theresalwayshope | June 4, 2014: werewolf in darrow (OTA)

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June 4, 2014: werewolf in darrow (OTA)

Allison had to go back to work and school tomorrow, and she was terrified.

Since the morning she'd woken up as a werewolf, Allison hadn't spoken to a soul. She'd skipped school and work, claiming she was sick, and stayed in her apartment, trying to get a grip on what was happening. She'd told no one, though she was fairly certain Stiles knew because of Derek, and anyone Stiles might have told.

She didn't actually care who knew, she just worried they would come try to check on her, and she wasn't going to see anyone until she had a grip on this...an anchor she could rely on.

Derek was the only person she'd seen, the only one she trusted. The wolf was angry, even hurting, making her half crazy as she fought the urge to go see Derek and Stiles, to find Scott or Melissa or the sheriff...she even had to stop herself from calling Newt or Kate, or go looking for Jason...

The wolf wanted pack, but most of her pack was human, and the rest (i.e., Scott), she wouldn't allow herself to hurt, no matter if it could be endured. She ached for them, a soul-deep hurt to seek them out and lose herself in the safety of being near them, but she couldn't trust herself not to lash out. She had no idea what she would do around people, and after that first night...no, Derek was her alpha. He could stop her, and as much as it rankled to be so dependent on anyone, just knowing he was there, a phone call or a howl away soothed her wolf enough to keep control.

But...she had to go back to work, and to school, and she had been struggling for two days to find her anchor. She didn't think it was inside her, but she was terrified to look beyond herself for anything. She couldn't even look to be her own anchor, because she was the one person in the world she absolutely did not trust.

Allison finally decided she had to try something, so she compromised with the two halves of herself: she went to the park.

It was relatively quiet, and being out under the open sky, with the grass and the trees, made the wolf happier. She could feel it, a knot loosening deep within as she breathed in the dirt and leaves, the scent of a gopher burrowing just below the earth and people halfway across the park, a mixture of soaps and colognes and individual bodies that made her a little bit sick if she focused too hard. That much she had discovered: she could dull her hearing if she wasn't concentrating too hard on any one thing, and if she regulated her breathing, she could handle the scents until she found one to focus on.

Finding a relatively deserted patch of grass under a large oak tree, Allison sat cross-legged on the grass, dressed for a workout in sneakers, black leggings, and a sports bra under a loose grey t-shirt with a wide collar that hung off one shoulder. Pulling her hair back off her neck into a messy knot atop her head, she settled in comfortably and looked around for a moment, taking in the people around her...distant, at least a few dozen yards all around, but there. The wolf didn't seem to mind...even when she pulled voices out of the crowd, honed in on the scent of citrus shampoo on the blonde man who was walking his dog, or the vanilla clinging to the two women pushing strollers along a paved path, the wolf was simply there, growling peevishly in the back of her mind and growing restless for pack once again.

So far, so good.

Shutting her eyes, Allison took a few deep breaths to center herself. She knew some very rudimentary meditation techniques, collected during her archery lessons over the years to improve focus and concentration. She'd added a few during her summer in France, and she was hoping a little discipline might help her get a handle on the wolf. If she couldn't find an anchor, then damn it, she was going to cage the bitch up.

And if she couldn't...then she was going to ask Derek to lock her up until he either did what she wanted, or...

Pushing that dark thought from her head, Allison focused on relaxing. She tried to still her thoughts, to find a calm place within filled with white noise and breath. Focusing, she allowed the world to narrow to just that: air in, air out, nothing but the beat of her heart and the draw of air into her lungs.

The twig snapped behind her, and it rang out like a shot in her ears.

Heart racing, she lost control and twisted around, rolling fluidly to a predator's crouch, claws buried in the dirt and coiled to spring. Her eyes were wild, lupine gold as her lips peeled back from her teeth in a low, warning growl as the wolf prepared to fight...and the girl fought as hard as she could to freeze, to wait, to see the threat before she ended up killing someone.

(Either find Allison during a lull in her meditation, or be the poor sucker that was unlucky enough to sneak up on her from behind. Either way, werewolf Allison is a werewolf. Tag, play, profit! Open until plot's end. :P)

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Jason stops, one moment in motion, and the next, he could have been carved from granite save for the brightness in his eyes. He'd known something was different - everything about the way she moves is different, something coiled yet uncontained in her every step, it'd been plain when she so much as sat down in the grass, but it's not until this moment that Jason understands why.

He'd stepped on that twig on purpose. Now he's even more glad that he did. She wouldn't be the first supernatural thing he's fought, but Allison would easily be the one he most regretted. "Hey," he says when she's failed to spring at him, and wrestles his own adrenaline into a weapon of its own before he adds, nodding towards her eyes, "That's new."

...mine.

It took Allison several seconds to register Jason's presence through the animal haze, but the wolf was ahead of her, violence melting into a crash of something warmer, less violent, but still way too intense...

The wolf thought Jason was pack, for some reason.

He was downwind, but when she trusted herself to stand, she tipped her head up and breathed in deep.

Pack. Mine.

