Ashridge Pack - Chapter Two (mlm (eventually), sfw) (Patreon)

So, here's chapter two for you, with a different image this time, and almost twice the length of the last one. I've given this whole story the working title 'Ashridge Pack' for now, and it's all still very much a work in progress. I've got it all plotted out though, and it's currently written up to chapter six, and edited (at least once) up to chapter five. This chapter has been edited in full four times now, and I think if I don't post it today, I'm never going to feel ready! Things and little details might change in the future, but for now, it's basically set. 

Last time, we met human Luke and his werewolf flat-mate Harry, who are best friends and both studying for their masters at the same university in the fictional English town of Ashridge. (There is actually a fancy house called Ashridge House in the UK, which although it's gothic revival in style, isn't far off what I picture for Everleigh Manor.) We also briefly met Max, the pack's alpha leader, after he'd had an argument with his mate, Laura. While Luke was out on an evening run in the rain, trying to give the wolves a bit of space, he met the pack's only 'true alpha' (though not its leader): the intimidating and elusive Sol. 

This time, we see a bit more of Luke and Harry's banterous relationship, meet Laura, and, improbably, bond with some more of the pack over milkshakes...! 

Chapter One (now updated on the masterlist)

 This post is the sort of 'original master list' for this universe, and here you can find an illustrated 'bestiary' of the werewolves/lore in this universe.  (E.g. the difference between an alpha and a 'true' alpha...)

 Contents/info: Luke has asthma and has a couple of small attacks in this - nothing life threatening, but it’s there. Also some werewolfy behaviour/interactions.Wordcount: 4157

“Morning,” Harry chirped as Luke shambled out of his bedroom and into the kitchen the next day. If he was moving a little more stiffly than usual, Harry didn’t comment. Perhaps running so far in the rain hadn’t been such a good idea after all. 

His quads creaked as he moved, and his brain wasn’t far behind either. Groggy and still half asleep, Luke probably wouldn’t get going until halfway through the morning, and he only responded with a soft grunt which made Harry cackle. 

He then proceeded to ambush Luke with another badly-fielded attempt at getting him to go to the Lunar Gathering at the Everleigh Manor. “Listen, before you wake up completely, I need you to say yes to going to the Everleigh party…”

“No.”

“Dammit, I was sure that would work,” he laughed. Dressed in skinny jeans and a striped green and white t-shirt, he was sitting on the kitchen counter, swinging his gangly legs and knocking his heels lightly against the cupboards below, nursing a huge mug of green tea between his fingers. “Max actually mentioned last night that he’d like you to go though…”

“Max isn’t my alpha,” Luke grumbled as he opened the fridge and forced his brain to focus, making sure he pulled out the milk and not the orange juice. He didn’t fancy mixing the two up and repeating the incident with ‘orange juice and cereal combination’ again. It had been a month before he’d been able to ingest either one - separately - without feeling squiffy. “I don’t have to do what he says.”

Harry let out a long and very lupine whine, tipping his head back and looking plaintively at him with wide eyes. 

“Don’t,” Luke said without daring to look up. “Do not give me the puppy dog eyes, Harry. And not the whine either. I can’t deal with the whine…” It was bad enough in human form, but if he’d been confronted with a little russet werewolf, softly wagging his tail with his big, triangular ears flattened back, Luke would have had no choice whatsoever but to agree. 

“Please? It won’t be that bad?”

“Why do you want me to go so badly?” A few bits of cereal bounced out of the bowl onto the counter as he upended the box and he focused on picking them up rather than looking at Harry. His resolve might break if he did that. No one did puppy eyes like Harry, and it wasn’t even because he was a werewolf; he just had one of those faces. 

Harry just shrugged. “Because you’re my best friend, and you’re a friend of the pack, and the Lunar Gathering is… significant for us?”

“You make me sound like your boyfriend not your best friend,” he scoffed. 

Harry’s answering grin was feral. “If it makes you more comfortable, we could go as fake-boyfriends?”

Luke rolled his eyes and splashed a bit too much milk over his granola. 

“Half your undergrads already think we’re dating… Come on, I bet we could sell it! ”

“To a crowd of werewolves? Who can essentially hear and smell a lie on someone? With me being, like, categorically the world’s worst liar and you being ace? I don’t think so. Anyway, I wouldn’t need to be attached to someone to go, do I? It’s not couples-only thing, is it?”

