The Hunt 3/?

[soncnica]

Title: The Hunt 3/?
Author: soncnica
Rating: 'NC-17' later, but 'R' this chapter
Genre/pairing: Jared/Jensen AU
Characters: Jared, Jensen
Word count: cca. 3.300 this chapter
Summary: It's the time of The Hunt again. And this year Jensen has to participate. Jared is a werewolf who hasn't found his mate yet in all the years he's been participating in The Hunt. But this year... he smells something he wants.
Warnings: *takes a deep breath* werewolf!Jared, bloodplay, branding, barebacking, biting, mental links, chuffing/presten, scenting, skitish!Jensen (but not too much, he is a man after all), language, dirty talk, age difference (Jared is 28, Jensen is 18), NO CHARACTER DEATH, NOT UNDERAGE, NO BESTIALITY (that means no Jared as wolf having sex with Jensen, okay a little scene, but it's 'you blink and it's gone' trust me), and a lot more warnings to come. I'll post warnings with chapters, so THIS CHAPTER: blood, dark(ish).
Disclaimer: I seriously only own the grammar/spelling mistakes. Everything else is not mine! NOT MINE! ALL IS FICTION! FICTION I TELL YA!!!! 
A/N: I wanted to post this chapter on Friday, but I just found out that I won't have time then.. so... here it is. Writen for this prompt at spn_hardcore animalistic behavior meme. PLEASE READ THE A/N IN THE STORY!


Thank you all so very much for reading and commenting... all your comments mean so much to me... thank you!!!!

Enjoy...

He was born on a night that was more occupied with the rage of the storm that spread across the forest, then his birth. Thunder and lightning, noises of big, fat raindrops hitting trees and leaves, stone and ground were nothing compared to the screams coming from the caves interior.

The screams were bouncing off the bare stony walls, echoing and gathering up all the screams that had not yet died down, before they all together escaped the narrow entrance into the stormy night, leaving empty space to be filled with more screams.

The smell of blood, sweat and tears coming from the cave's entrance, the sound of the screams, the anticipation of a new member arriving, send dozen of soaking wet wolves who were pacing outside in the rain into howling.

The forest was full of noises; howling, barking, rain, thunder, lightning, trees rubbing each other in the wind, braking branches, sending green leaves to fly in the wind before they were knocked to the floor by the heavy rain drops… sobbing, crying, screaming… howling.

The woman inside the cave was screaming herself hoarse, crying and sobbing, clutching at bear skins, the soft fur curled between her delicate fingers, sweat running down her face, her black hair completely wet and plastered to her cheeks... the howling she could hear from outside soothed her, it was like a soft caress down her cheeks, her neck, her breasts, her swollen belly… telling her that everything would be alright. Her husband's rough tongue was licking her nipples, trying to distract her from the pain and she wrapped her hand in his fur, tugging at it, tugging her husband closer to her.

Lightning.

Howling.

Thunder.

Howling.

Screaming.

Howling.

Screaming.

Howling.

Lightning.

Howling.

Thunder.

Howling.

Screaming.

Howling.

Lightning.

Howling.

Thunder.

Howling.

Screaming.

Lightning stroke somewhere close by, striking at the precise moment the baby came into the world and the sharp crack of thunder that followed disguised the child's piercing cry, silencing it, preventing the wolves outside to hear it properly and that send the herd into more howling, louder then before.

They wanted to hear the new member of the pack cry, hear him be alive, hear their new brother breathe and cry and live.

They barked and howled up at the dark sky.

"Jared." The woman half sobbed, half whispered when a baby boy was placed in her sweaty hands; the baby's eyes light blue, like a cloudless sky, his hair blond and his little fingers already grabbing for his mothers.

Her husband started licking the baby; gathering all the fluids the child had on his little body with its tongue and swallowing it down, tasting his wife and their child. When there was nothing left on the baby, when his skin was completely clean, the wolf changed into a man, kissed his wife and ran a finger down his boy's clean cheek.

"Jared!!!" he yelled out loud, telling everyone outside and inside his baby boy's name.

Lightning and thunder stopped when the baby began to cry in earnest, the rain following slowly, easing down to a cold drizzle that fell lightly on the naked bodies of people waiting outside to be called in, to see their new family member, their brother.

The son of their Alpha.

Out of respect even the drizzle stopped in seconds.

A child of nature has been born and nature showed her respect to him.

