Silver Bullets n' Roses - 10. Whadaya Want from Me

By the time Matt had dressed, eaten a nutritious breakfast of coffee and donuts, and began the walk to school, he was still shivering from remnants of the dream in his mind. He had already decided the dream was one of two things:

One: it was just a normal wet dream. Well, not normal. Practically since puberty Matt had had erotic dreams of hot guys or girls he met at clubs or school. He was a healthy bisexual teenage male; it was expected of him to dream of really good looking people in a sexual way. Even if they happened to be evil werewolves hell bent on world domination and recruiting human-turned-'wolf soldiers. Perfectly normal.

Just thinking of it that way almost made him chuckle.

That left one other option: somehow Gabriel had the ability to enter his dreams, and the fact that Matt had completed his first Change yesterday had opened some sort of portal to his sire. This felt like the most plausible-albeit unpleasant-explanation for the dream. This meant there were probably more dreams to come, and Matt really didn't like the idea of his dreams being haunted by the same guy that had ripped him to pieces only a few weeks ago, no matter how hot he was.

He had reached the school parking lot by now, a few minutes earlier than usual, and was pleasantly surprised to see Severin waiting for him. He was sitting on the hood of a silver convertible that was practically begging to be full of hot girls and booze.

"What's with the ride, dude?"

"Oh, this thing?" Severin casually patted the beauty underneath him. "Just a little gift from Cobaine."

Matt gingerly sat next to Severin. "What do you need a car for?" In a town this size, Severin could run just about anywhere he wanted in half the time a car would take him.

"It's part of my disguise. Gabriel has never seen me, so as far as he's concerned, I'm just a meddling human. Might as well help him believe that. And I can't say I mind at all." He stretched out across the hood, drinking in the sunlight. "What's up?"

Matt was so distracted by how soft and beautiful Severin's hair looked that it took him a minute to answer. "Sore, but pretty good. Um, listen..." He quickly relayed his dream to Severin, dramatically watering down everything that involved his penis.

Severin listened in silence until Matt was done. He didn't appear to be that concerned as he basically told Matt what he expected: Gabriel was trying to persuade him by invading his dreams.

"This wouldn't have been possible before you turned," he said. "This is his first stage. Indirectly communicating with you. After a bit, he'll start getting a little more demanding."

Matt swallowed hard. "Meaning?"

Severin sat up but didn't answer, his eyes focused on something over Matt's shoulder. Matt followed his gaze to the shapely figure of Donna, flirtatious smile already in place.

Sometimes the appearance of Donna made him seriously question what was going on between himself and Severin. Since he met him, Severin was just another unattainable hottie: hopelessly straight. Now he was beginning to doubt that. The boy had his choice of any girl that he wanted, and was completely disinterested. Also, though Matt had been out of it at the time, it sure as hell looked like Severin was about to kiss him in the woods. However, even if Severin was gay or bi, that didn't mean he was into Matt. Matt had imagined himself in Severin's eyes many times, and he couldn't find himself remotely appealing. Besides the fact that Severin had seen him looking his worst more than once, Matt probably just looked like a bumbling, weird emo kid that Severin had been assigned to babysit.

Thinking about it made him depressed. Donna's presence didn't help these thoughts.

"Hi Sean!" she said brightly. Matt's distaste of her didn't affect how he saw her physically. Even he had to admit that she was pretty cute: big, heavily made-up eyes, long brown hair, and a pretty nice rack that he could see in the V-necked shirt she wore now. She went straight to Severin and buried her hands in his hair.

"You know I think your hair is gorgeous, but it really needs a trim," she said.

Matt thought Severin's hair was perfect, but he didn't dare say so. Severin glanced at Matt from around Donna, his gaze clearly saying, Help me!

"Hey, Donna," Matt said to get her attention.

"Yes?" was the word that came out of her mouth, but her eyes said, "Okay, you can leave now."

He blinked, turning on a careful dose of his power. This was some sort of pre-battle energy that werewolves give off to make an opponent back down, and the effect was pretty dramatic on humans. "You mind leaving? Me and Severin were talking..."

She immediately released Severin's face, her eyes wide. "Um, sorry, I didn't mean to..." She trailed off, anxiously grabbing her purse. "I'll just go now...Seeya, Sean." She almost ran away, looking flustered. Because werewolf intimidation rendered some sort of amnesia-like effect in humans, by the time she had reached the building she wouldn't remember why she left to begin with.

"Tsk tsk. You know using that on humans is unlawful." The grin on Severin's face betrayed him.