Slowly, the gold in her eyes began to dim as she smiled, really feeling his presence now...and it made her happy. A strange stillness came with that happiness, and she felt calmer than she had in a while.

"I didn't get bitten...but somehow I turned into a werewolf." She replied, her smile turning apologetic. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to jump like that...it's really good to see you, actually."

"You, too," says Jason, returning her grin, which is ridiculous, when only moments ago she might have tried ripping his throat out, but Jason doesn't really care about peril now that those dimples are on display.

"I think it's going around," he says. "Half of Darrow's going crazy, blowing things up, freezing them, flying around on wings they don't know how to operate..."

He takes a step closer. "At least yours is close to home."

...MINE.

The wind shifted a little as Jason stepped closer, and that warm, violent surge of feeling swelled into something she recognized, something she thought she'd gotten out of her system after she arrived...or at least at that damn black light party with Isaac and the body paint and making out on the dance floor.

He smelled good. Really good...leather and gun oil and steel, and under that warm cotton and skin, something earthy and downright mouthwatering...something that had her wolf suddenly very, very interested in getting closer to, and it didn't help that her human half was sort of in the same boat.

"I, uh...I've been hiding in my apartment for the last couple days, I wouldn't know." She replied, swallowing hard as she forced her eyes to stay on his face, trying to summon up mental images of Jackson in kanima form to calm herself down. "It's been a crazy couple weeks, with randomly turning into a werewolf and...other stuff." Breathing in, it was like that first night with Derek: a strange smell she couldn't place...a flare of something that matched her joy at seeing him, warm and sweet and sharp.

"I...had a run in, the wolf thing healed up all my bruises." She confessed. "I'm okay, I am, but I met someone that made me think of you." She paused, then smiled. "He had the most amazing knives I've ever seen."

Jason listens, watching her eyes shift not from brown to gold but to black, for a second every inch a predator. Talia had looked at him that way once, before...before, and it makes his own heartrate spike, but then Allison mentions knives, and Jason feels it stutter before he can grab hold of it, breathe evenly through his nose until it slows.

"Must've been pretty cool," he says, pulling on a smile that warms to something real as he goes on. "If he reminded you of me. You met him during this 'run in'?"

"Yeah, he...he helped me." She replied, her painful awareness of his presence drawing her attention to his heartbeat, and the way it suddenly beat faster and then...faltered. She knew werewolves could hear a lie in the uptick of a pulse, but his heart didn't pound, it wasn't...it didn't sound like she imagined a lie would. And he wasn't talking about anything to lie about. Maybe he was...worried. About her.

The wolf growled peevishly, but Allison felt touched.

Moving closer to Jason, she pushed aside the wolf's lust for a moment, hoping it would hold as she reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder l, meeting his gaze.

"I'm really okay." She assured him. "I just got careless and stupid, that's all, and I wasn't alone. The guy...he wore this red helmet, full face thing...he stepped in and.."

She trailed off, remembering the blood on her hands, the kris...the way her attacker had screamed. She felt no remorse...and the wolf was dangerously quiet.

"He kept me safe." She finished, rubbing Jason's shoulder a little before she let her hand fall away. "And he had this...I want to call it an elongated shuriken, but it looked more like a throwing dagger of some kind...weird serration, kind of like a boomerang..."

She grew animated, excited as she spoke, features lighting up with genuine, even covetous delight...because she knew Jason would understand, she was sure of it. She could share this with him, and he would get it.

She hadn't even realized, until that moment, that she'd been waiting to talk about what happened to her like this, without fussing over the fate of her attacker or the extent of her injuries. She'd been waiting to share it, not just talk about it.

And that was leveling her out, calming her down...anchoring the wolf inside of her.

"Like a throwing star?" says Jason, remembering at the last to make it a question. She's close to him now, not disturbed by the Red Hood's presence that night but grateful in a way that Jason hadn't expected. He doesn't need to be told that violence is necessary, but it's rare that a civilian doesn't condemn him for it anyway, take the safety he's offered and throw it in his face, and it's...comforting.

She's very close. Jason curls an arm around her waist without thought.

"I'm glad you're okay," he says, searching her face for injuries that are entirely absent, and he's glad for it. "There are some interesting people stuck in this town with us."

Allison nodded eagerly, biting her lower lip with a grin she couldn't contain. "Exactly...Jace, it was so cool, and it's so wrong 'cause I'd just gotten mugged, but I want it. It would be amazing to try out...and his kris! It was beautiful, and strong! It went right through brick, I've never seen one that well made."

She got closer and closer without thinking as she prattled on, bright and happy and excited. The wolf didn't stir until she realized that with her gesturing and her light bouncing on the balls of her feet, she was close enough for his arm to go around her waist...and the wolf growled, a low, happy feeling in her head and in her blood that felt more like a purr.

And he smelled so good...

She finally got quiet, and his remark about the interesting people in the city made her smile soften, her eyes all for him, and the envy of Red Helmet's arsenal momentarily forgotten.

