DELANEY HAD BEEN hiding in a coffee shop all day, gathering his thoughts and getting lost in his sketchbook.  seeing all the messages about the new single were both comforting and off putting.  he’d written the song for josiah during a time when the witch felt helpless otherwise.  he wasn’t a fighter, not by a long stretch.  but, he was a writer.  hale was a fighter and had done something he’d been far too much of a chicken to do.  protect the teacher.  ever since that night he’d felt something change in the relationship.  small and possibly insignificant but there all the same.  if jason came back all delaney would have was a trained dog to fight behind.  all the fire and magic in the world wasn’t enough to make him a protective anything.

          but, he’d tried his best to not let that show.  josiah had enough to worry about without delaney’s insecurities thrown on top of the pile.

          the witch also hadn’t been able to stop asking himself why his first instinct had been to call blaise.  in his time of need it was always the demon.  in happiness, blaise was the first delaney wanted to share it with.  when he was scared or nervous the first thing he’d done was reach for the singer’s hands.  and he’d been doing it for YEARS without even thinking twice.

           maybe it was the tv show.  maybe it was their skyrocketing popularity.  or, maybe it was being so close to the end of a tour.  whatever it was, he felt like the world had turned itself upside down.

          when blaise asked him to come over his heart skipped a beat and it was enough of a sensation that delaney found himself stopping.  he tried to ask himself why but also couldn’t think of an answer.  so, he kept moving.  the promised snacks were picked up from a grocery store.  lots of chocolate, trail mix, and chocolate covered pretzels.  delaney even found a package of chocolate covered potato chips and picked those up, too.  

          life had been a whirlwind since the awkward end of their latest tour.  dynamics shifted on the bus in ways hale never saw coming.  for all the display the night blaise died and for all the promises of love and forever, the demon had cheated.  blaise went back on every single one of those words by sleeping with delaney right under hale’s nose.  then again, the wolf hadn’t exactly been a saint, either.  as fates would have it he’d done the very same thing with josiah.  in that man he’d found so, so many things he never thought possible within himself.  the past two months had honestly been the best of his life on an emotional level.  hale felt like a new wolf.

          looking down, he glances at the healing tattoo adorning his ring finger.  a small heart to match the one josiah had.  though, the teacher’s reasoning to get one had been completely different, hale wanted to turn a painful reminder into something more pleasant.  so, he’d gotten one, too.

          “ so, “ hale pulls his burgundy jeep wrangler up a quiet street to park in front of a patterned concrete driveway.  amber eyes glance over the multi-colored brick and the white garage door off to the side.  his hand slides over the center console to land on his lover’s knee.  “ i know we’ve been doing this for a while but the realtor has a lot more options for us to look at.  just don’t, “ his hand waves as if to stave off any comments he sees coming.  “ ask about the price. “   all the houses they’d rejected so far had been for perfectly valid reasons.  also helped that hale didn’t feel any kind of attachment to any of them.  where he put his head never mattered to him but josiah was looking for some specific criteria, so hale let the other lead the way.

             knuckles are brought up to his lips and amber eyes glance over at the other to make sure everything was okay.  months later he still felt like he was on cloud nine and, oddly enough, in a healthy relationship that didn’t make him want to run for the kills.  in such a short timespan he’d been more open with josiah than he’d been with anyone else in his life, ryleigh and hayden not withstanding.  but, they were different.  they’d known him before all the bad shit went down.  

                                       they knew him before he broke.

             whether he knew it or not, josiah was picking up the pieces and slowly gluing them back together again.

           all day hale had been on the edge of his seat.  not only were things starting to get marginally better with tatum but there was a baby on the way.  not his.  not even josiah’s.  from what he’d been told it was the grandson of someone his father had known in the army during the first world war.  the wolf had belonged to a different pack but that didn’t save him from suffering a fate similar to what happened to ambrose de vos over five decades prior.  hunters found the little pup’s parents.  there was no other family to take care of the little thing, so hale had offered him a home until something more permanent could be found.

          the nerves came from the fact that he hadn’t told josiah about the house guest quite yet.  at this point it wasn’t a secret that his lover was absolutely infatuated with babies.  hale wasn’t ready.  hell, he wasn’t even sure how to approach the conversation.  josiah’s life span would be short enough as it was  throwing a human baby into the mix meant hale would have to watch his family die all over again and he’d always been confident that he wouldn’t survive it a second time.  with josiah that would be more than true.  he loved the teacher more than he had words for.  there was no question that their lives were tied now.

