SURVIVOR

On top of literally everything else, I don’t blame you.

Rough week?

It’s always rough before a full moon-- my senses go into even more of an overdrive. Hence the headache.

I could smack some of the kids with a dirty dish rag if their talking irritates said headache.

I’m afraid nothing will help at this point, but it’ll make me laugh.

You want to talk about nasty headaches.

I can’t walk two fucking steps before this shit flares.

Then you can clean it up and carry me home, Dad.

Or you can stay and join the fucking party.

I’m definitely not old enough to be your dad.

Half naked, what do you think I am, a prudish square with the decency to wear my boxers? I’m buck ass nude in my birthday suit, so, it’s your loss.

Please. Tori or my sister would kick your ass for scarring the children if you were walking around naked.

God, just shut your face and drink.

At the rate you’re going, you’re just going to end up vomiting instead.

I can’t seem to step a foot from the porch without any of the gawking.

I don’t think I’ve ever been happier that I’m blind because for some reason I feel like you’re half naked.

Seeing is not believing this time.

I’m over the moon someone needs a scrap of good outshining the bad shit, Spence, but it seems so menial in regards to the bigger picture.

It doesn’t matter if it’s menial in the big picture... sometimes in order to survive, you have to live day by day. Maybe you should go to that potluck-- it’s food.

Right, the whole blind thing. Not to see it is a blessing.

The events page, a pot luck lunch reminder. Right in the middle of an apocalypse. 

I’ll take your word for it.

The journalists who write this fucking paper can eat shit.

You’re going to have to be more descriptive on what they wrote, Trys.

“Which just goes to show, I won’t know what it actually feels like until it happens to me. If it happens.” Cassie was his soulmate, he shared children with the woman for god’s sake, perhaps they reached a tier of mates when he received the bite, but the universe worked in mysterious ways. Wilburn thought he knew everything there is on werewolves, their behaviors, their weaknesses, nothing ran as deep as what Spencer described. “Sounds like it’s a match made beyond the universe’s control. Something celestial is pulling you together clearly, I think it’s something you can’t explain yet, but you do understand what it means if you lose this woman. I get that, I do, Spencer. I couldn’t tell you the damage it’d inflict if anything happened to my family.” Wil rubbed his hands together, ridding his palms of sweat, “I was on her radar and a target to my back the day I entered Malcolm’s lair. I’m not planning on poking the bear either, but you could tell me what I can to. Or maybe I’m kind of doing it already, to be honest.” He paused. “Your story. I know telling me wasn’t laced with ill-intent, Spencer, but it forced a perspective that the caravan isn’t safe with her at the wheel. Destroy her from the inside out, that was your idea, right? I’m not upset, I just agree.”

Spencer nodded along, Wil was understanding the gravity of the situation. Before Natalie, he still struggled with his place in the world, despite being in one of the best packs for him and his sister-- doing a job he loved and was appreciated for. Finding his mate randomly in a small town that he and his sister had to fight to get to made him realize that he was finally on the right track. Now he was in danger of losing all of it-- the wolf inside him mourned. His brows raised at what Wil suggested before nodding, “you’re correct. In the beginning it was just me shedding some light on why she makes me uncomfortable, but knowing you reacted the way you did... my sister and I came to that same conclusion.” He ran his hands through his hair, knowing that it wouldn’t hurt to tell him what him and his sister were planning. “We figured that if you reacted the same way, then there were other hunters who would, too. Alienate her. Make it easier for us to take her down and end this. I’m figuring you’ve already started something, since you’ve figured us out so easily?”

Eloise would have risen from her seat and paced a literal indent into the carpet had she been in anyone else’s company but Spencer’s, but he became a rock solid weight holding the vampire to earth. Coaxing the good right out of her with no effort on his part. “And allow the rest see what a mess I have warped into? How my poor previous reputation weeps.” She turned her head to the side, feeling his fingers smoothly glide along her arm and encapsulate her fidgeting hand, stopping the nervous ticks almost immediately. Ellie’s digits threaded his with the same gentleness he offered, moving to find a comfortable position before resting her head on Spencer’s shoulder. “Had you and I met years prior, Spence, I would have provided the bite on a silver platter knowing the freedom you’d gain joining a coven. You pull your weight in covens, true, but nothing on the level of packs. We look out for one another and…operate as a unit.” She could hear the smile gracing his lips, never stopping the grin stretching hers, “Do my ears deceive me or are you a man in love, Van Warren?”

“I think you’ll find that you’re the only one that cares you’re a mess. Everyone in this town is made up of a mess or two,” Spencer said with a small chuckle, squeezing her hand gently as he wove her fingers with his. He didn’t know exactly when their friendship began, knew that there were people out there that would look twice at the two of them together; complete opposites. However, it was a comfort for him. “In a different world, I think I would have enjoyed that, Eloise,” he replied truthfully. He always knew that out there, there were realities that existed from every decision he ever made. He’d be a liar if he said he didn’t think about where he could have been, but he also loves where he is. He couldn’t help but give a chuckle at the woman’s words, “that I am. Very much so with our local librarian.”

Whatever you have to do, I’ll be here. So long as whatever it is means I won’t lose you too. I can’t lose you either, I can’t even think it.

I understand why you couldn’t. To relive that… I would never want to put you through that again.

