Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Fragmented Soul	By : StrawberryGirl87 & Bickymonster Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Fenrir Views: 79703 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 10
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything in the fandom. no money/profit is made.

Chapter List
- 20
- 21
- 22
Fragmented Soul
Chapter 21 - Falling
Harry, despite always falling asleep curled up with Micha and nowhere near Fenrir, always woke up with the overbearing, larger werewolf wrapped around him. This was something that was starting to grate on Harry somewhat, given their argument, which Harry still had not forgiven him for; Fenrir’s harsh words still echoed loudly in his head.
The Alpha too had been less than pleased at the new sleeping arrangements. The first night that Harry and Micha had slept curled up together Fenrir had forgiven it, knowing that the two submissive males had needed to take comfort in each other. The second night that it happened, however, he had accidentally woken both of them, while trying to remove Micha’s arms from around Harry. Fenrir had not attempted this again, given how furious Harry had been with him the next morning as it had near enough sent Micha into another panic attack.
Neither Micha nor Harry had taken well to the Alpha trying to separate the two of them. Though he had never tried it during the night again, not after the first disastrous attempt, the days were an entirely different story. Fenrir hated the fact that the two of them were always cuddling, holding hands and talking. They had never done anything else, their relationship was strictly platonic, they were more like siblings than anything else, but Harry could see how much it bothered the Alpha and he did so like to wind him up.
Harry honestly wouldn’t have done it so much if it didn’t bother Fenrir as much as it did. Even Micha had noticed how much it aggravated the Alpha and was more than happy to humour Harry in making Fenrir a little jealous. It was an added bonus for Harry, that winding up Fenrir, improved Micha’s mood. It was one of the only things that had managed to make him smile in the three days since Harlan had been tortured by Fenrir and killed by Damon. Truthfully, Harry was willing to do just about anything to cheer Micha up, including royally piss of the Alpha.
The other pack members, however, were not so impressed with the two submissive males and their antics, but this was purely because of the foul mood it put their Alpha in. He was generally known for his less than pleasant moods anyway but, in the three days that he and Harry had been on merely civil terms, he had been a disgruntled force to be reckoned with and now no one dared approach him for anything.
The two submissive wolves had at least been eating, though not with the rest of the pack. The two of them had taken up residence by Harry’s favourite tree, though, thankful at the base of it rather than up the top. So far Harry had kept his promise in regards to scaling the tree, something Fenrir had been very grateful for. Given his foul mood he would have been livid if Harry had shown any signs of even thinking about going up there again.
The Alpha, however, was getting more and more frustrated regardless; it had gotten to the point where Damon had had to take Fenrir to one side and attempt to calm him down. The pack were almost too scared to even breath when it came to the Alpha’s mood.
Damon had tried to assure Fenrir that Harry still wanted him by telling him about how he’d found the younger submissive curled up in one of the blankets that Fenrir used to sleep with frequently; when questioned about why, Harry had conceded that he missed his cuddles with the Alpha and being surrounded in his scent. The blanket had apparently made an excellent, less complicated substitute for him.
Harry of course hadn’t wanted Fenrir to know this but, seeing as the teenager was still keeping secrets in regards to where he and Clayton had disappeared off to while visiting Diagon Alley, Damon was more than happy to share a few of the ones he was privy to. Besides he was willing to do just about anything to put the Alpha in a better mood.
Unfortunately the sweet story had not had the desire effect on the Alpha wolf, who had only grown more frustrated and enraged when he had heard this. It was more than okay for Harry to be missing him but he just wished that his little mate would come to him for the cuddles he wanted instead of using a damn blanket instead.
Fenrir just couldn’t understand why Harry wouldn’t just come to him. He was starting to realise that Harry’s stubbornness might outlast his own; he realised that he might actually have to grit his teeth and apologise whether he wanted to or not. However, he knew he wasn’t solely responsible for their problems and so was determined that he wasn’t going to stoop to that level unless he absolutely had to.
In the meantime, while the Alpha pair struggled with their issues, Damon had seen to it that Tessie’s first communication made its way to the strays; though they had not heard any response back as of yet. Callie had also been monitoring the injury to Tessie’s shoulder and arm, and, although it appeared to be healing well, the girl was not regaining much use of her arm; they definitely had some concerns that she might never have full use of it again.
Surprisingly though, it seemed that Tessie was taking the news about her injury well. She had explained to Jenson that it was difficult to feel in anyway resentful about the handicap, when she was relieved to be alive at all. It was also helping that the Alpha was allowing her to stay and, though she didn’t mention it, she was glad that they had found a way for her to assist the pack and hopefully even keep her sister, Jilly, alive, despite the odds stacked against them.
The other pack members had taken a shine to Tessie; she was more than willing to pull her weight within the pack, despite only having the use of one arm, and this endeared her to them. She was easy to talk to, polite and respectful, and didn’t step on anyone’s toes. Things within the pack were actually beginning to feel as if they were returning to normal; Jenson and Lukas had even returned to work as the tense atmosphere, in the wake of Harlan’s death, settled to a manageable level.
Both of them had been rather keen to escape for a little while anyway; neither of them were small werewolves, both were formidable fighters so they weren't actually scared of the Alpha or anything, but that didn't mean they wanted to deal with the Alpha’s sultry mood. Lukas in particular had been thrilled with the idea of being able to retreat from the territory and get lost in his Arithmancy for a while.
To begin with it had made him feel a lot more like his old self, until he realised just how behind he actually was with everything and so Lukas had ended up having a rather stressful day working from his old home. It had been nice to be doing something so comfortingly familiar, but going through the huge pile of all sorts of papers and documents that needed his attention was dull work.
During the sorting process he had come across a rather large pile of newspapers; apparently he had forgotten to unsubscribe from the Daily Prophet before going to live with the pack in their territory and numerous editions were now making the mess in his living room almost unmanageable. It had taken him a good hour to sort through them all. Though judging by the front page of one edition of the Daily Prophet he might have to re-think his decision to cancel his subscription after all, and just have them re-routed to the territory.
The issue that had made him realise this, had been from a few days previously and it had made his heart stop for a fraction of a second when he had seen the photograph that adorned the front page. This particular edition featured a rather large picture of the three pups, along with Callie, Micha and Damon, in Diagon Alley. The article that accompanied it was frankly both terrifying and fascinating.
He couldn’t help but wonder if there was any truth in it and, even if their little Harry was actually Harry Potter, as the paper seemed to be implying with a good deal of certainty, he wondered just how much of it the Alpha, or even Harry, knew about it. The only plus side was that it seemed that they had not been able to identify anyone apart from Harry.
There was no question; Fenrir had to be shown the paper and Lukas just really wished that it didn’t have to be him standing in the firing line. He wondered vaguely if he could get away with just telling Damon and letting the Beta break the news to the unhappy Alpha male. He had never thought himself of being that cowardly, but judging by the Alpha’s current mood, it might be safer for him if he did talk to Damon first. He would have to decide that when he got back to the territory and saw how Fenrir's temperament was faring.
Folding the paper he stuffed it in his rear pocket; he was not in any hurry to get back that was for sure. The paper was two days old already, breaking the news could surely wait another couple of hours while he figured out who to tell and how to do it. It wasn’t going to be an easy discussion to have, whoever he had it with.
