A/N apparently when i fall in love with a tv show i write pjo fic about it who knew

anyway! hello all i have returned as a newly-minted 16-y-o with a long percabeth fic bc why not! sorry i've been gone so long (GCSEs man they've been kicking my BUTT) and i probably won't be back except for another one-shot im working on until GCSEs are over

but in the meantime *pulls out microphone* my friend rachel is turning 17 and so my snugglemuffin this is for you

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DEAR! You were the one who introduced me to teen wolf and the vampire diaries and also the wonder that is tyler hoechlin's face and you very politely listened to me screech about everything and you didn't spoil a THING and so i thought the best way to celebrate your birthday was to write you a fic inspired by teen wolf because hell if i have any actual original ideas (i was gonna do vampire diaries but i feel like a vampire showing up on percy's doorstep is significantly creepier than a werewolf so)

you are such a darling Rachel and thank you so so much for being such a fabulous friend! i love you so so much and i really hope you love this as much as i loved writing it xxx

(also for the sake of the story i have taken many liberties with the teen wolf werewolves because my werewolves can turn into actual wolves because SO MANY opportunities were missed by that not happening in the show)

i hope you enjoy! x

(edit: i apparently thought virginia was north of new york just fixed it) x

can i just have one more moondance with you

The first time Percy meets the werewolves it's 3:22 in the morning and he's consumed so much coffee that for the first several moments after opening the door he thinks he's hallucinating.

Then he blinks and realises no, that's not a hallucination, that's an actual girl covered in blood standing on his doorstep.

"Uh," he says.

"Hello," the girl says, like knocking on someone's door at 3am is completely normal. "May I come in?"

Later, Percy will blame it on the caffeine. After all, there is no sane reason why you invite a stranger into your house, especially at 3 in the morning and especially when they're covered in blood. But he's mildly delirious and also halfway through marking his twelfth graders' English midterms and just so, so sick of reading how Mr Darcy and Mr Wickham were just vengeful ex-lovers that at this point death sounds kind of good, so, with no thought about why this girl is here or why she is covered in blood, like a lunatic, he says, "Come in."

(He's had smarter moments, he swears.)

The girl comes in. She doesn't look particularly like a killer: she's wearing a plain white T-shirt and a pair of shorts, and her long curly hair is loose around her shoulders. (If Percy were any more sane he'd comment on the fact that there are leaves and twigs caught in it, like she'd just been rolling around in a field, but excuse him if his attention is a little caught by the giant fricking bloodstain on her torso.) Point is, if you looked at her from a general perspective and not one where she's just walked into your home in the middle of the night covered in blood, she'd look pretty unthreatening.

Which brings him to the question – what is she doing here.

He thinks he does have some semblance of an idea, though. Really, he'd always known Markus from down the hall was a little crackers. "Uh," he says. "I think you have the wrong apartment."

The girl doesn't even look at him. She strolls right into the centre of his living room and takes a deep breath of air. "No," she says. "This is the right one."

Percy just kind of blinks. "But—I didn't order an escort."

She doesn't even respond, which. Percy isn't sure how many people he knows who would be unbothered by being mistaken for an escort, and the fact that she just ignores him is just, like, red flag number twelve at this point. Instead, she just keeps nosing around his things, dragging her fingers along the arms of his sofa and poking around all the trinkets in the windowsill.

"Okay," Percy says to himself. "Not an escort." A little louder, he says, "Uh, so, if you're not an escort… what are you doing here? And why are you looking at my things?"

"I'm trying to gauge a scent," the girl says. She turns to him, lips pursed. "You're not here very often, are you."

Uh.

Percy says, "What?"

"Well, I suppose it won't be a problem," she says. She goes back to looking at his stuff. He feels like he should be more slightly bothered by this, but he's still not one hundred percent sure he's not hallucinating and he also kind of remembers putting a Mountain Dew into his coffee machine at like 2:30, so everything's kind of blurry. "It'll mean more space for us. Hazel can get a bit bothered by unfamiliar scents, though, so if you would refrain from changing your soaps or deodorant, that would be very thoughtful."

"What?" Percy says. "What does my soap have to do with anything?"

"It'll mess up your scent," the girl says. "Duh."

"Of course," Percy says faintly.

"Whatever," she says. "We can discuss this later. For the time being, I need to move in."

And, like.

Plot twist.

