Chapter 2

AN: For anyone who cares Tahryn is pronounced 'taa-rin', with a long extended vowel at the beginning. All main and sexually active characters are over 18.

Tahryn lay in bed on Monday morning and stared at the ceiling as though he could force it to change colour or jump out of the way if he tried hard enough. He barely remembered running down the hill through the woods. And he must have run by the now healed cuts to his arms and legs. He'd run from the big black wolf, those honey-toffee eyes gone hard and evil, run from the teeth that had snapped at him and scared him right down through his tail. Jene had cleaned him up, got him warm and dressed and taken him home to concerned parents. He hadn't listened to her explanation, simply trudged upstairs to his room, being the only boy he didn't have to share, and fallen fully dressed into bed. Tahryn couldn't remember the last time he'd slept in his clothes.

After that the weekend had been a total bust. He hadn't left the house all day Saturday, hadn't gone with the other older teens when they had gone for a hunt, driving out to the National Park to get deer and a decent sense of space and freedom. His sister's had gone, and Tahryn had spent the evening playing Monopoly with little Isla and getting beaten by her. Apparently he was too easy to read. And she hadn't even grown into her fur yet. Tahryn had spent much of Sunday doing homework and dreading having to talk about what had happened on Friday with anyone. it didn't help any that he lived opposite and two doors down from Kurt's family and next door Henry and Philip. This whole pack being together thing. Sunday afternoon it was the younger of the Tanner brothers who knocked on the back patio doors of the Spencer house and wandered in.

A strong, healthy pack like this one didn't bother to lock their doors at night, let alone during the day, and after a nod to Chaska and Isla both doing homework while watching TV, Henry let himself up and managed to surprise his friend day dreaming on his bed.

"Hey bud," Henry went to sit on the end of the bed but backed off when Tahryn growled, "OK, whoa dude. Hold up."

"Sorry," Tahryn rolled onto his side and sat up, bare feet and ragged jeans, "Been a bit edgy lately."

"No shit," Henry sat down gingerly, "What's up dude? You not evening running this weekend?" Henry patted his own washboard stomach and grinned, "Not even sarcasm? Rough man."

"I..." Tahryn found he barely had the will to finish the sentence, "I just don't feel up to much."

"You're not ill are you?" Henry's voice was automatically full of genuine concern for his friend. Werewolves didn't get ill much, but it wasn't unheard of.

"No. I'm just ... shit, I don't know." Tahryn stared at his hands in his lap. Kurt's fur had felt like velvet and silk on his skin, a texture so sweet it had sent tingles shooting straight down his spine to his crotch. "He hates me."

Henry raised a sceptical eyebrow.

"Dude, Koby is head over heels in love with you. I didn't think you were that fucking blind."

Tahryn snapped, his icy eyes suddenly hot and blazing. He snarled.

Henry, unlike his older brother, was not a social climber. He'd given authority and dominance over to Tahryn when he had first joined their pack and social set. Now he sat hard on the floor, making himself lower than the big tanned werewolf, and turned his head to expose his neck.

"I know Koby likes me," Tahryn replied eventually, once he'd managed to get his breathing and his voice under control again, "Stupid little shit can't take a hint. Sorry, sorry." He followed up his comment quickly, sensing Henry's rising loyalty, "But no. Not Koby."

"Then who?" Henry's brown eyes went wide as he began adding up sequences and scenarios in his head, "Oh dude please no ... not Kurt Smith?"

Tahryn nodded his head, staring glumly at the floor.

"Why?" Henry sounded genuinely shocked, and it was Tahryn's turn to growl again.

"I have no idea. He makes me feel," he waved his hands vaguely over heart and stomach, "Weird, and alive. And he's fucking sexy as hell."

"We are talking about the same person right? Kurt, tall, lanky, freaky wolf-boy? Even by our standards?"

"If you've nothing useful to say would you just fuck off Henry?" Tahryn lay back on his bed, staring at his ceiling.

"Dude..." Henry stood and walked to the door, "I've known the guy my whole life. You ain't winning this one."

Tahryn basically hadn't moved since he'd left. Oh he'd shucked off his jeans at some point, wrapped a sheet and blanket around himself, but he'd lain staring at the ceiling, thinking about Henry's parting shot. Kurt must have submitted to others in the pack, if he hadn't he wouldn't still be alive. But Tahryn didn't want Kurt to submit to him, at least not like that. Scared as he was of the big wolf, he hadn't been able to imagine anyone else when dealing with his morning boner for weeks.

