Down Under in the Northwest

[Demeter]

It was Cole's habit to wake up early and go for a run. No matter how late he went to bed, he'd get up, go for a six mile run and then come back for a shower and snooze if there was time for class. But something was very wrong this morning. Normally, Jack would moan and fuss at his early morning ritual of exercise but Jack wasn't in the room this morning. Nor was he in the bathroom. In fact no one had seen him. 

Cole woke Diablo and together they tracked Jack's scent to the elevator where it was joined by the unpleasant smell of Bastard. Russell. 

Cole growled as he boarded the elevator, stopping at every floor to see if that's where Jack was. He made it all the way down to the lobby without sight nor scent of Jack. He prowled the lobby and the exterior of the building before finding Jack close to the edge of the back parking lot. 

He still wore his pajamas and the dampness of the cloth suggested that he'd been outside for a while. Growling under his breath, Cole looked Jack over. He didn't see any signs of injury but he did see traces of blood around his mouth. With growls rumbling in his throat, Cole lifted Jack and instead if returning to the dorm, he took Jack to his Jeep and from their to his parent's place.

Rayne was the one to answer the pounding the door. Still half asleep, she watched as he hauled Jack in and placed him on the couch. She blinked when he tuck not one but two blankets around the college freshman. "Cole what's going on?"

"Not sure but I think I know where to find answers. Watch him," Cole said before leaving the house by the back porch. He stripped and shifted. Diablo, now in control, quickly found his way back to campus and picked up on Russell's scent. He tracked the man all the way into his dorm. He got into the building by way of a open door and, given that the student body was asleep, made his way to Russell's room unheeded. There he attacked the unfortunately flimsy wooden door with his claws. 

He and Russell were going to have it out then and there. 

[Maira]

After leaving Jack back at his dorm, Russell had gone back to his own dorm and gone to bed totally content. Jack was his now, and Russell had beaten that damn lion. He couldn't wait until Jack came to him wanting answers to the questions that would arise as a result of his Turning.

He had been blissfully oblivious to the world around him, reliving the dream he had given Jack, when all of a sudden it sounded like an army of angry gorillas was trying to burst through his door. So startled that he fell out of his bed, Russell yelled at whoever had woken him, "Go away!" As he untangled himself from his sheets and when the pounding and scratching continued, Russell looked at his bedside clock and groaned. It was so bloody early!

He tried ignoring the noise, which was impossible and finally stormed over to the door yelling, "Wrong room asshole!" as he flung open the door and then backpedaled at the sight of an angry male lion. Shit, shit, shit! How the hell had Cole found his room?! He'd been in the car, his scent shouldn't have been able to lead the lion to him.

Before the lion could enter his room, Russell angrily shoved his way into the brute's mind and forced his forward motion to cease. The lion was obviously pissed off at being restrained and as strong as he was, Russell knew he wouldn't be strong enough to keep up this battle forever. Knowing that his gun, hidden in his closet, would cause a bloody awful mess Russell did the next best thing. Picking up the phone that came with the dorm room, he dialed down to the dorm's front desk. When somebody finally answered, they had probably been dozing on their shift, he blurted angrily into the receiver, "Some jerk has been pounding on my door and won't go away, can you have security come up and make him leave please?"

The angry snarl from the the lion elicited a smirk from Russell, and when he felt the beast pulling rather than pushing against his will, Russell eased up. "You better go, it'll be awful hard to explain a full grown lion in a dorm room, and a naked soccer player won't be much better." At the sound of the elevator bell sounding down the hallway, the lion looked and then yanked backwards out of Russell's mental grasp and bolted for the other end of the hallway and the emergency stairs.

*****

Jack was still lost in the dream-memory that Russell had imprinted on him and he had no idea that Cole had found him where the older boy had left him laying in the cold, damp, northwest morning outside of the dorm. He had no idea he had been moved to Cole's parents' house. He had no idea what was really happening to him until his body suddenly felt like it was tearing itself apart as the Shifter magic he got from his mother reacted to the vampire curse that was now surging through his blood.

Instead of sitting bolt upright and screaming in agony like his instincts had led his body to try to do, he fell to the carpeted floor snarling and hissing, howling and roaring. His form would not settle and he went through such a variety of animals that at one point he was a mix of wolf, lion, hyena and something with a fluffy ringed tail. As his body ripped through the multiple shifts, his mind was screaming out into those of anybody near him. He was in pain, he couldn't stop it, he needed help but he was trapped. The longer he was trapped in the shifting, the deeper Jack went into his own mind, getting lost in the pain and the anguish and the terror.

