Unwilling Ch. 04

Suddenly Darwin seemed to crumble and started swaying. Jared was next to him in a split second, both arms extended to catch him if he did faint, but he didn't anticipate Darwin first leaning against him, then hugging him as the black haired hell-dog started to sob silently.

"I hate this! I hate being weak," Darwin sniffled against Jared's chest and eased his wounded arm out of the hug without letting go.

"I won't tell anyone, promise."

They stood like this for a good five minutes, and Jared relished the feel of Darwin's body in his arms and the scent of his hair ins his nose. It was the first time Darwin let Jared touch him in this way without freaking, and even though there was the thought of sex somewhere in Jared's mind, he could have stood like this forever without changing a thing about it. The moment was perfect, but then Darwin slowly let go, wiped his face with one sleeve, and hobbled back into the hunting cabin. Jared didn't like how much Darwin's posture resembled a broken man. He had won this battle, but the victory tasted somewhat bitter.

~*~

Twenty minutes later Darwin was sitting awkwardly on the cot, sipping hot cocoa as he watched Jared buzz through the shelves and cabinets in search for food. They had eaten the last of the canned peaches that morning, and Jared had yet to find the guts to open one of those unmarked, neutral cans sitting in the back of one shelf.

As nutrition and rest were the most important tools in Darwin's recovery, Jared had insisted on being in charge of housekeeping. Had he known how many little things one had to do to keep Darwin on the cot instead of taking over, he might have kept his mouth shut, but now it was too late.

"I want to know what you're planning," Darwin growled, clenching his mug. Jared could feel Darwin's eyes following his every move, and he could feel the inner unrest the submissive werewolf experienced, his frustration about not being able to do anything, and his growing anger at the world as a whole. This was not going to be a fun weekend, but Jared was willing to suffer the consequences of his actions.

He found a plastic box of crackers behind a few packs of sugar, pulled it out and threw it onto the cot. "There, eat." Jared sighed, then sunk onto the camping chair. He already dreaded this talk, though he had no idea why.

"I don't have a polished plan yet, because I don't know who we're up against. It's time you tell me what happened, and why, then we can talk about strategies to fix it." He growled and pointed at the crackers. "Don't fiddle around with the label. Eat!"

Jared watched silently as Darwin ripped open the box, threw him a dark glance and started munching. He could hear Darwin's stomach growl in appreciation, but Darwin himself made a tortured face and put the box away after the third cracker.

"It's none of your business, okay? I know who has Harry, and where he is, so let's just work with that," Darwin muttered, picking at the cracker box label again. He wouldn't even meet Jared's gaze, but the Alpha was having none of it anymore.

"You can't tell me you love me, and then say your life is none of my business."

That at least got Darwin's attention and made his eyes snap up to Jared's. "I never said that!" he hissed, sounding outraged and panicked at the same time. His fingers tore into the frayed cracker box label, ripping it in half, but he didn't even realize it. His eyes were wide.

Jared liked Darwin's expression. He looked decidedly guilty, and it showed Jared he'd hit a nerve there.

"Yes you did. Yesterday, when I tended to your wounds. You said 'I love you', and then you blacked out." Jared couldn't keep his voice from sounding triumphant, but at least he managed to keep his grin at bay.

A soft, rosy glow emerged on Darwin's cheeks as he looked back down on his lap again. "I was high on pain medication, you moron," he hissed, but his words didn't sound as hostile as usual. There was a moment of silence with Jared letting Darwin stew in his nervousness, and Darwin fighting the urge to fidget, then Darwin sighed. "Okay, I'll tell you. But it's a long story."

When Jared simply nodded, he swallowed and took a deep breath.

"I was about seven years old when I was bitten. I can't remember anything before that, and I don't even really remember how it happened. Everything I do know my adoptive father told me. He said he found me near the highway, behind an abandoned gas station, and that I was nearly dead. They didn't even know what had attacked me until a month later, when I first changed." A small smile appeared on Darwin's lips.

"I nearly went crazy, but my adoptive parents did everything they possibly could. They stayed up day and night, taking shifts next to the cellar door where they had to lock me up when I was changed. They never got angry, never allowed me to blame myself when I had hurt somebody, and they never let anyone outside our pack get hurt by me. In return, I moved heaven and earth to become the best son they could ever wish for. I was class president, brought home A's on all the exams, helped at the community center in my spare time..."

