A/N: This is a long chapter. I never intended to get sidetracked from my main character Jaxon and get caught up in Pete's story this much. I think I should probably saved this for Extras after I was done with the rest of the story, but what's done is done. So here we are. Please enjoy and let me know what you think.
Avery
Two huge wolves with red eyes are stalking towards us out of the trees. Pete pushed me behind him, but I don't think that is going to stop them from killing us both. If they kill Pete, I know I'll be easy prey.
I hear a deep growl in front of me but I think it's coming from Pete and not the two wolves moving towards us. Maybe he's trying to scare them off by growling at them?
Moments later they attack. Pete grabs the front leg of the leading wolf and swings it into the ground stunning it. He then stomped on the animal's neck, crushing it. Before he can turn back the other animal leaps at him, but he manages to step aside at the last minute. He isn't able to completely avoid the wolf's claws which rake down his arm, leaving deep gashes.
As the wolf turns back, Pete launches himself at it, tackling it to the ground, wrapping his large hands around it's muzzle and twisting until a loud crack resounds through the air. The wolves are both dead and we're still alive.
Shaking from adrenalin, my legs give out and I realize I'm sitting on the ground. I'm not sure what to think about what I just saw, one unarmed man killed two wolves with his bare hands. I think the stooges got off lucky; yeah, they have no idea how lucky they are.
Pete jump up and races over to me and lifts me back to my feet, pulling me into a tight hug. "Are you okay?" He asks, his voice full of concern.
I just nod my head yes, unable to find my own voice.
Pete
Avery is shaking in my arms, there's no telling how he's going to react to all this. But we're not done yet, I need to report this to the pack. They need to know that rogues were in their territory.
"Avery", I tilt his head up so that he's looking at my eyes. "Don't be afraid, everything's okay".
"There's another wolf in the trees over there. I don't think we're in any danger from it, but I need to make sure. I'm going to hold you so, you're going to be safe, okay?"
As soon as he nods, I turn back to the trees.
"Come out here, little omega, I won't hurt you." I call.
Avery looks at me curiously, but his expression changes to one of fear as a small, malnourished wolf cautiously steps out of the trees, lowering it's head and laying belly to the ground.
"It's okay." I reassure Avery. He isn't going to hurt us, he's more afraid of us.
I reach into my pocket for my phone and dial the Beta's number.
"Teagan", I say when he answers. "This is Pete Danver. I'm on the trail at the North end of town where the forest juts out a bit, where people like to go jogging. You know where that is? I'm here with my boyfriend and we've just been attacked by two rogues. I killed them, but there's a third rogue with them. It's an omega and he looks starved and is in pretty bad shape."
Before long, Teagan, Andrew's Beta arrives with several other warriors in a couple of trucks. They load the dead rogues into the back of one of the trucks and then approach the submissive wolf at the edge of the woods. A low whine is audible but he allows the men to approach. They coax him into the back seat of the truck and two of them get in and take off, leaving the others to return in the second truck.
Avery's eyes are as big as saucers after watching the little wolf jump into the back seat of the truck followed by two men.
"We need to get him to Jarvis." Teagan says. "Looks like you need to see him too for those claw marks."
I glance down at the deep cuts, grimacing a bit at them. 'This is going to scar', I think to myself. The one thing that remains after Levi left is that my body still heals faster than a normal human would, but not quite as fast as it would if he were still with me. We're not sure why this is, because it is normal for a werewolf to heal slower when his wolf is weak. Mine isn't just weak, I don't have one any more.
---
Passing through the clinic, I noticed Avery glance at the small, malnourished youth lying on an examination table as we pass an examination room with a guard at the door. The doctor leads us to an examination room just a little further down the hall indicating we should enter. He follows us in and closes the door.
"Hello Pete." Jarvis nods at me; I've grown to friends with a number of this pack's members while I was living in the pack house. Jarvis is one of the pack's doctors and we became good friends and drinking buddies.
"Got into a bit of a scuffle there, did ya?" He chuckles, looking over the deep scrapes on my arms.
Avery looks at the doctor, shocked at his nonchalance over the deep scrapes.
"Hey, Jarv." I say. "Yeah, bumped into a couple of rogue wolves on my jog."
"I heard. Tim's taking care of the omega. He's in pretty bad shape. Looks like they were using him as their pet slave." I wince hearing that. It makes me think about Jaxon and everything I'd done to him. Things I will regret for the rest of my life, and not just because it cost my my wolf. It almost cost me my humanity as well; in fact, for a while I did lose my humanity.
He patches me up and we continue some small talk. I introduce Avery and he checks him over too; he seems to be suffering a bit of shock.
While we're being patched up and checked out, Alpha Andrew arrives and I explain what happened once again. Talking about everything in front of a human makes it hard to make a report because we have to dance around the werewolf thing. Though, it's clear to both of us that Avery is connecting some dots. He grew up in this town, and there have always been rumors about werewolves and agreements with the town's leaders and such. Most people just think of them as urban legends, but when you've just been attacked by wolves and everyone involved is so nonchalant about it, he's obviously got questions.
"Pete," the Alpha says, "let's all head up to your room. There's something we should all talk about."
His words take Avery by surprise again. I'm sure he's wondering why I have a room here? He's been to my apartment once briefly, before we went on our first date, so why would I have a room here. He looks up at me, raising an eyebrow. I just smile and shrug my shoulders.
---
So. The Alpha is gone and Avery is sitting on the edge of my bed looking a bit freaked out, but he's holding it together pretty well considering everything. He just found out that werewolves are real and that I used to be one. That we were attacked by two of them this evening and that the young man he saw in the clinic was the little wolf.
