Chapter Text
By the time he remembered his name it was too late. The blood was on his hands, metaphorically speaking. In reality it was everywhere, on his paws, coat, and muzzle. It was the only evidence left- the rest of it seeped into the earth around the torn up remains of a wolf he’d once called friend and brother; a wolf whose name was forever blackened in his mind.
Names were important. Human beings called them by many names. If they were educated and being politically correct they called his people lycans - short for Lycanthropes; they’re being studied. Some say they have a disease, some believe them to be demons. In reality they aren’t something the mortal mind can understand. They’re inhuman, alien, and they are feared.
“WEREWOLF!”
The shrill screaming of a panicked woman assaulted Blaine’s overly sensitive ears. Ears that could pick up the heart beat of a mouse from forty paces did not take kindly to such high pitched sounds. His head was already muddled from the depleting haze of blood lust and he weaved on his paws, trying to make use of his rioting senses.
He’d killed, and then he’d run. He had to run because a wizard would be coming. That’s right.
Blaine snapped his jaws threateningly at the caterwauling woman crouching in front of the nylon tent to his left and she fainted into blessed silence.
“I can’t stay here.” Blaine thought to himself. A wizard was coming, he knew that. Wizards were tricky and this one, he knew it would be this one, was hot on his tail. He would have to find a restroom, change skins and take the risk of being walked in on. Blaine sprinted away from the woman and her tent just as another figure fought its way through the tent opening and opened fire.
He heard the shots but he ignored them, heard the cursing of a deep male voice but he ignored that too. He was faster than the gun and he had bigger things to worry about than a couple of frightened campers. He couldn’t stop. Not with Ian after him.
He couldn’t believe Ian had tracked him so quickly. He hadn’t known he was going to make the kill practically until Boyd’s throat was buckling beneath his fangs so how could Ian have known? Now he was cornered miles from home, no one in his pack within telepathic distance and he feared he wasn’t going to be able to outrun justice. Not this time.
It went against every instinct he had running. But what else could he do?
An alpha did not run from enemies! Why should he be forced to run for his life, hiding from the wizard when he’d only done what should have been done in the first place, what the wizard had failed to do! But the wizard had the support of the council and the council would have condemned him. Blaine had gone rogue. He’d killed one of their own and he’d committed the ultimate crime by killing a human being.
The killing of a human was strictly forbidden in lycan law, but Blaine was unrepentent. One hunters death would save the lives of many and as for Boyd....
Boyd had deserved to die.
Wes might be content to let the council deal out the justice but Blaine couldn’t stand it. He’d tried. He’d tried to live with Dave’s injuries, with the sound of his broken howls beating at his skull day in and day out and he just couldn't. The thought of Boyd serving a few years then being given the freedom to do it all over again had nearly driven him mad.
He was the alpha, he’d failed to protect his people once and it had cost Dave everything. He couldn’t afford to do it again.
So, he’d killed the bastard and that was that.
Unfortunately the council didn’t see it that way. Now Blaine was the one running from justice like some mongrel .
Here he was, the alpha, running from an enemy with his tail between his legs. He was little better than the lowest dog and when the wizard caught up, then he’d look it too. He’d be made into some simpering doe eyed mutt who ate from a dish and served the whims of mere men. Lycan’s were not pets and to be a pet to the very people who denied them even the most basic rights, many would rather die. Blaine did not quite want to die, even now, but he didn’t want to be a stupid dog either.
The wind picked up and under his coat Blaine’s skin prickled as if an electrical current had passed over it and he shuddered. This wizard was here. He’d lost and soon he’d be better off dead than what Ian would turn him into. The thought was not to be born and quite frankly it pissed him off. Fine then. He was done running. If he had to go down then Ian was going to hurt for it.
He sensed the net bursting seemingly out of nothing to swoop down on him before he saw it. He turned and with the agility born to his kind dodged the reaching fibers. He was turning and leaping a second later, his jaws clamping around the wrist of the man who was standing where only moments before there had been no one. Blaine let out a howl of pain as he felt hot blood fill his mouth. The wizard’s blood burned like acid.
The blood was cold and after the initial burning sensation it numbed his teeth and tongue. Blaine promptly let go, howling in pain and dragging his tongue through his coat to rid it of the magically tainted blood. His ears were still wringing with the sound of his own mournful howls so he nearly missed the gratifying whimper of pain and muttered curses from the wizard.
Glaring up at the man with graying hair, who was dressed in an startlingly out of place business suit, he growled. Ian snarled right back.
“You fool, that’s precious magic you just wasted.” Ian reprimanded, his english formal and brilliantly articulated, an accent that usually soothed Blaine.
