AN: Did anyone think I'd disappeared again? Well all my coursework for the next month has been submitted so now I have a little more free time (only a little, I still have my lab work to do but PCR cycles are great for fitting in fic writing time)! Bone Crossed is looking like it's going to have four parts to it and then possibly an interlude or two before we hit Silver Borne (no idea when I'll get that far though, sorry)

Bone Crossed Part 1

The next day I went to work as normal, at lunch time Marie knocked on my office door. "Come in." I called out, putting my sandwich to one side since, as usual, I was eating at my desk while I went over couple of files. "Hello Marie, is there a problem?"
"I saw the paper, is Ms Thompson alright?" She said without any preamble as soon as the door was shut.

I sighed and waved for her to take a seat on one of the chairs facing my desk, I should have known that someone would notice that and mention it. "She will be." I told her. "She's gone back to work today but she's got her old mentor working with her today so she isn't alone in the shop." She'd also have whichever wolf was on guard duty with her but I didn't mention that.

"Is that why Warren hasn't been in today?"

I smiled at that, I should have known someone would realise that Warren hadn't been in today. Usually he would either come in with me in a morning or drop by for lunch. Unless he was doing a job for me. "She's comfortable with him and her boyfriend won't object to him either." It would be easier if I could just tell her that he was a werewolf, it would perfectly explain everything. But I couldn't do that, revealing what he was had to be hid choice, and if there was one thing that any gay man would understand it was the importance of coming out by your own choice.

"The paper said she's dating the local alpha." Marie said in a way that asked for confirmation.

"She is." I confirmed. "And Warren doesn't set off Adam's protective territorial instincts, since he is in a relationship and would be completely uninterested in a sexual relationship with her even if he was free. Which is probably why he puts up with me too."

"You know a werewolf?" She seemed shocked.

"He's dating my friend." I said with a shrug. "We've met a few times." Which was understating matters somewhat and I would have preferred not to lie to her but a lie of omission was better than the other option. "He had Warren and I take her to church on Sunday since he's away on business at the moment."

"So soon after his girlfriend was raped?" Marie was shocked and highly disapproving.

I smiled sadly. "This is not for general discussion." I warned her. "But someone at the police department edited the event and tried to make it look like Adam attacked an innocent man, he's taking care of that before it comes down on the heads of every werewolf in the country."

Marie held up her hand. "I understand and he's left her in good hands." Since she was talking about Warren I wasn't going to object and she left me to my lunch and paperwork.

" "

I was surprised when Warren walked into my office not long after everyone else had left for the night. "I thought you'd still be here." He told me as he walked around my desk so that he was standing next to me. "You work too hard."

"What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"I thought you might miss me." He said with a grin. I stood up and kissed him, pushing him back against my desk and showing him exactly how much I'd missed having him around and all to myself. "Adam got back an hour ago and told me to go home for the night before you started to forget who I was."

"You didn't tell him that we took Mercy to church yesterday?" I asked, stroking his cheek. I had missed this, yesterday hadn't been enough because I'd had to share him and I selfishly wanted him to myself for a while.

"I did." Warren admitted. "He still told me to go home for the night, but he wants to see me tomorrow so we can work out a schedule for keeping an eye on Mercy that means we all get to work at least occasionally."

"You're off for the week." I told him.

"Kyle." He started to protest but I silenced him by putting my finger over his lips.

"No Warren, I might not be able to help by playing bodyguard like you can but I can do this and make sure that Mercy has you for at least this first week." I gave him a small smile. "After all I'm sure you're one of her favourite bodyguards."

"Hopefully with Adam back and Samuel here I can at least get home at nights."

"That would be nice." I told him. "I've missed having my human sized hot water bottle."

"I thought you were complaining it was too hot."

"I'm used to you in bed with me; it's strange not having you there." I admitted softly.

This time it was Warren who kissed me. "You ready to go home yet?" He asked me. "Or do you want to work a little longer first."

I glanced at the clock. "I was going to work for a bit longer but since you're here this can wait until tomorrow."

"I'd hoped you'd see it my way." Warren told me with a slow grin that was enough to make me abandon all thoughts of work.

"Why do you put up with me and my work?" I asked him as I started filing the papers that were on my desk into their proper draws.

"The same reason you put up with my pack." Warren told me, still leaning against my desk and not even trying to hide the fact that he was checking me out while I tidied up. "I love you." I grinned at him over my shoulder. "And I found this new Mexican place if you'd rather not cook."

