Hello! It's finally winter break thank god! A huge thanks to everyone who is supporting this story! You're the best! This is my absolute favorite fic to write! Just some notes about the story: The list of unsavory characters stalking/ opposing the brothers is going to continue to grow. Introducing yet another creepy stalker. Nothing progressing the plot quite like a mysterious figure in the woods!

"What do we do?" Thatch whispered furiously to Marco as the teenagers watched uselessly.

"I don't see what we can do, we don't even know what's going on," Marco told him clenching his hands into fists.

Ace stood at the center of a circle of hunters, clutching Luffy tightly to his chest. Luffy, seemingly battling invisible forces, was screaming as if his life depended on it.

"Let the kid go monster," one of the hunters spat, training his gun on the wolf's forehead.

Ace glared at them, not inclined to talk to the likes of them. He clearly was not a fan of hunters, which was saying something considering Luffy's reaction to them. Keeping a careful eye on the group he leaned forward and whispered something into Luffy's ear. For a moment nothing happened, then Luffy slowly stopped struggling.

"We mean it!" One of the hunters shouted nervously.

"Do it NOW!" He screamed as the gun went off.

Ace reaction was instant as he grabbed Luffy, pulling him behind his back. Using his own body as a shield between the two.

"Stop it!" What are you doing?" Ussop cried as Zoro's fingers twitched to his swords. None of them knew what was going on but it didn't look good.

For their part, the hunters looked shocked, surprised the wolf had let go so easily.

"Hurry, come here kid," They urged Luffy. He instead stared at them with wide eyes, gripping Ace's shorts.

"Come any closer and I'll eat him," Ace told them with a growl, making the hunters jump. It honestly looked like they had forgotten he could talk.

"Just let the kid go and we'll call it square okay?"

He could escape, easily since he had a 'hostage', but he seemed reluctant to leave the struggling group of humans and even more reluctant to leave his brother.

An angry look flashed through Ace's eyes, almost primal in nature as the debate had clearly triggered something deeper. "No, he's mine," he growled, his teeth glinting in the light of the flashlights.

That was definitely the wrong thing to say as it clearly pissed the hunters off.

"We need him!" Marco said, surprising everyone as he spoke up. "We caught him and in return for his life he is going to guide us to town."

"Foolish boy," the man said angrily, "you can't trust wolves", "They're all a bunch of no good liars."

"We know that now," Marco continued, "the second we turned our back it tried to eat the youngest one."

Ace raised an eyebrow at being referred to as 'it', but remained silent.

Encouraged by this Marco continued, "But you can't kill it yet, without its guidance we will never make it to the town in time to save Ussop's grandmother."

"How do you know it's not leading you to your death?"

"If it does we'll kill it." Zoro cut in, his voice calm but with an underlying tone of urgency.

The hunter thought for a moment before slowly nodding. "Fine, but it lets the kid go first."

"Come here, Luffy," Ussop called encouragingly, "Your safe now." The teens stared numbly at Luffy, holding their breath seeing what he would do.

Ace once again leaned over to whisper something in Luffy's ear, giving him a small nudge away from him.

Reluctantly he left Ace's side, still trembling like a leaf. As a hunter reached out to grab him he ducked away, snaking between them to join the group of teenagers.

"Is the kid okay?" One of them asked skeptically.

"He's fine," Thatch called back, lying through his teeth, "Just shaken up, best we leave him alone till he calms down."

The hunter nodded satisfied as they approached Ace, handcuffs in their hands. Sanji quickly grabbed Luffy's arm to stop him from running to Ace's aid.

Ace shot them a dark look, but he clearly wasn't surprised.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way Wolf."

Ace looked like he wanted to say something but a quick glance at Luffy made him change his mind. He held out his wrists in front of him.

"You clearly like things kinky." He said, the cocky smirk back on his face. "I can get into that."

"Shut up," The hunter growled humorlessly, clearly not thinking the wolf merited a real response.

"We leave at dawn, everyone gets a few hours of sleep."

The teens continued to stare at the hunters, unsure if this was such a good idea. On one hand, the extra manpower could definitely prove useful if they ran into trouble. But they also didn't feel right about what they were doing to Ace.

"So is that a no?" Ace asked, fake disappointment in his voice.

