The Ties That Bind

It made a certain sort of twisted sense, one Maxim could only understand because he had dealt with it before. If a person was alone for long enough and desperate for somewhere to feel like they were supported, that they belonged, they would follow just about anyone that seemed at first to be trustworthy. By the time she started to realize anything was wrong, Maxim was sure the claws had sunk too deep, and reversing the way she had started to think of her friend was easier said than done. He'd seen it more in cases of domestic abuse, but it wasn't unheard of in gangs either. It was like he had said: everyone wanted a place to belong.

"It's all right," he reassured, shrugging slightly as if to prove to her that he wasn't bothered by her feelings towards him. "Trust takes time, and it's only been a day. Just so long as you remember to call for me if you ever need anything."

Not that she would be far from his side, most days, but there would likely be times in the future where they would need to separate and leave her home. If she was ever in trouble, or if she ever needed anything as simple as soap again, he was there to provide for her. He didn't expect her to truly trust him so easily.
 
She was a little worried about his reaction, she knew her lingering feelings of friendship for Alex were a problem and she was worried he'd judge her or think she was an idiot.

Thankfully he seemed to know better, or at least he was skilled enough to keep his true feelings hidden. He also seemed to take no offence that she didn't trust him yet, which she was grateful for.

Though she may still have her guard up, and keeping a lot of herself secret still, she had already shared a lot more with him than she normally would.

So there was progress at least, more than she would have expected. "I will, if I ever get my phone back." She joked with a small smile, trying to lighten the mood a little.
 
There were a lot of thin ice issues between them, not limited to her friendship with Alex and, from her perspective, Maxim's alliances with the HED and his own pack, but they were thrown together now and some day would have to trust each other. It was possible everything would go poorly, that she would end up in jail or he would end up fired, so truly they were in it together. Maxim was nothing if not a realist: expecting her to trust him immediately was unreasonable. The fact that she had spoken to him so freely about what troubled her already was surprising.

"How do you feel about two cups and some string?" He asked, rather than tell her it wasn't going to happen any time soon. "Maybe we'll get you a jitterbug, if you're very nice to me."
 
She knew she wouldn't be getting it back for a while, if ever, and that was something she was unhappy about. However she did understand why they needed it, as well as why they didn't trust her with it.

Not that they had to worry about her reaching out to Farkas or the others, despite her complicated feelings towards Alex, she wasn't stupid or naive enough to do that.

"A jitterbug?" She asked with an amused smirk, clearly having no idea what he was talking about. "I assume you're talking about a crappy old phone but I only know the dance."

"You know with that and your cans and string suggestion, you're not helping your grandpa vibe." She teased lightly.
 
Maxim gave a good-natured little huff and roll of his eyes at her questions, thinking it wasn't funny if he had to explain. "How have you not heard of a jitterbug? It's been the most advertised dumb phone for old people for the last decade. Phone calls are all it does."

Having to explain it more wasn't going to make him sound any younger, so he didn't bother expounding on the idea of commercials and how no one watched them anymore.

"I firmly believe some people need to play in the woods more often as children," he insisted with an eyebrow raised, an amused tilt to the set of his mouth. "I grew up somewhere rural. If houses had been any closer together, we'd've used the cups and string." He was sure he and the children he'd grown up with had done it at least once, while camping out on someone's property at night instead of aging sleepovers inside. Admitting that wasn't going to make him sound less old.
 
"Oh, I see." Her amused smirk widened, a playful glint in her eyes. "Well, I don't have any reason to know about phones for seniors, unlike you apparently."

She teased lightly, she wasn't even sure how much older he was than her, she didn't think it was by much. It was more about his personality, but that only made it funnier.

"As you may recall, I mentioned I grew up in the country, and I did spend all my time in the woods." She grinned a little, "so don't think you can use that as an excuse mister."

"I never did try them, we were all on top of each other all the time, there was no need." She said with an almost wistful smile, looking at him with curiosity. "Did you have siblings? Or just a lot of friends?"
 
Maxim only gave her a mock irritable side eye at her smug amusement, despite being relatively certain she knew they were not that far apart in age. At most he estimated there might have been five years between them, but even that was probably pushing it.

"All right, I'll admit it," he said with a faint smirk at her quick wit, "you've killed all my rebuttals."

It was good to know, at least, that at some point in life she'd had others around to keep her company. If she'd grown up an only child or without close family or friends as well as being isolated as an adult, he wasn't sure what to do for her.

"Two siblings," he answered with a soft, reminiscent hum, "and several other children in the pack, more at school once I was old enough to go. We did plenty of running around in the woods, with just wolves or with some humans along sometimes. I'm sure they wondered how we never got lost." Even if his and the other wolf children's senses of smell weren't enough, they had generally always had the instinct to know which way was home.
 
"Well they didn't put up much of a fight, so I can't say it was a very satisfying victory." She quipped with a grin, she was a pretty playful person, and though she may tease him, she never meant any of it.

It was just light hearted joking around, and her tone or expression always made that clear. She smiled a little at his answer, thinking how nice it sounded.

