A/N: Hey guys, long time, no see, huh? Here's the next update, and I'm cross-posting on AO3, which will hopefully force me to keep to my updating schedule.
Kim sits in Em's kitchen, watching her mix up the batter for muffins. She hums quietly, spraying cooking oil into the muffin tins. Kim's supposed to be doing her homework, waiting for the boys to come back from their volunteering job.
"Hey Em," she says, setting her pencil aside.
"Yeah? What's up? Although if it's a homework question, Jared says you're way too smart for me to help," Em teases, setting aside her muffin mix.
"I just… are you happy?" Kim asks, Em stares at her in confusion, coming to sit by her.
"Yeah, of course, honey! Why, what's up?" Kim shrugs, ducking down embarrassedly.
"No reason, I just, I mean when I think about love, I think about you and Sam, you know." Kim frowns thoughtfully. "It makes me think about Jared, you know."
Emily looks at her knowingly, reaching over to squeeze her hand.
"You ever tell Jared any of this?" She asks, bumping playfully into Kim's shoulder.
"No! You can't just blurt out that you love your boyfriend! There are rules aren't there?"
"Why? What's the point of bottling up how you feel, because of some dumb, arbitrary rules society made up to ruin our lives?"
"Well, I guess I never thought of it like that," Kim agrees reluctantly. "When did you tell Sam you loved him?" Now it's Emily's turn to blush.
"Two months after he told me," she admits, laughing a little. Kim raises her eyebrows, surprised.
"Geez, I have to hear about this!" Emily drops her eyes, uncomfortable. "Or not?"
"I just, it's really nothing, honestly, it was such a mess," Emily trails off, sighing.
"So, did it go okay? What did he say?" Emily looks at her critically, then smiles.
"Yeah, sweetie, it did." With that Kim feels much lighter. She's been in love with Jared for a while now, and their relationship is going fantastically, better than she could ever hope for.
The next morning, she and Laura hang out by her locker before class.
"So, lover-girl, where the hell have you been the last few days, I've hardly seen you!" Laura says, touching up her lip gloss in Kim's magnetic mirror.
"I've been hanging out with Jared," she answers, unable to help the little smile that crosses her face. Laura smirks.
"I gathered that. So, things are good? You're happy?" Kim beams at her. She's definitely going to tell Jared today, she's practically bursting with it. Laura laughs, bumps their shoulders together.
"I'll see you at lunch!" Kim heads to calculus, mulling over how she's going to tell Jared. Should she do something romantic? Can she just say it to him?
Jared's already waiting for her in class, fiddling with his hands. He looks nervous.
"Hey, everything okay?" she asks, sliding into her seat. Jared startles, smiling at her sheepishly.
"Yeah, sure. Hey, what're you doing tonight?" he asks, swiveling to face her. Kim laughs.
"You know, I was just about to ask you the same thing," she says. "Let's go get a milkshake." Plans in place, they focus on the class, where Mr. Callum is already scrawling on the board.
Lunch is pretty uneventful, the four of them, Kim, Laura, Jared, and Paul, all sitting together. They get weird looks, like always. Finally, though, the school day finishes and Jared and Kim pile into his truck, heading out for the pier. Jared drums his fingers on the steering wheel, jittery as can be. Kim alternating between looking at him and staring out the window.
They get their milkshakes in relative silence, a worrisome pit forming in Kim's stomach. She peeks at Jared, but he looks straight ahead. His hands shake slightly.
"Jare?" she asks. He glances at her quickly, a manic smile on his face. The worrisome feeling threatens to turn to panic. "Jared?"
"Look." He stops abruptly, settles his hands on Kim's shoulders. "You trust me, don't you? You know I'd never hurt you."
"I…" She's got no idea what to say now. "Yeah, I guess."
"Okay," he says, bobbing his head. "Okay, yeah, let's gets to Sam's."
