I Will Love You 'til My Muzzle Turns Grey (11/?)
Title: I Will Love You 'til My Muzzle Turns Grey (11/?)
Author: spnkinkfan
Pairing: J2/C2
Word Count: 2048
Rating: NC-17 eventually (I swear)
Warnings: Blood, angst, hint of swearing, boykissing, snuggling, bit-o-schmoop, extreme verbosity
Disclaimer: I don't own them. I promise I would NEVER hurt them if I did - at least, not any more than they wanted me to. *bares fangs*
A/N: So I REALLY thought I was going to get to the "good" part in this chapter, but then the story took another left turn. (Don't you end up with a circle after four left turns? How many have we had at this point??? *stares at muse pointedly*)
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Jared was sitting on the ground beside him. He stripped off his shirt and tried to put pressure on the worst of the injuries with it. When even his huge hands could not cover the full extent of the bloody wounds on Jensen's torso, he focused on the deep puncture wounds in his stomach. He fanned his fingers out over as much as he could reach of the other gashes and covered the entire rumpled up piece of cloth with it. He pressed as hard as he dared, Jensen could not hold back a pained whimper.
"Sorry, I'm so sorry," Jared whispered, delicately tracing the scars over Jensen's eye with his other hand. He was alarmed by how pale and drawn his former lover looked, the dark circles under his eyes accentuating the freckles on his thin face. Jensen's skin was cool to the touch and he was trembling. Jared was afraid if he continued to think about how fragile Jensen looked and how badly he was hurt, his mind would turn to even less pleasant thoughts so he opened his mouth and voiced the first thing that came to him. "Why didn't you call me you jerk?" There was no heat in his voice, only hurt.
"I - " Jensen swallowed hard and grimaced, "I thought it was what you wanted. I thought....I thought you hated me." The pain of those words clenched Jensen's throat tight. His next words were a strangled whisper, "I saw how afraid you were. Of me. I never wanted to see that look on your face again. I love you too much to see you unhappy or afraid. I just want you to be happy and safe no matter where you are."
"Jensen - "
"No. It's okay. He's dead now and no matter what, I will always protect you. Just go and be happy." Jensen tried to roll away. He could not stand to be so close to Jared knowing he was going to lose him all over again.
He didn't get far.
Jeff's large frame was suddenly boxing him in, huge hand on Jensen's shoulder firmly but carefully pushing him back down onto his back.
"I don't think so. What the hell were you thinking coming here so badly injured? You could have been killed!"
"I just - "
"You just heard they had Jared and had to make sure he was safe yourself." Jeff growled as Misha's pale blue eyes appeared over his shoulder. "By the way, I went and got the doc and some supplies on the way. I figured your dumb ass would need it at least."
Misha deftly bumped him out of the way before the irritated Alpha could respond. As he reached for the shirt, Jared moved his hand away and instead took Jensen's hand in his. His other fingers were gently running through Jensen's spiky hair.
"Jared, there's a lot you need to know," Misha spoke softly as he catalogued and started quickly field-dressing the extensive wounds, "but we don't have much time so listen up. His injuries are serious enough by themselves, being separated from his mate - "
"Misha - " Jensen started to growl a warning, Misha continued as if he had not heard.
"- has made it worse. We mate for life, a human does not seem to be as sensitive to the bond, but for us to be away from our mates can be fatal. The longer you've been apart, the weaker he's been getting and the worse his pain has been. He's fought for his life twice today, he's lost a lot of blood and in his weakened state I wouldn't even dare to venture a guess on his chances." He glanced up from the bloody wounds to see Jared's eyes huge and panicked, his heart hammering clearly in the pulse-points in his throat.
"Take a breath Jared, we don't need you hyperventilating. This isn't the way we wanted to introduce you to who we are, but I need to be quick with this so we can get the hell out of here. Are you okay?" At Jared's nod, he continued on, "When one of us is injured, it helps to have another of us stay in physical contact. Most injuries can be healed faster by shifting forms, wounds that are inflicted by the teeth and claws of another were-creature or by silver heal human-slow though. To have one of us stay close to him would help him heal. To have you stay close to him, as his mate, would help him heal faster. Do you understand?"
"Not really, but I don't have to understand, I just need to know what to do right now." Jared still looked too pale and his eyes were still showing too much white, but he had calmed himself enough that Misha was no longer worried he would hyperventilate and pass out.
"Fair enough. Once we get through this, you can ask any question you want. We need to get him into the van. It's going to hurt like hell to move him so if you don't think you can stand it, we need you to just stay out of the way until we get him there. Once he's on one of the bunks, I need you to lay with him."
"But what if I hurt him?"
Misha motioned several of the security team members over and prepared them to move their Alpha into the van. "The good you will do by staying in physical contact with him will far outweigh any hurt you inflict. He needs you. I'm not sure we can get him through this without you. Can you do this?"
"Of course I can. I didn't know - "
"We'll have time for that later Jared." Misha cut him off gently before he could start beating himself up.
