(no subject)
Title: Wild Thing (You Make My Heart Sing), Chapter 8
Author: cherryscott and queen_kiwi
Fandom: SPN RPS, on crack
Pairing: cheetah!Jared/wolf!Jensen, grizzly!Jeff/tigress!Kate
Rating: PG-13
Summary: When spring comes and Jeff comes out of hibernation, events take an unexpected turn.
Disclaimer: Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Kate Walsh, along with everybody else anybody recognizes, are not furry animals of any kind or living on a reserve. No profits are being made off this work of fiction.
One of the pups, Alex, is going out for his first hunt today; he's trailing along behind the adults, sniffing eagerly at the ground, tail wagging brightly as he yips and scrambles to keep up. Chris catches him and nudges him up as he slides down a hill, and he barks as he tears ahead of Dean and Sam in the lead.
Jared yips back at him and races him to the trees, letting Alex pounce on his tail as he flops down to the ground and rolls over in the dirt. Spring is finally in the air, the snow melting away and the ground soggy with mud; he's grown thicker fur like the rest of the pack and bulked up since the winter, hard lean muscles standing out along his flanks and chest, filling out his gangly limbs.
Now he goofs off with the pup, playing and tussling him over, ruffling his head before letting him go. Alex crashes into Sam's legs and scurries back into place, quickly tucking his head down between his shoulders. Jared follows meekly, exchanging a smile with Sam, and grins wider as Sam smiles back; the wolf's been friendlier since the winter, more open.
He trots to Jensen's shoulder and sneaks a bite there, a tiny quick little secret caress followed by a nudge with his nose.
Jensen can't imagine being happier than he is right now. The rest of the winter was fairly uneventful--he even thinks Jared's started to adapt so maybe next winter won't cause him such panic over his mate's condition--and now everything is slowly starting to come to life again. The pups are older, old enough to start learning to hunt and Jensen can't think of anything better than that.
He growls playfully at his mate's bite, pouncing Jared into some last remains of snow on the ground before grinning and darting off, nipping at Chris's tail, dancing out of the way of a swipe from Sam's paw, following the pack and the scent trails as they seek out their prey.
Up ahead, there's a big, dark, hulking shape and Jensen lifts his head to sniff the wind, a cheerful bark cutting through the air.
"Jeff!"
The big bear turns his head and then beams at Jensen, lumbering over. "Hello, puppy," he booms, cuffing Jensen's head gently with a massive paw and easily holding him down to the ground. "How was your winter?"
Jensen squirms underneath that paw, yelping and biting playfully at thick, brown fur. "Started off kinda rough," he manages breathlessly, head twisting to look over at Jared. "But it ended up working out just perfectly. How was yours? You sleep the whole time or did the zoo kinda break that need to hibernate?"
"Are you kidding? I went for the whole nine yards," Jeff says easily, letting him up and walking alongside him. "Made a burrow, ate until I practically rolled everywhere, woke up just to stretch out and curl up and fall asleep again--it was like sleeping in, but so much better. I'm tellin' you, I could hibernate forever."
"Mmm... I could go for some hibernation," Jensen agrees with a bright grin, paw batting at the tip of Jared's tail as they come up on his mate. "Maybe next winter."
The smile he gives his mate hints of endless cold days spent huddled in their den, rolling among mounds of deer skin and making each other howl all winter long.
"Glad you're up though," Jensen chuckles. "Was startin' to wonder if maybe you'd just sleep on through to summer. Gets kinda boring without you around, y'know."
Jared, who yelps and pounces on Jeff the minute he sees him, yipping and yowling down his ears gleefully, flashes Jensen a look as if to say that he'd rather skip the winter part and just go straight to the hibernation part at least ten minutes ago. He bites at Jeff's fur and wrestles him and tussles him down, and is picked up and dumped unceremoniously into the nearby snowdrift.
"Well, y'all need somebody to watch out for your scrawny tails," Jeff informs him easily, as Jared splutters and sneezes up snow. "I don't know what you're trying to teach that poor pup there..."
Chris bounds over, paws to the ground, tail in the air and mischievous grin fired Jeff's way before he jumps on him and bites at him, cuffing him behind one big ear.
"I'll have you know we're doin' just fine with that young pup," Chris drawls. "It's only his first time out... y'can't expect him to be as good a hunter as Jen his first go round."
Jensen ducks his head, a little embarrassed, and bats a bit of snow at Chris, wagging his tail as he tackles Jared back into the snowdrift just as he starts to get up.
Jeff bats him off as easily as if a fly had landed on his shoulder, laughing and swiping at him. "As good a hunter as Jen, huh? As good a hunter as the wolf who hid from that bad, wicked tree in the enclosure when he was a pup?"
Jared, bowled over and tangling himself up with Jensen, limbs and tails knotting together as he nuzzles up against his throat and bites at that sensitive spot against his pulsepoint, stares wide-eyed with glee at Jensen as Chris bursts out laughing. "Are you serious?"
Jensen huffs and swats at his mate, baring his teeth but there's no real heat behind it, just a little bit of a bruised ego.
"I was only a little pup!" He insists. "And that tree was evil. It was all big and gnarly and twisted and it totally came to life at night, I don't care what anyone says."
"Yes, Jensen, of course the maple tree was evil," Jeff says patiently. "All those branches and leaves, my God, I just can't go on--" Chris is having a bad time muffling his grin; Jared, even worse.
Then they all hear it at the same: a long agonized roar, tearing apart the air, from the direction of the compound.
Jensen's just about to defend his dignity once more when that sound has him scurrying to his feet, frowning in the direction of the human habitat.
"That sounded like a--"
Chris is staring too, the happy wag of his tail stilling to no movement at all, just like the other wolves around, the wild ones of the pack looking a little wary because they've never heard a sound like that before.
"--a tiger," Jared finishes softly, his head tilted to one side. "A tigress. I've heard that noise before, from the pens, when one of them gets hurt, but..." he shakes his head in bafflement, meeting Jensen's eyes, "...what the hell is a tigress doing here?"
Some of the wolves are backing away, edging towards the clearing again, hackles raised. Alex is standing as tall and bravely as possible, even with his ears flattened back towards his skull and his tail shivering between his legs.
Jeff shifts a little on big paws, rising up to his hind legs to sniff the air as though he might taste something there higher up that he couldn't closer to the ground.
"They bring animals here sometimes when they get sick or hurt," Jeff says. "I heard the humans talking about it back in the zoo. They think the fresh air and the wilderness helps animals heal faster than if they were in a cage, scared and penned up in one of the human buildings."
Jensen frowns a little more, trotting forward a few steps before turning back. "She sounds scared," he says. "Maybe we should... y'know."
Jared holds his breath, tail whisking faster as his heart races. "You think we can get close enough without being noticed?" he says to Jensen, the gleam of a challenge glinting in his eyes as a smile tilts up his lips.
"Not all of us," Jensen says, looking around at the pack. "They'd spot a whole damn pack of us, but maybe a few could go. Besides, too many and we might scare her even more."
He looks over at Jeff. "You think she's from our zoo?"
Jeff doesn't answer. It takes Jared pawing at an ear for him to look up, and then he sounds abstracted, dazedly lost. "Oh... uh, yeah, it's-it's a possibility. Might be. It is the closest zoo 'round here..."
"Maybe you should go, Jeff," Jensen suggests. "I mean, you may be a little less discreet than me or Chris or somebody, but you probably know this place better than us and if she's from our zoo, maybe you can... I dunno. Maybe you can calm her down. You were always good at that."
