Chapter Text
It wasn’t that Techno had planned to be a loaner. No one ever wakes up and decides they want to be alone for the rest of their lives. Those things happen naturally, over time. And in Techno’s case, without him even noticing.
His first pack had fallen into chaos when he was still just a pup. Their alpha had been a dumb fool, and everyone had known it. But no one expected him to go and make enemies of the other packs for fun. His life had ended suddenly, and messily. As had the life of Techno’s father.
He remembers being small, and afraid. His mother scruffed him and ran, pausing only for a moment at the sight of her mate, torn to pieces on the ground but the wolve who had attacked them. But it was long enough for Techno to see. For him to remember. She fled into the forests. Running for days until she collapsed from exhaustion.
Another pack had found them, tried their best to save his mother but in the end, they failed.
No one had been ready to adopt a new pup into their pack, especially one with a bloody history behind him, so instead Techno became the responsibility of everyone, rather than a single mother or father. They fed him as a group, played with him as a group, and took turns sleeping with him to keep him warm, when he shivered in the night without a mother, or father, or siblings to keep him warm.
He showed no interest in much else except his will to survive at all costs, and so they assigned him the role of protector. He took that role seriously, all the way into his young teens. Until he was out hunting with another pack member, and something had gone terribly wrong.
To this day he’s still not sure how it happened. But his fellow hunter lay bleeding and dying, and instead of running for help, Techno panicked at the sight of blood on another wolf. Of the reminder of what had happened to his first pack. And so, he ran.
And ran.
And ran.
And never looked back.
Techno tried to meet other wolf packs after that, even stopping to chat with the occasional vampire who felt inclined to humor him instead of immediately hissing and baring their fangs at the sight of him. But none of them stuck, so Techno moved on. Eventually he traveled so far, he found a stretch of land with no scent, and hesitantly stuck his claim. And just like that, Techno became the lone wolf, with no pack, and no intentions of finding one.
By day, he farmed there, finding that tilling the ground was a reassuring and calming task for his nerves. He found some wild potatoes, and watched over them carefully until he could harvest the crop, setting some aside and planting all that he could. One day he stumbled upon some carrots and he did the same with those until he had a significant farm going.
The forest was rich with game, though he was careful to never kill to many of the animals and risk losing the dense population. He would patrol at night, in the shape of a hulking wolf, five feet tall at the shoulder and covered in dense white fur. He mapped his territory in this way, staking his claim and making sure everyone who might pass by would know the land was protected by him.
It was on one of these nights, months after living in his new home, that he met his neighbors. Some of them at least. He had already discovered the massive lake to the East and the human village that lay on the other side of it. He stayed as far away from it as he could. No, these neighbors were less lively. A coven of vampires lived in the north, where the game trails turned into rocky paths and led into the mountains.
Techno figured they must have some crazy huge mansion built into the stones, all dark and brooding, like some of the other coven homes he had been unfortunate enough to happen across.
When he first realized they were there, he almost moved on, abandoning the beginnings of his hard work. But he didn’t. Instead, he continued to patrol and mark his claim, until one of their numbers came out to meet him.
It was a few nights after the full moon. Techno, in his wild and natural state, drunk on the full light of the night had undoubtedly strayed across the boarders many times, and had honestly expected someone to come and confront him much sooner. So, when he saw the foreboding figure of a dark man, and heard no breath from him, he wasn’t entirely surprised.
The stranger stepped into the light to reveal his features. He was short and altogether not what Techno had expected from a vampire. His hair was blond and swayed by his chin. His eyes were silver, betraying his species, when most vampires he had met had red or gold eyes. There were lines on his face from – yup, from that. Smiling.
The man smiled at him, and it was almost disarming how kind and gentle it was. Techno tasted no dishonesty on him, so he let him approach, though he stopped a few steps away from the boarder, no doubt seeing Techno tense when he got to close.
He met Techno’s eye, no fear for the wolf who toward above him, and held out a hand. Although, what he expected Techno to do with it was anyone’s guess.
“I figured it was time we finally met. My name is Philza.”
Techno stared at him in bewilderment. He had met Vampires before, but they only tolerated him at best, they never introduced themselves and treated him as an equal.
Despite the stereotypes, Vampires and Werewolves didn’t hate each other. There was just a general dislike between the groups and they each chose to stick to their own.
Vampires thought werewolves were far to wild and beastly, more like dogs then men who never kept their noses out of everyone else’s business. Were werewolves just thought vampires were pretty rude, and never felt the need to prove otherwise by seeking them out.