I said SHUT UP!" The hunter said louder, kicking Ace's feet out from under him. As the young man hit the ground two hunters grabbed his arms, tying the handcuffs to a sturdy root that was protruding from the ground. It gave him a few feet of slack to move around, but still not enough to fully stand up.

'It's a leash,' Marco realized in horror. After everything that happened Marco was honestly a little confused. He had never been one to blindly accept things. That being said, enough wolves had tried to kill him in the last month to make him believe the rumors. Still though, Ace was good, Law was bad, Luffy was scared of hunters, and hunters hurt Ace. He was beginning to see a bigger picture here, one that wasn't quite as black and white as he initially thought.

Zoro had to help Sanji hold Luffy back as he watched them hurt his brother. Frowning in frustration and fear Luffy eventually stopped struggling. Thankfully before the hunters could notice.

After a few moments of tense silence, Zoro leaned down to whisper something in his ear. Whatever it was made Luffy nod enthusiastically. He began to walk away from the group, across the clearing.

But in the next second Luffy was barreling at Zoro, tackling him to the ground. Zoro groaned on impact and started to fight back. The two rolled around on the forest floor as the hunters screamed, running over to separate them.

The two of them were finally pulled apart by the hunters, still fighting to get back to each other.

"Knock it off!" Yelled the hunter as he held Luffy in a bear hug, squeezing his ribs tighter as the kid struggled. Zoro was in no better shape as he was being pinned down by a pile of hunters.

Ace who had been silent the entire time yelled for the hunters to let them go. Watching as tremors ran through Luffy's body at the contact.

They finally complied as the two of them calmed down, stalking back to their suprised friends.

"What was that about?" Sanji asked amused.

"Don't worry about it!" Zoro told him with a small grin, as he nudged Luffy.

Luffy gave him a smile of his own, although a very small tense one.

"No more funny business." The hunter said angrily. "I'm on watch, the rest of you get some rest," His eyes lingered warningly on Ace, "and I warn you, creature, one wrong move and I'll shoot."

Ace opened his mouth to respond with yet another lewd comment but decided it wasn't worth it.

Unwilling to pass up the only chance for sleep they would get the teens scatted out across the ground, careful to keep the group of hunters in sight. Thankfully enough the hunter on watch sat stone still on a log, his back to them. His form was half obstructed by trees and it was doubtful he would see much of them. This was a welcomed break as they were all a little unsure of just how much they should trust the newcomers. Especially after what they had seen.

Luffy for his part lay tensely on his back. No way was he going to get any sleep here, or quite possibly ever again. All the memories he tried his best not to think about were resurfacing with a vengeance.

After all sounds from the hunters had died out he cautiously opened his eyes, turning to his stomach to assess the group. Some were napping against tree trunks, others were cleaning their weapons, a bottle of gin between them. The ones that were still up were facing the other way, not even looking at the teens.

He grit his teeth as he watched them take a huge swig from the bottle before passing it. Hunters and alcohol were a horrible combination.

Silently he pushed himself to his feet, running across the clearing.

XXX

Ace tilted his head back against the tree as he stared up at the stars. They were beautiful tonight. He tugged experimentally on the handcuffs, only serving to hurt the already bruised skin. This little encounter was reminding him why he hated humans. Although to be fair those teenagers had surprised him. Maybe this generation was going to be better than the last, better than their parents.

He looked up as Luffy walked over to him, making sure not to be seen by the adults. Ace grinned slightly, unsurprised to see his little brother. He had been confronted with his biggest fear for the first time in years, he probably wasn't handling it well. Ace honestly couldn't blame him. If he was being honest he was a little shaken up as well, all his memories of the men were not pleasant ones.

"What's up?" He asked raising his bound arms as much as he could so Luffy could crawl under and into his lap.

"Here," He said pressing a tiny metal key into Ace's hand. "For the handcuffs."

Ace couldn't help but grin as he brought his arms around Luffy, pulling him closer into a hug. So that's what the fight had been about. Luffy had made that man hold him back so he could steal the key.

"Sorry you had to get caught," Luffy told him resting his cheek on his shoulder.

Ace shrugged, "It's not your fault."

"I heard them talking… they're going to kill you after we reach town."

Ace nodded, he had been expecting as much. "Good thing I got you looking out for me then right?"

