Unwilling: a shifter romance

by Hannah L. Corrie

  Hah. Trouble was exactly what he was heading for at the moment, standing next to the locker room doors, waiting for the football team to come out after their Monday morning training. Waiting for Jared.

  An Alpha was a person of respect and great influence. You listened to your Alpha, you didn't talk back, and you didn't bother him with mundane problems. You didn't ask an Alpha if he fancied someone and you didn't talk about their private lives. If he-- or she-- wanted you to know, they told you, and if they didn't, you'd never find out about it. That was what Harry had been taught all his life.

  So how the hell was Harry, being the submissive werewolf he was, supposed to quiz Jared about being an Alpha, if he couldn't ask out of fear of being right?

  He sighed and ran his hands through his short brown hair. The whole thing was a stupid idea. More than stupid, moronic. If he left right this instant, maybe he could still—

  "Harry."

  A coconut-scented mountain suddenly towered over Harry, corralling him against the wall. Shit.

  Harry’s racing pulse jumped as he stared at a broad, shirt-covered chest. Jared's white shirt looked soft, like cotton or wool, and it hugged his chest tight enough to show off the small pointed mounds of his nipples. Harry could almost taste the residue of water, showering gel, and shampoo on his tongue just from staring. God, this guy was gorgeous beyond belief— and he was Darwin's. Life sucked.

  "Jared, hi," he croaked, unable to keep his voice casual.

  Harry felt a piercing gaze wander over his scalp and down to his face. Never before had they been in such close proximity to each other, always keeping a distance to avoid unsettling encounters. But now that distance was gone and Harry's courage dissipated with the increase of his arousal. It was a totally inappropriate reaction to his best friend's potential boyfriend, he knew that, but knowing wasn't enough to convince his body. The downside of heightened senses were, well, heightened senses. He pressed his back against the wall, quietly praying for a wider cut shirt. His cock defyingly flourished under those eyes like a flower in the sun, straining against his jeans for everyone to see.

  Well, for everyone except Jared. He was too busy leaning forward and sniffing Harry's shoulder to notice his state of arousal. If he smelled it, he didn't show, or he didn't care.

  "How come you are standing here and Darwin is nowhere to be seen?"

  Jared sounded casual, amused. Everyone who heard Jared would think he was making a good-natured joke. After all, people had gotten used to seeing Harry and Darwin glued together at the hips. Harry noticed the slight disgruntlement hidden in Jared's words, though. He also saw the increased tension in his shoulders and the tightening around his eyes, all up close and personal. Oh yes, Jared was definitely not happy that Darwin wasn't here.

  It didn't boost Harry's confidence. His pulse sped up and he pressed his back against the wall more tightly. "He," he began, swallowed and gulped for air, "well..."

  Thunder appeared all over Jared's face, darkening his cheery good-ol'-pal-expression to something scary. His breath crawled over the side of his neck, wafting against his racing pulse. The air around them got so thick a spark could have combusted it.

  "He sent you, didn't he? A scared little lamb, prepared for slaughter. Are you supposed to tell me to back off? I won't, but I'll make you remember in explicit detail how things are going to be."

  Jared didn't wait for an answer. Fingers wrapped around Harry's arm and tightened to the point of pain. He whirled around and pulled Harry with him.

  Walls, doors, windows raced by as Harry tried to keep up with the furious pace Jared set through the gym department, up the stairs, across the enclosed footbridge, and into Statsby Hall. A breath was all Harry managed, then their nightmarish travel ended and a door slammed shut behind him as he stumbled into a small dorm room. Harry didn't get a good look at the interior, but that small prospect was enough to confirm it was Jared's -- the heady musk of sunshine and virile werewolf spoke for itself.

  The room was wondrous in its simplicity, not only because of the cleanliness, but also because there was absolutely nothing proving that anyone lived there. The bed was made and there was not a crooked crinkle anywhere. The bookshelf was empty and unused and the table next to the window was cleared and blank. How did Jared work in such a Spartan environment? Harry sympathized with the need to have a clean, orderly home, but Jared's room lacked personality. Furniture and storing space, nothing else. It felt lonely and cold.