He had also drunk the last of his Imperial Ceylon tea this morning and he wanted to pop to the shop in town to pick up some more; he wondered what selection they might have and if he could be tempted into purchasing something for a little variety. But the Ceylon was a must; if he was going to have this conversation this evening then he was going to have his favourite brew of tea to calm himself down afterwards.
As he headed towards the shop, with his brilliant mind in overdrive about how their little Harry could be the famous Harry Potter, he wasn’t really paying much attention to where he was going. He probably should have paid more attention, he was a big guy by human standards, though tiny compared to Fenrir. Either way when he collided with another person, she went flying.
“I am so sorry,” he mumbled apologetically, offering a hand to the pretty girl to help her up from the ground. He barely acknowledged her but her natural, delicate scent washed over him. He was alert enough himself to notice the flaming auburn hair and dark brown eyes before he mumbled another apology and went on his way. He had other, far more important, things to think about other than muggle girls.
While at the store Lukas made sure to grab more sugar, as well as a few other things that they needed; the way Clayton was going through the stuff they might have been worthwhile buying shares in it. Having stocked up on sugar, tea bags and even picked up some caramel chocolate bars and double chocolate brownies that Harry and Micha shared a love for, Lukas knew that he couldn’t procrastinate any longer, he would have to go back.
FGHP
Harry and Micha were giggling together; it was a good sign but one that filled the pack with dread because no one knew why they were giggling. Clay was feeling a little left out, considering that usually he was the one that Harry was giggling with, especially when it came to pranks. Everyone knew that one was coming and they were all on edge about it as they had no idea what it was or when they would strike.
It was Clay that noticed what the two of them had done first. Jenson had been home from work less than half an hour and now seemed to be sporting a lime green fluffy bunny rabbit style tail. The best bit was that he didn’t seem to have noticed and even Romy was trying not to laugh at the sight of her Dad, as he remained completely oblivious to the prank that had been pulled on him.
Everyone finally relaxed as they saw what had been done, pleased that they had not been the target. Even the Alpha and Beta could see the amusing side of the situation and were just pleased to see that both the submissive males were smiling and laughing; it seemed that Micha was at least starting on the slow road of recovery.
When Lukas returned fifteen minutes later, a sombre look on his face, heading determinedly straight for the Alpha of the pack after dropping off the chocolate bars and brownies to Harry and Micha with a small smile to them, Fenrir became a little worried. Lukas was never one for jokes and japes but the serious look, on the face of the twenty-one year, took on a whole new level this evening.
“My Alpha,” he began, removing a folded up newspaper from the rear pocket of his jeans. “There is something you need to see.”
Fenrir took the paper in his hands, confused as to the motive behind Lukas’ actions as they didn’t usually take any interest in the events of the wizarding world, preferring to keep themselves to themselves. Unfolding it, he looked at the article that covered the front page, rage bubbling in his gut from the moment he spotted Harry adorning the front page with a few other members of his pack.
“DAMON!” Fenrir roared, making Lukas wince from the volume of the shout. Instantly the Beta wolf stopped what he was doing and came to join Fenrir and Lukas. The Alpha led them away from the clearing; the last thing he wanted was for Harry to overhear this conversation.
“Looks like you were right.” The Alpha said, shoving the paper in Damon’s face when they stopped a short way into the woodland around their clearing.
“I didn’t want to be right, my Alpha,” Damon said as he took the paper and read.
“You knew?” Lukas asked in shock. When he had found the paper he had wondered how much the Alpha, how much Harry, had known about this. He supposed he at least knew the answer about Fenrir now; though he found it hard to comprehend that Damon had known too.
“We had assumptions,” Damon explained. “We never knew with any certainty that he was the Potter boy.”
“Does he have any clue?” Lukas asked, looking over his shoulder where Micha and Harry were still giggling together like little school girls.
“No,” Fenrir grunted.
“We had no proof, we didn’t want to upset him,” Damon elaborated. “It would mean that the man who raised him wasn’t his father, that he was kidnapped as an infant.”
“Are you going to tell him now?” Lukas asked and received a glare from the Alpha male, who was not keen on so many questions. It would be his decision and he wouldn’t have his pack pushing him into a decision. He wanted time to think.
“My Alpha, he has to be shown this,” Damon said, knowing that he needed to tread carefully. “We can’t send him off to Hogwarts not knowing about this and who they think he is,” he added. He didn’t want the Alpha to feel as if his authority was being challenged or that he was being backed into a corner, something easily done, especially considering his sour mood, but this wasn’t something he could allow Fenrir to just ignore. “Maybe I should…”
“No,” Fenrir interrupted rather sharply, “I’ll talk to him about it,” he said with finality and a glare of warning at his Beta.
“Are you sure?” Damon asked sceptically. “You two haven’t exactly…”
“We’re fine!” Fenrir growled with annoyance and warning, not liking that his relationship with his mate was being questioned; not even by his Beta, who had raised his hands in surrender, paper and all, at the Alpha's harsh tone.
“He won’t react well to this,” Damon pointed out as he lowered his arms. Part of him wondered if he should just shut his mouth before Fenrir shut it for him, but he cared about Harry enough to risk it. “It challenges everything he knows about his life and about who he thinks he is.”
“Don’t you think I know that,” Fenrir snarled; Lukas had gone quite, not sure if he should leave, or not, considering it had been him to bring the article to their attention in the first place. “It was you who suggested telling him the truth about everything, Damon.”
“And I stand by that, this article included,” the Beta said stubbornly. “He has a right to know, I’m all for protecting him but this is getting ridiculous!”
Fenrir saw red; it was too much. His mate was barely acknowledging him, his mate’s identity was a lie, there was a picture of members of his pack on the front of a national paper and now his Beta was trying to force his hand on the matter. In an instant Fenrir’s hand was around Damon’s throat, a low snarl escaping from his lips. “Are you challenging me?”
“No…” Damon gasped out surprised at the sudden question, he was trying to protect Harry, not take Fenrir’s place, not in any respect; he had disliked the short time he had even had to be the acting Alpha.
Lukas looked on with worry; Fenrir seemed livid and, given how things had been the last few days, it honestly scared Lukas. Though it seemed that the Alpha was not squeezing hard enough to stop Damon from talking, let alone from breathing, but that was probably only down to the decades of friendship between to two large werewolves.
“You’re challenging my decision making, that means you’re challenging me,” the Alpha told Damon angrily.
Lukas remembered vividly the last time Fenrir had lost his temper with Damon, the last time the Beta had stepped over the line, he was sure this was worse because it involved Harry. He didn’t dare speak or move; even taking breaths felt like a bit of a gamble that might turn the enraged Alpha wolf’s attention to him.
“I just think Harry should be told.” Damon attempted to pry his best friend’s large hands from around his neck as he tried to reason with him; though he wasn’t sure how much good it would do, he had to try.
“He’s my mate,” Fenrir reminded the Beta wolf, his tone possessive; as far he was concerned Damon, or anyone else, had no say in these matters. “I’ll decide what he is told,” he insisted.
