Thank you for everyone who added this to their alerts, favorited it, and reviewed! It made my day! :)
By the way, this is unbeta'd, so if there's any mistakes, my bad! Sorry.
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The two pad along in silence as the sun begins to set. Spencer lets out a small yawn, and Aaron's ears twitch. He figures from what Spencer told him earlier, that he hasn't eaten in a while. The amber-eyed wolf can't help but wonde,r if this is what kind of condition the young timber wolf is, what condition is his mother in?
Following the trail, the group of two slowly reach a clearing. Spencer stops, and looks around, running over to a tree that has a giant hole in the trunk, big enough for a small wolf to lay in. "Mom?" he asks quietly, sniffing at the den, then letting out a bark of alarm. "She's gone!"
The black wolf blinks, and pads up to Spencer, and lightly nudges the brown wolf out of the way, to see yes, that the wolf's mother is gone. Her scent is faint, so he can only assume she's been gone awhile. Spencer races away from the tree, and jumps onto a rock that juts upward towards the sky. He throws his head back, and lets out a long, almost sad, howl. He paused for a moment, ears pricked, before throwing his head back again, sending out another call.
He got no responses.
Spencer whines mournfully, and jumps down. "S-she's gone!" he says, whining low in his throat. Aaron pads over to the young wolf, and lightly touches his nose to his ear. A shock of electricity runs through Aaron. He would have backed away, but he chose not to, even though he knows what that shock of electricity means. His second mate. Spencer's his second mate.
On some rare occasions, wolves have one or more mates. They usually only have another mate besides their first one is for the reason of the first mate dying. And with Hailey dead...
Aaron shakes his head, as he looks at Spencer, who seemed to have realized what happened, but shook it off as well. "She knows that she isn't supposed to wander off, especially when I don't know where she's going," the young man says worriedly.
"Calm down," he speaks, "I'm sure she went to look for you. I'll call the rest of the pack, and we'll search for her until sundown. If we don't find her by then...I'm sorry, Spencer." Spencer pauses, grief evidence in his gaze, before nodding. Aaron pulls away from Spencer, and walks to the middle of the clearing, before slowly rising his snout to the sky, and letting out a howl. He listens, and then is responded to by Derek, and JJ. He responds once, before turning his gaze to Spencer. "They should be here any moment."
Spencer nods.
Derek was the first one to reach them. "What do you need Aaron?" he asks, flicking his ears. "If it's to scold me, don't. I know what I did was wrong, so, you don't need to say anymore."
"No, it's not that," the black alpha responds. "I'll explain it to you when everyone else is here." Derek nods. They didn't have to wait much longer, before JJ appeared in her white and gold pelt, Will behind her in his dark brown one. Then comes four black pelted wolves-Emily, Prentiss, David, and Jason-and one blonde colored wolf, presumably Garcia. All of them looked stronger than Spencer-way stronger-and almost as quick as him, so Spencer felt a little uneasy being by all these wolves.
"Spencer's mother has disappeared, I'd like all of you to split into pairs and search the territory. If you must go into neutral territory, do so. But, do not go into another pack's territory. Understand?" he says. They all nod. "Good. Now, JJ and Emily, you two will go to the west to see if you could find a trail of any kind. David and Jason, you'll head back to the house, and patrol the perimeter, to see if his mother has somehow stumbled across the house. Alex and Will, you two will go to the east and check for scent trails. Garcia and Derek, you'll go to the south. Spencer and I will take the north. If you find his mother, tell her you're a friend of Spencer's, and wish to bring her to him. Do not act hostile," he says, sending Derek a look. Derek rolls his eyes, before nodding. The group takes off in their directions; Jason and Derek's group heading in the same direction as the other.
Once the two are alone, Spencer speaks. "Aaron..." he begins. Aaron already knows what he's going to say.
"I know, Spencer," he responds, "I felt it too. But let's not worry about that. For now, let's worry about finding your mother." The brown timber wolf pauses, before nodding. They take off north from the clearing, leaping over a falling tree on their way. Spe ncer stumbled slightly, but he quickly shook it off, and took off in pace with Aaron. Both had their nose either to the ground, or to the sky, scenting the air for any sign of the missing wolf. Once they reached the border of the pack's territory, Aaron could plainly see how upset Spencer was. He touched his nose reassuringly to the younger wolf's ear. "We'll keep searching, Spencer. If we don't find her, maybe one of the other groups found her. Don't worry, Spencer."
Spencer raises his hazel eyes to meet Aaron's golden ones, and nods. "Alright..." he whispers out, before the two take a step off of the pack territory, into neutral land, and continue to follow the faint scent. They walk for about ten minutes, until Spencer frowns.
"What's wrong?" the black alpha asks the brown colored wolf as the slimmer of the two stops.
"This is the way we came when we came onto your territory," he says, "Sniff the air. My scent is also here, but faint. She didn't come back this way," he sounds disappointed. Aaron puts his snout to the ground, and sniffs. Yep, Spencer's right.
Aaron raises his head. "Spencer, I'm sorry," he says. He watches Spencer's ears go down, and his tail droop.
"Don't be," he responds, "It's my fault for leaving her alone..." Spencer sighs, before looking at the larger male, "Let's head back, maybe someone knows something." Aaron nods, not knowing what else to say. His pelt brushes the timber wolf's for a second, before he pads back towards his pack's territory, Spencer following suit.
