The Things We Fear

When the wolves returned just after eight-thirty in the evening, they had several tree branches and planks of pre-cut wood with them. Marcus had no idea which one was cedar, but he suspected several of them were not. Brody was practically bouncing off the walls, as Theo had thought it would be funny to give the kid sherbet. Sometimes Marcus wanted to strangle his best friend.

“We have a tough idea where the creature is. The west side of the city has a collection of tunnels in the rocky area of the forest. It may be living there, or may have fled there after Cassius wounded it earlier.” Zoe had arrived with the other wolves.

She was well-styled hair primped and perfect to the others mess and twigs and leaves bird’s nests. He didn’t bother to comment on the grass stains and tears in their clothes. The wolves were well known for randomly tussling with each other. At least the ones who had gone to the hardware looked a little better. Though why they had oil stains in them? Marcus was just going to assume they got distracted by the shiny metals and somehow made a mess. Zoe, as the alpha, looked extra impeccable next to the rabble.

Marcus had wanted to ask how the funeral plannings were coming along, but he didn’t want anyone to be distracted just before heading out.

“The vampires and fae are on their way,” Cassius announced as he entered the room, typing away on the tablet in his hands.

Zoe nodded in acceptance. “Lara’s pack won’t be coming with us,” she gestured to the wolves sitting subdued in the corner. “They want revenge, but we eventually agreed that they would be too tempting a target for this creature and we can’t risk them losing their heads.”

“They can’t have been happy about that?” Cassius asked, raising his eyebrow.

“They weren’t,” she sighed. Sitting on the couch among her pack.

The room was quickly filling with various supernatural beings. Marcus had to pull Brody back from bouncing over to the newcomers. The boy was in play mode and oblivious to the more serious nature of the adults’ conversation. Marcus was relieved the wolves had brought several of their young, all thinking it was better to keep them behind the wards whilst the adults were off fighting. It meant Brody would be kept busy and wouldn’t try sneaking out after them. Not that he thought the other would, he was totally basing those thoughts on what he would have done at that age. Luckily, Brody wasn’t as curious as a younger Marcus had been.

“I had to pull rank as high alpha of the area,” she sounded genuinely disappointed about having to do this. “But needs must.”

“When are we going?” He asked, bringing their attention to him on the opposite couch.

“We?” both adults asked in unison.

Marcus was about to bristle, but took a steadying breath. He needed to argue his value, not act like a child. If he got angry, they would not respect him.

“This thing wants me more than anyone else. I’m the only one to survive it, twice,” he cast a guilty look in the direction of Lara’s pack, “If I am there, it is more likely to come after me. I’m both the perfect bait and capable of protecting myself.”

“You want to play bait?” The anger in Cassius’ voice rang clear.

“It will want me either way. It is simply sensible to use me rather than risk it going after someone else. It couldn’t eat my fear last time, it simply wanted me dead out of revenge. Whilst it is focusing on me, everyone else will be safe. I trust you, the wolves,” he looked to James and Zoe, “my old pack, and I may not the fae well, but they have no reason to want me dead, so I am willing to show my faith in our people,” he stressed the word our.

Our people, he was publicly accepting he was in this. There was no putting the genie back in the bottle. He ignored the sounds of celebrations from the shadows. He couldn’t afford to doubt his decision now.

“We have no proof it couldn’t feed from you again. You’ve gotten lucky. Twice. I do not want to count on such luck a third time.”

“Cassius,” Zoe cautioned.

“He’s my son.”

“And my son’s mate.”

That had his head whipping up. “What?!” He demanded.

He turned his head to James.

“You haven’t told him?” The alpha wolf hissed.

“There hasn’t been time.” James protested.

“But you both smell-”

“A kiss. Just a kiss. Muuuum,” the younger wolf whined.

Marcus looked at his crush accusingly. He didn’t know a huge amount about mates. Their mythos was routed in soulmates, but on the forums there were many arguments about whether there was only one mate per person. Whether there are multiple possibilities. Whether there was polyamory involved. The simple fact was there wasn’t enough evidence to say for definite, but the one thing all the wolves agreed on, mates were to be respected and treasured above all else. Marcus did not feel either of those things. If he was James’ mate, why had the wolf rejected him so thoroughly?

His mind flashed back to the conversation with Daniel. The wolf had maybe hinted at a few things. It wasn’t concrete proof, but it might add a bit f context to the strained situation.

“I was going to tell you when we were both over eighteen and you’d be able to make an informed choice,” James said, his face pleading.

Marcus couldn’t think straight though. His hands were shaking. His entire body vibrating with emotion. Anger. Upset. Something.

“Dude, maybe we should go outside, you’re scaring Brody.”

He looked up into Theo’s eyes. James had been pushed to the side, and things were floating in a circle around him. The shadows hissing and cheering all at once.

