AUTHOR: Alison M. DOBELL
FANDOM: "Wolf Lake/Highlander"
PAIRING: Duncan MacLeod/Tyler Creed
RATING: NC-17 *SLASH*
STATUS: New.
ARCHIVE: Yes. Just let me know where.
FEEDBACK: Welcomed
EMAIL: AlisonMDobell@aol.com
SERIES/SEQUEL: SEQUEL to "BENEATH THE SKIN"
WEBSITE: http://www.carlajane.50megs.com/Ali00.html
SUMMARY: "Another visitor to Wolf Lake tests the new found friendship between Duncan and
Tyler.
The usual disclaimers apply. No infringement of copyright is intended.
"TIES"
A "Highlander"/"Wolf Lake" story
Written by Alison M. DOBELL
Duncan and Tyler trudged slowly back to Tyler's place. Both felt the need to stretch their legs and just get away from confining spaces. The snow was deep in places but Tyler knew instinctively where to place his feet and Duncan automatically trusted his judgement. It was weird how quickly
they had bonded. He glanced across at Tyler. "I sensed hostility back there, Ty. These people are not your friends."
It was gently said but still hurt. "They are my pack. My clan. The closest thing to family a wolf can have."
"What happened here?"
Tyler did not pretend to misunderstand. Looked down at his feet as he picked his path even though he could have done so blind folded. "For 25 years Willard Cates led our pack..."
"As in Vivian?"
He nodded. "She's his wife."
Duncan waited for him to continue.
"As the alpha male Willard made all the decisions for the pack. He used me to tidy things up when the going got rough or someone stepped out of line. As long as I can remember it's always been that way."
"You were the pack enforcer?"
Tyler looked up and stared off into the distance not breaking his stride. "Yeah." It sounded like there was a sadness in his soul. "Was. Am."
"And now the alpha male is dead..."
Tyler looked at him. "No one wants to accept the new one." He finished quietly.
"Ty, it's hard for people to accept the town bully as their leader. To trust the one they normally avoid in times of trouble. To give you power over their lives." He paused. "For that to work there has to be trust, respect. I don't sense that here."
He could tell that Tyler was upset though he tried to hide how much. "I am what I was made to be." He said softly. "A *thug*." He sneered the word as if was something unclean then paused and sucked in a deep cold breath before looking at Duncan again. "I've done things - terrible things - Mac. But everything I've done, I've done for the good of the pack. Willard kept
his hands cleaner than most by washing mine in blood. After a while I stopped even thinking about whether it was right or wrong. I concentrated only on being efficient."
"It's not too late."
"They won't trust me now. The old man gave me permission to court his daughter but he never really liked me. He gave me his word that when I married Ruby I would become the next alpha. His word was like the vows men live by."
Duncan nodded solemnly. "And die by?"
"That too. In return I promised I would look after his wife and daughter."
They walked on for several minutes in silence before Duncan asked him the question foremost in his mind. "What will you do?"
Tyler stopped and Duncan paused. The snow was beginning to fall again, just tiny little flecks of white out of a coal black sky. "I'll find Ruby and we'll get married." He said it as if it was set in stone.
"What if she won't *be* found?"
Tyler knew he had already guessed that Ruby was not hiding from John
Kanin. She was hiding from him.
"She'll come round you'll see."
Duncan did not say anything. Did not want to upset his young partner by raining on his parade. Part of him did not want Tyler to find Ruby. Did not want him to marry her. But this was not his life he was thinking about, it was Tyler's. A life he had been born to. He knew only too well that
the ties of blood were as binding as those of duty. Yet what of love? What of friendship? What of other roads? Were all his paths predestined by the pack? Duncan was unsure how he felt about that. Hated to admit the hollow such thoughts created in his heart. How could this man mean so much to him after such a short length of time? It was so rare to be stirred by such a deep passion for another man. Over a hundred years since the last time. The memory cut him still. Would Tyler become another scar that would not heal? Or would he be a beautiful memory that would fade with time, growing old gracefully in his mind's eye until other loves took precedence and the joy
they had shared in each other became lost to him forever? No. He could admit it to himself now. He did not want Tyler to find Ruby. Not now. Not ever. <Be mine> He thought fiercely as he stole a glance at his lover's graceful body. <Now and for always>
* * * * *
He stood in the doorway of the hostelry. Sheltered from the wind and out of the flying flakes of powdery snow. He seemed unbothered by the little snowy tempest swirling down through an ink black sky. He did not hear Sherman Blackstone step into the doorway with him. The man walked as if his feet did not touch the ground.