Philza the vampire waited with his hand stuck out, tilting his head to copy Techno when he tilted his head in confusion, one big ear flopping to the side. He scented the air again, trying to get a better read on his intentions, but he was met with nothing but honesty and eagerness, the man smiling on patiently.
Unwilling to shift back into his human form, Techno simply took a half step forward, sniffed Philza’s hand once, and then pushed his nose into it briefly as a greeting. He stepped back quickly, and the vampire seemed satisfied.
“It’s nice to know one’s neighbors, I think. I hope we can stay friendly.”
Techno tilted his head again at the words, but Philza simply turned on his heal and walked back up his own path, back the way he had come, on silent feet. Techno watched him go until he had fully disappeared from sight before resuming his patrol of his boarders.
After that, Techno met Phil much more frequently. He would start his walk around his boarder, twice or maybe three times a week, always at the same spot, and when he reached the place where his boarder touched Phil’s, the vampire would be waiting for him. Phil would walk with him until their paths split, Techno going to the right to continue his march, and Phil to the left, to return home.
Sometimes they walked in silence, simply enjoying each other’s company. Other times, Phil would prattle on about his coven, or their home, or what it was like to live in the mountains and how he liked the forest so much better, but the mountains were safer for his family. Techno learned that Phil’s coven was rather large, and was made up mostly of young vampires that Phil had welcomed in long after their turning when they had nowhere else to go.
The man lovingly referred to them as his band of misfits, and he smiled every time he said it. He would tell Techno about things in the mountains that he thought the wolf would like, although Techno had never bothered to speak to him. He stayed in his wolf form, padding next to the vampire with one ear angled towards his long-winded stories and one ear angled towards the woods, always keeping watch.
Not to say that he was silent, definitely not. He huffed and growled and even once howled at the stories Phil told him. He would cock his head to the side when he wanted Phil to explain something better, or bob his head up and down whenever Phil ended a sentence with, “You know what I mean?”
It was refreshing, that Techno could simply be, and his silence never seemed to bother Phil. One night, when Phil was suspiciously quite, Techno had glanced over to see that his friend (for that was what Phil had slowly become) had his face scrunched in deep thought, and he looked troubled. Techno huffed warm air at him to get his attention, but he just received a distracted hum.
So, he shuffled closer until their shoulders were touching, walking slower to keep instep with Phil’s steps, and taking extra care to watch for anything that might sneak up on them while Phil was preoccupied with his thoughts. Phil raised his arm over techno, burying his hand in his dense fur, and they continued that way. When they reached the end of their time together, Techno sat instead of carrying on, pushing into Phil’s side to remind him that he was there.
When the vampire finally managed to shake himself out of his thoughts, he gave Techno a tired smile.
“Thanks mate.” He whispered.
Techno lowered his head until they were at eye level and huffed warm air into his face. Phil chuckled before pressing their foreheads together, eyes closed, both hands on either side of Techno’s fluffy face. The position shocked him, and he stood dumbfounded for a moment, surprised that the proximity sparked no apprehension in him. A rumble started in his chest.
Something much warmer than a growl.
When Philza pulled away he looked like himself again, and grinned. “Same time tomorrow?”
Techno only huffed in response.
The next day, when they had walked shoulder to shoulder until their paths split, they stopped again instead of immediately pulling apart. Techno settled into the grass and let the shift roll over him. His shoulders shrank and came down to size, arms returning to him, hands and opposable thumbs attached, Techno’s favorite part of this form. He sat cross-legged, now with only two legs to cross, and began to pull up pieces of grass from the soil, weaving them together to avoid meeting Phil’s eye.
Phil sat beside him, although still at a distance, and watched.
“Where did you learn to braid?” Phil asked, casually and with zero expectation, as if he was afraid to frighten Techno with his request to hear his voice.
But Techno was tired of being silent, and he trusted Phil.
“My old pack.” He cleared his throat when his voice cracked from little use. “It was vital that we learn young in order to weave rope and baskets properly. But many of the wolves who kept their hair long also treated it as a bonding experience.”
He risked a glance up after finishing and saw nothing but pure wonder on Phil’s face. The vampire searched over every one of Techno’s features, bright silver eyes reflecting the moon.
“Can I braid your hair?”
Techno looked at the flat, and quite frankly greasy strands of white hair that matched his fur and fell to his waist, before shrugging, as if the implications of Phil’s request and his consent meant little to him.
“Knock yourself out.”
And Phil did, braiding and re-braiding his hair until the sun kissed the horizon the next morning, and he was forced to run home, lest he be burned.