Ainge's Changes, Part 22
Imported from SF2 with no description.
"Hey!! What are you guys doing?!?"
Tommy and Ryan were startled back into reality, short-circuiting their activities. After looking frantically for the source of the yell, Tommy looked up and to the left of Ryan, and it was there that he spotted Andy, standing at the edge of the ravine, having just cleared the fence. With their cover blown, it didn't take long for the wolf sides of both boys to subside, but the shorts bunched around Tommy's thighs and Ryan's hands being so close to his exposed crotch made it obvious what they were doing.
"Are you out of your mind, Tommy?" Andy barked, as he climbed down to the base of the ravine to meet the other two, giving Tommy enough time to sheepishly get his shorts back on. Andy was taller than average to begin with, and he towered over the two seated boys like a judge in a courtroom. And he wasn't happy. "Jesus, Tommy, are you trying to get the rest of us killed??"
"No..." Tommy replied with obvious guilt in his voice.
"Tommy, you dumbass!" Andy said, grabbing Tommy by the shoulders and pulling him back up on his feet. "Getting off with a human? In the middle of the day? With the son of a Paladin?? I know you have a hardon for the kid, but his dad was-"
"What about my dad?" Ryan interrupted in an accusatory fashion.
Andy stared sternly at Ryan. "Your dad killed our Junior Alpha, and almost killed the real one."
"Linus wasn't the one who did it," Tommy rebutted.
"Oh for God's sake, you don't actually believe that, do you?" Andy said rhetorically. He paused for a moment, then when a response didn't come from Tommy, his expression turned to one of complete disbelief. "Tommy... you actually think Linus wasn't behind the attack?"
"You heard what Benny said yesterday," Tommy replied. "They have witnesses that put him miles away from Justin's house. There's no way he could've done it."
"But that doesn't make sense. Mr. Grey and Justin were shot with silver bullets. Only a Paladin would do that. And there's only one Paladin in the neighborhood."
"Maybe there's another Paladin in town you don't know about," Ryan chimed in.
Andy looked back at Ryan. "Did I ask for your opinion?" He held his gaze for a few more seconds, when something appeared to unnerve him. He blinked a couple times in confusion. "Wait a minute..." As he put two and two together, he glared back at Tommy. "Why does he have an aura all of a sudden?"
"Aura?" Ryan asked. "What aura?"
"A werewolf's aura," Andy said, not breaking his stare with Tommy as he answered. "He wasn't a falsie before this. What happened?"
"Geez, who died and made you king?" Ryan sassed.
"Justin died, that's who!!" Andy angrily replied. "And I'm the new Junior Alpha because I'm the next oldest." He turned back to Tommy. "You didn't answer my question. Why does Ryan have the aura now?"
Tommy bowed his head submissively. "I infected him," he confessed. "It was an accident."
"An accident?" Andy repeated. "Wait, let me guess - did he forget to spit it out?"
"No, it's not like that. Let me explain."
"Oh, explain away," Andy said, demonstrably crossing his arms. "I can't wait to hear this."
"We got in a fight yesterday morning," Tommy said softly. "I thought he told his dad about us, and that it led to Justin and his dad getting attacked. I scratched him up enough to pass the curse onto him. Linus didn't actually know about any of us until yesterday. Ryan never told him. But he knows now, and he's basically told me that it's my job to teach him how to handle being a werewolf while he tries to find out who's behind this."
Andy stood silently, mulling over the new information. When he finally had everything worked out, he shook his head softly and muttered under his breath. "Shit."
In the midst of all this, Tommy looked over at Ryan, who was slouched on the log with tears in his eyes, crying softly. "Ryan... you OK? What's wrong?"
"It's not my fault!" Ryan screamed. "You guys all hate me when I didn't do anything wrong! I kept everything a secret, before I even knew about my dad, and you still treat me like crap! Why are you so mean to me??"
Tommy's protective instincts got into gear, and he sat back down next to Ryan, bringing him into a hug as he continued to cry. "It's OK, Ryan. I'm sorry they're treating you like this." He looked angrily back at the new Junior Alpha. "You wanna answer his question, Andy?"
Andy looked on in silence at the two boys comforting each other, and sighed. "It's complicated. The Paladins are the only ones left who know about us, and they want to wipe us out. Just because we're not 100% human, they look at us like evil monsters that deserve to be killed. It's not personal, honest. It's just that the Paladins are our enemy. We don't want to hurt anyone, but they want to hurt us. I guess... we thought Ryan was the same way."
"Well he isn't," Tommy remarked. "And he needs our help now. We're the only ones can teach him the lore. I don't want anyone else finding out about him. We can't tell anyone about this."
Andy shrugged helplessly. "It's not going to make a difference if I tell anyone or not, Tommy. The other guys are going to notice the aura eventually."
"Well then, we keep it between us guys, OK? Ryan is caught in the middle of all this. What happened to Justin and Mr. Grey isn't his fault. It's not even his dad's fault. You need to stop treating him like it is."
Andy sighed. "Fine. But we at least have to tell Mr. Grey-"
"No. We can't tell him either."
"Tommy, I'm Junior Alpha now. I have to report everything to him."
"No, please, don't. Benny knew about this yesterday and didn't say anything to the rest of the pack. He probably didn't tell Mr. Grey about it either. There's probably a reason why he wants to keep this a secret. I don't know what it is, but I don't think we should tell Mr. Grey about Ryan."
Andy thought about the situation for a few moments, then finally gave a small nod. "OK. I'll let the other boys know what's going on so it doesn't catch them by surprise at school tomorrow. But we have to be really careful about this. If the Alpha finds out we're keeping anything a secret from him, there's gonna be hell to pay." Andy looked over at Ryan again. "And that means all of us."
Tommy smiled in relief. "Thanks. And you'll tell them to be nice to Ryan?"
"Ryan's an Omega now," Andy replied. "Just because he's become a werewolf doesn't mean we automatically treat him with respect. He's got to earn it. But..." Andy gave Ryan a friendly look. "We'll lay off the hard stuff. He's obviously been through enough already. Deal?"
Ryan looked at Andy with red eyes and sniffled. "Deal."
"Good. And for God's sake, if you're going to fool around, don't do it out in the open like this. There's way too much risk of being caught - and I'm not just talking about two guys getting caught sucking each other off. Use the shed, like the rest of us."
"Shed?" Tommy repeated. "What shed?"
"The maintenance shed on the other side of the park," Andy replied. "That's where we all used to go when we started to figure out what our dicks were for."
"But... every time I've walked by it, it always had barricades in front of the door."
Andy gave Tommy and Ryan a wry grin. "Who do you think put them there?"
"Oh." Tommy and Ryan looked at each other, with obvious intentions. "Next Saturday. One o'clock."
Ryan smiled and nodded eagerly. "I can't wait."