Backated to December | Stonehaven | Post university finals
Secret societies are absolutely one of my weaknesses, so you better be prepared SUMMARY
deliver.
â
--
Kate didnât miss exams. She never stopped studying and learning, she was always being tested in her skills, but she did not miss exams. Her work schedule was usually busy, but when you combined it with Thomâs exam schedule their ability to see each other had been limited in the last week or so.
Yesterday had been his exam for the term, and conveniently, Kate didnât have to be into work until later that night. That morning Kate woke up early, rolling out of her bed at Stonehaven as silently as she could so as not to disturb him. She still remembered the first days after her exams, and the desire she had to pretty much do nothing that required work. Maybe that wasnât something Thom also related to, but even if it was, she didnât think heâd complain about having breakfast made.
Stonehaven was big enough that when she reached the kitchen, she didnât have to worry about making noise that might wake him. The place was designed to let werewolves rest. Kate started up a fire in the living room, and the kitchen, and then went to work getting breakfast ready for the both of them, filled with the protein and meat that would satisfy them both. Half cooked enough for her, half served more the way Thom would like it.
Thom was awake, in that bleary, unhurried way that typically occurred on Sunday mornings or holidays. He didnât always spend the night at Kateâs - he had his own place with Al and Pete, but sometimes it was just easier to take advantage of Stonehavenâs enormous size. Thom, who had grown up in a one-bedroom house converted to accommodate a kid, never failed to give her gentle crap for the size of her own home.
His phone in his fingers, he checked his texts, his emails, the news, all the things that he was prone to doing before gathering the courage to swing his legs over the bed and face the day for real. He smelled bacon cooking - sausage too? And he tried to tell himself to get up and join her. They usually woke up around the same time, but heâd been so wiped from studying that he figured heâd heat up breakfast after her.
So it was a surprise when he appeared in the kitchen mid-yawn to see sheâd made enough for both of them.
âHoly shit,â he said. âDid I wake up back in Scrooge-land? Is this my reward for repenting and not making a species of special ravens go extinct?â
About to head upstairs to wake him up, Kate stopped when she heard that he was headed this way instead. Perfect timing. When he made his way into the kitchen she was loading up the table with the variety of foods sheâd cooked up, all set between the two plates sheâd set out for them.
Kate grinned over at him, amused by the reference of his Serendipity Hills persona. âNo,â she said, setting down the last of the food, the sausages. âThough we all do appreciate that you saved the special ravens. Protect them at all costs.â Ravens were cool, definitely didnât deserve to be threatened by any Scrooge.
Kate picked up the coffee pot, contents freshly brewed, and filled the two coffee cups on the table. âI donât have to work until this evening, and you just finished exams.â she said with a shrug. âFinishing exams was always rewarded with food back home. Didnât see a reason not to continue that here.â Especially when one of them was a werewolf and one of them was a Wendigo. âBesides, if I had the time to do this every morning, I would.â It was definitely starting the day off right.
âHave a seat.â she gestured to the table. It was nice when he stayed over and the house wasnât completely empty. Back in her world, Stonehaven was almost always filled. Not just by the people who lived there full time, but by pack members and their allies. The table never had enough spaces, couches and chairs always had someone lounging. The more use she could get out of the space with other people, the better.
âAwesome,â he said with feeling, because what Thom lacked in eloquence he more than made up for in being direct. He sat down in his usual spot, and helped himself. The meal was perfectly cooked - meat-heavy, how they both liked it, but with some good sides including some hashbrowns that were extremely tasty and crisp. Like most delicious food, it killed the conversation, but Thom managed to communicate between mouthfuls slowly:
âThanks for this,â he said, after swallowing some sausage. âAfter exams at Havisham, we used to call in favors with the rich kids who gave us potions and shit.â Thom had worked as an editor of some peopleâs essays; what he lacked in creativity he made up for in knowing grammar, when he was forced to care about grammar. He gestured at the feast with a piece of bacon. âThis is way better than potions; this doesnât even make anyoneâs hair fall out as a side effect.â
As a general rule, Kate made a point to never have to rely on magic for anything. She knew too many witches and sorcererâs who relied on spellcasting at all times, and would be helpless without it. Her parents had trained her to always be able to count on her own skills, with or without werewolf abilities. âWait, what were the potions supposed to do, other than magic Alopecia? Ease the exam hangover?â
Kate slid into her own seat, drinking some coffee before loading up her own plate with as much as it could handle, and then a little bit more. âI know it canât be some magic meal supplement, that sounds like hell.â And would never take the place of the bacon, and sausage, and eggs, and so on. Kate still couldnât imagine a school for all species in her world. It would likely quickly descend into gang war.
