Around five that afternoon you left the tower wearing the too big sweatpants and oversized t-shirt you had bought just for this purpose in one of Tony's too fast cars. You hadn't exactly told anyone you were leaving, but it was the night of the full moon. Of course you were leaving the tower.

You drove to the woods you haunted every full moon that you could, your anxiety to get there before the sun set urging you to drive faster than you should. You forced your wolf down and kept to the speed limit. You couldn't get pulled over tonight. You made it to the woods safely, and found a parking spot at the edge of the forest. You stripped off your clothes, leaving them safely in the car and shifted as fast as you could after you'd closed the car door behind you. You also didn't want to get arrested for indecent exposure. The shift was fast, taking less than a minute for your bones and body structure to rearrange, fur to sprout, and for you to take the wolf's form.

After one good stretch, you felt comfortable in your other skin and the wolf was elated to come out to play. The moon was just risen and bright in the sky. You sat and raised your head to it and howled your greetings. The sky was filled with wolf song as even dogs joined in the greetings. You had missed the simple joys of the woods. You couldn't make the journey out here every month, and those months you couldn't were hell finding somewhere to hide as a wolf until dawn. Tonight, though, tonight you could run and play and enjoy being a wolf.

Your greetings to the moon complete, you stood back up on all four feet and ran into the woods to enjoy your night of playing. You let the wolf take most of the control, keeping just enough for yourself to make sure you both stayed out of trouble. You ran through the woods at full speed, enjoying the feel of the pine needles and earth under your paws as you ran. You couldn't explain the joy of being able to run, being free to enjoy the night. It had been too many months since you had made it out here.

You found a tasty snack of a rabbit who made the mistake of trying to outrun you, startled some fishes while you played in the stream, chased some deer for awhile, and rolled around like a silly puppy in a bed of flowers. You followed a scent that intrigued you for awhile, just to find out what it was. You were delighted to find a wild pig at the end of the trail. You had never seen one before

There were a couple of hikers who caught a glimpse of you, but you ran the other direction from them. A wolf sighting in these woods wasn't uncommon. The pack used these woods too, but never the part that you had claimed as your own personal territory over the last four years. It was too far from the pack's home base to be good for their use.

You played and enjoyed the woods for hours under the light of the full moon. Even without your enhanced sense you wouldn't have needed to worry about seeing your way in the woods. The moon was bright enough to see by even by human standards. It was a perfectly clear night.

Everything was going wonderfully until you caught the familiar scent of wolf in your woods. You had strayed farther than usual, but this was still too far for this wolf to have come, unless he was looking for you. You heard a howl, repeated by the others. The whole pack was out in the woods tonight.

It was one voice among the song that almost had you making the horrible decision to go to the pack, to go to that wolf. Your mom was out in the woods tonight too. You hadn't seen her in four years and she was in the woods, so close to where you were. Even a glimpse.... would get you caught and subjected to a life you wouldn't be able to bear.

You couldn't go to her and it took all of control over your wolf to remind her that you couldn't go to her, you couldn't go see her, no matter how it hurt.

The howl sounded again and you clamped your jaws shut to keep from singing along to the song of the pack.

They were getting closer.

Shit.

Dawn was close, you just had to evade them until then. So you turned and ran in the opposite direction, aiming back towards the car. At least your running and playing all night would mean they would have a harder time tracking you down, your scent and trails were all over the woods. It was true the alpha and dominates couldn't order you to come home, but you could be overpowered, especially by the whole pack.

As you neared the car, you heard anxious worried voices of humans and stopped in your tracks. You couldn't risk being seen by humans, so you dove deeper into the woods, deciding to make a wide circle around the humans to try to get closer to the car that way. You didn't pay attention to what the voices were calling, what they were saying. It sounded vaguely like a search party. But, they were human and humans couldn't see you, plus you couldn't help with the search, not tonight. Another night you would have listed to see what they were looking for and tried to help them, the rule against being seen be damned, but not tonight, not when the other wolves were nearby.

You were nearly to the car when your nose caught a familiar, but unwanted scent. The wolf stepped onto the path in front of you. It was a hulking brute of a beast, mostly gray with a streak of white down his back. You had recognized him the moment you caught his scent, but his appearance in front of you just confirmed your suspicions: it was Jareth. He had come to find you. The alpha's orders must have changed.

You stopped dead in your tracks again when you saw him, hunching automatically in preparation to fight or run in the opposite direction. You were faster than he was, you knew that, but could you keep up the speed? You knew you couldn't take him in a fight. Your only hope was to run. He growled when you took a step backwards. Before he could do anything more, you turned and ran back towards the humans.