“And he’s basically my pup. I watched him grow and took care of him, just like Clay; Harry is like a son to me!” Damon said as he continued to try loosening the grip upon his throat. There was a nothing but anger in the golden orbs that bore into him now, the Alpha clearly didn’t like anyone else laying claim to his mate. Damon knew that he was doing though, or at least he hoped so; he kind of wished he could do it without Lukas standing so close by, but at least the younger wolf seemed to have enough sense to stay quiet.
“He is MINE!” Fenrir snarled, his grip tightening slightly around the Beta wolf’s neck, he wouldn’t have anyone take Harry away. Harry was his.
“And so far you’ve yelled at him, humiliated him and pushed him into the arms of another man! What makes your decisions for the best?” Damon said, his tone was challenging now, the shock of the words on the Alpha had him releasing his hold on the Beta wolf, however his defensive stance didn’t alter and the tension in the air was thick.
“You want to challenge me, you want to be Alpha?” Fenrir demanded, his fists clenched in anger; he had never expected this from Damon, a man he had known since they were young boys, too many years to count. Damon was someone he trusted without hesitation or concern; Lukas was clearly shocked too, if the gasp he had heard was anything to go by.
“No!” Damon said adamantly, challenging Fenrir for the top position in the pack was not something he wanted and would never win in a fight, even if he had wanted it, “I want you to treat Harry like a real person and not a rutting partner.”
“I should force you to leave!” Fenrir growled threateningly, unsure if he would be able to go through with the threat. However, he knew that if Damon forced him then he would have to go through with it regardless of his feelings now that the threat had been issued.
“Then do it, but you needed to hear this! If the price of you getting a fucking clue is me leaving the pack then that’s fine! But then my son comes with me, and who do you think Harry would choose? You, or me and Clayton?” Damon said, meaning every word.
“He is mine! You won’t take him from me.” Fenrir snarled, wanting to strangle the life from his Beta male for even suggesting it. However he refrained from this for the moment, but only because he heard some small truth in his words even if he didn’t want to admit it.
“He isn’t a possession, Fenrir, I am not going to do anything other than let him make his own choice for once in his life. Which is a lot more than you have ever done,” Damon snapped, knowing that he wouldn’t force Harry to leave if he didn’t want to. Though he knew that Harry wouldn’t even hesitated; he would go wherever Clay went.
“I’ve never forced him!” Fenrir raged, his voice louder than he had wanted it to be but he hated the insinuation that he had forced Harry into anything, it just didn’t sit well with his wolf.
“Yes, you have, maybe not intentionally but you have!” Damon insisted, needing his Alpha to realise the extent of what he had done and the impact his decisions had made. For a few days he had known the pressure of being the one in charge and he had hated it and never wanted to have that again but equally he needed to help Fenrir make the right call now.
“How?” The Alpha demanded.
“You bit him before he was fully mobile, was that giving him a choice? Bringing him here and then not letting him leave, which forced him to try and run away; keeping all those secrets from him; was any of that giving him a choice?” Damon asked, trying to make his friend see what he had done.
“This isn’t helping,” Lukas said tentatively. “Mistakes have been made admittedly but we can’t change them now. We need to figure out what to do next, what’s best for Harry.” He felt highly out of place stood between the two arguing wolves, the Alpha and the Beta of his pack; however, he knew he had to stay, someone would have to stop them tearing each other to shreds if it came to that.
“That’s ALL I want,” Damon insisted, agreeing with Lukas. He may not have wanted the younger wolf to bear witness to this but in some ways he was glad to have him there. He was the most level headed of the entire pack; he could step back and apply logic when the others failed in that capacity, too busy thinking with their fists.
“I decide what is best for Harry,” Fenrir growled, completely missing the point, his instinctive need to protect and possess his little mate overwhelming him.
“Are you sure you know what’s best for him?” Damon asked, he may not have wanted to challenge Fenrir for his position of Alpha but he would challenge him on his treatment of, and behaviour around, Harry. He understood that most of Fenrir’s actions were from what his inner wolf dictated to him, but if the Alpha had wanted someone who would be a good little submissive, then his relationship with Harry was already doomed to fail. Harry would never just fall in line without question; it just wasn’t in his nature.
“He’s my mate,” Fenrir growled again, though his point had been well and truly made by this now and he couldn’t understand why the others didn’t seem to be understanding the significance of it.
“And he’s also a fifteen year old hormonal teenager, not to mention, a PERSON!” Damon said, just as enraged as Fenrir was.
“Enough,” Lukas said calmly. “Sorry,” he added quickly, feeling a bit nervous about interrupting the furiously arguing Alpha and Beta. “But it’s just we could go around in circles this way and it still isn’t helping Harry.” The Alpha and the Beta however just didn’t seem to hear him, or else they were just ignoring him and his attempt at refereeing between the two of them.
“You’re the one who wanted him pregnant while he was still a pup himself!” Damon growled. “You haven’t the first clue about what’s best for him!”
Fenrir glared at the Beta, that hadn’t been quite what he had meant when they had had that discussion all that time ago. He wanted to have pups with his little mate as soon as they were safe, but he wanted Harry to want that too; he would have waited for Harry to be ready. But the Alpha was suddenly realising just how it felt to have words thrown back in his face. Even then, he suspected that what Damon had said hadn’t been even half as bad as what he had said to Harry.
“I’ll talk to Harry,” the Alpha stated bluntly. He thought maybe he understood something more now, he wasn’t even quite sure what it was, but he needed to talk to his little mate.
“Do you mean actually talk to him?” Damon questioned; he was all for Fenrir and Harry to have another conversation, to try and work things out between them, but he couldn’t let the Alpha go back to trying to bully the reaction he wanted out of the young werewolf. “Not ordering him or talking at him? Actually have a conversation with him?”
“Yes,” Fenrir agreed with a low growl of warning that told the Beta not to push him on this.
“Okay, well… that works,” Damon said, slightly stunned by the change that had overcome the Alpha, the rage and the anger just deflating from him at Fenrir’s easy assurance. He wasn’t ignorant enough to believe it would fix everything, but the Alpha seemed to have understood something he hadn’t before.
“Glad you agree,” Fenrir snapped irritably before storming off back to the clearing with every intention of finding and talking to Harry.
“You think he’ll really talk to him?” Lukas asked as he watched the Alpha leave. Trying to get his heart rate to return to normal; he knew what a gamble the Beta had just taken, how much worse that could have gone.
“I hope so,” Damon considered, rubbing at his throat where Fenrir had gripped it. “Not just for Harry but for him as well, the Alpha is going to lose him soon otherwise.”
Fenrir strolled directly up to where Micha and Harry were sitting, still sniggering together as Jenson carried on his business, remaining unaware that he was sporting a lime green fluffy tail. The Alpha had a sour look on his face as he approached the two laughing submissive males and with no hesitations whatsoever grunted out, “I need to talk to you” in Harry’s direction.
“Don’t look grumpy at me,” Harry said, the laughter dying from his face and being replaced with a frown, expecting a telling off. “It was only a joke.” he crossed his arms over his chest defensively, determinedly not getting to his feet.