Thom shrugged as he continued to decimate his meal. âUsually? Just potions to party with. Hallucinogenics, stimulants. Never was my scene.â When lowering your guard meant eating someone, you tended to avoid certain intoxicants. He took a sip of his coffee, caffeine being his preferred speed. âI tended to call in favors when it came to shit like secret society BS. I was a part of one in school but I wasnât really great at keeping it much of a secret. It was all very, âtut tut, our noble hallowed halls, tut tutâ shit.â
He cut up another sausage. âHonestly, regular schoolâs harder than magical. But Iâm sure itâs nothing like medical school or learning how to keep someone from dying on the fly.â
Kate hadnât bothered to touch alcohol until she was in her late teens. Drugs were completely out of the question. The drugs she had no interest in, she didnât want to know what kind of shit magic people might have been peddling. But a secret society? Kate immediately arched an eyebrow, leaning forward slightly as soon as he mentioned a secret society.
A secret society at a magic university? That was definitely an interest. Much less interesting than the sleepless nights and hours of research that were now such a blur. âYeah, med school was a bitch, but honestly the most annoying part was finding time to Change ontop of everything else. Circle back to the tut tut hallowed halls shit though.â You couldnât just blow over something like that in this house.
âAssuming since weâre in another reality now, you can talk about it?â plus he had brought it up, and that was probably against the rules. âWhat kind of society? What was it about?â
Thom peered at her as he chewed some eggs, amused. Heâd forgotten for a second that his first crack at college was probably the plot of some TV show or book series or whatever, however you wanted to slice it, it was entertaining. Sure, he and his friends had been very self-aware, referring to Havisham as Hogwarts and all that, but still. It probably sounded really dope. âThe society I was in was called Fog and Dagger,â he answered, and took a sip of coffee. âBasically, it was the chill one? Like, none of them were chill, but our main enemies were the Order of the Golden Flame which was filled to the brim with rich kids, fae royalty, all that. Fog and Dagger was more about, I donât know, wearing a cape sometimes and being mysterious. I got recruited Ăâmy junior year. Some of it was fun, some of it was bullshit. Most of the bullshit happened after a kid in Golden Flame got killed.â
The murder had cast a dampness over his junior year. Curfews, suspicions, and fear had dominated many of his memories, with another kid being murdered later in the spring. The perpetrator had been caught over the summer, but it was enough to put a bad taste in Thomâs mouth for a while. Of course the killer had been old money. Of course.
âBut of course what you want to know,â he said, deadpan, âwas if I wore a cape, and if it can be incorporated into our sex life. The answer, Kate, is yes. Anything for you.â
Supernatural university students with secret societies at a supernatural university. She wasnât surprised when Thom mentioned the death of one of them, as awful as it was. Supernatural adults were hard enough to keep in line half the time in her world. . Forget being in a setting like that. âDid they figure out what happened to the kid?â They must have had some idea, especially if the kid was from a rich or elite family. He had started this story and now she needed all the details.
Kate paused half way through eating a piece of bacon, face remaining blank at the mention of capes and their sex life. Mostly because she was trying to imagine him in a cape and was failing miserably at it. She placed her elbow on the table, resting her head on her hand and tilted her head just lightly. Blue eyes looked him up and down carefully, before her lips pulled back in a smirk. If it wasnât obvious, she was trying to picture him in a cape, and only a cape.
âDonât say something you wonât deliver on, Thom. Secret societies are absolutely one of my weaknesses, so you better be prepared to deliver.â
Thom made a very intense duck face while she looked him over, batting his lashes. He was sure it was supremely sexy given that heâd rolled out of bed ten minutes before and his hair was probably straight vertical. âSecret societies are one of your weaknesses,â he repeated with a fond headshake, making a mental note to track down one of his society t-shirts and leaving it over here for her one night. Itâd showed one night without warning.
