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Day 30- Field
Dean picked his way over fallen logs and rocks, following his father and the others up the mountain to where the pack lived that they were supposed to start negotiations with. He was bitter, angry with his father and with the the elders of his pack for forcing him to come with. This was supposed to be a treaty they were looking to form with the pack that lived in the forest up here. He looked back to see Ellen and Rufus right behind him. They were there to make sure he didn’t try to bolt back down to their own territory. His own father didn’t trust him, but he had reason not to.
Part of the negotiation was that John Winchester planned to offer up his Omega son to the Alpha of the Novak pack as a potential mate. He wasn’t sure if the Alpha even had a mate or not, but if he did, he hoped he had pups, and that he could negotiate a mating. Dean was pissed about it, and he was in an incredibly foul mood as they moved into the Novak territory. They didn’t get far before wolves appeared to escort them. When they reached a small clearing, they could see a series of caves in the mountain, and from one of them, a large gray and white wolf emerged. He walked up to John.
“Let’s shift and talk,” He said. John shifted and motioned to the rest of his pack to shift too. Dean did, then wrapped his arms around himself. It was colder here than in their territory. The Novak Alpha shifted too and offered his hand to John. Dean frowned and watched their greeting nervously. The Novak Alpha was old. He didn’t want someone old as his mate.
“My name is Charles,” The Alpha said.
“I’m John. This is my son, Dean, and two members of our pack. Ellen and Rufus,” John pointed each of them out. Charles sniffed the air, his eyes landing on Dean.
“What did you bring your Omega pup for?”
“As part of the negotiation. A peace treaty is strongest when the packs are united. I am offering him to you as a mate, if you so wish,”
Charles walked around Dean, seemingly inspecting him. He took in the hostility emanating from the Omega and snorted in amusement.
“I already have a mate. Besides, I have no interest in a pup. Has he even had his first heat yet?”
“No,” John looked uncertainly back at his son. Dean refused to meet his eye. It felt like he was being abandoned, sold off to some old Alpha who would do whatever he wanted to him, even possibly kill him. He had every right to be furious. His anger masked how absolutely terrified he was.
“Hmm. Well, my son needs a mate. He is refusing every Omega in our pack. If he accepts your son, we can begin on the negotiations for a peace treaty.”
Dean growled when Ellen nudged him to follow his father and Charles, and got a warning slap on the butt for being out of line. He followed after them until they reached the center of the clearing.
“Castiel!” Charles called out. It took a minute before a rather large, black wolf emerged from one of the caves. Dean was surprised to see how blue his eyes were. When the wolf saw that everyone else had shifted, he did so too. Dean was immediately frightened. This was not a pup, it was a man.
“Yes, Father?”
“This is Alpha John, from the Winchester pack. He is here to negotiate a peace treaty. This is important, so you cannot be insolent or stubborn. You are going to lead this pack one day, and you need a strong mate by your side. Now, Alpha John has brought his son for you to consider as a possible mate. Take him and go talk. Scent one another, see if you are compatible, and if he pleases you, we will start the negotiations,”
Castiel’s eyes fell on Dean, pinning him to the spot where he stood.
“But…he’s just a pup,”
“He is young, but that is not important. Mating doesn’t have to be today. After his first heat you can claim him.”
Dean stared up at Charles, his eyes wide and showing clearly just how terrified he was. When Castiel stepped forward, he cringed back against Ellen.
“Dean, it’s alright. You need a good mate, one that will care for you and protect you,” Ellen ran her fingers through his hair and rubbed his shoulder. It didn’t ease his fear any as Castiel drew closer.
“What is your name, Pup?”
“My name is Dean. Don’t call me pup,” He glared up at the Alpha. Cas cocked an eyebrow and looked up at Ellen.
“Are you his mother?”
“No, his mother passed away many moons ago. I care for the pups of the pack, including Dean and his brother,”
“Is his brother an Omega too?”
“No, Sam is an Alpha.”
Castiel’s eyes fell on Dean once more. “Well, I guess we’ll go and talk. Come on, there’s a river this way,”
Ellen nudged Dean, gently pushing him away from her. “Go. It’s just talking,”
Dean looked up at his father who motioned for him to follow Castiel. He didn’t dare look at Rufus, the old wolf would probably kick him in the butt.
