Chapter Text
Werewolves are now what homosexuals were in the seventies, civil rights movements and all. In the cities there are even wolf parades and rallies. Even so, not many wolves come out of the closet if they can help it. Most of them just… disappear. Werewolves are something that most people realize exist, but are skeptical about. “Maybe they’re just looking for attention.” “That’s not natural. There’s no way it’s real.” If someone’s kid turns into a werewolf, nobody talks about it. Other adults treat the parents with a sympathetic silence and make sure to keep their own children at a distance, lest it be catching.
Werewolves make up a subculture that mortals are trying hard not to recognize, but heaven knows nobody goes out on full moons anymore.
…
Spencer spotted her standing by the fountain and smiled wide, heading over. He might have tripped slightly in his final steps approaching her, but if he did, it’s none of anyone else’s business anyways.
“Haley, hi,” he said, and she turned to him smiling.
“Spencer.” She hugged him, and he loved the way she fit perfectly in the fold of his arms. Spencer Smith had a girlfriend and it was practically the greatest thing ever.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” he said, pulling back and sticking his hands in his pockets when he didn’t know what to do with them. “Mom insisted on dropping my sisters off at dance before driving me here.” He rolled his eyes, trying to demonstrate that he thought dance classes and sisters were both totally annoying, and that he would rather spend time with Haley than in a car with his family. Hopefully she got the message.
She smiled and started to walk. He followed after her.
“That’s alright, I just got here a few minutes ago. You know, you should really get your license.”
“I have my permit,” he shrugged. “I’m working on it. Not like they’d let me borrow the car too often anyways. I’d just be stuck driving the twins around.”
They both laughed, awkwardly, the way you do when you aren’t sure how else to act.
“So where are we going?” he asked her, biting his lip to keep from smiling too much, because seriously, he’d been going out with Haley for three months and his astonishment hadn’t worn off yet. He, Spencer Smith, had a girlfriend. They'd gotten together after an impromtu date at the county fair in July, and he'd been walking on air ever since. He’d only been waiting for that for seventeen years.
“I thought we could just walk around,” she offered, holding her hand out to him. He intertwined their fingers and smiled some more.
“Whatever you want.”
Bumming around the mall got boring after a while, and they quickly found themselves loitering on the sidewalk outside of the food court, making faces at people through the window to see if they could startle them. When a security guard came over and frowned at them, they decided to leave. They ended up walking to the park about half a block down the road, where they goofed around like children on the playground for a while, giggling and chasing each other. Haley eventually trapped him at the bottom of the slide, and they traded hesitant kisses for a little while. Soon enough they were making out on the slide, Haley perched with one knee on either side of Spencer’s hips, her hands in his hair, his hands on her back. They had their tongues in each other's mouths, and Spencer was half convinced in that moment that magic really did exist.
She pulled back a little while later for air. “Have you ever done this before?” she asked.
Spencer, to his defense, was lacking oxygen in his brain. “Been to a playground?”
“No, dummy,” Haley laughed. She had an amazing laugh. “Have you ever made out with anyone before?”
He darted his tongue over his lips and shook his head, raising his head a bit to look her in the eyes. She smirked.
“That’s okay, you’re doing good.” She leaned in and kissed him again, and he obligingly let his eyes slide closed and kissed back.
“Have you?” he mumbled against her mouth.
She nodded. “I had a boyfriend last year.”
Spencer was curious. Was that boy better at kissing than Spencer was? Where did they meet? Why’d they break up? How much did he do? How much was Spencer expected to do? Did Haley make out with the other boy at a playground too? There were so many pressing questions, but Spencer didn’t get to ask any of them with their mouths pressed together like this, tongues sliding over each other. She tugged gently on Spencer’s hair and he opened his mouth a tiny bit more. When she flicked the tip of her tongue just barely over Spencer’s, his brain just about cut out altogether and his entire body felt tense like a piece of plywood.
Her hands slid down from Spencer’s hair to his shoulders, his sides. They stopped on his hips and she ducked her head a little to kiss a spot on Spencer’s neck.
“Oh.”
Spencer’s voice came out with out his intention, and he blushed. He hated the way his whole face and neck heated up when he was embarrassed. He was such a loser. Who just said things like that when someone kissed their neck? He probably seemed like a total virgin and she was gonna think he was an idiot and leave.
Instead, though, he felt her smile against his skin and then she nipped at a spot under Spencer’s jaw. Oh, Spencer thought again, but thankfully didn’t say that.
Instead he squeezed her hips where he was holding her and murmured, “Don’t leave a mark,” because his mom would seriously kill him if he came home with a hickey, and he’d rather stay alive long enough to do this again. And again. And again.
“I’ll be careful,” she said, pressing a kiss to the hollow of Spencer’s throat, making his breath hitch again. Then she moved back up him and they were back to kissing. They were eager, with hands sliding nervously everywhere except for a few places they were too scared to go. It was inexperienced and slimy, with teeth bumping, kinda gross. Spencer didn’t want to stop ever.
Her hands stopped on Spencer’s sides, and Spencer felt kind of brave, using one hand to tug gently on her hair the way she had to him. He tugged a bit harder than he meant to though, and was about to apologize because this was his girlfriend and he was supposed to be gentle. He didn't mean to hurt her. But then she moaned, and Spencer didn’t know he could get hard that quickly.
She went back to kissing his throat, gentle fingers pulling the collar of his t-shirt down to get at his collar bone and near his shoulder. Spencer hadn't known that collar bones were sexy. Whatever, they apparently were. He pulled her hair gently again, because it seemed like the right thing to do, but then…
“Yowch!” Spencer yelped, scrambling back as quickly as he could, which was really rather impossible on a slide. Haley had gasped and pulled back, and was now staring at Spencer with wide eyes.
“Y-you bit me!” Spencer voice was an octave too high. He yanked the collar of his shirt down a bit to look at where his shoulder was bleeding. Bleeding. Oh my God. He looked up at her again in disbelief, not knowing if that was some kind of freak accident or if it was a sex thing he didn’t know about or…
She looked different. Her teeth looked sharper and her eyes had changed. There was blood on her mouth. His blood.
