SMP story, part two

[skylark97]

~~*~~

It seemed like years later when Seal changed back and had to haul Wolf up onto the shore by his shoulders. Flopping onto the sandy beach, it was all Wolf could do not to shiver uncontrollably as Seal packed his pelt back into the soaking wet bag. Seal, of course, was unfairly dry and Wolf might have mumbled something to that effect, given the way that Seal rolled his eyes and helped Wolf out of his soaked shirt by dragging it off of him.

“So here we are,” Seal laughed as Wolf tired to curl up in a tired ball beside him. “Over fifty leagues from where we started and free. How does it feel?”

“Cold,” he mumbled, ignoring Seal’s chuckle. He was freezing.

“C’mon, you big baby. Here’s my shirt. We’re almost home.” The dry material fell on Wolf’s head, and Wolf didn’t hesitate to scramble into it. It was still warm from Seal’s body heat and it smelled like Seal to boot. Wolf certainly wasn’t going to complain about that. Although, he was going to reserve the right to take exception to the baby remark. Seal had whined for days about his stupid shovel induced blisters.

“How far is your home from here?” He grumbled, because it really was Seal’s home. Not his. Wolf wasn’t about to get his hopes up in believing that these people, no matter how related to Seal they might be, would be as accepting of him as Seal was. Seal was an anomaly.

“Just over that hill. You can see the smoke of their chimney from here.” Seal smiled broadly, pulling Wolf to his feet. Tugging the soggy bag up, Wolf stuffed his wet shirt into it before Seal handed him his pelt, which quickly went in as well. Following more sedately in Seal’s excited footsteps, Wolf tilted his head to get a better idea of this house as they came upon it.

The cottage itself was simple in style, but surrounded by trees. There was a trellis on one side that leaned against the stone exterior that was covered in wisteria that was currently flowering. A small vegetable garden was beside it and in the back of the property; Wolf could make out the telltale red of a barn. There was indeed smoke coming out the chimney, and the place looked cozy enough, but Wolf was still understandably wary.

Seal didn’t bother with knocking, merely threw open the door, dragging Wolf in behind him by the wrist. “I’m home!”

“Seal!” there was a happy squeal and Wolf started as a lady who was actually smaller than Seal got up out of a rocker to rush over to hug him. “You naughty boy! We were so worried. Where on earth have you been?” she scolded even as she attempted to squeeze Seal to death. Although, in truth, he was glad that Seal had let go of him to reach back to hug his grandmother with both arms. It gave Wolf a chance to create some distance and give himself some space in this unfamiliar place. There was an older man still sitting by the fire, but reaching for his cane and Wolf didn’t like at all the way the man was glaring at him.

“It’s a long story, Gram,” Seal managed to wheeze out. “I got caught.”

“Caught?” The grandfather asked sharply, and Wolf flinched a bit at the tone, feeling at least somewhat mollified that Seal flinched as well. “What, pray tell, did you do in order to get caught?”

“I got careless, Gramps. I left my pelt out where someone stumbled upon it,” Seal hung his head and Wolf had to resist the urge to grab Seal’s arm and pull them both out of the cottage as fast as he could manage it. Emil, he knew. Emil, he understood. This old man? If they were going to get beaten for past transgressions, Wolf wanted no part of it or of them. Family be damned.

“We’d heard rumors that the circus inland was traveling with a real live selkie,” the grandmother said carefully. If anything, Seal’s head hung even lower. “Oh, Seal.”

“But we escaped!” Seal protested as the grandfather climbed out of his chair and hobbled over towards them. This time, Wolf had no qualms about shrinking further back into the shadows created by the firelight. “I’ve learned my lesson, trust me. I’ll never be that careless again. The circus was not even a smidgen as fun as they claim it’s supposed to be,” Seal gave a weak laugh.

“And who is this that you’ve brought back with you?” The grandfather jerked his head in Wolf’s direction with a distrustful glower.

“Gramps,” Seal admonished, “You’re going to scare him away with all your bluster. This is Wolf. He’s my friend.” Seal reached over, pulling a rather reluctant Wolf back into the light to endure the inspection of both adults. He’d had enough of the spotlight when he’d been in the lion cage with Emil. Wolf favored both adults with a sullen frown. He wasn’t going to put on a show for them, if that’s what they wanted. “He and I were imprisoned together.”

“Wolf?” The grandmother gave him a hesitant smile before shuffling towards a back room. “Seal’s father left behind some clothes that might fit you, let me just get them for you so you can get out of those wet things.”

“Worthless son of mine,” the grandfather growled, hobbling back to his chair by the fire. “You’d do best not to follow in his reckless footsteps, Seal.”

“I know, Gramps,” Seal sighed heavily. “Have you seen Mom lately?”

“We alerted her when you went missing. She shouldn’t be too far off the coast. She’s been searching, rather fruitlessly, for you for the past two weeks.” The old man lit a pipe and blew out a puff of smoke. Seal rolled his eyes, and pulled Wolf even father into the room, pushing him down to sit beside the fire. Shifting as far away from the old man as possible, Wolf kept his back to the wall, not wanting any more surprises.

“Here we go,” the grandmother called out cheerily as she came bustling back into the room with an armful of clothing. “Come with me, Wolf.”

