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It started the way it usually did: a mild yet persistent headache in his temples, and a tension in his ribcage he couldn’t shake.
“Fuck,” Magnus swore to himself.
The built-up stress of the day had been piling and piling on him for a while now. First he kind-of died (?), then he was dropped in some new place with a bunch of strangers who were all apparently… afflicted like him, then he had to somehow escape them with Blitz and Hearth then promptly lost them, on top of the fact he hadn’t eaten a single thing in almost 48 hours. Yeah, it was getting to be a bit much.
He should have been used to it by now, the malignant gnawing sensation of starvation, after two years of it. And he was. It was just that before now he could lose himself freely, giving into those primal urges that crawled around inside him. It was either that or fighting through the suffering until it wore him down and won out anyways. However, it was different now. He had a goal to achieve, promises to keep, and possibly a place to call home again. Losing himself now wasn’t an option.
The bone-deep hunger he felt seemed to hollow him out, leaving a gaping, cold emptiness that made his body shake feverishly. The hair on his arms and back of his neck stood on end, prickling with an uncomfortable and strange heat. Magnus felt sick, and his muscles, joints, and bones all ached terribly. The teen hunched over, curling into himself to fill the hollowness as he lurched forwards. Food, he needed food…
Magnus couldn’t stop shivering, his teeth hurt as they chattered uncontrollably. A building migraine assaulted his head and senses, he could smell and hear and taste everything all at once. It was a monumental effort to keep moving forward, slouching down the empty street while fighting the way his very bones and muscle fibers felt like they were pulled taut, desperate to stretch further or snap completely. He stumbled into an alleyway.
He needed to get back to Blitzen and Hearthstone. Magnus felt like he could stay calm around them, retain his personhood before something bad happened and he lost complete control of his body and mind. The hunger gnawed away at his very sanity, he couldn’t focus on anything else. Magnus couldn’t stop shaking. He needed to- needed to-
His ears twitched as he heard a shifting movement behind him, the sound of someone walking and clothes shifting, and the abrupt scuff of sneakers against concrete. The scent of something alive and breathing and bloody -
“Magnus?” The stranger asked warily. Her voice was familiar somehow, if he focused more he could smell something old and familiar, like a worn t-shirt or blanket. The sweet and clear scent of cotton and wildflowers.
Annabeth . It was Annabeth, of all people. He had completely forgotten that his uncle and cousin had been looking for him before everything went to shit. Well, even more than usual.
“ Go away ,” Magnus growled wetly, shocked at how his own voice came out distorted and throaty, the words catching wetly on his strained vocal cords. His teeth felt sharper in his mouth, and his jaw ached from some strange pressure in his gums. Magnus could feel the saliva running from his mouth, the way it does after a rough visit to the dentist.
“Magnus, it’s me,” she called to him. Annabeth stepped forward, and Magnus cowered backwards. A deep and animal snarl rolled up through his chest and out his throat in lieu of any words of warning. He could feel the way it vibrated through his ribcage, and how those bones pulled themselves apart. The muscle fibers and the cavities of his lungs burned terribly. Magnus doubled-over further as the strain pulled at him in every direction. All he could think about was craving something hot with life and wet with blood, bitter and sickly sweet together, to get rid of the freezing chill inside his core. Magnus felt that, like this, he’d do something he’d regret to his cousin.
His focus waned, the tenuous grasp he had before slipping like heavy rope through his hands. It stung hotly as it pulled away from his control. Magnus could distantly feel the way his physical body cracked and twisted into something strange- a snout, longer neck and spine, broader shoulders, bent over legs, a tail, and covered in a coat of thick fur. Thankfully, the pain and irritation was quickly replaced with cold numbness as his self-awareness grew dimmer. In a way, the finality of release was almost cathartic. He practically loomed over the form of his cousin. Somehow, he had enough of a mind to worry about his now-torn clothes.
Magnus expected her to gasp or cry out, but Annabeth just stood there. The look on her face wasn’t one of shock or horror, it was only full of sad pity. Rather than turning and bolting in fear, she held her arms out as if waiting for an embrace.
“Oh, Magnus,” she said, voice tinged with sympathy. “Come here.”
