Chapter Text
“Get the fuck away from my son!” Oh how he wished he was in his armor right now. But wait…why was Jackson there? And was that other boy Isaac, his son’s boyfriend? What the hell was going on?
Derek looked up with blood stained lips before pulling away from Alex completely and brushing the blood from his lips.
“We’re friends.”
“Oh really? Then why is my son lying in a pool of his own blood with some…whatever the hell you are…biting him!?”
“Uncle Tony, please!” Tony was startled by Jackson’s cry. His face softened and he noticed just how worried Jackson and the Isaac boy were. Tony made his way to his son’s side and lifted the shirt to look at the damage done to his son’s body. He held back a sob.
“What happened, Jackson?”
“We don’t know. He hit the panic button so we came running. I…we…We’re werewolves. Isaac and Derek and I. There are others…and there are hunters who want to kill us. One of them kidnapped Danny and now…now he’s gone and hurt Alex.”
“Werewolves? Like half man half wolf? Like ‘the Wolf Man’.”
“It’s a bit different than that; but yes. I’m Derek, and I’m the alpha. Only the bite of an alpha can turn a human into a werewolf. Alex was…is dying. Isaac and Jackson…they begged me to try and save him. Now it’s all up to Alex if he lives or dies, but we can’t leave him here Mr. Stark. Gerard Argent or one of his hunters could come back.”
Tony nodded and bent to try and pick up his son; but he wasn’t so strong without his armor. Instead, Derek scooped him up without any sign of strain and carried him to the SUV that Alex had driven to dinner with his father. He got into the back with him and tossed Tony the keys. Jackson got in the passenger side while Isaac slipped in with Derek to help hold the shirt tight against Alex’s wounds.
“I suggest driving fast Mr. Stark.”
****
How was this possible?
Tony looked down at his pail son who looked so small and weak in his bed. Tony had done his best to stitch Alex up, though Derek said that if he survived the night that the wounds would heal and the stitches would need to be removed.
Bandages were wrapped tightly around his son’s midsection.
It should be him in that bed dying.
Alex was too good of a boy for this. And now, if he survived, he would no longer be human.
“So…mates, huh?”
Isaac blushed from the other side of Alex’s bed and Jackson shifted uncomfortably beside him. Derek sat at the foot of the bed and simply nodded. The four had been keeping vigil over Alex for two hours now.
“The second I first laid eyes on him…I knew that I needed to be with him. I know I’m just a stupid kid. I mean, I’m nothing compared to Alex…”
“Don’t say that. He would hate you saying that.” Tony cut Isaac off the second that Isaac called himself nothing.
“But it’s true.”
“Listen to Uncle Tony, Isaac. It’s your father talking when you say that you’re nothing. You mean the world to my brother. You’re family. So stop putting yourself down.” He was really wishing that he had told the police about the abuse sooner…maybe then Isaac wouldn’t be so broken.
“Jackson is right, Isaac. You’re family. You’re a Stark in spirit and I know that you’ll also one day be a Stark in name and Starks are not nothing.”
Isaac let his head fall as he took Alex’s hand. He could almost imagine that Alex was squeezing back faintly.
***
Everything was white. The ground was covered in freshly fallen snow and the sky was white with it. Icicles hung from the barren trees and every once in a while a pile of snow would fall from the branches. It took Alex a moment to realize that this was all going on around him. At first his confused mind had not understood what he was looking at. Hadn’t he just been in the parking lot heading to his car?
Yes.
Then he had seen Tom.
Yes.
Then Tom had stabbed him and left him for dead.
Oh.
Was this Heaven? Had Hell frozen over? It was so devoid of life here. No…this was between life and death.
Alex slowly stood, pulling himself up from snow that should have clung to his white clothes and made him wet. He should have been cold too…he was cold…but it felt like there was warmth coming from nearby as well.
He must have lost so much blood.
He slowly reached down to lift up his shirt…only to see nothing; not even his flesh. It appeared that any skin covered with these white clothes didn’t exist in this realm. Did that mean that he was just a head and a pair of hands here? Well that was kind of creepy.
He let his shirt drop and looked up suddenly at the whispers rushing through the trees. He could hear distant voices.
“Hello?”
The forest looked so beautiful and he could hear music coming from it. And was that his mother’s voice?
He began running towards the forest only to stutter to a halt when he heard crying coming from behind him.
