Part 5

"So what's this family secret you hinted at in the restaurant?" asked Hotch whose curiosity was nearly killing him, although he tried his best to be patient, which he was renowned for.

Spencer had tried his best on the way over to Aaron's apartment to figure out how to tell him about werewolves and make him believe it. Finally he had come to the same conclusion he had every time he thought about it and that was to give him a practical demonstration. Of course, some form of explanation was going to be required first.

"Did you ever used to be books is a kid about fantastical creatures, like vampires, unicorns, werewolves?" asked Spencer.

Hotch was startled at the question, but figured that Reid had a very good reason for asking it of him and so he thought about it. He knew that Spencer Reid never asked questions, unless he was going somewhere with it that he couldn't just come right out and say.

"Not really, as I wasn't much into fantasy as a child, but then my upbringing would never have allowed for such things as reading fantasy novels. My parents were fairly strict, my mother in particular, and she didn't believe a child should have too much free time, to be just that. She felt that if a child or children were given nothing to do, they tended to get into mischief."

When Spencer heard Hotch's quiet explanation his heart went out to his mate as he realized that his childhood had been tougher in it's own way then his own had been. However, this left him in something of a quandary as he was hoping to use the references from some fantasy novels to get Hotch to understand that werewolves were real.

"You're trying to tell me something important with you question, weren't you?" Hotch asked suddenly.

Reid nodded, but did not reply verbally, still thinking rapidly about how to get his mate to believe that werewolves were real as he didn't want to mess this up since not only was it his last chance for happiness, but it would also mean his death if Hotch refused the bond.

Hotch thought about the question Reid had asked. Spencer Reid who was usually very logical and didn't seem like the kind to read fantasy had asked about unicorns, vampires and werewolves. Why would Reid ask such a question? asked Hotch to himself. It was a rather strange question coming from someone like Reid who was usually very scientific and as had already been stated very logical. Scientists did not support theories on vampires, unicorns and werewolves. To people who believed science was the answer to every question in the universe they did not believe in such things and since Reid was a scientist at heart even if he had decided to work for the FBI... It made no sense, Hotch's mind cried out in frustration. Suddenly the answer came to him in a moment of blinding clarity, but no that couldn't be right, could it? Was Reid trying to tell him that he was one of those creatures he had named? That had to be the answer, but did he really believe that Reid was some kind of fantastic beast? The only one that made sense in the three creatures Reid had named was a werewolf, because he couldn't be a vampire because he had seen Reid eating on multiple occasions, including tonight, not to mention he wasn't pale like the vampires in the movies and a unicorn didn't make any sense in this case.

"You're trying to tell me that you're a werewolf, because vampires and unicorns don't make any sense in this particular case," Hotch said

Reid not it still not speaking, as if afraid to break the rather tense silence.

"Can you prove it?" Hotch challenged.

"Yes," Reid answered quietly.

"Right this minute? Or are we going to have to wait until the next full moon?" asked Hotch just a little sarcastically, although normally sarcasm wasn't like him at all.

"I can give you a demonstration right this minute," Reid said quietly much to Hotch's surprise. "Unlike in the books or the movies we don't have to change only on the full moon and in that way we are more like shapeshifters then true werewolves."

Hotch nearly smiled at the familiar tone in Reid's voice when he lectured about something, but stopped himself at the last minute.

"Alright then, what do you need to prove it?" asked Hotch his tone extremely skeptical.

"Just for you to stand back and for me to go into the guestroom and get out of my clothes as I don't want to rip them to shreds, since I didn't bring any spares," Reid requested.

Hotch nodded and showed Reid to the guestroom where the younger man shut the door and Hotch immediately heard him taking off his shoes, and then his slacks falling to the floor. Finally only a couple of minutes later Reid opened the door tentatively and then came into the hallway buck naked.

Hotch barely stopped himself from salivating at the sight of Reid naked form because he'd had no idea that the younger man was so built, although more like a runner then a wrestler, but still he had considerable muscle in his arms and his legs, that Hotch would love to kiss, lick and nip. Just seeing Reid naked made his brain nearly turn to mush, but he managed to pull himself together, barely.