“They might try and set you up with someone,” Harry smirked. “Or try and adopt you…”

Luke once more rolled his eyes and tucked into his cereal. “You’re enjoying this way too much, and you’re not convincing me to go. Make yourself useful and put the kettle on, would you?” he asked since Harry was sitting directly in front of it on the counter. 

“Come with me and you can have your tea…” he said. 

“Werewolf or not…” Luke said, brandishing his spoon at Harry, “You will not get between me and my morning cup of tea. I’ve got to teach undergrads this morning. I need that tea. And probably a coffee or three when I get to campus.”

“Come with me, and…” Harry repeated, pretending to be threatening and failing in every way. 

“I don’t have anything fancy to wear,” Luke protested, shovelling granola into his face. “The last posh thing I went to was my own graduation, and I rented the suit for that.”

“You can borrow my spare suit if you want. We’re about the same size.”

“You’re a lanky bastard,” Luke countered indistinctly around a mouthful of cereal. “I’ll look ridiculous.” In truth, Luke wasn’t actually much broader than Harry, but he was a good bit shorter; borrowing his smart clothes was not a viable option if he didn’t want to look ridiculous.

Harry reached around behind him and clicked the kettle on anyway. “Maybe Laura will take you shopping then?” 

“Oh, perfect,” he said flatly. 

Campus that day was as lively as ever, and it distracted him completely from thinking about anything to do with werewolves. In the cafeteria at lunch, he caught up with a couple of the other post-grad students from the history department, and Harry bounded over just as James and Emily were packing up their plates. “You guys heading out?” he asked, his face falling into a ‘kicked puppy’ expression with disappointment. 

“Yeah,” Emily said. “I’ve got a meeting with my supervisor at two.”

James signed something, hands flashing too quickly for Luke to follow, and Emily translated almost automatically for him, “I’ve got to return a stack of overdue books to the library.”

“Oh good luck,” Luke snorted at James with a grin. He’d picked up a fair bit of Sign Language during their acquaintance since undergrad, but he was still grateful for Emily’s translations to speed things along when she was around. “Beavon is not gentle when it comes to overdue fees…”

James nodded like a man who had paid more in overdue fines than he had for drinks during his university years, and everyone grinned at him in sympathy. Peter Beavon was a formidable librarian, and Luke knew that even if he had been a werewolf himself, he would still have been intimidated by the man. 

Once the two had left, Harry plonked himself down in the spare seat beside Luke and cocked his head in a wordless question. 

Luke, who had practically grown up around werewolves since he was eight, answered him with a similarly non-verbal answer, namely a roll of his light brown eyes. When Harry scowled at him, Luke laughed and used actual words to answer the unspoken question. “Yes, Laura’s text was waiting for me after I finished a fucking awful seminar this morning. It’s really made my day, Harry,” he drawled, sarcasm thick as honey on every word. Shopping with the pack alpha’s mate wasn’t exactly how he’d planned to spend his weekend. His ideal weekend involved not getting out of his pyjamas, switching on the PS4, and not moving off the couch except to answer the door for a pizza delivery. 

“Why was the seminar bad?” Harry asked instead of pressing the issue of Laura’s text, and tucked into a vegetarian wrap with as much relish as Max did a Sunday roast. He was about as unconventional as it was possible to be when it came to being a werewolf, but none of the Ashridge pack seemed bothered in the least. 

“The ‘continuity of rural settlement and farming from late Roman to early Anglo-Saxon England’ wasn’t nearly as gripping for these undergrads as it had been for me, apparently” he said. “They were bored stiff - or hungover - but… we got through it. Eventually.” He leaned back in his seat and cracked the tension from his neck before adding, “Getting them to discuss stuff was like pulling teeth, but I wrung a few monosyllables out of half of them. I’m calling that a victory.”

Harry shrugged. “You can’t change the syllabus I guess.” And because he couldn’t contain himself any longer, he blurted his next question out around a mouthful of red pepper and hummus, “What did Laura say?”

With a fond smirk, Luke dug out his phone and showed him, which nearly produced a spray of food as Harry snorted with laughter. 

‘You, me, shopping, Saturday. x’ 

A moment later, he spotted Luke’s reply to Laura’s oddly threatening message, and grinned openly, mouth mercifully empty now. It was hard to believe that she wasn’t actually an alpha herself sometimes, though she still bore the official title of the pack’s ‘alpha female’. 

‘Only if you inflict that on Harry as well - he’s YOUR pack, and this was all HIS idea,’ Luke had replied, feeling the weight of defeat settling around his shoulders. The feeling of despondency might actually have been the last, sputtering remnants of caffeine from the espresso that he’d chugged in one before the seminar; it was hard to distinguish between the two. 