"There are some really...interesting people here, all right." she agreed, looking him right in the eye. He was really close now, and the wolf wanted to burrow close, nuzzle his neck...press her face against one broad shoulder and rub her cheek there, mark him with her scent...and a lot more, because it had been a while since Scott.

She compromised with her wolf, and her own urges, by letting her hands lift to rest on those shoulders, just resting there as she smiled at him, biting her lower lip as she fought the urge to kiss him. She didn't want to push it, she liked him...but she really, really wanted to kiss him.

"Would you want to...do something sometime? I mean, if this...werewolf thing goes away?" she found herself asking instead. "Like get coffee, or...spar, or head out to the countryside for target practice? Just...the two of us?"

Edited 2014-05-27 05:44 (UTC)

Her eyes change again, not golden this time but something darker, pupils expanding as she looks at him in a way that makes Jason's heart begin to race. Belatedly, he realizes she's asked him a question, one that only quickens the blood already thrumming through his veins.

"Yeah," Jason exhales, breaking into a wide grin. "Even if you're still a werewolf, I don't really mind all that." It's perhaps an insane thing to say, but Allison already runs with wolves - her bar for crazy must be pretty high.

There's a bit of hair in her eyes, and Jason moves it aside with a careful fingertip, unable to resist tucking it behind her ear. "Um," he says, bolstered by her proximity. "Would it be cool if I kissed you?"

Watching Jason as he watched her...it was intoxicating, because it was more than just the way his pupils opened up. It was the way his heart was pounding, fast but also hard, a thudding in his chest that spoke to something primitive in her that had the wolf on edge. It was the way he suddenly smelled, something darker, sweeter, with an edge of spice like cinnamon under the metal and oil...

Mine.

Yeah.

The snarl of her wolf rang in her head, right along with his yes...to her, to the wolf, to all of it, just yes, and it made her feel so suddenly light and giddy that she almost let her wolf go...knock Jason down, press her body against him, kiss him until they tasted blood and rut until nothing existed but their bodies moving as one...

Drawing a deep, shaky breath, she held onto that giddy happiness as she smiled, as his finger trailed over her skin while he brushed her hair back. Oddly, the gesture was calming, it was contact, it was his scent, and she couldn't stop herself from leaning into it just a little.

"I'd...want to wait, because..." She trailed off, her voice sounding too breathy and too hoarse in her own ears. She couldn't stop smiling, couldn't stop...feeling happy. Happy in a way she could never remember feeling, because there was nothing between her and Jason.

And he'd said yes.

"I'm really strong right now, and I wouldn't want...to hurt you." she finished explaining just before he asked, actually asked to kiss her. Impossibly, her smile grew wider as she moved closer, letting her arms slide around his neck as she tipped her head to meet his gaze, her own glittering with the softest touches of gold.

"Please." she replied quietly, wanting it with a ferocity that was even more intense than wanting him physically. She wanted to kiss him, taste him, mark him so he would smell like her and taste her on his lips and nobody else would dare touch him because of it.

"Please kiss me."

Jason's good at reading people. He's had to be to do what he does, to stay alive, to get close enough to those who needed killing over the years, but there's a large gap in his skill set, and it has everything to do with teenage girls.

Still, looking down at Allison now, Jason thinks he understands her. With her eyes are huge and warm, pink lips parting beneath them, she almost looks like she wants to eat him, but in a way Jason somehow understands he'd enjoy.

His own lips part, a sudden bout of nerves moving him to wet them, and then he leans down, pressing them to her own. Immediately he wants more, his body hungry for her in a way he moves swiftly to temper, hand curling around the back of her head to tilt it upward. She tastes sweet, and from this close, even Jason can tell that she smells different, an undertone between all that sweet girl shampoo and soap that reminds him of the woods, of nighttime, and somehow, strangely, of the moon.

Jason hums in surprise and pleasure, arm tightening around her waist to bring her gently closer.

The moment their lips met, Allison lost control.

It was only a little as her lips parted to kiss him a little deeper, body molding against every solid, warm plane of his as he pulled her closer...as she growled, low and long and deep in her chest while her hand slid up into his hair. It was soft, silky, and as warm as the rest of him. She wanted to sink into that heat, into the way he tasted, toothpaste and coffee and something sweet he'd had for breakfast...

She tightened her fingers in his hair just a little, eager but gentle, and managed to break the kiss with a soft nip of her teeth against his lower lip. Pulling him closer, she pressed her cheek to his, nuzzling his jaw as she scented him. Her head was spinning pleasantly, and he smelled good enough to eat. She had to stop herself from flicking her tongue against his skin just to see if it was true.

When she finally drew back to look him in the eye again, the gold in her eyes was just starting to fade as she grinned at him, breathless and flushed and a little drunk on him.

"Okay, maybe werewolf kisses do have some advantages." She murmured, letting her hands slide out of his hair to curl at his nape. "Or you're just really good at that."

Edited 2014-06-03 01:47 (UTC)

Jason grins down at her, every bit as addled as Allison and just as awful at hiding it. "Maybe we both are," he decides, because he can still feel the tug of her fingers in his hair, throat still tingling where Allison had pressed against it, all but mouthing at his skin. It makes his blood roar and sing, and takes every ounce of Jason's considerable self control not to pick her up so they can do it all again.

