silent tears fall as he watches Jared sleep.
Chris knocks on the door once before he juggles the bags in his arms and reaches for the doorknob.
“Quiet,” Jensen says softly and when Chris follows the direction of his voice, he finds Jensen sitting on the bed with his back against the headboard and a very innocent looking Jared practically curled up in his lap, asleep.
“Getting along, are we?” he asks with a grin as he sets the bags of food on the dresser, stepping aside so that Steve can put down the bottles of soda he’s carrying.
“You could say that,” Jensen answers with fondness in his voice.
“We come baring food!” Chad declares loudly and Danneel pushes him so hard he stumbles into the chair. “What?!”
“Sleeping,” Steve says, pointing to Jared and Jensen on the bed.
Chad winces. “Ooh, sorry, man.”
Jensen shrugs and soothes Jared by carding his fingers through long dark hair. “It’s okay; I don’t think there’s much that’ll wake him right now. He’s exhausted.”
Chris pauses sorting out the Chinese food they’d picked up and turns to look at Jared. “I don’t think he’s had a decent night’s sleep in thirty years.”
“Yeah,” Danneel agrees. “Too much time spent wondering when the other shoe was gonna drop and Mark was gonna come finish the job, I guess. It’s hard to feel safe enough to relax completely when you have that hanging over your head.”
Chris watches as a dark look passes over Jensen’s face and he tightens his hold on Jared, his Alpha tendencies kicking in already.
“Beef and broccoli?” Steve asks, holding up a carton of food. Jensen nods his head and Steve crosses the room to hand him the carton and a pair of chopsticks.
“Sure you’re gonna be able to eat like that?” Chad says with a chuckle as he pushes the food aside and climbs up on the dresser, sitting cross-legged as he tucks into his own food.
Chris laughs when Jensen sends Chad a glare, and the younger wolf shuts up almost instantly.
“Definitely Alpha,” Danneel says proudly, leaning against the dresser next to Chad.
“I don’t think I believe that,” Jensen says as he struggles to eat and hold on to Jared at the same time, “but at this point, I don’t really think I care. Every instinct in my body is telling me to protect Jared at any and all costs and the only way I can think of to do that is to stop that Mark bastard from breathing.” He takes a deep breath. “I don’t like knowing that I’m capable of that kind of violence. It’s…it’s like I don’t even know myself anymore.”
Chris sets his food aside for a second and gives Jensen his full attention. “It’s instinct. It’s the same for all of us, the need to protect your mate and your children is greater than anything else you will ever experience. It’s primal, something that’s ingrained in you the second you mate. For you, that was the day Jared was born.”
Jensen shakes his head. “I’m not an animal. I’m not controlled by my urges and needs and wants. I’m a fucking human being, for Christ’s sakes.”
“It’s true that we’re more human than animal, but we can’t deny that the wolf is a part of who we are.” Chad’s voice is strained and Chris knows it’s because he’s questioning the Alpha, the wolf in him trained to never, ever question his Alpha. But Jensen is balancing on a fine line, straddling both worlds and he needs guidance more than subservience.
“I’m not an animal,” Jensen whispers.
“Human-borns, like me and Dan,” Steve says, “we don’t feel it as much as the wolf-borns. Sure, I feel this wolf that’s inside me, feel his anger, the love and protectiveness he feels for Chris, and it just makes everything seem…brighter, sharper somehow. But I’m still me, and being able to shift into a huge blond wolf didn’t erase who I was before. It just made me better. It gave me the best thing in my life.”
Chris reaches down instinctively and his hand finds Steve’s, tangling their fingers together even as he watches Jensen look down at Jared, still looking so peaceful in his slumber.
“I just don’t want to stop being me.”
“You won’t,” Danneel assures him calmly and Jensen just nods.
They are quiet for a while after that, silent as they eat; Jensen and Jared on the bed, Chris in the chair as Steve sits on the floor next to him while Chad and Danneel stay by the dresser, Chad sitting on top of it while Danneel leans against the edge.
It’s comfortable, Chris finds, just the six of them, like their own little mini pack, like this was how it always was, and he wonders if it’ll stay like this. If this is how they’re going to be from now on, just the six of them, travelling around from town to town, city to city, for the rest of their lives.
Chris is surprised to find it’s not an awful thought.
“Did you and Jared talk?”
Chris jerks at the sound of Danneel’s voice, and he looks around to realize that everyone – including Jensen – has finished eating and now all eyes are on the two wolves on the bed.
Jensen nods. “Yeah, he…explained some stuff.”
“Scale of one to ten, how much do you wanna rip Mark’s head off right now?”
“Chad!” Chris scolds.
Chad shrugs. “What? He said it himself, Jensen wants to stop the guy from drawing breath. I’m not saying anything we don’t already know.”
“I’m mad,” Jensen says before Chris can speak. “I just don’t know what I’m gonna do about it.”
“What do you mean?” Danneel questions carefully.
“I don’t think Jay wants us to return to the pack. I think he’s scared that I won’t be able to take Mark down. And I can’t say that he’s wrong.”
Chris exchanges a look with the other wolves. He hasn’t really spent much time in the last few hours contemplating what Jensen’s reappearance would mean to the pack as a whole. He’d been too busy focusing on how it could affect Jared.
“You sure about that?” Steve counters.
“I just don’t want to risk him getting hurt,” Jensen admits. He looks up at then, gaze flicking from one to the other. “Any of you.”
“We can take care of ourselves,” Chris reminds him, “and so can Jared.”
“Doesn’t mean he has to.”
“You think you could live with yourself if you just let that bastard live?” Steve asks suddenly. “Would you be able to live with Jared knowing that the man who hurt him more than any of us thought possible is still alive out there? Still running the Black Foot pack like it’s nothing more than a concentration camp?”
“Steve,” Chris scolds.
“No,” Danneel interrupts. “Steve’s right. I can see it all over Jensen’s face.”
He growls, low in his chest, and Chris doesn’t think it’ll take all that much to persuade Jensen’s wolf to come out of whatever hibernation it’s retreated into.
“Think I’d pay money to see that,” Chad says with a chuckle.
“I’m not Alpha,” Jensen insists, his hands balling into fists where they rest on Jared’s shoulder. “I don’t know how to be.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know,” Chris admits. “But you are Alpha, it’s in your blood, it’s instinctive, I can already feel it and I haven’t even known you a day.”
Jensen blinks up at him. “You feel it? What does that mean?”
Chad is the one who answers. “It’s like…primitive. Something deep in my gut that recognizes and acknowledges the presence of my Alpha. The last time I felt this way, I was standing in front of your father, watching him talk to the pack. He was so proud to be their leader, to be chosen and respected by them. I can see that all over your face, Jensen.”
“It’s all well and good that y’all think that or feel that,” Jensen says after what Chris thinks is too long of a silence, “and maybe even somewhere, at the back of my mind, I can even get on board with that. If for no other reason than making sure that Mark doesn’t do to anyone else what he did to Jared. But there’s something no of us have considered.”
Chris leans forward in his chair. “And what’s that?”
“I don’t know how to be a wolf,” the Alpha says honestly. “I mean, I saw Jared and Steve earlier. I don’t know how to do that, I don’t know how to find that…part of myself. It’s been hidden away for so long. What if I never get it back?”
Chad gives him a tight smile. “Like I said, the wolf is a part of who you are, Jensen. We’re not like Steve and Dan. We’re wolf-born. We came into this world with a furry body, four paws and a tail. No matter how much time you’ve spent ignoring or denying that part of yourself, it’s still there, just waiting for you to acknowledge it.”
Danneel looks at him over her shoulder. “Damn, when’d you get to be so serious and mature?”
Chris blinks as Steve chuckles. Just like that, Danneel’s words have shattered the serious and somber mood in the room, the tension slowly dissipating as Chad shrugs and leans back against the wall.
“Eh, maybe I’m growing up. Getting ready to be the man I’m meant to be.” He frowns. “You know, I’m gonna be really pissed if we get back to the reservation and Megan’s mated to someone else if I’m suddenly becoming all responsible and shit.”
Danneel shoves him off the end of the dresser. “Don’t you think that poor girl’s been through enough without having to live with your ugly ass for the rest of her life?”
“I resent that,” Chad says indignantly as he pulls himself up off the floor. “I’m a great catch.”
“Who’s Megan?” Jensen asks from the bed.
“Oh, right, she wasn’t around when you were,” Chris remembers. “Megan is Jared’s little sister, and both she and Chad are convinced that they’ll mate one day.”
“I didn’t think it worked like that.”
“It doesn’t,” Danneel assures. “I think Chad just wants to make sure there’s someone there to look out for Megan. With Jeff – Jared’s brother – mated now, and Jared presumed dead, it kinda leaves Megan alone.”
“He forgets that we’re a pack,” Steve emphasizes. “He forgets that we’re all looking out for Megan.”
“Yeah, except we’re all gone now,” Chad points out, “so she’s really alone. Damn, I should have made Morgan let me take her with me.”
Chris rolls his eyes. “Chad, she’s not alone. Just because Jeff’s mated doesn’t mean she’s got no one. Plus, Riley and Genevieve and the rest of the Guard are all still there. They’ll make sure nothing happens to her.”
Chad pouts. “It’s not the same.”
“What about their parents?” All eyes turn to Jensen, and Chris feels a huge wave of guilt wash over him that they have to do this now, with Jared looking so at peace for the first time in thirty years.
Just like that, the playful, lighter atmosphere that Danneel managed to create is gone, burst like a bubble in the air.
“What?” Steve says, and Chris can practically see the false innocence in his tone.
“Jared and Megan’s parents,” Jensen elaborates. “Surely they’d look out for their own daughter. I’d imagine they’d be more protecting of her after what happened to Jared.”
Chris looks down at Steve, but his mate just averts his eyes, his focused on the end of the bed, the carpet, anywhere but at Jensen or Jared. Chad has the fingers of both hands linked behind his neck as he hangs his head in something that looks like shame, while Danneel chews on her thumbnail and stares at her shoes.
“Did I say something wrong?” Jensen asks slowly when no one makes any attempt to answer his question.
Chris forces himself to shake his head. “No, it’s not your fault. You didn’t know.”
“We should have told Jared the minute we broke him out,” Steve mumbles lowly.
“We didn’t have time,” Danneel reminds.
Chris nods. “We’re gonna have to do it sooner or later.”
Chad snorts. “We do it this way, Jensen can tell him. He’ll take it better from Jensen.”
“If one of you don’t tell me what the hell is going on right this second, I will force it out of you,” Jensen all but growls. “And I honestly don’t think it would be that hard.”
Chris scrapes his fingers through his long brown hair and takes a deep breath. “You have to understand, we thought Jared was dead. We didn’t think he’d ever have to deal with this. And it was so long ago, it’s like it happened to someone else. But I know, as soon as we tell him, he’s going to try to blame himself.”
“Blame himself for what?!”
“For his parents’ deaths.” Chad’s words are soft in their directness, loud in the silence of the room and it takes everything Chris has – everything that made him good enough to become vice-captain of the Guard – not to break down and cry where he sits.
Jensen gasps and Chris flinches, tears burning at the back of his eyes. Steve’s fingernails dig into his thigh and somewhere on the other side of the room, Danneel whimpers.
Chris clears his throat, knowing right now that it falls to him to explain further. “Jared told you…did he explain…what he is? What it means?”
“That he’s an Omega?” Jensen confirms. “He said he thinks that’s why Mark locked him up.”
Chris nods. “It’s the same reason his parents are dead. Mark doesn’t understand what an Omega is, what it means, and he wouldn’t listen to anyone when they tried to explain. All he knows is that Jared’s different, something unnatural in his eyes, and he wanted rid of it. And all traces off it.”
The color drains from Jensen’s face so fast Chris would be worried about him if he wasn’t sitting down.
“He…he killed them? He killed Jared’s parents?”
“The day after he told us Jared was dead.” It physically hurts Chris to confirm Jensen’s fears, and he reaches out for Steve’s hand, wanting – needing – something to keep him from fleeing the room.
“He made us watch. All of us.” Danneel’s voice sounds broken, destroyed, and when Chris turns to her, she’s wrapped in Chad’s arms, seeking comfort and warmth.
Steve clears his throat, but the emotion he’s feeling is still thick in his voice when he speaks. “It wasn’t actually him. Mark, he didn’t do it himself. He stood at the podium, kept all of our attention on him as he talked about why he had to remove Jared from the reservation for the good of the pack. Mitch and Sterling – two wolves from his Alpha Council – snuck up behind them. By the time we realized what was going on, Sherri, Jared’s mom, was already gone, her heart ripped out with one punch. Gerry wasn’t long in following her.”
The anger – the sheer hatred – that rolls over Jensen’s face would frighten Chris in any other situation, but right now, he welcomes it. Jensen can use that anger to tap into his wolf, to find that spark of the animal within him and bring it out.
“We didn’t tell Jared,” Chad says. “He wouldn’t have been able to deal. We just…we let him think that everything else was cool, that everyone was okay, so that we could get out of there.”
“You know that Mark isn’t a true Alpha,” Danneel continues, “he doesn’t have the power or the influence over the pack, so he commands respect in other ways. The first was Jared’s parents; he used them as a warning. Anyone who stepped out of line, who stood against him, would end up the same way. Over the last three decades, nine other wolves have met the same fate. I can’t…” she trails off as she swallows down her tears. “I won’t let Jared think he’s responsible for that.”
Chris can sense Steve’s smile, pained as it is, even though he can only see the top of his mate’s head. “We didn’t think we’d ever be in a position where Jared would need to be told.”
Chad sighs. “But, if we’re really planning on heading back to the reservation and putting the rightful Alpha in his rightful place, we’re gonna have to tell him.”
As ugly and powerful as that rage is, it disappears from Jensen’s face in the blink of an eye, and he stares at the wall with a look on his face that Chris can only describe as pure fear. He thinks it has something to do with Chad talking about Jensen taking his place as Alpha of the pack, but then he sees Jensen’s whole body tense, his arms tightening around Jared, still lying in his lap, and Chris feels a sick sort of dread washing over him.
“Oh, shit,” Jensen whispers and Chris looks down to see Jared’s huge hazel eyes blinking back at him.
Jared’s gone before anyone can even try to say anything, the door to the hotel room banging loudly against the wall in his wake.
“No,” Jensen says when they all move to follow him, and everyone immediately grinds to a halt. “I’ll go. It needs to be me.”
Chris doesn’t know how Jensen came to this conclusion, but he doesn’t fight it, just sits back down in the chair and watches as Jensen gets up from the bed and follows after Jared, closing the door softly behind him.
“Well, that could have gone better,” Chad mutters sarcastically, slumping to sit on the floor. “GOD! Why can’t I ever learn to keep my fucking mouth shut?!”
“It’s not your fault, Chad,” Danneel soothes. “He would have found out eventually. Better now than when we get back to the reservation.”
“Still could have done it a hell of a lot better than that.”
Danneel reaches down and grabs him by the elbow. “Come on; let’s get outta here for a little while. Cool off.”
Despite everything, Chris manages to laugh at the fact that Danneel is voluntarily agreeing to spend time with Chad. Usually, she can’t stand to be around him more than necessary.
But he allows her to draw him to his feet and she fits an arm around his waist as she guides him from the room and it’s not until the door closes behind them that it hits Chris.
He groans and throws his head back against the back of the chair. “Oh, fuck me, please don’t tell me they’re gonna mate?”
Still sitting on the floor, Steve chuckles. “Man, I saw this coming months ago.”
“Jared, wait!” Jensen screeches as loud as he can as he runs down the street after is mate.
As guilty as it makes him feel, he’s glad that Jared’s having trouble with his shifting, because he knows that if Jared shifted into his wolf form right now, Jensen would have no hope of catching up with him.
As it is, he has to put on a burst of speed to catch up with Jared’s long legs. Despite being locked in a cell for the last thirty years, Jared’s in amazing shape, and Jensen knows that he’ll have to ask for some tips once they get everything settled down.
They’ve reached the little park at the end of the street, almost the end of the small town, by the time Jensen closes the distance between them enough to reach out and grab Jared’s elbow.
He expects to the thrown off, his touch knocked away because Jared has just been thrown head first into the misery that is knowing that his parents have been dead for almost thirty years and no one bothered to tell him.
Instead, Jared whirls towards him, wrapping his arms tightly around Jensen’s waist and burying his face in Jensen’s neck as he gives into the sadness that’s enveloping him, crying out harsh, angry sobs as Jensen does everything he can to calm him.
He’s not really surprised when Jared starts mumbling between sobs, but he can’t really make out the words. Jensen takes him by the hand and leads him to a bench of the side of the path, sitting them both down as close as they can possibly be in public.
Once they’re seated, Jared pulls away and Jensen is startled by the look in his eyes.
“I wanna kill him,” Jared spits, his eyes practically glowing red as he vibrates on the bench. “I want to see him bleed for what he did to me, to my parents, your parents, anyone else he’s killed. I want to rip his throat out with my teeth. And not as a wolf, either. I want him dead.”
Jensen’s quiet for a few seconds as he watches Jared, sees the pain clear on his face, the anger dripping from every word. One hand grips Jensen’s tightly, the other making furrows in the wooden seat and he imagines all of the ways he wants to kill Mark because of what the Alpha has done to Jared and his family. Jensen can’t really blame him.
Finally, Jensen nods. “Okay.”
Jared stops. Just stops. Jensen’s worried he’s even stopped breathing for half a second before Jared turns to look at him, a completely blank look on his face.
“What did you say?”
“I said ‘okay’,” Jensen repeats.
“Okay what?”
“We’ll kill him. I’ll kill him.”
Jared swallows so hard that Jensen can hear the sound and he wonders briefly if he’s gone a step too far, if Jared’s freaked out by his blasé attitude towards taking someone’s life.
But Jensen isn’t an idiot. He knows that Mark’s not just going to step down from his position. He’s not just going to let Jensen swoop in and take his place. After what Mark did to become Alpha, there’s no doubt in Jensen’s mind that Mark will fight with everything he has to hold onto his title.
Jensen just has to be better.
“You’d really do that?” Jared asks finally, and he doesn’t sound scared or freaked out at all.
Jensen nods his head. “For what he did to you? I’d kill him a hundred times over.” He ducks his head slightly to make Jared look him in the eye. “Mark’s not just gonna politely hand over the pack to me. He’s gonna fight, with everything he has.”
Jared pales visibly, like he’s imaging the fight, and how bloody it was likely to get as he gazes out over the wide open space in the park.
Suddenly, Jared’s hands tightens on Jensen’s, his nails making half-moon shapes on the back of his hand that quickly fill with blood. His breathing quickens and when Jensen looks up, his eyes are wide in his pale face, filled with fear and uncertainty.
“Jared?” he tries, reaching out with his free hand to touch Jared’s face. “Hey, Jared, are you okay?”
“Outside,” Jared says, his voice a painful whisper. “I don’t…I don’t know how to…how to be out here. So…so big, open. No walls, nowhere to…”
Confused, Jensen follows Jared’s gaze, looking around the open space of the park, trying to see and understand what’s freaking Jared out. Across the path, a dog barks as it waits impatiently for its owner to free it of its leash. Jared flinches at the noise, but as Jensen watches the dog bounce off, giving chase to a squirrel, he notices that Jared’s eyes stay glued to the stranger.
I don’t know how to be out here, Jared’s words bounce around in Jensen’s mind and suddenly he gets it.
Of course Jared wouldn’t be okay suddenly being out in the open after all those years locked away and it was stupid of Jensen for not realizing earlier.
“Hey,” he says, pressing a hand to either side of Jared’s face. “Hey, you’re okay. I’m right here, Jared, and I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
Jared shakes his head almost violently. “No…no, you can’t. I can’t…I can’t…I’m broken, Jensen. He broke me.” Jared looks at him with pleading eyes, tears falling down his face as he holds onto Jensen with a grip so tight it could shatter bones.
“I’m going to fix you.” It’s the only thing Jensen can think of to say, and the words come out hard and loud in the calmness of the park, but Jared settles almost instantly. The fear and confusion Jensen could feel rolling off of him in waves is practically gone and instead something a lot like hope blanket Jared completely.
“I will fix you,” he says again, gentler this time, carding his fingers through Jared’s dark hair. “I’m never going to leave you, Jared. I’m not going anywhere.”
It takes a few painful moments for Jared to nod his head, the movement almost imperceptible, but Jensen can still feel that hopefulness dancing across his skin along with something else, something that feels a lot like love.
When he wakes, Chad’s alone on the bed in the room he’s sharing with Danneel, and he blinks around the room in confusion. He doesn’t even remember falling asleep.
“Dan?” he calls out, his voice scratchy and thick from the tears he’ll never admit to spilling. Danneel had been really good at pretending she didn’t notice them when he was raving at the injustice of being the one to break it to Jared that he’s parents were dead.
He really wishes Steve had been the one to do that. Steve’s the kind of person that no one can be mad at, which makes him great for delivering painful news. Something Chad knows Chris utilizes constantly.
