Wolf

A big two story mansion was standing in the moonlight, gathering everyone outside on its lands, their ears perked up and waiting for the rest to join them. Neatly cut grass made soft sounds under their paws as they made their way across the lawn and towards the forest, the biggest one of them leading the way. Younger ones teasingly ran ahead of him only to be called back by their leader’s angry growl.

Jack was standing by the large window on the second floor, looking at the pack and wondering which one of them was Alex. He had never showed his wolf-self to Jack. He never explained why he refused to show his other self to Jack, either, just brushing it off and changing the subject. He had never explained what it felt like to werewolves, showing humans their wolf-self, but he was okay with Jack staying in his room and waiting for him to return in the morning.

Jack wasn’t the only human left behind in the house. He wasn’t the only one who had fallen for a werewolf, but he was the latest one to be accepted by the pack. It took him whole year to get up the courage to ask Alex out. Everyone in their high school knew that he came from the biggest werewolf pack in the city. The oldest and richest family, therefor, making him arrogant and posh. His werewolf side making him dangerous and making everyone stay away from him. No one wanted to mess with him and his family.

Jack had tried to stay away from the boy, ignoring his good looks, the dark eyes that drew him closer, and the lips that asked to be kissed. One day he woke up feeling brave, feeling sure about himself. He walked up to Alex during the lunch break and asked if he would like to go out with him sometime. Alex’s smile had been big, his eyes sparkling, and all he had said was ‘of course.’ Little did Jack know at the time that he was Alex’s. He had been for a long time. He just had to come to the terms himself; he had to accept the fact that if he decided to go out with Alex, it would pretty much be like going out with his whole family, and Alex’s family wasn’t small.

Alex’s family, or pack, consisted of forty werewolves above the age of seventeen, and twenty that were younger than that. It would be an understatement to say that Jack wasn’t intimidated the first time he’d stepped his foot in the mansion. Children running up to him and hugging his legs and sniffing him, older ones keeping a safe distance and eyeing him head to toe, others coming closer, shaking his hand, or pulling in a hug. The only thing keeping him from fainting was Alex’s hand gripping his in a comforting way.

Alex had made sure beforehand that Jack already smelled enough like Alex so there wouldn’t be much touching. That was the thing that Jack wanted to escape from the most—being touched by all sixty of them. He’d had enough with one Alex who was extra touchy and clingy; he didn’t want to experience that from the whole pack.

The first time he was shown around the house, he’d said that Alex had better give him a map because he was sure as hell going to get lost. Alex just laughed at him, saying that he didn’t need to know most rooms as they were just bedrooms of others, but the library, big living room, dining room, kitchen, and the children’s playroom were the ones that he needed to remember. And Alex’s room, of course. The one where he was standing at the moment, five years later and watching the pack make their way towards the woods and wondering which one was Alex.

Many mornings he had woken up next to naked Alex, covered in dirt, leaves, or branches in his hair, dirt under his nails and hair sticking up in every direction. He was used to the sight by now. He had accepted changing sheets every time he found dirty Alex in bed.

Sometimes Alex stayed the night at the Lake House, on the other side of the forest, but only if he got lucky enough to get a bed to himself. Lake House obviously wasn’t the size of the mansion, meaning that not everyone got lucky enough to get a bed. Some were more or less okay to sleep on the floor, but Alex liked to be a diva and refused to sleep on the floor. Even when in his wolf form. He was better than that. So every time he couldn’t get a bed there, he came back home to wake up in his own bed, forcing Jack to change the covers which were covered with dirt, mud, or sand.

“Morning, baby,” Jack said quietly, setting the tray with plates on it down on the nightstand and brushing Alex’s dirty hair from his dirt-covered face.

A wolf-like groan left his mouth, his hands pulling his pillow closer to himself, covers barely covering what was there to be covered.

“Come on.” Jack tugged his hand from under the pillow. “I made you breakfast.”

Alex sighed at that, the smell of eggs, sausages, and sour cream filing his nose and making him scrunch it up. He could literally smell all the fat dripping from the sausages and eggs, but he wasn’t one to complain. Not after a full moon night, and not if Jack cared so much about him to bring it all up to his room.

He knew that he was happy to have someone like Jack. Other people weren’t as understanding of their needs as Jack was. Alex had experienced that. In his own house. He remembered when he was little, one of their fellow werewolves had found his mate. She was human and that made everyone worried. Humans are not as stable in relationships. They don’t know what they want, what they feel. She didn’t understand his mood swings when coming closer to full moon. She didn’t understand his needs the next morning. She left him after two years and obviously he hadn’t found anyone else. She was that for him.