Hotch tried not to look at him so he wouldn't give away his reactions quite yet as he led the younger man back to the living room where there was more space.

Once they arrived Hotch stood far back and Reid stood there for a few seconds closing his eyes and concentrating. Hotch watched intently and in fascination as Reid slowly changed shape. Reid's tall form started to grow a dark brown fur, the same color as his hair all over his body and then his hands and feet turned into paws, and his nose and mouth turned into a snout. Finally Reid fell to his knees…er paws and the rest of him seemed to change more swiftly after that.

Finally after only a couple of minutes the transformation was complete and a brown wolf stood on all four legs shakily at first and then with more confidence shaking his entire body, so that his fur would settle.

Reid padded gently forward, but stopped a foot away from Hotch waiting for the older man to acknowledge him before he moved any closer. Slowly Reid started to wag his tail as if to reassure his mate that it was really him and then he barked softly at the look of utter amazement on the older man's face.

Hotch got the impression that the wolf was laughing at him, which was well possible since that wolf was really Dr. Spencer Reid. Hotch had watched the transformation with amazement, and still had trouble believing what he had actually seen. He pinched himself just to make sure he wasn't dreaming and the wolf seeing the action barked softly again and this time Hotch was sure that Reid in his wolf form was laughing at him so he glared at the wolf who looked intimidated as he ears went back and his his body seemed to shrink a little, but only for a moment.

Finally Reid turned towards the guestroom and seemed to be asking silently, Can I change back now or are you going to just stare at me all night?

Hotch approached the wolf tentatively at first, but when Reid didn't make any aggressive moves he grew more confident and finally he was kneeling on his knees and petting Reid's fur softly.

Reid seemed to revel in his touch and actually butted his head softly against his hand when his fingers stopped scratching the stuff of his neck.

"Alright, I believe you," Hotch told him rising to his feet. "Why don't you go change back as we have quite a few things to discuss."

Reid nodded his head and padded towards the guestroom and was out a sight in just a few seconds.

Hotch sat on the couch waiting for Reid to return and went over in his mind what had happened in the last few minutes still utterly amazed at what he had seen.

He had to believe that werewolves were real considering he had seen Reid change right in front of his eyes, but this meant that if Reid was a werewolf it was likely his six brothers were all wolves as well and probably the Aunt Shannon that the younger man had mentioned a few times. Hotch wondered if both of Reid's parents were also wolves or just one of them and how werewolves were actually real. He supposed he would have to ask the man himself at some point, although it didn't seem that important right at the moment.

Reid came back into the room and stood in the entryway as if afraid to approach him and Hotch gestured at the couch and Reid nodded, striding across the room and sitting on the opposite side of the couch from where Hotch was.

"So are you going to explain how you're werewolf? Were you born this way?" asked Hotch.

"Yes, I was," Reid answered calmly, "and so were my brothers."

"So are there more you?" asked Hotch next.

"Yes, there is a whole community of us," Reid calmly explained. "You will find packs of werewolves in almost any major city, but we mostly keep to our own kind, although this is not always true of course. A lot of werewolves work among you humans and you never even know it as we are always careful to only transform when no one else is around and usually when we're in a forest."

"Alright, I can understand keeping it a secret," Hotch acknowledged, "but since it is so secret why tell me?"

Reid had been afraid that his mate would ask that question before he was ready to give him an answer and so of course, it had occurred.

"I'm sure you can figure out if you think about it why I told you," Reid prevaricated.

Hotch recognized an evasion when he heard one, so he thought about all the reasons that Reid could possibly want or even need to tell him, his secret. It wasn't like Reid was telling him that he was secretly married or that he had another dozen brothers and sisters that he didn't know about. No, what Reid had told him was probably the most well kept secret in the world and Hotch couldn't blame the werewolf communities around the world one bit for that secrecy. He knew very well what would happen if they were ever discovered. There would be a massacre and not only werewolves would be killed, but humans to, including countless children on both sides.

