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
- 69
- 70
- 71
We now have a few chapters all ready to be posted, and are planning on getting back to writing new chapters very soon, having taken a well needed break to work on a few others projects (which you should definitely check out if you are looking for some other reading material)

Fragmented Soul
Chapter 70 - Runaway
No sooner had they arrived back in the territory, than they were pounced upon by the pack members that had been left behind there, all of them wanting to know what had happened. Micha literally knocked Damon to the ground as he ran at him, simply relieved to have his dominant mate home and safe. There was a lot of fussing around all the pups while the adults made sure that they were alright. Callie’s attention, however, was on Fenrir and Lukas, both of whom had been injured in the fight at the Ministry.
Once he had been healed, Lukas had fallen asleep, thanks to the help of a sleeping draft, next to Tessie. She had fallen asleep a few hours earlier due to sheer exhaustion, having not slept well the night before, having been calming Jaylon from an anxiety attack. However, they were the only two that had been able to get to sleep. The others had been too on edge, given that three of the packs dominants had been gone and that two of the pups had been in danger thanks to their own stupidity, and then there had been too much going on in the territory.
Jenson had spent most of his time, while the other had been gone, trying to calm Micha; the submissive had been in a bit of a state due to the fact that his dominant mate had left the clearing in a rush, heading into a dangerous situation and hadn’t even said goodbye to him. Jenson was not going to risk anything happening to Micha, particularly not after last time and had given him his undivided attention the whole time that Damon had been gone.
Now, though, things were relatively calm once more, and everyone was healed, or on their way to being. This meant that, once again, the pack was starting to ask for explanations of what had happened, their bubbling curiosity getting too much for them.
“Did you really break into the Ministry of Magic?” Micha asked Harry, the two of them sitting in front of the fire as Callie finished bandaging Fenrir as best she could. She knew that the dressings were not likely to last more than a few hours but hopefully that would be enough time for the ointment to start to work and sink into his skin.
“Yep,” Harry said with a yawn. It was now the early hours of Tuesday morning and he was really starting to feel the lack of sleep, having been up early the morning before to play the prank in the Great Hall; that felt like a lifetime ago now, rather than less than twenty-four hours.
Romy had already fallen asleep; much to her father's dismay, she had done so while leaning on Clayton, holding his hand. It was clearly taking a lot of effort for the Beta wolf not to tear the two of them apart and as it was he was sat scowling at them. However, it was obvious how tired his daughter was and so he didn’t want to wake her.
“We need to talk, little one,” Fenrir said, suddenly towering over the two submissives that had been snuggled together under a single blanket. He was mad at his mate, furious even, and needed answers. Seeing Harry cuddled up with Micha was just putting him on edge, making him irrationally jealous; he didn’t want anyone else touching his mate when he had come so close to losing him.
It was clear that Harry was exhausted, he had been near enough nodding off; the Alpha had intended to wait until they had all slept to get his answers, but he was done waiting. Normally he might have felt bad for depriving Harry of sleep when he needed it, but Harry had brought this upon himself, and owed him the truth.
“Fen, I’m sleepy,” Harry groaned, not moving or opening his eyes, remaining leaning against Micha, enjoying the warmth of the fire on his cold skin and the closeness of his friend.
“Now, Harry,” Fenrir said a little sterner this time. He was not going to delay this anymore, not when the time they had together was so limited. He had a feeling that the explanation was going to take a while and he wanted to understand how Harry had ended up going to the Ministry of Magic on a whim for a prophecy.
At the rare use of his name from his mate, Harry opened his eyes and glared up at the Alpha, making it clear that he was not happy about being moved. However, the moment he saw the expression on Fenrir’s face, he knew better than to argue; it was obvious to him that his mate was not going to take any argument from him.
Fenrir offered out his hand to help Harry up and the teenager groaned unhappily, reaching out and accepting the hand up. The moment his fingers touched his mate’s hand though, he suddenly found himself being pulled rather forcefully up on to his feet and then abruptly put over the Alpha’s shoulder.
“Fenrir!” Harry exclaimed in shock, not appreciating being manhandled in such a way. “Can you at least try and pretend that I can feel pain?”
Fenrir said nothing as he headed off into the forest. He had a feeling that they were going to need privacy for this conversation; he also had a feeling that there might be yelling going on and knew that the rest of the pack needed to get some rest. This matter was something he had to sort out with his troublesome submissive on his own. It was fairly clear that he was going to have to punish Harry for what he had done and he had no desire to do so in front of the others and humiliate him, not unless Harry insisted on being particularly difficult and he was left with no alternative.
“Where are we going?” Harry asked as the Alpha headed out of the clearing, going north, though not towards the stream. They seemed to be going further into the woods than normal and Harry wasn’t sure he was entirely comfortable with how deep they were going, though he knew that he had to trust his mate and Alpha.
“We need to talk,” Fenrir repeated sullenly, as he placed his submissive down carefully on top of a huge rock, looking Harry in the eye.
“You said that already, Wolfie,” Harry said with a sigh, giving up on getting any answers longer than a handful of words. He had a horrible feeling that he knew exactly why Fenrir was bringing him this far out into the woods and it wasn’t for the pleasurable reasons Harry was hoping for either.
“You are going to tell me what you’ve been keeping from me,” Fenrir said firmly crossing his large arms over his vast chest and glaring at his little mate. “Talk.”
“I am honestly not sure where to start,” Harry told him truthfully. He was so tired that it was difficult to think very clearly, and there suddenly felt like so many things that he had been keeping from his mate, even though he had never meant for it to be that way.
“The beginning,” Fenrir snarled, not about to let Harry get out of this. He needed to know what was going on so that he could protect the teenager, the longer he was kept in the dark the more danger Harry was in.
“Dumbledore has a plan,” Harry told him with a sigh, “but he needs me to make it work, that’s why the Aurors came to Ingleton that day, they were looking for me and when they didn’t find me… they took my Dad.”
Fenrir nodded in approval, but said nothing, simply waiting for Harry to continue. The explanation wasn’t over yet, and Fenrir wasn’t going to let him stop until everything was out in the open.
“You get that I love him, right?” Harry asked, and the Alpha nodded again. “Well Dumbledore put him under a spell, imprisoned him. I swear I didn’t know until I got to Hogwarts, but when I found out… Then Dumbledore took me to see him. He was dying, Fen; he kind of still is. He is stuck in this kind of coma, and unless Dumbledore helps him, I am going to lose him all over again,” he told Fenrir, looking up at his mate with tears in his eyes.
“I had to do something,” Harry explained, “but Dumbledore knew that and… He promised to save him, but only if I help him.”
“With what?” Fenrir snarled. He knew that the headmaster had leverage over his mate and, while he was glad he now knew what it was, he still wanted to know what the old man was after.
“With destroying Voldemort,” Harry stated, brushing the tears from his face; he was determined to get through this all without having a breakdown and it was easier now he was talking about what he had to do, rather than his father. “And I don’t just mean getting rid of him, like what happened all those years ago, I mean actually killing him forever.
“There are these things, Horcruxes, which Voldemort made to keep himself alive. I have to hunt them,” Harry went on. “I do that and then Dumbledore can’t hurt us, he can’t ever hurt our pack, and I get my Dad back.”
“I don’t trust him,” Fenrir grunted. Harry was speaking with such certainty, but he didn’t understand why his little mate was so sure that the headmaster would stay true to his word; he knew there must be more, something Harry wasn’t telling him.
“It isn’t a matter of trust, Fen,” Harry said, taking a calming breath. Fenrir had kept his calm so far, though was clearly unhappy with what he was hearing, but he knew the Alpha wouldn’t be able to when he told him about the vow.
“Explain,” Fenrir demanded with a scowl, not liking where this was going. If there was something more to this then he needed to know, he needed to know why Harry was so sure that Dumbledore could be trusted.
“I’m going to, it’s just… well you are going to be really mad,” Harry told him. “I need you to try and hear me out, because I swear I had good reasons, and I did it largely to keep our pack safe, to protect them, because otherwise I knew Dumbledore was going to start using each and every one of you to get me to work with him and…”
“What did you do, little one?” Fenrir snarled deeply, leaning forward on the rock, his hands either side of Harry’s body and their faces only inches apart.
Fenrir was every bit an Alpha in that moment, his dominant mate, and very clearly seriously angry and making him really feel very small; and he hadn’t even told him about the vow yet. Suddenly Harry truly understood why other people feared his mate and the deep breath he took to try and calm himself, shuddered as it passed through his lips.