“Marcus?” The face of his little brother was suddenly in front of him. His short arms bringing him into a hug.

This warmth was gentle rather than burning. It helped to ground him. Marcus heard the crashing of sound as his shoulders slumped into his baby brother’s embrace.

“Dude, what did you do?” He could hear Theo demand.

“It wasn’t me, I was waiting to talk about it.”

“Ye-yeah, when we were eighteen. What the hell, man?”

“You didn’t know about the supernatural, or I thought you didn’t how was I supposed to tell you we were meant to be together when we hadn’t spoken in years?” James was trying to get closer, but Theo was smart enough to keep him at a distance.

Marcus knew both he and his magic would never hurt Brody, especially not with him so close. He picked him up properly, holding the smaller boy in his lap as he kept breathing. If he had been cycling things around the room, it would be easy for one to hit the boy accidentally. Theo could heal. The others he wasn’t too fussed about getting hurt.

“Mates are meant to be treasured,” his voice was quiet, but the others with their supernatural senses would hear him word for word. “You rejected me. Repeatedly.”

James flinched when Marcus’ eyes landed on him. He had no idea what his face was doing. His emotions were too messy to simply pick one out, but he suspected the level of hurt he felt was telegraphing itself across the room.

“That was my fault,” Zoe said, standing, but not coming closer. “James kept losing control of his shift when you were around. It was dangerous, for all of us,” she looked to the other wolves.

It was the first time he saw the others were casting accusing glances at her. She had just confessed to pushing away two mates. It would not go over well with the wolves.

“We believed you nothing about us.”

As much as he wanted to protest, the alpha wasn’t wrong. Prior to James’ accidental shift, he had been entirely oblivious to the fact they were shifters. Marcus hadn’t known anything other than magic and shadow creatures were real. If James hadn’t turned before his eyes, Marcus likely would have continued unaware. Maybe he would have been happier that way, but there was no changing this now. The shadows had told him there were more things than magic and beings from other dimensions, but he hadn’t exactly believed them. Perhaps after a few more years, he would have. Marcus couldn’t say and it was pointless to dwell on what ifs.

“Having his mate close was a constant temptation for the wolf. He might have done something to expose us, and even hurt you without meaning to if you flirted with someone else in front of him. For all we are shifters, we are also human, and jealousy and violence are inherently human traits. It was safer for everyone involved to keep a distance between you both.”

Marcus hated how logical it all sounded. Like every word wasn’t tearing out his heart. He understood. It was logical. The alpha had made a logical decision to keep everyone involved as safe as possible. He could see that, but it felt like someone was shredding his insides. There was one thing he wanted to ask. One question that would help. But he feared looking weak in front of all these people. He hadn’t wanted to ask about Lara’s funeral for a reason, he just hadn’t expected to one to get distracted and emotionally steamrolled would be him.

“We don’t have time for this.” Marcus wasn’t sure where the strength in his voice came from, but he was glad his inner turmoil didn’t slip out. “We have a fear esting demon to hunt down and lives to save. Anything else can wait.”

He’d struggled to look at James after their kiss for fears he would look like he’d spent hours sitting in the sun, now he couldn’t look at him for fear his eyes would start leaking. He saw Cassius to the side, a look on his face that could only be described as pride. As much as he wanted to scoff, it made him feel a little better. He didn’t need his father’s approval, but it was kind of nice to have it.

“You may accompany us on our hunt on the understanding that you stay close to me and have a bodyguard at all times.”

“Abigail,” he immediately replied.

He might not hate the wolves’ right now, but if James were close by, he would be distracted and he couldn’t afford to not have one hundred percent focus when dealing with the demonic reaper. Likely understanding his reason, Cassius complied before Zoe (or worse, James) could complain.

“Alright everyone, I’m going to give you a charm that should stop some of this things power. If it gets close to you, these will prevent it from pulling you into one of its time dilations, it won’t protect you from all its abilities, but this should be enough to ensure if it does capture anyone, we can get to you in time.” Cassius pressed the totem directly into Marcus’ palm, a look of understanding passing between the two.

“Thanks,” he managed to push out. Having to hold back the sudden overwhelming temptation to call the man dad.

When everyone had received their charm, he returned to the front of the room. Cassius had even made a charm for Brody and Theo, despite them not coming with the group. Those were not tears coming to his eyes. It was allergy season and he was still allergic to strong emotions.

“We have three daggers, but only one piece of blessed gold,” Cassius said, raising the baby bangle. “When we get there, we need to work together to corner and capture this thing before we can land the final blow.”

They moved as one, slowly filtering out the front door.

“Stay safe,” Theo whispered into his ear as he finally released him from his hug.

“You better be back in time for story time,” Brody demanded.

“I might be a bit later than that, but I’ll definitely be here for breakfast.”

“Promise?”

Marcus tried to never lie to his brother. “Promise.” He hoped fate wouldn’t make a liar out of him.