Stay.
Title: Stay. Part 1/6
Author: lovenhardt1
Artist:
michira_70 Thank you dear, for this wonderful art! You’re so loved.
Wordcount: 16.930 This chapter: 1819
Pairing: Tommy Ratliff/OMC Trent
Type: AU, werewolf. Friendship with a twist.
Disclaimer: it’s a werewolf fic so I’m not even gonna bother. Trent is however mine ;)
Rating: R
Warnings: Minor character death. Angst.
Beta: My wonderful friend thrace_adams who makes my writing so much better. Love you, you wonderful woman! All remaining mistakes are mine.
A/N: This story is a timestamp to my werewolf fic A Primal Right which can be found here on LJ and here on AO3. It takes place before A Primal Right and if you’re the happily ever after kinda person I recommend you read or re-read it after reading this fic ;)
Summary: When Trent receives a phone call from his alpha Dia, asking him to come home to accept and welcome the mate Tommy imprinted with, he’s forced to face the painful truth that Tommy is never going to love him back the way he wants him to. Before going home he reflects back on his history with Tommy and the events that led to this point.
Something changed a week ago today. I felt it in my bones, in my heart, and my wolf was hurting in a way it hadn’t in almost two years.
I felt his bubbly excitement, his worrying. His god damned stubbornness. His emotions so much more forceful than I expected but with the full moon in a week and his mating ceremony just around the corner, maybe I should have seen it coming.
I just never thought Mia would tip his world like this and it’s causing havoc in mine, crushing my heart all over again. Through all our years together I never once got the vibe that he wanted her like that. Much can change in a couple of years but wanting anything like this, lusting like this? I have a hard time believing it. I’ll admit that perhaps if I hadn’t spent two years hoping he’d come to his senses and ask me to come home, home to him, I’d probably be better suited for the phone call I’m getting right now.
I look at the phone number, chills running down my spine. There’s only one reason for this call. Two years have passed since I packed up my things and got the hell out of Dodge. I left him behind, l left my pack behind. I could have broken the pack bond by joining another one but the thought was too painful, still is, to do that. I promised him I’d always be there but instead I hover around the edges. Far away enough to never cross paths with the pack but near enough to feel him. I know they miss me as badly as I miss them. I know he misses me. That I hurt him, deeply, by leaving. None of it makes it better.
I’ve closed myself of from their telepathy, they can’t hear me if I don’t want them to but not one wolf has shut me out. That means I can’t really hear any of them, aside from my alpha, her I can’t ignore even if I wanted, but I can feel their emotions just fine. I filter them out, most of them, it hurts too much, but never Tommy. I should do that. He’s the reason I left. I couldn’t stay there, sharing the same air, the same habitat as him when I couldn’t be with him. I’ve been trying to move on but I can’t. I can’t let him go.
Frozen, I stare at the phone unable to answer and face the heat. Dia’s frustrated thoughts hit me with full alpha force. Pick up Trent, we need you, Tommy needs you. Pick up, pick up. Pick UP.
On its own accord my thumb hits the key and I answer her with a polite voice. “Hi Dia. It’s me.”
Her voice is warm and surrounds me instantly, determinedly pulling me into a nostalgic mood. I’ve missed her. I truly have. “Trent! Damn it’s good to hear your voice boy! How are you?”
“Fine.” I’m flat out lying but I’m doing it for a good cause, obviously her call involves Tommy and I don’t want her to worry about me. Unless Tommy or my mom told her why I left, and I highly doubt that, she’s clueless as to why I packed my stuff and left them. I wonder briefly if she’s calling because of the massive amount of worrying Tommy’s been doing over the last week. My heart races at the thought of him being in some kind of danger and my wolf seems just as uneasy. “I trust the same is the case at home?” I ask, pretending to be further away than what I am. I honestly don’t know if it works.
“I’m glad to hear that. We’re all good. Well, we will be. I need you to come home.” Only a were would hear that underlying tone. She isn’t really asking me but she didn’t order me either and I really, really need to know what this is all about before I come willingly.
“Dia.”
By the persuasive way her voice drops I realize she doesn’t want to demand my return, yet. “Just for a couple of hours. I… You know Tommy was supposed to mate with Mia soon?”
I swallow, pushing the image of the supposedly happy couple out of my mind. I try my best to keep my voice neutral. “Yeah, next full moon, I’m aware of that.”
“The thing is… last week Tommy imprinted on someone.” My mind goes blank right before it goes fucking hell, that’s why. He fucking imprinted. I’m so fucking screwed. Finding the closest chair and sinking down on it I let Dia keep talking into my ear without interrupting her. “I’ve never seen Tommy so completely lost before. It’s rather adorable but not without obstacles. So I need you to come home and accept this new addition to our pack.”
