Ewan & Natalia
Ewan ran a hand through his red hair as they walked into Tulsa. Natalia leant up to kiss him, one hand protectively on her slightly bulging belly. It was just that little bit obvious she was pregnant.
"I'm hungry," she said plaintively.
"I'll find summat fer ye to eat, dinna fret, bonny," Ewan growled, nuzzling her neck.
"Love you."
"Love you always, my white knight," Natalia said, smiling.
They walked through the town, both barefooted and more then slightly ragged looking. Natalia snapped her teeth at a woman who stared at her and giggled when she gasped, then ran away.
"How funny."
"Dinna draw much attention to yself, bonny," Ewan warned.
"We dinna know if Blakesley is still here."
Chastened, Natalia behaved herself. They settled in a park for the night and watched as the moon rose.
"I'm going hunting, be back soon," Ewan told her and rose to his feet.
He padded out of the small grove of trees and then crouched to wait for an unfortunate animal to pass him by. He waited, getting hungrier and hungrier as nothing came. Then something coasted by on white wings above him. He leapt, catching the owl in his hands and biting down on its spine. It hooted and sqawked before dying.
Taylor
Taylor's head snapped around as Gloria let out a loud screech.
"CHARITY!"
She leapt from the nearby street sign and flew down the street.
"Charity?" Taylor whispered to himself, confused.
Then his eyebrows rose with worry.
"Gloria! WAIT!"
He took off down the street after her, eventually following her into the park. The owl was letting out cries of betrayal and loss.
"Where's your daughter?" Taylor breathed, looking around as they made their way through the park.
"The werewolf my Taylor, the werewolf," the owl cried.
"But no werewolves live around here," Taylor frowned, confused.
Ewan
Ewan licked his lips free of blood, starting to pluck the body of the owl where he stood. Feathers were a pain. He wished he'd been able to catch a rabbit, or a small dog, or a cat or something. Fur weas so much easier to get rid of then feathers. And owls didn't even really taste good.
Taylor
It wasn't long before Gloria had led Taylor to the scene. He hid behind a tree for the moment just watching, before he realized what had happened.
He let off a sudden loud growl, practically snarling, as he stepped out.
Ewan
Ewan's head swung around and he snarled back, baring his teeth.
"Feck off!"
His mouth was painted with blood and he held the owl's body easily on one hand, mostly denuded of its feathers. White feathers were scattered around his feet and sticking slightly to his fingers and pants.
Taylor
"Oh I don't think I can do that," Taylor frowned, stopping a few metres in front of Ewan.
"You're not aloud to hunt around here. This is free territory. Heed the rules or get the f**k out of Tulsa."
Ewan
Ewan laughed.
"And I'll guess you'll be stopping me, boyo? Bugger off."
He finished getting most of the feathers out of the bird and turned to go back to Natalia.
"If I'm hungry, I'll eat. This was the first thing that came along. Or would you prefer I ate humans?"
Taylor
Taylor cracked his knuckles and raised his eyebrows.
"I don't care what you do, but you don't hunt on this ground. And I will stop you. You can take that however you want."
Ewan
"Feck off."
Ewan moved away from where Natalia was lying, moving around her in a great circle, hoping to lead Taylor astray.
Taylor
Taylor pulled a face and folded his arms.
"You're another one that really doesn't keep up to date on events," he said simply.
"Don't piss me off, Ewan. As said, heed the rules, or get the f**k out."
Ewan
"I don't fecking care, that's why," Ewan said.
"And I'll be here as long as I want to, I'll hunt as I need to, and you better hope you don't run into me on a full moon."
Taylor
"Oh Ewan," Taylor shook his head pityingly.
"You leave me no choice. You do realize I'll do anything to protect the animals that seek sanctuary here, don't you?"
He kept his eye on him to watch his reaction.
"Do I have to threaten Natalia's life you make you behave?"
Ewan
"Touch her and I'll turn you over to Blakesley myself," Ewan growled, turning back.
His hair and teeth started to lengthen.
Taylor
"Oh I sincerely doubt that," Taylor replied.
"Apart from the fact that he doesn't need me yet, you couldn't. I could get to Natalia if I really wanted to, and that's no threat."
Ewan
"Either way, touch her and die," Ewan said, voice becoming more gutteral and animal-like.
He turned and blended into the night, going to Natalia as quickly as possible.
Taylor
"Run! Ewan!" Taylor laughed.