“Haley…”
She looked down at her hands, and then hid them before Spencer could see what was wrong with them, a horrified expression on her face. She looked at Spencer again and then took off running.
“Haley!” he yelled, sitting up. “Haley, what the fuck!?”
Spencer wasn’t exactly an expert on getting bitten by humans and how much it was supposed to hurt, but Spencer felt like this one hurt incredibly more than it was supposed to. Even though she'd broken the skin and it was bleeding. Bleeding. Oh my God.
He pulled his shirt down to look at it again and hissed when the cold air hit it. His hands were shaking. No, actually, all of him was trembling. He had to be in shock or something.
“Well damn….”
Spencer’s head snapped up when someone spoke and he saw a man heading towards him. He couldn't see him very well through the darkness. Frightened, he scrambled back again, this time falling sideways off the stupid slide and landing on his ass. He leapt to his feet and stepped back.
“Stay away from me!” he yelled.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” the guy responded, holding his hands up.
Spencer scrambled back again, but his shoulder knocked against the bar from the jungle gym and he hissed out a pained breath.
“Ow!"
“Did she just bite you?” the man asked, looking after where Haley had run off into the trees.
“It’s not a big deal. It doesn’t hurt that bad-”
“Let me see it,” the guy interrupted, stepping forward too close for comfort.
Spencer jumped back again. “What!? No way! Fuck off!”
“Charming,” the guy said calmly, “Really. I’m trying to help you. If that girl’s a werewolf then you could be in serious trouble,”
Spencer’s heart hammered in his chest, and he didn’t make a move to stop the guy from approaching him and peeling Spencer’s shirt up to look at the bite. He even helped gingerly take his arm out of his sleeve. Werewolf. Werewolf... he hadn't even considered that. Werewolves existed, sure. But that was on the news and in big cities. Werewolves didn’t exist where Spencer lived. Werewolves didn’t go around biting people in innocent, small town Colorado. That kind of thing happened to other people, not to Spencer.
“Werewolf…?” he asked, voice shaking.
“What’s your name?”
“Spencer,” he replied, kind of numb. His head felt too light.
“Don’t go passing out on me, Spencer.” the guy said, looking at the bite. Spencer bit his lip and looked at it too. It was red and swollen, blood running everywhere and making a mess. It throbbed and burned. The guy swore quietly under his breath. “We need to go see Zack. He might be able to help with this.”
“Who’s Zack?” Spencer asked, still staring at the teeth-shaped bleeding crescent on his shoulder.
“My alpha,” the boy responded, moving out of Spencer’s personal space and taking him by the wrist, tugging him along. Spencer didn’t even try to protest. The word alpha didn’t make a lot of sense to him though. It sounded like a creepy sex thing, or something from Star Trek maybe? Spencer had never actually watched Star Trek, but sometimes he pretended that he had just so he could talk to someone at his lunch table besides his friend Ryan. Ninth graders were moody and annoying. He blinked hard. Why was he thinking about Star Trek at a time like this? His head was dizzy. He might throw up.
“Who are you?” he asked instead to pull himself back to reality, following the guy out of the park and pulling his shirt back down, biting the inside of his cheek when the wet fabric stuck to the wound. It hurt.
“My name’s Jon,” the guy said. “Come on, let’s hurry.” Right, hurry. Spencer followed the stranger down the street, and there wasn't anybody out walking around to give them a second glance. Bleeding profusely and on the verge of passing out, Spencer disappeared into the night with a total stranger.
…
Zack was bigger than Spencer expected him to be, dressed in cargo shorts and a t-shirt, with buzzed blonde hair and a baffled expression. He was sitting on the couch when Jon led Spencer inside, and Spencer didn't see how tall he was until he stood up. He was really freaking tall.
“Who’s this?” the man asked.
“He just got bit. Can you help?” Jon replied, closing the door behind them. There was some small voice in the back of Spencer’s mind telling him that following a stranger to an apartment with a large man waiting inside and then letting the stranger lock the door behind him was a really dangerous and stupid idea, but Jon seemed legitimately concerned for him. When Zack nodded and steered Spencer into the kitchen, it was gentle and Spencer got the feeling that he didn’t have to be scared of these guys. Maybe he was just delirious. He still felt pretty dizzy.
“Sit down, kid, you’re swaying.”
Spencer didn't even hesitate before obeying, dropping himself down into a nearby chair. Jon approached him and gently peeled Spencer’s shirt up again and let it hang around Spencer’s neck so that his shoulder was entirely accessible. He felt kind of stupid, sitting there with his shirt off in front of total strangers, but his head also felt really swimmy, so he was a bit preoccupied. If he had his head about himself he would have tried to suck in his stomach
The guy named Zack set a bag on the kitchen table next to Spencer and knelt down in front of him, looking closely at the wound. Wound. Blood. Oh my God. Spencer focused really hard on not throwing up on Zack.
“Definitely a werewolf,” he said, getting a bottle and some cotton balls out of the bag and pouring whatever was in the bottle onto them. He was... was he sniffing Spencer? He was sniffing Spencer. Ew. What? “This is gonna hurt, so bear with me,” he warned, then pressed the cotton to Spencer’s cut, and Spencer almost screamed. He pressed his fist to his mouth so that he wouldn’t, and he felt a hand rubbing his back which he assumed was Jon’s. It was warm and dry where Spencer was sweaty.
“Female werewolf,” he said. “Sixteen years old.. she must be a born. I've met all the adults in town, and Pete didn't mention any strays.”
“She’s my girlfriend,” Spencer said, still feeling dizzy as Zack fastened a large square of gauze to the bite and taped it in place.
“This what you kids do for fun these days?” Zack asked dryly, and Spencer had a feeling he wasn’t supposed to answer that question. “It’s going to bleed a lot, but we can’t know for now whether she changed you or not. If she did, then stitches will be pointless, it’ll close up by morning.”
“Here, let’s clean you up some,” Jon said, moving in with a wet washcloth and wiping the blood off of Spencer’s chest gently. Spencer watched him as he picked up one of Spencer’s hands and wiped the palm. His hands were all bloody and dirty.
“How’d that happen?” Zack asked, standing again.
“He fell off a slide,” Jon answered, and Spencer could feel his face burning with a blush, all the way down his neck and chest. He felt childish and stupid.