Castiel started walking, not looking back to see if Dean followed, but the Omega did. He wrapped his arms around himself and stayed quiet as they made their way to the river. Castiel reached it first and finally looked back at Dean as he walked over to the bank and sat down. The Alpha sat down beside him.
“How many winters have passed since your birth?”
“Fourteen. I’m not a pup,” Dean snapped.
“I get that you’re scared, and you’re not happy to be here. I’m not happy that you’re practically being forced on me because I didn’t want an Omega from our pack. I won’t hurt you though,” Castiel drew his legs up and wrapped his arms around them. He was studying Dean, and he looked less than pleased to the Omega.
“How many winters since your birth?” Dean asked.
“Almost nineteen,” Castiel replied.
“Nineteen,” Dean echoed. Charlie from his pack was nineteen, so was Benny. Benny had wanted him as a mate, but his father had said no. He’d forbidden it. “You should have chosen a mate after your first rut.”
“I know that, but if you knew the Omegas in this pack, you wouldn’t want them either. There are only three, and they’re all disrespectful to my father, not to mention I am not scent compatible with any of them. A mate that’s disrespectful to the current Alpha of the pack, that does not bode well for me when I take over as pack leader. They will be disrespectful to me. I can’t have that. My father understands, and he was looking for an Omega from other packs. I’ve already turned away four,”
“You’re going to turn me away too,” Dean looked out over the water. “If you do, my father says he’s going to offer me to the Sonder pack. Their Alpha is scary. I-I don’t want to go to that pack.”
Castiel frowned. The Sonder pack was enemies with his pack. They were aggressive, and they were known for stealing pack lands and killing off entire packs just to gain more territory. He could understand the logic of trying to make a treaty with them, but the Alpha of that pack would likely torture Dean before killing him.
“Well, first I need to make sure we’re scent compatible,” Castiel let go of his legs and crawled over to Dean. Before he even reached him he could smell the pup’s fear. He felt bad for him. Dean had every right to be scared. Getting handed off to another pack, getting torn away from everything he knew, and all the people he loved, it was something he wasn’t sure he could do.
Dean froze, watching the Alpha warily as Castiel’s hands slid up his arms to his shoulders. He jutted his lower lip out in a pout as he tilted his neck to let him do as he wanted.
Castiel took a cleansing breath before pressing his nose to Dean’s shoulder, moving slowly towards his throat. He was vulnerable like this, and it had him trembling. When the Alpha wrapped his arms around him and pulled him back against his chest, he didn’t fight it, but he didn’t relax either. Finally the Alpha lifted his head. He didn’t let go of Dean though.
“I like your scent very much. You smell like honey and like the clovers that grow in the grass. It is very pleasant. Now it’s your turn,”
He released his hold on Dean and when the Omega turned around to look at him, he offered up his own throat. Dean stared at him for a moment before getting up on his knees and leaning in to scent him.
Getting to scent someone, it was intimate, and it brought a pack closer together. Until this moment, he’d only ever scented those from his pack. It felt strange to do this with Castiel, especially since he was so much older. He tentatively sniffed at the Alpha’s throat first, and then, growing just a bit more confident when he smelled the earthy scent there, he moved to Castiel’s shoulder, to where his scent glands were. He smelled good, like the earth, but also like the pine trees that grew plentiful up here. It was quite pleasant. When Castiel’s arms came up around him again he startled, but then the Alpha was scenting him again.
“I like your scent very, very much,” A happy rumble bubbled up from his chest, surprising Dean. “What do you think of mine?”
“I-I like it,” He admitted. One of the Alpha’s hands was splayed across his lower back while the other was running up and down his spine. He realized Castiel was trying to soothe him.
“Well, that’s the first step,”
“First step?” Dean didn’t understand what that meant.
“I have questions for you. Scent alone does not make for a good mate,” Castiel explained. “I want to know, do you disrespect your Alpha?”
“No way. My dad would punish me if I did. He says I’m stubborn, but I don’t disrespect him, so he tells me I’m a good Omega,”
Castiel seemed pleased by his answer, and it reflected in his scent.
“Would you disrespect me?”
Dean tried to sit back and look up at him, but the Alpha wasn’t letting him go.
“N-no. You’re supposed to obey the pack leader,”
“Can you hunt?”
“I sure can! I catch rabbits and squirrels all the time. Dad won’t let me go on the big hunts though. He says I’m too small and that deer and bear would hurt me,”
“Your pack hunts bears?” Castiel was surprised by that.