He smiled in relief when Luffy gave him a small grin.

"Hunters suck."

Ace nodded in agreement, "yep."

The two sat there for a while in silence, staring up at the stars.

Ace was worried as his little brother was never silent for long. He was really rattled. No doubt he would nave nightmares for the next week all thanks to these dumb hunters. They weren't even competent from the looks of it, Ace was surprised they had survived this long.

Finally, after a few minutes, Luffy spoke, "Sabo said that one is a dog star."

Ace looked where Luffy was pointing, he didn't know that. Not willing to be outsmarted by someone who wasn't even here Ace pointed to the constellation above them. "Did you know that's ones the pudding constellation?"

Luffy eyes grew wide with surprise, "really?"

Ace nodded, pleased he had gotten a response out of the kid, "It's roughly shaped like a pudding stain. And the one beside it is an octopus."

Luffy's gullibility was something he never grew tired of. You could tell this kid the earth revolves around a slice of pizza and he would look at you like you were a genius. The two of them sat there, identifying constellations until Luffy eventually fell asleep, his cheek resting on Ace's shoulder.

Secretly pleased he had gotten the younger boy to fall asleep, even with the hunters around, he gently repositioned him. Laying down on his side he pulled Luffy with him, hugging him to his chest with his bound arms. The kid murmured something indistinguishable and snuggled further into his unusually warm skin, but he didn't wake up.

Ace hadn't meant to fall asleep. He really hadn't. Especially considering they were surrounded by enemies. But he had been up for over three days straight, ever since Luffy was bitten. Just as he began to drift off he smelt someone approaching. Ignoring the warning of his hazy brain he buried his face in his brother's hair.

.

The man made sure to stay quiet as he approached the sleeping two. They were separated from the group a ways, their backs pressed up against a tree. He had to tread quietly in case he woke up the older one. He doubted the hunters, with their clunky boots, would be able to so much as move towards them without waking him up.

Imagine his surprise, as he's on his way to slaughter this group of humans and pig out on their remains, but instead, he finds the little one. The subject of his infatuation.

He dropped down to his knees, as close to the sleeping pair as he dared. It was amazing the older one hadn't woken up yet, he had never been able to get so close before. Something must truly be off for him to be such a heavy sleeper.

He stared in pure envy at the wolf. The kid was pulled tightly against his chest, while the half-breed's cheek rested on his soft black hair. Why did he get to touch him, and sleep with him? No Fair!

Slowly, so as not to startle him awake, he leaned over, brushing his fingers over Luffy's cheek. The kid whined, turning his head slightly, but didn't wake up. He moved his wandering fingers to the kid's hair, careful to keep them away from Ace's face.

The wolf was tied to a tree, he wasn't going anywhere. He stared down at Luffy's face.

He could grab the kid, right now! Run off with him before the wolf even realized what happened.

But he shook his head dismissing the thought. His fingers knotting into the hair. Luffy would hate him. Even if he tried to explain he was doing it for the human's own good he wouldn't listen. He might even start attacking him. The thought made him frown. Even if he tried to make him see reason, he would always choose the half breed and the runaway noble over him. If he ever did anything to hurt them Luffy would never forgive him.

As if sensing his thoughts the wolf curled protectively over the kid, his arms tightening almost painfully around him.

He was almost hoping that Ace would squeeze too hard just so he could be the hero and swoop in to 'save' Luffy. But the odds of that were about the same as his first plan. Like it or not the wolf was nothing if not careful with the delicate human. He seemed to know exactly how much strength would be harmful.

No, if he was going to do this he needed the wolf and vampire out of the way. But he couldn't be the one to do it. He had to appear completely blameless here. Just a compassionate and coincidental shoulder.

Going over to the nearest teenager, the elder blond-haired one, he searched his pockets pulling out his phone. Walking back over to the sleeping two he knelt down on one knee, snapping a few pictures. He examined each carefully as he smiled. Yes, this would do very nicely. He licked his lips.

"Soon little one." He promised standing up, "Hopefully very soon."

.

Ace woke up with a small groan. After so many sleepless nights those few hours hadn't been enough, but they were still more than he should have taken. That was a bit of a stupid move, falling asleep in the middle of a pack of hunters. Then again it wasn't exactly intentional. Besides, it didn't look like anything had happened. He glanced down at Luffy still sleeping against him. A few more minutes wouldn't hurt, it's not like he was going anywhere after all. He settled back down.

