Well Met By Moonlight Part 8
And we're back! Are you guys getting my tags, the engagement dropped again. I know that in America there was the holiday but it kinda dropped off before that and I saw other blogs that didn't have their tags work at all. So let me know if you aren't seeing all my posts.
Steve talks to Keith, learns some unsettling news and Robin is awesome.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7
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Billy Hargrove was a racist, chauvinistic asshole with a savior complex longer than his dick, but he was also one hundred times the better man than Dr. Martin Brenner. Granted Brenner was scraping the bottom of the ocean, but Steve was grateful for not having had to deal with him when he was around.
He also knew that he wasn’t going to speak to the Dominus today. He was going to speak to his second in command, Keith Prince.
He didn’t like Steve, and Steve didn’t know why. But considering that despite the last name, he looked more like a toad than a prince, Steve had a pretty good idea the dude was just jealous of Steve’s good looks.
He walked up to the coven, bare ass on display, having just shifted.
“The fuck do you want, Harrington?” Keith snarled. “And why can’t you come dressed like decent folk?”
“Because I’m a werewolf, Keith,” Steve sighed. “The fastest way for me to travel is to wolf out.”
Keith rolled his eyes. “You could always send Carol or Robin to do your dirty work. That is what keepers are for, aren’t they?”
“That’s isn’t happening in this or any life time,” Steve growled. “Not after you propositioned Robin the last time I sent her here on pack business.”
Keith just sneered. “What. Do. You. Want? I’m busy!”
Steve sighed. “Tell your Dominus that we may have the public school system to blame for the raise in hunters and to ask his thralls what they’ve heard.”
Keith scoffed. “He already knows about that shit and they don’t know nothin’.”
Steve’s spine stiffened at the tone and the fact that Billy already knew about the thing with Josh.
So either he had Lucy in his pocket, or there was a spy in his pack. Neither was an option he wanted to entertain.
Steve showed his teeth, forcing Keith to back down.
“You shouldn’t lie to an alpha, dumbass,” he snarled. “I can smell the stench of the lie coming off you like stale weed. You tell your Dominus that if he thinks he can push me around, remind him what happened to the last asshole who crossed me.”
Keith straightened up and bowed his head. “My apologies, alpha.”
Steve snapped his jaw at Keith before shifting back into a wolf. A wolf that could look Keith in the eye. He showed his teeth again and was gratified when he smelled the scent of urine wafting from the vampire.
He leapt through the door, leaving the scent of urine, lies, and fear far behind him.
*
Steve came back in time to see Josh off to his parents. He watched as Josh chatted happily with them over everything he did.
“…Did you know that a single werewolf could eat up to thirty pounds of meat a day? But not raw, that’s a myth...” Josh prattled on, his parents giving each other amused glances behind his back.
Steve turned to Tommy, the keeper that was hiding in the crow’s nest near the entrance.
“It sounded like he had fun,” he said, as Tommy leapt down in front him.
“Carol wanted to straight up adopt him,” Tommy said with a sneer.
“She always did have a soft spot for strays,” Steve murmured as Tommy fell instep next to him. “Especially strays that love shopping.”
Tommy nose twitched. “You went to that vampire mongrel’s again, didn’t you? I can smell him from here.”
Steve smacked Tommy’s head. “He’s not a mongrel just because he was made instead of born. Where are you kids getting these ideas? Jesus Christ.”
He snorted. “Whatever, I can still smell him.”
“I saw the mayor and visited the coven too,” Steve said dryly. “I was doing my duties as an alpha. There is something wrong in this town and I am going to figure out what.”
Tommy sniffed again. “Yeah, I get it. I don’t want Hopper back as the alpha anymore then most of this pack, so you better figure it out, before you get yourself killed.”
Steve pushed him playfully. “Shut it, Tommy!”
Tommy laughed. “I bet I can beat you to the center, no shifting.”
“You’re on!”
*
Steve was in his hut? Cottage? Living structure? He was never sure what to call all the little houses that was in the compound. Hell, he didn’t even like the word compound, really. It felt cult-ish. Which they weren’t.
Werewolves had tried living in towns for millennia and it never worked out well for the werewolves. They would get blamed for everything from failed crops, high infant mortality rates, and plagues.
So they started forming their own communities inside towns. Much like the Vatican and Italy.
Well whatever anyone called them, it was home.
Steve was at home, playing cards with Robin.
“So what did you think of Josh today?” he asked, drawing a card.
“I bet Tommy whined about it all the way back to the center of camp,” Robin said with a scoff.
“It’s actually fucking ridiculous how much the pack is so...so...” he threw his hands in the air frustration. “Fuck I don’t know the right word for it. But click-ee?”