Slightly more seriously, he finished off his bacon. âYeah, they found the murderer. It was an alum of the Golden Flame. There was a wholeâŚâ he waved his fork around, âmoney fraud thing. Theyâd been skimming off the top. Kid caught âem. Tale as old as time. I knew, at any rate, that I didnât really belong with that crew.â He shrugged. âSome of them were really great; I miss them like hell. But that whole⌠internship in politics, sticking around Havisham after graduation⌠not my scene. Besides,â he gestured at Stonehaven, âIâve already found me a girlfriend who can keep me in the manner to which I have come accustomed...â
He figured sheâd smack him a little. He probably deserved it. It was a real shame, this big old house not being filled with her family.
Secret societies, cults, myths, pretty much anything mysterious and weird. That was what happened when you grew up with an Anthropology professor who specializes in those topics. You learned about the strange things even supernaturals couldnât explain for bedtime stories. For the purpose of not drawing attention to herself, Kate had avoided all secret societies at her universities, and that part had been hard. âTheyâre fascinating, what can I say?â
Money fraud. HowâŚtypical. People would do anything for money. She knew she was coming from a place of privilege with that though, since her family had it, and the cause was deeply rooted in a corrupt society, but still. Rich people getting richer.
âOh, I see. So what youâre saying is that Iâm your Sugar Daddy and youâre strictly using me for my home.â Kate threw a piece of bacon at him, though instantly regretted it, since that was a piece she didnât get to eat. âIâm so glad the pack home ground is to your liking.â she said with an eye roll, even though it was true. An empty Stonehaven didnât sit right with here, even though sheâd been here for a while now. It was meant to have people to bring it to life.
Thom made an effort to catch the bacon in his mouth, missed, and got smacked in the cheek with it. That didnât stop him from collecting it off his shoulder and eating it anyway. âOh yeah, definitely gonna call you sugar daddy sometime soon. Like the sound of that,â he said, happy to move away from talk of the murder. He didnât mind talking about the societies - they were ridiculous and lots of fun - but the darker parts of his junior year of college were still strange to reflect upon.
He gulped down the last bit of his coffee, and grabbed her cup too to refill it how she liked it. âSo this whole house was filled with werewolves, yeah?â he asked while he poured her a cup. âDid you guys let other supernatural things in here too? Or is my wendigo ass defiling a sacred sanctum, etc etc?â
Was it worth sacrificing a second piece of bacon to throw at him? She was tempted, and for a second it looked like she might, before ultimately deciding that eating it was more important. âYouâre lucky youâre pretty.â Not that it actually bothered her much, she never had the impression that she was being used for her familyâs assets that had followed her here.
âThanks.â she said when he took her coffee to be refilled. She could definitely use the kick. âYour wendigo ass isnât defiling anything.â she said with a shrug. âAt any given point it was my parents here, Jeremy - my grandfather, and myself and Logan when weâre home, as the main residents. Thereâs over a dozen other pack members that come and go frequently. Then there was Jamie, a necromancer and Jeremyâs mate. Momâs best friend, Paige is a witch, and her husband Lucas, a sorcerer, was around fairly often. Their ward, Savannah, used to babysit Logan and I. There were a few half-demons around, Hope, daughter of Lucifer and the mate of a pack member named Karl. Adam, whoâs now Savannahâs husband, is the half-demon son of Asmondai, was around fairly frequently. The main residents were definitely all pack members - not all pack members were werewolves, some were human children of werewolves - but unless we were on lock down, we could have other supernatural beings as guests.â Humans were more tricky. They became less frequent as Kate and Logan got older and left high school.
Hopefully that wasnât too confusing of a breakdown. She could probably go on further than that, but sheâd probably need an actual chart to lay it all out. Too many faces, too many connections. At least her parents, Jeremy, and Logan were probably somewhat familiar. There were paintings and portraits of the pack everywhere, both in human and wolf forms. âPlus I guarantee pretty much every inch of this house was already defiled before I ever existed.â she said with a smirk and a shrug. Werewolves weren't known for keeping bedroom activities to the bedroom.