His voice trailed off, then he scoffed sarcastically and inspected his palms. The bitter tone Jared had gotten used to was back in his voice when he continued. "But as soon as I changed, I was nothing but a beast, an animal. A mindless, scared, angry killing machine, and they had to lock me up for three days every single month, every time the moon was full. Nothing helped, no amount of love and training could stop the wolf in me from running wild. The Alpha, Carl, even suggested I should be humanely put down to spare my parents the grief, but my father never gave up on me. George, my father, always said that he had faith in me, faith in my ability to get control over my wolf, but I didn't really believe him. Didn't want to believe him, I guess."

"And then, one day, this kid showed up at high school. Shy, dark skin, dark eyes, dark hair, but he made me tingle all over, every time he looked at me. And he knew what he did to me, and he wasn't shy at all, at least not in private." Darwin hadn't looked up while he was talking, but now he grinned at Jared, winked, and then looked down again.

His happy face only vanished when he continued. "Nevil was gay, and when I finally admitted that I was gay too, we became an item, even though he didn't know how long he'd be staying in Banes. His parents moved a lot due to their jobs, but I didn't quite grasp the situation until it was too late. But besides that, I had just turned fifteen, and as you well know, that's an important time for a werewolf. They said I'd know instinctively 'what' I'd be, submissive or dominant, but I hadn't figured it out yet. I only knew that I liked it when Nevil took control, and I knew I was in deep shit when one day my Alpha, Carl, walked in on us. It was then, at that moment, when I saw his crazy eyes."

Again Darwin fell silent for a second, but his body went rigid. His shoulders were pulled up, his head went down, and his hands made fists so hard his knuckles turned white. Only his bitter voice remained unchanged.

"He didn't do anything, didn't say anything, he just gave me that... look, and walked out. I was the biggest disappointment he'd ever seen in his life, just because I was the small spoon in bed, instead of the big, hunky spoon. Looking back, I think what made it even worse for Carl was Nevil's lithe and small body. He wasn't an athlete dominating me with sheer power, he was just a tiny boy, and still I went crazy when he took me from behind."

It was the worst time to get a boner, and Jared tried to hide it as well as possible, but he didn't have to worry--Darwin didn't look up anymore, he just shrank into himself further and further.

"I guess he wrote me off as an submissive that day, but I didn't have time to think about it, because just three days later my mother died. It was a stupid thing, a brain aneurysm that killed her instantly, and even though it hit me harder than anything else in my life, my father was worse off. He wouldn't eat, slept all the time, didn't wash or even put on clothes, and I had to run the house for a month. There was no time to think about my outing in the pack, and Carl mourned my mother just as much as I did. But when my father didn't get better, something happened inside the pack. People started disappearing. A whole family left the pack over night and never came back. Rumors started to make rounds about missing or dead submissives from our pack, and even though the deaths were due to accidents, people knew that it just wasn't the whole truth.

Six months later someone broke into our house and attacked my grandmother, who had moved in with us to help my heartbroken father. They beat her up so badly, she drowned in her own blood. When my father found her he had a stroke, and suddenly I was all alone."

Another silence followed, but Jared's boner had long since deflated, and now tried to crawl inside his abdomen from sheer disgust. Whoever had done this to Darwin's family was the real monster, and deep inside Jared wished for a chance to--

"I think it was Carl all along. I think he killed all the other submissives, drove whole families away, and broke into my house to find and kill me. My grandmother was a liability, that's why she had to die. The only reason I can think of why he didn't finish me sooner is my father's stroke. My father is like a brother to Carl, and he must have realized how deeply he hurt him with what he did. As soon as I made that connection I outed myself as a dominant to the pack, and just as I had done as a kid in school I got really, really good at playing that role. Carl didn't fully believe me though, and he started to test me. He made a game of torturing and teasing me, but I met his every move. I was prepared, and I was perfect, because my life depended on it. He first thought he'd catch me red-handed when the moon was full, but my crazy wolf was very consistent with his rages, and behaved just like before. He was never one hundred percent sure if he was wrong or right about me."