Not quite knowing what to do at the rather imperial command from the rather small woman, Wolf shot Seal a questioning glance. He got a chuckle for his efforts. “You best go after her, or she’ll be scolding you for the rest of the night.” Seal smirked at him. Scowling in return, Wolf got up, giving the old man a wide radius as he slunk off into the kitchen after the old woman. He turned just as he reached the doorway of the kitchen to get a glimpse at Seal’s pensive face.

“Seal?” he questioned softly, speaking for the first time since he walked through the door.

“I’m going to go out and find my mom, talk to her a little bit. I’ll be back later,” Seal scooped the wet pack off the floor from where Wolf had left it. “Gram and Gramps’ll take care of you till I get back.”

Funny, how that wasn’t in the least bit reassuring to him. Frowning, Wolf went cautiously into the kitchen. Much blushing, a few growls and one nervous snapping of his teeth at her when she startled him by accident, Wolf was in clothes that were a little too big for him, but dry. The kitchen was warm and cheery, and Wolf was more than a little bewildered by it as the old woman shooed him into a wicker chair at an old sturdy, but beaten up, table and pushed a plate of sausage links in front of him.

From the dubious look she gave him as he bolted them down as quickly as possible, he could tell she was less than impressed with his table manners. It was just that, in his experience, food that was not eaten fast was food that was taken away from him. He was hungry. He’d make no apologies for it, he decidedly somewhat stubbornly.

“There’s a spare room you can sleep in. Seal will most likely take the pallet on the floor beside it if,” she paused, “when he gets back from seeing his mother.” He nodded and let the old woman lead him into the room on the other side of the kitchen. She gave a pillow on the bed a nervous fluff before smiling benignly at him. “Sleep well.” And with that, she left the room, closing the door behind her. He waited patiently for the sound of a lock clicking into place or a dead blot sliding home. It never came.

Frowning, he took the pallet and moved it right in front of the door. Sitting down on it soundlessly, he placed an ear on the wood door and listened carefully and closely. At first there wasn’t anything much. Sounds of plates and water as he assumed the old woman was washing his plate from dinner and cleaning up after him. Then there was the shuffle, bump noise of the old man with the cane as he made his way into the kitchen to join her. And then finally there was conversation.

Had he not been a werewolf, there wouldn’t have been much of a prayer of him hearing the conversation itself, he realized. So, on one level he supposed, he should be thankful to Seal for not spilling the entire secret of his identity to these relative strangers.

“Caught! He was caught. I can’t believe he was so careless. I thought we’d taught him better than that, I thought he knew better than that!” The old man growled, thumping his cane against the floor for added emphasis.

“He’s just a boy.”

“That’s no excuse,” the old man shot back, “his mother was just a girl when that no good brat of ours stole her pelt. She paid for her mistake for many years with her freedom.”

“It all worked out in the end though,” the old woman tried to placate. “It’s just the way of youth. They’ll never learn if they don’t experience it for themselves. We coddled our boy, and look what happened to him. We can’t protect Seal from everything.”

“Who wants to protect him from everything?” the old man grumbled. “He’d not like other boys. There are more who would take advantage of him and who he is. There are more, like that godawful circus, who would as soon exploit him. His place isn’t here. Not with us and not on land.”

“It’s not entirely at sea either,” the old woman chided. “He’s half human, too.”

“Like that whelp he dragged home with him?” the old man snorted and Wolf flinched at the mention of himself. “I don’t trust that one farther than I can toss him. Did you see the look in his eyes? Shifty. That’s what he is. He’d sooner stab us in the back, you mark my words.”

“Oh stop!” the old woman scolded. “He’s just a boy. And a scared one at that, you blind old coot.”

“You think the whole world’s in need of mothering,” the old man muttered sullenly.

“Not the whole world, just some. Him, maybe.”

“He can’t stay. Seal either. Their place isn’t here. Seal belongs at sea. It’s where his mother is. His brothers and sisters. It’s where he belongs, and it’s time he finally realized that. We’ve been coddling him as much as we used to coddle our son. No good can come of it,” the old man stated flatly.

“You think we’ve been coddling Seal that much?” she asked doubtfully.

“He was careless enough to get captured.”

“It was a simple mistake.”

“One that someone like him can’t afford to make. We should have drilled him harder, longer on that. We should have been tougher with him. His mother might forgive us, but that won’t help him any the next time he gets caught unawares. He belongs in the sea with his kind, end of story.”

Wolf suppressed a shudder at the words.

“What of his friend? Should he go join Seal in the sea?” the old woman snapped back.

“That boy? That boy can take care of himself just fine. It’s in his little feral beady eyes,” the old man dismissed. Wolf yanked his head away from the door before clapping his hands over his ears. Seal was a selkie. He knew that. He’d known that from the first moment he’d met Seal. This wasn’t a revelation. Hell, it wasn’t even much of a surprise.

Except that it was.

It was rare to even catch a glimpse of a selkie on land, let alone catch one without its pelt on. It was rarer still to actually meet one that was living on land. In fact, it was unheard of. And Wolf would know since the circus had always specialized in sniffing out the obscure and rare and then dabbling their hands in it. Seal was the first and only selkie that Wolf had ever heard of, let alone known, who had possession of his pelt and still stayed on dry land in human form. It just wasn’t done.