"I see you are another who likes the envigorating night air."
Joe Dawson eyed the old Indian quietly. He did not seem surprised to see him.
"What are you doing out here?"
"Watching."
Sherman raised an eyebrow. "Watching?" He mused over the word, odd connections tumbling through his mind as if he were simply passing time. He looked up. "Watching the snow fall? Mmm." He glanced up and down the empty street. "Watching all the people pass by?" She shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels then looked up again. "Or perhaps you
are waiting for the first star?"
Joe was patient. He could wait any man out if he set his mind to it. The curious old Indian seemed content to do the same. "And what are you doing?"
"Ah! It speaks." He paused, smiled and let his weathered face crumple into the sort of smile that had a hundred meanings to it. His eyes told another story to the rest of his face. Keen and filled with layers that sifted not only what they saw but what they did not see. "I should tell you, I am watching too."
Their eyes met and held. Joe slowly nodded then looked off to the right. Some small animal had scurried away before he could see what it was. He turned his head back and the Indian was gone. So. Another Watcher. Not a man at all.
* * * * *
Back in the diner John Kanin at last took his leave of Sheriff Donner. There was nothing else he could learn here tonight. Luke walked over to the counter and leaned on it, his eyes shifting to eye the Sheriff as he emptied his glass. "Are you gonna tell him?"
"Tell him what?"
"That he's wasting his time here."
Matt looked at him. "Is he?"
"You know he is."
"Luke, don't interfere."
"I'm not interfering. He's wasting his time and he ought to leave."
Matt straightened about to tell him to butt out when Vivien took a seat beside him. She gave a flick of her head and Luke went back to his friends by the pool table. She looked at Matt. "He's right you know."
He was beginning to feel highly irritated. "Don't you start, Vivien."
She placed a hand on his forearm. "I'm not." She changed the subject. Her voice became warm. "You could take me home."
He was trying to form a polite response that would still mean no.
"It's late, very dark and we don't want anyone else going missing."
His look sharpened. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Escort me home and you won't have to find out."
He bit back a sigh and nodded. Knew he would get no peace unless he
acquiessed. And as the alpha female Vivien was not someone you crossed lightly. He tried to ignore the look in his daughter's eye. As if he did not know what Vivien Cates really wanted.
* * * * *
They were only a hundred yards or so from Tyler's house when he froze. Stopped in his tracks and listened intently, his nostrils flaring gently as he sniffed the air.
"What is it?"
"We're not alone."
Duncan did not ask him if he was sure. "Do you recognise the scent?"
"No." Tyler frowned slightly, puzzled. "An old smell."
A coolness slithered down Duncan's spine. "You mean..?"
"I think it is another like you."
He was surprised. "An Immortal?"
"Yes." Tyler looked at Duncan, a brief look that seemed to demand his full attention. As he spoke he looked away, his eyes scanning the darkness in the infra red, his pupils slowly changing to yellow with flecks of amber. "I cannot protect you like this."
"You don't have to protect me, Ty. I'll protect us both." He paused. "Can you tell where they are?"
"No. It is hiding. Shielding its' heat."
"Its' heat?"
"Yes." Tyler paused and seemed a little disturbed. "It knows what I am." He said quietly.
"That's not possible."
"I have no time to argue with you, Mac. I sense it is a distance from the house. We will go to the house and act as if all is normal then I will slip out in my wolven form."
"No, it's too dangerous."
Tyler's voice was so low that Duncan had to lean close to hear him.
"This is my world, Mac. Be guided for once by another."
He so wanted to be able to do that but Tyler did not know what he was letting himself in for and Duncan would not risk him. Not for anything.
"We'll discuss this at the house, agreed?"
A little smile curved those beautiful lips and made Duncan's heart beat faster. In silence they continued on their way and reached the house without incident. Once inside, Duncan turned to face Tyler Creed. A stubborn set to his jaw, his eyes hardening in the prelude to battle. "I will go out and find whoever has followed me here."
"Mac, that is madness."
"So is you going out in your wolven form, Ty. Do you think you can stop an Immortal with your teeth and claws? I do not doubt your courage but this would be no even match."