"Meaning you're really hungry and don't want to wait?" I suggested. I like cooking and I am good at it, I just take longer than Warren would prefer. "That's fine." I assured him. "I'm not in the mood for cooking tonight anyway." Or at least I wasn't now I knew that Warren would be home for the night.

" "

That I managed not to yawn my way through court the next morning was a testament to the strength of the coffee that the nearest coffee shop produced. Since they were the closet to the courts they were obviously used to dealing with members of the legal profession and the fact that we all prefer our caffeine hit as large as possible.

My sleep deprived state wasn't solely because I spent the night making love to Warren instead of sleeping. Although that did feature we also spent quite a while talking. Warren needed to talk about what had happened to Mercy, he'd pushed his own feelings aside out of desire to help her but the whole thing that upset him.

With me he could talk about it without judgement. If it hadn't been Mercy that was hurt then maybe he could have talked to Adam but that was out of the question. As was talking to anyone else in the pack, his wolf nature wouldn't let him show what could be considered weakness in front of potential rival.

Warren told me all about the video he'd seen of Mercy's attack and Adam's arrival, how Mercy had hidden away in shame after it happened and only come out when the arrival of a fae had put Adam in danger.

"Not one of us thought about a murder charge until Honey pointed it." Warren admitted. "We should have but she was so obviously hurting that it never occurred to me that someone could think she was guilty of a crime."

"Because you are an honourable man." I'd pointed out. "Who would never consider rape in the first place. But it was good that Honey was there, faced with that I doubt even I would have thought it was anything but a clear cut case of self-defence."

"Once she said it I realised she was right." Warren admitted. "You couldn't tell Mercy was drugged up on that fae shit. But God Kyle, if you'd seen her." He'd snuggled tighter against my chest. "She was so hurt and Adam had refused to give her to anyone, even Honey, until I arrived. He told me he had to force her to drink more of that stuff so it would heal her and I know he hated himself for that. I've never seen Mercy like that, so defeated, she just curled up in my arms and started shaking. By the time Adam and I got back to his she'd changed forms and, according to Ben, was feeling so horribly guilty she wouldn't even stand up around him. She was thinking she was less than worthless."

I'd let him talk for a while longer without saying anything. He hadn't needed me to say anything, all he needed was someone to listen to him and that was what I did. And when he'd finally talked everything out and shed his tears for what had happened he'd begged me to make love to him, to get the images out of his head so that he could sleep.

It had been a long night but worth it, and worth all the coffee I'd needed to make it through my morning court appearances.

Fortunately I didn't have court that afternoon and only one meeting. Once that was out of the way I decided, in spite of my usual workaholic tendencies, to knock off early. Especially since there was a real danger of my falling asleep at my desk. I hadn't slept all that well the previous night even when I had tried, I might not have seen the video that Warren had but my imagination filled in the blanks far too well for a sound night's sleep.

When I let her know I was leaving early I thought Angelina on Reception would die of shock, she actually checked the clock on the wall and then her watch before bidding me a good evening. Maybe my workaholic tendencies were getting a little out of control.

I text Warren to let him know that I'd gone home early so I could catch up on my missed sleep. I didn't want him to worry about where I was if he arrived at the office and I wasn't there. Given the way things seemed to be going for the pack at the moment he'd probably think a zombie got me or something. I snorted to myself at that one, zombies at least weren't real. I hoped.

" "

I ended up taking a nap on the couch and was woken by the text alert on my cell. It was from Warren: 'A bit of trouble here.' It read. 'No one hurt but will be late back. Sorry.'

I text back an acknowledgment and then sighed, so much for dinner tonight. I equally couldn't be bothered with cooking and picked a takeout menu at random from the stack in the kitchen. The Chinese place I picked were their usual quick and efficient selves, we didn't keep the menu for anywhere that wasn't at least decent, and I had something to eat in no time. I put the spare in the fridge for Warren later, even if he ended up eating at Adam's he'd finish it off at some point.

Now I was suddenly faced with an empty evening and no plans. I didn't feel like going out, even if one of my friends was up for it, which was unlikely on a Tuesday night. Suddenly I was hit by the thought that, at some point, I'd managed to grow up. And there was no denying it, when you'd rather stay in on your own then track down some friends and get drunk you've defiantly grown up. The thought made me laugh and for some reason I found that it was a good five minutes before I could make myself stop, it was probably some sort of delayed reaction to the stress of the past few days.

