Orion

Two. Cars

"Orion, I hope you understand how ridiculous you sound when you tell me that you plan to go on this trek on foot."

Uncomfortable, and only wearing a pair of sweatpants that didn't belong to him, Orion's back was rim rod straight as he sat in the office of Tobiah Marks, the alpha of the Prime Cave Pack, "What do you know of my trek?"

Tobiah smirked at his friend, and tilted his head to the right, "News travels fast when a lone wolf who is neither actually a lone wolf nor a rogue, but actually is an alpha traveling without a single pack member with him. I know there's more to it. You gonna tell me what's going on?"

"You are not my alpha, I owe you no explanation."

"Ri, you're tired, it's been weeks. Clue me in, and I'll give you a car. Everyone is starting to think you lost it. You were crazy before you even decided to uproot and leave your pack in the hands of the Beta."

"I don't want a car. Had I wanted one, I would have used my own."

Tobiah didn't like Orion's response. His brow furrowed, "This isn't the old days, we have vehicles for a reason, and I know how stubborn you can be, but I can guarantee that even your bulky ass will die of exhaustion if you keep on with this. You're sleeping outside like a wild animal, and that only makes up half of what we are. You have to shift back every once in a while."

That didn't phase Orion at all, "I'm following my nose."

Tobiah guffawed and continued to do so as Orion watched him with a bored expression, "And what the hell is your nose saying?"

With a tilt of his head, Orion scratched at his jaw, "That you stopping me and holding me up like this is a steaming crock of shit."

"I'll let you be if you just take a car,"

He could always leave it somewhere and then "return" it after he'd found this woman.

Tobiah was about the same size as Orion, maybe half an inch or so shorter. He was the only person to call him Ri- the only one Orion would tolerate it from, but at this point, even his close friend was agitating him.

His friend was right- it had been weeks that Orion had been on the road, and in that time, he'd only shirted to human form once toward the beginning. Now, his first form felt alien to him. This skin, it was too tight, too constricting. It felt strange to form words with his mouth, to hear them in a human voice, to walk around on two legs instead of four. Hell, Orion's wolf was large, but he'd forgotten that he couldn't throw himself around as easily in human form. He was just an inch short of six and a half feet tall, and well into the two hundreds, weight wise, and now, back in this form, he'd have to start ducking again. That irritated Orion more than it should have. It was the thing that irritated him the most.

The other alpha in the room studied Orion before speaking, "How long have we been friends?"

"Eight years,"

Tobiah nodded, lips pulling back to expose his white teeth which looked even brighter compared to his darker skin tone. The woman from the dream was still darker. "Eight years we've been friends. I'd go as far as to say you're one of my best friends. I understand how you work a little more than the average one does, and I know how stubborn your ass is. Just take the car, and you can shift back once a day or so...and quit all the squirming."

Earlier that morning, just before sunrise, Orion had been running at top speed along the western edge of Prime Cave's border. One of the wolves on duty was running adjacent to him, only difference being that he was inside. When he started to slow from a run to a jog, then a trot before finally turning around and walking back the way he came, Orion should have figured that Tobiah had gotten word from said wolf that he was near. Should have expected it when his friend playfully leapt from the brush some hundred yards away, tackling him before snapping playfully at him.

That small action alone had been what had caused Orion to shift back, only after snapping at Tobiah, and then kicking him off with irritation. He'd had trouble focusing enough to shift back in the first place because he had been in wolf form for so long just so that he could cuss out the other Alpha.

He was sure that Tobiah could sense the agitation seeping off of him in waves as easily as a male could smell the pheromones that his mate put off for him, but the other alpha only seemed tickled by that, even as Orion all but snapped, "I do not want a fucking car!

"You may not want one, but it will help you."

Orion refused to see the other man's reasoning-one of the troubles of being friends with an alpha. Two alphas who were friends always butted heads. It was a part of them, they were always trying to one up each other-conversation wise, based on their packs, numbers, smarts, anything.

The two went back and forth for a while longer before Orion shot out of the seat he was in, his face burning as he roared, "You'd be glad I fucking like you! Waste of my time is what this is. I have somewhere to be, and you're holding me up already as it is!"

"Where are you going, anyways that's got your hackles up like that?"

"I don't know!" Orion growled as he paced the room, restless. Being inside for the first time in what felt like a partial eternity was driving him up the wall. His fingers were twitching, so were his muscles. Hell even his eye was.

He had to get outside.

How in the hell was he supposed to drive around in a fucking car when he could barely handle being in a building, when a car was definitely smaller?

The look the alpha of Prime Cave gave him told Orion that Tobiah that he was batshit. He didn't care. The two leaders watched each other without breaking gazes for the longest moment, and then Tobiah spoke, "I can send some of my fighters-"

"If I'm not even bringing my own members into this, why in the hell would I want yours?"

"Point made," Tobiah muttered as he walked over to Orion, "Let's get the keys and call it a day before you shift in the middle of the room. Already had a teen tear up the common room earlier this week, I don't need a wolf three times bigger than him doing even more damage."

Tobiah pulled Orion into a rough hug, clapping his back roughly before handing him a set of keys, "My car. Right in the driveway. Take it. Do you have a phone?"

"Nope," Orion answered as he jogged down the porch steps to his friends car, "Thanks. I'll bring it back in tip top shape."

"Don't leave my God damned car in the woods somewhere, Orion!"

It took everything in him not to roll his eyes as he slid into the silver sedan, "I was going to until you gave me your car."

"There's cash in the glovebox, and my wolves and I will be on standby if you need"

Orion nodded, and smirked at his friend, "I'll bring you one of her fangs as a thank you."

The look on the other alpha's face had Orion laughing harder than it should have, "SHE? Who? Why would you bring me a she-wolf's fangs, Orion?"

"Gotta go!" He called as he started the car and backed out of the driveway, "I've got to go take care of a problem with a lady and a bowl."

Now, he was just being facetious, dropping hints that he knew Tobiah wouldn't understand, and definitely made him uncomfortable. He was one of those wolves who hated to kill females, unlike his friend.

"WHAT BOWL?"

All Orion could do was snicker as he pulled onto the main road, "You know which one!"