Some off the blood had gathered at a fold in Spencer’s stomach and made a line, and Jon wiped it away. Spencer had never been so embarrassed in his life, and he wanted to die.
He watched as Jon rinsed off the rag and then flinched back when Jon tried to wipe his face with it.
“Hey!”
“There’s tracks down your face,” Jon said calmly, one warm hand on the back of Spencer’s neck to keep him still, the cloth scrubbing gently at Spencer’s cheeks. “You were crying.”
“No I wasn’t,” Spencer replied indignantly, still blushing. Jon put the cloth down and pulled Spencer up to his feet.
“We’ll need to let him borrow a clean shirt, Zack. We can’t send him home like this,” Jon said.
Spencer watched as the edges of his vision filled with black and he blinked to try and get it to go away. Suddenly the room was spinning, and before he could do anything about it, the floor flew out from under him and he heard Zack’s voice yelling “Catch him!”
Somebody did; Spencer could feel them haul him up and then Spencer was entirely off the ground. He felt himself get carried somewhere and vaguely thought that they shouldn’t have been able to hold him that easy- he wasn’t stick and bones after all.
“Well… damn….”
“Oh well that’s great. How are we gonna get him home like this?” The voice was deep and rumbled like thunder against Spencer's ear. He imagined that his head was resting against someone's chest. He would have demanded to be let down (he wasn't a child!!) if he could figure out how to speak or open his eyes or move.
“He’ll just have to sleep here tonight. This way we can keep an eye on him.”
“I don’t like this, Jonathan…”
“I didn’t exactly plan on picking up a stray tonight, Zack.”
Spencer felt something soft and solid underneath him, but his head was pounding and he wasn’t physically capable of opening his eyes.
“He’ll be okay. We’ll just figure it out in the morning.”
“The poor kid.…”
Somebody sighed. “Yeah. I’ll stay with him.”
“Don’t forget to get some sleep, pup.”
“Yeah, sure.”
Everything went silent after that when Spencer fell asleep.
...
Spencer woke up and everything felt weird. He yawned and blinked his eyes open. They felt sticky. He was in a strange place that he didn’t recognize, everything felt weird, and everything hurt. He spent a moment trying to figure out where he was or why he felt so weird, but when he looked down and saw paws instead of arms, he panicked.
What was supposed to come out as a scream sounded more like a bark and Spencer jolted so hard that he fell of the couch. Next thing he knew there was someone pinning him down completely, an arm pressed firmly to Spencer’s throat so Spencer couldn’t bite him (which he had actually tried to do. it made him feel sick).
“Calm down. It’s okay,” the guy said. “Breathe, Spencer. I need you to focus for me, okay bud?" Spencer growled, honest to God growled, and he wasn't sure how that noise had even come out of him. All he knew was that he was sore and tired and his heart was pounding and his head hurt. Something was seriously wrong, and to top it all off, he had no idea where he was. The person on top of him got heavier. "C'mon puppy, calm down. I need you to think really hard what your body looks like. Can you think about what you look like as a human, Spencer?”
Spencer was still entirely panicking, but he did as he was asked, and within a minute he found himself back to normal in his normal body. The guy carefully climbed off of him and helped Spencer up.
Jon: Spencer remembered his name. He remembered the kissing and Haley and the weird man and all the blood that had been all over him and being in someone's kitchen and... and suddenly he felt like crying.
“What time is it?” his voice sounded choked. He was dressed in a t-shirt that wasn’t his and his own boxers, which felt all rumpled after the scary wolf experience. He pushed them down to cover his thighs more and sat heavily on the couch.
“It’s seven,” Jon said, sitting next to him. Spencer’s jeans were folded nicely on the floor with his shoes. He wasn’t sure what had happened to his bloody shirt from the night before.
“Is he okay?” another man asked, appearing in the doorway and looking concerned. Spencer took a moment to remember his name. Right, Zack. The alpha, whatever the hell that meant.
“He’s fine,” Jon said. “Just changed while he was sleeping and freaked himself out. He’s okay.”
“Well, I guess we know that he’s changed now,” Zack said, walking into the room. He sat down on the couch next to Spencer, who eyed him carefully and leaned away. “Let me look at the bite real quick. See if it’s closed up.”
Spencer obediently pulled his shirt up and his arm out of the sleeve to show off his shoulder, which didn’t hurt hardly as much as he remembered it hurting. Zack carefully pulled the bandage off to look and then nodded. Spencer didn't want to watch this happen, so he looked at Jon instead. Jon looked younger than Spencer had estimated the night before. With the room lit and Spencer's head not spinning, Jon looked less like thirty and more like twenty, twenty-two at most.
“It’s completely healed,” Zack said, carefully folding the bandage and getting up to toss it out. Spencer stared down at the pale pink crescent on his shoulder and ran his finger over it gently.
“I’m a werewolf then, huh?” he said, voice sounding weak and too young.
“Welcome to the club,” Jon said.
Spencer’s throat was sore and tight again, and he bit his bottom lip to keep it from trembling. He set his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands, tears coming out of his eyes whether he wanted them too or not. The couch dipped down a bit to his left and someone put their arm around Spencer’s shoulders, tugging him into their side. Spencer let them. He sniffled.
“It’ll be alright,” Jon’s voice said, and he felt Jon nosing around in his hair by his ear. It really should have freaked him out, but he was too tired and sore and busy crying to do anything about it. It was probably a weird werewolf thing, and Spencer figured he’d have to get used to weird werewolf things. It was oddly comforting somehow.
…
“Dude, where were you last night? Your family was going crazy. Your mom even came over to ask my dad if he’d seen you,”
Spencer was technically grounded ‘for the rest of your life, Spencer James Smith, what is the matter with you!?’ and banished to his room until he could come up with a good explanation for where he’d been last night. Technically Ryan shouldn’t have even been there, but Mrs. Smith had a huge soft spot for Ryan and let him in. Even so, Spencer didn’t answer to fourteen year olds.