Was it just his imagination or did Luffy smell a bit…?

He frowned as he leaned down sniffing his cheek. He continued the trail down his neck looking for anything out of the ordinary.

"Ace?" The boy asked sleepily as he tried to sit up. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Ace told him, refusing to let him get up. He licked his cheek, holding Luffy still as he laughed. Satisfied the smell was gone he leaned back.

"What do you think Sabo is doing right now?"

Ace shrugged, "Probably sleeping, that's all he does when we're not around."

Luffy nodded, "he said he had to go to some meeting, I bet he was sad we left."

Ace nodded, understanding what Luffy was getting at. He honestly did feel guilty they left Sabo when he needed a little moral support. "That's okay, we can make it up to him when we get back."

They were silent for a few moments before Ace tensed up.

"What is it?"

"Vampires."

Luffy tensed in his arms, "how many?"

"I'm not sure, but quite a few."

"What should we do?"

Ace sighed, "You grab the others and go, I'll hold them off as long as I can."

Luffy pushed himself up, "No way, I want to stay with you."

Ace just shook his head, "you want to help your friend right?"

Luffy nodded reluctantly.

"I'll be fine stupid," Ace said flicking his forehead, "Worry about yourself."

Luffy bit his lip but didn't argue further as he pulled out his knife and sliced the ropes tethering Ace to the root.

"Are you sure?"

"Go," Ace said pushing him away.

Luffy gave him a final look before taking off across the clearing. Zoro who had been taking a short nap was rudely awakened by Luffy jumping on top of him.

"What?" He groaned rolling over trying to push the boy away.

"Vampires," Luffy told them, "A lot of them."

Ussop, who had been pretending to sleep shot up whimpering. "What do we do?"

"We go to your grandma right?" Luffy said as Zoro sat up beside him.

"It's not like we can just ignore a group of vampires," Sanji pointed out as he also rose.

"Ace is going to stay," Luffy told them with a pout that obviously said what he thought about that.

"The hunters too, no doubt," Marco said raising his weapon.

"Alright, you guys go, I'm going to back him up."

Thatch sighed as he put a hand on his friend's shoulder, "not alone you're not, I'm coming too."

"You sound like you stole your lines from cheesy 80's movies," Zoro told them as he clipped the swords to his belt.

"Shut up," Marco said as he turned his head blushing in embarrassment. In all honesty, he was worried about Ace. Sure the kid was strong but he couldn't be older than the two of them. He honestly didn't trust the hunters when it came to Ace and he doubted the kid could take on both human and vampire alike. Wolf or not he wasn't indestructible.

"We'll meet up with you guys later." He told them. Before he could go Luffy caught his arm, handing him the crossbow.

"Good luck."

Marco smirked at that, "No luck involved, just good old fashion target practice."

.

Whitebeard sighed as his attention once again left to stare vacantly out the window.

"So the plan to find the missing children?" Someone asked.

The same missing children, mind you, that went missing last time. Namely his son Marco.

"Theirs's already a squad of hunters out looking for them, I'm sure they've located them by now." Dragon said, his voice tense, as always.

"I'm sure they will be fine," Garp spoke up. "I think we are all aware that there's something those kids aren't telling us. Whatever guided them back last time might do it again."

Dragon frowned, clenching his fists at the comment. "It's great you have so much faith," he said sarcastically, "But I assure you there's nothing in those woods but monsters."

"Besides," He continued after a few moments of tense silence, "we all know home is not where they're headed."

That's true, they were going to Ussops grandmother's house to deliver medicine. At first light, the town had sent a car to deliver it. But considering it had to go around the forest it was doubtful it would make it in time. The orange-haired girl had told them as much, but only after she was sure they would have no chance catching her friends.

The meeting was interrupted by a knock on the door. Monet, the secretary came in holding a cell phone.

"Someone left this at the door, I found it this morning."

Whitebeard froze as he instantly recognized it. He stood up so suddenly his the chair toppled over. Monet made no move to stop him as he snatched the cell phone from her.

"Problem?"