“I’m in here!” Danneel’s voice floats out of the open bathroom door, and it’s only now that Chad can hear the shower running.
He’s not really surprised, after the day they’ve had, even he needs a shower, but he’s always been taught that the women – and Omegas – should be looked after first and he can take care of himself later. Even if that woman is Danneel.
He gets up from the bed – momentarily wondering how it’s going to work with the two of them and just one bed – and walks to the window, wrapping his arms around his middle. He’s cold, for some reason, like someone turned up the air, and he’d check it, if he had any idea where the thermostat is. He’s never stayed in a guesthouse before. He doesn’t even know if the rooms even have thermostats.
Looking out through the window at the street below, Chad watches the townspeople, almost envious of them. None of them have to deal with the shit they put up with living in a pack. None of them have to deal with matings and Alphas and changing into a huge hulking beast every time their anger gets too much for them to control.
Alright, so maybe that last part is just Chad’s problem, but still. It might have been nice, to live in the human world and not have to worry about his wolf side anymore. He wonders if he would ignore it, just forget about it completely like Jensen did, and he mourns a little, knowing he won’t ever get the chance to find out.
Chad isn’t stupid, despite what Danneel might think, he knows now that they’re idea of running away and living a perfect life in the human world has been squashed. There’s no way Chris would let Mark go on as Alpha of the Black Foot pack when the true Alpha is alive and well.
He doesn’t know how long it’s going to take, but Chad knows that Chris is going to work with Jensen until the vice-captain is sure Jensen can take on Mark and win.
He just hopes that Jensen is on the same page, because right now, if it came down to a choice, Chad knows that Jared won’t choose them over Jensen.
Hell, Chad doesn’t even know if he would be able to choose them over Jensen. Jensen is his Alpha, he can feel it in his bones, and he takes a moment to bask in the knowledge that he finally has an Alpha that he can be proud of again.
The sound of running water disappears, and Chad turns away from the window to wait for Danneel to come back into the room. He wants to thank her for looking after him earlier and apologize for turning into a little girl when no one was looking.
He’s not an idiot, he knows that Danneel only barely tolerates him, for Chris and Steve’s sake more than his own, but he’s grateful for that. With Chris and Steve in their own room and Jared and Jensen joined at the hip until they figure out their mating shit, Chad knows that he would have been on his own, had Danneel decided to stay behind when they asked her to make the break for it with them.
It’s nice to at least have someone to talk to, even if Danneel merely grunts at him half the time.
“Did you want something?” Danneel’s voice is clipped and when Chad looks up at her, she’s wearing nothing but a huge, fluffy white towel, her wet hair falling over her shoulders and Chad’s breath catches in his throat.
There’s a weird pulling in his gut and his skin feels too tight, like it’s suddenly too small to fit his human body. He’s on the verge of freaking out and running to Chris and Steve when Danneel gasps and stumbles back against the wall.
Chad gets to his feet immediately, concerned, and he stands in confusion for a few seconds not really sure what to do.
“Huh, so that’s what it feels like,” Danneel says with a small smile, and then her eyes catch Chad’s and all humor fades away and she groans, closing her eyes tight. “God, I cannot believe I have to spend the rest of my life with you of all people,” she says, her voice full of something Chad can’t name, but he gets it then, even as his feet start taking him across the room.
“Megan is gonna be so pissed at me,” he says, just as his lips meet Danneel’s and his hands reach for the towel.
“I’m not an idiot!” Jensen yells loudly. “Stop talking to me like I’m four years old.”
From where he’s sitting, cross-legged on the end of the bed, Jared can see Jensen’s slight wince at the command. Ever since he found out about an Alpha’s influence over his pack, he’s been trying really hard not to say anything that might be construed as a direct order, but the guy’s only human – much more so than the rest of them – and sometimes the words just slip out when he’s distracted.
Right now, Jared doesn’t think it’s possible for Jensen to be more distracted than he already is.
Chris and Steve had shown up at their door barely minutes after the sun had risen the next day. They brought breakfast – French toast and pancakes from the diner down the street – and that went a long way towards them gaining Jared’s forgiveness at waking them up.
Well, that and the news that Chad and Danneel had apparently mated when no one was looking.
After they ate and discussed, at length, the weirdness that is Chad and Danneel, Chris had insisted that they needed to get started on helping Jensen rediscover his wolf side, and the four of them had gotten to work.
Now, about six hours later, they’d made absolutely no progress with that plan and Jensen’s just getting more and more pissed off and frustrated the more Chris tries to placate him.
Jared doesn’t blame him – sitting on the floor, naked except for the towel he has wrapped around his waist, Jared would be pissed off, too, if he were in Jensen’s shoes.
Chris sighs loudly. “Come on, Jensen, you had this. I know you felt the wolf in you when we told you what Mark did; I could see it in your eyes.”
“I was pissed off, then,” Jensen says pointedly. “I was really, really mad. You keep talking to me like I’m in kindergarten, and I’ll get there eventually.”
“I’m sorry, Jensen, it’s not like this is a picnic for us, either.” Chris gets up the pace the room, scraping his fingers through his hair as he stares at the ceiling. Jared wonders if he’s counting to ten. He’s seen how bad Chris’ temper can get.
“Chris, just back off,” Steve says, his voice calm in the wake of Jensen and Chris’ loudness. “It’s not like we’re on a clock here.”
Chris whirls to face him. “Aren’t we? Every minute we spend here, that’s another minute with Mark in charge, lording over our friends and families. God knows what he’s going to do when he finds out we’re missing.”
“Chris, we’ve been gone for one day,” Steve reminds him. “I doubt anyone but Morgan and Hilary know at this point, and you know they wouldn’t sell us out.”
“But still,” Chris counters, “Jessica could have found out by now, or Cormac. If Mitch or Sterling found out, then I just…I don’t even want to think about that.”
“Who are Mitch and Sterling?” Jensen asks.
“They’re members of Mark’s Alpha Council. Unmated males like him,” Steve explains. “They’re the guys who do Mark’s dirty work.”
He doesn’t explain further, but Jared can see he doesn’t have to. Jensen can hear the words that go unspoken, and he looks more guilty now than he does pissed off, and Jared has had just about enough of this.
“Alright, maybe we should all just take a time out or something,” he says, unfolding his long legs and getting off the bed. Chris glares at him and he rolls his eyes. “Come on, Chris, we’ve been at this for hours and the only thing you’ve accomplished is upsetting Jensen to the point where it looks like he might throw up any second.”
Chris glances at Jensen, and it’s true, Jensen does look a little green around the edges, but Jared thinks it might be hunger or thirst, rather than anything any of them have said.
“Seriously,” he goes on, “just, back off for a while. Go…watch some TV or something in your room. Go for a walk, whatever. Just let Jensen rest for a little while. He’s lived for a hundred years without ever knowing that he was a wolf. That’s not just going to fix itself because you need it to.”
“But-” Chris starts, and Jared holds up a hand to silence him.
“You know that you can’t boss me around anymore, right?” It’s the first time he’s ever been able to pull this card, and it feels really good to say it. He’s the mate of the Alpha, and therefore ranks above any member of the pack who isn’t the Alpha. He’s not really sure how that works, with Mark the ‘official’ Alpha of the Black Foot Pack, but as of right now, in their own little pack, he definitely has that rank.
And it’s kind of hilarious to watch the startled look cross Chris’ face when he realizes it’s true.
“Fine,” he says through gritted teeth. “Steve and I are going to have sex.”
Jared knows that Chris is only saying that because he knows that Jared and Jensen have yet to consummate their mating.
While the initial rush of feelings has calmed to an aching roar, Jared still has to fight the need to be next to Jensen, touching him, every second of the day and even standing on the other side of the room is harder than it should be.
But instead of saying anything, he just scowls at his friend. “You go do that. I’ll be hitting you up for tips later.”
He laughs when the tips of Steve’s ears turn red and he practically runs from the room after punching Chris hard in the stomach.
“Can’t believe I forgot what a little brat you were,” Chris mumbles to himself as he follows his mate, and Jared breathes in the silence for a while before he turns to Jensen.
“Thank you,” Jensen says, leaning his head back against the wall. “I think I was minutes away from killing him there.”
Jared cringes and looks at Jensen out of the corner of his eye. “That mean you’re gonna kill me if I tell you I had an alternative reason for getting rid of them?”
Jensen narrows his eyes. “Depends, is this just gonna piss me off more?”
Jared shakes his head, crossing the room to sit on the floor in front of him. “No, it’s just…no one but Danneel knows I can do this. Actually, I don’t even know what ‘this’ is, but…it seemed to work for her, all those years ago, and I just thought it was worth a try.”
Jensen sits up a little straighter, adjusting the towel around his waist and looking almost eager. “Alright, what do I have to do?”
“Actually, nothing,” Jared says with a grin. “You just have to listen to me.”
Jensen’s smile kind of knocks all of Jared’s thoughts out of his head for a second before he manages to smile back.
“Now that, I can totally do.” Jensen frowns. “Why did you have to do this for Danneel?”
“Dan was living at the reservation for about two years before she was turned,” Jared explains. “For the first few months after that, she couldn’t shift voluntarily. She was sort of tied to the lunar cycle, which your dad said was some sort of psychological thing left over from her human days.”
Jensen nods. “In human stories about werewolves, they mostly change when the moon is full, and the days surrounding it. It’s only recently that the literature is starting to change.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that. That makes so much more sense now.” He says contemplating then waves a hand in the air, getting back to his point. “Anyway, one day, I saw her looking pretty depressed and I asked her what was wrong, and she said she wanted to work on being a better wolf. I don’t even know which of us suggested it, but the next thing I remember, we were sitting in my living room, and I was doing…something.”
“This isn’t something kinky, is it?”
Jared laughs. “No, it’s honestly just me talking at you, but whatever it is, it worked for Danneel, because she found her wolf and she was pretty much okay after that. I mean, she still has to fight against the moon sometimes…or, she did, anyway. I don’t know if she’s gotten better.”
Jensen shrugs. “If it means Chris isn’t gonna be in my face anymore, then lay in on me. I’ll try anything at this point.”
Jared grins and shuffles his butt a little to get more comfortable. “Alright, first thing I want you to do is take a deep breath and close your eyes.”
Jensen gives him a look, like he’s not really sure this is going to work, and to be honest, Jared’s not really sure either, but it sure as hell beats Chris yelling at Jensen and hoping that works.
He knows why Chris is so desperate for Jensen to get in touch with his wolf side, he wants to be able to get Jensen into his rightful place and he can’t do that if Jensen can’t shift.
An Alpha who can’t shift isn’t an Alpha at all.
After a few seconds of silent contemplation, Jensen does what Jared instructs, and he closes his eyes as he lays his head back against the wall again.
“I want you to empty your mind of everything that isn’t the sound of my voice,” Jared tells him in a low voice, almost droning. “Nothing exists to you but the sound of my voice.”
Jensen snorts. “Pretty much been that way since yesterday.”
Jared shushes him. “Concentrate.”
Jensen schools his features and settles against the wall again, and Jared carries on.
“Just listen to my voice, concentrate on it, let it soak into you, working its way under your skin, finding that part of you that’s lost.”
Jared smiles to himself as all the tension leaves Jensen’s body and he collapses boneless against the wall, his eyes still closed.
“Just follow my voice. Let it lead you to that place inside you that you’ve closed off from yourself. Use my voice to guide your way. Just breathe and concentrate on my voice.”
Jared is quiet for a while after that. He sits silently and watches as Jensen dozes, the sound of Jared’s voice and his words spinning around in the Alpha’s mind. He has no idea how long this is going to take. He’d spent more than two hours with Danneel, calming her down, practically holding her hand as he showed her how to really connect with her wolf.
Chris had said that Jensen didn’t need to connect with his wolf, his wolf was already there, just below the surface, and Jensen just doesn’t know how to find it, how to bring it out of that dark place. Jared really hopes this works, because if it doesn’t, then he is all out of ideas.
As Jared watches Jensen, swaying slightly to whatever’s in his head, Jared starts to wonder who’s going to do this for Jared himself.
Jared hasn’t lost his wolf, it’s there, he can reach out and touch it almost, but actually doing that, touching it…it’s like something is ripping him apart from the inside out and everything hurts and it’s exhausting.
Chris is right, it is another thing that Mark has taken from him, but Jared doesn’t know how to get it back.
The obvious answer is to practice. The more times he shifts, the easier it’ll be, just like it was when he was a pup, but the idea of being in so much pain, of tiring himself out so much doesn’t really fill him with enthusiasm. He has no choice, though. If they go back to the reservation, Jensen is right, Mark isn’t just going to step down, he’ll fight, and the rest of his Council will fight with him, and it’s probably going to take all of them – plus some of the other wolves still on the reservation – to get the job done and take Mark out.
Jared needs to be able to shift as smoothly and easily as he once did, and the idea terrifies him as much as it excites him to claim that piece of himself back from Mark.
He’s pulled out of his thoughts suddenly as Jensen shudders, sitting bolt upright for a second before Jared soothes him again, calming him with soft, nonsense words until he’s resting against the wall again.
“It’s okay, Jensen,” he murmurs, “everything’s okay, I’m right here. Just listen to my voice. Listen to me, concentrate on my voice, let it lead you into the darkness. Let my voice help you find that spark inside, that light that will guide you to your wolf.”
Jared grows quiet again, and he watches Jensen closely and it’s only after a few seconds that he realizes that Jensen is completely and utterly still. Jared doesn’t even think he’s breathing.
Panic rises in his chest and he reaches out a hand, fingers trembling slightly, to touch Jensen, to wake him up, if that’s what it takes.
But before his hand makes contact, Jensen’s body is wracked with another violent shudder and he topples forward into Jared’s lap, and when Jared looks down, it’s not Jensen he sees with his head pillowed on Jared’s left thigh, but a huge wolf.
Jensen is beautiful in his wolf form, completely silver – just like his father – except for his ears and the tip of his tail, which are such a dark gray they’re almost black.
Jensen’s quiet for a few seconds, his breathing harsh and labored as he lies with his head in Jared’s lap. He’s not moving otherwise, just staring blankly ahead and after five minutes, Jared starts to panic. He can’t talk to Jensen like this, has no way of communicating with him, and he needs to know if Jensen’s okay.
Running his fingers through the fur at the back of Jensen’s neck, Jared throws his head back and yells for Chris, praying the other wolf is somewhere within hearing distance.
Jared’s shout has the side-effect of startling Jensen and the wolf flinches.
“Shush,” Jared soothes, running one hand down Jensen’s flank. “You’re okay, Jensen, everything’s okay.”
But Jensen doesn’t calm down, he starts twitching, his legs kicking out at the air and Jared as he tries to find some sort of purchase to get to his feet.
“Jensen,” tries again with the same fruitless result.
Jensen stands up, shaky and unsure on his four legs and he stumbles, knocking into the dresser and sending it crashing into the far wall.
“Alright, you’re going to have to stand still,” Jared tells him, “because there isn’t enough space in this room for you to go stumbling about while you get your feet under you.”
A growl slithers out from between Jensen’s clenched teeth and Jared reacts before he has time to think, cowering back against the wall as Jensen bares his teeth.
The door slams open and Jared jumps, terrified, until he sees Chris and Steve frozen just inside the room.
“Jesus, what did you do?” Chris asks, his eyes locked on Jensen.
Jared’s heart is still in his throat, stealing his voice, so he just shakes his head as Jensen seems to shake his whole body.
“Jensen,” Chris tries, his hands up in a harmless posture as he advances slowly only to come up short when Jensen lets out another growl.
“What’s wrong with him?” Jared asks quietly. “It’s like he doesn’t even know us. He doesn’t know me.”
Suddenly, Jensen barks, drawing everyone’s attention and Jared tries one more time to get him to come back to himself but Jensen just sniffs at him, then turns and races for the door, forcing Chris and Steve to jump out of the way.
“Jensen! JENSEN!”
Jared’s cries go unanswered as Jensen runs, leaving him alone in the room with Chris and Steve. But they may as well not be there at all, because all Jared can focus on is the fact that Jensen isn’t.
He doesn’t even notice Chris and Steve sharing a concerned look before Chris leaves the room and Steve crosses the space to kneel in front of him.
“Hey,” he says urgently, pressing a hand to Jared’s cheek, “hey, breath.”
“He left,” Jared manages to choke out, though the words feel like granite in his mouth. “He promised me he’d never leave and he left. Jensen’s gone. Jensen left me. Oh, God, oh, God.”
Jared feels sick. He can hear Steve trying to sooth him, trying to get him to calm down, the words don’t make any sense and the only thing that Jared can focus on is the fact that his mate just ran away and left him all alone.
Chris will never not be thankful that the reception area is blessedly empty when he runs through it, following Jensen out the front door. The last thing he needs right now is to be stopped so that he can be asked awkward questions about the huge white dog that he’s just not in right state of mind to answer.
Outside the guesthouse is just as empty as inside, but it’s not really hard to figure out which way Jensen went and Chris jogs down an alley, stripping out of his clothes and hiding them behind a Dumpster before he shifts and turns right, following Jensen’s scent to the small park not far away.
Jensen isn’t hard to find, frolicking in the trees like a pup with his first taste of freedom, flitting from tree to plant and back again. He barks at a butterfly and Chris doesn’t bother to quell his laughter.
He looks so young and innocent, so carefree, but he isn’t and it breaks Chris’ heart that he can’t give Jensen this time to just be the wolf that he never got to be.
“Jensen,” he calls. Or thinks. He doesn’t really understand how it works, the way they communicate in their wolf forms. It’s almost like thought transference or mind reading.
Not that Jensen seems to be reading many minds, lost as he is in his own head to the point where Chris doesn’t think he’s even aware of Chris’ presence.
“Jensen,” Chris tries again. “Jensen!”
Nothing, not even a flicker to let Chris know that Jensen has heard him and is simply choosing to ignore him. He barks at a bird in a tree and Chris sighs.
“Alpha!”
That makes Jensen pause, and he turns to look at Chris, cocking his head to the side much like a dog would, or a real wolf.
Slowly, with his head lowered in respect of his Alpha, Chris steps closer. “Alpha, can you hear me? Do you know who I am?”
Jensen lowers himself to the ground, a low growl that’s more curiosity than aggression escaping his lips.
Chris drops his belly flat to the ground, proving to the Alpha that he poses no threat. “Jensen.”
“Chris…?” Jensen’s voice is soft and confused as it echoes inside Chris’ head, like he doesn’t really know what’s going on right now.
Chris nods his head as best he can in his current form and rises back to his full height, still keeping his head bent low to the ground. “Yeah, it’s me. You alright?”
Jensen looks around, like he’s just now realizing where he is. A child laughs somewhere on the other side of the park, the wolves sharp hearing picking it up clearly, and Jensen turns towards it for a moment.
Chris understands what’s going on. Jensen is so overwhelmed by his new senses and the feeling of freedom he gets from being a wolf that everything else has fallen away, almost forgotten about, and Chris needs to get him back on track if he’s to prevent another meltdown.
He isn’t stupid, he knows that Jared was close to freaking out back in that room, and he just hopes that Steve is enough to get him to calm down, but he has a feeling that the only person who can do that now is standing in front of him with his snout stuck in a dandelion.
“Alpha!” Chris barks and Jensen jerks his head up. He sneezes and Chris sighs. “Alpha, what are you doing out here?”
Jensen does that head tilt again and Chris snorts a laugh, because he really does look like a pup, so innocent and naïve.
“Doing?” Jensen repeats. He looks around again. “I don’t…why?” He turns his tail to Chris and runs towards a tree, cocking his leg against the trunk and Chris knows what’s coming next.
“You left Jared alone!” he shouts, distracting Jensen from public urination. Even as wolves, animals, the pack never stoops that low. They are humans who can turn into wolves, not wolves that can turn into humans.
Jensen does pause, and he looks over at Chris with bright eyes.
“You promised you would never leave him,” Chris goes on, “and you just ran out on him the moment you had something better to think about.”
Chris hadn’t meant to eavesdrop the day before, but with Chad so upset that he’d accidentally informed Jared of his parents’ deaths in the least subtle way possible Chris had needed to make sure that Jared was at least capable of learning how to deal with the news.
He’d witnessed Jared’s panic attack at suddenly finding himself outside, so much worse than when they’d left the car or trying to get Jared to leave the cabin, and Chris honestly didn’t know if Jensen would be able to calm him down.
But he did, and so much more easily than Chris would have thought, and he did it by promising Jared that he would never leave him.
And now, here Jensen is, less than twenty-four hours later, standing in the middle of a park having run out on Jared without a word.
“Jared.” Jensen manages to squeeze something that resembles a laugh past his sharp teeth. “He knows…he knows I’m coming back.” He sounds almost like he’s trying to convince himself.
