Born Wolf - 6. Chapter 3.2

Tahryn saw Kurt coming his way down the corridor looking surprisingly clean and felt like he wanted to be sick again. Bad enough he’d thrown up twice in twelve hours and hadn’t been able to even look at breakfast after his father’s explanation of Kurt’s actions. But now the gangly youth was walking towards him and there was definite strut to his step, a dominance of possession and ownership and Tahryn’s wolf mind rebelled. How dare Kurt lay claim to him after Koby had tried to do the same thing albeit in a much more horrific manner? How could Kurt want to bid for him now anyway, after…after…that? Tahryn wished his head didn’t feel quite so much like it was going to explode.

Kurt’s scent reached him, musky and dew soft, rich like fresh tilled earth and pine nuts. The scent possessed him, laying claim to his territory like it had already been decided. Tahryn snarled. His growl was like a gunshot as he picked up Kurt by the front of his shirt and slammed him into the opposite wall. To humans watching it would have seemed like just one more incidence of a big popular kid picking on a less conventional classmate, but Kurt’s eyes were hard as flint and his teeth gnashed when he realised Tahryn wasn’t letting him go.

“What the fuck were you doing outside my house?” Tahryn wanted to shout, to roar, and to let out all his anger at something; but there were humans about and he kept his voice low and tight and mean.

“Get off me.” Kurt’s words were barely half formed through his snarl. “Let go.”

“No! Not until you tell me what the hell is going on.” Tahryn suddenly found his anger was holding back tears, but only barely. “Why? Why did you bid for me?”

“You smell like shit.” Kurt winced and Tahryn’s grip loosened enough to allow him to drop to the floor. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Tahryn echoed him in disbelief. “Wrong? I…” And Tahryn found he couldn’t finish the sentence, had no words in his head that would come out, and simply managed to burst into tears. What was wrong? What was right? The memory what Koby had done was fucking with his head. The boy he’d wanted for ages had now laid a claim on him instead, and just when he was feeling vulnerable. Tahryn felt the wall he’d built up around the damaged part of his mind on the way to school start to crumble.

Kurt pushed up against him, his face and damp hair pushed into the softness of Tahryn’s neck and Tahryn felt his body vibrate with the thrumming of Kurt’s rumbling purr. The wolf in Tahryn’s mind folded himself around the sensation, the physical contact a need rather than a desire as his mind broke down. Kurt was propping him up, physically as well as mentally. For a long while Tahryn didn’t care how he looked, not to Kurt or to passing humans or to the normally dominant part of his wolf brain that needed someone to understand and not ask questions. Kurt smelt like life and Tahryn hung onto it as hard as he could.

Eventually he shifted and stirred and felt Kurt’s answering vibrations before raising his head to look into the other boy’s eyes, dark honey, tawny and wild.

“Thanks.”

“No problems.” Kurt’s eyes smiled when he spoke, though his lips remained sealed. “I wanted to come and talk to you.”

“Smith! Spencer!” A human voice, as harsh to the sensitive ears of the wolves as a cheese grater invaded their little moment. “Why aren’t you in class? Good God boy, let go of him.” Kurt snarled as the man, a member of the science staff with a too-short fringe and beer belly moved him away from Tahryn. “What are you two doing out here?”

Tahryn held out his hand, palm up, and felt his heart jump when Kurt grabbed him. The growling settled a little.

“Nothing.” Tahryn left off the obligatory ‘sir’ and sneered. Both he and Kurt were stronger than this man, and way more dominant. Even a wise human would have understood the set of the boy’s muscled shoulders.

“Well, get to class then.” The teacher was not as brainless as he looked and backed off.

Tahryn waited until he left and turned to Kurt. The boy looked at him half like he wanted to eat him and half like he wanted to snuggle up against him and never move again.

“Skip with me.” Kurt demanded.

“No. I can’t.” Tahryn wished he could forget about what had happened the previous evening. He wished he could lose himself in the happy toffee eyes of the boy who wanted to be his mate. But his mind ached, and he knew he would ruin everything if he went now.

“I want you.” Kurt practically purred and Tahryn felt his instincts answer without his brain.

“No. Not yet. I’m not ready.” Tahryn hoped he didn’t sound too pathetic.

“Koby.” Kurt’s eyes went hard and flinty again. “I should have killed the little shit.”

“Sorry.”

Kurt didn’t reply, but leaned in and kissed him. Kissing Kurt had been incredible. Being kissed by him was like having a fire storm in your mouth; amazing, exhausting and exhilarating. Tahryn felt his libido start to overwhelm every other sense he had. Kurt let him go and Tahryn felt empty in a way he’d never known before.

