[For Sam] Urban Fantasy AU

[lonered]

Keith can't get the image out of his mind -- the tall, striking man with the strangely two-colored hair and the eyes the clear and endless gray of the sky after a storm, caught in the light of the full moon, like the entire world is about to glow with it. It's almost a memory, he thinks, and that's why he can't let it go. He's never had a memory of his lost time before.

It doesn't make any sense. Why this man? He's seen him before, of course, around town. He's rather hard to forget. But this is something more than that, something more than a strange and inconsequential dream cobbled together from pieces of his subconscious and an attractive stranger. It has to be more. Whenever he dreams, after all, he only dreams of running, of the night air and the scent of the woods and the moonlight spilling over the world.

It's the first lead that he's had, and it's in this strange town that he can't seem to make himself leave. Keith doesn't know exactly how he's going to find this man, and the only plan he has is to keep an eye out. But life and luck are kind today, and in the coffee shop, just as he turns from paying for his caffeine, he finds himself staring at the man walking through the front door.

Violet eyes snap wide, and for a long moment Keith can't do much else but stare. He's still staring when the barista is calling his name with his drink. He turns to gather up his coffee, holding the cup and going back to staring at this man, as if he's trying to decide how to best approach him that won't immediately chase him off. 'I had a dream about you and the moon.' would probably make him sound crazy.

But he has to say something. He needs to put answers to this. The fugues, the lost time with no memories, waking up in places he doesn't expect, or waking in his bed somehow more exhausted than when he went to sleep, it's been growing worse lately. He needs answers before it drives him crazy.

So for now he just stares.

Comments

[spaceforged]

Coran nods, “Yes, I can look into it for you. If she has used that name for a while then I can track where it leads. We all leave trails in the world that one can see if you know where to look.” He smiles as he spreads his the books out a little further.

“Now we can start with what an Alpha is to a pack. You will be the master of us but just as we need you for stability, strength, unity, protection...” He rests his hands on the desk. “You need a pack to balance you. Alphas are the most aggressive and dominant of us all. They need to be. They need to keep others safe and will try to protect everyone they come to care for. Even their mates.”

Shiro settles in his seat and watches Coran. He had heard this before. As far back as when Coran laid it out for him as a temporary pack leader. “An alpha has the power to pull on the entire pack if they need to.” Coran says, “That’s why they must be an alpha that can be trusted. You have already shown the caliber of your soul. You have shown you can be. All of us are drawn you and have been for a while. Whether by happening by each other or not, you have been seen and accepted by our wolves.”

Shiro says nothing but Coran briefly considering warning them of how deeply that acceptance has gone between their own wolves. He decides not to. Shiro is badly damaged and needs to slowly come into it. Their own alpha seems to need the same.

“Pack are bound together by magic. I can teach you how to do it. Shiro has all that an Alpha has except the dominance. We need that, Keith. We need you.” Shiro and Coran both look at him with their eyes turned, the blue and yellow of their wolves.

“All werewolves have magic.” Shiro says. “But it truly shows itself and what gifts it brings when a pack unite. We’re tied together.” He taps his temples and Coran nods.

“Mate bonds are the same way. Two wolves tied together soul to soul.” Shiro blinks. He had never asked. Never wanted to know but Coran speaks it with experience and his heart aches for him anew. “A beautiful thing, having a mate bond. We have a gift to know those we love better than humans can. The same can be said or family and friends.” Pack.

[lonered]

Keith can't be entirely certain why, but somehow the mention of mates and mate bonds has him fighting the urge to squirm in his seat. It's his wolf, he realizes, as if the beast inside him has opinions about exactly that. He's not sure what that means but for now he tries to brush those thoughts away, flashes of thought that are more image and sound and scent than any words or coherent thought -- and all those images seem to involve very specifically the eyes and the voice of the man beside him.

So he does his best to stow those thoughts away and focus on what Coran is saying otherwise.