Matt smiled. Seeing Severin grin made him happy. The only times he ever saw Severin grin-naturally, anyway-was when Matt used one of his many new talents.

Severin wrapped him up in a headlock and ruffled his hair. Matt wanted to melt in his arms right then and there. He smelled so fucking good.His scent was a mixture of distinct, rustic werewolf scent, aftershave, and well...guy. It didn't help that it had been forever since he'd been with anyone but his own hand...However, it would have looked odd to start cuddling with him, so, following the unwritten code of dude behavior, Matt laughed and shoved him off.

"Now, do you think you can use than on, say, five?" Severin asked him.

"What are-?" Matt followed his gaze and saw a group of Severin-fans approaching. "Nope. Fresh out of favors."

"Then what else will we do tonight?" Severin despaired.

"What!?"

"Nothing. Go on; Karyn's looking for you. I'll see you in class."

He didn't have to tell him twice. Not wanting to be caught in the shadow of his friend's popularity, Matt stood up.

"Oh, and Matt?"

"What?" He was already walking away.

"You up for the movies after school?"

"Movies" was their code for "going to the vet's/werewolf domain." "Sure."

Severin nodded, already distracted by some jock emphatically telling him about today's game.

Sure enough, Karyn was wandering aimlessly in front of the building. Today her hair was pulled into a thick ponytail, strands falling breezily against her neck. She was really pretty, he thought. In fact, what the hell?

Thinking about Severin and Donna, he walked up to her and gave her a warm hug. She didn't seem surprised, but then, not a lot of things surprised her.

She looked up at him - damn, it felt good to finally have a girl look up at him - and smiled absently. "Feeling better?"

Realizing it felt awkward to be holding her this long, Matt withdrew. "Much better. Hey, about that movie you invited me to last night..."

"Yes?" She wasn't helping him at all.

"If the offer still stands, I'll go with you this weekend."

"Yay!" She jumped into his arms.

He must have been channeling Santa Claus; he was getting high off making people happy...until a thought occurred to him. "Um, Karyn, what are we seeing?"

"Eclipse."

Ah, hell.

*           *           *

Matt dropped to the hard cement floor and covered his eyes with his paws in a feeble attempt to ready himself for the blond freight train coming his way. Inches away from Matt's snout, Severin jumped up and over his body and landed deftly on the ground several feet away.

You're not going to learn anything if your eyes are closed the whole time, Severin's angry thoughts entered Matt's mind.

I told you before, I'm not a fighter, Matt thought back, getting awkwardly to his feet. He hadn't been able to demonstrate the amazing speed he had during his first Change; in fact, he could barely walk without tripping. With a growl, he added, And how am I supposed to learn anything when all you're doing is kicking my ass?

Severin gave a human-sounding sigh. Fine. Pin me, and we're done for today.

You may as well have asked me to find Joe Jonas's balls.

Severin snorted, and coaxed Matt to hurry up with an impatient nod of his head.

Matt bounded towards him with an awkward gait not unlike that of a newborn deer. There was a breath of wind against his face, and the next instant Severin was sitting calmly behind him. Before Matt had time to even register this, Severin struck like a viper.

Matt tumbled comically head over heels and skidded to a halt several yards away. Shaking off the cartoon stars, he leapt to his feet and snarled. He lunged again, getting a mouthful of air as Severin jumped above him. The act should have looked ridiculous on such a large, bulky creature, but Severin looked breathtakingly graceful. He landed in what seemed like slow motion a few feet away.

I'm getting bored, Severin thought to Matt.

Underneath the protective fur, Matt blushed deeply. He looked like a bumbling idiot as a werewolf even more so than he did as a human, and it was humiliating. After all he'd been through, he still wasn't good enough for Severin. The thought gave way to feelings of shame, which quickly turned to anger.

With a roar, Matt turned on a switch inside him that he must have overlooked. All four his jelly-legs instantly turned into steel, and he shot toward Severin in a blur of color. The human part of his mind went somewhere else, and the wolf took over; suddenly all he could think of was a primitive need to track and capture. He was now the hunter, and Severin was the prey.

Severin reflexively shot off to the side, only mildly surprised at Matt's sudden aggression. Werewolves were naturally given a massive amount of pride and an eagerness to please; just the slightest insult could turn one of them berserk.

Matt missed, but turned on a dime, right on Severin's tail. Feeding the flame that had arisen within him, he chanted, I am a wolf, in his mind. As long as he believed it, the power was his, and he was demonstrating every bit of it.

