Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Castiel shook back his dark fur, stepping from paws onto feet as he shifted. He was coming up to a dead end- the last dead end- in the barracks that spread below Azazel’s pack.
So far he and the other pack warriors from his own territory had found eight wolves, each in varying levels of depravity. But from what he could scent, this one was teetering so close to the edge that he wasn’t sure if he’d even be able to save him.
He could only hope.
This was the wolf that they had originally come here for. Once a strong, human, hunter of the dangerously supernatural, Dean Winchester had disappeared off the face of the earth, with the odd rumour that he’d been turned and taken by Azazel’s pack.
Padding up to the cage on the balls of his feet, Castiel took his first glance at what could once have been a fine wolf.
Light brown fur was darkened with dirt, soot and dried blood. One of his ears had a tear that didn’t look to be healing properly and his coat was dull and thin, doing little to warm his seemingly frail body.
A collar was pulled tight around his throat, rubbing off chunks of fur and leaving bald patches of reddened skin. The panting wheeze he let out with each breath had the alpha wolf within Castiel whining.
Letting his footsteps grow ever so louder, so as to not startle Dean with a sudden appearance, Castiel began to move forward, edging closer and closer towards the bars of the cage that was holding the poor wolf prisoner.
He had intended to rouse him gently, but Gabriel’s echoing footsteps thumping towards him quickly changed those plans.
The acrid stench of fear filled Castiel’s nose when Dean opened his terrified green eyes to the noise.
He barely managed to stumble to his pays, bony sides heaving with even just that small exertion. His hackles rose as he sunk his head down to protect the soft flesh of his neck and underbelly, and he pinned his ears back against his head, lips pulling up into a low growl. Those tired, yet still piercing sage green eyes locked onto Castiel, trying to level him with a stare.
“Did you find him Cassie?” Gabriel asked, half shouting, as he rounded the last corner to trot down the hall to where Castiel and Dean were.
“Gabe, shut up.” Castiel hissed, watching as Dean’s eyes changed targets, now staring, and growling, down Gabriel.
He could probably smell the alpha wolf on both of them, and judging by the state of him, he most likely didn’t have the best track record when it came to other wolves, let alone alphas.
Castiel held up his hands in a symbol of peace, tilting his chin up and to the side to expose his neck- a sign of trust and submission amongst the wolves- and slowly lowered until his knees where one with the harsh stone beneath him. Meanwhile he was sending Gabriel a dirty look telling him to follow suit.
“We’re here to help you Dean.” Castiel spoke, eying the wolf and hoping for some kind of positive reaction from him.
He dipped his head lower but his ears perked forward just a tad. The scent of fear thinned out a little, but not entirely. He was listening but was still sceptical.
Then, as if his battery had finally run dry, Dean’s heaving chest slowed some and he crumpled to the floor, unable to keep himself standing for any longer.
Both Castiel and Gabriel ran forward, putting as much of their respective strengths into breaking the lock on the cage door and together they lifted Dean’s wolf, who was far too light for an adult wolf of his size.
---
The car ride was long and quiet, which only caused Castiel’s wolf to pace anxiously within him at Dean’s stillness and terrified scent. The same scent that had been hovering around him since Castiel first picked it up.
And while that scent was the biggest of his concerns at the moment, the metallic hint of Gabriel’s blood didn’t do anything to help calm his beast. They, along with many other warriors from their pack had fought their way through the legions of wolves in Azazel’s pack, leaving most of them dead or injured.
Many of their own had been injured, Gabriel one, and a few had died, although Castiel was glad that the number stopped at two.
Uriel and Zach had been good fighters and their efforts would be remembered, but if Castiel were to be honest, he was glad that it was those two whom they had lost. Uriel had betrayed them once in the past, and Zach attempted to gain too much control for his rank as a gamma wolf. They had never seemed truly loyal to their pack.
That aside, Gabriel still had blood matted in his hair at the side of his head, the bite wound at the base of his skull only just beginning to heal over. But he was strong, and well enough to drive them back to the pack house.
“How’s he doing back there Cassie?”
Still in his fur, Dean had stayed sprawled and unconscious in the same spot that the two had rested him in after carrying him out from the barracks. His breaths were still laboured, but they were now lacking the choked wheeze as the collar that had been pulled tight against his throat was now long gone.
“He’s still out.” Castiel took a purposeful huff of the air around him, trying to scent anything on Dean other than fear and pain. “And I still can’t get a proper scent on him yet. I can’t even pick up his designation, other that that it’s just-”
He couldn’t continue. Never before had he come across a wolf so traumatised that their natural scent couldn’t be picked up.