“Where’d you disappear to?” Ryan asked, sitting down on Spencer’s bed and nudging his knee. Spencer normally would have nudged back, but he didn’t have it in him. The thing was, he really wanted to tell Ryan where he’d been. Ryan was pretty cool for a ninth grader. Spencer had been hanging out with him since five year old Ryan stole nine year old Spencer’s baseball and threw it in the gutter. Spencer had gotten mad and shoved Ryan, making him skin his knee. They became friends on Spencer's front while Mrs. Smith put a bandage on Ryan's knee and gave him a popsicle. They talked about superheroes and forgot that they were supposed to be mad at each other. Ryan and Spencer had grown accustomed to each other, and they told each other practically everything, but… this secret was too big and too weird to tell Ryan.
“I went to a friend’s house and I forgot to call mom and let her know,” Spencer lied.
“Hm.” That is the same thing Spencer’s mom had said to him. Obviously neither of them believed him.
“Really!” Spencer insisted. “That’s where I was.”
“Which friend?” Ryan asked.
“Brent.”
“Is he the one who likes video games?” Ryan asked. “Or the one who works at the carwash?”
“Video games,” Spencer said, then frowned. “Everyone likes video games, loser.” He nudged Ryan.
Ryan nudged back. “Dumb ass.”
“Cheese licker.”
“Oooh some insult there,” Ryan rolled his eyes and pretended to sulk, and Spencer grinned victorious.
“Was last night okay?” Spencer asked, looking at Ryan carefully.
Ryan shrugged. “As good as it gets.”
“Hm….”
Ryan sighed. “Yeah.”
…
It took lots of apologizing and coercing and begging and Brent coming over to lie and say that yes, Spencer had totally been at his house that night, he just forgot to call. On the upside, Spencer was finally ungrounded after two weeks of doing absolutely nothing. On the downside, everything sucked. He started locking his door at night, because he never knew when he might wake up not in his human body. He had to be careful to watch his temper, because if he got too mad then he might growl, or his eyes would change.
To make it harder, he was seemingly always pissed off. Pissed off and hungry- it was like he’d been hit with a triple dose of puberty, mood-swings and all.
He could tell his parents were getting frustrated with him. One minute he was fine, normal Spencer, and then next he was clenching his fists and storming out of the room. There were a million things he couldn’t get used to, like his newly enhanced sense of smell, or finding himself accidentally eavesdropping on his neighbor’s conversation in an entirely other house. Sometimes at school, for no apparent reason, fur would show up on the tops of his hands, and he hand to press them under his thighs and focus really hard until it went away.
His life was a trainwreck.
His mother, on a similar note, was curious.
“I’m not stupid, Spencer,” she told him. “There’s something going on with you. Why won’t you talk to me about it?”
After several renditions of this conversation, Spencer was desperate. He pulled the last card that he had. “Mom, I can’t. It’s guy stuff….”
That, however, backfired, when his dad knocked on his bedroom door a half hour later and gave him the ‘you can come to me with any questions you have. Adolescence is a hard time for everyone’ speech. Spencer nearly threw himself out the window to escape it.
Spencer was at the end of a long and stressful day when his mom called him downstairs after dinner. He went, reluctantly, but froze with wide eyes when he saw who was at the front door.
“Haley’s here,” his mom said, smiling at him. “I was just telling her how nice it is to see her. You haven’t had her over in a while, Spence.”
Spencer hadn’t had her over in weeks. He hadn’t seen her since that night on the playground, twenty nine days ago exactly. He'd been counting. He swallowed hard and walked over to her.
“We’re just gonna talk for a while,” he said, stepping outside and pulling the door closed to protect against curious mothers.
“Spencer, I-”
“Let’s take a walk,” Spencer interrupted her, stuffing his hands far into his pockets and keeping space between them, trying to send a message.
“Okay,” she walked with him down the sidewalk, looking nervous. Spencer was nervous too. He felt like he was going to throw up.
“We need to talk about what happened,” Haley said, and Spencer nodded silently. He didn’t know how to start this conversation. He'd never been taught how to deal with your girlfriend apparently being a werewolf. Haley sighed.
“I didn’t mean to,” she said.
“You bit me.” Spencer said it with as much conviction as possible. If his voice cracked on the last word, he wasn’t admitting to anything.
“I didn’t mean to,” she repeated, sounding as desperate as Spencer felt. “It… it just happened. It’s a possessive thing, and sometimes during… activities like that, instincts can take over and… I didn’t mean to, Spencer, I’m sorry.”
“You bit me,” he said again. “And then you ran away and left me there, totally fucking confused, and I didn’t even know you were a werewolf, Haley. You never told me!”
“How was I supposed to tell you, Spencer? It’s not exactly something anyone talks about!” she snapped at him. “What would you have done if I’d just come right out and said it? You would have run away!”
“You ran away,” Spencer said, crossing his arms. They’d stopped walking and were arguing on the sidewalk about a block from Spencer’s house. “You bit me and then ran away, and now I don’t have that option anymore.”
“I’m sorry, Spencer….”
“Do…” he faltered for a second. “Do you know how scared I was? You… you changed. You looked so different. And this guy showed up and was like take your shirt off! And then went fucking Harry Potter on me like ‘you’re a werewolf, Spencer’ and you were just gone!”
“I’m so sorry,” she said quietly.
Spencer sighed.
“Can I see it?” she asked, biting her lip. She looked cute like that, and no matter how mad Spencer was, he still wanted to kiss her until she stopped biting it.
“The scar?”
She nodded. Spencer nodded slowly and pulled his shirt up to expose his shoulder, where a now white half circle was embedded in his skin.
“I’m sorry,” she said, leaning in. Spencer held his breath as she placed a gentle kiss to it, and after a moment let the breath out, relaxed. He hugged her tight, not caring how awkward it was with his shirt half off, and she hugged him back.
“I’m sorry this happened,” Haley said. “But we’re in this together now, okay? We’ll get through this together, I promise.”
Spencer may or may not have been clinging to her a little.
“I love you,” Haley said, and for the first time in a while, Spencer couldn’t stop himself from smiling, even though he was choking up.
“I love you too.” They'd never said that before.
…
When Spencer walked out of school, hand linked to Haley's, he was thinking about going to her house to 'study,' doing some math homework, making out on her bed until her parents came home. Haley didn't know that yet, but she would probably go along with it. If she didn't, then maybe Spencer would actually do his homework. He had his senior year to pass, after all.