Monday morning was no exception, and Tahryn dove easily back into the fantasy he had built for himself over the weekend. The two them lying on the rock, his hand stroking Kurt's fur until the boy changed and came to nuzzle against him. He imagined kissing Kurt, the musky tang of him, earth and salt; and felt lips moving on his own. Even in his head it was delicious. He wrapped a big hand around his engorged cock and tugged gently, rubbing his leaking pre-cum over and around the head and down the thick shaft. In his head Kurt thrust against him, his smaller human form taught and thrumming with a need as hot as his own. They were werewolves, their skin would be hot and slicked with sweat, and Tahryn's fist began to blur a little as he stroked himself. Kurt would say his name, make it sound like something beautiful, and the fantasied image was way too much for Tahryn's already exhausted brain. He felt the tightness building in his crotch, behind his balls, knew the awesome tension that made every muscle he had snap taut and shot his load over his naked chest. Panting, he wiped the sticky essence with his hand and dashed to the shower, hoping that none of his family would see him.

He sat in his regular seat for registration and fidgeted. Werewolves were not generally great fiddlers, but Tahryn couldn't control the tension across is shoulders. Since the last time he'd seen Kurt he had jerked off three times thinking of the boy. And the last time he had actually seen Kurt the big wolf had tried to bite his balls off. It was no wonder he couldn't calm down. Now every nerve was strung out, and Tahryn knew his nostrils flared for any scent of the boy he lusted after, waiting for him to come through the door.

With his classic timing, Koby walked in just ahead of Kurt, since Tahryn had been too wound up to give even his sister a ride to college that morning, and grinned happily to see the big blond sitting there looking expectant. Henry have never gotten round to talking to him, and Koby was all flushed for letting the big guy know just how much he cared.

Koby sat his lithe little form on Kurt's desk and leant over so that his chin rested on his elbows, his supple body on good display. It was a blatant to every wolf in the room as a human girl offering up her breasts before bending from the waist to pick up a pencil. The action made Tahryn start to growl, but not as much as the words that followed it. they were whispered, but wolves had excellent hearing.

"So I gather you'd like it if I blushed more," Koby bit his lower lip softly, hooded eyes heavy with raw lust, "Will that do?"

Tahryn snarled, put out one big hand and shoved the smaller boy to the floor with his most dismissive facial expression. Koby winced and wailed and Tahryn found himself sitting in the corridor waiting to be shouted at. Tahryn snarled at his feet, and shuffled his trainers on the lino floor that smelt like wax and chemicals.

"Do you want to tell me what that was all about?" Tahryn's tutor stared him down across the corridor, not a sensible thing to do even to an enraged human, let alone a big headstrong werewolf. Tahryn looked at his feet and scowled, knowing that id he lifted his gaze he was going to get locked in a power play with the human. It wasn't her fault, Tahryn reasoned, she didn't know she had a wolf in class, let alone three. "Tahryn you can just push people off desk's. Koby could be really hurt."

"He's not."

"You don't know that." A pause, "What did he do to you anyway?"

Tahryn mumbled.

"Huh?"

"I already told him no!" Tahryn snapped, stood, clenched his fists and resisted the urge to smash the wall behind his tutor into dust, "He's just screwing everything up!" After that Tahryn had simply grabbed his bag and stormed off to the rest of his classes.

It had not been an easy day. Being constantly on edge, stressed, his body thrumming with energy and malice that he had nothing to direct at made him tired and snappish and the flip from his usual happy mood did not go unnoticed.

"What the hell crawled up your arse and died?" Chaska dropped her bag half into her brother's lap at lunch, causing him to snarl softly, and then appeased the beast by presenting him with a tray of roast dinner about three times the normal portion. Tahryn didn't answer, but his eyes tracked a slim black haired figure across the cafeteria and his throat issued an involuntary whine. "Oh, right then." Chaska sat and placed her chin in her hands, indigo eyes reflective and narrow, "So are you gonna go do something about it?"

"I tried." Tahryn almost didn't feel like eating. Almost. He focused on not looking like a raving animal while he munched through chicken, potatoes and gravy, "I don't think we're compatible."