"Run like the shivering scared creature that you are. You can't touch me, so watch your back. Hunt in these parts again, and you will regret it."
He turned to leave.
Ewan
"I have more important things to worry about then you, pretty boy," Ewan spat back over his shoulder.
"Go back and suck at yer mumma's tit, come back to see me when you've grown uyp,. you self righteous arsehole."
Taylor
"I hope she doesn't mind being f**ked on a regular basis again. You know the pack outside of Tulsa are real horny bastards..."
Taylor stopped, smiled, then continued walking.
Ewan
Ewan dropped the owl and hurtled towards Taylor, deadly intent in his eyes and teeth bared. He struck the smaller man solidly, mouth going for his throat as he knocked them both to the ground.
Taylor
Taylor almost laughed as he was pushed to the ground, as his right hand flew to his belt where he kept his knife.
It was soon in Ewan's shoulder.
"Wait a second," he grunted, pulling it out.
The blade changed to silver before his eyes.
"Now try it," he raised his eyebrows, looking up as Ewan loomed over him.
Ewan
Ewan growled at him, the wound in his shoulder healed over.
"Bastard!"
He thought of his Mate and felt sick at the thought of what Taylor had suggested. The other Pack would make sure she lost the baby, and then rape her repeatedly until she fell pregnant to one of them.
Taylor
"Well I try to be," Taylor said, conversationally, "payback's a bitch ain't it?"
He shifted under the werewolf slightly.
"Mind backing off a little?"
Ewan
"What did I ever do to ye?" Ewan snarled in Taylor's face.
"Ye gormless idjit. Ye have no idea, none at all."
Taylor
"Back off," Taylor said sternly, tip of the knife set at Ewan's heart.
"I may not have an idea of what you've been through, but I have an idea of what I've been through. Now I warned you that this was a sanctuary. How you take the warning and what you choose to do with it is not up to me."
Ewan
"Nae, I meant ye had no idea what it would do to my bonny what ye said," Ewan said clearly, his teeth lengthened into fangs.
"We have to eat. We have no money, we're not exactly employable since we're both legally dead. Ye expect us to starve then? Nae, that I canna allow."
Taylor
"You think I'd expect you to starve?" Taylor raised his eyebrows.
"You can hunt, but only in the specified counties. There are plenty of werewolves that I actually consider my friends I'll have you know."
He pierced Ewan's skin a little with the knife.
"Now I've said it twice, and I'll only say it one more. Get off me and back off."
Ewan
Ewan gritted his teeth as the silver burnt him, skin smoking.
"Just leave us be. All we want is to be left alone. We wouldn't be travelling if we dinna have to. Ye great fool of a Yank."
Taylor
"Oh you're full of excuses," Taylor frowned.
"You don't have to travel. And if you took time to step back and take a look at the big picture you'd know that. It'd do everyone a big favour if you and your girlfriend pissed of somewhere unknown and hid for the rest of your lives."
Ewan
Ewan laughed bitterly.
"Oh, we tried that. No good."
He bared his teeth at Taylor.
"White werewolves, especially females are verra rare, apparently and verra useful in all types of spells. So, it's run or die. I don't have time for ye."
He got off Taylor and stalked back to where he had dropped the owl and picked it up again.
Taylor
Taylor finally sat up and rubbed his nose.
"The sanctuary is a twenty mile radius from this park," he informed Ewan, "you can hunt outside."
Ewan
"Pity the human hunters won't take any notice of that," Ewan said softly, then dispeared into the shadows.
Heading back to his Mate.
Taylor
"The punishment is exile or death," Taylor called after him, "and it's not always the perpretrator that suffers."
He stood up and brushed himself off.
Ewan & Natalia
Ewan just growled, swinging around widely before going back to Natalia.
"Here," he said softly, handing her the bird.
She ripped into it ravenously, blood smearing across her face and hands. He sat back on his heels and watched their surroundings. His ear twitched as he heard a rabbit's hop on the earth and he uncoiled slightly.
The shrill scream of the dying rabbit rang out for a few seconds before Ewan snapped its neck.
Taylor
It wasn't long before Taylor heard screaming, resulting in him letting out a lion's roar. Apart from it being warning for no one to come into the park, all animals scurried to the nearest shelter.
Taylor drew his knife out again, and blade changed to the same coloured flame - lined with silver.
He headed towards where he knew Ewan and Natalia were.
Ewan & Natalia
Ewan's head swung up from where he was feeding Natalia bits of bleeding rabbit.
"We have to run."