“Uh huh, and when they can catch one, they taste real good. Mostly we eat deer, elk, caribou, things like that.”
The Alpha pulled him closer and scented him again. This time it made him shiver. The air was cooler this far up the mountain and Castiel’s nose was cold.
“When is your first heat?”
“Ellen says it will be two, maybe three more winters,”
“That’s a long time,” Castiel chewed in the inside of his cheek for a minute. “I won’t be leading the pack for quite a few winters though, not until my father is too old to do it anymore. So I guess we can wait to have pups,”
“Pups?” Dean squeaked. His voice hadn’t dropped yet, and he hadn’t realized it could even go that high, but the thought of pups terrified him, especially since they had to come out of his body!
“We will have them, but maybe not for another five or six winters. I’m not in a rush. I need to teach you to hunt bigger prey; how to hunt with the pack. We work together to bring down things that would kills us if we didn’t work as a team. I want you to work as a decoy for now. You’re too small to take down anything larger than a rabbit, but you will get bigger soon, and then you can join us. Are you fast?”
“I’m very fast, fastest in my pack. I outrun everyone,” Dean said proudly.
“Good, that’s good. You need to be swift and be able to dodge hoofs, claws, and antlers. I believe I no longer need to search for a mate. I want you.” Castiel ran his hands down to the Omega’s hips before bringing one around to rest over his belly. Dean was still small, but soon he would as big as him, and his hips would round out, giving him something to grab onto when they mated. He found that he was looking forward to that. He could smell the fear on the Omega again.
“I can’t ever see my family again?” The pup was crying, so he wrapped his arms around him and held him close. His father had taught him that a good Alpha cared for their mate and did everything they could to alleviate their fears, and show them that they were loved. He figured he should start doing that now since Dean would be his mate in the next few years.
“I will take you down the mountain to see them. You will not be forced to never see them again, that’s not the kind of Alpha I am. We just have to be careful, in case the Sonder pack takes them over. If they do, we’ll be forced to kill them. They don’t come this far up the mountain, they don’t want our territory, but they covet yours. This is why our fathers want this treaty. If the Sonder pack attacks, we will go and help. We are friends, your pack and mine, we have no desire to harm one another, but we have a mutual enemy, and we cannot let them claim anymore territory this side of the river,”
Dean sniffled and wiped at his eyes. This was scary. Castiel wanted him as his mate, and he had no real idea of what that entailed. His father had told him that he had to be good and take care of his Alpha, but he hadn’t given an explanation of what that meant. Did that mean listening to him? Cleaning him? Having his pups? Hunting with the pack when he was told to?
He managed to lean back enough to look up at Castiel. The Alpha was handsome, and he really liked how blue his eyes were. He thought maybe, one day, he’d like to have a pup with blue eyes. It would be a pretty pup. He just didn’t want to think about having pups yet.
Castiel didn’t seem to want to let him go. He kept scenting him, and when he ran his tongue over the Omega’s scent glands, he let out a surprised gasp. It was a very pleasant feeling. He hadn’t expected it to be.
“Ok, we’ll head back now,” Castiel released him and stood up. He held a hand out to Dean, and the Omega took it. He was pulled to his feet and as they walked, Castiel continued holding his hand.
“What do you like to do when you’re not hunting?”
“I like to run, and I play with my cousins. Sometimes they’ll hide in the forest and I have to find them. I like to dig too, that’s fun. I find mushrooms and sometimes pretty rocks. Ellen tells me they’re called gems, and that the humans like them. My dad takes them into the city and he’ll trade them for stuff,” Dean replied.
“That sounds like fun. I run and play too. I haven’t dug though. That sounds exciting. My dad takes furs and meat into the city to trade. Maybe if we dig, we’ll find some of those gems here,”
Dean nodded excitedly. “Yeah! But you gotta do it in the woods. I don’t think your dad would like us digging in the clearing. Do you grow crops here?”
“We do, but we have a field further down the mountain, where it’s warmer. The north side of the mountain is ours, clear down to the forest below, and some of that forest is ours. That’s where we cut down the trees and tilled the soil to create a field where we can grow a mixture of crops. There’s corn growing there now, and many root vegetables. Do you like carrots or potatoes?” Castiel asked.
