He stood in the shadows, fully clothed, hiding between two trees and he felt awfully like one of those old creepers from the horror movies that wait for the teens to have sex before stabbing them in the back with a butchers knife. He half expected some cop to come and accuse him of voyeurism or something as equally creepy.

He watched with pain in his heart as they made out on the bonnet of the car, and just seeing it caused regret and pain to move throughout his veins like a drug. He was moments away from just leaving when he saw Carter pulling away from Archer, and Archer looking away.

This was bad, he could hear the low growls coming from Archer even in the shadows and he could tell that he was losing control. This was what Alex was most worried about, not that Archer would decide to turn Carter, albeit that was a worry nonetheless, but more likely that Archer would inadvertently turn him. It was a full moon after all, and that amplified their emotions and likelihood to turn into their wolves through pure emotion alone. One bite under lost control was enough to turn Carter into one of them, and that wasn't the life he wanted for Carter. He hadn't given up all that he had so that Carter's life could be destroyed too.

He didn't want to expose himself unless he had to, so he stayed in the shadows but he took his shirt and jeans off preemptively, shoving them in his backpack and placing the backpack by the trunk of the tree. He waited in the darkness, aware that he wasn't completely sure what he would do if he turned. It had been months and there was a chance that if he did attach Archer, that he could do some serious harm. That worried Alex, but keeping Carter safe was more important.

Alex didn't even think about it, the moment he saw Archer tackle Carter off of the car and onto the ground he went running, shifting into his wolf as he ran.

The first thing he noticed as he ran towards them, four paws hitting the ground at an inhuman pace, was the way that his senses sharpened and he felt all-round more powerful and purposeful. Then all of his thoughts turned to keeping Carter safe, he growled and kept running.  

He crashed his body straight into Archer's before he was able to clamp his teeth down on Carter's neck. He clamped his teeth into his forearm and growled, a clear warning to stop what he was doing, but Archer turned into his wolf without missing a beat.

The fact that Carter might have seen Archer change into a wolf was at the back of Alex's mind, but he didn't focus on it, instead he reacted as Archer pounced at him, crashing against his side forcefully.

Alex was bigger, and stronger, so he used the momentum to his advantage and pushed Archer down towards the ground and held him there with force until he stopped struggling. It only took a minute for Archer to calm down, and as he was held down, Alex could feel and see him morphing from his wolf into his human form.

"I'm sorry," Archer puffed out in a broken voice.

Alex felt safe enough that Archer wasn't going to do anything stupid, but before he changed back to his human form he swivelled his head around and saw that Carter was gone.

Damn it, he thought, where is he?

Alex changed back into his human form and stood up.

"What on earth were you thinking Archer!?" he yelled, shaking his head. Archer stood up too, and Alex noticed the blood dripping down Archer's arm and the small cuts that racked his body.

"Shut it Alex," Archer shook his head angrily, "the full moon, I couldn't control it." Archer seemed to be already beating himself up about what he had almost done.

"You could have turned him, or worse!" Alex yelled, running a frustrated hand through his hair.

"You bit my arm! God Damn it Alex, were you hiding in the bushes or something the whole time?" Archer hissed out, holding his bleeding arm.

"You could have killed Carter!" Alex growled out.

"Where is he?" Archer asked, looking around the lookout.

"I don't know, but I will find him."

Archer opened his mouth to protest, "And say what? He doesn't even know the other wolf was you, let me talk to him."

"What? So you can fill his head with lies?" Alex spat out.

"No, so I can.." Archer started but Alex cut him off.

"Stay away from Carter. You've done enough damage," Alex demanded, and he prayed that Archer would listen to him. Carter was probably scared out of his mind and he was probably more confused than anything. "Go home Archer, let me handle this."

Archer looked almost guilty as he stared down at the ground. He nodded hesitantly. "What are you going to do? Carter must have seen me turn," Archer told him.

"I'm going to have to find him and tell him everything, otherwise he will think that he is crazy the rest of his life." Alex shook his head in frustration, but there was a part of him that was grateful for a reason to tell Carter everything, to come clean and to possibly mend some broken fences between the two of them, but at the same time, this information was just that crazy that Carter may not even believe the truth.

He had to find him now, he had to tell him.

Alex ran back to the tree and threw his clothes onto his body as fast as he could, he then ran from where he was through the bushes and trees towards his car.

<><><><><><><><><><>

Whatever he saw, it had to have been a trick of his mind, it had to have been that someone slipped drugs into his drink or he might have hit his head as he fell off the car bonnet, well, that's what Carter kept telling himself.

There was no way, absolutely no way that Archer had turned into a wolf, there was no way that the Archer Wolf got into a full on fight with some random wolf, who might have just saved his life.

