We've got an update! This was quicker update this time, only a month. A lot of people want a time frame for the updates with this story, but just remember—this is not one of my stories that is on a regular schedule. I will try to update this one every two or three months. When I've got more time and written a bit more, I will put it on the regular schedule—I promise!
Now, before we get into it, I just wanted to put a quick note, just to remind you guys that there is difference between Ache For Us and Running Among Wolves. While they're both werewolf stories, Ache For Us is a Mates!AU. There's just a couple of questions asking about the difference between them and I wanted to make sure I said something; so Ache For Us is a specific mates trope, while Running Among Wolves, they don't have just one person in the whole world who is their 'one'.
Also—there's been some problems with uploading, giving me errors when I'm uploading, and apparently not sending out alerts to you guys by email. So...Fingers crossed this works for everyone this time!
When Clary woke up, she was warm, but she instantly knew that it wasn't Jace behind her. She twisted her neck to look over her shoulder and saw Magnus fast asleep still. When she turned back to face forward, Max was the one sleeping there, tucked back against her and their legs tangled together. The teenager looked even younger when he was fast asleep, his dark hair flopping over her forehead, and Clary reached out sleepily with one finger, tucking a lock of unruly hair behind his ear. Jem was in the bed next to them, fast asleep with Isabelle, and Maia and Jordan were still in the far one, with Sammy in the cot next to them. Sammy was awake now, but she seemed to be content with playing with the soft toys in her cot. Simon was sitting on the couch near the door, flipping through a book.
"Hey," Clary's voice was barely a rasp, but Simon instantly looked over at her. She had no doubt that he had heard the exact change in her heart beat when she had woken up, but he probably thought that she was going to go back to sleep. "Where's Jace and Alec?" She asked, making sure to keep her voice quiet to hopefully not disturb anyone else in the room.
"They went out a couple of hours ago, said they would be back soon," Simon shrugged a shoulder. "I'm sure if you text him, he would come running," he smirked at her.
"Shut up," Clary rolled her eyes, not in the mood for his teasing this early in the morning. Although when she squinted at the clock on the wall, it looked as though it was nearly ten o'clock, but after the late night that they had had, it was still far too early to be awake now. She dropped her head back to the pillow, taking in a deep breath through her nose and gathering in the familiar scents of the people—the pack—around her. Maybe she didn't have the super senses of the were's around her, but she definitely understood the comforts of being surrounded by her family.
The next time Clary woke up, she and Magnus were two of the only ones asleep, other than Maia, who was snoring softly. The front door to their motel room was partially open and Clary could hear low tones from outside, so she guessed some of their friends were out there. The shower was running and the door was shut, and she heard a giggle from inside. She raised an eyebrow and shifted until she was sitting up in bed and Jace came into the room.
"Isabelle and Simon," he stated gruffly as he nodded toward the shut door.
"Oh, lovely," Clary wrinkled her nose and the corner of Jace's lips twitched in a smirk before he sat down on the edge of the bed. "What time did you get back?"
"Just now," he responded, his voice still quiet. "Jem and Max have gone to a diner down the road to get food, and Jordan is letting Sammy crawl around in the park out the back before she needs to get in the car for the drive back." Clary nodded as she rubbed her eyes, waking up properly and blinking a couple more times. She pushed back the blankets and shifted forward until she reached the end of the bed, resting her feet on the floor. The shower had turned off, and Clary could hear the hum of Isabelle and Simon's voices as they spoke quietly to each other. The door opened shortly after, Isabelle wrapped in a towel that really didn't cover all that much, and Simon wearing a pair of sweatpants.
"I thought I could smell you," Isabelle stated with a curl of her lip as she looked over at Jace. Clary's eyebrows went up as she looked over at the Alpha, wondering what had invoked the look of distaste on Isabelle's face. "You smell like a morgue."
"A morgue?!" Clary's eyebrows pulled together. "What were you doing at a morgue?!"
"There were just a couple of things that Alec and I wanted to look over," Jace gave a one shouldered shrug as he stood up. "Wake them up," he nodded at the two that were still sleeping. "Jem and Max will be back soon with food, and then we can head back home." Isabelle looked like she wanted to push Clary's question about the morgue, but she just pursed her lips together and gathered up some clothes, going back into the bathroom to get dressed. Clary frowned at Jace, and he stood up, standing over her.
"Everything's fine," he told her briefly, his hand cupping her neck and brushing his thumb across one side of her jaw before he nodded toward Magnus and Maia. "Wake them up."
Jace and words weren't exactly friends. Isabelle joked on almost a daily basis that he was emotionally constipated, even though anyone who knew Jace knew that he felt things deeply, he just had a different way of showing it. Clary hadn't exactly been scared of Jace when she had first become involved in this supernatural world that was now her life, but she had definitely been wary of him. He seemed to glare at everyone, and was overly possessive when it came to certain things, and a lot of the time he just spoke in short, gruff sentences. But the more she got to know him, the more she realized just how much he cared.
While Simon hadn't actually been bitten by a rogue Alpha and he had indeed been turned by Jace, a few days after the accident when Clary was actually able to process what was going on, Isabelle had explained that it definitely had seemed like the rogue's intention to do just that. They had tried to find the rogue, but to no avail. It had taken Simon a few months to properly adapt, and sometimes Clary disagreed with the methods of learning that Jace had, and her and Jace often got into arguments about them.
