Page 10 of Jared

Jared sat dumbly.

Wolves. Really? Wolves? Is this some kind of joke?

He looked at Alan expectantly. The man seemed to be serious.

Crap. He, and everyone else in this room seem to believe the nonsense he just spouted. He's no wolf. They are all people, not four legged animals. What kind of crack is he on?

Jared flicked his eyes over to Steve, who gazed back at him intently. Jared watched as Steve's dark brown eyes began to shift into gold and he shivered, feeling as if something else was looking back out of Steve's eyes. He looked away uncomfortably, only to notice that the eyes of everyone else in the room seemed to be the same as they watched him carefully as if trying to gauge how he might react. Jared swallowed.

“Wolves, huh? You don't look much like ...oh fuck!”

He jumped back , nearly clearing the arm of the sofa at his back as a suddenly lupine Steve landed in his lap.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck...” he said as he fainted.

“Well, that's one way to do it. Smooth move,” Mark commented.

Alice cuffed him on the back of the head.

“That's enough out of you. It's not like there's a manual for this scenario, now is there?”

“Uh, Steve,” Tim ventured. “I think he's completely weirded out. Maybe you should shift back and carry him back to bed.”

“Jeans'll be uncomfortable,” Alice observed. “Best take those off. He should be comfy enough in his briefs and the T shirt.”

Steve gave Jared a long lick across the face, then jumped down onto the floor where he shifted back.

“Fastest shift I've ever seen you do, son,” Alan said. “I'm impressed.”

“It just rolled over me,” Steve admitted.

“Hmmm. Best try to get a better grip on your wolf then. Still, once you're mated, it should calm down a bit.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. Steve picked Jared off of the sofa and carried him to his bedroom.

“Mind you get dressed once you're in there,” his mother called out. “Don't want to upset him any more than he is.”

Jared remained blissfully unaware of it all.

3

Jared became aware first of the fact that his eyes were closed. The second thing that registered was that he no longer seemed to be propped up against the sofa. He could feel the firm yield of a body behind him and strong arms and legs holding him securely. Heart hammering, cracked open an eye, trying to assess the change of situation surreptitiously. As his vision came into focus, he discovered he was back in the bedroom, propped up against someone who sat with their back leaning against the headboard.

“Easy now,” the voice rumbled. “You're all right.”

Jared recognized the unexpected baritone of Steve's voice. Is that supposed to be soothing? You turn turn into a freaking wolf and back again, hold me down in your bedroom while an entire pack of werewolves is sat outside the door, and I'm supposed to be just hunky dory? Why yes, it's all peachy keen! First some guys mouth rape me in an alley, then I'm picked up by a bunch of werewolves. Now all I need is to get butt probed by aliens and carted away by members of the Illuminati and my shit day will be complete. Somebody just pass me the tinfoil...

He felt the arms around him tighten and Steve dropped his chin onto Jared's shoulder.

“I can smell your fear and feel your heart racing, you know. I know you're terrified and that this is something so outside of everything you knew about reality that you have every right to freak out. But I want you to know, I won't hurt you, and neither will anyone else in the pack. I'm not going to let you go though until I'm sure you've calmed down and won't dash off and do something crazy.”

Jared opened his eyes all the way and twisted about to look Steve full in the face. “Crazy? Crazy is having a normal every day sort of day, only everything is going super for once. Then it all goes to shit, with every nightmare scenario you can imagine. Go to a club and get attacked? Check. Get taken by werewolves, oh yeah, baby, check. Crazy is watching a guy turn into a big gray wolf right there in front of you, in the guy's living room, in the middle of New York City. 'Cause you know, it's New York and it turns out that yeah, New Yorkers really can have anything happen. Woo! Go, me!” His voice rose in pitch and he gave an inner wince as he heard the hysteria in his own voice.

Is that me? Damn, now I sound whacked.

He felt Steve shift behind him, Steve's legs releasing him, Steve's hands tugging and turning about so that he now sat cradled against Steve's chest while facing him.

“I'm sorry. I didn't mean for us to frighten you like this. I couldn't just not tell you however. You're my mate, and I couldn't simply hide this from you. Just breathe, okay?” “