"Uh," Percy says. "What?"

"It's not an option, I'm afraid."

"But—I live here?"

"Yes, we'll have to arrange something around that. You can potentially stay here, given how well you respect our space, but you may have to move out." She takes a long deep inhale, her face practically alight. "I'm so glad I found this."

Percy holds onto the door handle tightly. Either she's on drugs or she needs to be, and Percy is afraid that she's in his house. Move out? Who does she think she is? His landlord? "Um. Why—why are you here, again?"

The girl is too wrapped up with discovering his apartment to properly answer. She kneels and brushes her hand against the floorboards. Her expression is thoughtful. "This place – this is sacred," she says, half to herself.

"Sacred?" Percy cannot believe what he's hearing. "You—we are talking about the same place, aren't we? Number 53?"

The girl rolls her eyes impatiently, and stands up. "Yes, dummy. Number 53. This has been part of our legacy for centuries." She turns to look around the room, her eyes awed. "My ancestors used to come here to pray to Artemis."

"Pray. To Artemis. Greek goddess Artemis."

"She gave our pack a special blessing," the girl says. "She has blessed this place. And now we are in trouble, and we need to stay here, so we can connect with her. All this WiFi nonsense and city smog has blocked our connection a little, so in order to contact her again we must come to her place of worship."

"Which is here. My apartment."

"Yes."

"I, uh, don't mean to be rude, but this block of apartments isn't actually that old. I'm pretty sure it wasn't here hundreds of years ago."

"There was a hill. It has since been demolished. But where we prayed falls exactly in this place." The girl looks around. "You don't keep it very tidy."

"I'm quite busy."

"Too busy to not treat this place with the respect it deserves?"

"It's literally just an apartment. You should see Leo's, it's even worse."

The girl's nose wrinkles. "I am more concerned about yours." She wonders over to the fireplace and brushes her fingers along the mantle. "When we move in, we'll have to talk about redecorating. We must return this place to its original state – or, at least, as close as we can, considering it is no longer an open hilltop. We'll have to have several statues. Maybe a shrine."

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on. I still don't feel okay with the idea of you moving in."

The girl stares at him. "And why not?"

"Are you seriously asking me for an explanation?"

"I don't see why you're putting up a fuss. This is our place. We need this."

"We?"

"Yes," the girl says. "Me and my pack."

"Pack? Like—backpack?"

"No, idiot, a pack. A group of people you trust with your life."

"You want a group of people to move into my apartment?"

"Yes, that was the idea."

"No! Absolutely not!"

"Why?"

Percy can't believe he needs to explain this. "Okay, firstly, I have no idea who you are."

"My name is Annabeth."

"Yeah, cool, that still tells me absolutely nothing. I don't have, like, any references, or birth certificates, or whatever, that says that you're not a serial killer, or anything. For God's sake, you're covered in blood! Also, you just—strolled into my apartment like you owned it, even though I didn't invite you in or anything, and then you started talking about it being, like—sacred, and whatever, and how you pray to Artemis, so now I'm, like, seventy-percent inclined to believe you may be slightly insane, and—"

"You're angry."

Percy stops talking. She's looking at him curiously, her head tilted slightly to the side, her eyes inquisitive.

"What?"

"You're angry," she says. "Why?"

"I—"

"I'm just trying to do what's best for my pack," she says. "But you're retaliating with anger and frustration."

In any other situation, this would have only made Percy angrier. Like, yeah, no crap he's angry and frustrated, it's three am, and this stranger is demanding to move into his already too-cramped apartment with her "pack", and he has around twenty papers still to mark and grade by morning and they certainly aren't marking themselves, but—it's just the way she says it. Her voice is slightly accusing, slightly plaintive, but mainly confused, and she's just tilting her damn head like a lost puppy, and suddenly the effects of those four and a half coffees disappear and he's left just feeling very, very tired.

"I'm sorry," he says, his voice thick. "I just—I've had a very stressful night. And this is just—super weird, and I still have so much stuff to do before morning, and Leo is a dick 'cause he gave me all his papers, and—" He cuts off abruptly, for some reason feeling his eyes prickle with tears. He's just exhausted, and this crazy lady refusing to leave and talking about ancient goddesses and having several people move unwarranted into his house is only making matters worse. "God, I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay." The girl's eyes are almost uncomfortably intense, zeroing in on him. "I didn't mean to make you feel upset. Or angry, for that matter."