  He turned around, only to meet Jared's enraged eyes.

  "It's not what you think," Harry husked and took a step backwards. As much as he wanted to flee, the only way out of the room was blocked by the sun-tanned, bulky male staring him down, and the windows were secured glass. He would break his bones jumping through it.

  Jared's voice was melodic, peaceful and eerily calm. "What do I think, Harry?" he asked, emphasizing the name and cocking his head curiously. His eyes never left Harry's face, but the muscles in his shoulders were twitching with the effort to stay put. They were the only thing that gave Jared's simmering rage away. He was visibly trying very hard to control it.

  "You think we're in a relationship, which we're not!" Harry stammered, jerking back when Jared took a threatening step forward. "I'm n-not here to stop you, really! I just—" he shrank back against the desk and Jared took two more steps in his direction with his hands balled to fists. "I-, I-, I just need to know if you're an Alpha."

  "And what would you do with that information?" Jared sneered and surged forward again.

  This time, he didn't pause until he loomed over the shivering submissive werewolf. The sunny fragrance of coconut, warmth, and werewolf once more wafted over Harry like a cloud of alluring perfume, making his head swim and his heart leap against the inside of his chest. He wanted nothing more than to melt against the body in front of him, rub his cheek against Jared's broad chest, and maybe let his hands wander and touch what he assumed to be a decent ass.

  His fingers positively itched with the need to feel Jared. Only the thought of Darwin made him jam his hands behind his back to contain himself.

  "Did Darwin send you?" Jared growled again, but Harry didn't answer.

  He grasped Harry's chin and lifted his gaze until their eyes met. Jared used the moment of shock to close the last few inches of distance between their bodies, molding his chest against the lean, shivering body before him. "Tell me. Did he?"

  Harry's breath hitched. When his lungs decided to once more obey the commands his brain sent, he gasped like a stranded fish. He tried to answer, but the only sounds that came out of his mouth were soft whimpers. His body knew how to reply to Jared's force, though: instant, throbbing hardness, paired with frantic arousal and need. His dick awoke from its semi-hard slumber and with it came blissful, single-minded vacuity.

  Jared put both arms around Harry's shivering form, one hand pressing against his shoulder blades as the other hand went deeper and burrowed underneath his shirt. His fingertips drew thoughtless, circling patterns on Harry's back and his lips brushed against the tender, warm skin of Harry's neck. It was a soft, taunting kiss against his pulse.

  "You can tell me, c'mon," Jared husked against his nape.

  'Tell him what?' Harry's mind contemplated, drunk with desire for more. Then he remembered the question.

  "No, he--" he began, shuddered violently and finally wrung his arms around Jared's body. "He didn't," he managed breathlessly and added, "I said I'd ask. If you're an Alpha, that is. It's important. To me. Because of Darwin. His family."

  He would have rambled on and on, but Jared stopped his Morse code with a kiss. It was a chaste kiss, lips against lips and no signs of anything more, but it still set Harry aflame.

  This was nothing like the amusing, lighthearted fumbling Harry had had with Darwin in the past. Jared's hand brushed up his back, eliciting goosebumps wherever his fingers went. When Jared jerked his hand down and drew angry red welts on his skin, Harry moaned sharply and arched his back in she
er pleasure.

  "What about his family?" Jared purred, nipping at the skin beneath Harry's ear. The hairs on Harry's arms stood up in salute to the thrill.

  Some part of Harry warned him that Darwin would kill him— not literally, but friendship-wise, which was bad enough— if he answered, but it was merely a fleeting thought. "You can save him from them." The words rolled from his tongue like rain, almost unintelligible with the way his breath raced.

  Jared's lips wandered lower and he licked over the jumping pulse at Harry's neck. "Who does he need saving from?" he murmured against the wet skin.

  "His Alpha." Harry's hands found their way beneath Jared's shirt, but then just lay there, twitching as he fought against his longing to do more.

  "Why does he need saving from his Alpha?"

  Harry whimpered, then tugged at Jared's waist band. "I can't tell you. I promised," he whined desperately, trying to pull Jared closer and push him away at the same time. "Please don't be angry, please! He's my friend, I can't—"

  He only stopped wailing when Jared's fingers found their way around Harry's throat, wrapping around his pulse with featherlight pressure. It cut off the lament in mid-sentence and replaced words with a nervous moan.

