"Well, now you have your answer…that is why I didn't turn him. Why I didn't take him."

"But that still doesn't explain why you didn't take him with you," Brenna went on. "Even if he was turned by those other werewolves, it was done on your territory. Plus, they left him to you, basically giving up any claim to him. It is perfectly within your right to take him. Now that you let him go…he's free game, and I hate to say it Fenrir, but you just missed your opportunity."

Fenrir studied Brenna, contemplating what to tell her. "You are young yet, Brenna. You don't understand the danger of true…temptation. Humans are frail, so very fragile. Giving the situation, one scrape, one scratch would be enough to condemn him to death…if he is already turned. And given his attitude, there is no doubt he would antagonize the pack, inevitable that there would be a scuffle. Not only would he need to be constantly supervised around the pack, I don't trust anyone but myself to do it, and I can't do that right now." He didn't tell her that he was more worried that he couldn't control himself around Adam, and not the pack.

But she was right, Adam was free game now. He had his chance to take him in, introduce him to the pack, claim him as one of his own, but he let him go. Now just any werewolf could lay claim to Adam, and there would be little he could do without starting a battle. It was somewhat risky, yes, but it had to be done. Adam survived this long in anonymity, without bringing himself to the attention of werewolves, so Fenrir was certain Adam could do so again. Perhaps. Those two other werewolves knew of Adam's existence, and Fenrir wasn't sure if they would still bother with him now that he was out of their clutches.

Adam did challenge them though, and thoroughly humiliated them in the process. It wasn't something easily forgotten. Adam, a human, got away, and their Alpha would guess what happened by scent alone; there would be nothing they could do to hide the fact. To turn someone, and to lose them to another Alpha that very same day, wasn't something taken lightly. They would likely be moved down to the status of Omega, the worse position for a werewolf. It was now a question if they dared to come back and confirm if Fenrir retrieved Adam for himself. If Fenrir was in their position, he would, so he could only assume they would do just that. Soon, they would discover Adam wasn't part of his pack, that Adam was alone, and they would search for him.

Fenrir was one step ahead of them on that at least. He knew Adam's full name and the school he went to; it would be easy to track him down, and once he did, he would make sure Adam was kept safe from any other werewolves. It would be easy too; all he had to do was to make sure that Adam bore his scent at all times and that would warn most werewolves away. Usually.

"You're probably right Fenrir, like you always are," said Brenna, breaking Fenrir away from his thoughts. "I'm sure you'll be happy to have this. Adam's scent covers it, I'm sure it is his, and it will give you a reason to see him again." Brenna took out a curious necklace that bore a Celtic symbol and the initials MC. "I found it at the fire pit."

"What do you suppose the initials stand for…whose initials are they," Fenrir asked, not really expecting an answer. He took it, finding it was a valid reason to see Adam again.

"I don't know. His girlfriend?" Brenna teased. Fenrir didn't like that explanation, but it did bring up an important question. Was Adam straight? If he was, Fenrir promised himself he would change Adam's mind. "Or maybe his boyfriend?"

"Brenna-"

"Fenrir! Ah, there you are, I looked all over for you. I have our status report ready now," a rather tall man interrupted. He was muscular, like all werewolves tended to be, but not as big as Fenrir, the Alpha. This newcomer went by the name Bisclavret, and he is Fenrir's second-in-command, his beta. He was one of the few who could look Fenrir in the eye and come out unscathed.

He glared at Brenna, silently telling her to leave immediately. Brenna averted her eyes and reverted to her wolf form, scampering away, inwardly seething at the treatment. Impressed, Bisclavret commented, "She has excellent control over her wolf for someone so young; that happens so rarely. It takes a lifetime to have such control, and that is if one is lucky. To this day, I still have trouble transforming into my wolf form without the full moon."

"Such is the power of all natural born werewolves," Fenrir replied. "Being one with their wolf side since the womb, it is only expected that they have complete mastery of it."

"Brenna…she was born from a werewolf? How am I not aware of this?"

Shrugging, Fenrir responded, "You never bothered to talk with her. Either way, it should have been obvious." Impatient now, Fenrir commanded, "The report?"

"Oh yes. We have five new allies; small packs that somehow survived on their own. They were reluctant at first, but as soon as I mentioned your name, Fenrir, they readily agreed. They want protection and in exchange, they'll do anything. I wouldn't put too much faith in them however, but it is a start. I await your command to integrate them into the rest of the pack."

"No, not yet. I want to see them personally before anything happens. Is that all?"

"Um, no. Fenrir, I figured out why we have been having so much trouble gathering allies. It is all thanks to one Alpha, whose name is yet to be revealed. He is a relatively new Alpha, but he holds much sway over the wolf populace here. As far as I know, he's been in power only a few short years, which must mean he is strong, to have the loyalty of so many wolves."

"A natural born werewolf?"

