Chapter 11: Fog

Just a dream.

At least, that's what Will wanted to believe. And did…for about ten minutes.

Which was just enough time to wake up, brush his teeth, quickly brush through his hair, thinking that everything he had gone through was merely fantasy and left only the tiniest of aches in his chest, and walk into the kitchen just to almost trip over a wolf.

He looked down, ready to scold Ghosty for falling asleep in the doorway, but he found himself meeting the melted-chocolate gaze of a wolf that wasn't Ghosty.

The wolf leapt to its feet. "Sorry! I didn't mean to fall asleep, but it was so warm…" it said in an ashamed voice. A child's voice. Will couldn't decide whether it was male or female.

The memories of last night flooded back to Will, making him stagger back a couple steps. It felt like a boulder decided to make itself at home in Will's chest, constricting his breathing and stopping his heart. Fuck, was the only thought on Will's mind. Fuck fuck fuck fuck not a dream.

The wolf, which was much smaller than Ghosty, tilted its head in concern. It padded forward, head held low, and asked, "Are you okay, sir?"

Will cleared his throat, patting his chest as though trying to force his heartrate to return to normal. It wasn't healthy the amount of times his heart had skipped beats in the last couple days—in the last months. "You—You're Aaron, aren't you?" he asked, his voice barely able to hold out over a whisper.

The wolf perked up at his words. "Yep! Babbo told me that you would know who I am! Did he talk about me much, mister? Did he tell you about that time with the sparrows? Oh! Oh! Wait! He told me you wouldn't know much about werewolves. Why is that, mister? Oooh! I could tell you the story with the sparrows! It was so much fun! The rest of the pack was laughing super hard after it happened!"

"Aaron, Stella-Fiore," Nico's voice piped in, voice slightly scolding and mostly amused. He came padding in wearing his Ghosty skin, giving his son a good-natured jab to the side. He snorted at Aaron's yip of surprise, the sound more happy than Will thought possible after what had happened last night. God, last night. "Leave Will alone, won't you? He's only just woken up. Let him at least eat, first."

Aaron tucked his tail between his legs. "But Babbo!" he whined.

"Aaron."

The younger wolf flinched and scampered off, muttering as he left the room.

Nico turned his head to Will, meeting his eyes in a look of solemn reflection.

In that moment, it was clear to Will how different the wolves were. Their eyes were the only things that looked similar—Aaron was leaner (and much younger) with glossy sun-kissed brown fur that gently eased from light to dark throughout his build. Not the midnight black all over Ghosty's body. Not to mention that the fur on Aaron had looked silky, rather than Ghosty's obvious coarseness.

Then he remembered that he was supposed to be mad at Ghosty—Nico—for lying to him, not staring at him like some star-struck fool.

Will shook his head, but he couldn't get the feeling of pure family out of his head. Aaron was definitely Nico's boy.

"Is he, Aaron I mean," Will cleared his throat when Nico gave him his best impression of a raised eyebrow as a wolf—it looked rather funny. "Adopted?"

Nico sighed so deeply that it shook his entire frame. "Come into the kitchen, Will, and I can explain as you eat." He trotted into the next room, leaving the blond with no choice but to follow.

The werewolf sat and waited for the chef to serve Will his food. Disgruntled, the blond noticed how all of the staff (however small) didn't at all seem concerned about Nico—Ghosty—or the new wolf. They acted either completely oblivious, or they were pointedly ignoring it. And Will had the sinking suspicion it was the former.

Nico caught Will's gaze as the man picked at his food and decided to answer. "I had to take precautionary measures to protect you, your daughter and my son," he murmured. "I can trust you and Clara to be kind and keep our secrets, but I cannot trust these people who work for you. I hope you can forgive me for that."

Though he kind of agreed with the werewolf's train of thought, Will merely grunted in reply.

Nico took that as a positive and changed subjects. "On to the matter of your previous question. Go ahead, eat. I won't talk if you don't eat even a little bit. Good. You were right to believe that he's adopted."

"What's so odd about that?" Will couldn't help but ask.

"Werewolves are very territorial," Nico replied, his voice deep and hoarse. Heavy with old anger and hurt. He took a deep breath, looked around the room, and exhaled. "Just…think about it. Back to last night, I told you that the only conclusion my pack would reach upon our situation would be that we were mates."