Spencer liked hanging out with Haley. He'd liked it before, of course he did, but now he liked everything that he liked before and also that Haley was the only person in the world who he didn't have to lie to anymore.
Unfortunately, she also didn't have a whole lot of answers. Haley was born as a werewolf, so she went through the horrible, awkward 'puppy' phase, as she called it, when she was too young to really remember it.
"It started when I was two," she'd told him, shrugging. "Random transformations when you're asleep or angry, that's all I can really remember. I don't know about sense of smell or anything because it's always been this way."
It wasn't like he could look online for information about this stuff. He knew there were other werewolves out there, but they didn't go around publishing blogs and forming chat rooms to talk about wolf issues. Not that he knew of, at least. At this point, vague answers about wolf puberty and someone to complain to was all Spencer could ask for in a girlfriend. Besides, the last thing he needed was for his parents to find werewolf stuff in his browser history.
"Spencer!" A voice broke Spencer out of his thoughts and he looked around. "Hey Spencer!"
"Who's that guy?" Haley asked, pointing.
"That..." Spencer said, squinting. "That's Jon."
"Jon?" Haley asked. "Who's Jon?"
"Hey!" Jon jogged over to him, smiling. "Hey man, what a coincidence. How are you?"
"I'm good," Spencer said. "Good. What are you doing here?"
"Oh I was just headed to the store," Jon said. "I live down that way, so I'm just passing by." He looked like he’d just gotten out of bed, his brown hair a tousled mess, his jeans hanging low on his hips, and his flannel shirt sleeves rolled up.
Spencer had been to Jon's apartment; he remembered that. But he'd been a bit too hazy on the way there to remember where it was. Also, it had been dark out.
"Ahem," Haley said, nudging him.
"Oh!" Spencer said, remembering himself. "Haley, this is Jon. I met him the night that.. Uh.. You know." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Jon, this is Haley, my girlfriend."
Jon did this thing where he nonchalantly sniffed the air in Haley's direction and smirked. "You're the girl from the playground."
Haley was watching him carefully. "I am."
"Yknow, it's a good thing I showed up when I did. Spencer sure was shocked."
Haley narrowed her eyes. "Well it's not exactly like I planned for that to happen," she said.
"I would hope not.”
There was something in the way Jon and Haley were looking at each other, heads high, eyes narrowed, jaws clenched. Spencer realized they were challenging each other or something. It must have been a werewolf thing, but Spencer could practically smell the tense energy running through the air between them.
"Guys," he hissed. "Knock it off.”
Jon snapped out of it and had the decency to look embarrassed, but Haley continued to glare.
"Anyways,” Jon said. “I was meaning to ask, would you guys like to grab something to eat with me? We could head to the mall, my treat.”
Spencer said "sure!" at the same time that Haley said "we're busy, sorry," and they glanced at each other, Haley glaring. Jon chuckled.
"You go ahead," Haley said, her hand on Spencer's shoulder. She smiled, but it looked forced. "Call me tonight?"
Spencer didn't have time to answer when Haley pulled him in for a kiss, tongue and everything. She pulled away after a few seconds, leaving Spencer red faced and breathless.
"I'll call you," he said, and Haley smiled again, this time smug, turned, and started walking towards home. Spencer wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and glanced at Jon, who was still chuckling.
"Someone's possessive," Jon smiled fondly. "C'mon. You're probably starving."
Spencer was, actually. And if Jon was paying, who was he to question free food? He smiled and went with him.
…
“This is so good,” Spencer gushed, shoveling pizza into his mouth. “How did you find this place?”
“First night in town I got lost, followed my nose, and ended up here. It’s amazing, right?” Jon sipped at the can of coke they had sitting between them with two straws stuck in it. He’d had enough money for two slices of pizza but only one can of coke. Spencer didn’t mind. Honestly though, the restaurant smelled like grease, cheese, and feet. Why would Jon follow a scent like that?
“Amazing,” Spencer said, nodding. The pizza was pretty greasy, and he felt some of the grease run down his chin. Jon reached over with a napkin and wiped it off. Spencer blushed slightly but grinned.
“Thanks.”
“Mhm.” Jon said, finishing off his pizza with one giant bite. “So how are you doing, adjusting to the werewolf life?”
Spencer looked around nervously to see if anyone was around to overhear them, but Jon was totally relaxed. The restaurant was abandoned and the staff was hiding in the breakroom or something. Spencer looked around again before leaning back in the booth and folding his arms over his stomach.
“It’s alright…”
“It sucks, doesn’t it?” Jon grinned and raised an eyebrow.
Spencer sighed. “Yeah. Yeah it does.”
“Wanna talk about it?” Jon asked. “I mean, I’m a born, so I don’t have personal experience, but I’ve known a lot of newly changed puppies.”
“You’ve known a lot of other werewolves?” Spencer asked, honestly pretty curious. He was a bit deprived in the area of werewolf culture.
Jon nodded. “Believe it or not, Chicago has a decently sized wolf scene. My parents had a habit of taking in newly turned strays and helping them out.”
“That’s really nice of them,” Spencer said, smiling.
Jon nodded. “It was great. Zack was a family friend, and he moved out here a few years ago… I’ve always dreamed of moving someplace like this, and he offered for me to room with him. The forests are so pretty.”
Spencer took another bite of his pizza. “Is that a normal dream? For a werewolf? Most kids run away to the city.”
Jon shrugged. “Big cities are over stimulating. So much noise and smells and… This cluster of towns here? It’s practically empty compared to the city. It’s so freeing.”
Scratching at his arm, Spencer nodded a bit. “I can see how it could feel suffocating. It feels like… everything is so much louder and just… there.”
“You’ll get used to it, puppy.” Jon ruffled his hair, and Spencer smiled, ducking his head. He glanced down at his phone and sighed.
“I think I’d better be getting home,” he said. “I’m still kind of walking on thin ice, after uhm… y’know.”
Jon nodded and pulled his wallet out, throwing his last five dollars on the table for the bill. He got up and stretched, arms above his head, pulling at his shirt and exposing his stomach a bit. Spencer realized he was staring, then blinked hard and looked away, laughing at himself. What the hell was that? Spencer didn’t even like guys. He thought about making out with Haley and smiled.