“Mine.” Kurt rumbled before he turned and walked away, leaving Tahryn to wonder when and how he’d managed to fall so hard and fast.

They’d missed registration. Tahryn hauled himself up to the third floor for English literature, a subject he had no idea what he was ever going to do with. Tahryn’s teachers always said there was nothing he was great at. He was OK at a lot of things, but he had no major passions, no big drive. No hobbies. Of course, his hobbies involved being a professional wolf, so it was kind of hard to explain. But he liked his car, and maybe he would end up with Carson Davies at the garage restoring awesome motors and servicing new ones. It wouldn’t be a bad way to go. But Tahryn liked to think he was a good student, and he tried hard in all of his lessons, regardless of how little use he thought they might be.

They were reading ‘The Kite Runner’. He was supposed to have been reading over the weekend, but that hadn’t happened, and then again yesterday, which really hadn’t happened. Tahryn apologised half-heartedly for being late and settled into his seat near the back of the classroom. No one else in the pack was in this class with him, and Tahryn let himself drift a little, not keeping as tight a leash on the active wolf part of his mind. His human brain could focus on the book, he was skimming to catch up, and the wolf could stretch out, relax and prowl around the classroom. Tahryn tried not to yawn, he had not slept well, and managed to tune into what a girl near the front was saying while his eyes read on without his brain.

“Well obviously its payback and revenge for Hassan standing up to him after he threatened his best friend with the brass knuckles.”

“You don’t think he’s an unbalanced sociopath?” This was from a boy to Tahryn’s right, and his harsh tone made the wolf prick up his ears and take notice properly.

“He rapes the boy in an alley in front of his friend. Of course he’s a sociopath.” Tahryn’s brain froze. “But it could not be unexpected.”

“Why do you think the author has Assef rape Hassan, Tahryn? Why not a simple beating instead?” The lecturer turned to look at him and Tahryn let the question wash through his mind.

Rape.

The word made him want to throw up, he fought it. His lecturer started to repeat the question, and Tahryn felt the damaged part of his mind swelling to overcome the rest of him.

Rape. The boy is raped in an alley.

Tahryn felt the muscles of his abdomen spasm. The urge to change was strong, he groaned from between his teeth. He was sweating, shaking, wanting to turn wolf and just leave the situation. Why hadn’t he gone with Kurt?

Rape. Koby had raped him.

“Tahryn?” The boy who sat next to him whose name he could no longer remember shaped his name into a question with a million nuances. Tahryn couldn’t answer any of them except to whimper.

Another thirty long seconds he sat in his chair, book lying forgotten in front of him. He was fighting every urge he had because there was no clear course of action immediately obvious to him. Run. Fight. Hide. Throw up. Turn into a wolf. Turn into a wolf and then throw up. Kill something, some one. Find Kurt.

The scent of rotting wood and damp moss and a forest alive with a thousand heartbeats snagged in his mind. Kurt. Find Kurt. He got up, spilling bag and books and chair in his big hasty movements. For one panicked second the wolf in his brain couldn’t find the exit, the door, the way out, and tried to claw at his insides again until he remembered it was behind him. Tahryn Spencer turned and ran.

Every step he had to fight against the urge to change. Tahryn was big and powerful and intimidating in both his forms, but his human body recoiled from his mind. He didn’t want to be human. Koby never would have…If he was a wolf it couldn’t have…Being human sucked. Tahryn refused to think about any of his thoughts, didn’t settle, didn’t linger. Refused to do anything but… stay human, keep running. Do anything to not change in the middle of the hallway. Anything.

At that point he was promptly sick. There was nothing left to be sick with, but his guts managed to twist themselves around and fill his throat with bile and acid and Tahryn dry heaved and spat in the nearest trash bin. He knew distractedly that people were staring. He looked awful, ashen and grey. He was running with sweat, shaking and pale.

“Tahryn?” Henry Tanner’s prickly scent flood his sinuses, sort of yellow-green and purple-grey with a sooty burnt bark taste to it. Henry had been leader of the little group Tahryn had become mini-alpha of when he’d shown up. Now he was deeply aware of his own weakness.

“Jesus Christ Tahryn! What happened to you?” Henry touched his back and recoiled. From the clammy touch of Tahryn’s soaked clothes or the growl he issued the big blond boy wasn’t sure. He was certain sure Tahryn didn’t want the other wolf giving him comfort.