“Yep, they’re really good. We grow sweet potatoes and beets too. Dad gets the seeds in the city every year,”
We grow that too. And squash. We get berries and other fruit from the woods. Mushrooms too,”
They made their way back to the clearing, talking as they walked. When they reached it, they found their fathers and several other members of the Novak pack all sitting around the fire. Castiel smiled when Dean pulled away from him and hurried to go sit by it. He joined him, remaining close to the Omega he had chosen as his mate.
“Well?” Charles asked. “Is he the Omega you want?”
Castiel smiled and puffed out his chest. “He is. I choose Dean as my mate.”
John practically sighed with relief. He smiled at his son. Dean looked around the fire at all of the other wolves. There were maybe twenty, all trying to get close enough to the fire to get warm.
“Is it always this cold up here? It’s summer, shouldn’t it be warmer?” Dean asked.
“Well, it’s not summer yet, it’s still spring. When summer does come, it will be warmer than this, but it doesn’t get as warm up here as it does further down the mountain. You won’t be drenched in sweat up here. It’s actually quite comfortable,” Castiel explained. “But winter comes early, and it gets very cold. We hunt constantly in the late fall, before the first snow, and then we store the meat in the snow. It will last us until spring if we can get enough food. We’ll have the vegetables and other foods. If we run out and we can’t find more meat, we go into the city to trade for some. But we usually can find enough. If we run out of deer, there’s always the goats and rabbits. We raise chickens too. They give us meat and eggs. Does your pack raise chickens?”
Dean nodded. “Yep. I have one named Susie. She’s mine to keep. Dad told everyone they’re not allowed to eat her. She sleeps with me,”
Castiel smiled. “Do you want to keep her?”
“Yes! She’s my best friend,”
“Alright then. How about we go down the mountain and get her? Maybe tomorrow morning, when the sun is bright. We will get your things at that time,” Castiel wrapped an arm around him and pulled him closer. He found that now, with his mate chosen, he wanted to be close to his Omega, even if he hadn’t yet claimed him.
“Yeah, I don’t want to leave Susie down there. I’ll miss her, and she’ll miss me. Plus I’m pretty sure Rufus would try to eat her. Susie is an Australorp, and she’s pretty big. We eat Australorps because they have good meat,”
“Up here we raise a variety, but we have Australorps too. We also have Silkies. Have you ever seen a Silkie?” Castiel asked. Dean shook his head. He didn’t even know what that was. Castiel stood up.
“I’ll be right back,”
Dean watched him go before seeking out Ellen. She came to sit down on the other side of him, not wanting to take Castiel’s spot.
“How are you, Sweetheart?” She asked.
“I’m ok. I don’t want to leave our pack, but I understand that I have to. Castiel is nice. He says that when I get bigger, I can hunt with the pack. He says there are goats up here!”
She chuckled and nodded. “There sure are. They climb along the rocks, where we can’t go, so this pack must use a bow and arrow to hunt them. Maybe they’ll teach you how to hunt them,”
“I told him we can dig and look for gems, like I do for dad. He’s excited to try,”
“Here, Dean, this is a Silkie. Her name is Ruby,” Castiel sat down beside him with a fluffy white bird in his hands. Dean’s eyes widened.
“What is that? That’s a chicken? You’re sure?”
Castiel laughed and nodded. “It’s a chicken, alright, and they’re really good about sitting on eggs and hatching them, no matter who is laying them. They’re not the smartest bird, but they’re calm and good mothers. Plus they’re really soft. We don’t eat them, we just use them for hatching eggs. Feel how soft she is,”
Dean reached out to pet her. It felt like fur instead of feathers. “Can I hold her?”
“Sure. Ruby is my sister Hannah’s, but if you want one, I have some chicks. You can pick one out. We have white ones, red ones, and black ones. My dad brought some back from the city a few years ago because he was fascinated by them. He’d been told that they were really good about sitting on eggs and hatching out big clutches, so he brought back six. They do hatch out a lot of chicks. We give them the Wyandottes, Orpingtons, and a few others. The Australorps hatch out their own, and they’ll hatch out others too. They’re good brooders too,”
He passed the bird to Dean who smiled as he petted her. She was so soft, and very calm.
“I like her, but maybe I’ll wait til Susie died. I don’t want her to get jealous,”
Castiel and Ellen both chuckled.
“So you’ll go and get Susie?” Ellen asked.
“Uh huh, Castiel says we can go get my stuff tomorrow morning. I’m bringing Susie back with me.” Dean looked up at the Alpha who nodded.