Eventually the shifting stopped and his body settled into the rangey young lion form his unconscious mind had chosen. But when the shifting stopped so did his breathing and then the earth started to tremble as the power he'd inherited from his father rushed out of him as he lay dying on Cole's parents' livingroom floor.

[Demeter]

Ember was beyond tired. It had been a testing week at school and then, last night when she'd hopes for a chance to relax, her parents had gone out and left her with baby-sitting duty. If one of her hell-born triplet siblings was fine, the other two were creating trouble. All she wanted was sleep but she apparently wasn't going to get that because somewhere nearby, someone was dying. Someone of the others...

Ember moaned and kicked at her sheets. "Not. Happening," the young deathwalker said to he ceiling. As much as she wanted to say whoever it was that they'd have to find their own way to the next world, she had a moral obligation to accompany them. So, moaning about her fate, Ember rolled from her bed to the floor below. Because she liked the leggings and tank she's been trying to sleep in, Ember stripped out of them before she allowed Soul to the front. The cat would have a better sense of where the person was. 

Still considered a juvenile, Soul still had the appearance of a cub. She hadn't grown into her paws yet but her abilities were sharp. The person that was dying was located; she paused to hone in on the source. The person was right below her paws! In the main gathering room of the den! Deciding that this was note good, Soul went streaking down the stairs, shrieking for her Papa to come quick. 

Rayne was already attending to the young man dying in her living room. She'd heard the thump when he'd rolled off the couch. Liam had been able to force the boy back into his human form, having already been summoned by Rayne. When her Papa told her to hold his soul in his body, Ember did just that while Liam and Rayne worked on resuscitating who she now knew to be Jack. In between breathing for Jack, Rayne was on the phone, contacting the various members of the family that could be useful, as well as an EMS team that specialized in shifters and magic users. That done, she tossed the phone aside and using the very strong connection she had with Cole, she called him home. 

***
Diablo snarled as he yanked free of Russell's control. He was angry and, with his mother's soft mental voice in his head, calling him home, he had no time to spare for the bastard in front of him. With one last snarl at the smirking Russell, Diablo backed out of the door. As he did, he let loose the dormant genes he'd gotten from Rayne so many years ago. 

When Cole had been little, he'd been diagnosed with Leukemia and the prognosis had not been good. While Shifters had advanced healing abilities, the cancer had been aggressive and his body had been unable to keep up. The healers recommended a marrow transplant and Rayne had been the one to donate. His shifter genes hD started to reject the transplant when Hades, Rayne's deity, had turned him into just enough of an Alati to accept the marrow. The result was a few interesting additions to his being. 

Like the glowing red eyes and the red dragon marking that materialized over his left eye. Still snarling, Diablo used Russell's hold on him to send him a message. 'You've won for now but nit for the reasons you think. You'll see me again,' he said before leaving the room. 

Five days later, Cole sent a message to Russell, telling the Mutari to meet him in the woods behind the tech building. Cole waited in the shadows, watching for Russell and when the young man finally appeared, Cole slipped from his hiding place. He used his sneaking about to surprised Russell with his sudden appearance and to deliver a powerful punch to the man's jaw. 

Russell went down and Cole, gripping his shirt in both hands, hauled him back up. He sincerely hoped that Russell could see just how pale he was and just how deep the circles under his eyes were. He shook Russell. "What kind of Idiot Mutarti are you? Don't you know that you are not supposed to leave anyone descended from a shifter or a magic user alone after turning them? And you not only left him but you left him alone, outside, at night in the chilly pacific northwest night," Cole released one hand, used that to deliver a short-armed jab to Russell's gut.

"He nearly died, you idiot. Jack nearly died because you turned him. What would have happened, Russell, if I had slept in instead of getting up early to go for a jog. I'll tell you what would have happened. His dormant powers were woken, Russell, both the shifter and the magic user. The reaction caused his lungs to stop working and if I hadn't found him and taken him to my parents house, he would have suffocated. He would have died, Russell, alone and in the dark because of you."

Cole delivered another fist to his Russell's gut. "I've spent the majority if the last five days sitting beside a hospital bed, listening to a machine breathe for Jack, praying to every god that there is no lasting damage to his brain. We had to call his parents; his mother hasn't stopped crying. He's still hooked up to that machine and others. Those machines are why he's still alive while his body struggles to accept the turning."