He takes a breath. All of this is a lot. He's spent most of his life entirely on his own, not attached to anyone or any place. Bound to nothing. The idea of taking on something like this is terrifying. But oh it's everything he's needed and wanted for so long too. He knows it is. Something in him, something beyond just the wolf that is his other half, is singing with it. Another breath and he nods. "I want to learn. I want to be what the pack needs."

A pause and he adds, hesitating now. "About the mate thing... is... is that..." it's an awkward question. "Is that something I should worry about? I'm pretty terrible with that sort of thing."

[spaceforged]

“Only if you want to.” Coran says before Shiro can say anything at all. He has an odd feeling as his wolf side stirs sharing images and scent. They’re all focused on the man at his side. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes.

“You can take you time finding someone if you want a relationship with anyone. It’s only in rare cases the wolves choose someone first.” He carefully doesn’t look at either of them. It’s all too telling what has happened here. They need to find that out naturally.

Or they might not have any chance at all. “In those cases usually the two people are so compatible the wolf side chooses to make sure that neither person will drift past their possible mate and will get to know each other instead. They are balanced and there’s never been a case where they were incompatible. Our wolf side is as alive as we are and wants to protect us.”

Shiro doesn’t remark that not all werewolves believe that. This is how their pack operates and he prefers it that way. Coran folds his hands over each other and looks to his new alpha. “I will teach you everything I know. And I can share with you what I know about each pack member before you meet them. Or in the case of Shiro, things that should be noted.” Shiro swallows and rises from his seat. “That’s my cue to wander the shelves isn’t it?”

The older werewolf nods and Shiro pauses to touch Keith’s shoulder. “Ask whatever you want to ask. Coran is doing this to spare us both pain. It’s okay. I don’t mind you knowing anything you want to know. I trust you, Keith or I wouldn’t have brought you here.”

He walks away, closing the door behind him as Coran watches Keith with a calm measured stare. He waits until Shiro is out of earshot. “Don’t feel troubled. Our Shiro endures. He led us when we needed a leader and while he can’t be an alpha, he is a strong man. Nothing we talk about here will break him. There are just some things he can’t tell you himself without it hurting him and I know you don’t want him hurt.”

He almost says more than that and stops himself. “Whenever you’re ready.”

[lonered]

Keith's eyebrows rise in surprise as Shiro gets up to go. Oh. He hadn't expected that, but as he resettles in his chair and looks up at Shiro at the touch to his shoulder, it makes sense. Keith nods at him, offering a flicker of a smile up at him at hearing that the other werewolf trusts him. That trust is mutual, or Keith wouldn't have followed Shiro.

Once the door shuts, his gaze swings back to Coran. He nods slowly at what the older wolf has to say. It makes sense, but the expression on Keith's face darkens as he considers. "I don't want to hurt him. I'd never want to hurt him. But someone did. He... told me they were dead. The ones who'd hurt him." And Keith and the wolf within are still simmering in a slow rage that anyone would dare hurt someone as kind and genuine and good as Shiro.

"What happened to him? And why have you and Hunk both said he looks better after this moon? What does that mean?"

Keith sits forward in his chair, ready to listen, intent.

[spaceforged]

Coran clears the books from the front of his desk. He takes a ring of keys and pulls a drawer out and unlocks the box inside. He takes out a single photo and lays it on the desk.

In the photo is a man with long dark hair spilled out over a battered couch. He had been covered with blankets but the line of the jaw and the scar on his face says Shiro. “Matt sent me this right after they got Shiro back.” A collar is locked around Shiro’s throat with a number as if he were just a lab animal.

Coran waits until the photo has been absorbed before he continues. “Shiro used to be a soldier and a space pilot. He was also terminally ill.” Another pause as he sets down a photo of a much younger Shiro with bright eyes, thinner, and clearly happy beside an older man and the younger brown haired guy from the group photo of the pack.