                            when josiah went, so did he.

            but, that wasn’t exactly a line of conversation to have over dinner.  or even ever.  the wolf wasn’t confident he could talk about babies at this point and not think about his own mortality.  so, he simply didn’t.  plus, he’d feel like an absolute dick if he told josiah about the pup and then tatum found a home sooner than anticipated.

         that wasn’t the case, though.  tatum and melody spent the day driving down from san francisco with the little one in tow.  hale spent a little more time than normal attached to his phone, which had become a rarity now that he was with josiah.  when the teacher was around there wasn’t much need to speak to anyone else.  any messages missed from his friends were addressed the next time he thought to look at the device.  but, on this particular day, he was anxiously waiting for the updates on how close tatum was getting.  several beers were nursed once the other wolf entered into los angeles county.  his fidgeting increased.  he paced the living room.  anytime josiah sent words his way they were either unheard or answered with a return question.

           when the doorbell finally rings the wolf slams his bottle down on the kitchen island and leaps toward the front door.  his heart’s racing when it opens and his best friend is on the other side.  a demon may have torn them apart but time was slowly healing them.  maybe melody had a hand in it, hale honestly wasn’t sure.  “ hey, “ hale can’t help but smile.  “ come in. “

         “ look at you in an actual house, “ tatum carefully walks through the threshold.  in one hand is a covered baby car seat.  “ in an actual relationship. “

         “ shut up and shut the door. “  the wolf rolls his eyes before letting them drift to the blonde at his friend’s side.  “ hi mel.  still surprised you haven’t killed him yet. “  the woman was an enigma.  as far as hale knew there wasn’t anything serious there.  yet as time progressed he felt like the two were spending more and more time together.  that’d be something to touch on once they were alone.

WHO: alaska & ezra ( @vinyltruth ) WHAT: “ i think we’re back home “ ( the society )

           A gentle tap on his knee has Ezra’s head jerking up.  He’d been dozing on and off the entire flight because sleep had been eluding him for some time now.  He kept catching leathers out of the corners of his eyes, making him wonder if his father was starting to circle in.  In the beginning the ex-biker had done a great job of staying under the radar.  Black Vinyl’s cult popularity ensured he could keep the same job without worrying much.  It also allowed him to travel the world for most of the year, which helped keep him on the move.  But, lately, with their music becoming more mainstream and Delaney’s vlogs gaining more traction Ezra was worried he’d been caught in some footage.  Everytime a camera was near he had his sunglasses on.  Longer strands also changed the shape of his face a little.  Overall, he was worried it wasn’t enough.

                                 But neither of his lovers could know.  He had to protect them.

          Shaking off his worry, Ezra offers Alaska’s cheek a kiss before lifting his head off her shoulder.  The stagehand leans in to see out the airplane’s window where Los Angeles glittered down below them.  An abrupt line shows nothing but darkness.  The Pacific Ocean.  As soon as he sees it the plane’s curving around to start heading for the runway.  “ It’ll be nice to be in our own bed for a few days. “  Even nicer to be able to stick a switchblade back in his boot.  Travel meant no weapons which, in turn, meant he felt a little jumpy.  Both his Glock and his usual knife were tucked safely in his bunk, waiting for their return from this several day impromptu vacation.

<WHO: trevor & shea WHAT: you should tell him how you feel ( the society )

          “ ‘N why the fuck would I do that? “  The wolf shakes his head and let’s the remnants of his cigarette fall to the ground.  A black rubber sole grinds the embers into oblivion but Shea continues to stare at the bits of paper and tobacco long after they stop burning.  He’d never had to face his emotions before.  Hell, he’d never REALLY had to reconcile with the fact that he was IN love with Cooper.  Not just familial love.  Not just a love that comes from someone being at someone’s side for most of your life.

