Jace stood across from him, gently hopping from one foot to the next, humming a little song. He was the boyish figure Levi had met at the pack dinner a week prior, with round ears and big eyes.

“Remember,” Baxter intoned as he walked between the two opposing lines of people. It wasn’t the whole pack, but it was a good showing, a little over a baker’s dozen. “We are not here to hurt one another. No teeth, no claws, and no kicking people in the nuts. That’s just rude.”

Levi had to remind himself that these people were all werewolves.

The park was warm and sunny today. The bit they were in was usually a soccer field, but no one seemed inclined to shoo them off of it today. Dew covered everyone’s shoes, the early morning breeze blowing over the field and making the grass dance. Rosa and Derrick were sat on a park bench next to the field, chatting. Rosa had taken an interest in cantrips, and Derrick had assured him it was healthy for her to take an interest in the supernatural now that she knew about its existence.

Levi still didn’t like it, but he supposed he had long-since failed in his mission to shelter her from this side of the world. Hell, he’d done his best to shelter himself from it, and that mission had gone up in blood and flames.

“I’ll go easy on you,” Jace said, grinning a blinding grin across from him. “I know you’re a new wolf.”

“That’s hardly necessary,” Levi snorted.

“Levi’s not even quite a wolf yet,” Baxter said as he strolled by. “Any glowing eyes and I’m grabbing you by the scruff, Levi. Understood?”

Levi rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say Baxter.”

“Don’t give me lip,” the man chided, before proceeding down the line to check on every pair. They were fairly spaced out and wearing the heaviest boxing gloves and thickest shin guards Elizabeth had been able to find. They would heal quickly if they got injured, but, aside from keeping up appearances, pain was still plenty real to a Lycan.

Levi slotted in his mouthpiece and chewed on it a bit as Jace did the same.

There was a pause as everyone took in their deep breaths. Silence filled the air, and the sound of the children giggling on the playground on the opposite side of the park was just about audible.

“Go!” Baxter barked.

Jace advanced with startling speed, low to the ground, eyes flashing in that iridescent red a wolf’s eyes got when the light hit them just right. His hands darted out, one cupping the back of Levi’s neck, the other going for his wrist. Levi jabbed his arm forward, under Jax’s arm, and rolled his head to prevent Jace from steering him. He hooked his arm behind Jace’s shoulder, then stepped around the side, forcing Jace towards the ground using his arm (now trapped against Levi’s back, they were shoulder to shoulder) as a point of leverage.

Jace responded to this by stepping his foot behind Levi’s. Then he kicked out and fell back at the same time, kicking Levi’s foot out from under him and yanking him down with his body weight.

They scrambled on the ground, Jace shooting forward to get on top, Levi trying to get back to his feet where he could use the throws he was more comfortable with. Jace shot forward, grabbing for Levi’s leg only to catch Levi’s hard kick to his collar bone. There was a thump and Levi felt the snap as the small bone gave way.

Jace’s snarl was in time with Levi scrambling to his feet. Jace stood shortly after, only to find Levi crowding him. Levi shot low to slam the younger man into the ground, but Jace, his collar bone already mending itself under his skin, swung his lead hand up in an uppercut that snapped Levi’s head back and left him seeing stars.

“That’s the problem with going low, Levi,” Jace mused, playful, “with all of your weight that far down, you soak up a lot more force from an uppercut.”

Well, Levi wouldn’t pretend to be much of a striker, but he knew a hint when he received it. He’d have to make an opening.

Levi was surprised to find that he was having fun.

He put his hands up, the big, padded gloves he was wearing tucked against his cheekbones. Jace grinned at him, silicone mouthpiece giving him a black, shining smile.

Levi stepped forward with a rumble in his chest.

Some time later, Levi was sat on a blanket with Rosa, Derrick, and Jace. Jace was holding a baggy of ice to the inside of his leg, where his femur had snapped in half not even half an hour prior. He and Levi were soaked through with sweat, and their breathing was still normalizing. Ten minutes of sparring would do that to anyone, even a wolf.

“What the hell,” Jace groaned. “I’ve been coming to these for like three years, I didn’t think you’d hold your own, let alone kick my ass.”