“Your nails are worse than ever,” Jack exclaimed, examining Alex’s nails. “There’s literally grass and earth under them! What the hell were you doing last night?”

“Dug a hole,” Alex muttered in a pillow, pulling his hand back and pushing himself up, covers falling down his legs and revealing his naked body to Jack.

“Please, cover yourself,” Jack pleaded, covering his eyes in an exaggerated motion.

“You’ve seen everything down there more times than anyone. You know you like it, stop complaining.” He sat up, covering himself and taking one of the plates, his eyelids still heavy and threatening to fall shut.

“You’re really telling me that no one has seen you naked when you wake up somewhere other than here? Like the Lake House, for example?” Jack sat down close to Alex, their thighs pressed together, and took his own plate in his hands.

“They haven’t seen me hard and needy, in inappropriate positions,” Alex whispered, smirk playing on his lips.

“You’re nothing like that at the moment.” Jack leaned closer to press a chaste kiss to Alex’s cheek.

“Want me to be?” Alex asked, seductive tone dripping off his voice.

“Doesn’t look to me like you could.” Jack chuckled at Alex’s weak attempts to look awake.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He slumped in Jack’s side, putting his plate in his lap.

“Finish eating. I don’t want to try and get food stains out of the sheets, too. I have enough problems with all the mud you bring back here.”

An hour and a shower later, they both were sitting in a surprisingly empty living room with just one seven-year-old girl, sleeping with her head on Alex’s lap. The TV was on, showing reruns of ‘Bones,’ Alex paying his full attention to it, absentmindedly playing with the girl’s hair, as Jack’s fingers were playing with his hair.

“Why would you dig a hole?” Jack suddenly asked, stealing some of Alex’s attention from his favorite show.

“There was a rabbit,” he said, sounding embarrassed.

“Oh, my God! Seriously?” Jack said too loudly, causing the little girl in Alex’s lap to stir.

At first, seeing Alex playing (or just generally spending time) with children freaked Jack out. He didn’t want children. Not yet. So seeing Alex feel so free with them, let them pull his hair, play with them, let them sleep with him, turned Jack into a panicking mess. It took him a while and Alex’s explanations that him playing with kids doesn’t mean he want some of his own. Maybe someday, yes, but definitely not at the moment.

That relaxed Jack’s nerves, allowing him to look at Alex playing with kids and think that he looked cute with them.

“I didn’t want to catch it,” Alex answered, sinking down into the couch cushions. “It was just exciting, you know?” He looked up at Jack expectantly. “You don’t know.” He chuckled after seeing Jack’s confused and shocked expression.

There were a lot of things Jack didn’t understand about Alex’s wolf side, and some things he was sure he didn’t even want to know. He had thought a lot about why Alex refused to let Jack see him as a wolf, and the only thing he could come up with was that maybe that would change his thoughts about Alex, and he didn’t want that. Maybe he thought he wouldn’t even want to see Alex if he got the chance.

He liked it this way better, he supposed. Liked knowing that there was this mysterious part of Alex, but not seeing it. Maybe a day would come when Alex would let him see him that way, and maybe Jack will be okay with that. He wanted to be okay with that. He loved Alex too much to let it come between them. After all, he knew who Alex was from the beginning. Everyone knew. He knew what he was signing up for when he asked Alex out.

“You’re adorable,” he muttered in Alex’s hair.

“I know.” Alex smiled, pushing his face in Jack’s neck, pressing light kiss there. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

Alex cuddled himself closer in Jack’s side. As much as that was possible with the little girl’s head on his lap.

“It’s pretty nice when the house is this quiet,” Jack said after a while. “You should go and run more often.”

“Then you would have to wash the sheets more often,” Alex chuckled in Jack’s chest.

“You’re the worst.”

“A few minutes ago, I was adorable.” Alex craned his neck to peck Jack on the lips.

“You’re always adorable.” Jack pressed another quick kiss to Alex’s lips before a few other werewolves marched into the room, two of them plopping down on the couch, either side of him and Alex, and three others sitting down on the floor, one resting his head against Jack’s knees.

He never would’ve thought that he would be okay with so many people always being around and eager to be affectionate. He never would’ve thought that he would be in such a situation because he never would’ve fallen for a werewolf, but now that this has happened to Jack, he would never change a thing about it. He would never give up Alex. It would feel weird and wrong to go back to his old life with just his family of five and his few friends, without touchy and clingy Alex who, a few nights a month, came back home covered with dirt.