Jeff, the expert at calming people down, looks positively nervous at that. "Are you sure? I mean--I'm pretty damn noticeable, pup, and y'all are faster at getting away than I am--"
Jensen cocks his head to one side, a little confused. "Well, I mean... yeah, there's that. I just thought maybe you'd be better at it than any of us. Maybe Jared should go? Another cat might be better than some mangy old dog showing up to try and talk to her."
"I'll go with Jeff," Jared says, who has been looking hard at Jeff for some minutes now. "We should make it back in time for the hunt to be finished..."
As Jeff lumbers up on ahead, clearly disturbed, Jared goes to nudge Jensen behind the ear and gently tug on it. "Some mangy old dog? You talkin' about Ash again?"
Jensen just laughs and gives a slow shudder in response to that ear tug, his teeth finding Jared's chest for a short nibble before he lets go. "Don't be long now, pussycat. Once we're done hunting, I'll be wanting a little time with you before a good long nap."
"Won't be just a little time, Fido," Jared whispers into Jensen's ear, low and laughing and wicked with a little flick of his tongue, then hesitates. "He--when we were running together, Jeff said he left the zoo because he couldn't trust himself there, I didn't understand..."
A frown crosses Jensen's face, gaze flicking over to Jeff before returning to his mate.
"He's acting kind of weird now," Jensen admits quietly. "Maybe this has something to do with it?"
"We should get going," Jeff says, still sounding distracted. "If we're going to, I mean. If it gets close to meal time, the humans will be out to feed her."
"I'm thinking so," Jared replies, ducking his head towards Jensen, "and kinda hoping not. I just--I can't imagine anybody not trusting him, you know?"
Jeff's words catch up to his brain and he moves away, if somewhat reluctantly--he'd really, really liked that hibernation idea--from his mate. "Be back soon," he tells Jensen, nuzzling at him, "I'll bring you back a car to chase," and lopes over to join Jeff.
Jeff doesn't say much as they start through the woods towards the human habitat, seemingly lost in his thoughts as they pad along. He has a feeling he already knows what awaits them and nervous doesn't begin to describe how he feels--he doesn't have a clue what he's going to say to her if he's right in thinking he recognizes that voice carrying on the air.
"You recognize the voice," says Jared, treading alongside him as they make their way over the rocks and twigs. Somewhere the wind picks up, and a few fallen leaves blow by. "You know who it is." Neither are questions.
"I know who it is," Jeff confirms, eyes still drawn ahead and not on Jared, off towards the distance that's rapidly drawing closer. "Though I don't know why they would've brought her here. They have humans at the zoo that fix us up when we get hurt or sick. They only bring animals here to release them or if..." He frowns, refusing to finish that thought.
"Who is it?" Jared jumps down from a rock and lopes after Jeff, pacing to keep up, concerned and confused--this isn't like the Jeff he knows at all.
For the first time since they took off, Jeff stops and turns to look at Jared, just watching him for a moment before his eyes drift back in the direction of the compound that's just starting to come into view.
"It's Kate," he says simply, as though that explains everything--though he knows it doesn't make any sense to anyone but him, at least when it comes to how unlike himself he suddenly is.
It takes a moment, but then it clicks: Kate, the golden-eyed tigress from the zoo. He'd only seen her a few times from a distance and never spoken to her, but she was striking--rich burnished fur, slender and fine-boned, with a serious face and those bright eyes.
He looks back at Jeff, at the look on the grizzly bear's face, and suddenly sucks in his breath, eyes widening. "--you and Kate?"
Jeff stumbles a little, wide-eyed and looking downright anxious, shaking his big, furry head.
"No! No, nothing like that. I, uh, I mean, I've talked to her. Talked to a lot of you back at the zoo. I don't think she's really..." he laughs a little huskily. "I think you and Jensen are probably the only interspecies pair I've ever seen. So no, nothing like... nothing like that."
Jared grins at that, a little goofily at the thought of Jensen, and ducks his head. "I've never really spoken to her before, only passed her by a couple of times at night," he offers, trotting alongside Jeff and leaning against him a little to steady his pace.
Jeff sniffs the air as they start to get close--he can smell Kate but no humans, so he leads Jared in closer, his gait faltering when he sees her, pacing frantically in a large enclosure behind one of the buildings. There's fear on the air too, and Kate lets out another yowling roar of pain that sends a chill down Jeff's spine as he and Jared move right up to the fence.
"Kate?" Jared says softly, under cover of the shadows nearby. "Over here..."
The tigress twists her head, looking around, and then slowly--hesitantly, shivering with pain--pads forward to the fence. "Who's there? Who is it?"
Jeff steps out just a little, just far enough for her to see, though he's having a hard time keeping himself from shaking nervously and he prides himself on managing a soft grin.
"Jeff," he says. "And Jared too, from the zoo. Thought you might be wanting a little company."
Kate recoils, staring at them, then lets out a startled, hearty laugh that brightens up her golden eyes and stretches her mouth back in a grin. "Jeff? How the hell did you get up here?"
Jeff ducks his head a little, dragging a paw against the ground, but he's grinning when he looks up at her. His heart nearly stops in his chest but he doesn't let it show, just gives her the same caring look he'd give anyone. "Helped this one here escape back before the winter hit," he says, lifting a massive paw to cuff Jared lightly behind his ears. "His mate got brought here and I knew the way, so..."
Kate furrows her brow at Jared, clearly bewildered and struggling to keep her head clear. "His mate? But he's a--"
"Cheetah," Jared finishes, nudging Jeff back gently in the side. "And my mate's a wolf," and waits for it.
Kate's eyes sharpen then, as she focuses on him--the intensity is unnerving--before she lets out another one of those husky warm laughs. "You're that one," she grins toothily, eyes crinkling up at the corners, and Jared wonders if it's too late to turn himself into the humans.
"I heard about you escaping," she continues to Jeff. "I didn't think you were unhappy back there..."
Jeff can't help but chuckle--yeah, he supposes it is more than a little strange, a cheetah mating with a wolf. His head ducks a little again when the conversation comes back around to him, his smile faltering a little, looking more nervous.
"I wouldn't say I was unhappy," he says, glancing at Jared before returning his gaze to Kate. "But Jared needed help getting to Jensen and it seemed silly to go to all the trouble of escaping and getting here and then just turning around and heading back to the zoo. Besides," Jeff grins. "They have hibernation here and I highly recommend it."
Jared is suddenly finding a patch of ground off near the trees extremely interesting as Kate nudges out her nose between the chain-link fence, her tail gently sweeping the ground. "Hibernation, huh? You go to all that trouble to make a den and then you just sleep in it?" she teases half-heartedly, her grin tilting crookedly.
"Best sleep you'll ever have," Jeff grins, more than a little stupidly before he catches himself and coughs lightly, expression sobering. "How are you feeling? Could tell by your roar that you're hurt--plus I know they don't bring animals up here unless it's more than what they can handle at the zoo. What happened?"
Kate is silent for a long moment before answering, finally, "I don't know. I came up here and they put me to sleep for a long while, with one of their needles, and I have a scar along my side here..."
She rears up to expose her soft white underbelly; a patch of fur is shorn away to reveal a line of neat black stitches.
Jeff's eyes go wide and he coughs a little, his gaze flicking over to Jared before he can look back at Kate. "Surgery," he says finally, voice a little strained. "They must've found something wrong that they couldn't fix at the zoo, so they brought you here. They've got better doctors here, I think."