“We have to find a way to bring her up here. I don’t expect her to just follow us,”
“I have a sling. I put her in it sometimes. She’s a good girl, she’ll sit in it,” Dean said.
“He’s right. Susie is special. She’s very calm, and she adores Dean. She’ll follow him around and whenever he sits down, she wants to be in his lap. She even sleeps curled up against him, and every morning she gives him an egg. He eats them for breakfast,” Ellen reached over to touch Ruby. “Oh! That feels more like fur than feathers!”
“They’re very soft. I like touching them. Our breeders are penned, but our meat birds roam free. They’ll eat in the woods and then come back at sunset. Sometimes they come back with chicks,” Castiel chuckled. “That’s good for us because it means more food.”
They sat around the fire, listening to Charles and John hashing out the details of the negotiation. Castiel paid close attention because one day it would be him that had to maintain the treaty. Dean’s brother Sam would one day take over the pack, but he explained to the Alpha that Sam was still a little pup, and he had many winters to go before his first rut, and many winters after that before he would be taking over the pack. Dean continued to sit there with the chicken in his lap. She was quite content to get her chin rubbed and a hand stroking down her back.
When the treaty was set, John and Charles got to their feet. They shook hands, and then he was motioning for Ellen and Rufus to get up too. Dean felt that jolt of fear again. His dad and Ellen were leaving. He was going to have to stay with the Novak pack. They were going to be his new pack, and he didn’t know anything about any of them. He started to cry which made Castiel pull him close.
“It’s ok, you will get to see your family, I promise. This isn’t goodbye forever. We’ll see them in the morning too,”
Dean wasn’t sure what to make of the Alpha’s attention. That Castiel seemed to want to stay close to him and constantly touch him had him scared that the Alpha would want to mate him soon, maybe even tonight. He wasn’t ready for that. His dad came over to him and he set the chicken down so he could hug him. John hugged him back just as tight.
“You be a good boy, you hear? One day you’ll be helping your Alpha run this pack. He’s going to need you to help keep the rest of the pack in line, and to keep your pups safe. They’re going to run the pack when he’s gone, and other packs might come, like the Sonder pack to challenge your Alpha for his territory, but sometimes others from your own pack might try to challenge him to take over the pack. You need to help make sure that never happens. Be good to him and he’ll be good to you. I can already see that he cares, and that is what you need. A good, caring, loving Alpha. Charles will make sure he doesn’t rush you into anything, he’s already promised me that, but you be ready to mate when your heat comes, you hear? He needs to claim you before another pack comes and tries to take you. I love you, Dean, and I thank you for doing this. You’ve guaranteed our pack’s safety and continuation. We now have a strong ally against invading packs. You’ve done your family good. Ellen, Rufus, Sam, me, we’ll all be safe because of you,”
Dean looked up at his father in awe. He’d never thought he was that important. His dad clearly thought he was. Cas came up behind him and pulled him back against him after he’d hugged Ellen, and even Rufus, who he’d never thought would be nice like that, and he watched as his pack members left. He sniffled and wiped at his tears. Castiel turned him around and hugged him to his chest.
“Where do I sleep? Do I have to stay with everyone? What if they’re mean to me?” His voice hitched as he looked up at the Alpha.
“No, you’re my mate, so you’re going to stay with me,”
“You’re not gonna hurt me, are you?” Dean worried. Castiel pressed a tender kiss to his forehead.
“I would never hurt you. Come on, I’ll show you my den. As the future pack leader, I have my own.”
He scooped Ruby up and passed her off to another pack member before taking Dean’s hand and crossing the clearing and heading towards one of the caves.
“Up here the ground is too wet after the winter and dens collapse a lot, so we moved here where there are caves. I have my own and it’s made up real nice. My father said I had to get it ready so that when I took a mate, they’d be comfortable. I have lots of furs and I got pillows from the city, and some blankets and I have warm clothes. Have you ever worn clothes?” Castiel was excited but Dean was still feeling abandoned, and his stomach twisted with worry and fear as they headed for Castiel’s den. When they arrived the Alpha practically dragged him inside.