I can’t fathom the idea of leaving you behind. Whenever this is all over, I swear to you that I will live the rest of my life loving you and giving you everything that you deserve.

Eloise absentmindedly tugged at the sleeves of her leather jacket, yet another protective shell she wrapped around herself to appear with intimidation, feeling an unusual sense of anxiety like she was no longer comfortable in her own skin. Spencer brought that side of her to the surface and pried apart every insecurity the vampire possessed. He traveled the same lanes as Tiberius during the first early stages of their budding friendship. “You’re the first, you know, to call me kind. That description tends to vanish from one’s vocabulary when in my company.” El picked at a stray strand before deciding to fold her arms across her chest, ceasing the incessant fidgeting. “I never lived with that pack dynamic, Spencer. I saw you for who you are, not what you no longer owned. It isn’t a hinderance. Why would I treat you different for something you cannot control?” She leaned back in her seat, gently biting her lower lip, “You talk from experience, sugar, do you not? I talk of not just your pack or family.”

Spencer could tell Eloise was anxious, even without the ability to hear her heartbeat. There were very subtle nuances that can betray nerves, and hearing her fingers play with her sleeves was a good indicator. “I think it’s because you very rarely allow others to see your true self, the one that I got to know,” Spencer offered, feeling her arm until he reached her hand, taking it gently in his-- holding it there. It’s something that he and Olivia would do when they were younger-- especially when he was feeling nervous or anxious. It was the best way to anchor himself to someone; hoping that it helped quell the woman’s anxieties as it did for him all those years ago. “I would have envied the vampire life when I was younger-- pack dynamic is very strict when you can’t exactly pull your own weight,” Spencer said quietly before giving a small grin, “usually the best advice comes from ones own personal experiences.”

He and Spencer were indeed friends, fellow packmates, somehow brought together by circumstance and a shared connection with someone they both knew. Wilburn anticipated an expression of worry from the other werewolf along the terms of Tori’s struggles as that would have been the likely cause of Spencer’s stressing nowadays, as he managed to accomplish recently…Spence flipped the narrative. “In love, huh? That’s a big step for a Were.” Mates played a significant role in a wolf’s evolution from what he was taught, few understand the process, but choosing is apparently a big deal. Wil lowered himself into a sitting position beside the man, sprawling his legs out as he leaned back on his palms. The mention of Charlotte easily tensed his muscles, yet with practice, he kept Cassie at the forefront of his mind to keep his wolf contained. “Charlotte’s not in the business of hurting humans. I mean, saving people is kind of our…their whole thing.” A gentle reminder that the hunters weren’t his anymore. “Given your history, though, she’ll grow desperate. Use the woman you love against you, I wouldn’t put it past her.” He sighed. “I know how to deal with Char, Spencer. Let me handle it.”

“Well, that’s just in human terms for you-- love is... minute compared to what some were’s can feel.” Spencer listened to Wil sit down on the mat next to him, pushing himself up to sit cross-legged. He could feel the tension running through Wil’s body, but nodded proudly when he couldn’t sense a change in his wolf. He was learning well. “Normally, I wouldn’t be worried, but she’s my mate. Not a chosen mate, but a moon goddess given mate. It’s not common to get them and chosen mates are perfectly acceptable in this world, but if something happened to her... it will ultimately kill my wolf and myself. It will be like losing half of my soul,” Spencer raked his hand through his hair as he sighed, “as much as I appreciate you wanting to deal with her in my stead, you should stay out of it. You don’t need to be targeted-- not when you have a family of your own. My sister and I will figure it out-- it’s just all happening at an inopportune time with everything going on with Tori as well.”

“I’m a slut for anyone talking dirty to me, you should know that.” Hand-to-hand combat was an essential for hunters to learn on the first day, he remembered the lessons and the bruises that came along with it, but Wilburn’s main strong suit had always been what he could accomplish with a weapon. Spencer, however, caught the man completely off-guard, knocking a grunt past the werewolf’s lips as the other knocked him off balance and pinned him to the ground. “Damn it. Losing my touch.” Pressing his head slightly into the floor, Wil took the man’s hand, yanking as hard as he could, flipping their positions and placing his forearm to Spencer’s throat, “I guess I’ll need to change my entire fighting repertoire as well, that’s just awesome.” He sighed, rising to his feet, “Don’t think you can use kicking my ass as a distraction, Spencer. Talk to me, what’s the sitch?”

Spencer knew that Wil had some semblance of training when it came to fighting. Humans that were hunters needed to learn in order to at least be able to dodge any attacks from a supernatural-- he knew that when Wil took the hand that was given to him and flipped Spencer over. He patted Wil’s arm and laid on the ring’s floor and heaved a sigh. His head just wasn’t on right. Spencer thought about not telling Wil-- he didn’t want to dredge up more uncomfortable memories after destroying what faith he had in the person who helped raise him, but Wil was also his friend, he would like to think. “I’m in love, Wilburn, with Natalie Saunders. A beautiful, smart, loving woman... but that’s not the issue,” Spencer’s lips pursed, brows furrowed from where he laid prone on the mat, not even caring about training at the moment, “Charlotte visited her and lied to her in order to get close. Olivia found out and told her the truth of what happened. Natalie’s on edge. Olivia’s on edge. Everyone’s on edge and I don’t exactly know what to do. I’ve never... not known what to do.”