He's mostly just grateful that bears can't blush, otherwise he'd be even more embarrassed. "You look well, though. Must be healing all right."
"But that means they're going to bring me back there, right?" A thread of disappointment winds through Kate's voice, and she lowers her head, giving him a lopsided rueful grin at that last.
"In theory," Jeff agrees solemnly, but then he's ducking his own head, giving her a chuckle and a grin. "But then again, they were gonna take Jared back too, and you see how well that turned out for them, ain't that right, Spot?"
He swats at Jared's tail with a big paw, smiling at the cheetah and back at the tigress.
Jared doesn't get out of the way fast enough and yelps, twitching his tail and waggling his hindquarters in the air for a dramatic pounce on Jeff, trying to roll him over.
Kate laughs again, low and warm, but ends on a wistful sigh. "I wish I could escape here... the zoo's not the same anymore, the cats are turning on each other. One of the panthers, the things he said about that lion, T.J. ...and maybe I miss you and your voice a little bit," she finished, with that same quirky crooked grin.
Jeff's heart pounds in his chest, paw scuffing at the dirt as he looks down at his own feet for a long moment. He can't even breathe, can only think of pretty orange fur and warm golden eyes and all the times back at the zoo where he'd wished he'd been born smaller, striped and feline.
"I could try and pull down the fence," he offers suddenly, almost startling himself with the very idea. Jeff laughs a little, eyes lifting to Kate's. "I think sooner or later they're just going to put up concrete, but... I could try."
Kate looks straight at him, eyes big with suppressed excitement, holding her breath. "We'd get in so much trouble--"
Jeff looks to Jared and then back to Kate, grin broad and conspiring. "Only if we get caught," he says. "We'd just have to make sure not to get caught."
"Be nice to have another cat around," Jared offers, with a mischievous grin. "We need more of the superior species..."
Jeff lifts his head to sniff at the air and look around, making sure no humans are about before he comes up on his hind legs and hooks his claws through the fence, curling them and getting a good grip.
"It's worth a shot, anyway," he says, taking in a deep breath before jerking backwards, tugging hard.
The sound of metal tearing apart screeches through the air, a creaking metallic whine, as Kate recoils with her fur bristling. Jared darts up to help, digging his own claws into the wire fence and yanking with his teeth.
The gate twists, distorted and crunched downwards, and a siren sets up a wail.
"Quick," Jared is panting, scuffling back from the fence, "quick, Kate, you gotta jump--" Kate is crouching low to the ground, hackles raised, tail puffed out and panting hard as the sound of the alarm rings through her skull.
With a short yelp she jumps, and lands on top of the fence; she struggles, paws dangling in the air, as there's the distant sound of doors opening and footsteps along the path.
Eyes wide, Jeff stretches up on his hind paws as far as he can go, head nudging beneath Kate's paws. "Down my back," he urges, eyes darting towards the sound of humans, faint underneath the wail of the siren but still discernible. "Push off with your hind legs and climb down my back. Hurry, before they catch us all."
Kate trembles against him as she scrabbles against the wire links, her claws skittering on metal. Then with a visible effort she lifts up and pushes, and the fence rattles as she slides down Jeff's back and tumbles onto the ground.
Jared has her up in a moment, gently grabbing at the back of her neck to help her up as he would a kitten. The sound of shouting can be heard now, the sound of boots closer, and from behind the fence a man lifts a tranquilizer rifle to his shoulder.
"Go," Jeff hisses back over his shoulder to Jared and Kate, standing upright on two legs again to roar at the humans, paws outstretched wide to block the cats from the gun with little thought for his own fate.
A huge paw bats at the fence, shaking it over the human's head as the man gets close and Jeff watches him flinch before there's the sound of a gunshot and a slight sting in his broad, furry chest.
"Jeff!" Kate is screaming, running towards him in a blur, and there's a snarl as Jared jumps at the man and knocks him down to the ground, clattering on top of the metal fence. He rips the gun from the man's hands and howls in his face, baring all his teeth, and there's frightened cries and scuffling noises from the humans.
Kate bends over Jeff, crouching close to him, breath coming short and shaky. "Jeff--no no please no--"
"It's just..." Jeff blinks, vision already going blurry, body already starting to feel heavy as he slowly crumples to the ground. "Just a tranquilizer. They'll... they'll put me in a pen or a van and I'll... I'll get out, don't worry, just... just go. Go."
He tries to smile at her, but he's starting to lose consciousness and his gaze flicks over to Jared, voice straining. "Get back to your pup, Jay," Jeff rasps. "They'll send you back to the zoo if they catch you. I'll be fine, just... just get her out of here."
"I can hold them off, I can stay here--" Jared begins, his voice cracking.
"Jared," Jeff tries to growl, though it comes out a little weak. "Jensen will kill me if I let you get caught. Get Kate and get the hell out of here. She doesn't know the way and you can't stay here. I'll be fine. Just--"
Jeff stops mid-sentence, everything going black.
The man gets to his feet and reloads his gun, still reeling and stumbling drunkenly with shock. Before he can fire, there's a rustle in the bushes and the two cats are gone.
Jared leads the way through the forest, losing their trail through streams and thick bushes, creeping and crawling along the ground. His breath is hitching up in his chest and he doesn’t think he can breathe for much longer. Beside him, Kate is making soft whimpery noises as she pads along.
"Stay low, we can loose them," he murmurs back to her. "Follow my lead. I'm taking you back to my pack."
Kate's tired and scared and worried about Jeff but more worried about what the humans might do to them if they're caught.
"How much further is it?" she asks, trying to ignore the ache in her stitched side as she keeps low and follows closely behind Jared, doing her best not to make a sound as they move.
"Not far, this way," and he heads up a slope, rocks skittering out behind him, digging into the gravel. Somewhere a bird flutters out of a tree, disappears.
It's near dusk when he spots the wolves ahead, lying in their clearing; suddenly Jared feels the ache in every single one of his bones, and he nearly collapses. "C'mon," he urges Kate gently, nudging at her. "I'll introduce you."
Kate's eyes are wide and she really isn't sure about this--Jared's one thing, but wolves? But Jared's starting forward and she's following, swallowing and doing her best not to look threatening.
Jensen's head lifts from where he's gnawing at the last remains of his portion of the evening's meal when he smells his mate on the wind, bright smile splitting his bloodied muzzle wide, surprise in his eyes when he spots the tigress with Jared.
"You've finally left me for another feline, huh?" Jensen teases, giving Jared a sly look. "I knew I shoulda listened to my momma when she said a cat was just gonna break my heart."
Jared attempts a smile, but it comes out all wrong, and suddenly he's this close to breaking down because Jeff's been taken and Kate's in danger and he has no idea what to do, and he swallows hard. "Consider it officially unbroken," he attempts weakly, his voice breaking in half. "Kate, meet my mate Jensen. Jensen--this is Kate."
"It's good to meet you," Kate says, managing a small smile, though it turns nervous when she looks around at all the sets of wolf eyes on her.
"Pleasure's all mine," Jensen returns amicably, grinning at Kate before his gaze turns to his lover, that smile dropping away, because something is wrong. "What is it?" he asks, eyes flicking over Jared, looking for hurts. "What's wrong, Jay?"