"I don't know. I don't know anything about the man. Every werewolf I've come across refuses to talk about him. For some reason, he wants to remain incognito." Wise indeed, Fenrir thought. The unknown was always more frightening, it gave him an advantage that Fenrir didn't like.

"And he opposes us, yes?"

"No, I don't think so. At least, not openly. But, he does have the loyalty of all the werewolves here; no one wants to join our cause. He must be doing a damn good job! Or maybe they fear going against him. Either way, I suggest moving to another location."

"No! Not yet." Bisclavret only raised his eyebrow in question, but Fenrir ignored it. "But I'll consider your suggestion. Dismissed!" After Bisclavret left, Fenrir examined the Celtic symbol, sniffing in Adam's scent. Soon, it would be time to pay him a visit.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Brent! You bastard, I have a bone to pick with you." Not waiting for a reply, Adam forcibly shoved Brent into the kitchen, to the dismay of the customers Brent was serving. "I almost got killed because of you," he fairly shrieked.

Brent gave Adam a look over, his smile widening. "You look awful."

"Ya think! I can't believe you. You gave me an unloaded weapon," Adam whispered angrily, in case someone over heard.

Brent blinked. "It was unloaded? Really?" Then he did his typical smirk, which made Adam hit him in response.

"Yes, it was! And I almost got killed thanks to it!"

"You're still here though. C'mon, tell me what happened," he edged on, rubbing the sore spot on his arm absentmindedly from where Adam punched. Damn, Adam wasn't holding back.

"Two wolves attacked me. They tried to eat me." As soon as he said, Adam saw the disbelief written over Brent's face. Then Brent had the gall to laugh.

"Nice one, Adam. But can't this wait until my break?"

"Brent, I'm serious! They really attacked me."

"You're-you're kidding-kidding, right?" Brent only laughed harder causing Adam to hit him fiercely again. Brent held up his hands in surrender, "Ok, ok, I'm done laughing," only to have a few chuckles escaping his lips. "Tell me what happened."

"I just did, Brent!"

"Ok, even if wolves did attack you…how did you escape?" Brent asked, his face scrunched up in effort to hold back his laughter. "Do you know how absurd this sounds?" Brent asked, giving a hearty guffaw.

"It's not funny Brent! And you could ask the creeper that saved me. I'm not 'kidding' you, Brent." Something in Adam's face must've convinced Brent because he stopped laughing. "I almost died because of you."

"Sorry, I didn't know it was unloaded. My dad must've taken the bullets out; he doesn't believe in guns. But do you know how ironic this is? After our conversation last night?" Brent barely held in his mirth, until Adam chortled, then he let it all out. "Man, Adam, you have the worse luck."

"Tell me about it. I was stuck up in a tree for the longest time, until this weird guy scared the wolves away. He's a real creeper."

"You were stuck up in a tree…hahahaha." It took a good minute for Brent to calm down enough to ask, "And what was the creeper's name?"

Adam, about to tell him, stopped. A guy named Fenrir, saving him from wolves…he didn't think Brent would be to handle the irony in that, although he wasn't sure if Brent knew his Norse mythology. He didn't risk it; chances are Brent would think Adam was joking about the whole thing if he did. "I don't know his name, but he was creeeeepy. I think he was gay, he kept touching me."

"Oh Adam, I can always count on you to make the day interesting. Are you going to take your shift?"

"Nah, you owe me. I almost got killed in case you fail to realize. Every time Jacob isn't going to be around, you will take my shift if you can. And as soon as I think of something else for payback, I'll let you know."

Expecting Brent to argue, Brent surprised Adam when he only nodded and said, "Stay away from wolves and gay men, I have work to do." He left, giving one last wave. It was telling how guilty Brent must've been feeling for him to agree without argument. Though, that didn't stop Brent from chuckling on his way out of the kitchen.

It was one of the things Adam liked about Brent. He didn't usually come right out and said sorry, he did it through actions. He would still be an asshole about it, to be sure, but it didn't matter because Adam was never uncertain that he was sorry.

Climbing the steps that lead to the apartment above slowly, Adam realized that how tired he was. He was going to take a nice long nap but first things first. Passing Nathan's old room on the way, he entered it with every intention of putting the necklace on Nathan's dresser until he became aware that he didn't have it anymore.

Thinking hard and apprehensively, he tried to figure out what could have happened to it. He knew he was holding when the two wolves tried to kill him, but he didn't remember what happened to it after that, so many other things were going on. Groaning, he finally decided that it was still at the fire pit. That meant he would have to go back, and he wasn't looking forward to that.

Sorry Nathan, you're just going to have to wait.

Aside from a thin film of dust that covered everything, Nathan's room was just as it was the day he died. Neat and orderly, not an object was misplaced. Trophies lined the wall, sports paraphernalia occupied their own corner, pictures lined the wall, and the bed was neatly made. Yes, the golden child of the Callaghan family, perfect and pristine, loved by all.

How could Adam ever hope to live up to his memory?