Percy doesn't respond.

The girl shifts. "Look," she says, her voice uncomfortable. "If it—makes you uncomfortable, we won't. Move in, I mean. I can—" She swallows. "I can tell this is making you upset. So I'll just leave you."

Percy watches her, silently.

The girl takes a step back. "I realise I have overstepped my boundaries," she says. "I'll be leaving now."

"You do that," Percy says.

She moves towards the door. "I hope to see you soon, Percy."

"Not likely," he mutters.

It's not until he's closed (and locked and bolted) the door behind her that he realises he never told her his name.

The next day in the teacher's lounge Jason plops down on one of the squishy purple couches, cracks open a tin of cookies and says, "Percy, I didn't know your cousin was in New York."

Percy says, "My cousins are all on holiday in Greece."

Leo snorts and reaches for a cookie. "Ouch."

"Not really, they all suck." He catches sight of Jason, who looks rather pinched. "Jase? You all right, dude?"

Jason has a rather constipated look on his face. "Your cousins are all in Greece," he repeats.

"Yeah." Percy takes a cookie, and when Jason doesn't rebuke him for it he sits up and squints. "Dude, why do you look so scared? What happened?"

"Before you kill me," Jason says, a little meekly, "I want to let you know she was super pretty."

Percy slams his front door open. "What the hell?" he shouts.

The girl from before greets him in the hallway. "Hello again," she says. "Have you rethought my offer at all?"

Percy ignores her. "You seduced my best friend into giving you a key!"

"It was not seduction," says another voice, and Percy turns to see three – three! – girls sitting on his sofa. The girl who spoke looks rather petulant, like she dares have space to be petulant, like Percy's not the one whose apartment is currently being invaded. "I pretended to be your cousin."

"He was dumb enough to fall for it, anyway," another girl says.

Percy wants to throw something. "Get out of my apartment!" he shouts.

The girl who last spoke gives him a look. She has blue streaks in her hair and had the blonde one not shown up on his doorstep covered in blood last night he thinks he might have been the most afraid of her. "After all the trouble we went to getting in? Uh, no."

Percy points at the first girl, the one who got into his apartment last night. She's not covered in blood this time but she does have three cronies at her heels and honestly Percy would prefer the blood because at least then he can fool himself into believing that she's just a serial killer and not some maniac with actual henchmen who preyed on Jason's dumb weakness of pretty brunettes. "I'm pretty sure I told you very clearly last night," he says. "I don't know what the hell you think you're playing at but you're not coming to live with me!"

"Why not?"

"You broke into my house!"

"We used a key."

"That you manipulated out of the hands of my poor defenseless best friend!"

"He had pepper spray in his bag," the second girl says. At least she has the decency to sound slightly sheepish about it. "I could smell it."

"YOU'RE STILL IN MY HOUSE!"

"Please, calm down," the last one, a pretty black girl, says.

"No! Why are you here? No, don't answer that, just get out my house!" When none of them move, he says, voice slightly wavering, "if you're not out of here in five seconds I'm calling the police, I swear to God."

"Oh, don't get the police mixed up in this," the blue-haired girl says. "Annabeth, stop stalling. Just show him the papers. It won't be any good if the police come sniffing around – in case you forgot, we're kind of wanted criminals here."

And wow. Just wow.

"Wanted criminals," Percy repeats.

"For God's sake, Thalia," the second girl says.

"We're not actually wanted criminals," the black girl pacifies reassuringly. "Not technically, anyway."

The third girl, Thalia, apparently, just shrugs. "Just saying it how it is."

Percy's head is spinning. He spoke too soon. He spoke far too soon. Yeah, okay, he gets that two minutes ago he was singing a different tune, but an actual serial killer in his house is not something he wants, at least not until midterms are over. And to make matters worse there's not just one, there's four, and he's going to die right here, right now, and he hasn't even written a will, or in the least a very passive aggressive note to Jason that says dead or not he has no right to the special edition Avengers action figures on his window sill, those are expensive and going to his mom.

Oh God. He's going to die.

"I'm going to die," Percy says. "That's it, isn't it. You're here to kill me."

All the girls glance at each other.

"We're not here to kill you," the first girl says.

"Yes, you are," Percy says. "Oh my God, that's why you were covered in blood yesterday. Because you had killed someone else. Oh my God. Oh my God."