"And I'm pretty sure I'd have liked that just as much if you were human," he adds. "I just." Jason grins and ducks his head. "I like you."

The way he said it made Allison's wolf snarl, but pleasantly this time, a low possessive roll in her head that made her want to pull him close, tuck against his chest, and stay there forever, wrapped in the smell of him: something that was both pack and different, special...

Mine.

"I like you, too." She replied with a smile, one hand sliding to his cheek, urging him to look her in the eye again. "I like you a lot. You're sweet and you're...really cute..."

Her grin turned warm, mischievous at that, eyes flicking over his features as she struggled to find the right words for the way he made her feel...like she was special and beautiful, and no more so than when she believed she was at her worst.

And the way he hid his face and held her so gently without making her feel fragile...whatever darkness he had seen, she felt like she was right: there was a part of him still in reach of saving. She wanted that part of him, wanted to hold it and protect it as long as he would let her.

"I want to know everything about you that you can tell me." She went on, letting her fingers trail over his jawline. "And I want to tell you everything about me that I can..."

She trailed off, gaze moving down to his mouth, then with a groan and a smile, pressed another warm, solid kiss there...then another, giggling softly as one arm snaked around his waist to keep him close.

"...and the horny werewolf in me wants to just...do dirty things to every gorgeous inch of you, so I'm trying really hard to behave." She admitted, blushing bright red as she did.

Between her touch, that last admission, and her desire to know everything about him, Jason's heart begins to pound, faster and faster until he's dizzy with it. Between the heat in his cheeks and the blood rushing rapidly south for her proximity, he can hardly think, but he can still feel a rush of guilt.

He'd told Alex he was afraid of hurting her, and now here he is, already withholding so much when Allison is pressed against him, innocently professing a desire to know him, and he can't let her. Not like she wants.

"I'm," he says, trying to breathe and calm himself, "I want to," but he can't seem to untangle the words, "Be a good guy for you. Good for you," he tries to clarify. "I'm not great at it."

She could smell his tension, hear it in his heartbeat (though that might have to do with the spicy smell of arousal that made her whole body tingle and her wolf whine longingly), but she didn't need to be a werewolf to see it, know it...get it.

She knew what it was to have shadows you just couldn't let other people see, and Jason wore enough of his to be seen, at least by her.

Reaching up, she took his face between her hands, meeting his gaze head on.

"You're better than you'll ever know." She murmured. "I have...ugly things in me, but they feel like something beautiful when I'm with you."

Drawing him down, Allison leaned up and pressed her lips against his forehead, right by his hairline where the streak in his hair began.

"I want to know everything about you, Jason...everything you can tell me." She whispered against his skin. "Do you understand?"

Jason nods, but he looks no less miserable for it, cheeks on fire despite the cool press of her lips. "You should have better," he murmurs, hands settling on her waist as if to move her away, but he doesn't. He doesn't even want to be asking this, aware somewhere within him that he's close to ruining everything, but he can't not ask.

"Don't you want somebody that'll tell you everything? You don't know me that well, yet."

"Yet." Allison corrected gently, covering the hands on her waist with her own, tangling her fingers in his as she smiled at him softly. "I get it...I have secrets, too. It's...the difference between keeping secrets and hiding them. Pretending they don't exist, you know? Like..."

She paused, leaning in to press her nose to his shoulder, breathing him in, warm and heady and...mouthwatering...

"You smell like gun oil and steel." She explained, lifting her head to smile at him. "Now I won't ask why...but one day, I hope you'll tell me. And I hope when this werewolf thing is over, you'll come out to the countryside with me so we can see who has better aim: me with my bow, or you with the gun or knives you may or may not own."

She sobered a little, then surged up to kiss him again, wrapping her arms securely around his neck.

"You're making out with a knife-toting werewolf, Jace...that gives me an idea of what I could be in for. So...no takebacks: you said you'd go out with me. I'm holding you to it."

With a mock pout, she pretended to glare at him for a moment, then impulsively hugged him, running her cheek against his again to make sure he bore her scent.

Mine.

Stiles hangs out at the park a lot; he has ever since he got to Darrow. It's the closest thing to home for him, big enough to remind him of the woods without having to go into them (Derek always says he should be careful going without him), but urban enough that he can go on jogs or practice for lacrosse without worrying.

Today, he's using it for climbing practice.

He'd woken up after the storm with curiously sticky hands and feet, a good chunk of muscle mass he didn't have before, and what he has pegged, amazingly, as spiders-sense. After freaking out to the appropriate parties, he's kept it in check for the most part - hell, aside from showing off a little in gym the other day, he hasn't done anything with it, aside from climb on the ceiling and make bad horror movie jokes to Derek.

So he decided that it was time to get out and put his skills to the test. He doesn't exactly have a suit, though, and while Darrow is more than open to the unusual, he can't help but think that there's something bad about crawling on buildings in public. And besides, what fun is it when you don't even have web shooters?

