Unwilling Ch. 08

Both Darla and Rayne were fighting in what looked like the middle of their respective shifting, and both didn't look the least bothered with it. Maybe the pain of rearranging bones, joints and muscles was enough of a distraction to make them not feel the wounds they were ripping into each other.

The winter morning air was thick with the scent of pine resin, ice and firewood, burning cold as Darwin took deep, harsh breaths. It was too dark to see the ground in detail, but where the light from the rising sun hit the tree trunks, he could see spatter patterns of dark blood. It was still warm enough to steam slightly, which meant the fight he was seeing hadn't escalated. They weren't fighting to the death, at least not yet.

"Rayne!" he yelled, only to have to jump out of the way as the two half-furred shapes rolled closer. He stumbled into a lush, many-branched bush that scratched his back to all hell, and he had to fight a few moments before he managed to untangle himself from the plant.

Just as he got back to his feet, a heavy, sticky, furred shape hit him at chest height and toppled him over again. This time he hit his head at the base of a tree and made a pained sound that was nearly drowned out by the angered growl of whichever werewolf was now straddling him. God, he hoped it was Rayne. If Darla was truly feral and without instincts to prevent her from attacking submissives, this would be Darwin's last moment alive.

At the same time, his head started to hurt fiercely, and he made another high keening pain sound. It wasn't his usual reaction to such things, but more of an instinctual reaction to the growl above him. He wouldn't have made it anywhere near Carl, but being with Jared made him slip up more and more.

The wolf above him stilled, eying him warily. He- or she?- slowly lowered their head to sniff the air above Darwin's mouth, and he could feel the claws on his chest bore into his muscles a bit more. He didn't dare move, but he couldn't halt his rapid, fearful breathing, not even with the weight of a werewolf crouching on his chest.

One of the dark, furred ears twitched confusedly, but finally the wolf hopped off him and started to turn away.

In that moment the other wolf made their move and tackled the dark one to the ground. This one was colored the natural gray and brown of a timber wolf, and he didn't seem to have any problems with putting the other wolf into its place.

Within seconds, the dark wolf was lying on its back, struggling and gasping for air around the teeth of the other wolf that had grabbed its throat.

A pair of hands came out of nowhere, grabbed Darwin's arms and pulled him back to his feet. Jared's scent floated his senses just as the Alpha wrapped his arms around his chest and rubbed their cheeks together as if to scent-mark him. "You alright?" he murmured, but Darwin knew his eyes were on the conflict in front of them.

Jared would never have let him get killed. And he had been close. Darwin sighed a breath of relief. "Yeah, just a little bump to the head," he answered as muted as Jared, but he turned his eyes away. Rayne was winning, and those fights for dominance always made him queasy.

Harry was standing three feet away on the other side of the tree his head had hit, wringing his hands nervously. Darwin knew that Harry's pack was healthy and 'normal', for lack of a better word, so he probably wasn't worried about the outcome. It did mean, however, that Harry was worried for Rayne. Like someone in love would.

All of a sudden, Jared let him go and walked around him towards the wolves, leaving Darwin to stumble and brace against the tree. Darla had finally stopped struggling against Rayne, and he was just about to let her go. Jared crouched down three feet away from them, resting his elbow on his knee as he bent forward. He was probably scenting Darla to imprint her personal smell to his memory, but he kept enough distance not to panic her again. Right now she wasn't herself, more wolf than human, as a werewolf was bound to be on his or her first change.

"Can you manage alone, Rayne?" Jared then asked the other wolf, who was shaking the remains of aggression off with an indignant huff. He answered with a soft growl and a pointed look over to Harry.

Sighing, the Alpha got up again and turned. "Harry, please accompany them. Darla seems to have joined the ranks of dominants, and your presence will definitely calm her down," he said to the brown haired man, who perked up and nodded with a grin. He was definitely happy to oblige.

Accompanied by the sounds of another shape change, Jared walked back to Darwin and embraced him with a deep sigh. "That leaves us for guard and sleeping," he mumbled, pressing his face into the crook of Darwin's neck and inhaling his scent deeply. "Do you feel up for guard? I'm still pooped."

Darwin's heart gave a painful thud. It might not have looked like much, but Jared trusting a submissive to keep guard while he was sleeping was actually a very big deal. It proved he trusted him, and it proved he wouldn't treat Darwin like a kept trophy.

"Yes. I love you," he whispered. It was the right thing to say.

~*~

Keeping watch actually was quite exhausting, as Darwin found out. He walked in wide circles, keeping himself to the edge of the clearing around the cabin so he wouldn't get blinded by the rising sun, and stayed warm by jumping up and down, rubbing his arms and stretching his legs whenever the cold became too intense. Every rustle of leaves or crunch of pebbles caught his attention and made him look around nervously hoping it was nothing, because, honestly, what was he supposed to do if someone came and attacked him?

After three hours of not being allowed to read, to watch TV or to sit down and get warm he was more than happy to see the three wolves break out of the woods and trot towards their cabin. The sun had risen completely and it was getting a bit warmer with every hour, but the air still had a nip to it and carried the smoky smell of snow. If they stayed here too long, they would get snowed in. Darwin wasn't all too keen on being stuck in the mountains for the whole winter.