“That’s not what I need to talk to you about,” Fenrir said, trying to contain his bad mood while offering his hand out to Harry, to help him to his feet. Micha was looking between the two dubiously, not knowing what to do. The joke and the laughter that they had been sharing moments before, long gone with the intrusion of Fenrir, someone Micha was still not entirely comfortable being around.
“And here I thought you were giving me the space I needed,” Harry retorted sharply with a huff of breath, though he did accept the outstretched hand offered to him and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet by the larger man.
“Stop talking, little one,” Fenrir said as he remained clasping Harry’s hand and lead him away from the group and into the forest, “I need you to listen to me.” They would need to have privacy for this conversation if they were going to work things through.
“Fine,” Harry grumbled, sending an apologetic look over his shoulder at Micha as he was dragged rather forcefully away from the clearing and the rest of the pack. Harry could have rolled his eyes, the Alpha may as well had thrown him over his shoulder, though at least this way Harry had the illusion of a choice in whether or not he went.
“I need to show you something,” Fenrir said once they were deeper into the forest, at least as deep as he dared to go with the strays still out there. However, they were far enough away from the clearing that they wouldn’t be overheard, not even if their discussion evolved into an argument as it so often did.
“Fen… I’ve seen it, I know how big…” Harry said trying to make a joke out of the situation as the Alpha turned his mate round gently to look at him. They stood face to face, Fenrir still clutching at Harry’s smaller hand, wishing that they could be closer but knowing that Harry wouldn’t want that.
“Harry…” Fenrir growled in warning, not wanting to make light of what he was about to say, his brow furrowed in a frown as he tried to formulate the words in his mind.
“You know you don’t have to be badass grumpy Alpha all the time. Have you tried smiling, ever?” Harry asked, giving the older werewolf an imploring and cheeky smile as he once again, almost unknowingly, tested the limits in which the Alpha wolf could be pushed.
Having had enough of his little mate’s cheekiness and suddenly not caring about allowing Harry ‘space’ as he called it, Fenrir used his grip on Harry’s hand to pull him forward, planting a harsh, desperate kiss upon his lips. “Shut up, little one, let me talk to you, without interruptions or cheek,” he growled as he broke the kiss.
“But then I wouldn’t be me,” Harry said a little breathlessly but certainly not complaining. He had missed this closeness with the Alpha.
“Before I show you…” Fenrir began, for the first time in his life, struggling to find the words, “I didn’t mean what I said to you.”
“You said a lot of things, Fen,” Harry pointed out, finding that he was a little startled. When Fenrir had dragged him off into the forest caveman style this was not what he had expected. He had thought that perhaps he was in for a telling off over the prank on Jenson or even about his flirting with Micha to make the Alpha jealous but it was neither of those things.
“Throwing the sex stuff in your face, in front of the others, I shouldn’t have done that,” the Alpha admitted with a scowl at the memory of his harsh words to the little submissive.
“Is that your way of apologising to me?” Harry asked, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at the older man expectantly.
Fenrir narrowed his eyes and grunted in confirmation. He had admitted his mistake, was that not enough for his little mate? Before Harry he had never had to apologise because he never did anything that he regretted. Each choice he made was well thought out and made with consideration, he had never had to say that he was sorry.
“You really suck at apologies, Fen,” Harry stated bluntly, though he could see the Alpha was trying, which was something at least. The intent was in the words, that Fenrir regretted his actions and that was more than Harry had believed he would get.
“I think you’re going to give me enough opportunities to practice, little one,” Fenrir said as he wrapped his arms around his mates waist, glad that Harry wasn’t pushing him away for a change. He wanted to make the most of this because he thought that maybe, after he shared the article with Harry that the submissive might not want to talk to him for a little while again. Though, as long as he stayed out of that blasted tree Fenrir would be more or less happy.
“I am never going to let you walk all over me, I am not going to just behave myself because you told me to.” Harry felt that it was necessary to point this out, he wanted to make it very clear that he wasn’t going to change and become someone he wasn’t. The thought of becoming so broken that he would think it was right for his dominant mate to hurt him, as Micha had, made him feel sick to his stomach.
“I know,” Fenrir said with a snort, he had never expected for Harry to roll over and accept everything; it wasn’t in his stubborn, headstrong nature. If Harry caved to his will too easily he just wouldn’t be Harry, he wouldn’t be his mate.
“Would you really want me to?” Harry asked, wanting to be sure because if he couldn’t be sure then he couldn’t go back no matter how much he missed his Alpha mate. If Fenrir wanted him any other way then they couldn’t be together.
“No,” Fenrir stated bluntly, really realising that he wanted Harry exactly as he was; he never wanted to see Harry change, not really, not even if he’d been twice as stubborn and doubly headstrong, he would never want Harry to be anything other than himself.
“Good,” Harry said and smiled up at his Alpha, finally returning the embrace by wrapping his arms around his mate's neck as best he could, given their height difference.
“You’re never going to make things simple, are you?” Fenrir asked rhetorically; apparently simple and Harry were not ever going to be great bedfellows.
“Nope, you can count on that, Wolfie,” Harry said with a huge grin, leaning up and placing a brief kiss upon the Alpha’s lips.
“I thought we agreed no new nick names,” Fenrir said in a grump, though he found it hard to be disgruntled when Harry was willingly showing him affection. It had been too long.
“You don’t like that one?” Harry asked, trying to suppress his amused expression and completely failing.
Fenrir allowed his hands to slip lower, resting firmly on Harry’s behind as he pulled Harry tightly against his body, rising him up slightly so that the submissive was barely touching the ground.
“Is this why you apologised?” Harry asked, suddenly filled with doubt; apologies were beyond rare for the Alpha and so Harry didn’t really believe that it was anything less than sincere, but he couldn’t help himself.
“Harry…” Fenrir said his voice low in warning.
“Sorry, sorry, dropping it now,” Harry said quickly, he didn’t really want to rehash it anymore than Fenrir did; he knew what a big deal it had been for the Alpha to say as much as he had. Harry didn’t think he would do that just for a quick makeout session in the woods. “Do carry on,” he added with a cheeky grin, when the Alpha continued to just stare at him halfway between disapproval and amusement.
Fenrir let out a low, predatory growl as he pulled Harry up and the teenager had to wrap his legs around the Alpha’s waist, putting their groins together, causing a delicious friction between them. He claimed Harry’s lips in a fierce kiss, desperate to make up for lost time.
“I thought you had something to show me, wolfie, or did you really drag me out here to show me your cock?” Harry said with a mischievous grin as their kiss was broken though making a point to wiggle his hips so that their groins rubbed together. “It is a marvellous sight to behold but nothing I haven’t seen many times before.”
“Little one…” Fenrir said sternly, before Harry could go off at a tangent and distract them both again. He didn’t really mind the distractions so much but he was determined to at least try to explain to Harry about what he had read in the Daily Prophet and Harry’s babbling was not making it any easier.
“Fen, what’s going on?” he was of course used to the stern tone but not when he was trying to distract the Alpha with far more pleasurable things. As Fenrir loosened his grip, lowering Harry back to the ground and on to his own two feet, Harry knew that it was serious.