Still no demand in her tone, but we’re getting there, I can feel it; my wolf is already getting restless, wanting to please his alpha.
Ironically my mouth decides to start talking without permission. “Obstacles? What kind I mean, if he imprinted it can’t really be easier, can it? Pack law says no wolf is denied his or her destined mate.” Silently, I kick my own ass and damn my lack of brain to mouth filter.
“I know but he imprinted on a human. And it’s even more complicated than that. Which means Tommy needs to be freed of his obligations to Mia if he’s gonna have a happy life with his man. So I need the whole pack to welcome this sweet boy. Please be here tomorrow.”
“Human?” I ask gasping. Now I understand some of his worries but then the rest of what she said hits me full force. “Tommy imprinted on a guy?”
Dia laughs gently. “Don’t sound so surprised Mother Nature knows better than the rest of us combined. Come home, we all miss you. I know Tommy does.”
“If you say so.” I say, defeated and broken hearted. A fucking guy!
“I do, be here tomorrow.” Yeah and there was the demand. Fucking alpha voice and my fucking stupid wolf wanting to follow it to the end of the world.
“Sure.”
“I can’t wait to see you! Bye Trent.”
“See you tomorrow.” I add and end the call.
Seems like I’m going home.
As I look around the room and think about what I should pack, my mind drifts back to Tommy, how things were when we were growing up and exactly why I ended up leaving him and my pack behind. Unrequited love sucks I’d learned that first hand, the hard way.
Tommy and I were born into the same pack with only two months between us. Maybe it was because it was convenient, maybe not, but we grew up being inseparable. Best friends. I don’t have many childhood memories worth paying attention to that he isn’t a part of. He’s hard to love but more importantly he’s impossible not to. He’s the fucking master of complicating things and he never ever wants to.
The first time I consciously thought about Tommy being something special was at a full moon night. I think we must have been seven years old. Tommy, in his wolf form, had me by the throat, playfully growling, before he released his grip and took off in a sprint, heading for the forest, with impressive speed. The thought is fleeting and forgotten the next second when I rolled over and jumped up, giving chase the way I knew Tommy wanted me to.
The thought returned later in the wee hours of the morning after the joyful night spent in wolf form with my best friend. It popped into my head again when Mom threw me into the shower, telling me to find a clean boy underneath all that mud and bits of leaves again.
It wasn’t until later, when I was in my PJs, tired to the bone and with Mom sitting on the edge of my bed, I finally asked. “Mom, why does Tommy always win? Every time I think I’m gonna win, my wolf surrenders on its own.”
“I know Trent. Tommy is born to be our pack leader.” She told me. “To be an Alpha. And since you’re his age he already holds alpha powers over you. The older he gets the more influential his alpha becomes. Even I will submit to him before he comes of age.”
“Oh, so he’s like Ron?” I asked, putting my new information together. It made perfect sense to me.
“Exactly. One day he’ll mate with Mia and bring our packs together.” My mom said and bent down to kiss me on my cheek. I pointedly wiped my skin, glaring at her. But then her words sunk in.
“Mate? With Mia?!”
“Unless he imprints on another wolf of course. None of us will ever stand in the way of that.”
“Okay. Good night Mom.” I said and closed my eyes. Truth be told I hadn’t given mating much thought, like ever, at that age. But I swear even then I couldn’t find anything appealing about that idea. As a kid Mia was cool and with her being three years older and like Tommy, alpha born, she was someone to look up to. She was also very much a girl. I still cringe at the mere thought. And to say I’d made peace with the thought of their mating would be a lie of epic proportions, but there was nothing I could do about it so I left. Seems unbelievably unfair that their mating isn’t going to happen after all and that Tommy’s wolf picked a male mate.
After that talk with mom I never questioned Tommy’s authority, no wolf, my age or younger would. But from time to time it pissed me off that my wolf instantly wanted to roll over and show its belly whenever Tommy wanted it to. Not that Tommy ever seemed to realize what he did to me or to my wolf. Which was kind of odd because once I had talked to Mom, I started to pay attention to how the other wolves were around Tommy and often wondered how he couldn't see that they treated him as something special. Not better than the rest of us cubs, but still with more attention to his words, his actions.
But Tommy never mentioned it and as long he wasn’t an ass about it I wasn’t going to bother bringing it up. Our time together was too precious and there was more important stuff to do than talk pack politics. Wrestling or hunting rabbits as wolves or teasing the girls in our human forms were some of them. More than once I think we caused our parents more trouble than was strictly necessary. But, I guess boys will boys.
part 2