Iron Claws and Fragile Hearts
Chapter 1: The Other Stuff
Isaac moaned into Allison's mouth as he cupped one of her breasts and reached back with his other hand to unclasp her bra.
She allowed the garment to be opened, but as he pulled it away and broke the kiss to eye her bare chest, she raised her palm, stopping him.
"Wait." Her voice was breathy and her face flushed.
"We can slow down," Isaac answered, willing his blazing yellow wolf eyes back to their cool blue human color.
The couple had already gone much further than this during their brief time together, but Isaac was more than fine with pumping the brakes if that's what Allison needed. She'd been having a rough time since they had defeated Deucalion and the alpha pack and she had come back from the dead along with Scott and Stiles. Part of Isaac wondered if that's why their slow-burn, burgeoning romance had ignited almost over night into an inferno – an inferno of lips, and breasts, and hands, and flesh, and warm supple things Isaac had only fantasized about until three weeks earlier. Part of Isaac wondered if he was little more than a distraction to her, a way to escape the troubled thoughts and waking nightmares she wouldn't share with him but was obviously having with increasing frequency. Part of Isaac wanted to be more than a distraction, wanted to be a true partner with whom she could share her burden...but those thoughts were but a small part of Isaac, and a much larger, practically raging part simply wanted to go back to kissing and groping and to whatever blissful destination that would lead.
Still, if Allison wanted to slow down or stop, Isaac wouldn't let on that he was disappointed. Besides, they were in the school library and maybe that wasn't the ideal place for passionate groping and raging lust.
"We need to talk." Allison's face was face solemn as she re-buttoned her blouse, never breaking eye contact with Isaac.
"Okay," Isaac answered in a soft tone, his hand finding hers on the old oak table.
"I..." She trailed off, finally looking away from Isaac's face and to his fingers, which were entwined with hers. As she studied his hand she used her free one to pick up her discarded bra from her lap. She stuffed it into her purse, idly twisting the elastic strap around her fingers as she chewed her bottom lip.
"We can talk about whatever you need to." Isaac stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. "I don't know exactly what you're going through of course, but I...I know what it's like to live in a nightmare, to wonder if you're awake or–"
"I don't want to talk about that."
"That's okay too," he assured her, squeezing her hand gently.
"No." She huffed and pulled herself free.
"Allison, I–"
"I need to focus on my training." The anxiety on her face morphed into determination. "I need to focus on becoming the leader my family needs. No distractions."
"I can help. I'll train with you. We can–"
"Isaac," she said sharply, her face hard, "we need to break up."
Isaac gaped at her, a pit forming in his stomach as he tried to make sense of what she was saying.
They hadn't even technically defined their relationship, and only moments ago they had been racing toward what had all the markings of after-school library sex. Now suddenly they were breaking up, just like that? No fight, no discussion, just...over? Isaac shook his head, trying to understand what was happening, what he had done wrong.
Allison's face softened as she stood and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I shouldn't have...I guess I was using you and...and I... " She released him and hurriedly crammed her things into her book bag, her face crimson. "I just have a lot I need to think about right now. I'm sorry."
And with that she turned and walked quickly out of the room.
Isaac listened to her footsteps click briskly down the hallway toward the main doors. He willed her to stop, to turn around and tell him she'd made a mistake, to offer him another chance. A moment later, one of the school's double doors clanged shut behind her, the metallic thud reverberating down the empty corridor with a finality that almost choked Isaac. What had he done wrong? How had he messed up his first and only relationship?
He fought the urge to get up and race after her, to catch her in the parking lot and plead with her to take him back. He remind himself that he wasn't the gangly thirteen-year-old locked in his father's freezer, desperate for any approval or kindness. He was a werewolf. He had a pack. He had strength and confidence. He had claws...claws that were digging into the scarred wooden table. He had...
He gulped and choked back a sob.
He had a splintered pack. He had an alpha who looked through him more than he looked at him. He had almost failing grades, no money to his name, no family, and a crippling paranoia that he was one wrong move away from pissing off Scott or Melissa and ending up homeless...again. And now, somehow, without even knowing how, he had fucked up the only stable thing he'd had in his life.