“This is going to give you a new reason to be angry at me,” the Alpha said somewhat gravelly, causing Harry to look at him worry; he didn’t need any more of an excuse to be angry at his mate. Instinctively he took a step back, he didn’t want the overwhelming and slightly arousing scent of his mate to be clouding his mind as Fenrir finally said whatever it was he had to say.
“I still have plenty of reasons already,” Harry pointed out, despite their distance the Alpha made sure to at least keep one of his hands clutching one of Harry’s, striving to keep them connected physically.
“I shouldn’t give you another then,” Fenrir said, realising that Harry was right, surely they had enough issues in their relationship without adding more. It was a frustrating feeling for the Alpha wolf to have, it wasn’t something he had ever experienced before Harry. A complete lack of control.
“Well, you already said you would show me, so can we stop with all the secrets now?” Harry asked hopefully, there were so many of them and it frustrated him as much as anything else frustrated the Alpha of the pack; he certainly wasn’t about to let Fenrir get away with keeping something else from him. Harry knew that to move past this they had to start telling each other the truth.
“Tell me where you went that day in Diagon Alley,” Fenrir requested, trying to take instruction from what Damon had said and actually talk to the teenager, even if he wasn’t exactly sure how. He hadn’t exactly received a positive responses when he had tried demand or dictate things with Harry and knew he had to try something different.
“Tell me about my dad, and the day you bit me,” Harry said stubbornly, digging his heels in on the matter. He was going to make it very clear that he wasn’t about to open up and tell the Alpha everything he wanted to know and get nothing in return.
Fenrir furrowed his brow; it was difficult for him to recall that night, not because it had been so long ago but because of the reasons as to why he had been in the position to bite Harry in the first place. There were many things that he had done in his life that he wasn’t proud of, things that he never wanted his little mate to know.
“I bit you the night your father brought you to Malfoy Manor, looking to run away with you,” he explained after a moment.
Harry looked startled. “You’re going to tell me?” He was in absolute disbelief that finally, after waiting for so long he was finally going to be told the things about his life that he felt as if he needed to know, that he felt that never should have had hidden from him.
“I am,” Fenrir confirmed with a nod of his head, noticing just how taken aback his little mate was at this. He hadn’t realised just how grateful Harry would be for this information, how much he clearly needed to hear what he had to say.
“My dad was running away with me?” Harry asked, to prompt the Alpha into telling him more. He knew that he had spent the majority of his childhood concealing what he was, being overly cautious with who he talked to, who he made friends with. They had moved three times when accidents and other small things had happened so that they wouldn’t be caught.
Of course Harry had asked questions about why but his Dad had never been able to give him the answers that he needed. He hadn’t realised the implications of everything that had happened in his life. He now understood how he had become a werewolf and it seemed that more questions were going to be answered this evening, much to Harry’s relief.
“Yes, now your turn, little one,” Fenrir encouraged; just like Harry, he wasn’t willing to give everything up without getting something in return. This exchange of information was going to be a mutual one. He too was going to get the answers he needed from his little submissive.
“We went into muggle London; we went to a skateboard shop for Clay because I felt guilty that his other one got left behind after we were attacked and came here. Then we went to buy your jacket; I really did just want to do something nice for the two most important people in my life.” Harry paused after that admission, wanting to allow it to sink in before he asked, “Why was he running?”
The Alpha made sure that he had eye contact with his mate, needing to be sure that Harry understood that he wasn’t lying. “Because he wasn’t your real father, I know that for a certainty,” Fenrir told him and then he hesitated, waiting for Harry to explode and start shouting.
“How do you know?” Harry asked, taking Fenrir aback by how calm he was being at being told that the man who had raised him wasn’t his real father. It was not a reaction that he had expected. The Alpha was beginning to realise that perhaps Damon was right, he had been severely underestimating and over protecting his little mate when there was really no need to be doing so.
“Because I could tell from your scents, the night I bit you; I knew that he wasn’t your father but he offered no explanation as to how he had come to have you in his care,” Fenrir explained, watching closely as Harry took it all in.
“You were right,” Harry said after a moment of hesitation, it had taken him a moment to think of his father, a man who had loved him, cared for him, spoilt him but not been of any blood relation to him. Everything was so confusing and he still wasn’t sure that he knew what had happened.
“About what?” The Alpha asked, wondering what it could be that Harry was talking about, though slightly wary at the bite in his tone.
“I am angry at you,” Harry admitted, glaring at the older man to make his point, though Fenrir had to suppress a smile at the look he was getting. He always found it so sweet when Harry attempted to look threatening, it wasn’t something the pup could pull off at all.
“There was an article in the paper that you should see, everyone thought that you were dead, that you died with both your parents when you were one,” the Alpha explained, glossing over the fact that Harry was pissed at him, just glad that they weren’t yelling at each other.
“I want to see it,” Harry demanded.
“Damon has the paper,” Fenrir said, realising that he hadn’t actually brought it with him to show his little mate, however he was slightly glad about that seeing as he wanted to focus on his little one for a while longer before Harry got absorbed in the paper.
“Is that what you were arguing about, whether or not to tell me?” Harry asked, recalling the raised voices before the Alpha had stormed out of the forest and towards him.
“You heard that?” Fenrir questioned, he had been so sure that he had been away from the pack enough to have prevented eavesdropping.
“Not really, just raised voices. Was it?” Harry asked again, determined that he wasn’t going to have his question avoided. The two of them had rather dominant stubborn streaks though it was clear who was worse out of the two.
“Partly,” Fenrir said with a soft grunt, not wanting to go into the reasoning for the disagreement between him and Damon. He was just glad that Harry hadn’t overheard what had been said. Though he had the feeling that if Harry had known about him threatening to kick Damon out of the pack then they probably would be shouting at each other right now, rather than having the almost calm discussion that they were.
“You didn’t want to tell me, did you?” Harry asked, sure that he knew just how far the protective Alpha would have gone to keep him the dark.
“Not initially,” Fenrir admitted. Harry felt encouraged to know that Damon had stuck up for him, had gone so far as to challenge the Alpha to ensure that he was told. It was also nice that the Alpha was telling him the truth, finally.
“Why?” Harry asked, unsure as to why Fenrir was so determined to wrap him in cushioning charms as if he were some delicate vase that could break if looked at the wrong way. He didn’t want to be treated like that, it seemed that he had been lied to his entire life. To have had it done by his deceased father was one thing but he couldn’t cope with it if his lover did it too. He was sick of being mollycoddled and protected, he wanted to be able to live his life and make his own decisions.
“I wanted to protect you,” The Alpha said, giving Harry the answer that he had predicted, which made the pup roll his eyes in exasperation.
“We’ve been over this Fen I’m not…”
“...A child; I know,” Fenrir interrupted with a snarled response. They didn’t need to rehash this argument again. It was one they had fought before and put behind them, the Alpha wasn’t about to do it all again.
“Then stop treating me like one,” Harry interjected with stubborn determination. He felt like an infant who couldn’t be left alone at all; it was smothering and he struggled to cope with the overbearing nature of the Alpha male.
“Protecting you isn’t treating you like a child, it’s protecting my mate from things that could harm him,” Fenrir pointed out, he couldn’t understand why Harry couldn’t comprehend this. He may not have been raised among other werewolves but he should have known that the Alphas were there to take charge, protect, look after and care for the pack, which especially included their mates.
