***

Ryder was really awesome, fighting like that. Jack never watched contact sports as a rule, but in this case he was willing to make an exception because boy oh boy, Ryder really knew how things were done when dealing with witches. His majestic wolf shredded through the shadow the witch barely kept together, while a single ray of silver light fell from the moon straight on the crown of Ryder’s wolf head, caressing it and lending him her power.

“Wow. Just wow.” He had to express his admiration, because he was witnessing one hell of a fight. They all were. “Theo, are you seeing how it’s done? You should look up to Ryder.”

“No, I should not. And you should shut up,” Theo’s irritating voice replied.

“What do you mean, I should shut up? Tell me you’re not impressed.”

“I am not at all impressed. Human, you must hold your tongue or I will teach you a lesson you’ll never forget.”

“Ugh, you’re so annoying.”

His quarrelling with Theo was making him miss the most fun bits of the fight.

“Jack, what’s going on?” Vince asked. “I don’t know if you can tell, but I think you’re the only one of us who can see anything.”

“For real?” Jack whispered. “What about you, Theo?”

An arrogant huff confirmed Vince’s words.

“Okay, then let me commentate the fight like the best sports commentator in history. Basically, the witch is down, and Ryder is ripping even her shadow to shreds, and yes, he has a great ally. The Moon herself, ladies and gents, the Moon herself is in our champion’s corner. So, now, let’s count… and she stays down. Yes, ladies and gents, what a fight, truly, what a fight.”

“Jack,” Vince asked urgently, “is Cassandra dead?”

“Hopefully completely dead this time. Okay, now that’s out of the way, what about us?”

He barely had time to say those words before he experienced the same weird sensation as before, like falling through the earth, only now it was happening backwards.

And, just like that, they were back, rolling on the grass of a nice-smelling meadow, all together in a huge ball of limbs and bodies and whatnot.

Jack grunted, although he fell on something not as hard as the ground, but hard enough to warrant a little further inspection. “Cool pecs, Theo,” he said, placing his hands on the alpha’s chest.

Theo pushed him away angrily and jumped to his feet. Only to immediately grab Jack by the front of his t-shirt and shake him hard. “You puny human! How dare you speak to me like that?”

Thank fuck for Vince, who was quick to grab Theo by the arms and jerk them back hard. Jack sighed in relief as his feet felt the ground again. It was so easy for the alpha to manhandle him. Was that how rough he would be in bed? Jeez, Jack thought, he really needed a lot of preparation for what lay ahead.

“You need to work on that attitude, Theo,” Jack warned, straightening his clothes. “And Vee, thanks a lot. You’re like my personal bodyguard.” He grinned at Vince and swooned to make a good impression.

Theo looked at him like he wanted to have his head.

“It’s good that Vince is taking care of your personal safety now,” Ryder interjected. “Make sure you keep him busy, Jack.”

Everyone was there, and more importantly, they were all in one piece. Phew, now that had been quite the adventure.

“You know I will,” Jack replied. “I have a big mouth, and I tend to get into all sorts of trouble--”

Theo’s sudden growl made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. There were perks to not having a body, Jack thought, but it wasn’t like he wanted to go back to that dark place. He hadn’t showed it at the time, but he’d been pretty scared.

“You will learn obedience since you belong to me,” Theo growled. He shook Vince off and took another step toward Jack.

Damn, this alpha and his attitude.

“Awesome pipe dream, my man,” Jack said and patted Theodore on the chest.

Theo grunted and looked away. Jack removed his hand as if it has just been burned. Okay, so that was… what the hell was that? That little sound Theo had just made, using his throat or whatever, why did it go straight to… certain parts?

Alphas had to be using pheromones or something. Jack couldn’t understand why his little friend – the one he kept in his pants and usually neglected except for showers and peeing – was getting all twitchy from only hearing a wolf grunt like he wanted to claim possession of a puny human who’d never gotten dick in his life.

“We are so glad you are all okay,” Danny said loudly, interrupting Jack’s weird train of thought. “What happened? How did Cassandra--”

“It is unimportant,” Theo said abruptly. “You saved us, alpha,” he added, addressing Ryder now. “It would have been a mistake on my part to kill you.”

Jack couldn’t stay silent. “For anyone who didn’t catch it, that was Theo’s way of saying sorry.”

“I do not need a personal translator,” Theodore said in an icy tone.

“If you want to get along with other people, you will need one,” Jack shot back. “It’s that, and you need to learn to stop being the equivalent of a human-sized porcupine.”

Vince was quick to stop Theo, who was about to take another step toward him, most likely with violent intentions. Jack fought himself not to go hide behind Ryder. He’d have to deal with this alpha, whether he liked it or not.

***