"Stay away from me! I won’t let you do it, Ian. You’re not turning me into a mongrel!”
Ian sighed but didn’t look too sympathetic, what with his bleeding wrist and all. Belatedly, Blaine thought he might want to have tried to wheedle his way out of punishment, but it was a bit late for that now.
“Blaine, nobody wants this. You have served your kind faithfully for many years when it was not fair to ask so much of one so young.” Ian pinned him with a serious stare. “You weren’t ready. Perhaps this is as much my fault as yours. You are fortunate that this is only a year sentence. Not many would get off so lightly for unlawfully taking the life of a mortal.”
“You know what he did! He deserved everything he got!” Blaine screamed inside his own mind and Ian’s eyes clouded with something stark and painful.
“Yes.” Ian agreed quietly. “Be that as it may, giving it to him was not for you to do. Come now, let’s not make this harder than it needs to be boy. What kind of dog would you like to be?”
'What kind of…’ enraged, Blaine lunged for Ian again. He was consumed with the horrifying image of being small and weak and unable to communicate with another living soul. Alone inside a body not his own. Ian, more wary this time around, blinked out of existence and reappeared just out of Blaine’s reach.
‘Stupid wizards and their Magic,’ Blaine thought. “Fight fair, wizard!”
“And I suppose fair would be allowing you to vent your temper on me?” Ian asked with a lifted eyebrow. “Come now boy I am giving you a choice. I don’t offer that to everyone.” Blaine snarled and snapped at Ian, who again used his magic to avoid the angry lycan.
“I suggest you stop that. I have made many an alpha wolf into a poodle and…ah I can see you don’t like that notion, but really you did bite me.”
****
In all the years that Kurt Hummel had known Finn Hudson he hadn’t yet figured out how to say no to the well meaning idiot when he got an idea stuck in his head. Kurt had ended up in all sorts of places and situations that he’d later promise himself never again, only to end up right back where he was, walking beside his step brother and bemoaning his own idiocy.
“Would you believe I just developed an extreme allergy to anything with fur?” Kurt asked the taller man beside him as they walked into Tail and Paw Pet Rescue. Finn was an infamous dog lover; he’d begged for a puppy every Christmas of their childhood but due to his mother’s allergies the answer had always been a firm no.
He and Finn had each spent a year in the dorms at OSU before they’d had enough of weird roommates and had gotten a tiny place together off campus. Finn had begged for a dog and Kurt had always fallen back on the ready excuse that it was against the terms of their lease. Then Kurt and his boyfriend Eric had gotten serious and they’d eventually gotten a place of their own. They’d been together almost six years before it had all fallen apart rather suddenly. Eric had left Kurt alone with nothing but a note and a few abrupt phone calls, grappling with the pieces of a life that had a six year relationship at its foundation that was suddenly in tatters.
Since the break up Finn had been worried about the amount of time Kurt spent alone with nothing but the memories and a hundred reminders; so, he supposed, Finn crashing at his place somehow ending up in the both of them scouring all of Columbus for a dog somehow made sense.
“No.” Finn frowned at Kurt, looking about as stern as Finn’s slightly dopey face ever did. “Come on Kurt, I can’t stay forever and do you really want to be locked up in that house all by yourself?”
No. No he didn’t. The last thing he wanted to do was come home everyday and look at the town house he and Eric had been renting to own and be reminded of his own loneliness. The thing was he wasn’t really a dog kind of person, but maybe having something else to focus on would do him some good. He’d do just about anything right now not to feel so worn out and gray.
“You do realize that when I get tired of this thing you’re taking it off my hands?” He warned, but at Finn’s bright grin he just had to roll his eyes. Of course that was Finn’s plan all along. For someone who usually appeared to have all the cunning of a couch cushion Finn could sure be crafty when it mattered.
Kurt was about to say something on the subject but there was a small, frazzled looking man making his way towards them, shouting a welcome.
****
The restricted area of the Tail and Paw was a dismal place by anyone’s standards. The walls were blank and a miserable shade of brown. They were lined with tiny gray cages that housed even more miserable looking animals.
The black Labrador furthest from the door looked the most miserable of them all.
‘One month down and eleven more to go. You can do it.’
There was no denying it. Blaine was going stir crazy. Never mind being lycan, Blaine was a naturally active person and now most of his days were spent in this less than spacious cage. That was sort of his own fault. He’d been put in the restricted section after his last escape attempt had ended up in him biting the guy who’d caught him.
Blaine wasn’t sorry about biting that guy or any of his other human jailers. If he couldn’t escape then he wanted to be left alone, to wait out the rest of his sentence in peace. He wasn’t interested in being “rescued” by any of the human families that came looking and he made his sentiments known.