“You found your wolf, for the first time, and you ran away and left him, without saying a single word to him,” Chris points out. “Look at it from his point of view. He can’t shift, and the first time you do, you run away from him.”
Chris knows that if it were possible for a wolf to grow pale, Jensen would be doing that right now.
“Oh, God,” his voice sounds shaking and weak and Chris doesn’t even try to stop him when he starts running back to the guesthouse, he simply sneaks back into the alley were he left his clothes and returns to his human form.
Jensen is standing on the bed when Chris gets back to the guesthouse, still in his wolf form as he stare at Jared, huddled in a corner while Steve sits next to him and pets his hair like he would a pup.
Jensen looks over his shoulder at Chris and Chris can tell from the look on his eyes that the Alpha is trying to talk to him.
He shakes his head. “We can’t communicate cross forms. You have to shift back.”
Jensen whines and Chris knows that he can’t find that switch. Whatever it was that Jared did to coax Jensen’s wolf out of hiding, they’d yet to reach the stage where Jared can help figure out how to get back to human.
“Jared,” Chris calls, so desperate to help both of them that he’s willing to do anything. “Jared, Jensen needs you.”
Steve looks up at him sharply. “Uh, I don’t really think Jared’s in the right state of mind to be helping anyone right now.”
Chris nods, because Steve is technically right and Chris can hear Jared’s quiet mumbling about Jensen leaving him that he’s muttering into his knees.
“I know, but I don’t know what else to do right now.”
“How did they even manage to get him to change in the first place?” Steve asks as he backs away from Jared. “Jensen was really struggling when we left here and then half an hour with alone and he’s suddenly a wolf.” Steve cocks his head to the side as he regards Jensen for half a beat. “He looks like Alan.”
Chris makes a noise of agreement, because he’d seen the resemblance as well, Jensen’s fur the same steely silver as his father’s, but while Alan had been silver all over, Jensen has darker patches on his ears and tail and hind legs, almost the same color as his mother’s fur had been.
“I don’t know how they did this,” Chris says in answer to Steve’s earlier question, “but something tells me Jensen isn’t going to be coming back to his human form any time soon.”
Jensen lets out a whine when he hears that and Jared’s babbling instantly stops.
“Jensen,” Jared says, his voice surprisingly firm, “what…why are you still a wolf?”
“We think he’s stuck,” Chris answers for Jensen.
Suddenly, Jensen gets to his feet and climbs down from the bed, padding gently across the room until he’s right in front of Jared, before he shifts back to human.
“You can go away now,” Jensen tells Chris and Steve. His voice is heavy and rough and Chris is really glad all he can see is Jensen’s naked backside.
Chris just stands there, gawping, until Steve tugs on his shirt, pulling on him until he finds himself standing in the hallway staring at a closed door.
“What just happened?” he blinks.
Steve laughs. “Dude, you wanna sit on the dresser and watch them fuck?”
“But…but I said not to!”
“Chris, he is Alpha, whether he believes it or not. He is not going to listen to anything you tell him.”
Chris sighs the sigh of the put upon. “Be nice if he did, though.”
Jensen waits until the door closes behind Chris and Steve before he sinks down to sit in front of Jared. He’s hard and aching and the only thing he wants to do is bury himself in Jared’s tight heat, but he can’t, not yet at least, not until he and Jared have talked about Jensen’s leaving.
“I’m sorry,” he says quietly. “I didn’t mean to upset you, Jay, I was just excited. I’d never experienced that before. I didn’t know you would think I wasn’t coming back.”
“You…it was like you didn’t know I was here,” Jared mumbles. “It was like you’d found something better to do than spend time with me.”
“Jared, no.” Jensen puts his hands to Jared’s face. “There is nothing in the world more important or better than you. Nothing, you understand me?”
Jared nods. “Did I help?” His eyes are cast down, not looking at Jensen and Jensen doesn’t know what to make of that.
“You have the most amazing voice, Jared,” he tells him honestly. “Just like your mom.”
Jared’s eye grow so wide Jensen can’t help the chuckle that escapes him.
“My…my mom?” he stutters. “You remember?”
“I remember lying on the couch with your mom with my head on her belly, listening as she sang to us. What everyone told you is true; I really did refuse to leave your mom’s side when she was pregnant.”
“Oh, my God, Jensen,” Jared scoots forward on the floor until he’s practically sitting in Jensen’s lap. “This is incredible. I didn’t know…I didn’t know it would work like this.”
It amazes Jensen just how easy it is to remember those few years he spent at the reservation. He doesn’t remember everything, of course, but the big moments, like lying with Sherri, or being in the room when Jared was born. All those memories are so crystal clear that it’s like they happened only yesterday.
And now Jared’s right in front of him, his mate, who was once the tiny little pup who Jensen promised to marry, and it’s suddenly too much for Jensen to take and he surges forward, capturing Jared’s lips in a heated kiss as he wrestles them both to the floor.
Jared resists for less than a second before mouth opens and allows Jensen’s tongue to sweep inside, tangling it with Jared’s own.
Kissing Jared now, it’s different that it was before, Jensen realizes. Before, he didn’t know what the hell was going on, he just knew that there was something about this man and he didn’t know why he couldn’t stop touching him.
But now, now Jensen knows that this is Jared. His Jared, his mate, and they’ve been separated for far too long for Jensen to waste any more time talking.
It appears that Jared agrees, because when Jensen blankets Jared’s body with his own, Jared simply sighs into the kiss and opens his legs, allowing Jensen to settle between his thighs.
His hard, naked cock grinds down against the rough fabric of Jared’s jeans, and suddenly, this is all very real, and Jensen pulls himself away from Jared’s lips to look into his eyes.
“Jared…” he says, surprised at how rough his voice is.
Jared’s looking up at him with eyes blown wide with lust, but his eyebrows are drawn together in confusion. “Why the hell are you stopping?”
Jensen manages a wry smile before he leans down again, his mouth at Jared’s throat, sucking a mark as his hands go for the fly of his jeans.
The pace is frantic as they both try to rid Jared of his clothes, their movements hurried and uncoordinated, they’re lips never separating unless they need to, and then Jared’s naked, finally, and Jensen has to pull back, has to see.
“God, you’re so beautiful,” he whispers almost reverently. Jared ducks his head and looks away and Jensen knows he’s probably blushing but he can’t tell because of the flush already covering Jared’s whole body. “You are,” he insists when Jared shakes his head.
“I’m not,” Jared argues. “I’m pale from not enough sun, skinny from not enough food. My hair’s too long ‘cause I cut it myself and I don’t have a mirror.” He pauses, reaches out a hand to cup Jensen’s face. “Trust me; I’ve got nothing on you.”
Jensen shakes his head, but he knows that right now, nothing he says will get through to Jared. So he has to show him instead.
He kisses Jared on the lips one more time before he starts kissing and licking and sucking a path down Jared’s body, his hands guiding him as they sweeping over every perfectly sculpted inch of Jared’s toned body. The guy is like a Greek God come to life, and one day, when the need to be inside Jared isn’t burning a hole through him, Jensen is going to take his time, map out every wonderful inch of Jared until Jared understands just how perfect and amazing he is.
But that day is not today, because right now it’s taking everything Jensen has not to just flip Jared over and push himself inside.
This is the first time for both of them, and even through the need, Jensen wants to make it special, memorable for both Jared and himself, and that means slowing down as much as his hard and leaking cock will allow him to.
“Jensen,” Jared gasps, his hands in Jensen’s hair, gripping tightly, like he can’t decide if he wants to push Jensen towards his flushed cock, or pull him up to kiss him again.
Jensen makes the decision for him, licking a long, wet stripe up the underside of Jared’s dick like it’s a Popsicle. Jared jolts under him, like he’s just been hit by an electric current, and Jensen can’t help but wonder how he’s going to react when Jensen’s inside him, if a simple touch of his tongue can create that response.
He sucks Jared into his mouth – pulling a loud, guttural moan from his mate – and lets his fingers trail down, past Jared’s balls, to that hidden part of Jared’s body that he needs to desperately to fill.
Jensen pulls away, startled, when his fingertips encounter a wetness leaking from Jared’s body and he looks up with questioning eyes.
This time, there’s no mistaking the blush high on Jared’s cheeks.
“I told you, I’m an Omega,” he says, his voice high and breathless. “It’s just…part of who I am.”
Jensen can see the hurt in Jared’s eyes, like his waiting for the rejection, waiting for Jensen to be just like Mark and declare Jared nothing but a freak.
Instead, Jensen moves down further, tilting Jared’s hips up with his hands until he can lick up the crease of Jared’s ass, across the entrance to his mate’s body.
Jared jolts in his hold, his back arching as he begs for more, again, and Jensen smiles.
Jensen does it again, licking at the wetness that’s seeping from Jared’s body, and he knows that it’s all for him, that Jared’s body is getting ready to accept Jensen and that’s so hot that Jensen fears his going to come way before he gets to that part.
Holding himself back from that edge, Jensen replaces his tongue with his fingers and easily slides two inside without any resistance. It’s almost like Jared’s body was made for this, which Jensen supposes it was, in a way.
Still, he’d rather not cause Jared any unnecessary hurt, so he takes his time, using his fingers to get Jared ready.
When Jared can take three fingers with ease – when Jared’s a writhing mass of ecstasy beneath him – Jensen can’t take it anymore and lines himself up, holding his cock steady with one hand as he guides it to Jared’s entrance.
He pauses for a second, flashes of condoms passing across the backs of his eyelids, before he dismisses the idea – they’ve never been with anyone else and there’s a fuzzy memory at the back of his mind about heats – and pushes into Jared with one swift thrust.
“Oh, fuck!” Jared screams so loudly that Jensen thinks the whole guesthouse probably heard him and he covers Jared’s lips with his own to prevent any more noise from escaping as he starts to fuck Jared hard and fast.
He’s too far gone to draw it out, too close to the edge to make it last, to make it perfect for Jared. It’s not like they won’t have plenty more opportunities to get it right, to make it better, when they aren’t so out of their minds with love and lust.
Jared’s fingers claw at his back and Jensen moves to sit back on his heels, pulling and dragging Jared by his hips until his mate is practically in his lap.
It changes the angle and his cock hits something deep inside Jared’s body that has him screaming, his back arching beautifully off the floor.
“Again,” he begs. “Oh, God, again, please, Jensen, please.”
Jensen tilts his hips, hits that spot and watches Jared writhe and beg even more. It’s such a gorgeous sight, Jared sweaty and beautiful and breathless beneath him, that it spurs Jensen on, pushes him towards that edge and he can feel his orgasm building in the base of his spine, way too soon for his liking.
Jensen puts his arms around Jared’s back and pulls him upright, pressing them chest to chest. It’s deeper in this position, Jensen can feel his cock pushing deeper into Jared’s body than he thought was possible and he watches in awe as Jared’s eyes roll and he throws his head back in ecstasy.
“Come on, Jared,” he whispers urgently, his hips still working. “Come for me, I wanna feel it.”
Jared’s too far gone for words. He’s panting and grunting in Jensen’s arms, his hands clawing at Jensen’s back and shoulders as he fucks himself on Jensen’s cock and suddenly he tenses, all of his muscles locking and he lets out a loud scream.
“FUCK!” Jensen gasps as Jared spills warm and wet between them, coating both of their stomachs. His whole body tightens around Jensen’s cock, pulling Jensen’s own orgasm from him and he empties himself deep inside Jared’s body.
“God damn.” Jensen really doesn’t have the vocabulary just yet to think of anything more elegant.
Completely spent, Jensen tips them both sideways so that they can stretch out on the floor, too tired to even try to even make it to the bed.
“Holy shit,” Jared gasps, his eyes locked with Jensen’s. “My friends…I used to ask them what it was like, when they mated. They said it wasn’t something that they could ever describe. I thought they were all full of shit, but fuck. They were right, because I have no idea how to describe that.”
“Mind blowing?” Jensen offers.
Jared hums in agreement. “Mind blowing. I like it.”
They lie in silence for a while, just drinking in each other’s gaze and floating in the sensations of what it feels like to finally be mated, completely and utterly joined for the rest of their days. Jensen has never felt so connected to anyone in his whole life, and he knows it’s more than just the sex. It’s everything, everything that Jared is, everything that he embodies and brings out in Jensen.
It’s the fact that Jared was the one to awaken the secrets he’d locked deep inside himself for so long, and he doesn’t know how to even start to repay Jared for helping Jensen to find himself.
Although, Jensen imagines avenging Jared’s – and his own – family would go a long way to doing just that.
Finally, after several long minutes, Jared reaches out a hand and traces Jensen’s profile, running his fingertips down Jensen’s nose until he reaches his lips. Jensen presses a kiss to each finger, trying to put as much love into the simple act as possible.
“Where did you go?” Jared asks so quietly that Jensen has to strain to hear him even in the nearly silent room.
“You mean today? I just went to the park, where we were yesterday.” Jared shakes his head and Jensen gets it. “When I went missing from the reservation.” It’s not a question and when Jared nods, Jensen takes a moment to marvel at the wonder of being able to talk about the reservation – and the pack – as something other than the abstract idea of it being the place Jared and the others were running away from.
Now he can remember it, albeit with the fuzzy memory of a four year old and diluted with time. But he can see it vaguely in his mind’s eye; can remember the distance and path from his house to Jared’s more than anything else and that thought makes him smile.
The thought of telling Jared the reasons behind his disappearance does not make him smile, however, and instead he cringes with embarrassment when he sees the curious expression on his mate’s face.
“I wanted to bring you flowers,” he says with a groan, burying his face in the curve of Jared’s neck.
Jared laughs. “What?”
“I saw JD; he was bringing flowers for Hilary. At the time, I wanted to be just like JD, even more than I wanted to be like my dad, so if he was gonna give his mate flowers, then so was I.”
“You wanted to give me flowers?” Jared coos. “That’s so cute.”
“I went out into the woods surrounding the reservation, but I guess I wandered off too far and I couldn’t find my way back. I shifted, thinking I’d be able to scent the pack, but I was already too scared because I was lost, I couldn’t concentrate. Then I felt this searing pain in my right foot. I looked down, and saw that I was caught in a bear trap.”
Jared gasps. “What? A bear trap? But, there are no bears at the reservation.”
Jensen nods. “I remember hearing my father and his Council talking about poachers and hunters, and how they didn’t know how to make them leave the area without risking exposure.”
“Did the hunter catch you?”
“Yeah,” Jensen sighs. “I was so shocked, there was so much pain and blood, I couldn’t hold onto my wolf and I shifted to human. I screamed so loudly, I thought someone would have heard, one of the Guards on patrol or something, but the only one who came was the hunter who set the trap.”
Jared pulls Jensen closer, holding him tight. “What did he do to you?”
Jensen shrugs. “What could he do? I was a scared kid, caught in one of his traps. He knew he would have been in deep shit if anyone found out. So, he bundle me up in his coat and hurried me down the mountain as fast as his legs could carry him. Don’t really remember much after that.”
“What happened to him? The hunter?”
Jensen looks up and gives Jared a tight smile. “He was my father, Jared. Or, at least, the only father I can remember having.”
Jared blinks. “He…he just…kept you?”
“My parents were more mature, like I said, well past the age were they could ever hope of having kids of their own. And then I show up, like some gift from God or something. It’s not like they mistreated me or anything, and I always knew that I was adopted; I just didn’t have anything else to go on. By the time I realized I wasn’t like everyone else, when it became obvious that I wasn’t aging like I was supposed to, they were already dead and I was on my own.” Jensen chuckles. “I don’t even know if they knew that I was a wolf. Maybe I shifted in front of them and they had to talk me out of it.”
Jared grunts. “I’m surprised they didn’t try to do experiments on you, or send you to the circus or something.”
“People are afraid of what they don’t understand, Jared. They tend to ignore it or put it away. Out of sight, out of mind, right?”
“Like Mark did with me,” Jared says with something that sounds like surprise in his tone.
“Yeah, exactly,” Jensen agrees.
Jared huffs and rolls away, wincing slightly when Jensen’s now soft cock slips from his body.
“This whole thing could have been avoided if I’d just forced Mark to just kill me. We wouldn’t be in this mess right now. They wouldn’t have had to do this, rescue me.”
Jensen puts a hand on the side of Jared’s face and makes him look up at him again. “Don’t ever wish you had died!” he says strongly “I don’t want to even think about what the rest of my life would be like if I’d never found you. And don’t worry about the others having to rescue you. I can see it in their eyes, Jared, every time they look at you. They hate themselves for letting you wallow in that prison cell.”
Jared’s eyes grow wide as he looks up at Jensen. “No! It’s not their fault! None of this is their fault!”
“I know that, we all do,” Jensen assures him. “But trust me when I tell that we all feel some sort of guilt for what you’ve been through, and nothing you say is gonna make that go away.”
Jared stares up at him for a few seconds, and then he starts laughing, loud and long and beautiful and Jensen takes a moment to bask in the sound before curiosity gets the better of him and he asks Jared what’s so funny.
It takes a while for Jared to get his breathing under control enough to answer. “I feel guilty for putting them in the position of having to choose between me and the wolf who was supposed to be their Alpha, they feel guilty for what was done to me, and I feel guilty because they feel guilty, and the only person who should feel guilty probably feels nothing at all. It’s like some huge fucking joke.”
Jensen allows himself a small chuckle at that, but he sobers quickly when a thought suddenly hits him. “If you hadn’t escaped, we never would have run into each other. Literally.”
Jared rolls his eyes. “Yeah, as loath as I am to give Mark credit for anything, if I hadn’t been locked up and escaped, I probably wouldn’t have been in town yesterday, and we would have gone the rest of our lives without ever finding each other.” He pauses. “That’s kinda depressing, that we owe Mark anything.”
Jensen reaches down to kiss the pout off Jared’s lips. “No thanking Mark,” he orders. “No more thinking about Mark, and certainly no more talking about Mark. For at least the next twenty-four hours.”
Jared cocks an eyebrow. “Twenty-four hours? You think you can keep going for that long?”
Jensen smirks and lifts his hips a little, using one hand to guide his fully hard cock back to Jared’s hole. The hitch in Jared’s breath when Jensen slides in with no resistance makes Jensen feel like the king of the world.
“Jared, I have got a hundred years of celibacy to make up for. I’m pretty sure I could go for a solid week at this point.”
Jared laughs again, throwing his head back in ecstasy when Jensen starts to move.
“I am bored.”
Sitting across the outdoor table at the small coffee shop behind the guesthouse, Steve glares at Chris. “It makes me swoon how utterly romantic you can be sometimes, Christian, and I wonder to myself how I ever got so lucky as to find someone like you.”
“Funny,” Chris snarks. “But I’m serious. Everybody we know in this town is in that guesthouse fucking each other’s brains out.”
Steve picks up his coffee cup. “You make it sound like they’re having some sort of fucking orgy.” He winces when he takes a sip of the still scalding liquid.
Chris shrugs. “Sounds like a fucking orgy sometimes, the noises coming from those rooms.”
“We were the same when we first mated and you know it. Jared had to force us to leave the bedroom to eat something before we fainted from hunger or exhaustion. Or both.”
Steve grins, remembering that first week on the reservation, when he and Chris mapped each other’s bodies with hands and tongues and lips. He’d never wanted to come up for air, the need to be near Chris far greater than the need for food or clothes or the company of others.
Forty years later, he still loves Chris as much as he did in those first few weeks, but it’s mellowed now, and while he still wants to be near Chris, to be able to touch him and kiss him whenever he wants, that first heated need has long since disappeared, leaving behind a mutual love and respect that Steve knows can survive anything.
Up to and including whatever they had to go through with Jensen and the pack.
Chris sighs, a faraway look in his eyes. “Good times.”
Steve snorts. “You make it seem like we haven’t had sex in ages.”
“We haven’t.”
“We had sex this morning.”
Chris wiggles his eyebrows. “My point exactly.”
Steve takes a moment to laugh at his mate, to bask in the utterly ridiculous look on his face before a voice startles him out of his merriment.
“Tell me you are not this stupid. Tell me you didn’t escape that fucking reservation just to set up home here of all places.”
Steve twists in his chair to see Riley standing behind him, hands on his hips and a look in his eyes that promises death to anyone who comes near him. He’s wearing nothing but a pair of soccer shorts that hang to low on his hips – probably stolen from someone’s washing line – so the it’s really quite impressive that he can pull off the menacing look in that outfit.
Chris, of course, outranks Riley in every way possible, so he just stands up and returns the steely eyes. “What the fuck are you doing here?!”
“Jessica noticed that you and Chad were missing,” Riley says to Chris. “She went digging and realized that Danni and Steve were gone, too. Dumb as she is, she’s not stupid enough withhold information on four members of the pack disappearing.”
“Okay,” Steve conceded. “But that doesn’t explain why you’re here.”
“Because, dumbass, once Jessica explained what was going on to the rest of the Council, Fredrick decided he wanted y’all back at the reservation before the Alpha gets back, so he organized a hunting party to track you down.” Riley sort of…deflates a little. “Once Morgan found out what was going on, he told some of us the truth, about why you guys took off. A lot of the Guard joined in the hunting party in the hopes of finding you first.”