The second girl stares at the first. "Are you kidding me, Annabeth?" she says. "You went and talked to him covered in blood?"

"No wonder he's terrified," the black girl says. "Oh, you poor thing."

The first girl, Annabeth, just looks kind of upset. "I didn't kill anyone," she says. "It was my blood."

Percy stares at her, horrified. "What?"

Thalia cackles delightedly. "Oh, this is excellent," she says. "And you thought I'd be the one to scare him off."

"I mean, you did, kind of," the black girl says. "You said that we were wanted criminals."

"Yeah, but am I wrong?"

"How are you still alive?" Percy demands. "Why—why are you here? I didn't do anything!"

Annabeth is just looking more and more upset. "No, you didn't," she says. "We're not here to hurt you."

"You arrived on my doorstep. You arrived on my doorstep at three am covered in blood that is apparently yours, even though that much blood not in your body should have probably killed you, and you started talking about Artemis and scents and my deodorant and you seduced my best friend into giving you my key so you could get into my house and just the cherry on top is the fact that you are literally wanted criminals, but sure, okay, you're not here to hurt me."

"We're in danger and we need to stay with you," Annabeth rushes out all in one go.

"No," Percy says. "I'm going to call the police."

He reaches to pull his phone from his pocket, and all the girls yelp, "No!"

Percy stares at them. "Give me one reason why I don't turn you in right now," he says.

"Because if you do they'll kill us," Annabeth says.

Percy blinks. "Oh my God, you're terrorists."

"Are you that dumb?" Thalia says, still seated on the sofa. She looks the least ruffled of everyone and Percy kind of wants to throw her out the window. He wants to throw everyone at the window, to be honest, including himself, but he'd throw her out first. She looks back at Annabeth. "Is he really this stupid?"

"I'm a teacher," Percy finds himself saying weakly. Then he regrets it. If she really is a terrorist she'll probably have some kind of firearm on her that she won't have any problem with aiming at his head. Oh God.

This day has literally could not get any worse.

"Shut up, Thalia," the second girl says. "You're not helping!"

"Not so sure about you, Pipes, but this conversation has gone wrong in almost every possible way it can. At this point I suggest Annabeth stops being weird and vague and just tells him what's up, or we get out of here, because that kid has a 9 and a 1 dialed and I know he's gonna dial the next 1 if something doesn't happen now."

Alarmed, Percy stares down at the phone in his hand. He had been typing behind his back, how the hell had she known?

She must see his surprise. "Good hearing," she says.

You'd need bionic ears to hear the sound of his fingers against his phone screen, but okay, whatever, it's definitely not the weirdest thing that's happened today.

"Listen, can we please just explain?" Annabeth asks. "Please?"

"I don't see a reason good enough for staying at my place."

"Please, Percy?"

"How the hell do you know my name?"

"We looked at your records," the second girl says.

"Looked at my—what?"

"Please?" Annabeth says again, softer.

Percy just sighs. He's had a really long day. "Fine. Anything to get you out of here."

"Okay." Annabeth takes a deep breath, steeling herself. When she looks back up at him, her eyes are wide and earnest. "Thalia wasn't wrong when she said that were considered wanted criminals."

All the girls look various shades of pinched. The second girl drops her head into her hands.

Annabeth ignores them. "But it's not because we did anything—really wrong," she says. "It's all down to a simple misunderstanding. And extreme amounts of prejudice."

"Extreme," Thalia agrees.

"So we need to lie low for a while," Annabeth says. "Because if they find us, they will kill us."

Percy is unimpressed. "So you want me to harbor four wanted fugitives and risk getting years in prison."

"Not exactly."

"Get out of my house."

"Percy, please. If they know we're here they'll kill us, and we need to try and reform the connection to Artemis. If anyone can help us it'll be her. Please. You'll hardly notice we're here."

"You do realise how much you're asking me, right? And you're not putting forward a very convincing case suit here, either. I mean, my first impression of you was that you were covered in blood, which turned out to all belong to you, like that makes sense, and then you manipulate my friend into giving you my house keys, and you start rattling on about Artemis—"

"For God's sake, Percy!" Annabeth cries. "We're werewolves!"

Percy says, "What."

"We're werewolves! There are hunters after us and they want to kill us and Artemis is the patron goddess of wolves and we really need her protection right now so please just let us stay!"