“They were set to fly a mission that would take years to complete. Instead the shuttle was taken out mid-flight and Pidge and Matt’s father Sam, Matt, and Shiro were taken from the wreckage. Sam was already a werewolf.” He produces more photos. Shiro in the midst of a rage his eyes blue as the sky above and half into the change more beast than man his right arm sparking with purple light.

Shiro before the pack eyes still burning and in command. Then a more relaxed Shiro gently helping a dog up into the exam table at the vet. “Shiro found his way back to the Holt house. Matt told me that Shiro is why he escaped so early. They put them in underground fighting pits and Shiro took his place. He survived the longest in that pit before he was too hurt to continue and they...set a crazed wolf on him. It is the only way Shiro could be turned. Peace bringers are rare for a reason.”

He waits for Keith to absorb it all. He reaches out to gently lay a hand over his. “I hunted them.” He says and there is nothing kind in his voice. There is a hunger and a rage there that hadn’t been in his voice before now. “But when I found where they had kept him...” his eyes lighten to the werewolf yellow. “He killed them, Keith. He killed them all. From the Druids who had tested their magic on him down to the janitor. No one was left alive.”

It doesn’t give a full answer. He takes a second to tone down his own anger and sighs. “They robbed him of every joy of being a werewolf. He was their killer of underground pit fighters. He wasn’t the one to turn others. And when he wasn’t fighting in the pit. They tested their magic on him. Their chemicals. They did a lot of tests on him during the full moon. Tried to find ways to control his mind.”

The rage tries to surface but he holds it back. He is well aware if he guessed right, Keith would be furious enough for both of them. “Shiro only uses his wolf as a last resort and during full moons runs alone...chased by the past as far as any of us can tell. The next day he’s at his most touchy and vicious. Closer to an alpha in a rage. We take care of him during those times. He never lets anyone but Hunk into his apartment for a few days. But you didn’t experience any of that did you?”

[lonered]

The anger in Keith rises slowly, like water heating, the slow rise of steam before a full scalding boil. He's only just met Shiro. He knows that, but he's certain of the kind of man he is. The wolf inside him is clear on it. Shiro is strong and kind and gentle and good, and how dare anyone hurt him, force him into that situation.

He hears the rage in Coran's voice and it echoes with his, resonnates, and he meets the other werewolf's gaze with his own. And oh Coran is right, there's very little short of the blood of those responsible that would calm any of the anger in him at the moment -- though that thought alone is enough to catch him off-guard, strong and certain as it is. Coran's hand on his should help, does help, but it also doesn't quite stop his grip from tightening downright vicelike against the arm of his chair until the wood creaks and then snaps.

Well, that draws Keith back to the present, and he sits up, startled. "...sorry. I didn't mean to..."

But he refocuses and shakes his head at the last question. "He's been patient and kind. Probably more than I deserve." He glances back over his shoulder in the direction of the closed door Shiro left through. He sounds almost distracted as he adds, "He showed me his wolf form, too." A pause and, even more like he's only half aware of what he's saying, "He's beautiful." The man. The wolf. All of him. Every broken and mended piece of him. The wolf in Keith agrees entirely and settles quite smugly as if pleased that the human half of him appears to be getting with the program.

[spaceforged]

Coran’s eyebrows shoot up and his eyes grow bright with unshed tears. Shiro had showed Keith his wolf form instead of taking any other option but that. He waves off the broken chair arm. “That arm chair gets broken a lot. Don’t worry about that, my boy.”

He takes a moment to drink a sip of tea from a mug on his desk. “Usually after a full moon Shiro keeps to himself. He only takes wolf shape when he has to. Until...you came to this city. He still kept to himself on full moons and hide away from us. But he seemed less... haunted.”

He clears the evidence of the past from his desk and puts it back in the lockbox. “I would hardly say that kindness and patience is ‘more than’ you deserve. You have been just as patient with him and the rest of us. ...and it isn’t like you understood what you are. How could you have? Have a little patience with yourself. You are a new wolf even if you’ve always been one. Your eyes are open now.”