Chris scrubs a hand across his face. “We have to go. Now.”
Steve stands up and pushes away from the table, following Chris back towards the guesthouse.
“So it’s true?” Riley asks, trailing after them. “Jared’s alive? He’s been on the reservation all this time?”
Chris stops. “Yeah, it’s true.”
Riley lets out a laugh that sounds painful to Steve’s ears. “Man, that’s just…what a mind fuck.”
“Oh, you have no idea how much more weird this can get,” Steve mumbles, but both Guardians hear it loud and clear and Chris levels a glare at Steve before he turns back to Riley.
“Listen, can you get all the Guardians back to the reservation? Get all of the wolves back?”
Riley narrows his eyes. “Why?”
“Just answer the question, Ri, can you do it?”
Riley shrugs. “I guess I could tell them I picked up the scent doubling back the way we came, tell them it’s leading back to the reservation.”
“Do that,” Chris orders. “Have the Guard waiting by the boundary line later tonight.”
“Chris, what the hell is going on?”
“I can’t tell you right now, Riley, and that’s as much for your sake as it is anyone else’s,” Chris says solemnly. “But I promise, everything will be explained soon.”
Riley looks from one of them to the other and Steve tries to put as much calmness and determinedness in his expression, if for no other reason than to counteract the crazy that Chris is giving off in waves.
Finally, after what seems like too long a moment, Riley nods and starts backing away from the table. “Alright, but I swear to God, Christian, you better have a damned good reason for this.”
Steve can almost feel Chris’ smile.
“Trust me; I have the best reason in the world.”
They stand there for a few minutes, until Riley’s out of site, and then Chris claps Steve on the shoulder and turns them both back towards the guesthouse.
“I need to tell Jensen this timetable has just been kicked up a gear.”
“Uh, hello? Kinda in the middle of something here,” Jensen gripes from the bed when the door to their room bursts open and Chris and Steve file in, looking more grim than Jensen has ever seen them.
Keeping his gaze on the floor, Chris holds up a hand. “Bigger fish, man. Bigger fish.”
Jared sits up against the headboard, sheet pooling in his lap. “What’s going on? You guys look…worried. More worried than when you busted me out.”
Steve takes a deep breath. “There’s a hunting party out looking for us. When Jessica realized some of us were missing, I’m guessing she alerted the other members of the Council and they figured out what we’d done. They want to hunt us all done before Mark comes back.”
Jensen can literally feel the blood draining from his face. “How do you know this?”
“When Morgan got wind of what was happening,” Chris starts, “he told some of the Guardians the whole story and they joined in with the hunting party, hoping to find us first and keep us safe. We ran into Riley, he followed our scent into town.”
“How the hell did Jessica notice you guys were gone so fast? I mean, the reservation’s a big place and we’ve only been gone for two days.” Jared reaches for his pants and pulls them on underneath the sheet and Jensen figures getting dressed is probably the best plan right now.
“I think we forgot about the fact that two of the wolves running away were the vice-captain of the Guard and his second,” Steve reminds them. “Even if no one knew about Jared, Chris and Chad both have duties within the pack.”
“Chad is not my second,” Chris barks, like that’s what they really needed to be worried about right now.
“Like fuck I’m not,” Chad says from the doorway, zipping up his jeans. Danneel’s standing next to him, wearing nothing but one of Chad’s t-shirts. “I’m the one that stepped up and came up with the actual idea of getting Jared out of there when all you could think of was your guilt at letting him stew.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re my second.”
Chad rolls his eyes. “I’m the one that always backs your plays, since I was old enough to fucking shift on my own. If that’s not what a second does, then I don’t know what is.”
Chris is silent at that, clearly confused at having a second at all, never mind the fact that Chad has declared it his rightful place, and Jensen has had just about enough of all the unneeded arguing.
“Alright, everybody, just shut the fuck up!”
Everyone twists and turns until they can see him clearly and Jensen should probably worry that all he’s wearing is a pair of black boxers that he thinks are actually Jared’s but he doesn’t really care right now, he just needs to know what the plan is.
“Now, will someone please tell me what the hell we’re going to do?”
“What we should do? About what?” Jared asks and Jensen just wants to kiss him for his innocence.
“He’s the rightful Alpha,” Danneel says softly. “He should take his rightful place.”
“You’re going…you’re going to challenge Mark?” Jared gawps.
Jensen nods but he doesn’t say anything.
This is all happening way too fast for him. He’s only just gotten used to shifting on his own – helped by some more training with Jared late last night – he’s not ready to take down an Alpha and his Council. That’s six wolves he’ll have to stand against – they’ll have to stand against – and while he knows Chris and Chad are trained fighters, he has no idea what Steve and Danneel would be like in a fight, wolves or not.
He feels slightly guilty for counting Jared out of the fighting completely, but he has no choice. With Jared’s shifting not up to par, Jensen would rather have him somewhere safe, away from the confrontation.
Australia sounds far enough.
“Who’s in the hunting party?” Danneel asks, drawing the conversation back to the reason Chris and Steve burst into the room.
“The usual suspects, I guess. Riley didn’t get specific.”
Jensen rolls his eyes, because, really, it does seem like everyone – including Jared – has forgotten that Jensen has never actually met Mark or been anywhere near the reservation for a hundred years.
“Can you elaborate? For those of us who aren’t playing the home game.” No one seems to get the joke and Jensen isn’t surprised.
“Cormac, Jessica. Sterling’s probably leading the hunt while Fredrick stayed at the reservation. Mitch left with the Alpha,” Chris says. “As for the Guardians…” he trails off with a shrug.
Chad takes a step forward. “If Riley stepped up, then you know Jonah is probably out with them as well. Tom and Mike. Sebastian.”
Steve shakes his head. “If Riley can get the word out, the only ones we need to worry about are the Council members.”
“And his loyal,” Danneel says quietly.
Jensen frowns at her. “His loyal? What does that mean?”
“Wolves from the reservation who have decided to give their loyalty to Mark, whether they see him as their true Alpha or not,” she explains. “Most of them are kids, barely out of their teens in wolf years, but he does have a few of the older wolves in his pocket, mostly unmated females, now that I think about it.”
“Probably all hoping that Mark will mate with one of them,” Chad snorts.
“What are you thinking?” Jensen asks Chris after a few minutes.
“I’m thinking we need to up the timescale on our plan.”
Jared looks from one of them to the other. “You guys had a plan?”
“No,” Jensen confirms, but he knows that there’s something cooking in Chris’s brain.
“More like an idea. We hadn’t actually gotten to the plan stage of the idea yet,” Steve says. “Kind of like a plan in the abstract.”
Jensen ignores them, his attention on Chris. “What do you mean, up the timescale?”
“Whatever we do, going in there and challenging Mark, it’s gonna be bloody,” Chris reminds them. “He’s not gonna just step down, that’s not the man you’ve told me about.”
“That’s for damn sure,” Danneel mutters.
“So, if we go in now, today, get the pack onside before Mark gets back, it’s gotta be a hell of a lot easier than just walking in there blind.”
Chad shrugs one shoulder. “The vice-captain has a point.”
“That’s why he’s the vice-captain,” Steve winks.
“Okay, but right now, he’s not Alpha,” Jared states calmly, “so in order for us to stage this coup, we need to get back to the reservation before they do. Maybe cut them off and lock up the Council members before we even try to talk to the rest of the pack.”
“We’re not all gonna fit in the car,” Danneel says, like she’s suddenly just realizing it. “It was a tight fit with the five of us riding down here; no way can that crappy piece of shit hold all six of us.”
“Steve and I can shift,” Chris offers. “We can take the woods and meet you guys up there. Probably won’t take us that much longer.”
Jensen shakes his head.
“No, whatever happens when we get up there, I want you with Jared, Chris. Danneel and Chad can take the woods, but with Jared’s shifting not being up to par, I want you to promise me you’ll look out for him.” Jensen doesn’t bother to mention that it’s not so much Jared’s safety that he’s worried about – although, of course, that’s a major factor as well – but his own fear that’s concerning him.
He’d expected to have some time to figure this out, to have space to get used to being a wolf, to find the confidence to lead these people as their Alpha.
Now he has mere hours, if that, to come to terms with what he’s about to do, and Jensen doesn’t know if he’s ready for it.
“Jensen,” Chris starts, taking a step forward but Jensen waves a hand.
“No, just…let’s figure this out.” Everyone turns to look at him and Jensen rolls his eyes. “Guys, look, I know I’m the Alpha, I’ve pretty much come to terms with that, but I’m so far out of my depth here that I’m not even touching the bottom. I’m gonna need some help.”
Jared rises from the bed to stand next to him. “Okay, you guys go pack. We’ll meet in the lobby in twenty minutes.”
Slowly, the other four leave the room with a final pleading look, leaving Jensen and Jared alone.
Jared kisses him, soft and slow, before pulling back and looking into his eyes.
“Are you okay?”
Jensen shakes his head. “I don’t know what I’m doing, Jared. I don’t know how to do this.”
Jared smiles serenely. “I told you, Jensen, it’s instinct. You know the difference between right and wrong. You know how to run this pack, because it’s in your blood.”
Jensen glares. “But I don’t know if it is in my blood and if I don’t figure that out, then how does that make me any different to Mark? How do I stop myself turning into him?”
“The fact that you’re asking these questions, that you’re so unsure of your place in this pack proves that you are nothing like Mark,” Jared points out adamantly. “And, really, I could have told you that on the street two days ago.”
“I don’t want to mess this up.” Jensen can feel tears gathering in the corners of his eyes and he knows Jared can probably tell just how scared he is.
Jared takes his hands and presses a kiss to his knuckles. “You won’t, I know that you won’t, but just in case, you just need to remember that you have one thing that Mark didn’t.”
Jensen swallows passed the emotion that’s clogging his throat. “And what’s that?”
“Me. I promise you, Jensen, I will be there, every step of the way, and I won’t let you do anything that I think isn’t right.”
With a deep breath, Jensen nods. “Alright, then, I guess it’s time to get this show on the road.”
There’s something weird curling in his gut, and he knows that this is it. Whatever happens from this moment on, Jensen will change life within the Black foot pack forever.
Morgan watches from the relative safety of the Guard house as Fredric tries to convince Mark that they weren’t lying to him.
The Alpha had arrived back at the reservation in the early afternoon, rather unexpectedly if Fredric’s reaction was any indication, and Morgan could tell immediately that Mark knew something wasn’t right. Morgan had watched with great amusement as the few loyal wolves he had and the members of his Council still on the reservation tried to downplay what had been happening.
But they had been forced to come clean when Mark had asked where Cormac, Jessica and Sterling where and now he’s screaming at the top of his lungs, ordering the whole pack to go out and find the runaways and bring them back while at the same time trying to keep them unaware of both Jared’s continued existence and his escape.
Unsurprisingly, everyone ignored him and carried on with whatever it was they were doing.
It isn’t until Morgan hears Mark ordering Jared’s family to be brought in for questioning that he decides something has to be done.
“Hilary,” he says to his mate. She’s sitting at his desk, going over some papers he knows absolutely nothing about. While females are forbidden from joining the Guard – something only declared by Mark, much to Danneel’s dismay – Morgan has enough leeway in his role as Captain to allow his mate to be at least somewhat involved in the day to day running of the Guard. While Morgan handles the Guard themselves, Hilary deals with their personal issues, like matings and heats.
“Hmm?” she answers noncommittally, her eyes glued to whatever was on the page she was holding.
“I need to get to the Padaleckis,” he tells her. “Mark’s calling for them to be questioned, and we know from experience how that usually goes.”
It’s rare for Morgan to keep anything from Hilary. It’s the same for all mated couples, the compelling need for there to be nothing but trust and respect in their relationships, and it hadn’t even occurred to him not to tell Hilary about Jared and the plan for Chris and the others to make their escape with him.
Hilary looks up at him, her eyes wide as his words pierce whatever fog has clouded her mind. “He’s blaming them for this? How is he doing that when they don’t even know about Jared?”
Morgan snorts. “I don’t know. But he’s asking to see them, and I can’t let them find out this way. I can’t leave them at Mark’s mercy when they have nothing to do with this.”
“Should have thought about that before you went ahead with this stupid idea,” Hilary snarks. He’s known from the start that she wasn’t a fan of what he and Chris and Chad had decided to do, more because she was afraid of the consequences it would have on the families of those who ran away than because she thought Jared deserved to be locked up. When she’d found out that Jared had been alive all these years, there was nothing Morgan could do to console her.
“And in future, if this ever happens again, God forbid, I will listen to you,” he promises. “But, for now, I need to get them some place safe until we can decide on a more permanent solution.”
Looking back on it, Morgan knows he should have thought about sending Megan, Jeff and Sandy with Jared when he made his escape. At the time it didn’t seem like it was needed. He’d naively thought that Mark would come to realize that Jared’s family couldn’t have been involved; they didn’t even know Jared was alive, but he’d been wrong, and now he has to deal with Jeff finding out that his brother is both alive and missing.
“You want me to do anything?” his mate asks, pushing away from the desk and getting to her feet.
“Could you maybe make sure the bunkrooms are clean and made up? If the worst should happen, at least I can put them up in her until I can get them out.”
The Guard house was Morgan’s terrain. Neither the Alpha or his Council ever stepped foot inside the building, and while that probably made it number one on their list of places to search should the remaining Padaleckis suddenly go missing, Morgan knows that he’ll have the rest of the Guard to help him keep them safe.
“I’ll go and get some sheets and things from home. I know the boys don’t really think much about home comforts when they’re on duty.”
Morgan huffs a laugh. “Too busy concentrating on when they can get back to their own homes.” He reaches down to press a gentle kiss to her lips before he moves past her to the back door of the Guard house. “Please be careful, and don’t let anyone see you bringing things like that in here.”
Hilary rolls her eyes. “Please, JD, this is not the first time I’ve had to be covert.”
Morgan just shakes his head and watches her leave before he slips out the back door and into the wooded area that the Guard house backs onto. He can’t risk crossing the main square, or be seen going into the Padalecki’s house.
It’s not until he’s more than halfway across the reservation, less than ten minutes from his destination, that Morgan hears movement coming from deeper inside the cover of the trees. He pauses mid-step, his body already preparing itself to shift at the first sign of danger.
“Who’s there?” he calls into the shadows. “Show yourself or I’ll come in there and get you.”
There’s a chuckle, somewhat familiar, before a voice says, “What happened to ‘attack first, ask questions later’? That only work when you can see your adversary?”
“You stupid bastard,” Morgan practically growls. “Are you out of your Goddamn mind? What the hell are you doing back here?”
Chris is shaking his head when he breaks cover, but there’s a smile on his face and Morgan doesn’t know whether that’s a good sign or a bad one.
“Trust me,” he says when he’s standing in front of his captain. “None of us thought we’d be back here. Not anytime soon, anyway.”
Morgan frowns. “So what’s going on? Why are you back?”
“We’ve had a few…developments since we left,” Chris says cryptically. “Let’s just say, things are about to change around here.”
“Yeah, well, you better get out of here before something else develops and Mark finds out that you’re back on the reservation,” Morgan urges. “He’s on the warpath trying to figure out how you guys got Jared out of here.”
Chris’ shoulders slump. “Mark’s back?”
“Few hours ago.”
Chris scratches at his forehead. “Well, that sure puts a kink in our plan.”
“You have a plan? What the hell is going on, Chris?”
Chris ignores him. “Why did Mark leave the reservation anyway? Did anyone say anything?”
“He was looking for an heir,” Morgan says, fast, like it’ll hurt less. When he’d overheard the Alpha and his remaining Council discussing his reasons for leaving the reservation, it had been all Morgan could do not to run out into the main square and tear the wolf to pieces. Just the thought of Mark raising another Alpha to be like him, to have to live under the rule of someone else with the same morals and ideals as Mark was enough to make his skin crawl.
“Did he find one?” Chris reaches out and takes hold of Morgan’s shoulders, shaking him a little. “Morgan, did he find one?”
Morgan shoves him away. “Of course he didn’t, you know that’s not how it works, Chris.”
Chris shakes his head. “Right now, I’m willing to believe that anything’s possible when it comes to the Alpha of this pack.” He chews on his lower lip for a second. “You sure he didn’t find one?”
Morgan sighs in exasperation, tired of all the cryptic already. “Yes, Chris, I’m sure that Mark didn’t find himself an heir. He’s not mated, and it’s not like he can just go pick up a kid from somewhere.”
“There are thousands of kids in orphanages all over the country.” Morgan looks up at the sound of the voice to see someone walking towards him from the trees. “If Mark wanted a kid, I really don’t think there’d be much stopping him from going in to one of those orphanages and picking one up. What are we talking about anyway?”
“Who the hell are you?” Morgan asks, but he’s ignored.
“Morgan says Mark left the reservation to look for an heir,” Chris explains to the new comer.
“Did he find one?” the man asks and he shrugs when Chris shakes his head. “Then the plan doesn’t change.”
“But we came up with the plan when we thought Mark wasn’t going to be here.”
“The plan doesn’t change, Chris, okay?” Chris nods meekly and the man smiles. “We knew it would come to this. We’re just moving up the timeline a little, because I came all the way up here and I’m not chickening out now. Jared’s gonna pass out if he has to give me another pep talk.”
“Pep talk?” Morgan repeats, because the guy just made no sense.
Chris turns his attention back to Morgan, either dismissing or acquiescing with the guy’s suggestion, Morgan isn’t sure.
“Has Riley and the rest of the Guard come back yet?”
Morgan shakes his head. “They left yesterday. I asked a few of the Guardians to volunteer with the hunting party Sterling was putting together. Figured it was a good idea.”
“Yeah, it was. Riley found us in that town a few hours from here and told us what was going on.”
Morgan gawps at his vice-captain. “You mean to tell me that we went through all this shit to get Jared out of here and you only ran as far away as the nearest fucking town?!”
This is unbelievable. There isn’t any conceivable reason why Chris and the others shouldn’t have Jared on the other side of the country by now. He can’t even think why Chris and this guy – who Morgan thinks looks a little familiar – would even be back at the reservation, much less sneaking around in the woods.
Chris holds up his hands in a peaceful posture. “Morgan, just chill out. Some thing’s happened in that town that have…well, they kinda just changed everything.”
“Things like what?” Morgan asks with narrowed eyes.
The new guy smiles. “Things like me, apparently.” He’s nervous, almost shy and uncertain as he stands in front of them and Morgan just needs to know what the hell is on, but the guy speaks again before Morgan has a chance to ask. “Show me where Jared was kept.”
Chris makes a face. “You really think that’s the best thing for you to do right now?”
The guy nods, albeit uncertainly. “I need to see it. I need to know I’m doing the right thing.”
Chris takes a deep breath. “Alright, this way.”
Morgan finds himself falling into step behind Chris before he has time to think and he just follows along blindly as they stumble over broken branches and tree roots in the opposite direction to where Morgan had been headed.
Soon, all three of them are standing outside the door of the building that had been Jared’s prison cell for so long. Morgan can feel the silver prickling at his skin, even before he steps foot in the building.
The stranger shivers, rubbing his hands up and down arms that are covered in goose bumps. He pushes open the door – careful not to touch the silver locks – and steps over the threshold, his eyes taking in the room like it means something to him.
“Oh, God…” he says in a choked whisper as he gazes at things in the room that Morgan knows are undeniably Jared. “He told me it was bad, but I…”
“None of us can really know how bad it was,” Chris explains softly. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like for him. I couldn’t leave him in here.”
“That’s why you got him out?” the stranger turns from where he’s looking out the window to face them. Chris nods and Morgan snorts.
“You got him out only to bring him right back again.” He glares at both of them. “Jared’s here, isn’t he? Somewhere on the reservation.”
“Yeah, he’s at the boundary line with Steve and Danneel. Chad’s off finding the rest of the Guards.”
Morgan scraps a hand across his face. “I can’t even imagine what you guys must have been through to think that coming back to the reservation was a good idea.”
Chris smiles and there’s something in it that Morgan can’t decipher. “How about putting the true Alpha back on the throne?”
Morgan blinks and then turns to the stranger.
“You sure have gotten old, JD,” he says with a smile.
Morgan stumbles back a step. No one except Hilary calls him JD. It’s an old name, one that disappeared as he started climbing the ranks of the Guard, and it had all but vanished completely the day Alan had named him Captain.
“Who the hell are you?”
The stranger just shakes his head and turns back to Chris, his expression cold. “I don’t want Jared to set foot inside this building again. In fact, he’s not even allowed to look at it. I don’t even want it crossing his fucking mind, do I make myself clear?”
“Crystal,” Chris acknowledges. “You want I should tear it down?”
He looks around the room again, taking in the bed, the toilet, his hands hovering inches away from the silver bars on the windows. He smiles. “No, I have something else in mind for this place.”
