You Won't Ever Be Lonely

"Wolf?"

"..."

"Wolf!?"

"What?"

"What on Earth are you doing?"

"Setting a trap."

Vincent rolled his eyes, arms folded at his chest. "You look like a dork."

"Funny, you say that a lot about me."

Wolf was crouched on the seat of a picnic table with his brown eyes focused intently on the domino held in his hand. He was barely breathing as he carefully set the piece up in line with the row already assembled behind it. There were several empty domino boxes littered around him and a stack of unopened boxes on the bench beside him. Vincent had a funny suspicion that his fellow werewolf was still lurking in the town somewhere. He didn't look like he was living in the park but with Wolf anything was possible.

What he hadn't expected was to find him setting up rows of dominoes in a complex pattern while he was out walking with Marshall.

He'd warned Marshall about there being a new werewolf in town, and even though this one was practically harmless he should still be wary. Vincent wasn't one hundred percent certain over why Wolf had even come to Quetoune and whether or not he had come alone as he claimed.

"That's because you're a dork most of the time."

"You should really respect your elders, Vince," Wolf replied, glancing away from his task to where Vincent stood with Marshall at his side. The moment he set eyes on the boy beside Vincent he abandoned his domino stacking and hopped over to the two younger men, quickly grasping Marshall's hand within his own fingerless gloved hands. He shook Marshall's hand vigorously, grinning like a madman all the while. "So great to finally meet you!" he announced gleefully. "Vince has told me almost nothing about you!"

"Funny, he's told me a lot about you," Marshall replied shaking the feeling back into his hand once Wolf had released him. "And by told I mean 'warned' me about you."

Wolf continued to grin. "That's my little brother, wouldn't trust another werewolf as far as he could throw them." He leaned in and sniffed at Marshall's hair. "Oh, wow, you smell good."

At that Marshall frowned, taking a step back and away from Wolf. "Don't," he warned.

Wolf held up his hands in defence. "Hey, sorry. Look, I didn't mean to offend you. You just have a different scent from most humans. Didn't mean to upset you." He gave a weak chuckle, reaching up to rub the back of his neck sheepishly. "Like I said, Vince hasn't told me much about you. Just going off what I know." He looked between the two of them, finding his smile once again. "So what brought about this wonderful meeting?"

"Don't think you're special," Vincent said, waving his hand in the air flippantly at the other werewolf. "I didn't bring Marshall here to meet you; you just happened to be here when we were passing."

"Awh, Brother, I'm hurt."

"Stop that."

Marshall looked between them. "I think its nice," he put in. "You don't have a lot of family, Vin, and you said you two were turned by the same werewolf. In a way it does make you brothers."

"Ains wouldn't approve of him," Vincent replied, looking Wolf up and down, taking in his dishevelled appearance and odd top hat on his mop of brown hair. His clothes were odd too, but somehow Wolf managed to pull the look off. "He's too annoying for her."

"Who's 'Ains'?"

"A friend."

"Ainsely Stewart is helping Vincent calm his werewolf side," Marshall said, explaining what Vincent seemed reluctant to admit. He didn't see why Vincent should keep something like that secret. "I'm sure she'd like to meet you, Wolf."

"You've sure made a lot of new friends, Vince," Wolf said. "And you found your Dad. I always knew it was good that you got away from Kieran." He moved over to where Vincent stood, obviously brooding at him and affectionately ruffled his hair. "And its nice to meet you too, Marshall. You're doing wonders for my little brother."

"You're not my brother."

Wolf chuckled, ignoring him and pulling Vincent to his side in a one-armed hug. "I don't care if you never think of me as your brother, to me you'll always be my little brother - and as your big brother I approve of your boyfriend."

"I don't need your approval," Vincent muttered, looking over at Marshall who was hiding his laughter behind his hand. "Stop finding this funny, Marshy, Wolf is not what someone would want as a brother!"