"Did you find anything?" Aaron asks David, for he was the first member of the pack he saw. David was just about to pass by the gate on his patrol, when Aaron and Spencer approached. The black and gray wolf shook his head.
"No," he barks, "Neither did JJ, Emily, or Jason. They're in the house." Aaron nods, and turns to Spencer, whose ears and tail drops even lower, if it's even possible. "Alex and the others are still looking," he says, as he pushes the gate open with his head, as the three walk in. Aaron kicks the gate shut with his hind legs, and they pad to the house in silence. Jason meets them outside of the house, with three sets of clothing. The three wolves change back to humans, and put on the clothing handed to them, Spencer a little more hesitant than the others.
Aaron glances at the new member, before leading them inside. JJ was in the kitchen-obviously making dinner for the whole pack-and Emily was sitting on the couch, resting. David and Jason head upstairs. Spencer keeps his head bowed the whole time.
The alpha glances at the sad little wolf, and feels another pang of sadness. It makes him feel horrible that his possible future-mate is so close to him, and feels so much pain, and he can't do anything about it.
In less than an hour, the other pack members return home, with no such luck. In another thirty minutes, JJ has dinner ready, and everyone chows down. Spencer merely picks at his food the whole time, and makes no attempt to join in the conversation. Eventually, JJ clears her throat, and says, "So, Spencer," said wolf's head snaps up, "What pack did you belong to before..." she draws off.
Spencer straightens up slightly, as he continues to pick at his food. "I belonged to a pack north of Quantico. Our pack was fairly friendly, and took care of every member well. My mother was allowed to stay in the pack because she grew up with the pack leader, and never did anything that would make the leader want to kick her out. He was more than happy to find out my mother found her mate, and was even more happy for her when she had me. But...that changed when he was killed in a raid with another pack. His son took over, and his son wanted any weak links to be taken away from the pack. So, he forced my mother and I to leave."
"That's horrible!" Garcia gasps, while everyone stares at him like they didn't know what he just said. He ducks his head sheepishly.
Aaron frowned a little bit at this. A pack north of Quantico?... "Spencer...who's your mother?" he asks slowly.
"Diana...Diana Reid," he says slowly, as he puts his fork in his mouth. For some unknown reason, to Aaron, that name seemed really familiar. He only nods, before the room is returned to silence.
After the kitchen was cleaned up, the pack decided to have a bonfire. Jason and Emily gathered wood, while the others got chairs, and blankets. JJ and Garcia got some crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate for the fire. They also made hot chocolate. To be truthful, Aaron thinks they only had a bonfire because they wanted to make Spencer feel more comfortable around them, but he didn't dare question it.
Everyone talked and conversed easily around the bonfire, as they all made s'mores, Aaron and Will helping Henry and Jack with theirs. Aaron smiles widely at Jack, as the little boy eats the s'more with a big grin, getting chocolate and marshmallow on his face. He glances over to Spencer, who's talking to JJ, Garcia, and Derek. The timber wolf smiles easily at them, and chuckles at something Derek said. Said wolf ruffles the younger's hair, with a smile.
Aaron couldn't help but smile. His pack was accepting the new member without a second thought, which made him very proud to be alpha of this pack. And he was especially happy that Spencer was trying to fit into the pack as best as he could.
"Daddy," Jack says, trying to get his father's attention. He turns his gaze back to the young boy.
"Yes, Jack?" he asks, as the boy climbs into his lap.
"Why you staring at Spencer?" he asks curiously, cocking his head back, and staring up at his father with innocent eyes, as he bites into his s'more.
"No reason, Jack," he says, as he kisses the boy's forehead, "Why don't you go play with Henry?" The little wolf pauses, before nodding, and running off. Aaron rises from his chair, and walks over to the group of wolves. He walks up behind Spencer, and clears his throat. Spencer's head snaps up, and whips around to see Aaron standing behind him. He smiles reassuringly at the young wolf, before saying, "If you don't mind, I'd like to borrow Spencer for a bit."
"Of course not," the skinny male says as he rises from his chair, and follows Aaron away from the crowd towards the edge of the forest. "What do you want to talk about, Aaron?"
"About what happened earlier," the alpha responds. Spencer's face pales. "Please tell me you felt it too."
"Of course I did," was the response, "It was kinda hard to ignore it."
"I know we just met and all, but I want to know how you feel about it. About all of this. I won't make a move if you're uncomfortable...but I want you to know, if you are uncomfortable with it, and want to wait, I am okay with it." Aaron says reassuringly.
Spencer shifts uncomfortably from one foot to another. "I...I don't know," he responds, "I mean, yeah, we just met. But we were destined to be mates, you know? But I don't want to rush into anything. I...I think I'd like to get to know you, first, since...you know."
The black alpha smiles reassuringly. "I understand, and that's completely fine, Spencer. We'll take this at your pace."
"Thank you, Aaron," the timber wolf says with a large smile, before lightly kissing his possible future mate on the cheek. Aaron smiles back, not missing the spark of electricity, and excited yip his wolf did inside of him. He then watched the wolf disappear back to the bonfire. Aaron follows soon afterwards.