Especially having others like him to share his heritage, she'd never met another like her and she'd had to keep her form secret from pretty much everyone.

She envied him a little bit, wishing she could have had others to teach her about her shifting like he did. "That's sounds really nice." She said sincerely, "are they still around?"
 
The quick response managed to startle a soft 'ha' out of him, a chuckle following shortly after when he couldn't keep a straight face. It wasn't the first time he'd met his match in light verbal sparring, but it was always entertaining anyway. Even if it hadn't been, thoughts of family would have been enough to soothe him.

"Mm, my brother and sister still live near home," he explained, eyes on the road and his mirrors but a fond tone in his voice. "I visit a couple times a year, try to call a few times a month. I've taken the pack to see them, but we don't make a habit of it - city wolves and country wolves, you know." Besides, he had a pack of his own now, and they had no interest in merging together. It was the way of things for some, splitting off and making new families. It didn't mean

"Parents got the apartment from a friend who gave them a good deal when he had to move a few states away, but it was a lot of work to travel to the city so often. It just worked out that I take it over once I ended up stationed in the city. Military got me used to being around a lot of people anyway."

It was all one big coincidence, he thought, but it had all worked out in their favor. If he hadn't been able to come to the city and take over the building, he might never have found his new pack, or had the means to give them somewhere they could afford to live together. He did his best not to think about it, but if some of those coincidences hadn't happened, it was possible some of his wolves wouldn't even have still been alive.
 
Her smile widened as he tried and failed to contain his laughter, she was glad he had a good sense of humour. He seemed to be happy to be in on the joke, even if it was at his expense.

She enjoyed having someone to banter with again, and he was pretty good at it. It had only been a day but even though she didn't trust him yet, she liked him.

From everything she'd seen, the way he treated his pack, even how nice he was to her, she thought he was a good guy. She'd have to watch that, it made things a lot harder.

She shrugged a little at his country vs city wolves comment, "I don't actually, this is the first big city I've ever been too and I didn't really know any shifters before, but I could guess."

She seemed a little sad, his mention of the milatary especially in a conversation about siblings was an odd coincidence but she didn't dwell on it.

"You're really lucky." She said softly, simple sincerity in her tone. She glanced at him with curiosity, "so you served?" "What did you do?"
 
For a moment Maxim was silent, mulling over the new and more interesting piece of her past he was revealing bit by bit. It made sense, he supposed, for her to live in some sort of orphanage or foster care and grow up feeling so lonely. And if she had, then it also made sense that she had been surrounded predominantly by humans. It didn't make his heart ache for her any less, but he knew she wouldn't appreciate pity.

"Nothing, really," he explained instead, open enough about his own past though he wasn't so willing to discuss others'. "I was selected to join the marines, got through training and was stationed at a base a few states away for maybe six months before someone sniffed me out." Whether that person had been a shapeshifter or a human in the know, he still wasn't sure. He'd never met them. "Then it was off to the HED. I was young and a little naive when I enlisted, but being stationed in a city with a large amount of people, I thought I could do some good. So I stayed."

He had always been a little too self sacrificing, if one were to ask his family, and had thought if he went into combat his superior strength and speed would mean less people would have to be put in danger - but waiting to go and fight wouldn't have made him a hero. In the city, he could do more good for his kind and others on a more personal level.
 
She was curious about his past, why he decided to leave his family and join the marines, was it just his desire to do good? Or was it something more, like the tendency to rush in he'd mentioned?

It seemed he got lucky again, being recruited so quickly into a job he enjoyed, or at least she assumed he enjoyed it, he was good at it if nothing else.

Learning that he served explained some things, like his skilled take down and his disciplined personality. She wondered why he was chosen by the HED so quickly, he must have done something pretty impressive.

"So did you set out to be an alpha?" "Or did it just sort of happen?"
 
Maxim laughed softly at the idea of heading out into the world with the full intent of becoming an alpha, amused by how wrong it was and yet how right. In her defense, he was sure there were people who did venture away from home solely with the thought of becoming alpha in mind, but in his opinion those were not always the people that should be in charge of others.

"No, no, I didn't think so highly of myself," he said with a little shake of his head. "I was focused on the job and what it meant for me, but after I settled into it I started picking up strays. Marina was first. She was just a kid, and I didn't think she deserved to go to prison. It makes trouble for the system as a whole anyway, having a shapeshifter in such close quarters with humans, where they can't get away, so it didn't take as much convincing as I had thought it would to get them to let me try my hand at rehabilitation."

Granted, he had been hardly more than a kid himself when he had found her, but it hadn't mattered. Once he had found someone who needed help he thought he could provide, there was little he wouldn't stand against to make it happen.
 
She didn't seem bothered by his laughter, though she wasn't sure if he was laughing at himself doing that, or if he found the whole idea ridiculous.

She guessed it did sound dumb, but she'd met others who felt differently. Those who thought of being an alpha as a status symbol, or yes, as a way to gain power over others, so they set out to achieve that rank.