He's made it to the top of this enormous tree without ever holding onto a branch and was admiring the scenery - the treetops, the buildings, the view of the park - when he hears something below him. Fully prepared to stay hidden, he crawls down just enough to see... oh, it's Allison.

Allison turning into a wolf.

Derek had mentioned something about this, so he isn't too surprised. It's actually exciting, since nothing bad seems to be happening to anyone - they have powers! - so he's more than happy to share the news, dropping from the tree from about twenty feet up, just because he can, and landing behind her.

"Hey, wolfyyywhoa, hi." The greeting is forgotten as soon as he hears the growl, and he raises his hands defensively. "'s just me, Allison."

Pack!

His voice filled her ears along with his heartbeat, racing like mad. He was downwind, but some of his scent still reached her, setting off the exact right instinct in her head to subdue her almost immediately.

The lonely ache of the wolf vanished, melting into a giddy joy she couldn't control as she sprang up before she could stop it and threw herself at Stiles, wrapping him in a bear hug with too much force, too much strength...

Pack. Pack. Packpackpack...

The wolf was elated, howling in her head and coursing through her veins as she pressed her face to his shoulder and breathed him in. He smelled the same as he had on Derek: sweet, earthy, something that reminded her of dried lavender and something else she couldn't name...the smell of family and home and companionship that eased some of that agony of separation that had the wolf so on edge.

...and then there was...

Pack? Alpha...back, away, no!

Derek's scent was all over him, too, a telltale mark of ownership that the wolf noticed before Allison did, and finally brought her to her senses. Releasing Stiles hastily from her viselike grip, she backpedaled, not sure if she or the wolf was mortified. Derek had been worried about that, too, happening in his presence, angering his wolf...

"Sorry! Oh, God, Stiles, I'm sorry! I didn't hurt you, did i?"

The strength of the hug isn't something he's prepared for. He knows Allison can be enthusiastic, but this is something else entirely. It's surprising at first, but it doesn't hurt, so he returns it just as strongly - well, as strong as he can - before patting her on the back. His newfound spider-sense didn't go off at all, so he figures that that either means he's safe, or that he... doesn't know what spider-sense feels like.

He's about to greet her again, laughing, when she wrenches herself away, and it only makes him laugh more, waving it off with a 'pffffft' sound.

"Are you kidding? I'm hella strong," he laughs. With whatever these powers are that he has now, it's actually not a joke. Which is weird.

"So am I, I'm a werewolf." she pointed out. Derek would have told him...he'd just seen it. She knew she had to have broken something.

Tilting her head to one side, Allison listened to his heartbeat. It was rapid, but steady...and there was something else, something in his scent if she really concentrated.

Moving in close again, Allison brought her face right up to his and inhaled deeply, trying to place that thing that didn't belong in his scent, the thing that wasn't Stiles.

"...it happened to you, too, didn't it?" she realized, eyes wide and glittering briefly with a flare of gold as the wolf snarled in her head, unhappy that something had changed him, affected him, maybe even hurt a member of her pack. "You're not a werewolf, but...you're different, aren't you?"

Man, Stiles almost misses the days when it wasn't normal for all of his friends to smell him. Almost. He doesn't even flinch when Allison leans in, just watching her curiously. It's crazy to him, how much Derek and Scott can tell just from a whiff, and he's endlessly wondering about the how and the why... but for now, he'll just settle for being impressed. And a little jealous.

"Happened to me too," he nods, not quite as grim as he probably should be. "I'm, uh, well."

After looking around to make sure the coast is clear, he gestures for Allison to watch before he runs up to the tree he just dropped from. The motions are different from than just about any that anyone can ever expect from Stiles, they're smooth, controlled, deliberate as he dives into a handspring and flips to land on the trunk of the tree, feet to the sky, head pointed to the ground while he sticks to the wood.

As if this isn't enough, he's also about fifteen feet off the ground.

"Yeah, I'm a bit different." The grin is so bright that he can't even bother trying to stifle it, climbing up to sit on one of the lower branches for a moment.

Allison watched, jaw hanging open as Stiles moved with the kind of grace she expected from Derek or Scott, but less animal, more like...an acrobat. He leaped into the tree the same way, making her laugh in shock when he literally stuck to it, attached to it as readily as the bark beneath him before he scrambled to sit on a lower branch, casual as you please.

Giggling, she clapped her hands, fingertips pressed together as she brought them to her mouth, head thrown back so she could stare at him. The wolf stretched lazily in her skin, ready but relaxed, satisfied her packmate was safe for the time being.

"Okay, Spider Man," she teased, thinking nothing of the wisecrack, "I'm sufficiently impressed. Now come back down here, I don't..." She paused, making a face as her wolf snarled peevishly in her head.

"I don't trust myself to try that trick." She could climb, if she had her claws, but she still didn't really have an anchor she could count on. The bow was helpful, it made her safer, but not safe, and without an anchor...well, she wasn't going to tempt fate.

"I'd pay good money to see you give it a shot, though," he grins, dropping down from the branch and landing solidly on his feet. God, it's not even an effort. What he'd give to hang onto all these powers... but he's not going to think about that.

