by Apollo Surge
"Weeks?" Elliot repeated.
"I've told you before that I used it to get people to let me stay with them?"
"Yeah, but I thought you meant like, for the night! Or that you'd been building up your exposure to them for a while first!"
They just stared at each other for a long moment, trying to figure out what this meant.
"Wait," Elliot said, shaking his head. "Wait, how were you Influencing a normal human at all?"
"Uh, the same way as always?" Sawyer said, confused.
"But last year- I mean, after everything with the Erlking," Elliot said, shaking his head. "That guy, the guy in the suit, the creepy one who works for the Council? He said your Influence wouldn't work on normal humans anymore. It was supposed to only work on Alphas now."
Sawyer froze for a moment, struggling to remember. He had vague memories of seeing the man in the dove grey suit. But he remembered very little of what had actually been said.
"...A lot happened that night," he said finally. "Everything is kind of a blur from the minute the Alphas started chasing me up the mountain. I've got the highlights, but not the details. I do remember freaking out after thinking I'd Influenced you into caring about me."
"I guess suit guy must have been wrong," Elliot said, frowning as he searched his own memories. "Or lying maybe. Or was the guy you Influenced not human, maybe?"
"No, he was definitely human," Sawyer said at once. "And I've seen my Influence affect other humans since that night too. Last time I worked the register at the general store I had to stop a guy from buying the whole place out for me."
"Why'd you stop him?" Elliot joked.
"Not funny," Sawyer said, rolling his eyes. "I don't like doing this kind of thing. But we needed it and I couldn't do nothing."
"You're right," Elliot said, smiling at Sawyer. "And thank you. It's a big help. Even if it does take some of the punch out of me getting the loan..."
Sawyer elbowed him gently and Elliot chuckled, pulling Sawyer close and kissing his temple.
"In fact," Elliot said, his breath warm against Sawyer's skin. "I think you deserve a reward."
Sawyer's pulse shot through the roof all at once, glancing at the other people still in the kitchen with them.
"Uh, here? I mean, I'm not opposed but, maybe we could go upstairs?"
Elliot laughed, squeezing Sawyer closer and muffling his laughter in the other man's hair. He kissed the top of Sawyer's head and pulled away for a moment, reaching for a bag he'd brought in with him when he got home.
"Here," he said, offering it to Sawyer. "I picked it up on my way home."
Sawyer took the bag curiously and glanced inside.
"You didn't!" he said, delighted, pulling out a big jar of peanut butter. "Holy shit, thank you!"
"I hope creamy is okay," Elliot said, clearly pleased by Sawyer's reaction. "I wasn't sure what you preferred so I just kind of guessed."
Sawyer grabbed Elliot by the shirt and pulled him down to kiss him into silence.
"It's perfect," he said when the kiss broke. "You're perfect. I'm going to have a sandwich right now. And we can talk about my other reward later."
He winked and Elliot's smile widened.
Dinner that night was a much more upbeat affair than usual. Food was still going to be tight, but Sawyer's shopping trip would keep them all pretty well fed for a week. Hopefully, Elliot's loan would be approved and cover them after that.
So for once there was meat and vegetables on everyone's plates and enough to go around, with the kids getting first dibs on seconds. The pack ate outside with the guests, sitting around a bonfire and talking comfortably. An air of celebration infused everything, soothing raw nerves and sore tempers from all the recent stress. Sawyer sat next to Elliot, feeling full and content for the first time in a little while and only fighting the urge to doze off because he still intended to collect his 'reward' later. It wasn't even that late, the sun barely down, but fatigue was apparently a thing with this stage of pregnancy. That and painful back aches and heartburn. Sawyer pushed those thoughts away. He didn't want to think about the pregnancy or anything else tonight. He just wanted to focus on this peaceful, hopeful feeling.
"Hey, can I talk to you two?"
Sawyer looked up as he heard Serena's voice and tried to wake himself up more. Judging by the concerned look on Serena's face, something was wrong.