“I have lanterns, so I can read books. Can you read? We learn as little pups how to read. I’ll read to you, or I can teach you if you don’t know how,”
“I have worn clothes, I go into the city with my pack, or I did go. I guess this is my pack now? And I can read. I don’t have any books though. We all shared the books, but I like reading,” Dean looked around. The furs were piled high and there were warm blankets on top and there were actual bookcases, filled with books. There were lanterns everywhere, and chairs that looked handmade. It looked like the apartments he’d seen in books and movies, if you ignored the fact that they were inside a cave. He looked up at the ceiling, checking for the spiders he knew lived inside caves, but he didn’t see any.
“Sometimes I went to the movies with Ellen. She’d take all the pups. It was fun,”
“We can go to the movies, I have a car. I can drive,” Castiel was smiling. “Come here, let me know if I have enough furs for you.”
Dean swallowed hard and looked at the nest. Furs were hard, even stacked this high. Did this mean he had to sleep with the Alpha? Sleeping sometimes led to mating, he’d heard Ash tell him that. He didn’t want to mate. Mating with an Alpha meant taking their knot, and knots led to pups and he wasn’t ready to have pups. He rubbed his toes on the cold floor and stared at it. Castiel sensed his worry and hurried over to him.
“You don’t like it? I can add stuff if you want me to. Do you want a real bed? Like in the city? I can get you one,”
Dean felt more tears starting and he wiped at his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Castiel wiped away a stray one that slipped down his cheek.
“I don’t wanna mate. That leads to pups and I’m not ready for that,”
“I know that. I’m not ready for them either. Why are you scared about mating? We’re not doing that for a long time,” Castiel asked. He furrowed his brow, watching his Omega with mild confusion. Dean was still staring at the nest.
“But Ash, he’s from my pack. My old pack, and he says sleeping sometimes leads to mating, and that means taking a knot. That leads to pups,”
Castiel understood now. “I won’t knot you. You don’t have to worry about that. Sure, I have urges, but I don’t need to handle them around you. I can go somewhere else,”
Dean looked up at him with more tears spilling now. “You’re gonna knot someone else?”
“Oh god no! An Alpha mates for life. I won’t ever take anyone into my nest except you. When I say I’ll take care of my urges, I’ll be using my own hands, ok? I’m not going to hurt you or force anything on you. Sleeping is all we’ll be doing, until your first heat,”
Dean sniffled and wiped at his eyes. “What if it comes early? What if I’m still…a pup, cause you think I’m a pup. What if it comes before I’m an adult?”
“Then we’ll wait. When were you born? Winter or spring?”
“Winter. In January,” Dean replied. Castiel stared at the wall, thinking. He’d have to discuss this with his father later, but the pack leader was a reasonable wolf. He wouldn’t want his son to force himself on an innocent Omega either.
“Well, if it were to come early, we’ll wait until the winter of your seventeenth year. How does that sound?”
Dean frowned, thinking about how he’d have to mate and have pups then. In the city the people didn’t have pups that young. They were in their twenties or thirties when they had pups. Shifters lived much longer than the humans. Having pups at seventeen meant he’d have a very, very long lifetime of birthing.
“Can we wait to have pups? I mean, we can bond, you can claim me when my fall heat comes that year, but can we wait to have pups? The people in the city don’t have them that young, and we live so much longer than them. I don’t want to birth like, forty times or more over my lifetime. That’s a lot of pain I’d have to go through, and the pack would grow too large to maintain the balance you have now. There would be too many pups to feed if I birthed at every heat,”
Castiel squinted as he thought. Dean was right, that was an insane number of children they’d have if Dean caught at every heat. They’d be pushing their older pups to leave and form their own packs, and that would still deplete their food source.
“I’ll talk to my father. My mother didn’t catch at every heat. She did ten times though. Only six of us made it to adulthood, and I was the only Alpha. I know they mated at every one of her heats though. I have to ask them how they stopped her from getting pregnant more times,”
“She lost pups? Am I going to lose pups?” Dean’s lower lip trembled as he thought about losing hypothetical pups he wasn’t even ready for.
“I don’t know. It happens. There’s cold, infection, predators, sometimes even humans that aren’t aware that we’re up here. My brother Luke got caught in a bear trap as a pup. His leg broke and infection set in. He died a few weeks later. He was born a long time before me, and my parents mourned him. My father spoke with the humans and told them that they can’t use bear traps or snares up here. Most of them are understanding, and the ones that killed my brother were very apologetic. They were trying to catch a bear because there are a lot of them up here. We caught one for them and handed it over. They were thankful and they left the mountain. Sometimes pups climb too high and they get kicked by a goat and fall. That happened to my sister Naomi. I was six and she was seven. We were always warned not to go up there, but she liked to climb and she didn’t listen. A couple more were born already dead. Birthing in the winter is when problems arise. It can be hard to keep pups warm,” Castiel looked around. The caves were cold. If he could find a way to keep this one warm, they might be able to avoid their pups dying. The winters up here could be brutal.