He rocks back onto his heels so he can rock backward until his shoulders hit the tree, tilting his head back to look up at where he just was, then back at Allison. She looks so genuinely happy for him that the happiness is contagious, multiplying his excitement a couple times over.

"So how is it?" He gestures to her. Scott didn't take too well to it, but that feels like a long time ago, when they were all different people.

"It's...strange." She admitted, moving over to lean against the tree beside him, leaning so their shoulders pressed together. "I feel so...schizophrenic. And needy: all that pack stuff Derek talks about? It's so true. Like when I jumped on you like that, I couldn't stop myself. I caught the smell of pack and the wolf...rolled over like a puppy and wanted to just cuddle. But...I feel more in control, too. Around pack I mean, and I haven't found my anchor yet. Seriously, it's weird..."

While talking, Allison had moved without even thinking, and by the time she'd finished she was leaning heavily against Stiles, both her arms hugging one of his and her head resting comfortably on his shoulder as her wolf all but purred in contentment.

Derek has always talked about his wolf, what his wolf is feeling, and even if Stiles has long since decided that the wolfy life wasn't for him? He can't help but be a little curious. He was about to play twenty questions and ask Allison to elaborate, but she's leaning on him before he can even notice how close she is. His eyebrows shoot up and he laughs, even as he reaches up to stroke her hair. It's a bit like he'd stroke a puppy, but hey. This is how he's pet Derek's wolf before, too, and no one seemed to be complaining.

"I can see that it's a bit of an adjustment," he says with a wry smile, tone hopelessly fond.

Allison grinned, snuggling closer to Stiles as his fingers ran over her hair, tugging pleasantly. The sound she made wasn't human, a low and rumbling growl of contentment...

...and then she realized what she was doing.

Freezing, she lifted her head off his shoulder, eyes wide as she looked up at him, and blushed bright red as she straightened with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry. I'm sorry...like I said, I can't help it." she replied. "And I don't think it helps that I've been cooped up in my apartment for the last two days, I...she...the wolf, my wolf...is lonely." She sighed, huffing as she spread her hands. "See what I mean? It's like there's two people in my head, it's insane."

Scott had spotted Allison from across the park and had just wanted to check on her, make sure she was doing okay. He froze as the twig snapped beneath his sneaker and she turned to face him, her eyes telling him all he needed to know. "Oh my god, are you kidding me?" he murmured, his own eyes wide. First Bay, now Allison? Was everyone but him a werewolf now?

He slowly moved his hands up, focusing on her. "It's just me. It's okay," he said soothingly, remembering all too well how it felt at first, how out of control he'd felt when the wolf decided it wanted out.

Allison growled at him, not registering his voice at first until the wind shifted, and she could smell him: fresh, clean, something sweeter like honeysuckle, and that underlying scent of pack...

But something was missing. She could tell, even now, there was something off. The dark, crisp smell of nighttime, moonlight and forest and earth wasn't there...

Pack.

Eyes still gold, Allison smiled with even, human teeth, stood...and before she could stop herself, rushed Scott with a bone-crushing hug, pressing her nose against his shoulder with a deep, happy sigh.

PACK.

"...Ow," Scott groaned as he was crushed in a viselike-hug. "Um. Please don't break my bones today, they won't heal," he managed to choke out with what little oxygen he could get.

It took a moment, but slowly she realized what was happening, what was wrong with his scent: the wolf wasn't there. Scott was...

Drawing back hastily, she released him and covered her mouth in horror.

"Ohmigod, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, Scott...are you okay? Did I hurt you?"

"Just a few bruises, I'm sure. I'll be okay," Scott assured her, rubbing his side absently. "So, uh. You're a wolf too, huh?" he said quietly, trying to smile and mostly failing. This was just all too much, and he felt so fragile without with wolf. It was stupid, he'd never wanted any of that stuff--but losing it once he'd gotten used to it was a whole other thing.

Being human when everyone he cared about was suddenly dealing with an influx of strange, new abilities was even worse.

Allison felt horrible for even that, especially since it was Scott...but then she remembered the one gift she hadn't tried to use yet. The senses, the strength, the presence of the wolf in her head...

She was so stunned at herself for forgetting that she didn't even think as she reached out and slid a hand under his shirt, curling her fingers against his side. She shut her eyes, realizing she had no idea how...

Between the scent of his discomfort and the subtle shift in his heartbeat, something clicked inside of her, and the desire to help seemed to open. It moved through skin and into muscle and tissue, and as she opened her eyes she saw it travel through her veins under the skin, moving lines of inky black coming alive as she took Scott's pain.

Bit by bit, it crept up on her, making her wince. When it started to feel like it was pressing in on her too hard, she let her hand fall away, breath catching as she rode it out. It wasn't much, a small amount of pain, but it felt alien in her body and it made the whole thing, oddly, more uncomfortable.

When it faded, she met Scott's eyes, her own flashing gold for an instant with exhilaration. Relieved, oddly thrilled, and finally happy to have another member of her pack with her, she finally nodded.