“Where is Kurt?”

“What’s the little fucker done now?” Henry tapped his foot and folded his arms over his chest. “Useless freak.” He kicked the bin with his trainer and had enough time to make a startled noise like a rabbit being stepped on before Tahryn sent him sprawling. Apparently instinctual loyalty for his mate was stronger than horror and fear because Tahryn’s back handed slap sent Henry reeling across the floor on his arse.

“Dude! What the hell?”

Tahryn snarled. It was not a halfway growl or a small rumble. It was an out and out warning given by one wolf to another usually before fur and blood went flying. Passing humans stared or scurried away in fear. They had instincts too, and it was a sound that heralded a messy and unpleasant death.

“Tahryn. Fuck, hold it together man. You can’t wolf out now!” Henry’s voice was low, but plenty loud enough to be heard by the other werewolf. He began to back away slowly, knowing that to turn and run would mean pain, and the probability of outing his entire species or killing half the humans in town. Tahryn’s snarl became a growl as Henry distanced himself and made his form small and unassuming.

“You want me to get Kurt?” Tahryn could barely nod he was so tense. “OK, I’ll get Kurt. Look, Tahryn. Go wait outside ’K?” Henry visibly winced as Tahryn snarled again. “OK, OK, never mind. I’ll get him.” Then he fled.

Tahryn wished for the tension to flee. He wanted his shoulders to sag, wanted to become a boneless ball of muscle and misery. He didn’t mind if Henry would think him weak and pathetic. But it wouldn’t happen. The tension wouldn’t ease and Tahryn was itching to hit something, really, really hard. He was a total mess. Wiping his face on his sleeve, damp and snivelling, his limbs shook every time he moved. He knew with a weird clarity the next person to touch him was going to end up with a broken nose. He really hoped it wasn’t Kurt.

He smelt the wolf who would be his mate before he saw him, and his heart should have filled with joy. He could feel it there, wanting to invade in a wave of sweetness, but the tension and anger and hurt and pain and anguish and shame wouldn’t let it. Hope and joy were too tiny to hold up against all the emotional turmoil.

Henry said his name like a warning and then something touched his shoulder. He stood, turned and let fly with his fist all at once. Kurt must have been pushed several feet back across the floor from the impact, but he was still standing on two legs and his slim strong hand was wrapped around the fist that would have otherwise caught him in the mouth.

Tahryn snarled, but Kurt simply kept his tawny eyes fix on the bigger werewolf and nodded. Fist after fist, blow after blow, and Kurt caught every single one of them. Tahryn punched until he could barely breathe. His eyes streamed, his nose ran, his knuckles hurt from scraping against Kurt and he was exhausted. After that passed he hit some more until he could barely remember his own name. He moved to shove Kurt away from him and stopped when he felt the boy immoveable, gripping him around each wrist. His hands were on Kurt’s chest, and weirdly, Kurt was smiling.

“You feel better now?”

“No.” Tahryn heard the note of sulkiness in his own voice. “Yeah.” He conceded.

“Come on Tahryn.” Kurt moved and Tahryn moved with him. “Let’s go.”

*

Henry Tanner gaped as his new friend was led away by the boy he had known his whole life but had spent less time talking to than he spent doing maths homework. Eventually he scraped his shocked expression off the floor and sat down on the low wall Tahryn had previously been occupying. Never in his whole life had he seen Kurt do something like that. Granted the freak-wolf hadn’t actually taken a beating, but his palms had been red from the force of Tahryn’s connected blows.

Henry never thought he’d see Kurt step out of his way to help anyone, let alone a wolf with whom he seemed to be on an even pegging for dominance.

Last night his father had come home swearing and shouting and cursing ‘that Smith boy’ into several shades of blue. He’d brought with him Henry’s older brother. Philip looked like he’d gone through hell and made a big deal out of it. So of course their mother had made a big deal out of him, even though Dr Noakes had given him the all clear. She had given him his favourite foods and let him have run of the television. His father had gone out again and returned looking sober and sullen, smelling sad and grey. He had refused to talk to anyone at all about anything.

Henry had had a stack of homework to do. He’d ignored the emergency pack business, assuming his father would tell him anything that might affect him. How wrong he had been. Henry realised belatedly he should have known something was up when Tahryn’s little blue Triumph sportster had squealed off without him. He’d walked to Koby’s house anyway. The boy lived in the last house in the close, before the outside world and the town actually began. Henry had stood outside feeling like an idiot for five minutes before he’d smelt it, or rather, the lack of it. The house smelt like shame and anger and….emptiness. It was weird.