“Yeah Cassie, I know. It’s all dark isn’t it?” Gabriel filled in for him.
“Yeah,” Castiel said, returning his focus to Dean as their vehicle slowed to a stop.
Gabriel tossed himself from the front seat and rounded the car to open the door on the side that Dean was laying.
Hesitantly, Castiel reached out a hand, carting his fingers through the fur at the nape of Dean’s neck. He whined and cracked an eye open to glance at Castiel.
“We’ll make sure you’re safe.” He whispered, causing Dean’s eyes to close once more.
With the help of Gabriel and Hannah, one of their other warriors, Castiel got Dean’s wolf out from the back seat and settled onto a stretcher that had been brought out.
When Hannah and another of the pack's gammas started to carry Dean off, Castiel followed close behind, but he was stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
Gabriel.
“Cassie, brother, we need you here. You know they’ll take care of him.”
“Yeah.” Castiel responded, resigned. Still, his wolf urged him to continue on following them. Shoving that impulse down, he spared one last glance in Dean’s direction before turning back to help the field of returning warriors before him. There were other wolves in need of help.
---
With numbers taken, and injured wolves assessed, Gabriel finally gave Castiel and his twitchy wolf the okay to head into the infirmary.
“How are they,” Castiel asked as the two walked in.
“They’ve been wolfsbaned.” Anna spoke with her usual cold professionalism, however her eyes did twitch with displeasure at the matter.
“All of them?” Gabriel asked from where he was standing beside Castiel. There was a slight growl to his voice, the bristling need to protect. Not that Castiel could blame him, as he was holding back an angry rumble of his own.
“Not all of them,” Anna said, thank god , as she began to walk past the bed, “But of the nine you guys brought in today, there were four in total. Two of them- Garth and Bess here- only had trace amounts of it in their systems.” She stopped to point the two out.
They were curled up in one another’s arms. One, presumably Garth, had a spindly build with mousy hair and a high bridged nose that was tucked into the blonde hair of Bess. She had a rounder face and had her head resting against Garth’s chest. Guessing from the fact that their scents seemed to twist around one another in a warm harmony, Castiel assumed the two were most likely mates.
“Charlie had enough to get her properly under its influence, but with a few days of rest she should be back on her feet.” Anna continued, stopping by a bed occupied by a young beta female. Her hair was long and fiery red, her face soft as she slept.
“Dean’s the one I’m concerned about here.” She said as she stepped around to the last bed in the line. “Whatever the dose was that he was hit with, I’m honestly surprised that he’s made it as far as he has. We managed to get him to wake up once so far, but he wasn’t exactly lucid. I had Benny in here at the time, and thankfully he managed to get him to shift back into his skin.”
“At least that’s something right?” Gabriel asked.
“I guess you could put it that way.” Anna said as she pulled back the curtain that had been blocking Dean from their view.
Gabriel and Anna walked forward, continuing to talk about the man that lay before them. But Castiel was frozen where he stood. The scent that reached his nose was so many things. It still held that fear and pain from before, but now it had so, so much more. It was deep and woodsy and warm. He smelt of leather and sunlight and something indescribably sweet that had Castiel huffing for another breath. He’d never known those scents to be so amazing until now, and now, it seemed as if it were made for him.
Castiel let his eyes drag across Dean’s form where it peaked out from beneath the blankets covering him. There was a faint dusting of freckles across his forearms and cheeks. His eyelashes were long and thick, resting closed against his cheeks, and his scruffy hair was a pale shade of brown. The wisps of a tattoo could be seen just below his collar bone, however most of it was covered.
With another breath in, Castiel nearly fell over at the scent of him. He was an omega, a damn strong omega, and he was gorgeous.
“Isn’t that right Cassie?”
He felt like he could hear Gabriel, but it didn’t seem like his mind was making the connections.
“Cassie?”
Firm hands took a hold of Castiel’s shoulders, giving him a decent shake to capture his attention. He felt his hands shaking.
“Hey, what’s going on with you man?” Gabriel asked, cupping his face to force Castiel’s gaze towards him. “What’s up-wait.”
Gabriel was studying Castiel’s face closely, looking around as if double checking something. He didn’t miss it when Castiel’s eyes went back to Dean’s form.
“You’re not? You haven’t?” Gabe was obviously baffled. “He’s your mate isn’t he?”
Castiel could do little more than nod, his entire body wired and wanting to run from this new feeling, yet also wanting to run towards the injured and drugged omega before him. To comfort and protect him. To help heal him.
To be with his mate.