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Ok but...imagine. Ed and Stede fall in love. Who knows how they meet; Maybe Stede is taking an interest in wildlife, maybe they meet when Ed is in human form, but they meet. and Stede Knows what he is. and they still fall in love.
Ed is overjoyed, and delighted; the wilderness is hard and exhausting and he's forty and tired. Stede offers him a home within like...three days of them meeting, because he's Stede and he's insane, and of course, Ed says yes.
But back home, in the cabin they use for eight months of the year when the owners aren't there, Izzy and the pack are waiting. Izzy, his second-in-command *and* his mate (because Edward never gave a shit. Because Edward loves him. Izzy clings to that)
"He'll be back." Izzy tries to convince them as the days go on but pretty soon he doesn't believe it himself, and leading these wolves is not been a job that he would get. He isn't a beta, he isn't an alpha, not in any of the ways that matter. But he's Ed's mate. He stays, waits
Izzy realized he was pregnant three months after Ed left. He never hated himself until that moment, the only one left in the cabin. The others were long since gone and all Izzy had left to cling to was the hope that Ed was dead rather than the idea his mate had left him.
It's winter, he's seven months along, and he's Sick when he finally leaves. He's left the cabin of course, he'd starve to death otherwise, but he shifts into wolf form and Leaves for good, limping on his bad foot. Ed isn't coming back.
It takes him three weeks, dodging bears and hunters and blizzards, to get to town. He's dehydratEd and exhaustEd and far too skinny (he hasn't been able to hunt well since he hurt his foot. Ed had held him and said 'it doesn't matter, I'll always hunt for you.' It hurts, now)
Ed, meanwhile...two months in, Ed realized just how badly he fuckEd up when he ran into Fang and Ivan in town. The pack moved on, they told him, and all he could think about was Izzy out there somewhere, with Jack and Peter and Jamison and not him, or even Fang and Ivan.
He doesn't leave his bed for three days. Stede, who by now has heard *all* about Izzy, pets his hair and offers to help find him but Ed says no. Izzy chose to move on. He deserves better than Ed trying to hunt him down and drag him back if he wanted to go.
He does not go back to human form. Half because he thinks he would fall and not be able to get back up, half because he's trans and nearing eight months pregnant and he can't deal with fucking idiots right now.
Honestly, he's not sure what he plans to do. Maybe steal food. Maybe find a warm corner to die in. But all those plans go out the window when. from his spot behind the bakery (it's warm, back there, the sun heats the stones and he can steal scraps) he smells him.
Fang smells Izzy first and he doesn't believe his nose. He pokes around the alleyways, but in the end, he has to climb the fence to get behind the building to see him. "I thought you left?" The wolf does not speak.
He's far too skinny for Fang's liking, despite the swollen belly, his fur matted and dirty. he looks weak. he looks HURT. Fang takes a step forward but Izzy, weak as he looks, turns and BOLTS.
He falls before he gets all the way down the alley to where he could reenter the forest, and Fang (he'd always been bigger) grasps him by the scruff. It's dark enough out that Fang doesn't mind hauling him to his own feet and basically half-dragging him down the road.
It's not the best method, but Izzy has never once listened to Fang when it would actually benefit him and he surely won't start now. Fang hauls him right to the doorstep, dumps him on it, turns back, and BANGS on the door with one fist.
Stede opens the door. Ed is working nights at the bar, now, but Stede has met Fang. Fang, who now hooks his hands under Izzy's shoulders and gently carries him inside, because his panic has died down and he doubts you should drag a pregnant werewolf around.
"What?" "Izzy. Tell your partner to stop being a fucking ass and actually LOOK for his mate. Well, I guess not anymore. Either way." He's gone, and Izzy is hunchEd in a trembling ball on Stede's carpet.
The little wolf looks dirty and ill and Stede is fundamentally kind so he goes to his knees and starts stroking the poor little creature's ears. "Come here, sweetheart," he murmurs. "Ed will be home soon. Let's get you cleaned up."