“He’s not there.”

“Huh?” Henry had turned to see Carson Davies’ wife standing on their porch steps. She was dressed in a sharp suit and heels, so not werewolf attire. But having a solicitor in the pack’s staffing did great things for them.

“He’s not there. Neither are his parents. They were ousted.”

“What?” Henry had gawped at her, “Why?”

“I’m surprised your father didn’t tell you.” Carson came to wrap an arm around his wife. She swatted him away with her newspaper. His rugged, permanently oily self was threatening to stain her white shirt. “He raped someone. Camra ran him off the territory last night.”

Henry had walked to sixth form feeling strange. Koby had raped someone, which was weird, since Koby was a totally submissive gay-boy. Not that Henry had anything against being gay. Now, sitting in the main hallway of the college section of the school, he felt more certain about what had happened. Tahryn had been messed up, emotionally anyway. Angry and upset and more out of control than any wolf Henry had ever seen, except maybe Kurt.

Tahryn Spencer had been Koby’s victim…somehow. Henry couldn’t wrap his mind around the prospect, so he left it for later.

What concerned him more right now was why Tahryn had asked for Kurt? Last he knew the two had an altercation at the meet and Smith had bit his friend’s hand over it. Tahryn had said something about thinking maybe the other boy was his mate. Henry had been convinced he was wrong, misguided in some way. After all, the guy was dyslexic. Maybe he’d gotten confused.

Kurt hadn’t said a word when Henry had found him in the PE corridor talking in hushed tones to Coach Willis. The pack beta put the chills up Henry, and he didn’t normally spend any longer around the big wolf than he had too. Kurt had looked defiant but comfortable. When Henry had said Tahryn’s name he’d had to run to catch up with the lanky boy.

It was all very bloody confusing.

*

Kurt kept up the point of contact between himself and Tahryn the whole way to the boys changing rooms, fingers on his arm. Tahryn’s blond hairs were tickling his hand. Tahryn no longer moved like a blind man. Kurt had seen something leave him when he’d stopped punching. A ghost of a shadow had lifted from his face, and while Tahryn still looked like hell and smelt like a shivering bag of nerves, he no longer had the hunted, defeated look in his eyes. Kurt was glad.

They commandeered the showers. Kurt barked out a little third year trying to catch two minutes to have a secret cigarette, and shut the door. He wedged a chair under the handle. It would be enough to stop casual interruptions, and Willis would smell them anyway. Kurt turned on the hot water and pushed Tahryn into the shower fully clothed. By degrees he stripped the big blond tan creature of jumper and shirt. The clothes were already soaked with sweat and smelt like fear. Kurt kicked them away to the other end of the shower block. Tahryn pushed his face under the powerful stream and Kurt allowed himself the luxury of looking at his potential mate’s body.

Tahryn was every straight girl and gay guy’s favourite wet dream all tied up with tan skin and blue eyes so bright they made Kurt ache somewhere under his ribs. He still wasn’t comfortable thinking about it too clearly. His chest was nearly twice as wide as Kurt’s. His shoulders were big and powerful. The dusting of blond hairs that plastered to him in the wet shone like glitter in the sun. Kurt shivered involuntarily and stripped off his own clothes. They still hadn’t said more than ten words to each other but Kurt nearly yelped in surprised when the big brown arm came out, wrapped around him and pressed him against Tahryn’s naked chest.

“Thank you.” Tahryn’s voice rumbled in his chest, and Kurt felt himself vibrate in response. “That was nice of you.”

“I want you to be my mate.” Kurt had as little tact as it was possible to possess and live, but this seemed as good a time to start the conversation as any. They were alone, safe enough, and generally half naked and stuck together. “I don’t want anyone else to have you.”

Tahryn made a funny grumbling noise in his throat to show he’d heard, and pressed his face into the curve of Kurt’s neck in a similar gesture to the one Kurt had used to comfort the big man earlier.

“You want to tell me what happened?”

“There was a book involved.” Kurt scoffed. Nothing good ever came out of books written by humans. “In the book there’s this kid who gets…gets…gets…” Tahryn swallowed and when he looked into Kurt’s face he was surprised to see a close lipped smile right in front of his face, “…raped.” He finished, half breathing the word, lest he gave it any more power.

“I’m sorry.” Kurt almost surprised himself with the words.

“Why are you sorry?” Tahryn held him at a distance and Kurt cursed his weak human body.