          A noise behind him makes the wolf casually look over his shoulder.  Ezra’s walking by with a box in his hands, winking once he noticed eyes on him.  Shea pulls air deep into his lungs, shakes his head, then let’s it exhale out slowly.  The action has nothing to do with the man who walked by.  Their topic of conversation has the wolf’s mind muddled in a number of ways.  Emotions weren’t anyone else’s business, let alone how he chose to approach his relationship with Cooper.  Trevor had no idea what they’d been through together or why telling Cooper how he felt was the most colossal bad idea of all time.

          the day started off like any other while francis was home from life on the road.  he spent the day running between the bar with ben and the mechanic shop several miles away.  with isabelle at school there was a lot of quiet time; time spent trying to fight the urges that got him through his youth.  while, rationally, francis knew he didn’t need those drugs anymore there were moments when his body forgot that.  so, when the world was quiet he tried his very best not to be.

          street racing had been that for him before he’d found life on the road.  none of the horsemen dragged him into it except for that very first time to get his mind off all the other things he wanted to do.

                                 he’d been hooked ever since.

          a lit cigarette was flicked onto the asphalt and a wink offered to the several other opponents lined up at the designated line.  his daughter wasn’t in the crowd, mainly because it was too late on a school night.  that meant the local favorite wasn’t in the crowd, either.  

          james burke, better known in the underground as ‘ karma ‘ had been tearing up the street racing scene since she hit eighteen.  ben taught her how to drive just like he’d taught francis ( at least as far as street racing tricks went ).  lucky for him, she also had a soft spot for kids.  especially kids named isabelle and pups named pinkie pie.  over the past few years that’d been a level of help he couldn’t even begin to describe.  knowing his child was in loving care was more than he ever had growing up and as much as fran hated being away from his family he also couldn’t deny how much he loved being on tour with a band.  every venue was like a brand new job.  no matter how many times he did the same set up it always, somehow, felt so incredibly different.

            then again, maybe that was the draw.  racing felt the exact same.  every time he was behind the wheel it all felt like the very first time.  adrenaline ran through his veins and the world flew by in a rainbow swath of color.  Sometimes it was a better substitute than the high he got from the drugs and sometimes he hated the fact that he felt that way.  on this particular night fran welcomed it with open arms.  shaking fingers tapped against the steering wheel of his mazda rx-8.  

          when the signal flared, francis was off at the speed of light.  with his hand on the gear shift it felt like he was on top of the world.  a small smirk stretched at one corner of his mouth as he weaved in between his opponents.  just like always, the money didn’t matter.  whatever he list, in any, was nothing  but a small drop in the sea of all his earnings.  what mattered was the tingle in his blood and the way his heart fluttered.  he could see the finish line in his mind’s eye.  fran could see the cheering and hear the congratulations.

                                        and then he heard a screech.

          from what he’d been told some drunk driver broke through the reflective cone barriers at the end of the track and collided with fran’s car.  he doesn’t remember getting hit.  all he remembered was stepping on the gas to make it those last few feet.  now there was a beautiful nurse leaning over him explaining something about a dislocated shoulder and a mild concussion.

         after the debacle that was jackson miles river was fairly certain she’d stay away from relationships for the rest of her life.  they hadn’t been working out before the beautiful man turned out to be a hunter and that whole interaction sort of ended up being the cherry on the cake.  it wasn’t meant to be and that’s ok.  she’d commit her life to the coven, furthering her magic, and protecting people.

                at least, that’s what she thought.

          panic saw her running from winterhaven as fast as she could.  it was a split second decision that had her meeting up with her long time friend lydia.  the other witch had become a nomad for a multitude of reasons, one being she didn’t want to stay pent up beneath a magical barrier for the rest of her life.  valid.  absolutely valid.  but, in river’s mind, their ancestors established winterhaven for a reason.  the world was dangerous for magical kin.  a lot of their families had been hunted down before the barrier and beneath it they were allowed to flourish.  it cut them off from the rest of the world, sure, but that didn’t mean they were by any means out of touch.

           being on the other side river was able to see it wasn’t as scary as she’d though, especially with the knowledge that the barrier was coming down.  danger was coming to them anyway.  of course, that was all thoughts she was able to reconcile after she’d actually run; run and established herself in none other than los angeles.  part of it was being able to reconnect with other witches.  delaney and cody from the black vinyl side of things were a huge help.  ester also put her back in touch with a wolf who’d passed through winterhaven a while back.  hale.

          sitting at her side was something else river didn’t expect; someone to love.  attraction to sean had been instant.  on the surface level he was certainly pleasant on the eyes but the more they talked the more the witch found herself connecting on a deeper level.  when they were apart on their separate buses and their separate tours all river wanted to do was show sean all the amazing these things that she was seeing.  she wanted to share every possible thing she could because she got the sense that he hadn’t had much positive in his life.