Chapter Text
Aiden Galvin liked Vivian Gandillon, he really did; but when her pathetic toxically masculine whiny cousin, Rafe, confronted him, Aiden realized that she’d been hiding something important from him. Okay, he might’ve lied to her too since he was hiding the same sort of thing from her so it wasn’t really fair for him to get upset with her-- but still, it’d be nice for a certain someone he’d been dating to maybe explain that her family, especially the male relatives are bloodthirsty possessive archaic misogynists and would kill him if he tried to pursue a further relationship with her. There was a reason why he wore leather gloves and a layer or two between his body and that silver pendant he wore. It was pretty ego-boosting, honestly, being able to harness the very thing that would kill you. Also, he didn’t quite get her half-uncle’s thing with choosing a new wife every seven years. Aiden knew wolves like them mated for life, so what the fuck was this man in his thirties trying to do by smashing his ex-wife’s nineteen-year-old niece?? The implications of Gabriel’s interest in Vivian was also just something that made him hate men like that even more. Aiden wasn’t an inherently violent person but god did killing Gabriel sound like a nice thing to do.
So there he was, tied up, blindfolded, in the middle of bum-fuck-nowhere, listening to that asshole prattle on about how awful humanity was. Which ironically was hypocritical due to the fact he said humans were the real monsters when he was a thirty-year-old lusting over his teenaged half-niece, thus making him equally if not just as bad as the humans he pronounced his hate for. When he was set free and told to run, he did so. Aiden reached the river, relieved that he didn’t have to give up his cover. Then Gabriel had to go and ruin that. The silver knife he had with him was knocked to the forest floor, so he had no choice but to reveal himself. There was a moment of surprise in Gabriel’s eyes, even as a bi-pedal humanoid wolf. It was as if he was shocked at the revelation that a werewolf was using silver against his own kind. Aiden wasn’t ashamed of that, even if he had some fairly severe burns on his fingers from his fingerless leather gloves letting his skin touch silver but he would live with that. Now in his animal form, he snarled at Gabriel, lunging at the man and biting into his neck. The older werewolf thrashed, howling in pain, Aiden bit down harder his enraged growl becoming louder and more guttural. A part of him bathed in the taste of blood and the quivering of the wolf he was attacking.
This white wolf came into the fray, looking ready to fight Gabriel but just paced a bit at the sight of being beat to the punch. Aiden was surprised by Gabriel tackling him down and clawing at his canid face, forcing the younger wolf to relinquish his grip from the other’s neck. Gabriel snarled at Aiden, noticing the boy’s canine body was different from his. The older male looked up to the white wolf huffing smugly at her before flipping the young male under him onto his stomach, biting at the scruff of his neck, positioning his hips a certain way. Aiden could feel something brush against his sex, and that’s when he started panicking-- snarling, whining, trying to wriggle out of the other wolf’s grip.
Which was when the white wolf pounced in tackling Gabriel into the river, letting him drift off with the current. Now that the threat of immediate danger was gone, the two wolves looked to each other, panting heavily, trying to gauge a reaction or intent from the other’s eyes. The white wolf morphed back into a human, the young woman now on one knee before him knelt Vivian Gandillon. Aiden huffed, transforming back too, noticing the look on her face when she registered who the dark brown wolf before her was.
“Aiden?” she asked, unsure of herself. He smiled tiredly,
“Hi,” they were both fully clothed, thank god. He stood up, offering her a hand. She took it, standing up too.
“Let’s get the fuck out here, yeah?” Vivian nodded, smiling softly. Aiden bent down and picked up his knife, seeing the face she was making at the sight, now noticing the burns on the boy’s fingertips. They made their way to the road and hitched a ride from some random stranger, making their way to the old factory that had a whole arsenal of silver film. Vivian sat down on the dusty, grimy floor while Aiden perched himself on a nearby windowsill.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she said.
“My dad is like us, I didn’t know who I could trust with information about my species. I’m sorry for freaking out at you, by the way. I was just really rattled by almost getting killed by your sleazy cousin. Also, Gabriel’s your aunt’s ex-husband, making you his half-niece, why the fuck is he trying to make you his wife?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never wanted to be with Gabriel due to Rafe being his and Aunt Astrid’s son--”
“Wait, what the fuck?? There’s something seriously wrong with that guy.”
“Did he hurt you at the river?”
“No, only tried to shove his dick into my genitals. Underline ‘tried’, thank you for that by the way.”
“Yeah.”
Aiden scoffed, sighing tiredly. A moment of silence filling the space between them. He opened his mouth again, hesitant to speak,
“Vivian, I don’t think I can be romantically involved with you. I care about you, but I can’t commit to a romantic relationship.”
“Would you have me as a friend then?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’d like that,” Vivian held out her arms for a hug, Aiden smiled fondly, hugging her back. Once they’d pulled back she asked the question,
“So what’s our next move?”
“I have a cousin who lives in Montana in this tiny rural town. She’s a wolf like us, I can call her up and see if she can help,” after calling his cousin, Aiden booked a flight to the US. They eventually decided to make their move and hitch a ride to the airport, probably using some public transportation. However, the two young wolves were stopped by the sight of Vivian’s aunt, and the sound of the woman cocking a gun and pointing it at them.
“Where would she hide? I asked. Where else but where I told her not to?” Vivian stepped in front of Aiden,
“Don’t, Astrid.”