"No," Said Tyler calmly. "I feel almost sorry for it."
Duncan found himself smiling despite how serious this was. "You keep calling the Immortal *it*. Why?"
"I could not tell if it was male or female." His yellow eyes glittered. Duncan sensed he was close to changing. "But soon I will know for sure."
"Ty, don't..."
Tyler had begun to undo his shirt. Duncan found he could not take his eyes away from him. He leaned in to steal a kiss as the shirt came off. A low groan leaking out of his throat. Tyler quickly divested himself of his boots, trousers and pants. "Mac, you have to stay focused."
"I am," Said Duncan in a thick voice. "I'm focused on you."
They exchanged a kiss, Duncan wanting to deepen it but Tyler expertly moving several feet away with a quick grace that built a hunger in Duncan MacLeod that was making him ache with need. Then he watched it. In all its' glorious and ancient beauty. As Tyler flipped it was as if the whole
thing occurred in slow motion, the elongation of Tyler's face into the broad snout of an alpha male, thick coarse hairs errupting through the bronze skin.
Limbs changing, the tail forming then the growl low and warm seeping up through his chest. Duncan had never seen anything like it before. Even as a wolf Tyler was a commanding and exotic presence. The wolf paused just long enough to let Duncan open the back door for him. He slipped out and was swallowed up by the shadows closing ranks behind him. Duncan closed the
door and drew his sword, his heart thudding madly in his chest, his mind going through painful gymnastics as he argued with himself over the folly of letting Tyler do this. It was insane. But worse than that it terrified him. What had he done? He had brought death here to Wolf Lake.
* * * * *
She sensed him. Knew Duncan's companion was tracking her down but it did not matter. She already had what she wanted. She had succeeded in dividing them. However, her curiosity almost undid her. After she had dug up her brother's grave, Simone had hunted for the sword. She held it now in her hands and vowed not to sheath it again until it had been clensed with the Highlander's blood.
* * * * *
Tyler found the grave. Exposed and reeking of death. The headless corpse open to the elements. The head placed roughly where it had once sat in life. He hardly gave it a second look except to scan over it in a vain effort to determine why the Immortal had left it open to the sky. The reason
came to him in a flash of steel and the bitter sting of his own folly. He had tarried, paused too long. The second or two in which he had been distracted had allowed her through his guard. Angry he spun in gifted flight, eyes flashing, teeth bared, the growl swallowing him whole and
looking for his target. She toyed with him. Circling slowly, her blade drawn and mocking him with the languid sweeps that taunted his courage. A laugh trilled the air between them, at odds with the deadly weapon she wielded with such expertise. "A wolf!" She said, delighted. "How did Duncan tame you?"
Tyler did not leap, did not rush to embed his teeth in her neck. He knew this being was deadly. Warily he slowed his dance, caution now his byword. Her smile was chill and widened slightly.
"Does he send you out to wet my appetite before the main course or are you here to distract me while he crawls like a craven coward out of the back door and away?"
Still the wolf did not react to her words yet she sensed it understood her. Now it was Tyler who set the pace of their dance. His feet light and sure upon the crisping snow. His eyes glued to hers. Part of her was eager to kill the wolf, part of her fascinated. After a few minutes of protracted
caution she tired of the game. Tyler sensed it the moment she moved to the offensive, her flowing movements dicing the air between them as she aimed her blade to sever tendons and expose veins. But Tyler seemed to float and flow beyond her power, anticipating her with an almost supernatural ability. At first she was angry. The wolf reacted as if he had expected that so she changed tack and changed hands, now holding her brother's sword in her left hand. Sometimes such a switch would throw an opponent off. It had no effect on Tyler.
"What game are you playing, Wolf, with me? Do you know that when you look into these eyes you see only your own death?"
Just then another voice spoke behind her. "You are wrong. The only death he will see is yours!"
She spun, tossing the blade back into her right hand. "At last, the coward appears!"
"I have no quarrel with you."
"Tell that to my brother."
"Martin LeBoer is your brother?"
"Yes."
"Then you know why he died."
"I will not fail to avenge his death."
"Are words the only baubles you wear?"
She feinted and lunged but Duncan was already moving in the other direction, his sword nicking the woman's neck so lightly it was almost a caress. She hissed, not in pain but in fury. How dare he toy with her!