He allowed himself a few minutes to wallow, to feel the edges folding in on him as his father, as Derek, as Coach Finstock, as Allison...as a hundred other disappointed voices shouted at him.
Then he growled. He hurled the library table across the room and threw his backpack over his shoulder so hard it would have left bruises if he could still bruise. He stalked out of the main school building and across the courtyard to the gym, intent on working out some of his feelings in the weight room.
As he walked into the weight room, he peeled off his shirt and tossed it into a corner. Then he changed out of his pants and into the gym shorts he had in his bag, not bothering to go to the locker room. He deposited the pants on top of his discarded shirt, opting to workout in just his gym shorts and sneakers so that he would have clean clothes to change into when he was done.
He had only completed a couple of reps on the bench press when he heard a voice that had his blood simultaneously running cold in dread and burning with hate.
"– pick me up," Ethan was saying in clipped tones as he thundered down the hallway toward the weight room.
One set of footsteps. Who is he talking to?
Isaac froze as Ethan stepped into the weight room, his phone pressed to the side of his head and a deep scowl etched across his face.
Cornered. Isaac was cornered in the weight room with his enemy. He stood up quickly but quietly, looking for a way out that he knew didn't exist. Ethan stood in the doorway of the only exit, but he didn't seem to have noticed Isaac yet as he turned and leaned against the door frame.
Isaac didn't have the presence of mind to listen for the voice on the other end of Ethan's phone but a moment later the former alpha spoke. "I broke it."
This time Isaac did listen as Aiden's voice demanded, "Why the hell did you do that?"
"Danny cheated on me okay?!" Ethan shouted, his voice bubbling with barely contained rage. "I caught him making out with some guy in the basement."
"Is your bike the only thing you destroyed?" Aiden asked, amusement in his voice.
"I'm not you, Aiden. I don't kill people when they piss me off."
"Fuck you," Aiden answered, his tone more offended than Isaac would have expected.
"Sorry," Ethan muttered reluctantly but apparently sincerely. "Are you coming to pick me up or what?"
"Later. I'm just pulling up to Lydia's. I'll call you when we're done." He let the implication hang in the air for a moment before continuing. "You can always run home if you get tired waiting."
"Asshole!" Ethan growled as the line went dead.
"I coulda told you that," Isaac remarked with his best cocky smirk as Ethan's eyes finally alighted on him.
"Lahey." Ethan spat Isaac's name between clenched teeth, his eyes already turning blue.
Isaac flashed his own gold ones at his adversary and opened his mouth to return the hostile greeting only to be brought up short as he realized something. "Eh– What is your last name anyway?"
Ethan ignored the question. "What are you doing here?"
"It's a free weight room." Isaac inwardly snickered at his accidental pun but kept the cocky smirk on his face.
Ethan looked like he was going to argue, but then he eyed Isaac's bare torso and visibly sniffed the air. A smirk mirroring Isaac's settled on his face, and he shrugged before peeling his shirt over his head. "Fine. Whatever."
Isaac was taken off guard by the sudden change in attitude. He hadn't really wanted to stay, not now that Ethan was here. He had simply wanted to save face before leaving, hopefully without getting into a fight he knew he probably wouldn't have won.
Ethan continued smirking at Isaac as he kicked off his shoes and opened his pants. "No shorts, so I guess I'll have to work out in just my briefs."
"Umm." Isaac fumbled as his eyes involuntarily dropped to the tight, black fabric straining to contain Ethan's manhood. His underwear looked...soft, and Isaac recognized the designer name. He guessed Ethan had dressed for his date with Danny and for a brief moment Isaac felt something akin to empathy for his usual nemesis. He could relate to date night not quite going as planned.
"Come on, I'll spot you," Ethan said as he brushed by Isaac and took up position behind the workout bench. Then he added with a wink, "And you can spot me."
"Seriously?" Isaac asked, ignoring the jarring flirtation and focusing on the larger absurdity of the situation. "You want us to just lift weights like we're workout buddies?"