Some part of Darwin seemed to realize how much he was cowering, because he instinctively straightened his back and rolled his shoulders until he sat bolt upright. Jared was grabbing the armrests of his camping chair so hard the cloth had started to rip, but neither of them heard it, they were so enraptured. One of them by telling the story, the other one by listening, and fighting a shape change due to rage.

Suddenly Darwin stared at Jared's face, but there was no rage or bitterness in his eyes, just a calm, collected, and coldly calculating glare. "And then you came here. A young, virile, gay Alpha werewolf, isn't that a coincidence?"

Before Jared could voice his protest, Darwin already talked on. "No, don't. Don't try to rationalize it, I know you didn't plan on anything like that, but it was bound to happen one day. You're not the only Alpha without a pack out there, and you're not the first one to come into our lands." He waved off the unspoken words with his left hand, then rubbed his face. "You're just the first one to attract my interest. I spent too much time with you for it to go unnoticed, and someone from the pack saw us. The irony is, he tried to kill me for treason, so he actually must have believed my act at some point. Only dominant pack members can have influence like that, submissives just follow the flow, you know? Or maybe he simply found it convenient to use our... acquaintance as an excuse to finally get rid of me. That's what he had his boy Trevor do when you saved me. And now, here we are. Carl's got Harry, and he'll do anything to finally get me."

~*Darwin*~

Telling his story had taken everything out of Darwin, and left him mentally drained and strangely giddy. It had felt so good to finally tell the whole truth to someone who actually could help, and not just listen and weep for him. Jared hadn't said anything yet, but the blond werewolf looked angry and fidgety. He probably wanted to storm off and punch Carl's face in, but he stayed put where he was, staring at Darwin with wide eyes.

Darwin withstood the ogling for a few seconds, then his nerves gave in and he started to giggle self-consciously. That broke the ice.

One moment they were both sitting three feet apart, the next moment Jared was on Darwin, gently pressing his back onto the cot, as he sat on Darwin's crotch to pin him down. The sudden change of position left Darwin breathless and flushed with excitement, although he instantly tried to squash it down. He couldn't help either the lustful reaction of his body to the presence of the stronger man, or his mind's utter disgust and anger with himself and his helplessness.

"What are you doing?" Darwin hissed, his own heart beating so hard he could taste his pulse on his tongue.

Jared's face was flushed, and his eyes darted from Darwin's face to his chest and back again. "Relax, I won't hurt you," he murmured, but his face looked uncertain and shocked by his own actions. "I just need to..." he stammered, then fell silent. Instead of fishing for words Jared leaned forward and sniffed Darwin's face, then his neck, slowly trailing downward. His hot breath gave Darwin goosebumps, and it tightened something in his abdomen that in turn made his cock jolt with sudden interest.

"You just need to--what?" Darwin whispered, and his own breath quickened. The way Jared scented his body made Darwin freeze and not even think about pulling away. He felt strangely frightened by the slow movement and the intensity on Jared's face, but at the same time it made him fiercely horny. With every passing second of Jared's inspection Darwin longed more and more to just rip his clothes off and offer himself to be devoured by Jared.

When Jared pressed his face against Darwin's belly and inhaled deeply, Darwin could feel his cock throb. A wet patch was forming in his underwear, making him even more nervous than before.

"I need to make sure you're alright," Jared murmured against his skin as his hands grabbed the hem of Darwin's pants. "The scent of other people on your skin drives me crazy. I can't decipher who they are, and knowing someone wants to kill you..." He let out a shaky breath that tingled over Darwin's skin, then pulled at the denim of Darwin's trousers until the cloth groaned.

The power of Jared's grip made Darwin's eyes roll back into his head, but he managed to stifle the moan scratching at the back of his throat. The nerves in his body tingled with anticipation for more, and only the pain from the injuries in his back stopped him from writhing under Jared's administrations. "Don't rip my clothes!" he gasped instead, wondering why he didn't ask Jared to stop. The instinct to do so was there, somewhere beneath the sudden lust Jared had awoken in him, but the words just wouldn't come out.

"Then take them off. Either way, they have to go." Jared's voice was adamant, and not even the roughness of arousal managed to dilute the pure resolve. Darwin knew that tone of voice. It was just a notch below full Alpha mode, and the only possible choices were to obey, or to lose his clothes to Jared's impatient hands.

