He had told her, rather explicitly, not to look for him that night. "I don't care how curious you are. Do not follow me, do not look for me. It's for your safety." Warning nearly spoken in a plea at the time. She, of course, had been joking with him. It was clear that he had no sense of humor when it came to full moons and transformations.

He had told her of the times he's woken up to blood on his body. None of it his. The many stories of people being mauled by animals, oversized wolves, the news would say. How many times he had figured that it was probably him.

"I have a place to go. It's a safe house… I made it deep in the woods by the outskirts of town. I may not like people, but I don't want to… you know…" He couldn't even say the word. He had taken her to see it once. It looked like a single prison cell. There was concrete, chains and shackles. She had joked, at the time, that it reminded of a dungeon. That he had laughed at.

Naomi had the full intentions of staying home. Netflix was already on, popcorn balancing on cushions as she grabbed a blanket to wrap around her. She also couldn't stop thinking about Baron, couldn't stop worry about him. She always wondered if it hurt to transform, to become this beast without any control. She wondered what it looked like, would it fight throughout the night to get out? Did he wake up with bruises from a restless beast ramming into thick concrete walls? Did it recognize people? …Would it recognize her?

Her thoughts were interrupted when the sound of her phone went off. A notification for a text message glaring back at her. Natalya.

are you out right now?

tyson said he heard a wolf pretty close to town.

be safe, okay?

Naomi's blood grew cold. Baron. Did he not make it to the safe hoise? Did he escape? Before Naomi knew what she was doing, she rose to her feet and shoved them into the nearest boots she could find. Shoving her arms into her jacket, she grabbed her keys. She didn't know what she was doing but she knew she couldn't sit there. No matter how stupid this idea might be, or how life threatening, she couldn't just leave Baron out there alone. He could hurt someone… He could hurt himself. You're gonna end up hurting yourself too, girl. She couldn't afford to think like that now, not when she was already in her car and driving near those parts of the woods.

In retrospect, Naomi wished there was some kind of professional she could turn to for this. And maybe there was one, but she didn't know who they were. And it wasn't like she could google these things. She had no idea what was real and what was fake… only Baron would know. If there were only some forums for this. My boyfriend is a werewolf and he's running havoc in town: how do I stop him? But things were never that easy. And right now? She was either going to stop him or die trying.

Stepping out of her car, zipping her coat up tight to shield herself from the cold autumn breeze, she took out her phone to illuminate her way before starting her trek into the woods.

"Baron?" She whispered, taking slow steps so she could hear her surroundings. "Baron."

She paused when she heard ruffling coming from the trees, her heart nearly jumping out of her chest at the sound. "Baron? Baron, is that you?!" Another ruffle. Despite herself, she took a step forward. She readied herself to call out his name again, lifting her phone slightly, when a much louder ruffling interrupted her and then a large animal jumped out of the leaves. A wolf.

Quickly, the wolf ran to her, Naomi breaking into a sprint as she ran deeper into the greenery. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Sticks cracked under her as she heard heavy wolf pads not far behind. This was stupid, she was so stupid for doing this. At least, running deeper into the woods, it'd divert him away from civilization. In this case, she was sacrificing one for the livelihood of many. Legs ached as she turned her head back, trying to get a look at just how far the wolf was behind her. This would prove to be her second stupidest idea tonight, as her foot got tangled with some roots, and her entire body jerked forward.

Hands gripped onto the trunk of a tree, quickly twisting her body around and watching as the wolf slowed, baring its teeth. Breath heavy, hands grasping as she tried to right herself, Naomi's blood ran cold for the second time this night. In an almost stalking nature, the wolf started to make its way to her. Fuck.

"B-Baron! Please, don't do this. Please, Baron I know you're in there." She pleaded, tears already stinging at her eyes as the wolf merely continued its stride to her. She could hear the deep growl coming from the gnarly animal. "Baron… it's me, Naomi. Please."

The wolf stopped in front of her, it's glowing yellow eyes on hers as it let out deep breaths. The running had tired him out too. Closing her eyes shut, speaking his name in quick whispers, she felt as he leaned closer and seemed to be smelling her. She waited for the growl, for the inevitable bite and her death. Instead what she got was… more sniffing. Opening her eyes slowly, she was met with the same golden ones.