“Eh, sorry,” Levi chuckled awkwardly. Truth be told, he hadn’t meant to play as rough as he had. He hadn’t quite lost control of himself but... well, adrenaline was a hell of a thing.

“Levi did Sambo for, like, eight years,” Derrick snorted. “He can’t box for shit, but he’s pretty good at throwing people.”

Jace blinked at him, then turned a baleful eye on Levi. “And you didn’t think to mention this?”

“It was way funnier watching you fly across the field,” Levi shrugged.

“It was really funny,” Rosa agreed. “You flailed your arms like a cartoon character. Premium entertainment.”

“Hey!” Jace complained.

Elizabeth and Rhea strolled over, carrying with them sports drinks and sloppy joes. Levi did not like sloppy joes, they were a very messy kind of sandwich, and he found their texture unappealing, but he was so hungry after that match that he might have even eaten canned tuna if it was presented to him.

… No, that was too far, no matter how hungry he was.

“You boys get it out of your system?” Rhea asked, seeming a bit amused. She had pale skin and jet-black hair, which made for a fine contrast. She sat next to Jace, her older brother, and handed him a bottle of water. He proceeded to down the whole thing in big, happy glugs.

“More or less,” he said when he finished.

“You’re such a brute,” Rhea sighed. “We should have put you up for adoption when we had the chance.”

“You love me,” Jace hummed, poking her in the stomach.

“Whatever you have to tell yourself,” she said, trying and failing to suppress a smile.

“That was a good showing, Levi,” Elizabeth beamed. She pressed her hand to his shoulder and he leaned against it on instinct, grinning like an idiot.

Maybe this was what he needed.

Maybe he needed a pack.

Maybe he needed to accept what he was now.

What had he been so afraid of?

“Fuck knows I didn’t give you many reasons to be excited,” Arthur sighed, digging through the little basket Rhea had brought.

The pack members were slowly converging, coming together around them, setting out blankets of their own. It wasn’t the whole pack, getting everyone together was very difficult. It only really happened during emergencies and the pack dinner every month. Everyone had their own lives, their own jobs, their own errands to run. Kids, pets, obsessive hobbies like model painting and cosplay and matchstick sculpture.

Did people still do matchstick sculpture? Was that still a thing?

Levi grabbed one of the sandwiches and shoved the entire thing into his mouth with a grunt.

Elizabeth gagged.

“Men are animals!” she decried, averting her eyes.

“Elizabeth,” Derrick said, hand over his mouth to cover a smile, “do you know what irony is?”

“Shut it!” Elizabeth snapped.

Rhea, Rosa, Jace, and Derrick all began to laugh while the woman grumbled.

There was an oomph from across the field as Baxter’s sparring partner slammed into the earth after being flung eight feet in the air. Their little lunch group collectively cringed at the impact.

“Don’t break his back, Baxter!” Elizabeth called across the field. Baxter looked back at her. His red eyes gave a flash, and he grinned playfully at her. He called something back, but his mouthpiece made it completely indecipherable.

“So,” Rosa said to Rhea, “are you and your brother turned wolves, or born?”

“Oh,” Rhea replied, perking up. “Well, Jace is a turned wolf. I’m not actually a wolf at all!”

That seemed to catch Rosa by surprise. She straightened where she sat, leaned forward. “But... You’re part of this pack, right?”

“Mm, sorta. Packs aren’t really a thing, they’re just... a convenient generalization. I’m associated with this group of wolves through my brother. I know them, and I’m welcome at pack gatherings. They protect me, and, for some weird reason, want me to, uh, smell like them.”

That last bit made her face scrunch up. Jace and Levi sniggered at her expense.

“Gross,” Rhea sighed. “Anyways, I don’t know why wolves are the way that they are, but there’s no rule about who is allowed to associate with them. They’re people, they’ve got their own lives and friends and families.”

“You hear that?” Derrick said, nudging Levi. “People. You get to be a person.”

Levi looked at the man like he’d grown a second set of arms and began ranting in old English.

Derrick just smirked.

“Now I know you’re getting too comfortable with me,” Levi said. “A few short days ago you wanted to box my ears for breathing.”

“That’s because you’re an idiot, Levi,” Derrick provided.

“Asshole.”