"Are you on drugs?"

"No!" Annabeth sounds upset. She lurches forward, like she wants to take his hands, but she stops before she can. "Percy, you have to believe us."

Percy takes a step back. "You need to stay away from me."

"Just show him the papers," the second girl says.

"You have to believe us," Annabeth says desperately.

"I believe that you're insane!"

"What if I can prove it to you?"

"Prove that you're a werewolf? Oh, sure, let's see that. Come on."

Percy doesn't really know what he was expecting. Maybe her to deny it, or continue stalling. Maybe even for her to go down on all fours and growl a little, which, yeah, would be crazy, but at least it would biologically make sense.

He is not banking on her to actually turn into a wolf.

Promptly, he passes out.

When Percy comes to, the first thing he hears are hushed voices frantically whispering over him.

"—out of your mind?"

"He wouldn't believe us otherwise!"

"Yes, so you ease him in, you don't shapeshift! He's gonna think we've drugged him!"

"And whose fault is that, Thalia?" someone else says. "'Oh, technically, we're wanted criminals'. As if he's going to let us stay now!"

"I thought I'd just precaution him!"

"About what, the fact that you can't control your temper?"

Percy decides now is the best time to announce his awakening before a literal bloodbath starts happening all over his carpet. Blearily, he blinks open his eyes, and tries to sit up. The whispers fall silent and suddenly there are hands on his shoulders, helping him upright. It takes a while for his eyes to adjust but once they do he sees three of the girls hovering anxiously over him.

(Thalia's still on the sofa with a bag of Doritos in her hand.)

They're all watching him. Percy supposes their hesitance is expected, because it's really not every day someone turns into a wolf in your living room, and humans are kind of narrow-minded when it comes to things like that, but he also has Leo as a friend, so he's learnt to expand his horizons.

He says, "Werewolves."

Annabeth's face is still twisted in worry. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"I think he was more than startled, babe," Thalia says with a snort.

Percy can only really stare up at them. Like yeah, okay, he's not freaking out, but also werewolves. Since when did those exist. "Are you—I mean—"

"We're all werewolves, yes," Annabeth says. She's talking to him like he's a cornered animal, almost as if she's trying to stop him from sprinting. "I was born. Thalia, Piper and Hazel were bitten. They're my pack."

"And—you want to live here?"

"We need to," one of the girls, Piper, he thinks, says. She's the one who seduced Jason. He narrows his eyes a little at her. "This place—we just need to."

Percy shakes his head. His confusion is slowly draining away, and in its place anger begins to rear its ugly head. "You realise that you being werewolves is only more incentive for me not to let you stay, right?"

Thalia snorts. "Do you even know anything about werewolves?"

"I know you can turn into actual wolves."

She arches an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Wow."

"Thalia," Annabeth mutters, pained.

"What else?" the second girl prods.

Percy sighs. "I don't know. You have something with a full moon?"

"Oh my God," Thalia says. "You are useless. Don't you watch any TV?"

"Nothing on TV is right," the black girl says.

"It's still a good beginning! Have you never seen Twilight?"

"Rachel the art teacher watches Teen Wolf," Percy says.

Thalia rolls her eyes. "Well, that's fantastic for Rachel, but it really doesn't help us, does it?"

"Look, dude," Percy says, beginning to get frustrated, "you can educate me all you like on your lore or whatever, but I'm still not letting you guys stay."

"Why?" Annabeth demands.

He stares at her. "Because you're strangers!"

"But at least you know we're not murderers," Thalia says, still on the sofa.

"You just said you were convicted criminals."

"Yeah, but not murderers," she says, "and that's the important part."

"Speak for yourself," the second girl says.

Percy does a double take. "What?"

"Ignore her," Thalia says. "She doesn't know what she's talking about."

Annabeth folds her arms. "Look, Percy," she says firmly, "this isn't really a choice. We're staying with you."

"No you're not."

"Yes, we are." She pulls a piece of paper out of her back pocket. "We have signed permission from your landlord that states that we're allowed to be here."

Percy takes it, gobsmacked. "There's no way he would have let you."

"Actually, there is," Annabeth says. "We forged your signature to say that we had your expressed consent to us living here."

"But—it's a two-bedroom apartment. Five people counts as overcrowding."

"Not when it's four people and a therapy dog."

"You have to be kidding me."