And that is how the man was named Jared, and the wolf will be named Grom.

Jared was barely learning how to crawl, going up on his shaky legs, not yet trusting them to carry his full weight; he always fell on his behind whenever he tried to really rise up, which send him into fits of giggles or fits of crying.

His momma often had to call after him, her voice soft and gentle: "Jared, sweetie, stay here, baby." but he was curious, he wanted to go outside, out of the cave to see where he was, what those noises were, what that smell was and where his dada went.

His father always went somewhere and came back all hairy and smelly and short; shorter then when he went away and he had sharp teeth and smelly breath, but he was so soft when touched and he made noises that soothed and calmed and Jared loved that.

But, he also came back smelly and momma often had to say to him in fits of laughter while trying not to blush before her child, while her husband had its tail between her legs, putting pressure just in the right places: "Get you and your tail to the river, you smell like you've been rolling in death all day long."

Jared didn't know it then, but… his dada was rolling in death all day.

Jared giggled and fell on his well cushioned – his momma often whispered to him while kissing his tummy: "Diapers, Jared, diapers are awesome." - behind, reaching up his hands for his momma to pick him up.

"Your daddy'll be back soon, sweetie, just a little longer."

He moved his left arm towards his momma's nose and squealed when he saw the color of her eyes changing.

"Uuuuuuhh…" he said and wanted to grab the fleeing colors in his momma's eyes, but couldn't, because she stopped his little hand and kissed all of his five fingers, one by one.

"Your daddy'll be back soon, come on, let's get you to bed, baby."

He was sleeping; his eight month old body exhausted from the day of playing with his momma and the other wolves, when something cold and wet started to nudge him under his chin.

He woke up to see black fur in his line of sight and he lifted up his little hands to touch it. He laughed out loud, a giggle that the wolf responded to with licking his cheeks.

The wolf's breath smelled making Jared scrunch up his face and cry, like babies do when they don't like something.

The wolf stopped licking and looked at him, moving its head to the right, to the left until it settled there and it gave out a little whine. Jared could see it had such bright eyes, such beautiful eyes that he wanted to touch them, but then the wolf lowered its head again and started to lick his cheeks, his nose, his hair, his forehead… and that made Jared stop crying, only small hiccups remaining. The fur was soft beneath his chubby fingers, and the wolf… smelled like his dada.

"Dada."

The wolf licked Jared's lips, raised its head up high and gave out a noise that startled Jared and he began to cry again.

His dada was howling.

Jared tightened his fingers in his dada's fur, while he slowly stopped crying; the shock of hearing such a loud noise wearing off and he blinked when the wolf looked down at him, bared its large, sharp teeth and barked.

"Dada."

Jared said again, tears in his voice, but he wasn't afraid. This was his dada and his dada always protected him, his dada never hurt him.

The wolf made that noise again, but this time Jared laughed out loud, petting his dada's sides, grabbing hold of the soft strands of the fur, tugging on them until the wolf stopped the loud noise and whimpered. He released his grip, didn't wanna hurt his dada.

He giggled when dada looked at him.

"Dada."

The noise started again, the wolf rising up its head and Jared's little fingers wrapped themselves in the white fur underneath the wolf's neck. He could feel vibrations go up and down his arms and into his body shaking every little bone he had.

The noise went on and on and on and Jared was getting sleepy again, the noise a lullaby to his ears, the vibrations like someone was rocking his crib, when he felt the drooly tongue on his cheeks again, licking his nose and mouth and neck.

The rough tongue stayed at his neck for a long time, making each lick hurt more and more when the nerves in the sensitive skin came alive, and just as Jared was about to start crying again his dada sank those huge, sharp teeth into the place where his shoulder meets his neck and Jared cried out, lungs burning.

Then there was darkness.

Pain wrapped in darkness.

Blood wrapped in darkness.

Bones realigning, breaking, twisting… wrapped in darkness.

Skin shifting, stretching, pulling… wrapped in darkness.

The taste of his dada's blood in his mouth… wrapped in darkness.

There was just darkness in which he didn't hear the barks of: "Grom's born! Grom is born!" followed by howling.

He woke up in the same cave he fell asleep in, in the same rabbit skins filled corner and with the same view on the moss covered wall, but… it was all different. He was different. He could sense that, he could feel that, he… there was hair all over his body, sticky with blood, sweat and tears. He was shivering, the smell of blood, fresh meat and mud in his nose half of it making him wanna puke and the other half making him so hungry he felt a string of saliva drop down from his mouth.