“TELL ME!” Fenrir roared furiously, the sound actually echoing off the trees around them, the sounds of animals running away in fear and Harry wished he could join them. The Alpha was done being lied to, he was done being kept in the dark and disrespected, and most of all, he knew that anything that Harry was so worried to tell him was really bad news and it terrified him what he was about to hear.
“A vow, I took a vow,” Harry told him, the words tumbling from his mouth and he didn’t think he had the strength, energy or courage to stop them in that moment. “An unbreakable vow that I would do everything to destroy Voldemort and every piece of his soul and in return Dumbledore can’t hurt our pack, he keeps my Dad alive and he returns him to me when this is all done.”
“He really can’t hurt the pack?” Fenrir questioned, his voice still angry, but there was a hint of surprise in there too. He had so many questions but he hadn’t missed the fact that Harry had protected their pack, he had done exactly what he was supposed to as the Alpha’s mate in that regard, even if everything else he had done was wrong.
“Not without dying,” Harry told him, looking Fenrir in the eye as he spoke, wondering how long it would take his mate to put those pieces together and realise what that really meant for his own future.
Fenrir frowned deeply, clearly thinking, still not moving away from his position close to Harry; the frown grew and morphed into a snarl. “If he breaks the vow he dies,” Fenrir growled, and Harry nodded very slowly. “If you break it…”
It seemed that the Alpha wasn’t even able to say the words out loud, but the furious roar that he let out told Harry that he had definitely understood. The Alpha wolf roared with rage again, hitting at the rock beneath his hands and for a moment Harry thought his mate might actually hit him, but Fenrir seemed to manage to keep enough control to turn and punch a tree behind him.
Harry wanted to comfort his obviously highly distressed, angry and upset mate, but he was honestly too terrified to even make a sound as he pulled his legs up to his chest and curled up on himself. Fenrir was punching the tree repeatedly and doing some serious damage, and Harry cried out with shock when his mate wrapped his arms around the large trunk and pulled the whole tree from the ground.
“FUCKING HELL!” Damon exclaimed as Fenrir threw the tree in his arms into another, breaking it in half. He had come to see if they were both okay given the roar of anger that Fenrir had made but hadn’t anticipated such a sight.
Crying in earnest, Harry all but threw himself off the rock and ran towards Damon, cuddling into him. He had never seen Fenrir so angry and found himself profoundly relieved that he wouldn’t have to deal with the enraged Alpha alone.
“Are you hurt?” Damon demanded to know, wrapping his arms around Harry, holding him close. He could feel that the teenager was literally trembling with fear, and while he thought it was probably a good thing in the long run, that it might teach Harry to let Fenrir protect him, he was still worried for the young submissive. “Harry!” he said firmly, causing green, tear-filled eyes to look up at him. “Are you hurt?”
“No, no, I’m… fine,” he told Damon. It wasn’t quite true, he felt both guilty and scared, but he didn’t know what else to say. “He didn’t hurt me. I thought… just for a moment I thought…”
“That he might hit you?” Damon questioned and Harry nodded, flinching as his mate destroyed yet another tree. “I don’t think he would, Harry. He’s angry, and rightfully so, but he wouldn’t hurt you.”
Harry nodded at that; he was exhausted and it had been a horrible, horrible day, but even through the haziness in his brain he could acknowledge that Fenrir, despite the absolute his absolute fury, had kept enough control to keep from even laying a single finger on him.
“Leave, Damon,” Fenrir snarled warningly, as he booted one of the broken trees, sending it flying and splintering into smaller pieces, before prowling towards his two pack members.
“I think it’s for the best that I stay, Fenrir,” Damon said, glad when his voice came out far calmer than he felt, given that his huge and powerful Alpha was all but towering over him. “I can help explain a few things.”
“You knew?” Fenrir asked through gritted teeth, leaning close to Damon’s face, much as he had with Harry’s before, showing all his teeth in a growled warning. “About the vow?”
“Not until it was already too late to do anything about it,” Damon told him firmly, standing his ground, and keeping his arms around Harry, who was practically wedged between the two of them. “And not until last week, I was going to tell you, but I still hoped that Harry would tell you himself.”
“Fen, I’m sorry, I’m really sorry,” Harry said quietly from between the two of them.
The Alpha snarled again, looking down and taking hold of the back of Harry’s neck, and carefully tilting the submissive’s head to face him. “Be quiet,” he said firmly, maintaining his grip as he turned back to Damon. He really had no patience for listening to his mate’s excuses at the moment and feared it might make him lose the small degree of control he currently held on his temper.
“I realise that you need to punish Harry, but please let him go,” Damon said softly, he didn’t care that Harry couldn’t feel pain, he didn’t want to see Fenrir treat Harry roughly, not when he was in such a temper and was so close to losing control. “We both know you don’t want him hurt, and can you guarantee that won’t happen when you are like this?” Damon pointed out, hoping that Fenrir could at least listen to reason on this.
“Damon, I’m fine,” Harry said softly, his voice shaking even as he spoke those words. He was certain that Damon had been right before, Fenrir wouldn’t hurt him, and he deserved this; he would let his mate take control, knowing it was what the Alpha needed.
“I will punish him!” Fenrir roared, not about to be challenged by Damon on how he treated his own disobedient mate, ignoring Harry’s words despite having heard them; there was a small part of him that was proud of Harry for accepting things as they had to be, but that was quickly drowned in the anger he was feeling.
“Yes and he needs to be for what he did but not like this,” Damon said, trying to be reasonable. “Remember who you are,” he said, looking Fenrir in the eye as he reached out and pressed his palm against the Alpha’s chest. He knew it was a gamble, that Fenrir might just break his arm for doing such a thing, given his current mood, but he had to try and reconnect with him somehow.
Damon could feel the Alpha’s heart beating fast and hard under his palm, and Fenrir bared his teeth again, growling at him, but he didn’t make any more to act against him. Slowly, Fenrir looked down at Harry, small and trembling between the two of them, eyes wide and fearful, unable to look away due to the strong grip on the back of his neck.
He released his hold on the young submissive but quickly snatched Harry up into his arms, holding him tightly to his chest; Damon didn’t even trying to stop him, only just managing to let go of Harry quick enough. “Mine,” Fenrir growled deeply, and Damon might have been worried for Harry, but for the terrible fear that was in the Alpha’s eyes.
Damon understood then, that while Fenrir was angry at Harry for what he had done, he was also terrified for his young mate and was letting that out in the only ways he knew how. Harry was crying silently, his head buried in the Alpha’s chest, Fenrir’s huge arms wrapped around him so completely that he couldn’t have moved even if he wanted to.
“I know you have to punish me, wolfie,” Harry said softly, his voice still a little shaky. “Damon already threatened to smack me. He didn’t though, in case you were wondering,” he added hastily, not wanting Fenrir to get angry at Damon for something he hadn’t even done.
“You would have deserved it,” Damon said with a frown, knowing that Harry was deliberately being cheeky to try and break the tension; something which he thought was rather foolish.
“I agree with Damon,” Fenrir said sternly, though he too was aware of what Harry was doing. He hadn’t missed the way that his mate had calmed so quickly once in his arms, that Harry had clearly craved his affections. This pleased him, of course, but he thought now he knew exactly how he was going to punish his mate; even if it was going to be difficult for both of them, he knew it had to be done.
“Maybe you could spank me instead of Damon,” Harry suggested hopefully, still clinging tightly to his mate, his fingers curled around the edge of his leather jacket.
“Don’t tempt me, little one,” Fenrir growled, not at all pleased that Harry was being so cheeky given how much trouble he had caused.
“And if I want to tempt you?” Harry asked, a small smile twitching on his lips. He was still feeling pretty shaken from Fenrir having lost his temper, but their easy banter and being in his mate’s arms was having a calming effect, making him feel safe.
“Harry!” Damon said, as Fenrir gave the back of Harry’s neck a squeeze in warning.
“Sorry,” the teenager said softly, burying his head against his mate again, and going quiet, having realised that now was not the time for trying to be funny.
“Did he tell you why he thought a late night trip to the Ministry was a good idea yet?” Damon asked curiously. It seemed pretty obvious that Harry had told Fenrir about the vow, but he wondered how much more the submissive had explained.
“Not yet,” Fenrir grunted, moving back over to the rock that he had sat Harry on earlier and sitting down there, Harry resting in his lap. A few moments later, Damon joined them, taking a seat next to the Alpha. “Little one,” he prompted.
Harry sighed, and shuffled around on his mate’s lap so that he was facing Damon and held a little more loosely in Fenrir’s arms. “I went to get a prophecy, they are all kept there, and I needed to hear it, to understand why it was me that this happened to.”
