#by which i mean the series by patricia briggs yall which existed long before the trope

[fromthedeskoftheminister]

We’ll Meet Again

Part ? of ???

The first bit written of a very elaborate urban fantasy mystery story that uh also happens to be a Hetalia x Mercy Thompson/Alpha and Omega (Patricia Briggs) Crossover. Disclaimer: I own nothing. Im playing with toys in a sandbox and if you wish to share in the story thats all g by me. Read on AO3 Old friends in New Places: In which a Wolf finds like folk and Bran finds that Asil is Omega Catnip. Or something like that.

The scent had finally faded and the wolf whined with loss.  He had known it was a long shot. What had he expected following a half remembered scent that he had encountered half a continent away several months ago.  Perhaps expected was the wrong word.  Hoped was better.  He had hoped that the pair he‘d encountered who had smelled equally of wolf and human could help.  And that they would.  But now all was lost. The scent had finally given up the ghost.  Bereft there was only one thing to do.  Complain.  Loudly.

 But before he could let loose his sorrows to the skies, a chorus of howls rang out through the night and then faded away leaving him with trailing echos.  The wolf stood perfectly still.  Had he imagined it?  No.  No he had not, he realized and his tail started wagging in joy as the howls started up again.

Well then.  He didn’t know how far away they were, farther than he could travel in a night by the sounds of it, nor did he know if the other wolves were normal or more like him and those he’d been trying to find. But… it didn’t matter, he rationalized as he plunged through the underbrush.  He’d done sillier and stupider things in the past with much less to go on.

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"Bran, have you seen Sam?  One of the kids got into something and it’s left a funny rash."

"When you say kids do you mean the kid kids or one of the new wolves?" Bran asked, looking up from the book he’d been reading. "Actually, why would I have seen Samuel?  He left to go bother Mercy yesterday."

"Uh, human actually.  In a twist of irony, I’m talking about the new vet.  Are you sure that Sam’s not here?”

"Yes.  What’s going on?"

Tad looked incredibly confused. "I could have sworn that I saw Samuel sleeping on Charles and Anna’s porch this morning."

"Why on earth would he do that?  He has a key, but they’re not in town either.  They’re handling the Seattle conference for me.  I thought they had given Samuel a ride.” Bran mused as he closed his eyes and reached out within the pack senses.  The pack was mostly content, some still tired and slightly sore from the run last night, he might have to go easier on the newer wolves next time, faint confusion from the wolf in front of him, sparkles of good natured delight and companionable grumbling from several different folks in town.  He stretched his senses slightly further.  There were Charles and Anna, his muted discontent, pride and joy and her exhilarated fear, excitement, and happiness.  Most likely Charles was trying to do something to impress her, possibly fancy tricks with the plane.  But no Samuel near them.

Instead Samuel seemed to be happy and content, mixed with a little longing, and some mild exasperation very close to a veritable knot of conflicting emotion of uneasiness, respect, mild annoyance and love.  Ah.  He was very familiar with that particular tangle of emotions.  Adam Hauptman.   With Mercy somewhere in the vicinity probably.  None of them anywhere near Aspen Creek.

So what was… a sudden spike of alarm that split turning into terrified concern and mildly angry befuddlement had him falling out of the pack sense and into himself as Sage came tearing down the hall catching herself on Tad at the last second "Bran what the hell is wrong with Samuel?"

"Absolutely nothing as far as I know.  He’s with Mercy”

Sage paled. "Then Who the fuck just ambushed Asil?"

"What?!“ Bran stood, shoving his chair back before striding out the door. Tad and Sage following closely behind, Sage still talking.

"I don’t know!!!  A large white wolf, looks exactly like Samuel, doesn’t smell like anything, tackled Asil into the middle of Main Street and then tore off into the woods."

"The witch?“ Bran murmured, very confused.   But no that wasn’t possible.  Anna had killed her when he, Charles and Asil had been ensnared by her powers.  And then they had burned the body.  And according to Asil she had been the last of her coven, several hundred years ago.  Though that didn’t necessarily mean she had not taught anyone else during that time.  If this was revenge it did make sense that it had taken whoever this was a little while to track the pack down.  He reached into the pack sense again, easily locating the knot of exhaustion and grumpiness that he normally associated with Asil.  That was as present as it ever was but there was none of the resignation or bone deep terror that Bran expected.  Instead, all he got was surprise, a little bit of anger, and even more confusingly peace and playfulness.  So, probably not the witch nor a member of her coven if she had even had one. He let out a breath that he hadnt realized he was holding. Well that was something to be thankful for at least. There was no apparent danger other than the obvious of a strange wolf running around in his territory but that was easily dealt with.  Asil wasn’t too far away, somewhere in the woods behind the house and Bran turned to the two following him.  "Other than bothering Asil, you said the stranger was friendly?"