“Lying to me isn’t protecting me, you know. You could try telling me the truth,” Harry pointed out, trying to keep a lid on his temper considering that the two of them were finally getting somewhere. He didn’t want to ruin it by arguing with him now.
“I just did,” the Alpha stated flatly.
Harry had to concede the point there. “And the world didn’t implode on us, did it?” he pointed out with a wry smile. “I am pissed off but not hurt, and not half as furious as I would be if I found out about everything later and that you’d kept it from me.” Maybe if the Alpha could see that being honest with him, even with the difficult truths, was for the best then they just might stand a chance.
“If that is the case then there is something else I should tell you,” Fenrir told him. Either Harry would accept the reality of the Alpha’s past or Harry would realise that there were some things that Fenrir should protect him from.
“Okay…” Harry said hesitantly, a little anxious about what else was about to be confessed to him, but wanting to hear him out and not discourage this burst of openness.
“You’ll probably find this out when you go to Hogwarts anyway but the reason I was at Malfoy Manor the night you were bitten was because I used to work for the Dark Lord. I was an associate of Lucius Malfoy’s, the man who confronted you at Diagon Alley.”
“Okay,” Harry said taking a deep breath, he didn’t want to think badly of his mate but the man who had confronted him was a man that his father had said he couldn’t trust. He didn’t want to think about why Fenrir had even been associated with that man, but he needed to understand. “Explain to me why,” he requested.
“Revenge,” Fenrir grunted, trying to ignore all the bitter feelings the memories were stirring in him. Bitterness about what he had lost, at what his search for revenge had pushed him to do.
“For?” Harry asked with curiosity, but his question was gentle, patient even. He wanted to know; he wanted to understand but the way the Alpha seemed to be struggling with whatever it was and it made Harry hesitate about pushing the man too far, too soon.
“My last pack,” Fenrir told him, his tone harsh and sharp as he made himself focus on the pack he had now, on the little mate that was standing in front of him at that moment asking for the truth.
“Your last pack, the one that all died?” Harry queried. He had tried to imagine how it would be to lose your pack like that since Clay had first told him about it and the idea of losing the pack they had now was a horrific prospect.
“Yes,” the Alpha said.
“Will you…” Harry bit his lip as he hesitated, before he plough on. “Will you tell me about them? Not today,” he added hastily, “but one day?”
“One day, little one,” Fenrir promised, pulling Harry’s bottom lip from where it was being bitten at nervously again. He had assumed that his little mate would not want to hear of his previous mate, or the pack that had come before him, and he was strangely pleased that Harry would not only accept hearing about them but actually wanted to.
“So you joined him to get revenge for them?” Harry prompted, when the Alpha continued to look at him a little weirdly. Fenrir nodded. “And did you?” Harry asked, not sure what he was expecting or even hoping to hear. In one respect he really hoped that Fen had gotten his revenge, but on another, he hated the idea of the violence it meant his mate would have inflicted. “Get revenge I mean.”
“I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of,” Fenrir informed him cryptically. Telling the truth was one thing, detailing the specifics of what he had done in the name of the Dark Lord and his own revenge was quite another; there was no reason for Harry to know such things.
“That isn’t an answer,” Harry said pointedly, hating that Fenrir couldn’t or wouldn’t share those particular details of his life. He wanted to know what he was capable of, what he had done. He needed to know what kind of man he was quickly falling for.
“Yes it is,” the Alpha told him stubbornly. He refused to go into detail about his past, not now, not this evening. It wasn’t his past that was of concern right now, it was Harry’s.
“Anything else?” Harry asked, thinking that if there was ever a time to get things out in the open then it was now. Even he was racking his brain for anything else he might tell the Alpha, thinking now was the best time to share.
“I’m not the only one who is keeping secrets remember, little one,” Fenrir said with a pointed stare. Harry gave him a soft smile, it was almost as if Fenrir could read the thoughts flashing through his mind.
“Does it count if I tell you that I’ve missed you?” Harry asked sweetly.
“No, that was obvious,” Fenrir said with amusement as he pulled Harry back towards him, desire to hold his mate in his arms overwhelming; he was glad that Harry willingly allowed this without struggle or protest.
“Damon told you, didn’t he?” Harry asked as he accepted the Alpha’s arms being wrapped around him, pulled into the warm body which protected him from the chill in the December air.
“Yes,” Fenrir admitted as he nuzzled against Harry, taking in the delicious clean scent. He loved how Harry always smelt so beautifully clean. The others would go days without washing but not Harry.
“Traitor,” Harry mumbled under his breath making the Alpha chuckle with amusement. He was glad that he had been told the lengths Harry had gone to, to have his scent wrapped around him, it had allowed Fenrir to believe that their relationship still had hope.
“What about that day you had Clay distract us, where did you go?” the Alpha queried; he wanted for all the secrets to be out in the open, no more guessing, no more worrying.
“Hogsmeade,” Harry told his mate honestly, the grip around his waist tightened momentarily, he felt the pressure of it but no pain and it was gone before he realised it was there, the Alpha clearly remembering the last time he had gripped a little too tightly on his little mate’s waist.
“For?” Fenrir asked through gritted teeth, not liking the fact that Harry had run off, alone, to a wizarding village.
“Potion ingredients, and no, before you ask, I have not made or taken anymore of it,” Harry reassured him. He didn’t want to deal with the Alpha’s anger over the potion again, especially not when he had hadn’t used the ingredients he had.
“Do you still have the ingredients?” Fenrir asked curiously, trying to keep his tone of voice calm and even, though even he could hear the strain and the cracks in the facade he sported.
“Yes, in my backpack but I have no intention of using them,” Harry said, once again trying to sound reassuring but realising that it was probably going to be very little comfort to his mate if he realised that one of those ingredients in the clearing was aconite, something that could be fatal to their kind.
“And who did you meet?” the Alpha asked, remembering the scent that had been on his little mate when he had returned. He was happy to disregard the issue of potion ingredients for the moment; he was convinced that Harry had no intention of using them. He would be able to leave that particular issue alone for the moment and deal with it when they had less on their minds.
“He was a boy, my age; my Dad said I could trust him, in a letter he gave me the night he… died.” Harry had had to hesitate on the world, finding it difficult to say. “It was an accidental meeting, pure chance. He’ll be a good ally to have at Hogwarts though.”
Fenrir, nodded, accepting that Harry had truthfully told him everything that he wanted to know for the moment. Now came the hard bit though, showing him the article. “I want the truth from now on, little one,” the Alpha said with a pointed look.
“As long as you can promise the same,” Harry said. He wasn’t about to agree without some form of a compromise; it just wasn’t in his stubborn nature and it was only fair, after all.
“I’ll try,” the Alpha agreed, hoping that that would satisfy his little mate as he didn’t see himself sharing every little detail of his life. He had never done that with anyone, he was a very private man. He didn’t like a lot of people, or even any people knowing his personal business, though he probably should have known better to think that Harry would settle for that willingly.
“Then I’ll try too,” Harry responded, to which Fenrir growled in annoyance, not liking it one bit. “Well, you can’t expect me to tell you everything you want to know and then not offer me the same in return! You might be my Alpha and the leader of this pack, but in this relationship we are equals.”
