A Wolf Like That

"I think you should tell the girls."

"W-what?"

"Well, they deserve to know, especially if we are in danger," Emily folded another item of her washing, laying it down on the pile. It had been a few weeks since they talked about everything, in that time nothing major had happened. Alison had left town a few times to deal with tribe related incidents, while Emily covered with the other girls saying that Jason had wanted her there for some major company business meetings. Emily brought this up now, because she had found Alison outside of her house last night in her wolf form growling at the pitch black.

"Ali?" The brunette snuggled into her hoodie even more as the cold chill of the night air nipped at her exposed face, she had been awoken by the growling and automatically assumed it would be Alison... or another wolf trying to eat her. She was glad to find out it was the former of the two.

The white wolf turned to her and snapped its jaw, a long tongue poking out to lick around its fangs before darting back in. The aggressiveness dissolves from her face and she pads over to Emily, brushing her face against the brunette in an almost hug.

"What are you even doing here, huh?" Emily cupped Alison's face and pressed her nose against the cold nose of the wolf, smiling at the simple intimacy of it all. As soon as the moment fell over them, it was gone as Alison spun around the same aggressiveness cementing back onto her face.

"Ali, come on," The brunette ran a hand along the long fur of the wolf as she walked up to be in eyeshot of the wolf, "whatever, or whoever was here is now gone. You scared them off. Come back to me now."

The wolf tilted its head before turning away and walking over to the clothes line, Emily had left a few white sheets out to hang in the cold night air. "You okay Ali?"

Within a couple of seconds – and a few painful sounds of bones crunching and shifting back into place – the blonde had dropped her wolf form and now stood behind a sheet quickly grabbing it off the line and wrapping it around her frame.

"Are you that cold?" Emily asked as she extended her arms for the blonde, hoping that her warmth would be enough for the girl, but as she enveloped her the only warmth was coming from Alison in tsunami waves.

"Nope, far from it actually."

"Is this a wolf thing?"

"Yup, that's biology baby. I'll never get cold again," Alison sported a cheeky grin as Emily seemed to melt even more into her instead of vice versa. After a moment of silence, and hugging, because the blonde was like a heater that Emily didn't want to leave, they broke apart.

"Wait, why are you naked?"

"Oh Em, you didn't think I was like one of those twilight wolves did you?"

"Well," Emily fumbles on her words, and if Emily wasn't blushing before she surely was now. Alison was literally only wrapped in a sheet, and if she's being honest this wasn't how Emily thought the first time she saw the blonde in a sheet would go. A gentle nudge to her bicep pulls the brunette from her internal monologue.

"No, that whole thing where they wrap their pants to their ankle is stupid. Either I leave my clothes in a pile on the floor or they break away as I transform, no other way to it unfortunately."

"I can't believe I've been lied too for so long," Emily feigned shock as Alison gripped onto her arms and pulled her towards the house.

"Come on silly, let's get you warmed up."

"Em, don't you know that'll end up putting them in more danger if I told them."

"Well aren't they already in danger? You said yourself that you patrol all of our houses, and you've found wolves outside of Aria's and Spencer's house before. So obviously the Fury's are already targeting them, why not tell them so they can at least be prepared."

"Nothing can prepare them! Humans don't stand a chance against a shape-shifter, Em! If I told them, I'd just be making them worry about things that go bump during the night," A sigh came through the phone piece, Alison had been overly tired in these last few weeks. She had hardly slept since coming back from out of town, opting to patrol every night until sunrise. Emily knew the kind of toll it was taking on her, knew that if she had to fight that she would be at a disadvantage because of her nightly activities.

"I just don't want you getting hurt, and the chances of that happening are increasing every night that you patrol!"

"So what do you want me to do? Let a Fury come in and take Aria, or God forbid you, away and- and," The rest of the sentence didn't need to be voiced. If a Fury got any one of them, Emily knew that they would be killed on sight. There would be no keeping of prisoners, no bartering happening. The Fury Tribe was reckless, vicious, and they didn't care much for mortals, knowing that they were the superior of our race.

"Ali," Emily placed down her last top she had folded, falling onto her bed. She hadn't meant to upset the blonde, she only wanted her to see all of this from her point of view. If Emily had known about the wolves, and tribe warfare that was going on that night she was attacked, she wouldn't have been out... Oh.

