Cursed

Part Ten

God, he was fast.

Once the Scott-wolf had burst out of the back door of the Compound and catapulted up over the garden fence, it was all Mitch could do to keep him in sight as he wove his way through the labyrinth of city streets. Scott took a path that zigzagged violently, and often Mitch could only see a flash of sandy brown tail to indicate which way to turn next. Sometimes there was no visual sign at all, and Mitch had to use his sensitive ears and sense of smell to keep on the trail.

Despite all the detours, however, it became clear where Scott was headed. Soon enough, the city gave way to beachfront suburbia, and then the vast ocean was before them, heaving forward and then retreating in an endless pattern.

It took Scott a second to adjust to the sand under his paws, and it was in that second that Mitch finally caught up, leaping onto the wolf's broad shoulders and throwing them into a tumbling mass of muscle and fur.

When Scott found himself upright again, he let out a resounding bark that seemed to shock him. The icy blue eyes were startled. Mitch responded with a hair raising roar of his own, causing Scott to bare his teeth in defense and then huff in irritation.

Mitch could see that they weren't going to get very far communicating with growls and snorts. He inhaled and felt the leopard fall away from him, leaving him small and naked on this beach again. The Scott wolf seemed to struggle with where to look.

"Come on," Mitch urged. "Change back!"

Scott pawed the ground for a moment and then gave a little whine. It hadn't occurred to Mitch that he wouldn't know how. His change before had been effortless.

"Just picture the wolf, not the creature that you are now, but the essence that's always inside of you. Send him home. Cage him up. Whatever visual you need. Ask for him to give you back your hands and your feet and then just...stand up."

It only took a moment for him to manage it. Mitch could remember it taking months to perfect such a seamless shift. But one second, the massive blue eyes were closing in concentration, and the next, Scott was stretching up into his full height.

He took a deep breath, gasping the salty sea air deep into his human-sized lungs, and Mitch wondered if he'd ever seen anything quite so beautiful. The moonlight gleamed off his hair and his wide shoulders, and he looked a bit like an alabaster sculpture, some model of perfection carved by an unknown master. He was perfect except for the utterly bleak look on his face, and seeing that look brought it all back to Mitch: how very fucked up this whole thing was.

Mitch raised a hand to his face and rubbed his tired eyes. "I had this whole list of things to say to you and questions to ask. I knew any conversation we had would be a minefield. But for the life of me, I can't remember anything I'm supposed to say, because you look so sad and broken here with me and I can't shake the image of you looking so at peace laying there with Avi..."

Whatever Scott might have been expecting, it wasn't that. His body had been curved inward, protective, but then his shoulders opened and then dropped. "What...?"

"It's completely insane of me, to latch onto that when there's a metric ton of other shit to worry about, but..."

"But what?"

"God, I don't even know if I'm allowed to ask this, but I have to. Do you love him?"

Scott blinked. To be fair, he was thinking it over and not being impulsive, but each second he delayed was an eternity. "I like him," he finally said. "I feel a connection to him."

"You were damn near naked with him. I know blood sharing can be sexual..."

"Oh, you have no idea," Scott said, reaching up to rake a hand through his hair. "It's arousing as hell. But it's not the same as what I feel for you. I think he and I turn each other on and can give one another what we need. He meets me on a level I didn't even know I could rise to. But I don't really want more than that. It's not like with you..." He trailed off uncertainly.