Steve freezes at the shouts coming from the crowd surrounding him.
They know.
Oh god, they know.
He was backed into a corner with no escape. A dark, dead end alleyway. Even with his enhanced strength he wouldn't be able to get out of this unscathed.
Maybe if he changed he could possibly make it out of here, but that would be even more dangerous. He would be vulnerable while he transitioned.
Steve presses himself flat against the wall. A bottle flies at him, landing near his head. Steve flinches back.
It may be his only chance. Steve falls onto his hands and knees, shifting into his wolf form. The people surrounding him scream louder.
Tony carefully follows the sound of people screaming and shouting, his curiosity getting the better of him. He shouldn't, he knew better. Things were dangerous for folk like himself. But it was the kind of morbid curiosity in like of that of watching a car crash.
The noise leads him to a large crowd swarming around a small alley. It's a huge fight, but the numbers seem to be heavily skewed. The noise is atrocious, he can hardly make out a word anyone is saying. Or who they are fighting.
And there is blood. Blood everywhere. Pooling out into the street.
People, too injured to continue to fight, stand off to the side and cheer the other's on. Some leave to tend to their wounds.
Taking a few calming breaths he turns away. He couldn't be here. One foot in front of the other, he leaves, thankful for his meal an hour ago.
A low, canid whine stopes him in his tracks. A werewolf.
Tony bites his lip anxiously. The relationship between vampires and werewolves where tenuous at best. But his mother and father had had good dealings with werewolves in the past and had spoken well of them; one having served alongside his father during the war.
He couldn't turn away.
Standing up tall he lets out a threatening hiss.
"You will leave. Now!" he commands in a dark voice.
"Shit! It's a fucking vampire!" one man shouts, razing the bloodied wooden post in hands. "Ain't we in luck, boys" another crows.
Well, there was no blacking out of this now. He runs at the crowd, baring his large fangs.
A fair number of the crowd flees while they can, knowing he has the advantage under the light of the moon. Faster and stronger than a human, and healed by the moons soft light. Now it was them who were backed into a corner.
His whole life had been dictated by the human's fear and hatred. He'd been bullied and hunted, seen as less than, because of his nature. Of who he was. Just like that werewolf, broken and bleeding, in the alley.
Tony didn't pull his punches.
When the fight was over and the humans had either fled or were killed, he approached the wolf. The wolf's fur was matted with blood and dirty. Tony anxiously shakes the wolf, but gets no response from the man.
He held his hand up to the wolf's nose, feeling for breaths. The man's gums where pale and his breath shallow and hurried.
Tony sighs. He couldn't call 911 or an ambulance, they wouldn't take in a werewolf. Maybe a vampire, things were getting better marginally, especially with how close they could pass for human. But werewolves were still largely considered savage and disease-ridden by humans and condemned.
"JARVIS? Send Happy around, please" he commands, the charm around his wrist shines in response. The best bet for the wolf-man was to take him back home.
Thanking his enhanced strength he picks up the werewolf of the bloodied ground. The man's eyes shoot open and he howls out in pain. But the large body in his arms has no strength to fight back.
"Hey, I got you. I'm going to take you somewhere safe." He says, hopping to calm the withering man down. "Is there anyone I can contact? A pack?" he asks. He can feel the man's blood running down his arms and down his front.
The wolf whines and buriers his face into Tony's neck, his breath weak and rapid against his skin.
Tony stares at the man resting in his bed. He imagines the man was feeling as confused and frightened as he was right now. If not more, given how important mate bonding was for werewolves. Mating would change a werewolf's sent, and depending on the bonding and to whom, could leave them to be excluded from their pack.
As a vampire he was mostly solitary, save his three friends: Happy, Pepper and Rhodey. It would be a lie to say he hadn't thought about mating. He had filled many nights toying with the idea of finding someone and giving them the claim. Just light fantasies, nothing serious, he figured that he would have at least a century or two before he would start to really think about finding a mate and setting down.
Now he had a tall, blonde man laying in his bed mated to him. If he was to guess it would have had to have happened sometime between when he found him and when he finished laying him up in the bed.
He didn't even know if the claim would even work of a werewolf, he would have to do reading on that. That's if he decides he wants to bond to the man in turn.
It left them both in a difficult position. The man was bonded to him for life and was going to have to deal with the consciences of that. While he was bond free. He could choose to walk out of the man's life, no problem.
But he had gotten to know the man as he tended to his injuries. He was smart and funny. Tony felt at ease around the man in a way he wasn't around others.
And he was attractive. Very attractive.
TBC
Notes: For the Hurt/Comfort Bingo February Challenge. Prompts: Accidental Mating For Life, Undeserved Reputation, Assault, and Blood Loss.
Undeserved Reputation = Human are fearful and prejudice against supernatural beings. (+ the mention on the stereotypes humans hold of werewolves.)
Assault = The mob attacks Steve. (and in turn, Tony attacks the mob)
Blood Loss = Steve looses a lot of blood due to the fight and suffers blood loss.
Accidental Mating For Life = Steve mate bonds to Tony.