“What do you mean?” Damon asked curiously, before Fenrir had a chance.
“That prophecy, it’s the reason my birth parents are dead, it’s the reason my Dad raised me instead of them. The reason you even got a chance to bite me,” Harry said, looking up at his mate, who was watching him intently. “It changed my whole life and it is the reason that Dumbledore is insisting that it has to be me who destroys Voldemort.”
“And you wanted to hear it for yourself,” Damon said with a sigh. He really could understand Harry’s logic, even if it didn’t excuse what he had done, the way that he had put so many in danger, including himself.
“I know, I probably should have just come here and told you all everything, and asked for your help,” Harry said, his eyes looking deep into Fenrir’s golden ones, begging him to understand. “But I honestly thought you would have said no, and I really needed to hear it.”
“And…” Damon said, gesturing for Harry to continue. “Did you hear it?” he asked when the teenager said nothing.
“Yes,” Harry told him, looking nervous.
The prophecy might not have told him much he didn’t already know, but he now had the confirmation he had needed to know that it really did have to be him; as much as he wished he could walk away from it all, he didn’t want to leave Voldemort alive and attacking the wizarding world either. He would willingly help now, even if he still hated Dumbledore; he would see this through to the end; the vow would ensure that anyway.
“Are you going to tell us about it?” Damon asked, thinking that now Harry had heard this prophecy, maybe they should know what it said too, especially seeing that they would be helping him now whether Harry liked it or not.
“Later, please,” Harry begged, his whole body aching with the effort to stay awake. “I promise I’ll tell you everything but I’m so tired, my eyes are burning, please, can I sleep?” he pleaded; he was warm against his mate and Fenrir’s scent was so relaxing and calming. He could feel his eyes getting heavier too.
“Fine,” Fenrir said with a grunt; he was tired too and there was no point in them all exhausting themselves. Someone would have to stay watch while they slept as it was; Gideon had survived the night and two of his pack had been killed, he would not be happy and Fenrir wasn’t convinced that even Tom Riddle would be able to stop the other Alpha from attacking.
“Thank you, Wolfie,” Harry said with a sigh of relief, snuggling back into his mate and closing his eyes, more than happy to be there. However, he was rather startled when he was picked up from his mate’s lap and placed on his own two feet, clearly being expected to walk back to the territory. “Fen…”
Fenrir, however, did not respond; instead he took the lead, expecting for Harry and Damon to follow him. The teenager frowned, not understanding why his mate wouldn’t carry him like he usually would. Tiredly, Harry began to trudge after the Alpha, desperate for sleep, Damon bringing up the rear.
FGHP
Harry was more than a little disgruntled when Fenrir instructed him to go and get some sleep. He was of course not opposed to the idea at all given how completely exhausted he was, but, after the evening and the night they had had, he had hoped, and assumed, that Fenrir would join him; he could have used the cuddles. He was, however, too tired to complain or question it, just wanting to get some sleep.
He settled himself down in their shared bed, wrapping the hides around himself, thankful that they smelt of Fenrir; he inhaled the scent deeply as he closed his eyes, imagining that his dominant mate was with him, holding him as he fell asleep. It didn’t take long before he had drifted off into something of an uneasy slumber.
“Aren’t you joining him?” Damon asked his Alpha curiously. He thought that it had been a little odd that Fenrir hadn’t carried the teenager back to the clearing; it was rather out of character for the Alpha to make Harry walk like that, especially when the teenager had been so obviously tired.
“No,” Fenrir returned gruffly, settling himself on one of the log benches, positioning himself so that he could watch over Harry while he slept. After everything that had happened this evening he didn’t want to take his eyes off the teenager. “He’s being punished,” the Alpha grunted when Damon didn’t make any move to leave him be. He was tired and his mind was loud as he churned over thoughts of everything his little submissive had told him.
A look of understanding crossed Damon’s face as he took a moment to really consider why it was the Alpha was doing this. It was no secret in the pack, how much Harry loved being in Fenrir’s arms, and he hadn’t missed the fact that Harry had gone from distressed, to calm and cheeky, almost instantaneously when Fenrir had taken him into his arms.
Damon turned to look at where Harry was now peacefully sleeping, looking deceptively innocent. He sighed, knowing that Fenrir was probably right, that this would be the most effective punishment for the young man; Harry craved the attentions of his mate, he liked to be affectionate and if denying him that was the only way to show him that his actions had been wrong, then Damon was all for it.
He strongly suspected that Harry was really going to struggle with the punishment that Fenrir seemed to have decided on, but he supposed that was exactly the point; Harry needed to learn that he couldn’t keep putting himself in danger like this. Damon would have considered it a rather harsh course of action if he didn’t know about the vow; it was this that had truly upset Damon more than anything, and apparently Fenrir too, given the state of the patch of woodland they had been in.
“Don’t stay up too long, you won’t be any good to anyone exhausted,” Damon said, worrying about how his friend was going to cope now that he would have the time to allow the information about the vow to sink in.
Fenrir’s first instinct had been rage, and rightly so in Damon’s opinion, but now the Alpha would have time to think about it. Damon was beginning to think that Harry had been rather smart to sleep now and explain more later; Fenrir would need the time to process everything. For a moment Damon considered insisting that he would watch over the pack so that Fenrir could sleep, but one look at the Alpha stern gaze, focused on Harry, and he knew that wouldn’t be happening.
Damon sighed again and turned back to the rest of the pack. Micha had already settled down in their bed and had fallen asleep; smiling at the sight of his mate sleeping, Damon headed over to him and climbed into bed beside him, snuggling himself around his submissive, inhaling his scent. By this point everyone else was asleep, the night’s activities having been too much for them all. Fenrir, however, remained awake, watching over his sleeping pack, protecting them, and trying to understand why Harry had done what he had.
FGHP
It was almost dawn when Gideon returned. The Dark Lord had been in a towering temper by the time that they had left the ministry, and while Dean had been able to head straight back, Gideon had been faced with paying for the mistake of allowing Harry Prince to get away; though privately he rather thought that perhaps that the Dark Lord should have stopped him himself.
The majority of his pack was sleeping by the time he entered the small clearing where they lived. He could see Axlar propped up against his tree, snoring loudly, and he seemed to have fallen asleep knitting; the Beta might have been difficult to control at times but Gideon was at least pleased that Axlar was good at controlling the others, as was evidenced by the fact that he could account for every member of his pack and that none of them had wandered off during his absence.
Only a few were still awake; Jack, who he could see off at the very edge of the clearing, sat half behind a tree, making himself scarce lest he end up under someone’s fists yet again; and Dean and Aiden, who were sat together talking quietly. It was the latter two that he limped his way towards.
“The boundaries need checking,” he told them firmly gruffly, as the two of them turned to look up at him. With Greyback having been at the ministry, he didn’t want to risk the other Alpha taking pre-emptive action against them, so he had to be sure they were secure before he could get some much needed rest.
Gideon didn’t even wait for a response before he turned and headed over towards where Axlar was sleeping; he needed to check in with his Beta, but then he definitely would sleep.
“Guess we are checking the boundaries,” Dean said, getting to his feet.
“I’m not leaving Niko here on his own,” Aiden said as he moved over towards the young sleeping dominant; he simply didn’t trust the other pack members not to turn on Niko while he was vulnerable and unprotected.
“You want to take him with us?” Dean asked, looking sceptical and glancing over to where Gideon was waking up Axlar, something that he thought was practically a death wish. “He’ll slow us down.”
“Then it will take us longer,” Aiden said with a shrug, as he shook the ten year old’s shoulder. “Niko,” he said softly, “come on, wake up. We’re going for a bit of a walk,” he said as light brown eyes opened and looked up at him sleepily.
“Now?” Niko asked, as he looked up at the sky, which was only just starting to lighting with the impending dawn. “Where we going?” he asked, as he made himself sit up and rub at his eyes sleepily.
“We’re checking the boundaries, Alpha’s orders,” Dean told him before Aiden had a chance. “Aiden, here, was fretting, so you’re coming with us,” he said with a tone of impatience.
“I can take care of myself,” Niko said a little indignantly, turning to glare at Aiden. He didn’t think that Aiden’s over protectiveness was earning him any credit with the other pack members, and he wasn’t a baby, he didn’t need to be looked after all the time.
“You are ten years old, and I honestly wouldn’t put anything past this lot,” Aiden said with a roll of his eyes, gesturing at the sleeping pack. He understood that Niko wanted to prove himself, but he actually would prefer it if Niko never met the expectations of this group of the worst kind of werewolves. “Besides, if you really want to be respected around here, then you need to know how to check the boundaries.”