Walking around the house in Rayne's thick coat, he kept an eye on the dark brown wolf he had come to know as Darla. She looked happy and exhausted as she pranced around the other two wolves, snapping at grass and sticks and sniffing the ground. Darla the human probably wasn't aware of what really was happening, still locked inside herself with her emerging wolf-sister steering their shared body, because she sure as hell wouldn't have looked like a bouncing puppy if she were. Finding out you'd have to cope with wolf instincts and perpetual changes for the rest of your life was a horrible thing for someone not born as a werewolf, Darwin knew. Nobody coped well with that revelation.

He reached the front door at the same time as the three wolves, and of course Darla growled at him as he moved to open it. Freezing in mid-motion, he rolled his eyes and tried to keep his irritation out of his face as he waited for Darla to decide what she wanted. This was one of the reasons Darwin hated being a submissive. Having to wait for other people to do whatever the damn they pleased, and being unable to do anything about it.

It was Rayne who shortened their stand-off. Maybe he was cold too, but whatever the reason, he snapped at Darla's cheek and made her squeal and back off. "Thanks, it's getting too cold for that shit," Darwin grumbled relieved, and finished opening the door.

The wolves piled in, Darwin followed. He shouldn't have, he knew that much, but with three wolves having roamed the countryside for miles, there was no way anyone would be able to sneak up on them in the next fifteen minutes, and he was tired of walking around, hungry and in a bad mood.

Surprisingly, Jared was awake and preparing breakfast. The wolves crowded around his legs to rub themselves against him and licked his hands with happy little yips, and even Darla joined the happy reunion. They filled the room with the smell of dog breath and wet fur. It was a better scent than what would follow as soon as they changed back- the smell of lymphatic fluid, wet bone and blood had its own throat tingling odor, and Darwin wasn't looking forward to it.

"Guys, maybe you could shift outside?" he suggested as soon as the group quieted down a bit, and Darla growled at him again. Her dislike for him was palpable, if unusual. Was her wolf remembering what he had done? Or maybe he hadn't lost all of his learned dominant behavior, and something on him provoked her? Darwin was at a loss for answers on this one.

As the group trotted out again, he left the door half open and walked over to Jared, who kept putting bread into the toaster and piling toasted slices on a plate. He felt better the minute he hugged his Alpha, and breathed in deeply.

"You haven't showered yet, you still smell like sex," Darwin mumbled with a hushed voice, and rubbed his cheek against his shoulder blades. "And you're awake. Were you checking up on me?"

Jared gave a deep growl of satisfaction, leaning back just enough to assure Darwin his touch was welcome. "Maybe. Would it be a bad thing if I worried about your safety?" He pulled out a few packages of hotel size butter, jam and peanut butter, then he reached down and grabbed one of Darwin's hands to kiss his palm.

The hot lips on his hand were distracting, and the warm breath wafting against his fingers made his cock throb with interest. It made it hard to remember the question, and even harder to get angry. "So I froze my ass off out there, and you were in here watching me the whole time?" he finally grumbled with a breathy note in his voice. Having managed to utter the words made him proud nevertheless.

Jared laughed, and the vibrations continued through Darwin's arms and chest and right into his libido. He probably would have said something in return, but just when he took his next breath, the door swung open again, and three naked people piled in.

Darla looked very, very pale and shocky, and she was clinging to Harry's arm with fierce resolve. Rayne stopped next to Jared, but the other two didn't slow down in any way, but hurried to their shared bedroom. Darla shut the door in Harry's face and left him staring at it with confusion. A few seconds later he turned around stark naked, and shrugged. "She wasn't good outside, but she was as okay as a person could be in this situation. I don't know what happened."

Three pairs of eyes turned to Darwin, and then hurriedly looked away. There was no way to know what they were feeling, but their thoughts were all too obvious: In their eyes, he was the reason for Darla's misery. And they were right. Totally, absolutely right.

Darwin frowned, then his expression hardened.

"Let's eat breakfast. Harry and I need to go shopping soon, if we're supposed to do it for all of us," he grumbled defensively, then grabbed the bread plate and turned away.

Rayne went to get clothed with Harry's eyes following his naked butt, then Harry wrestled his way into the room with Darla, only to emerge seconds later with a puzzled frown and a bunch of clothing in his arms. "She won't come out yet, it's too crowded for her," he proclaimed with a shrug.

"Or maybe she doesn't want to watch you get dressed," Jared replied with a grin, and sat down with the plate full of breakfast spreads in his hand. "But that's okay. It's Rayne's turn to get rest, and I'm her favorite person in this cabin. She'll be fine with just the two of us."

He looked totally relaxed as he prepared his first slice, like he couldn't care less about the goings-on around him. The sight irritated Darwin more than Darla's behavior. Why wasn't he stating the obvious? Why was everybody dancing around Darwin having bitten Darla, when it was screaming into their face like this? Maybe Jared thought Darwin couldn't take it. Maybe they all thought he was too sensitive and weak to be taken serious.

Or maybe he was overreacting.

There was too much going on to trust his own feelings right now. Sighing, Darwin sat down next to Jared, and hooked his ankles around his shin. It was all the contact he allowed himself for now, and even that he only did because there was no way he could sit next to his mate without having the naughtiest thoughts.

"We'll need shopping lists from both you and Rayne, and from Darla. Clothing sizes, food, toiletry, whatever you need, you write down. We'll handle the rest," he said with a voice much more euphoric than he felt. No need to darken the mood, he thought, it would happen soon enough, and everybody would finally speak their mind. It was inevitable.

Darwin wasn't sure if he was looking forward to that moment.