"Sleeping in wolf form is perfectly comfortable for us," Annabeth says. "We're on a rota. We all spend one night in wolf form each, and then we start over again. This means that if a landlord ever does a spontaneous check there will always be at least four people and one dog in the house."

Percy gawks at them. "You're not serious."

"Deadly, I'm afraid." Annabeth's face is cool but her gaze is hard. She's not taking any crap here. "So now you have two options. You can either make this hard for us, but all it will do is mean that you'll probably have a lot of dog poop on your sofa. Or, you can do this calmly, and we can co-exist in peace."

Percy is literally speechless.

Annabeth takes that as agreement. "Good," she says. "Now. We need to talk about room space. Where shall we be sleeping?"

That kind of gets Percy back his tongue. "I don't have space."

Annabeth remains resolute. "Well, we're living with you now, so that excuse won't fly," she says. "It's a two-bed. We can take the second room."

Immediately, he says, "No."

"Don't be difficult."

"It's not that. I don't want you in that bedroom."

"Why not?"

Percy doesn't look at the door. He hasn't looked inside that room since he moved in. It used to be out of spite, the one final petty stab at his dad, but three years is a long time, and now even looking at the door fills him with all sorts of inexplicable feelings. He can't let them stay in there. He just can't.

"Because," he says stoutly.

The last girl – Hazel, he thinks, the pretty black one with golden eyes – swallows nervously. "Where are we meant to sleep, then?"

"Not my problem."

Annabeth's eyes harden. He ignores her.

"Do you even have a spare mattress?" Thalia asks coolly.

"No. Just—sleep in the bathtub, or whatever. I mean, you're the wolves, right? You work it out."

Thalia scowls at him, and leans towards Annabeth. He turns away, but he doesn't need super hearing to hear her mutter, "You certainly know how to pick them."

Annabeth makes a sad noise. Percy ignores them both.

He leads them down his small hallway. "Bathroom," he says, pointing. "Bedroom. Kitchen. Living room. Storage cupboard. That's it."

"Where are we meant to stay?" Piper asks. "There's no space."

"That's not my problem."

Piper frowns at him, and Annabeth takes her hand before stepping forward. "I'd appreciate it if you dropped the tone," she says, her voice hard. "I get that this is hard but you don't need to so rude and condescending."

Percy seethes. "Oh, I'm sorry that I'm getting a little fussed that four animals are moving in with me."

"That's racist," Thalia says.

Percy ignores her.

"We'll take the living room," Annabeth says.

"Uh, no you won't."

"Where else are we meant to be?"

"Not. My. Problem."

He supposes he should be more—concerned about the whole thing. Up until about a few hours ago, werewolves didn't exist, and he was still living alone, and his biggest concern was the little creep Octavian Spencer in one of his eleventh-grade English classes who kept writing detailed sex scenes between alternating male characters for his Pride & Prejudice essays – and now? He's just so frustrated. This time of year is always awful, and now this? On top of everything else?

Also. He's a twenty-six-year-old due, okay. He needs his space. There's a reason he moved out. He doesn't need four hormonal girls moving in with him now, especially not four hormonal girls who can turn into wolves and howl at the moon once a month.

Good God, what even is his life. He feels like this is all some elaborate prank. Or maybe the Truman Show part 2. Or even a very prolonged caffeine-induced hallucination.

"Are you going to get jobs?" he asks.

"We'll have to see," Annabeth says. "We need to keep a low profile."

"Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but I can't feed five people on a teacher's salary, especially not when four of them are wolves, so you're going to have to fend for yourselves."

Thalia narrows her eyes. "Firstly, we're werewolves. There's a difference. Secondly, you realise how much energy we burn, right? With none of us working there's no way we're going to be able to afford all the food we need to sustain ourselves."

"And you think I can?"

"You've got a job!"

"There are four of you!"

"Your house is paid off," Annabeth says. "And I know for a fact that you're not here most of the time anyway. You will be buying us food."

Percy seethes at them. "That was not part of the agreement."

"We can't starve to death."

"No." Percy points at them, and Hazel flinches back. "I'm putting my foot down. At least one of you is going to get a job. You're right, the apartment's paid off, but I can't afford to feed five people, especially when four of them need double the amount of food regular people do. Are we understood?"

Annabeth's eyes are hard, but Piper puts a hand on her shoulder. "We understand," she says. "I'll go looking for a job tomorrow.