“Dickhead.”

“Ladies, ladies,” Rhea intoned. “You’re both pretty.”

“Bite me!” Levi barked.

“Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” Rosa asked airily.

“If you bite my sister, I’ll have you fixed,” said Jace.

“Try it, short stuff!”

“Good God, I’m getting a headache,” Elizabeth complained. “Where’s the off button on these things...”

“What you’re describing is called murder, Elizabeth,” Derrick mused. “It’s frowned upon.”

“I can stomach some social rejection in exchange for some peace and quiet.”

“Maybe. But you might get blood on your dress.”

“No! That’s not funny!” Elizabeth looked like she might actually explode. This, of course, caused another bout of laughter from the group, and Elizabeth’s cheeks flushed. “The youth has no respect these days.”

“The youth,” Derrick snorted.

“Watch it,” Elizabeth sniffed.

Suddenly, Rosa squeaked. Derrick laughed. “There you go, just like that!”

Levi looked over and saw she was wildly waiving around a slip of burning paper with odd, red markings on it. A booster. “Oh,” Rosa said, eyes widening. “Oh that’s... something. Something very, uh, weird.”

“Woah, is that a cantrip?” Jace asked, sitting up and wincing as his leg throbbed with pain. “Are you burning a cantrip right now?”

“I knew you’d get the hang of it,” Derrick grinned. He looked genuinely proud of her, which Levi found both infuriating (he didn't want Rosa more involved with this shit than absolutely necessary) and genuinely touching. It was nice that he cared so much about her succeeding.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“So, what kind are you burning?” Jace asked.

“Skýrleika. Basic presence charm,” Derrick explained. “Just clears the mind, sharpens the senses for a few minutes, alleviates pain.”

“Levi,” Rosa breathed, eyes wide and shimmering with moisture. “Everything smells so... much!”

Levi snorted gracelessly. “That so?” He teased.

“Shut up!” she said, having too much fun to actually muster the appearance of being upset. “Is this really... how the world is for you?”

“A bit overwhelming?” Levi asked, scooting a little closer to her. He jumped when she pressed her nose against his side. He made a bit of a face, but everyone else was snickering.

“You smell so gross,” Rosa said, not pulling away from him. “Sweaty. But you smell like yourself, too. It’s weird, I didn’t realize how different everyone smells.”

“You don’t have to sniff me. It’s considered rude in civilized society.”

“As if we haven’t seen you sniffing her when you think no one is watching,” Derrick said casually. Levi winced and turned on him.

“You shut your mouth. And stop teaching my girlfriend magic!”

“It’s fun,” Derrick protested. “She’s a fast learner, and it gets me out of doing paperwork. Do you have any idea how much paperwork this has made for me? I could bury myself alive in the stuff and still have enough left over to reconstruct an entire tree.”

“You’ll have to do it eventually,” Elizabeth sighed. Derrick ignored this statement, because it was an inconvenient reality that he had no desire to face at the moment.

Rosa straightened out at last and dug through the pile of slips between her legs to grab another one.

“Ah,” Derrick said, leaning forward and extending a hand. “You shouldn’t-”

The paper flashed to life, burning faster than the first, and Rosa took in a deep breath. She bounced to her feet.

“Woah! Holy shit!” she said, looking as if she were vibrating. A drip of blood drooled from her right nostril and Levi began to growl at both the sight and smell of it.

“That’s enough of those,” Derrick said, standing. “Rosa, take it easy. Those things are hard on a person’s body.”

“I feel like I could run a marathon!” she protested.

“You could probably run a really kickass two miles right now, but it’d wear off before you got any further than that. Why don’t you not attempt it and say you did?”

She pouted at him, managing to look properly petulant now. “Why teach me them if I can’t play with them?”

“Because they’re tools, not toys,” he said, as if it were a rehearsed line. It probably was, if the irritation that flashed on his face was anything to judge by. Levi figured the man was remembering all the times he’d been told that by Bureau training staff. He wondered what that would look like. Did they gather in a classroom? In some shady government building? In the middle of the woods?

“What’s that one?” Rhea asked.

“Well, I didn’t see what kind of booster she used, but if I had to guess, enderlífga. That’s invigoration.” Derrick helped Rosa back down to a seated position. “I mean it, Rosa. Go easy on those.”