Wolf feined being hurt, letting out a loud gasp and placing his free hand over his heart. "Vincent Jane Lyall, I'm hurt. I'm genuinely hurt that you would say something like that about me. I have you know I'd make a fantasic brother." He spun Vincent around to face him, bringing their faces close together to the point where their noses touched while resting his hands on Vincent's shoulders. "Denial is just another form of compassion."

Vincent tried to look away with a scowl on his face. "Shut up."

At that Wolf laughed and pulled Vincent against his chest and giving him a bone crushing hug. "Oh I've missed you so much, Vincey and this new you is amazing."

"I'm still the same."

"No you're not."

"What was Vincent like before coming here, Wolf?" Marshall asked, his curiosity piqued. "But don't tell me anything Vincent wouldn't want me to hear."

Grinning, Wolf swayed over to where Marshall was stood and slung his arm around the younger male's shoulder. "You're too cute, Marshall," he said before dropping both their bodies down on the bench seat of the picnic taable, sending his carefully placed dominoes crashing. "Vincent was an angry youth," he began, looking over at the werewolf that was currently centre of attention. Vincent scowled at him once more and folded his arms at his chest with a sound of obvious displeasure. "An angry human makes an angry werewolf and Kieran knew this." He glanced at Marshall. "Have you been told about the fights?"

"Only a little."

Brown eyes flicked to Vincent. "Can I share?"

With a growl and a shrug, Vincent gave his permission.

"You know all about those illegal dog fights that humans have? Its that, only the dogs are werewolves. A few years ago they started using Lunacyrum which essentially makes a werewolf more powerful but any human qualities it may cling to are lost. They become highly agressive and, well, its pretty dangerous stuff is Lunacyrum; for werewolves and vampires. It seems like a good thing at first for a business like the fights, but the increased strength and the fact they're running off anger, rage and pure animalistic instincts its harder to control the werewolves. They can kill each other and even when the fights over they can kill the spectators too."

Marshall looked over at where Vincent was stood. His head was tilted back and eyes were looking up at the sky. "Apparently I badly injured three people one night when Kieran had me taking it," he said to the sky.

"The 'owners' as they call themselves are wary about using the stuff and it always has to be registered if a wolf's been taking it. But Vincent, well, he was powerful enough even without it. He's taken several bigger than himself that were hyped up on the junk and the only thing fueling him was his own hate and rage and resentment. Kieran had himself a champion and this werewolf belonged to him entirely because he thought he was supposed to be hated and feared and that no one other than another monster would ever feel anything for him." Once again Wolf paused in his story telling to judge Vincent on how he was dealing with the fact someone was spilling his dark history.

"But no one can control a werewolf like that forever, not even a vampire. Vincent was older, his body was becomming more and more used to the fact it was no longer human. The time it takes varies from person to person. For me it was almost instantaneous. For Vincent it took around three or so years I think. But when that moment hits the memories stick. You wake up in the morning with images, scents, smells and so much that triggers the memories of what happened while the moon was in control.
Once you start remembering you can hold onto your humanity. You can settle into the werewolf form and you can control it. You stop being two seperate entities and fuse into one core being. The moment that happened to our dear Vincent here Kieran had lost."

"And then I ran away."

"Yeah, you went and made Kieran pretty angry. See, he was deluded that he'd keep your forever. I could see you changing, holding on to yourself. Your anger against yourself was being focused elsewhere. You may not have known you were even doing it back then, but you were already accepting what you were - because if you didn't you'd never be able to get away." Wolf grinned and laughed at a personal joke. "You're still pretty moody though."

"Shut up."

Wolf laughed again. "Vincent used to be so angry. Angry at his father, angry at his mother, he was even angry at himself. Add to that the fear of being alone and the insane need to be punished for the fact he believed himself to be a monster and you have the Vincent I met all those years ago."

Marshall looked over at Vincent and he could feel the other male's heart going out to him. Giving him a weak smile in return, Vincent didn't really know what to say. He had been angry all the time when he'd been with Kieran; angry and scared. But not now. He didn't really have anything to be angry over anymore. In fact, he was pretty certain he had much more positive emotions to focus on.

Like how much he really loved Marshall.