Hotch reviewed what little he knew about real wolves figuring that werewolves were at least similar. It took Hotch all of two minutes to review what he knew about real wolves and the only conclusion he could come to was that he was Reid's mate. He wasn't exactly sure how wolves identified their mate and he didn't know if it was all similar to the way that werewolves did, but he was sure that Reid would be happy to tell him. If Hotch was correct in his conclusion he wondered why Reid hadn't told him sooner and then mentally slapped himself for being stupid. Of course, Reid hadn't told him any sooner because they hadn't known each other until a little over a year ago and were complete strangers until them.

"We are mates, aren't we?" Hotch asked bluntly as he wasn't in the mood to dance around the subject.

"Yes," Reid answered and for the first time in quite awhile looked directly into Hotch's dark eyes.

"What precisely does that mean to a werewolf?" asked Hotch

"Well…" Reid begin. "Once a werewolf finds their mate, their True Mate, they can't really live without them, so if the werewolf in question is rejected if the mate is human, one of two things happen."

Hotch raised an eyebrow in question.

"The werewolf in question either suicides, without harming anyone, but himself, or they go on a killing rampage and it's usually dealt with by the rest of the local pack," Spencer said.

Hotch winced at that. He could well imagine that the other werewolves in a local pack would hunt down the rogue and kill him before humans could find out about what they were. If a human did find out it wasn't hard to imagine that they didn't live very long afterwards and had their throat torn out before they could get away.

"Yes, it's not a very pleasant reality to think about that, but I'm sure you can understand why it is necessary," Reid said and Hotch nodded. "Sometimes the a werewolves mate does survive if their other half dies for whatever reason just like Aunt Shannon did when her husband Kennedy was killed by a hunter, which doesn't happen very often. As I told Brock awhile back I think Aunt Shannon is one of the bravest women I know because she didn't kill herself to follow her mate into death like so many werewolves do."

"I don't like it, but I do understand the necessary of it," Hotch said.

"Neither do I and I was raised a werewolf," Reid informed him.

"So you're telling me that if I reject you, you will either suicide or go on a killing rampage," Hotch said making sure he had his facts straight.

"In my case it would be suicide, because even though I know some werewolves survive without their other halves I wouldn't be one of them, as I am not that type to put up with the pain of being separated from you until we met again in heaven." Reid said and watched Hotch wince. "However, also in my case I would I'd wait until my brothers were in college next year and then do it after making sure I left them all my money, including the money that belonged to dad that passed to me when he committed suicide when I was 13. The money that dad made before he took his own life, has been enough for me and my brothers to live quite comfortably for the last 11 years, although Aunt Shannon had control of it until I turned 17."

"So how have you managed to not do what you're suggesting until now?" asked Hotch just a little curiously.

"Well, for one thing I work around you every day and that helps. Besides, once a werewolf finds their True Mate, if they are human they do have a little time to get to know that individual, although in that case it all has to do with that werewolves tolerance level and how strong their will is."

"What do you mean by tolerance level?" asked Hotch.

"Well, when a werewolf finds their mate they just know it instantly," Reid begin to explain. "I'm sure you know that a wolf's nose is extremely sensitive to smells, just like any dogs, although in our case since we're human most of time our nostrils would still have to be extremely sensitive in our human forms."

Hotch worked that out in his head and it didn't take him very long at all. "So you're saying that a werewolf knows their mate by scent?"

"Yes, I knew the second I walked into your office over a year ago that you were mine. I had a very hard time not letting my fangs drop and immediately jumping your bones, especially since I wasn't prepared for it when your scent hit my nostrils as I certainly didn't expect to find my mate the minute I start my new job," Reid said.

"That's why you went all stiff for a few seconds," Hotch said suddenly remembering that.

"Yes," Reid admitted blushing, "I was fighting every instinct I had, because they were all going into overdrive at the same time. If I didn't have a stubborn streak a mile wide I probably would have given into what my inner wolf wanted me to do."

"Jumping on top of me and ripping my clothes off, wouldn't've gone over well," Hotch said dryly and Reid smiled and shrugged sheepishly.

"Don't think I didn't fantasize about doing exactly that on multiple occasions over the last year after I had gotten my initial reaction under control," Reid said.

"So were you ever going to tell me or were you just going to work quietly beside me for years without saying anything?" asked Hotch.

