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'You can’t be here.’
Din settled back against the tree like he hadn’t a care in the world, immune to the angry glare currently pinning him to the trunk.
‘Last time I checked, no one owned these woods.’
‘Then you’re woefully misinformed.’
‘Maybe you could fill me in?’
The boy crossed his arms with a huff from across the clearing, and Din would have laughed if he didn’t know that he’d be socked in the jaw. It was hardly Din’s fault that Luke Skywalker trying to be threatening was unfairly, impossibly cute.
‘He’ll kill you if he finds you here, you know.’
Din suppressed a yawn, his eyes fluttering closed. This was a perfect place for a nap.
‘Big bad alpha can hardly claim every inch of this town, let alone every tree-’
‘This isn’t a game.’
Feeling a rush of motion, Din’s eyes snapped open to find Luke inches from his face. He whistled lowly.
‘You’ve been practising. I didn’t even hear you.’
‘It’s not the only thing I’ve been practising.’
Din’s eyebrows quirked, his gaze drifting down from Luke’s large blue eyes to his mouth.
‘Now, this sounds like a much more interesting conversation.’
He leaned forwards, only to be met with thin air. His brow creased, until he heard light laughter coming from above him.
‘No fair, Skywalker. Magic is against the rules.’
Luke rolled his eyes, a grin breaking out across his face. Din filed the image away for safe keeping; Luke didn’t smile as much these days, and every one was precious.
‘Please. As if you don’t show off your wolf every chance you get. Let me have this.’
He dropped back to the ground nimbly as if he hadn’t jumped fifty metres, no scratches or sprains in sight. The only thing out of the ordinary was the luminosity of his eyes, so subtle that anyone but Din would have missed it.
‘Magic is way cooler, and you know it. I’d choose magic over lycanthropy any day,’ Din admitted admiringly.
‘Yeah, well, it’s not exactly making my life easy.’
Luke settled himself against Din where he still sat against the bark, resting his head against his shoulder. Din dropped the teasing note in his voice, wrapping his arm around Luke and pulling his boyfriend close.
‘It’s that bad?’
Luke nodded glumly, playing with a dead strand of grass.
‘He’s impossible. Even more so than normal, I mean. It’s like he hoped the powers would just skip a generation or something.’
Din snorted.
‘Yeah, I think not. You’ve been making weird shit happen ever since you could walk. Surely this shouldn’t be a huge shock to him?’
‘He’s unsettled by how quickly my powers have grown. He just… he doesn’t understand. He doesn’t even try to.’
Luke leant his head back against the tree and breathed in the fresh air deeply, crisp with the scent of pine needles and autumn bonfires.
‘He doesn’t want me to end up like mom.’
The tension heightened again, the unspoken subject of Luke’s mage mother sending shockwaves through the ancient ground. Birds scattered from the branches in distress and even the sun seemed to lose its warm evening glow for a moment, eclipsed by an angry raincloud. s
Holding Luke tighter, Din pressed a kiss to the crown of his head.
‘He’s just worried about you. He loves you.’
He couldn’t believe he was defending Vader of all people. He may be Luke’s dad, but that didn’t change the fact that Din thought he was an utter-
‘Stop it. I might not be able to hear your thoughts like your pack, but I still know exactly what you’re thinking.’
Luke swatted him lightly on the chest, his face thoughtful.
‘I wish you two would make more of an effort to get on. As in, you not waltzing onto his land whenever you please just to piss him off.’
Din grabbed Luke’s hand gently, stroking his fingers and privately marvelling at their softness. He hated to admit that he agreed with Vader about anything, but in one thing only they were in total accord. Luke’s safety was paramount- wonderful, brilliant, beautiful Luke.
Human Luke.
‘We both know that your dad’s favourite pastime is to loathe me with his entire being. Who am I to deprive him of that?’
Luke sighed.
‘I wish we didn’t have to be like this. Hiding in the shadows, pretending we mean nothing to each other. Don’t you get tired of it? Don’t you ever feel like leaving all of this behind?’
Cupping his chin, Din tilted Luke’s face up to his.
‘More than anything. But we both know that’s not possible.’
As much as Din and Vader clashed, he was still Luke’s father. Din knew it would kill Luke to abandon his dad, and he wasn’t about to make Luke choose between them. He was content to have even a small part of Luke, knowing that sharing him was better than never seeing him again.
Luke leaned in closer, his eyes dark and his stance deliberate as he bared his neck. Din sprang back like he’d been burned, his mind desperate to do the right thing even as his wolf ached, begged, pleaded to bite into the smooth pale skin and mark him as his mate.
