Chapter Text
It had been one week since Prawn, and Zed didn’t know what to think anymore. He had been jealous of Wyatt before, right? He had gotten upset, seeing him hanging out with Addison so much. So why couldn’t he stop smiling at the sound of Wyatt’s voice right now?
The beta werewolf was sitting on the other side of the cafeteria table, attempting to learn some Zombie Tongue from Bonzo, who cheerfully spoke to Wyatt in slow sentences while Bree clung to his strong arm with a bright face. Eliza and Willa sat next to each other, rather close together, Zed noticed. Zed sat next to Addison, as per usual, his fingers laced with hers. He silently prayed she didn’t notice him staring at Wyatt. That was a shade of guilt he didn’t want to feel right now. But as Wyatt repeated back Bonzo’s words in garbled Zombie, Zed just couldn’t bite back his grin.
“Gree na brekk-zer-plah,” Bonzo said, over pronouncing the Zombie word for “cafeteria” for Wyatt’s benefit.
Wyatt grimaced, “gree na breh… kzar… pleh?” he tried, wincing at the syllables he knew he’d gotten garbled.
Bonzo, Zed, and Eliza all chuckled, at least he’d gotten better than when he first started. He’d been worse than Addison was at the start of freshman year, and that’s saying something.
As the bell rang, and they all got up to get to their third period classes, Zed cast one last glance at Wyatt, and made a decision in his mind. He would talk to Addison about it tomorrow. It wouldn’t be a dealbreaker, right? She’d thought he was kind of cute too, right? They had such an honest relationship, and after what had happened leading up to Prawn, he just didn’t want to do anything to hurt his Addy again. He’d tell her the truth. He’d tell her he might be attracted to Wyatt. God, it was weird just thinking about it.
Zed was glad zombies couldn’t blush.
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That night, in the wolf pack’s den, Wyatt lay awake on the pile of furs that acted as a werewolf’s bed, listening to the collective snores of his pack around him. One, he noticed, was missing. Willa was laying on the other end of the room, notably not asleep.
He leaned towards her, voice barely even a whisper, “hey, hey Willa!” he said, earning an amber glare in the dark of the cavern.
“Whaddya want, Wyatt?” she tiredly mumbled.
“Come outside with me, I wanna ask you a question!”
Willa grumbled, but reluctantly sat up, blearily staring over at her brother, “what about?”
Wyatt was already tiptoeing out of their bed-cave, waving her over, “just come on!” he half-walked, half-crawled to the wide entrance of the den, carefully avoiding the sleeping bodies of his fellow wolves.
When he reached open air he looked back to see Willa behind him, looking annoyed, “what’s this about, man?”
“Shhh! I don’t want anyone to hear!”
“Why not? What’s so secret you can’t tell our whole pack?” Willa was mildly worried at this point, as the two siblings made their way a bit into the forest, away from the sharp ears of their packmates.
Wyatt stopped, turning to her with eyes faced straight to the ground, and a clawed hand scratching the back of his neck, “well, I wanted to ask about you and Eliza,” he nervously looked up to meet her gaze.
Willa looked somewhat mortified. Her eyes were wide, blaring yellow once again, as one pointed ear twitched, and she shifted on her feet. It was difficult to maintain an alpha’s composure at that moment.
Wyatt looked at her expectantly, and Willa managed to rally herself, “what… about… Eliza and, and uh, me? Exactly?” she let stumble from her mouth.
“Well you’re into her right?” Wyatt said far too casually.
Willa felt like lightning had struck her. For someone--for her brother, idiot that he was, to put it so plainly… if she hadn’t been sure about liking Eliza before, she certainly was now.
She attempted nonchalance, “yeah, sure, why is that important?”
Now it was Wyatt’s turn to look a little embarrassed, “I wanted to ask, at Prawn, when Eliza let me take her Z-Band off for a moment, what did you, uh, think of her there? Ya know, all… zombed-out?”
Willa was dumbfounded, what in the moon’s name was he talking about? Did he think she disapproved of Eliza wanting to own her Zombie-ness? Was he into Eliza? She tilted her head at him, “huh?” was all she could say.
Wyatt took a deep breath, and swallowed, “well just because, um, when Zed zombed-out it uh, I guess I thought it was kinda? Hot?”
The Alpha of the Seabrook werewolf pack, Willa Lykensen, had never laughed harder in her life. Her lilting howl filled the air, and Wyatt turned red to the tips of his pointed ears.
“I’m serious, okay?”
Willa was close to tears, “oh I know you are! That’s what’s so funny about it!” she continued to giggle as Wyatt pouted, leaning against a tree and picking at the bark. “This is about Zed?” she chuckled out, face flushed with cheer. Of course her brother would have a crush on the himbo jock. She stilled, however, as she remembered, “wait, are you not into Addison anymore? Or was that whole thing really just about finding the moonstone? Cause it sure didn’t seem like it the way you look at her sometimes,”
Wyatt paused in his pouting, “oh no, I’m still into Addison, she’s fantastic! I only backed off from her because I didn’t want to cause issues in her relationship. I just, well, I might also be into Zed? A little bit? Maybe?” he said, wincing with nearly every word.
Willa nodded as he spoke. She didn’t see the problem, “alright, great!”
“How is this great exactly?”
She grinned, “you can just date them both!”
Wyatt’s jaw dropped. He hadn’t even considered that. The idea of being with both Addison and Zed? All together? It sounded amazing. There was just one fatal flaw to the concept.
