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“I need your help.” said Stark – which was exactly how the Apocalypse was supposed to start, Sue was sure of it.
“If it has anything to do with weird mating stuff or Loki, I can't help you and I don't even want to know anything about it.”
He rolled his eyes, crossed his legs and his arms, and started biting down on his lower lip.
“How do you even know it's about mating?”
“Because four members of my pack mated in the space of three months, and I'm the only Alpha apart from Steve who accepts to talk to you without having to be ordered to by the Marrok.”
“You got a point here.” he said, nodding and uncrossing all his limbs at once to put his elbows on his knees and lean in her direction, “But it also has less to do with the fact that your pack is a trainwreck and more with the fact that you weirdly know everything, all the fucking time, and Steve refuses to 'meddle' with the matter.”
The quotation marks were clear in his voice, along with his exasperation for the other Alpha, and for one long second, Sue's curiosity almost got her to agree, then she blinked, bit her tongue and remembered that she already had enough to do with her own pack, she didn't need to add other people's wolves to the mix.
“Why would I know the solution to your problem?”
“You know every single wolf in the fucking continent, there's got to be someone who's already been through what my wolf is going through right now, and I know that you'd know them.”
He was the one with a point now, but Sue still wasn't sure if 'meddling' was the right thing to do. She had to go to work, and check on Victor who had almost snapped at Ben during breakfast, which meant that she also was going to have to check on Reed who was always shaken up by Victor's aggressiveness – and everyone needed Reed to stay calm in that case, especially Victor.
“I won't help you unless you tell me exactly what is going on.”
“And I won't tell you unless I am 100% sure that you're going to help me.” immediately replied Stark.
“Fair enough.” said Sue, sending a quick glance at her watch just to make sure that yes, she was so late there was no point in pretending that she was ever going to show up to work anymore, before getting up and closing the door leading to the hallway and going to sit next to Tony on the couch. “Now that Jim and Loki aren't listening anymore, tell me and I'll see what I can do.”
“I still don't understand why you let him into your house...” he sighed but she ignored him, used to basically everyone who knew Loki telling her that, and after a few seconds Tony realized that she wasn't going to answer, his facial expression turned sour as he looked down at his feet, linking his fingers together between his knees and sighing again. “It's about Bucky. He's becoming the Von Doom of our pack.”
“I guess you're not talking about the whole giant sculpture of himself in the middle of the living room thing, are you?”
Tony chuckled, but it sounded fake.
“No, I'm talking about the losing it because of the mate thing.”
Sue's heart did a weird thing, because Tony talking about it reminded her that he was the one she would have asked if Victor had needed to be put down for good, and he seemed to hear it because he suddenly looked up at her, their eyes meeting for two whole seconds before he had the urge to look down again, not powerful enough to last any longer.
“You're probably no stranger to what happened to Bucky.” he said after a long pause, voice hoarser than usual. “And it left lasting effects on him, even if Natasha was here to help him through it.”
Sue nodded when Tony quickly glanced at her shoulder, lips pursed.
What had happened to Bucky was inhuman, the worst possible thing that could have happened to anyone, and truthfully she didn't even know how Steve had managed to not completely break down and lose it, especially since the whole Tony situation had arrived not long after.
How Bucky had survived and not completely gone feral was another mystery that she'd probably never understand.
“Does he want to mate her?” asked Sue when it was clear that Tony wasn't going to say more.
He nodded.
“He's scared of hurting her though, isn't he?”
He nodded again.
“If that's the case then you're right, I know someone who went through a similar thing, although I don't know the details, and he's now mated to an omega human.”
“A normal human?” asked Tony, his eyes snapping to her – and she let him meet her eyes this time.
“A witch, but definitely an omega if he was ever turned. And he's been through intense stuff too, from what I've seen.”
Tony nodded again, one last time, before jumping to his feet and walking in long strides to the front door.
“I need to think about it.” he announced right before opening the door and disappearing out of the house, leaving her by herself in the living room.
She couldn't exactly blame him. Mate issues were hard to deal with, especially on traumatized wolves who wanted to mate omegas – and especially when you were a traumatized wolf yourself, who had once lost his omega almost-mate.
“Is he finally gone?” screamed Loki from the kitchen – making Sue roll her eyes, because as much as her pack was completely ridiculous, everyone was more or less fine, or was going to be with some time, and that was all that she wanted.
***
It took Tony a week to call her and tell her that he wanted to meet the wolf she had talked about, and another week for her to contact said wolf, and the whole pack was already gossiping about it by the time she broke the news to them that she was going to drive to the State's limit and maybe spend a few days there with Stark.