Another punch to the gut. "Was it worth it, Russell? Did you do it for him because you truly love him or did you do it be be because you wanted a victory over me?" he hauled Russell closer to him. "If he dies, Russell, so will you. I wish I could make you feel the agony he felt when first his body shifted into so many forms and then the pain he must have felt when his lungs stopped," Cole shoved Russell away from him.

"Oh, and one last thing, you're thread of campus security won't work on me, not in this town. Most of the campus police force are shifters and those who aren't, well, they are hunters. Same goes for the Cedar Valley police and the county and state officers assigned to this area. A lion or naked man wouldn't have been hard to explain. Me finding my mate unconscious in the dorm parking lot when he has a known Mutari stalker...that would have been harder for you too get out of."

Before he left, Cole delivered one last punch to Russell's jaw. Leaving the man to crawl around in the mud of the forest floor, Cole returned to Jack's guarded ICU hospital room. He tossed his jacket over the back of the chair before sitting down and taking one limp, pale hand in his. Across from him, Ruby held her son's other hand, her eyes red and raw from crying. Nodding to her, Cole resumed his vigil of waking for Jack to come back to him.

[Maira]

After the lion had left his dorm and not come back, Russell began to think that Cole had been bluffing. But then he got a message from the younger man to meet him. It had been five days since he'd Turned Jack, five days of wondering why the younger boy hadn't called him yet. Russell knew he had to have at least started the change by now, the hint of fangs when he'd been feeding Jack his blood told Russell that he'd done it right. But no phone call ever came from Jack, just a message from Cole.

The woods behind the tech building were normally a rather nice place to go for a walk. This day, however, they felt ominous and more than a little dangerous. Russell just kept walking along the trail to where Cole had said to meet him and when he go to the empty clearing he couldn't help but hope that the lion wasn't going to show after all. He hadn't been there long, but he'd just about decided to turn back when something collided with his jaw. Hard. He grunted in pain and staggered, falling to the ground.

When he was hauled back up by the front of his shirt Russell saw it was Cole. Russell tried shoving his way into Cole's mind like he had before but something kept turning him away like water off a duck's back. He didn't even have time to think about why his powers weren't working on Cole anymore because the other man kept delivering punches at the same time he was telling him just how badly he'd screwed things up.

Russell had never been told about the side effects of turning a magic user or Shifter, his parents had told him to come to them if he'd ever wanted to Turn somebody but he'd thought it was just for their permission. He had no idea that he could hurt somebody so seriously with just one bite. The more punches Cole delivered, and the more he told Russell off, the more the vampire thought maybe it was just time to give up and go home. Jack had been his prize and he'd nearly killed him. If this ever got home to his parents they'd yank him out of school anyway. At least if he was there he'd be able to do some damage control. He hoped.

After Cole left him in a heap on the forest's muddy floor, Russell stayed down for a few minutes just thinking things through while his body attempted to feel a little better. He finally gave up on the latter, and just hauled himself upright. He was going back to his room, changing into clean clothes, and taking the first flight home he could get. He'd pay some of the other students to pack up his stuff and have it shipped back to Australia.

*****

The events of that morning were still a blur to Liam. Everything had happened so fast that he was lucky he remembered any of it. Ember had held Jack's soul in, Rayne had summoned Cole home while breathing for Jack, and he had somehow managed to force the boy's form back into that of a human. The three of them had by some sheer luck managed to keep the boy alive long enough for the EMS team to arrive and get him stable enough to transport to the special wing of the local hospital.

Jack had experienced a couple more episodes of shifting at random. Sometimes he became a lion, but more frequently it was an odd mix of animals. Every time he shifted his form had to be forced back to human, otherwise the treatments from the hospital wouldn't work. The first few times the hospital hadn't even been able to force him back and they'd called Liam since they knew he could do it. Then, after the third call, Cole had asked his father to show him how to do it himself since he was always there anyway. Liam had to admit, he was surprised and impressed by Cole's dedication to the boy before the disaster, but in the hospital he proved beyond a doubt just how close the pair was. While it was a bit of a struggle for Liam to shift Jack back to human, it took Cole almost no effort at all.

At one point when he and Rayne had come to try and relieve Cole and Ruby, he'd seen through the door's window Cole curled up asleep on the bed with Jack, tear stains on his cheeks. Instead of going in right then, Liam and Rayne waited until Cole came stumbling out looking for coffee to send him home to his own bed for a few hours.

