Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Merlin wasn't sure where he was going. He went after Arthur, as he had on several occasions after seeing the prince sneak out of the castle, but usually, on those occasions he knew why Arthur had come out. This time, he had no idea.

Arthur was dressed in the clothes that Merlin had helped him put on a couple of hours earlier, when he was supposed to be getting ready for bed.

He hadn't changed, hadn't put on a tunic or something more appropriate for going out on this autumn night. Not that it was getting too cold, but winter was approaching after all, and Camelot wasn't known as a warm place, even in summer.

He kept his distance, looking around to make sure there was no danger nearby, when a branch cracked under his feet. He pursed his lips in frustration and looked up to find Arthur watching him.

There was a good distance between the two, but there was no noise other than the howling of the wind and an owl in the distance. Since he noticed that, it was strange not hearing more sounds, even at night.

More branches snapping under footsteps made them both look to the left, where the noise was coming from.

A pair of bright eyes met his and they were too large to be an animal's. Merlin frowned and clenched his hands into fists. Not quite sure how, Arthur had retraced his steps and grabbed his arm, pulling him behind him.

"Go back to the castle" Arthur said through clenched teeth "now"

Merlin looked at him blankly, even though Arthur was just staring straight ahead at whatever was watching them from deep in the trees. He returned his gaze to the pair of huge eyes and realized that whatever it was, it was looking at him, to Merlin. It didn't seem interested on Arthur at all.

The warlock obviously wouldn't leave the prince there, so he started walking backwards, pulling Arthur with him.

The prince pulled his arm to stay static in place, Merlin imitated his movement.

"I'm not going without you"

"For once in your life, Merlin, listen to me" Arthur wasn't looking at him "go, now"

"No"

Arthur did look at him now and that was apparently enough for the creature in the middle of the forest to come out of the trees and pounce on them. Merlin let his magic act instinctively, as he had always done before coming to Camelot, to protect him and Arthur.

Merlin was speechless at the sight of the creature in front of them, who was lying on the ground, swirling and crouching, preparing to pounce. It was a long figure, with thin limbs that ended in claws, it had an elongated snout, completely full of teeth ready to tear flesh. Its ears were pointed, a small layer of thin hair covered it completely, but the strangest thing about this creature were its eyes, so human but full of madness.

Merlin had seen enough people drunk with power, with that look lost in the pleasure of getting what they want at the expense of others, very similar to Uther's, to easily identify it. Whatever was in front of them, it was more human than he had thought when he first saw it.

A roar to the left of him made him turn and, remembering that it was where Arthur had been standing minutes before, he was surprised to find the massive wolf standing next to him. His head was easily level with Merlin's and despite having seen other wolves before, he had never seen one this big. His fur was blond, the same color as the prince's hair, and for a moment, he was lost in the blue orbs he knew so well.

"Arthur?" he inquired, breathless. No room to feel stupid for asking the wolf something, as the wolf saw him and tilted his head, before turning his attention to the creature that had been stalking them. Arthur growled and it was the most chilling noise Merlin had ever heard in his life.

The vibration of the roar ran through him from head to toe and he felt his magic swirling in his chest, ready to act. Against Arthur? Merlin wasn't sure.

He had read about werewolves, creatures that only seemed to be in books as memories of a bad dream or a night with too much beer. The two creatures in front of him looked very much like sketches in one of Gaius's books, but Merlin was sure they were werewolves, at different stages of their development.

Arthur had crouched down, with half of his body facing him and showing his very pointed teeth. Merlin felt his magic crackling under his skin, ready, eager to act. Completely focused on the version of a newly turned wolf that he didn't notice the other wolf in the place.

He turned as the sound of heavy footsteps came from behind, raising his right arm as the wolf lunged at him, covering his face and neck, while raising his left hand for his magic to take over. He fell to his knees, staring at the wolf impaled on a tree branch, as the noise of growling and snapping came from behind. He reached out with his left arm to stop himself from falling face-first onto the cold forest floor, feeling every part of his body go numb. Until his head got too heavy and he had to lie down in the leaves.

He had teeth marks on his right forearm and he laughed hysterically at the thought that of all the creatures that could kill him, werewolves were at the bottom of his list.

Chapter Text

Arthur felt panic rising in his throat, unable to stop it. He unceremoniously left the body of the already human-turned wolf in the midst of the fallen leaves and returned to his human form.

He had never turned so fast before, but there were more important things at the moment.

Merlin was unconscious on the floor and the other wolf that Arthur had heard and was sure he was too far away to be a threat to Merlin was lying dead several feet away, how had he gotten there? Not only how had he been impaled on the tree but why the hell had he approached another wolf's territory?