Tad shrugged while Sage frowned, and Tad spoke.  "Ive not interacted with him at all, just mistook him for Sam at a distance"

“Sage?” Bran asked as he wandered out the back door, barefoot.  He wasn’t in quite as much of a rush, but stopping for shoes was still a hassle he didn’t want to deal with.

She sighed and followed him across the yard. “Friendly enough, I suppose.  He completely ignored me, just ambushed us on the way to the hothouse, bowled over Asil, bowed in play, and then took off towards the woods the minute Asil got up.”

“Well, we’ll find out if this stranger means harm soon enough.  Keep your senses sharp, they’re around here somewhere.” Bran said as they moved through the trees.

In actuality it didn’t take too long to track the pair down.  The sounds of a scuffle and mock growls led the trio to a clearing that was often used as a starting point for the full moon runs.  Which made it a very good spot for an ambush.  A quick couple of hand signs had Sage and Tad drawing back ever so slightly and Bran drew his presence into himself as he snagged a seat on one of the fallen logs near the clearing’s edge.

The first thing he noticed was that it didn’t seem to have worked completely.  The ear twitch and slight pause in movement were pretty clear indicators of that, but the wolf never turned to look at him and instead kept their attention on Asil who kept the game of… keep away, it seemed, going.  The second thing Bran noticed was that Asil was still human.  He wasn’t entirely sure why, it could have been due to a need to keep the game even, a desire to talk, a need to not kill the intruder, anything really but for some reason this was important.  Third, Bran could see why the others had mistaken this wolf for his son.  The stranger, whomever they were, was a huge pure white wolf.  It would be one hell of a coincidence if they had blue eyes as well, although Bran personally thought that if that were the case there was more likely some sort of magic at play.  A heavy thud drew his attention back to the clearing and Bran winced reflexively as the wolf finally knocked Asil down.  Yet instead of going for the throat to end their mock battle the wolf instead scrambled atop Asil, taking advantage of the prone position to wrestle the branch from his hand and flop down, eyes closed and tail awag.

There was a moment of stunned silence that Bran used to get his first good look at the other wolf.   From this close it was obvious that this wasn’t Samuel.  While neither of them had markings of any sort, the strange wolf was somehow a different shade of white than his son.  There was also the concerning fact that this new wolf was on the skinny side for someone their size and their coat was a bit thin for this early in the year.  If he had to guess, the wolf had had a few very harsh winters and was teetering on the edge of starvation.  Still the blindingly white fur wasn’t patchy or matted and they clearly had retained enough sense to self to play. The silence occasionally punctured by heavy breaths was eventually broken by a soft huff of laughter from Asil as he caught his breath. "All right Amigo, you win.”

The wagging of the tail grew more pronounced and Bran got to his feet.

“Nice fight.” He said and the tail stopped moving, and the wolf atop Asil shifted ever so slightly and Bran found himself staring into a pair of bright crimson eyes.  Well.  Not a doppelgänger at all.  An albino wolf.  That was unusual.  Hopefully it was strange enough to make the other easy to identify and figure out why they were here.  Still, the wolf wasn’t backing down and Bran didn’t look away.  He was not going to let some strange wolf play dominance games on his turf.  It was as easy as breathing to bring that part of himself to the forefront and he absently noticed the tension rising in his other wolves but if anything the stranger looked even less impressed than before and to Bran‘s astonishment they yawned in his face before turning to look down at Asil with an expression that could only be described as “Can you believe this nonsense?”

Bran blinked, stupefied, then snorted, carefully scenting the air.  For some reason he was only picking up scents of his own pack and the forest itself.  Still the behavior was enough of a clue "Only you, Asil.” He said ruefully, picking his way through the clearing to stand at the pair‘s side. "Only you"

Asil and the strange wolf traded looks, before Asil voiced what they were clearly both thinking. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

“Through all my years I’ve met a few omegas, but somehow I have only ever met them one at a time. And here you are somehow befriending 3 separate omega werewolves.” He extended his hand to help Asil up as the wolf atop him cocked his head at him.

"He’s an Omega?  Really?" Asil shook his head as he stood and looked down at the other wolf.  "Did you know that?" he asked and the wolf shook his head.

Bran huffed in pretend disappointment.  He shouldn’t have been surprised as he was.   Anna hadn’t known anything either and he doubted the Austrian Omega that he had heard about knew much more.  "Well, we should probably fill you in on that in addition to whatever it is you’re here for.  Speaking of, Asil are you going to introduce us?"

The pair traded another look and Asil shrugged. "If I could, I would.”

Bran looked at Asil and then down at the wolf “You don’t know who this is?”