The first few days were the most terrifying, and most hope-filled. Each day that Jack stayed in a coma and required those machines to breathe for him and keep his heart beating Liam could see his son losing hope. By day 10, Liam himself was begging any deity that would listen to a lowly werelion to spare the boy. Jack had never wanted this, he certainly hadn't done anything to deserve this. All he'd done was love a boy when he was young, the wrong boy apparently, but still.

Liam and Ember were taking their turns sitting with Jack, while Ruby and Cole were back at the house sleeping and Rayne tended the sick-again-triplets. While Liam didn't get up in the bed with the boy, he did hold his hand and he couldn't keep his memories going back to when Cole had been bed-bound in a hospital first with leukemia and then as he lay dying as a result of his body rejecting the bone marrow transplant. He remembered sitting just like this with Cole, holding his hand and praying, and he couldn't help but wonder why he'd be given a second boy to love as much as his first, only to have him taken away before the two had even had a chance to live their lives together. When Cole came in a few hours later, Liam was out cold, his head resting on the edge of Jack's bed and his big rough hand cradling Jack's smaller smoother one.

Upon waking he was completely unaware of anybody holding his hand and when he felt air being shoved into his lungs he choked. Jack tried to take a breath but there was something preventing him from doing it, then he felt air being shoved into his lungs again. In a panic, Jack's eyes flew open and he tried to sit up. When he found himself restrained, strapped to a bed, and realized he had a tube down his throat he tried to scream.

Sudden movements from behind him, and then right by his head, scared Liam awake and he bolted upright just in time to see Cole leaping onto Jack's bed. He nearly yelled at his son, demanding what he was doing in fear that Cole had snapped and was going to pull the plug, but then he saw that Jack's eyes were open and he heard what could only be described as muffled screams. Not waiting to see what else happened, Liam bolted from the room and yelled down the hall, "He's awake! Get somebody in here, he's awake!!!"

[Demeter]

It had been ten days since he'd found Jack on the edge of the parking lot. Ten days since he'd been turned and left alone. No one left a shifter alone after turning them. The word from his teammates was that Russell had skipped town. Well, good riddance to bastard who'd put Jack in a hospital bed, Cole thought as he rode the elevator the ICU floor. 

He was returning from home to spend the hours waiting for Jack to wake. He and Ruby had been taken home some six hours ago to eat, shower and sleep in a real bed. He hadn't been able to sleep for more than a few hours. He had to be where Jack was. 

Once he was out of the elevator, he waved to the ladies at the nurses station. They knew him by name now and knew it was useless to remind him or his family about visiting hours. His parents were the only ones able to bully the stubborn lion into doing anything. Cole stood in the open doorway for a moment and surveyed the scene. His father was sleeping, slumped over with his head pillowed on the bed. Jack's dad was reclined back in the second stiff visiting chair with head tipped back, arms crossed over his chest and feet propped up on the bed. And Jack was in the bed, covered to the waist by the blankets with wires and tubes going everywhere. IVs, the breathing and feeding tubes and wires circled around him. 

Cole stepped around his father and gently brushed at Jack's hair. "Come back to me, Baby. I can't so this without you," he whispered before turning to study the monitors clustered around the bed. He was attempting to understand the readouts of one screen when the set of machines monitoring heart rate went crazy. 

He looked down to see Jack's eyes open wide and that his hands were pulling at the restraints. Not thinking, Cole clambered onto the bed, straddling Jack. Since he couldn't take hold of his hands, Cole grabbed Jack's face and forced the younger man to be still. "Jack, Baby, its me, Cole. You have to stay calm all right and let the machine do the work until they shut it off and take the tube out."

It wasn't long before the nurses and the doctor came running into the room. They shooed Cole off the bed and quickly took over. One of the nurses unbuckled the left restraint and told Cole to hold the freed hand and keep him calm. 

****
Rayne quietly knocked on the door to the guest room, just in case Ruby was still asleep. She liked the woman. She and her husband had gone straight from airport to hospital and the first thing she'd done was wrap Cole up in a big hug. She opened the door to the guest room to see Ruby sitting up in bed and looking out the window. "Ruby, Liam just called from the hospital. Jack's awake. If you want to get dressed, Ember will take you over."

***
Cole sat in a chair alongside Jack's bed, holding his hand through the bars. He was sleeping quietly now and breathing on his own. After the breathing tube had been removed, Jack had been asked a series of questions. His throat was sore from the tube, so he'd written his answers down. 