Will rubbed his forehead, staring down at his coffee mug. It made the entire conversation easier, to pretend that he was talking with a very normal and human Nico beside him. Even if their current conversation was less than normal. "Because werewolves are territorial."

"Unfortunately," Nico muttered. He scratched behind his ear with a hind paw, which had been Ghosty's way to share that he was irritated. "But they should know that I'm not like them. Not entirely. Especially after Aaron."

Will glanced over to see Ghosty's head hanging low, ears folded back. His claws scratched the dining room tiles as he thought over what to say next.

The wolf swallowed. "You see, I found Aaron when he was but a couple days old, at the most. Still hadn't even opened his eyes. But I stumbled upon him during a cold winter day while his mother and father was leaving him behind, two pups in their maws. I demanded to know why they didn't just ask another wolf to help them move him along, but they merely grunted runt and moved on. Never turned back to get him. Never saw them again." Nico snarled at nothing in particular, and Will caught a glance of brown fur in the doorway.

"Why did they leave?" Will asked.

Ghosty's—Nico's nose twitched. "Because only the Alpha pair are allowed to breed unless with approval from the pair. It was the previous Beta and an Omega that had bred, and they were promptly kicked out of the pack. But that doesn't mean that no one would have helped them take their last pup out of the territory with them! It was just that they did not care enough. Aaron had been close to death since birth. They believed that he wouldn't make it."

Aaron crept into the room and mumbled a small "Babbo…"

Nico didn't act surprised at seeing his son. He only seemed to fall further into the hole he had dug, his tail drooping. "Forgive me, Stella-Fiore. I did not want to hold secrets from him any longer. Do you want me to stop?"

The young wolf shook his head and pushed his nose into Nico's neck fur. "No, Babbo. Please keep going."

Aaron settled next to Nico as the older wolf turned back to Will and started talking again. "Since his own parents refused to take him in, there was no one in the pack who wanted him. Impure blood, they told me then. So he was left out to die. I was very young then. Hardly an adult for a werewolf, but I couldn't leave him to die. So I took him in with the help of my mother and sister."

Nico's voice quivered and cut off. Aaron pressed himself closer to his father, giving him a reassuring lick on the shoulder.

The scene both weirded Will out and broke his heart. If he was willing enough to try, it would still take him a very long time to see Ghosty as Nico and expect to hear that same voice come out of a wolf's mouth. But it seemed that he was trying to make up for his months of silence by telling Will about his adoption of his son, and Will could also see that it was hurting him to do so.

"You don't have to say anymore," Will said softly, receiving two surprised looks. "I understand—well, no, I don't, but I think I get the gist of it. You don't need to say anymore if it's going to hurt you."

Nico turned his head down and exhaled slowly. "There are many things that I want to tell you," he admitted. "And very few of them aren't going to hurt me this way. I will stop for now, though. You need to finish your breakfast, and Aaron needs some rest before he meets Clara. It's been a long journey."

"I can't sleep now!" Aaron yelped, sounding like how Will had been the previous night. "I want to keep talking to Will!"

Nico gave the smaller wolf another jab to the side. "There will be plenty of time to talk," Nico assured him. "Now go on to the guest room before I have to put you to sleep myself, you hear me? Go on, Stella-Fiore. You need rest."

"So do you," Aaron muttered.

"And I will join you in a few minutes, child," Nico answered. He waved a paw at him. "Now go on. Rest while you can."

Aaron must have heard something in Nico's words that Will hadn't quite caught, because he closed his jaws and nodded without complaint, pressed his nose one more time into his father's shoulder, and headed off in the direction of the guest bedroom.

As soon as his son had disappeared around the corner, Nico morphed before Will's eyes into his human persona and sat down in the chair beside the blond. He looked exhausted: pale with dark bruise-like rings around his eyes. Like he hadn't slept a wink all week.

Despite Will's still-lingering anger with the guy, he hated to see anyone in that sort of condition. Like flipping a switch, the doctor in him was called to attention. "Did you ever sleep last night, at all?"

Nico flashed him a weary smile and shook his head.

Will frowned and opened his mouth to speak, but Nico cut him off before he could start his scolding. "I had to run with Clarisse to the pack and explain to them why I had to go into hiding for a while. It took even longer to give an excuse as to why I had stayed much longer than I should have. They still think I'm having an affair with you."