Tyler circled slowly, his eyes only on the woman. Duncan jerked his head back slightly.
"Watch the perimeter, Ty. See to it, if you will, that we are not disturbed."
The Wolf seemed reluctant to leave him but did as he was asked. Simone watched in utter amazement. Duncan MacLeod commanded wolves? What else did her enemy entrance to his will? "What sorcery is this?"
"None, I assure you."
"You expect me to believe the words of a murderer?"
His look was sad but composed. Calm as the center of a very deep and still pool. "I did not murder him. Martin came to take my head and claim my power. I did not seek him out."
"Then I will complete what he began."
"You cannot bring him back, Simone."
His gentle words sparked off a great fury. Her blows came like a whirlwind, quick and complex, yet Duncan met and fended off each stroke, his own blade careful to cause no further injury. She ranted and railed at him, spat her furious words of provocation but they fell upon deaf ears. He
heard the words of her sorrow, her anger and her pain but would not let their vengeance touch his own heart. With sudden insight she realised that she could not best Duncan MacLeod of Clan MacLeod. His control was absolute. Nothing shattered his calm. Then she had a thought. Realised his achilles heel was here also. The wolf. Whatever relationship he shared with the
creature a burden of care lay between them. It was beyond her understanding but it was the only chink she could find in his armour. A ghost of a smile played about her lips. Duncan frowned slightly but said nothing. She continued to press him, turning slowly as if the two of them were locked in some vast wheel. She looked for the wolf, remembered Duncan telling the creature to ensure they were not disturbed. To protect the perimeter within which they fought.
"Give this up, Simone. I can feel your will wavering."
"The only thing you can feel MacLeod is the approach of your death."
Ah, now she saw it. A blur of thick hair, glimpsed then lost in the trees. She swore beneath her breath. How could she get close enough to threaten the wolf and draw the Highlander out? Then she had it. Such a simple solution she wanted to throw her head back and laugh. She took out the dagger with her left hand. Duncan's frown deepened.
"You will have no need of the dagger, Simone."
"Humour me," She sneered. "For I intend to skin you with it once I have taken your head!"
Then she leapt suddenly, the blur of steel her feint while she half spun and drew back her left hand. Too late, Duncan saw her true target. Opened his mouth to warn Tyler but before he could do anything another shape blurred the landscape. He cried out. A wolf howled in pain and anger and something far more ancient than either. Fury unleashed him from his control, he snapped and advanced in such a rapid economy of strikes that Simone faltered and dropped to one knee. Duncan did not give her the benefit of the doubt or the choice of life over death this time. She had forfeited all his largesse in her attack on Tyler. Without even a pause in the swing of his blade
the arc drew swift and accurate across the bow of her neck. A sick momentary squelch of metal slicing through skin and sucking flesh and bone, then the deed was done. He stood and raised his sword above his head. The heavens cracked and lightening forked down on him, the power searing through him and energising him right down to the cellular level. When he turned back to
look for Tyler he found the young man kneeling. He was naked and his chest was covered in blood. His eyes threatening tears. At his feet lay a grizzled wolf, the dagger embedded deep in its' left shoulder. The eyes were open and fastened on Tyler. Duncan hurried and knelt beside them.
"Who is this?" He whispered.
"No one you should know."
"What is he doing here?"
Tyler lifted a pain ravaged face, not quite seeing Duncan. "Saving my life."
Duncan was puzzled. Awed. He bowed his head to the old wolf. "Thank you." He said softly.
The old wolf closed his eyes twice, slowly, then looked at Tyler. Tyler cleared his throat. "You must leave us now, Mac."
Alarmed, Duncan MacLeod shook his head. "No. Your friend is hurt. The least I can do is help you to tend him."
"No," Said Tyler in a gentle but firm voice. "Leave us."
"What are you going to do?"
"I am going to spend a little while here then I will see you back at the house."
Duncan hesitated.
"Please, Mac."
He nodded slowly then walked back to the house, carefully stepping around the beheaded body of Simone LeBoer. He had feared bringing death to Wolf Lake but not in this form. Nor did he quite understand what had just happened. He had told Tyler that the members of his pack were not his
friends yet here one of them had proved how little he understood the complexity of the ties that bound the pack. This was Tyler's clan not his. He would have to trust that his friend knew them best after all.
* * * * *
END