“What’s that face for?” Jon teased, pinching Spencer’s cheek. Spencer batted Jon’s hand away and laughed, ducking out of reach.
“Nothing.”
“Mhm.” Jon winked, and Spencer rolled his eyes. Jon was simultaneously the lamest and most amazing person Spencer had ever met.
Spencer shoved Jon’s shoulder. “It’s nothing.”
…
Jon really didn’t have to walk Spencer all the way to his house, and maybe it really wasn’t smart to let an older boy who was practically a stranger know where he lived, but Spencer wasn’t the poster boy for good choices at the moment, so he decided not to worry about it. When they got there, Ryan was sitting on his doorstep eating a sandwich off of a plate that definitely came from Spencer’s house. He glared suspiciously at Jon in a way he did with anyone who got too close to him (Spencer knew from experience).
“I’ll see you,” Jon said, raising his hand and walking away. Spencer jogged up to the front door and nudged Ryan’s foot with his own.
“Who was that?” Ryan asked, mouth full of sandwich.
Spencer poked Ryan in the forehead and said “Chew, dummy.” Ryan kicked him in the shin. “A friend from the high school,” he answered. He lied. Spencer was getting kind of sick of lying to people all the time.
“That’s not carwash guy or video game guy,” Ryan said, “And it’s definitely not Haley.”
Spencer scowled. “I have more than three friends, asshole.”
Ryan nodded and looked up at him. “You have me.”
Spencer looked carefully at Ryan, knowing there were layers to that statement when it came from Ryan. It was more like a question, but Ryan would never admit that.
“That’s right, I got you.” Spencer ruffled Ryan hair, and Ryan frowned and swatted at his hand. Spencer smiled.
"I've never seen him around the school though," Ryan continued. Spencer groaned.
"He wouldn't hang around your hallways, he's a senior."
“You hang out in my hallways.”
"Drop it, Ross," Spencer snapped, and Ryan sighed like a dying man.
“Whatever," he flipped his hair back out of his eyes. "I wrote another poem.” Ryan grinned up at him.
Spencer groaned. “No.”
“It’s about unrequited love and the way it tortures a soul,” Ryan said seriously, as if he knew anything about that at thirteen. Spencer sighed and flopped down on the porch steps, laying back and throwing his arm over his eyes.
“Lay it on me, Shakespeare.” Spencer could practically hear Ryan grinning as he flipped open his notebook. The smile was worth it.
…
Spencer couldn’t remember exactly how it happened, but it was right there on the screen- jwalk:) and a phone number. Spencer stared at it for a while, then stared down at the bulge in his underwear. If anyone could help with this, it was Jon. And really, Jon and he had been friends for almost two months. That was long enough for them to talk about this stuff, right?
Spencer wasn’t really sure. Brent spoke almost entirely in dirty jokes, and getting Ryan to talk about anything intimate was as hard as pulling teeth. Ryan never wanted to talk about girls either, which didn’t make a whole lot of sense to Spencer. When he himself was that age, girls were the only thing he ever wanted to talk about.
Well, it was now or never.
The message read: is the nvrending bonr a wolf thing? plz help. -spence
He flopped back on his bed and pressed his pillow to his face, hoping that maybe if he suffocated himself, that’d kill him before he died of embarrassment. Or of lack of blood in his brain. This was seriously a problem.
About five minutes later, when Spencer was on the brink of changing his name and running away to Las Vegas, his phone started ringing.
He flung a hand out, grabbing blindly for it, and pressed the button. When he held it up to his ear, hysterical laughter erupted and he flinched back, it was so loud.
He figured it’d stop after a few seconds, but when it didn’t, he scowled.
“You aren’t helping,” he snapped.
Jon continued to laugh.
“Shut up! You’re such an asshole! Oh my god.” He was totally whining.
Jon kept laughing, but it sounded like he was trying to stop. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but I’m really not.” He exploded in laughter again.
“I hate you,” Spencer growled. “Never mind I asked.” He hung up and flopped back again, hiding behind his pillow. Seconds later, his phone trilled and he let himself growl before picking it up.
There was a new text from Jon: wolves have a high sex drive, young ones especially. Jon texted in full words, and it was possibly the coolest thing ever. It made him sound all mature and intelligent. Maybe Spencer should start texting like that.
Immediately his phone alerted him of a new text: puppy;).
Spencer laughed and texted back: i hate u.
And then: thanx.
…
They were sprawled out on Haley’s parent’s couch in the living room with an episode of America’s Next Top Model on the tv. Haley was curled up against Spencer’s chest, and Spencer was absentmindedly running his fingers through her hair.
“So I was thinking,” he said, before he could convince himself not to. “Well… we’ve been going out for a while now, and… maybe it’s too soon… but maybe you would want to…”
Haley looked up at him and wrinkled her nose. “What are you talking about?”
Spencer bit his lip. This was a stupid idea, oh my God, kill him now.
“Uhm… I was just… we’ve made out before and stuff, and so I was just thinking maybe we could… do… more?” Spencer had forgotten how to talk, apparently, because he was just a giant idiot.
She sat up on the couch and looked at him better. Then she glanced around to see if her parents or sister were lurking anywhere. Her parents were out on errands, and her sister was in the backyard talking on her cellphone. She met Spencer’s eye again.
“You want to have sex with me?” she asked, blushing slightly. Spencer blushed too and dropped his gaze.
He sat up. “Well… uh I mean… I was just….”
Haley smiled and put her hand under Spencer’s jaw, pulling his head up to look at him.
“I want to,” she said, “But there’s something we need to talk about first. Sometime when my sister might not overhear us.”
The next day they talked about it in quiet voices while walking around the park holding hands. They wouldn’t want someone to overhear them talking about sex, but even more, they wouldn’t want anyone to overhear the word ‘werewolf’ and panic.
They decided that when they did it, it would have to be at Spencer’s house. Haley’s parents, being werewolves and all, would be able to pick up the scent no matter how careful they were. They would wait until Spencer’s family was out, and then they would do it. But even more important, they talked about what it would mean.
“Werewolves mate for life, Spencer,” she told him, sitting him down at a park bench. “And… while doing it doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve mated, not unless we say it does… well, it’s going to be a major emotional investment for us.”