She didn't understand the pack dynamics at the time, how everyone would just fall in line with whatever Jace would say. Even when there were disagreements—which happened frequently, given how strong willed his pack was—at the end of the day, they would follow Jace's lead. Even Simon. When Clary had asked Simon to explain to her what it was, he said he wasn't too sure how to phrase it, it was just this pull inside him, this need to follow his Alpha. But the longer she was there, the more she could see that Jace only wanted what was best for his pack, and that extended to her.
Jem had become a werewolf in a similar way to Simon. Forcibly. When he was fifteen, he was attacked when coming home from school after a late night basketball practice. It was about a year and a half after Simon had been turned, and Max had been the one to scent the boy and the change out at school. He had only been fourteen at the time, and had gone back to his Alpha, telling Jace what he had smelt. Jace confronted Jem, who still hadn't realized what had happened, but knew that something was definitely wrong. Alec and Jace had investigated the area where he had been bitten, and the scent there was the same one from when Simon and Clary's car had been attacked. Jace had helped Jem adjust, and when his parents had moved out of town a year ago, he had moved in with Jace.
Alec, Isabelle and Max had come to Shadow Hills with Jace four years ago. Both of their parents were beta's, and their Alpha had been an older werewolf, Jeremiah Brother. But given the strong tie that they had to Jace, especially since he had come to live with them after his pack had been killed, they had chosen to follow him. Max was only young, just twelve, but his wolf clearly recognized Jace as his Alpha and so his parents had filled out all the necessary human paperwork to allow him go. Pack was family, and they knew that Jace would protect Max at all costs, and look out for his best interests.
Maia had already been in the town when they had moved in, and she had been with Jordan since they were in high school. He was human, and knew that she was a werewolf, and accepted that about her, and she had been more than happy to become part of Jace's pack. The township itself was still technically Herondale territory, even though he hadn't been there for several years, so any werewolves in the area had the choice to either join his pack or leave. There had been a couple of other werewolves in the town as well, both of whom left shortly after Jace arrived.
Magnus was a powerful spark, who had been happy floating between packs and just making his own way. But once he had met Alec, the pair had practically been joined at the hip. It was a similar sort of connection to what Simon and Isabelle had, given their relationship had just become more cemented once he had become a werewolf, and also Maia and Jordan. After they had gotten closer, Jace had told her that his parents had been the same. It was their wolf half, completely comfortable with the other person, becoming anchored to them, stabling the two halves of themselves. Clary wanted to ask if Jace had ever thought he had met someone like that, but she knew he had a bad past when it came to relationships, or at least, one terrible relationship.
"Hey, look at who it is," came a soft voice from the doorway, and Clary looked up to see Jordan standing there, Sammy in his arms. "It's Aunty Clary." Clary smiled as she got up from her spot on the bed. "You mind holding her while I go to the bathroom?" Jordan asked, already passing the little girl over.
"I think Izzy's just in there right now," Clary replied as she took Sammy and nuzzled her nose against the little girls. Sammy giggled as their noses bumped together, patting her hand against Clary's cheek as she gurgled something unintelligible. Isabelle came out of the bathroom and Jordan disappeared inside. "What do you say that we wake up mummy, huh?" Sammy giggled again as she and Clary walked over to where Maia was stirring, unaware of Jace watching them from the doorway.
Sorry, this is going to be a little bit of a long A/N—only because I've got a lot that I want to recommend to you guys! Movie wise; I've only just seen Moonlight, taken me a while to get there, but I saw it, and I loved it. My heart was aching through it, but it was beautiful. Beauty and the Beast, it was great. Was really worried because I loved the original so much, but it was great. And also Logan, shit—I managed to hold it together right at the end, where Laura changed the cross to a X. Then I kind of lost it. So I absolutely recommend all thee of these.
Now, with TV series—Big Little Lies. Holy SHIT! This was incredible! I binged the whole thing in one morning. It was sooooo good. I've also just started watching American Gods, and I've got high hopes for it :) AND SENSE8 SEASON 2 IS OUT! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees! And it's just as amazing as ever! Also, I've got some song recommendations; Enjoy The Ride and Alive, by Krewella. Great songs, I've had them on repeat for the past couple of weeks. And then Red, by Tyler Ward. The original song is by Taylor Swift, although I've never actually heard that version, only the one by Tyler, and it's so fucking beautiful.
And finally, I've got two stories that I'm pretty obsessed with. The first one I've been meaning to recommend for ages, but I just kept forgetting! It's by reppinda5o3, who is absolutely fucking amazing and listens to all my word vomit with my stories and is always there for me when I need to rant/rave. It's called Clarissa Is A Punk, it's an AU story, she write in incredible detail, and you should all check it out! The second story is The Cry of The Wild, another AU story, by happiness trap. She updates frequently as well, so that's always a plus!
Alright—so let me know what you think of the update! Did you enjoy it? Let me know what your recommendations for songs, fics, movies or TV series are, and if you guys agree with the ones I've included.
If you'd like a preview of the next chapter and you're logged in, let me know, and I'll send it out xx
Also, it's my birthday next week, so a review would be a pretty nice present from ya'll :)