The room was large, square, and basically empty. There weren't any obstacles that Severin could use to slow Matt down. Taking Matt by surprise, he whirled around to face him. The resulting collision dazed them both, but Severin recovered quickly and tore into Matt in a blaze fury.

The two werewolves hit the ground hard in a rolling, snarling mass of fur and teeth. They shed their skins and reverted to human form, in which Severin quickly got the upper hand, straddling Matt and pinning him to the ground.

The boy was laughing was hysterically. Not the reaction a vicious, hardened near-Warrior would welcome, but it was only a half second later that Severin couldn't stop laughing, either. Nothing about the situation was funny, but reveling in post-Change euphoria, the thrill of the hunt gone, they were giddy.

Someone clapping from the other side of the room abruptly stopped the laughter. They both looked up at Jake standing at the doorway, smiling coyly.

"That was way cool," he gushed.

Severin slowly got off Matt-was he reluctant?-and Matt reached for a discarded towel to cover himself as he got to his feet. Once again the cool, no-nonsense soldier, Severin turned to Jake and said, "Yeah it was. How much of it did you catch?"

"Enough to see Matt almost turn you into dog food."

Severin smirked and turned to Matt, who was bent with his hands on his knees, gasping for air. "Your first official training session and you nearly got the best of me. Good job, Matt." He clapped Matt on the back, causing a coughing spell. Great way to look in front of two hot guys, especially with one of them not wearing an article of clothing and apparently not caring.

However, his male ego was stroked, and he grinned brightly for what felt like the first time in weeks. His cheeks nearly cracked at the effort.

Given Matt's supernatural growth spurt since the last time he saw him, Jake looked even cuter and tinier than he had before. Dressed in work-out clothes, he had the flyaway hair and flushed face of someone that had just returned from a run. He radiated with energy. Soaked with sweat, Matt should have felt awkward, but the wolf still lurking inside him gave him the self-confidence to flash a grin Jake's way. The serial flirt he conjured when frequenting gay bars had returned.

"I'd like to go a few rounds with you someday," he commented, smirking so Jake knew the double entendre was intentional.

Jake giggled - literally giggled, decimating any doubts Matt might have had about his sexuality - and said, "You're on. Anytime."

As Jake headed off to the showers, Severin turned to Matt, now wearing jeans. Matt mentally berated himself for not getting a good look at his ass when he had the chance.

"Looks like you have a new admirer." He was smiling, but it looked somewhat sad.

"Yeah, one to your hundreds. What's wrong?"

Severin seemed to internally shake himself. "Nothing. Just thinking." He cleared his throat. "Matt, uh..."

"Yes?"

"You did really well today. I'm...proud of you."

"Thanks...and?"

Severin looked at the ceiling, sighing. "And...you're really cool. I've enjoyed these last few weeks getting to know you. And um...you did well today." He suddenly turned away, swearing. "I've got to go."

"Huh?"

"I've got to go. Studying. Homework. Just wait until you're a sophomore. Call me sometime, 'bye!" He practically bolted out of the room, leaving Matt confused.

Matt shook his head, wondering if Severin was going to say the words that Matt had been dreaming he would say for days now. If he wasn't, then dammit, he had to move on. Severin had to figure it out on his own. Picturing Jake's cherubic face in his mind, he headed off to the showers.

The shower room looked much like the boys' locker room. Just a big group shower with no partitions or anything, six nozzles hanging from the wall. However, they didn't instill the sort of anxiety a boy that liked boys would experience in locker room - like worrying about boning up in front of everyone. This one was empty, for one thing. Matt stood under the scalding hot water for many minutes, trying to wash away more than just the scent of sweat off his body.

Wrapping a towel loosely around his hips, Matt went to his locker to retrieve his clothes. As his head was buried in the locker, he felt someone touch the small of his back, causing him to whip around.

Jake stood before him, also only wearing a towel. His skin looked soft and slightly damp from the water, just begging to be touched. Light brown tresses, black from water, clumped together about his youthful face. "Didn't mean to scare you."

"Ah, don't worry about it."

"Actually, you deserve it." Jake moved even closer, the warmth of his skin radiating against Matt's.

"Hm, how so?"

"For not coming around more often."

Matt chuckled. "Can I make it up to you by asking for your number?"

"Just maybe." Jake reached around Matt and into the open locker behind him, extracting a pen from Matt's school stuff. Soft, delicate fingers wrapped around Matt's wrist as Jake scribbled his number on Matt's palm. He placed the pen there and curled Matt's fingers around it.

Jake lifted his head, making Matt think he was about to kiss him - and he sure as hell wasn't going to stop him - but he merely whispered, "Call me" and was gone in a flash.