“Sooo!” started Johnny, wiggling his eyebrows, “you're going on a romantic weekend away with Stark, huh? I should have known eccentric was your style.”
She rolled her eyes, ignoring him and Ben's snickers.
“While I'm gone, Jim is the one in charge and I expect everyone,” she said, sending a long glance to Loki who rolled his eyes and huffed, “to listen to him. No one is dying anymore, so you have no reason to need me more than usual during this trip, but just in case there should be signal so you can call me, but seriously Reed, if you're just worried about Victor you shouldn't, you're doing great.”
Reed blushed from the neckline up to the root of his hair and ducked his head, but Sue didn't miss the pleased curl of his mouth or the way his hand disappeared under the table to touch Victor's knee – whose eyes narrowed for a second before he relaxed again and gently knocked his shoulder against Reed's.
“Anything else?” asked Namor, tone clipped.
“Yeah, what the fuck is going on with you and Loki?” asked Johnny, his index waving between the two of them.
The two glares he received made him look down at the table top he was sprawled on, but that did not stop him from snickering.
“No, nothing else,” replied Sue, watching Namor who nodded but didn't stop looking mildly annoyed, “but I'll have a word with Namor.”
Everyone nodded and quickly disappeared from the kitchen, except Namor who pursed his lips, got up and walked to one of the big windows to look out at their yard, arms crossed and brows furrowed.
“Is there anything you want to tell me?” asked Sue once she was sure no one was within hearing distance. “About the fact that Loki, the wolf who turned you, is here, for example?”
“I don't care about that.”
“Then what is the problem? And don't say there's no problem, I know you and you've been acting weird ever since Loki started spending more time with the pack.”
Namor's whole body tensed and for a second Sue feared that he was simply going to walk right out into the yard and never come back again, but then he sighed and turned to face her, his usual resting bitch face softened by something she couldn't name.
“Seeing him just brings back a lot of memories.” he said, and Sue immediately knew what he was talking about.
“You're homesick.”
He nodded and turned back to the window.
“You know you can always go back, right? I'll let you, if that's what you want.”
“There's nothing left for me there.” he replied grimly before walking to the backdoor and slipping into the backyard without a single glance to her.
Sue sighed, wondering what it would take to finally have one drama-free month in the pack.
***
The drive upstate was spent in complete silence. Tony was driving a black SUV that Sue knew for a fact wasn't his – he liked his cars European and more expensive than a little house – and appart from when she had programmed the GPS, Tony had never even threw a single glance her way.
It was unusual for him to be so silent and stony, but Sue understood why he'd let his usual bravado home for the trip. Mate problems were everything but simple, she knew it damn well.
Nathan was waiting for them on the front-porch of his cottage when they finally arrived. Sue had only met him once, back in the eighties when a necromancer had lost it and tried to kill everyone in a fifty kilometers radius and he had helped her stop him – which was how he had met his mate – but, just like her, he hadn't changed one bit in nearly thirty years.
She realized she probably should have warned Tony when he got out of the car and just gaped at the other werewolf. She remembered having the same reaction the first time she had laid her eyes on Nathan, with his impossibly broad shoulders, white hair, pale eyes and the large scar running down the left side of his face, starting above his eyebrow, cutting right through his eye and ending under his cheekbone. She had heard rumors about the scar, all of them contradicting the other but one thing was sure, the other guy had it worse than him.
“Hello Susan.” said Nathan, getting up from where he was sitting on the porch and quickly crossing the space between them to shake her hand. “I'm Nathan Summers,” he added, turning to a still open-mouthed Tony to shake his hand too, “nice meeting you.”
“The pleasure's mine.” mumbled Tony before blinking and finally remembering that there was a certain code of conduct for that kind of thing and regaining his composure. “I'm Tony Stark.”
Nathan nodded once and spent a moment staring at him until Tony looked down before finally letting go of his hand to invite them inside, asking how was the drive and if they had any problem finding the cottage.
***
Tony and Nathan were in the middle of a pretty intense and serious hushed conversation in the living-room while Sue was trying to read and not eavesdrop on the front-porch's swing when a man covered in scars and wearing a way too big plaid shirt erupted from the forest surrounding the house, smiling brightly at Sue, and threw himself on the swing next to her.
“Hey Sue, long time no see!”
“Hello Wade.” she smiled.
Wade had not aged a single day since the last time they had seen each other either, which wasn't exactly a surprise considering what the necromancer had done to him, but it still felt weird to see a human with that kind of ability.
“I saw you coming, you know? Months ago, and every time I told Nate he said that I was wrong, that there was something I wasn't understanding right, but I just knew you'd come again.” he said, a tiny enigmatic smile on the corner of his mouth and Sue closed her book and turned to face him.
