More Hair of the Dog
(Original concept an story "Hair of the Dog" copyright of brattyteenagewerewolf, used with her full permission, OC Ariana belongs to me. Sorry if Sweden's accent is thick, this is the first time I've wrote him.)
Chapter 1
With a groan the young woman rolled over in her bed trying to get back to sleep but the insistent ringing of her cell phone on the bedside table prevented her from doing that. Reaching over she fumbled for it knocking over her unused glass of water on the floor with a clatter before grabbing it. "Hello?" She asked a we bit groggily seeing is how the sun hadn't risen yet outside her small house in the middle of the Florida backwoods countryside. "Hello is this Ariana Vainamoinen?" An official sounding voice asked. Now fully awake Ariana flipped on her bedside lamp bathing the room in soft light illuminating the various wolf and Native American décor she had. "Yes, this is she."
"Sorry to have to inform you Miss Vainamoinen, but due to the recent stress of the disappearance of your cousin Tino, your Aunt had to be committed to an asylum for psychiatric evaluations. Since you are the only known family member left we need you to come to Turku to sign some papers." At this Ariana's eyes went wide. "What? Tino is missing? My Aunt is in the hospital? What is going on, tell me everything!" At the sound of her voice she was told how her cousin had vanished and how the police couldn't find anything and about a month after that her Aunt had called them saying he just turned up on her doorstep and how he supposedly turned into a werewolf and vanished again. By now she was jotting everything she was being told down in a notebook she had on her desk.
"Officer, I'm a P.I. here in the United States, would it be possible for me to conduct my own investigation into the disappearance of my cousin?" She asked getting her badge out of the desk drawer along with her passport. "Of course Miss Vainamoinen." With that she smiled and soon booked a ticket to Helsinki from her computer. "I'll be there in a few days." After telling him her flight number she hung up the phone and sighed hanging her head. What had happened to her dear baby cousin? She may have been ten years his senior but they were still very close. With that she picked up a photo she had on her desk of them two years ago when he was halfway through high school and celebrating with her when she got her P.I. badge. "Where are you?"
A few days later found Ariana landing in the Helsinki airport and a police officer from Turku waiting for her just beyond customs. After a quick greeting and her getting her suitcase and backpack from the luggage carousel they were headed for the parking lot. "Can you tell me when he was last seen, who he was with?" She asked sitting down in the car. "I suspected you would start asking questions, here is the case file." She soon was handed a manila folder with what all the police knew. While she was reading it she got out her notebook and started making notes herself as they pulled out of the parking lot. After a couple of hours of her scrutinizing the case file she was tapped on the shoulder signaling that they were at the asylum that housed her Aunt. "I'm going to warn you Miss Vainamoinen, your Aunt has been put on antipsychotic drugs and is prone to lashing out." Ariana nodded to what the officer said as she was led inside the building and taken to the women's ward where she soon saw her Aunt sitting on a bed in a padded room. "May I speak to her?" Ariana asked a doctor who was in the hallway. The doctor looked at the cop who nodded yes and opened the door. "Be careful." With that Ariana stepped into the room and went over to her Aunt who looked like she was in a daze. "Auntie?"
At the sound of her niece's voice Sorja looked up from her hunched state on the bed. "Ariana?" She asked getting up but not being able to go far due to the restraints that kept her attached to the bed. "Yes, its me. Now tell me what's been going on." She asked sitting on the bed next to her Aunt. "Its been terrible Ari, your cousin went missing and when he finally came home he had been bitten by the beast and turned into one!" At the outburst a nurse looked through the window of the door but Ari shooed her away and started writing what her Aunt told her in her notebook. Looking at her Aunt Ariana stood up. "I'll find Tino and bring him home Auntie." What happened next she didn't expect. She was grabbed in a steel like grasp by her Aunt and was looked dead in the eye and heard her screaming not to go looking for him, the beasts would get her too. At that several nurses and doctors came running in to subdue the poor woman as Ariana was escorted out by the officer who had brought her there.
