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Jade Harley wouldn’t describe her childhood as particularly rough. She wouldn’t describe it as particularly easy, either! She doesn’t have enough data points to draw a conclusion, is the thing. She didn’t spend much (if any) time with other kids growing up, and she’s been alone on her island for so long, anyway.
Well. Not alone! The island is teeming with life, and when she goes out--in wolfshape or as a human--she can feel that around her. Jade’s never alone, but there aren’t any other werewolves (or other people, for that matter) here.
Her grandpa used to live with her, and her mom, too, before that. Jade doesn’t remember her mom; she died in a hunting accident when Jade was a baby. She remembers her grandpa, though! He taught her how to change shape when the moon wasn’t full, how to hunt for her food, how to move without being noticed. That’s pretty much the only reason she’s been able to take care of herself! So she feels like, even if she doesn’t have a lot of nonfictional parents to compare him to, and he wasn’t actually around all that often, that he was probably a good guardian.
Now that Jade’s on her own, though, her routine is pretty boring! There’s no way off the island except to swim, because her grandpa was kind of obsessed with safety and didn’t want anyone to be able to get to them (ugh!!), so she occupies herself pretty much the same way every night.
That’s why, when she leaves her house, shifted somewhere between human and wolf for maximum convenience, she knows something is different almost immediately. There’s a weird smell in the air! And all the animals have gone silent, and someone has done a really good job at hiding their tracks. If it weren’t for the smell, she’d probably just have decided a storm was brewing and carried on as normal. But now that Jade knows what to look for, she starts tracking the scent, letting herself shift fully into wolfshape. Her nose is stronger like this, and she’s closer to the ground.
It doesn’t take long for Jade to decide that whatever it is, it was looking for her. The scent trail circles her house at a safe distance, and there’s a few barely-visible spots of slightly flattened grass where something clearly stopped to watch. It’s concerning, but a little exciting at the same time! She hasn’t tracked something this interesting in years, and her inner wolf thrills at the prospect.
Her inner wolf might be a little too thrilled at the prospect, actually. Jade’s so focused on following the scent trail to its end (and tracking it through loops and backtracking and detours), that she doesn’t pay enough attention to her surroundings.
That’s why, in the end, she ends up in a net, dangling from a tree. Grandpa would be so disappointed with her, walking into a trap like that! She doesn’t have much time to berate herself, though. Her yelp of surprise attracts her captor soon enough.
He’s of average height, pretty muscular, in human shape but definitely a werewolf, now that she’s getting a good sniff of him. He smells kind of familiar, actually, sparking half-there memories from when she was young. He’s dressed up in adventuring gear, and has rectangular glasses. Jade’s eyesight isn’t the best, but her glasses stopped working as well as they used to ages ago, and fur is so much more convenient than clothes that get ripped or torn.
He’s sniffing the air, too, looking at her very differently from how Jade imagines someone would look at a regular wolf. Not that she’s very good at reading expressions, but she thinks he looks more curious and confused than anything.
“Jesus Christmas, Jade, is that you?”
Jade flicks her ears in acknowledgement; it’s not exactly easy to make human sounds with wolf vocal chords! And despite how familiar he seems, she doesn’t know him well enough to feel comfortable talking to him otherwise. She and grandpa could hear each other in their heads when they were hunting together, but she doesn’t even know this guy’s name! That’s a little familiar for a guy who just trapped her.
He does, however, start cutting her out fairly quickly.
“Oh, crumbs, Jade, I thought you were dead! If I’d have known, I wouldn’t have left you all by your lonesome out here in the sticks. I’m so sorry, some kind of cousin I am. Let me get this mess sorted.”
Cousin…? Jade doesn’t get much time to wonder about that, though, because the net finally snaps and drops her back onto the ground. Oof.
“Bollocks. That was a bit of a drop, I should have lowered it first. I keep bungling things, this is a terrible way to reintroduce myself.”