And from the sounds of the grandparents, it wasn’t going to be done for much longer. According to them, Seal didn’t belong with them, and he certainly didn’t belong with Wolf.

Curling into a ball on the pallet, Wolf pulled the blanket up over his head. Without Seal around, there was no reason for these people not to sell him back to the circus. Wolf had no idea how much Shelia had paid for him the first time, but it had to have been pretty penny given the speed at which he’d been handed over without a second glance. Or maybe he was simply that worthless. He imagined that given the option of housing him and feeding him or handing him over for a pittance, the old man wouldn’t have a hard time accepting a few measly bits for him.

He didn’t want to go back.

It surprised him, really. Given that when he’d been standing at the river beside Seal only hours ago, he’d wanted nothing more than for the escape to have never taken place and the two of them sleeping peacefully together in their cozy cage. In fact, even in this tiny room with these nice clean blankets and an actual pallet beneath them, a part of him still sorely missed the bars and felt more than a little unsafe without them there to keep him in and keep the rest of the world out.

But he didn’t want to go back now. He didn’t want the beating from Emil that would come as punishment for thinking himself better than he was. He didn’t want to have to suffer through all the vile towns the circus went through where everyone started and pointed and sneered.

He didn’t want to go back to the times before Seal. Because they’d be harder, almost impossible, to endure now knowing what life could be like with Seal around to take the edge off of it. It wouldn’t be a life worth living at all, and Wolf could see that now where he couldn’t have seen it before. There was no going back, and he could only go forward. The old man was just going to have to get over it. Because Wolf wasn’t giving Seal up, and he wasn’t going back. There weren’t enough whips in the world to convince him.

Worried now, he burrowed deeper until the blanket and the pillow and the pallet were nothing but a little nest with him nestled in the center. He waited many hours, but sleep never came. Finally, Seal did, sneaking in the door before slipping underneath the blanket nest and sliding an arm over Wolf’s chest as he nuzzled in closer. And then, Wolf could relax his sore, tense muscles. He could breathe easier despite the fact that Seal’s hands were bitingly cold from having been outside and that his hair was damp and smelled of the sea.

And still, sleep didn’t come.

Rolling over hours later, Seal merely mumbled in his sleep as Wolf pushed him gently aside. The pack Gladys had given them was sitting beside the door with Seal’s pelt hanging haphazardly out of it. Skin prickling and his hands shaking apprehensively, Wolf stood and crept closer to it, pulling the soft gray skin up to touch it to his cheek while keeping an eye on the sleeping Seal.

When Seal showed no sign of waking or even of noticing that someone was handling his pelt, Wolf shoved it into the pack before quietly sneaking out the door. Dawn was still a couple hours off, but the moon was shining brightly enough for Wolf to see. He scanned the beach in front of the cottage briefly before spotting the beginnings of a rocky ledge that led to a rockier beach on the other side of the barn. Walking quickly, he sniffed out an undisturbed, dry spot and dug up the rocks until he’d reached what he judged to be a safe depth. Looking around and sniffing the air, he knew he was alone. Plopping the pack with the pelt in it into the hole, he made quick work of covering up his work and leaving the beach and the ledge just as they’d been before he’d touched them.

Quietly, he snuck back into the cottage, sliding back under the blankets, but taking the time to warm his hands before curling into Seal’s snoring form and nuzzling the back of Seal’s neck. Without his pelt, Seal couldn’t leave Wolf behind for the sea. And with that knowledge tucked safely away, Wolf let himself drift off to sleep.

~~*~~

A couple hours later, he woke up as Seal gave a lazy stretch and yawned. “God, it feels good to not have to get up and do chores, doesn’t it?” Seal mumbled sleepily, poking Wolf in the ribs before thumping his head back down on Wolf’s chest.

“Did you talk to your mother last night?” he asked quietly, sidestepping any mention of the circus all together.

“Yeah,” Seal stretched again, popping the joints in his wrists as he did so. “Saw some of my siblings, too. They still sleep in one big pile of flippers and tails, just like I told you. And you were worried,” Seal snickered. And it was like reality was crashing all on top of Wolf once more. Seal had family, real family, here. People that cared about him and worried about his safety and took care of him.

Scowling at the ceiling, Wolf rolled over, wrapping both arms around a semi-startled Seal. Well, they couldn’t have him. They, whoever they were, didn’t need Seal as much as Wolf needed him. “Did they miss you?” The question slipped out before he could stop it and he wished he hadn’t asked it at all when Seal gave an exuberant smile.

“Course they did. I am their bigger, older, smarter brother.” Seal puffed out his chest before laughing. “But they’re used to me being gone for long periods of time seeing as how I live here and they live out at sea.”

“Have you always lived here?”

“Yeah. I like it here. The sea is nice, but it’s not for me,” Seal dismissed easily. Wolf wanted to believe him, but he wanted to believe a great many things. It didn’t exactly make them true, and it sure didn’t stop people from lying to him for their own purposes. Seal would have no choice but to live on land now anyway. It wouldn’t be that bad, Wolf vowed to himself. He’d do everything he could to make it easy for Seal. “C’mon. I bet Gram has breakfast on the table for us both by now.” Struggling to sit up, Seal cracked his knuckles before shaking his head at Wolf’s grimace.