Paralyzed to the spot, she watched as the wolf started to push his nose into her hair, taking deep breaths as he continued to investigate her. Why wasn't he mauling her yet? How was she still alive? The wolf moved away from her, but only just a few inches, his head was still leveled with hers. "…Baron?" She spoke, his ears perked. Was he understanding? Did he… recognize her?

Slowly, she reached a hand out towards him, the wolf tensed but for the most part, he didn't seem bothered. Or so, she thought he didn't. Naomi gingerly placed her hand on the side of the wolf's head, fingers slowly spreading through the fur and smoothing it out. For the most part, he merely leaned into her touch. Taking that as a good sign, she took a step towards him and then placed her other hand onto the other side of his face, this one curling over the fur. His eyes stayed on hers.

"…Do you know who I am? I'm gonna take this as you knowing." She spoke now, spoke just for the sake of calming her nerves. Licking her lips nervously, she looked over behind him before back at him. "We're not that far away from the safe house. You don't look like you got out of it… the shackles would still be on you. You never made it in time, did you? See, I told you, you should've left earlier… I hope you'll follow me."

Whatever was happening right now, Naomi was going to take advantage of it. Moving her hands off him, she moved around him slowly and started to walk in the direction of the safe house. She took a few steps forward before turning around to look at him. "Come on, Baron. Come." Taking some more steps, she finally heard him fall into step with her. The location wasn't too far, he probably was close by but had ended up transforming sooner than he had expected. They had admittedly stretched time thin before sundown. He wouldn't leave, and she hadn't been tough on him either. The fact that he was following her, seemed to have recognized her, it was lucky. Insanely lucky, actually. And still, she wasn't sure what she was doing. But, so far, it was working. Maybe she ought to be the author of this WikiHow.

Finally, they made it to the small structure. The heavy door was wide open. "You did make it… you just didn't prepare yourself in time." She talked, looking back at the wolf behind her. He slowed down when he got next to her, head pushing between the space she had between her hand and thigh. With a quick pat, she stepped into the room and looked around for the key. "There it is." She whispered, noticing it thrown haphazardly on the ground. Picking it up, she turned to see his head poking into the door. "Come in. This is where we're staying tonight. Because I'm definitely not leaving you here by yourself… and this thing locks from the inside, so… Come on!" Hand waved him in, watching as he strolled in and started to smell the chains on the floor. Did he recognize those too?

Pulling the heavy door closed, she took the time to lock it now. Turning, the wolf's eyes were back on her. "You know, staring ain't polite." Words muttered as she looked for the shackles. Hand reached for one but quickly stopped when she heard growling. Eyes shot up, noticing that his were not on hers but rather on the hand reaching for the shackle. Slowly she started the descend again, and the growl got louder. "Okay, okay. No restraints." She carefully backed away and she could see him visibly relax. So, maybe he did know what these were too. She'd have to make sure to tell Baron about this in the morning.

Looking around, there wasn't much of anything in here. Besides the chains and shackles, there was a crate in the corner. Shining her phone light onto the box, she could make out what appeared to be clothes and shoes. She could only assume it was for when he'd turn back. "You wouldn't happen to have a blanket in there too, would you?" He only blinked back at her. "I figured." Sighing, she looked at the time on her phone. 12:00 am, just a few hours before sunrise.

Looking around once more, the wolf's eyes following her movement, she let out another sigh before walking over to a wall and sitting, rest her back against it. Legs stretched out in front of her as he leaned her head onto the cold surface. It made her really miss her bed. There was a momentary silence before the wolf started to move, walking towards her and plopping down beside her. With a sort of huff, he dropped his head onto her lap and closed his eyes shut. Like this, it was hard for her to remember that this was a dangerous supernatural beast. To her, he was as good as a puppy.

Resting a hand onto his body, fingers sprawling into his fur, she closed her eyes and tried her best to get some sleep through the discomfort.