“Whatever you say, Jensen.”
Morgan gasps, feeling his knees go weak at the sound of the name and he looks at the stranger anew.
“Jensen,” he breathes. “Jensen…Jensen Ackles?”
Jensen laughs. “What’s the matter, JD? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I think I need to sit down.”
Jensen crosses the room, clapping Morgan on the shoulder and he leaves the building. “Come on, Morgan, you can’t wimp out on me. I’m gonna need all the support I can get right now.”
“You’re…you’re going to challenge Mark?” Morgan blinks.
Jensen stops and frowns at him. “What? You think I came all this way just to say hello to the guy?”
Morgan just blinks. Again. This is…this is Jensen Ackles, missing heir. It’s something that Morgan never thought he would live to see. Jensen had been assumed dead all those years ago. Morgan remembers the pain and heartache that Donna and Alan went through when their son was lost. He wishes that they had lived to see him return to his rightful place.
But of course, if Donna and Alan had lived, they probably wouldn’t even be in this situation. It’s a horrible series of events.
The captain takes a deep breath. “Okay, then. What’s the plan?”
Chris steps forward then while Jensen curls in on himself, almost as though he’s scared of stepping up and taking charge and Morgan can only hope that confidence grows in time.
“Riley is gathering the Guard at the boundary line, but we need to separate the Council wolves. Can you and the Guards do that without alerting Mark to what’s going on?” Chris inquires.
“I can do that, but there’s something you should know.”
Chris waves a hand in the air motioning to speed it up when Morgan doesn’t say anything more. “We’re kind of on a timescale here, JD.”
“Mark’s pulling Jared’s family in for questioning. He thinks they have something to do with his disappearance.”
Chris growls. “Of course he does.”
“I was on my way to get them out when I ran into you two,” the captain explains.
“Alright, I’ll go talk to the Guard. Morgan, go get the Padaleckis and take them someplace safe.”
Morgan glares. “Excuse me, but just who exactly is the captain here?”
Chris grins. “Alpha trumps captain, Morgan, and since I speak for the Alpha, I trump you.”
Morgan finds he doesn’t really have anything to argue that with.
Practically dismissing him, Chris turns to Jensen. “Are you okay?”
Jensen shrugs. “As okay as I’m ever gonna be. I just need to get this over with. All this standing around isn’t making me feel any surer about this.”
Chris puts a hand to Jensen neck, holding on for a second, before he turns on his heel and disappears into the trees, leaving Morgan alone with Jensen.
“Got a lotta questions, huh?” Jensen asks with a smile.
“It’s really you? You’re really the missing Alpha? This isn’t some fucked up joke by some humans in the know?”
Jensen chuckles and spreads his arms. “You tell me, JD. You knew my father, you knew everything about me. You were supposed to be my personal Guardian, if I remember correctly.”
Morgan blushes and ducks his head. Jensen’s telling the truth. When the Alpha’s son had been born, Alan had visited Morgan personally and asked him to be Jensen’s personal Guardian, the wolf who would protect future Alpha from everything he faced, the one who would be by his side whenever it was his time to take his rightful place within the pack.
Morgan looks off in the direction Chris had disappeared and grins, albeit a little bitterly. “Looks like you have someone else filling that position now.”
Jensen blinks. “Huh. I never even thought of it like that. Things kinda just…happened. It’s been a crazy few days, what with running into Jared, mating with Jared, getting some of my memories back. I haven’t even had time to take a damn shower.”
Morgan regards Jensen for a minute, taking in everything there is to see in this wolf.
There’s no doubt in Morgan’s mind that he is the one and true Alpha of the Black Foot pack, but there’s still that doubt, that niggling feeling that makes him wonder just what is going on.
“Jensen, where the hell have you been? We all thought you were dead.”
Jensen nods, his face somber. “Trust me, this wasn’t something I planned. Until I ran into Jared a few days ago, I had no idea about any of this. I mean, I knew I was different, but knowing that you don’t age like everyone doesn’t mean I ever figured out the wolf part.”
“So you just…forgot?”
“I guess? The mind is a funny thing, JD. What it can’t rationalize it tends to just forget. The people who raised me must have told me that being able to turn into a wolf was wrong, or that I was making it all up or something. Sooner or later, I just started believing them.”
“What made you remember?”
Jensen smiles. “Jared. That boy is a lot smarter than y’all give him credit for. He’s…” It was Jensen’s turn to blush. “He’s amazing.”
Morgan gives Jensen a minute to bask in the love for his mate. Jared only left the reservation two days ago. Normally, when two wolves mate, they shut themselves away for days, sometime as long as a week, in order to get to know one another the way mates should. They would be spending the rest of their lives together; they deserved to have a little time to themselves.
But if Jensen is here, standing in front of him and ready to take on Mark, then he and Jared clearly haven’t had that time, they’ve barely had a day, and Morgan suddenly feels very, very sorry for both of them.
“So, do you have a plan?” Morgan asks when they’ve been quiet for too long.
Jensen looks away, out through the trees at the little of the reservation he can see from here. “I have absolutely no idea what I’m gonna do. I mean, I’ve spent my entire life thinking I’m a freak, a nobody. And then suddenly I find out I’m the King or something of a werewolf tribe? It’s a little hard to swallow.”
“We’re not-”
Jensen cuts Morgan off before he can finish. “Yeah, I know, Chad and Danneel already had this argument with me. But I’ve lived in the human world for the majority of my life, and despite the fact that I’ve gotten most of my memories back, it’s still hard to ignore all of those stories I’ve read.” He shrugs. “I’ll get over it in fifty years or so.”
Morgan allows himself a small chuckle at that, but he sobers quickly. This situation couldn’t get any more serious if he tried.
“Anything I can do?” He’ll do whatever Jensen asks of him, that much Morgan knows without a doubt.
“Get Jared’s family some place safe. Everything else is up to me.”
With a tight smile, Morgan leaves to do just that.
Jensen watches from a good distance away as two older wolves, apparently part of Mark’s Alpha Council, are cornered by some of the Guard as they head towards what Jensen assumes is Jared’s family’s house.
There’s a tussle, but the slighter of the two is clearly not a fighter, and the Guardians overpower them both easily, holding them in check as they take them away to wherever Chris has ordered they be kept while Jensen deals with the Alpha.
Jensen finds himself hoping that they haven’t used Jared’s old residence.
Once the wolves are out of sight, Jensen turns on his heel and heads back through the trees to where he’d left Jared and the others at the bottom of the trail. He’s surprised to find two other wolves there he doesn’t recognize leaning against the car next to Steve.
“So, you’re the boy king who ran away and abandoned us to this shit life,” one of them says. He has short blond hair and, like the guy standing next to him, he’s completely naked and completely unashamed by it. It’s making Jensen uncomfortable.
Jensen attempts a smile, even as Jared moves closer to his side, but he has a feeling it comes out looking more like a grimace, if the way Danneel has taken a step back is an indication. “And you are?”
The guy squares his shoulders and lifts his chin. “Riley.”
“Well, what can I say, Riley?” he says with a casual shrug. “Being kidnapped and brainwashed aren’t exactly conductive for remembering that you’re the heir of a wolf pack living up a mountain in Texas.”
He knows he’s oversimplifying the problem. He’s parents hadn’t been bad people. His father had just panicked and done the only thing he could think off to avoid being found hunting in an illegal area. Back in those days, it was hardly the easiest of things to track down the family of a child found wandering alone and naked in the woods.
But Jensen doesn’t really have time right now to get into the finer details of his disappearance. Chris had explained to him on the way back to the reservation that the amnesia angle was probably the best way to explain where he’d been all this time, so Jensen decides to embrace it completely. And judging by the sorrowful, guilty looks on the faces of Riley and the other guy, it’s a story that’s going to work.
“B-brainwashed?” the still-nameless stutters. “Has this got something to with Mark coming in and taking over?”
“And your name is?”
“Jonah,” he answers quietly.
“Okay, Jonah, you do know that I disappeared seventy years before Mark even arrived on the reservation, right?”
Jonah pales. “I don’t…what?”
Jared laughs. “Jonah wasn’t born until after Mark took over. At that point, no one really talked about you much. It was more out of respect for Alan and Donna than because we didn’t want to.”
“So, that’s great. The younger wolves think I ran away and abandoned everyone to Mark.” Jensen presses his fingers to his temples. “Like I don’t have enough to go up against right now, I was at least hoping to have some of the pack on my side.”
This is almost too much for Jensen to take, knowing that this isn’t going to be as simple as taking out Mark to get the pack on his side. He’s not even sure he can do this.
“The pack will be on your side, Jensen,” Danneel insists. “It’s just, with the younger wolves not knowing anything other than Mark, it might just take a while for them to warm up to you.”
“And we already knew that,” Jared reminds him with a tight smile. “We knew that there were going to be hurdles that we have to get over. And with all of us in your corner, we can do it.”
Jensen takes a deep, calming breath. “Can we?”
Riley takes a hesitant step forward. “With Chris and Chad on your side, the Guard is pretty much sold on you before you even start. You don’t have to worry about them.”
“Right!” Jonah says loudly. “One hundred percent on your side, man.”
“And you’ve got Danneel,” Steve adds. “She’s big with the girls and the unmated guys.” He winks and Danneel blushes.
Jensen just nods. He has a lot of people behind him, a lot of people who are counting on him to do this and free them form Mark’s tyranny. He can’t back out not because he’s got cold feet.
Jensen turns to face Jared head on. “When Mark challenged my father, what he do? Say?”
“Alan wasn’t much for formality. He didn’t bring the pack together to discuss things; he tended to just visit each family to make sure everyone was okay.”
Jensen shakes his head. “I don’t understand; why does that matter?”
Danneel speaks up. “He means, there was no gathering that Mark could use to inform the pack of what he was doing. Before Mark came along, a wolf in this pack could go weeks without seeing the Alpha in person.”
“He’s like a Mayor, or a judge,” Steve takes over, explaining it in terms Jensen could understand. “You don’t really have to see him unless it’s for something specific.”
Jensen nods as he digests that. “And Mark? He’s different?”
“Mark likes to remind everyone that he’s the one in charge, that we’re his pack,” Riley says, his voice a rough growl. “So he likes to gather everyone together for ‘pack meetings’.” The quote marks are obvious in his tone.
“But that’s not all they are?” Jensen asks.
“It’s just a way for him to make us give him things he thinks he deserves,” Jonah spits. “Food, mostly. Clothes, toiletries. The basics.”
Jensen frowns. “How does the pack make money?” He shakes his head. “You know what? Don’t answer that, this is more than I can take right now and I need to deal with Mark before I think about the logistics of running this pack in the twenty-first century.”
Jonah quirks an eyebrow. “You gonna change some stuff?”
“Yeah, with bring this pack into the twenty-first century. Phone lines and an internet connection would be a good start.”
“What’s an internet connection?” Jonah asks.
Jensen ignores him, turning his attention to Jared, Steve and Danneel.
“You haven’t answered my question,” he reminds them. “What did Mark do when he challenged my father?”
Jared swallows hard. “He waited until Alan was crossing through the main square. He called him out and laid the challenge down.”
“As an older Alpha with no heir, Alan didn’t have the right to refuse or question the challenge,” Riley says from behind him. “He had to step down.”
“Well, what about me?” Jensen chews on his thumbnail. “I don’t have an heir; I’m not in any better position than he is. What do I have that’ll mean Mark has to stand down?”
Not that Mark is going to stand down. Jensen knows that he’s in for the fight of his life as soon as he steps foot onto that reservation, he just needs something that will give him some sort of leverage.
Danneel smiles and claps Jared on the shoulder. “You have this guy right here.”
Jared blushes. Jensen just stares at them. “What does that have to do with anything? I mean, I think Jared’s pretty much the most amazing person on the planet, but I really don’t think Mark agrees with me.”
“He’s your mate,” Steve says, his tone exasperated. “He can give you an heir.” He pauses. “Or, at least, there’s the possibility that he can give you an heir at some point. Mark doesn’t have a mate; he has no way of finding an heir.”
There’s something in the tone of Steve’s voice, something about the way he mentioned the possibility of an heir that Jensen doesn’t like. He doesn’t have time to dwell on it, but it’s something he knows he’ll come back to once this is all over.
Danneel puts her hands on her hips. “According to pack law, if an unmated Alpha with no heir is challenged by a wolf who has an heir or has the possibility of producing an heir in the future, said Alpha must step down immediately.”
“But it will not be that easy,” Riley scoffs.
“I really don’t doubt that,” Jensen assures them all. “Whatever he throws at me, I’m ready.”
“Then let’s get this party started.” A voice says from somewhere nearby.
They six of them turn to see Chad and Chris standing at the bottom of the path.
“We have the Alpha’s Council members, and the few loyal wolves he has, locked up in the school house,” Chris continues. “Mark’s on his own.”
“Where is he?”
“In his house,” Chad tells him, and Jensen takes a deep breath.
“I guess this is it.”
He tries to ignore the rolling in the pit of his stomach as he follows after Chris and Chad.
Jared walks with Jensen until they reach the edge of the houses that surround the main square of the reservation. He can see people – people he hasn’t seen in thirty years – walking around, chatting, getting on with whatever they’re doing, and he can’t help but feel a little nervous
In mere minutes, their way of life is going to change, and despite what they’d told Jensen mere moments ago, Jared doesn’t know if everyone will be as accepting of that change as Jared and his friends have been.
Jared, Chris, Steve, Danneel and Chad stay hidden in the shadows of the houses as Jensen continues on out into the open. Chris had ordered Jonah and Riley to go keep watch on the Alpha’s Council members locked up in the school house.
Jared thinks about the kids and the wolves who acted as their teachers and wonders what has been done with them to free up that space. He wonders what they’ve been told about what’s going on, and there’s part of him that wants to go to them, to let them all know that everything’s going to be okay from now on.
“MARK!”
Jensen’s cry pulls Jared out of his thoughts and he cranes his neck to see past the crowd of people who have gathered around the stranger standing in the middle of their reservation. He can feel how nervous Jensen is, despite how he’s trying to mask it, and he needs to be here for him, to let Jensen know that Jared supports him to the very last breath.
“MARK!” Jensen yells again when the Alpha doesn’t appear. “Get your ass out here, you cowardly piece of shit.” Jensen’s leaning on bravado and faked confidence to get himself through this and Jared wants to go over there and tell him to just be himself, but he can’t. not yet at least.
There’s an audible gasp that ripples through the crowd at Jensen’s words and next to Jared, Chad and Danneel giggle.
The door of the Alpha’s house opens, and Jared can’t help the way his breath catches in his throat when he lays eyes on the man who ruined his life and the same sick feeling he used to get every time Mark came to see him returns to his stomach.
There’s a hand on his shoulder, gripping tight, and Jared turns to see Chris standing next to him, a concerned look on his face and Jared smiles gratefully.
“You are doing everything right in order to meet an early grave, my young friend,” Mark says genially and Jared is reminded of how polite and laid back Mark had seemed when he first arrived at the reservation.
Jensen snorts, the sound of it travelling across the now silent square. “You’re the Alpha of the Black Foot pack? Jesus, when they told me about you, I was expecting some sort of giant, mutant wolf or something. Kinda scrawny, ain’t ya?”
Jared takes a moment to wonder if Jensen actually has a death wish as Mark’s face clouds over with anger.
“Sterling! Mitch!” the Alpha yells. “Deal with our new friend here.”
“Yeah, they’re, um…indisposed right now.” Jared can hear the smirk in Jensen’s voice. “We have to make this a fair fight, after all.”
Mark narrows his eyes. “Fight? Fight for what?”
Pride washes over Jared as Jensen pulls his shoulders back, standing up straight and tall in front of Mark.
“Mark Pellegrino,” he says with a firm voice, “I am here to challenge you for the position of Alpha of the Black Foot pack.”
The crowd – grown bigger as word of the newcomer travels across the reservation – practically explodes at the sound of Jensen’s statement.
Mark says nothing for a few long, drawn out seconds, and then he chuckles as he descends the steps from his porch until he’s standing on the bottom step. Jared knows it’s a tactical move, like Mark thinks he still has the advantage over Jensen if he’s above him physically.
“I don’t know who you are,” Mark starts, his voice pitched low, “or how you came to be on my reservation without my knowledge, but I think someone really should explain to you pack law when it comes to the position of Alpha.”
Jensen cocks his head to one side. “Then, please, oh, great Alpha. Enlighten me.”
It takes everything Jared has not to burst out laughing. Chad and Danneel don’t seem to follow Jared’s rules of discretion and they laugh louder than before. Jared really is starting to think that they’re made for each other.
“An unmated wolf without an heir cannot challenge for the position of Alpha,” Mark says smugly.
“Huh.” Jensen paces back and forth for a few steps. “But, wait a minute, isn’t that exactly what you did? I mean, you have no mate, no heir, and yet you challenged and obviously won. And, really, I’m a lot younger than you; I have plenty of time to get myself an heir.”
Jared feels his stomach contract with knots. An heir. A child, something he’d never thought he’d have.
Mark fumes, his face set in hard, angry lines.
“And anyway,” Jensen speaks like he’s having a conversation about the weather, “who said I was unmated? I’m fairly certain I never mentioned anything about my mate.”
Now Jared can see Mark grow pale. All the color drains from his face, and Jared knows it’s because this is the moment he’s dreaded for the last thirty years, someone coming along and taking his position from him.
Just like he did with Alan.
“Who are you?” the soon to be former Alpha says through gritted teeth.
Even though he can only just make out the back of Jensen’s head, Jared can practically see the smirk on those sinful lips. “Oh, I’m pretty sure everyone’s gonna know who I am once they meet my mate.”
Jared knows that’s his cue. He takes a deep breath and tries to stand up tall as he steps out of the shadows. He can feel Chad and Chris at this back, but they stop next to the line of people gathered around Jensen as Jared continues forward to stand next to his mate.
There are mumblings echoing through the crowd, people whispering Jared’s name as they look at Jensen anew and Jared tries his best to look like someone Jensen can be proud of, but he can’t help the scared feeling that flares in his belly as he takes his place next to Jensen.
Mark’s eyes cloud over with rage and Jared takes an unconscious step closer to Jensen.
“YOU!” the Alpha bellows. “I should have known you were behind this!”
“Actually, Jared has nothing to do with this.” Jensen’s voice is calm and even. “I’m just here to reclaim my rightful place from the fraud who’s been squatting for the last thirty years.”
Mark growls. “Who the hell are you?!”
“My name is Jensen Ackles.”
Someone screams. Someone else laughs and there are several people who burst into tears. And then there’s nothing but silence echoing out over the entire reservation, all eyes glued to Jensen as he stares down the man who murdered his parents.
“Jensen Ackles is dead,” Mark says, he’s voice shaking.
Jensen spreads his arms wide. “And yet here I stand in all my glory, face to face with the man who kept my mate locked up in a silver coated cell for something beyond his control.”
“He is an Omega.” Marks spits the word like it’s dirty and he doesn’t want it on his tongue any longer than necessary.
“You don’t even have any idea what it means to be an Omega!” Jensen counters. “You stand there and quote pack law at me, when you don’t even know the first thing about it.”
“He’s an abomination!” Mark yells, pointing at Jared. “If I’d let him live within the pack, mate, he would have passed on his disgusting…disease to his…” he swallows hard, “offspring. I will not allow my pack to be tainted like that.”
Jensen laughs. “God, you don’t know anything! The only reason Jared is an Omega is because he is mated. He’s mated to the true Alpha of the Black Foot pack.”
Mark glares. “And who might that be?”
“ME, you jacked up piece of shit!” Jensen advances. “I mated with Jared the day he was fucking conceived!”
Mark shakes his head. “That doesn’t explain why he is…the way that he is.”
“Think about it, Mark,” Jensen snaps. “An Alpha needs an heir. If an Alpha mates with a male wolf, he still needs an heir.”
Jared takes a moment to think that they did a pretty good job teaching Jensen the intricacies of pack law, even though they only had three days.
Something flashes across Mark’s face, almost too fast for Jared to see, and although he can’t describe the expression, Jared starts to wonder if Mark had other reasons for locking him away.
“I am Alpha and I will not mate with him,” Mark says, but his voice isn’t as strong as it was before.
“Jared is mine,” Jensen growls. “If you even try to touch him, I will have your head. And the very fact that he is an Omega and mated to me proves that you aren’t the Alpha of this pack. I am.”
“What does the little bitch have to do with who is Alpha of this pack?” Mark asks with a frown.
Jensen sighs. “You didn’t listen to a word I just said, did you?”
Jared watches closely as Mark steps forward, until he’s standing right in front of Jensen. His eyes are wide and glassy and there’s sweat beading on his forehead, but he still stares Jensen down. Jared knows he’s not going to go down without a fight.
“I’m not giving up my pack,” he says calmly. “You’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.”
Jensen smirks. “If that’s what it takes.”