Annabeth turns to her. "But—"

"It's the least we can do," she says.

Thalia's scowl doesn't waver. "Doesn't seem like we should be owing you any favours when you're not even letting us stay here on good terms."

Percy doesn't even dignify that with a response. He just shakes his head. "I'm going to the living room to do some marking," he says. "You had all better be quiet."

Hazel looks a little hesitant. "What are you marking?"

"Papers."

"What subject?"

"English."

"I didn't know you were an English teacher," Annabeth says.

He gives her a look. "Yeah, well, you shouldn't have known I was a teacher at all, and yet here we are." He picks up his bag from where he discarded it earlier and pulls out a stack of papers. "None of you interrupt me, I need to get this finished by tomorrow."

He walks into the living room before any of them can respond. His head is spinning, but he's filled with a new sense of vigor – spite, he thinks, maybe anger, but it's something. Distantly, he thinks back to his high school counseling sessions after Gabe. You're grieving him, Percy, the counsellor had told him. And now you're in the anger stage of it.

Something akin to hysterical laughter bubbles in his throat at the memory. I'm fricking grieving, he thinks to himself. Grieving the death of my own space and actual sanity. It's not even very funny. He thinks he's just slowly going mad.

He means. Werewolves.

What even.

He sets up his working station, digging his trusty red pen out of his bag and setting up the papers on the table. However, as he moves, he becomes aware of the conversation happening in the hallway right outside the room, where the girls are still standing.

He doesn't know if they know he can hear them. He wonders if they even care.

"We can't stay with him, Annabeth," someone, Thalia, he thinks, says. "He's a psycho. We'll be just as alienated in here as we are out there."

"Look," Annabeth says. "I know this isn't—ideal, but I've run out of ideas. We've been running for so long. Aren't you tired?"

"I'm fricking smashed," Piper retorts, "but I don't want the first place I get decent sleep to be the home of a lupaphobe. What if he kills us in our sleep?"

"I really doubt that," Thalia says. "He was wearing Finding Nemo socks."

"Right now, this is the only place we have," Annabeth says. "And—we'll try be good houseguests, okay? This is where Artemis's temple used to be. We can pray to her, maybe offer her a sacrifice, ask for asylum. It's our best bet."

There's a long pause, and then finally Piper sighs. "Fine."

"It might be fun," Hazel says.

"Yeah, as a yeast infection," Thalia says. There's a beat. "Whatever. Let's just get set up. I need a nap."

Percy stares down hard at his papers. The words all blur together, and suddenly he feels very, very tired.

The next morning, Jason greets him in the staff room with the biggest cup of coffee Percy's ever seen and a box of doughnuts. "Dude, I'm so sorry," is the first thing he says.

Percy immediately takes the coffee and chugs. It's a small penance for the living hell his life has now become. He didn't sleep a wink last night, just lay awake staring at the ceiling, very, painfully aware of the four werewolves somewhere in his flat, and if he's going to make it past second period without offing himself he needs the caffeine.

Jason watches him anxiously. "Are we—okay? I'm so sorry, I can't believe I was so stupid. I let some stranger into your house just because I thought she was hot! What kind of bro code abuse is that?"

The coffee is scalding. Percy really should have seen that coming. "Ish okeh," he manages through a burnt tongue.

"Yeah, but I could've! Is everything? Did she steal anything? I'll pay you back, I swear. I still have my dad's bank card."

Percy tried for a laugh. He thinks it might come out as a bit of a grunt. "She dint shtill anyhing," he says. BECAUSE INSTEAD SHE MOVED INTO MY HOUSE WITH THREE FRIENDS. ALSO: WEREWOLVES! He swallows, and tries to speak with minimum pain. "I managed to get her out, don't worry. No harm done."

Jason chews his lip. "Still, though. That could have been really bad."

"Well, crisis averted. Just text me next time someone comes up to you asking for my house key and claiming to be my cousin." He gently shakes the cup. "Where'd you get this?"

"Coffee shop down the road," Jason says, a touch proudly. "I got you the largest cup in the store. It's so big they don't even have it at the counter, they had to go searching through the stock room."

"You really didn't have to do that."

"Uh, yeah I did. Also that drink cost me twelve dollars so you will drink all of it. Besides, you have Rachel's tenth graders today."

Percy wants to cry. "Oh, god."

Although.

Rachel.