Demons, necromancers and witches. Add in a few swamp monsters and sounded like Havisham. While Thomâs family was all human, he did have a large one, especially when you took into account his extended family who all lived on the reservation a house or two down. âDo you mind being here alone?â he asked in a quieter voice.
Thom would have hated coming home to an empty house, no smell of tacos on the stove, no blare of The Weather Channel coming from the living room. It was never easy going from living with a crowd to living alone. âBecause you know, if you do, I have like four teenagers with zero survival skills Iâm friendly with you that can move in and you can yell at.â
Kate never really liked being alone, but that was part of growing up in a pack. You were never really alone. She liked time on her own, but knowing that someone was always there, or coming back. âI donât love it.â she said with a shrug. âBut thereâs not much of a choice when itâs just me.â Probably the worst part was not having Logan around like she had when she had been in Vallo the first time.
âAre you trying to get us to co-parent teenagers before youâve even managed to knock me up?â she asked, arching an eyebrow as she bit into a piece of bacon, Loganâs face- the potential future kid, not her brother- flashing across her mind. âAre you actually asking me if you can move teenagers into the house or are you making a joke?â
âOh my god that was a joke.â Thomâs face had gone from smug to horrified in a few mere seconds; while he had no problem with mentoring the youths of Vallo or whatever he also was not the kind of person to foist them off on his girlfriend. âThey can find their own fuck-off mansions to have teenage angst in.â
Thom had no problem having friends younger than he was, but his responsibility ended sometime around 8:30pm as far as he was concerned. Besides, everyone here was from some awful hell world. Vallo surely was a lot safer for them all. âI promise, the first kid Iâm gonna try to hardcore parentâs gonna be ours.â He made a face somewhere between weirded out and fond. âWhich, Iâll have you know, is the first time Iâve said that out loud to anyone so hey, personal milestone.â
Oh good. There was one worry. As much as she liked the house being busy, she had no desire to have teenagers running around. Especially ones that didnât quite understand that whole werewolf-ness. Thom wasnât a werewolf, but there were a lot of similarities that it worked. Even if he referred to Stonehaven as a fuck-off mansion. âI think thatâs the first time Iâve ever heard anyone talk about Stonehaven as a place to fuck-off too.â It was always headquarters, the place where they held pack meetings, or just home.
Kateâs eyebrows rose slowly, her feelings similar to Thomâs facial expression. âThat is both sweet and confusing.â she told him, trying not to laugh from the oddity of the statement. âI donât know if Iâm less weirded out because weâve already met him or not.â It was harder to mentally panic over something that had already crashed into your life, called you mom, and made you want to smack her head against the wall. âEither way Iâm glad Stonehaven is a place youâre comfortable fucking off to.â
âDoes it get me bonus points if I say that Iâd fuck off to some gross, stinky cave if you were in it?â Thom batted his eyelashes in an attempt to look alluring, and stood after a beat, leaning over to begin gathering plates. âMaybe even like⌠the back-alley behind a grotty Burger King or something. Iâd make do.â
âAnd sit your butt down,â he ordered her gently, grabbing enough empty dishware for it to be slightly alarming. âYou made breakfast. Iâll clean up. Iâll even top off your coffee so you can sit there and look like some tousled morning commercial aesthetic.â
âAw, you like me.â she laughed, though living in a cave was never going to be a thing past an emergency shelter if she could help it. âAnd youâre pretty. God Iâm lucky.â she continued in a teasing voice, grin growing bigger.
Kate was about to get up and help, but she didnât manage to get far. Instead she leaned against the heavy wooden table that sat in the kitchen, holding up her cup with a smile. âIâd debate with you about how it would be so much faster if I just helped you. But I wonât. All the coffee, please.â
âAll the coffee,â he agreed amiably, setting the dishes carefully into the sink without breaking or even clanking anything. God, he was glad he had a break in studying for a while. His brain was fried. Knowing his luck heâd get kidnapped to another dimension or something soon. âServed by your pretty dude. Play your cards right and I may even do it shirtless.â