Jared half-treads, half-stumbles forward and buries his face in Jensen's shoulder, deep into Jensen's fur, breathing his scent in like he needs it more than oxygen, listening to his heartbeat thud. "Jeff's gone," he says, muffled into thick fur.
Jensen's licking at Jared's shoulder and neck, frowning, heart stopping at his mate's words. "What do you mean he's gone?" he asks, fear clenching in his gut. There are only two answers to that question and Jensen doesn't like either one of them.
Max is the first one to pad forward, slowly, tail drooping along the ground as he noses towards her, sniffing at the air. "Are you from the zoo?" he asks, scratching at one ear and fixing her with a curious stare.
Kate visibly relaxes, settling back on her haunches as she nods, sniffing back at him and smiling a little. "The same one that Jared and Jensen and Jeff came from," she says. "I'm Kate, by the way. What's your name?"
Slowly some of the other wolves trot forward, inching their way past each other, as Max grins all over. "I'm Max, and that's Dean, our alpha, and Sam, our beta, and Chris and Ash and Bobby--"
Jared lifts his head, breath shuddery, eyes furrowed as he noses along Jensen's flank. "We were trying to break Kate out, and the-the humans came with tranquilizer guns..."
Jensen nuzzles behind one of Jared's ears, eyes drifting closed for a moment as he takes a deep breath. "It'll be okay, pussycat," he assures him. "Jeff's an old pro at breaking out of human made places. He'll be back before you know it."
Jared shivers against him and burrows closer, eyes closed, one big ache of need. "He looked so still, he was barely breathing," he whispers. "If I'd been braver, if I'd fought them off, he'd still be here--"
It's a little overwhelming, but Kate has a good memory and she repeats back all of their names when the introductions are done, feeling more at ease than she's felt since she was brought here. "There are so many of you," she murmurs. "I never even knew this place was here, never knew much outside the zoo once I was brought there. It's so big. Not quite like being home again, but it's...it's better than being behind bars."
"A lot of us were born here, on the reserve," Ava tells her seriously. "They put the devices on us, to track us, but otherwise they leave us alone. I can't even imagine being in a zoo."
"The zoo wasn't that bad," Kate says softly. "I missed home, but I didn't have to worry about hunters coming after me or whether there would be enough food to go around. There were lots of people that came every day to stare at us all and take pictures and shout and laugh and all that. But it wasn't awful."
Jensen bites softly at Jared's throat, nuzzling the sting away. "It's not your fault, pussycat. And besides, if you had attacked the humans, they'd come looking for us. I think the only reason they haven't is because we don't bother anyone. If you had fought them and hurt one of them, they'd have come after you and they'd catch you and either cart you back to the zoo or give you one of the needles where you won't wake up, Jay." Jensen's voice falls to a whisper, strained and tight. "And I can't... if that happened, Jay, I'd be coming there right after you."
Jared feels his chest tighten and his throat close up, and nuzzles into his mate's neck, burying his nose deep there. "I love you," he says simply, "and I'm not dying for you. I'm living for you. No matter what it takes."
He lets out a shaky breath, gusting against Jensen's fur. "If Jeff hadn't led me here I'd be wandering out there or roadkill lying on the highway. And maybe that means he knows how to get out, how to get free, but--Jeff's my friend. Our friend. And they've got the guns and the cars and the needles, and whatever they want to do, they always win in the end."
Jensen is quiet for a moment, focusing on the rhythm of Jared's breath against his fur, his mind working, formulating a plan. "Don't worry," he murmurs to his mate, nuzzling at him and letting his tongue swipe out to smooth soothingly over spotted fur. "We'll get him back, pussycat. We'll get him out."
And yeah, Jensen doesn't have a clue how they're going to manage, just that they will. Somehow.
"Did you have a pack?" Alex calls out from the rear, his tail twitching in the air, at the same time as Sam, paws folded in front of him, says, "I'm guessing they don't let tigers and wolves and bears run around in the same cages, so how do you know Jeff?"
Kate's smiling a little, shaking her head. "I was the only tiger the zoo had. Kind of lonely, really, being in a cage all by myself. But Jeff was... I think Jeff knew everyone. They didn't keep him in a cage most of the time because he was so gentle and friendly, even to the humans.
"He's a good friend to us, too," Dean says, loping over with his tail whisking the ground and raising his voice so that the whole pack can hear. "Anybody who's a friend of Jeff's can stay with us, as long as you need to. Although if this keeps up, we'll be outnumbered by the cats..."
"Wouldn't that be an improvement?" Jared cracks weakly, from Jensen's side, managing a small smile for his mate's sake as he rests his head against Jensen's paw.
Jensen smiles a little, nipping gently at Jared's ear. "Well, it's just like I always used to tell Chris back in the zoo when he thought I was nuts--you can never have too much pussy around."
Chris smirks and crouches a little, biting playfully at the air in Jensen's direction, making Jensen laugh softly.
"There's nothing we can do right now," Jensen says. "Let's sit tight and come up with a plan and then tomorrow, we can go after Jeff, okay? It won't do us any good if we just go out there without a plan, and I don't think all of us are going to be able to go and still keep out of sight from the humans." He nuzzles against Jared, nibbling along his mate's nape. "Would you remember the way back to the zoo if we got outside the reserve?"
"I think so." Jared looks sharper, more alert, as he remembers--the roads, the scent trails, the directions he and Jeff took. "I wasn't really focusing on the path at the time," he adds, looking sheepishly at Jensen, "but I got the general gist of it."
Jensen nods. "Then today we'll worry about eating, making sure our energy's up. We'll make sure we get a lot of rest so we'll be ready to travel and tomorrow we'll go after him, okay? You can lead and I'll make sure I'll know the way back in case something happens when we get there and we have to separate and travel individually. We'll get him back." He says it firmly, even though he isn't sure it can be done. It's enough that they're going to try and even if they don't succeed, Jensen is going to make damned sure that Jared doesn't get captured again, even if it means attacking a human.
"How many will we be?" Jared looks over at him. He has a pack of cheetahs, where Tom leads and Mike sits on one side and he sits on the other, and a pack of wolves, where Dean stands in front with Sam and Chris and he falls somewhere behind. And he belongs to a pack of two, and he knows who his alpha is.
"We can't all go," Jensen murmurs contemplatively. "Dean needs to stay here to lead the pack..." He looks to Chris and smiles a little, shaking his head when the other wolf starts to open his mouth to speak. "The pack needs you, Chris. Maybe Jared and I can do it on our own. The rest of you don't know your way around the zoo and I'd never forgive myself if we got you caught and locked up in pens like we were." Turning to look at his mate, Jensen settles back on his haunches, tail curled around his feet. "Do you think just you and me would be enough, Jay? I think we could do it and the fewer that go, the better. The less chance we'd have at getting caught."
"I think you'd better just try to keep up," Jared murmurs back, mouth curling up in a grin as the green-gold eyes light up. "Can't be falling behind every time you stop to stare at your reflection in the river or get your beauty sleep..."
On instinct, his eyes flick over to Kate.
"I'm going too," Kate says. "He got taken trying to help me...there's no way I'm just staying here."
Jensen smiles at her, paw swatting at Jared's tail before he catches it, pinning it to the ground in retaliation for the comments about his vanity. "The three of us will go then," he says, matter-of-factly. "The rest of you can stay here where it's safe and we'll be back once we get Jeff out."
"What if you don't come back?" Alex asks, eyes wide and concerned, tail drooping at the thought.
Jensen's eyes soften and his heart clenches in his chest. "We will," he says. "We will come back."