"Ooh, big words." Chaska began to wolf her own lunch, quite literally.

"Bitch."

"That's better," Chaska ruffled her older brother's hair, sibling love and the wolf need to be touched and tactile winning out over Tahryn's angry mood, "Come on bro. I'm kidding. Why do you think you and he can't get along then?"

"He's all wolf," Tahryn sighed, "I keep screwing up with him. And I don't think he knows how to back down." He turned to his sister and relaxed into her shoulder. Chaska was slim and curvy, with the wide hips and soft breasts that made girls, well women, of her type so popular. Chaska was born to be a mother, and Tahryn always though that she should have been the eldest. In a soft voice, he told her what he had found out from Jene while he had shaken and shivered after the meet.

"He was born a wolf, and that's all he is. He doesn't like humans at all. Or being human shaped. He treats everyone like they are real wolves. And I keep screwing up like that."

"Not that it's your strong point anyway."

"Indeed. I smiled at him and he snapped at me. Course I forgot it was a threat to show teeth to a wolf. Jene says he's never gotten over being all wolf." Tahryn took a deep breath and warmed to the familiar scent of his sister, close to his own, but with less spice, more subtle green flavours, "I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Oh bro..." Chaska's voice was soft and sweet and Tahryn sucked in all his rage to keep from crying, "Can ye not just talk to him?"

"I tried!"

"I meant the way that he wants to talk. Go have a wolf conversation."

Tahryn jerked his head up and stared at his sister. Not for the first time Tahryn felt he knew that his beautiful sister was destined to be an alpha female, to run her own pack.

"Why didn't I think of that?"

"Oh sweetheart," Chaska stood and dropped a kiss on her older brother's head, "You're just not as smart as me." She twisted away before Tahryn could catch her, and his happy bark followed her from the room.

Kurt didn't even wait until he got home to change. He left college by the back, through the sports fields, and ducked into the tail end of the woods, scrub land and stunted trees. Kurt knew every inch of the woodland, and he slipped his way into an old dugout badger set in the root ball of an upturned tree and stripped off. There was a plastic sack under a layer of leaves and Kurt packed his clothes quickly. He could get Jene to grab them for him if he didn't come back this way. Kurt changed in a hurry, blink fast back into his fur and put his nose to the ground, inhaling deeply. The scent of earth and nature punched up through his senses and filled his mind with greens and browns and the lust that came from being home in his territory.

He marked the tree stump with a groan, then slunk across the open space to the woods proper. The noise and scent of students leaving the school made him prick up his ears, though no one ever came out this way. Exiting through the sports fields wasn't allowed, unless you were one of Coach Willis's stars. A wolf. Having the pack beta working at the school was useful in the extreme. Kurt tracked through the forest, nose low to the ground, padding and moving silently in the leaves and debris of the floor. His shoulders rippled with a movement that didn't track down his spine as he wandered. He had no real purpose, there was nothing he wanted to do, he had just wanted to get out of his human skin.

He hadn't been human since the beginning of the meet, having resolutely refused to shift and come home for meals over the weekend. He'd eaten in the forest, slunk into his parent's house to steal blankets and made a nest in the copse on the hill. He'd avoided every other member of the pack, which hadn't stopped Jene from coming to find him. He'd barked her down, snarled until she'd left, and then felt miserable again.

Kurt wasn't stupid, he knew that his behaviour drove everyone away. Jene was the only one of his pack brothers and sisters who he could call and friend, but in his pain and anger he couldn't even let her reach out to him. Wolf instincts overrode all else, and to let himself be comforted was as good as an admission of subservience. He couldn't do it. Hell he could barely shown respect to his own parents anymore. Kurt knew he was strong. Not the cocky way of jocks or the delusion of body builders who worked at their muscles for show. No, Kurt knew in the same way he knew that three other wolves had passed this way in the last few days, one more recent than most. He knew with the same clarity of the sharp yellow noises of little birds in the trees around him. He knew he was strong. And because of that, at some point, he was going to have to lead the pack. How long Degan could keep him around without leaving himself exposed to sentiment or weakness Kurt wasn't sure, but he very much doubted that his future in South Sea was measured in years.