"Yeah, I am." she replied, lowering her gaze. "I, uh...I hurt someone in the beginning, but Derek saved my ass. Subdued the wolf, I mean."

She'd had to remind herself not to howl for Scott, remind herself that he hadn't had the power to stop her. For a moment, she was tempted to tell Scott, to explain...but she had no idea what that could do. He'd known, before it happened, Deaton had told him what was happening to him...but Scott wasn't there yet. It hadn't begun, and Allison was afraid of risking Scott's alphahood by telling him too soon. What if it somehow tainted his transformation, what if it did something to the way he behaved?

Biting her tongue, she smiled at him instead.

"I'm...better today. Better for seeing you." she went on. "But the control's still really shaky." She paused, laughing as she wiped her hands over her face. "My wolf is...kind of demanding bitch."

Scott inhaled sharply as the pain disappeared, as a strange warmth spread from Allison's touch. "You didn't have to do that," he said quietly. He knew what it was like from her end, after all. And it was just some bruising, nothing big.

He nodded as she explained Derek had helped her. "Good. He's still him? A wolf, I mean?" At her comment about her own wolf, he chuckled a little. "You'll get used to it. It's harder at first, there's so much to learn, so much to get used to. But--I'm here, if you need anything. Derek's probably got it all under control, but you know. I'm here."

Allison just rolled her eyes at his assertion, because he was wrong. He might have been her alpha, but he was wrong.

And the wolf felt it, too, that was the strange thing. He was human, he wasn't a True Alpha yet, but that same desperate sense of safety and submission that she felt with Derek, she felt now in a lesser degree. It was an eerie calm stealing over the beast no matter how hard she growled or snarled.

She would not harm Scott. She would protect him...she would defend him with her last breath.

"He subdued me when I needed it...and right now, he is my alpha." she admitted. "But...it's a very complicated situation."

Because you're my alpha, too. Because we're all pack. Because you have no idea how truly great you're going to be one day. She wanted to tell him all of it, but she didn't dare risk it, risk him.

"And he didn't get it under control, but he did help." she went on instead. "I've been locked in my apartment for two days because I still don't have an anchor. I can...focus, a little, but I don't have any real control and it's scaring the hell out of me." She looked into his eyes, her own lost and confused and hopeful...looking to him as if he were the alpha, because he was to her.

Even if he didn't know it yet.

"How did your anchor work, Scott? How does it work now? I mean...what is it that makes it your anchor?"

"Yeah, I'm sure it is," Scott said ruefully. For him, it was complicated because Allison was a wolf, Bay was a wolf, and he...wasn't. It didn't occur to him that she might have meant something else.

"Uhh...it's just--something that helps calm the wolf, helps center you so you can keep it in control. Whatever that thing is. Emotion, another person...I mean, even a memory can help." It had helped him when he arrived here, anchorless and a little freaked. Thinking about Allison, remembering when things had been good between them--it had given him something to focus on.

Of course, now he'd learned to be his own anchor, to find his own inner strength and calm when he needed it. It was harder that way, but he'd found a way to make it work.

"You'll figure it out," he promised her softly, touching her arm. "And you have us while you do. Me, Derek, Stiles...you'll be fine, Allison. You're strong. You can do this." There wasn't a hint of doubt in his voice or his eyes.

He wasn't just saying that, either...it wasn't reassurance, for Scott it was truth. He believed in her, and that made it fact. His confidence, his faith, was absolute.

And she wanted, more than anything, to live up to it. She wanted to be a good Beta, she wanted to figure it out, she wanted to fix all of this so she could be with her pack and be safe. That one little touch, that look in his eyes...it made her want it all so much it hurt.

For one brief moment, it made her regret letting him go.

The moment passed, that brief and painful sting of regret, and then it was gone...brushed aside by the wolf, who didn't understand it, could only understand the safety and pleasure brought by the presence of a packmate.

Mine...not mine.

For a moment she had to stifle a giggle at the growl that rolled through her consciousness, simplifying their complex and often overwhelming relationship with such brisk and elegant precision...the wolf, the primitive part of her grasping what Scott was to her now, and accepting it so perfectly she marveled that it ever caused her a single sleepless night.

Smiling, she leaned in and hugged him again...carefully this time. She thought about how easy it would be if Scott were her anchor, or maybe even Jason...or at the very least her bow...

Her bow. Her weapon...the gentle and ruthless boy enamored with her darkness. Derek had his anger, Scott had turned to love, and later turned within...

Be your own anchor.

Could it be that simple?

Drawing back from hugging Scott, Allison's eyes were wide and thoughtful as she puzzled it out.

"Calm the wolf." She echoed. "Wolves fight, they mate for life...and they hunt."

Blinking, she suddenly smiled. "I think I know what my anchor is."

"Really? That's great," Scott replied with a smile. "...What is it?" Not that it really mattered, what mattered was that she had one, but he was curious.

Ever since he figured our what was going on and got to talking to Bay, the wolf in Dave has been increasingly restless. Major didn't really help much. He was completely on edge and barked the whole morning when this started until Dave actually yelled at the little dog, felt his eyes do... something and immediately felt bad for it. The mutt's been quieter ever since, almost too obedient for Dave to be able to handle.