The sounds coming to his ears were too many and too loud.

Smells were too many and too invasive, burning his nose and throat.

The sight was too sharp and bright.

Touch was yet to be experienced.

He wanted to cry, but all he could do was whine, a weird little noise from deep in his throat that he never made before. He tried to get up on his legs and arms to crawl, but he found no arms, just legs. Too many legs… but they made crawling real easy. They were short, close to the ground, a bit shaky, the ends of them too wide and touch… was sensitive. He could feel every pebble and twig that he stepped on, every wet patch of soil felt like he stepped in a pond.

He fell down with a hufff, legs going in every direction and there was nothing to cushion his fall this time, there was just the hard, cold ground beneath his spread legs. He wanted to cry, but could only whine again when he pulled his legs towards himself and rose up, slowly and surly on his four legs that carried him out of the cave.

The bright sun almost burned out his eyes; it was too bright and too hot but when his eyes adjusted to it…what he saw… was breathtaking.

He saw trees, raising high up to the sky, almost touching it with their branches; some tree trunks were thin and tall, some were fat and small, disfigured with roots going in every direction above the ground.

Good place to play.

But later.

He made a few tiny steps forward, still testing the waters with all those legs, the ground beneath his sensitive feet was full of leaves and needles that were so soft, like walking on bear skins.

The whole ground rustled softly when he pawed at it, scratched at it with his newly gained claws, knowing without anyone telling him, that he was already marking his territory.

The sunlight was brightly yellow making its way between all those trees painting the forest in beautiful summer colors that reminded him of his momma's eyes.

The smell of pine trees was sharp in his nose and there was a noise… like water running without stopping... that surrounded his head and went into his ears.

There were mountains way in the back, going up higher then the trees; their heads were white with snow that never melts, their middles gray with stone that's always washed by rain and the rest was hidden by trees.

He could smell all kinds of trees and all kinds of animals and so many other things that were coming to him in a rush, but what he could smell the most was blood.

The smell made him hungry, so hungry he could feel it deep down in his bones; this ache so deep, he growled softly.

It was coming from somewhere to his left and he turned his head there, ears and nose high up.

He saw dada and wanted to call out, like he did so many times before, but all he did was bark: "Dada".

He startled himself. He could talk, just not… talk talk.

Dada, who was surrounded by other wolves, looked right into his eyes and barked: "Jared, come eat."

Jared didn't need to be told twice. He made a few more steps towards other wolves that were tearing a huge animal apart right in front of the cave's entrance. It had been freshly killed, because the blood was still warm when a white wolf placed some meat before him: "Eat baby, come on, I know you're hungry. Eat, 's good."

It tasted amazing, better then anything he ever ate before. It tasted alive, it tasted bloody and fresh and he chewed on the little piece of meat savoring the taste in his mouth and trying to remember the feeling of it sliding down his throat to settle in his stomach.

He watched others from the corner of his eye; how only a few were eating and how some were in the background pacing left and right, whimpering or barking: "Will you be done soon? Alpha? Soon? We're starving."

Dada growled back: "When we're done, Wait. Your. Turn."

Jared had never heard such tone in his dada's voice before. His dada scared him.

He took another bite of the meat and almost lost the ground beneath his four legs with how good the meat tasted.

Jared was munching on his tiny pieces of meat that the white wolf kept bringing him, when his dada started to walk away from the animal and others came rushing in and attacked what was left of it, tearing strings of flesh from already chewed on bones. They were starving, Jared could tell.

They fought between themselves, barked and growled and bit each other sometimes to the point of blood – Jared could smell it in the air - tackled others to the floor and took pieces of flesh right out of their brother's mouths.

Jared understood then. His blood was theirs, their blood was his. He was their and they were his. His brothers. His family. He understood without anyone having to tell him.

And when they were finished with eating, they tackled them to the floor and licked all the blood and mud off of him.

Family. Pack. Forever.

So, he was just a cub, barely out of his momma's den, shaky legs and messed up fur sticking to all directions when he learned about what he is. What he has become. What his dada made him.

Werewolf. Part man, part wolf. Immortal, unless killed by a silver bullet straight to the heart or the way his dad told him, when he sat him on his knees: "Eternity, Jared... or unless something chews out your brain. You have to be careful, son. Immortality has a price too in with us, it's watch.your.back."