Spencer nodded. Of course he knew that. He’d heard the schpeel in sex ed about how sex wasn’t just physical, it was mental, and how chemicals would go crazy and blah blah blah blah.
“But being-” she looked at him intently and lowered her voice, “-werewolves… it’s a bigger deal. The bond will be stronger. We’ll get more possessive of each other. I’m ready to, Spencer. I want to. But I also want us both to be completely ready.”
Spencer nodded again. Talking about this outloud was awkward.
“We have to be ready for what we’re getting ourselves into,” she said seriously.
They talked some more, and decided together that they loved each other, they were in this together, they could handle it. Afterall, Haley had bitten him and they were still together. They’d been together for almost six months, and a lot of other kids started having sex long before that. They were almost adults. They totally knew what they were doing.
And, so they did.
One night when Spencer’s parents took the twins out to a fifth grade event, Spencer stayed behind and Haley came over. It was clumsy and awkward, since they both had no idea what they were doing, but at the same time it was kind of amazing, in Spencer's opinion.
Afterwards, lying there shaking and slightly exhausted, Spencer rolled onto his side to face her. They were lying in his bed. He tried not to think about the TMNT poster hanging on his closet door or that four cartoon characters had just watched the whole thing.
“I love you,” he whispered, and she smiled at him. Spencer loved her smile. Every time he saw it, it made him feel like he was bubbling over a bit.
“I love you too,” she leaned in and kissed him gently.
“I want you to be my mate,” he whispered against her lips, and she pulled back to look him in the eye.
“Are… are you sure?” she asked him, sounding serious.
Spencer nodded slowly. “I’m sure. I love you.”
“Werewolves mate for life,” she reminded him, looking him in the eyes, mouth curving up in a smile.
“For life,” he said, reaching out and pushing her hair out of her eyes. “I want it if you do.”
She smiled wider, melting Spencer into a big pile of goo.
“I want to. Mates?” she leaned in and kissed him gently.
Spencer smiled and kissed back. “Mates.”
Shortly after that they got up and put their clothes back on. They decided to go out to the movies, because Spencer wasn’t sure he could hold a normal conversation with how happy he was feeling. They walked into town and held hands the entire time they were out.
…
Brendon Urie was in the supermarket with his mom, counting the tiles as he followed her around, bored out of his mind. Thirty minutes, she’d said. We’ll be in and out, she’d said. Lies, lies, lies, Brendon was so bored.
They were almost to the check out line when they ran into Mrs. Smith, a friend of Brendon’s mother from a book club the ladies did every other Thursday afternoon. Brendon had to use amazing amounts of self control to keep from whining and tugging on his mother’s sleeve when she stopped to talk to Mrs. Smith. But he was thirteen and too old for such things. Anyways, Brendon wanted to die, he was so bored.
They talked about the usual things. About their kids and the other women from book club. Mrs. Smith said how tall Brendon was getting, which he really wasn’t, not yet. Almost fourteen years old and he was still only five foot two. “Pocket sized,” Mrs. Smith said, patting his shoulder and smiling. His brother Mason had been six foot by this age. It really wasn’t fair.
He resorted to picking up a magazine he wasn’t allowed to be reading- but it wasn’t like his mother was paying attention to him- and flipping through it. It had an article about the Hottest Men in Hollywood, and Brendon had to disagree. Tom Felton was so much hotter than Usher, what was this journalist even thinking?
“-and I just don’t know what to do with him,” Mrs. Smith sighed, perking Brendon’s attention. “He’s been so moody lately, shutting us out and hiding out in his bedroom all of the time. He’ll hardly talk to us. He ditched school the other day. Maybe it’s just a rebellious phase or something, but my husband and I are at a total loss…”
George Clooney wasn’t even hot, and Brendon wasn’t sure that Justin Bieber counted as a ‘man.’ The magazine was flawed. He tried really hard not to eavesdrop on his mother’s conversation, but she was the one keeping him here, after all, and he was curious. He’d met Mrs. Smith’s son once or twice, and he hadn’t seemed like a bad kid or anything. The only thing he really knew about the kid was from what his mom said, but he thought that he sounded cool. Brendon wanted to be his friend more than he was willing to admit.
He needed more friends.
“He needs guidance,” was Mrs. Urie’s advice. Guidance, guidance, guidance- her favorite advice for troubled youth. That’s what she always said when the topic of other people’s children came up.
After Mrs. Smith said goodbye and went to check out, Brendon's mom made them turn around and go back down the aisles again. Brendon protested, reminding his mom that she’d said half an hour, and it was now going on two.
She just shot him a look and said, “You volunteered to come with me, now hush.”
'Volunteered' wasn’t exactly the right word. His choices were either accompany his mom to the store or help his dad in the backyard. Conversations between Brendon and his father had been getting more and more tense and painfully awkward lately, so Brendon didn’t consider spending an afternoon together to be an option. He couldn’t exactly pinpoint what had changed between his father and him, but something was off and it made Brendon feel a little bit like he couldn’t breathe whenever he had to think about it.
He sighed, “Yes ma’am,” and followed her through the store, dragging his feet and looking forlornly at the ceiling for help.
She spent another twenty minutes picking up pie ingredients and checking out before they were finally able to exit the store, a dozen paper bags filled with enough groceries for six kids and one pie. That pie really started all the trouble in the first place.
…
Spencer sent Jon eleven different text messages after his mom had left to take his sisters to dance class. They were all variations of ‘hey’ with different amounts of ‘y’s and occasional smiley faces. Eventually he sighed and sent jwalkr y u no love me? Everyone was ignoring him, and he was bored. Plus, he really wanted to talk to Jon. The greatest thing in the whole wide world had happened to him, and he had no one to tell except Jon Walker, who wouldn’t text him back.
Right as Spencer was about to send another text, it chirped, and he practically jumped to check it.
Jon sent him a message: send me one more and I will flick you in the ear. Spencer frowned at the message, because what? What kind of a threat was that?
Another message came in right away: cant hang. Call me?
Spencer smiled and did that, venturing out into the backyard for privacy and sprawling out on the prickly grass, dry and brown from the changing seasons and lack of rain.