In the same manner, he'd asked Cole what had happened. Remember how Jack had reacted when he'd suggested that Russell was stalking him and using his powers on him, Cole kissed Jack's forehead. "Later," he said. 
It was later, much later, when Jack woke from his sleep. Cole was still there and Ruby was curled up in a chair. "Do you promise not to freak out," Cole asked him when Jack repeated his question. 

When Jack nodded, Cole took his hands. "It was Russell. He somehow lured you out of the dorm, took you somewhere and turned you. He left you in the dorm parking lot. I found you and took you to my parents. Being turned caused your dormant shifter and magic user abilities to waken and your lungs stopped. You've been in a coma for 10 days."

Cole stood and leaned over the bed. He kissed Jack's chapped lips softly. "I thought that I was going to lose you." 

[Maira]

Waking up with something shoved down his throat and breathing for him was not an experience that Jack ever wanted to have again. As it was, his throat was raw and talking was practically impossible because of the pain it caused. Instead, he resorted to asking questions and communicating by writing on a notepad that one of the nurses brought in to him. He tried asking Cole what had happened to him once, but the older boy had told him he'd answer later. After a rest, Jack asked again. Cole made him promise not to freak out and then Jack listened as Cole relayed the story of what had happened 10 days ago.

To his credit, Jack didn't freak out. His mother who had arrived while he was sleeping, and was holding his hand not held captive by Cole, was growling by the time the lion finished the tale. Jack looked at her, saw the tears running down her cheeks and scribbled out, "What Mom?"

Ruby, not wanting to make her son upset unnecessarily, just shrugged and mumbled, "Nothin' baby, I'll tell ya' later."

Jack wasn't buying it, but he wasn't going to press her either. He could tell by the bags under her eyes that she had been crying as much and sleeping as little as Cole. Honestly, of the people he could have around him after what had apparently happened, his own parents along with Cole and his family was about it. And the fact that his parents had flown in from Australia to be there, that told him just how serious things had really gotten. If Cole had told him that he'd nearly died but his parents hadn't been there, Jack wouldn't have believed him.

After a few moments to think, and after a soft comforting kiss from Cole, Jack wrote out to Cole, "My dormant shifter and magic user abilities?" At a nervous nod from the older boy, Jack turned to his mother, his pen moving quickly across the paper, "But I don't have any magic, I'm just plain human."

Ruby shook her head and reached out a hand to stroke his cheek as she answered, "We all thought you were since you never showed any inkling of mine or your father's abilities. Magical Mutes happen sometimes, we thought you were one. When Russell Turned you, it became very clear that you were anything but Mute. You are both a Shifter like me, and an Earth Mage like your father. When your lungs stopped working and your body was dying the magic in you caused an earthquake. Your body would not stay in human form, it had to be forced back into that so the doctors could treat you."

Hearing it put like that, Jack just gawked at his mother. His magic and his body had done what?! "What shape did I take?" he wrote in a hurry, turning it so both his mother and Cole could see.

[Demeter]

Jack couldn't help but grin. "Oh, you went through several forms, Jack, but you almost always picked a lion to stop on," Cole said while holding Jack's hand. "Once you heal up, we can go running under the stars together."

To Cole, taking his mate out running would be the best thing in the world. When Diablo was out, they both missed having Jack by their side. Now, with Jack's awakening, he looked forward to it. 

Cole stayed at the hospital that night, sharing Jack's bed. Ruby had gone back to the house where she would, hopefully, get some decent sleep for the first time since Cole had first called to say that Jack was in the hospital. That had been a horrible experience. 

Cole snuggled up to Jack as close as he possibly could. Once Jack was released, they'd have to look for teachers for all his new abilities. But that was still a little ways off. For now, just getting him out if the ICU would be enough. 

[Maira]

Jack had never been a chubby boy. People had actually always been surprised by his weight considering his lean appearance. As a very active soccer player though, he was lean because he ran all the time. Now that his shifter abilities were no longer dormant, his already high metabolism had kicked things up a few notches and he was actually starting to loose muscle mass because he couldn't feed himself enough. By the time Jack left the hospital, almost three weeks after Russell turned him, the boy was looking almost gaunt.