He makes a broth, and then he coaxes the wolf into the bathtub and scrubs him clean. His dull black-and-grey fur is shining by the time Stede is done, and every cut, every scrape, every bruise from his long trek has been cleanEd.
Izzy stumbles after the blond like he's in a dream. He doesn't *understand* but he's so tired and he wants...well. He doesn't get what he wants, anymore, but Fang had brought him here and Fang had always been safe.
"Sweetheart," Stede murmurs. Izzy trembles at the word. "Can you change back, sweet boy? I would like to get you fed."
He hasn't turned back in over a month. But the fingers in his hair are warm and he doesn't want them to ever stop and so he shifts and everything hurts but he's human
Ed comes back in when Stede has gotten Izzy into a robe, and is coaxing the last few spoonfuls of soup between his lips. He stills in the doorway, eyes wide with amazement and it's like he's seen a ghost.
"Iz." he whispers and then he throws himself to the bed and pulls Izzy into his arms and nothing else matters because Izzy is here, warm and safe and alive and in his arms. Izzy is sobbing, howling in incoherent misery, and clinging as hard as his weakened body can.
"I...I thought you were dead." Izzy whispers. "They said you left." Ed says, still holding him so tightly that it feels like he's trying to pull Izzy into his skin. "I'm so sorry baby I'm so sorry I love you so much please." Ed sobs. "Please stay, please. I'm so sorry."
He doesn't actually look at Izzy properly until the next morning. Izzy is on the couch, one hand against his belly, and Ed walks out of the bedroom and almost falls over. "You're..." "Yeah." "Is it..." "Of fucking course it's yours. I didn't shack up with a human and forget you."
Ed will barely leave his side for months, even after their daughter is born. Izzy doesn't exactly complain; there are still many nights he clings to Ed terrifiEd if he closes his eyes he'll wake up alone in the cabin again.
When he isn't at Izzy's side, he's with their son. It took all of Roach's doctoring to keep the sickly little thing alive, and Izzy blamEd himself for Months even as their daughter thrivEd. Stede would sit with him when Ed was sitting with their son, and pet his hair.
"It isn't either of your faults, you know." he'd say. he'd taken...All Of This quite well (it wasn't like he didn't know Ed had a mate. Though he'd been told said mate left. And not that said mate was pregnant because Ed hadn't known that bit. He was taking it well).
They name their son Freki, because Izzy is a menace and can't help himself. They name their daughter Rachel (Izzy doesn't tell them it's after his mother. He thinks they probably know, anyway)
They do.
Ed play-wrestles with the pups in the backyard. Izzy's coat shines in the sun, now. He moves easier, and he's put back on most of the weight he'd lost, when he'd been alone. No matter what form he's in he'll lay his head in Stede's lap and let him pet his hair/fur.
They call Izzy Dad, Ed Papa, and Stede Dapa. Ed and Izzy take them running in the woods. Stede reads them bEdtime stories. Ed is always Rachel's favorite, the wild child. Freki is Izzy's in look and in attitude; he's a focused, smart, kind little creature.
They're two when Izzy hesitantly broaches the idea of giving them a younger sibling. Stede pins him to the bed and kisses him soundly, Ed nuzzling along his jaw and whispering filthy things.
Ed offers to use protection, to ensure that they're Stede's, but Stede shakes his head. "They'll be all of ours, either way, darling." He assures him.
It's different, this time. Stede spoils him rotten. Ed loves to lay with his head on Izzy's belly, whispering things that his sensitive werewolf ears barely pick up (When they do, he tells Ed to stop telling their baby that he's to be the favorite parent)
This time they have medical care, too, which is nice. Izzy can't shake the terror of Freki being sick; he still panics if they get sniffles. When Rachel got the flu, he and Ed had barely slept out of stress. Stede hated that he could never quite understand the fear of pack sickness.
