Chapter 3
Kate’s arms were strong around your midsection, her skin hot and burning through your clothes. Your breath caught in your throat as she spun you behind in a fluid movement that she had to have done before. Just as you had entered what she accurately deemed The Compound, she had protectively stood in front of you.
“I’m going to die! I’m going to die! I’m going to die!”
Shockingly, the words weren’t screaming from the innermost depths of your mind. Though, you were thinking them as you took in the warm and clean atmosphere directly through the front door: Cherrywood, stainless steel, plush-looking sofas, and dark televisions.
You watched as the flash of a boy threw himself over the back end of the sofa, ducking down. A woman, strong and sure in her movements tore down a set of stairs. You had never seen anyone move that quickly.
“Peter Parker I am going to kill you!” She shouted.
There was a tightness to Kate Bishop’s stance that you hadn’t seen before now. You could feel the hair on your arms stand up. The scent in the house was overwhelming, a mix of cleaner, popcorn, and the woods that tickled the back of your throat.
Kate remained rigid in front of you, vibrating with the warning of a growl. Before she could make a move, the living area suddenly became crowded. A woman with blazing red hair slid in through the corridors of the home. A man moved just as fast, looping an arm around the boy hidden behind the couch. He pulled him to his feet and away from the girl, who was being wrangled by the woman.
Your heart pounded in your chest. Holy shit. There was a lot of energy in this space that you hadn’t felt anywhere before. Part of you wanted to cower behind Kate’s protective hand. The other part of you wanted to join in with the strangers. Odd and entirely out of character. But then again, so was scarfing down cold lasagna from the fridge.
“Kid, what is the deal?” The man said, keeping his tattooed arm around the boy.
“I’m fine, Yelena has the problem.”
“I will gut you like a fish, Peter Parker.” Yelena’s voice was more of a hissing snarl than words. The woman put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it. Kate had her jaw clenched, watching the interaction with bated breath. “He took the mac and cheese that I’ve been saving.”
“That’s it?” The man asked.
“What do you mean, that is it? That was my food, and he took it.”
“I didn’t know it was yours!”
“My name was written on it, and it had too much spice for you to handle.”
“I handled it just fine.”
“Really?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Your stomach does not hurt, then?”
Kate had relaxed significantly, turning her head to you. “Food is taken very seriously in this house.”
All eyes were suddenly on both of you, lingering in the foyer. The man had released his hold around Peter, who had narrowed his eyes in a certain type of curiosity that didn’t hold any type of malice. The woman, however, hardened her features. They lost all tenderness that was carried for Yelena.
She lilted her head to the side. “You brought home a stray, Kate.”
A stray? You considered yourself much more than that but wouldn’t dare say so. Your stomach was rolling. You had never done well under pressure, under scrutiny. It was easy to quiet your voice and blend into a crowd, always had been. MJ and America had such strong personalities that you were content floating in the background.
That didn’t seem like an option here. Kate still stood in front of you protectively. You wanted to reach blindly for her hand, to feel some surge of protection from the four sets of eyes peering at you. The red-haired woman spoke again, gruff. “You know the rules.”
“I told Kate to bring her.” The man spoke up.
You figured this was Clint. He held no fear towards the woman, not even a speck of it in his voice. Your bones were practically shaking under your skin. But Kate stood her ground. “This is Y/N, and she’s very scared right now so if we could tone it down a notch, that would be fantastic.”
Yelena huffed “I can hear her heartbeat.”
“We can all hear it.” Peter said, you gave him a careful and pleading look. “It’s deafening.”
“Can we just all take a breath? Yelena, I’ll buy you more mac and cheese, and Peter, you really shouldn’t have taken it in the first place. Nat I am begging you to stop staring like that before she passes out.”
They all kept their eyes on Kate for a few moments before everyone shrugged their shoulders and the tension that was leaking from every surface of the room dissipated. That was it? You had had longer feuds with MJ over leaving her damp towels on the bathroom floor than this.
It was easy to smell what they were, what you were. They could rip each other to shreds quicker than you could turn around and run back to the bus stop. Yet Yelena and Peter crashed onto a heap on the sofa, and Nat finally averted her piercing gaze.
Clint gave you a genuine smile that reminded you of a middle-aged man flipping burgers at a grill. He had a non-threatening heir about him as he stepped forward. Kate relaxed a bit, quiet in her motion.