After that incident Ariana was taken to her Aunt's house and given the keys to the place and to the car in the garage. "If you need anything just call the local precinct." With that the cop left her. Turning her head Ariana went inside the house and turned on the lights and set her things down in the living room. Walking into the kitchen she notice the window was broken and there were tufts of some kind of fur and a little dried blood on one of the shards near the base. She quickly retrieved an evidence bag and collected the fur and blood sample to send off to a lab back home. "Strange." She muttered going towards the fridge and spying some clothes that she knew was Tino's size that looked as if it had been shredded in a lawn mower in the trash that had the same tufts of fur in the clasp of the pants button.
"Very strange." She also collected that and human hair samples from the shirt. That done she decided to send them with the clothes off via airmail to the lab. Grabbing her notebook she jotted down what she had found in her notebook and decided to follow her cousin's footsteps the night he disappeared. After going by the post office and sending the evidence off she went to his high school and started questioning his classmates and teachers after showing her badge. After finding nothing that would indicate anything of foul play or any known enemies of her cousin she decided to wait until dark and trace his steps home.
After a few hours of going over her notes on campus the sun set and Ariana started walking the route Tino would have taken home. She had written in her notes that he had stayed longer that day into night because of a missed test and would have wanted to have gotten home as soon as possible so when she went by a park she stopped, that would have been the quickest way home and soon went into the park. She was about halfway through when out of the corner of her eye spied a disturbed portion near some trees and sent to investigate. There seemed to be evidence of a scuffle there. It was old but still there. Noting where it was she quickly went home and retrieved her detective kit and sprayed the ground and area with the chemical Luminal and then turned on her black light. It lit up like a Christmas tree. She then noted some different colored fur in the bark of the tree and collected it and some old blood spatter off the back side of a bench that was close by. After noting the things in her notebook she continued on the path from the scuffle site. She spied an old abandoned warehouse not too far off in the distance and thought to herself, "Bingo".
She quickly made her way to the warehouse and thanked whatever deity there was that it hadn't rained or snowed real bad there since her cousin went missing. There was a car tire print that was fresher than any of the others there and faded footprints of both man and animal. She got down on her knee and used the tracking sense she had learned with the Native Americans and knew they were wolf tracks, two of them to be precise. She followed them and collected more fur from branches before returning and venturing inside the warehouse.
Taking out her flashlight she carefully walked around until she spied some more torn clothing which matched what her cousin had been wearing the night he vanished. What made her stomach drop is the evidence of blood and a deep bite wound on the shoulder of the shredded shirt. "This confirms it. Werewolves do exist." She stated to herself and bagged the shirt in a evidence bag. Knowing her cousin was alive she went back outside and took pictures of the tire marks and estimated they were new tires. After that she followed the tire tracks to the road and it looked to be heading off in the distance to Helsinki. "Wolves never eat where they sleep so this pack must have gone that way."
The next day Ariana took the photos of the tires and brought up every vehicle that they matched too in the Helsinki area, there were several hits but she was bound and determined to find her cousin. Taking the car she drove the couple of hours to the capital and started knocking on doors. She knew she had the right area because not to long ago there had been two wolf kills in the forest that surrounded the city. After several hours of knocking on doors she came to a nice size house that seemed to be empty and looked around to see if anybody was around and went around back and accessed the place. Yes she knew it was wrong and unethical but sometimes you couldn't play by the books. Inside felt like a museum and it appeared that no one had been there for a bit and weren't coming back any time soon.
As she was searching the place she hit pay dirt in one of the bedrooms. A laptop that had been put under the bed under a floorboard that was loose. Booting it up she saw it needed a pass code and hooked her phone up to it by USB port and managed to crack it. What she saw made her eyes go wide. She had found a whole plethora of info. Taking it she made her way back to the car and then back to her hotel to search the computer. From what she gathered, there were werewolf packs all over the world and there were information on each and every one of them. "So Tino is with the Nordic werewolf pack." She studied the names that they were using and faces of the ones that her cousin was with. After she did that she took out her own laptop and started surfing on Facebook and found the one known as Emil on there and saw where he checked in at a restaurant in Oslo. "Gotcha."
After Ariana knew where to start looking for her cousin she hatched a plan and wrote it down in her notebook again. "Quite possibly Tino might be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, I have to get him back home somehow." She talked to herself pacing her hotel room in Helsinki. She needed to be sure this plan was well thought out because she was only going to get one shot at it. "I got it." Just then her phone rang. It was the forensics lab she had sent the first samples to from her Aunt's house. The blood wasn't human, it was an unknown breed of wolf, the fur as well. However the hair was that of her cousin. She did have a hundred percent positive ID now of her cousin being alive and the information on the computer was indeed correct.