Crouching down next to Merlin, he let out the sigh of relief he didn't know he was holding when he made sure he was breathing and as he was preparing to pick him up, he gasped again at the unmistakable teeth marks on his forearm. He cursed under his breath and put it on his shoulders without much effort.

His clothes had been left in tatters, without time to take them off as he always did before turning, so he ran until he reached the edge of the castle, hurrying so that no one would see him without clothes and, above all, so that no one would see Merlin injured.

He didn't need his father's questions or raise suspicions with the castle's inhabitants. He didn't need people asking what had bitten Merlin.

Arthur wasn't surprised at how easy it was to sneak into the castle, he had been going out at night for years without anyone noticing, he didn't expect that going half-naked would be difficult. If he were anyone else, he'd consider telling his father about the guards' blatant unpreparedness, but realistically, that worked on his favor.

He went straight to Gaius and walked in without caring that the poor man was surely already asleep.

"Merlin is injured" he announced before Gaius even got to his feet and deposited Merlin on the small patient bed they had.

"What happened?" Gaius began to inspect and remove Merlin's clothes, while Arthur went up the steps to find some borrowed clothes. He took a pair of pants and a red tunic that he found on the bed.

“Something bit him”

Arthur felt Gaius's eyebrow judging him for a long moment before turning his attention back to his apprentice.

"I guess the same thing that bit you"

Arthur nodded and balled his hands into fists, cursing himself for being careless enough not to notice Merlin following him. Gaius was the only other person who knew what he had become when he was barely fifteen years old and arrogant enough to believe that the crown prince of Camelot could vanquish any creature that dwelt in the night.

Going out that night had condemned him to having to leave the castle every full moon to release all the energy within him, hunt something, and return sated enough to tolerate the pull of the moon until the next month.

Without Gaius, Arthur wasn't sure what he would have done, he had too many doubts and it had all seemed too much at first. Neither he nor the doctor knew if wolves were creatures of magic, no one had lived long enough to find out, but Arthur was sure there had to be something magical involved in their very existence. So he had kept it as a secret, deep down terrified of what his father would do to him if he found out.

Arthur had no doubt that Uther would condemn him to the stake without hesitation.

He couldn't fathom the idea of Merlin being condemned by Uther, much less after this was all Arthur's fault.

"I need you to come out" Gaius's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he looked at him with apprehension.

"No," he said firmly.

"Prince..."

"I said no" he crossed his arms "I know how awful it is, when that happened to me I was alone in the woods, I'm not going to leave him alone through this" there was no room for discussion in his voice.

“Arthur this is not like what happened to you, please go away”

"I'm not leaving" he looked at Merlin before the words fit together, "what do you mean this isn't like what happened to me?" He looked at the physician again but Merlin's groan distracted him and he looked back at him just in time to see him open his eyes. "Merlin!" he exclaimed in relief and knelt beside him, only to pull back a second later when he saw his eyes light up gold.

"What?"

"That's why I asked you to leave" Gaius reached down to remove the remains of Merlin's shirt, leaving his torso completely bare and Arthur was surprised to see the black veins that rose up his entire arm from the area of the bite, only to be found halfway with golden threads under Merlin's skin.

Magic.

"How…?"

"He was born with it" explained Gaius "he didn't learn magic, he was born with it" he seemed hurt to say those words out loud, Arthur realized it was because he was in his presence. That wasn't his secret to share but he was forced to.

He was part of the reason why people like Merlin lived in fear.

He was the reason Merlin hadn't trusted him with his secret.

Merlin thought he would kill him?

That he would give it up when he knew he had magic?

Merlin groaned and that was enough to distract him from the storm of thoughts that seemed to drown him.

Arthur snorted that explained Merlin's strange smell. Like a thunderstorm, like the earth after lightning strikes that exact spot.

That scent was characteristic of Merlin, only Arthur had never spent enough time around someone with magic to know what it was. In his years as a wolf no one had ever smelled like a thunderstorm.

"Why is he doing that?" he pulled up the bench to sit next to the bed and nodded towards the body of his friend.

"His magic is defending itself” Gaius murmured "there's really nothing I can do we just have to wait."

"Like with me"

"Actually... the bite of a wolf is like an infection it transforms the body" Gaius looked at him "his magic is preventing that transformation"

His breath hitched.

"Then could it not happen?" Could he avoid being like me?

Gaius nodded "Or he could die" and that was enough for Arthur to reach out and take Merlin's hand, who had closed his eyes again. He was drenched in sweat, running a fever and Arthur had no idea if that was normal in the process.