Saved his life from Archer. Arched looked like he was going to....bite his neck, or something. Carter shook his head quickly. It was just in his mind. It was just in his head.

Carter kept his eyes and thoughts on the road. After he had run, he had made his way down the road until he had hit the street that the diner was on. After that he had jumped in his car and headed straight towards his house.

He was only a few moments from home, and he had no idea what to do once he got there. Did he call the police? His date did just get attacked by a wolf. Well, then again, his date was also a wolf. Right? No? His date also just tried to bite his neck, was that a crime in itself?

Was Archer alright? Are you allowed to worry about the wellbeing of the person/maybe wolf who tried to possibly kill you?

Carter blinked the thoughts away, he pulled into his driveway, and groaned as he realised that there were no lights on in the house and that meant that his mother had probably gotten called into work and Lara probably spent the night at a friend's house. This was honestly the worst time for this to happen.

The idea of being alone all night after the craziness of what he just went through was sickening, but it wasn't like he had much of a choice. He practically ran from his car to the front door, unlocking it with haste and locking it behind him just as quickly. He turned on every single light in the house and checked every room, behind every door and under every bed, until he was sure that there was no way that there was a wolf or animal of any kind in the house.

Images of the two wolves flashed before his eyes and Carter took a seat on the living room couch, trying to gather his thoughts.

His first thought was of Archer, was he alright? Did that wolf hurt him? What happened back there? Those two wolves were bigger than any wolf he had seen or read about in his entire life. Those wolves on the discovery channel were much smaller, with shorter legs and they just looked different, these wolves were like nothing he had ever imagined.

He saw, with his own eyes, Archer's body twisting and contorting until he turned in a wolf, into a deep brown fur covered creature, with big dark eyes and sharp teeth. He watched that happen, he had seen the impossible.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialled Archer's number. The five rings before he answered the call seemed to drag out for an eternity.

"Carter? Are you ok? Where are you?" Archers hurried voice asked in his thick accent.

"Did you get hurt?" Was Carters response in as much of a steady voice as he could muster with the amount of adrenaline surging through his veins still.  

Archer was quick to answer him. "I'm fine, I'm so sorry Carter, I can explain everything..."

So there was something to explain, it wasn't all in Carter's head. That was a good and bad thing, Carter guessed.

He wondered for a moment if he really wanted to know the truth, but knowing the truth was better than being kept in the dark, he had been kept in the dark for long enough. "Tomorrow, at school, explain everything," Carter ordered before hanging up the phone.

He then tried to call Roxy, but the girl didn't pick up her phone, he needed help, he needed someone he trusted to talk to.

His brain already felt like it was about to explode, and right now all that he saw every time he closed his eyes was Archers sharp teeth and the carnal way that he was looking at him, and every single time, it caused Carter's entire body to fill with unwavering fear. How could he even consider trusting Archer now, knowing what he had done? Knowing that he was, what? A shape shifter, a werewolf? Any possible explanation wasn't enough, that one moment was enough to change the way Carter saw the world, and exposed him to something he never even dreamed existed.

He started getting lost in his own thoughts, and the only thing that kept him from going under in the sea of confusion that his brain had become, was the doorbell excessively ringing.

Carter's eyes widened, for a moment he thought that it could have been one of the wolves. Wait, can wolves use doorbells?

He slowly walked up to the front door, and he opened it slowly, keeping the wood in front of his body as a sort of shield to block anyone, or anything, unwanted from getting too close to him.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but it definitely wasn't a blood covered Alex.

Carter's eyes widened and he opened the door all of the way in an instant. "Alex? What happened to you?"

Alex looked down at himself with a surprised expression, which made Carter wonder if he had even noticed the multiple bleeding cuts along his neck and the blood dripping down his arm. Alex was also covered in enough dirt and grass to create a small garden.

"Uh..." Alex started, bringing his gaze up.  

"Come inside," Carter practically ordered, and Alex nodded, walking barefooted into the house. Carter locked the door behind him, and double checked it before motioning for Alex to take a seat on the couch.

"I need to talk to you.." Alex started, but Carter cut him off.

"Later, right now we need to get those cuts cleaned out." All of Carters other thoughts were wiped from his mind as he looked at Alex, the tall, muscular man looking quite vulnerable sitting on the couch covered in dirt and blood, his black hair a mess on his head.   

Carter went to the kitchen and reached into the top cupboard over the microwave which housed the first aid kit. He pulled it out and carried over to the couch where he gently pressed a cloth to the multiple cuts on his neck.

Alex flinched at the contact, and Carter muffled an apology under his breath.

"So, what happened to you?" Carter asked. "Was it Jake?"

Alex shook his head. "No, uh, I got into a fight."

