Part 6

Two Steps Forward, Ten Steps Back

The smell of delicious food cooking hit both wolves hard as they got close to the house. Steaks were smoking on the grill and an apron-clad Blaine was tending it, looking very pleased with himself.

"I hope one of those is mine." Sebastian was so hungry he could probably have devoured every steak Blaine was cooking.

"It is. Here." Blaine tapped a steak that off to the side, "I know you like it bloody."

"Make mine like his." Hunter interjected, "it's already dead, no need to die twice." Blaine laughed and directed them to the kitchen where they found lemonade and Kurt.

"I need to talk to you." Kurt said setting aside a pan with mixed vegetables in it. The human smiled at Hunter, dropped the expression, and then looked pointedly at Sebastian, "in private."

"I guess I'll get cleaned up." Hunter touched Sebastian's elbow gently and looked as if he might kiss the man, but offered a small nod instead. The touch was so slight, but it might as well have been a full body hug with the wave of affection that traveled down the mating bond. How about that? His mate was accepting more and more of him all the time.

It was then he heard the pointed clearing of someone's throat. Sebastian was still staring in the direction Hunter had gone, and turned his head slowly towards Kurt. "You need help with something? I hope it's boy clothes." He smirked, feeling good and more like himself than he had in days, "please let it be boy clothes?" He looked down at the human's judgmental expression. "What?"

"Do you understand how hard it is to keep things from your mate?" Kurt pointed at Sebastian with a spatula. "I had to have more sex than I thought I was capable of just to get him to stop asking questions about what we were doing yesterday!"

Sebastian smirked again and put on a mocking frown, "I'm sure that was hard for you." Keeping secrets from his mate was something he could relate to. It also occurred to him that anything Kurt would have said was most likely not a secret anymore to Hunter. For an instant he considered telling Kurt about Hunter's mind reading ability, but that that would mean selling out his mate. Selling his mate out to other people by talking about the man's rare talent wasn't something Sebastian was prepared to do. Ever. His mate had to come first no matter what. "Are you done lecturing me now or did you find out something?"

"I did a little asking around." Kurt said in a whisper as he moved closer to Sebastian. "I think Damien might still be in Westerville."

The hairs on Sebastian's neck stood up, if the Wild Wolf Pack was still hanging around, it meant they didn't think Hunter was really dead. "Are you sure?"

"I went back to the motel and talked to a few of the guests. They described the leader of the group as being a really big guy with a bald head and a tattoo on the side of his head in the shape of flames."

"That's pretty specific."

Kurt nodded, "it would be hard for anyone to forget. So I asked around at some of the businesses close by. Sure enough, they've seen him. Does Hunter know what this guy looks like? I can ask one of the pack to see if he's wanted for anything, but it's not exactly an official channel and I didn't think you'd want me to make decisions for your mate."

"He knows what the guy looks like…" Sebastian hesitated to admit that Hunter had seen Damien kill his parents. It seemed too much information that would betray his mate. "I didn't tell Hunter what we did yesterday either. And I didn't tell him I told you about Damien." Sebastian hesitated thinking that Hunter might already know, even though he seemed to be actively trying to respect Sebastian's thoughts. "Thank you. For keeping this to yourself. Blaine already has more information than he knows what to do with."

"You mean the fact that he thinks your mate might have killed his parents?" Kurt raised a skeptical eyebrow, "don't act so surprised, Blaine tells me everything. Maybe you should take a note. Talk to your mate, so I can talk to mine. Pack Dalton is a pack for a reason. They can help."

Sebastian looked at Kurt for a moment and then frowned, "fine." He reached to sample a zucchini and Kurt slapped the back of his hand with the spatula. "Talk first. Eat later. And hurry up. The pack will be here soon. They'll want to meet your mate." When Sebastian fixed him with a look of 'why', Kurt shrugged, "it's all anyone's talking about. So we decided to have a party!"

It made sense to bring in pack help, but Hunter barely trusted Sebastian, now, just hours later, he was going to ask Hunter for an extension of that trust? Making his way upstairs, he tried to reach out to his mate's mind for the first time and for the first time, his mate answered via the mating bond.

It was so subtle how Hunter could touch him that way, but it made Sebastian feel incredibly complete. When he got to his room, the shower was running and Hunter had already been into Sebastian's closet, neatly laying out clothes on the bed for a post shower change. It pleased Sebastian in the most basic way possible that his mate could fit most of his clothes.