Just as he decided to do what Jared wanted, he remembered the casts on his hands. Had Jared planned on him being unable to comply with his wishes? Was this some sort of trick?

Breathing heavily Darwin stared at Jared's face hovering above him. The athlete's eyes were glassy, his pupils huge, cheeks reddened, and his forehead was dotted with pearls of nervous sweat. Jared actually seemed afraid to let go of him, and that small realization massively appealed to Darwin.

His voice was rough and breathy when he whispered, "You'll have to help me. My hands..." and he presented the casts to make his point. He could see Jared struggle to tear his eyes from Darwin's face, but when he finally did he blushed an even deeper pink.

"Oh. Right. Of course," Jared stuttered, and Darwin had to bite back another nervous giggle. He had never seen Jared so unsure and flustered before, and even though the Alpha was still there and active, Darwin didn't feel afraid or subdued by him. Well, at least not against his will.

However, the awkward moment was short-lived. As Darwin was fighting against his weird sense of humor, Jared simply took a deep breath, sat up, and grabbed the hem of Darwin's shirt, pulling it off his body with a smooth, quick movement. It still hurt a bit to be moved around like that, but when Darwin saw the glimmer of sheer lust in Jared's eyes as they roamed over his body, he didn't dare let it show.

Nobody had ever looked at his body with that much adoration and desire, not even his boy love, Nevil.

The button of his trousers made a loud, popping noise as it was opened, and still Darwin didn't move, mesmerized by Jared's body hovering over him. He watched Jared's arms bulge and his muscles move as he pulled down the worn denim, carefully peeling Darwin's legs out of the pants.

Only when Darwin felt hot breath caressing his abdomen, he remembered that he didn't like being naked, and that it was time to freak and lash out.

"Jared, stop," he whispered breathlessly, and was promptly ignored. Fingers touched the hem of his boxer shorts and made him lift his casted hands to try and push Jared away, but to no avail. Jared did stop pulling at Darwin's underwear and grabbed his gypsum coated wrists to stop him from pushing at his shoulders, but at the same moment Darwin could feel hot breath against the soft skin of his lower belly, and a set of teeth grabbing the elastic waistband of his shorts. Darwin started struggling.

"Jared, no!"

"Yield to me." Jared's voice sounded rough and breathless against Darwin's skin, the elastic cloth in his mouth making him hard to understand. He wouldn't let go of Darwin's arms though, and when the dark haired submissive started to flail his legs, Jared simply shoved his shoulders between them and blocked the attempts to break free with his own body.

A tight knot of arousal was forming in Darwin's belly, tugging at his ball sac and his cock. The feeling of being trapped beneath Jared's muscular, athletic form made his dick twitch and dribble pre-cum, made his own muscles tremble with the need to give in, made his breath quicken. He wanted nothing more than to tilt his hips, press his straining erection against Jared's chin and let him pull off his underwear with his teeth, but his mouth still worked on auto pilot. "No," it said, and Darwin had to bite his lip to keep his mouth from spurting a whole string of swear words.

Luckily, this time Jared didn't listen to Darwin's traitorous mouth. Instead he took a deep whiff of Darwin's crotch, growled greedily, and snarled, "Your lips say 'no', and 'don't', but your body still begs me to keep going. If you won't give in, it will. I'd rather have both body and mind." He moved his head back quickly, tugging Darwin's shorts just far enough down to make his proudly erect cock pop out of the black, soft denim. His gray-ish brown eyes were level with Darwin's wet, shimmering cock head, his lips close enough to his shaft to make him feel every labored breath Jared made, and a dirty, knowing smile pulled at Jared's mouth.

Darwin watched with scared, wide open eyes as Jared extended his tongue and licked a hot, wet path from the base of his cock to the tip. Darwin's answering, deep groan nearly drowned out Jared's growling voice.

"Yield to me. Now."

Even Darwin's neurotic need for control had its limits, and this time his mind couldn't compete with the clearly voiced demand in Jared's voice. His cock twitched and dribbled more clear pre-cum onto his stomach just from the deep, rumbling sound.

Darwin's head spun with the sudden bolt of ecstasy. For a second he stopped breathing, his whole body twitching from that one touch, unable to think, unable to talk. He felt Jared's grip tighten around the casts at his hands, reminding him that an answer was needed, and without thinking Darwin whispered, "yes."