It probably didn't help that he was trying to repress it as much as possible. He called in sick with Neil and felt terrible, but he didn't want to see what happened if he lost his shit with a customer. He still has a shit temper when pushed to it. How much worse would it be with him being a werewolf?

But he couldn't be held back anymore. Dave needed to run, and he needed people. No, more than people. But he didn't want to think about that.

Still, there was a scent in the air, and he was drawn to it before he even realize he was deviating from his usual running pattern. It drew him closer and closer, a scent of steel and leather and something sweet, but also a little dangerous.

The twig snapped under his foot and Dave stopped immediately, moving into a defensive stance with his claws out before meeting another set of golden eyes.

"Allison?"

In the heat of the moment, the voice, the face, even the sound of her own name didn't register. The wolf was on edge, and the presence of another werewolf was a threat, an invasion on her territory...

Then the wind shifted, and the wolf hesitated. The scent of another animal, canine...woodsmoke, aftershave, and something else...

...pack? Not pack...pack?...

Dave.

Slowly, his identity connected with his nature, what she was seeing, and the gold faded from her eyes as Allison fought the wolf back, shock on her face as she slid gracefully to her feet.

"Dave?...oh my God, you, too?"

"Oh God," he groaned in shame, claws retracting. This was a bad idea, going out was a bad idea. If Allison wasn't a wolf too, he could have.

"I know Bay is. And her boyfriend was but isn't now. I don't know who else..."

Dave felt sick. Less alone, but still sick and scared and why the hell was this happening? Given who he used to be, this is the last power he should ever end up with.

Edited 2014-06-05 16:56 (UTC)

...pack.

He was in visible distress, and Allison felt an accord with her wolf just then, both wanting to help, to soothe the anguish she could smell, a nameless scent followed by a clench of shame and roiling distress in her belly that she felt no connection to.

Moving to him, Allison reached for his hands, gripping them tight in her own, tight enough to hurt.

"Dave? Look at me." she instructed softly. "Breathe...the wolf can be triggered by your heart rate, if it gets too high you shift." Driven by instinct, by the wolf, she shifted to pull him close, standing a little on tiptoe to wrap her arms around his neck in a hug. Her own wolf was so clingy, so desperate for affection, and wanted to help him...

"I'm here." she soothed, rubbing his back gently. "Just relax, okay? You're not alone."

Pack.

The low growl in the back of her mind seemed to agree, making some sort of decision to accept Dave as one of her own.

The hug almost surprised him, but the wolf in Dave's chest calms and the sick roll of his fear ebbs as a sense of belonging takes its place.

He eases into the hug and wraps his arms around her, hugging her tight and feeling better by the moment. He breathes in comfort and feels something click in his head. The wolf growls in agreement.

Pack.

When she felt him relax, Allison smiled and drew back enough to look into his face, searching for some sign...

"You hear it?" she asked, her smile growing a little. "The wolf? It's like...a voice, but not. Mostly growling and...instinct." With a small sigh, she rubbed Dave's broad shoulders, drawing as much comfort from the touch as he did.

"I actually know a lot about werewolves from back home." she confessed quietly. "I just...don't know anything about being one." Pausing, she nibbled on her lower lip. "But Bay, you said her boyfriend was a werewolf, but now he's not...is that Bay Kennish? Because if it is, I...think she's dating Scott McCall. My, uh...my ex."

He nods, knowing exactly the "voice" she's talking about. Dave figured it was the wolf, but he's never felt it this calm since he's become a werewolf.

Then his heart skips a little at her explanation of how she knows what's going on.

"Uh, yeah. That Bay. And Scott."

He met the guy once when he got here, but hasn't really spoken to him since. He still has yet to see the guy and give him the protective big brother routine.

And now he's also Allison's ex. Awkward.

"If it makes things less weird, I have a lookalike back in Kansas that I suspect is way less platonic with her than she insists."

No, that doesn't make it any less awkward, and he winces a little after saying it. But maybe they can be awkward together, now that they're a pack.

It was definitely awkward, but having met Bay, albeit briefly...her first impression was a good one. She seemed nice, friendly, and she'd seen her at Stiles and Derek's barbecue...she didn't give off any bad vibes or anything.

As for how she felt about Scott and Bay as a unit...that ship had sailed with Kira back home. She was content with it.

"Well what make you feel better is to find an Alpha." Allison sighed, shrugging off the uncomfortable moment with a smile. "Derek Hale, he's...well, he's an Alpha. And he's my Alpha." Scott wasn't there, not yet...but it would happen. One way or another, she'd seen it happen.

And on that day, Darrow just might be facing the formation of its first Alpha pack.

An alpha. Pack dynamics. This was... a lot to take in. A damn lot. And while Dave was glad there was a pecking order he didn't have to helm, he's not sure about putting himself in the care of a person he hasn't met yet.

"He's from home too, I take it?"

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June 4, 2014: werewolf in darrow (OTA)

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