“I should have…done something…sooner. I knew I wanted you to be my mate. I should have just…said something.”

“Like it would have made any difference.” Tahryn sighed and Kurt instantly spun his mind back to that evening.

What if he hadn’t limped off down the hill, too stubborn and proud to accept help or love or anything else? The time he’d spent being berated by the council was probably pretty much the same time Koby must have attacked Tahryn. Kurt snarled in his head just to think about it. He could’ve turned back. He could’ve gone back up the hill to where Tahryn had stood looking lost and annoyed and confused and let himself be…nothing. He couldn’t go back now. The damage was done. Koby Dean was gone for good. Kurt looked at his mate and wondered if the same boy who laughed and joked with his friends was still in there somewhere behind the damage.

Well he just fucking has to be. He said to himself as he pressed up against Tahryn’s tan and sculpted body. He has to be because I want him.

Now that Tahryn no longer stank of acrid fear and sweat Kurt pulled him from the showers and found a locker which the coach kept stocked in case of wolf based emergencies. There was jerky, three pairs of spare trainers and about ten track suits in different sizes. Kurt grabbed one for himself, mismatched halves in red and blue, and Tahryn took the biggest size in neon orange.

“Please tell me you don’t want to go back to class?” Kurt smiled when he spoke, but kept his teeth hidden automatically. He’d never smiled the way humans did, it wasn’t natural.

“No.”

“Good. Run?”

“Yeah.”

“OK. Wait.”

Kurt hated to be separated from the boy who he was going to make his mate, but he needed to tell Willis where they were. He was an enforcer now. He had to be reliable, and part of that was not vanishing for days at a time. His father had been very firm on it. Kurt knew the pudgy man was jealous. He was high ranking because being an accountant was good for the pack staffing and he was very loyal, but he’d never been the type to make it as an enforcer.

“Smith?” Willis had heard or smelt him coming and Kurt inclined his head to the pack beta.

“I’m taking my ma- Tahryn for a run. He didn’t do too well being normal today.”

“Alright then. I’ll make excuses for you. Kurt?”

“Yes sir?”

“We need to talk about your training schedule soon. You’re going to need to start taking better care of yourself. Eat something cooked today yeah?”

“Yes sir.” Kurt backed out of the office and lit up when he saw Tahryn waiting for him, “Come on. I’ll show you how to get out the back.”

The two boys slipped out of the back of the school. Kurt didn’t lead the blond young man to the hollowed out tree root. It was too full of the scents of dead deer and blood. They walked together into the woods, Kurt always half a pace in front of his bigger companion. He could feel Tahryn watching him, his husky eyes following the way he moved and walked. The fact they were naked under one layer of borrowed tracksuit seemed suddenly important in a way nakedness never had before. When they were far enough into the woods that even the orange of Tahryn’s sweats wouldn’t be seen Kurt stripped off his borrowed hoodie. For the second time in front of Tahryn he felt embarrassed about his human body. It was obviously not lived in, and the beta had been right, you could see all his damn ribs. Even Kurt, as little as he liked television, had watched enough to know that his body wasn’t normal or healthy.

“Kurt?” Tahryn looked almost scared of being naked with him in the forest, even though it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Well how else were we going to run huh?” Kurt hung his borrowed sweats on a low hanging branch and shifted smoothly and with little fuss. The big black wolf sat and cocked his head at Tahryn.

“Can we just walk?” Tahryn’s big blue eyes were perfect and seemed to have the power to dig into his soul and self-resistance. “I think I’m over the whole throwing up or shifting thing.”

Kurt made a motion that was near enough a shrug and rubbed himself along Tahryn’s leg, feeling the muscles of his thigh through the thick cotton. If Tahryn was going to stick in human form Kurt wasn’t going to join him, but he was going to keep touching him.

Their walk together was easy. Tahryn had long legs and big stride and it was no effort for the black wolf to stick literally to his heel, the space behind his shoulder in constant contact with the boy’s thigh. Kurt was a big wolf, possibly the biggest in the whole of South Sea pack, and had Tahryn put out his hand he would have found it rested easily between Kurt’s shoulders below his hip. Tahryn seemed to halve learnt something though, and he didn’t try to touch this wolf bodied Kurt. Kurt for his part kept his reaction and gestures simple, like playing with a cub.