He folds his hands over one another once more, “You have a long time to learn all you need to or want to. It was just important you learn Shiro’s story now as it colors everything he says and does.”

He pauses, wondering again if he should say it and deciding to only say. “And he will be your teacher. He wanted you to know. Likely there are parts of his tale he will tell himself.” He waits a moment then he tells him about Hunk. He’d been changed voluntarily as part of family tradition. Only he wasn’t a dominant wolf. Lance is part of a family of werewolves each changed and surviving it.

It used to make him cocky until Allura kicked his ass. Pidge let herself be changed to chase after her missing father. Allura...he looks at Keith and says lightly, “my lady’s story is one you must here from here directly.” But he does tell him about her general demeanor and attitude.

By the time he’s done Shiro rejoins them, placing coffee on the table and a box of still warm donuts. He had obviously did some ordering while he was wandering. “I see you’re getting the Allura story.” He says with a faint smile.

But it reaches his eyes and he notices the chair arm but doesn’t say anything just lightly nudges Keith. “Don’t worry about a chair arm. I used to break car doors without even trying.”

[lonered]

"I'm glad you told me. It's something I think I needed to know." He did. And Coran, well, he's just as kind and understanding as Shiro and Hunk have been. That's right though. He's always been a wolf, but his eyes have only just been opened.

And the whole world has changed.

Keith listens intently, to every detail that Coran shares, putting together a picture of this little pack and how they all fit in together. He may have only met three of them in person so far, but all of this feels like it's meant to be.

The scent of fresh donuts catches his attention first, and Keith perks up and peeks back in time to see Shiro arrive. Oooh. He may be reaching for one of those straight away. There's an answering smile on his face. "I've gotten a lot of stories. It's been good... I'm starting to feel like I know people. It'll be good to really meet everyone."

He blushes though at when Shiro mentions the chair. "Yeah, my strength got away from me there for a moment." But he'd had significant reason.

[spaceforged]

He catches himself thinking Keith blushing is really attractive. He needs to get a grip on himself. His wolf seems to think he’s been ridiculous admonishing himself. Shiro claps Keith on the shoulder with a quiet laugh.

“That happens. You’re aware of it now and that means all that instinctive control is a little frayed. You’ll adapt fast.” He flashes him a smile and claims a warm cake donut with little sprinkles on it. He takes a bite and makes a pleased sound. “Coran why does that little donut shop near this bookstore have to be so perfect.” He makes another pleased sound.

Coran laughs. “It’s all family businesses on this street you know that.” He glances at Keith and grins. “Yes it will be good for everyone to know you. You’ll fit in with our misfit crew just fine.”

[lonered]

The hand on his shoulder has both Keith and his inner wolf thrilling before Keith catches this fact and wonders at himself. But then he's forgetting those questions in favor of just smiling because Shiro laughed and it's such a nice sound.

Almost as nice as the sound he makes around the bite of donut and holy shit now he really does need to pull it together. He really hopes the flush rising in his cheeks just seems like a continuation of his sheepishness over the broken chair and not the thought-he-should-not-be-having about pouncing Shiro and kissing him and seeing if he tastes as sweet as the treat in his hand and.

Yeah, shutting that down now, and stuffing most of his own donut into his mouth at once before he says or does something stupid.

So instead he just nods in agreement. Yup! Fitting in with their crew! New misfit in town. Head misfit apparently. But that's so appropriate and comforting that he can't help but smile as he finally swallows the donut he shoved into his mouth. "I hope so."

[spaceforged]

“Oh you fit in already.” Coran says with a knowing looking on his face. Keith can fool Shiro but not this old wolf. Just as Shiro grins and is about to say more the door clicks behind them.

A tall dark skinned woman with white hair that falls past her waist walks inside. She carries with her the air of someone who knows this space is hers. She takes a glazed donut from the box and sits on the edge of Coran’s desk.