Mine.
‘What are you doing?!’ Din hissed, pushing down the want bubbling up deep in his stomach ‘your dad would castrate me if he saw you doing that, and that’s just for starters.’
‘Well it’s a good thing he isn’t here then, isn’t it?’
Straddling Din’s legs, Luke carded a hand through Din’s hair, arching his neck deliberately in front of his face.
Din’s wolf preened.
‘I’ll be twenty-one in a month. Prime mating age by some standards, people have already been asking me if I’ve thought about it-’
‘Screw their standards,’ Din growled ‘you can’t just throw yourself away like that. Not to me, not to anybody. Once you mate, that’s it. You’re bonded for life-’
‘I don’t need a lecture, I’m not an idiot!’ Luke protested, his cheeks flushing pink as he made to move angrily off Din. ‘You know, you should get on much better with my dad, seeing as you both love to treat me like a child-!’
Din grasped his wrists gently to get Luke’s attention, meeting a pair of fierce blue eyes, and chuckled inwardly to himself. Sometimes Luke’s parentage surprised other people when they saw Vader next to his gentle son, but Din knew better.
‘I know you’re not. I’m not him. I just… don’t want you to do anything you might regret.’
Luke’s gaze softened.
‘You really think I’d regret you? You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.’
Din smiled lazily, even as his heart threatened to backflip through his chest.
‘I’m glad to hear it. It would’ve been totally embarrassing to have to return this, especially as I gushed about you so much to the cashier…’
From his pocket he pulled out a small charm dangling on a silver chain, catching the dying rays of sunlight, and Luke’s mouth fell open in surprise.
‘May I?’
Wordlessly Luke bared his neck again, and Din pushed away his wolf, gleeful at being offered the tender flesh once more, as he fastened the chain around Luke’s throat before cupping his cheek back to face him
Luke’s eyes glittered, his smile warm and his cheeks pink against Din’s palm.
‘That’s why you were here? To give this to me?’
‘I couldn’t wait any longer. It’s black jade, very powerful for protection and healing. I figured it might come in useful, especially with all the attacks recently-’
He was interrupted by Luke’s mouth on his, and eagerly melted into the kiss. His hand twisted into Luke’s hair, the other wound around his waist as he lowered them both to the ground, hoping they would make this a repeat of last week when Luke snuck into Din’s room in the middle of the night-
His head shot up, Luke’s eyes suddenly wide with fear as he sensed it too. Din’s wolf instincts were screaming at him, warning him that he was no longer welcome, that he needed to leave five minutes ago.
‘It’s him. I have to go.’
Luke pressed a regretful kiss to his forehead, tucking the necklace out of sight beneath his shirt.
‘Be careful. Don’t come back until you hear from me.’
He plucked a stray piece of twig from behind Din’s ear with such a fond look on his face that it took every ounce of self-control Din possessed to not start kissing him again.
‘I love you.’
‘I love you too, cyar’ika.’
And with that, Din’s claws lengthened and his dark brown eyes shifted to sulphur as he sprang onto four legs, his jet black coat shiny and sleek in the impending darkness, and then he was gone.
Luke took advantage of the precious few seconds to smooth down his hair and tidy himself up, hoping he didn’t look like he’d just been thoroughly kissed, just as his less than amused father rounded a fir tree with a face like stone.
Even though he loved his father fiercely, Luke couldn’t help but be a tiny bit afraid of the man, and he willed his heartbeat to slow. His father could probably hear it thumping through the forest like an obnoxious bass boosted speaker.
‘What are you playing at, Luke? You can’t just wander off without telling me, especially with the recent attacks. It’s not safe.’
His father’s voice was tight and cold, a hint of worry hidden beneath the steely surface. Despite his anxiety, Luke suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. He was a fully grown adult, and his father had somehow missed the memo.
‘Dad, relax. I’m fine. I was just getting some air.’
Luke regretted speaking back as soon as his dad’s jaw clenched into a razor sharp line.
‘We’ll speak about this at home. This kind of behaviour is just not acceptable. I-’
His eyes, normally a stormy blue like Luke’s, suddenly narrowed as he broke off. His pupils tapered as his irises flooded a violent crimson, and Luke swallowed. He took a nervous step back, twigs crunching like thunder beneath his feet, only to have his father’s furious face inches from his as his claws dug furiously into the bark on either side of Luke’s head.
‘Would you mind explaining to me why you reek of another wolf, my son?’