“It won’t be that bad?” Harry smiled hopefully. “But you don’t have to come if you really don’t want to.” He had that kicked puppy look again, but Luke could see he wasn’t trying to guilt-trip him. “You’re not technically a werewolf, even if you are pack…”

Luke shook his head, his wavy brown hair bouncing all over the place, and pushed his dark rimmed glasses back up his nose. “You’re family, Harry. If you honestly want me there, I’ll come.”

His best friend slung his arm around his shoulders and growled a soft, happy thank you in his ear before backing off a little with a laugh, his ear tilting slightly towards the direction of a group of undergraduates in the corner of the cafeteria. “Those yours?”

Luke’s brows dipped in a little frown and he glanced over at the group of eighteen year olds. Harry had not let go of his shoulders. With a groan, Luke muttered, “Yeah. I think they might have a crush on me…? Though they’ll probably ask me how you’re seriously not my boyfriend on Monday. They wouldn’t let it drop last time. Though the girl on the left seemed to think I’d be more interested in looking down her top than teaching her Old Norse verb paradigms though…”

“Unbelievable,” he deadpanned. “It’s like they don’t know you at all. How could you choose between that and a conjugation table?” and they both burst out laughing. “Guy on the end is cute though…?”

“Straight,” Luke said. “And anyway, I’m not interested in undergrads, and definitely not in the ones I’m actually teaching once a week.” He shuddered slightly and Harry grinned so wickedly that Luke actually thought he might kiss him on the cheek just to give them all something to talk about. Mercifully, he didn’t.

“I promise we’ll get milkshakes when we go shopping on Saturday,” he said instead. “My treat.”

“It’d better be,” Luke snorted and gathered up his belongings, slinging his messenger bag over one shoulder. “I’ll see you tonight. I’ve got to be at work earlier today because Harmon’s got some Antique Dealers’ Association meeting or something…”

“Fine. See you. Try not to sneeze all over some worthless piece of junk…”

Luke just rolled his eyes and waved over his shoulder as he headed out. 

In the end, it didn't take too long for Laura and Harry to find something appropriate that actually fitted Luke’s lean, sporty figure without it either hanging off him or being so skin tight it made him nervous of breathing. Given that it was a Saturday, town was heaving with people, and Luke coughed tightly as they left the department store, taking a deep draw on his inhaler once they had stepped out onto the street. 

Harry tossed him a concerned look, but Luke just shook his head as the tightness dissipated, offering him a smile. “You still owe me for putting me through that,” he rasped, new suit neatly folded in the department store’s paper bag dangling from his fingers, but Harry had a grin at the ready. 

Slinging an arm around Luke’s shoulders, and turning his gaze up at Laura, he widened his eyes and mewled, “Milkshakes at Onita’s now?” 

With a roll of her eyes, Laura accepted wordlessly and Harry fist-pumped the air. 

That the cafe happened to be run by a werewolf, and was frequented by the Ashridge pack when they weren’t working or doing whatever it was that werewolves did in their spare time, was an added bonus for the other two; it had become the heart of their territory. Onita was a tall, athletic wolf with long, almost-black hair falling halfway down her back, and Luke had sported a bit of a crush on her at one time. Luckily he’d mostly got over it, and the two had relaxed into a more mature friendship after leaving high school. 

To their surprise, when they entered, they spotted Max and Sol deep in conversation in the far corner. 

A still, serious aura seemed to hover between them, gathering and settling in the set of their shoulders and the furrow of their brows. It made Luke want to walk the other way, but Harry tugged him by the sleeve of his ragged, grey hoodie and pulled him along like a toy on a string. The two wolves’ heads were bowed, and they kept their voices so low that Luke wasn’t sure that even the other werewolves would be able to catch their words. They both had hair so dark it was almost black, though Max kept his cropped in a close buzz cut. Despite that, at a distance, they might even have been mistaken for brothers, though Sol was a fraction larger and broader across the shoulders.

The main seating area of the cafe was light and airy, decorated in calm pastels with a warm, recycled hardwood floor from an old church, but somehow the alphas’ corner seemed to be wreathed with an atmosphere that spoke of gravity and all things… alpha-y… even to Luke. He wondered briefly what they could be talking about to etch such expressions onto their faces, and he tried not to stare too hard at Sol. He’d always found him undeniably, gut-punchingly attractive, with his high cheekbones and strong brows beneath that streak of silver in his forelock, his full lips, freckled cheeks, and permanent five o’clock shadow, but his dark eyes were always a bit too piercing, too sharp, too watchful. He didn’t need to be a werewolf to know that he’d been feral at one point in his life, and it showed in the vigilant lines of his whole body. Luke felt like he was constantly waiting for the man to pounce and latch onto his throat.  