"I would've had to have said something, eventually," Reid told Hotch with a dry smile, "since your scent was driving me absolutely bonkers because I knew I couldn't touch you or even let my feelings for you be obvious for all to see. I was considering telling you in another year, if I had lasted that long, because I might have a stubborn streak a mile wide, but it was getting harder and harder to be around you every day, especially in close quarters like an airplane cabin. My brothers know that you are my mate and urged me to do something, to let you know my feelings and I told them that it was too soon that we needed more time to get to know each other before I said anything."

"So is having a mate who is your own sex common among werewolves?" asked Hotch, curiously.

"Most werewolves have mates of the opposite sex, although we are taught as pups that we can't really settle on one sex or the other, because you might believe you like girls, but then it turns out that your mate is a male. Great tragedies have occurred in past centuries when some werewolves have discovered that their mates as the same sex they were, but because of their early childhood training by their parents that it was wrong to like their own sex most of those wolves committed suicide and usually took their mate with them in the process, so now it is taught that you can't really settle on one sex or the other, because even if males think they like women or vice versa that's not always the case. Some families disapprove of this method of teaching, but they really don't have any say in the matter as it is the Alpha that runs the pack responsibility and werewolves never choose a leader that doesn't have a liberal view of relationships as we won't have a situation where a tyrant controls us. Of course, despite our precautions it still happens occasionally."

"What else do I need to know about a werewolf mate?" asked Hotch.

"Just that the minute we have sex with each other, you become mine, until death do we part. Once a werewolf identifies their mate it is instantly irreversible at least from the werewolf's side, but the bond that is between True Mates does not begin to form until they have had sex for the first time. You still have a choice one way or the other whether you want to become my mate but once that decision is made it is a lifetime commitment, so if you're not sure you're ready for that you need to think long and hard about it before you decide."

"Oh, you mean like a marriage," Hotch said dryly not seeming at all disturbed by what he was being told.

Reid relaxed and laughed and said, "Exactly like. In fact, most werewolves don't go through a big formal ceremony especially if they are the same sex, although some do. Now if one of us was female it would be different and there would be a wedding to tie families together, especially since they're are almost always children involved at some point."

"Reid, while I've been trying to sort out my feelings for you for several weeks now, I know that I love you and the reason I invited you to dinner was because I decided to tell you of my feelings and hope that you felt the same way. I suspected you did, considering the looks you've been shooting me over the last year, but I wasn't a hundred percent certain. Acknowledging my feelings for you was a big step for me, as was inviting you to dinner. What I'm trying to say is that I made my decision when I invited you to have dinner with me. Of course, I wasn't exactly expecting the revelation that you're a werewolf and so are your brothers or that there are werewolves all over the world, but that doesn't change my feelings for you at all."

"So, are you ready for the next step that will tie our lives inevitably together?" asked Reid as calmly as possible, while the wolf inside him was silently cheering.

"Yes," Hotch answered firmly, "I am ready to make a lifetime commitment to you, just so long as you do the same. I've never truly been in love and no I'm not saying I haven't had relationships in the past, although not in the last five or so years, just that I've never been deeply, irreversibly and completely in love before."

"Good," Reid almost growled sounding extremely possessive, which was very unlike him, but then the wolf inside him was taking over rapidly and his normal golden brown eyes were changing to the amber of his wolf form. "You are mine now and nobody had better try to separate us or they will regret ever being born and that includes Erin Strauss."

Hotch noticed the change that had come over his soon-to-be lover, and immediately thought he knew the reason that Reid was suddenly looking so possessive and why his eyes had changed to an amber that Hotch knew were the color his eyes changed to when in his wolf form.

Hotch thought the wolf that was part of Reid's makeup was taking over temporarily now that he had told the younger man not only how he felt, but that he was ready to make a lifetime commitment. He was sure that the rest of the night would be amazing and that neither of them would be getting much sleep, so he was at least glad that tomorrow was Saturday and they had it off since they weren't already out of town on a case.

"Let's go to bed so I can spend the rest of the night showing you how much I love you, like I've been wanting to for the last year," Reid said and Hotch nodded looking eager as he was sure the next few hours would be spectacular and something that both he and Reid would want to repeat as often as time allowed.

~~~Spencer and Aaron~~~