“No! Please, don’t leave me!”
He turned slowly to see Isaac’s ghostly form standing on a path that led to a glowing light that hadn’t been there before. Was this a trick? Did the singing lead to the living world and the light lead to the afterlife?
“Isaac?”
More images appeared. First Jackson blinked into existence, and then his father. Then there was aunt Pepper and uncle Rhody. Now came Derek and Stiles and Scott and Danny. Everyone that he knew and cared about in his life was popping into existence just in front of the light.
“Lexxy.”
Alex turned slowly to see his mother coming out of the forest. She was dressed in a flowing white dress and had wings made of light coming from her back.
“Mom?”
“Hello Alex.” She reached up and touched his face. He reached out and tried to grab her hand to hold it there but his hands simply went right through her. “My, how you’ve grown.”
“Mom? I don’t understand. What’s happening?”
“Tom tried to kill you; but you are strong and the Hale boy is trying to give you more strength. You must go to the light Alex. You must walk away from my world and return to yours.”
“Why?”
She smiled her beautiful smile. “For your brother. You promised to always protect him. For your father who would be lost and dangerous…well more dangerous…to the general population without you. For your mate, because you are the only light in the darkness of his world. For all of those that are here waiting for you by the light.”
His heart ached. How could he have been thinking of going with his mother when he had so many people who needed him back home?
“When you pass through the light, follow the wolf…it will guide you home.”
Very suddenly, everything faded away. The forest was silent again and only Isaac’s ghostly image remained standing just before the light.
Alex made his way closer and hovered his hand over Isaac’s cheek before passing through him and into the light.
Now everything was dark and he found that he couldn’t see.
“Have I been tricked?” He gasped as pain filled his body. As he lifted his shirt this time; he saw that he had a stomach that was stained red. He let his shirt fall and looked around until he saw the wolf. It was large, standing at about the size of a small horse. There was something familiar about it.
“Well hello there.”
The wolf walked closer and sniffed at his skin before walking right through him. Alex gasped at the sensation. It was like he and the wolf became one.
“Follow…the wolf…” It was the only thing he could see in this darkness. Alex turned slowly and began following the wolf into the darkness; trusting it to guide him home.
***
It was almost one in the afternoon when Isaac felt Alex’s hand clearly squeeze his own. He looked up with a gasp as Alex groaned and shifted uncomfortable in the bed.
“Alex?”
Tony snorted as he was startled awake by the first sounds in the room in hours. Jackson nearly tripped over his own feet in his race to get up and remove Alex’s bandages to check his wounds. Derek simply watched with tired eyes.
Jackson let out a sigh of relief when he finally got to where Derek had bitten his brother. Alex’s skin was unblemished except for the ragged stitches that Tony had put in him to keep him from continuing to bleed out. Jackson sat back down and let Isaac run his hands over the newly healed skin, a few of his tears dripping onto his flesh.
Alex’s body arched as he started coming awake, a sudden gasp ripping from his throat as he was thrust into full consciousness.
Tony was holding his free hand in an instant, looking at his son with unshed tears in his eyes.
“Alex? Can you hear me, son?”
“Gah…your breath stinks. When was the last time you brushed your teeth?”
Tony jumped back in shock and breathed into his hand to check his breath. “Is it really that bad?”
Alex laughed softly and slowly sat up before growing alert to the fact that he felt no pain. He looked down to see that his stomach was free of stab wounds, though there were several stitches where each had been.
The wolf…had the wolf been…him? Had it been his wolf?
“What happened?”
“You tell us. We showed up and you were on the ground bleeding to death. I bit you to save your life.”
So the wolf was his then. It had guided him up through the darkness and toward consciousness. He squeezed Isaac’s hand for support before taking in a deep breath.
“Tom is alive.”
“Who?” Isaac had never heard of anyone named Tom. Tony on the other hand grew stiff.
“But he was dead. They had me identify his body.”
“Oh, he was dead. But he’s a mutant as well. Advanced healing. He came back from death. I’m guessing that anything short of being burned to cinders or decapitation won’t do him in. He…he blames me for Mom. He was the one that hit me at the gravel pit and he tried to kill me again.” He ran his fingers over the stitches; tugging at them slightly. They were itchy. He wanted them out. “He’s working with Argent.”
Jackson remained quiet; lost in his own thoughts. Tom…Tom was his father. Tom was supposed to be dead. Tom was alive. Tom had tried to kill Alex. Tom was working with Argent. Tom…his father…was the enemy.