“They don’t like me.” He felt obligated to inform Seal of the facts before they walked blindly into the situation.

“They don’t know you,” Seal corrected. “And they’re a bit over protective. They’ll like you in no time, don’t worry,” Seal said with more confidence than Wolf felt he was entitled to.

Breakfast proved to be a strained affair though, with words left unsaid and not a few glares from the old man in Wolf’s direction. It wasn’t that Wolf was blind to the glares. If anything, he was hyper aware of them, but he’d long since mastered the art of pretending like it didn’t affect him and that he wasn’t aware of the obvious distrust. The old man could stare until his eyeballs fell out. He wasn’t getting a reaction from Wolf.

“Seal,” the old woman finally said, “your grandfather and I need to talk to you.” It didn’t take a genius to see where this was going, Wolf decided, pushing away from the table. “Maybe your friend could explore the shores while we discuss some things?” The question was directed at him. He wasn’t stupid. So he gave an abrupt nod and slipped out of the room, ignoring Seal’s protests.

It didn’t matter anyway. It wasn’t like they could steal Seal from him now. Wherever they thought to send Seal to, no matter how far away it happened to be, Wolf would be able to track him down. Granted, he didn’t have much experience with tracking, but given how distinct Seal’s smell was to him, it wouldn’t be hard to track Seal down. And with his pelt hidden away underneath the rocky beach, there was no where that Seal could go that Wolf couldn’t follow.

Funny how that didn’t make him any less apprehensive of what they were discussing back in the house behind him, he acknowledged with a shiver. The old couple would have no good words to say about him. They’d tell Seal that Wolf was no reason to stay chained to the land and no excuse to keep from returning to the sea. They’d point out how Seal was better off without Wolf’s suspicious presence and bring up the family that Seal would be callously ignoring should he choose not to live out on the water.

And Wolf, in his heart of hearts, suspected that they were right.

“Are you the Devil’s child?”

Startled, Wolf barely kept from baring his teeth at the squeaky voice interrupting his thoughts. Looking down, he came face to face with a small child. She had the same black hair and blue eyes as Seal, but her skin was a more incandescent pale and there was a whole ephemeral glow about her that Seal lacked. Obviously, given the way she had a blanket of animal skin wrapped protectively around her shoulders despite the fact that she was standing on the surf’s edge, she was a selkie.

“Cause Lion says that anyone who has red hair is the Devil’s child and has to have the evil beaten out of them. I think he’s lying though because he’s never even been on shore, so how would he know, right?” She swiped wet strands of hair out of her face less than successfully before crawling awkwardly up onto the beach and plopping down beside him on the sand.

“Hmm,” he murmured, not entirely sure what was wrong with her to have not scampered away from him the moment she’d seen him.

“Lion says that all humans are evil and that they want to take us away from the ocean and kill us. But Seal’s human. Kind of, not really. And his grandma and grandpa are human and they give me treats whenever they see me, so they can’t all be bad. But Lion says that’s cause they’re old and that all the young humans want to steal us away. Are you going to try and steal me away?” She looked up at him with big blue eyes.

At least she’d asked an easy question this time. “No,” he said abruptly.

“Why not? Is it cause you’re a Devil’s child?”

He scowled down at her.

“Harp, are you bothering him?”

Blinking, Wolf scooted back from the little girl as her mother came wading into shore. Long inky black hair trailed all the way to her knees, and she had a pelt as well that wrapped around her shoulders. If Harp had looked otherworldly, her mother was a creature almost straight out of myth itself. Her ears weren’t even real ears at all, Wolf decided as she shooed the little girl back into the water, they were tiny and delicate fins that lay almost flat against her skull. “You must be Wolf,” she murmured quietly as the girl quickly shifted forms in the water and let out a squeal as another seal came up to tag her.

“Yes.”

“My son has told me a little about you,” she slid him a sideways, measuring glance, and Wolf resisted the urge to fidget. She didn’t smell human. Neither had the little girl, for that matter. Seal, at least, smelled vaguely human. There was a bit of spice to him, but it was nothing like the almost overpowering perfume of the woman beside him. It unnerved him just a little. “He trusts you.”

Wolf had no words for that. The idea that anyone trusted him was more than a little laughable. After all, the years that he’d spent locked in a cage little better than an animal seemed to indicate the opposite. Granted, Seal was different. Almost wildly so from anyone Wolf had ever known.

“Don’t betray that trust,” she murmured quietly, her eyes flashing slightly before she waded back out into the sea to join the two seal cubs.

Wolf stared out at the incoming tide a long time.

~~*~~

“Hey Wolf,” Seal blew out a tired sigh thumping down on the sand beside Wolf. Glancing over, Wolf could see that Seal had changed into cleaner clothes, ones that didn’t have the faint hint of blood stains or of the circus on them. The wind had picked up sometime in the last hour and Wolf had to squint to keep from getting sand in his eyes as he noted just how at ease and relaxed Seal looked here. “Sorry about my grandparents. They just worry a lot.”

