‘He’s cute.’

Loren thought, looking at the man in front of him. A youthful glowing expression, rosy rounded cheeks, and a thick brown beard. His hair was short and colored a metallic red on top. He was of a thicker build, more large than stocky, but that only added to his joyful presence. Like a modern, gay Santa.

Gabe just seemed to be one of those people that set others at ease, and it worked well for Loren. He felt himself flush at the boy’s pained but eagerly warm smile, it was the oddest thing really, he was meant to kill the boy, to tear him asunder and devour him as per his mother’s insane wishes and yet all he wanted to do was get to know the boy.

He should have tried to cut himself off, but he found it impossible almost immediately. He was attached, maybe it was due to the lack of human interaction. Maybe it was due to the loneliness and emptiness that he so readily felt… who knew?

‘If I can give you a few moments of peace before you die, then so be it.’

He tried to hide it, but the other man’s simple choice to be kind to him, meant more to him than he could ever admit. It filled his soul, no matter how empty he felt, with more hope than he knew what to do with. However, with that hope came something far more important, the desire to protect the boy. To ensure that he had a future to spread that hope to others more deserving than he.

Reaching out, he pulled out a key from his pocket, tossing it to Gabe. “That should unlock your chains. Lydia believes that the hunt is good for me, chasing my prey, she makes sure I always have a choice. If you want to look for a way out, please do, I cannot in good conscience ignore your need to survive this.”

Gabe was out of his chains in mere moments, but instead of walking out he strode to Loren.

“What point is there, you said this place is a fortress, created by your mother to feed your beast, right?” he reached through the bars, gently, sweetly, and grabbed Loren’s hand. Warmth, genuine and sweet, filled the space between them. “We are both prisoners, you in your silver cage, and I in my life. Maybe we can find peace in that connection, my parting gift as it were.”

Loren’s chest burned in shame, he tried to pull away but Gabe would not budge. “ How can you even look at me in anything but fear?”

He laughed, an honest expression of joy, one Loren had not so much as smelled in over a decade. “Why fear you? Why hate you? Why judge you? You are a victim, you are sick and you need care. If this gives you a moment of peace, then I did something good with my life and that… honestly is everything to me.”

Falling to his knees, Loren shuddered, waves of pain both physical and emotional crashing into him with a fervent energy that he could not bear forgetting. Shame, doubt, fear, self loathing, respect, hope… it all swirled and burned in him.

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“Thank you…” Then it came, the horrible buzzing and his cage opened. Eyes burning rust red, he looked up. “Gabe… it is getting close… please, find a way to escape… please. You are the first to treat me well, ever, to act like I am more than a beast. Find your peace!”

Gabe walked into the cage, kneeling down, he pulled Loren into his arms, breathing with him one final breath. “I am going to die either way, let my death matter… and you are a man, you are more than a beast, and maybe if you saw that, you’d see that you deserve better.”

Loren squeezed the other man, burying his face into his colorful locks. “Thank you…”And he let out a long sigh, one of final acceptance…”I do deserve better…we all do.” And that simple expression of value, those simple words shifted something in Loren… a series of shifts in fact, slowly stemming the burning surge of energy that held him captive, buzzing around his joints and bones and muscles. It leveled out, turning into a hyped up adrenaline rush.

Before he could even question it, Gabe groaned, shivering and convulsing. Loren pulled away, looking into the boy’s eyes… rust red eyes.

“Loren… why do I feel so hot… I hurt…?”

“Gabe?” The boy’s canines had lengthened into fangs, his skin covered in black veins, his scent musky and warm. “You look like me… how… wait, I feel better, less feverish, less… like I am going to tear apart into oblivion… and you look like me. Did you take my burden?”

Gabe frowned, looking at his hands, now clawed and grizzled. “I… I am not sure, but I think you may be right. Where does your curse come from?”

Loren smiled. “I am apparently a legacy of the King Lycaon, surely you’ve heard the story of the First Werewolf?

“Is it real?”

“Very, apparently I am, for all intents and purposes, a werewolf.”

Frowning, Gabe stood. “Then it seems to be the best answer would be to flee this place, to go back and get help from someone that understands this, if what you are saying is true.”

“I have tried to tell my mother that for… well forever, but she wouldn’t have it. I think she likes having control over me, over my curse. Feeling powerful, in control…”

“What I do, I do out of love!” They both jumped, turning to see the manic eyes of Lydia, looking at them with her own rust colored eyes. A shotgun in her hand, she growled at them. “I AM YOUR MOTHER, YOU ARE MINE, I WON’T SHARE YOU!”

And then she fired a blast of silver buckshot at them both, so Loren waited for the painful death to come. Only no pain came as Gabe had thrown himself into the shot, saving Loren’s unworthy life one more time.

“Gabe!” He called out, screamed as soul deep agony burned out. Holding the boy close, he fell back to his knees, cradling the boy close, tears trailing down both of their faces. “Please, don’t die, I can fix this, I have to fix this.”

Gabe just laughed, blood splattering Loren’s face as he choked on the sound. “I saved someone, for once I did something with my life… I am okay, Loren.”

And then the boy died, in his arms…

And Loren finally, completely snapped… only it was not as the beast, the one he shared with Gabe. He snapped as a man. Throwing himself at his mother, he tore out the gun and smashed it against her head, again and again until she lay there unmoving in a pool of her own blood. Her once beautiful face nothing but mush.

He didn’t care, he couldn’t.

Slumping over to his friend, his first and only friend in the misery of his curse, he lay next to him, grabbed his hand and curled around his body. “Thank you… Gabe, for giving me my peace back, no matter how briefly.” Reaching up, he placed one kiss on the boy’s lips, one final farewell and everlasting thank you. Standing tall, Gabe walked out of the place with Gabe in his arms, the Silver no longer entirely blocking his way now that he had shared his curse. “I will remember you, you will never be forgotten… I promise that.”

And with that, Loren walked out of the prison he had spent so long in and looked up, relishing in the beauty of the moon for the first time since he was a teenager.

He would bury Gabe by a willow tree he had grown up near, knowing it would make it far easier to honor the savior of his soul for as long as he was able before finally living life as he wished it would be...carrying the memory of Gabe with him, forever.