Naomi awoke when she felt shuffling, wincing at the pain of her stiff neck and even stiffer legs. Opening her eyes, she was met with a small ray of light shining through the window and the sight of a very human Baron. Also, very naked too. But she'd keep her eyes above.

Baron slowly rose, the sound of cracking bones and his own groans of pain filling the room. It seemed to take him a moment to realize that he wasn't alone and he that he also wasn't bound either. He whipped his head around quickly, eyes wide in shock.

"Naomi?! Wha-What are you doing here? I told you not to come looking for me, it's dangerous! I could kill you-" A pause, quick and brief in his clear panic. "Wait… you're not dead."

Hand raising to rub at sore muscles, she slowly bent her legs to relieve some of its cramping and to get the blood circulating again. "I go through all of that trouble last night and I don't even get a good morning? How ungrateful."

"Naomi."

"Okay." Word spoken as she stood up straighter, arching her back in hopes of cracking the stiffer points. "Natalya texted me last night. Tyson said he heard a wolf near town and I had a feeling the wolf was probably you. I started getting worried about you and about what you might do, so before I knew it I was out the house and in the car. -Don't look at me like that! I know it was stupid but… I did it. I don't know. Anyways, I came out to the woods and I started calling for you. Eventually, I found you and you tried to attack me –"

"I tried to attack you?! –"

"Tried! You didn't end up attacking me, obviously. I'm still here."

"But how?" He stressed.

"You recognized me."

Baron's eyebrow furrowed, shaking his head slowly. "But… that's not how this works…"

"Well, it did last night. You started smelling me or something, and then you stopped trying to attack me… You let me touch you. You even let me guide you in here. You didn't want me to bound you, though. Got really upset at that but… You followed me and then, eventually, fell asleep on me."

Baron was silent for a moment, unable to comprehend how he hadn't hurt her. Naomi couldn't blame him. He, after all, had nothing more than horror stories to tell about his lycanthropy. But her hopes of figuring out what this could possibly mean from Baron, looked as if it were all for naught. His confusions were as good as her own. Slowly, she watched as he moved up and away from her, walking to the crate of clothes. As for respect, she looked away as he changed, grumbling a bit to himself before all out speaking.

"You still shouldn't have come. I could've attacked you while you were asleep."

"You weren't going to hurt me. You were more like… a puppy with me than this beast. Kind of needy actually." She chuckled a bit, rising to her feet.

"I'm serious, Naomi."

"And I'm serious too, Baron. Really, you were listening to me. You followed me, you laid with me. Hell, you were the first one asleep. Whatever the hell was happening, your wolf trusted me. Yeah, it was stupid for me to come out here, but it paid off. Instead of possibly killing someone, you ended up right back in here. Which, by the way, you did make it, but you transformed before you could prepare yourself."

Baron sighed. "That would explain this. I've never done that before…"

"I guess I'm a bad influence."

Baron snorted. Naomi smiled, happy to see that he was finally winding down.

"I really didn't do anything? Didn't scratch you or bite you…?"

Naomi walked the space between them, closing it as she placed a hand on his chest. "Really. You didn't hurt me at all."

A sigh fell past his lips, his hand rising to hold Naomi's. He rose it to his lips and placed a soft kiss on her fingers. "Good… good." She could see the relief falling over his face. "Thank you. For bringing me back here."

Naomi simply smiled.

There was a small pause before he spoke again. "You're in your pajamas."

"Like I said, I ran out the door." Eyes looked down at the bottom half of her onesie. Right… she had forgotten she was wearing her Minnie Mouse onesie. How embarrassing.

"We should get you home." He spoke again, amusement in his eyes. "And maybe get some breakfast too. We'll figure out why this happened later."

Her ears perked at that. "You have someone you can ask?"

Baron was already at the door, unlocking it before pushing the door open. Stuffing the key into his pocket, he reached a hand out to Naomi. "Yeah."

So, that expert did exist. Stepping forward, she took his hand and stepped out into the brisk Autumn morning with him. "Who?"

Pushing his beanie further down with his free hand, he took a deep breath before leading them out towards her car. "Bray Wyatt."