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Hunter’s quiet, which is more concerning to Mel than his nervous rambling from earlier. He’s looking straight forward out the front of the plane, and it’s only from the tense set of his jaw that Melinda knows he’s not just drifting off.
“She’s going to be okay.” It’s the closest thing to a lie she’s told Lance, and Mel’s stomach twists unpleasantly. The last thing he needs right now is more people lying to him - it’s the last thing any of them need.
“Yeah.” He doesn’t turn to look at her, just shifts in his seat so his knees are drawn up to his chest. Melinda spares him one last glance before returning her gaze to the controls in front of her. She wants to say something more, to comfort him further, but she’s not sure she’ll be able to hold herself together if she does.
“Are we going down there as humans?” Hunter asks quietly.
It’s the question Mel’s been afraid of since they embarked together. Hunter and Bobbi are the only ones on the team who know she’s a werewolf. They could smell it on her, the same as she could smell it on them. Mel had considered coming clean, but then everything with Real S.H.I.E.L.D. had happened and it seemed like a poor choice to make a secret public. Melinda blows out a breath through her nose. Not even Phil knows about her furry little problem, and having him find out on a mission report doesn’t sit well with her.
But the wolf is stronger, faster, better. The wolf isn’t afraid of Ward. Melinda tries her best not to be afraid of him, either, but there is something uniquely terrifying about someone who wants nothing more than to ruin everything he touches. Even worse, he seems preoccupied with destroying the people Melinda loves - Skye, Fitzsimmons, and now Bobbi.
The wolf stirs inside her, displeased. They’re more than just the people she loves - they’re her pack, the people she’s sworn to protect. With Bobbi and Hunter the sense is stronger, since they’re wolves too, but the wolf doesn’t like her thinking of Skye as just another person she loves. She’s more than that.
“Mel?”
“You can do what you want,” she answers finally. She knows what Hunter will choose. He’s more confident in his wolf form than he ever has been in his human form. It probably should worry Mel, but she understands. After Bahrain, she had been the same way. The wolf was her escape. She hasn’t asked Hunter what happened to make him that way - it feels like crossing a line in their new relationship - but she doesn’t need to know the exact circumstances to know the feeling.
“And you?”
“We’ll see.”
There’s not a better answer. She’s afraid of what will happen if she lets the wolf out. It’s her, but it’s a wilder version of her. The wolf wouldn’t have a single drop of guilt about ripping Ward’s throat out, and it almost scares her.
Just almost.
The rest of the plane ride is just as silent, but the tension builds, slow and steady. Melinda doesn’t need to see Hunter to see the ways he’s beginning to change. Not physically, not yet, but mentally he’s preparing to let the wolf take over. His breaths get louder, shorter, and faster. His energy fills the space, and the wolf inside her stirs again, more insistently.
By the time they land she’s made her choice. She puts down the Quinjet’s ramp, and watches as Hunter runs down it. At the top, he’s a human, but at the bottom, he’s a wolf. Hunter’s wolf form is about as nondescript has his human form. He’s brown and sandy gold, white splashed along his muzzle and his stomach.
Hunter turns to look over his shoulder, waiting for her. Melinda takes a deep breath, and changes.
The change never feels any less strange. Feeling her bones and muscles move and shift, fur grow where there wasn’t any more, and her senses change dramatically will always be weird.
She lifts her nose to the air, and a whine slips out before she can help it. Bobbi’s here, and her familiar scent would have been comforting if it wasn’t overlaid with the coppery tang of blood. The bitter stench of Ward fills her nostrils, too, and something burns in her chest. She only ever allows herself to feel this angry when she’s a wolf, and it feels good .
Hunter’s still looking at her for direction, and Melinda lets out a soft whuffing sound. She knows where he wants to go, and she’s not going to stop him. They both want Bobbi to be safe, but Hunter wants it more.
Almost as much as Melinda wants Ward to hurt. He’s going to pay for what he did to her and her pack, and she’s going to savor every minute.
They split off as soon as they get into the building. Hunter goes to track Bobbi’s scent, but Ward’s is thick over the whole place. It won’t be hard to find him, though. She’ll just go to the most disgusting place and he’ll be there, with the filth - exactly where he belongs.
Melinda has finally found the area that reeks of Ward even stronger than the rest of the building, but before she can latch onto a scent trail to find him, a gunshot rings out.
The sound nearly deafens her, and Melinda’s whole body stiffens. Before she registers what she’s doing, she’s on the move - running towards the sound, towards Hunter, towards Bobbi. That’s the only explanation she can think of as to why there would be gunshots. Ward’s found her pack, and he’s trying to hurt them, and Melinda can’t have that. She can’t lose her pack, she can’t lose her mates , she can’t lose anything. She can’t afford to.