Shiro falls quiet as she takes a bite of donut and openly studies Keith. Coran sighs fondly as the woman offers her hand to Keith. “Hello, I’m Allura. Coran has been telling me Shiro ran across the stray Alpha that came to our city. I thought it would be you.” She meets his eyes for longer than Coran did then drops them.

“I sometimes volunteer at the vet clinic Shiro works at. Most of the time I work in the library on campus between classes.” She pauses and says, “I wanted to meet you before I head off to class again.”

Shiro smiles a bit and says, “You felt the pull?” Allura brightens and nods. “Yes, it was quite lovely to feel the call of Pack from an Alpha again. I haven’t felt that since...my father.” She looks to Keith with that bright smile on her face. “When an Alpha and a pack accept once another faint pack bonds begin to form. We feel the pull to meet the Alpha our wolves and we accepted even if we haven’t met them face to face.”

[lonered]

He's never fit in anywhere. It's such a wonderful thing to hear. But Keith sits up straighter when the door opens, watching the woman who walks in. She's undeniably beautiful and there's a presence about her that seems almost other worldly, and he reaches out to shake her hand.

"It's good to meet you. And yeah... stray Alpha. I guess that sums me up. I'm Keith." And bit by bit he's encountering this pack. Considering he's run into Lance before, he really only has a couple more to make the acquaintance of. And a point to make with Lance, but that bridge when they come to it.

He looks between Allura and Shiro at the talk about pull, understanding dawning in violet eyes. "I think I can feel your answers. Everyone's I mean..." like distant howls echoing a silent call, a gravity that is drawing all their orbits closer together.

[spaceforged]

Shiro and Allura share a look. His eyes glint with pride as her smile brightens further and Coran smiles with an air of serenity. “Incredible, yes! Most Alphas don’t hear it so soon especially one new to the strangeness of Pack magic. You must have a sensitivity to it. I can teach you more about it.”

She slips off the desk as her phone chimes softly in her pocket. “I have to go. But, phone number please?” She takes out a slim blue phone wrapped in a heavy duty clear case.

Shiro finishes off his donut and checks his own phone. He taps out a message as Allura adds, “My gift is an understanding of how our pack magic works. All magic really,” She doesn’t glance at Shiro but it’s a near thing. “Oh, right I should give you the location of my flat as well.” She writes it out on a piece of paper Coran hands her, folds it up and offers it to him. “I had a feeling when Lance was describing you that he was going to get more than he bargained for.”

[lonered]

When he woke up this morning, Keith hadn't even known werewolves were something that existed, never mind that he was one. He'd been entirely blind to half of who he was. It should be overwhelming, and in some ways it is, but it also feels so right that it nearly takes his breath away. He looks up, a faint smile. "I'd like that." To be taught more about this pull, the magic of the Pack. Everything.

He pulls out his own phone to trade numbers with Allura, taking the paper she offers.

The mention of Lance has a flicker of a grin tugging at his lips. "Yeah. I still need to meet him properly." They'd sort themselves out, undoubtedly. Maybe it's strange that he's eager for that as well.

He glances back to Shiro as Allura leaves, waiting for the door to close before asking, "Earlier. When we first met... did you know..?" About any of this. That this pull between him and their pack was starting. Now that he's met Shiro, met some of the others Keith doesn't know how he missed it himself, except that everything about his wolf side was locked away.

[spaceforged]

Shiro lets the silence fall as Coran assures them he'll be right back and follows Allura out. He has the impression they are having a conversation outside but he can't hear it. He focuses his attention on Keith. "No." He admits. "I just felt a pull between us." It had been so strong all he could do was follow.

Shiro's voice is soft, keeping it personal so only the two of them will hear him. It feels important. "I felt something pulling me for a while now. I'd get a hint of it when I ran as a wolf. When I met you under the moon I realized it was you." It hadn't been the call of pack. He knows that howl. It had been something deeper, wilder, and when Keith shifted and ran, he shifted too with no thought to the deaths of his hand.