"Don't you have work tonight?" Elliot asked. "Not that I'm not happy to see you."
"I called out," Serena said quietly. "I've got news. The Council finally called me back."
Elliot sat up straighter immediately.
"What is it?" he asked. "Do they have a plan?"
Serena glanced at the other people around the fire, mostly crocodilians, including Cuvier and Gustav, who were already looking curiously in their direction.
"Maybe we should talk privately first?" she suggested.
"This affects them too," Elliot said stubbornly. "They should hear it."
Sawyer could think of a lot of different reasons why it might be better to hear this news in private first and then tell everyone else, but he ignored his instincts. Sawyer wouldn't help Elliot feel any better about being Alpha by questioning his orders.
Serena looked pretty uncertain too, but she sat down on an overturned feed bucket. Elliot waved Cuvier over and Gustav followed.
"The Council confirmed that something is definitely up with the Fae," Serena said as the other two settled in.
"Well no shit," Sawyer muttered.
"They didn't know how badly it was affecting shifters though," Serena went on. "Or that they appear to be testing the boundaries of the treaty. In fact, we actually answered more questions for them than they did for us. They knew the Seelie were gearing up for something big, but they had no idea what. Now they're worried the plan is to tap into the ancestral magic tied up in this land and the mountain in particular."
"When you say something big," Cuvier asked. "Exactly how big do you mean?"
Serena took a deep breath.
"If the Seelie get their hands on the magic here," she said seriously, her stare grave and unsettling, "it will be the end of the world. No escape, no chance of survival. Just the straight up apocalypse. They'll obliterate the Unseelie immediately, and everything that's symbolically attached to them like, you know, the concept of cold, and two out of four of the fucking seasons. And the Earth will presumably be flash fried by the sun a second later or something. I don't even know. I just know it'll be bad as hell."
"What are they going to do?" Cuvier asked, looking pale. Sawyer, tense with horror at the thought, squeezed Elliot's hand. The other man was frozen, staring stiffly at Serena, who was shrugging hopelessly.
"I don't know," she said. "Whatever they usually do to keep the fae courts from slipping out of balance. They promised that they're handling it. They've always handled it before."
She sounded like she was trying very hard to remain hopeful.
"Did they know why the treaty isn't keeping them off the mountain anymore?" Sawyer asked, flickers of a half remembered dream returning to him.
Serena shook her head.
"They think it might be related to the Erlking nonsense from last year," she said. "That maybe having him on the mountain that long weakened the rules, since he is technically a Fae. The Courts have clearly figured out some kind of loophole."
Cuvier put a hand over his mouth, expression tense with worry. Gustav put a hand on the other man's shoulder, his own expression grave.
"Everything will be fine," Elliot said, his voice tight. "The Council has handled this kind of thing before. They stop the world from ending every day. We've just got to be patient and wait it out."
"How much longer can we afford to just be patient?" Cuvier asked, looking gray with worry. "We all know this situation is untenable."
"It's fine," Elliot insisted. "We're almost done fixing up the barn. It's not ideal, but it'll be proper housing for everyone. No more tents. And we're wor
king on solutions for the food situation. It's been a rough adjustment, but we're going to make this work as long as we need to. You're shifters, you're family. You deserve a place here and you deserve safety."
"You are a good man, Elliot," Gustav said solemnly, his deep voice heavy with remorse. "But if this goes on too much longer, it will be the end of us. Apocalypse or no apocalypse. The full moon is coming."
Elliot frowned, looking to Cuvier for an explanation.
"The bulls," Cuvier said dragging a hand over his face. "The adult men, they cannot be together when they shift. Confine them together and they will tear each other apart. We had the last full moon on the road and three men nearly died. One was so badly injured that forcing the shift to heal himself left him permanently disfigured. We have ten men, twelve counting myself and Gustav, who must be confined separately for the duration."
"We were hoping this would end before the full moon," Gustav said, his jaw set. "If it will not, this will become... difficult."
"We'll work something out," Elliot said, though he didn't sound completely convinced. "Just focus on keeping everybody's spirits up. This is a difficult situation, yeah, but it isn't impossible."