"Listen Marty, can you send me some sedatives in some hypodermic needles? I think I have found my cousin but I believe he is suffering from some Stockholm Syndrome and need to get him home. Can you overnight them to my hotel in Oslo?" After hearing the confirmation of the sedatives being sent to the hotel Ariana packed up her computers and headed out of the hotel. She was dead set on getting her cousin back, werewolf pack or not.
After several hours of driving from Helsinki to Oslo Ariana pulled up to her hotel and checked in. After telling the desk clerk that a package would be coming for her went up to her room and booted up her laptop. She was going to stalk a certain wolf by the name of Emil to see if he would lead her to her cousin. She took a few hours to memorize the layout of the city and soon fell asleep. She was awoken by the phone to her room going off and was informed that her package had arrived and a bellhop was bringing it up. After she put the needles in the mini fridge she waited for Emil to check in again before going out and tracking him.
She didn't have to wait long, he soon checked in with his husband at a local store which wasn't too far from the hotel. As Ariana got up she noticed she looked too much like Tino and went to her suitcase and pulled out a wig and a pair of sunglasses and shoved her almost white hair up under the dull brown wig and put the sunglasses on and changed her outfit to a baggy pair of jeans and a overcoat thanking that it was winter and cold outside.
Ariana walked down the road towards the store with a mental picture of what Emil and Kaoru looked like. She soon found them in the electronics section of the store and used her skills of being a P.I. to stay non descript in tailing them. They went from the store to a restaurant, to the park and finally to a house in the suburbs. It was nice two story one similar to the one in Helsinki. Noting the location and address she made her way back to the hotel.
The next day Ariana changed her outfit to that of a redhead wearing a sweat suit and started jogging down the road of the house to see how many of the pack members were there and to see what any habits were. Her heart leaped seeing her cousin step out but soon it turned stone cold seeing the giant man whom she identified as Berwald the beta of the pack step out next to him. He was a lot bigger than his picture gave him credit for. Her cousin looked happy as he talked about his favorite Moomin Trolls as they headed for the park. She decided to tail them and find out exactly how much her cousin had fallen into Stockholm Syndrome with this huge werewolf.
"Joo Ber, it's a nice day but it's sure getting cold." Tino said as he began to shiver. "T'ld ya ta p't a c'at on." With that Berwald held the Finn tighter to share his body heat as they walked the park trails not knowing they were being tailed. "Joo I know Ber, but I was just too excited to get out." Tino cheerfully said as they stopped by the lake. "I kn'w." With that they kissed and moved on. Ariana peered at them from a distance with a pair of binoculars. She determined that Berwald was the one that had turned him. "Don't worry Tino, Cousin Ariana will save you."
After several days of casing the house the pack lived in Ariana lucked out seeing that the Alpha and his mate Lukas along with Emil and Kaoru went on a double dinner date and left Berwald and Tino with Peter at the house. Soon Berwald had to step away to go to IKEA and get a few things for the project he was working on and Peter chose to go with him. After they left Ariana moved in. She had the sedatives and two tickets back home to the United States with her. "Here goes nothing."
Tino was busy watching a movie with Hanatamago on the couch when the doorbell rang. "Joo I wonder who that could be Hana?" Tino asked as the dog barked some with her tail wagging. The doorbell rang again. "Joo I'm coming." Tino stated as he opened the door and felt his heart stop. "Cousin Ari?" He asked as tears came to his eyes. Soon he was enveloped in a hug as cousins embraced for the first time in years. "Been a long time Tino." Ariana stated as she was brought into the house and sat down on the couch as Hanatamago barked happily at them. "Joo it has." Then it dawned on him that his P.I. cousin had tracked him. That wasn't good for the pack. "What are you doing here Ari? How did you find me?" He asked nervously as Hanatamago started barking and growling at the unfamiliar woman. "I used good old fashioned detective work cousin. I know full well what you and your pack are." She stated as her darker purple eyes bore into Tinos. In a flash she had taken the sedatives out of her pocket and jabbed one in his neck. "Ari?" He asked before almost passing out.