Ethan sighed, a mess of emotions radiating off him: anger, sadness, confusion, lust, fatigue. All in all, it was a cocktail Isaac was pretty sure he was also emitting.
"Stay, go, whatever." Ethan waved his hands as he spoke, then folded them over the weight bar and looked at Isaac, somehow managing to look neither hopeful nor hostile, just neutrally expectant as he awaited Isaac's response.
Isaac had a long history of making stupid, self-destructive decisions and allowing people to put him in danger, so he simply shrugged and lay back across the bench, wordlessly resuming his reps.
When Isaac was done with his set, Ethan added forty-five pounds to each side of the bar – showoff! – and switched places with him.
They continued that way in silence for long enough that Isaac lost track of how many sets they'd done. Their torsos glistened with sweat and Ethan's barely-there briefs had long since stopped leaving anything to the imagination. Isaac realized his own shorts, modest by most standards, were likewise now clinging to him in a way that made him self conscious.
"So what happened?" Ethan asked abruptly, sitting up on the bench but making no move to stand.
"Huh?" Isaac asked, Ethan's voice startling him after such prolonged silence.
"You're...sad," Ethan answered, pointedly not looking at Isaac.
"I'm fine," Isaac said, wishing he'd used a more hostile tone, wishing he'd told Ethan to mind his own business instead.
"You heard my problems," Ethan pointed out, giving Isaac another hard-to-read look. "Tell me what happened with Allison."
Isaac cocked his head to the side in surprise and regarded Ethan with confusion.
"I'm good at reading people. It's kinda my thing," Ethan said.
"I could be– I mean there are lots of things– It doesn't have to be about Allison."
"I smell her on you and you're horny, but you're also upset. Easy read," Ethan said with a shrug.
Isaac felt himself blushing. He wanted to pick a fight with Ethan, or at least grab his stuff and leave, but he was...
"Tired. Yeah me too." Ethan moved over on the bench and looked at the empty space expectantly.
Isaac sighed and sat down. "We broke up."
"Yeah. Figured."
"I don't want to talk about it with you."
"Uh okay," Ethan answered, his neutral tone suddenly sarcastic. "I don't want to talk about Danny with you."
The sour scent of hurt roiling off Ethan intensified, and Isaac inexplicably felt like apologizing. He had messed up again, like he always did. And it didn't matter this time. He hated Ethan after all – screw his feelings – but the fact that he had accidentally offended him reminded Isaac what a fuck up he was.
"So why are you here at all?" Ethan asked, calm and impassive again.
Isaac opened his mouth but fumbled for an answer. "Why are you here?" He countered, unable to come up with anything better.
Ethan regarded him with annoyance. "I'm stranded, remember? Ruined motorcycle, asshole brother – any of this sounding familiar?"
"Oh. Well..."
"But you have somewhere to go." Ethan frowned and looked away. "Scott's house. Your pack. Why are you sitting in the school weight room at" –he glanced at the wall clock– "8:29 on a Friday night with someone you don't even like?"
"It's not like I can talk to Scott about this," Isaac answered, ignoring the new scent wafting from Ethan: envy.
"Because Allison's his ex?"
"Yeah and–" Isaac caught himself just before revealing pack secrets to the enemy. "Yeah and that would be really awkward."
Ethan gave Isaac a long, appraising look, clearly aware there was something he was hiding. Eventually the moment passed with Ethan apparently deciding not to press 's relief was short lived as Ethan abruptly changed the subject.
"So, wanna have rebound sex?"
Isaac gasped and shifted away so fast he fell off the bench.
"On the floor, huh? Okay, works for me." Ethan stood up, making to join Isaac on the foam-covered weight room floor.
"No, no, no!" Isaac crab-walked backward till he was against the wall.
Ethan's earnest expression gave way to a full grin, and he broke into a long, deep belly laugh, his abs twitching and contracting spasmodically.
"You were joking?!" Isaac demanded, standing up and glaring at Ethan. He was still reeling to make sense of the indecent proposal and to come to terms with the fact that apparently humor was something they were doing now.