He had turned uphill going vaguely towards when he picked up a scent that made his head cloud pink and red with lust. There it was, hot and spicy, like the sun baking the desert. Kurt picked up his pace and his ears sprang forwards, tail lifting as he skittered along, following the scent. Tahryn was here, wearing his wolf skin, and Kurt couldn't help the soaring delight he felt in his chest. He was so distracted, that when the other scent, darker, woody, thick with rot and rage, appeared he hadn't had time to react before the body of a rich brown wolf pummelled into his side.

Kurt yelped involuntarily and scrambled to his paws, great head swinging around to face his attacker. Philip Tanner snarled at him, head low, making himself look big by puffing out his fur, every muscle taut for another leap. The social climber had obviously learnt quick, because he didn't give Kurt time to gather himself before he sprang away. Kurt was bigger, and the move gave him no choice buy to simply use his weight against the other wolf, driving him back with a wall of muscle. He turned his neck, snapped and growled, but his teeth closed on fur and air and Philip raked him with his sharp nails before backing away again.

The black wolf pressed his ears flat back to his skull and a snarl ripples through him. he didn't finished the noise, leaping, feinting, and jumping again as his front feet ploughed Philip's shoulder's into the ground. The brown wolf was still snapped and snarling, turning his head every way he could and when his fangs found Kurt's ankle the younger werewolf howled in pain. He didn't stay to let Philip press the advantage, and stamped hard on the soft underbelly of the brown wolf. Philip yelped, and had to let go and Kurt, bleeding, injured, used the gap to sink his teeth into the flesh of his shoulder. Tanner howled and Kurt bit harder, blood and fur in his teeth, and shook his quarry until he felt the muscle below the skin tear, just a little. He let go, dropping Philip and snarled.

It was calculation and pride that made him stand there, leaning half his weight on his injured leg, ever though it hurt like hell fire, and growl at Philip under the other wolf got up, his belly pressed low to the ground, and limp away with his shoulder in tatters, dripping blood over the ground. Kurt stayed in that pose, dominant and vicious, far longer than he needed too, knowing that when he allowed himself to give into that pain he was going to collapse. Somehow he made it on three paws to his copse and the big stone slab. He was dizzy, his vision a slew of colours that his nose was sending him, all yellow and ochre and hazed with pain. Kurt barely had time to register that there was another wolf there, a wolf that gave off scent of worry and wanting, before he collapsed on his side, his vision blacking out to make him sleep.

He awoke an indeterminate amount of him later to find his hand curled in front of his eyes. He'd shifted back during his sleep. It was rare, for him but not others, but it still happened. He was warm, well mostly warm, and his wrist was wet. Kurt opened both golden eyes properly and stared. He was covered by the body of a large yellow sand coloured wolf who was licking at the wounds on his wrist. The bites were much deeper than the ones he'd left in Tahryn's hand, and would take longer to heal. Kurt allowed himself a private smirk, after all, Philip Tanner would probably need temporary stitches while he healed. The tongue on his wrist was warm and rough, his skin itched but the lapping was soothing anyway, and the body heat of the wolf made him warm where they touched, even though the stone under him was cold.

"Tahryn?"

The licking stopped and Kurt felt the other wolf shift, his scent giving off worry and fear.

"Thanks."

The worry lessened, but not the fear and Kurt suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to cry. Fear was not an emotion he wanted to feel form the big blond wolf, but it was one he was getting a lot. In college that morning, there had been equal anger and fear, and while Kurt had been secretly pleased to see Koby taken down a peg, the little wolf had acted all smug anyway. Nothing was decided, he really shouldn't be feeling so happy.

Tahryn's body thrummed with a contented rumble that was nearly a purr, and Kurt wondered what brought it on. Tahryn nudged his hand with his muzzle and Kurt had to touch his lips to realise he was smiling. It was not something he did a lot as a human. Kurt twisted and rolled onto his back. The weight and warmth of Tahryn settling back over him was exquisite and delicious and those husky blue eyes sparkled.

"You and Koby..." Kurt began softly. Before he could finish Tahryn laid his ears back and shook his head so violently his face blurred.

"Alright, so no you and Koby?"