Asil made a so so gesture with his hand the other going to rest on the Wolf’s head.  "We’ve met, I think?  There was a battlefield?  We fought." He added with certainty.  "And…" He blinked then looked down at the wolf, watching as he spoke very hesitantly  "There was a eagle?"   The wolf perked up at this but Asil shook his head.  “Lo siento, amigo. That’s all.  I know I know you.  Your scent is familiar but it is not quite… I know I know it, yet…” he trailed off then asked  “Were you a wolf when we met?”

There was a considering silence, as the wolf cocked his head very obviously thinking it over and then gave a very human shrug.

Asil looked at Bran “I have no idea what that means.”

“Another thing to figure out, I suppose.” Bran said as he looked down at the wolf. “Well if Asil doesn’t know your name to introduce you, mind introducing yourself?”

The wolf blinked, stepped forward to nose at his hand then very pointedly looked into the forest.

“All right, that’s fair enough I suppose.” Bran said crouching down and offering a hand, gesturing with the other. “I’m Bran, the alpha of the Aspen Creek pack. You obviously know Asil,” Bran smiled as the new wolf cursorily sniffed his hand then turned to face the new arrivals. “And that’s Tad and Sage”

Another perfunctory sniff, barely enough to get a measure of their scents by Bran’s reckoning but that didn’t stop Sage who stepped closer.  “Hi!” She said cheerfully, hand outstretched, and this time the wolf gave her a dubious look but did indeed take a deeper sniff.  “I'm Sage Carhardt, but I think you caught that.  And you’re the second omega werewolf to wander by in the past few years.   Seriously Asil, are you catnip or something for Omegas?  This is a bit silly at this point.” She said with a smile and good natured teasing.

Asil for his part shrugged. “It may have to do with the fact that I treat them as capable people rather than putting them on a different pedestal than anyone else.”

“We don’t do that.“ Sage protested, and Asil raised an eyebrow and the wolf huffed.

"There are few enough Omegas that most do.  Still I don’t know why he came to me, and we won’t unless he decides to tell us himself"

All four people in the clearing turned to look at the wolf next to Asil.

"He does have a point" Bran said, "We can’t help unless you give us something to work with.  Do you mind introducing yourself now?"

The wolf snorted then got up and pulled away from the group slightly, which spoke well for their state of mind.  Shifting was not a painless process and hurt werewolves tended to lash out.

It would possibly also help if they all were not staring at the changing stranger.  Turned slightly, to give the appearance that they were instead watching the forest, as some sort of guard, Bran kept his other senses attuned to the new wolf.  Based on the sound, the shift was going as smoothly as a shift ever went when one’s entire skeletal and musculature were undergoing a radical transformation, when a rising scent caught his attention and by the audio clues things started to go horribly wrong.   Unable to help himself, Bran turned hoping that there would be something he could do to ease whatever was going on only to end up staring in horror.

The wolf had barely reached the midpoint in his shift, hunched over but mostly standing on two legs, shoulders broad, arms too long for his frame with wicked albeit useless claws capping his fingers and drool dripping from a mouth full of fangs looking every part the stereotypical Hollywood monster when Bran found himself growling.  He frowned, unable to stop himself and poked at the feelings.  Frustration, exhaustion, desperation and determination had him on edge along with a growing horror and resigned terror that he was still trapped.  The stranger absolutely was an omega werewolf, projecting as he was, and a fairly old one too, Bran realized.  Anna, while powerful and talented didn’t quite have the control needed to project as clearly as this stranger did.

As Bran and Asil watched, the wolf tried again, straining with all his might against the magic that allowed the shift.   The sound in the clearing stopped suddenly and Bran felt foreign hope that maybe this time he had gotten it when the scent of a new wolfs first moon change abruptly flooded the clearing and the sounds of the shift abruptly resumed and the hulking monstrosity fell back into a more familiar lupine shape.  The woods were silent save the sounds of heavy breathing and a few very hesitant bird calls, just on the edge of his hearing range. Bran blinked and turned to stare at the mystery that had brought himself to his doorstep. The strange wolf met his eyes evenly as he laid there panting, reeking of magic, exhaustion and desperation and Bran was once again sent reeling by the projected emotions. A quick glance at the others showed that he was not the only one. All of his wolves in the clearing were.

“Well.“ Bran said, shaking himself slightly, as if that would dislodge the projected emotions, but more so to bring his own under control. "I see now why you were not too keen on introducing yourself.  Does that happen every time you try to change?"

He was entirely unsurprised to receive a nod in response.  "All right.   Well, come along then." Bran said moving back towards his house.  He kept talking, slightly relishing in the surprise he could feel from behind him.  "Let’s get you fed and we'll see what we can do about getting your… Curse? Taken care of.  I’ll make some calls, but just so I have an idea of where to start, did you happen to piss off any witches recently?"