Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was his smell that Jared noticed first.

Jared was trudging along a semi-crowded sidewalk in downtown Denver, making his way to his car after a long day working in the mail room of Morgan Inc., and wondering, yet again, why he had agreed to divide up his twenty hours into two days instead of three. He’d been so pumped when Jeffrey Dean had offered him a part-time job and Dad had permitted it, letting Jared venture into the city alone for the first time. That’d been four years ago though and the novelty had worn off quick.

He was hurrying along, the smells around him unpleasant, a mixture of exhaust and all the perfumes and colognes, sprays and lotions, deodorants and whatever else that humans used to cover up their natural odor, assaulting his nose. Jared would take the smell of good ol’ human sweat over this any day.

He wasn’t really paying attention to the world around him, his mind on the coming weekend, only two more days - it was going to be a full moon and his dad had finally agreed to let Jared take part in a hunt after years of constant asking and near begging from Jared - when his nose picked-up that scent.

He flared his nostrils, breathing in deeply and turning his head sharply right, toward the alley and where the smell was originating from. He could make out the shape of two people but not much else. The street lights didn’t extend that far and while this November was milder than most, the days were still short. The sun had set about an hour ago and although Jared knew his wolf eyes could see easily in even the darkest of nights, there were too many people around for him to shift them. He may still be just a pup in his pack’s eyes, but Jared was old enough to realize how dangerous it was to reveal himself to the human world. Not only for himself, but for all those like him.

Jared concentrated on not shifting his eyes, his wolf instincts were practically exploding, wanting to see who or what was making that delicious smell, wanting to get closer to it, but Jared fought it. Soon he would be old enough where he could control the wolf in him better, but right now, it was a battle.

He peered closer at the pair, his nose detecting that one was unmistakably a human female. After a few moments, his eyes focused the two shapes and he determined that the person with her was definitely male. Jared took another long sniff, that smell was coming from him. A man.

Jared grinned.

He couldn’t make out the words that were being exchanged but their postures and harsh tones told Jared it was a heated conversation. A moment later, the girl threw her hands up in what Jared assumed was frustration and - no, the guy couldn’t have growled, Jared must have imagined it.

The girl shoved her companion away and opened the side-door of the bar they were next to. Jared caught a brief flash of red hair as light from inside the building illuminated the girl before she stormed inside and the door slammed shut. The man stared after her for a long moment before turning around, heading toward Jared. He stopped suddenly three steps later, his eyes zoning in on where Jared was standing.

Jared’s breath caught, time seemed to slow down, like someone had just hit the slow motion button. With the girl gone and the man a few feet closer, his smell was more distinct and Jared realized, he wasn’t a man at all.

There was a hint of - the hairs on the back of Jared’s neck rose but it couldn’t be. He had only encountered a few of those vile creatures in his life but he could recognize their putrid smell anywhere. No different than rotting meat. Maybe even worse. Just thinking about it made his skin crawl.

But that wasn’t what he (it?) smelled like. He smelled like the forest, woodsy and grassy and all the wolf wanted was to role around in that smell until Jared was covered in it, wanted to scent every inch of the other’s skin with the wolf’s - Jared’s - own smell.

The wolf wouldn’t be denied.

His eyes changed, the only part of him that could shift without the full moon, and he stood transfixed as the figure before him came into perfect view. Beautiful. That was the only word that Jared could think of to describe the sight before him. His features were almost delicate looking but his facial expression and body posture were no nonsense, rigid. His vibrate green eyes dark with warning.

Jared tried to push the wolf down, not wanting to harm the other man and he seemed to nearly succeed when he heard it, a deep snarl, and watched as that gorgeous mouth opened and fangs extended.

Shit, shit, shit. Delicious smell or not, it was long passed time Jared got the hell out of dodge. With every last ounce of his self-control and training, Jared shifted his eyes and ran. His car was only a block or so away and once inside, Jared didn’t stop, turning on the ignition and hightailing it out.

He didn’t slow down until he reached the city limits, thankfully with it being close to seven, rush hour was just about over. He hoped to hell that the vampire wouldn’t follow him, would just go back to his coven or wherever the hell he came from and forgot about ever seeing Jared. Goddammit, how could he be this stupid? If his dad found out...

Jared swallowed thickly. Dad would ream him a new one for sure. For as long as Jared could remember, his dad had told him to stay as far away as possible from vampires. They were all depraved monsters, neither dead or alive. Unnatural.

They had killed his mother, tearing her limb from limb, sucking her dry as she fought with her last breath to protect her infant son. Jared knew that he would have died at their hands as well if the pack had shown up even a second later.

He had always thought that was what made Dad so protective of him. Growing-up, he had hardly let Jared out of his sight. His dad was the alpha, taking over for his dad and his dad before him. The Padalecki’s had a long history of being strong and powerful werewolves. That was until Jared had been born, small and weak and incapable of harming even a fly (as Jeff loved to tease).

While he was no longer small or weak by human or werewolf standards, he was still the smallest in his family. Still hadn’t hunted anything, not even a rabbit. Dad said killing wasn’t in Jared’s nature, that he was too kind-hearted, just like his mom. But for all the stories that Gerald liked to tell about his gentle wife, Jared had heard others describe her as a fierce fighter, a strong she-wolf, an excellent match for the alpha, and would do anything to protect those she loved.

It was Jared who was the freak. Not strong enough, or smart enough, or fast enough. He had all the stealth and grace of an elephant.

And now? He had made his existence known to a vampire. Oh yeah, Dad was gonna kill him.

Jared bit his lip, trying to concentrate on the drive but his mind kept drifting to earlier - to the vamp.

Was he here alone or with his coven? And what was he doing here anyway? Vampires weren’t all that common in this side of the globe. It didn’t make sense. Jared was sure that if a coven had come to Denver, he would have heard about it. The last coven that tried had been swiftly dealt with... just not before his mother could be saved.

Both their kinds were vastly different from each other. Werewolves always lived in packs and once they claimed a territory, they didn’t leave. They shied away from heavily populated areas. Jared’s pack settled the small town of Lukos on the edge of the Rocky Mountains hundreds of years ago, long before Denver even existed. There was talk of the pack moving, but Gerald wouldn’t hear of it. And when Jeffery Dean started his company forty-five years ago, the talking ended. Morgan Inc. was now a Fortune 500 company and had kept the pack and town thriving.

Vamps moved around, staying anywhere from a couple years to a couple decades, however long it took before the body count had the cops suspicious. Big cities were the likest place to find them, where the night life was lively and there were so many more opportunities to find humans that wouldn’t be missed if they disappeared.

Werewolves were born, a genetic mutation that occurred thousands of years ago, Vampires were made. They were in no way human. Had no soul.

Yet...

What kind of vampire had eyes the color of moss and smelled like forest?

Jared saw the sign for Lukos and berated himself. He had to stop this. Forget about him and pray to every God and Goddess that he’s heard of that the vampire would do the same.

Soon he would be back home, back to his dad and brother, back to his pack.

His family.