His life was just so fucked up.
***
Alex had to fight the sick feeling in his gut as he slowly pulled out the stitches. It was the sensation of the threads moving through his healed skin, sticking in places and pulling in ways that it shouldn’t. He had always hated needles. He had once even kicked a nurse when he was a little boy because she had to give him a shot. Of course, he felt bad about that now.
Really, it was just the idea that a needle had been in his skin that gave him the queasy feeling. Still, he picked at the stitches and pulled them with his free hand as his father cut through his cast on his now fully healed arm. They both finished around the same time and it felt weird to suddenly no longer have the heavy cast on. It was like his arm was pounds lighter.
He was still trying to adjust to the idea of the whole…werewolf thing. He could smell things much better than he could before. For example, Jackson and his father just…smelled like family; and Isaac…god…it was addictive and it took everything he had to not push the boy against the wall and burry his nose in his neck.
“I guess it’s time to face the others…the pack…my pack…our pack.”
Would he ever get used to this? Alex stood and slowly slipped out of the bedroom that had been his sanctuary for the past hour as he took everything in. Isaac was right behind him as they joined the others in the living room.
It was a strange sensation as Alex’s eyes flashed in recognition of the other wolves in the room. He noticed how their eyes flashed back.
So this was his new life.
Derek had been telling the others what had happened the night before. He had heard every single word of the conversation. Now Derek made his way over to him and rested a hand on his shoulder. He tried looking Derek in the eyes as he had done every time they met since their first meeting…but the wolf inside of him would not allow it.
“Damnit.” Alex growled under his breath. He hated knowing that he would have to submit.
“I know it sucks, but it will get easier. This is just your wolf submitting as its acceptance into the pack. You’ll be able to make eye contact again soon.”
This really would take some getting used to. He was so used to only having to listen to his father; and even then his father never really asked anything of him. Now he was part of a unit; a pack and he would be expected to submit to the alpha.
Silence reigned in the room as the connection slipped into place. Alex submitted, and Derek accepted the submission. Soon he removed his hand from Alex’s shoulder and stepped away; only to grow stiff with anxiety.
“What is it?”
“Someone’s coming up the drive.”
Alex walked to the door and stepped outside only to grow furious at what he found.
Tom stood there and when he saw Alex a look of shock covered his face, only to vanish an instant later.
Alex could feel the pack and his father exiting the house behind him.
“You survived.”
“I’m a Stark. We’re damn hard to kill.”
“Yes, I’ve noticed.” Tom’s eyes left Alex’s face to look just behind him. His eyes lit up in recognition. “Michael.”
Alex couldn’t stop the growl that built up in his throat. It was only Isaac’s hand on his shoulder that kept him from shifting for the first time so soon after receiving the bite.
“Stay the hell away from him! You hear me!? You stay the hell away from him!”
Tom’s eyes shifted back to his step-son and he smirked. “But I’m the boy’s father. Every boy needs a father.”
“I don’t need a father like you. I have David Whittemore, and I have Uncle Tony. I don’t need you.”
Tom’s eyes grew dark. “Oh, but I think you do. Just think of it. The two of us together, father and son; the way it always should have been! We can hunt down the wicked together. Kill this…annoying little pack of yours and then kill Gerard Argent…the old fool is getting a bit…insane.”
“I think it’s you that’s insane.” Tony stepped forward so that he was standing in front of not only Jackson, but also Alex.
“Tony. Long time, no see.”
“I trusted you with my son. Do you know how hard that is? How hard it is for a father to trust his son to another man? And what did you do? You disappear for seventeen years and then you try to kill him. Try to kill my son.”
“And I would have succeeded if it wasn’t for those meddling kids and their dog.” The last jibe was sent at Derek who held back his growl. If he grew overly angry; then it would make his pack angry. He needed to keep calm to keep the situation calm.
Alex reached out as Jackson stepped in front of him. He rested a hand on his brother’s shoulder in a show of support as he lightly pushed Tony to the side.
“You are not my father. You just donated a bit of genetic material. This…this is my family.”
Tom’s face grew even darker.
“You’ll regret this decision Michael.”
“It’s Jackson. And I highly doubt that I will.”
Tom sneered before turning away and walking back down the drive where he got into the very same truck that he had used to hit Alex at the gravel pit.