Up until the moment she got in the cab for the airport, Jack's mother had been fussing at him trying to get him to eat something. Now that he was camped out at Cole's parents' house, Rayne was continuing the task of trying to get enough food in him. When he had casually mentioned that he was hungry, she practically dragged him to the kitchen and shoved him in front of the fridge telling him, "Anything you want in there, eat it. I've been feeding Cole for years, I know how to shop for teenage Shifter boys so don't worry about finishing something off." Jack wasn't sure if he should gawk or laugh so instead he just grabbed an apple. When Rayne looked at him and then back at the fridge pointedly, Jack sighed and grabbed some grapes.

As he left the kitchen to go back up to the room he was sharing with Cole, he missed the raised eyebrow and odd look Rayne gave him. If he'd seen it though he likely would have been confused at why she was looking at him that way because he hadn't yet realized that his normal food choices probably weren't what his body now needed.

When he got to the bedroom, Cole smiled at him and then asked, "Grapes and an apple? That's it?" Jack looked down at the food in his hands then back to Cole and shrugged before answering, "Yeah, why not?" The sigh from Cole was loud and Jack just didn't understand. "Why do you and your mom keep looking at me like I'm some sort of freak? I'm eating! You guys want me to eat so I'm eating! I still don't feel that great so my appetite isn't really all there but when I'm hungry I eat."

Jack was getting strangely angry over such a silly thing and he felt the house start to shiver beneath him. That just made him more angry and he tossed his food on Cole's bed and bolted out the door and outside. If his earth magic was going to get out of control it was damn well gonna wait until he got outside. The last thing he wanted to do was bring Cole's family's house down on top of everybody. He'd passed through the kitchen on his way to the backdoor and Rayne, with the triplets, had watched him curiously as he'd bolted past.

Once safely outside, Jack collapsed onto hands and knees, digging his fingers into the rich soil. Just that contact was enough to drain the anger out of him and the shivering in the ground beneath him stopped. Breathing hard and fast, Jack jumped when he heard the sliding door close behind him. His newly heightened sense of smell alerted him to Cole's presence and Jack could feel his emotions rising again. He didn't like being angry with the older boy, but he was just so out of control lately that he sometimes got that way without even knowing why. At least this time he knew what the cause of his frustration and anger were. That didn't mean he liked it any better, but at least he understood it. Pale and shaking, Jack looked up at Cole from his place on the ground and waited to see what the other boy had to say.

[Demeter]

Cole followed Jack out into the yard. It was about time that someone sat the new shifter down and told him a few things. Ignoring the damp grass, Cole sat down on the ground and pulled Jack to him. Wrapping his arms around Jack, he gave his mate a nuzzle and a nip on the neck. "You've been around my family if shifters for a while now, Jack. Haven't you noticed our eating habits?"

At Jack's blank look, Cole laughed lightly. "We eat meat, Jack, a lot of meat and we eat it often. Our bodies, because of our shifting abilities, need a lot of energy to be able to function. You're still eating like you were before he turned you and, with all the random shifts you've been going through since then, your body has started to consume itself for fuel. Here, let me show you."
Cole pulled out his cell phone and, after punching in his pass code, showed Jack a recent picture of the two of them together. "See how you look there? Nice and healthy with hips that I could hold onto without worry."

He then opened up his camera app and snapped a picture of them sitting on the lawn. He showed Jack the new photo. "And see how you look now? All hollowed out cheeks and sunken eyes and hips that I'm afraid I'll break if I squeeze them to hard."

Exhaling, Cole pressed his face against Jack's back. "You need to eat, Baby, and more then a handful of grapes and an apple at a time. Even if you don't want to eat meat, you still need to eat the foods that are high in the proteins and carbs and calories that you need. I have an aunt who's like you; shifter, mutari and earth elemental magic user who is also a vegetarian. She would come over to talk to you if you need it."

Cole kissed the back of Jack's exposed neck. "Please, Baby. I don't want to watching you dying for a second time."

[Maira]

The comparisson between the two pictures left Jack gawking. The second one barely looked like himself and he could now understand his and Cole's mothers fussing at him, not to mention why Cole was so worried. "I'm sorry," he whispered as he relaxed into Cole's embrace.

He listened when Cole told him about his aunt and how she was a lot like him. Same curious combinations of Others running through her blood, and also a vegetarian like him. He wasn't vegetarian because of any philosophical reasons, he had just never really felt any need, desire, or craving to ingest meat. Now that he was thinking about it though, the dominant form that his Shifter magic took was making his feelings on the topic known. The lion was tired of rabbit food. Without looking at Cole, Jack told him quietly, "I'll give meat a try, the lion wants me to, but if I just can't stomach it then I'll talk to your aunt."