"OUCH!" Ariana yelped as Hanatamago bit her on her hand drawing blood as she dropped the syringe and it rolled under the couch. She kicked the dog away and she hoisted one of Tino's arms over her shoulders and with him in a very drugged out of it state followed her mindlessly to the car and they headed for the airport with two one way tickets to the United States in the glove box with their passports. They soon were through security and on the plane when Tino started to come to and looked around and noticed the inside of an airplane and that he was on a window seat with his cousin next to him holding him close. "Don't worry Tino, you're home with family." She stated as he looked cross at her. "Ari, I was home. I love Berwald and my pa…family." He almost said pack out loud but piped down. "I understand the "family" mentality Tino. I know full well what you are." Ariana then brought her voice down to a whisper. "I lived with the Native American's for a number of years Tino, you are what they call a Skin Walker. Plus I also studied wild wolf packs while I was there." At those words Tino sighed. Why did all the bad luck happen to him?
As they were in flight the rest of Tino's pack were getting home. Matthias was dragging a scowling Lukas by the arm up to the door. "Come on Norge, the sign said all you can eat." He whined as his mate jammed the key into the lock. "But that doesn't mean you can eat all of it, Alpha or not!" Lukas growled at the Dane. Emil was shaking his head as Kaoru chuckled under his breath a bit when they saw Berwald and Peter pull up and get several bags out of the car that had the IKEA logo on it. "That was fun Papa!" Peter shouted running up the walk as Berwald grunted. "Sl'w d'wn P'ter." He stated as Lukas got the door open noticing it wasn't locked. "Tino, what have we said about not locking the door?" The Norwegian wolf stated as the rest of the pack filed in. Hanatamago came barreling around the corner and started yanking on Berwald's pant leg with a ferocity that could rival one of them. "What's wrong with the puffball?" Matthias asked as he went into the living room but quickly stopped as something caught his keen nose. Blood! Human blood and a faint trace of Tino's.
"Something isn't right here." Matthias growled setting the others on alert. Now they all noticed the smell of unknown human in the house. "T'no?" Berwald asked as a panic started to build in his veins as he ran upstairs to search for his mate. Matthias looked at Lukas and the Norwegian wolf nodded and shifted after he stripped and started sniffing the living room floor and went over to the couch and motioned for his mate to turn the piece of furniture over as the Swede came barreling downstairs. "T'no's n't h're!" With that he started shifting and growling like a mad wolf. Matthias was quick to subdue the Beta as Lukas shifted back and went over to the overturned couch and picked up a hypodermic needle that had human blood on it. "Whom ever took Tino didn't want to do him harm, this has a powerful sedative in it." Karou came up and sniffed it. "I recognize that scent. In fact its been around here a lot lately." The Asian wolf stated as Matthias was able to get Berwald to change back. "Can you follow it?" He asked as the Asian wolf nodded. All of them followed Karou to a hotel and then to a door. "Whomever it is they aren't here anymore." He stated as Emil took out his phone and started pressing buttons on the touch screen. "I've hacked into the hotel's database and tracked who had this room. Oh man." At that the rest of the pack looked at him puzzled. "It says here this room was rented to a Ariana Vainamoinen. Which would mean it is Tino's kin." At that Matthias ordered everyone back to the house. Things just got a bit more complicated.
After the long flight and long drive back to Ariana's property in the Florida backwoods, Tino had finally fully come out of the sedative and was understandably mad at his cousin. "I still don't see why you kidnapped me Ari?" He snorted putting his feet up on the dash of her car. "I had to rescue you Tino, you're suffering from Stockholm Syndrome." Ariana sighed ruffling his hair as they pulled into her driveway. "I know that Emil wolf is good with computers. However he won't ever find this place." She looked at her cousin who was still sulking. "You have several acres to run here Tino." After sighing deeply Tino got out of the car and followed her up the stairs to the house. It did feel good being back in a place he did know as a kid. "How about we get some good eating then discuss things over some hot cocoa?" Ariana stated as they went inside.