Jared’s so surprised by Jensen’s words, so shocked that Jensen would resign himself to killing Mark – even though they had already talked about doing just that – that he doesn’t see Mark moving until there’s a large, tawny wolf streaked with grey heading right towards him.
Towards him, Jared, not Jensen, and suddenly, with a sickening sense of clarity, Jared knows exactly what Mark is planning to do.
Kill Jared, and Jensen has no more claim to the title of Alpha than Mark does, and Jared can’t let that happen.
He reacts without thinking, doesn’t even notice the pain as he shifts and meets Mark’s charge head on, ducking low as Mark reaches high. He’d been expecting to tackle a six and a half foot man, not a wolf, and he stumbles as his target is taken from him.
Jared takes the opportunity for what it is and sinks his teeth into the soft flesh of the former Alpha’s throat.
Mark whines pitifully as Jared’s mouth is flooded with the warm, coppery tang of blood. It’s awful and Jared gags against the taste but he hangs on, keeps his jaws locked tight.
He was never a hunter, but Jared remembers his father teaching Jeff and sometimes Chad, how he would tell them to hold onto their kill until it stopped twitching, so that’s what Jared does, bites down and waits for his kill to stop twitching.
His kill. He killed somebody.
Jared’s too busy thinking of the horrors of that and he doesn’t sense Mark buck wildly. His paws come up and slash at Jared’s face, scant millimeters from his eye.
Jared shrieks and jerks back, his teeth tearing from Mark’s skin and taking a chunk of flesh as they pull away. Jared spits it out onto the dirt floor of the square, trying not to throw up at the same time.
There’s a growl and Jared has just enough time to see Mark rushing at him again before two different wolves jump in front of him.
“Get out of my way,” Mark’s voice echoes inside Jared’s head.
“Not a chance in hell, you bastard.” That’s Chad’s voice and Jared looks at the two wolves, sees the soft golden wolf standing in front of him and recognizes Chad, and the brown wolf standing next to him is Chris.
“I am your Alpha and you will do as I say!” Mark shouts so loudly Jared winces.
It’s weird to have those voices in his head again. The other day with Steve had been different; it had just been the two of them in a quiet room. Now Jared’s in the middle of the reservations, with three wolves standing in front of him and others he can hear scattered everywhere.
By the school house, Tom and Mike are growling and yelling at the people they have locked inside to settle down, even as Sterling throws his huge black furry body against the unyielding doors once again.
“You ain’t our Alpha and you never have been!” Chris tells Mark loudly.
Mark lets out a growl that Jared can almost feel and he crouches down low. Jared knows he’s getting ready to spring at them, but Chris and Chad are two well-trained and veteran members of the Guard. Mark doesn’t have a chance in hell against them if he tries to make this into an all-out brawl.
“STOP!”
The voice is so loud and unexpected that Jared pauses, craning his neck to see who spoke.
But as he looks around, he can see that the three wolves in front of him have all but frozen at the command, and Jared knows that it was the true Alpha of the Black Foot pack who had spoken.
Any doubt about Jensen that still remained within Jared is wiped away with that single command and he sniffs at the air with pride, moving around the three wolves in front of him until he stands next to Jensen.
“Mark,” Jensen continues in that same demanding tone, “this fight is over. You have proven that you are not capable of leading this pack.”
“You got beat by an Omega,” Danneel singsongs from somewhere in the crowd and Jared lets out a snort of amusement as the gathered crowd laugh nervously.
“I am not beaten,” Mark pants, dripping blood into the dirt. He spins around until he’s facing Jensen and bares his teeth. Chad and Chris growl and crouch low, waiting for the command from their Alpha to attack.
“Shift,” he orders when Mark makes no movement.
Mark growls, saliva dripping from his sharp teeth. “You are not my Alpha.”
“He might not be your Alpha, but he is still an Alpha and you will respect him!” Chris says, snapping his jaws as he takes a step closer to Mark.
“SHIFT!” Jensen commands, louder this time, and suddenly, Mark’s whole body shudders until he collapses on the ground, completely human.
“You son of a bitch,” Mark pants, the strength leeched out of him by Jensen’s order.
“Don’t speak ill of the dead,” Jensen snaps, anger leaking from his eyes.
“Kill me,” he urges, his eyes locked on Jensen. “The only way you can lead this pack is if you kill me.”
Jensen shakes his head. “I won’t make this easy for you. I won’t turn you into a martyr when I have something better in mind for you.”
Jared cocks his head to the side. Jensen never mentioned any other plan he had in mind for Mark. Killing him had been Jensen’s sole focus since he found out about Jared’s parents.
Jared always knew that the Alpha had the power to force someone to shift, but he’s never seen anyone implementing it before now. It’s a powerful thing to witness and it makes him quake with fear, even though he knows that Jensen isn’t capable of ordering him to do anything.
With his hand resting on Jared’s shoulder, he looks up at the two remaining wolves. “Chad, Chris.”
With the much gentler request, the two Guardians are able to shift back to human by their own inclination, and they stand in front of Jensen, completely naked and not looking like they care in the slightest.
“Mr. Pellegrino is moving house,” Jensen says cordially. “Please escort him to the jail cell at the back of the reservation.”
The way he says it, it’s like Jensen wants everyone to know where it is, where Jared’s been kept all these years and Jared would be blushing if he was in human form.
Chris bows his head gracefully. “Yes, Alpha.”
Mark starts screeching immediately and the sound is painfully to Jared’s sensitive wolf ears. Thirty years without using the heightened senses his wolf side affords him means Jared’s going to have to get used to it all over again.
“You can’t do this!” Mark wails and Chris and Chad grab hold of him and drag him towards the tree line, to the path that leads to Jared’s former prison.
“I’m the Alpha,” Jensen snarls. “I can do whatever the hell I want.”
“PLEASE!” Mark screams, but Chad and Chris pay him no attention as they drag him away.
“Danneel,” Jensen calls and Jared watches as she takes a step forward, squaring her shoulders.
“Yes, Alpha?”
Beside him, Jared can feel Jensen flinch slightly at the respectful tone to her voice and he knows his mate doesn’t like it one bit.
“You and Steve go with them and tell them I’ll be down there in a bit.”
Danneel inclines her head. “Yes, Alpha.”
Jensen growls as he watches both of them scurry after their mates. “That is going to change real fast.” Jared makes a noise in his throat and butts his head to Jensen’s thigh. Jensen looks down at him and nods. “Right.”
Turning to the still assembled crowd, the new Alpha clears his throat. “Ladies and gentlemen, I know that you all must be mighty confused right now. But I promise, if you give me just a little while to tend to my mate, I will answer any questions you might have.”
With his fingers running through the fur at the back of Jared’s neck, Jensen turns them both towards the Alpha’s house.
“Is it really you?” Samantha asks. She stands in front of Jensen, blocking his path, and Jared can do nothing but watch the exchange.
Jensen studies the woman in front of him. It’s clear to Jared that he doesn’t remember her, at least not enough to know her name, and he realizes that while Jensen’s got most of his memories of the pack and the reservation back, they are still the memories of a four year old child, and probably aren’t going to help much in the way of convincing the pack to accept Jensen.
Jared suddenly isn’t looking forward to the next few days.
“With all due respect, Ms.…?”
She smiles. “Ferris. Samantha.”
“Ms. Ferris,” Jensen continues, but Samantha interrupts again.
“Just Samantha. We don’t really go in for last names here. Not unless you’re the Alpha.” She cocks an eyebrow at him and Jared would laugh if his wolf mouth was capable of making the sound.
“Samantha.” Jensen corrects himself with a polite nod. “Like I said, I’d like to take care of my mate, and then I’ll address the pack.” Jared follows his gaze as he looks around the assembled people. “Is this everyone?”
Samantha takes her own look around. “We have a few people looking after the little ones, and a few of the Guardians are missing, but for the most part, yes, this is everyone.”
“The Guardians I’ll address separately,” Jensen tells her, “but as for everyone else, could you please make sure everyone is assembled?”
Samantha regards him for a few seconds, her gaze flicking down to Jared fleetingly and Jared thinks she’s going to refuse, actually thinks she’s going to tell Jensen that she doesn’t accept him as her Alpha.
When she smiles, bright and wide, Jared can feel himself relaxing. “Yes, Alpha. Of course.”
“Jensen,” Jensen corrects and again, Jared wants to laugh. He knows how much Jensen is going to hate that ceremonial respect that the pack will have for an Alpha they have faith in.
“Jensen,” she parrots, before she gives him a respectful bob of her head and turns and walks away.
Jared looks up at Jensen just in time to see him roll his eyes. “Now it’s just getting annoying.” He gives Jared and gentle shove towards the house and they make their way up the porch steps and Jensen closes the door behind them once they’re inside.
Jensen lets out a low whistle. “You know, for a tribe of wild people living up a mountain, y’all can sure build houses.”
Jared doesn’t really have any words to tell Jensen that his ancestors built this house – can’t in his current condition, even if he did want to – because he’s too busy taking in everything that’s changed.
He doesn’t expect Mark to have kept the house looking exactly like Donna had kept it – not after all these years – but it’s still a shock to see the deep red color on the walls, instead of the soft cream Jensen’s mother had chosen. And gone are the old comfortable couches Jared remembers falling asleep on as a pup while Donna sang to him, and in their place are things that Jared can’t even begin to describe. He wonders where Mark could have gotten the money to redecorate.
“Alright, bathroom,” Jensen says, pulling Jared out of his thoughts, “kitchen, anything.” He’s wandering the hallway, pushing open doors at random while he tries to find what he’s looking for.
Jared trots past him to the end of the hall and pushes open the kitchen door that’s been left ajar, and Jensen shouts in triumph.
Jensen pulls two chairs out from the table and turns them to face each other next to the table. He moves to the sink and fills a bowl with water before grabbing a roll of paper towels and sets them both on the table. He scratches Jared behind the ears as he moves past him, back towards the living room.
He’s gone less than thirty seconds, before he’s back with a blanket, which he drapes over his lap as he sits down in one of the chairs.
He looks at Jared with an amused expression on his face. “Now, think you can manage to bring that pretty face back for me so that I can try to fix up that nasty cut?”
Jared cocks his head to the side and it’s only then that he realizes he’s still in his wolf form. He can feel blood matted in the fur on the side of his face and he knows it’s not going to be a pretty site when he makes it back to his human form.
“I know it hurts,” Jensen says gently, “but you can’t stay like that forever. I need to see that smile of yours again, hear that voice.”
Jared fidgets where he stands, scared and unsure. He hadn’t meant to shift, it had been nothing but instinct, a threat to his life and the animal inside him had burst forth to defend him. There hadn’t been any pain, at least none that Jared remembers, but this is different. There’s no one threatening his life here, no one trying to harm someone he loves. The memory of what it had been like in Jensen’s room back at the guesthouse is still there in the front of his mind, how excruciating it had been, how it felt like his insides where tearing themselves apart and knitting back together. He doesn’t want to face that again.
Jensen smirks. “Can’t christen this house if you look like Lassie,” he tries, and Jared rolls his wolf eyes as best he can, but Jensen’s smile slips. “Jared, I need you.” His voice is desperate. “I can’t go out there and face all of those people by myself. I know it’s selfish, and I know you probably hate me for it, but, God, please. Please, just come back to me. I’ll never ask you to do this again if you just come back to me right now.”
“You can’t promise that,” Jared says. “We have to give birth in our wolf forms. ‘S just how it works.” Jensen grins at him, seemingly pleased and proud, and Jared looks down at his very naked, very human body. “Oh.”
“That’s my boy.” Jensen cups the side of his face with one hand and leans down to give him a deep but fleeting kiss before he helps Jared up onto the empty chair and wraps the blanket around him.
“I didn’t think about it,” Jared says as Jensen starts wiping at the blood on his face with a damp towel, “when I shifted. I didn’t think about it, it was just instinct. I needed to defend myself and that’s what my father always told me, that my first line of defense was my wolf. I didn’t think I still had those instincts.”
“Being locked away didn’t make you forget who you are, Jared,” Jensen tells him gently. “That wolf is a part of who you are, that’s not something you just forget.”
Jared traces his fingertips down the side of Jensen’s face. “I could say the same thing to you.”
Jensen shakes his head, turning to get some more paper towels. “It’s different with me, I actually did forget. My pare – those people who raised me,” Jensen corrects himself, like he can’t bear to give those people any sort of title now, “for whatever reason, they chose to make me repress my wolf side. Maybe they were scared, scared of what would happen to me if someone found out what I was, scared of me hurting them if I found out about what they did.” He laughs. “Right now, I can’t honestly say they would have been wrong about that.”
Jared grabs hold of Jensen’s wrist, stilling him as he tends to Jared’s wound. “Don’t say that. That’s not true and you know it. You don’t have that in you.”
Jensen leans back a little to look Jared right in the eye and Jared has to admit that he’s a little intimidated by what he sees in his mate’s expression.
“Jared, it is taking everything I have not to go down to that place and rip Mark apart with my bare hands for what he did to you.” He indicates all the bloody towels on the table and Jared realizes that the cut on his face must be worse than he thought.
He smiles, though, because, despite everything, Jared knows without question that this is one Alpha who would never hurt him.
“Looking out for your mate is a little different than using violence for the sake of it.”
“I think I may need you to remind me of that at some point in the future.”
“I can do that. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”
Jensen sinks back in his chair. “You’re not going anywhere, are you?” He sounds shocked, overwhelmed almost, like he’s completely in awe of the knowledge that he’ll be able to spend the rest of his very long life with a loving partner.
Jared frowns. “Jensen? You okay?”
“When I realized I wasn’t aging like normal folk I thought I’d always be alone. Who would want to be around someone who couldn’t grow old with them? So, I never got attached. When I moved around, from city to city, any job I had, I kept myself to myself, didn’t let myself get involved, make friends.” There are tears in Jensen’s eyes when he looks at Jared. “It’s a lonely way to live. I never thought I’d be able to have someone like you, someone I could just…be myself with and love without knowing that I’d have to leave before they started asking too many questions. But now, I don’t just have you, I have friends. That’s…that’s a new experience for me.”
“You have the pack now, too,” Jared reminds him. “Somewhere you know you’ll always be welcome.”
Jensen twists his mouth and looks away. “Yeah. The pack.”
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
Jensen glances up through his lashes. “Jared, none of these people know me, they don’t know what kind of Alpha I’ll be, and I just have to make them accept me? That isn’t how this should be.”
“But it is,” Jared says gently. “That’s what pack law means, Jensen. There has to be an Alpha, a leader.” He cups the side of Jensen’s face. “You just have to make sure you’re a better Alpha than Mark was.”
Jensen snorts. “Somehow, I don’t think that’ll be a problem.” He sighs. “But they don’t know that. How am I supposed to go out there and expect these people to put their faith in me? I’m a stranger to them, Jared. I thought I could do this, but being here…God, I have no idea what the hell I’m doing.”
“Hey, hey, come on, stop that, that’s not true,” Jared argues.
“Yes, it is!”
“No, it’s not! Look what you did out there, Jensen. You took control; you took Mark down without resorting to violence, something he’s never been able to do. That is the sign of a real Alpha, someone who knows how to handle any situation.”
“But I’m a stranger to them,” Jensen insists. “What’s to stop them from expecting me to be exactly like Mark? I don’t have anything to convince them otherwise.”
“No, you’re not a stranger. You’re the son of Alan Ackles. That means something to these people. Didn’t you hear them when you told Mark your name?”
“I think that’s just shock.”
Jared laughs. “A little bit, yeah. But they also know that this means that the true Alpha is back where he belongs and they can stop living in fear.” He frowns. “It means I can stop living in fear.”
Jensen leans forward and kisses him hard and deep and Jared’s left wondering how he ever managed to survive in the world without Jensen. The need to be near him is so strong it’s like he’ll fall apart without him.
“I’ll never let anything happen to you,” Jensen promises, his lips brushing Jared’s with every word. “No matter what, I won’t let anyone hurt you again.”
Jared manages a small smile despite the swell of emotions. “I know.”
Jensen kisses him again and Jared lets himself get lost in the sensations. The next few hours – days, maybe – are going to be hard for Jensen, learning the workings of the pack and showing the wolves that he’s nothing like Mark.
The back door opens from the outside, making Jared startle, and he looks up to see a man he doesn’t recognize standing in the doorway. He blushes and looks at his feet.
“My apologies, Alpha, I am intruding.” The stranger starts to back away, reaching for the doorknob as he moves.
“Who are you?” Jensen calls after him and he pauses.
“I am Misha, the pack’s healer. I thought I might be of some use to your mate.”
“Misha?” Jared says thoughtfully. He doesn’t recognize this man, this…healer.
Misha’s head snaps up. “Yes. And you are?” Jared opens his mouth to answer but he stops short when Misha’s eyes grow wide and a deep blush steals over his face. “F-forgive me,” he stutters. “You are the mate of the Alpha, it is not my place to question you. I should never have spoken out of turn.”
Jared chuckles, not at all offended. “Sorry, I was just wondering where you came from. You weren’t here before I was locked up.”
Misha blushes. “I was merely passing through a few years ago when I found my mate. As I was a healer and therefore useful, the Alph – I mean, Mark allowed me to stay.”
Jared cocks his head. “Mated with who?”
“Genevieve.”
Jared lets out a surprising and unexpected laugh and exchanges an amused glance with Jensen. “I’m Jared. Genevieve and I grew up together.”
Misha nods. “Gen has spoken of you. You are the friend she thought dead, but I see she was mistaken. She failed to mention that you were an Alpha’s mate.”
“Well, she thought Jensen was dead, too, so I can’t really blame her for that.”
Jensen clears his throat. “Alright, as fascinating as this little history lesson is, I’d rather we saved it up and told everyone at once, rather than repeating it over and over. Although I’m sure there’s gonna be a lot of questions.”
Misha nods. “Indeed. No one thought we’d ever have a wolf strong enough to challenge Mark, never mind win.”
“This pack is mine,” Jensen almost growls. “It’s in my blood.”
Misha inclines his head. “Of course. I meant no disrespect.”
Jensen sighs. “I know you didn’t. I’m sorry. This is all just…very, very real to me now. It’s gonna take a while to get used to it again.”
Jared leans forward and steals a kiss before Jensen stands from his chair, offering it to the healer. “Please, sit. Tend to my mate, or whatever it is you’re going to do.”
Misha gives another bow of his head and Jared has to hide a laugh behind his hand when Jensen rolls his eyes behind Misha’s back.
“Well, at least he didn’t get your eye,” the healer says as he wipes up some of the blood that is still steadily leaking from he wound. “I guess we should be thankful for small mercies, huh?”
“Will it scar?” Jared asks.
Jensen hums approvingly. “Battle scar. Nice.”
But Misha shakes his head, much to Jared’s relief. “I shouldn’t think so. I’ll give you some salve to put on it just to be sure, but your wolf state will more than likely take care of it.”
The healer reaches into a little canvas bag he’d set on the table and pulls out a small brown jar. Unscrewing the lid, Jared’s eyes water as the stench assails his nose. Jensen sneezes.
“Damn,” Jared says, fighting everything that’s trying to make him pull away as Misha applies some of goop to the cut on his face. “That stuff is strong.”
Misha smiles. “It might smell bad, but it works.”
“Where did you learn all this?” Jensen asks as he perches on the edge of the table next to Jared.
“I was in Korea. I was a field medic. I was tending to someone in the field, gunshot to the upper thigh, if I remember correctly. Next thing I know, there’s a wolf with his teeth buried in my leg. Hurt like a motherfucker.”
“He turned you?” Jensen’s voice is growly with barely suppressed anger.
Misha nods. “At the time, I had no idea what was going on with me, everything just seemed brighter, sharper, louder. It wasn’t until a few weeks later that I shifted for the first time. I got into an argument with my CO. The angrier I got, the more I could feel it under my skin until I had to get out of there. I shifted right outside the tent, ran off into the night. Deserted.”
Jared gawps at him. “So, you had no pack? No one to teach you what it meant to be a wolf?”
“No,” Misha says with a shake of his head. “I spent a while as a wolf, learning my new body, then I travelled around for a few years until I landed with a pack in Thailand. They taught me how to be a healer, how to take care of a wolf. And then I came here. Been here ever since.”
Jared doesn’t know what to say to that, the idea that Misha had to live in the world alone. It’s almost too similar to Jensen’s life, wandering around for years, not understanding what he was, why he was different.
It makes Jared uncomfortable.
“You say you know what makes a wolf tick?” Jensen asks suddenly.
Misha blinks. “Well, yes, I suppose I do.”
“Like, a doctor, right?”
“That’s as good of an analogy as any. Why?”
“Jared.”
Jared starts. “What about me?”
Jensen looks at him with kind eyes before turning his gaze back to Misha. “He was locked in a room surrounded by silver for over thirty years. It’s made shifting…incredibly painful. What’s that done to him?”
When Misha looks back and Jared, his eyes are huge. “You haven’t shifted for thirty years?”