It was a risk. It was a stupid risk, but your wolf was a hundred pounds lighter than any of the male wolves. You could be mistaken for a large breed dog if push came to shove if they saw you. You didn't think Jareth would risk being seen. So you ran, pushing your body to its limits, knowing that you had to outrun Jareth until dawn. He gave chase, but he was heavy and slower than you and he wasn't running out of fear.

Your next surprise of the night was running into a strange wolf on your headlong gallop through the woods toward safety. You skidded to a halt at the raven black wolf in your path. You tried to get his scent, but he wasn't any of the wolves you knew. None of them were perfectly jet black with bluish-green eyes. He also didn't smell like any wolf you knew, but he wasn't a wild wolf either, he smelled of a crisp winter's day, fresh snow, parchment, and tea, not of werewolf.

You heard the growl behind; you were out of time. Jareth was almost on you. You whirled to face down the path, dropping to get your balance, baring your fangs. It didn't matter if the strange wolf stayed or ran. You had to make a stand here. The black wolf settled down, baring his teeth, but his movements were stiff, uncoordinated in this form. A new wolf maybe? You didn't have time to worry about him. For whatever reason, he seemed to be on your side and he wasn't aligned with the pack. That was enough for now. Jareth stepped into view and hesitated when he saw the second wolf.

Jareth growled and tilted his head towards the woods where the other wolves were. It was a clear order. You let the order slide off of you and just growled in reply. He gave an order to the strange wolf, telling him to leave. The black wolf didn't obey, just growled a reply, a clear warning to Jareth to go.

Jareth lunged at the black wolf. He could accept you ignoring his orders, you were an Omega and didn't have to listen, but not a stranger, not someone who wasn't pack, or werewolf, or wild wolf. You threw yourself at Jareth, going for this throat while he was concerned with the wolf he saw as the bigger threat. He shook you off of him, much more practiced at fighting in wolf form than you were. You yelped in pain when he grabbed your throat and threw you hard into a tree.

The black wolf lunged, but still seemed unused to the form. He wasn't going to be much help in this fight. So you played dirty and aimed your next attack well, grabbing one of Jareth's paws between your teeth and snapping down hard enough to break bone. The black wolf kept darting in to distract Jareth, but was careful to keep himself from Jareth's teeth and claws. Too careful. He was fighting like he wasn't a werewolf, himself, but was fighting against one anyway.

You heard the humans again and hoped they wouldn't see you or try to do anything about your presence if they did. Though all three of you paused the battle when you heard them. They were getting closer. "How are we supposed to find one wolf in this huge forest?" one of them was grumbling.

"She's out here somewhere. That's my car in the lot," came another.

"Y/N!" came a third, the one actually on task.

It was the Avengers. Your friends were looking for you. You didn't know why they were looking for you, but you were grateful for it now. You howled once, drawing their attention to you. "Y/N?" Cap's voice asked.

You turned your attention back to the battle, but you had taken it away a moment too long. The black wolf tried to tackle Jareth aside, and you tried to turn and run, but you were a touch too slow. Jareth sank his teeth into your back leg, crushing it in his powerful jaws just as you had done to his. You yelped and howled in pain, which drew the human footsteps faster. Jareth tried to drag you with him, but you turned and snapped at his face, making him let you go. The black wolf stood over you protectively, snarling at Jareth.

Jareth was blasted with a repulsor beam. You would recognize one of those anywhere. He yelped and ran off, finally defeated when your backup arrived. You struggled back to your feet, injured from the fight, and you couldn't put any weight on your back leg. When you managed to stand again, you gave the black wolf a lick on the cheek, a wolfish thank you for helping you. He hadn't had to. A logical wolf would have ran.

Somehow in your panic of running from the pack and then Jareth, you hadn't put all of the pieces together and didn't understand all of the clues until there was a flash of green magic. After a few adorable sneezes on your part, the black wolf was gone and Loki was in his place. You just stared at him confused while he shook his limbs out and stretched, readjusting to human form.

The rest of the team was running over to join you. Loki knelt beside you, running his hands through your fur, checking for additional wounds. "That's Y/N, right?" Cap asked. Loki nodded, then wrapped his arms firmly around your neck.

