Chapter Ten

"Hang on a minute." I told Roy as we approached my little abandoned garage in the middle of the forest. I told him to wait outside as I opened the large metal shutter with my arm.

The lock was broken and it was too heavy for just any human to open by himself. So it made me a little more secure knowing that if any assholes wanted in they'd have a hard time trying for it.

It had been difficult to convince Roy to follow me here, he had been very skeptical when I described where I lived and who could blame him? I sounded like I was taking him to a r^pe dungeon in the middle of the woods. I too would be freaked.

"Oh god, you really live here?"

I turned to nod at him. "Welcome to my palace."

He chuckled softly but I could see the worry still evident on his face.

Still, he would have to suck it up.

We had a limited time to do this before the full moon returned and since his mother was consistently home every evening at the exact time he returned from school we had no other choice but to take our asses to my little tramp cave.

"Stand to the side Roy, I'm going to move the van out in a second."

He looked at the beaten up rusty looking van and with doubt evident in his eyes. "You sure that's going to go anywhere?"

I opened the door. It was broken, the doors remained open all the time since the lock no longer worked and the key had permanently rusted in the keyhole. I had never bothered to take it out or use it before. I basically just used the thing as a storage space anyway. If I could help it I transformed at night and slept in a cave or some other animal designed crevice in the ground.

I slept better in transformation. When I was a wolf I found it harder to think about complex matters or rather, overthink on them. And it made everything seem so much simpler.

"I have a couple gas cans in the back if I ever run out, along with practically everything else."

"O-oh... That would explode it will it?"

I shrugged. "If it does, it does. I always take the van out before I light a fire anyway so it shouldn't."

He gaped at me, his mouth slightly parted. "Would an explosion not kill you?"

"It might." I admitted. "I'm not sure how much I'd mind that though."

A sad look crossed Roy's face before he paused and nodded, stepping back as the motor revved up more chaotically than necessary.

That was one amazing thing about Roy, he knew when to shut up. I didn't need him to tell me that I shouldn't think that way or that I don't mean that. I didn't need pity. Shit like that just clicked the on switch to my rage when people thought they knew better than you about issues currently affecting you.

No, bitch, just because you've been through what I've been through does not mean you get to take a moral high ground over me.

I got out of the car and hurried back into the garage waving my patient little Roy inside.

"It's messy in here." Was all he said as he entered. And I couldn't deny that the bluntness of it turned me on a little.

"Yes it is."

"Why is there a garage in the middle of the woods?"

"I'm really not sure." I replied honestly.

"Just randomly a garage?" He asked again.

I shrugged. "I think there may have once been a road near here. I once smelt something funny down the dullen banks and started digging and my paws met concrete." I said as I picked up a rather dirt and insect covered stack of newspapers from one end of the room to the other and wiped them down a little.

"If you have a look around the sides of the garage there's a bunch of neglected rubble. I used a lot of it to burn or make some amateur necessities. Or I just in general dumped a little further away. Possibly, a house was bulldozed or something here and the one thing they never got to was the garage."

I opened the back doors to the van and pulled from it a couple pillows and a broom, one I will let you know I did not steal but bought... Well I bought it from money I got from the stolen items... So does that count?

"Is that why the place looks kind of lop sided?"

"Maybe." I nodded as beckoned for him to sit on stack of newspapers I'd covered with a pillow. He took a wary seat. "The wall on one side is kind of cracked cause there's a tree kind of growing into it."

"Can't you just uproot it?"

I snorted. "Have you seen the roots trees have? I may be a werewolf but I'm still not fucking hulk. Besides I don't want to. In general I don't like ruining things like that... And it serves as a pillar. A proper one I seriously cannot be arsed to build."

"The ceiling looks wobbly too." He stated.

"The rain. There aren't any drain pipes so it just lies up there on the roof and it's already half molded so it's getting kind of soft."

His face showed his discomfort.

"And you've been living here for what?"

"Two years."

"Two years?" He gasped.

"Two years, two months, and two weeks."

Once I was finished sweeping clean the cement floor I pulled out a couple other randoms from the van and sat them inside before dragging out a particularly hefty mattress.

This was something I'd found lying outside someones house with a 'used & free' sign hung on it. I'd gotten it nearly a year ago and never used it. It was in damn good shape and a clean white. I hadn't any sheets to cover it with but I doubted I would ever use it again after this anyway.

Maybe I'll rob some douche at the nightclub of their wallet and rent us a hotel room for when the heat comes in to play.

I cleared the area around a fireplace I'd somewhat implemented in the place over the years. I'd made it for the winter, not so much for me as for my clothes and other small things. I couldn't dry anything outside and couldn't wash anything in the lake when it was frozen up. Sometimes I even got stuck in the rain and the cold froze my fur. It had just become an necessity over time.

Roy came in with a couple blocks of chopped firewood that was sitting out front.

"Do you need this?" He asked.

I smiled softly at him. It felt nice to have someone here with me.

"No hun, that's been outside too long and it's still pretty damp."

"Oh?" He made it sounds like a question as he moved to return it back where it was.

"When it's damp it's a total bitch to light. I've got some dry wood in the corner, that'll burn up real nice."