"You didn't tell us, because you don't want us to be scared to live our lives."

The brunette heard a sniffle on the other side of the phone, and a quiet bark. She was glad that Alison had Pepe to keep her company in that empty house. "I just want to protect you all. I never did a good job of that before, and I want to make up for all of that now."

"No. You protected us to the best of your abilities all those years ago, the girls and I know that. Everything that happened, you going to jail," Emily's voice hitched, she had apologized profusely for that, so had the others. But, she felt like no matter how many sorry's she said, none of them would make up for what happened. "You were always looking out for us. So, why don't you let us help now?"

Emily would've thought that Alison had hung up, if she didn't hear the shaky breath of the blonde coming through the speaker. Since coming back to Rosewood, all the old feelings she held for Alison had come back in tidal waves. The feelings only getting stronger once she had found out the blonde was the one that saved her, and Emily knew that she would have to confront them at some point in the near future.

"Will you come with me?"

Right now, Emily had to help Alison confront the girls. She had the be the pillar of strength that 'A' had unknowingly turned her into, the brunette smiled into the phone before replying with a gentle.

"Of course."

--

It was three days later when they could finally get everyone to stop moving and meet them at Alison's house. Spencer had been busy with her mother's campaign, she currently had an exorbitant amount of coffee running through her veins, the tips of her fingers shaking as she typed away on her phone. Hanna was busy with starting a business up with Lucas, she had walked through the door shouting complaints about having no sleep and saying that she was going cross-eyed by looking at so many documents. Aria, was more of a mystery card. The girls knew that she had a job over in Boston and that her boss would call her demanding updates every now and then, but other than that, they had no idea what she was actually doing in Rosewood.

"Can't you just forge my signature?"

"Who is she talking too?" Emily asked as she brought over a coffee for Spencer (her second one of the night), and four mugs of tea for the others.

"Lucas, he needed her to sign some forms before tomorrow for the contractors," Aria piped up, thanking Emily as she hummed into her tea, the steam fogging up her black rimmed glasses. Those had been a new addition, Alison asking the brunette about them as she entered the house. Aria had said that she wore them at night to give her eyes a break from the contacts.

"Well, I can't come right now. No, Lucas, I'm doing something important." She sighed as she looked over to the girls, running her thumb across her neck while mouthing 'this sucks.' "Yeah sure, I'll do it in the morning."

"He pissed?" Spencer asked, turning her phone onto vibrate as she leant back against the armchair, coffee cup held firmly near her face.

"Yeah, but he'll get over it," Hanna joined Aria on the love couch, placing her phone down on the table and replacing it with the tea Emily had brought over before, "It doesn't matter, you guys said you needed to tell us something important."

Alison felt a hand snake around her shoulder and rest on her back, Emily rubbing soothing circles on her. She had been dreading telling the girls about this, but she had agreed with the brunette that they deserved to know, especially if they were going to be in danger. She shifted closer to Emily, who had sat on the arm of the chair she was occupying.

"This is going to come as a shock to all of you, but Em and I have agreed that you guys need to know. The thing is-"

"Wait, are you guys together?"

"Han!"

"What? This sounds like the start of a coming out speech," Emily couldn't hide the smile that graced her face, along with Spencer who was struggling to swallow the giggles that were threatening to burst out.

"We aren't dating, Han," An 'o' formed on the blonde's face, before a quiet sorry tumbled from her lips. Alison was already regretting this, she didn't need it to be any more awkward with Emily than it already was. She'd have to talk to the brunette about her feelings soon, if her friends were seeing the connection, then obviously she wasn't hiding it very well. Before her internal freak out could continue, Alison felt Emily's hand squeeze her shoulder, encouraging her to continue.

"The thing is, there is something strange going on in Rosewood. I happen to be a part of it, and I can't keep it from you guys anymore. Not when you could be in danger."

"Ali, what's going on?" Spencer placed her mug down, moving to sit on the edge of her chair, arms crossed and eyebrows furrowed.

"There is really no easy way to say this," She clears her throat, "Werewolves are in Rosewood, more specifically my tribe and another tribe are currently having a full out feud, which you guys are now caught in as well."