"With who?" Carter asked, and Alex bit his lip and looked guilty all of a sudden. "Alex?" he got his attention, but it just seemed like the amount of guilt in Alex's expression increased tenfold. "What happened Alex?" Carter asked, and he was almost scared of the answer.

Alex shook his head. "If I told you, I don't think that you would believe me." 

Carter huffed. "Again with the secret keeping, it you didn't trust me just say that, don't pretend like I won't understand." He felt like they had this conversation a million times over, and each time it led to him in the dark still.

"It's not like that Carter," he tried to explain but Carter just shook his head.

"Don't bother," he told him, shaking his head slightly in frustration.

"Look," Alex said, grabbing his hand which held the cloth and pulling it away from his neck so that the two could really look at each other, "I have something to say and I need you to be paying attention."

Carter's wide, confused eyes met Alex's. "What?"

"Tonight, on your date with Archer, two wolves fought, do you remember that?" Alex seemed to be careful with his words, speaking slowly and softly, like as if saying the wrong thing would break him.

"How do you know that?" Carter asked with wide eyes, extremely confused.

"Do you remember seeing Archer turning into the wolf?"

Carter was lost for words, and just nodded hesitantly.

"I was the black wolf, we are werewolves."

Carter looked at him like he was just told that Aliens existed, and his wide eyes seemed to get impossibly larger and his mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish under water.

Alex ran a worried and anxious hand through his hair. "I was protecting you from him, he was going to hurt you, by accident, and I stepped in."

This couldn't be true, Carter didn't believe it. "Maybe you've had too much weed today, Alex, come on now, let me clean out this cut," he told him, reaching back up to his neck with the cloth.

Alex didn't stop him as he cleaned out the cut further but he bit his lip and Carter could almost see the cogs in his mind turning.

"Carter, I'm telling the truth."

Carter shook his head. "Did you hit your head tonight? Because I'm starting to think that maybe I did too, and in a minute I'm going to wake up in an emergency room bed."

"I did not hit my head." 

"Are we sure that I didn't, though? These kinds of conversations seem pretty reasonable if I am concussed." 

"No, Carter, I'm telling you the truth, these cuts," he pointed to the thick scrapes along his neck, "are claw marks, you watched Archer cut me with his claw, didn't you?"

Carter was still in denial and he shook his head, leaning away to reach into the first aid kit for the bandages, but coming up empty. "There's no bandages, wait here, I'll go find some."

"Carter..."

"Just wait here."

Carter placed the cloth back down on the coffee table and left the room, walking back into the kitchen and looking around in the places that spare bandages might be. He ended up finding some, picking them up with shaky hands.

Was Alex telling the truth, were he and Archer really werewolves? Werewolves, those were the things to be found in movies, they weren't real, were they? Carter had seen Archer turn into a wolf, maybe it wasn't just his mind playing tricks on him, maybe it truly was real?

He walked back into the room, a couple of bandages held in his hands. He looked up from his hands and where he had left Alex, on the couch, was empty, only a pile of clothes remained in his place. Standing next to the couch, on all fours, was the black wolf from before.

It somehow seemed even bigger than before, standing next to a couch and coffee table really did put its size into perspective. The wolf was just standing in the middle of the living room, its giant paws standing on Carter's mom's rug.

Carter's eyes widened and he dropped the bandages, hitting the floor below with a light thud. He was hallucinating, he was almost sure of it. Maybe he really did get a concussion when he fell off the hood of the car. It was almost a relief, but it didn't mean the image in front of him didn't scare him. 

Carter went to scream, and every instinct told him to run from the massive creature, but before he could do anything the wolf got down on the ground and whined, a low, almost hurt sound. The wolf was now completely on its stomach, its legs spread out beneath it.

Carter stepped forward, slow and hesitant, and in a few steps he was beside the couch, standing only a foot or so away from the giant creature. Was this real? Was this Alex? Was this why Alex had held so many secrets?

Carter knelt down on his knees, and looked at the creature with wide, curious eyes. He wasn't frightened anymore, there was nothing about this wolf, up close, that made him feel threatened. The wolf's giant, expressive eyes were a darkened stormy grey, just a tinge darker than Alex's were, and its jet black fur looked thick and soft. The creature was beautiful, everything about it screamed mystical beauty and familiarity.

The wolf was looking up at him with an almost scared expression and Carter didn't even think about the movement, he reached out and touched the wolves paw, running the pad of two fingers gently over the soft fur. The fur was real, physical. It didn't dissolve under his fingertips like he half expected it to. This wolf was very, very real. 

"Alex?" he whispered under his breath.

Carter blinked and the wolf was gone, and in its place was a very naked Alex, lying on the ground, his arms holding his upper body up as he turned his gaze to Carter.

"Do you believe me now?"

Carter nodded, taking a deep breath. Yes, he definitely believed him now.