The hot water had steamed up the entire bathroom and Sebastian stood there a moment before taking off his own clothes and asking in his thoughts for what he wanted, 'I want to join you.' When Hunter didn't say anything, Sebastian took it as a yes. Nor did the man seemed surprised when Sebastian stepped in behind him.

Instead he reached for Sebastian's hip and pulled him close. Sebastian said nothing, but he felt the subtle shift as Hunter sifted through his mind. There was a tingling sensation in his head, very much like deja vu, and Sebastian could feel more than see Hunter analyzing the situation. Instead of speaking and supplying any extra verbal information, Sebastian rested his head on Hunter's shoulder and raised his hands to his mate's waist. He thought through his conversation with Kurt, letting Hunter watch the scene from Sebastian's perspective and then made his case for bringing in Pack Dalton's help. For a long stretch of silence, there was only the sound of the shower spray. Finally, Hunter chuckled, "you didn't rat me out. Not about my parents, not about my crazy wolf."

"I like your wolf…" Sebastian whispered and then squeezed Hunter's hip gently, "please Hunter. Please let the pack help?"

The reply came slowly, "if you're sure." He swallowed, seeming as though he were waiting for Sebastian to make the first real move.

"I am." Sebastian swallowed, "I have to protect you. I know you read Kurt's mind. Blaine's too. If they don't trust you or think you might be a monster, it's because they don't know you."

"They care about you more than you know." Hunter affirmed.

"And I care about you. Give them a chance to know you, Hunter." Sebastian pleaded, "not just Kurt and Blaine, but the entire pack."

"Why?" Hunter moved his neck back a couple of inches to look Sebastian in the eye.

"Because the pack can help, but I need to be honest with them."

"No." Hunter was shaking his head and his hands moved to frame Sebastian's jaw, "why are you doing this? What would they think if they knew? And why should they believe that I didn't kill those people. Kurt was looking at me wondering how I managed to get away with murder when we first walked in!"

"Because it might not look like it right now, but I am really fucking worried about you. I never even got a chance to introduce myself to you Hunter. The Wild Wolf Pack almost took you from me." Sebastian glanced down quickly as he spoke. An erection was standing out proudly, waving like a flag between them. Hunter might be able to suppress most of his wolf nature, but Sebastian was all wolf. The first few months of a mating were critical bonding for mates and nature had programed a natural spike in libido following a mating. Sebastian's mating drive was now in full swing and the small taste he'd had of Hunter didn't begin to scratch the surface of what he needed. It wasn't the right time for this to happen, but Sebastian didn't have much control over it. "If things had been different, I would have courted you." He reached up to grab one of Hunter's wrists, holding it possessively, "and if they had killed you on that hill, it would have been an act of war. I would have made sure of it. As it was, I marked you and I bonded you. If you had died under that tree… I would have died with you. I will never regret that decision."

"You don't know me either Bastian." Sebastian was about to argue with that, but Hunter came closer. "I can feel that you want me and it's so…" Hunter searched for the right word, "sensual, hard to resist even...but you don't know me. My favorite food, color, where I went to high school, my favorite song...how I take my coffee. And I don't know those things about you. Until I met you, I was pretty sure I'd never have sex with a guy..." Hunter trailed off and seemed to be struggling with just about everything.

Sebastian's squeezed Hunter's wrist gently and leaned forward, resting his head against his mate's. Didn't Hunter understand that being this close to his mate while being held at arm's length was killing him in every way? "Then let me get to know you." Sebastian had appealed to Hunter's wolf and it had worked before, but his mate had been raised by humans and it was the human side trying to make sense of all this.

"This is a lot, Bastian. Too much."

"You were with me today." Sebastian argued, but it sounded more like a plea.

"I don't know what happened today. I don't know that that was, what this is..." Hunter swallowed hard and Sebastian could feel the man's apprehension rising. "I...I can't give you what you want. And you saved my life…you think I haven't felt how much you want me? This bond? Whatever this is? I don't understand it! And I have people after me, Sebastian, I don't want to hurt you!" He pushed Sebastian's hand away gently, "I'm not just a wolf, I'm a human. I was raised human. What I gathered from Blaine, half-breeds are unpredictable. When they first put me in that cell, it was on his recommendation. He didn't say that in front of me, but Wes thought it." Wes had thought it, Hunter had gotten violent because of it. "My mother was my birth father's mate and she walked away from him. When I was thirteen we went camping and Damien showed up. He killed my father and when my mother got in the way, he killed her too. His own mate. I know enough to know a wolf would never harm its mate."

