Chapter Text
"Come on Benny, they come to our bar, they deserve what they get." Quentin said staring at the humans.
"Nah, let them be, don't look like they have anything even worth taking." Benny threw another shot back. They had fake I.D.s to cover the fact they were only 18 but the bar was pack territory and no bartender would deny them a drink.
"I'm bored, and need some extra cash. Tell you what, we won't rough them up too much." Quentin grabbed Benny and a couple others and they followed the group of humans.
An hour later, Benny secretly called 911 to pick them up. He wondered if any of them would live.
*****
Benny loved the full moon. He loved watching the sky, waiting for it to come, waiting to just run. Others reveled in the fighting pit, mating with the women, but for Benny it was about running. In their pack they mated and bred young, in order to increase numbers, or at least keep them balanced out, the reckless sort always killing each other in feuds, in needless violence. Purebloods were hard to kill, but in-fighting, and combat always lowered their numbers. At 21 he was supposed to do his duty soon. He was hesitant.
He was offered a girl but he just shifted and ran. If he ran far enough, fast enough he couldn't quite hear the crying.
*****
"Andrea," the girl's thick ponytail swung over her shoulder, "My name is Andrea."
*****
"I'm pregnant." Those words caused Benny to sit down hard.
"But you're human," He stuttered out, "This shouldn't have been possible." Benny reached a hand out to touch her stomach, but quickly pulled it back. Andrea grabbed his hand and placed it on her flat tummy.
"I don't know. I'm scared." Andrea admitted quietly. They had been keeping their relationship secret for a year now. At 22, Benny was supposed to be taking more and more responsibility in his pack, but he didn't like how the pack functioned. He didn't like all the killing, the fighting, the theft. If the old man had found out he was with a human, there would be trouble.
"What do we do Benny?" Andrea started to cry.
"We leave, right now. Run."
They packed up some stuff for Andrea, grabbed what money she had on hand, stole from her parents what they could. They were gone within an hour.
*****
"Elizabeth. Can we name her Elizabeth?"
"That sounds nice." Andrea was exhausted, but smiled watching her Benny cradle the tiny little girl.
Andrea fell asleep listening to Benny sing old sea songs to their daughter. She wondered what being a hybrid would mean for her little girl.
*****
"I'm tired of moving Benny!" Andrea yelled, throwing a dish towel onto the counter. "It's been 7 years, do you really think your pack gives a damn about you anymore?"
Benny closed the door to bedroom, hoping that Elizabeth wouldn't hear yet another fight. "Andrea, trust me, they'll still be keeping an eye out. If we went more north, it could help."
"I don't want to live in the north and deal with the cold. I don't like that I can't see my parents. I don't like that we have can't go back to Louisiana or any of the states that surround it. I hate Arizona." She grabbed a bottle of wine and had another glass. "Why can't you find better work?"
"It's not the easiest finding under the table work. You know that." Benny went to hug Andrea and she brushed him off and went out on the small balcony.
Benny sat at the table. He heard small footsteps. "I have my allowance Papa, will that make Mama less sad if I gave it to her?"
Benny pulled his gorgeous little girl into his lap. "Oh baby girl, don't you worry about such grown up things. I promise it will all be okay."
"It's the full moon, you should go for a run."
"Nowhere safe here to run, little one."
"You miss it."
"I do."
"Will I ever run with you?" Elizabeth really wanted to be a wolf, run beside her dad. But she wasn't allowed to say that where Mama could hear. Mama didn't like to talk about what Papa was and what Elizabeth might be. Not anymore.
"Maybe. That would be fun. Now back to bed with you."
****
Benny sat in the dark, a glass of whiskey in hand. Andrea quietly slipped into the apartment.
"Did he at least treat you well?" He asked quietly. Andrea froze, hand on her purse.
She straightened her back, "Yes, he was a gentleman. Not a monster, like some."
Benny just stood and left the room. He slept on Elizabeth's floor. At midnight he wished his girl happy birthday. 10 was a big deal after all.
****
"What did you do, Andrea?" Benny walked into his house, saw the three men in suits.
"I called your pack, said we wanted to come home." Andrea stared at the man she used to love. "The old man was really sweet, said he would send people to come help us pack, that he missed you, that all would be forgiven."
Andrea didn't seem to notice how scared Elizabeth was. Benny inched over to his daughter, but was stopped by one of the men. He didn't recognize them.
One spoke, "Of course, stray members of the pack are always welcomed back into the fold. There might be a period of adjustment, but it will all be okay. The old man loves even the most wayward of his flock."
*****
Benny could hear Elizabeth's screams, Andrea's sobs. But it was muted, faded. He was too focused on the searing pain in his back. The whipping had stopped and he took a breath. Maybe this would soon be over.
"Oh, god, please, what are you doing? Why? Please don't, you didn't say this is what would happen." He could hear Andrea beg. He had warned her, warned her what the pack was really like, he wished she had believed him.
Hot, searing, blinding heat. The brand pushed onto his shoulder to mark him as traitor, betrayer of a pack, was also laced with silver. It would heal, but always hurt, always ache. It didn't help that the moon was at its lowest, where his healing was at its weakest. The threads of silver now embedded into his skin meant that anytime he tried to shift, it would hurt, cause pain, sometimes agonizing pain.
The men held him up and turned him to face his family as the old man walked in. Benny watched as he walked up to Andrea and slit her throat, spilling her blood onto their daughter. Andrea's body dropped, blood pooling below. The old man gestured. Elizabeth was pushed to follow, Benny dragged along.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, Benjamin. We are so disappointed in you.” The old man's voice slithered through the room. Benny’s head was forced down on the table, blood slowly oozing. Elizabeth sat there, barely 12, scared, crying, blood on her pretty yellow dress. “Kill him, let his daughter see the price for betraying our pack, and then bring her to me. She and I will have a… talk. Hybrids are disgusting, but she might have somevalue.” The old man left the room. The old man was so smart, so cunning, usually. Leaving only three to kill Benny was a bad idea.
Benny had always been strong and years of working hard labour for little cash had made him even stronger. Keeping his little girl safe helped him push through the pain. Benny pushed back against the man behind him. Fought as hard as he could. He managed to get two of the men knocked out and turned to find the third his hands around Elizabeth's throat. Benny froze.
He had to watch as his little girl stabbed the guy with the letter opener she had grabbed from the desk. She didn't go deep, but it startled the guy. Benny brained him with the antique paperweight on the table.
Elizabeth started to shake. Benny grabbed her hands.
"Baby, we have to go, they'll come back in any second. We have to run."
"Mama-" Elizabeth cried.
"Be strong baby, I need you to stay strong." Elizabeth nodded and they snuck out a window. They went around to the garages and Benny managed to hot wire a car.
They drove fast and hard.
Three hours later they pulled over. Tried to catch a little sleep.
"Where are we going to go, Papa?"
"North. We go north." The silver pulsed in Benny's back in time with his accelerated heart beat.