As if on cue, they heard the sound of an engine approaching the house. The crocodilians cleared a path for Elliot and Sawyer followed the Alpha, watching as a sedan pulled up the drive, followed by a small box truck.
A short man with unruly dark hair and a graceful, light-skinned black woman climbed out of the car, eyeing the group ahead of them warily.
"Is this the place?" the man asked, looking hopeful and braced to run at the same time. "Is this the shifter sanctuary?"
Chapter Thirteen
"How could you be so stupid?"
Alicia's voice rang through the dining room and made Sawyer flinch, fighting the urge to run or defend himself. Mateo and Jacob looked similarly uncomfortable. Paul had excused himself at top speed as soon as Elliot finished talking with the new shifters and Sawyer was beginning to think he'd had the right idea.
"Calm down, Alicia," Sawyer said, trying not to let his anxiety show.
"No!" Alicia shouted, either not noticing his obvious discomfort or too upset to care, pacing like a tiger in a cage. "I will not calm down! He didn't even talk to us about it! He just welcomed them in!"
"What was I supposed to do, Alicia?" Elliot demanded, rubbing his eyes, his shoulders tense, sitting across from Sawyer. "Turn them away at the fucking gate?"
"Yes!" Alicia snapped, then shook her head. "No! Just- We can't support them! Jesus, Elliot, we can't support the ones that are already here! Some of them aren't even shifters!"
There had been three small groups packed into the car and the back of the box truck. The first was a family of cat-shifters consisting of the dark haired man, Russell, his wife, their fifteen year old son, and his sister in law and her two daughters, who were thirteen and twelve. They'd gone on the run after the loss of Russell's brother. The second group was a herd of deer-shifters composed of six women and three young children, led by the tall black woman, Daphne. Deer shifters moved in herds divided by gender, the does and their young traveling separately from the bucks. They'd lost contact with the entire male herd. The final three weren't shifters, but near-fae— Humans who had been made magical by extenuating circumstances. All three were fairly young. One was just barely eighteen, the others sixteen and fourteen. They had apparently been online friends of Russell's son, who had urged them to come along when his family ran.
"They may not be shifters but they're still in danger!" Elliot pointed out. "Worse than us, even! If I refused them, their blood would be on my hands. Not to mention, how would you like to explain to Russell and his family that his friends, two of whom are children, aren't welcome just because they aren't the same kind of magic we are? Do you want to be the one to tell him that we're going to condemn those people to death? Be my guest!"
Sawyer sank lower in his seat, miserable. He didn't want to contemplate what it would be like being near-fae in this situation. The Fae recruiting shifters this aggressively was unusual, but near-fae were their primary targets all the time. In most cases, the Fae were directly responsible for turning the unfortunate human in the first place, after which they'd swoop in to 'explain' things to the confused and traumatized person. By the time they figured out what was really going on they were already bound to the Courts with no way to escape. The few that slipped through the Fae's fingers when they were first turned spent the rest of their lives hiding, both from the Fae and from humans. It sounded like a nightmare to Sawyer, who'd spent too long alone on the run, thinking he was a monster.
"What are you going to do when more show up?" Alicia asked, pacing beside the dining table in frustration. "You heard them! They found out about us on a fucking website! They're calling it a sanctuary! How long do you think it's going to be before every shifter and near fae in the country is on our doorstep?"
"I wouldn't worry too much about the website," Mateo spoke up from the chair beside Sawyer, scrolling through it on his phone. It was a very simple forum set up, probably the same copy pasted template used for thousands of private forums. "The site is password locked and the user list is very small. Maybe fifty total, less than that actually active."
"That's still more than we have space for!" Alicia complained. "And word is going to keep spreading!"
"Christ, Alicia, do you not want to help these people?" Elliot asked, looking at her in baffled anger.
