Chapter Text
Etho still remembered his life in the forest. It had been years and years ago, but he still remembered.
He was the youngest and smallest, often left behind when his pack was travelling. He didn’t really mind, it only gave him more chances to improve, after all; but sometimes he would wish they’d pay more attention to him. Even when he did something good, like hunting something himself or finding a safe place to stay the night, nobody seemed to care. It was only when he messed up or embarrassed himself did they seem to remember he existed.
Since Etho was the runt, he had a harder time staying in his full form than the rest of his family. They could shift in and out of it with ease, but Etho’s was smaller and weaker and harder to hold. His littermates would tease him and call him less than a wolf, a dog.
Etho didn’t mind, not really. He was used to it—saw it as nothing more than harmless sibling banter.
He got by, anyway. He trained himself to stay in his full form even when it hurt, made himself push harder so he could keep up with the others even when it felt impossible. He was, unknowingly, getting stronger than ever before. The pack seniors even noticed him now, occasionally praising him on how much progress he’d made. It finally seemed like he was getting accepted, even though he was a runt!
That is, until the day when the pack’s arrogance finally led them astray.
They’d dealt with hunters and poachers before—they were a common occurrence in this forest, even. These ones were different, though, because there were many more of them than usual, and because they had much larger and more dangerous weapons. That didn’t concern the pack at all, though; they still wanted their taste of human flesh, so rare these days that it was considered a delicacy.
They all shifted into their full forms as instructed and hid in the bushes surrounding the humans’ camp. Smoke from the fire wafted through the air and messed with their noses, but the alphas weren’t swayed whatsoever.
Etho was at the back of the group, as usual, his form small and shivering from the pure strain of staying as a wolf for so long. He didn’t know why he had to be in his full form; his coat was so light, anyway, that he’d surely stand out less if he was hiding as his half form. However, he didn’t dare question the pack.
When the alpha signaled for everyone to rush forward, Etho couldn’t. His paws were too weak, his muscles too strained to be able to leap out of the bushes like the rest of them. Instead, he tripped into the bushes in front of him, resulting in him getting kicked in the face by one of his other packmates. A searing pain hit him in his left eye, and he let out a muffled yelp of surprise. It was chaos now, with barks and yelps and gunshots going off all around him.
Etho stayed in the bush, unable to move, and somehow that was what saved him. Despite getting a damaged eye, Etho was easily the least scathed out of everyone who’d been involved, simply because he’d been too weak and small to make it to the front.
Etho waited there in the bush until it all died down. What remained of his pack was sent scattering through the forest, the humans hot on their tails. Etho waited until they passed before slowly and carefully making his way out. He allowed himself to shift back into his half form, then tried shifting into the third form, the one that was far more humanlike than either of the others.
To Etho’s surprise, shifting into the third form was a lot easier for him than the full form. It was as smooth as butter—he could see himself staying comfortably in this form for a long time.
After a moment of consideration, Etho decided to make his way over to the nearest human town. Maybe it was dangerous, maybe it was stupid, but there was no way Etho was going to risk trying to find his pack anytime soon. So, he found a fallen poacher, put on their extremely large clothes (even as a human, Etho was tiny, it seemed), and began to head back in the direction they’d come from.
Eventually, he came across the city, and that was where he’d met Bdubs. Bdubs was a human child around Etho’s age whose parents decided to take him in. They figured out that Etho was a werewolf very quickly—mainly because Etho didn’t care to try to hide it—and did their best to help him fit in. It was strangely nice, Etho realized, having a family that actually cared.
So, Etho grew up from age nine onward living a human lifestyle (and boy, he grew fast. It turned out being small was temporary, because before Etho knew it he was 6’2). Bdubs and his parents were understanding, helping Etho disguise himself when out in public but letting him be whatever form he needed to when inside the house. Being a runt was surprisingly useful in this specific situation, because it meant he could stay in the third form for much longer than a normal werewolf would be able to.
Etho went to middle school and high school with Bdubs, passing with fairly good grades for his personal predicament. They gathered their own little group of friends, which was comprised of them two as well as three other boys named Tango, Impulse, and Skizz. Those three had been close since kindergarten, but as soon as Etho and Bdubs met them in high school, the five were inseparable.
Then came college.
Bdubs’s parents debated whether or not to send Etho to college. It could be difficult, if he got given a roommate that wasn’t Bdubs. Etho, however, really wanted to go. He thought it would be an amazing opportunity, as well as a unique experience that no other werewolf had experienced before. Eventually, the parents folded and allowed Etho to enroll.
Maybe, hopefully, Etho would get to share a dorm with Bdubs. Then he would never have to worry about needing to continue to hide his half form whenever he felt the need to shift back, he could just head back to their dorm and relax there for a while.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t how things worked out.
Instead of Bdubs, Etho was paired with a random human man he’d never seen before in his life. Just a normal guy, one who clearly didn’t believe in werewolves and had no interest in Etho whatsoever.
And on top of that—oh no—he was hot.