That was apparently enough to persuade the young werewolf out of bed, though still with a resigned sigh, and the three of them headed off into the woods, Niko dragging his own feet a little in his tiredness. Aiden and Dean could definitely relate to that, neither of them having slept at all yet.
Once they were out of sight of the others, Aiden flung an arm around Niko’s shoulder and brought him closer. “Chin up, kid, this could be fun,” he said trying to lighten the tension between the three of them. None of them really wanted to be doing this.
“I’d rather be sleeping,” Niko grumbled unhappily making both Dean and Aiden laugh.
“I think we all would,” Dean said, “though given that Gideon looks like he was injured, we should probably be grateful to escape his bad mood.”
“Gideon has good moods?” Niko asked cheekily, grinning up at the two dominants.
“Just don’t let him hear you say that, it’s why no one knows about them, he kills anyone who sees him smile,” Dean joked.
“So how come we’re checking the boundaries?” Niko asked curiously; he didn’t like early mornings and being dragged out of bed and into the forest before dawn had even properly broken wasn’t his favourite.
“Greyback showed up at where we were with the Dark Lord,” Dean told the young man. “He and Gideon have a little history, so I think we are just making sure that Greyback isn’t planning on attacking.”
“What kind of history?” Niko asked curiously. He had been wondering who Greyback was and he was keen to know more about the other pack that they were supposed to hate so much.
“That silver hand of his,” Aiden said, leaning down a bit and speaking quietly, as though sharing some secret, which wasn’t so far from the truth, given that Gideon didn’t tolerate talk of what had happened. “The real one that used to be there… Greyback chopped it off.”
“Wow, seriously?” Niko asked, gaping at Aiden in shock. Gideon was a huge and scary man, and he found it hard to imagine anyone being strong enough to manage to do such a thing.
“Yep, we took Greyback’s submissive,” Dean told him unapologetically. “He took him back, and cut off Gideon’s hand.” It felt like a long time ago when their small pack had snatched the male submissive, and he certainly wasn’t sure about how things had changed since then. He barely talked with Russ now, who hadn’t really recovered from the loss of his brother, and Gideon was not the Alpha he had once respected. However, he didn’t really mind that Jack was making himself scarce.
“He must like his submissive, like really, really like him,” Niko said in awe.
“I imagine so,” Aiden said, leading Niko off in a slightly different direction before they actually ended up in Greyback’s territory. He remembered fondly how much the dominants of his former pack had loved their submissives’, and he found himself longing to be part of a pack like that again, wishing that he could find that for Niko so that the young man might know what a true werewolf pack was supposed to be.
FGHP
The dim light of dawn broke over the top of the trees only a few hours later and the weak February sun had woken a few of the Greyback pack. Clay was one of them, the light just a little too bright to allow him to get back to sleep, despite being desperately tired. Only Jenson and Lukas were awake aside from him and he could hear the two of them talking in hushed voices a short distance away.
Despite being awake, Clay had made no move to get up. Romy had fallen asleep beside him the night before and as a result the two of them had spent the night cuddled up to one another, fast asleep. In truth it had probably been the best sleep that Clay had had in a long time, even though he hadn’t had enough of it. The forest room at Hogwarts was pretty good and much better than the Gryffindor common room, but there was nothing like being back at home in their territory and having Romy in his arms.
At some point Jenson had apparently managed to talk Fenrir into getting some sleep, because the Beta wolf was sitting watching over them all, despite the fact that he looked even more exhausted than Clay felt. Privately, Clay suspected that the Beta had stayed awake to keep an eye on him and make sure that he didn’t act inappropriately while cuddled so close to Romy.
Slowly sitting up, and taking great care not to disturb Romy, Clayton started to look around the pack members; most of them were sleeping still but Jenson was by the fire downing his third mug of coffee and Lukas making another mug of tea, trying to figure out what he could attempt to cook for the others that wouldn’t give them all food poisoning.
“Didn’t we have a new pack member?” Clay asked suddenly, smothering a yawn as his eyes swept over the sleeping members in confusion, unable to see where the new wolf was hiding. “Where is he?”
Jenson and Lukas immediately stopped what they were doing, looking around to see where Jaylon had gone. They had all assumed that he would be sleeping close to Tessie given that the nervous submissive rarely left her side at all; they could see the hides that the young boy usually used bundled up next to her, but even with Jaylon’s petite size there was no way that he was under them.
“Isn’t he with Tessie? He’s always with Tessie…” Lukas said, his brow furrowing in confusion as he scanned the sleeping pack members, worry increasing in the pit of his stomach as Jenson strode over to Tessie, shaking her awake.
“What is it?” she asked, yawning sleepily. Taking in Lukas’ worried expression as she sat up a little and tried to work out why she was being woken up when it was barely dawn; though she was glad to see that Harry and Clay had both been found safe and brought home. “Where’s Jaylon?” she asked, as she realised that he wasn’t next to her, which was where he had been when she had fallen asleep.
“We were going to ask you that,” Jenson said, suddenly feeling a little panicked. One of their pack was missing and must have been for a few hours at least. Jaylon was young, and probably terrified; with the young man’s history, and already damaged mind, Jenson was worried what might happen to him.
He quickly headed over towards where the Alpha was sleeping; whether they wanted to or not they were going to have to wake up Fenrir. They had no idea where the young man had gone or why he had run off; at least he felt confident enough that Jaylon had left of his own accord, given that there hadn’t been anyone other than the pack members in their territory. They couldn’t even be sure how long he had been gone but Jenson knew that they would have to find him.
“He isn’t here?” Clay asked, his eyes going wide in shock. “Why would he have run off?” The young dominant couldn’t help but remember what had happened when Harry had run away soon after they had moved to the territory; the thought of Fenrir, or indeed anyone getting hurt in such a way again, didn’t bear thinking about.
“We have to find him!” Tessie said in a panic, the realisation that no one knew where Jaylon was waking her up completely. She was quickly climbing out from under her blankets and hides, and getting to her feet.
“Damon, Fenrir,” Jenson said, needing his Alpha and the other dominant awake; it would need to be Fenrir’s choice what they did, who went out looking and who remained behind. Jenson didn’t want the weight of this on his shoulders, he didn’t envy the Alpha for these decisions.
He could already hear Tessie cursing as she struggled to get her shoes on with her one good arm, clearly frustrated that it was taking longer than usual in her frantic state of worry; Jenson didn’t think that even Fenrir would be able to keep her from joining the search, submissive or not.
Damon was the first to wake up, bringing Micha out of his slumber too and by that time Tessie had just managed to get her shoes on and laced up, and was being held back by Lukas. She was keen to get going and start looking for Jaylon; she was concerned what could have happened to him if he had wandered alone into the forest.
“What is it?” Damon asked with a stretch and a yawn, hearing the urgency in the Beta wolf’s voice as Jenson continued calling Fenrir’s name, trying to get the Alpha to wake up as well. This was more or less the only thing that kept him from rolling over to go back to sleep; Micha, however, was even less awake and already grumbling about being woken up, his head buried into Cuddles as he tried to nod off again.
“Jaylon’s gone,” Jenson said as he moved through the others, all of whom were starting to wake up with the noise and movement around them. He was heading to Fenrir who was yet to stir. This wasn’t surprising given the Alpha had only slept for a little over an hour but this was an emergency. The Beta didn’t really understand why the Alpha was not curled up asleep around Harry but he didn’t have time to question this, not with Jaylon missing.
“What?” Fenrir snarled as Jenson said his name again and shook his shoulder, trying to rouse the sleeping man. The Alpha certainly didn’t look at all happy about being woken. However, as soon as Jenson mentioned the missing submissive to him, the Alpha wolf was on his feet and looking very sullen. He didn’t even spare a glance to Harry, who was half asleep but sat up in their bed, looking rather hurt and confused that Fenrir had chosen not to sleep next to him.
“Alpha,” Tessie pleaded, breaking free from Lukas’ grip and going to Fenrir’s side, as the Alpha pulled his leather jacket over his shoulders. “Please, we have to find him,” she implored. There were tears in her blue eyes as she begged to be able to go searching for the young submissive. She knew that he was rather scared of the large dominants but she hadn’t expected for him to run off.
“We will,” Lukas reassured her, putting a hand on her arm, having followed her closely, thinking that he might still need to hold her back from rushing off into the forest alone to look for him. If they were going to do this then they needed to be organised about it; they couldn’t run off half-cocked because it would only end up in the rest of them getting lost or injured.