The sandy wolf let out a pleased snort and laid his head onto Kurt's sternum. Kurt could read every little move the wolf made, it was easier than following a human conversation, though he had become adept at that too, and the scent of satisfaction coming from Tahryn made him feel peaceful. Tahryn had come looking for him, and protected him while he was unconscious, had cleansed his wound and now wanted to stay with him, here on this hillside. Kurt pushed the fingers of his uninjured hand into the thick fur of Tahryn's pelt and rubbed over the back of his head and neck. He knew it was a possessive gesture, but he figured with the way the wolf was lying on him he was entitled to a little dominance. He tried not to think about that too hard, lest his instincts take over from the happy thudding in his chest. Kurt just decided to lie there and listen to what Tahryn was telling him.

He was sorry. He wanted to be with him, though context was not well translated through wolf signals. He was happy. He was hurt, but only a little bit. Kurt processed all of this as he stroked the wolf's neck happily. But time passed, the ground was uncomfortable on his bare human skin and he felt the dominant gene in himself start to rise. Having another wolf over him, bigger, stronger and pinning him down was starting to send him a bit mad.

"You're going to have to get up now Tahryn. I can't have you on top of me any longer."

For all his lack of understanding, Tahryn recognised the tone well enough, and was soon scrambled back and up. Kurt sat up, but before he could think of changing, Tahryn had crunched and shifted, and stood there naked on the slab, shivering.

"Fuck it's freezing."

"There's blankets in the copse," Kurt pointed with his uninjured hand and as Tahryn turned to get them examined the bite mark on his wrist. Philip had a good aim, the sharp fangs had almost slashed the vein to bleed him dry, and Kurt doubted that the mark would heal up in less than a day. Looking at the wound made him think of what he'd done to Philip. Tanner was bound to go running to the alpha, or possibly Willis. The boy was a social climber, and therefore his pride was not intrinsic. He would not refrain from admitting his defeat if it made life difficult for Kurt. And a wound like that would certainly change the way the majority of the pack saw him. They thought he was nuts, a bit out of kilter. But he was trusted. Now he would be dangerous. The thought did not make him happy.

"Why so sad pretty boy?" Tahryn dropped a blanket over his shoulders, wearing another one like a kilt.

"Pretty boy?" Kurt's tone was acid.

"Sorry, sorry!" Tahryn held out his hands in a supplicating gesture, "Please. I fuck up a lot."

"Well no shit." Kurt wrapped the blanket tight around his shoulders and stared at his wrist, "I'm going to be in so much trouble," A pause, then, "I smell like you."

"Since you came up here smelling like Tanner I'd consider that an excellent improvement." Tahryn's grin was open and a little bit cocky and Kurt couldn't stop himself from staring. Big, broad, muscled and tanned. If Kurt ever had a type, then this was it. Fuck... "You look like you want to eat me. Do I need to be scared again."

The words shocked Kurt rom his reverie. There was not seeing things the way others did, but this was new.

"Is your nose broken or something?" Kurt tried not to let his voice sound too harsh, "How much do you miss exactly?"

"All the little things," Tahryn's voice was heavy, but Kurt was sure there was no way he could have missed the heavy lust which had laced through him, "I smell stuff that I don't understand and I'm crap at body language. Especially wolf to human body language."

"Hence all the smiling." Kurt jumped to the correct conclusions himself.

"So I'm prettier if I pout?" Tahryn pulled a face with big puppy eyes and Kurt threw the blanket at him.

"You and Koby?" He said again, and made it into a question.

"No such fucking thing. I can't believe that boy still thinks I'm into him, even I could get my hints. He's just so fucking..."

"Needy," Kurt supplied the end of the sentence, "He's always been like that. Koby will let you trample all over him and keep coming back for more. He needs to be dominated."

"That sounds like experience talking," Tahryn pulled back, his arms going around his knees, "Is that why you're angry with me? I took your toy?"

Kurt snarled and stood in one fluid movement.

"Don't you try and act like you fucking know me. Accepted or not you're still a newcomer to this pack. Do whatever the fuck you like with Koby." Kurt knew he was fucking it up even as he turned to walk away. It was like he couldn't help it, the dominant behaviour in him just had to come right to the front and make someone else feel like shit for trying. Backing down now would look like such a weakness. Still human he stalked into the forest, and he was on the verging of changing when he felt Tahryn's big hand wrap around his injured wrist and pull him back.