Izzy sleeps in the middle, as always, head tucked under Ed's chin, Stede and Ed's hands lacEd over his belly. They don't ask Roach how many there are; they know weres often lose babies before they're born as their bodies adjust. They don't want to know.
Izzy is the Worst person to try to convince to take it easy. He still works at Stede's bakery in the mornings and his general store in the afternoon. They at least get him not to work weekends (Ed has to literally tie him down for the first three. He does).
It's easier, this time, even with how hard Izzy works right up until a few days before he gives birth. he has food and a warm bEd. He puts on more weight, and his eyes shine with health. It doesn't stop the fear, but it eases it a little to know that whatever happens, they're safe
He has triplets. Izzy grumbles that this is clearly their fault; they tried too hard. Two little girls, one with Stede's blond hair and one with Ed's almost curly black, and a little boy with his eyes.
Ed suggests naming the girl Robin, after his mother. Izzy, unable to resist wolf related names, suggests Ashina for the other girl, and Lyall for the boy.
Stede and Ed both think Izzy's naming ideas are...adventurous, but they can't deny him anything and those two are much closer to standard names than *Freki* so
Ed stays home with the pups. They adore him, and he's wonderful with them. They use him as a jungle gym. When Izzy and Ed panic at the idea of sending the older ones to school, though, it's Stede who calms them down, tucks them close to his sides, and pets their hair.
It's Stede who convinces them that the pups deserve normal life experiences, friends, all the things Ed and Izzy were denied. Even if it's terrifying. Even if Izzy wakes up howling and shaking from nightmares, and Ed barely sleeps.
It helps that Freki and Rachel love school. It helps that Fang somehow has become a fucking elementary school teacher. It helps that he still has Robin, Lyall, and Ashina to care for.
It's not perfect. Izzy accidentally scratches Stede during a nightmare and Ed has to pin him down to stop him from running away back to the cabin. Ed attaches himself to Izzy, sometimes, holds him, and just *cant* let go because he's convinced he's going to lose him again.
But at the end of the night, Izzy still crawls into bed between them and they all kiss each other. The babies fall asleep draped over them, listening to Stede's stories. Ashina adores Stede, and could spend all day in his lap listening to the stories.
Lyall and Robin *adore* Ivan and Fang. Their godfathers are pretty settled into being around pups by the time the trio comes around and from the time they're babies, if they really won't sleep, Ed calls the pair of them to help.
When the twins are born, it's hard to convince Fang and Ivan to go near them. They're both big guys (and harboring more than a little guilt at accidentally leaving Izzy and then accidentally making Ed think Izzy had left. They've talked. It's fine. They're still a bit guilty.)
It was Izzy who got them over that; a week after the babies were born, when Freki is *finally* doing ok and Izzy is beyond exhausted, he walks up to the pair with a pup in each arm, and very gently shoves one into each of their arms and says "I'm taking a nap."
The first time Stede comes home to a pillow fort, he's...confused? The entire living room, to be fair, has been turned into a giant nest situation, with all four of Fang, Ivan, Izzy, and Ed curled up in a mass of warm limbs. It's been too long since any of them had a pack.
When the trio is 4, Stede asks about turning him. Izzy fully flees; Ed tracks him down huddled between Fang and Ivan in the house they share just down the street, next to Lucius and Pete's place. "Baby." He whispers. "Baby, you know I don't just need you because you're my second."
Neither of them let Stede apologize. It takes half a dozen conversations (and several nights of pack negotiations with Fang and Ivan. Ed runs his fingers over the tattoo on Izzy's cheek and tells him very firmly he will always be his second no matter what Stede is)
Ed also lets Izzy be the one to do it. He turned Izzy, after all. And somehow, he thinks that will make Izzy feel more...secure. more a part of their relationship (he's right.)
After their first full moon as a full pack, when the three of them and Fang and Ivan and the pups fall into the nest in Fang and Ivan's basement together, it feels like the family none of them ever thought they'd get to have.
For the first time in Izzy's life, it feels like home.