He didn't need to see the look on the older boy's face to know that he was relieved, he could feel Cole's entire body relax ever so slightly as it lost some of the worried tension it had been carrying. Jack turned slightly in Cole's arms, just enough to be able to bury his face in the older boy's neck.

[Demeter]

Cole braced himself against the shower wall and get let the hot water run down his body. The last few weeks, ever since Jack had seen the light about his eating habits, had been both hard and easy. Both Jack and himself had withdrawn for the remaining weeks of the university quarter based on Medical reasons, so there was no school or soccer to distract them. Rather, helping Jack to gain control of his new abilities was hard on them both.

He knew that Jack was trying but every time he made progress in one area, something else slipped in another area. On some level, he'd always known that if he wanted to stay with Jack, they would have had to face this. His bond with his step-mother Rayne has assured him the extended lifespan of an Alati.

And there were only a handful of ways for him to be able to stay with Jack for that lifespan. Cole knew that Jack was it for him.

But, Sweet Baby Hades, it was hard and frustrating to see Jack going through this. Growling, Cole thumped his fist against the wall and cursed that No Good Russell for doing this to Jack. He wanted to hunt that bastard down and tear him apart. All his life, he'd been warned against giving in to the beast but there were times when he wanted to find Russell and then go feral on his lousy ass.

Grumbling, Cole shut off the shower, dried off and just sat on the closed toilet lid. He remembered the first time he'd seen Russell at the Jack's high school graduation party. He'd wanted to punch him then too.

Sighing, Cole hauled himself to his feet and dressed. He left the bathroom. He went across the hall to his room where he found Jack, wrapped in the comforter from the bed, staring out the window. He'd fallen asleep there, Cole realized on closer inspection. He took a moment and studied Jack. He'd finally stated to pick up the pounds again but the circles under his eyes were still deep.

Shaking his head, Cole untangled Jack from the blanket and carried him to the bed. After squaring him and the blanket away, Cole crawled in after him.

The next morning, Jack was still sleeping when Cole woke up. He carefully climbed from the bed; Jack needed his rest. After pulling on some sweats and a t-shirt, Cole left the bedroom they shared and went to find food.

Instead of him tackling a mountain of food, Cole himself was tackled by a childhood friend. Ari Le Salle was a cousin of sorts and had been his closet friend. For the last few years, he'd been out in some backwoods town to learn about healing from his uncle. He must have been in town to visit family.

Later, when Jack woke and went in search of boyfriend and food, he was confronted by the two wrestling, shirtless and laughing in the backyard.

[Maira]

He couldn't remember going to bed and he wasn't really ready to be awake, but he was cold and hungry and his body demanded both be remedied. Crawling from the empty bed he shared with Cole, Jack snagged a hoodie to wear in addition to his pajama pants and headed downstairs. He found Cole's dad Liam muttering about feeding surprise teenage boys and Jack noted a growing spread of food on the kitchen's eat-at bar. Grabbing one of the oversized Costco muffins that he had become fond of, Jack was going to ask where Cole was when Liam guessed his intent and gestured out the back door with the tongs he was wielding.

Raising an eyebrow at the seemingly omniscient adult, Jack mumbled his thanks around a bite of muffin and let himself out back. The sight that caught his eye as soon as he stepped out onto the porch stopped Jack in his tracks. There was his boyfriend wrestling shirtless with another older boy that he'd never met. The sudden wave of jealousy that hit Jack brought the constantly prowling animal inside him rushing to the surface. Before he could stop it, a low growl started rumbling in his chest and it took all of his effort to turn away and run back in the house instead of at the strange boy, claws extended like the beast wanted. Having clenched his hands into fists to keep the claws hidden, the muffin he'd been holding was crushed and as he bolted inside it tumbled free of his hand and down the steps to the grass.

Once inside, Jack bee-lined for Liam, whispering hoarsely as his vocal chords tried to shift against his will, "help!". The older man looked up from the dishes he'd just started washing, his breakfast cooking marathon finished, and at the sight of Jack hurrying towards him in a haphazard state of Shift he closed the distance between him and the boy and wrapped him tightly in his arms. Liam's own beast, Sakhir, barely exerted himself over the one inside of Jack and within just a few moments the boy was wholey human in appearance again and trembling with the effort it had taken on his part.