He ended up chest to chest with the big classical statue of a man, and had to tilt his head up to look at Tahryn properly. Tahryn's skin was hot against his own, his lightly fuzzed chest soft and textural against Kurt's own narrow form. Tahryn's hand stay around his wrist, his other arm coming up to pin Kurt against him and Kurt could not mistake the violent mixture of anger and pain and lust in his husky eyes. Words were implicit in the scents that Tahryn brought to him. The total lack of desire to do anything with Koby, the desire for Kurt's own skin, the rage at being dismissed warring with lust. Then one big hand was cradling the back of Kurt's neck, and there was not a jot of space between them as Tahryn's lips fastened over his own.

Tahryn tasted of the desert, complex and amazing, his lips were full and soft and he made short work of Kurt's defences. The wolf was stripped out, laid bare, his mouth open and hungry for Tahryn to plunder, and Kurt could feel his instincts unravelling under the onslaught of Tahryn's skilful tongue. Eventually Tahryn broke the kisses by inches and smiled at him.

Teeth. Instinct. Aggression. Possession. Dominance.

Kurt hit him before he had time to think about it.

"Fuck it! Kurt!"

"Let go of me!" Tahryn had his arms pinned by his sides, his grip deadly strong and no matter how Kurt wriggled he couldn't get lose.

"Stop it! It's not always about being fucking top OK? Just calm down!"

Kurt snarled at him.

"You aren't in charge of me!" Kurt shouted. He hated that his stupid useless human body had betrayed him, opened him up to another wolf with no regard for his status or his pride.

"I'm not trying to be. Would you just listen to me for a second?"

Kurt snapped at him again, and turned the movement into his change. Tahryn had to let go as he shifted, the sensation too weird to be held onto and wearing his fur once more he growled. To his surprise, Tahryn sat heavily on the ground, his head in his hands, totally unprotected.

"It doesn't always have to be about dominance you know."

For one long slow heart beat moment Kurt considered his options. The boy in front of him was soft and hard and beautiful and apparently wanted him and kissed with the force of fucking freight train. The sight of his sculpted stomach made Kurt happy. He wanted the boy on his back, belly up for him, giving into his every whim. But he was stupid. Not about dominance. The boy knew nothing. Instinct won yet again and Kurt walked off down the hill, trying not to let it show that he wanted to be limping on his bitten ankle.

Degan Canon surveyed the situation in front of him. He had hoped that Kurt's issues would either resolve themselves when he found a mate, or wouldn't flare up under after the boy had at least finished with school. Kurt Smith was a hazard, and had been from pretty much the moment he had been born.

Nothing in pack archives had ever spoken of a child born a wolf. National registry had been even less help, refusing to believe the truth until the Beta from the South Bank pack had been down and seen it for himself. No one had ever heard of before a werewolf who was pretty much just wolf. Kurt had not been an easy cub, too changeable, too serious, and he'd never had other wolves his age to play with. It had taken years of coaxing to simple get him to sit through dinner in human form. If South Sea hadn't been such a stable pack, Degan didn't know how Dick and Barbara would have coped. Even with a normal cub it took more than their parents to raise them well. With a pup like Kurt, it had taken the best efforts of everyone.

And Philip Tanner lay on the bed in the first guest room with his shoulder torn open. He'd arrived in the garden limping and shaking. Degan had had to coax him back into human form before he'd called for Willis and the doctor. It was a happy fact of good pack staffing not only to have a teacher and a midwife, but a doctor on the roster. Noakes had arrived in quick time, as he lived in the house next door, and gone straight in to see the damage.

Degan didn't doubt for a moment that Philip had started the fight. The young man was ambitious, rough, and it wouldn't be the first time he had started a fight he couldn't finish in his quest to move higher up the ranks. But Kurt Smith didn't fight like other werewolves. He fought like the wolf he truly was, and he didn't hold back. Philip must have been determined to win, because Kurt had been determined to leave him with permanent scarring if not permanent damage. Philip's whimpering and whining made the alpha's skin crawl. He hated dissent in his pack.

He hadn't been pacing the kitchen long, his mind whirling about what he was going to do with an unattached, slightly feral and very strong wolf in his pack when his favourite granddaughter arrived, looking frantic and panicked. For a split second Degan thought that maybe his free spirited little Jene had feelings for Tanner's boy. But then he read the worry on her face and knew she was not concerned with that particular pack brother.