Add in the fact that he was unusually large, even for a black lab, and scaring the humans into leaving him alone was not all that hard. Every family that came through the rescue and dared to look at the animals in the restricted section scurried away from the pen holding the massive black dog with the unusually sharp teeth. Blaine played it up, always sure to throw himself against the bars of his cage, snarling like he had a particularly bad case of rabies.
It wasn’t all just for kicks. Blaine was partially convinced that if he threw himself against the bars enough they would eventually weaken and break. If they did there was only a small chance he’d make it out of the building before being caught but at the very least he might make it far enough to get some fresh air. The stench of dogs and the sweat of human bodies irritated his nose so badly that he wanted to scratch it off. Lycans kept themselves very clean and even when they weren’t their scent was rich and earthy; a perfectly nice scent. Men and dogs just plain stank.
At Blaine’s whimpering sigh the beagle in the cage opposite him growled and Blaine snapped his jaws in challenge.
‘I don’t want to hear it Beagle boy; I could eat you if I weren’t in this cage.’
Talking to only himself for the last month had become a practiced habit, one that both kept him sane and reminded him that he was slowly going insane.
‘That is if this tick doesn’t suck out all my blood first. I think I have a tick. A really big nasty tick is sucking my blood and I can’t fucking reach it because I’m trapped in this godforsaken body!’
Blaine like any self respecting lycan had never had a tick in his life- despite years of tromping through wilderness- but one month as a damned dog! He threw himself against the bars again, this time purely in frustration.
****
The trouble with picking out a pet when you didn’t want one was of course not finding a single one that you liked enough to bring home. The pug with the one crooked ear had been cute enough, if one was into such things. Kurt decidedly wasn’t so he and Finn passed cage after cage of all different types of mutts and not a single one measured up to Kurt’s admittedly exacting standards.
“What about this one?” Finn asked, stopping in front of a small cage that housed a white thing that was more fur than dog. “It’s not big like the other one, and you could like braid its hair and stuff.”
“Oh yes.” Kurt smiled with an acidic grin. “And afterwards we can do each others nails and watch Desperate House Wives.” Finn nodded eagerly, totally missing Kurt’s sarcasm and Kurt rolled his eyes. “No Finn.”
“But dude-”
“Hair, fucking everywhere. No.”
“None of these animals fit your tastes sir?” Next to them their guide frowned, stepping between them quickly to prevent what was only going to be yet another squabble between the two. “Well on the phone your brother said you were looking for a companion. Something to take care of and take your mind off things?” The short fellow asked and Kurt glared at Finn because he really had felt the need to make him sound desperate to this complete stranger.
“Yeah totally.” Finn agreed. “Not something boring like Puck’s cat that just stares at you like it’s going to kill you but something that’s going to want time and attention.”
That was actually the last thing Kurt wanted but before he could say so the little man was nodding.
“Well in our back room we have our special cases. These animals may have been through some sort of trauma or are otherwise damaged in some way. They often need to be separated from the other animals.”
“In other words they’re either biters or cancer ridden,” Kurt responded glumly and Finn gave him a harsh look.
“Dude they can’t help that; you might as well take a look. Maybe taking care of a sick dog will take your mind off the fact that you got dumped.”
“Fine!” Kurt snapped, desperately just wanting Finn to shut up. “I’ll pick one, I’ll even give it a day before I drop it on your doorstep. Just lets be done with this.”
Finn the tactless idiot just smiled and happily followed the man to a back room. Kurt dragged along behind them.
****
“That smell... it smells like...”
Blaine halted his efforts to gnaw at the itchy patch on his back, his ears perking up and his nose twitching as a pleasing scent tickled his nostrils. After smelling dog shit, sweat, and molding kibble for a good month this new scent that was approaching was heaven sent.
It was something light, just a tad bit sweet and floral and it mingled with a spicy layer of deodorant. Underlining that was the musky smell of human sweat. It was high summer and even the best deodorant couldn’t hide that particular smell from his sensitive nose but it wasn’t overpowering at all. All of it blended together, the sweet flora with the spices and the sweat, in order to make this scent. It was the best damn thing he’d smelled in a month.
He heard approaching voices and the heavy thud of footsteps. One he recognized as belonging to Phil the annoying owner. He was prattling on about the desperate need of the animals in the restricted room. The other was was more interesting. Light and melodic as a woman’s and yet this voice was decidedly masculine if one had ears like Blaine’s and judging by his sarcastic tone the man was seeing right through Phil’s bullshit.