“Hey puppy,” Jon said when he answered his phone. Spencer rolled his eyes.
“Hey. I got news,” Spencer rolled onto his stomach and flicked a lady bug off a blade of grass, sending it flying. He immediately felt a bit guilty and hoped that it landed alright.
“What’s up?”
Spencer held his breath for a second. “We did it.”
“I’m gonna need a few more words than that, bud. Like, some nouns. Maybe an action verb. Help me out.” Jon’s voice sounded lazy and tired. Spencer wondered what he was up to and smiled.
“Haley and I,” he specified. “We did it. We’re mates now.”
He wasn’t exactly expecting the drawn out silence on the other end. He frowned.
“Uhm. Jon?”
“You’re joking, right?” Jon asked, and yeah, okay. Not the reaction he was going for.
“No, I’m serious,” Spencer insisted. “Haley’s my mate now. We did it last night.”
“Well damn….” Jon sounded like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Well, neither could Spencer at this point.
“What!?” he snapped, defensive.
“Spencer, you know that’s, like, a huge deal, right?”
“Duh, I’m not stupid,” Spencer said, frowning. “What the hell? I thought you’d be happy for me.”
Jon laughed, and Spencer growled. Jon was being an asshole.
“Spencer, you’re seventeen…”
“I know how old I am,” Spencer scoffed, sitting up.
“You know that werewolves mate for life, right? This is a pretty serious decision.”
Spencer wasn’t in the mood for a lecture. “I knew that before we decided to do it, Jon.”
“How could you even… you’re just a kid, Spencer!”
It was Spencer’s turn to laugh, but when he did, it sounded mean. “Oh yeah, coming from you and your infinite wisdom, mister nineteen year old. Go preach to someone who gives a fuck.”
“This is a big deal, Spencer,” Jon said seriously.
“I know that!” Spencer practically yelled. “I know it’s a big deal, but we’re ready for it. We’re in love.”
Jon laughed again. “Oh my God. You’re in love, huh? You’ve been together, what? Six months? You’re just kids, Spence.”
“We know what we’re doing,” he growled.
“You’re puppies! I can’t believe you did this!” now Jon sounded mad. Spencer scoffed at his phone.
“You’re full of shit,” he hissed out, and then he heard a tired sigh.
“Spencer… I… I can’t even talk to you right now. I’ll see you around.” There was a click and then a beep that signified Jon had hung up on him. Spencer growled again and threw his phone across the back yard, leading up to an anticlimactic thump on the grass a ways away. It wasn’t cathartic at all. He felt too big for his skin.
“I can’t believe him!” he roared, getting to his feet and crossing his arms over his chest. He started to pace. “Who does he think he is!? He doesn’t get to decide what I do.”
He kicked a clump of dirt and sent it flying. He felt like he wanted to punch a tree or something, or himself. He wasn’t willing to admit how much it stung that Jon didn’t approve of what he’d done. It was a big deal to Spencer. A huge deal. He had thought he made the right decision… No, he knew he made the right decision. And who was Jon to tell him he hadn’t? He and Haley were in love, they were almost adults, and they had thought it through. Jon would just have to get used to it.
Just then he caught a glimpse of something moving in his peripheral vision, and spun around, just barely holding in a growl that threatened to rise up from his throat. There was a kid with shaggy dark hair standing there, on the other side of the fence to Spencer’s backyard, holding a pie and staring with wide eyes.
“Uhm… hi!” the kid waved a bit wildly with one hand, then looked slightly embarrassed and let it drop to his side. The kid looked to be Ryan’s age, maybe a bit older. Spencer couldn’t remember if he’d seen him around school or not. The boy squirmed a bit when Spencer didn’t answer him and blew some air into his cheeks to puff them up, then released it, looking at the ground. He looked up again. “Maybe this isn’t a good time?”
It really wasn’t a good time, and Spencer would have loved to shove that stupid pie in the kid's stupid face and kick him, but he also knew that he was feeling unreasonably mean and couldn’t actually do that to someone. Well, he might be able to do that, but he would probably be incredibly guilty afterwards.
“My mom sent me over with this!” The kid chirped, when Spencer still hadn’t said anything, or moved for that matter. He held up the pie. “It’s cherry! Do you like cherry? She makes really good pies, so even if you don’t like cherry, you might like this one. Chocolate is my favorite kind of pie though, but Kara says that chocolate pie isn’t really pie because it doesn’t have fruit in it, but Kara can’t even bake, so what does she know anyways. Kara's my sister, by the way. I have two sisters, but Kara's the nicer one, even though she's kind of mean, but I think that's a girl thing,” Spencer furrowed his eyebrows and crossed his arms.
“You don’t remember me, do you?” Brendon asked, unhooking the gate and letting himself into the backyard without permission. Spencer just watched him carefully. Was he supposed to remember this kid?
“I’m Brendon Urie!” he stuck his skinny arm out for a handshake, and Spencer reflexively shook it. He was raised to be polite. “Our moms do book club together. We’ve met a few times before.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t remember…” Spencer felt awkward. He pulled his hand back.
Brendon grinned at him and shrugged, bony shoulders going up and down under his t-shirt, then pushed his glasses up his wide nose, all in one smooth motion.
“Is your mom home?”
Spencer shook his head.
Brendon shifted the pie in his hands and bounced slightly on the balls of his feet. Spencer grinned despite his bad mood and Jon Walker. Spencer was getting used to picking up people’s smell the way humans picked up tone of voice and body language, and this kid smelled like pie and nerves and happiness. It was slightly infectious.
“You wanna come hang out for a while?” Spencer asked, motioning to the backdoor. Brendon seemed to think it over for a moment, and then shrugged.
“Better than going home.” He offered Spencer a giant smile, and Spencer shook his head and laughed a bit under his breath. This kid was weird, and part of Spencer’s brain thought up the word ‘puppy,’ and then pushed it away. Spencer wasn’t thinking about Jon Walker and his stupid pet names, and this kid, Brendon, was a human anyways.
“Just let me grab my phone.”
Brendon nodded and Spencer ran across the backyard to get it. When Spencer turned back around, Brendon had set the pie plate on the grass and was doing handstands. Spencer laughed.