It will be a long time till I find my abode

[on_mans_road]

The entire ride out of the city, she watched the landscape pass, the scenery change. For a moment she could pretend she was going back home, speeding toward a known place. But she did not feel the tug in her heart she had on that road.

She left her hair loose for the trip to the country; she wore a white dress Biffy had picked out for her not long after she arrived, and a pair of shoes that she could easily slip off once they reached the house.

Amalthea tucked her hair back when they finally stopped, and as soon as she saw grass she took off her shoes so she could feel it on her bare feet. It took her a moment to even look toward the farmhouse, wondering how long it had been since anyone had lived in it. Had Biffy or Dorian told her...? Perhaps they had, but she couldn't remember now.

She was happy to be out of the city, at least.

"Do I need to put my shoes back on?"

Comments

[modern_alpha]

"You shouldn't have to. We tidied," Biffy said. Admittedly, even his keen werewolf senses couldn't pick out ever bit of gravel or stray crack in the floor but the short driveway and house itself should have been perfectly safe for bare feet.

The house itself was still the airy, open building that Elena and Clayton had owned, though he had found many touches that were almost certainly from Scott's eclectic family as well. Even though it had been largely untouched for half a year, it still felt like a home. He hoped Amalthea would be comfortable there.

[on_mans_road]

She stayed close to Biffy as they moved toward the house, allowing herself to feel a bit of hope and looking back just once before she slipped inside.

"I feel better already," she admitted. "There are so many people in town." She hugged herself. Sometimes she felt overwhelmed, even in the park.

[modern_alpha]

"This place suits you," Biffy agreed. In the evening summer light, Amalthea was illuminated into something golden and beautiful, impossible-looking. More than that, he thought he saw a real smile on her expression.

"Let me take you inside," he said, holding out an arm.

[on_mans_road]

She smiled and took Biffy's arm, leaning into his side a bit. "Do you come here for full moons? You mentioned a barn, I think?" She looked around, wondering if she could see it form the house, or if it was somewhere else.

[modern_alpha]

"Yes, it's behind the house. I'll show you through the window." Unlocking the door let in the scent of clean wood and sunlit, closed air. It was a warm-feeling place and Biffy did find it a bit of a disappointment that it was empty. The house itself was paid for outright and the monthly bills were low without occupants so it was no financial trouble, but this was a house that was better with people.

[on_mans_road]

She stepped inside, breathing in the scent. She rather liked it, and she liked the feeling of the house. She held onto Biffy, half-pulling him through the house, not willing to leave his side but wanting to see all of it.

"You would let me stay here?" she asked, peering up at him.

[modern_alpha]

He smiled, watching Amalthea relax and then grow eager, excited. His strength was far more than hers but Biffy felt no reason to resist, letting Amalthea tug him whichever direction she wanted to look first. The bedrooms and shared spaces were easy enough to find.

"That's the barn," he said, as they approached the back window of the living room. From a distance, it seemed a perfectly quiet building, giving away no hint that it had been refuge to many of Darrow's wolves.

[on_mans_road]

She peered out the window and rested her head against Biffy's side. "And you will stay there when the moon is full?" She wondered what he was like. She knew she should probably stay away from here, or at least from the barn, during the full moon, but she was curious.

[modern_alpha]

Biffy nodded, opening the back door so that they could cross the yard. "Dorian learned to brew a potion that leaves me docile on the full moon, but I still prefer that I be here as a precaution."

The barn doors were heavy but Biffy's own strength made it easy for him to slide open the door one-handed to show Amalthea the space. Aside from a row of cages bolted to the floor, it was a rather ordinary barn that smelled of hay and machine oil from the little-used farm equipment. Biffy sniffed and frowned, "There's a stray cat somewhere in here."

[on_mans_road]

"Docile," she echoed, following him across the yard. Her feet are happily bare. She peered into the barn, then slipped inside. The cages made her bristle and she balked, just a bit.

"Do you stay in a cage?" she asked, eyebrows drawn together in distress.

[modern_alpha]

It was not a pretty sight and Biffy knew it. The cages were hard and unforgiving things, made to hold creatures of unnatural strength. "Without the wolfsbane potion, on full moon night, I become savage. I forget anything of myself except predatory instinct."

Sighing, he gestured to the cage. "I'd rather this than hurting someone I care about."

[on_mans_road]

She trembled finely, staring at the cages while something inside her twisted, rebelled. "I wish there was another way," she whispered, voice shaken. She turned her head, hiding her face against Biffy's shoulder.

"I cannot stand cages." She had only ever been in one like these, but her very body felt like a cage most of the time.

[modern_alpha]

Biffy wrapped his arm around Amalthea and guided her out of the barn and back into the faded evening. Stroking her hair, he tried to soothe her. "I will never put you in those cages, Amalthea," he promised. "I enter them willingly because I wish to keep my loved ones safe but I will never put someone else in one."