Will closed his mouth. "Oh."

A minute passed in awkward silence, Will rubbing at the stubble on his jaw and staring down at his relatively untouched breakfast as Nico traced patterns on the countertop, face downcast.

"You really should go to sleep, you know," Will told him. "Aaron is waiting for you."

"I know."

Will looked at Nico. In that moment, despite everything that had happened the night before, Will could not see Nico as a werewolf. Even after seeing him change from Ghosty to Nico twice, he still couldn't register the abnormality of it. It was as if he were just upset that Nico had lied to him, and not because there was a whole other world of beings that he hadn't been aware existed. "You have something you want to say, don't you?"

Nico's smile turned strained. "Aren't you the perceptive one this morning?"

The Italian fell into silence again, and Will decided to wait out his silence rather than force him to respond. He picked up his fork and poked at his food halfheartedly.

"…Actually," Nico muttered, rubbing his face. "I was expecting more questions that you wanted answered. Ones that…Aaron shouldn't be around to hear."

Will looked up. "Like what?"

Nico licked his lips—a nervous tic of Ghosty's—and tapped his chin. His voice was hoarse when he spoke next. "I figured you would have questions about my…status. As a werewolf."

Confused more than anything, Will asked, "About your werewolf status? You're an Alpha, aren't you?" He vaguely remembered Clarisse mentioning it behind the shock of Nico being a werewolf.

Nico's eyes flickered over to meet Will's, holding his gaze. He nodded.

Will was still puzzled. "What about it?"

A shuddering sigh passed through the werewolf's lips, and he laughed. Albeit a weak laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. "You're an idiot, you know that?"

"I'm the idiot?"

Nico licked his lips again. "Come on, Will. Think about it. What do Alphas do?"

"They…lead the pack."

"And?"

"And? And they…what?"

Nico sighed in exasperation. "Alphas are the only ones to mate in a pack, Will."

"Yes… And?"

Nico raised an eyebrow.

Will felt dumb under Nico's piercing gaze, and he thought over Nico's words several times to try to understand. Slowly, the pieces clicked into place—and suddenly Will couldn't breathe.

Nico gazed over Will's reaction silently, nodding his understanding. He knew Will had finally caught on.

Swallowing and trying to breathe normally, Will croaked, "What does that mean? That we…"

Nico shook his head. "It means little," he reassured the doctor. "Werewolves do not have the rush to reproduce so badly as other pack animals. In fact, my father only had three children in his years as Alpha. And I intend to have none. Aaron is enough for me." And Clara, Will's mind unhelpfully supplied.

"Why did you need to mention it, then?"

The werewolf ran a hand through his hair. "Because, well, it's important for you to know. Especially concerning your decision. If you let me stay, then it'll conjure rumors and assumptions within my pack, and it'll affect your life."

Will hummed. "Why does it mean little, then? If your pack is going to make such a big deal over it."

"Hell if I know," Nico said with a dark chuckle. "The pack just doesn't understand the way I think. All of us have to be sex-craving machines, apparently. Humans, werewolves, everyone." He covered his face with a hand, his cheeks turning pink. "But that doesn't change the fact that I've never…"

"You don't like sex," Will guessed.

Nico didn't reply.

Will watched as Nico's expression kept growing darker. "That's not a bad thing, you know," he murmured.

"I know," he replied. He sounded beaten, defeated. He exhaled and stood from his spot next to Will. "I've forced Aaron to wait for far too long. I should go on to bed. I just…thought you should know that much about me. So you don't have to worry about me jumping you. Or something."

"Nico…"

Nico looked at Will from under dark bangs, the shadows under his eyes more pronounced than ever.

Will sucked in a deep breath. "Thank you."

He wanted so badly to say more, but his mouth wouldn't work. Nico gifted the blond with a tiny smile and nodded, further silencing him. Will had always seen Nico as strong and confident, so this sudden change in personality—this weaker, mortal personality—made it even harder for the man to stay mad at him. Like he should.

Nico looked down at Will's plate and fidgeted. "We'll rest for as long as we can. So eat and…I guess you can think some more. Clara is bound to be up within the hour."

Will nodded. "I get it. Go on and sleep."

Without another word, Nico left Will to his thoughts.

And fuck if there weren't a million things whirring around in his head by then.