"He said you were a werewolf before, so why aren't you now?" I'm surprised that is his first question. I expected a lot of questions about werewolves instead.
"Wow, you go right to the hard question, don't you?" I state. My hands start to sweat and I'm getting nervous.
"It's a long story. I thought you would have more questions about werewolves first. How about you ask your other questions and I'll answer that one last. You okay with that?" I give him my best puppy dog eyes, and it seems to work because his lips quirk up at the corners and I see a bit of sparkle in his eyes.
He has a lot of questions, actually, and I answer them for quite a while. We talk about all sorts of things and he surprises me by how observant he is. He has questions about daily pack life, how many werewolves are in a pack, are there werewolves living in town with humans and how many of the myths about werewolves are true.
I answer the questions and debunk a bunch of myths while verifying others. I explain that packs vary in size, are lead by an Alpha and Luna, followed by a second and third, and several other ranks with omega being the lowest. We talk about mates and when we first shift. He wonders how I was able to kill the rogues with my bare hands, especially since I'm a human now, and I explain about all the training we do, and how I was trained to fight in both my human and wolf form. We discuss pack wolves, rogues and lone wolves.
After I answer all his other questions, he raises his eyebrow , looking right into my eyes again, I think it's really cute how he raises his eyebrows like that, but the moment of truth has arrived.
I take a deep breath and look down at the floor for a minute before looking back up into his eyes.
"I don't really want to talk about my past because I've done some things that I am really ashamed of. If I could turn back and do it all again I would do everything so different, and I'm afraid that when you hear about the things I've done you'll hate me and won't want to see me again. But if we're going to keep dating, and I hope with all my heart that we are, then you deserve to know everything."
"So, I guess I should start with an explanation for why I'm not a werewolf any more." I pause again to collect myself. He can tell I'm nervous.
"This is hard for me Avery, so I hope you'll hear me out. Can you hold all your questions until I'm done? If not, I'm not sure I will be able to finish."
He nods his head, so I begin.
"I was the Alpha of my pack; the White River pack. My father passed the title to me when I turned 18 and I loved being the pack's Alpha. It was my dream ever since I was a pup, to follow my dad and be as good a leader as he was. The only thing missing was my mate."
"I told you about how important mates are to us werewolves. Well, I was just like everyone else, but unlike all my friends, I didn't meet my mate right away. For four years I waited until one day, I held a pack meeting and all at once I could smell my mate in the crowd and I was so excited. I rushed through the meeting and ran into the crowd looking for her."
I stopped for a minute to see how he took that little piece of information. That I wanted my mate to be a female. He didn't say anything so I returned to the story.
"When I found them, it turned out that my mate was a guy. A really small guy. An omega, in fact, and yes, he was gay. His name was Jaxon and he was a member of the pack and it was his 18th birthday; we usually meet our mates on our 18th birthdays, and it was something he was really looking forward to."
I paused again, looking at the floor. "I didn't want a male mate." I sigh, looking at Avery again.
"I always thought I was straight since I like being with women, but in the last couple of years I've discovered that I do like men too, so I guess I'm bisexual. But back then, I didn't think so though, so when I realized Jaxon was my mate, I rejected him immediately."
Since Avery just learned about mates and what can happen with a rejection, I see tears fill his eyes and start running down his cheek.
"That isn't the worst thing I did to him." I say quietly, and now I have tears running down my cheeks too. Goddess, this is so hard to tell.
"I ordered my men to lock him up in the cellar, and then I ordered them to rape him... All of them."
Avery's eyes grow as wide as saucers and I can see the shock and horror in them. He is going to think I'm a monster. I know I already do.
"But that's still not the worst thing I did." I choke up and have to stop again for a minute.
"The next morning, I had him chained to a bed in the barracks and gave him to the unmated warriors in my pack as a sexual plaything. For the next four years, I kept him chained up and let them use him like that. I even held parties and invited other packs and even some of my human friends and I let them all have sex with him too. I became obsessed with him but I never touched him myself because Levi, my wolf, wouldn't let me."
All I want to do is get this story over with, I'm terrified that Avery hates me already. His tears are running down his face like a waterfall is pouring out of his eyes, so I just rush through the rest of the story as fast as I can.
"His little sister was a member of our pack and she was the only one there for him through the whole thing because I exiled his parents from the pack. One day she managed to free him, somehow, and they escaped. They ended up in a pack in the East and he found a new mate there. I didn't know about his new mate though, it's rare for a werewolf to find a second chance mate, but it happens sometimes."
"I was so obsessed with getting him back that I went to the werewolf council to demand that Jaxon be returned to my pack. Alpha Andrew, the Alpha you just met is the head of the council, and after Jaxon told the council his side of the story, Andrew refused to send him back with me. I went crazy and swore I would get him, but then Levi took control over our body."
My tears are now pouring down my face as much as Avery's tears, and I'm having trouble speaking because my voice is cracking so much.
"Levi apologized to Jaxon for everything I had done. He declared that he loved him still and then he wished him a good life with his second chance mate. Then he begged Alpha Andrew to kill us, but he wouldn't do that, so Levi prayed to the Moon Goddess and asked her to take him away, and he vanished. When he vanished I became human and I just sort of... fell apart. Alpha Andrew brought me here to recover. I've been here ever since, and that is why I am no longer a werewolf."
Looking at Avery again, his expression is still one of horror and tremendous sadness.
"Avery," I begged him. "Please don't hate me."