The Alpha wasn’t exactly shocked that Jaylon had run off, despite how frustrated he was at the young man’s timing. The young submissive had been on edge since he had arrived; he was timid and had shied away from everyone apart from Tessie and Micha. In a lot of ways Jaylon was like Harry when he first arrived in the pack and this comparison only proved to Fenrir how much his mate had come on since arriving in the territory.
“Pair up,” Fenrir grunted, knowing that this was the best way to keep them all safe while searching for Jaylon; Fenrir wasn’t going to allow for any more of his pack members to be hurt. “Jenson go with Tessie; Damon, you take Micha; Lukas, stay here with the pups and Callie.” He was reluctant to let any of the submissives be part of the search, but they needed to find Jaylon and needed the numbers; it was still preferable over having the pups being part of the search.
“But I can help,” Clayton protested. He knew that he was still the Omega in the pack and technically one of the pack’s pups, but he was also a dominant and only months away from his sixteenth birthday when he would be considered an adult within the pack.
“No,” Fenrir snarled, not liking that the young dominant had disagreed with him and he knew that because Clayton had, Harry was bound to as well; even Romy, who was just starting to sit up next to her cousin, looked like she might question the Alpha’s orders. He really didn’t have time to argue with the pack’s youngest members.
“I could come with you,” Harry suggested, getting to his feet and going to pick up his shoes. He wanted to go with his mate; he was hoping that if they did this together then they could talk some more and maybe clear the air. Harry knew that something wasn’t right because his mate had not come to bed with him and the teenager was determined to find out why.
“No,” Fenrir said angrily, motioning for the others to go ahead; he would go once he had dealt with the arguments to his decisions. He watched as Jenson and Damon took the two submissives off in opposite directions before rounding on his little mate, who had moved over to his side, looking up at him with wide eyes.
“But Fen…” Harry started to say, not liking being brushed aside by his mate; it wasn’t at all what he was used to.
“No,” Fenrir growled, quickly interrupting his mate, cutting him and his protests down, sounding fierce and enraged. He didn’t like repeating himself, and Harry was already being punished. “Stay here, out of trouble,” he said firmly, taking hold of Harry’s wrist as the submissive reached out to touch him. “Do as you’re told for once!”
Harry took a step back, not having expected for his mate to take such a tone with him. He gave the Alpha male a rather hurt expression as Fenrir released his wrist before he turned and walked away to go and cover the area that the others had not. They had had to search the forest for missing pack members so often that they now knew how to divide up the forest to most efficiently cover the ground required.
Sitting back down, feeling utterly dejected and hurt, Harry watched as Fenrir headed into the forest. He found it hard not to cry, his eyes welling up as he fought against them as he returned to the warmth of his bed. Abandoning Romy for a moment, Clayton moved over and came to sit beside Harry, allowing his best friend to lean into him.
Lukas and Callie watched on as Romy got up and went to sit on Harry’s other side, cuddling into him. The affection of his pack siblings broke his resolve not to cry and he allowed the tears to fall. He took comfort in them as he pulled the Alpha scented blanket around the three of them.
“I think I really fucked up this time,” Harry said as he dissolved into tears. Neither Clayton nor Romy said anything as Harry cried, simply holding him between them as best they could.
FGHP
It was so cold, and Jaylon couldn’t stop shivering despite the thick jumper he had on and the shelter he had found between a big oak tree and a large rock. He didn’t really know where he was compared to the pack’s clearing; he had headed off into the trees when things had got crazy in the territory, finding it all too much, but he had become more and more scared until he had just turned and ran.
It was even darker in the woodland, than it was in the clearing, the moonlight struggling to get through the thick foliage above him, and he had desperately searched for shelter to hide in, as the temperature began to drop more and more.
He was worried he had gone too far though, because the scents around him were those of unfamiliar werewolves; but he was too terrified to dare moving from his little hiding spot now. Every sound he heard made him jump, and he half expected the two dominants who had kept him prisoner for years to show up and drag him away with them.
Part of him was aware that he was probably being paranoid, but he was so tired and scared that he couldn’t stop trembling. He kept almost falling asleep, but every small noise would have him on high alert again. He was definitely regretting the impulsive decision to run, wishing that Tessie or Micha was there with him, and as he tried, and failed, to find the courage to go back, he felt a few tears fall down his face.
FGHP
Fenrir was aware that it was possibly not the best idea to come out into the woods alone after he had taken a few hits in the fight with Gideon, been exposed to silver and then slept for only an hour or so; however, he felt better knowing that the rest of his pack were out there in pairs, or else safely in the clearing.
He probably should have taken Clayton with him but he honestly hadn’t wanted to risk it with the almost sixteen year old pup. He knew that Damon wouldn’t have been happy that his son was joining the search party and in truth Fenrir preferred Clayton to be with Harry.
It had bothered the Alpha that he had had to sleep apart from his mate, feeling as though they were throwing away the precious little time they had together before Harry would have to return to Hogwarts, but it was needed. If he was going to make Harry realise that he couldn’t keep rushing off and putting the others into danger, as well as himself, then Fenrir needed to take drastic action, even if said action hurt him just as much as his mate.
Taking a deep breath through his nose, Fenrir could not scent Jaylon anywhere close by; however, he could scent the strays. He was close to the boundaries of the territory and he could tell that the other pack were getting daringly close to his territory, even venturing into it occasionally, as demonstrated by the body they had found after the full moon. Fenrir knew he had to have his wits about him when he was this close to danger but he couldn’t stop thinking about what his mate had done.
Harry had put his life on the line, not just by going to the Ministry of Magic but also by promising aid to Dumbledore. Although he had to admit that he couldn’t help but admire the fact that his submissive had managed to ensure the pack’s safety from the meddling old man in the process. This he was rather proud of because, as the Alpha’s mate, this was exactly what Harry was supposed to be doing; though it was the way in which he had done it that worried Fenrir.
He supposed, even though he wasn’t happy that Harry had to be involved, that at least the end result would be Voldemort’s demise. With that mad man gone they would be free, their lives would be a lot calmer. Now that he was aware of the vow, he understood why Harry had always been so set in going back to Hogwarts; it seemed that his little mate was as always looking out for everyone and caring very little for himself.
In a sudden fit of rage, Fenrir drove his fist into a nearby tree, the trunk of which gave a crack, caving in under the pressure, a crack appearing in the bark. Thinking that Harry might die got to him; he couldn’t bare the idea that he might lose his mate. As Alpha it was his job to protect his pack and most importantly his mate. He had failed once before with Alexis and he was determined that he wouldn’t do so again.
Taking another deep breath through his nose Fenrir came to the conclusion that wherever Jaylon had run off to he had not come in this direction. The young submissive possibly had the worst timing in the world with running away but the fact that he had been potentially missing for hours before it was realised made Fenrir feel as if he were a failure. He was meant to look after them and yet, with all the distractions going on around him, he had failed to realise that one of their group was gone.
Slamming his fist into the tree once more, a roar of fury escaping from his lips, Fenrir turned off and began to walk in a different direction. If Jaylon was dead then he was probably going to end up ripping up another tree.
FGHP
Dawn had broken, the sun was weak and struggling to get through the gaps in the trees overhead but it was at least a little lighter now. Dean, Aiden and Niko had been wandering the boundaries for at least an hour, if not longer, and all three of them were tired and in need of sleep.
“Can’t we just tell him we checked the boundaries,” Niko complained, kicking at the dirt with his well-worn trainers. He had been wearing the same clothes and shoes non-stop since he had arrived with them. There weren’t ample opportunities to wash or to change and Niko was still a little self-conscious about doing so in front of the others.
Aiden gave the ten year old a rather pointed look as he suggested this. “Not really,” he said with a frown, “if Greyback gets through and attacks us, then the people who die, that’s on us.”
“I thought we weren’t supposed to care about killing people?” Niko asked, looking between the two older dominants questioningly.
“You’re always supposed to care,” Dean said, Aiden nodding in agreement. “Once you’ve taken a life you carry that with you, even if you killed them to protect yourself.”
“Just because the others kill and seem to care very little doesn't meant that you should act in the same way,” Aiden added, glad that he had had the opportunity to talk to Niko about this. He really didn’t want for the ten year old to turn out like the Neanderthals in the pack like Gideon and Axlar.
“Shh,” Dean said rather suddenly and the three of them came to a rather sudden stop, all of them listening rather intently. “Can you hear that?” he asked after a few moments of silence where they had all distinctly heard the sound of sobbing.