“Thanks…” Tahryn sighed and spoke into the easy silence between them. “I panicked and I didn’t know what to do and I suppose I remembered your scent and…” Apparently it was not Tahryn’s day for finishing sentences and Kurt took the time to rub his head again against his leg, “And I just needed you. By the time you got there I was all tight and wound up and I had to hit something…” He sighed heavily, “You seem to be fine, but your feet must hurt from all the hitting. Sorry.” Kurt swished his tail and bobbed his head, to let Tahryn know he was OK.

“How did we manage to screw this up so well huh? I like you, you like me, and yet all we’ve ever done is fight about who should be boss.” Kurt let out a rumbling growl in his throat at that. It had been playing on his mind as well. “See, we’re even doing it now. I can’t read you very well. I want to touch your fur but if I do you’ll probably bite my hand off again. This is why dominants don’t fall in love. We’re supposed to like people like Ko…” The word was half out before Tahryn could stop himself and Kurt snapped his fangs and whined. Tahryn stopped walking and took a few big deep breaths.

“It’s OK. I’m alright.”

Kurt’s chest thrummed in sympathy, a sound like a murmur of agreement.

“You know it makes it really hard to talk to you like this, right?” Tahryn stopped walking and Kurt took a few more steps and broke the contact between them. He shrugged fluidly. “I don’t get it.” Tahryn sighed and Kurt was distressed to see the weight of everything he felt on his shoulders. Pinched hard pain reflected in his eyes and his face. “If you’re my mate, shouldn’t I understand you better? Although I suppose we’re not mated yet. How is this supposed to work, Kurt?”

Kurt sat and turned back his ears. It seemed like an odd place to be having this conversation. They were nowhere special, no secret spot or lovely hideaway. They were in a nondescript part of woodland, the forest floor strewn with a thick carpet of pine needles and the leavings of the random deciduous trees. And Tahryn was talking about their mating as though it was a business transaction, something to be worked out, mulled over and carried through. Tahryn had said dominant wolves were not meant to love…did it mean he wondered, as Kurt did, about the strange but not wholly unpleasant swelling in his chest whenever he caught sight or scent of the other wolf? Or was it that his reaction to Kurt was just chemical and nothing more and he felt nothing at all for him? It was rare, but it happened. Wolves were drawn together by scent and pheromones but didn’t feel the pull of the bond in any other ways. Kurt knew Tahryn was his mate with every fibre of his being. Knew in the same way he knew there was a rabbit hiding from their predator scent underground twenty feet east and that it was going to rain overnight and be gloomy and wet tomorrow. He knew. Apparently Tahryn didn’t.

Even that wasn’t what held Kurt back. The big black wolf stood to close the distance between them, but he could feel the lump of his problem in his head, sitting firmly between his eyes and crushing his ability to think clearly. He was dominant wolf. He wanted this wolf as his mate, his to protect and own and belong to, to take care of. He wanted to satisfy that urge. The wolf in him wanted to knock Tahryn down and screw him senseless, but the human in him wanted the big blond werewolf to fuck him until he could barely remember his own name. The two ideas were as opposed as magnetic poles, and Kurt swung between them like a coiled spring.

Maybe if Tahryn was a wolf too this would somehow be easier, but Tahryn seemed to have the exact opposite idea.

“Look. We need to have a conversation where no one bites anyone or hits anyone or bursts into tears, or growls.” Tahryn sighed deeply. “Why don’t you come over to my house tonight and have dinner with us. Human dinner. You can meet my family properly.”

Kurt grumbled. But he remembered what the beta had said. Apparently his human body wanted to eat food too. Well, at least his mother would be glad he’d made a friend.

*

Jene Camra stepped outside the house and took the clip off her nose and breathed. Scent came rushing in like a drug, a wave so sweet it turned her on through her clothes. Earth, ozone, wetness in the air, beating life. The scents of other wolves, sweet, musky, spicy; greens and blues and purples. Jene rubbed her eyes, green just like her grandfather’s, and collapsed on the grass, relieved to be outdoors again.

She, Dinah Tanner and Clover Willis had spent the whole day getting rid of the Dean’s. Sure, the physical manifestations of their former pack members had gone, but the house still smelt like them and had been filled with little things they’d left behind. The houses were all owned by the pack, a minimal rent was paid to Degan Canon which was all ploughed back into running the pack and feeding everyone. No wolf ever got short shrift if things at their day job went downhill and no member of the pack was any richer than any other. Sure, teachers and lawyers didn’t get paid the same, but in a healthy pack, all good and all bad things were shared.