“No mate I’ve had has ever expected to be equals with me,” the older Werewolf grunted unhappily.
The only other mate he had ever taken was a female born werewolf called Alexis who had grown up in a pack and knew her place. She had accepted the rank as Alpha female and enjoyed the perks of the position too. She wasn't like Harry; he would go so far to say that they were nothing alike at all. Alexis, he had taken as his mate because she was young, pretty and, despite feeling nothing for her, he had wanted pups; Harry he had chosen because he was drawn to him in a way he couldn’t explain.
“Well I’m not just any mate,” Harry responded with another of his trademark cheeky smiles as he returned the nuzzling, inhaling the deep manly scent of the Alpha. His inner wolf was demanding that he have his mate’s scent all over him; he didn’t want anyone to be in any doubt with whom he belonged.
“Clearly,” Fenrir replied in amusement as he obliged the submissive with more nuzzling and rubbing, coating him in his scent.
“So are we equals?” Harry queried, pulling away a little before he got carried away and they went decidedly further than he was ready to go.
“In this relationship, yes; in the pack, no,” the Alpha said, somewhat begrudgingly. He wasn’t sure that he wanted them to be equals in anything but if it means a simpler life and a happier Harry then he would agree to almost anything within reason, though he wasn’t about to tell Harry that.
Harry let out a huff of breath. “Fine, I can accept that,” he said with mock grumpiness, though he tightened his hold around his mate, wanting to continue their make out session. It had been too long for him and his teenage hormones.
“Let’s go back,” Fenrir suggested as Harry began to place light kisses upon his furred chest, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to resist if his little mate carried on. He needed to get himself under control; he needed to show Harry the article and maybe tomorrow they could disappear for a little while and reacquaint themselves but not now.
“No more kissing?” Harry asked with a slight pout.
“Later, little one,” Fenrir said placing a brief kiss upon his mate's lips, which were just as dry and cracked as his own, pulling away before Harry could deepen the kiss.
“No fair,” Harry said, frowning along with his pout, something Fenrir considered being one of the more adorable things he had ever seen. Not that he would ever admit that to Harry, of course.
Separating a little from the slightly aroused submissive, who initiated an unhappy groan, the two of them started to head back towards the clearing, where it was both safer, and warmer thanks to the fire.
“I want you to take the jacket back,” Fenrir said as they walked hand in hand back towards the clearing and no privacy.
“Why?” Harry queried, confused. He had thrown the jacket at his mate in a fit of rage, he wasn’t even sure where it had ended up after Harlan had died and he had fallen asleep with Micha, comforting each other.
“I never saw it, keep it as your surprise,” Fenrir said with a slight smile gracing his lips, something Harry saw and vowed that he would see many times again if he could help it. He liked it when Fenrir smiled.
Harry grinned at him. “Alright,” he agreed readily, happy to go along with it and give the Alpha his gift on Christmas day. “I’m sorry I’m so difficult sometimes,” he admitted quietly after a few moments of silence between them, giving his Alpha’s hand a squeeze.
“You’re not the only one whose difficult, little one,” Fenrir said, giving Harry’s hand a squeeze right back.
“Are you admitting that you are too, Wolfie?” Harry asked in mock surprise, smiling at him. They both knew he was just as difficult as Harry on occasion but the younger wolf had never thought he would hear the Alpha admit to it.
“I meant, Clayton,” Fenrir stated, giving his mate a pointed look. Harry laughed, rolling his eyes as Fenrir brought his arm up and allowed Harry to cuddle into his side as they headed off towards where Damon was stood to the edge of the clearing, still discussing the article in hushed tones with Lukas.
As they approached, it was Lukas who spotted them first, nudging Damon to turn the Beta’s attention to the returning Alpha pair, who were holding hands. It was a great relief to see that Harry and Fenrir had seemingly worked out enough of their issues to have restored their relationship to some extent.
It had not exactly been the outcome that Damon had anticipated but he was pleased by it nonetheless. Perhaps Harry had needed the truth from the Alpha even more than he had believed; at least he hoped that was what they had been talking about and that Fenrir hadn’t just woven a few choice lies to get Harry to cooperate. He had no idea what he was going to do if that was the case.
“Show it to Harry,” Fenrir instructed Damon simply as they reached them.
“Yours is one thing,” Harry said grinning at Fenrir, before pulling a disgusted face, “but I definitely don’t want to see Damon’s…” Harry was swiftly cut off from making anymore cheeky comments by Fenrir with a swift glare.
Both Damon and Lukas looked between the two of them questioningly but the Alpha shook his head, indicating that they probably didn’t want to know. Deciding not to ask the questions that were on the tip of his tongue, Damon instead just smiled a little, in relief, as he realised that Harry had been told at least some semblance of the truth.
Before the paper was handed over, Harry looked over to where Micha was still sat, not having moved since Harry left, still waiting for him. He gave his fellow submissive a big smile and a slight nod of reassurance. He would go to him once he had dealt with this.
Accepting the edition of the Daily Prophet he was horrified to see his face on the front of the paper along with the other members of the pack that had been with him in Diagon Alley, all of it under the name of Potter. “My Hogwarts letter had the name Potter,” Harry said as he scanned the article.
“I thought it was just addressed to Prince?” Damon asked curiously as he watched the teenager with fascination.
“It said Potter/Prince,” Harry informed them, still reading. “I don’t understand what this means,” he admitted upon finishing.
“It means that this is who you really are,” Damon explained. “This,” he said, tapping the paper, “means that Severus lied to you Harry. It means that you aren’t who you think you are.”
“I know who I am!” Harry said angrily, as far as he was concerned these people, or reporters, or whoever, could believe whatever they liked, but he knew full well who he was. He was Harry Prince; Severus Prince was his father and he certainly wasn’t going to let anyone, tell him otherwise.
Fenrir was desperately trying to calm his mate now, glaring hatefully at his Beta wolf who was clearly upsetting Harry. The two of them were in full swing and apparently Harry needed to know these things so he wasn’t about to interrupt, not yet at least.
“This article isn’t the first thing about you not being…” Damon tried to say, much to the annoyance of Harry, whose temper was starting to pique and threatening to destroy the calm facade. Lukas, very wisely, was standing back, observing from a short distance away.
“I don’t care what this says, or what anything else says” Harry said, his voice ominously calm, the fury bubbling just under the surface, “my Dad loved me, everything he did was for me; he DIED for ME.”
“I’m not saying that he didn’t…” Damon said a little too forcefully.
“Don’t you dare speak badly about him!” Harry interrupted, pointing his finger directly at Damon. “You were supposed to have been his friend!” Harry raged, his tone one of anger and frustration. He couldn’t believe that Damon of all people was saying these things. He might have expected them from the Alpha but not from Damon.
“He kidnapped you, Harry, the night your real parents died; he kidnapped you!” Damon said, trying to make Harry realise that the man had done something wrong and as a result they were paying the price for it now.
“He didn’t kidnap me!” Harry raged, completely losing his cool as he yelled at the Beta, shrugging off the concerned and comforting hand of his mate where it had come to rest on his shoulder. He didn’t want to be calmed, nor did he want to be comforted, he wanted to be angry because Damon was wrong, he had to be.