He just tried to squeeze into himself and whined, a high-pitched and pathetic keening. Annabeth took a step forward and Magnus felt himself bristle and snarl before he could control himself, then covered his face ( snout ) with his hands ( paws ) apologetically, ears pinned back.
“It’s okay,” Annabeth soothed, her movements slow and relaxed so as not to startle her cousin or make his instincts go haywire. He was surprisingly tame, so there was no way this had been a particularly new development, just poorly managed. How long had he been dealing with lycanthropy all by himself?
Annabeth extended a hand unhurriedly, then hesitantly pressed it to the side of his face, and when he didn’t flinch she used it to gently pet his lupine head. Magnus whined and leaned into her touch, like he’d been starved for affection. His eyes, glowing in the dim light, contained a profound melancholy. It seemed like he wanted to trust her, but just couldn’t shake his instinctual wariness.
Then his nose twitched, and he leaned forward to sniff at her face and clothes as if looking for something. Considering he was now a massive beast, Annabeth was powerless to stop him from sniffing against her jacket and at her backpack. Then she realized a second too late that she had left her half-eaten bags of convenience store trail mix and jerky in there.
Her cousin growled and drooled and chomped into the fabric as if it were fresh kill. Annabeth decided it was probably best to just abandon the poor thing, and slipped it off her shoulders. Almost immediately, Magnus tore into it and shredded it apart, shaking it around like a chew toy then pressing it to the ground to rip into it. He then tore into the snack bags inside, also munching on the plastic and a few of the paper flyers she had remaining for when she had been putting them up a few days ago. It was disturbingly ironic to see him chew up pictures of his own face.
After that was done, Magnus only seemed to grow more frenzied, eagerly sniffing around for more potential food. Annabeth helplessly watched him scrounge around the alleyway hungrily.
“Magnus-,” she tried as her cousin paused, fur bristling and ears swiveling around. Before she could say any more, Magnus lunged at the shadows. Annabeth heard a frantic squeaking, followed by a wet crunching. He turned further into the alley to get to one of the dumpsters lining the wall, easily leaning up and into it with his newfound seven-foot height.
“Magnus!” Annabeth shouted, louder to catch his attention. He perked up, mouth full of someone’s discarded meatball sub. “Stop! No! Bad!” She tried to reprimand him.
Abruptly, one of the back doors lining the other wall opened to reveal an angry employee. He was wielding a long, thin broom. His eyes focused on Annabeth first, as the doorway light only illuminated her, and a pair of eyes behind her.
The guy raised the broom threateningly. “Hey-,” the words died in his throat as the towering beastly figure padded up behind the lone girl in the alley. It bared its teeth- which he could only assume was stained with blood rather than marinara- and growled deep and low. Like any reasonable person faced with something monstrous, he immediately dropped all pretenses of defiance and slammed the door shut again.
“Dammit,” Annabeth cursed, then turned back around to her lycan cousin. “We need to get out of here- but nobody can see you like this. Fuck.” While Annabeth contemplated the conundrum, Magnus tilted his head back to stare upwards at the small sliver of early morning sky.
“ Uhh- uuughrrr- uggghhh ,” he tried to say, but his strangely-shaped mouth was making it difficult. Thankfully, Annabeth was smart.
“‘ Up ’?” She pieced together, looking upwards as well. Magnus made a noise between a hum and a growl. “I- sure. Fuck it.”
Annabeth hopped onto Magnus’ back, wrapping her arms as far as she could around his thick and furry neck. He attempted to scale the wall, first by jumping onto one of the closed lids to the dumpster. Magnus bunched up his muscles, then jumped upwards in one great leap. Annabeth tightened her grip and prayed he wouldn’t crash back down and crush her or something.
Thankfully, that didn’t happen, and he caught the building’s ledge with his clawed paws while his feet scrabbled a bit for purchase, and heaved himself onto the roof. In the better lighting, Annabeth could tell Magnus’ coat was a gradient of rich honey-blonde to a lighter cream color near his face and paws. His pointed ears folded in a relaxed position more reminiscent of a sighthound than a wolf.
Before she could dismount, Magnus once again lunged after live prey- in this case some roosting fat pigeons- and gnashing them into bloody, bony, feathered clumps. He tore into them with wild excitement, tail wagging the entire time. Either he was really desperate, or had exceedingly low standards. Annabeth couldn’t recall the last time she’d gone after a bird or rat, of all things. She supposed she was lucky there weren’t any stray cats around at the time.