The three women had spent the day scrubbing, wiping and cleaning until no trace of the Dean family remained in the house or garden. All of the possessions had been chucked. The house was as perfect, and clean, as the day it was built. The simple furnishings were in place for the next occupants; beds made fresh, floors and walls sparkling and clean, cushions and sofas plumped. All the windows were open to help get rid of the chemicals smells of cleaning fluids. A human would barely notice the acid scent, but any sensitive wolf nose would be ruined for hours. Over the next few days every wolf in the pack would need to visit the house and imbue it with their scent, making it feel homely and welcoming for the next owners, not just a clinical building.

Jene wondered idly who would get to live there. Her father was not opposed to swelling the ranks of the South Sea pack a little, they had forty one, no, thirty eight wolves in their pack, most of whom were breeding age. But even the South Bank pack in London was only fifty strong. Too many wolves would over hunt the forest and would risk drawing attention to their presence. That wasn’t a situation anyone would be pleased with. Tanner’s oldest boy would want the house of course. Philip was the oldest of the male wolves that still lived ‘at home’ so to speak. But since he wasn’t mated, nor looked to be anytime soon, Jene knew there was no way her grandfather would allow it. Philip didn’t even have a staffing yet, and he hadn’t gone to university. His job, part time at the local supermarket, did nothing to raise his prospects.

As a female, Jene knew she didn’t have to try as hard. In the pack only men got actual staffing’s. Woman’s roles were less defined and less controlled. Clover Willis had her job and pack duty all in one. She had been a teacher. Now she acted as ‘little mother’ to all the packs cubs. She took the youngest ones to school and picked them up, ran homework clubs and generally looked after anyone who needed it. No pack adult ever took a day off sick for a child. Not that pups got sick often. She also home schooled any cubs going through ‘that tricky phase’ as she termed it. But Jene hadn’t sat around on her laurels as the alpha’s oldest granddaughter. She’d finished college, gotten good grades, and worked her way into the local university for a degree in child care and social development. Working at the nursery and pre-school was fun, exhausting and wonderful. Her popularity amongst the humans of the town and their children also made her an excellent asset to the pack.

But Jene knew she wouldn’t get the house either. It would be the next mated pair. Since that pair were probably going to be Tahryn and Kurt, Jene saw no way either of them was going to want to live in this house, regardless of how disinfected it became. Healthy wolf packs didn’t keep secrets. The reason behind Koby Dean’s sudden departure was not a secret, though the actual details were not widely shared. As a new wolf, Tahryn had an image to maintain within the pack and the status that came along with it. Big strong werewolf men who looked like gods did not get raped. Jene felt awful for her newest pack brother, but she wasn’t sure what to do about it.

There was a wet scent on the breeze, damper and darker than the impending rain, and full of greenery and moss and trailing vines. Kurt. Jene twisted around to watch her friend in human skin coming along the road. He was dressed in his usual haphazard style, boot cut jeans with bare feet and a ragged looking jumper which didn’t fit well. He was smiling. It was such an unusual expression to see on his human face Jene Camra blinked hard twice just to check she wasn’t seeing things. It was Clover Willis who spoke first.

“Well I’ll be. Hey Kurt, it’s nice to see you out and about.”

Kurt nodded quickly to Clover. She had put up with a lot from him when he was a kid, but didn’t actually outrank him. He turned to Jene.

“Need your help.”

“Well sure.” Jene got up from the grass and wiped her hands on her cords. “What’s up?”

“I gotta date.”

Jene gaped and the other two women barked with surprise and mirth.

“Oh well then.” Jene tried to keep her voice as level as possible. “We got a lot of work to do.”

*

Mehran had practically squealed with delight when Tahryn told his sisters what he’d asked Kurt to do. She was the mad one in their family, and new to the change. Still she had been dying to know all about Kurt’s philosophy about being a wolf, coming from his unique perspective. Tahryn had groaned.

“He’s not coming over here so you can interrogate him!” Tahryn had seen Chaska’s narrowed eyes. “And I swear if you even hint at asking him about his ‘intentions’ I will throw away all your good clothes Chas.”

“Alright….” Chaska had not looked happy with the threat, but acquiesced to her older brother, just this once.

Chaska was in charge of dinners. Tahryn had left her to it, apparently his fussing was messing her up and she had to joint and butterfly the poussins before they could eat. The blond werewolf stood in the doorway of his room and tried to think of anything except what had already happened in there.