Rosa crossed her arms. “I know, I know. I get it. I thought I could handle two.”

“You almost can,” he consoled. “Just a bit of a bloody nose. Just have a seat and let it run out of your system, the jitters will go away in a few minutes.”

Levi walked up the steps of the townhouse, holding Rosa’s hand.

“So, you get these hallucinations,” Rosa mused casually, “obviously, I assume most of them are scary, but do you ever have any that are... I dunno, fun?”

Levi snorted as the group passed through the doorway and into the clean interior of the home. He shrugged. “Sometimes. It depends. More often than not, I end up in the past. Or, well, a still image of it, I guess.”

“Oh?” Rosa asked, sounding intrigued. Behind them, Rhea was jabbering back and forth with Jace, arguing about something that seemed to have something to do with which one of them was the better baker. Levi made a mental note to have one of them bake something for him sometime.

“Well,” he hummed, trying to be careful with how much he gave away. Couldn’t have anyone knowing that he had the ghost of his dead best friend living out of his head like a run-down motel. “I ended up at the Santa Cruz boardwalk once. That was neat. A bit eerie.”

“What was eerie about it?”

“Well, you know, it’s like going to a shopping mall or a school when it’s supposed to be closed. All these spaces that are supposed to be filled with people, except they're just... empty. I don’t know. It’s surreal.”

“I can imagine that,” Rosa said. Then she came to an abrupt halt, causing Levi to do the same.

Levi was suddenly face-to-face with Will, the odd golden-eyed boy from the Hammer and Hydra. Or, well, under the Hammer and Hydra. The teen was dressed in all black again, a piece of bacon from that morning’s breakfast hanging out of his mouth. He chewed the strip for a moment, then swallowed.

“’sup,” the teen said after a brief pause.

Rosa shook her head, looking dizzy.

“I’m sorry, for a moment there I saw-”

“A black dog? I get that a lot,” he said.

“Have we met? I swear I know you from somewhere,” Rosa said, looking a touch pained. “But... I can’t remember where from. Were you at the pack dinner a week ago?”

“Nope,” Will said. Levi noticed the kid wasn’t meeting Rosa’s eyes. He had said he was bad around strangers.

There was a squawk from behind them and Will winced. “Goddammit,” he muttered. And then Elizabeth and Baxter bowled Levi and Rosa aside, grabbing the teen, squeezing him, compressing him with a distinct lack of care for the integrity of his musculoskeletal system. “I’m dying!” Will wailed, sounding an awful lot, to Levi’s ears at least, like an actual squeaky toy.

“Will!” Baxter said, leaning back and managing to lift both the teenager and Elizabeth off of their feet with his embrace. “Why didn’t you tell us you were going to visit?”

“Help!” was Will’s reply, his legs kicking uselessly in the air.

When Baxter and Elizabeth finally released him, he stumbled to the side, leaning against the doorway into the kitchen. He took a few great, gasping breaths. The poor creature looked like he’d been right on the edge of passing out.

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” Elizabeth said, waving her hand daintily.

“I’m lost,” Rosa confessed, looking genuinely confused. “Who is this kid?”

“That’s Will,” Derrick said gruffly. He stepped between them and took his turn hugging the teenager, though with considerably less crushing involved.

“Hello Derrick,” Will sighed, looking grumpy. Derrick snorted a laugh.

“You can pretend you aren’t happy to see me all you want,” Derrick said, “but I’m not buying.”

Will’s face slowly dissolved into a reluctant smile. “Fine. I’m happy to see you. Are you happy?”

“Definitely,” Derrick said. He nudged the teenager in the stomach. “But seriously, why didn’t you let Elizabeth and Baxter know you were coming over? We would have been here waiting for you.”

“I’m still lost,” Rosa complained.

“Will is a rescue,” Jace provided from behind them. Will bristled a bit.

“Shut up, Jace!”

Jace stuck his tongue out at the kid in reply.

“Will was a case I had with the Bureau,” Derrick said. The big man looked... almost sheepish. He seemed to be embarrassed about something. “I was supposed to track him down and bring him into Bureau custody. I did, in fact, track him down but, after that...”