Author: cherryscott and queen_kiwi
Fandom: SPN RPS, on crack
Pairing: cheetah!Jared/wolf!Jensen, grizzly!Jeff/tigress!Kate
Rating: PG-13
Summary: When spring comes and Jeff comes out of hibernation, events take an unexpected turn.
Disclaimer: Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Kate Walsh, along with everybody else anybody recognizes, are not furry animals of any kind or living on a reserve. No profits are being made off this work of fiction.
One of the pups, Alex, is going out for his first hunt today; he's trailing along behind the adults, sniffing eagerly at the ground, tail wagging brightly as he yips and scrambles to keep up. Chris catches him and nudges him up as he slides down a hill, and he barks as he tears ahead of Dean and Sam in the lead.
Jared yips back at him and races him to the trees, letting Alex pounce on his tail as he flops down to the ground and rolls over in the dirt. Spring is finally in the air, the snow melting away and the ground soggy with mud; he's grown thicker fur like the rest of the pack and bulked up since the winter, hard lean muscles standing out along his flanks and chest, filling out his gangly limbs.
Now he goofs off with the pup, playing and tussling him over, ruffling his head before letting him go. Alex crashes into Sam's legs and scurries back into place, quickly tucking his head down between his shoulders. Jared follows meekly, exchanging a smile with Sam, and grins wider as Sam smiles back; the wolf's been friendlier since the winter, more open.
He trots to Jensen's shoulder and sneaks a bite there, a tiny quick little secret caress followed by a nudge with his nose.
Jensen can't imagine being happier than he is right now. The rest of the winter was fairly uneventful--he even thinks Jared's started to adapt so maybe next winter won't cause him such panic over his mate's condition--and now everything is slowly starting to come to life again. The pups are older, old enough to start learning to hunt and Jensen can't think of anything better than that.
He growls playfully at his mate's bite, pouncing Jared into some last remains of snow on the ground before grinning and darting off, nipping at Chris's tail, dancing out of the way of a swipe from Sam's paw, following the pack and the scent trails as they seek out their prey.
Up ahead, there's a big, dark, hulking shape and Jensen lifts his head to sniff the wind, a cheerful bark cutting through the air.
"Jeff!"
The big bear turns his head and then beams at Jensen, lumbering over. "Hello, puppy," he booms, cuffing Jensen's head gently with a massive paw and easily holding him down to the ground. "How was your winter?"
Jensen squirms underneath that paw, yelping and biting playfully at thick, brown fur. "Started off kinda rough," he manages breathlessly, head twisting to look over at Jared. "But it ended up working out just perfectly. How was yours? You sleep the whole time or did the zoo kinda break that need to hibernate?"
"Are you kidding? I went for the whole nine yards," Jeff says easily, letting him up and walking alongside him. "Made a burrow, ate until I practically rolled everywhere, woke up just to stretch out and curl up and fall asleep again--it was like sleeping in, but so much better. I'm tellin' you, I could hibernate forever."
"Mmm... I could go for some hibernation," Jensen agrees with a bright grin, paw batting at the tip of Jared's tail as they come up on his mate. "Maybe next winter."
The smile he gives his mate hints of endless cold days spent huddled in their den, rolling among mounds of deer skin and making each other howl all winter long.
"Glad you're up though," Jensen chuckles. "Was startin' to wonder if maybe you'd just sleep on through to summer. Gets kinda boring without you around, y'know."
Jared, who yelps and pounces on Jeff the minute he sees him, yipping and yowling down his ears gleefully, flashes Jensen a look as if to say that he'd rather skip the winter part and just go straight to the hibernation part at least ten minutes ago. He bites at Jeff's fur and wrestles him and tussles him down, and is picked up and dumped unceremoniously into the nearby snowdrift.
"Well, y'all need somebody to watch out for your scrawny tails," Jeff informs him easily, as Jared splutters and sneezes up snow. "I don't know what you're trying to teach that poor pup there..."
Chris bounds over, paws to the ground, tail in the air and mischievous grin fired Jeff's way before he jumps on him and bites at him, cuffing him behind one big ear.
"I'll have you know we're doin' just fine with that young pup," Chris drawls. "It's only his first time out... y'can't expect him to be as good a hunter as Jen his first go round."
Jensen ducks his head, a little embarrassed, and bats a bit of snow at Chris, wagging his tail as he tackles Jared back into the snowdrift just as he starts to get up.
Jeff bats him off as easily as if a fly had landed on his shoulder, laughing and swiping at him. "As good a hunter as Jen, huh? As good a hunter as the wolf who hid from that bad, wicked tree in the enclosure when he was a pup?"
Jared, bowled over and tangling himself up with Jensen, limbs and tails knotting together as he nuzzles up against his throat and bites at that sensitive spot against his pulsepoint, stares wide-eyed with glee at Jensen as Chris bursts out laughing. "Are you serious?"
Jensen huffs and swats at his mate, baring his teeth but there's no real heat behind it, just a little bit of a bruised ego.
"I was only a little pup!" He insists. "And that tree was evil. It was all big and gnarly and twisted and it totally came to life at night, I don't care what anyone says."
"Yes, Jensen, of course the maple tree was evil," Jeff says patiently. "All those branches and leaves, my God, I just can't go on--" Chris is having a bad time muffling his grin; Jared, even worse.
Then they all hear it at the same: a long agonized roar, tearing apart the air, from the direction of the compound.
Jensen's just about to defend his dignity once more when that sound has him scurrying to his feet, frowning in the direction of the human habitat.
"That sounded like a--"
Chris is staring too, the happy wag of his tail stilling to no movement at all, just like the other wolves around, the wild ones of the pack looking a little wary because they've never heard a sound like that before.
"--a tiger," Jared finishes softly, his head tilted to one side. "A tigress. I've heard that noise before, from the pens, when one of them gets hurt, but..." he shakes his head in bafflement, meeting Jensen's eyes, "...what the hell is a tigress doing here?"
Some of the wolves are backing away, edging towards the clearing again, hackles raised. Alex is standing as tall and bravely as possible, even with his ears flattened back towards his skull and his tail shivering between his legs.
Jeff shifts a little on big paws, rising up to his hind legs to sniff the air as though he might taste something there higher up that he couldn't closer to the ground.
"They bring animals here sometimes when they get sick or hurt," Jeff says. "I heard the humans talking about it back in the zoo. They think the fresh air and the wilderness helps animals heal faster than if they were in a cage, scared and penned up in one of the human buildings."
Jensen frowns a little more, trotting forward a few steps before turning back. "She sounds scared," he says. "Maybe we should... y'know."
Jared holds his breath, tail whisking faster as his heart races. "You think we can get close enough without being noticed?" he says to Jensen, the gleam of a challenge glinting in his eyes as a smile tilts up his lips.
"Not all of us," Jensen says, looking around at the pack. "They'd spot a whole damn pack of us, but maybe a few could go. Besides, too many and we might scare her even more."
He looks over at Jeff. "You think she's from our zoo?"
Jeff doesn't answer. It takes Jared pawing at an ear for him to look up, and then he sounds abstracted, dazedly lost. "Oh... uh, yeah, it's-it's a possibility. Might be. It is the closest zoo 'round here..."
"Maybe you should go, Jeff," Jensen suggests. "I mean, you may be a little less discreet than me or Chris or somebody, but you probably know this place better than us and if she's from our zoo, maybe you can... I dunno. Maybe you can calm her down. You were always good at that."