The woman glared at Aiden,
“He is not one of us!”
“He is! He shifted in front of my own eyes.”
“If he is one of us, how can he have killed so many of our people with silver?”
“Aiden’s taken preventative measures, he’s got gloves and clothing on to stop it from hurting crucial parts of his body. His fingers are burned. Show her, Aiden!” the boy looked to his friend and then to her aunt, tentatively holding out his hands to show the very scarred and burnt, almost blackened tips of his fingers. Astrid observed the injuries, her eyes turning back up to meet Vivian’s,
“Wolf or not, he killed my son.”
“It was Gabriel that killed Rafe! Just like he’ll kill me. It’s the only justice he knows.”
There was a flash of pain in the older woman’s eyes,
“I’ll protect you. I’ll make him see,” her voice was raw with emotion, on the verge of breaking.
“Just like you’ll make him see who he really belongs with?” Vivian replied calmly, soft almost.
“The person closest to you left you. Please, don’t take mine from me.”
Astrid nodded, her eyes watery, she dropped her aim of the gun in her hand, inching closer to Vivian, concerned for her niece,
“What will you do now?”
“Aiden has family like us, we’re going to the airport tonight and we’re leaving the city,” Vivian said. Astrid’s eyes glistened with tears and Vivian’s eyes had begun to do the same in return. Astrid handed her the gun,
“Run my little girl,” the older woman cooed sadly. “Run free.”
“Thank you.”
After Astrid left them, the two headed to the pharmacy where a scientist who owed Gabriel lived/worked. After stocking up on silver antigen and cleaning their wounds from the hunt, they turned to leave only to find Gabriel’s car driving to the storefront. They ran out the back, getting cornered by other wolves and the pharmacist. They ran back into the store, Vivian locking the door in front of her, cutting Aiden off from their attackers.
“Vivian--”
“Run!” he did as he was told, sprinting out of the storefront and into the city, the pack losing sight of him giving up. After waiting, Aiden made his way back to the pharmacy, gun in hand,
“I want your bullets, your antigen, and your dust,” the old man regarded him with a sense of disdain but complied with his request. Aiden then made his way to where he was told Gabriel and Vivian would be. He climbed onto the building’s glass roof, watching and listening into Gabriel and Vivian’s conversation,
“How does it feel to be in a cage?” Gabriel asked her. “The way men would have you,” which made Aiden scoff. Thinking how ironically hypocritical Gabriel’s ideology was. Men will put their people in a cage yet he is a man that puts people like Vivian in cages figuratively. The way he gave her little to no choice in if she would be his wife. Even despite being stronger, more agile, more perceptive than humans, wolves had the same capability for evil as humans. Ironic, really, almost funny. The man kept talking and talking, Vivian fired back, always making good points he refused to see. Aiden waited with bated breath, gun aimed at Gabriel. When the older man lunged at his friend he shot at him hitting him in the hip and stunning him. Which was how Aiden ended up behind the bar table in the warehouse hideout, out of bullets. He did, however, have that silver powder on his person so it was easy to draw out the two wolves attacking him and throw the dust in their faces, his own eyes and nose stinging from it a bit. He lit them on fire using a match and the spilled liquor, which all started a giant fire. That’s when he spotted Gabriel, he scrambled to pick up the bullets hissing in pain at the metal burning away at his fingers again. He wasn’t able to shoot, though, seeing as he was tackled to the floor and slammed into a wooden wall repeatedly by Gabriel, taking quite the beating. Just as he was about to land another hit on Aiden, there was the noise of a gun cocking. The eldest wolf looked up at Vivian,
“Going to shoot your own family? ‘Want to be that hunter on that snowy night?” he asked. Vivian stared at him, clearly conflicted.
“Then I give you my back, that’s all you deserve,” Gabriel shifted into his wolf form, growling at Vivian. He lunged at Aiden before Vivian gunned him down. She watched him die, touching his face one last time before taking Aiden’s hand in hers and running off, only stopping to free the remaining wolves trapped inside the warehouse. They left as soon as the building exploded. The blast was mild but it still made Aiden almost trip on himself.
“I’m going to need a fucking nap after this whole thing and probably therapy. Yup, definitely therapy too.”
“I feel you,” Vivian responded, laughing a little. Aiden looked up at the burning building for a moment,
“So how’re we getting out of the city if they’re watching us everywhere?” he posed the question. Vivian looked at the fire too,
“There’s one place they won’t be, c’mon,” she led him to Gabriel’s car, Aiden getting into the driver’s seat. They drove out of the city, to the airport. Vivian had Astrid meet them there with multiple sets of new clothes, new credit cards, money, and fake passports. She gave Aiden a nod and Vivian one last hug before the two checked into the airport and boarded their plane to Montana. The two ate and then they slept like logs, both of them occasionally waking up at random intervals as if they were still on high alert. Once they’d landed in the US, they were met by Aiden’s cousin at the airport. She was a young woman about Aiden’s age maybe a bit older, with short dark hair and slightly tanned skin wearing baggy casual clothing,
“Aiden!” she called out to him, making his face light up.
“Camille!”
“Hey,” she said with a grin, hugging her younger cousin. “It’s great to see you, man. You wouldn’t believe the shit that’s gone on while you were gone.”
Aiden laughed,
“I could say the same about Bucharest, honestly.”