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invisible-storyteller · 1 year ago

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Mercenary's wolf

Hey, everyone! I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm participating in @teenwolfrarepairevents July event with the following pairings: Day 1: Braeden/Laura Day 2: Scott/Lydia Day 3: Kali/Julia (Jennifer) Day 4: Camden/Laura Day 5: Jordan/Sheriff Day 6: Hayden/Tracy Day 7: Nolan/Brett Day 8: Coach Finstock/Greenberg (in the future) I'm posting the first one (Braeden/Laura - role reversal) here as well, below the cut. You can check out my series for the event on AO3. Happy reading! *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

"Come on. Try it."

Curls of dark hair frame the creature's face where canine teeth shine white and threateningly sharp in the moonlight, and Laura twirls the combat knife idly around her finger before taking it firmly into hand. The creature's eyes assess the weapon with mild curiosity.

"Nice. But mine are better." Claws pop out at the words, and they would serve well as a warning if not for their owner looking at the ravine behind her with poorly hidden despair. Laura eyes the bleeding wound in the werewolf's calf and estimates her survival to be 10 minutes 'til the poison would ultimately overpower the creature's advanced healing. Running would still be futile, even if the creature had any escape routes available.

"My client wants you alive," Laura stresses, but like any other time, the other woman just wouldn't listen.

"You mean he wants to kill me with his own hands," Braeden corrects.

Laura can't help the way her eyes trail over the claw marks running across the woman's neck - an impressing reminder from an alpha that he has claim over Braeden, no matter how far she ventures from home.

"What Deucalion plans to do with you isn't my concern," Laura frankly states, "But he might keep you alive if you are willing to cooperate."

"That man is anything but merciful," Braeden reiterates the same old argument while throwing a glance at the ravine as if to guess the distance below. "None of his mercenaries has succeeded before. What makes you think you're special?"

"I found you," Laura points out, eyes gleaming, "And now you have two options. Take a leap and hope you don't fall to your death... or fight me."

Braeden pretends to mull her options over, but Laura knows her better than to hope for sensibility.

"The second one sounds fun," Braeden finally says and Laura smiles at her predictability.

She pounces with a swift slash of her knife but Braeden ducks from the attack, poison still hindering the werewolf if the pained grunt she lets out when jumping over the mercenary is anything to go by. Laura swings back on instinct and manages to cut the werewolf's palm who growls with the new doze of poison in her veins. Using Braeden's distracted state, Laura tugs on her hair and kneels the werewolf into the stomach before Braeden gathers her bearings and trips her over, smashing the mercenary's head hard into the ground. Laura's vision is blurry when Braeden makes a run towards the cliff, and strangely enough, Laura hopes that she makes the jump.

Braeden looks majestic as she soars over the deep crack in the ground and lands on the other side with a complacent smirk tossed over her shoulder. She's limping as she disappears into the dense forest, probably not as delusional to think she's gotten away for good. Laura fights past her swimming vision as she fishes her phone out of her jacket and types out a quick message, strands of hair gripped tight between her fingers.

Got her DNA. Your location spell better be worth its price.

•♥•

The darkness is hindering but Laura wouldn't be a professional mercenary if she couldn't discern her target's form in a dim abandoned warehouse. Braeden's kneeling in a circle of mountain ash with three hunters looming over her, cackling like some cheaply animated villains, as they take turns shooting wolfsbane-laced arrows into the were's tortured body. Laura is strictly here for business, but even she can admit to herself that she'll have fun gutting them all.

She approaches the scene with light steps, quiet like a predator on a hunt, and creeps up behind one of the hunters with a knife grazing his throat and making the man huff in his struggles. His accomplices finally tear their gaze away from Braeden's hunched form and one of them immediately drops the crossbow to pull a gun on Laura. She's quick to slice the man's throat then and she uses the makeshift shield to dodge the bullets from the hunter before tossing the body towards the gun-bearing man. She manages to duck away from the third hunter and grab the crossbow, aiming it at the man shrugging off his friend's corpse and piercing an arrow through his skull without hesitation. Laura then wrestles with the last standing woman until a direct blow to the head knocks her out, and finally buries a bullet between her eyes with the man's gun. Just to make sure there are no witnesses.

With the hunters eliminated, Laura retrieves the jar of wolfsbane from their bag and deposits it among her own gear. She needed to replenish her stock anyway. Next, she crosses the circle and lays Braeden's wavering body on the ground, ignoring the quiet growls that the werewolf so ungratefully addresses her with. Laura pulls out each arrow and burns the wolfsbane from the contaminated flesh, the sight infuriating enough that the hunter doesn't even relish in Braeden trashing helplessly under her hold. When the last trace of wolfsbane has been cleared from the werewolf's system, Laura stands up with a sigh and breaks the mountain ash circle on her way out.

"Didn't know mercenaries were this caring."

Laura wonders how Braeden is even capable of talking right now as she grabs her own supplies, already wondering where she could hide the bodies, and guesses that the other woman is simply fueled by spite.