Jeff, the expert at calming people down, looks positively nervous at that. "Are you sure? I mean--I'm pretty damn noticeable, pup, and y'all are faster at getting away than I am--"
Jensen cocks his head to one side, a little confused. "Well, I mean... yeah, there's that. I just thought maybe you'd be better at it than any of us. Maybe Jared should go? Another cat might be better than some mangy old dog showing up to try and talk to her."
"I'll go with Jeff," Jared says, who has been looking hard at Jeff for some minutes now. "We should make it back in time for the hunt to be finished..."
As Jeff lumbers up on ahead, clearly disturbed, Jared goes to nudge Jensen behind the ear and gently tug on it. "Some mangy old dog? You talkin' about Ash again?"
Jensen just laughs and gives a slow shudder in response to that ear tug, his teeth finding Jared's chest for a short nibble before he lets go. "Don't be long now, pussycat. Once we're done hunting, I'll be wanting a little time with you before a good long nap."
"Won't be just a little time, Fido," Jared whispers into Jensen's ear, low and laughing and wicked with a little flick of his tongue, then hesitates. "He--when we were running together, Jeff said he left the zoo because he couldn't trust himself there, I didn't understand..."
A frown crosses Jensen's face, gaze flicking over to Jeff before returning to his mate.
"He's acting kind of weird now," Jensen admits quietly. "Maybe this has something to do with it?"
"We should get going," Jeff says, still sounding distracted. "If we're going to, I mean. If it gets close to meal time, the humans will be out to feed her."
"I'm thinking so," Jared replies, ducking his head towards Jensen, "and kinda hoping not. I just--I can't imagine anybody not trusting him, you know?"
Jeff's words catch up to his brain and he moves away, if somewhat reluctantly--he'd really, really liked that hibernation idea--from his mate. "Be back soon," he tells Jensen, nuzzling at him, "I'll bring you back a car to chase," and lopes over to join Jeff.
Jeff doesn't say much as they start through the woods towards the human habitat, seemingly lost in his thoughts as they pad along. He has a feeling he already knows what awaits them and nervous doesn't begin to describe how he feels--he doesn't have a clue what he's going to say to her if he's right in thinking he recognizes that voice carrying on the air.
"You recognize the voice," says Jared, treading alongside him as they make their way over the rocks and twigs. Somewhere the wind picks up, and a few fallen leaves blow by. "You know who it is." Neither are questions.
"I know who it is," Jeff confirms, eyes still drawn ahead and not on Jared, off towards the distance that's rapidly drawing closer. "Though I don't know why they would've brought her here. They have humans at the zoo that fix us up when we get hurt or sick. They only bring animals here to release them or if..." He frowns, refusing to finish that thought.
"Who is it?" Jared jumps down from a rock and lopes after Jeff, pacing to keep up, concerned and confused--this isn't like the Jeff he knows at all.
For the first time since they took off, Jeff stops and turns to look at Jared, just watching him for a moment before his eyes drift back in the direction of the compound that's just starting to come into view.
"It's Kate," he says simply, as though that explains everything--though he knows it doesn't make any sense to anyone but him, at least when it comes to how unlike himself he suddenly is.
It takes a moment, but then it clicks: Kate, the golden-eyed tigress from the zoo. He'd only seen her a few times from a distance and never spoken to her, but she was striking--rich burnished fur, slender and fine-boned, with a serious face and those bright eyes.
He looks back at Jeff, at the look on the grizzly bear's face, and suddenly sucks in his breath, eyes widening. "--you and Kate?"
Jeff stumbles a little, wide-eyed and looking downright anxious, shaking his big, furry head.
"No! No, nothing like that. I, uh, I mean, I've talked to her. Talked to a lot of you back at the zoo. I don't think she's really..." he laughs a little huskily. "I think you and Jensen are probably the only interspecies pair I've ever seen. So no, nothing like... nothing like that."
Jared grins at that, a little goofily at the thought of Jensen, and ducks his head. "I've never really spoken to her before, only passed her by a couple of times at night," he offers, trotting alongside Jeff and leaning against him a little to steady his pace.
Jeff sniffs the air as they start to get close--he can smell Kate but no humans, so he leads Jared in closer, his gait faltering when he sees her, pacing frantically in a large enclosure behind one of the buildings. There's fear on the air too, and Kate lets out another yowling roar of pain that sends a chill down Jeff's spine as he and Jared move right up to the fence.
"Kate?" Jared says softly, under cover of the shadows nearby. "Over here..."
The tigress twists her head, looking around, and then slowly--hesitantly, shivering with pain--pads forward to the fence. "Who's there? Who is it?"
Jeff steps out just a little, just far enough for her to see, though he's having a hard time keeping himself from shaking nervously and he prides himself on managing a soft grin.
"Jeff," he says. "And Jared too, from the zoo. Thought you might be wanting a little company."
Kate recoils, staring at them, then lets out a startled, hearty laugh that brightens up her golden eyes and stretches her mouth back in a grin. "Jeff? How the hell did you get up here?"
Jeff ducks his head a little, dragging a paw against the ground, but he's grinning when he looks up at her. His heart nearly stops in his chest but he doesn't let it show, just gives her the same caring look he'd give anyone. "Helped this one here escape back before the winter hit," he says, lifting a massive paw to cuff Jared lightly behind his ears. "His mate got brought here and I knew the way, so..."
Kate furrows her brow at Jared, clearly bewildered and struggling to keep her head clear. "His mate? But he's a--"
"Cheetah," Jared finishes, nudging Jeff back gently in the side. "And my mate's a wolf," and waits for it.
Kate's eyes sharpen then, as she focuses on him--the intensity is unnerving--before she lets out another one of those husky warm laughs. "You're that one," she grins toothily, eyes crinkling up at the corners, and Jared wonders if it's too late to turn himself into the humans.
"I heard about you escaping," she continues to Jeff. "I didn't think you were unhappy back there..."
Jeff can't help but chuckle--yeah, he supposes it is more than a little strange, a cheetah mating with a wolf. His head ducks a little again when the conversation comes back around to him, his smile faltering a little, looking more nervous.
"I wouldn't say I was unhappy," he says, glancing at Jared before returning his gaze to Kate. "But Jared needed help getting to Jensen and it seemed silly to go to all the trouble of escaping and getting here and then just turning around and heading back to the zoo. Besides," Jeff grins. "They have hibernation here and I highly recommend it."
Jared is suddenly finding a patch of ground off near the trees extremely interesting as Kate nudges out her nose between the chain-link fence, her tail gently sweeping the ground. "Hibernation, huh? You go to all that trouble to make a den and then you just sleep in it?" she teases half-heartedly, her grin tilting crookedly.
"Best sleep you'll ever have," Jeff grins, more than a little stupidly before he catches himself and coughs lightly, expression sobering. "How are you feeling? Could tell by your roar that you're hurt--plus I know they don't bring animals up here unless it's more than what they can handle at the zoo. What happened?"
Kate is silent for a long moment before answering, finally, "I don't know. I came up here and they put me to sleep for a long while, with one of their needles, and I have a scar along my side here..."
She rears up to expose her soft white underbelly; a patch of fur is shorn away to reveal a line of neat black stitches.
Jeff's eyes go wide and he coughs a little, his gaze flicking over to Jared before he can look back at Kate. "Surgery," he says finally, voice a little strained. "They must've found something wrong that they couldn't fix at the zoo, so they brought you here. They've got better doctors here, I think."