"What?" Without replying, Jared gently tugs Kimm back to the car, his own milkshake dangling, forgotten, in his fingers.
The drive over is a very strange sort of quiet, but Kim's not even sure what to be worried about. She trusts Jared, of course, but when someone asks you if you trust them, you tend to worry. Jared drives a little fast, parking haphazardly in the driveway. Sam pokes his head out, frown cemented on his face.
"What, now?" he asks, Jared hops out of the truck, bobbing his head frantically. He begins to tremble.
"Jared?" Kim tries again, climbing out after him.
Then, the strangest thing happens.
Jared begins to yank off his clothes, stripping down to his boxers. Kim gasps sharply, a hot blush taking over her face. It's not like she's never seen him shirtless, what with the weather warming up, but an impromptu strip show is beyond her.
"Not here, you asshole!" Sam hisses, yanking Jared into the tree line. He looks back at Kim with a pained expression, gesturing for her to follow. She's not sure what possesses her to do so, but she does, keeping a little distance between them. Emily comes out to wait on the porch, frowning.
"Kim? Look, I know this all seems crazy, but I swear this'll all make sense," Jared says. Kim averts her eyes—he's naked—and says nothing. A warm hand comes to rest on her shoulder and she jumps. It's Sam, grimacing.
"It's going to be fine," he says, like he's absolutely sure. It's comforting to know that at least someone knows what going on.
"Kim, you remember when we were in elementary school? All the assemblies about our tribal heritage?" Jared's voice shakes. Kim nods quickly. The feeling of panic in her stomach turns to anticipation. It's almost as if she knows what's coming next.
"You remember the stories? About the wolves? The warriors?" Jared's voice begins to shake even worse. Out of some sick sense of curiosity, she looks up. Jared's doubled over, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. He smiles though. She wants to laugh, ask that they stop whatever elaborate joke this is, but she can feel something deep in her bones.
"Yes," she whispers. Jared groans, dropping to his knees. Suddenly, Kim remembers that day in the forest with her brother, strange brown eyes that seemed so familiar.
Sam grips her shoulder a little tighter, taking a half step in front of her.
"He won't hurt me," Kim says suddenly. She doesn't know how she knows it, but it's true. It doesn't matter what's going to happen next, Jared is still going to be Jared. Sam smiles a little ruefully.
"I hope so too," he says. "You, uh, might want to look away. This next part's not so pretty on slow-mo."
Kim can't, though. She can't take her eyes off him, the way his frame changes, how the bones under his skin shift. Her breathing goes shallow, and all the world boils down to this strange metamorphosis.
Kim lets out a shaky exhale, and suddenly, there's a huge wolf before her, eyes so familiar she knows it's Jared. She steps out from behind Sam, hand outstretched. Jared moves closer, pressing his nose to her palm.
"It's you," she says softly. It's as familiar as touching his face at school, or at Emily's table, or anywhere else. It's just Jared. She barely registers Sam hovering in the background. Kim slides her hand up to stroke the soft brown fur. It's the color of the earth after a rainfall, fresh and lush.
"Hey," she says, a little louder, fonder. "Jared." The wolf starts to tremble, so Kim steps back, allowing him space. Then, Jared's back, the form she knows. She notices that he's still naked—dear god—and flushes, keeping her eyes on the trees.
"So?" he asks, voice rough.
"Maybe once you got pants on?" Jared laughs a little wildly, jogging ahead. Sam gestures for her to wait.
"You were surprisingly cool," he says conversationally. "No screaming or running in fear." Kim shrugs.
"I don't know, I could just feel," she peters off, unsure how to phase it. "it's stupid."
"Your boyfriend just turned into a giant wolf in front of you, nothing you think is going to be stupid."
"Can you do that too?" she asks, changing the subject. Sam quirks an eyebrow.
"I'll explain everything inside."
A/N: Alrighty, the secret is out! Tune in next week for more pack and Kared fluff! Let me know what you thought!