It kind of was! Now that she’s on the ground, though, she has enough room to feel safe shifting almost entirely back into human shape. She keeps the ears; they work better than the human ones.
“Jade!” Her cousin turns his head and holds up a hand in front of his eyes. “Christ on a bike, warn a guy first!”
What does he...oh. Oh! She’s naked. Fuck! Jade scrambles to cover herself, both with her hands and with her fur. Changing something that specific about herself takes concentration, but she manages.
“Sorry! I’m sorry!” Her voice is hoarse from disuse. “No one’s ever around to see me! My clothes are all back at home!” And too small, besides.
Her cousin turns around and starts rummaging through a beige backpack. After a moment, he tosses a set of clothes over his shoulder at her.
“I keep a spare set of gear in my pack in case of emergency, these should do in a pinch.” He laughs, still facing away. “This is a right disaster.”
Jade can’t help but agree. She picks up the clothes he tossed her and looks at them. They’re pretty much the exact same thing he’s wearing now; khaki cargo shorts and a plain black tank top. There’s no jacket; he must just use the one he’s got on now. That’s fine, she’s not cold. The island is tropical, after all, and she’s got a built-in fur coat!
Once she’s dressed she stands and clears her throat. The clothes fit decently, although the pants are a little tight around her hips and the shirt’s tag is tickling her neck. “Okay, problem solved!” God, her voice sounds so weird. Does she really sound like that?
He still looks at her like she’s some kind of alien, once he turns around. Come on, what now??
“How exactly are you managing that?”
“Managing what?”
He gestures broadly at Jade. “The fur and the ears and such! You look positively canine.”
Jade...doesn’t get it. He saw her change between shapes, how is this so much weirder? “Well, I thought I should try and cover myself, and I like the ears better…”
He raises his eyebrows. “It’s usually not something you can mix and match, is all.”
Oh. Huh. Grandpa never seemed to stick somewhere in the middle either, but he wasn’t around much. She just assumed it was the most convenient thing at the time. It took a lot of work and concentration at first, and she doesn’t always have great control over it, but Jade taught herself how to shift more carefully. The extra range of hearing her ears give her is super useful!
“Never mind that, anyway.” He puts his hands on his hips and grins at Jade. It looks like he’s baring his teeth at her. She decides she doesn’t like that at all.
He does it anyway, though, maybe because he’s nervous? She can smell anxiety coming off him in sharp waves. After a moment, he clears his throat.
“So! Shall we retire to the cabin, then? I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but it should be a darn sight easier to go over everything if we’re not standing around in the elements, as it were.”
Hm. Yeah, probably. There’s furniture and things inside, at least. Jade nods and leads the way, although she’s sure he knows it. He’s been scoping her out all day, anyway. He must have arrived by boat, somewhere on the other side of the island. There’s no other way she wouldn’t have noticed.
Once they get inside, Jade takes a seat on her couch, and lets her cousin take the armchair opposite her. She’s...not really sure what to do? She almost always had the house to herself, and it wasn’t like she sat and watched on the rare occasions Grandpa was entertaining guests. That was adult stuff, and she wasn’t interested in the slightest.
On the bright side, it seems like her cousin’s just as bad at this. He looks around the room a few times before clearing his throat and clapping his hands together.
“Well, then, uh. Where to begin, huh? I’m a bit at a loss, I must say. Do you remember me at all?”
Jade shrugs. She remembers playing with kids when Grandpa was entertaining, but she’s not sure if she can place him yet. “You haven’t even told me your name, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to remember! It’s been a long time.”
He smacks his forehead. “Oh, horsefeathers! I’m truly a dunce. Forgive me, the name’s Jake English, at your service.”
Jade smiles, without flashing all her teeth. “I’m Jade Harley, but you knew that already. I think I remember a Jake visiting sometimes? It’s kind of fuzzy.”
Jake nods. “You were awfully small! I’m not surprised, really, we didn’t visit nearly as much as we should have. We’ll have to make up for lost time, I suppose.”