Her ears have stopped ringing by the time she reaches the location of the sound. There’s a doorway left slightly ajar, and Melinda noses it open carefully. It squeaks unbearably loudly on its hinges, but the squeak is drowned out by a low, throaty growl.
Melinda steps through the door to show Hunter she’s not a threat, and his posture relaxes almost immediately. His hackles smooth down and his lips cover his teeth again. His tail flags out, not quite wagging but acknowledging the presence of someone he’s happy to see.
Behind him, curled into a ball, is Bobbi. She’s shifted, too, but she’s not her normal self. Hunter moves to the side, and that’s when Mel sees the odd angle that one of Bobbi’s hind legs is sticking out at. Bobbi doesn’t make a sound, not even a whimper, when Melinda approaches her. Mel presses their noses together gently, and Bobbi holds onto the contact, but doesn’t nuzzle into Mel further. She’s obviously in pain, and it breaks Mel’s heart.
But there’s no one here with a gun. Melinda’s head swivels around the room, and then she sees it - some sort of rig designed to shoot at head-level the moment the door opens.
It’s designed to shoot at a human head, though - the same way the contraption in front of it is designed to hold a human still. The cords that would’ve trapped Bobbi in the chair are gnawed through, and the bullet meant for the first person to walk through the door must’ve lodged itself in the concrete wall of the hallway.
Ward had wanted to make Bobbi watch the person she loves die. Like a fucking monster.
A growl rumbles low in Melinda’s chest, and Hunter matches it. It’s then that Bobbi whimpers, and Melinda’s heart breaks all over again. Bobbi sounds so… sad. Defeated. It’s not like her.
And as much as Mel still wants to find Ward and make him pay for ever believing he could touch her pack without there being consequences… Bobbi needs her more. There’s no way she can make it to the Quinjet without a significant amount of help, and Mel’s not going to leave her without protection.
Hunter reads her mind, and begins nudging Bobbi to her feet. It takes longer than it should for Bobbi to get her feet under her, but she manages it without putting any weight on her bum leg. Hunter stands on her good side, offering her something to lean on, and Mel leads them out of the room. Ward’s stench is still everywhere, setting her on edge, but the man himself hasn’t shown up. That makes Mel even angrier; he had meant to leave Bobbi alone with a body and it’s disgusting, even for a bottom-feeder like Ward.
The trio make their way through the labyrinthine hallways. When they’re almost to the front entrance, Melinda hears something. She stops, ears swiveling towards the sound. Footsteps.
Hunter doen’t break stride, and once again he’s on Mel’s wavelength. He’ll get Bobbi out and into the Quinjet, and she’ll take care of whoever’s coming.
Mel’s never been one to sit and wait for her fate to come to her, so she begins tracking the sound and moving towards it. When the footsteps are just around the corner, she stops, tucking herself close against the wall. The only bad thing about her wolf form is that she doesn’t have much protection against bullets.
Ward turns the corner, and the wolf takes over.
---
The Quinjet is already on when Mel lopes back into it, shifting back to her human form once she’s inside. She tries not to think about the blood drying on her skin, focusing instead on Bobbi. Hunter’s set her up in the co-pilot’s seat, and she looks bad.
“Hey, honey.” Mel smooths Bobbi’s hair back from her forehead, tucking the strands behind her ear.
“Hi,” Bobbi croaks. There’s blood on her, too, Mel notices. She’s covered in blood and sweat and dirty and if the wolf wasn’t so pleased with its recent kill, it would probably be howling again.
“She’s got some injuries on her fingers, too, but the knee’s the big one,” Hunter says quietly as Mel continues inspecting Bobbi. She knows Hunter did a good job, but she needs to see for herself. Bobbi lets her meddle, but Melinda knows better than to touch the knee. It’s a damn good thing Bobbi’s a wolf, otherwise it would’ve been much harder to get her out of there.
“You two dumbasses are really lucky he didn’t know shit about us,” Bobbi rasps out. “What were you thinking?”
“I try to avoid thinking when I can help it,” Hunter answers, kissing her temple. Mel finishes her inspection, then swings herself into the pilot seat. Nothing is technically time sensitive, but Bobbi’s in pain and Mel wants it to stop.
“What’s your excuse, Mel?”
Damnit. She had been hoping Bobbi wouldn’t question her lack of response. “I would’ve done it even if I wasn’t a wolf.”
“Walking into a trap when you know it’s a trap is stupid.”
“You were the bait,” Hunter whispers. Mel nods - that’s the end of it all. For Bobbi, there’s nothing she wouldn’t do. Same for Hunter, or anyone else in her pack.
She’s not proud of what the wolf inside her did to Ward, but at least he’s gone now, and they can move on.
The moon rises as they make their way back to the Playground, and inside Mel, the wolf howls.