He's mostly just grateful that bears can't blush, otherwise he'd be even more embarrassed. "You look well, though. Must be healing all right."
"But that means they're going to bring me back there, right?" A thread of disappointment winds through Kate's voice, and she lowers her head, giving him a lopsided rueful grin at that last.
"In theory," Jeff agrees solemnly, but then he's ducking his own head, giving her a chuckle and a grin. "But then again, they were gonna take Jared back too, and you see how well that turned out for them, ain't that right, Spot?"
He swats at Jared's tail with a big paw, smiling at the cheetah and back at the tigress.
Jared doesn't get out of the way fast enough and yelps, twitching his tail and waggling his hindquarters in the air for a dramatic pounce on Jeff, trying to roll him over.
Kate laughs again, low and warm, but ends on a wistful sigh. "I wish I could escape here... the zoo's not the same anymore, the cats are turning on each other. One of the panthers, the things he said about that lion, T.J. ...and maybe I miss you and your voice a little bit," she finished, with that same quirky crooked grin.
Jeff's heart pounds in his chest, paw scuffing at the dirt as he looks down at his own feet for a long moment. He can't even breathe, can only think of pretty orange fur and warm golden eyes and all the times back at the zoo where he'd wished he'd been born smaller, striped and feline.
"I could try and pull down the fence," he offers suddenly, almost startling himself with the very idea. Jeff laughs a little, eyes lifting to Kate's. "I think sooner or later they're just going to put up concrete, but... I could try."
Kate looks straight at him, eyes big with suppressed excitement, holding her breath. "We'd get in so much trouble--"
Jeff looks to Jared and then back to Kate, grin broad and conspiring. "Only if we get caught," he says. "We'd just have to make sure not to get caught."
"Be nice to have another cat around," Jared offers, with a mischievous grin. "We need more of the superior species..."
Jeff lifts his head to sniff at the air and look around, making sure no humans are about before he comes up on his hind legs and hooks his claws through the fence, curling them and getting a good grip.
"It's worth a shot, anyway," he says, taking in a deep breath before jerking backwards, tugging hard.
The sound of metal tearing apart screeches through the air, a creaking metallic whine, as Kate recoils with her fur bristling. Jared darts up to help, digging his own claws into the wire fence and yanking with his teeth.
The gate twists, distorted and crunched downwards, and a siren sets up a wail.
"Quick," Jared is panting, scuffling back from the fence, "quick, Kate, you gotta jump--" Kate is crouching low to the ground, hackles raised, tail puffed out and panting hard as the sound of the alarm rings through her skull.
With a short yelp she jumps, and lands on top of the fence; she struggles, paws dangling in the air, as there's the distant sound of doors opening and footsteps along the path.
Eyes wide, Jeff stretches up on his hind paws as far as he can go, head nudging beneath Kate's paws. "Down my back," he urges, eyes darting towards the sound of humans, faint underneath the wail of the siren but still discernible. "Push off with your hind legs and climb down my back. Hurry, before they catch us all."
Kate trembles against him as she scrabbles against the wire links, her claws skittering on metal. Then with a visible effort she lifts up and pushes, and the fence rattles as she slides down Jeff's back and tumbles onto the ground.
Jared has her up in a moment, gently grabbing at the back of her neck to help her up as he would a kitten. The sound of shouting can be heard now, the sound of boots closer, and from behind the fence a man lifts a tranquilizer rifle to his shoulder.
"Go," Jeff hisses back over his shoulder to Jared and Kate, standing upright on two legs again to roar at the humans, paws outstretched wide to block the cats from the gun with little thought for his own fate.
A huge paw bats at the fence, shaking it over the human's head as the man gets close and Jeff watches him flinch before there's the sound of a gunshot and a slight sting in his broad, furry chest.
"Jeff!" Kate is screaming, running towards him in a blur, and there's a snarl as Jared jumps at the man and knocks him down to the ground, clattering on top of the metal fence. He rips the gun from the man's hands and howls in his face, baring all his teeth, and there's frightened cries and scuffling noises from the humans.
Kate bends over Jeff, crouching close to him, breath coming short and shaky. "Jeff--no no please no--"
"It's just..." Jeff blinks, vision already going blurry, body already starting to feel heavy as he slowly crumples to the ground. "Just a tranquilizer. They'll... they'll put me in a pen or a van and I'll... I'll get out, don't worry, just... just go. Go."
He tries to smile at her, but he's starting to lose consciousness and his gaze flicks over to Jared, voice straining. "Get back to your pup, Jay," Jeff rasps. "They'll send you back to the zoo if they catch you. I'll be fine, just... just get her out of here."
"I can hold them off, I can stay here--" Jared begins, his voice cracking.
"Jared," Jeff tries to growl, though it comes out a little weak. "Jensen will kill me if I let you get caught. Get Kate and get the hell out of here. She doesn't know the way and you can't stay here. I'll be fine. Just--"
Jeff stops mid-sentence, everything going black.
The man gets to his feet and reloads his gun, still reeling and stumbling drunkenly with shock. Before he can fire, there's a rustle in the bushes and the two cats are gone.
Jared leads the way through the forest, losing their trail through streams and thick bushes, creeping and crawling along the ground. His breath is hitching up in his chest and he doesn’t think he can breathe for much longer. Beside him, Kate is making soft whimpery noises as she pads along.
"Stay low, we can loose them," he murmurs back to her. "Follow my lead. I'm taking you back to my pack."
Kate's tired and scared and worried about Jeff but more worried about what the humans might do to them if they're caught.
"How much further is it?" she asks, trying to ignore the ache in her stitched side as she keeps low and follows closely behind Jared, doing her best not to make a sound as they move.
"Not far, this way," and he heads up a slope, rocks skittering out behind him, digging into the gravel. Somewhere a bird flutters out of a tree, disappears.
It's near dusk when he spots the wolves ahead, lying in their clearing; suddenly Jared feels the ache in every single one of his bones, and he nearly collapses. "C'mon," he urges Kate gently, nudging at her. "I'll introduce you."
Kate's eyes are wide and she really isn't sure about this--Jared's one thing, but wolves? But Jared's starting forward and she's following, swallowing and doing her best not to look threatening.
Jensen's head lifts from where he's gnawing at the last remains of his portion of the evening's meal when he smells his mate on the wind, bright smile splitting his bloodied muzzle wide, surprise in his eyes when he spots the tigress with Jared.
"You've finally left me for another feline, huh?" Jensen teases, giving Jared a sly look. "I knew I shoulda listened to my momma when she said a cat was just gonna break my heart."
Jared attempts a smile, but it comes out all wrong, and suddenly he's this close to breaking down because Jeff's been taken and Kate's in danger and he has no idea what to do, and he swallows hard. "Consider it officially unbroken," he attempts weakly, his voice breaking in half. "Kate, meet my mate Jensen. Jensen--this is Kate."
"It's good to meet you," Kate says, managing a small smile, though it turns nervous when she looks around at all the sets of wolf eyes on her.
"Pleasure's all mine," Jensen returns amicably, grinning at Kate before his gaze turns to his lover, that smile dropping away, because something is wrong. "What is it?" he asks, eyes flicking over Jared, looking for hurts. "What's wrong, Jay?"
Jared half-treads, half-stumbles forward and buries his face in Jensen's shoulder, deep into Jensen's fur, breathing his scent in like he needs it more than oxygen, listening to his heartbeat thud. "Jeff's gone," he says, muffled into thick fur.