They talk for the rest of the night, until Jake gets tired. He’d been hiking around the island all day, after all; she doesn’t blame him for being worn out. Jade tries to convince him to just take her bed, but he insists on sleeping on the couch. Something about being a gentleman, whatever.
She’s still awake, trying to process everything that’s happening. He wants her to leave. He says he has friends and a pack and an apartment in America, and that it’s not healthy for her to be left all alone out here. Says he came to visit for nostalgia’s sake and thought someone was squatting, and that’s why he set the trap. Says that peers her own age are important, since the only person she grew up with was their grandpa.
It’s a lot to process! Jade likes her island, it’s home, but… She wants to meet other people. She just doesn’t want to have to leave and go to some huge city full of strange people! But she really wants to meet other people.
Jade sighs. She’ll tell Jake what she wants to do in the morning. He’ll probably come back to visit her anyway, right, if she said no? (But what if he gets mad at her and doesn’t want to come back, she doesn’t know how he’ll react and that’s terrifying). And if she left, the cabin would still be there, she could go back if she hates it.
There’s no sense worrying about it now! Either way, she’s going to need her rest in the morning. After a few more moments, Jade rolls over and manages to drift off.
In the end, Jade decides to go. It’s a few awkward days before they can leave, full of Jake calling his human friends and trying to find out if Jade has documents, and if not can they forge some. She’s nervous, but in an excited way, she thinks. It’s just a lot. This kind of stuff isn’t something she’s thought about in years, if ever, and on top of it all she’s suddenly living with someone again, and she likes Jake but she doesn’t like knowing someone else is in her space suddenly. Things get used and moved and Jade’s not the one that did it, and it’s weird. Really weird!
It’ll be worth it, though, Jade thinks. It has to be. She’s been alone for so long since Grandpa died, and books and movies and animals aren’t always the best conversational partners.
One of Jake’s friends either finds documents or makes them--Jade’s not sure, and she doesn’t think Jake is either--and then before she can blink, bags are packed, tickets are bought, and they’re heading to the mainland to catch a plane.
When they get off the boat and set foot on the mainland, the first thing Jade notices about civilization is the smell. There’s so many people and every single one of them stinks! Only a few actually smell like sweat or body odor, which is gross but at least familiar. Everyone else has perfume and cologne and hair spray and detergent and it is so much. The second thing she notices is the noise. Everyone, everyone is talking talking talking. On phones or to each other or to themselves, everyone is making noise. Even with her human ears, Jade can hear so much. The squeak of the wheels on a suitcase, the splash of the water against the shore, and all the endless talking muddled together into an impossibly loud static.
Jade wishes she’d been able to keep her wolf ears for the trip, so she could press them flat against her head and whine. As it is, she covers her human ears with her hands and squeezes her eyes shut, trying to breathe deep through her mouth.
Jake touches her arm and she jolts, turning towards him with her teeth bared. It’s hard to think with every sound clanging in her head, but after a moment Jade realizes he’s not doing anything, just looking at her with concern.
“Jade, chum, are you feeling ill? You look a bit green around the gills.” He pauses and pulls his hand away. “I certainly hope I didn’t make things worse.”
She manages a thin smile. “It’s fine. I, ah, it’s just, it’s really loud? And everyone is kind of smelly!”
He nods. “I understand the reaction. I was a tad gobsmacked by it all myself, when I set out on my own. Let’s find you somewhere to sit and take a breather, alright?”
It takes Jade a few seconds to parse what he said over the din of everything else going on, but once she does she nods. He herds her to a little bench away from most of the people, secluded in the shadow of a building. Jake doesn’t touch her again, just sort of...hovers his hands near her to keep her from getting lost. Jade appreciates it.
When she has a chance to sit down, she covers her face with her hands and pulls her knees up to her chest. It’s so much. It’s too much! Jade can’t do this.
“I can’t do this.”
Jake makes a disappointed sound. “Really? I-I mean, you were getting on perfectly well out there, weren’t you? No need to follow ole Jake out hither and yon when you’ve got somewhere perfectly serviceable as a home base already, eh?” He’s quiet for a second.