"As I've said, I need you alive," Laura repeats, looking over her shoulder to where Braeden is slowly getting up to her feet.

"You didn't need to kill them."

"I hate it when others play with my toy."

Laura expects Braeden to growl at the implication of her being in anyone's possession, but surprisingly, Braeden just looks calculating and perhaps a bit satisfied as she recuperates. "Thanks."

"You have an hour headstart," Laura tells her in response, and Braeden scoffs in something akin to amusement before exiting the building.

Meanwhile, Laura takes a look at the bodies and prepares herself to dig.

•♥•

"He hurt you." It's more of a statement than a question.

Braeden drags her eyes over the scars stretching across Laura's face, and for the first time, Laura feels self-conscious.

"If you're worried about my safety, maybe you should finally let me take you to him," Laura remarks, even if her words have long lost their bite, "He's getting impatient."

For some nebulous reason, she decides that Braeden can't know that Deucalion has threatened to hunt down her family - well, what is left of it, anyhow. There's a chance Braeden will give herself up - you gather that much about someone after chasing them for half a year - and even the thought of that makes Laura's lunch want to resurface.

"Why are you still doing this?"

Braeden's eyes are filled with more concern than any werewolf should ever have for a hunter sent to deliver their pelt. Laura hates everything about this situation, but mostly, she feels betrayed by how fast her heart starts to beat all of a sudden.

"Girl's gotta eat."

"Yeah, but you gotta live first to do that." Braeden jibes, and her look of utter fear is not as new as Laura wants to make herself believe. It's been there for a while, and never for the werewolf's own sake.

She raises a gun on Braeden without any intention to pull the trigger, and tries to recall when it all changed. The way Braeden's face crumbles is heartbreaking but necessary. It has to be.

"I don't want to hurt you," Braeden says, and it sounds a lot like a plea.

The werewolf's eyes flash blue for a second, but it's not a threat, not anymore. It's a visceral reaction to the scars marring the mercenary's flesh, and after such an impossible realization, Laura can no longer hold control over what comes out of her mouth next.

"But you want to mark me." Laura's accusation is loud, bouncing off the walls of the empty subway tunnel. "Want to sink your teeth into me, isn't that right?"

Braeden bares her canines on instinct, eyes squinting in irritation, but Laura catches the way her nose flairs. Sometimes it's so easy to read her.

"You're the one with an obsession."

Laura doesn't even attempt to deny that.

"I'll tell you a secret, Braeden. I actually like wolves." She's forcing her heartbeat to stay steady now as her feet carry her forward. "But now the only thing I see is prey."

There's a moment of silence that stretches on dangerously. In the end, Braeden's mouth twitches at the sides and Laura knows she's busted.

"I'm not the one always running for my life."

"You run from me."

"I run for you," Braeden clarifies, daring to step forward and let the barrel of the gun bump against her chest, "I run so that I won't hurt you. And so that you get further away from him."

Laura feels weirdly trapped, and yet, she recognizes an opportunity when it's presented to her, even when wrapped in the shape of an impossibility offered blatantly and with undeserved kindness. Deep down, Laura knows that the woman offering salvation is one who would try to shelter her from the world as well as drench her claws in the blood of whoever sets out to hurt them. When Braeden wraps her hands around Laura's wrist, it feels like a finality.

"You've got enough money to ditch him," Braeden reasons, eyes mad with hope. Laura isn't sure if she should trust someone like that, but she's also aware that it's too late now. "He can't find you."

"He will send someone after me."

It's a truth they both know from experience, but unlike Braeden, Laura can't lull herself into false security. That's why when Braeden's lips curl into a deadly smile, Laura doesn't understand how her heart can flutter so violently against all logic.

"I think some of his enemies would take great pleasure in hunting him down. Alongside us."

"Us?" And it's obvious wishfulness in her voice, but Laura has gone so long without a future to hang onto and there's something about Braeden that makes her feel like they can face anything together.

All this time, and it's been Braeden poisoning Laura, not the other way around.

The werewolf guides Laura's hand lower until the gun is at her side with Braeden's fingers still warm on her wrist and eyebrows lifting in challenge. "Two women with wolfsbane-laced arrows who can kick ass? I say we have a shot against him." Braeden pauses for a second then, looks to the side and presses her touch deeper into Laura's skin. "I'll protect you."

Braeden is promising much more than those few words would suggest, Laura knows that from the way the werewolf seeks out her pulse point - a primal urge for affirmation that her pack is safe.

They are standing face to face in an abandoned subway tunnel and the glint in Braeden's eyes when she raises her questioning gaze at the mercenary is the most thrill Laura has felt in a while.

"What do you say?" Braeden leers around the tease of her fangs, "Wanna make a deal, mercenary?"

The grin Laura sends back is nothing short of wolfish.

#laura hale x braeden #original: tw fanfic #teen wolf rarepair #twrarepairweek #scydia #kali x julia #laura x camden #jordan x sheriff #hayden x tracy #nolan x brett #finstock x greenberg

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