"It's my sons," he said carefully inspecting it. Why would someone go through the trouble of giving his son's phone back to him? Was it a message from Marco? He opened it, surprised to find it already on. A picture flooded the screen. Two boys, both with black hair were sleeping together. The older one was tethered to the ground on a short leash, his arms pressing the smaller one against him. His freckled cheek resting on spikey black hair. A vaguely familiar oversized red hoodie trailed behind him like a cape.

Whitebeard frowned as he flicked through the photos.

"What the hell?"

"What is it?"

They were all the same, of the two boys. Some were taken from different angles as the person was obviously creeping closer to them. There were dozens of pictures, many of which focused on the younger boy. The only hint of who had taken them was a heavily tattooed hand resting on the Younger one's cheek. Why was this on his son's phone? Was he trying to tell him something? Or, had someone taken his phone. Judging by the hand it was the latter. What was the point of that? Even better who were those boys, they looked vaguely familiar. The lot of them sent shivers up his spine as the photos were obviously candid.

"What is it?" Garp asked as he mutely handed him the phone. His face quickly twisted into confusion as he scrolled through the pictures. The confusion however was quickly replaced by a plethora of emotions ranging from guilt to sorrow and then back to anger. He glanced up at Dragon quickly before looking back down at the phone.

"What?" Dragon said impatiently.

"Nothing," Garp said gruffly snapping the phone shut.

Dragon raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

"Mind if I hold onto this for a bit?"

Whitebeard shook his head. Even if he wanted to protest he didn't feel like he should. Whatever the old man was worked up about it was important. He clearly did not wish to share it with Dragon. His face was more serious than he had ever seen before on the usually good-natured man.

"Excuse me then," He said grabbing his coat as he stood up, "I'll let you know if I find anything else."

White Beard nodded mutely. He was worried, even more with the mysterious appearance of his son's phone. But at the same time he trusted his son, he knew how to take care of himself. He was doing it to help a friend after all. He wasn't one to charge in blindly, he had a plan. Hopefully, it was a good one.

'Be safe Marco.'

Did the creepy pictures scare you? Because that definitely creeped me out to write. More on the later, hopefully much later. BTW, how Luffy and Ace were sleeping was based off a picture of sleeping wolf siblings. It's the cutest thing ever! Also that thing Ace always does where he rests his chin on Luffy's head is common in wolf culture.

SEllen23: Here's another cliffy, sorry but otherwise it was way too long. I hope you liked it! We will get the whole backstory later!

PsychopathOnADiet: Yay! Thank you. Poor Sanji didn't have a lot of lines here. If all goes well the war is still a ways off.

Phonenix: I will! There was a bit of foreshadowing as Garp recognized him in the photo. Plus now there's a stalker obsessed with ruining their life, so that's bound to become an issue later. Especially if it was Dragon who had seen it first instead.

Arxhaelologist: Thank you! Unfortunately Sanji did not have many lines here, but he will get more in the next one. Lol, yea sorry that was a typo. As much as I try I still miss many mistakes. I would get a beta but that would mean the chapters would be slower. I will go back and correct that, thank you.

OctaveTea: Aww, thank you! Their so cute together! I hope you like the cute cuddling scene! I definitely had fun writing it. Hopefully he will show up soon.

Guest 1: Thank you! Hope you like it!

Guest 2: Yes! Many-a-cliffhangers, thank you!

Guest 3: If you're confused about anything just ask me!

PipeDream: (I apologize in advance for the long reply) I was keeping the ages out of it so everyone could make up their own! But making Luffy younger is a good point! I hadn't thought of that. The way I see it is Marco and Thatch are seniors so their around 18, Ace is a little younger than them so he's 17/18. Zoro and Sanji are juniors so they are 17ish. Ussop Is a freshmen so he is around 15. Luffy is around the same age so he is 14/15 but I could definitely see 13 as well! I have no idea with Sabo, he could be Ace's age but he's also a vampire so he could be older (I've been trying to avoid thinking about it) everyone in the forest is older (and a creep), so to them Luffy is a little kid. He is notable smaller then almost everyone, except maybe Ussop, but either way he is definitely the youngest of the bunch. He can ride Ace because wolves are freaking huge! Even a relatively small one like Ace. But either way you are welcome to make up your own ages for them!

NovaTheHedgehog7500: AWW! Thank you, you're so nice! I hope you like it!