Jared shrugs. “Not until a few days ago.”
“Will this leave him with permanent damage?”
Suddenly, Jared desperately doesn’t want to know. He doesn’t want to know how fucked up he is now because of what Mark him through. He doesn’t want to know if he won’t be able to give Jensen –
“You wanna know if he can still conceive, don’t you?”
Jared lets out a little gasp and Misha chuckles.
“I heard Mark refer to you as an Omega, and you are the mate of the Alpha. I know what that means.”
“So answer the question,” Jensen says sternly. “Has that bastard taken that away from him as well?”
Misha silent for a few seconds as he regards both of them, and Jared can feel his heart beating in his throat.
When Misha sighs, Jared fears the worst. He can feel his stomach turning over at the thought that Mark has broken him so completely that he won’t even be able to give his mate the heir he so desperately needs and wants.
“Well, I wouldn’t be planning on knocking him up any time soon,” the healer says finally.
Jared’s heard jerks up. “Soon?”
“Jared, your body isn’t ready yet to carry a child,” Misha says soothingly. “You haven’t even gone through your first heat.”
Heat. Jared hadn’t even thought about the fact that he would probably go through heat now, just like the females.
Jensen’s frowning. “What does that mean?”
“It means that I’m going to recommend that you wait for the first four, maybe five of Jared’s heats before you start trying to get pregnant.”
“How long’s that?” Jensen rolls his eyes when they look at him. “Come on, I was four years old the last time I lived in this pack. Not exactly old enough to know about conceiving or…mating cycles or whatever.”
Misha chuckles. “Mating cycles happen twice a year – autumn and spring. Most couples choose to mate in the winter, so that they’ll have summer pups.”
Jensen grins. “Guess my parents decided on a winter baby, then.” Jensen clears his throat, suddenly serious again. “But, it will happen, right? I mean, Jared would be a great dad. I don’t want that taken away from him. If I can’t give him that…” he trails off and shakes his head, like he’s trying to get rid of unhappy thoughts. “Don’t make me regret not killing that bastard.”
Misha stands up. “Just give it a few years. I doubt you guys are ready for pups anyway. I mean, hell, look at me and Gen. Just concentrate on getting Jared’s shifting back to what it used to be. He’ll need to be at the top of his game whenever you do get to that stage.”
“Thank you,” Jared says when Misha stands up, gathering his bag.
Misha smiles down at him. “You know where I am if you need me.”
Jared watches as he lets himself out, pulling the door closed tightly after him.
Jared sighs. “You know, I didn’t even think about kids,” he says quietly. “It never even crossed my mind that I might not have been able to conceive after living in there.”
Jensen retakes his seat. “Well, Jared, you didn’t really think you would have kids at all, so that’s kinda understandable.”
Jared nods his head to concede the point. “What made you think of it?”
“It was something Steve said. Actually, it was more the way he said it, like the thought had crossed his mind, too.”
“I’m glad I can still have kids. I don’t know what we would have done if we couldn’t.”
“Like I said to JD,” Jensen says, “there are ways of adopting kids, Jared. There are orphanages full of them, all over the country. Turning a child into a werewolf might seem a little out there, but I’m sure we can make them buy it.”
“We’re not were-”
Jensen surges forward and cuts Jared off with a hard kiss, swiping his tongue along the seam of Jared’s lips.
“Will you be okay on your own for a few minutes?” Jensen asks when Jared’s still a little dazed.
“Huh?”
“I need to go make sure Chris and Chad got Mark…relocated alright. I’ll send Danneel and Chad to sit with you.”
“I think I can handle a little while by myself, Jensen. I’ve had thirty years of practice.”
Jensen’s eyes grown dark. “If I have my way, you’ll never be alone again.”
Jared kisses him again, and it’s another half hour before Jensen leaves the house.
It’s easy for Jensen to navigate his way through the trees to the jail cell, like all of his wolf senses are coming back online after years of neglect.
When he breaks cover, Chris and Chad immediately jump to their feet, almost like they’re standing at attention, while Steve and Danneel stay where they are on the ground, playing some sort of card game Jensen doesn’t understand.
“Everything okay?” Chris asks, worry coloring his voice.
“Everything’s great,” Jensen assures.
“Where’s Jared?” Chad chews on his lower lip, like the idea of Jared not being in sight makes him worry.
Jensen knows how he feels.
“Like I told Chris, I don’t want Jared down here. I don’t want him to even think about this place again, much less look at it.”
“So, he’s…alone?” Chad swallows hard.
“Tom and Mike have Mark’s loyal locked up tight,” Steve reminds them. “Riley and Jonah are with them. No one’s getting past those guys.”
Chad nods thoughtfully. “Still, I think I’ll just…go…” He shrugs. “It makes me nervous, alright?”
Jensen claps him on the shoulder. He knows exactly what Chad means. It had taken more than he thought it would to be able to leave Jared and come down here. But as much as he believes in the promise he made to make sure Jared was never left alone again, he knows it’s a promise he can’t really keep.
So, if Chad wants to go and make sure Jared is okay, Jensen isn’t going to stop him.
The sound of Danneel scrambling to her feet draws everyone’s attention. “Wait, where are you going?”
“To sit with Jared,” Chad tells her, the tone of his voice almost making it seem like he’s asking for her permission.
“I’ll go with you,” she says calmly.
She flips them the finger when Chris and Steve laugh and Jensen coughs to hide his own chuckle as they watch the two of them walk back towards the main reservation.
“Think anyone’s figured those two out yet?” Steve asks as he gets to his feet, putting the cards into the back pocket of his jeans.
“Dunno. I think I’d pay money to see Genevieve’s reaction though,” Chris says with something that resembles a giggle.
“Why?” Jensen frowns.
“Gen was the wolf who turned Danneel. Most of us thought that the two of them would mate at some point.” Chris shrugs. “Before me and Steve, no one can remember the last time a wolf mated with a human, so we don’t really know how that works. I guess we just assumed that, if Gen turned Dan, then they’d have some sort of…bond or something.”
“They were all wrong,” Steve laughs. “When Misha came into the pack a couple years ago, he wasn’t on the reservation more than twenty minutes before he and Gen were locked up in her house. Mark had no choice but to let him stay. It was either that, or lose Genevieve.”
Jensen snorts. “Mark has proven that he doesn’t care about getting rid of people in this pack.”
“The thing you gotta remember though, Jensen,” Chris says carefully, “is that, all the people Mark got rid of were either people who weren’t capable of having children or were past the age where they could conceive. Genevieve is neither of those things.”
Steve nods. “Yep, and the more pups born into the pack under Mark’s leadership, the more his control spreads. It’s a good plan, if you have the patience to pull it off.”
Chris glares at his mate. “Tell me I didn’t just hear you say that?”
“What? I didn’t say I supported his plan. Just that it was a good one.”
Jensen shakes his head. “Enough bickering. Let’s do what I came down here to do so that I can move on to everything else I have to do today.” His sighs. “You know, when we were coming up with this plan, none of y’all told me how exhausting being Alpha was.”
Chris frowns. “What did you come down here to do?”
“Open the door.”
“Jen,” Chris says, a warning in his tone.
“I just want to talk to him. Ask him some questions. I’ll stay at least six feet away from him if that makes you feel better.”
Chris rolls his eyes and pushes away from the wall he’s been leaning against. “It really doesn’t but I can already tell you’re not going to let it go.”
Jensen smiles. “Good boy.” Chris punches him in the shoulder.
Chris is wearing heavy work gloves as he unlocks the silver padlock and pulls the silver bolt open. Jensen’s allergy to silver was something that always fascinated him, something so rare he’d never met a single human with the same condition.
Of course, now he knows it’s just another part of his wolf side, but at the time it had been something he had to work around. A lot of people liked silver jewelry.
“I demand you let me out of here right now!” Mark yells as soon as Jensen steps into the small room.
Jensen cocks his head to one side. “When my mate asked that question – actually asked, not demanded of his Alpha something which he has no right to demand – did you agree? Did you let him go and let him rejoin the pack?”
Mark takes a step back, away from Jensen. “He is…he’s…he is different! I am Alpha! You have no right to-”
“Shut your mouth,” Jensen says calmly and watches as Mark snaps his mouth closed. It’s perversely satisfying. “I am Alpha. This is my pack that you took from my father for no other reason than to know the glory of being Alpha. You took this pack because you thought it had no heir. You know damn well you could never be Alpha if there was another to take your place. The only reason you chose this pack was because you thought it was weak.”
“It is weak,” Mark sneers. “There is no one who is Alpha enough to-”
“I’m fairly certain I told you to shut your damn mouth,” Jensen interrupts and Mark stops talking. “My leaving was not by my own consent. Jesus Christ, I was four and newly mated. You think I just decided to walk away from that?”
“Then where have you been?” Mark asks, breaking the Alpha’s order for a second time. Jensen is surprised. Mark might not be a true Alpha in terms of running a pack, but he has Alpha tendencies, strengths that he’s acquired through years of playing the role. It’s impressive.
“I was raised by humans, made to suppress and forget everything about my true nature. It wasn’t until I met my mate that I remembered who and what I am.” Jensen paces in front of Mark. “You know, I should thank you for that. If you hadn’t forced Jared to run, I never would have met him.”
Mark glares. “Fucking little Omega bitch. He had no right to disobey his Alpha!”
“I am his Alpha!” Jensen roars. “You are nothing but his…his torturer. If I was a lesser wolf I would kill you where you stand.”
Mark raises his chin defiantly. “Then why don’t you?”
“Because I have a few questions for you first.” Jensen takes a moment to look around the small, dingy room before he takes a seat on the poor excuse for a bed. “How did you find out that the Black Foot pack had no heir?”
By the door, Chris shifts and Jensen knows this is something that’s been bothering him and the other members of the Guard.
“I attended an Alphas meeting with my father half a century ago. They asked Alan if he’d found a suitable heir yet,” Mark says with what can almost be described as a pout.
“And his reply?” Jensen asks. He’s never heard Jared or anyone mention anything about an Alphas meeting and he vows to look into it.
“He said there was a wolf he was considering but was as yet unmated. He was waiting to see if and when he mated before deciding if he was right to lead the pack.”
Jensen glances at Chris again and raises an eyebrow, smirking at the shocked look on the Guardian’s face.
“And when you decided you’d outgrown your pack, you decided to come here and see if this one was still on the market?”
Mark lowers his gaze. “It was not my intention to take over this pack. But when I was passed over as Alpha of my own pack, I lost control.”
“How?”
“I tried to kill the Alpha and take his place.”
Jensen nods. “You’re the second son of the Alpha of your pack?”
Mark smirks. “First son, actually.”
Jensen manages to keep his reaction in check but he can hear the gasps by the door, Chris and Steve both shocked by what they’ve just learned.
“My, my. What could you have done to earn such a punishment?” Jensen mocks.
“My mate was killed,” Mark snarls. “In our city, the werewolves live amongst the humans, we are not secret. For the most part, we’re…content with the arrangement, but there were a few – on both sides – who hated our situation. I was one of them. My mate was not, but the humans on the other side didn’t care about that, and when they saw her, alone for the first time since we’d mated, they gunned her down in a shower of silver bullets.”
No one has anything to say to that, Jensen refusing to acknowledge the pang of sympathy in his chest. “And you retaliated?”
Mark shakes his head. “Not at first, but when I learned that my father was going to refuse me my rightful place as Alpha…I couldn’t let him do that.”
“You challenged the Alpha’s decision?” Chris asks, surprised. “You were an unmated wolf who had no way to continue the bloodline. It was the Alpha’s right to overlook you.”
“I am an alpha!” Mark screeches at them. Chris only sniggers.
“So am I apparently, but you don’t hear me complaining about it.”
“So,” Jensen says, trying to bring them back to the subject at hand, “you challenged your Alpha and lost. Then what happened?”
“I told him I could find another mate. I could get an heir.”
Jensen casts a glance at Chris. “Is it possible?”
Chris makes a face. “In rare circumstances it has been heard of an Alpha taking a new mate if his first mate passes. But normally it’s under extreme conditions. But, of course, we’re talking about an Alpha taking a new mate, not a wolf.”
“It could have happened if I’d been the Alpha!”
“So, your brother became the next Alpha instead and you did…what exactly?”
Mark turns away, avoiding the Alpha’s gaze and Jensen growls low in his chest. “You will answer the question. What did you do?”
“I attacked my brother. And his mate. We were exiled.”
“You were lucky,” Chris spits. “I would have killed you.”
“As would I,” Jensen agrees. “And your Council?”
“They are the other wolves from my pack who disagreed with the human-wolf situation, the ones who agreed with me about segregation. They sided with me in my attempt to oust my brother.”
“And they were exiled, too,” Jensen finishes for him. “You came here because you remembered that Alan hadn’t found an heir, you wanted to see if that was still true?”
Mark nods. “My Council stayed away while I asked for asylum. I spent some time learning the intricacies of Alan and how he ran his pack. Once I was sure he had no heir in place, I alerted my Council and I made my challenge.”
Jensen looks back at Chris for an explanation. He’s really going to have to read up on pack law.
“An unmated wolf can challenge an older, heirless Alpha and the Alpha would have to step down,” Chris confirms. “If Mark had been older or Alan younger, Mark would have had no chance. Plus, Mark kept the fact that he was a widowed wolf from the pack. We all just assumed that he hadn’t mated yet.”
Jensen nods thoughtfully, satisfied with the answers for now. “Alright, let’s move on to Jared.”
Mark snorts. “What about him?”
“You kept him locked in this…prison cell for thirty years for no reason any of us can establish. You told the pack that you executed him for being an Omega, something that is beyond his control. You actually did execute his parents for birthing an Omega, again, something that was out of their control. I just want to know why.”
Mark looks away, his eyes focused on the floor to the left of Jensen’s feet. “He was supposed to be a widowed Omega. I was a widowed Alpha. You figure it out for yourself.”
“You…you wanted to mate with him? With Jared?” Steve asks, shock and disgust in his tone.
“I came down here once a month, to visit with him, to see if he would be…receptive of me,” Mark says, his voice so calm Jensen would think they were discussing the weather if he didn’t know any better.
Jensen doesn’t bother to try to mask the growl that’s building up in his throat. He lets it out, lets everyone in the room know how mad his is, how close he is to losing control.
“If you touched him, I will have your head,” he snarls.
Mark has the gall to laugh. “Your precious Omega has all of his virtue intact, I promise you that. He never took to me.” He waves a hand at Jensen. “And now I know why. He wasn’t widowed at all.”
“Why?” Jensen barks. “Why lock him away if you wanted to mate with him?”
“An Omega in my pack is considered the lowest of the low, beneath even the youngest pup.”
“They are the mate of the Alpha,” Chris points out. “They are Beta.”
“No, not in my pack. If an Alpha – or future Alpha – mates with a male wolf, they are expected to step down, to leave the pack. It is a disgrace to our pack to have an Omega as the Beta.”
When Jensen risks a glance at them, both Chris and Steve look ill, green around the edges.
“That…that is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard,” Chris stammers. “And I’ve seen and heard some revolting things come out of your mouth.”
Mark just shrugs. “Letting someone – even this miserable pack – know that I had mated with an Omega was something I just couldn’t stomach. So I kept Jared down here, just in case we did mate. He could carry the pups to term and raise them until they were weaned and I could take them from there. The pack would never have to know where my heir came from.”
“And the reason you left the pack looking for an heir?”
Mark shrugs. “I’d come to realize that if Jared hadn’t taken to me after so many years, then he never would. I needed to find an heir from somewhere.”
Jensen stands up. “I’ve heard enough. We’re through here.” One more minute in this room and Jensen is going to do what he promised and tear Mark’s throat out.
“Wait!” Mark calls, following Jensen to the door. “We’re not finished.”
Jensen whirls on him. “Yes, Mark, we are. This is my pack. It has always been my pack and you are just another silly little wolf with ideals above his station.”
Mark cocks an eyebrow. “So what are you gonna do? Have me killed? Or are you wolf enough to do it yourself?”
“No, Mark, I’m not going to kill you, or have you killed,” Jensen tells him plainly. “I’ve decided I don’t want to be you. I don’t want to lead my pack through fear and intimidation and threats of death if they step out of line.”
“Then you are a fool, Jensen.”
Jensen takes a threatening step forward. “You will refer to me as Alpha.” He’s pleased when Mark backs away, fear flashing across his face for a split second before he gets his emotions under control.
“So what?”
Jensen looks around. “Welcome to your new home. Meals will be delivered to you three times a day. You will not speak to another wolf for the rest of your natural life. You will never see direct sunlight again. You will never shift into your wolf form again.”
“You can’t do that! You can’t do this to me!”
“It was good enough for you to subject my mate to it for thirty years,” Jensen says.
“I think it’s kinda apt,” Steve says with a chuckle. “Karma’s a bitch, Mark.”
“Shut your dirty mouth, you fucking half breed!” Mark yells.
Jensen doesn’t really decide to punch Mark, so it’s a surprise when the older wolf is suddenly sailing across the room, slamming hard into the wall. He sinks to the floor with a loud groan.
“Steve is a member of my Council and you will show him the respect he deserves,” Jensen orders.
If Chris or Steve is shocked by the announcement, neither of them shows it and Jensen brushes past them and out of the cabin, vowing that he will never lay eyes on Mark again.
“Lock the door. He is never to leave that prison while he’s still breathing air.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Chris says, respectfully doing what he’s ordered, ignoring Mark’s screams and pleas as he bangs on the door, demanding to be freed.
Jensen marches back to the main part of the reservation, crossing the square in determined strides, Chris and Steve struggling to keep up with him.
“Alpha,” a tall, dark haired man says as he shifts back to his human form as Jensen approaches the schoolhouse. Another wolf does the same, leaving only the two wolves Jensen assumes are Riley and Jonah for defense.
“Who’s in there?” Jensen asks, inclining his head towards the door.
“The Alpha’s Council wolves,” the second man answers. “Some of the other Guardians have the original members of the pack who turned their loyalty to Mark locked up in the woodshed.
Jensen nods. “Open the door,” he orders.
“Alpha,” the dark hair wolf intones, bowing his head as his partner – mate or not, Jensen doesn’t know – scrambles to do as Jensen requested.
As soon as the doors open, a huge black wolf bursts out of the school house, heading straight for Jensen.
“Stop,” the Alpha orders, smiling when the wolf skids to a halt six feet away. “Shift back into your human form.” He looks past the black wolf to see the other wolves pad slowly from the darkened room. “All of you.”
Pain filled grunts permeate the air as the five wolves shift back to their human forms, all of them crouched on the ground as they tried to breathe around the pain of a forced shift and Jensen vows to himself that, after today, he will never force a member of his pack to shift if he can help it.
“You have two choices,” he tells the five of them, done with everything that has to do with Mark and his so-called Council wolves. “You either choose to join my pack or you will be exiled from this and every other pack in America.”
The wolf that charged at Jensen, now a middle-aged black man, rises to his full height. “You cannot threaten us with exile from another pack.”
“This is the twenty-first century, pal, and the internet was a great invention,” Jensen mocks. “I can do whatever I goddamn want, and I’m pretty sure that most – if not all – of the other packs will agree to do what I ask, if for no other reason than to stop anyone else from finding out their treatment of Omegas within their own pack.”
The wolf squares his shoulders and looks Jensen in the eye. “I will never live under the rule of an Omega. I’d rather die.”
Jensen shrugs. “You’re lucky I don’t have my predecessors violent streak.” He looks past the wolf at the other four. “What about the rest of you?”
“Never,” the large, bald man snarls.
The only female in the group glances at the male to her left and he scowls at Jensen.
“I’d kill you both before the night was out.”
Jensen rolls his eyes. “So dramatic.” He looks at the last of them, an older wolf, easily the oldest of all of them. “And you?”
“I’m an old man, Alpha, alone in this world. Exile would kill me, and I’d rather take whatever punishment you seem fit than face a life without the comfort of a pack. Even if I’m not welcome in it.”
Jensen gives him a considering look, taking in his unassuming, passive stance. “What’s your name?”
“Fredric, Alpha.”
“Hmm.”
Jensen takes a few more minutes to assess all of them, his gaze taking in the aggressive expressions of the three males, the nervous look the female keeps sending him, the quiet acceptance of Fredric. Finally, he sighs and turns to Chris and Steve.
“I want you to form a…party or whatever, and run the four of them out of the state. I want them out of Texas by tomorrow.”
Chris bows his head. “Yes, Alpha.”
Jensen grits his teeth. He knows it’s nothing more than a show of support for the Alpha in front of the…rebels, for want of a better word, but it’s really starting to grate on his last nerve.
“Tom, Mike, Riley, Jonah,” Chris says formally. “With me.”
Jensen eyes the traitors. “All four of you shift and follow Christian.”
They scream in pain but follow Jensen’s order to the letter. He waits until they’re all out of earshot before he turns back to Fredric, Steve moving to stand in Chris’ place.