“You and me both man. So do us both a favor and don’t even think about taking me home.” Blaine thought.
Just to cinch the deal he put on his best snarl and pressed his face against the cage. Just like with all the others. If this man got too close to his cage he’d show him that this dog just was not the one for him.
****
So Kurt wasn’t exactly a dog lover but even he had something to say about the state of the restricted section. He couldn’t help the flash of anger he felt as the owner led them into a small back room piled high and cramped with cages. It was dirty, it was dank smelling and every single animal in the place looked as miserable as it was possible to look. He couldn’t really blame them. This was no way to treat a rat nevermind a dog. He shot the owner a glare but the man wasn’t focused on either him or Finn. He was glancing warily at the angry, snarling…
"I’ve never seen a dog that big." Kurt thought.
“Way cool. You guys keep wolves here?” Finn asked, proving just how smart he was by skipping up to the cage as if the gigantic black animal didn’t look primed to bust out of its cage and swallow the first thing it encountered.
“Please stay back sir. That one bites. Uh... as for the breed. We aren’t sure.” The owner muttered nervously. “Some sort of Labrador...Husky mix... maybe.”
Finn, disregarding the man’s warning not to get too close, jumped back with a yelp when the dog suddenly lunged at the bars of its cage, shaking and rattling them in what appeared to be an effort to wrench the door off with its teeth. Kurt found himself grinning at Finn’s terrified face because it was all Finn’s fault that they were in this awful place anyway and he was okay with him suffering a little.
“He’s got a pretty coat. I think I like this one,” he mused, taking delight in Finn’s gobsmacked look. He slowly approached the cage, trying to get a better look at the animal. Kurt couldn’t say what happened then. As he approached the animals snarls quited to low growls that slowly dissipated into silence. The animal stared at him with ears pressed flat to its head. It stood as still as if it had frozen and man and dog simply watched each other. Kurt could not look away. It was the eyes.
Bright angry eyes, not quite brown and not quite green, regarded him with intelligence that seemed almost human shining from within. He had never understood people who treated their pets like they could really understand anything but these eyes seemed to speak as well as any man’s. Man and dog stared at one another, neither of them wanting to be the first to look away. Kurt had the crazy thought that he was being judged somehow.
I dare you, something seemed to whisper between them and Kurt didn’t know how or why, he simply knew that if he bowed his head and backed away he’d have lost somehow...and he’d be weak. As weak and wrecked inside as he felt and he was damn tired of feeling weak and wrecked.
“You really don’t like me do you...” Kurt glanced down to read the name tag taped to the door of the dogs cage. “… Blackie”
At the sound of the name whatever spell had held the canine in thrall was broken and he threw himself back against the cage, barking and snarling. Kurt did not jump back as Finn had, though it was a near thing and his heart started racing. He was more startled by the sight of rage he saw in the dog’s eyes. Could a dog feel something as layered as rage? Weren’t their instincts more basic? Didn’t rage require some sort of thought?
“You’re reading far too much into a dog Kurt.” He reprimanded himself. “The miserable thing is covered in dirt, it’s trapped in this smelly hell hole and it’s stuck with a name like Blackie. I’d be biting people too.”
“You shouldn’t snap you know. I really do feel your pain, but no one’s gonna want to rescue you if you carry on with that attitude.” Kurt whispered softly towards the the irate dog, resisting the instinctive urge to dip into some sort of baby voice. He hated people who talked to their pets like that and call him crazy but he felt like Blackie would appreciate it about as much as he appreciated the name Blackie.
“As you can see this one is severely hostile,” the short man who owned the place, Phil or something if he remembered correctly, began to explain. He tried to maneuver Kurt towards some of the other cages and Finn eagerly put space between him and Blackie’s cage but Kurt hesitated. The truth was he didn’t want to be stuck with any dog, but if he was going to be.... he bit his lip and glanced back at the dog’s cage to find the animal watching him, gaze dark and pensive.
“Honestly I can’t see how anyone is going to want that one. We’re going to have to have to put him down fairly soon.” Phil prattled on and at the mention of putting the dog down Kurt snapped to attention. He didn’t think about much beyond that.
“I want that one.”
Phil and Finn looked frantically between each other and Finn was the first to pluck up the nerve to ask, “Which one Kurt?
“That one. Bl-” He just couldn’t call such an obviously fearsome creature Blackie for godsake. “Just that one.” He corrected, pointing toward the Labrador's cage.
“Kurt are you nuts? He looks like he eats people.” Finn said with a gulp, glancing warily at the dog.
"yeah, Kurt what the hell’s gotten into you? That thing definitely looks like he wants to have you for a midnight snack." He thought to himself, way too much after the fact. "Why do I always get myself into these situations?"