Jensen's licking at Jared's shoulder and neck, frowning, heart stopping at his mate's words. "What do you mean he's gone?" he asks, fear clenching in his gut. There are only two answers to that question and Jensen doesn't like either one of them.
Max is the first one to pad forward, slowly, tail drooping along the ground as he noses towards her, sniffing at the air. "Are you from the zoo?" he asks, scratching at one ear and fixing her with a curious stare.
Kate visibly relaxes, settling back on her haunches as she nods, sniffing back at him and smiling a little. "The same one that Jared and Jensen and Jeff came from," she says. "I'm Kate, by the way. What's your name?"
Slowly some of the other wolves trot forward, inching their way past each other, as Max grins all over. "I'm Max, and that's Dean, our alpha, and Sam, our beta, and Chris and Ash and Bobby--"
Jared lifts his head, breath shuddery, eyes furrowed as he noses along Jensen's flank. "We were trying to break Kate out, and the-the humans came with tranquilizer guns..."
Jensen nuzzles behind one of Jared's ears, eyes drifting closed for a moment as he takes a deep breath. "It'll be okay, pussycat," he assures him. "Jeff's an old pro at breaking out of human made places. He'll be back before you know it."
Jared shivers against him and burrows closer, eyes closed, one big ache of need. "He looked so still, he was barely breathing," he whispers. "If I'd been braver, if I'd fought them off, he'd still be here--"
It's a little overwhelming, but Kate has a good memory and she repeats back all of their names when the introductions are done, feeling more at ease than she's felt since she was brought here. "There are so many of you," she murmurs. "I never even knew this place was here, never knew much outside the zoo once I was brought there. It's so big. Not quite like being home again, but it's...it's better than being behind bars."
"A lot of us were born here, on the reserve," Ava tells her seriously. "They put the devices on us, to track us, but otherwise they leave us alone. I can't even imagine being in a zoo."
"The zoo wasn't that bad," Kate says softly. "I missed home, but I didn't have to worry about hunters coming after me or whether there would be enough food to go around. There were lots of people that came every day to stare at us all and take pictures and shout and laugh and all that. But it wasn't awful."
Jensen bites softly at Jared's throat, nuzzling the sting away. "It's not your fault, pussycat. And besides, if you had attacked the humans, they'd come looking for us. I think the only reason they haven't is because we don't bother anyone. If you had fought them and hurt one of them, they'd have come after you and they'd catch you and either cart you back to the zoo or give you one of the needles where you won't wake up, Jay." Jensen's voice falls to a whisper, strained and tight. "And I can't... if that happened, Jay, I'd be coming there right after you."
Jared feels his chest tighten and his throat close up, and nuzzles into his mate's neck, burying his nose deep there. "I love you," he says simply, "and I'm not dying for you. I'm living for you. No matter what it takes."
He lets out a shaky breath, gusting against Jensen's fur. "If Jeff hadn't led me here I'd be wandering out there or roadkill lying on the highway. And maybe that means he knows how to get out, how to get free, but--Jeff's my friend. Our friend. And they've got the guns and the cars and the needles, and whatever they want to do, they always win in the end."
Jensen is quiet for a moment, focusing on the rhythm of Jared's breath against his fur, his mind working, formulating a plan. "Don't worry," he murmurs to his mate, nuzzling at him and letting his tongue swipe out to smooth soothingly over spotted fur. "We'll get him back, pussycat. We'll get him out."
And yeah, Jensen doesn't have a clue how they're going to manage, just that they will. Somehow.
"Did you have a pack?" Alex calls out from the rear, his tail twitching in the air, at the same time as Sam, paws folded in front of him, says, "I'm guessing they don't let tigers and wolves and bears run around in the same cages, so how do you know Jeff?"
Kate's smiling a little, shaking her head. "I was the only tiger the zoo had. Kind of lonely, really, being in a cage all by myself. But Jeff was... I think Jeff knew everyone. They didn't keep him in a cage most of the time because he was so gentle and friendly, even to the humans.
"He's a good friend to us, too," Dean says, loping over with his tail whisking the ground and raising his voice so that the whole pack can hear. "Anybody who's a friend of Jeff's can stay with us, as long as you need to. Although if this keeps up, we'll be outnumbered by the cats..."
"Wouldn't that be an improvement?" Jared cracks weakly, from Jensen's side, managing a small smile for his mate's sake as he rests his head against Jensen's paw.
Jensen smiles a little, nipping gently at Jared's ear. "Well, it's just like I always used to tell Chris back in the zoo when he thought I was nuts--you can never have too much pussy around."
Chris smirks and crouches a little, biting playfully at the air in Jensen's direction, making Jensen laugh softly.
"There's nothing we can do right now," Jensen says. "Let's sit tight and come up with a plan and then tomorrow, we can go after Jeff, okay? It won't do us any good if we just go out there without a plan, and I don't think all of us are going to be able to go and still keep out of sight from the humans." He nuzzles against Jared, nibbling along his mate's nape. "Would you remember the way back to the zoo if we got outside the reserve?"
"I think so." Jared looks sharper, more alert, as he remembers--the roads, the scent trails, the directions he and Jeff took. "I wasn't really focusing on the path at the time," he adds, looking sheepishly at Jensen, "but I got the general gist of it."
Jensen nods. "Then today we'll worry about eating, making sure our energy's up. We'll make sure we get a lot of rest so we'll be ready to travel and tomorrow we'll go after him, okay? You can lead and I'll make sure I'll know the way back in case something happens when we get there and we have to separate and travel individually. We'll get him back." He says it firmly, even though he isn't sure it can be done. It's enough that they're going to try and even if they don't succeed, Jensen is going to make damned sure that Jared doesn't get captured again, even if it means attacking a human.
"How many will we be?" Jared looks over at him. He has a pack of cheetahs, where Tom leads and Mike sits on one side and he sits on the other, and a pack of wolves, where Dean stands in front with Sam and Chris and he falls somewhere behind. And he belongs to a pack of two, and he knows who his alpha is.
"We can't all go," Jensen murmurs contemplatively. "Dean needs to stay here to lead the pack..." He looks to Chris and smiles a little, shaking his head when the other wolf starts to open his mouth to speak. "The pack needs you, Chris. Maybe Jared and I can do it on our own. The rest of you don't know your way around the zoo and I'd never forgive myself if we got you caught and locked up in pens like we were." Turning to look at his mate, Jensen settles back on his haunches, tail curled around his feet. "Do you think just you and me would be enough, Jay? I think we could do it and the fewer that go, the better. The less chance we'd have at getting caught."
"I think you'd better just try to keep up," Jared murmurs back, mouth curling up in a grin as the green-gold eyes light up. "Can't be falling behind every time you stop to stare at your reflection in the river or get your beauty sleep..."
On instinct, his eyes flick over to Kate.
"I'm going too," Kate says. "He got taken trying to help me...there's no way I'm just staying here."
Jensen smiles at her, paw swatting at Jared's tail before he catches it, pinning it to the ground in retaliation for the comments about his vanity. "The three of us will go then," he says, matter-of-factly. "The rest of you can stay here where it's safe and we'll be back once we get Jeff out."
"What if you don't come back?" Alex asks, eyes wide and concerned, tail drooping at the thought.
Jensen's eyes soften and his heart clenches in his chest. "We will," he says. "We will come back."