“Wait here,” Aiden said taking a few steps forward and trying to work out where the sound was coming from. Dean put a hand on Niko’s shoulder and shook his head when the young boy tried to follow Aiden anyway; Niko pouted and crossed his arms over his chest, but stayed put.
Dean and Niko watched rather impatiently as Aiden made slow progress, looking for the source of the noise. They didn’t know what to expect or what they were going to do if they found someone out here that shouldn’t be and when Dean inhaled deeply there was definitely an unfamiliar scent in the air; Niko copied him, but apparently didn’t pick up on it because he just looked confused.
“Hey, hey,” Aiden said softly, his hands held up to show that they were empty as he crouched down a little distance away. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said kindly glancing over towards Dean. Clearly whoever it was who was there was nervous and it wasn’t going to help anything if a second dominant appeared at Aiden’s side.
“That’s what they said,” a small terrified voice said, almost too quiet to hear. Niko glanced to Dean questioningly, wondering what the hell was going on. Dean, however, could distinguish that whoever the strange scent belonged to, it was a submissive. Niko had not honed his skills to be able to detect such things yet, too young to have managed it.
“Did the Greyback pack hurt you?” Aiden asked gently; he didn’t want to startle the young boy he had found. However, he was desperate to know if the Greyback pack were good people, his cousin was there, he had been hanging on to hope that he would be too eventually and that it would be a better life than the one he had with Gideon.
“No,” the boy said, shaking his head, “I want to go back.”
Aiden nodded, still taking the time to move slowly and carefully. He didn’t want to risk the young teenager running off, goodness knew who he would meet out here if he did that and, if Aiden was sure of anything, anyone else he bumped into out here would care very little how scared he was. They would enjoy that. “How about we take you back then?” he suggested, giving the nervous submissive a soft smile.
“Gideon won’t like that,” Dean said warningly.
“Who’s out there?” the submissive asked, backing further up, away from Aiden, looking terrified. He didn’t know this man in front of him, even if he seemed to be being nice, but now it seemed there were at least two of them, and that scared him.
“My friends, you don’t need to fear them,” Aiden told him, giving a quick glare at Dean for having made this even more difficult. “We’ll take you home,” he said, turning back to the trembling young man hiding between the rock and a huge tree.
“I don’t have a home…” the submissive practically whispered, and Aiden thought it looked like he might actually be crying again, but it was difficult to tell when he was shivering so badly.
“But you do want to go back?” Aiden questioned, needing to be sure that he wasn’t handing this young man over to the Greyback pack against his will. Though he wasn’t sure there were a lot of alternatives, given that he couldn’t take him back the Gideon’s pack; a little submissive like this one wouldn’t last five minutes, and he dreaded to think what those monsters would do to him.
“Yes,” the submissive said, nodding his head too. He really wanted to go back to the Greyback pack, he wanted to go back to Micha and Tessie, he liked them, they were good to him; no one had hurt him there, they never let him go hungry, and they let him sleep whenever he wanted and gave him blankets to keep him warm.
“Then we’ll take you,” Aiden said firmly, giving Dean a stern look when he heard his friend grumble under his breath. “But first you have to come out of your little hidey hole… here, I’ll back up for you, just take your time,” he said, doing exactly that.
The submissive, however, shook his head, looking panicked at the idea, glancing around nervously, despite that the same rock and tree protecting him also were blocking him from seeing anything.
“Okay, okay, how about my friends come over and stand behind me, so that you can see them,” Aiden suggested, gesturing for Dean and Niko to come join him, which they did slowly.
“He looks really scared,” Niko said, looking up at Dean over his shoulder, once they had got a good look at the young man who they had found. Dean nodded his agreement; the submissive was more a child really, couldn’t have been more than fifteen or sixteen he guessed and small even for that.
Slowly, still trembling, the submissive got to his feet; he did feel a bit better now that he could see all of them, particularly knowing that one of them was just a child. “Are you… are you a family?” he asked hesitantly, looking between the three of them.
“Erm… not exactly,” Aiden said with a slightly amused smile, as he glance back at Dean and Niko, who were looking at each other with confusion, seemingly not sure what to make of the submissive’s question and apparent assumptions. “We belong to the same pack,” Aiden explained, trying to be patient with the young man.
Slowly the submissive took a step towards them, pausing for a second and watching them closely, as though he still thought they were going to suddenly attack him. When it became apparent that they weren’t going to, he took another step forward; however, with his eyes fixed so intently on Aiden, when he took his third step, he didn’t see the large tree root underfoot.
Aiden reached out quickly, trying to catch the submissive, but he was just too far away, and with a loud clunk the young man’s head collided hard with the rock at his side. “Damn it,” Aiden cursed, moving towards the submissive, who was now out cold on the ground. It was a small space, so it was kind of difficult to get into, but he really needed to get the young man out of there and make sure he was okay.
“Is he dead?” Dean asked, staying back mostly so that he could keep curious little Niko from hurrying in to see what was going on for himself. Sometimes he thought the ten year old was just that little bit too fearless about things.
“Nope, definitely breathing, but that was a serious whack to the head,” Aiden told them, as he struggled to pick the unconscious teenager up from the ground. “He could be out a while,” he added as he carried him out, lowering him to the ground near the other two. It was still early, so the light levels were low, but there was enough that he could see that the young man’s head didn’t seem to be bleeding at least.
“Probably make it easier to get him back to Greyback’s pack anyway,” Dean said with a sigh. He still wasn’t convinced about this idea, it was definitely a gamble. “Maybe we can just leave him in their territory somewhere,” he suggested, at least that way they wouldn’t have to risk being killed the moment one of the other pack laid eyes on them.
“While he has a serious head injury?” Aiden asked, looking at Dean with a little annoyance. “No, it’s fine. Look, you finish off checking the boundaries, I’ll take him back.”
“On your own?” Dean asked sceptically. “And how long am I supposed to cover for your stupid arse, before I assume they just killed you?”
“I’ll take Niko with me,” Aiden suggested. “They don’t seem like the types to attack one lone man carrying an unconscious member of their pack while accompanied by a kid.”
“Yeah, I don’t reckon their half as noble as you seem to think,” Dean told him, “but it’s your head on the line. If you’re not back in an hour I am telling Gideon you went off chasing someone who was in our territory, and that we should assume you’re both dead.”
“Fair enough,” Aiden said with a shrug. If he wasn’t back in an hour then that might be close to the truth anyway. “Come on, Niko, let’s take this guy back home,” he said, lifting the young submissive back into his arms.
FGHP
There were lots of times when it was really great having such a large territory for their pack, but Jenson was enjoying it far less when it meant they had so much ground to cover; he wasn’t even convinced that Jaylon was still within their boundaries anyway. They had picked up hints of the submissive’s scent but nothing very conclusive, as though he had run around in circles in this area a fair while ago.
It wasn’t making things much easier that Tessie was in quite a state; her haste meant that she was making more noise and rushing off in directions before Jenson had finished checking where they already were.
“This way, I think he’s this way,” Tessie said again, as she had many times since they had started their search well over half an hour ago.
“Tessie, stay close,” Jenson growled. He really didn’t feel at all comfortable with the way she kept rushing off ahead of him, particularly when they were so very close to the boundaries. He could smell the other wolves too, not to mention his brother and it was putting Jenson very much on edge.
Tessie, however, was just entirely focused on finding Jaylon. She knew how scared he would be out here all alone, and how terrible it would be if the strays were to find him first. She was just so sure that she was going the right way, because she could pick up just a hint of his scent on the air; and there was something else too, something that was drawing her towards it, but it was faint and she shouldn’t put her finger on it.
A few seconds later, though, when she came to a sudden stop at the sight of the man coming the other way, she knew exactly why the smell was of comfort to her. “Aiden,” she said softly, hardly believing her eyes.
“Tessie?” Aiden questioned, looking just as surprised to see her there. “Are you…?” he started to asked, but was cut short when a huge red-headed man, who vaguely reminded him of Gideon in some ways, stepped in front of Tessie and pulled her behind his back.
“Jenson!” Tessie exclaimed, trying to get back around the Beta wolf without success. “Stop, don’t hurt him, he’s my cousin!”
“I’m not here to cause trouble, I swear,” Aiden said quickly. “I would hold my hands up, surrender and all that but they are kind of full at the moment,” he pointed out, gesturing with his head towards Jaylon, who was still out cold in his arms.
“Is he okay?” Tessie asked, managing to get passed Jenson, now that the Beta wolf relaxed slightly, though she could still tell that he was ready to jump to her aid should he need to.
“Cold,” Aiden told them as he slowly lowered Jaylon to the ground, “and a serious hit to the head. An accident, not my doing,” Aiden added quickly, when Jenson growled at him.