He didn't think about it too much, it didn't bother him that he could be a man or a wolf, because he had been like that since he was just a baby and everyone loved him, took care of him and in return he took care of them. And being the son of the pack's Alpha had its… advantages. He could eat first, he could lead his pack on the hunt, he was next in line for the position and everyone loved him. Sure, his wolf side was a nasty son of a bitch, but his human side was as gentle as they come.

And it was family. It just was how it was and when he saw wolves change into people; men, women, children, or humans change into wolves… that was just the way it was. When they ate it was family, when they hunted it was family, when they slept it was family.

It was life. In a pack.

And being a werewolf had another perk in a long list of perks and when his father told him about it - when he was only thirteen - he nearly jumped through the roof.

"You can grow as old as you want to, Jared. And when you reach an age you want to spend eternity in, you stop."

"Stop? Stop what?"

"Growing old."

"Huh?"

His father laughed with a loud and deep booming sound that shook some leaves from the branches over their heads. Or maybe that was just the wind.

"But… but how does that work? I mean, I can't just say 'oh I'm twenty now, I think I have enough of this ageing shit, I think I'll stop now', right?"

"'s exactly what you'll do. But, you must not be younger then twenty. It's forbidden. Your wolf side would be too young and you wouldn't be able to breed. And don't say shit anymore."

Jared rolled his eyes at his dad: "But you? You're old."

"I'm the Alpha."

Another perk of being a werewolf especially one of the Bele Jame tribe?

The Hunt.

It's something every cub dreams of since the Alpha tells him about it.

The Hunt.

He knows the story, he knows what the villagers have done; how they killed what did not belong to them, how they picked up berries that did not belong to them, how they filled their animal skins with water that did not belong to them. How they killed and skinned his kin to eat it later. How they murdered and stolen what was not theirs.

The Hunt.

Without it, without the humans sacrificing their blood, their children… Jared's tribe would attack. And it would kill.

But a pact was made by Raki, the human and Looraa, the Alpha. The pact was made and it needs to be honored; boys at eighteen, girls as soon as they're born.

The Hunt.

Where his brothers had always found mates, food or just entertainment. But it's a pact that has to be honored by both sides no matter what; no matter the bloodshed, no matter the pain.

The Hunt.

Jared has seen a lot of humans be dragged, kicking and screaming or half dead already, to the centre of the Bele Jame cave system, pushed or dropped to the floor like a dead animal and bitten, scratched, clawed or simply ripped apart until all the blood slowly ran away from them, making a puddle on the stones where it could be smelled for days on end, sizzling on the hot sun.

Hell, he has done that himself plenty. And the thrill of it… of sinking his sharp teeth into that soft flesh and ripping it apart, making the body underneath him choke on its own blood, feel the heat slowly disappear from it, scrape his teeth on delicate bones… his wolf loves those moments. Loves them so much that he's always the first one there, the first one to sink his teeth in the human's neck and tear it apart. He's the Alpha's son, it's his right.

The Hunt.

And when babies are brought to the caves, females, they're protected and treated like the most precious things on earth and he has smelled and heard his brothers mate with them when the babies turned teenagers. The females are the ones who give children; they're the ones who'll make sure that the tribe of the Bele Jame cave system will never stop existing.

But Jared has seen his share of deaths too – when the girls just weren't able to bear children or when they died of all kinds of things, Jared doesn't even wanna think about.

He has seen.

But he does not think about it.

The Hunt.

The Hunt that is followed by either death or mating, because Jared has smelled and heard some of his brother's mate with warriors too. Warriors that later became his brothers.

And that… is another thing he doesn't think about much. The blood in his veins accepts everyone as his family. Everyone that his brothers bring, mate with and keep.

The Hunt.

The Hunt sealed by blood.

The Hunt; a pact made by two hunters.

It shall be honored.

His dad still keeps the sharp knife of Raki's the pact was sealed with in his chamber. It still has dried blood on it.

The Hunt.

Where he will find his mate one day.

One day…

TBC...

CHAPTER 2 _II_ CHAPTER 4

P.S.1 "GROM" is a Slovenian (my mother tongue) word for "THUNDER"!
P.S. 2 "BELE JAME" in Slovene means "WHITE CAVES":), and Jared will explore them in the next chapter :)