No thought of being a terrible creature. "I only realized the rest felt pulled to you too when Hunk talked to you. I'd thought to ask you to consider us as yours before that."

[lonered]

A pull? Keith turns to face Shiro more fully, nodding. Yeah. He gets that. There's no denying he felt the same towards the other man, and it's not quite the same as the tug towards the various members of the Pack that he's already met. "Whatever it was... I'm just glad I met you."

So glad. He's grateful for the truth of what he is, of course, and for finding a place that he really feels like he can belong -- and a place where he feels like his being there might actually be good for others too. He may not have met each member of this Pack yet, but his wolf has already decided they're his. Heaven help anyone who tries to bring any harm to them. His eyes meet Shiro's. And to Shiro in particular, there's that almost startling surge of protectiveness. It's not a bad feeling.

"...and met everyone, I mean. This is. It's good."

[spaceforged]

“I’m glad I met you too. That you are meeting all of us.” The desire to protect Keith is there but at a level he doesn’t know how to process.

That blush earlier made him wonder what it would be like if they kissed. He shuts the door on that thread of consideration and claims another donut. He doesn’t like magic. But this feels like magic in the way he used to believe in it.

Moments gently touched by something more. Shiro takes a bite of his glazed donut and says, “Tonight will be good. Is there anything you think you’ll need other than a change of clothes and your friend? We might as well get it now.”

[lonered]

The words make Keith smile. He's smiled more in one day than he has for as long as he can remember, and he doesn't know what to do with himself. Shiro makes him feel... too much probably. But he likes it, and he doesn't want it to stop.

He snags himself another donut as well, more as distraction than anything else. Chocolate frosted this time.

"Tonight will be great," he agrees before shaking his head. "Honestly, that's... sort of all I have anyway." His clothes. His wold friend and the small battered car that gets him from place to place as he wanders. Except, he's done wandering, isn't he? He's home now. The realization hits him and it shows on his face, a widening in violet eyes, visibly startled by the thought.

[spaceforged]

As if he reads Keith's mind, Shiro puts a hand on his shoulder and smiles. "I told you, you're not alone. I'll never give up on you. And don't you never give up on yourself." All Keith has. It does remind him of when he first escaped.

He had been a mess of a man inside. Far too controlled on the outside. He'd felt he had to be. Or he'd let the monster out. "I know a few things we could get for tonight. How about we go get them. Coran and Allura will look into where your mother is." He slips out of the chair and glances at the donut box. He selects two Coran would like and takes them and a bit of wax paper, laying them on the desk.

He sweeps up the rest of the box and their coffee. "We'll take the donuts with us." He winks and walks to the door, opening it.

[lonered]

The touch on his shoulder, so simple and normal a touch as it is, it has the wolf in him waking, clearly pleased by it, even while Keith is trying to figure out how to slow his heart from racing at those words. No one has ever said anything like that to him. No one has ever been willing to believe in him that way.

Shiro is-- It hits him in actual conscious thought now, plain and black and white: he's falling for him. Fast. Hard. Like a meteor that's broken atmosphere and is burning its way through the sky to the ground below. Oh. He's in trouble, isn't he?

He shakes the thoughts off and smiles up at Shiro. "I won't." He can't give up on himself now. He can't let Shiro down, or any of the members of his new pack.

The next minute he's up on his feet, grinning. "Works for me." He heads out along with Shiro, trying not to let his thoughts keep up racing through everything. Instead he focuses on what they're doing, on getting ready for tonight.

[spaceforged]

He wants to wrap Keith up and keep him safe. He realizes it the moment he sees that brightening of his demeanor and how often he seems lost to even be included.

It scares him with a sudden cold realization that he's falling for him. As fast as he fell from the sky when he was still human he is finding Keith as stable ground. He keeps it inside wrapped up tight and smiles for him. He's so screwed.

