Chapter Text
It wasn't that Tony hated Christmas, per se, but it wasn't exactly like he enjoyed the obligation.
Being a Stark meant something, and sure, he knew the family Christmas party was highly publicized and attended by half the business world, and sure, Howard was grooming him as the head of the company, and sure, he knew he was obligated to show up, smile pretty, and get drunk with some business associate's daughter, but...
Tony shivered, wrapping his coat around himself as he stood on his enormous porch steps.
Not this year, he told himself with a smile of satisfaction.
The plan to get out of the enormous Christmas extravaganza in Aspen had worked well in his favor; he had told his father about the new AI he was designing, and managed to convince him that if he didn't constantly maintain the systems for its growth, it would wither and die.
Howard hadn't been pleased, but, as much of a pain in the ass as his father could be, he was still an engineer at heart, and after seeing what Tony was doing, he had agreed to leave him be at the Stark estate while he and Maria went to Aspen for a week.
It was Christmas Eve, and Tony was taking a break the only way he knew how; by breaking every rule his parents had set out for him since he could walk.
The Starks lived in a beautiful, lush haven in upstate New York, covered in dense forest for as far as the eye could see. They had other houses, of course, but Howard made a point to spend at least six months here every year, (probably for some legal thing, Tony reasoned.)
His parents let him go wherever and do whatever when they were in Malibu, or Aspen, or New York City, or any of the thousand other places he and his father went on business, but when they were at home at the estate, Tony had rules.
Never go out into the woods. Never go past the gates of the yard, in fact. If he felt like taking a drive somewhere, the chaueffer needed to take him. And heaven help him if he wanted to go on a nice walk.
Tony didn't understand why here, of all places, in a tiny, almost picturesque forest in New York, his parents would suddenly limit where he went. He could do body shots in Malibu at two in the morning, but heaven forbid he go on a jog through the loneliest, quietest forest he had ever seen in his entire life.
When Tony didn't understand something, the first impulse he had was to take it apart and see how it worked. Since he couldn't do that in regards to his parents nor their strange rules, he did the next best thing.
He did what he was told not to do and observed the results it gave him.
It totally worked, nine times out of ten, and that was what led to him standing on his steps, looking out at the open, iron-wrought gates of the Stark estate and beaming, content in his rulebreaking.
Beside him, Dummy beeped. Tony sighed and patted his metal workings.
"Hey," he said, "I'm not gonna be long. A nice stroll through the woods on Christmas Eve, Dummy. How much more romantic could you get?" He chuckled. "Wanna come with?"
Dummy hung his head and shook his whole body side to side. Tony snorted. "Don't worry, Pep isn't going to find out. I made sure Howard took her with him to Aspen in my place. He'll probably like her better and adopt her or something."
Dummy whirred, nudging Tony gently. Tony nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine, Dummy. You head down in the lab and make sure JARVIS is doing okay; wouldn't want him to fall to the wayside while I hone my skills in juvenile delinquency and civil disobedience."
Dummy patted Tony's shoulder, and he could've sworn the robot frowned at him, but he was an unadvanced robot at best, a simple thing Tony had made at thirteen, and he hadn't been good enough to give that level of emotion to his work yet.
"Oh, and keep an eye on the reactor, okay? If that thing runs out of power—not that it should—I'm basically without a computer system for about a week with all this snow screwing up the power lines," Tony explained. Dummy nodded.
"Right," Tony finally said, "well, I'm off."
He couldn't help but be apprehensive as he took his first step, but the feeling soon passed, bleeding away into delight and adrenaline as he walked through the thick snows and walked past the guardian gates, stepping out into the cold unknown, alone.
...
The snow fell thickly on his shoulders, a silvery embrace that shivered soft on his skin as Tony shook it off, shuddering and hugging himself tight. It was cold, colder than he had imagined, and the snow was pretty high; it was already up to his knees.
He looked around the forest and frowned, annoyed. This was what his parents had tried to shield him from? It was just trees! Trees as far as the eyes could see!
From above, a bird twittered at him. Tony huffed, rolling his eyes in annoyance as he looked around.
The trees, he admitted, were lovely; there was a certain kind of heaviness to them he had never encountered anywhere else. Like here, the nature meant more, or something silly like that.
But still, they were just trees. This whole place was trees and snow and stone; why in god's name had his parents forbid him from coming here?
Tony sighed and continued on. He needed to rest for a bit; the cold and the snow were making him work a whole lot harder to make his way across the ground. There was probably a rock big enough to sit on for awhile, should he be able to find it...
Tony made his way deeper into the forest, careful to break a few branches on each tree to mark his path as he made his way forward.
His walk was slow, and time passed in a soft, hazy blur, much like the flakes that obscured his vision and made his eyes sting. That meant it could've been an hour, could have been ten minutes, before Tony opened his eyes and observed what lay before him.
Tracks.