“I annoyed him into saving me,” Will provided helpfully.

Rosa let out a guffaw of laughter. “Sounds about in line with him, isn’t that right Levi?”

“Are you saying I’m annoying?” Levi crossed his arms.

Everyone stared at him. Even Rosa. Hell, even Arthur!

“Wh-what?” he stuttered.

“Are you serious?” Arthur asked, shaking his head. He looked almost disappointed. He didn’t have to take this!

“So!” Levi tried desperately to change the topic. “Explain, why did you drop by unannounced?”

“Oh, well, I needed to talk to you,” the teen said, tucking his hands away in the front pockets of his hoodie.

“Me?”

“Yeah. Dude, it’s not complicated-”

Baxter interjected. “Why do you need to talk to Levi?” he asked. Suddenly the big man looked a touch nervous. So did Derrick and Elizabeth, for that matter.

“... I can’t talk about that,” Will said blankly.

“Will-”

“You know why,” he said, throwing his arms in the air.

The trio that seemed to know the kid the best looked between one another.

“Rosa,” Elizabeth said, setting a hand on Rosa’s shoulder and beginning to steer her towards the living room. “Let's let the boys talk, okay?”

Rosa seemed to want to resist on principle alone. But this was Elizabeth... she trusted Elizabeth. She gave Levi a concerned frown as she was ushered from the room.

“Levi,” Will said, “follow me upstairs.”

The teen started up the staircase without waiting for Levi’s reply. Levi looked between Derrick and Baxter as Jace and Rhea funneled past them into the living room. “Should I be concerned?” he asked.

Derrick and Baxter didn’t reply, just kinda... looked through him, like he wasn’t there.

“Why is everyone so goddamned weird?” Levi complained before jogging up the stairs behind the teenager.

Will had taken up a position by one of the windows, looking out at the city. They were on the third floor, in the hallway across from the bedroom where Levi and Rosa had been staying since they had arrived. He had the strings off his hoodie pulled tight, rendering most of his face obscured. His golden eyes peered out from the hood, glowing like embers on a late night.

“What in the hell is going on?”

Will looked over at him, eyes focused and intense.

“Levi, do you know what I am?”

“Oh... uh. Sure.”

Yeah, Levi had no idea what the kid was getting at. Will seemed to be well aware, because he gave Levi a very unamused look.

“I literally don’t understand why you would lie about that. What’s the point?”

Levi felt his cheeks heat with embarrassment. “I like to seem well-informed!”

“Levi... I’m an omen. I’m a Black Dog. That’s a proper noun, Black Dog. It’s specific.”

“You’re... an omen?” Levi asked, face scrunching up. “An omen of what?”

Will sighed and pulled back his hood. Doing so revealed two, big, soft, comically floppy dog ears.

“What the fuuuuuck,” Levi breathed.

“An omen of death Levi. Of disaster.”

Levi was quiet for a few moments. He stared at the kid’s ears. His mouth opened. Then closed. “Do you specifically do that to soften the news? Because that’s really effective.”

“I’ve found that it provides a decent distraction.”

“Do you have a tail?”

“What?”

“You know,” Levi said. “A tail. Like a dog.”

“I’m going to hit you.”

“It’s a valid question!”

The boy punched him in the stomach and he grunted.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Levi accused.

“Focus! Levi, I’m an omen of death. You saw me.”

Levi frowned, a touch confused. He didn’t really understand what the kid was so worried about, if he was really an omen of some kind then surely everyone was in danger, so why bother pulling him aside? “Well, yeah, but so did everyone else downstairs,” he said.

“No, Levi. They saw Will. They did not see a Black Dog. Only two people saw a Black Dog. You... and Rosa.”

Levi blinked at the kid. His words took a few agonizing moments to seep into Levi’s brain, and once they did the implications started to fizzle in his mind like Poprocks in a soda can. Levi had seen Will as a Black Dog the first time they’d met, and the interaction, however innocent, had spiraled into a violent hallucinogenic episode. He still bore the claw marks on his forearms where Baxter and Elizabeth had held him back.

Levi seeing an omen of death was one thing. His own life, so far as he was concerned, had been borrowed time since Arthur had died on those train tracks.

