The spell is broken

[Greggory Lennox]

All right. Something was up. This wasn't normal Aldon behavior, for whatever that was worth. Gregg didn't feel like he needed to know Aldon for very long to know as much. He was normally a lot friendlier. Normally, he'd come in and plop right next to him, regardless of any reservations Gregg might have against too much physical contact. Gregg remembered that he needed him--Aldon said as much. It wasn't one sided. Gregg needed Aldon, too. So far, he hadn't been good at communicating that so he gently slid a hand over Aldon's arm, fingertips stopping short of his wrist.

"I'd rather not."

Three words but it was an enormous admission coming from him. Gregg didn't know what to expect; he was so new to this. He knew the way it felt before the shift. There was time to get away but Aldon knew far better than he did when it was best to get the hell out of town. Aldon knew where to go and despite what he said, Aldon hadn't posed a danger to him when they met as a pair of wolves. Aldon had come at him with a snarl, it was true. But when they collided, something different happened. If Gregg had to put it into words, he would have said: puppies. Playful. They were like young animals.

"Nothing happened last time," he said, to further his "argument" to stay close to Aldon.

[Aldon Huang]

Aldon nearly winced at Gregg's touch, but somehow managed to tone it down to a small twitch of the shoulders. Instinct bade him to reach for Gregg's hand, but common sense told him to refrain.

"Oh..."

What did he say to that frank admission? Gregg normally wasn't so forthcoming. Aldon generally got the gist of things if he focused hard enough. And with Gregg, he had to focus a lot. But they made it work, somehow.

So he knew what it took for Gregg to say that, and he knew what the next sentence was meant to do--to persuade him that they should go through the change together, instead of apart. Aldon was silent for long moments, looking down at the persuasive hand on his arm. He hadn't forgotten that Gregg was new to this whole thing, and that it could be a scary time around the full moon, if one wasn't used to it. Aldon was a born werewolf so he knew what to expect, but Gregg was turned.

"It... It's dangerous," he argued, weakly, as his free hand slid over top of Gregg's much against his will. They'd had the big talk about ferals and Gregg had to know how badly a feral could hurt a normal werewolf. Ferals were tougher, stronger, more bloodthirsty. Just the thought of waking up to Gregg ripped to shreds made Aldon feel queasy.

"I don't want to hurt you." He was alluding to more than the change, but Gregg didn't have to know that. "Why don't you go with Rae's brothers? They know all the good places to change, where it's safe away from hunters."

[Greggory Lennox]

In finding Aldon, Gregg had found not just a mentor but somebody who helped steady that part of him inside that had not come to terms with what happened to him. Gregg hunted creatures and when he was nicked, he thought it was just that. In the heat of the moment, in the middle of the hunt, he was sure that he'd been fine but afterward, there it was. The scratch, stark and clear as day. He thought it was just a scratch, anyway. Then as the full moon drew closer, his worries began to mount. It was not a scratch. Or if it was, it was the scratch of teeth. That was all it took.

Why wasn't he more careful? Why did he let it happen? How could be so stupid?! Hunters who turned were quickly put down and every small moment with the other hunters now made him feel like he was hiding, disguising his true self. He was. He was a wolf now, in human skin, playing pretend so that his friends--the people he'd worked with and counted on to have his back--wouldn't kill him. Kill him, for something he couldn't even help.

It had to be worse with those born with the affliction. He never thought of it that way. He never thought of the beasts as people like himself until he met Aldon. None of the others compared. Aldon, though... Aldon was so human. He was so real. There were fears, apprehensions. There were things that made him smile and laugh and things that made him fall silent in thought. He was a person, through and through. And knowing that Aldon was... he now knew that they all were. Or at least, a large majority of them were.

The ones killing people, the ones they mercilessly slaughtered without asking questions first... they were helpless, unable to control the wild side... They could be new like Gregg or they could be weak. Sick. Unable to stop themselves. How many were wracked with the guilt of their sins?

But how many enjoyed it?

He shook his head quietly to the thoughts in his head, focusing instead on Aldon and his reiteration that it was dangerous to stay together. "It might be more dangerous if I go alone," he said. He didn't know how to communicate to Aldon just how afraid he was of losing it, of hurting somebody. He lowered his gaze. "I have to tell you something. Important."

[Aldon Huang]

"Correction: I don't want to kill you!" The gravity of the situation may not have escaped both of them, but Aldon really didn't want any harm to come to Gregg--ironic, he knew, since he'd come home with the intention of breaking up with him. But out of sight of Ryland, he was finding it increasingly difficult to form the words. It wasn't just because Ryland wasn't physically in the room, glaring at him, though.