"Did you find out who she is other than Tino's cousin?" Matthias asked Emil who was just a typing away at his laptop. "Yes, it says here she is Private Investigator and not much else, seems a lot of her records were sealed so tight I can't crack them." At this there was a collective sigh of frustration. "Kn'w wh're sh' l'ves?" Berwald asked as the Icelandic wolf scrolled down what information he had on their pack mate kidnapper. "No, nothing on her personal records. All I know is that she lives in the United States." At that Matthias let out a loud snarl. "No way am I asking Alfred for his help." He was soon swatted by Lukas who then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look the full moon is tomorrow night. We should be able to communicate with Tino then and find out where he is and if he is ok which I'm sure he is. This Ariana woman sounds like she loves him just as much as Berwald does." After Lukas said his piece everyone seemed to calm down some. "I love you Norge!" Came a grunt from Matthias before he was socked in the gut.
Tino fell out of the chair he was sitting in laughing as he flipped though the old photo album Ariana brought him as they sipped cocoa by a fire. "I remember that one! Joo I was purple for a week!" He laughed seeing him covered in blueberry sauce. "Yeah I told you not to dive into that vat but you did!" Ariana chuckled as she set her mug down. Tino had come out of his funk a bit after she fed him some baked chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and stuffing. The home made hot cocoa was a nice touch too. "Ariana, I'm glad I was able to see you again. But you have to realize, I don't have Stockholm Syndrome. What I have is a mate bond to Berwald."
Ariana looked up from the photo album. "A mate bond? Can you please explain?" At her soft reply Tino smiled and told her all of what he knew of being a werewolf and how Matthias and Lukas were mates and Emil and Karou were as well and how he and Berwald adopted Peter and how they came to have him. At the end of his story Ariana was sitting on the couch wide eyed. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry Tino! I didn't know. I though you were prisoner. Now I just feel rotten." Tino got up and hugged her tight. "Its ok, Joo. I know you meant well. In fact after we get everything settled I'm sure my pack will love what you have done for me." At that she blanched. "If they don't tear me apart first." Tino hugged her close. "They won't. Would you like to see me transform?" He asked as she looked at him with wide eyes. "Yes." He nodded and stripped naked and shook his head at her blush. "You'll get used to it." After that he began to shift and soon a beautiful wolf with tannish white fur. "You're beautiful Tino." After she said that Tino yipped playfully and went over to her and licked her hand. "Come on wolf boy" While he was still in his wolf state Ariana took him outside and let him run the property as the sun was going down.
Ariana was walking along the fence line to her stables when she saw Tino come racing around the corner being chased by her big game turkey yelping with his tail between his legs. After the bird saw her giving it the stink eye it took off leaving a whimpering Finnish wolf behind her. "What are you, a wolf or a chicken Tino?" Ariana laughed as Tino cocked his head and gave a playful growl before he nipped her hand without thinking and broke the skin. "Hey! Careful now!" She stated as she started to walk back to the house for a bandage. Tino quickly shifted back. "Joo Ari I'm so sorry!" He stated walking next to her in the buff hoping that the small nip he gave her wasn't enough to infect her. "Its ok Tino, you just got a bit playful. Pups do that and from what I'm guessing in werewolf terms is that you're still a pup." With that he nodded. "Well it's getting late. I'll see you in the morning." With that she went up the stairs as Tino lay on the couch. Soon he was fast asleep.
Tino was awoken from his sleep by loud groans of pain coming from upstairs and he quickly made a mad dash for his cousins room and found her balled up on her bed in a cold sweat holding the hand he nipped. "Oh no! Joo I infected you." Tino wailed as Ariana looked up at him with pained eyes. "Its…ok…Tino." She groaned in pain again as her body started to shift. "Don't fight it Ari." He stated holding her as fur started to grow on her body. "I won't." She groaned again as the sound come out more like a growl. Soon the sound of ripping clothes were heard and on the bed in tattered remains of clothes was a blonde wolf with deep purple eyes wagging her tail at Tino. Seeing this he stripped his clothes and shifted himself and stood on the floor looking up at his cousin with his tail wagging. 'Joo are you ok Ari?' He asked though the mental link to his cousin who jumped off the bed. 'Yes Tino, I'm fine. Wow! This is wild.' He watched as she trotted around the room sniffing things.