“Hmm,” he murmured, hating himself just a little for giving into his desire to lean in closer to Seal until their elbows were touching and he could feel the faint heat radiating off of Seal’s body. He had to admit, it wasn’t as if Seal’s grandparents were completely unjustified in their concerns. Seal had gotten himself caught.

“They think I’m going to do something stupid and reckless like my father did when he stole my mother’s pelt. Which is ridiculous because I already have my own pelt. They just don’t get it,” Seal frowned angrily, kicking at the sand. “They think I belong back out at sea with my mother and her new love and my half brothers and sisters.”

“I saw your mother.” Wolf regretted saying the words the minute they left his mouth. He didn’t want to think about Seal returning to the sea or to his family there. Seal couldn’t return to the sea, he’d seen to that. Seal was his family now, and the one he had out at sea would just have to learn how to get along without him. They’d done it just fine while Seal had been a prisoner in Wolf’s cage.

“Oh yeah?” Seal grinned. “Told you she was more impressive than me.”

“Smells funny.” Wolf blushed as Seal laughed and threw an arm around Wolf’s neck to pull him closer. “You smell better.”

“If you say so,” Seal returned dubiously. Curling his fingers around Seal’s forearm, Wolf grinned slightly before tackling Seal, pinning him to the sand for about half a second before Seal laughed and pushed back wrestling with him. There hadn’t been the room-or the energy, really-in their cage for them to have done this there. So Wolf revealed in it, experimentally pinning Seal a few times before letting Seal pin him with a triumphant laugh. “I win.”

“You cheated,” he gave a low laugh, pushing Seal’s face away from his playfully and wiggling out from under Seal’s hold to sit beside him. They were both covered in sand, but Wolf didn’t care.

“I can’t help it if you’re slow,” Seal scoffed, before flopping back on the sand. They stayed like that for a while, just watching the waves rolled in, and Wolf wished that it could stay just like this. Even when he was sure it couldn’t. “I’ve got to go and talk to my mom.”

“Don’t.” Wolf curled up on the sand beside him.

“Why not? I have to. She’s the only one who’s gonna be able to set my grandparents straight on this.”

“Let’s just leave. We’ll find a place somewhere. Shelia’s probably still looking for us. We could just disappear.”

“I can’t just leave my family behind,” Seal laughed incredulously. “Don’t be ridiculous. This is where I live, Wolf.”

“Why?” He demanded. “What’s so great about this place, anyway? What’s so great about them? You don’t need them. We could just leave today and find our own place. Make our own place where no one’s trying to make us do things that we don’t want to do or forcing us to be something we’re not.”

“What’s gotten into you?” Seal turned to look at him. “This is my home. This is where I live and it’s where I belong.”

Wolf bit his lip. Be that as it may, Seal wasn’t going back to the sea. Wolf wasn’t going to let him. He’d been abandoned carelessly and callously too many times in the past and he wasn’t about to let Seal just flit off because two old fogies couldn’t mind their own business long enough for Wolf to convince him. Wolf’s home was with Seal. Or, at least, he wanted it to be. They only home he’d ever known was his cage and he didn’t want to go back to that. “Your grandparents hate me.” He tried a different tactic.

“They don’t hate you,” Seal shot back rolling his eyes. “They just don’t understand what it was like. They’re sheltered. I just have to humor them a little and it will all be good. I’m going to go and see my mom and pretend that I’m doing what they want, but I’ll be back once I get it straightened out with her. If you stay out in the barn for a couple hours, they’ll never know.”

“Don’t go.” He tried pleading, knowing how fruitful it was even as he did it. People didn’t do things merely because he asked them to. If that were the case, he’d never have spent so many years at the circus. And if his begging could sway someone, his parents never would have sold him to the Ringmaster in the first place.

“It’ll be okay, you big baby. I swear.” Seal rolled his eyes before cuffing Wolf lightly on the shoulder. “C’mon. Let’s go back in. Gram is making dinner and we can have that before we put the plan into action.”

~~*~~

“I can’t find it!” Seal came scrambling into the room in a panic. Dinner, like breakfast, had been a stilted affair, but with Seal having agreed to go back out to sea, the grandparents hadn’t spent the majority of their time glaring Wolf into the floor. Not that Wolf cared. Joke was on them. Seal wasn’t going anywhere. Not without Wolf at least. “It’s gone. I left it in the bedroom last night and now it’s not there anymore.”

“What did you do with it,” the old man bellowed, turning on Wolf. Wolf favored him with a small smirk. “By god, you do not know what you’re dealing with.”

“Like hell I don’t,” he finally snapped back. He’d been, well maybe not polite per se, but he’d been quiet. He’d tried not to shake things up too much. They were the ones who’d taken an instant dislike to him, not the other way around. “I don’t think you realize what you’re dealing with. Seal’s not going anywhere.”

“Wolf?”

Turning, Wolf took in the hurt on Seal’s face. “You’re not going back. You don’t even want to.” He tried to point out desperately.

“We talked about this. I had it all worked out,” Seal took a step closer to him. “I would have been back.”

“No, you wouldn’t have,” Wolf returned bitterly. “I’m not stupid, okay. You would have left. You would have rejoined your family and they would welcome you with open arms and I would have been history. You’d have your perfect life with them and I’d be less than an afterthought.”