He nodded and watched silently as I dragged a couple branched from the corner. They were good and dry and that made them easy to break off into smaller pieces as well. I had found these on the floor and not taken them from the trees. When you take them from the trees they give you a smaller flame but they last a lot longer than with dead wood.

One of them put up a good fight so I grabbed what you might call a wood cleaver from the corner and chopped off a bit of it so it would fit. It was something canny to a small axe, almost like a tomahawk.

Once the flame was lit I signaled Roy to come inside and shut the heavy metal doors.

It was a large fireplace so the entire room really glowed with warmth and light.

Roy shuddered as the warmth entered his system and took a seat beside me on newspapers in from of the newly crackling fire as I poked and shoved the pieces of wood around to let it spread more easily.

Watching Roy sit there next to me, warmth in his eyes and comfort in his system made me realize how warm the fire made the little garage look. It was beautiful. My little rusting metal grate I'd set up made it cast crisscross shadows across the room and gave the entire, normally cold, trampish home I was used to look so incredibly warm and inviting.

"So did you bring music?" I asked.

I'd told him to pick out some CD's of his favorite music for us to listen to over at my place when we went to his to drop some stuff off.

He nodded. "Don't laugh..." He said. "But I made this little playlist thing..."

He seemed to have stopped there and he knows how much I hate it when people trail off what they're saying. "Okay?"

"It's a sort of revenge playlist..."

"Revenge?"

"Like... When um... When my um mate-.. I guess... When he dumped me?"

"Rejected you. Yeah?"

"Yeah, I sort of got really into these sort of.. Uh fuck you songs... So I made this playlist, like a while back..."

I gave him the biggest grin ever.

"Yeah I know how you feel."

"You did that too?"

"No but I wanted to. Every time I heard one of those fuck you songs in the clubs I would just dance to it until the song ended. A guy with a dick the size of a canister could not have changed my mind." I shuffled a little closer to him and handed him the CD player. "But I never had enough spare money on my hand to go get things like that. Oh, have you got Jaron - I pray for you?"

He gave me the biggest grin I'd seen from him and nodded. "Let's start with that."

The music began to play and I moved our seats out of the way, pulling Roy into my arms as I played lead to what would have been a dance to classical music. Our bodies real close as we grinned evil smiles, dancing to the music as though it were a symphony by Bach and not what it was.

I haven't been to church since I don't remember when

Things were goin' great 'til they fell apart again

So I listened to the preacher as he told me what to do

He said you can't go hatin' others who have done wrong to you

Sometimes we get angry, but we must not condemn

Let the good Lord do His job and you just pray for them

This was the moment the beat kicked in and I hugged him real close as we spun around the fire lit room, just dancing and laughing and, at moments, singing along with dreadful time keeping and no rhythm at all.

Smiles on our faces as we jumped into the lyrics.

I pray your brakes go out runnin' down a hill

I pray a flowerpot falls from a window sill and knocks you in the head like I'd like to

I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls

I pray you're flyin' high when your engine stalls

I pray all your dreams never come true

Just know wherever you are honey, I pray for you

I swiveled Roy back into my arms and lent in real close. I watched closely as the blush tainted his cheeks and admired his cute plush kissable lips for a second before I lent in and claimed them.

I'm really glad I found my way to church

'Cause I'm already feelin' better and I thank God for the words

Yeah I'm goin' take the high road

And do what the preacher told me to do

You keep messin' up and I'll keep prayin' for you

I pray your tire blows out at 110

I pray you pass out drunk with your best friend and wake up with his and her tattoos

I pray your brakes go out runnin' down a hill

I pray a flowerpot falls from a window sill and knocks you in the head like I'd like to

I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls

I pray you're flyin' high when your engine stalls

I pray all your dreams never come true

Just know wherever you are, near or far, in your house or in your car,

wherever you are honey, I pray for you.

I pray for you

At this point the music had stopped and both of us were clambered messily on the bed with him sprawled out under me. I guided him through the process. I understood what it was like to be a clueless virgin, to not really know where your hands were supposed to be or what role you were supposed to be playing.

Thing was, over the years, experience is a great teacher. Hell if I sound like a slut saying that. It was fucking true alright?

I let him top me, in one sense of the word. I played power bottom in this situation and for the most part was on top of him as he took me.

I couldn't deny that I enjoyed it. He was clumsy and inexperienced but I enjoyed it.

However I could also not deny the fact that a part of me recoiled in disgust every time he drew back in me.

There he was.

Laid out sprawled on the mattress beside me, beautiful, an angel who's wings had yet to unfurl.

He was so perfect.

Why did Luna pair me with someone who didn't want me?

Were the Atheist werewolves right after all? Did wolves just mate with those who seemed to have all the properties suited to them? Castus was gay and just needed a man and I was the only obviously out gay guy on board.

Perhaps it was just nature fucking me over.

That made me a little happier. That I didn't feel like a total asshole for blaming Luna after all she had apparently done for her little creations.

I sank into the mattress beside Roy, it felt weird to be spooned by a shorter guy but I couldn't say I was completely against it. The feel of his chin against my back, it was quite nice.

Waddya know. Sleeping on a mattress, energy spent, a person beside me soaked in warmth. It was actually pretty fucking nice.

[A/N] I thought I'd let you know that I made this chapter really sweet and cutesicle for a reason. Next chapter may or may not make you come after me with a hatchet. Apologies in advance.