“If you need to go back, I’ll arrange for transport. Funds are no issue.”
Jade finally peeks out from behind her hands, jiggling her legs to shake out the last of the clanging in her head. Or...something? That metaphor didn’t make as much sense as she thought it would.
“I want to come with you! It’s just, gosh. I. It’s so much. I can’t remember ever leaving the island or being around this many people! I don’t know how to do this without everything overwhelming me. How do you do it?”
“Oh, hm.” Jake pauses in thought. “Well, I grew up around a fair few more people than you did, I’d wager, even if it wasn’t much of a crowd in the grand scheme of things. I suppose that just makes me naturally better equipped for a situation of this nature? It was overwhelming for sure, but not...not this bad.”
“Oh.” That’s...disappointing. That means it’s a Jade thing, that it’s not normal.
Jade sits up and takes a few deep breaths. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll be ready to go, okay?”
“Righto, Jade.” Jake raises his hand in a lazy salute and sits on the edge of the bench, giving her space.
It helps. She covers her ears with her hands again and closes her eyes. Deep breaths, Jade! Get it together. She thinks of her island and it hurts a little bit, but the thought of the water crashing against the shore and the birdsong in the morning helps her tune out the endless chatter of people. It’s okay. She can do this. Her island will be waiting for her if she can’t, and just knowing that it’s there, a safe and welcoming constant, bolsters her resolve.
Jade’s not sure how long she spends on the bench. Not long enough for Jake to start getting antsy about missing their flight, but long enough he’s--Jade glances around--he’s gone a ways away to buy himself a drink in a styrofoam cup. Probably been a little while, then. Fuck.
She stands, smoothing her skirt, and waves to catch Jake’s eye. When he sees her, he smiles that bared-teeth smile again and triumphantly holds up two cups with plastic lids and straws sticking out of them.
“Feeling better?”
“I think so.” Jade takes one of the cups and sips it. It’s cold, and sweet; sweeter than any of the fruit on her island. It’s fizzy, too, against her tongue. She remembers it from birthdays and things when her Grandpa was still around to order shipments from the mainland.
“Thanks for the pop,” she says. Jake nods, and gestures for her to follow him.
“It’s no trouble. But now that you’re feeling alright, we’d best quit our lollygagging if we want to catch our flight! I’ll call for a ride, it’ll be here in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.” He pauses and pats himself all over with the hand not holding his drink, slumping with relief when he finds the pocket with his phone in it. “Got everything?”
‘Everything’ for Jade constitutes a rolling suitcase and the clothes she’s wearing. Which are really Jake’s clothes, so.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Off we go, then!”
The airport is hectic, but it’s a little quieter, and Jade finds a chair in a secluded area to sit in while they’re waiting for their plane. This all seems really inefficient and kind of silly, and she can’t decide if it’s worrying or reassuring that Jake doesn’t seem to understand it much better than she does.
On the plane, except for the occasional sound of a child laughing or babbling or crying, it’s pretty quiet. It’s a lot easier to handle than all the people bustling around, at least! Even the unbelievably weird feeling of the plane taking off isn’t as bad as Jade worried it would be, and once they’re in the air she can look out the window at the ground below. It’s amazing. She’s never seen anything like it, everything is so small. They’re passing over entire cities!
“You know, this all reminds me a bit of George of the Jungle, now that I think about it,” Jake muses absently. They’ve been above the clouds for a while, so Jade reluctantly turns her head to give him a quizzical look.
“Of what?”
“You know, the comedy where Ursula goes on a trip and comes across a strapping young man who sweeps her off her feet and comes back stateside with her? That film?”
Jade laughs. “I don’t know that one, sorry. And I don’t think anyone got swept off their feet this time!”
“Well, no, but you’re marveling at all this a lot like George did! I’ll have to show you it some time, it’s excellent.”