Kurt walked back to the cage watching the animal tense and follow him with its eyes. He leaned over, just a little and slowly brought his hands up to the cage. His heart was pounding so hard in his chest it kind of hurt but he couldn't take the animal home if he couldn’t get close to it and he’d figure out why later but he really wanted to take him home now.
“Listen.” He spoke quietly and he could swear the dog straightened to do just that. “You may not like this, and believe me coming here and getting some large smelly animal that is going to get hair all over my furniture and pee on my floor was the last thing I wanted to do with my day, but here we are. I’m really your last resort buddy. You can take your chances and hope someone else crazy comes along before they put you down or you can check the attitude and come home with me.”
The dog of course did not reply but as Kurt settled his hands against the cage bars and the animal did not lunge to bite them he figured that was agreement enough.
“I’ll take that as a yes. And I promise if you let this man get you out of here and into the car with me and Finn the first thing I’ll do is give you a better name. Deal?”
****
“So is this guy blind, deaf, dumb or all fucking three? But whose more the idiot, the crazy man adopting me, or me going home with the crazy man?”
Blaine couldn’t really say why he was letting Mr. Kurt Hummel take him home. The most obvious answer was that if he didn’t he’d have to fight his way out of the Tail and Paw when they went to put him down, and there was no telling how that would go. He’d probably end up shot. But more honestly... Kurt hadn’t backed down when he’d challenged him and he’d spoken to Blaine like he was a person and not as in ‘small child’ person, but man to man. Blaine didn’t realize how desperately he had missed that until it was being given to him.
That and Kurt smelled really really fantastic.
So he’d go home with Kurt and he’d decided that the first chance he got he’d run away. He’d go somewhere to serve out the rest of his sentence in peace and when it was over he’d go back and reclaim his pack. In the meanwhile, the giant oaf that kept glancing back at him in the back seat as if he thought Blaine was going to leap up and maul him would be fun to play with.
Hey, months in captivity. He needed to get his kicks somewhere.
Blaine growled at Finn and he got great satisfaction in watching the humans hands clench on the steering wheel. He felt Kurt’s hand come down on the back of his neck in something like a soothing pat and he was tempted to arch back into the touch it felt so good. Which really wasn’t good for Kurt because that put Blaine in a majorly bad mood.
Blaine snarled louder, turning to bare his teeth at the man in warning.
“Now it’s your turn to listen. I don’t give a fuck how good that feels or how good you smell Kurt, I’m nobodies pet! Don’t touch me.”
Mr. flora and spices could just remember that when he thought about getting all handsy with Blaine. He was going to go home with him, park his rump on his floor and not move for the next eleven months if he didn’t run away to do it somewhere else first. As soon as his twelve were up the Wizard’s spell would wear off and he would be home free.
He would never have to see Kurt or his brother again and he could put this utterly humiliating existence behind him. He was a god damn alpha and he would not.... quiver like that as Kurt scratched at the back of his neck. Damn it!
“There. See. You like that. Was that so hard?” Kurt asked, smiling down smugly at him and Blaine would have bitten him if his damn tongue weren’t flopping uselessly out of his mouth blocking his teeth.
“You know Bl- shit. Okay. First thing’s first. The name has got to go,” Kurt announced and since Blaine wholly agreed with that he didn’t even growl at him as he continued to scratch the back of his neck. “What should we call you?”
“How about T-Rex?” Finn prompted from the drivers seat and if Blaine’s eyes could roll he’d have rolled them. He settled for a warning lunge and didn’t even mind too much when Kurt pulled him back by his chain. As long as the giant in the front seat didn’t offer any more bright ideas.
“Don’t worry. I think I’d puke if I had to call anything T-Rex.” Kurt assured him, glaring at Finn before he turned back to stare at Blaine with a considering gaze. “Though... Rex is kind of fitting. It means king you know. You have a kingly way about you. I could stand Oedipus Rex. What do you think?”
Oedipus Rex, the tragic king of Thebes. Blaine may not have grown up to marry his mother, and he hoped he’d never have occasion to stab his own eyes out, but he knew something of the tragic heroes woes. Little did Kurt know that he was a king in his own right and he actually had gotten there by the blood of his father.
“The company is doing Shakespeare right now.” Kurt explained almost as an afterthought, as if the characters presence in his mind needed explaining. “At one point I play the Sphinx. ‘What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?’”
“Man,” Blaine thought in answer, whining low at the beautiful sound of the other man’s voice. Oh to be a man again. At least then he could thank Kurt for a name that didn’t make him want to pull an Oedipus and start gauging his ear drums.