Part of him didn't want to break up.

He didn't know what happened between the time he and Ryland separated and now, but Gregg had become a part of his life. Gregg was there when Aldon was at his lowest, grasping wildly for a hand to hold. He was there to pick up the pieces, to remind Aldon that life had to go on and that if he couldn't be with the one he loved, he could... like the one he was with. Now they had history, even if it wasn't as lengthy as the history he had with Ryland. Now there was a basis for attachment, although Aldon didn't know if he could ever feel about Gregg the way he felt about Ryland. Ryland could never be replaced... but he was temporarily displaced.

And he felt like a traitor for even thinking that, when his heart had always been with Ryland. Aldon wanted to be with Ryland--but he also didn't want to let go of Gregg. He was the one hedging his bets, keeping a hold on both. And knowing that Ryland would never agree to share... Although Aldon felt the same way about him. He could never have agreed to sharing Ryland with that other guy. Chris or whatever his dumb name was. Aldon had to be the only one in Ryland's eyes; he knew the feeling was more than mutual.

"Hm?" Aldon frowned in bemusement. "Something important? Like what?" The way Gregg lowered his gaze puzzled him. It made him seem extra serious, if he was avoiding eye-contact and dropping his head. Aldon's hand tightened briefly around his hand. "What is it?"

[Greggory Lennox]

He gave Aldon a look that said he highly doubted Aldon would kill him. Their last time together as wolves hadn't devolved into them hurling at one another and killing each other, so he doubted it would come to that now, either. Gregg knew what kind of wolves that Aldon was talking about. The nerds amongst the hunters referred to them as "dires" like dire wolves. And the non-nerds amongst them simply called them the bad ones. The ones that had no control, the ones whose bites were more severe and more dangerous... often leading to death, as Aldon reminded him.

But to think Aldon was one of them... It was pretty hard for Gregg to imagine it when he remembered a rather more puppy like wolf, not a monster creature threatening his life.

It was such bad timing, what with everything that had just transpired. Gregg hoped to find answers if he really did end up meeting up with the other hunters soon. Surely they had to know who had done it--who had killed the Ryang alpha. Still, it seemed like a bad time to tell Aldon. He could just imagine the revulsion on his face and the idea didn't sit well with him. Yet he couldn't prolong this. The longer he said nothing, the harder it would be to say anything.

"I was a hunter."

For a moment, he couldn't even look at him. And then he chanced a look up, to get an idea of how Aldon felt about the information, even as his shoulders remained rather tense and his head still hung low.

[Aldon Huang]

"Y--what?"

Aldon sat in stunned silence, hands over his knees. He couldn't remember the last time somebody managed to get him to shut up for more than ten seconds, but the pause that followed Gregg's admission definitely lasted more than ten seconds. It felt like an eternity that he sat there, staring at the bit of floor beyond Gregg's head.

A-a hunter?

A hunter?

Gregg... a hunter?

"B-but. How?" His voice was as incredulous as his shocked expression. Just. Gregg. A hunter. Those two things didn't belong in the same sentence. Gregg couldn't be a hunter, when he was... one of them. That kind of logic didn't really make any sense but it made more sense than Gregg being a hunter! Slowly, Aldon's fingers curled in against his knees. He rocked back, taking in a swift indrawn breath.

"You. You're not. You can't be, you. We." Words came out but not in order. Aldon shook his head disbelievingly. "You're a wolf," he said at last, with almost childish, stubborn simplicity. "You're one of us. You can't be one of them, that's... That's just not..."

It didn't fit in with anything that he knew about Gregg. The serious-faced man who lived with him couldn't be the same one who went out to slaughter wolves. The man who held him at night, whose sleepy face greeted him in the morning... That can't be a man who put bullets through Aldon's friends and family.

[Greggory Lennox]

"Now." He was one of them now but he hadn't been born that way. Aldon knew that from the moment they spoke. He was new to the wolf thing and who else but hunters were often fighting werewolves? It was a dangerous part of the job, knowing that they could become the thing they hunted. What he didn't fully expect was the level of shock that swept over Aldon. He seemed to take most things pretty well so Gregg thought he'd take this in stride. Now he was starting to feel like it had been a mistake to admit anything.

It wasn't just what Aldon was saying, it was what he wasn't saying. There was obviously a lot going on in his head, judging by the way he moved, the way his expression flitted from one emotion to the next. The level of disbelief was there, at varying degrees while he struggled to grasp what he'd been told. Gregg flicked his gaze away and rubbed his shoulder, feeling as if the weight on his shoulders had increased tenfold.