"Yes, it's her," he told Cap, then turned to you. "I was so worried. You left without telling anyone," he told you softly. "Can you shift back yet?" he asked. You shook your head, then looked to the sky to see how much time was left. Only a couple of minutes. You snirked in laughter that Jareth was going to have to walk naked and injured through the woods all the way home. "At dawn?" he asked, when he caught your gaze at the sky. You nodded and let him pet you while all the team chattered about how worried they all had been. There was nothing you could do to reassure them until dawn.

Loki removed the cape from his armor and wrapped it over you when your body shuddered at dawn, shielding you from view of the others with his body. That wasn't how you would have chosen to shift back, but you had no choice on the night of the full moon, once it was dawn the wolves changed back, no matter what they were doing. It they weren't already in wolf form when the moon rose the night of the full moon that shift was automatic as well.

You were panting, in pain, and exhausted when you were human again. You clutched Loki's cape around you, making sure you were covered. You laughed at his politely closed eyes and leaned up to kiss his cheek. "It's safe now," you told him. His eyes opened again and he gave you a small smile.

"Are you alright?" he asked softly, scared. You couldn't lie to him, so you slid your one leg out from under the cover of his cape, so he could see the bruised swollen ankle that Jareth had grabbed. The teeth marks were still visible, but only barely bleeding now.

"Not so much," you replied honestly. "It'll heal soon, but I can't walk back to the car like this." Your voice betrayed your exhaustion. Your wolf played all night, then your ran for your life, then fought with a bigger stronger wolf. You were a moment of rest from being dead asleep.

Loki nodded and stood, lifting you into his arms as he did after making sure you would stay well covered, his cape wrapped around you like a blanket. "Thank you for helping," you told him tiredly and laid your head on his shoulder. "I didn't know you could turn into a wolf," you added.

"I was going to tell you tonight and come out here with you," he told you, his voice worried. "I've been practicing so I could come with you," he added. "I didn't think you would leave without telling me,"

"Why'd you leave without telling anyone?" Tony demanded. They'd all been worried.

"It's the full moon," you murmured, just loudly enough that they could hear you. "Werewolves have to change at the full moon. I told you that. It's not something I like to talk about, it's embarrassing. But I had to change, so I came out here to the woods. It's safer to be away from humans, and the wolf likes the woods. Why are you all here?"

"We were worried about you out here on your own," Cap explained. "Tony tracked his car out here. They all have GPS installed," he added before you could ask.

"Who was that wolf?" Loki asked.

"Jareth," you replied, eyes closed. You'd keep answering their questions as long as they didn't expect you to be more than half awake while you did.

"Jareth is the alpha's son," Loki explained to the others, when it was clear you weren't going to elaborate unless they asked you a direct question. "And the...what was it love?"

"Douchebag, asshat, fucktard, abusive asshole?" you supplied all of the lovely things you had called Jareth the last time Loki heard about him. You heard Cap's shocked gasp at your language, while Thor demanded translations from Tony who was laughing his ass off at your choice of words.

"Sounds like a real charmer," Tony quipped before he started giving Thor all of the translations.

"Yes, well, he's why I left the pack in the first place. I refuse to marry him and leaving was the only way to not marry that...jerk" you murmured, choosing a word that wouldn't offend Cap's sensibilities, settling more comfortably in Loki's arms. Your tongue was also looser when you were this tired. It was a fairly long walk back to the cars from where you were, so you snuggled yourself more comfortably in Loki's arms for the walk. "I haven't run into any other werewolves in the woods here for four years," you added before they could start yelling at you.

You didn't hear the next questions. You were too far asleep. "Love, Cap asked you a question," Loki told you, gently, but the rumble in his chest was enough to stir you.

"Hmm?" you asked.

"Do you have to go running in the woods on the full moon?" Cap repeated. It took concentration to understand his question and more focus to think of an answer. He was asking for quite a lot while you were this tired and out of it.

"Don't have to," you murmured, trying to focus on words. "But it's...better... psychologically to let the wolf be free where it's safe. It's harder to keep control when she doesn't have the full moon properly."

"We'll find a safer solution next month," Cap promised. You nodded and fell back to your heavy doze in Loki's arms. You trusted him and all of the team. You were safe with them for the post-full-moon-crash, which would be worse this month with all of the excitement tonight.

"Please don't scare me like that again, little wolf. I thought we were going to lose you, out here all alone. You're not alone anymore," Loki bid you softly enough that the others couldn't hear him.

"Promise, love," you whispered, not really aware of what words you were saying.

"Good. Rest now. We'll get you home safely." He kissed your forehead and held you more firmly and safely in his arms.