“Oh, Jaylon,” Tessie said, looking at the injury that Aiden was showing her.
“Whoa, you look like Gideon,” a little voice said, and all three of them turned towards the sound of it, to see Niko approaching them, looking up at Jenson, who was snarling; he really did hate being compared to his brother.
“Niko, I told you to hide if we came across anyone,” Aiden said with exasperation.
“I got curious,” Niko said with a shrug of his shoulders. “And they didn’t attack you, so I figured they weren’t going to attack a kid.”
“Who is this?” Tessie asked kindly, smiling at the young boy before looking to her cousin curiously. “Please tell me he isn’t with that horrible group of men!”
“This is Niko and I’m hoping he won’t be for very much longer,” Aiden said, a sudden idea springing to mind.
“They’re taking in kids now?” Jenson asked, looking completely disgusted as he turned back to Niko. He didn’t think the boy could be more than ten or eleven years old, not that different in age than Romy had been when he had rescued her from Gideon’s pack.
“Niko’s the youngest, but there are a few in their late teens,” Aiden told him, wanting to show that he could be useful, that he could be open and honest with them. At this point it might be all that kept him alive; this large werewolf might just kill him and take Niko and Jaylon, for all he knew. “I really don’t want to take him back there,” he told them. “He’s a good kid, I don’t want to see him become like them,” he added quietly to Tessie.
“We can help him, can’t we, Jenson?” Tessie asked, looking pleadingly to her Beta wolf. “He’s just a boy, we can’t let him stay there, not with those monsters!”
“It will be up to Fenrir,” Jenson told her honestly, but in truth he didn’t want to see the young boy go back to Gideon’s pack either.
“But what if I want to stay with Aiden?” Niko asked, looking worried. He understood that Aiden didn’t like Gideon’s pack, and honestly he didn’t either, but he liked Aiden and he didn’t know these people at all.
“Come with him, join us, please, Aiden,” Tessie requested hopefully. She hadn’t believed that she would ever see Aiden or Jilly again, and now that she had found Aiden she was more than reluctant to let him go again. “This is your way out,”
“I’d be of more use back with Gideon, I can feed you guys information, earn my place,” Aiden told her, taking her hand in his and giving it a squeeze. “I doubt your Alpha would just accept me into the pack, not after surviving with those violent bastards for so long,” he pointed out.
“He is right, Fenrir would kill him,” Jenson stated bluntly. Tessie had been accepted because she had told them the truth about Harlan, and because she was a submissive; Niko would be accepted because he was just a child; but they wouldn’t be able to risk taking in a new dominant, particularly not one who had been one of Gideon’s pack for so long.
“But he’s my cousin, he wouldn’t hurt any of us,” Tessie protested, unable to believe that Fenrir would kill someone she considered family. She had come to love the Greyback pack, consider them her family, or as close to it as she ever expected to feel again, and it just didn’t seem right that they would kill one of the two people left in the world who were actually her blood.
“It’s all right Tess, I’ll be okay. Just please, take Niko, look after him, I will be back for him, but the more young wolves I can keep from turning out like Gideon and Axlar the better,” Aiden said before looking to Jenson. “Who is he to you?”
“My brother,” Jenson grunted unhappily, disliking that apparently this man could easily tell that they were related. “But only half,” he said in his defence. It was something he had often clung to when growing up; half of him might have come from the monster Malroy, but his mother had been a good person.
“Well, no offense, but your half-brother’s an idiot,” Aiden said with a sneer. He had never really had any reason to respect Gideon at all, but as time went on, he thought less and less of the supposed Alpha wolf; even Dean, who had once looked up to Gideon, didn’t seem to respect him at all anymore.
“I knew that when he attacked a young girl who I now consider to be my daughter,” Jenson said bluntly. “I want him dead.” He wasn’t sure when or how it would happen, but he would see to it that Gideon died painfully for all the suffering he had caused Romy.
“Me too,” Aiden told them, getting to his feet and looking Jenson in the eye, “but there are too many of them right now. Though, the rate they’re attacking each other there won’t be for long.”
“How many currently?” Jenson questioned; he was keen to see just how useful this cousin of Tessie’s could make himself. Tessie herself had been a useful resource to them, and to have someone who was actually in Gideon’s pack, who could keep them updated on what was going on.
“Not including Gideon and Axlar, I’d say maybe a dozen, maybe more,” Aiden told him. “I’ll do a proper head count, and try to get that information to you; though it might take a while. You’re really going to try and take them all out?”
“We will kill them all if that is what it takes,” Jenson said with certainty. They had other priorities for the moment, but he knew that eventually they would have to deal with the strays and that would likely mean killing most, if not all, of them.
“Can’t you come with us?” Tessie said, as she got to her feet. “We’ll talk to Fenrir, make him understand,” she insisted. She really didn’t like the idea of her cousin going back to the strays, and she couldn’t help but think that spying on them was just asking for trouble.
“I can’t, Tess, I’m sorry,” Aiden said, pulling her into a hug. “It gives me so much hope knowing that you’re alive and well with them, that you’re happy. Let me earn my place with you, then I can join you,” he told her, pulling back and giving her a smile that he hoped was believable. He really didn’t want to go back any more than she wanted him to, but it was the only option for now; and, in spite of himself, he felt reluctant to just abandon Dean there.
“Aiden, I want to come with you,” Niko said sadly. He had been quiet, simply listening to what they were saying, trying to get the measure of these people; Aiden seemed to trust them though, and that gave him hope, and the blond girl was apparently Aiden’s cousin. But that didn’t mean he wanted to be away from the only person who had actually been good to him since his parents had died.
“No, Niko, listen,” Aiden said, turning around to face him and crouching down to his level. “This is my cousin Tessie, she’s going to look after you, they’re going to show you what a real pack is like,” he told him.
“But I want to stay with you,” Niko said softly, before glancing up at Tessie and the big red-headed man, who looked worryingly like Gideon, and was apparently his brother.
“I’ll be with you again, trust me,” Aiden said, pulling Niko in a hug, “but we can’t leave Dean there alone and I want you safe, away from all of them. I need you to look after Tess for me too; it looks like she has her hands full with this submissive,” he added, gesturing to where Jaylon was still on the ground, unconscious.
“We really need to get him back,” Jenson said bluntly, moving over and picking Jaylon up with ease. He hadn’t done so before wanting to keep his arms free in case he needed to defend them, but it was clear that Aiden meant them no harm; and he could deal with Niko, if he had to, even with his arms full.
“And I really should get back,” Aiden said with a nod, though he looked like he was definitely having to convince himself as much as the others. “If I am gone too long it will raise questions. I am already going to have to explain about Niko, and why he isn’t with me, let alone why I am covered in your scents.”
“Tell them we took him, that you tried to fight us, but we took Niko,” Tessie suggested.
“Don’t suppose you could give me some convincing injuries?” Aiden asked looking like he was already regretting the suggestion as he turned to Jenson. The Beta didn’t even hesitate; shifting Jaylon so that the submissive was over one shoulder, he made a fist with his free hand and punched Aiden in the nose.
Aiden fell backwards, getting another few scrapes and scratches, which would only add to his story. “Ouch!” he said after a few seconds, reaching up and wincing as he touched his definitely broken nose. “Well that’s certainly convincing,” he said, “couldn’t have done that to myself.”
“Did you really have to hit him that hard?” Tessie asked with a huff and a roll of her eyes as she hurried forward to check on her cousin.
“Yes,” Jenson stated bluntly, shuffling Jaylon around in his arms, to that the submissive would be more comfortable again. He knew it was probably wrong to take his anger at Gideon and the strays out on this man, but they weren’t there at the moment, so this would have to do.
“I’m fine,” Aiden told her, stopping her before she could try and actually help him, knowing that he would need to look as seriously hurt as possible for them to buy his story. “Thanks, I think,” he said to Jenson, as Tessie helped him to his feet.
“Trust me, it was my pleasure,” Jenson told him. “Tessie, Niko, with me, now,” he instructed. He truly wanted to get Jaylon back as soon as possible and have him checked over, not to mention he knew that Fenrir, Damon and Micha were all still looking for the submissive.
“Please look after them, you have one hell of a right hook, use it to take care of them,” Aiden pleaded with the large red headed wolf.
“I will; I don’t know if your pack have figured it out yet, but we don’t let people hurt our pack members,” Jenson said firmly, as he turned and headed back off towards to clearing.
“Come on, Niko,” Tessie said softly, putting her good arm around the young boy’s shoulders and leading him away from Aiden, who had no choice but to simply watch them leave.