"I'm telling you because they don't know. But they want to meet with me. Maybe I can find out which one... did it." He didn't feel like he had to express exactly what he meant; there was only one dead wolf that had caused a huge ripple in the werewolf community and everybody knew it was a hunter that did it. Which one... nobody knew yet. But the hunters... they were sure to know.

[Aldon Huang]

Aldon was quiet--silent--while Gregg spoke, the wheels in his head turning (but the hamster wasn't all there). He just... couldn't believe it. That Gregg was a monster. A hunter. That he killed people--people like Aldon--in cold blood. Those hands that touched him? They held guns and knives. They were stained with the blood of innocents.

It made his skin crawl a little in revulsion, if he had to be perfectly honest with himself. Maybe Gregg himself didn't repulse Aldon but the things that he did...

And yet, he couldn't forget their time together. He couldn't erase the sound of Gregg's laughter--dry, reluctant, rare. He couldn't just throw out all of the nights that they had spent together, or the feelings that had just started to take hold.

"Oh. Yeah. Okay..." Aldon spoke long after it was time to speak, swallowing past the leaden lump in his throat. He stood up. "I uh. Need to use the restroom. I'll... I'll be right back."

It was just down the hall, and he closed the door once he was inside, sliding down it to sit with his back to it. Aldon lowered his head and ran a hand over his face. His phone went off somewhere in his back pocket and he pulled it out, feeling tired and dispirited.

[Greggory Lennox]

Fucked.

Up.

He fucked. Up. Everything. Gregg sat there as he was, legs apart, arms resting on thighs. His head tilted toward the bathroom. Part of him was sure that Aldon had made a quick getaway and that he was leaving him alone in his own place. Was he getting his friends together for a lynch mob? Were they all going to take him out for his past transgressions against his kind? Against their kind? After all, Gregg was a part of it now.

Time ticked by and Gregg stood. Maybe he should... leave. But he took one more look at the bathroom. On the very small off chance he hadn't escaped... Then he remembered the bathroom window was way too small for him to make an escape. He had to still be in there. Besides, they weren't on the first floor. Swallowing hard, Gregg approached the door with slow, quiet steps. He raised his hand, took in a breath, and then knocked twice. The sound was loud against his ears in the room. He closed his eyes, preparing. Then opened them, steeling himself for whatever attack Aldon decided to take out on him.

"Aldon? You okay in there?"

[Aldon Huang]

Aldon knew that he had spent far longer in the bathroom than was normal or even necessary and the longer he refused to come out and face Gregg, the harder it became to open the door. He nibbled nervously on his lower lip as he stared at the door, fiddling with the zipper on his jacket.

It was probably not the time to feel guilty for what he was about to do. After all, Gregg was a murderer. He was the villain in the story and Aldon couldn't know for sure that he wasn't still in league with his hunter friends. There was no guarantee that Gregg wasnt playing him or using him. But... something in Aldon couldn't commit fully to the notion that at any given moment, Gregg could sell them out. Not after he had come to know Gregg so well; not after Gregg had come to know them so well.

The knock on the door startled him into jumping; he knocked over a tube of toothpaste and sent some toothbrushes scattering and hastily grasped at them before they rolled onto the floor. "Uh. Yeah! I'm fine!" He called out, nerves jangling, feeling jittery and antsy and anxious and unsure. "Just. Give me a second." After stuffing the toothbrushes back into the holder, he took a deep breath and put his hand on the doorknob.

"Hey..." He briefly looked up at Gregg, who appeared... maybe not as uneasy as he felt, but who definitely looked uncomfortable. Aldon cleared his throat as an uncomfortable pause settled between them. "I uh... I need to go. Out. For a little bit." He cleared his throat again; it was dry and tight, making it hard to force the words out. "I'll be back later tonight, okay?"

Awkwardly, Aldon moved to get past Gregg. "Um." Hemming and hawing was never Aldon's way but he just couldn't get past the idea that Gregg was a hunter. It would have been like finding out that Roe was secretly a stripper! Or that Ryland wasn't a sneaky fox! Aldon paused as the back of his hand brushed Gregg's. There was only so much space to navigate in and... well, Gregg was a fairly large man. It was hard to avoid brushing past him even if Aldon was a stick--which he was not.

"Listen... Gregg..." Aldon looked up at him again and this time his gaze didn't flicker away. Maybe he was stupid. Maybe his opinion was biased and skewed in Gregg's favor because of all the time that they'd spent together. Maybe he wasn't thinking straight. But he couldn't see the villain in Gregg.

"I still trust you." His fingertips brushed Gregg's hand, gently and briefly, before he bolted for the door. If he didn't, he didn't know what he might end up doing--probably something that everyone would disapprove of, especially Ryland.