Jade somehow doubts it, but it still sounds kind of fun. Her grandpa liked movies, so she had quite the collection, but she didn’t exactly have time to watch most of them! It’ll be nice. She nods and goes back to watching the clouds outside the window.
After a while, she falls asleep. It’s been a long day.
Jade isn’t sure to expect when she gets off the plane. It’s definitely not a cluster of people apparently waiting to greet her, though. Well, they’re probably waiting for Jake? She doesn’t know how all this works. A girl with a head of blonde, curly hair squeals and hugs her, which only makes things more confusing.
“Uh,” Jade says, immediately wincing at how dumb she sounds. Not even ‘hi’ or ‘who are you,’ no. Fuck! She can’t even properly appreciate the hug, it just feels tight and clinging and like way too much to deal with after the boat and the plane and all the people.
Thankfully, the girl lets go a second later and introduces herself as Roxy. She’s Jake’s friend, and apparently a member of the local “supernatural” community, along with everyone else there. A boy in weird shades makes a comment about some TV show Jade’s never heard of.
Everyone introduces themselves, and Jade only feels a little guilty that she doesn’t really process any of it. They get through the introductions, and it’s only when they start heading out of the airport when another person shows up. (Seriously, how many people does Jake know? This is crazy!)
He’s about as tall as Jade--so, pretty tall--and his hair sticks up every which way. He’s got square glasses like Jake’s, and a cup of coffee in his hands.
“You literally showed up fifteen minutes late with Starbucks, and you didn’t even bring enough to go around,” Shades deadpans. Jade’s already forgotten his name, whoops. She’ll have to figure out some way to ask later.
The other boy rolls his eyes. “Pay me and I’ll buy you some next time.” He turns to Jade and smiles. “Hey! It’s great to meet you, Dad’s--well, okay, not your dad but he totally wants to be--super excited. He’s back home, but he says he is really proud of you for roughing it out on your island for so long.”
“Um,” Jade says. She seems to be saying things like that a whole lot. “I...Don’t know who you are?”
His smile falters for a second before he’s back to flashing all his teeth at her. Ughhhh, Jade’s going to have to get used to that.
“Well, I guess this is just karma for making fun of Dave and his long-lost twin sister story when we were kids. I’m John. I’m your brother. Half-brother, technically, I think? It is kind of a mess to figure out.”
What.
“What.” Jade turns to glare at Jake, who raises the hand that isn’t hauling luggage in surrender.
“I thought you knew! I assumed our grandfather would have told you about your relatives!”
“He didn’t tell me anything!”
He sure didn’t. There’s a lot her grandpa didn’t think he needed to fill her in on. Jade gets lots of fun little surprises like that as she settles in. Like how sharing an apartment with someone means it’s rude to mark her scent anywhere, and eating raw meat grosses people out, and biting someone when they blow a dog whistle makes her the bad guy, what’s even up with that!
She watches George of the Jungle, and learns it sucks.
It’s hard. There’s other werewolves in New York, but almost all of them are from the city, and the rest are used to it, so they don’t really... get it. They have parties on full moons instead of hunting and eating their kill. Jade learns the hard way that eating wild animals in New York City is playing roulette with intestinal distress, and sticks to things she buys. Jade’s welcome in the local pack, because she’s a werewolf who hasn’t done anything bad enough to warrant being shunned, but she’s not really welcome. Even she can tell they don’t get her.
It’s not all bad, though! It’s really hard, but the good moments are so worth it. She likes people, when they aren’t touching her and yelling and wearing too much cologne. And she likes John and Jake, even if she didn’t know they existed before. John meets up with her on Fridays and they eat meatlover’s pizza and watch bad movies. When Jake’s in town, he comes too. Jade misses her island sometimes, and it’s not easy, but she wouldn’t trade this for the world. She does spend a lot of time wishing there were cheat codes, though, or at least somewhere she could go to complain about how weird everyone is in the city.
So of course, when she gets a text from Roxy about attending “a sweet club where all us freaky motherfuckers can go bitch” she jumps at the chance.