“What happened to your arm?” Niko asked, looking curiously to Tessie, eyeing up the arm that was strapped to her chest as they walked away from Aiden.
“One of the men in your old pack hurt me,” Tessie explained, not wanting to go into the gory details of what Axlar had done to her.
“They like to hurt people,” Niko commented. “They hurt each other all the time. Never me though,” he added in a quiet, sad voice, glancing over his shoulder, “Aiden never let them hurt me.”
“I’m glad they never hurt you, Niko,” Tessie said smiling, “No one will hurt you in our pack either. You’ll like it there, though you’ll be the youngest.”
“Is there anyone close to my age?” Niko asked hopefully.
“Romy, Jenson’s daughter, she’s fourteen,” Tessie said, her and Niko following in Jenson’s wake as the Beta strode purposefully back towards the clearing, Jaylon in his arms.
FGHP
Jenson lay Jaylon down in front of the fire, covering him in hides as Tessie sent red sparks up into the air to alert the others that they could return to the clearing. Callie was with them in a second, checking over the injured young submissive. Niko remained close to Tessie, surveying the others, watching as the skinny woman with short brown hair healed Jaylon.
“Who’s the kid?” Clay asked a bit bluntly when it seemed that no-one else was going to ask the obvious question; he had heard enough about Jaylon from Harry to be able to work out that that was who the unconscious boy was, but he had no idea about the dark haired boy.
“This is Niko,” Tessie introduced, she didn’t want to get into the details before Fenrir got back though, knowing that they would just have to repeat them again for the Alpha.
“And I’m not a kid, I’m ten,” Niko said, crossing his arms over his chest defensively, glaring at Clayton, which only made Clay laugh.
“I like him, kid’s got spirit,” Clay said, smiling broadly at Niko. Harry and Romy too were watching the young boy with interest, wondering where on earth Jenson and Tessie had managed to find him considering that they had just gone out looking for Jaylon.
“Not a kid!” Niko snarled again, though more grumpy than angry.
“You found Jaylon?” Micha demanded to know as he returned to the clearly, with Damon on his heels. “Is he okay?”
“Not only has he been found but we also have a plus one apparently,” Clay said.
“Plus one?” Damon asked curiously as he got closer to the fire and spotting the young boy who seemed to be a new addition to the pack and was sticking close to Tessie’s side.
“You found him!” Fenrir said as he returned to the clearing. He had been getting seriously frustrated with not picking up on any trace of Jaylon, but he knew that they others wouldn’t have called him back for anything less than having found him, or an emergency; and it was clearly not the latter given how calm his pack seemed.
“Actually, Alpha, Aiden did,” Tessie said, causing everyone to turn and look at her in confusion. “My cousin, Aiden,” she clarified. “He found him and was bringing him back to us when we found him.”
“He’s offered to spy for us,” Jenson told Fenrir, who looked to be considering what he was being told. “He went back to the strays,” he said as the Alpha looked around the clearing as though expecting for Aiden to be there.
“Is he Greyback?” Niko asked Tessie is a whisper, though he kept his eyes on Fenrir. “He’s even bigger than Gideon or that guy,” he added, with a gesture towards Jenson. He could see now how this man might have the strength to have taken Gideon’s hand.
“Yes, he’s our Alpha,” Tessie said quietly, keeping one arm around Niko, holding him to her side as the two of them surveyed the scene. Tessie was keen to keep Fenrir’s focus on anywhere other than on Niko for the moment; the young boy didn’t need to be accosted by the large Alpha wolf right now.
It seemed that Fenrir had other things on his mind than noticing the new addition to their numbers right away, his gaze turning to where Harry was curled in a tight ball, tear tracks down his cheeks but otherwise fast asleep. Romy was sat beside him, a book in one hand, her other stroking Harry’s hair somewhat absent-mindedly.
“Romy, help Callie,” Fenrir ordered; he was not in a great mood and was trying to quash the irrational jealousy of seeing another being so close to Harry, when he was denying himself that.
“Alpha?” Romy asked, a little confused as to why she was being ordered away from Harry and so harshly too.
“Help Callie, now,” Fenrir growled, not liking that the girl had questioned him. She had never questioned him before and it was Fenrir’s belief that she was spending far too much time with Clayton and Harry.
Begrudgingly Romy closed her book and got to her feet, ruffling Niko’s hair with a fond smile along the way, though he tried to bat her away. Fenrir, who had been watching her go then spotted the newest addition to the pack and scowled.
“Who is that?” Fenrir growled, glaring at the boy who had the common sense to look very scared and shy away behind Tessie a little more, the huge Alpha wolf was huge, especially when built up and in a temper as he was.
“His name is Niko,” Tessie said but Jenson came and stood beside her, shielding both her and the young dominant from the Alpha.
“He was with Gideon’s pack,” the Beta wolf explained, “I didn’t want to leave him there so I agreed to bring him here with us, that decision is on me.”
“If he betrays us, it will fall on your shoulders,” Fenrir snarled at his Beta, not liking that Jenson had not come to him and asked before allowing this child to join their pack. It wasn’t that Fenrir was against having him there but he was only a boy, they had very few dominants and many pups and submissives to protect. Adding another had not been what he had in mind.
“I won’t…” Niko said in a small voice as he took a rather brave step out from behind Tessie but wisely remaining close to Jenson. “I promised Aiden I’d look after Tessie as he couldn’t.”
Fenrir gave a curt nod to the boy, respecting him a little bit more for having the guts to talk to him rather than to simply hide. “Everyone, get some more sleep,” the Alpha commanded, it was light but they were all tired and would need a few more hours sleep.
“I’ll stand watch,” Jenson said to Fenrir, “you sleep, my Alpha,” he said gently, ensuring that his tone was as far away from an order as he could possibly make it, wanting it to sound more like a suggestion than anything else. Again Fenrir nodded, grateful that his Beta had offered, he was dead on his feet and in a foul mood; he was hoping that sleep would at least make him a little less on edge.
“Can I sleep too?” Niko asked looking to Tessie curiously.
“If you’re tired, of course you can,” she responded, smiling at the young boy, shocked that he thought that he had to ask permission. “There are some spare hides and blankets over there, you can sleep next to me and Jaylon if you like or find somewhere on your own, it’s entirely up to you.”
“It really doesn’t matter where I sleep? In the other pack Aiden or Dean always stayed awake to make sure the others didn’t attack us,” Niko admitted to her, heading over to where she instructed the spared hides were and taking a couple to make his own bed, wanting to be independent.
“This pack is nothing like Gideon’s,” Jenson said, hovering over the young boy, he wanted to be watchful over Niko seeing as any wrong doings would be on his shoulders and Fenrir would remind him of that if Niko ever went against them.
“Is he going to be okay?” Niko asked, pointing to Jaylon. The submissive was still out for the count; he was, however, healed, the head injury gone. Tessie had settled down beside him while the others all made their way to their own beds to get a few more hours rest.
“He’ll be fine,” Jenson assured the young boy, sitting himself down on one of the log benches close to where Niko had decided to sleep for the night. Despite wanting to be independent and sleep on his own, the ten year old was not far from Tessie and Jaylon. “Sleep now,” the Beta instructed kindly, “you’ll need your rest. When you wake up we’ll introduce you to everyone in the pack.”
Niko nodded, cuddling down inside of his hides, he hadn’t been this warm or this comfortable in a long time and it wasn’t long until he was fast asleep. Jenson cast a glance over the pack, ensuring that everyone was there and safe. There were twelve of them now, including himself. It would be thirteen when Callie gave birth to their baby.
The Beta couldn’t help but sigh when he noticed that the Alpha had taken a spot on the grass a little way from the others and more importantly across on the other side of the group to Harry. He had known that there would be punishment for Harry but it seemed a little extreme to deny him contact; Jenson didn’t see it ending well, though he knew why his Alpha was doing it.
Fenrir was a strong man, a strong Alpha too, Jenson knew that if it ever came down to it, and he hoped that it never would, that he wouldn’t be able to stay away from Callie or deny himself her touch, it would simply be too painful to bear. He couldn’t help but admire the strength that the Alpha had and hoped that Harry learned the lesson Fenrir was trying to teach.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please do take a moment to leave us your thoughts, we always look forward to reading them.
Review Responses:
Littlepanther – Yes, they are free from all the mess at the Ministry, but that doesn’t that they are done with the fallout from it ;) Glad you enjoyed doing a little bit of re-read.
MrE-Quecky – Thank you, and you’re welcome.
- 69
- 70
- 71
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