He’d only lived in the house for four weeks now, but the room smelt like his own, smelt homely. The bed was uncharacteristically neat having been made by his sisters the night before. The night before when… Tahryn backed away from the thought and managed to step into his room. He flipped open his laptop and managed to pick some music to listen to, which was distracting, and opened his wardrobe. Tahryn thought his clothing selection was fairly normal for a guy of his age, nineteen with a little money to spare and the sort of shape most things looked good on. He chose mid grey chinos and his favourite t-shirt. It was blue with a white timber wolf logo. He’d found it online, it was some high school sports mascot, but it worked for him. He added a navy blue knit jumper with long sleeves and a fuzzy kind of cuddliness to it. The idea of Kurt wanting to touch him in it made him happy.

Tahryn sat on the edge of his bed and started at the door. He could practically see Koby standing there, half-dressed and looking scared and ashamed of what he’d done. For the tiniest moment of a heart beat Tahryn felt nearly sorry Koby had been run off, and probably beaten first. But it was only a moment, and it passed. It made him remember leaving home a month before, under very different circumstances.

The Werburgh pack had not been a happy pack to grow up in. At least not during the years since Tahryn had become a teenager. Life in Chester itself had been good, but it wasn’t like it was here. The pack didn’t live together, not properly, and were scattered throughout the city. His father’s job as an architect and jobbing landscaper had kept them in good stead. The pack hadn’t kept a regular meet schedule, so you might not see much of your pack-brothers for months and then have three meets in a week. It ensured that everyone got sick of each other really quick. The old alpha had been a nice enough guy. Tahryn could remember him playing with him and the other cubs when they first started changing, but he had been old. His son had not been alpha material, too submissive and too reluctant to make executive decisions and give orders. The refusal of the alpha to pick a new successor had splintered the pack. His father had stayed loyal, which was only part of the reason why they had left.

For months all there had been was rivalries, shouting and scuffles. Wolves fighting each other in the woods and punching each other in the streets in all out brawls which did nothing to help hide the pack’s public profile. Fragmented packs had formed with the idea of leaving or taking over but allegiances shifted and changed with the winds and nothing was done. It was at that stage Whelan had come to his son with his worries. The old alpha still steadfastly refused to make a decision and it put even his loyal enforcers and supporters on edge. Then the challenger came.

He’d come from a pack up north, a big brute of a man who made Tahryn look small by comparison. He’d challenged the alpha to a fight to the death and the big grey wolf had bested the older werewolf easily. The beta had re-joined the challenge and he’d been killed too. That should have been the end of it. Some minor hierarchical shuffling should have been the end of the unrest in Werburgh. But it hadn’t been. After rearranging the pack structure to suit nobody but himself the new alpha had proved himself to have a very old fashioned idea of what it meant to cement himself in a new pack. He’d made it obvious that he intended to mate with every unmated female of breeding age within the pack to secure his dominance and bloodline. Every unmated female included Chaska and Mehran.

Whelan Spencer hadn’t waited for permission or stopped to talk to the alpha. He’d sent the word they withdrew their support and allegiance to the Werburgh pack after they’d already left the territory. It really had been Tahryn’s job to protect them, following behind his father in his sporty little Triumph with a two way radio and a bunch of chocolate bars for company as they drove away. Taking three females away from an alpha like that did not go unnoticed. They’d been caught up with by enforcers just inside of the boarders of the Isis pack near Oxford, who had given them permission to cross on their way south. Tahryn had to beat the living shit out of a werewolf he had known all his life who would have killed both him and his father if he’d gotten the chance. It was not something he had enjoyed doing. Though he was built for it, Tahryn knew he was never cut out to be an enforcer. He nearly killed the other werewolf in defence of his life and the purity and sanity of his sisters.

National Council had condemned the behaviour of the new alpha and set out to admonish and punish him. It no longer mattered. Tahryn wouldn’t have returned to Chester and Werburgh and all his friends for all the jerky in America. South Sea had a reputation as a happy pack, Degan Canon was known to be firm and fair and honest and Whelan had petitioned to join the pack. They’d met on neutral ground and Tahryn had known from the first moment that this was an alpha they could trust. Degan’s scent meant security, pride, and honour. It was tinted with deep purple and brilliant highlights of blues and reds. Trust and calm confidence radiated from the older werewolf. But Degan Canon was not old in the way the previous Werburgh alpha had been. He was still strong, still level headed and able to see off challengers, not that there were any. No wolf would try and oust an alpha there was no hope of beating, especially with a beta as strong and loyal as Willis.

The scent of Kurt flooded his nostrils before his ears picked up the knock on the front door and Tahryn shook off his reverie and trotted downstairs to introduce the boy who would be his mate to the overbearingly protective presence of his three sisters.