still running with my wolf

---

Showering while holding her might be difficult, but he almost wanted to try it. As long as it meant keeping her this close. He knew the teasing last night had only been that, since neither of them would have been up to much more, wants be damned. But now, her fingers in his hair and her lips on his neck brought a noise somewhere between a hum and a growl from his throat. "Keep that up, Mrs. Walker, and you might," he said, giving her a look of unhidden desire, and starting up the stairs again.

Dylan grabbed her tight, wolf slamming hot gold in his eyes, a growl tearing from his throat. Ready to protect Carmen at any cost. It was only as she stepped up to Kitty did he relax a little, shifting to her back, gaze on the hunter and Nate before t hey were lost between the trees. One hand settled on her hip, a constant reminder that he was there as she helped Kitty. More for him than her, settling his wolf inside of her. In truth he wanted to press close, bury his face into her neck, to keep her safe.

---

Jonas hesitated for only a moment, then nodded at Carmen, looked down at Kitty. Sliding her hand under the blanket, she found the feverish skin of Kitty's chest and touched it lightly. Eyes closed, she concentrated. Pain flared up her arm, a taste of what the poison was doing to Kitty's body, and Carmen let out a little gasp. She refocused, pushing past the sympathetic pain, and finding Kitty's. It was everywhere. Pulling from herself and the earth under their feet, she sent a cool, white energy into Kitty, dampening the pain and loosening the muscles that were tensed against it. She worked slowly but thoroughly, spreading the cool across the fiery pain. The silver still was working its way through Kitty, but at least for now it shouldn't hurt as much, which Carmen hoped would help her fight it off.

She removed her hand and leaned back against Dylan, laying her hand on his, glad for his presence. Opening her eyes, she looked up at Jonas. "That should help for a little bit," she said softly.

“If you can, and want to,” Dylan told her softly. It was Carmen’s choice. “She just needs… To be strong. The silver will pass it just… Hurts in the meantime.” He’d only ever touched silver briefly, knew the burn of it but this… Combined with wolfsbane. It was cruel. Calculated. Arms loosened to allow Carmen to move, his gaze shifting toward the hunter was now being hauled past.

“You’ll all be dead soon,” he spat, “that bitch will just be the first.”

---

He frowned slightly, trying to understand her answer. But she wasn't trying to sit up on her own, so he tucked the blanket securely around her, then cradled her as gently as possible. Standing slowly, trying to not jostle her, he barely paid any mind to Nate and the others pushing past them.

Dylan shifted toward Carmen, hand sliding around her waist to draw her in. Not liking that they were remaining near hunters. Eyes were bright with his wolf, a pacing concerned thing. He watched as the Pack moved to take up Jonas’ mission, bringing the hunters down. “We should move,” he murmured quietly, “It’s not safe here.”

---

Jonas let out a hoarse laugh. He could vaguely remember a knife making contact, or his skin splitting as it made contact with a hunter, but none of it mattered. "I'm fine," he promised. "But you're not. Will it hurt more if I carry you?" he asked, honestly not sure. Either way, he was not letting go anytime soon.

He normally looked forward to the monthly turning, but this month Jonas was even more excited. Last month had been awful, but somehow he knew this time would be better.  Energy and anticipation ran through him like electricity.  He was out in their backyard, pacing as the sun went down.  Despite the chill of the November air, he wore no shirt or shoes and seemed unbothered.  He was excitedly impatient to wear a different skin, to leave the worries of humanity--work, his strange new home life, the wedding coming up soon that he still wasn’t sure how to process--and embrace carefree instinct.

Several of the pack here normally shifted at their own homes and met the rest of the pack where ever they were meeting this month, and Jonas had suggested they do the same.  He didn’t know everything about Kitty--hell, he barely knew her at all, really, it’d only been two months--but he figured she would be more comfortable turning away from a pack that was still strange to her.  She had agreed to it, and so now he waited outside for her as she took care of some things inside.  He didn’t want to rush her, but he couldn’t keep from glancing up at the back door and listening for her coming. 

Jonas had never quite worked out how Nate got them shorter workdays every full moon, but he appreciated it today like never before.  He felt like he was coming down with something, or like he had worked harder than usual that day, his body seeming to be one aching mass.  But it couldn’t have been work, since he barely crawled through the short hours and left as soon as possible. 

Whatever it was, it made everything feel like a chore and every move he made sluggish. But somehow he beat Kitty home still.  The apartment was empty, the silence welcome after the overbearing constancy of the city noises outside.  He figured he ought to clean himself up, get ready for the night, but he found himself stumbling over to the couch and collapsing onto it instead. ‘Maybe just a short nap,’ he told himself, hoping he’d wake up feeling better.

Unfortunately, that did not seem to be the case.  He wasn’t sure how long it had been, how much time he’d wasted, but his eyes cracked open just a bit as he heard Kitty’s keys in the lock.  He made to sit up, but only managed to prop himself up on an elbow with a groan as she entered, feeling worse than ever.

She was pouring feed bags into the large bins when she heard the hoof beats, felt them in the ground. A prickle of anxiety crawled up her spine, but she brushed it away, rushing outside to the fence where the horses were now huddling. She was up and over the fence in a flash, murmuring soft words and gently touching to calm the nervous animals. “What’s wrong?” she asked, brushing along sweaty hair, taking in the flick of an eye and the lay of an ear. 

Ione pushed past the group to find a tall, dappled horse waiting at the next fence, pawing at the ground. A small smirk crossed her face and she mounted him quickly from the fence. “Let’s go find out what it is, then,” she said to him, leading him out of the fence. 

The pair cantered to where the pasture fences ended, the beach beginning a couple hundred paces past them. It could just be trash washed up on shore that frightened the beasts with its novelty. She sort of hoped so, since that would be the easiest to fix. There was always new trash finding its way into her land. It was unlikely, but she also worried it might be people. Usually they didn’t stop here, due to the roughness of the water and the hardness of the ground, and also because she ran most of them off, but sometimes they persisted. 

And today was one of those times, apparently. A single person that she could see, sitting on a large rock and staring out at the waves. Frowning, Ione slid to the ground, leaving the horse to graze, trusting that he wouldn’t wander off. Cutting across from grass to rocks to the beginnings of sand, she kept an eye out for anyone else that might be there too, but aimed her steps for the woman. “Are you lost?” she called, still some ways away.