“So close,” his mother purred in his ear. Her tone was perverse, seductive, an oedipal nightmare. “You’re so close to home. So close to the blood in the soil of the forest.”

But Rosa seeing it? Rosa. Perfect, wonderful Rosa...

“She betrayed you,” Arthur growled. Or perhaps it was not Arthur, but someone else, because the cadence was odd and broken. “She took advantage of your vulnerability. She helped Derrick force you to confess. Why does she want to come with you? What are her motives?”

These thoughts were his own, and not his own. They were too cruel. He could never think something like that about Rosa.

Could he? How responsible was he for the voices he was hearing in the back of his head? How much of the growling, mumbling, teasing talk was real? Was any of it?

Was Arthur?

“You’re spiraling,” Arthur whispered. His voice was gentle, like he thought Levi might break apart into little pieces right there in the hallway.

Why would Rosa see an omen of death?

He felt Arthur’s hand grab his wrist. He forced himself to take a few, shuddering breaths. “So... Rosa is going to die?” Levi asked. His voice sounded far away to his ears, like he was listening to the conversation from the outside.

“No. Not necessarily,” Will said, his voice filled with conviction. The teen, who usually seemed to have trouble making eye contact, was making it now. “Seeing a Black Dog doesn’t necessarily mean death. Have you ever had your tarot cards read?’

Levi looked at the teen blankly for a few seconds. Will sighed. “Tarot cards,” he explained, “are supposed to read your future. I don’t know if they work or not, ironically enough I don’t believe in fortunetelling. But there are two cards that people get confused about. The Tower, and Death. Death, in a Tarot reading, doesn’t actually mean death. It means change, most often change through chaos. Seeing a Black Dog is sorta the same thing. It doesn’t necessarily mean someone is going to die. But it does mean something catastrophic is going to happen.”

Levi realized with a start that it wasn’t Arthur holding his wrist, keeping him steady, it was Will. This little wispy thing that got nervous around strangers was keeping him in place like a drawing pin. He wondered how hard it must be to grow up, having people see you and know something terrible would happen to them. How did that shape someone? How did that mold who they became?

“It means change, Levi. So you and Rosa need to be ready for change. Do you understand?”

Levi’s mind suddenly went to the world behind the milk aisle at Bullseye. He couldn’t help but laugh aloud at the flash of insight. What an idiot! Here he was, immersed in his very own hidden world of dairy products (the metaphor was a bit scuffed in his brain), the very thing he’d feared and dreaded ever finding. A new world, one he had kept himself blind to, kept hidden from himself.

Will looked at him like he had gone insane which, honestly, was fair. “Are you-”

“I’m okay,” Levi said, nodding. His eyes felt watery, and he wasn’t quite sure why. “I’m okay. I’ll try Will. I’ll try to be ready for change. Thank you for... telling me what it means.”

Will released his arm with a sigh of relief. “Good,” he said, tucking himself back in the hood of his hoodie. “That’s all I can really do, when things like this happen. Just... try to prepare people. Most don’t listen. I’m glad you did.”

Levi was done trying to hide from the world that had opened up before him, filled with amazing people like Baxter and Elizabeth, like Will, like Rhea and Jace, like Fisher. He was done trying to avoid it, to put it off. That was what had started all of this. That was what had gotten Arthur killed.

His own fear of change. His own unwillingness to take responsibility for his own actions. His cowardice and lack of resolve.

“Levi,” came Derrick’s voice from the stairs.

Levi turned and saw Derrick standing three steps from the top of the staircase. He looked... not angry, not frustrated, but closed off. His face was a mask of stone. This was the Derrick he met for work, the Derrick that confronted him at Crazy Carl’s Crab Circus, the Derrick capable of beating two full Lycans into submission and leaving them paralyzed on the hardwood floor. Paralyzed in a sea of tiny ceramic pieces, white and green and glittering where the lamp had fragmented on the floor.

“The Inspector is here,” he said blankly.

Levi shuddered. He turned to Will.

“You said there are two cards people get confused about, Death and the Tower. You explained what Death means. What does the Tower mean?”

Will grinned up at him, his golden eyes flashing, his teeth like canine fangs. “Death.”