  "I understand you can't tell me details," Jared purred as his hand slowly kneaded his throat, "But there must be a reason why me being an Alpha would be such an important thing."

  Harry's arousal was painful in its intensity, muddled and mixed up by a growing thread of shame and fear. If Darwin saw them like this, groping each other and at the same time not groping at all, he would have a fit and drop Harry like a hot coal. He tried to wrestle out of the tight spot he had been maneuvered into, but Jared kept him pinned in a half-sitting position on the edge of his desk, wedged between his knees, cut off from every possible exit. No way out. But then, did he need a way out? Wasn't this why he was here, to find out about Jared, to get help for Darwin?

  "It is, because you could make him yours, take him away. Save him."

  Jared

  Harry was easy prey for someone as experienced with one-night-flings as Jared. Not that he actually tried to get Harry into bed, but giving him a hint of that idea loosened his tongue and made him pliant enough to pry out the information Jared needed. As evil as it was to seduce someone he didn’t feel more than sympathy for, holding back from going through with it was easy. First of all, this was Harry, not Darwin, and secondly, Jared had a purpose far more important than wild and meaningless sex in his dorm room.

  "Harry, Harry, you're not making any sense," he purred haughtily, grabbing him tighter as he once more tried to slip out of his grasp.

  Harry's squeak was simply cute. "I can't tell you! But you need to save him, take him away. Far, far away from his Alpha. He's gonna kill him." The words were shaky and breathless, but at least this time Harry had said something useful. Well, it didn’t make any sense in the literal way, but it had been a full sentence, with a subject, a predicate, stuff between and whatnot. Jared relented with a sigh, loosening his grip on Harry's throat and giving him a little more space.

  The result wasn't what Jared hoped for. Harry sagged, groaning out a decidedly distraught whimper. "Darwin's gonna kill me," he whimpered as soon as he got his voice back.

  "What? Oh. Don't worry about that," Jared mumbled absent-mindedly.

  It took Jared a few seconds to identify the dismay on Harry's face. The poor guy was shivering, pale and on the verge of tears, but somehow Jared didn't think it was because of what he had done. "He's never gonna talk to me again if he finds out I told you his personal business." He sounded so hopeless and distressed.

  Sighing, Jared leaned forward and hugged Harry to his chest. If Harry went to see Darwin in this condition, bad things were going to happen and not just to their friendship. He had no idea what kind of story Harry would tell Darwin when pressed to explain himself, and the last thing Jared needed was Darwin getting even more reasons to hiss at him.

  "He won't find out, okay? Just tell him--" Jared rubbed Harry's back, digging through his memory to think of something useful. "You'll tell him I'm an Alpha, and he'll be so giddy and excited he won't even ask why you're so nervous."

  When Jared loosened the hug, Harry still wore a doubtful expression on his face, but didn't look like he was going to have a breakdown anymore. His chocolate brown eyes lit up a bit when he studied Jared's face. "So I was right? You're an Alpha?"

  Jared bared his teeth and Harry shrank back from the dominant, aggressive expression. Jared didn't see the merit in his birthright and he hated talking about it, or admitting it.

  When his family had discovered that not one, but two of their three sons were Alphas, there had been an epic uproar in the pack. Talks about giving Jared up for adoption for the sake of his own safety had luckily been struck down by his mother. Somehow, his parents had managed to raise them without incident, getting them to love each other in spite of nature's demands. Their family had also survived Tobias' ascension to Alpha of the pack when their late Alpha had stepped down.

  However, one could bend nature only so far before it snapped back to its well-worn ways. As soon as Jared had hit his eighteenth birthday, things had gone downhill. Accepting another Alpha in his lands cost Tobias respect in his own pack and made him edgy and aggressive. Jared couldn't count the numbers of brawls he had had with his brother in the last year, and although Tobias had gone out of his way in his efforts to not kill Jared, it had gotten worse and worse. When an attempted coup against Tobias by some of their own pack members had been exposed, he had snapped. Jared was to leave his lands in the next forty-eight hours, or they would fight to the death.