~ΨΩΨ~

If Will had any doubt before about Clara's prior knowledge of Ghosty being Nico, it was squashed within the first five seconds of seeing her.

He had migrated from the kitchen (breakfast still barely touched) to the living room, the fireplace cold and dead with spring arriving. In his lap he held the book he wasn't able to read—his mind was whirring too quickly for him to even comprehend anything other than Nico, werewolves, and alphas.

So when his daughter came in and silently found her way beside him, he flinched so hard it looked like he jumped a foot in the air. He whirled on his daughter, eyes wide. She had said something in excitement and worry, but it took Will far too long to register the words.

"Is Nico back yet? Did he bring his son? He said he would bring him along!"

Will blinked slowly at her, not comprehending. He nodded anyway.

Clara squealed and bounced on the couch. "Yay! I've wanted to meet Aaron for so long!"

Will swallowed. "Who—who told you he was bringing his son over? Are you sure it was Nico?" After all, Will certainly hadn't told her anything.

"Of course it was Nico! Who else?" Clara blinked suddenly, as though seeing her father for the first time. Her bouncing ceased. "Is something wrong, Daddy?"

It was hard to breathe all of a sudden.

"What else do you know?" he said, his voice hoarse. "What else has he told you?"

Clara looked alarmed. "Daddy? What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong. Just. What has he told you? He told me that you knew about…" It was harder than he had thought, asking Clara if she knew that Nico was Ghosty. It made no sense, anyway. She had never once stuttered on who she was talking about, or did she? Will's head was beginning to ache. Everything was confusing him.

Luckily for him, Clara seemed to immediately understand what he meant. She leaned forward, as though sharing a well-guarded secret. Perhaps it was. "He showed you, didn't he?" she whispered, glancing towards the door. To make sure they were alone. "His other form."

Will's stomach dropped. So it was true. Nico had told him the truth. One truth in many lies. He nodded.

Rather than sobering, Clara became even more excited than before. She clapped. "That's great!" she exclaimed. "I felt so bad having to keep that from you—but Nico had insisted, see. He told me you would take it bad, but you'll get used to it, you'll see!"

Will was skeptic of Clara's claim, but he couldn't keep his mind on that subject for too long without feeling queasy. Despite how damn…natural it had seemed in person, there was no arguing that Nico had basically been spying on them those days that he wasn't recovering from his wounds. And Clara had known.

Clara was busy chattering about how happy she was that Nico didn't have to hide anymore, but Will couldn't hear any of it. Not when there was a question on the tip of his tongue begging to be answered.

"When did you find out?" he cut her off mid-sentence. "When did you figure out that Nico was…Ghosty?"

"Oh, from the beginning." Clara turned thoughtful, as though remembering the time. "He was Ghosty when I first saw him at the edge of the woods. When I went out after him, though, he didn't notice I was there. He tried to turn to Nico, but he couldn't hold the form and collapsed. I ran to him after that and told him to stay, that I would go get my Daddy to heal him. Before I left, though, he told me as Ghosty not to tell you about his other form. That you wouldn't take it well. I knew what he meant. People don't just turn into wolves, you know. I was surprised too."

Will grunted, his head throbbing. "But…you never acted odd when talking about Nico with Ghosty…or Ghosty with Nico."

"Of course not." Clara looked hurt. "I am an actress, Daddy. I had my role. I kept it. I couldn't make things just seem weird between Nico's forms, or else you or someone else might notice."

Will couldn't help the twitch of his lips, the reluctant smile awkward and childish. "You were in one play, Clare. I'd hardly count that as you being an actress."

"Hush, Daddy!" She flared her arms dramatically, sitting up on her knees. "You can't muffle my talent. I won't let you! I am" she leaned in close again "an actress!"

Will chuckled weakly and rolled his eyes. "Actress. Right. Well, talent does run in your blood. Uncle Mike was quite the drama queen himself back in grade school."

"Drama queen!" she cried, holding a hand over her heart. "Daddy, please! Anything but!"

Will ruffled his daughter's hair, laughing a tad stronger. He knew what Clara was trying to do, and he was more than grateful. His silly girl always had a habit of making his stress and troubles fade away. He was glad he had time to come home every now and again and see her more. He had missed her.

"So…" Clara trialed off. "When do I get to see Nico and Aaron?"