“Zed doesn’t like me, Willa, remember? I’m still the jerk who tried to ‘steal his girlfriend’ in his eyes. Besides, we don’t know if he’s not straight!” he thought for a moment, “hey, do you even know if Eliza likes girls?” he said, turning the conversation back to his sister’s romantic endeavors.
“I do, in fact. She happened to mention it one day while we were in the library together.” Willa said, only blushing slightly.
Wyatt smiled, raising his eyebrows, “oh Wil, she’s totally into you. Absolutely go for it.”
Willa tugged on the coiled strands of her white streak of hair, “sure, okay, I will,” she said, just to get him off her back, “but we’re talking about you right now. Whaddya gonna do about zombie boy and the cheerleader? Because if you don’t ask Zed if he likes guys” -she flashed her fangs in a wicked grin- “I will.”
Wyatt let out a genuine gasp. He knew his sister well enough to know that was no empty promise. He gave a wolfish whine as he pleaded for her to never, ever embarrass him like that.
She just smirked, standing her ground, “ask him! Tomorrow at lunch, or I’ll do it for you. And you know I’m not known for my subtlety,” with her hands on her hips, she started walking back to the den, knowing her brother would follow.
And follow Wyatt did, cursing her all the way home.
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Addison stared at her beeping alarm clock. At least it hadn’t made any strange noises last night, but it still annoyed her, even when all it did was its job. The white haired girl hit the OFF button on the little machine, glancing at the framed photo that sat beside it on her nightstand. Her and Zed at Prawn. Seeing him in his patchworked suit always gave her a smile in the mornings.
As she stared at the photo, though, her loving thoughts gave way to ones of guilt. She cared so much for Zed sometimes it spooked her, so she couldn’t feel more weird about having feelings for another guy. She silently cursed Wyatt as she got ready for her school day. Why’d that wolf have to be so damn cute?!
Putting her makeup on, she reassured herself with the knowledge that she hadn’t acted on any of those feelings. But the way Zed got jealous, she’d gotten mad at him, thought he was being irrational, but now she just felt guilty.
Brushing out her ivory locks, she thought back to lunch the previous day. Wyatt had been admittedly adorable trying out Zombie Tongue. It was so good of him to want to learn it. Her brush caught on a knot at the same time her memory caught on to an interesting tidbit from that lunch yesterday. Zed had been staring at Wyatt nearly the entire time, and she could have sworn he had that dopey smile on his face he usually reserved for when he watched her cheer.
Addison met her own gaze in her vanity’s mirror, trying to fight back a happy grin. She couldn’t know for sure. Zed had told her he was bi a few months after they’d started dating, but he’d never mentioned Wyatt, apart from his jealousy when she and the werewolf started hanging out.
Putting on her favorite white low-tops, she decided she might as well ask. The worst possible outcome was Zed being mildly offended, and she could deal with that. It was worth the risk.
She began the walk to school with daydreams of dating two cute boys at once playing through her head, a soft smile playing on her lips.
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Addison and Wyatt didn’t share second period with Zed, Willa, or Eliza, but they did have a study hall together. When Addison walked into the library, Wyatt wasn’t at their usual table.
“Wy?” she whisper-shouted through the aisles, “hey Wyatt, you here yet?”
Finally she reached the language section, where she looked down to see a familiar head of black hair with a fluffy white fringe. Wyatt was sitting on the dated library carpet, earbuds in, pawing through one of the library’s brand new books on Z-Tongue. Next to him was a notebook full of scrawled notes. He hadn’t noticed Addison yet, so she tiptoed slowly towards him, craning her neck to try and read what he was trying to learn.
Her Z-Tongue prowess had vastly improved over the past couple years, and dating Zed, she’d learned just about every way to say, “I love you,” in Z-Tongue imaginable. Her favorite would always be, “gar gargiza,” the way she said it to Zed for the first time.
Wyatt’s notebook had it written ten times over, with notes on pronunciation scribbled in the margins, and hearts doodled between the lines, as well as a name, written in Wyatt’s best handwriting. Zed Necrodopoulus.
Addison’s aquamarine eyes practically glittered as she put together the pieces. It was perfect. It was more than perfect! It was cheertastic!! She couldn’t contain her sheer joy, clapping her hands, and nearly going into a cartwheel right there in the language aisle.
This, however, alerted Wyatt to her presence, and the fact that she’d seen the writing.
He slammed the notebook shut, tossing the textbook away like it was made of silver. Then, scrambling to his feet, he attempted to look nonchalant. This was a pretty futile endeavor, as his face was bright red, and his moonstone was glowing with emotion. Addison just grinned, face locked into an expression of pure excitement.
“Something you wanna talk about, Wy?” she giggled, popping a squat and sidling up to him.
Her smile quickly dissipated into a worried frown when Wyatt turned to her looking not only guilty, but also scared. Wyatt had faced the possibility of his own death with stoicism. Seeing tears start to form in his eyes, his brow creased with something very much not determination or fierceness, Addison’s brightness dimmed to less than a flicker.
“Wyatt? Is there something you want to talk about?” she asked again, lightly touching his arm, a tone of genuine concern in her voice.
The werewolf’s eyes met the cheerleader’s, and he bit back a sad whine, fang catching on his bottom lip and staying there, worrying the delicate skin.
Addison snuggled up to him, wrapping an arm around his own, “come on, your eyes are so red-rimmed you look more like a zombie than a wolf—“ Wyatt choked out an annoyed, yet fond chuckle, “—let’s talk about it.” And the cheerleader placed a hand over the beta markings on his cheek.
Wyatt leaned into her touch, and finally spoke, “just please tell me there’s a chance of all this working out?”