"What about Chad?" Jensen asked softly as the security arranged themselves around him. Misha knew the stubborn man would not allow them to move him until he got an answer to his question, so he answered as briefly as possible.
"The bolt pierced his shoulder with enough impact that I suspect it broke his scapula, I will need my diagnostic equipment to be positive. The impact and silver shock was enough to knock him unconscious but I think he'll be okay. Christian is carrying him to the van, he won't let anyone else near his mate except me. I'm sure you're as unsurprised by that as I am," he finished drily.
As they carefully lifted him, Jensen could not hold back a cry of pain before mercifully passing out.
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As he drifted toward awareness, he realized someone was pressed along the entire right side of his body. He was confused for a moment before it all came tumbling back to him. For the first time in nearly a year, he felt like he was home.
Jared's huge hand was resting low on Jensen's belly, away from the claw wounds. Fingertips drifting over soft skin and unfamiliar scars.
"If we're going to be together," he whispered, and Jensen's heart fluttered with hope, "I will need to know everything. Looks like we've got nowhere else to be for awhile, so you should have plenty of time." Jensen's lips quirked up and showed the tiny dimples Jared loved so much. He opened his eyes to find Jared propped up on an elbow beside him, close enough that Jensen could feel the soft breaths on his cheek.
"Fair enough. Anywhere in particular you'd like me to start?" Jensen's voice was soft, barely more than a whisper. They were close enough he did not need to speak louder, and it kept him from engaging the abused muscles in his torso.
Jared smirked, "How about the beginning?"
"Can't make this easy can you?" Jensen grinned back, "Okay, okay. Some of us are born werewolves, some of us were once human."
"Which are you?"
"I was born a Were, my father was Alpha of this pack before me."
"So you were automatically Alpha too?"
"Nothing is ever quite that easy within the pack. When my father - " Jensen hesitated, the pain on his face made Jared's heart hurt. He pressed himself even closer, still rubbing small circles on Jensen's stomach he let his other fingers drift through the soft hair on his head. "I was seventeen when my father was killed. There had never been an Alpha that young before. Any pack leader has to prove themselves worthy of ruling but for me, it was more difficult than any test had been before. Even after I succeeded, there were challengers who didn't believe I was fit for the position."
Jared kissed his temple softly. He regretted his question and wanted to chase the pain from those soulful green eyes, so he changed the topic, "So you can either be my beautiful boy or you can be a rabid Wookie?" He was rewarded with a breathy chuckle, the best Jensen could manage with the damage to his abdominal muscles.
"Those are two of the three forms. The third is the pure wolf form, but we tend to be larger than natural wolves when in that form. Some of the smaller females can pass as natural wolves, but for the most part we don't exactly blend. If we are injured we can speed the healing process by shifting to one of our furry forms, as long as it isn't inflicted by silver or by the natural weapons of another being like us. The legends are true as far as the transmission of lycanthropy, mostly. We can turn someone by biting them, but it can also be spread through our blood."
Jensen's eyes grew wide as a thought occurred to him and he tried to squirm away from Jared, "Oh god, you were trying to stop the bleeding!" He continued to try to wriggle far enough to see Jared clearly, but Jared held him still as carefully as he could under the circumstances.
"Stop! Stop moving, you're going to open yourself up again and you bet your ass I'll be trying to stop the bleeding again." Jensen froze immediately, his breathing shallow and too fast. Jared slowly moved his hands back to where they had been, rubbing small soothing circles in an attempt to calm the panicked man. "Just talk to me, what is it?"
Jensen swallowed audibly and grimaced, his entire body throbbing, "Jared, it can be spread through blood. If you have an open wound....you were up to your elbows in my blood!"
"Don't I have to be changed anyway in order to be your mate?"
"No. No. I would never force something like that on you. You are my mate already, there is nothing that can change that. If you were turned, you would feel it the same as I do, but you don't have to be. You can live as a human and be my mate."
"I don't even have any hangnails, so stop worrying," he pressed another gentle kiss to Jensen's forehead as the stress started to ease out of the crease between his brows. "So I'll be taking your grey-muzzled rickety ass out for walks when we're 80?" Jared grinned but Jensen looked extremely uncomfortable suddenly and refused to meet his eyes. He sobered as worry settled like a band around his chest, "Jensen?"
Jensen bit his lip and shifted slightly, "So what else do you want to know?"
"I want to know why you suddenly look like I ran over a litter of puppies with a steamroller. What is it?"
"It's nothing, it's just - " he shifted again but this time he shifted closer to Jared, resting his head on the taller man's shoulder, "we live longer than humans. Something about the natural healing abilities we have, we are immune to most of the human ailments and it makes our life span longer."
"So if you don't turn me, you will eventually have to watch me grow old and inevitably die before you?" Jensen squeezed his eyes closed, reaching his hand out to lay it over Jared's heart as he nodded. "But....if you can't live without your mate, and I die first - what happens to you then?"
"I'll die too."
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 (Epilogue)