He leads the way back to the car as he puts himself back under control. The rest of the drive he's the same as ever but in the back of his head he feels like the ice is cracking under his feet. He hasn't felt safe in so long. Safe and just him.

The day passes easily, too easily in his opinion. By now he's keenly aware of how united he and his wolf are today. He doesn't know what to do about that. But he can't deny how soothing it is to be on the same page.

When the night comes sweeping in like ink dropped into water, he gently pushes open the window at the back of his apartment. He strips to his waist. He unzips his pants and makes sure not to look at Keith doing the same. He keeps gravitating to him. Pulled by something he can't figure out and wants to. He wants to know if this spark is his alone or Keith feels it too.

But he's been hurt before and that keeps him from asking. As a wolf he pauses to be sure Keith is alright then he slips up onto the window sill and walks along the edge, catlike in his grace. The moon's silver light strips the colors from the world and the scents of the night soothe him.

It could always be like this is he let it be. As he drops to the alley below the window swings shut on the weights designed to shut it. Then he waits, eyes up on the window now he lets himself look at Keith and drink him in. He's gorgeous as a wolf or a man.

[lonered]

The longer Keith spends with Shiro, the more at ease he feels. And his wolf seems to fully agree. Everything feels like it makes sense for the first time in his life. It's almost too much to handle.

When night falls and they're ready to head out, well, if Shiro had looked back, he'd have found Keith doing a little too much looking before he realized what he was doing. After that he's just blushing and quite grateful once he's out of his own clothes and able to shift into his wolf form. Wolves can't blush at least.

In his wolf form he follows a few moments after Shiro, making his way out the window, taking just a moment to turn his face up at the moonlight that shines down like a beacon, soothing and invigorating at the same time. He makes his way down to beside Shiro, nearly prancing, looking much more like an excited puppy than any dignified alpha werewolf. And maybe that excitement is why he makes his way to Shiro and nuzzles right against the other wolf.

[spaceforged]

He presses into Keith his head resting against his back. He sighs. The moon shines down but it doesn't stir up memories. Shiro rubs the side of his furry face against Keith's and steps back. He swivels his ears forward and wags his tail.

Without another word he turns and takes off. He races through the alley like an arrow let loose from a bow. The arid scent of the city mixes with telltale scents of other beings. Human. Not human. Old scents of his pack are buried among them all. This is home territory and he knows it well.

Better than he thought he did.

He ignores it, waiting at the end of the alley for Keith. His tail wags again. Shiro leaps in the air and lands right back where he was.

[lonered]

Keith look skyward. The moon is waiting and he swallows back a howl. Later. When they're out of the city. For now, he runs after Shiro. This place is new to him, but he knows it's his. This is his territory, the home of his pack and he and his wolf both feel like they're home. Like they're complete.

It's the first time he's run and kept his mind, that it's not only his wolf in control. It's almost overwhelming, but in the best sort of way.

His tail wags again as he comes up beside Shiro, looking at the other wolf. Keith may be the alpha, but Shiro knows this land better, and Keith has no qualms about following him. It feels natural.

[spaceforged]

He takes off again, sticking to the alley ways and side streets. He pauses at a shadowy street. After a pause he plunges down the street to the edge of the wood.

The scent of fresh living things takes over banishing the scent of gasoline and artificial buildings. He takes a path between the trees as if he had been doing it his whole life and not a few years. Shiro leaps over a fallen tree trunk and into the river. Water soaks his feet and part way up his legs.

He opens his mouth and howls to the stars over their heads. Shiro takes a turn and takes them along the edge of a path only he has never taken. It brings them out into a small clearing with a pool of water at the center. A cave dominates the north side. He slows and trots towards it. Inside the cave his usual supplies wait for them.

Without a word he stops and changes shape, kneeling down to open the duffel bag. “We can go on foot further up to the boundary and camp where ever you feel is right. Let your wolf side guide you.”