He had been completely alone in the forest after his attack, unconscious until he had woken up in the middle of the trees and returned to Camelot in time to see all the knights coming and going in search of him. An entire day he had been lost and Arthur didn't know what had happened to him in that time.

He had only found out what he was when he had gone to Gaius the following full moon seeking explanations for the sudden pressure in his jaw and the pain in every part of his body.

Gaius placed a cold compress on Merlin’s forehead and Arthur took the bowl he was carrying to apply the others.

He took a deep breath and prayed that his magic would prevent him from turning, yes, but most of all that it would save him. Arthur preferred a thousand times to discuss with Merlin why he never trusted him to tell him about his magic, than that he died from the bite of a wolf.

He had too many questions, too many but Arthur knew he couldn't demand answers from Merlin.

Not when he hadn't trusted him with his secret either.

He settled back on the bench, bowl in his hands and did the only thing he could do.

Wait.

+

His father call for him and even though Arthur didn't want to leave Merlin, he had to in order not to arouse suspicion.

Uther wasn't happy for how long it took Arthur to arrive, apparently they had searched every corner of the castle for him until someone thought that he could be with Merlin.

He decided to ignore that comment and hurried to the throne room.

He listened to everything the council had to say, reporting on the bodies they found in the woods not too far from the edges of the lower town, and Arthur kept his expression stoic. Arthur had completely forgotten what clothes he was wearing until he noticed the sideways glances the council members were giving him. He ignored them and nodded when his father tasked him with finding out what had happened to the men in the woods.

“Yes father” he answered. There was nothing to say about it, if you ask him.

When the meeting finished, he went to his chambers and changed his clothes. He placed Merlin's on his bed and was preparing to return to Gaius's chambers when the door opened.

He was going to complain because whoever came in did unannounced, but he stopped when he realized that it was the only person who never knocked before entering and Arthur couldn't be bothered in the least by it.

"Merlin" the relief in his voice surprised him. Merlin smiled at him he looked pale, tired and as if his whole body carried the weight of the world but he was alive.

And that was enough.

“You are still alive” Of course Arthur couldn't let his relief show. Of course.

"I am" Merlin answered and went deeper into the place.

Arthur leaned against his desk.

"So, you have magic" he blurted out. He wasn't surprised at Merlin's lack of surprise surely Gaius had told him what had happened.

Merlin nodded defeated.

“And you are a werewolf”

Arthur nodded.

“You don't trust me” wasn't a question.

Merlin walked until he was only a few steps away from him and stopped.

"I do" Arthur looked at the ground "listen to me, I do" he tried to focus on the sound of his heart, but it wasn't something Arthur did often, so his ears weren't as used to the detail of sounds as his nose was to the smells, so he focused on that. Merlin didn't smell like sour lemon, like he always did when he lied. "I didn't want you to have to choose between me and your father" the prince looked at him and, even though he wanted to get angry, to break something, to run through the trees, anything that would help distract him, he nodded.

He nodded because Merlin was the only person he trusted and yet he had never been able to tell him the truth about him either.

"So a werewolf?" Merlin smiled and sat on the edge of the bed, exhaustion winning the battle.

"Yeah, and you're a warlock" he snorted "what a pair we are"

Merlin snorted too and repeated:

“What a pair we are”

Arthur walked up to him and took his arm, uncovering it to find the bite scar on his skin.

Unlike him, whose scars and marks had disappeared after the bite, Merlin's looked raw and fresh. His magic had won.

He didn't pause long to think about what he was doing when he leaned down and placed a kiss on the teeth marks. Merlin's breath hitched and Arthur smiled. He inhaled deeply and basked in the scent of thunderstorm as a thought hit him, and he tore his eyes away from the scar and looked up at him.

“Morgana has magic too? She smells like you”

Merlin swallowed hard and saw the battle in his gaze before nodding.

"If we are going to do this, I don't want more secrets between us"

“And what about the secrets that are not ours to share?”

“If it involves magic we need to talk about it”

Merlin thought for a moment "Okay I can live with that."

"What are you going to do?"

“First, talk to Morgana I don't want her to live with fear” he sat next to the warlock “and I don't want you to live with fear” like me was left unsaid “when I am king, I will lift the ban on the magic."

"Really?"

"Yes, it will be a lot of work, but enough of people with magic living in hiding" Merlin's bright smile was enough to make it worthwhile.

Maybe then he would find answers, maybe there was someone out there with enough knowledge of what Arthur was to enlighten him.

In that way there would be no more secrets to keep.