"You would never hurt me, Hunter..." Sebastian insisted, but Hunter continued.

"But he killed her. He ripped her to shreds right in front of me! It wasn't a mistake! My mother had married another man and after Damien killed the man I thought was my father, he killed her." Hunter clenched his jaw, "that's the stock you bought into when you marked me. I'm tainted and I'll always be a liability to you." Hunter moved around Sebastian and stepped out of the shower. It was clear he was dead set on martyring himself out of some weird sense of justice. Why didn't he understand that this was the subconscious act of his wolf to protect its mate?

"It's better you know sooner than later that you can't be with me. I don't know how all this mating stuff works but maybe you can find someone else." Hunter stopped and took a deep breath, "for what's it's worth, I'm grateful I got to experience what finding a mate is like. And thank you...for saving me."

As if it could be that simple. Sebastian heard Hunter leave the bathroom and shut the door. The shower tiles were cold against his back and the water beat down on his skin and Sebastian felt his body sinking to the floor of the shower and let the water hit him, not caring about any droplets on his face or eyes. He was stunned and hurt. Hunter hadn't let on even for a moment that he was wavering about Sebastian or even about himself as a mate until he stepped into the shower together. Yet here they were, with the pack on their over to low-key celebrate Sebastian's mating, and Hunter ready to accept their help, but not Sebastian as a mate. The rejection was keen, as if someone had cut him right in the chest and then filled it with lemon juice. The tears were new too. Sebastian had never cried over anyone in his life, least of all a guy. Yet here he was, crying like it was the most natural thing in the world.

By the time he climbed out of the shower, Sebastian was in full emotional shutdown. No way was he going to let Hunter tear him open and hurt him a second time. But the man lying on the bed in Sebastian's clothes was still his mate. He'd be loyal to this man until his last breath, but his heart was not currently open for business.

"How did you survive?" He asked as he dropped a wet towel from his hips and fished around in a drawer for underwear. "That night when your parents were killed. Damien could have taken you then, or killed you."

"He would have." Hunter corrected and then reached for Sebastian's towel so he could lay it neatly over the back of a wooden chair. "There was a park ranger on duty that night. He came by at the right time. Damien disappeared." Sebastian kept getting dressed and Hunter read the questions out of his mind. "I didn't see him again for years. My parents had a trust set up for me, but since I had no next of kin, one of my dad's Academy buddies took responsibility for me. I stayed there. Never got a visit from any other family. I'm not sure I have any other family." Sebastian picked up on what he wasn't saying. Hunter had lived his life as a lone wolf. "Damien showed up six months ago wanting his legacy to join with the Wild Wolves. I told him to fuck off. You know the rest." The rest was that his biological father had tried to intimidate Hunter.

"You said no and he started murdering civilians around the base." Sebastian added. "You left so he'd stop."

"I left because I decided to kill him." Hunter corrected. "Revenge for my parents. Only his pack is volatile. They started chasing me and I started running. I don't know how I ended up in Ohio."

Instinct. Sebastian thought and didn't say. Hunter would have leaned more on his wolf in order to survive and the wolf would gravitate towards the safety of pack and its mate. "We should get downstairs. The guys are going to be anxious to meet you." Sebastian spoke quietly and offered Hunter a hand up from the bed. Hunter stood and reached for Sebastian in a conciliatory gesture as if to say 'I'm sorry I can't let myself be with you.' But Sebastian took a small step back and lifted his hand slightly.

"Don't. You're my mate. I marked you and I'll protect you until I can't do it anymore. But you don't get to make me want you when I know you don't feel the same way." He let the disappointment and pain pulse unfiltered down the mating bond. "I'll help you with Damien and keep you safe, but that's it." It would take effort and concentration, but he had to shut Hunter out. Sebastian would raise every wall he had in order to keep Hunter from ripping his heart out completely. It would likely happen anyway. He'd known Hunter only a couple of days, but he liked everything he'd seen and he was hungry to learn more. Why didn't Hunter see that?