“Why did you see me? I'm only here to accompany Tony.”
“That's the most interesting part.” said Wade, his smile growing bigger into a grin. “When I saw you, I saw this exact moment and I saw myself tell you this: as soon as the Marrok's son walks into your house, you need to grab everyone and get the hell away from there.”
Sue paled and immediately straightened her back, alert and her pulse quickening.
“What do you mean the Marrok's son? Which one?”
“Well,” he sighed, leaning back against the swing's backrest and turning his gaze to the forest, his grin not leaving him, “there's probably some cosmic law saying that I shouldn't tell you this, but the Marrok actually only has one son. And this one son doesn't know about that.”
“But the other one does?”
“You already know the answer to that question.”
It was true. Loki had said that he had issues with his father and no werewolf would ever go to the other side of the country and stay there for a few months as a way to resolve conflict. She had known something fishy was going on the second Loki told her that he was going to submit, but that wasn't what she had expected.
“Can you give me any detail about why I should take my pack and run?” she asked after pondering for a few minutes.
“Nope.” replied Wade, popping the p. “I still don't know all the details yet and probably never will until everything actually happens, but I can tell you that from what I've seen, a lot of things are going to change once everything starts rolling.”
Sue opened her mouth to ask him more but he jumped off the swing just as the front door was opening and threw himself into Nathan's arms when he stepped into the porch.
Nathan's facial expression relaxed in a heartbeat as he wrapped his arms around his mate and nuzzled under his jaw and Sue looked away, chest constricting at this view and starting to feel like leaving her pack alone wasn't that good of an idea after all.
***
“Everything's fine.” said Jim that night when Sue called him.
She was standing at the edge of the forest, far enough from the cottage that the only thing she could hear from it were low murmurs, barely loud enough so she couldn't distinguish words – and they couldn't eavesdrop on her.
Stark was doing the exact same thing, far off to her right, but she couldn't have tried to listen to him even if she had wanted to because Jim's soft breathing into the phone seemed to be the only thing her preoccupied mind could focus on.
“Loki decided to spend the night here, but in the guest bedroom instead of Namor's.”
“Namor's having a thing right now.” she said, answering the question that she knew Jim would never ask.
“Is it about his home? Since Loki's the one who bit him I figured that must be the source of all that tension between them.”
“Ask him, it's not my story to tell.” she said, glancing back at the house where Wade seemed to still be chatting while boiling things in a pot in the kitchen. “How are Reed and Victor?”
“I'm pretty sure something happened. Reed looks brokenhearted and Victor is making that face, like the first time you bought him to meet the pack after you told him that we're all werewolves.”
“Who looks the most guilty?” she asked, feeling a lump growing in the bottom of her stomach.
“Both actually. I… I don't really know what to do about it to be honest.”
“It's okay, I have to deal with that every four days with them, they should be fine for the next couple of days until I'm back, and if they're not call me and I'll come back immediately, by foot if I have to.”
“Peter also seems to feel skittish without you here.”
“Ben?”
“He's staying at the house while you're gone.”
“Good. And Johnny?”
“He's his usual self.” replied Jim, making her smile.
“What about you? How does it feel to be in charge?”
“It's horrible, you've only been gone for a day and I'm already worrying about every single one of them.”
“Good to know that I don't have to worry about you trying to overthrow me to become Alpha.” she joked.
“I'd never do this, this pack has too many problems, if I wanted to be Alpha I'd just leave and find new wolves.”
Sue laughed, feeling as usual deeply grateful for having him as her second.
“Is there anything you want me to do?” he asked once she was calm again. “Water the plants? Hide Ben's phone for the night so we're sure he'll sleep? Make Johnny wash the dishes?”
“Keep an eye on Loki.”
“Should I be worried about that?”
“I'm not sure yet, but call me if you overhear him contacting the Marrok or anyone from his former pack.”
“Okay, now I'm worried for good.”
She tried to find reassuring words, but none came.
***
“Okay, I feel like I have to ask you guys: who is Thomas?”
Tony sent a confused glance Sue's way, who shrugged and turned back to Wade who was still leaning his full weight on the table, looking at them over breakfast with suspicious eyes.
“Come on, it's important. I had a dream last night. A dream, alright, and it's going to be bugging me for ever if I don't get to know who the hell that Thomas guy is.”
“Wade.” sighed Nathan, taking a seat at the table in front of Tony and pulling Wade down on his laps.
The witch pouted but he let his mate wrap his arms around his waist and hook his chin over his right shoulder.