My giggles under control I decided that I wasn't in the mood for TV or a movie either. Instead I went to the library and picked out a Nora Roberts books, it was one of my favourites but I hadn't re-read it recently. Then I opened a bottle of wine and settled on the couch in the library for the evening.

" "

"Kyle?" Warren called out as he let himself in later that night.

"In here." I called back and glanced at the clock, it was getting late enough that I had been considering going to bed despite the nap I'd had that afternoon.

"Don't you look cosy?" Warren drawled at he stopped in the doorway.

"Well my date stood me up so I had to find someone else to spend the evening with." I grinned. "There's left over Chinese in the fridge, I couldn't be bothered to cook tonight."

"I'll be back in a minute." It was actually a couple of minutes since he had to reheat the food in the microwave and when he came back he was also carrying an empty wine glass, which he proceeded to fill with the last of the wine in the bottle I'd opened earlier. "It'd be a shame to waste it." He told me with a grin. I didn't protest since he was right and I'd already had two glasses, not enough to get me drunk but I did have work in the morning.

"So what happened this time?" I asked once he'd had the chance to have a few bites of his dinner. From the speed he was getting down it he hadn't eaten at Adam's.

"Well I might not be Paul's most hated person in the pack anymore."

Maybe the wine had more effect than I thought. "Explain please"

"The short version, well shorter any way." Warren said. "You remember Stefan?" I nodded, we'd never actually met but I remembered his name from the demon/vampire thing that helped Warren and I get back together. "Well his Mistress found out he helped Mercy kill the vampire responsible for the sorcerer, and let's just say if it was an option between having his Mistress as my alpha and been lone wolf I'd pick alone every time, the woman is a crazy bitch."

"So what happened?" I pressed, so far I didn't see what that had to do with Paul hating a member of the pack more than he did Warren.

"Well she decided to torture and starve Stefan, then drop him in Mercy's house in the hope that he'd kill her, luckily Adam was there and he let Stefan snack on him and a couple of the other wolves."

"This was tonight?"

"No, this was yesterday." Warren grinned and I knew that whatever had Paul's panties in a twist hadn't upset Warren and maybe it even pleased him, thought that could just be because it upset the homophobic bastard. "Today, Stefan nearly got inside Mercy's head with of his vampire tricks, completely accidental and instinctive. But Adam still took offence and in a moment of what he refuses to admit was sheer blind panic," Warren paused for dramatic effect. "He brought Mercy into the pack."

"What?" I asked in shock. "But I thought it wasn't possible to make human mates a part of the pack."

"It shouldn't be, even people like witches can't be made a part of the pack." Warren assured me. "But apparently coyote is close enough to wolf for it to work. I was at Adam's at the time, along with Ben, Aureile and Paul but everyone else sensed it pretty fast and converged on Adam's. Last time I saw something like that, Adam had just brought me into the pack."

"Is this going to cause problems?" I asked as I finished the last of the wine in my glass.

"Probably." Warren agreed. "But mainly just headaches for Adam I think, the pack is not a democracy no matter what some of the others might think. We obey Adam, the only one who can force Adam to do something is Bran and he wouldn't, especially since Mercy was his first and this will help keep her safe."

"Hopefully." I muttered.

Warren nodded and finished off his dinner before leaning back on the couch with his glass of wine. I put my empty glass on the table and curled up against him, using his stomach as a pillow. "So you stayed for the meeting?" I asked. "Or at least the event where everyone complained at Adam."

"Nah." I felt Warren shrug. "I hung out with Mercy instead; having me there wouldn't help Adam calm down the pack, since most of the people complaining about Mercy complained about me as well."

"So Paul is sexist as well as homophobic?"

"More racist I think." Warren suggested. "He doesn't mind women, doesn't complain when Aureile gives him an order. I think it's the coyote part that's bothering him."

"He's an ass."

"That too." Warren agreed. "Are you ready for bed, because I'm in real danger of falling asleep right here."

"I had a nap earlier." I told him as I rolled off the couch and stretched. "But I think bed might be a good idea, it certainly can't hurt to get an early night for once."

Warren grinned up at me. "Keep pulling moves like that and we won't be going to bed to sleep." I said nothing but held out my hand to pull him to his feet.

AN: Sorry this is short but all the chapters for Bone Crossed are going to be short because the boys aren't in it that much and it takes place over only a few days. I've also had a bit of a mass update day with this and Friends and Family getting new chapters as well as the third part of my Torchwood/Sanctuary crossover going up (or at least the prologue of it).