"Of course I do!" Alicia snapped. "All I've been doing for the past week and a half is help these people! That's the fucking problem! You keep telling them we'll figure something out, but what you really mean is I will figure something out. I've been the one writing the budgets and organizing bathroom schedules and rationing the food and keeping track of supplies! You know, all the actual management of this situation! The shit you're supposed to be doing! Instead you just expect me to handle it while you fuck around chopping wood!"
Elliot recoiled, offended, then stood up to face Alicia across the table.
"I've been doing everything I can," he said, trying to keep calm despite the anger in his voice. "I didn't ask you to do all that, and someone has to chop the wood-"
"Anyone can chop wood!" Alicia shouted back, her anger rising to actual screaming now. Sawyer quietly put his head down on the table. "It doesn't have to be you! You're supposed to be leading! And of course you didn't tell me to write a budget or a schedule! That would require you to actually make an effort! You just took for granted that someone else would do it- That I would do it, because I'm the one that always does it!"
"Maybe someone else would do it if you actually let them!" Elliot roared back, slamming his hands on the table. "You didn't check with me before you took over all of that! You never even showed half of it to me! You make all this work for yourself and then act like it was forced on you!"
"It is forced on me!" Alicia shouted, gesturing with shaking hands, her eyes wet. "Someone has to make sure this place actually keeps running! The people who are supposed to be doing that are dead!"
The pain in her voice and the memory of Duncan and Antonia stopped Elliot cold. Sawyer felt a stab of guilt.
"I know I can't be the Alphas they were," Elliot said after a moment, quiet and strained. "But I'm trying. I'm talking to the other leaders, I'm trying to figure the money thing out. I don't know what else I'm supposed to do. This didn't come with an instruction manual, Alicia. I don't have any magic Alpha instincts telling me how to write a budget."
"What did you think being Alpha was, Elliot?" Alicia asked, almost pleading in her overwhelming anger. "Just giving speeches at the dinner table? Did you not pay any attention to all the work my mom was doing to manage this place every day? Or did you just not care?"
"Of course I cared," Elliot said, fists clenching. "Stop acting like I'm a monster just because I'm still figuring this out! For fuck's sake, it hasn't even been four months! If this was a part time retail job I'd still be shadowi
ng a manager!"
"We can't afford for you to take your time settling in," Alicia said. "We need you to be a leader now, before it's too late."
"I never wanted to be Alpha," Elliot said, the hurt and anger in his expression enough to make Sawyer want to run away.
"Well congratulations, you aren't," Alicia said, spreading her arms. "It's not just a title you can claim because you fucked an omega. It's a responsibility, which you have fumbled and avoided at every opportunity. You never were Alpha, and at this rate I doubt you ever will be."
Elliot grit his teeth and Sawyer braced himself for another round of shouting. Instead, Elliot held up his hands.
"I'm done," he said quietly, walking away from the table to the kitchen door. "You want to be Alpha so bad? Fine. It's yours. Good fucking luck."
He slammed the door behind him hard enough to make everyone left in the room jump. The screen on the back door creaked and slammed a moment later.
"Well that was unpleasant," Jacob said quietly. Mateo nodded, still deliberately engrossed in his phone, trying to shut out everything around him.
Alicia stood with her eyes closed, arms stiff at her sides, taking deep breaths.
"Alicia?" Sawyer asked, testing the waters. She took one last deep breath and opened her eyes.
"I'm going to go write another budget," she said very quietly.
"Would you like me to inventory the kitchen?" Jacob asked.
"No," Alicia said immediately, cutting him off. "I'll do it. Just... "
She didn't finish the order, unable to find the words. She made an ambiguous dismissive gesture instead and left through the kitchen door.
"This is not going to end well," Mateo said warily.
Sawyer was more than inclined to agree.
***
He went to bed, head pounding and body aching from stress both mental and physical. He'd expected Elliot to be waiting for him, but the moon fell in a silver square on the narrow bed uninterrupted. Sawyer stayed awake as long as he could waiting for Elliot to come to bed, but he was too tired. When he woke in the morning he was still alone, with every indication that Elliot had never come to bed at all.