“You don’t know that,” Seal yelled back. “You didn’t even give me a chance.”

Didn’t Seal understand that taking that chance was just too great? “The chance to what? Leave me? Let them sell me back to the circus?” He flung a finger at the old man who bristled.

“No! I thought you were my friend. Funny, I know, but I thought you’d have some faith in me. I thought you’d trust me enough to know that I wouldn’t do something like that or leave you here with them if I thought they were going to do that, which by the way, is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Oh it was, was it? “What reason do I have to trust you, or them, or anyone for that matter?” he snarled. “Everyone lies.”

“God, you’re so hardheaded.” Seal scowled at him, before breathing out a frustrated sigh. “I’m not lying to you. Just give me back my pelt, and we’ll work this all out,” Seal pleaded softly.

“You might not mean to lie,” Wolf admitted reluctantly, “but you would. I’ve met your mother. Your little sister too, for that matter. They can come on shore, can’t they? You can see them when you want. So why go back? Stay with me,” he stumbled over the last words. Begging again. There was just something about Seal that reduced him to it. Emil could come at him for hours, and Wolf would stonily take it, screaming when it hurt and whimpering when he was too hoarse to scream, but he’d never begged the man to stop. It was a pointless endeavor.

And maybe it was pointless now, but Seal had to see things Wolf’s way. What the hell was the point of being free if he was alone? He’d just get lynched in the first town he came across. He’d just be alone and wandering aimlessly until someone else did him the favor of locking him up again. He needed Seal. Why couldn’t Seal see that?

“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” Seal spat back at him. “You’ve stolen my pelt. You’ve done the same thing that my father did to my mother and that Shelia did to me.”

“Seal,” he started only to have Seal’s heated glare draw him up short.

“Are you going to give me back my pelt?”

“No.”

“Then I have nothing to say to you. I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to talk to you. Stay away from me.” With that Seal stalked off to the bedroom, leaving Wolf alone with the grandparents.

“Get out,” the old man snarled.

“Gladly,” Wolf growled back, slamming the door on his way out.

~~*~~

Wolf paced nervously along the beach, grumbling under his breath. He’d known it wouldn’t go well when Seal discovered what Wolf had done, but he’d thought Seal would have taken it better. He’d thought Seal would have understood. Besides, hadn’t Seal told him that the sea wasn’t for him? What the hell did he need the pelt for anyway if he was planning to stay on land?

So it was part of him. So it made him whole.

Wolf blew out a ragged breath, sinking to his knees in the surf. He knew what he was doing was wrong. If he were a better person, hell if he weren’t a dirty worthless werewolf, he’d probably march right back up to the house, grab Seal and lead him straight back to his pelt. But he wasn’t a better person. He was a dirty worthless werewolf and the only way he’d ever get anyone to stay with him was to make them. It was all he knew.

He loved Seal. He wanted to be with Seal. Was that really so bad?

“You can’t have him,” he screamed at the ocean.

“If you take away his choice, you won’t either.”

Startled, Wolf jumped, baring his teeth as Seal’s mother came upwind behind him. “Choice is just an illusion. No one has it and everyone is always subject to someone else’s whims,” he told her straight up. From her indelicate snort and eye roll, it was obvious that she didn’t hold the same opinion.

“If that’s what you’d like to believe, but he’ll come to hate you. He’ll tell himself at first that you’re doing it out of love and that you’d never meant to hurt him. To betray him. And then slowly, the sea will call to him, and he’ll forever be trying to fill that empty hole inside of him. That hole you created by stealing something that was important to him. He’ll come to resent you for keeping him tethered. He’ll come to hate you for not loving him enough to trust him,” she told him matter-of-factly.

“It won’t be like that. I won’t let it be like that.”

“You’re not going to have much of a chance making it any other way,” she retorted sardonically. “You think you love him? Is this love?” She raised an eyebrow.

“He means everything to me,” Wolf murmured barely above a whisper, but knowing that she heard him just the same.

“You think so. But everything that you’re doing is selfish. You don’t care about him. You don’t care about how upset this makes him. You don’t care about how he might miss his family. You don’t care about anything other than yourself and how this is affecting you,” she told him harshly. “You don’t love him. Nothing that you’re doing makes me think you might.”

“You’re wrong.” He glared at her. “He’ll get over it. He’s stronger than you think. He doesn’t need you anymore.” But was that really strength? Wolf avoided looking into her sad blue eyes.

“He’s always been an independent boy. Headstrong even. He hasn’t needed me in a long time. But that doesn’t change the facts. You’ve taken away something dear to him. You’ve betrayed his trust and it will be a long time before he gives it back to you. If he ever does.”

~~*~~

Wolf gave Seal a week of space. And Seal had spent it moping around, looking forlorn and lost. Unable to make himself watch it all, Wolf had hid around the barn, he’d played in the tide pools with Harp and he’d tried to stay out of the grandparents’ way, for the most part, waiting for Seal to come around. Hoping that Seal would.