“You’re gonna protect them, right? So they don’t die?” Dean asked. Castiel pulled him close again and kissed his forehead.
“I will always do my best to take care of you and any pups we have. First, I need to talk to my father. I’ll go do that now,”
He left to do that and Dean found himself alone in the cave that was now supposed to be his den. Slowly he approached the nest. He ran his hand over the blankets. One was very thick. Two more were thinner, but had a silky edge that he liked running his fingers over. He pulled the blankets back and crawled into the nest. Just as he’d predicted, the stack of furs made for a hard bed. The blankets were warm though as he pulled them up to his neck, and he liked the pillows. Castiel had put quite a few in the nest, so he stuffed a couple under his head. It wasn’t too bad.
It was nearly an hour later before Castiel returned, and he found his Omega asleep in the nest. He smiled as he crawled in on the other side and slid under the blankets. It was getting late and though they’d skipped eating a second meal of the day, he was tired. He pulled the blankets over himself and scooted closer. Dean was so warm as he pressed himself up close behind him and wrapped him up in his arms. The Omega’s eyes fluttered before he opened them. He realized Castiel was back, and that he could feel the Alpha’s body pressed against his own. He stiffened, frightened of what Castiel might want, but the Alpha simply placed a soft kiss to his shoulder.
“I don’t expect mating, so relax. I talked to my father and he said they get something in the city called condoms. The humans make special ones for wolves, some of which are made just for Alphas. They also make something called birth control. An Omega takes that and it keeps them from getting pregnant if they don’t want to. But you have to start taking it in the fall, before your winter heat, and in the winter if you don’t want to get pregnant at your spring heat,”
“You know wolves go into heat in the fall, right? Not the winter,” Dean turned a bit so he could look over his shoulder at the Alpha.
“Ok, but it starts getting cold here early, and the snow comes in October, so I guess I thought about it like it was already winter. Summer is short up here. Sometimes it can even snow in the summer. So you’ll take the birth control in the summer so you don’t get pregnant in the fall, and I’ll use the condoms, once I figure them out, and we can doubly make sure we don’t have pups. How does that sound?”
Dean rolled onto his back and looked at him. “Ok, but no mating until my seventeenth winter, you promised. I’ll be almost eighteen by then. My birthday is in the worst of winter, when it’s super cold. It’s at the end of the month. My mom kept a calendar and she said I was born on the 24th, and there are 31 days that month. I don’t know when exactly I’ll go into heat, but in my pack, er, my old pack, the Omegas usually go into heat in the earlier part of fall, around September. So that’s before the snow starts to fall there. Then the pups come at the beginning of spring. We’re not pregnant as long as the humans,”
“Right, that part I knew, about not carrying pups as long. I think maybe around your twentieth winter we can try to have a pup. Then we’ll wait like, three more winters to have another one. That’s what my mom did,”
“Ok, I think that would be ok,” Dean shrugged.
“Let’s get some sleep. I’ll feed you in the morning and then introduce you to the rest of the pack. They’re eager to meet you but they understand that you’re scared and sad. Then we’ll go down the mountain to get your chicken and anything else that you have,”
Dean smiled tentatively. He supposed this was a new beginning, and while he was still scared, he wasn’t as scared. He closed his eyes and this time he didn’t freeze up when the Alpha snuggled in closer. His body heat made the nest even warmer, and he liked that.
“Oh, I hate this nest. It’s too hard. Maybe some straw and fewer furs would make it better, or a real bed. I think it would be hard to get a mattress up the mountain though,”
“Ok, I’ll work on getting some straw. I don’t know where to find it. If I can’t find it, I’ll take some of the pack members with me and we’ll go down to the city to get you a mattress. I’ll find a nice, soft one for you,”
“Thank you,” Dean whispered. Castiel kissed his cheek and snuggled in even more.
“I will do anything for you,”
Dean closed his eyes and drifted off. He still wasn’t happy, but at least he felt safe and wanted. That was a start.