Harry hissed a question sidelong at Laura as they approached the counter. “So… I never asked… Did you and Max… uh…?”

“We’re good,” she said, and at the whisper of his name the pack alpha glanced up, suddenly alert and on edge. 

His whole body softened when he saw Laura and he gave such a goofy smile that it made even Luke jealous, even though he wanted nothing whatsoever to do with bonded werewolf mates. Apparently not all wolves bonded with their mates the way Max and Laura had. While many would feel a deep connection, and most mated for life, some wolves actually found a connection that was, if possible, even deeper than that. ‘Soulmates’ was too cheap and commercial a term for it, but it was all Luke had, as a human on the outside of werewolf life. 

“Clearly,” Harry grinned, elbowing her in the ribs and earning a snapped growl that made him physically recoil. “Sorry.” If he’d been in his wolf form, his ears would have gone back and his tail would have been firmly tucked between his hind legs. As it was, he just bared the column of his neck at her and shot a careful look up at her face before shying his gaze away. 

She rolled her eyes, Harry relaxed, and the roughhousing stopped there, much to Luke’s relief. Wolves had a particular energy to them that had a habit of leaving him a bit dizzy and drained.

Glancing back at the corner, he saw that Max was still staring dazedly at Laura, but Sol had crossed his arms and fixed Luke with a look in his dark eyes that made him shiver. It wasn’t an unpleasant expression, exactly, but it was so god-damned intense that he had to look away. He felt like Sol was trying to figure out if Luke belonged there, or whether he should be dragged out the back of the cafe and mauled half to death for daring to intrude on ‘pack time’. When he glanced back a moment later - just to be sure he hadn’t imagined it - Sol’s eyes were no longer staring at him, but were instead fixed on his coffee mug as if he were trying to make the contents boil. 

Luke’s thoughts drifted as they waited in the short queue at the counter. Objectively, Sol Everleigh was gorgeous. Six foot four or so, with broad shoulders, a commanding presence, and frankly stunning (if pant-shittingly intimidating) looks would have been enough to mark him as an alpha, but as a true alpha, he should have inherited his place as pack alpha when his parents died. After a series of complications, he had sidestepped that honour in favour of Max. Luke had learned that it wasn’t uncommon for more than one alpha to be born into a pack, but they didn’t tend to stick around once they’d grown up. That Max and Sol were not only tolerant of another alpha in the pack and its territory, but were actually pretty good friends, was nothing short of miraculous. Apparently. Though why anyone would want to be friends with someone who constantly looked like a thunderhead, Luke wasn’t sure. 

Harry smacked him round the back of his head and he snapped back to the moment. “Huh?”

“Drink?” he asked. “What’s the matter with you today? Too many people?”

“Oh. Yeah… uh…” he turned and smiled stupidly at Onita who was very patiently waiting behind the counter for him to make a decision, her dark eyes and warm brown skin in direct and beautiful contrast to the pale pastels of the cafe’s aesthetics. She was as gorgeous as ever, and though their fling a couple of years ago had been brief and the ending amicable, he still found himself more than a bit tongue-tied around her. “I’ll…uh… You still make that masala chai?”

She raised an eyebrow at him and then laughed. “’Course I do,” she said. 

“Thanks, I’ll have that then.”

“I’ll bring it over to you guys in a bit,” she said after Laura had insisted on paying for all of them.

“You are such a goofball,” Harry snickered as they followed Laura and Luke punched him on the arm. Harry shoved him back and he nearly staggered into one of the cafe’s employees who was wiping down a table nearby, spritzing the surface with a pungent cleaner. 

Luke coughed and bumbled an apology at her, and followed behind the other two. 

Naturally, Laura led them over to Max and Sol’s table, leaning down and planting a kiss on Max’ cheek before sinking into the seat beside him. Max rumbled something happy and wolfy at her, and Luke cleared his throat again as his chest tightened a little. His hand went reflexively to his pocket where he turned his inhaler over in his fingers before deciding he didn’t really need it yet.