And on the night of the full moon, Wolf lay panting on the sandy beach, exhausted from having chased a curious Harp away from his tail. Seal’s mother, who hadn’t deigned to say any more to him since their discussion, had watched cautiously as he played with Harp, never interrupting their play, but letting Wolf know in her own way that she didn’t approve of him fraternizing with any and all of her children.

“So this is what you look like on a full moon.”

Wolf jerked slightly as Seal plopped down beside him, a hand landing gracelessly on Wolf’s head. He chuffed softly, almost as an apology for what Seal had gone through the last week as he laid his jaw across Seal’s thigh. “I’d wondered. And I figured you probably wouldn’t want to be alone like this.” Fingers scratched over the back of his head, itching just beneath his ears. If he were a cat, Wolf suspected he would have purred.

“I tried talking Gram and Gramps around, but they won’t have any part of it. They say they’ve been through this once and they don’t have the heart or the energy to watch it happen again,” Seal said softly.

Wolf whined and butted Seal’s hand with his head. They could make it just fine without the grandparents. They weren’t worth getting worked up over. If they couldn’t accept this reality, then they had no business sticking around. Wolf could be enough for Seal. He was sure he could be, if only Seal would give him the chance.

“They say it would probably be best for me if we went inland. Seeing the sea will only make it worse.” He could hear the pain in Seal’s voice as he said it.

There had to be another way, he decided as he licked Seal’s hand. They could find another patch of sea somewhere else. Away from here and prying eyes.

“It’ll tear me apart if we stay near the ocean. I don’t want to be near it if I can’t change. You understand, right?” Seal rubbed a hand over Wolf’s back. “I know there’s a higher likelihood of us getting caught if we’re inland, but if we stay here, I’m going to go slowly mad.”

Wolf chuffed again, unhappy at both prospects.

“I’m still angry as hell at you, don’t get me wrong,” Seal bit out sardonically, startling Wolf. “But well,” he shrugged uncomfortably.

Taking a chance, Wolf inched closer and gave Seal’s hand a tentative lick. For his part, Seal made a slight face at the werewolf saliva.

“I can understand where you’re coming from. I think. You’ve never had anyone. And I like that I’m that important to you. I like that you like me so much. In fact,” Seal sighed heavily before leaning in, “I love you. When I’m with you, I’m not my mother’s mistake. And I’m not that ne’er-do-well’s bastard child. You want me with you, and what’s more you need me with you and that made me feel worth something for the first time. My grandparents love me, but they don’t know what to do with me. They think I belong out at sea. My mother thinks my place is on land. And when I’m with you, what they think isn’t important.”

Seal lay down on the sand beside him. “I just wish you could see that.”

Wolf rolled over closer to him, blowing out a doggie sigh into Seal’s black hair.

“I want my freedom, Wolf. But I’m willing to wait for it. However long it takes, I can wait for you. Just promise me that someday you’ll actually give it to me. Please don’t keep me chained,” Seal pleaded, his hands brushing down Wolf’s neck and finding the old steal collar still hanging there.

Wolf watched as Seal curled in then, falling asleep next to him. There were dark rings under Seal’s eyes and his skin was an unhealthy shade, even in the moonlight. And the things that Seal’s mother had said were replaying over and over in his mind. Was this love? Seal said he loved Wolf, but what did Wolf know of it? He’d wanted Seal to want to be with him. He’d needed Seal to need to be with him. He loved Seal.

But he wasn’t what Seal needed. He wasn’t even sure he was what Seal wanted. He’d given Wolf the words, but they were as empty and meaningless as everything else in Wolf’s life. And why? Because he’d taken Seal’s stupid pelt. He’d forced Seal’s hand.

He was no better than Shelia.

In fact, he was probably worse. Because he’d done it, telling himself that he was doing it because he loved Seal. Because he wanted what was best for them. And Seal’s mother was right, it was selfish. Seal deserved better than that. Deserved better than some stupid wolf who couldn’t figure out how to love or how to live.

He inched out from beside Seal, jogging halfway up the beach before shaking the sand out of his fur. It would take some doing in this form, he decided as he made for the rocky ledge, but it could be done. And digging awkwardly, moving rocks with his mouth and pushing them aside with his paws, Wolf finally dug out the hole where he’d hidden Seal’s pelt.

Grabbing it gingerly, he hesitated. And then he shook off the hesitation, trotting back to Seal’s side and gently laying the pelt on top of him.

It had been a nice fairytale while it had lasted. But now it was time for Seal to stay where he belonged and Wolf to go back to where his place in the world was. With a heavy heart, he gave Seal’s face a quick lick and then loped off the beach, past the house and back into the woods Seal had taken him through not so long ago.

~~*~~

Wolf let Emil toss him gracelessly back into his cage without as much as a whimper of protest. His back was a mess again, but it was nothing compared to the fact that he was now sporting a bandana that covered the socket that Emil had gouged his eye out of upon his return to the circus.

Oh, home sweet home.

To say that Shelia was pissed off over having spent two weeks without her two top grossing attractions was an understatement. And of course, she’d been more than happy to let Emil take the loss out of Wolf’s hide both in performances and out of performances. It didn’t matter to Wolf. There wasn’t any point in putting up a fuss and it only would have made it worse anyway.