They grabbed the remains of their meal and fled, Ewan rapidly explaining the situation on the way. He angled their path towards the Hanson home, despairing mostly. A desperate thought, born out of sheer desperation. Natalia's breath came in rapid pants as she cupped her belly with one hand.
Taylor
Taylor backed out of the park, taking a shortcut around a few blocks to head them off. Gloria and a few others kept an eye above them, watching where the werewolves were headed.
Taylor made it to the corner of a block in time to see the couple heading in his direction. He drew the knife and pointed it in their direction.
"You didn't take it seriously did you?" he practically sneered.
"You don't piss off someone that has both animal influences and a very f**ked up mental state."
Ewan & Natalia
"When you've been hungry for the past three, four days and your woman is bearing your chuld, you;d take any chance to eat tha offered as well," Ewan spat at Taylor.
Natalia flicked her hand and violets crawled up Taylor's legs, anchoring him to the ground. They took off running in a different direction.
Taylor
Taylor ripped the violets from the ground and took off after them. Once they we in good sight, he began to form a sort of wall around them from the ground - stopping them, and leaving the only way out to be his direction.
Natalia & Ewan
Natalia turned, hand over her stomach and eyes aching with hopelessness. She started to make the violets twine their way through Taylor's clothes.
"I'll grow them in your heart, if I have to," she informed him coolly.
"And Ewan didn't kill the rabbit, it was me. I didn't know about your stupid soft hearted restrictions."
Ewan just moved in front of Natalia, teeth bared and growling.
Taylor
"Whoops?" Taylor chuckled, then tilted the knife, "I'm afraid that he knew, dear."
He continued dusting the violets. With a low growl, a large dog bounded out from the shadows and leapt for Natalia. Without even Taylor knowing what had happened, Natalia had been knocked down, and out, before the dog took off.
"ROLF!" Taylor yelled after it, then cursed, "I could handle it my f**king self you prick".
He turned back to Ewan."
Ewan
Ewan's face morphed and he dropped to all fours. Soon, a huge red furred wolf stood over Natalia's body, howling with anger.
"SHUT THAT DOG UP!" A voice yelled out of one of the houses, and lights started to come on.
Ewan howled louder, baying with rage that his Mate had been hurt.
Taylor
"Gladly," Taylor murmured under his breath.
He approached Ewan, all the while making the ground below the wolf's feet curl up around his legs - setting them in silver.
He stopped in front of him and looked down at Natalia.
"Well look at that, she really is pregnant."
He took a deep breath and looked up at the sky.
"I lost a child to her you know," he smiled slightly, "I don't think I'll let the same happen to you."
With that, he drove the suddenly into Ewan's side.
Ewan
Ewan whipped his head around and closed his jaws with a crunch on Taylor's hand, slowly slumping to his knees but maintaining the deathgrip on Taylor's wrist. His eyes gradually dimmed and grew blank before he shimmered back into his human form with his death. The young Scot's eyes were open and glassy, hands and feet trapped in silver with hideous burns edging up from the edges of the metal.
Taylor
Taylor barely flinched at the bite as Ewan's body fell to his feet.
He made the silver dissipate before kneeling beside his body. He stared at him for a moment with his head tilted to the side, before laying the knife against his stomach and digging it in.
He cut a few chunks out of Ewan's body, placed one at Natalia's face, then created a bowl to carry the others.
Standing finally, he lifted the bowl into his hands and began to make his way back to the park.
Natalia
Natalia woke up with a gasp and screamed when she saw Ewan's body. She wailed, rocking his bleeding body in her arms until the police turned up and took him to the morgue, and her to a hospital.
And from there to a psychiatric ward.
Because Taylor Hanson didn't kill people.
Taylor & Kirk
After Taylor had disposed of what he had taken to the park - distributed evenly to the hungry - he pulled out his cell phone and dialled Steel's number.
Steel's eyes shot open and he sat up from where he'd been sleeping. He wearily grabbed his phone and answered.
"Yeah?"
"Steel?"
"Yeah, Taylor?"
"Yeah, ah... can you get a healer down to Central Park within a few minutes... please?"
"What happened?" Steel asked groggily, reaching over to grab his address book.
"Bitten by a werewolf," Taylor replied, looking his hand over.
"What?" Steel shot up.
He sifted through his address book.
"Ok, one by the name of Claire is on her way."
"Thanks Steel."
"No problem, now how the hell...?" Steel frowned a little when Taylor hung up.