[on_mans_road]

She leaned into him, hiding for a moment even as he guided her from the barn. The touch was comforting. "I know you would not. But something in me rebels at the sight of them." She shivered. "I remember being caged. And I ache for you, that you have to spend any time in them."

Perhaps he was a dangerous creature, but Amalthea could not stand to see even a harpy caged. "I may come to visit you," she said. "Or I may not." She might be too tempted to free him, and that would be against his wishes.

[modern_alpha]

"You would not be glad to have me free," Biffy said and quite sadly. "I would be likely to attack you and I'd never forgive myself for that." Amalthea, so frail and beautiful, and an immortal herself would be unlikely to survive the teeth and claws of a werewolf in full curse.

"There is some tea in the kitchen. Let us have some? To calm your nerves?"

[on_mans_road]

"I wonder if you would, if I were not human." Only the harpy had ever threatened her, and it had been out of rage and hate. She had not been afraid of the harpy; she would not be afraid of Biffy, whatever shape he took. Would he know her as a unicorn? Would he stop as so many others had, even moved by blood rage? A dangerous experiment, and one she couldn't indulge in anyway. As delicate as she might look, unicorns could be fierce.

"I am not afraid of you," she said. "But I will not free you. It is your wish not to be. Tea would be nice, thank you."

[modern_alpha]

Biffy thought about what she asked, curious himself, though not inclined to test the limits of his curiosity of other immortals. Amalthea was, clearly, more than her ethereal human form and there was clearly something powerful about her, but Biffy didn't know what might happen if he encountered her on a full moon.

"I'm glad, regardless, that you don't fear me," Biffy said as he perused the cabinets to find the little-used appliances that previous occupants had left. An electric kettle, mugs, and recently bought tea were procured.

"Sometimes, I cannot say the same about myself."

[on_mans_road]

She touched his arm, squeezed gently as he worked on getting their tea together. "Do you fear you are a monster, Biffy?"

[modern_alpha]

"Is it fear if I know what I could become and what I could do?" he asked. It was heavy and rhetorical and Biffy shook his head, turning around so he could hold out the cup for Amalthea to take. "I shouldn't have said that."

Sighing out, he pulled a chair for her to sit, if she wished. "I have come to accept what I am. Even to love it, sometimes, but I never intended to become a werewolf."

[on_mans_road]

She accepted her cup and held it close for the warmth, for the scent. "I would say that what is in your nature is not wicked... but if you were turned into a wolf, rather than born one, I suppose it's different."

She could not condemn a harpy for being a harpy, or the Red Bull for being the Red Bull. Just as she could not fault a wolf - or werewolf - for being what it was. But she could understand, deeply, the idea of two selves conflicting.

[modern_alpha]

"Not wicked, but unpredictable and therefor unsafe," Biffy said. "I don't know friend from foe on full moon night." Idly, he turned the ring on his left hand wedding finger, thinking especially of Dorian. He'd put himself in danger for Biffy, so many times over, and it only made him love Dorian more.

"I only wish to know that my loved ones are safe."

[on_mans_road]

Amalthea moved closer until she was leaning against Biffy's side. "You are good, Biffy. Even if there is something inside you beyond your control. You are good." She closes her eyes and holds her tea, sharing her presence with him. It had been a comfort to others before, she hoped that it could be now, even if she is only human.

[modern_alpha]

"I try," Biffy said. He reached into his pocket and held out a newly-made copy of the house key for Amalthea to take. "And I hope you will make yourself comfortable here as needed."

[on_mans_road]

"Can I bring things here?" she asked, wondering how much she could touch the property. Would she be a guest, a tenant, a caretaker?

[modern_alpha]

"Absolutely. Anything you like," Biffy said. He supposed, with the amount of extraordinary women in his life, he should have added a 'within reason' to the statement but he found Amalthea trustworthy.

[on_mans_road]

"I promise it will still be your place, too." She smiles at him and leans into him for a moment. His presence is strangely comforting. Perhaps because, at least in some ways, he understands her.

[modern_alpha]

Biffy nodded, not terribly worried. In a move that was perhaps a bit forward but which felt right, Biffy reached out and took Amalthea's hand. "If you wish to make your home in this place, I'll be honored."

[on_mans_road]

"What sorts of things do you like?" she asked, lightly squeezing Biffy's hand. She was curious, and maybe she could find things that he would like to, so it did not feel like a foreign place when he visited.

[modern_alpha]

"That is a very long list," Biffy said, smiling. "And I trust you to suss out my tastes well enough. Yours are very fine on their own." Squeezing her hands, Biffy gave her his most confident look.

"Let this be a place you come home to."