Unfortunately they seemed to be the majority, but she knew there were others, not even just wolves, who saw it as an admirable responsibility. Who set out to be an alpha, solely to help others, or to find a family to belong too.

She was curious about Marinas story, how she ended up facing prison at a young age, instead of juvenile hall. Not that it would have been much better, at least from what she'd been told.

"You did an amazing thing, helping her." She said sincerely, wondering if this was how he found all of his wolves. By extending a helping hand to so many down on their luck, "did you meet everyone through work?"
 
If only there was a way to properly express how difficult it had been then, to be young and on his own, managing a property he hardly knew how to handle and then taking on a ward not much younger than himself that at first would rather have bit his hand off than accept his help.

"It didn't feel amazing, at the time," he offered with some amusement still in his voice. "It felt desperate. And she was very angry back then." At everyone, at anything - it had taken some time with careful handling and an expression of firm, decisive faith in her to calm her wild spirit. Most people who were violent were that way largely because they were hurting or alone, and he had the physical wherewithal to last through the initial bursts of reckless fury and get to the other side. She had, eventually and to his great relief, turned into just the person he had known she could be.

"Most of them," he continued with a shrug, ticking off the members of his pack in his head. "Marina found Bella, and Aether wasn't so much a case I was working as someone I stumbled upon while I happened to be on the clock. Oscar was . . . struggling, when I found him. I'd gotten wind of an animal control call and managed to find Opal as a pup, running around in a panic, as her father was some distance away. You can't exactly report your child missing when they look like a wild animal."
 
"I can imagine." She didn't know anything about his struggles, but she could imagine how hard it must have been. Trying to juggle a new job, being on your own and trying to help an angry troubled kid, it must have been exhausting.

"I don't know her story, but I understand her anger, I've felt it myself and i know a lot of other people who have too." "It's a hard thing to navigate through, she was lucky to have you there to help her."

"No I suppose not, that must have been terrifying for them." She couldn't imagine how scary that would have been for Oscar, especially given what could have happened to her with animal control.

It seemed he really did have a habit of picking up strays, she envied them but she was happy for them and their little found family.
 
Difficult didn't begin to describe all that his beginning as an alpha had been. He would have been lying if he said he hadn't struggled to find his way, but he had been too determined, too stubborn to give up. If he had known of a better way to help Marina, if he knew of anyone who could care for her better without fully tearing her away from the city life she was familiar with, he would have given her up. It had, thankfully, worked out for the two of them until the others started to come along.

"If you asked, she would probably tell you." As much as he had done for Marina, and tried to do for her, getting to talk to another woman who had been through similar experiences to hers would probably be good for them both, though he wasn't sure who really had more to gain in that scenario.

"I'm sure from Oscar's perspective terrifying isn't even adequate." He added with a faint smile. "It took hours to coax her into shifting back so she could tell me where she'd gotten lost, and longer to find him. I'm sure if he hadn't been so focused on her, he would've tried to kill me."

He'd been worked into such a panic already, only to eventually come upon Maxim, a stranger, holding his miraculously human daughter wrapped up in just his jacket. Maxim would let it go at that. There was no need to explain to her how the older wolf had dissolved into tears, and after a bit of time and patience had divulged how much he had been struggling to keep his family together, to keep them fed without leaving them behind somewhere at all hours of the day. If he hadn't been one small paycheck away from living in his car, he might never have said yes to bringing his little ones to the apartments to find a new way to live.
 
She shrugged a little, seeming a bit hesitant or uncomfortable at the idea. "Maybe, it's really not my business." She wasn't one to pry, and she was reluctant to get too involved with everyone.

"I don't blame him, he must have been out of his mind." She could imagine the fear and panic he would have been going through, "he seems like a really good dad."

Someone else hearing that story might judge him for losing sight of his kid, but she knew how easily little kids could wander off and get lost.

She could only imagine how much harder it would be with a wolf child, as well as two others to look after. Besides it was obvious even to her who'd only just met him, that he loved his kids.

Granted she was pretty biased, but she thought that meant a lot.
 
Refusing to ask questions was a way to never get to know anyone, but Maxim left it alone for now. At least for the moment she was asking him. Later on, perhaps, she would gradually be able to start speaking to the others as well.

"Mm, a very good dad," he agreed thoughtfully, his eyes alert as they pulled into the parking lot despite his mind drifting to his pack. "He'd give anything for the pups, even more of himself than he has to give. But he doesn't have to anymore. It's always good to have help."

He wouldn't say just how dark a place the currently cheerful man had been when they had come across one another. Oscar had been freshly divorced then, newly on his own with three small children, struggling to make ends meet and care for the dual needs of a family that was both human and wolf, with no pack to rely on. If it hadn't been for the way his children had needed him, Maxim often wondered if his dear friend would still be alive.

When they'd parked, Maxim gave one last look around, then waved Madeline out of the car with him. "Let's get going, then. The sooner we get all you need, the sooner you can make a space you can relax in." That was the goal, really. Perhaps their home wouldn't feel like it was also hers, but it would at least be safe.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back