He knelt, curious. They looked sort of like dog paws; not that he was a nature expert, but the pads were there. Who the hell would've taken their dog for a walk in this weather?
A person more interested in the sight would have noticed that there were no human footprints beside the animal tracks. Tony was much more focused on finding shelter, and dog tracks didn't concern that in the slightest.
Still, he figured the tracks meant they were heading towards somewhere to rest, and so he followed after them, not thinking much of the fact that the idea had been decided for him so easily in his brain, skeptic though he was.
The full moon hung with pregnant anticipation, fit to burst, over his head as Tony brushed some more snow off his coat and headed on, the silver light shining overhead and the howling winds at his back.
...
The alpha raised his head, his pupils going wide with surprise as the wind rasped over his fur and spoke to him in a new, alien smell.
He knew the Stark scent. For his pack, it was seemingly as inescapable as their own, a part of themselves that was entwined with who they were. This, though...this was new Stark scent. This was better.
"Alpha?"
The alpha turned to face his beta, regarding the dark brown beast before him with bright, curious blue eyes.
"You smell it," his beta said. It wasn't a question. The alpha nodded regardless.
"Clan," the beta said. "They were not meant to venture out yet. The clan pup is still just that, true?"
"Pup has different meanings than it once did," the alpha said with a sigh of frustration, flicking snow off his tail. "I am certain the clan pup does not think of himself as such."
His beta growled, amused, before sobering up and asking, "Alpha, what do we do? He'll fear us if we present ourselves to him, but he is heading to our moonshigh stones."
"We will watch, and we will wait," the alpha replied. "If we can get him to go home, where it is warm and safe, so much the better. But at the very least, we must try to tail him. It should not be hard. He is clan, we know his scent."
"If you say so," his beta agreed. "But I'm still concerned as to why the pup ventured out on his own."
"As am I, but...honestly, we'll worry about it later," the alpha sighed. "It's a fight for another day."
His beta nodded, falling into place beside him as the two set off. Two sets of eyes glimmered in the dark behind them, following suit as soon as they shook the snow off their fur.
...
Tony sighed in relief as he saw the trees open up to an enormous clearing. Thank god, a place to rest. He just had to shake the rest of the snow off, and he would be fine.
He picked his way over the stones that covered the entrance to the clearing before finally getting a good glimpse of it. He sucked in a breath, shocked.
Right, this was beautiful.
A still lake greeted him, seemingly hammered from glass and left out in the snow. Surrounding the lake was a gently sloping bowl in the earth, stones laid out all across the funnel-shaped hollow. They were big enough for Tony to park one of his cars on, to say nothing of rest for awhile.
Tony sighed, relieved, and made his way into the circle, sitting down on the highest stone in the clearing; he hummed, content, letting his aching legs rest for a bit.
"Y'know, this was worth coming out this far," he mused out loud to himself. "I should've brought my camera. Could've gotten a couple of nice pictures."
Nothing but snow echoed back at him, but Tony was pretty glad for the peace and quiet anyway. He yawned, smiled, and stretched out, at ease.
The silence of the snow did not last for long; echoing around the cavern, Tony heard a low, ringing growl.
He blinked, sitting up and looking around, curious. Okay, so whoever was walking their dog had to be passing by. No big deal.
Another growl; this time, louder. Tony had no idea why, but he felt a sense of ringing triumph in it.
He inhaled slowly, standing up and ignoring the sudden panic that lanced his heart. No, no, no. No need to panic. Steady. It was a dog. A big, vicious, angry dog.
Tony had always preferred cats, honestly.
The growl came again, this time from behind him.
When Tony turned around, his heart stopped.
An enormous wolf, bigger than the thoroughbreds he had seen living at some of his father's stables, loomed over him, his fur a dark grey veined with black, save for a single large black marking across his back, like a stone of obsidian weighing on his spine.
Tony met the glittering gold eyes before him and tried to smile.
"Hey, puppy," he said. "Sorry, is this your nature preserve? I'll go, really. If I could just..."
The wolf bared his teeth in what would have looked like a grin had his teeth not been like scythes in his mouth, and leapt at him.
His intent was not to pounce on him now, but Tony didn't know that; he backed away before forgetting that he was on a rock face, and promptly skidded down the slope, the snow cushioning his fall but not slowing him down enough to keep him from reaching the lake.
It was frozen all the way through, but that was about the only good thing Tony had going for him at the moment, all things considered.
The wolf leapt down the slope and landed at the banks easily, his tail straight and his head high as he advanced towards Tony, his steps slow and measured.
Tony went to back up and try to bolt, but the wolf seemed to realize what he was doing; before Tony could move, he was pinned.
The wolf lowered his head and flashed his fangs. Tony was aware for a second of something ripping, something warm and wet that banished the cold of the snow for just a second.
Then the pain came hurtling through him, red-hot and all-encompassing, and Tony started to scream.