'Is this a private party or can anyone join?' Came a voice over both Ariana and Tino's minds which caused Ariana to growl. 'Its ok Ari, its just Matthias.' Tino assured Ariana who calmed down and listened in on the conversation. 'Are you ok Tino?' Matthias asked as he felt the others start to join in after they shifted. 'Joo I'm fine, loving that I could reconnect with one of my family members.' After a few minutes Lukas responded. 'Judging by how your cousin can understand us she is now a werewolf as well?' Ariana answered for Tino. 'Yes, Tino was being chased by one of my male turkeys in his wolf form yelping up a storm and I made fun of him and got nipped.' At her explanation a chorus of laughter was heard over the connection. 'Hey that bird was huge and mean! Not fun being pecked by Birdzilla.'
Ariana rolled her eyes in her wolf form and started wandering around her room and then out the door and down the stairs followed by her cousin who was also in his wolf form. 'I know this is probably nothing you any of you but seeing things like this and with the senses is wicked cool' Ariana stated over the connection as she sniffed things in the house. 'Yeah the whole senses thing is awesome' Matthais replied over the link. 'Try shifting back Ariana' Lukas chimed in. 'I'll try' With that she tried to change back but it took a moment or two before she was standing bare in her living room as Tino looked up at her from his form.
'Joo, she shifted quicker than I did.' With a laugh Matthias's voice filled his head. 'Everyone shifts quicker than you Tino unless someone puts a Scooby snack in front of you.' Tino blushed but felt Berwald bite Matthias over the link and a fight ensue shortly after. A moment later Lukas's voice filled Tino's head. 'Tino, we'll be on the first flight after the full moon tomorrow night. Be sure you tell Ariana about it.' The fight that Berwald and Matthias were it quickly got ugly. 'You two KNOCK IT OFF! That's it Matthias, you're on the couch tonight!' With that Lukas started to shift back. 'Awww come on Norge!'
After that things quieted down and it was just Tino and Berwald. 'Are you sure you're ok?' The Swede's worried voice filled his head making him wag his tail but also ache for him. 'Yes Ber, I'm fine. My cousin was always like a big sister to me growing up. She only wanted to protect me. A real mother hen.' At this Tino felt the Swede relax. 'Good, I was just worried about ya. Your cousin seems nice. I'm sure we'll all get along. Matthias doesn't show it yet but he's excited to get a new member of the pack.' Tino blinked at that comment. 'I don't know Ber, she's a tough cookie. She has an Alpha personality that might clash with Matthias.' For once Tino heard the Swede chuckle. 'Good, maybe she'll knock some sense into him.'
Tino and Berwald talked a bit more before the Finn heard his cousin come back into the living room. 'I have to go Ber. I'll see everybody when they get here. Oh here is the way to her place and the address.' He told his mate the address and soon felt him shift back after some heartfelt "I love you's." Turing to his cousin Tino began to shift back and soon the naked Finn was panting a bit in front of the couch. "Are you ok Tino?" Ariana asked as he sat down on the couch. "Yes, just sometimes if I'm tired the shifting takes a bit longer and I'm sure as you have felt, it doesn't feel very nice."
"That's true, however I have a pretty high pain tolerance." She soon sat down next to her cousin and pulled him into a hug. "Your pack seems nice." Tino quickly corrected her. "No Ari, our pack. Matthias has accepted you and Berwald isn't mad that you took me." Ariana smiled at that. "Good, I was afraid I would have had to fight them. So when are they getting here?" Tino got up and turned to her. "They leave the first flight after the full moon tomorrow, which reminds me. I have to tell you about that." Ariana beat him to the punch, "We change involuntary I take it?" Tino looked shocked. "Joo. Um yes we do. I'm sure Matthias will explain everything when they get here."
"I'll be looking forward to it. Tormorrow before they get here I'm going hunting for a nice size deer as an offering to the Alpha and the pack as a good will gesture." Ariana smiled getting up as well. "Joo, they will love it." Ariana hugged her cousin tightly and started back up the stairs. "Tomorrow you and I will go for a run on the property and I'll take you into the swamp out back. Just be sure you stick close Tino, the water is chock full of gators." Tino nodded. "Joo I will. Goodnight."
((AN: Well there is chapter one. I hope you like it brattyteenagewerewolf!))