“I need to know, it's important to your wolf problem.” he added, pointing a finger at Tony's cup of coffee and starting to frown, his pout not wavering.
Tony immediately sat up straighter on the chair, his eyes flashing red while he flexed his jaw.
The cup in his hand made a weird sound, like maybe he was going to break it, and Sue very delicately moved her chair away from him.
“Is there something that you are not telling me about the well-being of my pack?” asked Tony between clenched teeth, voice a lot rougher than usual.
Nathan's eyes narrowed dangerously as he looked right at Tony's eyes and Sue wondered for a second if she would manage to separate the two of them without anyone getting hurt. Fortunately, Wade shrugged and wrapped the fingers of his right hand around one of Nathan's wrist before the situation could get worse, getting his mate to relax a little and press his nose against the back of his neck, getting the two alphas to stop staring at each other.
“Of course no, but I get visions, alright, and this Thomas guy has something to do with your Bucky guy.”
Tony didn't move for a long second before finally letting go of the cup, one finger after another, and closing his eyes.
“I don't know any Thomas, no, but I'll ask Steve, maybe he does.” he said after a deep inhale, opening his eyes that were back to being brown.
“Well, if there's one thing I can tell you for sure is that you shouldn't get your Bucky to mate until you know more about this Thomas, because it could get ugly.”
Sue's frown was almost as deep as Tony's.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
Wade shrugged and finally met Tony's gaze for the first time.
“I mean if what I saw actually happens, Bucky needs time more than anything. And uh...” Wade's gaze flickered to Sue before he looked down at his hand still gripping Nathan's wrist, “let's just say I have a feeling everyone will have to learn how to be patient.”
That did not help Sue feel better in any way, especially since Tony got up as soon as it was clear Wade wasn't going to say anything more, shifted to his wolf form and got out of the house without a single sound, worry and confusion rolling off of him.
“You're really not helping.” mumbled Nathan, face still pressed against his mate's nape.
“He'll thank me, eventually.” replied Wade.
***
After a very frantic hour-long call with Steve, Tony had only needed to meet Sue's eyes for her to understand that it was time to get back home to their respective pack.
They packed their bags and got back into the SUV without a single word, Wade and Nathan staying on the porch of their cottage in silence and the witch waving when they pulled off and started to drive off. Once again, Tony drove in religious silence, except that this time Sue was worrying and wondering if Wade's predictions and his second long glance had meant anything and if her pack was going to be fine which, coupled with Tony's nervousness filling the car, made the three and a half hours drive completely unbearable.
It actually got worse when they finally reached Sue's house and Tony stopped the car and killed the engine.
He sighed deeply and rubbed a hand over his face, looking even worse than when he had came and asked for her help – which already felt like it was an eternity away instead of just two weeks.
“I don't know any of the details,” he said after another long sigh, putting the hand he had been rubbing his face with on the steering wheel and turning on his seat to face her, “but it turns out that Steve and his merry band of WW2 soldiers actually all know a guy named Thomas from back then. He refused to say more over the phone, and I have no idea what the hell I'm supposed to do with this info since the guy has been dead for a good sixty years, but he warned me that Jim would probably not react well if he knew some witch with divination powers talked about him.”
“Is this your way of asking me to not tell my pack about this? Even though it could relate to them or us as a pack.”
“Yes.” calmly replied Tony. “Yes, please. Until I know more, I think keeping it between the two of us is the best thing to do.”
Sue frowned.
“I don't know if I can do this Tony, not right now at least.”
“Give me just a week, just so I can get more out of Steve, and then tell whatever you want to Hammond and McKenzie, I don't care, but just give me seven days to find out how the hell this dead guy is going to affect the most vulnerable member of my pack.”
Biting down on her lips, Sue took a second to consider it. Tony had helped, more or less, when Johnny and Peter had needed some help, and he had lent his penthouse so Reed and Victor could get some alone time to mate and try to work through their issues, and even if keeping that kind of knowledge from her pack was the last thing she wanted to do, she felt like she owed him that, at least.
“One week, not a day more.” she said, flashing her eyes red and pointing an index right at him to make sure that he did not forget who was the strongest and most dominant out of the two of them. “One week, and don't you dare wait until the last second to tell me if you find something relevant.”
“I swear I won't. And thank you, really.” he smiled weakly, looking more relieved than anything else for an Alpha that was very obviously being threatened by another one. “And thanks again for telling me about Nathan and tagging along.”
“No problem.” she replied, managing to smile, her eyes back to being blue.
Their exchanged a polite nod before she was grabbing her bag from the back seat and getting out of the car, glad to be back home despite everything else.