“Clicky?” Robin asked. “What the hell does that mean?”
“You know, a click,” Steve said. “The jocks, the cowboys, the goths, the freaks. A click.”
“Ohhh...” she said. “A clique.”
Steve frowned. “Isn’t that what I just said?”
Robin half shrugged. “Sort of. But yeah, I’ll agree to the pack becoming more and more cliquey. It’s become very insular since...” she paused to think. “Actually I don’t when it started, but it’s recent. I just can’t tell you how recent.”
Steve hummed. “It’s becoming a problem and one I don’t know how to fix. I mean Josh and Chance here will help not only them realize that we aren’t monsters, but that regular humans aren’t monsters either.”
Robin nodded. “It’s certainly a step in the right direction. You need to get out more in the community. Do Q&As at the town hall and middle school.”
Steve scratched his cheek thoughtfully. He placed all his cards down. “Out.”
“Skunked again!” Robin shrieked. “How are you so good at this game?”
Steve just shrugged. “Why not elementary schools?” She stared at him blankly. “For the whole Q&A thing.”
“Oh, that,” she said, waving her hand. “Because despite there being an actual werewolf in the school no teacher or parent would agree to you speaking to kids that young.”
Steve sighed. She was probably right. “’K, so middle schools and town halls help with the community at large but what about the pack?”
She just shrugged. “That’s something you should really talk to your alpha female about, you know.” She scooped up the cards and began shuffling them.
Steve sighed. He did know. But he also knew that Nancy was still very much a conservative when it came to pack dynamics. She had actually turned him down twice because she felt that the alphas should be mated.
It wasn’t until Steve asked her and she couldn’t come up with a logical, non-sexist reason why that should be the case that she accepted the role.
“I love her dearly,” he said instead. “But I just kinda want to spit ball some ideas with you that I can take to her. So I don’t look stupid.”
Robin shoved his shoulder playfully. “She doesn’t think you’re stupid.”
Steve scoffed. She really, really did.
“Okay,” Robin conceded. “Maybe a little.”
“There is also the little matter of the spy,” Steve grumbled.
Robin grimaced and chewed her bottom lip. “You know it’s Tommy, right? Please tell me you know it’s Tommy.”
Steve frowned. “No. Why would it be Tommy?”
She sighed and scooted close to him. “Steve, he’s been hanging on Billy’s coattails at school. He’s always talking about how great Billy is on and off the court. Hell, if I thought Billy liked boys I wouldn’t be surprised to learn Tommy was sucking his dick.”
Steve ran his fingers through his hair. “But I need to make sure. I just can’t go accusing people without proof.”
“I don’t think you should accuse him at all.”
Steve reared back in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, dingus,” Robin said slyly. “You make sure to tell Tommy things you know you want Billy to know. Because a spy you know is better than one you don’t.”
Steve gave her a big hug. “I wish you were my alpha female.”
She hugged him back. “I know.”
“Have you thought about asking for the bite when you turn eighteen?”
She shuffled back a bit and put her hands on her knees and then nodded. “Yeah. I’ve talked to my parents about it. They’re uneasy about having a werewolf for a daughter.”
Steve sighed. “I’m sorry. Maybe the town hall meetings and the Q&As with kids will help.”
She nodded.
“Thanks, Steve.”
He kissed her cheek. “Between you and I we are going to change the world.”
She looked at him shyly. “You really think so?”
“I know so.”
Robin pushed his shoulder again. “You are such a sap.”
Steve laughed. “Yes, but you knew that.”
She looked at the scar on his neck and then reached out to touch it. “I’m sorry they did that to you.”
He shivered at her touch. “I don’t mind it.”
“I do, Steve,” she said fiercely. “They hurt you because they were afraid of you.”
He sighed. “When my parents died, the Franklins were the only ones in town willing to take me in. The only people who knew about the silver collar they made me wear was just the three of us until I turned eighteen.”
“How did no one else know?” Robin asked gently.
“I only wore it when they were home at home,” Steve murmured. “I wasn’t forced to wear it at school. Just at home where I ‘might’ hurt them.”
“It’s still cruel.”
Steve just shrugged.
“Whatever happened to them?” she asked after a moment or two of awkward silence.
“Officially or unofficially?” Steve asked with a smirk.
“There’s an official story?” Robin said eagerly.
He laughed. “Sure is. They are currently on a business trip to...” he looked at his watch, “Tokyo, Japan.”
“What the hell?” she gasped excitedly. “What’s the real story?”
“Only Wayne and I know where their bodies are buried.”
Robin giggled and kicked her feet. “That’s amazing!”
Steve smiled at her fondly. She really was his platonic soulmate.
****
Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13
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