Besides that, he was simply too apathetic to care. The circus was where he belonged. It was where his parents had sold him without a second thought and it was practically all he’d ever known and would ever know. It was about damned time he accepted that. Maybe being with Seal had inspired a brief rebellion in that thinking, but it was over. Seal was happy and at home and where he belonged, and Wolf could find some small solace in that.

“Oh God, Wolf?”

Jerking, and then swearing when the jerking resulted in a world of pain, Wolf came face to face with Seal. He had to blink three times simply to reassure himself that he wasn’t hallucinating. Because Seal was standing just on the other side of the bars, crowbar in hand and a stubborn look on his face. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Me?!” Seal squawked in an incredulous whisper. “What about you, dumbass? I can’t believe you came back here. After everything they’ve ever done to you,” he continued furiously as he stuck the crow bar under the lock and threw his weight on it.

“Seal, you have to leave,” Wolf tried to persuade him urgently, knowing that Emil couldn’t be too far away and that of both of their actions, Seal’s were by far the stupider of the two. “If they catch you, it won’t be pretty. Just leave me here.”

“No way, you prick. You’re coming with me,” Seal grunted as he pushed harder. “I don’t know what goes through that insane head of yours, but a person doesn’t leave a loved one with these raving lunatics.”

“But I gave you back your pelt.”

“Yes, and thank you for that.”

“No, I mean, you have it back. You don’t need me and you don’t need to be here. I’m not worth the risk of getting caught, Seal. Your mother was right. It was selfish of me to love you like that. You have a place, you have a home even with them. You have no business being here,” Wolf hissed desperately at him, trying to convince him before someone heard the noise Seal was making as he tried to pry off the lock.

“Look, you loved me enough to give it back. And I love you enough to get you the fuck out of here. Take it as it is and be grateful,” Seal grunted before there was a loud pop. The lock flew and landed against the tiger cages with a heavy plunk. “Now get a move on.”

Seal threw open the door, not waiting for Wolf to put up a protest as he climbed halfway in, grabbed Wolf’s hand and practically pulled him out. “You’re not listening to me,” Wolf tried one last desperate time. “Where would we go? Your grandparents hate me, your mother thinks I’m slime. Harp, well, I think she’s okay with me, but that’s beside the point. They don’t want me there.”

“Course they do. In fact, Gram and Gramps came with me.”

“What?” Wolf did a double take.

“Gramps is distracting Emil and Gram is keeping watch. I told you they weren’t bad people. Just over protective.”

“But,” Wolf trailed off helplessly as Seal pulled him out of the tent.

“Seal! There you are, let’s get out of here,” Seal’s grandmother said urgently as she hurried over to them. “Oh, you poor boy, what have they done to you?” Her face was stricken as she got a glimpse of Wolf. Feeling self conscious, he shrank back slightly as she came up to him. “You’d best give your grandfather the signal, Seal. He’s fairly close to shooting that nasty little beggar where the sun doesn’t shine.”

For a second, Wolf was convinced that he was the nasty little beggar, but when Seal scampered off, he was left at a loss. Seal’s grandmother though, had no such problems as she drew him into a hug, minding his injuries. “We saw that horrid thing they called a performance. And Seal explained to us what it was like,” she said simply before reaching up to gingerly peel back the bandana he had covering his empty eye socket.

“You have to get Seal out of here,” Wolf told her hoarsely. “He doesn’t belong here and if they catch him, it won’t be good.”

“We’re getting you both out of here,” she told him sternly.

“No.” He was getting angry now. “This is where I belong. He deserves better. He deserves somewhere else than this.”

“So do you,” she told him gently. There was a loud gunshot, and they both jerked up to see Seal heading for them followed closely by his grandfather at a dead run.

“Try using a whip with that hand now, you smarmy cretin!” Seal’s grandfather yelled back behind them before shooing them all towards the exit at a dead run. And maybe Wolf couldn’t hide his grin at Emil’s girlish screams in return.

~~*~~

Wolf struggled uncomfortably into the shirt Gram had made him, feeling more than a little self conscious as Seal watched him do it, a big grin on his big silly Seal face. “You know, this would be easier if you went somewhere else.”

“Yeah,” Seal agreed. “But it wouldn’t be as much fun.”

Wolf scowled at him half heartedly. It had been a week since they’d left the circus, but it felt like an eternity, and Wolf still wasn’t sure how to take it all. “Why’d she make me a shirt anyway?”

“Because while I might appreciate you running around half naked. They’re a bit more civilized. And cause you’re family, stupid,” Seal laughed, climbing off the bed they’d both been asleep on less than an hour ago. “Gram spoils all of us. She’d spoil Lion too, if the idiot would ever take the chance to get his feet dry.” Seal came up on his blind side, throwing an arm around Wolf’s neck and pulling his head down until Wolf was looking straight into Seal’s eyes.

“Is it really okay that I--”

Seal cut him off, kissing him softly. Wolf stood stock still, letting him, as Seal pressed again and he opened his mouth slightly as Seal slid his tongue across his bottom lip. It was just a small little half kiss, but it was enough to make Wolf forget what he’d been about to ask in the first place. “You belong here with me,” Seal whispered with a grin. “Get used to it.”

“Okay,” he said, feeling the beginnings of a grin on his own lips.