“Mark tells me the position of an Omega is treated differently within your pack.”
Fredric averts his eyes but his answers in the affirmative. “An Omega is treated as something vile and unclean. If an Alpha, or a future Alpha, mates with another male wolf, pair is expected to leave the pack as soon as their mating lust has been dealt with.”
“They’re treated lower than a newborn pup, correct?”
“Yes.”
“From now on, that is your standing within the Black Foot pack. You will deliver food to Mark in his prison three times a day, you will speak only when spoken to, and you will address everyone – including the pups – in nothing less than a formal manner.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
“No one will take advantage of your position, I’ll make sure of it, but you will have no right to question or challenge anyone. Do I make myself clear?”
Fredric drops to his knees. “Yes, Alpha. I thank you for your mercy, Alpha.”
“It isn’t mercy, Fredric. I want to be the kind of Alpha my father was, not the one you chose to align yourself with,” Jensen explains calmly. “I’ll sort out accommodation for you tomorrow. In the meantime, you can stay wherever it is you stay now. There’ll be two Guardians outside at all times.”
Jensen turns on his heel, not giving Fredric time to speak on the order.
“Too harsh?” he asks Steve as the other wolf follows him.
“Considering Mark would have publicly executed all of them, I think you were pretty damn lenient.”
“I don’t want to be Mark,” Jensen says with a growl.
Steve chuckles. “You could never be Mark, not even if you tried.”
When they make it back to the main square and the Alpha’s house, the other members of the pack are still gathered outside, waiting to be addressed by their new Alpha. Jensen sneaks past them and into the house through the back door
Jared is dressed in his own clothes and Jensen assumes Danneel and Chad stopped by the car on their way here. But he’s not alone. There are three other people in the room with him, two women and a man and Jensen frowns in confusion.
“Hey,” he says quietly.
Jared starts and little and sits up. “Everything okay?”
“Everything’s peachy,” Jensen assures him, reaching down to press a kiss to his lips, wary of the strangers.
“What happened?”
Jensen shakes his head. “Nothing much.” Nothing on this earth will force Jensen to tell Jared of Mark’s true plans for him. Jared doesn’t need to know that and Jensen will not be the one who puts those thoughts in his head. One look over his shoulder at Steve tells Jensen he feels the same way.
“Is Mark…is he alive?” Jared asks in a small voice, like he’s afraid of the answer.
Jensen regards him for a few seconds. It was only a few days ago that Jared was calling for Mark’s blood, wanting to rip his throat out with his teeth. Jared certainly got a taste of Mark’s blood – the evidence is still staining Jared’s neck and chin – but it seems as the though the thought of actually taking a life is something that Jared just can’t stomach.
Just when Jensen thought it was impossible to love Jared more.
“He’s still alive,” Jensen confirms, taking a seat on the couch next to him. “He’s taken your place as the Pack Foot pack prisoner. He’ll spend the rest of his life locked away.”
Jared seems to almost deflate at the news, relief pouring off of him in waves. “That’s…okay, then.”
“I don’t want to be like Mark,” Jensen repeats. “I won’t kill and rule this pack through fear. I want to be a fair Alpha, like my father was.”
“He didn’t believe in killing either,” Jared assures and Jensen presses a kiss to his cheek.
“Most of his Council has been run off the reservation,” Jensen goes on. “As soon as I find a computer or figure out how the other packs stayed in contact, I’ll make sure they never find refuge in a pack in this country.”
“Most?”
“Fredric has elected to stay behind and live under my rule. He won’t be making trouble.”
Jared sighs. “It really is all over. We did it.”
The front door opens, then, and Chris enters the room looking shell shocked. Jensen’s on his feet in a flash.
“What happened?”
Chris shakes his head. “Nothing major. Mitch and Sterling tried to fight the Guards, but we managed to take them down.”
Jensen narrows his eyes. “Take them down?” He doesn’t like the sound of that.
“They’re not dead, just a little beat up. Let’s just say they really won’t enjoy being run out of the state on three broken legs.”
“Who’s running them out?” Steve asks.
“Tom, Mike, Riley, Jonah. A few other lower level Guards looking to make a name for themselves in front of the new Alpha.” Chris grins and Jensen and Jensen rolls his eyes.
“You let them go?” the man barks and Jensen turns his full attention to them for the first time.
“I didn’t kill anyone, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Jared blushes. “Jensen, this is my brother and sister, Jeff and Megan, and Jeff’s mate, Sandy.”
Jeff leaps to his feet. “Why the hell not? Why did you let them go? Do you even know what they did?!”
Chris growls and steps in front of Jensen. “You will show respect for your Alpha, wolf.”
“NO! If he’s going to pull shit like this, he doesn’t deserve my respect!”
“Jeff, please.” Sandy tugs gently on her mate’s arm, trying to make him sit down, or at least back away.
Jensen looks over his shoulder at Steve. “I don’t know names.”
“Mitch, Sterling, Cormac and Jessica,” Steve tells him.
“Yeah, those four. Like I said, I’ve exiled them from the pack, from Texas, and, as soon as I can get online and figure out how to contact other packs, every single werewolf pack in the United States.”
Jeff seems to calm a little. “A werewolf without a pack is…”
Jensen grimaces. “A lonely experience. Trust me, I know. I lived it for a hundred years without ever even knowing what I was missing. It’s torture, nothing less.”
“And the others?” Megan, Jared’s younger sister, asks softly, her eyes downcast. “Fredric and the wolves within our pack who had loyalty to Mark?”
“Fredrick will remain part of the pack, as I’ve said.” Jensen listens to the growls and exclamations from Jeff at the news, but he expected nothing less. “He’s an old man, old and mateless. He has agreed to a position within the pack that would place him lower than every newborn pup. He has no standing in this pack, he answers to everyone. I’ll make a formal announcement later, but he isn’t here for everyone to take turns kicking him around.”
“Then why is he here?” Jeff’s anger is back full force.
“Because he won’t survive without a pack and it will hurt far more to lose his standing that he once had and have to watch everyone around him grow within the pack when he can’t.”
He can tell Jeff isn’t happy with that, but he knows that the rest of the wolves in the room can see the logic and he grips Jared’s hand when his mate reaches out to him.
“And the others?” Jared asks in a soft voice, his eyes bright with curiosity.
“I’ll address them separately, but they’ll be given the same choice. Live under my rules, or be exiled.”
Jensen sits down on the couch next to Jared and takes his mate’s face in his hands, forcing Jared to look into his eyes. “I swear to you, with everything that I am and everything that I have, no one will never be in a position to hurt you ever again.”
“I know, I just…I can’t believe it’s finally over, you know? It’s been thirty years. I didn’t think I’d ever get out of that room, never mind take my rightful place as pack Beta. It’s a little overwhelming right now.”
Jensen leans forward and kisses Jared, long and slow and ignorant of the other people still in the room. He only pulls back when Jared’s sister giggles and he looks past Jared’s shoulder to see her staring at them with wonder in her eyes.
“Alright,” Jensen says with a deep breath. “I suppose we ought to go face the masses.”
Jared groans. “Aw, do we have to? Can’t we just have some time to ourselves where we aren’t trying to plot anything or explain something to you or trying not to get killed?”
“We will, we’ll have all of that,” Jensen promises, “after we’ve spoken to the pack and we get all of this legal stuff or whatever out of the way. Just you and me and no interruptions, for at least a week.”
“Sounds good to me,” Jared agrees, kissing Jensen again.
“We’ll, uh, go rejoin the pack,” Megan says, getting to her feet and motioning for Jeff and Sandy to do the same. “Give you guys time to sort out whatever it is you need to sort out for this kind of thing.” She stops by Jared as they head for the door, squeezing his shoulder gently. “I’m so glad to have you back, you can’t even imagine, but,” she giggles and shakes her head, “pack Beta? I so do not envy you right now.”
Jared groans again. “Thanks a lot, Meggie.”
Jensen can see tears forming in her eyes as Jared looks up at her. “You’re the only person who ever called me that. I never thought I’d hear it again.”
He moves out of the way as Jared surges to his feet, rushing to his sister and enveloping her in another bone crushing hug. Jensen leaves them to it, crossing to the other side of the room to where Steve and Chris are leaning against the wall, quietly observing.
“Where are Chad and Danneel?” he doesn’t even know why he’s asking, but he needs to get everyone together so that he can provide a united front to the pack.
“I think I heard the floorboards squeak a few minutes ago,” Steve says, jerking his thumb at the ceiling.
Jensen sighs and rubs at his temples. “Please can you go separate them? I think I might go blind if I have to see that.”
Steve gives him a mock serious look, bowing at the waist. “Yes, Alpha.”
“Oh, God, none of that, not from you guys. I don’t think I could take it.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Steve says again and Jensen reaches out to smack him, only for Steve to dance out of reach.
“Hey,” Chris says, distracting him, “what did you mean ‘we’ have to get ready to face the pack? It’s only you and Jared. There is no other ‘we’.”
“Alpha Council,” Steve lilts as he bounds up the stairs to the second floor and Jensen vows to buy a new mattress if they’re having sex in his and Jared’s bed, the bed that used to be Mark’s. Jensen looks around the room and wrinkles his nose. Everything in this house belonged to the former Alpha. Everything will need to be replaced.
Chris’ eyes grow wide. “You’ve already picked your Council? But you haven’t even met the pack yet, Jen.”
Jensen just looks at him, not really sure if he’s joking or not. “Are you being intentionally dense?” he asks when he can’t figure it out. Chris was there when Jensen told Mark that Steve was part of his Council.
Chris shakes his head. “What? No. What are you talking about?”
“After everything you guys did for Jared – and for me – do you really think I’d chose anyone else to sit on my Alpha Council?”
Chris blinks. “I…I don’t know what to say.”
Jensen shrugs. “Unless you’re saying ‘no’, there’s nothing to say.”
“I don’t even wanna know where you learned that, Elta Danneel Harris!” Steve yells loudly as he thumps back down the stairs. “I am fucking scarred for life. You so owe me for this, Jensen Ackles.”
Jensen raises his eyebrows, looking past Steve to see Chad and Danneel stumble into the room. Chad is still trying to buckle his pants as Danneel struggles to button her shirt.
“I don’t think I wanna know,” he decides.
“Oh, no, you really need to share my pain, Alpha,” Steve mocks.
“You could have at least knocked,” Danneel pouts.
“You were in the upstairs hallway! There was nowhere to knock!” Steve steps closer to her and Jensen can see the argument before it even starts.
“I’ve never had any brothers or sisters, but you two are definitely what I imagined it to be like,” he says with a shake of his head, moving to stand between the warring pair. “Alright, listen. Danni, Chad, from now on, no having sex in anyone else’s house, especially if there are other people in said house. And if you need to do it outside, take it somewhere no one’s gonna accidentally see you. I don’t need you scarring the pups. And in return, Steve promises to knock whenever he comes to visits, okay?”
“It’s not our fault all this shit happened in the middle of our mating,” Chad reminds them. “We haven’t even had a chance to get over our mating lust yet. It’s hard.”
“And yet, Jared and I manage just fine,” Jensen points out with a glare. He points a finger at Chad. “Keep it in your pants until I’ve at least spoken to the pack and announced you as my Council. After that, I promise not to bother any of you for at least a week, deal?”
Chad sighs, like the biggest burden in the world has just been set on his shoulders. “Fine.”
Chris waves his hands in the air. “Wait a minute. Am I the only one who’s surprised to be on Jensen’s Alpha Council?”
Jensen sniggers as Steve, Danneel and Chad all stare at him.
“Uh, yeah,” Danneel says, sarcasm lacing her tone. “You know, if you’re gonna be bodyguard to the Alpha, you gotta be quicker on the uptake.”
Chad puffs out his chest. “Yeah, like me. Bodyguard to the Beta. Oh, yeah, I totally saw this coming.”
Jensen laughs and shoves him towards the front door, the others following along behind.
Jared’s still standing in the hallway, looking through the window at the scene in front of the house.
“There’s so many of them,” he almost whispers. “I don’t remember the pack being this big.”
“You were gone for thirty years, Jay,” Danneel reminds gently, “that’s a lotta mated pairs and babies being born.”
“Pups,” Chad corrects. Danneel stomps on his foot.
“If you call our children ‘pups’ I will eat you alive.” A horrified expression crosses over her face. “Oh, God, I’m gonna have babies with Chad!”
Steve stares at her. “You’re just figuring this out?”
Chad crosses his arms over his chest. “I’d like to point out that I’m really insulted right now.”
“But…Chad babies!” Danneel wails and Jensen decides to tune them out, moving to stand in front of Jared and reaching up to kiss his mate softly.
“Enough of all the whining, let’s get this over with so that we can get back to normal around here.” He pauses. “Or at least give me time to figure out what my version of normal actually is now.”
Jared grins at him and Jensen takes his hand as he reaches forward to open the door of the house.
He steps out onto the porch, Jared’s hand held firmly in his own, and it met with a cheer from the crowd so loud he thinks he could deaf from it.
Jensen squeezes Jared’s hand, takes a deep breath and smiles, ready to take on his new role.
Two Years Later
Riley is patrolling with Jonah when they catch them trying to sneak over the boundary line on the far side of the reservation. They look smug at being caught, like this was their plan all along and the female bats her eyelashes at Riley as she shifts into her human form, looking tall and exotic and beautiful and if Riley weren’t happily mated going on four years, he’d be drooling right about now.
As it is, he lets Jonah shift into his human form when the pair ask to be escorted to the Alpha, afraid his human body would give away just what the female was doing to him.
He falls into line behind the strangers and Jonah, not one of them the least bit embarrassed by their naked bodies as they strut boldly through the reservation.
The pack turns to them, stopping what they’re doing to stare in open mouthed curiosity at the newcomers, a few of them looking on in fear.
Riley can’t blame them. He was just a pup when Mark arrived on the reservation, but he still remembers the tears when the Alpha and Beta were killed, when the Padaleckis were killed – when Jared was supposedly killed. He can understand being wary of allowing new wolves into the reservation, even if the last newcomer had turned out to be more than a welcome presence.
“Who’s this?” Chris, the Alpha’s personal bodyguard, stands up from where he’s been lounging in a wicker chair on the porch of the Alpha’s house. It’s usually where the Alpha Council can be found during the day, if they don’t have something that needs their attention, and, looking around, Riley isn’t surprised to find the other three members spread out along the wrap around porch the Alpha had built himself by hand.
“We caught them sneaking over the boundary line at the south of the reservation,” Jonah informs them and the male Council members immediately come to attention as Danneel takes a step back, pup clutched tightly to her chest.
“We seek an audience with your Alpha,” the male says, his voice full of confidence and attitude, like he knows something the rest of them don’t.
“You’re looking at him.” The door to the house swings open and Jensen steps onto the porch, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jeans as he regards the two stranger wolves with something that looks a lot like disinterest. “Do I know you?”
Riley watches with confusion as the male wolf takes a step back, his confidence waning as he exchanges a look with the female. “I…uh...I…” he clears his throat, sudden nerves apparently stealing his voice. “My name is James; this is my mate, Charisma. I…uh, I think there has been some mistake. We were looking for the Alpha of the Black Foot pack.”
Jensen shrugs. “No mistake. My name is Jensen Ackles; I’m the Alpha of the Black Foot pack.”
Again, James chances a look at Charisma, but the female looks just as confused.
“We were told that the Alpha of the Black Foot pack was a…an unmated wolf named Mark. We came here to, uh, pay our respects to an old friend,” she says, her voice shaking.
Jensen puts an appropriately sad look on his face, but even from where he’s standing, Riley can tell that it’s fake. There is no sympathy within the pack reserved for Mark Pellegrino.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m afraid Mark passed away some years ago. It was quite a shock to all of us, I can assure you,” Jensen tells them.
Riley thanks his wolf form for hiding the laugh that threatens to spill out of his lips.
No one within the pack had mourned Mark’s passing. In fact, Chad had thrown a party, calling it a time for celebration. The fact that Mark had taken his own life because he couldn’t face another day in his prison cell just made his death all the sweeter.
Not to mention the announcement that the Black Foot pack would finally get the heir they had so desperately sought all those years ago had come that same day
James falters, all of his swagger and poise gone in face of Mark’s absence. “Oh, how…how sad. It seems as though we’ve been out of the loop for some time.”
“Quite some time,” Jensen agrees and Riley sniggers again, this time, Chad and Jonah joining in.
Riley can see the nerves in the couple now as they look up at the Alpha, like they realize just how out of their depth they are.
“Is there anything I can help you with?” Jensen asks, a hint of steel creeping into his voice. “Since you went to all this trouble to sneak onto my reservation and demanded an audience with me, I feel as though there was something you obviously wanted.”
Riley takes a step forward, putting himself between James and Jensen, even as Jonah, Chris and Chad move to do the same thing.
James, some of his confidence returning, looks up at Jensen with steely blue eyes, but before he can say anything, the door to the house opens again and Riley looks over his shoulder to see the Alpha’s heir come stumbling out of the house on unstable feet.
“DA!” the toddler calls brightly, reaching out to Jensen with chubby arms and the Alpha grins, swinging his son up into his arms.
“Well, hey, there! Look who’s made it to his first shift!” The little boy bats at his father’s face as Jensen leans in to press kisses to his cheeks.
“Wish he wouldn’t be so steady on his feet after his first shift. I swear, I just about had a heart attack when he ran off on me,” Jared appears in the doorway, a proud smile on his face as he watches father and son tease each other playfully. “It took me days to learn how to walk on two legs. He takes after you, Jensen, I swear to God.”
“Well, of course he does, he’s the future Alpha; of course he’s going to take after his father.” Danneel’s voice is pointed and abrupt and Riley knows she’s trying to drive home the point that James has no right or reason to challenge Jensen for his place.
“Perhaps it’s best if we move on,” Charisma says suddenly, pulling at James’ arm as she looks at the gathered wolves nervously.
Riley watches with concern as Jared grows wary, his posture stiffening as he moves closer to his mate and his son. “Who’s this?”
“No one,” Jensen assures, “they were looking for someone, but clearly they’ve been relying on some bad information. They were just leaving, isn’t that right, James?”
“Yes,” James says immediately, “we don’t want to take up any more of your time.” He starts backing away, pulling Charisma with him.
“Please, allow Chris and Chad to escort you to the boundary,” Jensen offers but Riley knows it’s more of an order than an offer and he moves out of the way as the two Council members descend the porch steps and fall into step beside James and Charisma, one on either side. Jonah shifts back into his wolf form and leads them all back to the spot he and Riley had first come across the pair.
“So, what do you think?” Riley asks after shifting back to his human form. “Think they were here to challenge Mark for his place as Alpha?”
“That’d be my guess,” Danneel agrees, retaking her seat in the rocking chair, her pup – born just last month – curled protectively in her arms.
“Seems as though news of Mark’s sudden and deeply mourned death hasn’t quite reached some of the more remote packs.” The sarcasm is thick in Steve’s voice.
Mark lasted just over a year locked up in his prison cell before he took his nails and teeth to his own wrists, tearing out the skin and flesh until he bled out on the floor, alone and pitiable. Which is more than any of them had given him credit for.
No one mourned him; the only people who attended his funeral were Jensen, Jared and Fredric, the Alpha and Beta attending only to get a sense of closure, unlike Fredric, who went out of loyalty to the wolf he still thought of as his Alpha, even after his incarceration.
That afternoon, as the remains of Mark’s pyre still smoldered, Jensen ordered that the prison cell be destroyed. There was no need for it now, and Riley couldn’t help but feel a huge sense of relief when the last of the silver was carried away by Danneel and Steve, their aversion to silver not as severe because of their human born status.
With the cell gone, Riley could be sure that nothing like that could ever happen to this pack again. He was sure that he would never forgive himself for not being aware of Jared’s captivity for all those years, just like the rest of the pack would never forgive themselves.
It was all really over now.
Jensen hands his son back to Jared and comes to stand in front of Riley, a harsh but worried look in his green eyes. “I want the patrol on the boundary lines doubled for the next month. And I want Guardians in plain sight on the reservation at all time.”
Riley – vice-captain of the Guard since Chris’ promotion to the Alpha’s Council – nods his head. “Sure thing, Jensen, I’ll get right on that as soon as Jonah gets back.”
“Good, I don’t want any surprises.” The Alpha winks. “I’m just getting used to all of this, no way I’m giving it up now. Not without a fight, anyway.”
Jared smacks him on the arm. “That is so not funny, man. What? You think your son isn’t giving me enough heart attacks, you have to add to it with talk like that?”
“Baby, no one’s going to take my place, here,” Jensen swears. “This little guy has made sure of that.”
Riley watches as Jensen takes the pup from his mate’s arms again, cooing as the boy giggles at him.
Feeling like he’s intruding, Riley shifts again and turns away, padding softly towards the Guard House with a silent promise that he would do whatever it took to make sure an Ackles remained as Alpha of the Black Foot pack.
There would be no more shift changes.