Harry grinned a greeting at Sol, tipping his head sideways to bare his neck briefly in the direction of the two alphas. Luke just nodded at them, trying to calm his heartbeat a bit because holy crap, not only was Sol really fucking attractive in the soft light of this corner of the cafe, but he was even more intimidating this close up. 

Sol didn’t smile at them as they joined, and continued to glower at them like a stormcloud, especially at Luke for some reason. In close quarters and at times like this, Luke tried to remember that he was in fact twenty three, and not fifteen with a just-breaking voice and hormones all over the shop. He let their conversation about pack matters wash over him and resisted the urge to pull his phone out to pretend he wasn’t listening. Sol really didn’t seem to like him being there for some reason, but maybe he just had ‘resting alpha face’ or something. A guy could but hope.

After only about five minutes or so, however, Luke began to feel his chest tightening a bit more, and not in a good way. Harry picked up on it a second after Luke started to get genuinely anxious, and shot him a look. 

Luke nodded, trying to reassure him, but he pushed back from the table and excused himself just as Onita was bringing the tray of drinks over. Mercifully he didn’t crash into her, but the werewolf must have heard the wheeze in his breath as loud as a truck engine because she asked, “Hey, are you alright?”

“Yeah,” he said, though it was more of a rasp. “Just… Maybe the cleaning product or something set it off. It’s fine. I’ll… excuse me…” and he ducked out and into the bathroom at the back of the cafe. The first deep draw on his inhaler didn’t do much, but with the second, he felt things loosen up and his intakes became much easier. The adrenaline took a little longer to fade, however.

Bracing his weight on the basin, he stared up at his ashen reflection and sighed. He ground his teeth and felt a vein in his neck pulsing dully, pulse rabbiting. 

A second later, the door opened and Harry nosed his way in. “You ok?” he asked. 

Luke nodded. “Yeah, I’m good. Just…” he shrugged. “She must have switched cleaning products or something.”

“Like when I bought that new surface cleaner?” he asked gently and Luke dipped his head in assent. “Ok. You wanna leave?”

“No,” he grumbled. “I’ll see if it’s ok now I’ve used this,” he said, holding up his inhaler. 

Harry smiled and patted him gently on the back. “You just lemme know if you wanna get out of there.”

When they returned, Sol, Max, and Laura all looked up at the same time and Luke rolled his eyes in frustration. “I’m good,” he said immediately, face flushing hot. A cool breeze across his stinging cheeks drew his attention to the windows, which had been flung wide. Given that werewolves made up the majority of the current patrons, it wasn’t as if any of them would really feel the cold, and Luke shot a grateful glance over at the main counter where Onita was watching him with her wide, dark eyes. She nodded once and turned back to work, much to his relief.

Werewolves on the whole tended not to get sick or have asthma or the like, and Luke really didn’t feel like playing the pathetic, fragile little human around a group of nearly indestructible supernatural creatures. The fact that they got all protective over ‘pack’ was sweet and all, but it had been almost suffocating at times. Luckily he had Sol making him feel like an outsider with that glare, like an intruder on their secret society. 

Max took him at his word and moved the conversation on as he resumed his seat at the table and poured himself a glass of Onita’s amazing chai. Addressing Luke, he said, “So, I hear that Harry convinced you to come to the Lunar Gathering, Luke…”

“Yup,” he said, and he knew he didn’t sound thrilled. Suddenly he realised who it was that he was talking to, and added, “I mean… Yeah. We got the fancy clothes and everything…” He shot Laura a glance and she snorted inelegantly out of her nose. 

“He’s even worse than you about shopping,” she laughed. “He hated every minute of it, but he looks amazing. He’ll fit right in.”

“I’m glad you’re coming,” Max said, easing back in his seat. “I know you’re not… you know, officially pack, but you’re like a brother to Harry, and Harry’s pack, so… I’m glad.”

“Promise me it won’t be all werewolf and no fun…?” Luke asked sceptically and they all smiled or snorted. Even Sol’s lips twitched a bit, which surprised him. “No one likes to be the odd one out after all…”

Laura grabbed his hand and squeezed. “We’ll look after you, don’t you worry.” 

It was hard not to roll his eyes again at that. Werewolves were so odd; he wasn’t sure he’d ever really understand them, even with Harry for his best friend. 

Either way, the Lunar Gathering was going to be interesting, that was for sure. 

___

And you can always check out the Patreon Masterlist, in case you missed anything from before. This 'universe' and story will now have the tag 'ashridge pack' if that's easier to navigate.

 Don't forget to let me know what you think of the characters so far, and how the story is unfolding!