“Harry…” Damon tried to plea, realising he probably could have chosen his words better in retrospect and not started accusing Severus of all sorts. It didn’t matter that they were true, Harry clearly wasn’t ready to hear them. However, he couldn’t take them back now and he wouldn’t regret telling Harry the truth either.
“Fuck you, Damon!” Harry yelled suddenly. “You’re not my father, Severus Prince is… was… Just… fuck off…” His face was covered in tears as he threw the paper to the ground and, before anyone could stop him, he transformed and was flying.
“Harry! No. More. Trees!” Fenrir roared in fury as he watched Harry land back on his high branch and transform back to his human form. “Still think this was a good idea?” the Alpha demanded of Damon.
“I’m sorry, my Alpha,” Damon said, sounding a little regretful. He hadn’t meant to drive Harry back up into that tree.
“Sorry isn’t going to get him down!” Fenrir shouted at his Beta; he had just made things right with his little mate and now Harry was sat nearly eighty foot from the ground again and there was no way of getting to him. The only bonus was that at least it wasn't him that Harry was angry with this time.
“My Alpha,” Micha asked, he had been so quiet approaching them that no one had noticed him, they weren’t used to him being so silent. He was usually alot louder. However, the tone of his voice still indicated fear when dealing with the larger, dominant males. “I think I might be able to get him down.”
“How?” Damon asked, worry lacing his voice.
“Just trust me, okay,” Micha said as he looked up to where he could see Harry perched, clearly crying. Every single eye was on Micha as he approached the tree, taking a deep breath he began to climb before anyone could stop him.
“No!” Damon shouted, trying to run to the submissive before he could get too high but Micha was fast and was out of reach of even Fenrir before they reached him. “Micha, get back down here!” the Beta ordered.
“No one is going to be the boss of me anymore!” Micha shouted down to the stressed out dominants who had all gathered at the bottom of the tree.
“He’s been spending far too much time with Harry,” Damon said, clearly disgruntled about this fact.
“I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all,” Fenrir returned somewhat snappishly, never taking his eyes from Micha and still not happy with his Beta. He was going to get even more unhappy with him if he even thought about insulting his little mate’s behaviour or passing comment on him rubbing off on anyone else, particularly when Clayton was just as bad.
Micha’s heart was racing as he took it one branch at a time, climbing up the tree; his head knew that it was a very, very bad idea but his heart was telling him that Harry had helped him when he had needed it and now Harry needed him. It didn’t matter what it took he was going to reach him.
Harry had seen what Micha was doing and at once, going into a panic had started to manoeuvre slowly down to help him. That was when it happened. Micha took hold of a thick branch to heave himself up, however before he could the branch he was standing on gave out and snapped.
Micha heard the gasps and screams of the pack beneath him and he knew that if he hadn’t had such a brilliant grip on the branch above his head then he would have fallen the forty feet or so that he had climbed, to the ground. It wouldn’t have killed him but it would have hurt a hell of a lot.
“Shit,” Damon swore, his breath having caught in his chest as he saw Micha almost fall. He was standing underneath the tree, nearly frantic as he saw that Micha was hanging on for dear life.
“Hang on, Micha,” Harry said, “I’m almost with you.”
In a vain attempt Micha tried to swing his legs up to wrap them around the branch but failed miserably, only succeeding in making the branch creek ominously under his weight. Werewolves were really not known for their tree climbing ability.
“Oh, this is so not good,” Clay said unhelpfully from where he was standing with Romy and Tessie, all of them looking up with worried expressions.
“He got further up than you did,” Romy pointed out.
“You mean he is going to fall from further up than me,” Clay amended.
“When Lukas said it was like this all the time, I thought he was kidding,” Tessie said as she watched on in horror.
“He wasn’t kidding,” Romy and Clay chorused, not taking their eyes from the two submissive males in the tree.
“How often do they end up in trees?” she asked with curiosity. It was not something she had ever seen happen with her previous pack.
“Since joining the pack? Second time for Harry, but first time for Micha,” Clay told her with a shrug, fairly certain that neither of them were actually in a great deal of danger despite the way that Fenrir and Damon were fussing at the base of the tree.
“So what did the Alpha do now?” Micha asked as Harry got close enough to him. The younger of the two couldn’t help but laugh as he managed to find a sturdy enough branch to take his weight just above where Micha was hanging.
“Wasn’t him this time,” Harry said as he withdrew his wand, trying to figure out exactly what spell would be helpful here, he knew better than to try and levitated them down, especially after last time. He would at least need it if they fell so they didn’t break anything. “Take my hand, I’ll pull you up,” Harry said, holding on to the trunk of the tree with the hand that held his wand, while reaching out to Micha with the other.
“No,” Micha said shaking his head, “I might pull you off and then we’ll both fall.”
“I’m sure they’ll catch us,” Harry said with a smile, “I am sure Fenrir would love to have a good reason to protect me for once. Besides Damon’s practically in love with you, he isn’t going to let you hit the ground.”
“Not really a great time to be joking around with me,” Micha said as he adjusted his grip.
“You really want to just hang there while I explain all the reasons why I know he’s in love with you or do you want me to help you?” Harry asked in amusement.
“Help me, please,” Micha said. “We can discuss the rest later.”
“Of course we can, he’s still in love with you though, now take my hand,” Harry said, stretching further out, he could feel his grip upon the trunk slipping a bit, unable to get a proper grip as he was trying to hold on to his wand too.
“Think of another way to help,” Micha said a little more forcefully and Harry just threw a glare at him.
“Micha,” Harry snapped, his palms sweating too much to get a solid grip on anything. “Please, before we both fall.”
Releasing the branch that he was so desperately clinging to Micha reached out towards Harry, though they fell short but only just, their fingertips brushing against each other.
“I can’t hold on much longer,” Micha said as he felt his grip slipping from around the branch as he reached frantically towards Harry but unable to reach him.
“Look at me, Micha,” Harry said rather forcefully, “I’m not going to let you fall,” Micha nodded, believing what Harry said. His mind was frantic trying to think of any spells that he could have used but he was so panicked that nothing sprang to mind, in fact his mind went completely blank, his only concern saving Micha.
Harry could see Damon and Fenrir fussing anxiously at the bottom of the tree, just in case they fell. Something that was looking to be something of a certainty at this point. He might not feel the pain of it if they ended up falling but he knew Micha would.
“I’m really sorry, Micha,” Harry said pathetically as they continued to strain for each other, the older of the two could feel his grip failing and he knew that he had seconds before he fell.
As Micha’s grip failed Harry lurched forward, his own grip on the trunk of the tree slipping as he dove to catch Micha before he fell. Harry thought that he had a more solid grip with his legs than he actually had. The sudden weight of both their bodies was too much and in a split second they were both falling.
Harry felt his head collide with what he thought was a branch but couldn’t feel the pain of it. He instead clutched tightly to Micha and held on for dear life, not willing to transform into his falcon and leave Micha to fall alone. He was just praying that the Alpha and Beta were ready to catch them.
- 20
- 21
- 22
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Fragmented Soul