Ethan waved his hand dismissively as he shook off the last of the laughter and retook his seat. "I dunno. Yes and no, I guess. I mean I'm absolutely down for it if you are, but I just wanted to get a reaction." He chuckled some more. "And you didn't disappoint."
Isaac shouldn't have felt pleased. Ethan was laughing at his expense, and it's not like Ethan's opinion mattered anyway. But...well, Isaac still liked hearing that he wasn't a disappointment. He reluctantly reclaimed his seat on the bench. "Not cool."
"Aww come on, lighten up." Ethan placed his hand on Isaac's shoulder. Isaac flashed his eyes and bared his fangs at the unexpected contact, but there was no malice on Ethan's face. He simply waited patiently, his hand still in place, until Isaac calmed down.
Isaac wasn't sure if he should apologize for overreacting, pretend it hadn't happened, or pull away and order Ethan to never touch him again. He was spared the decision as Ethan continued.
"Anyway, I'm pissed at Danny and I'd really like to fuck someone else to get even." Ethan took his hand off Isaac's shoulder and smirked at him. "So, seriously, let me know if you're interested."
"Why would I be interested?"
Ethan rolled his eyes and waved his hand up and down in front of his lean, rippling torso, finally ending the display with a pointed look at his sizable package.
Isaac laughed nervously. "Yeah, but I'm–"
"Bi," Ethan finished.
Isaac gaped at him, his stomach tying itself in knots. Ethan certainly wasn't the first person he had expected to come out to.
Ethan laughed again. "Seriously, dude, you're not as mysterious as you like to think. Even if I didn't know, I'd be able to tell by the obvious scent of arousal you've had around me all evening."
"I'm not...aroused," Isaac answered, glancing at his crotch in spite of himself to make sure.
"But you're like this close" –Ethan raised his thumb and forefinger together– "and you have been all night."
Isaac started to protest but then something Ethan had said derailed him. "Wait, what do you mean even if you didn't know?
Ethan looked at him incredulously. "I saw your memories. You know, when we captured you last summer. I know." Ethan's face softened, and he looked almost guilty. "Did you really not know that we knew you were bi?"
Isaac looked at the floor, wishing it would open and swallow him. "I don't– I've never– I don't have bi memories."
"Well maybe not bi sex memories, but you certainly have plenty of bi jerk off memories."
"That– That is a terrible invasion of privacy!" He glared at Ethan, his eyes glowing with golden heat.
Ethan's face sobered. "Yeah, I know. Uhh...sorry?"
"Sorry?"
"Yeah. Um, about that and" –Ethan shifted uncomfortably in his seat and stared past Isaac to a spot on the wall– "Uh...the other stuff."
"The other stuff?"
Ethan nodded awkwardly, still not looking at Isaac.
"The other stuff," Isaac repeated, fury welling up inside him as his claws extended, stabbing holes through the fabric of his gym shorts and piercing the skin underneath. "The other stuff. Like killing Erica?" His arms shot out, and he pushed Ethan off the bench in one swift motion. "Like killing Boyd?" He leaped down on top of Ethan, knocking him off his elbows and sending his head crashing back against the ground. "Like torturing me and trying to kill me every chance you got?" He slashed his claws across Ethan's face. "Like trying to kill Scott?" He sunk his claws into Ethan's face and used the grip to slam his head against the ground. "Like trying to kill Stiles?" He rolled back on his heels and clawed Ethan's abs and chest, which admittedly – yes, he had been lusting to lick the entire evening. "Like threatening Melissa?" He punched Ethan in the eye before climbing to his feet. "Like trying to destroy my pack and hurt everyone I give a shit about?" He kicked Ethan in the ribs. "You mean that other stuff?"
Ethan coughed up blood as he sat up. "Yeah, that stuff."
"Well then you're right, Ethan: fuck you."
He kicked Ethan over again as he stepped past him and picked up his clothes and bag. He left without sparing a backward glance.
-000-
End Notes: Feedback is greatly appreciated.