After Magnus finished eliminating a portion of Boston’s pigeon population, mouth smeared with blood and feathers, he sniffed at the air again. It was easier to catch scents on the wind up high. The smells of fast food and breakfast restaurants were almost irresistible. He felt like he was starving. Magnus hunched down on all fours as if readying himself for a race, and Annabeth held on tight to bunches of Magnus’ shredded shirt and neck fur as he began loping across building rooftops.
The liberating sensation of being able to stride through the air was borderline intoxicating. Magnus felt more alive than he had in a long while, and his tongue killed as he panted heavily. He didn’t have any set destination, and just followed his nose towards the scent of warm food. His cousin was trying to say something to him, but he couldn’t understand her beyond the blood roaring in his ears.
Eventually, he grew tired and stopped, sitting on his haunches and huffing with exhaustion. When Annabeth was sure he wouldn’t get up and bolt again, she slid off his back to stand on her own feet and bracing against him with one hand against his broad shoulder. Annabeth ran her hand along his neck fur again, marveling at how surprisingly soft it was.
She looked around the roof they had ended up on, now entirely disoriented due to her method of transportation. The dawn light was turning all the deep blues of early morning into warmer hues of purple and pink. Yellow-orange light just barely peaked over the horizon, and the streets below were fairly empty- as far as metropolitan New England streets could be. Annabeth surmised they had ended up somewhere in South Boston now, which wasn’t the worst place they could’ve ended up.
“Magnus, once you shift back, we need to have a talk.” Annabeth patted her cousin’s large, flat, furry head.
“ Mghrrr- nooo ,” he replied thickly, ears pinned back and his snout tucked downwards. He seemed to have a habit of trying to tuck himself into small spaces.
“Why not?”
“ Mmhn- busy .”
“With what?” Annabeth asked, almost incredulously. This whole situation now seemed like a fairly pressing matter.
Magnus huffed heavily and turned his head away. “ Sduff-grr ,” he growled petulantly.
“Magnus,” Annabeth continued to gently stroke her cousin right behind the ears, which he seemed to like. “I’m with you, okay?” She’d stay with him until he shifted back, and then they could have a proper discussion. At least, that’s how it was supposed to go. Magnus relaxed and turned to press his big head against his older cousin, attempting to tuck underneath her arm. It made her feel a wave of protectiveness, and guilt. Whatever had happened to him, she hated the fact that she ran away and abandoned him to it.
Suddenly, Magnus tensed up as his fickle, winking lucidity flickered again. “ Hhhh- hungry ,” he growled, getting up and padding towards the roof ledge. It made Annabeth’s stomach drop.
“Magnus, don’t,” she warned. If he went down there, she wasn’t sure whether he’d go after some unwitting passerby or what. In that case, she would have to resort to more drastic measures that she wasn’t looking forward to. For his part, Magnus seemed to be trying to resist the urge, at least. His body was tense as he resisted the primal desire to leap down and lope down the streets in a wanton spree.
Before any of that happened, though, a distant sound each led across the rooftops: a singular howl. It immediately caught both of their attention as they turned their heads in the direction of it. It wasn’t anyone Annabeth knew, but it clearly had a deeper significance to her cousin. He whined, as if simultaneously hesitant and desperate to reply. At least his attention had been successfully diverted, all desires abandoned in the face of a pack member’s call.
Magnus gave one more mournful look at his cousin, a look that said I don’t want to go, I don’t want to lose you again . Annabeth could only assume her face was a reflection of it.
“It’s okay,” Annabeth soothed, and she meant it. “Go.” Magnus huffed one last time and, rather than leaping down, turned back to jump across the tops of tall buildings to his mysterious pack member. Annabeth just prayed that they would keep him safe for the time being.
Honestly, it was comforting to know he really did have someone to rely on now. As much as she wanted to, Annabeth could only do so much for him now. Unless he wanted to come with her, but then that would involve her friends accepting him… and he had his own people to worry about… Yeah. Maybe this was for the best.
That was fine, Annabeth thought while staring at the rising sun. She had finally gotten his scent. Tracking him back down would be a breeze.