  His mother had begged Jared to stay, to submit to Tobias and his dominance, but again, nature had kept him from doing so. So he had packed his belongings, stuffed his little Beetle with his goods and driven off to a new life.

  Shaking his head, Jared lifted a hand and tousled Harry's hair. "It's okay. Don't be afraid. And yes, you're right. I'm an Alpha." He combed through his own hair, stepped back and gestured to the door. "Now hop to it, sweet-cheeks. I bet Darwin's waiting for you." Jared managed to smile and wink at Harry. His heart gave a painful twinge. Goddamnit, he missed his family something fierce!

  Blushing, Harry got off the table and scuttled towards the door. He met Jared's eyes and seemed to sense the sadness in the higher-ranking werewolf. Harry stopped and started to say something, but another sharp glance herded him right out the door with no further comment.

  Nostalgia stuck like cobwebs to Jared's mind, but he tackled that problem like he did every other inconvenience these days: he intensified his stalking of Darwin. Wherever Darwin went, Jared was there. In his math class, in the cafeteria, in the gym, and Jared even found Darwin's favorite place in the small park next to the university.

  Harry pretended not to notice, but his nervousness hung sickly-sweet in the air whenever his eyes met Jared's. Harry obviously couldn't lie if his life depended on it, which would have been an upside were they playing poker, but a serious drawback in this situation.

  If Darwin sensed Harry's strange behavior, he didn't comment on it. He looked even more worn out, tired, nervous, and more short-tempered than usual. Although Jared normally took great delight in letting Darwin notice him and then watching him combust, Jared's instincts told him that it wouldn't be healthy to provoke Darwin any further.

  Maybe it would have been prudent to ease up on the stalking for a few days altogether, but Jared had never been good with prudence. The whole concept was too tiresome to contemplate. Granted, he should have seen it coming, but even in his wildest dreams, Jared hadn't anticipated the dimension of anger his constant presence roused in Darwin.

  All it took was one second of negligence on Jared's part. It was Friday and Jared was standing in the hallway, right next to the door to Darwin's class. He was waiting for the end of the last lesson, typing away on his smartphone, when someone shoved him against the wall and slapped the small gadget out of
his hand.

  "What the fuck are you doing here!"

  Darwin was seething, hands balled into fists, muscles tense enough to make him shake with rage. His eyes were reddened with lack of sleep and the rings beneath them were black like bruises. A nervous twitch made his cheek quiver ever so often. He looked ready to strike out again, almost murderous. It was fearsome and endearing at the same time.

  Jared felt a abrupt urge to hug Darwin, to banish whatever haunted Darwin from his mind, to protect him from whatever or whoever had shaken the submissive werewolf so much. The impulse was so sudden, it frightened Jared to the core, and he instinctively answered with anger.

  "I'm waiting for Harry," he said, icily calm while his hackles rose to the challenge and the drive to strike back. He averted his gaze, looked at Harry and held out his hand. "Would you like to have lunch with me?" Jared asked, masking his ire with a sickly sweet smile. Harry blanched and closed his eyes in horror.

  A gasp drew Jared's eyes back to Darwin.

  "I knew it!" Darwin hissed, then the pain was gone from his face, replaced with murderous hate. He whirled around, threw a frosty glance at Harry, and stomped off.

  Jared had the presence of mind to jump forward when Harry fainted and caught him in his arms. "Well, that went well," he muttered.

  Darwin

  Darwin didn't pay attention to where he was running. He just ran until his breath wheezed out of his screaming lungs and his leg muscles burned with agony. The honking of a truck made him dig his heels in right at the border of a busy street. His flight had led him to the offshoots of the nearest highway, four miles away from Banes Central University. It didn't matter, though, no distance could have lifted the pain in his chest. Panting, he turned around and blindly started his way back.

  Was Darwin even entitled to feel betrayed by Jared? After all, he pushed Jared away whenever he had the chance to do so. Granted, he secretly enjoyed the attention and if he was honest with himself, he would have given in sooner or later. He just hadn't anticipated Jared losing interest in him so soon. And in favor of Harry of all people.