“Hi,” he tried. “I’m sorry about all that. Usually, it’s a little calmer in this place. Y/N, is it? You must be incredibly confused.”
There was a softness in his voice that made your shoulders lower. Gone was the confident college girl that thought she could figure all of this out. Clints voice was tender and fatherly and there was nothing in you that wasn’t terrified and confused. So, you nodded. You let Kate step a short distance away from you, but still close enough for you to smell the earth on her skin.
“I explained the basics,” Kate said.
Yelena stretched out on the couch, drawing in a deep breath “Oh, the part where Kate couldn’t control her urges and bit someone?”
“Yeah, yup, that about sums it up.” You spoke.
Clint ushered you gently through the living area and into an equally as large kitchen. It was bright. There was floor-to-ceiling windows that let in warm light, and a breakfast bar filled with different fruits in the ripest colors. There was a wooden table set with four chairs. It was empty and clean like the rest of the home.
You sat on one side with Kate, Clint and Natasha sat on the other. You were convinced that Yelena and Peter had vanished into their own lives as quickly as they appeared in yours. This felt like a parent-teacher conference, your palms sweating. Natasha’s eyes mirrored the forest, she watched you carefully.
“What has Kate told you?” Clint asked, his hands folded.
“Werewolf… Or I figured that part out on my own.”
“Werewolf, yes.” Natasha nodded. “Did she say anything else?”
“That she turned while she was in an Olive Garden and that she’s sorry.”
Kate let out a groan and put her head in her hands. You had never been the greatest with authority, not even in your own home. It was easy to fold about drugs and alcohol when you were being gently parented.
You had folded the first time you and America broke into the liquor cabinet in your father’s study. Granted you were light-headed and fuzzy with alcohol. He had sat you down and you had cried but America was stoic. She did the talking; she always did the talking.
“And you believe her, then?” Natasha asked.
“I didn’t at first. It’s a lot to swallow. I mean, one minute I’m walking home from the library and the next I have a wolf on my tail, no pun intended. It’s hard not to buy into when you’ve never seen one in your entire life and then you’re surrounded by them.”
You could smell them. If you hadn’t been convinced when you were coerced onto the bus, you were now. Each one of them, including Kate, had a specific scent that was wild, but familiar all at once, Natasha like Vanilla, Clint like Cedar, Peter like hibiscus, and Yelena with a faint citrus scent. All carried something else, something that told you then and there that they were far from Human.
“Kate is one part of something bigger.” Clint nodded towards her, “She is a fairly new member of a pack, ten of us that live in this house. We’re all inflicted with lycanthropy. Some of us were born into it, and some were made.”
“We try to keep a tight leash on new members. Sometimes they get away from us. For that, we apologize.” Natasha said solemnly. Kate became interested in the pattern on the marble floor. “Kate has a long family lineage of werewolves, and they have stronger emotions than us.”
You nodded, swallowed hard “What does that mean from here?”
Natasha’s stare suddenly flickered with an emotion you couldn’t read. She glanced at Clint and the only thing you could figure was pain, and regret. A memory of something that you didn’t understand.
“Well, we have a few options. First, you say goodbye to your old life and move here. We teach you how to live, how to control your urges because there will be urges. But for safety reasons, you can’t go back until we’re sure you’re not a danger to yourself and others.”
“Okay,” your voice was small, “How long will that take?”
Natasha murmured, knowing you could hear “Years, Y/n.”
“And the second option?”
“We don’t like the second option.”
He didn’t have to go on. You knew what the second option would be. It wasn’t a choice, not one that mattered anyway. You could feel the guilt pouring off Kate. There would be a sawed-off shotgun aimed at your chest before you could even get off the property. But from what you’d seen, maybe it would be something classy, something silenced.
The last thing you wanted to do, the last thing you ever wanted to do, was leave the college that you worked so hard to get into. Leave America and MJ and the world that you had created. Be it a shitty world with piss-warm beer and shitty frat parties.
You wondered, all at once, if it was possible to make a life here among strangers who had the same beast that was welling at the base of your stomach. Clint had a small look of pity on his face, Natasha none at all. She emendated strength that you wish you could try on like a wool coat.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone.” You decided.
“You won’t,” Kate said, she squeezed your leg, and warmth radiated with her touch. “You won’t.”