Holding the boy out at arms' length, Liam told him calmly and more than a little proud, "You did most of the work. You held him in until Sakhir could give him a small shove to where you could do it yourself. That was excellent Jack!" Liam was about to ask what had triggered it, but then Ari and Cole came bounding in the back door, flushed and sweaty.

[Demeter]

Ari was holding onto Cole; the bastard still had a hard right hook and his ribs ached. He peered over at the skinny kid standing in the kitchen. So, this was the guy that Cole was head over heels for. He knew all about Jack and had seen pictures. Before their early morning round of wrestling, Cole had told him all about Jack and the recent events of their life.

As Cole was his best friend, Ari had always known that Cole was gay. It wasn't a problem to know that his best bud was totally gone over another dude. The question was knowing if this dude was right for Cole. He wasn't about to let Cole be with just anyone. He'd spent the last year learning from Uncle Titus and could practically see the emotions rolling off the young man. He bumped Cole with a shoulder before sitting on a bar stool. "Dude, introduce us."

"Huh?" Cole blinked between the two boys before shaking his head. "Oh, right. Jack, this is Ari. He's my best friend and my sort of cousin. Ari, this is Jack."

While Cole had handled the introductions, Ari had assembled a breakfast sandwich. He held it in one hand and used the other to shake Jack's hand. He had to bite into his sandwich to keep from laughing. Oh yeah, the other boy was sending off green sparks of jealousy. "Yeah, my mom is his great grandmother's half sister," Ari said, pausing to make sure he'd added the correct amount of greats in there, "when Cole was sick, I played a lot of video games with him."

Ari stayed through breakfast before heading to his folks. He smirked at every growl and flash of jealousy green that Jack shot off every time Ari touched Cole. Cole was, of course, completely oblivious to what was going on. At little jealousy was good, Ari mused, but just how jealous was Jack? As he drove out to his parents house and a second breakfast spread, Ari wondered how far he could push the newly turned Jack.

***
After Ari left, Cole jumped into the shower for a quick rinse off before snuggling down with Jack for a lazy weekend day. The weather had taken a typical Northwest turn for the worst and the rain was coming down in sheets. The perfect excuse for snuggling and movie watching. At one point in his high school years, Cole had thought it a good idea to jam a couch into his room. The end result made his bedroom comfortably cramped and afforded him the luxury of being able to lock his sister out while watching his shows.

He may have been a tough fighter but Ember could be vicious as well as a dirty, underhanded sneak, even when play fighting, when control of the remote was at stake. He could hear her whining about how it wasn't fair that Cole could have a boy over and was allowed to shut his door when she had to have her door open at all times when friends were over.

Cole snickered when he heard his Dad say that once she was over the age of eighteen and in a stable, committed relationship, she could close her door. Cole dropped his head and nuzzled Jack's neck. The young man had been quiet for most of the morning. "Hey, you okay?"

[Maira]

After the morning's almost-disaster, Jack had been pretty quiet for the rest of the day. By the time that Ari left Jack had a feeling that the blond-haired older boy really was just Cole's friend, but something inside Jack wouldn't let go of the "what if" that was constantly swirling through his brain.

It wasn't until Cole asked him if he was okay that Jack realized he must've been being obvious about being upset by something. If the person that was asking had been anybody but Cole, Jack would have brushed them off. Instead he said quietly, "I just feel like an idiot for freaking out this morning. Your dad helped me not lose it, again, but the beast got out of control when I saw you and Ari wrestling." At this, Jack took a deep breath and then sighed. "I never thought I'd be so insecure, I'm sorry."

[Demeter]

Cole nuzzled Jack's neck and gave him a gentle nip. "You have nothing to fear from Ari. He's straight. At least, he was before going to learn from Uncle Titus. There may be no biological relation but he's pretty much my brother and, well, ew!"

Cole laughed gently and gave Jack a squeeze. "When I was sick as a kid, he was around. His mom was my Grandmother's student. He kept me company when I got really sick and had to stay in the hospital. I was kept isolated because my immune system was for shit but he'd park himself outside the room and we'd play video games. During my recovery, he pretty much played protector."

He shifted on the lump couch, rolling so that Jack was sprawled over his chest. "I'm so proud of you, Jack. You've been doing wonderfully. Once we go back to our dorm room, where Ember won't barge in, I'm going to make love to you. I want to show you how proud I am of you and how much I love you."

"I am yours, Jack. Now and for forever," he said.