She knows some stuff about werewolves, he's pretty sure.

He tongues the side of his cheek, considering, and then glances at the clock above the door. Seven-forty. He has time. Quickly, he makes up his mind. "Thanks, Jase," he says, taking the doughnuts and putting them in his messenger bag. "I'll see you later, yeah?"

"You know it," Jason says. He gives him a thumbs-up. "Good luck with the tenth graders!"

Percy heads out of the staffroom, and then makes a sharp beeline for the art block across the quad. Even though his head is spinning and the simulation has most definitely broken because absolutely nothing makes sense anymore, and even though he's not an art teacher, the art block has always been one of the most soothing places in the school for him. It's always brightly decorated and there are tissue-paper decals on the window that makes all the sunlight coming through different colours. It smells of acrylic paint and paper and Rachel has a small radio in her classroom that's always playing the classical music station, and simply walking into the building makes him relax.

Because it's before hours, it's mostly empty, and Percy is easily able to locate Rachel. She's in one of the empty classrooms, and when he walks in she's wiping down one of the tables with a dirty rag. She looks in when she hears him come in. "Oh, hey, Percy!" she says, straightening. "How are you?"

"Good," Percy says. He drums his fingers against the doorframe. "Uh, look, can I... talk to you?"

Rachel throws the rag into the sink. "Yeah, sure! What's up?"

He's not quite sure how to preface this. You can't exactly launch into a conversation with "what do you know about werewolves?" without sounding a) like a hunter or b) like you're harbouring werewolves, and there's also the point that werewolves aren't meant to exist and Rachel can't know that they do. Which is why he says, "My nephew's birthday is in a few days and I was wondering if you could give me some advice on what to get him."

"What are you thinking?"

Here goes. "Well, uh, he's in the middle of a—phase, at the moment, and because I'm a teacher I thought I'd make him a little book on werewolves."

Rachel face remains impassive. "Werewolves."

"Yes."

"What's his name?"

"Uh." Crap, he hadn't thought that far ahead. "...Paul."

"Why couldn't you just use the Internet?"

"You're very down with the trends," Percy explains, throat dry. "You probably know more about werewolves than I do. You know, fend off the fake news." Rachel raises her eyebrows, and he realises he's made a mistake. "Figure of speech," he gabbles. "Everything is fake news, because werewolves don't exist, but—I meant, like. Mythologically speaking. What's the most common lore? I want to get this right."

"For your nephew Pete," Rachel says.

"For my nephew Pete," Percy agrees.

Rachel smirks a little, and perches on one of the tables. "Well, you've come to the right person," she says. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything, basically. Like—is it true that they have supersonic hearing? I read that online," he adds quickly.

"Well, that's how they're portrayed a lot of the time," Rachel says. "There're not much different from real wolves, in a lot of ways. They're very social. They have packs, and packs are kind of—split into certain hierarchies." She holds up her fingers. "The top bitch, so to speak, is the alpha. They're kind of in charge. Then you have the betas, which are the wolves that kind of follow them. In the cases of werewolves technically to make a beta part of your pack the alpha has to be the one that has bitten them, but that's quite traditional thinking. Nowadays packs can be made up of almost anything. Even humans." And then she gives Percy a significant look.

Percy doesn't really want to interpret that. "Real wolf packs have that, too."

"They're very similar to real wolves. There are also omegas, though. That's a werewolf that doesn't have a pack, or an alpha. If a werewolf is alone for too long they can go mad."

Percy frowns. "Really?"

"Yep. Real wolves are similar." She tilts her head. "What else? Oh, well, Artemis, the Greek goddess, is believed to have created the first werewolves."

This is sacred. "That—came up," Percy says. "Lycaon, right?"

"Yep. It's why silver is so deadly to them. She hunted him for days and eventually used a silver bullet on him. They also have a terrible intolerance to wolfsbane and mistletoe."

"What about Christmas?"

"Guess they just have to avoid it. Lucky they don't really exist, that would be miserable."

Percy forces a laugh. "Yep."

"What else do you want to know?"

Everything, quite frankly, but he's cut it too close already. "I think that's good," he says. "Thanks, Rachel. You are just a fountain of knowledge."

She simpers. "I try. I hope Patrick enjoys his present."

"Yeah, me too." He tips his head at her. "I guess I'll be off. Need to start on it, after all."

Rachel smiles. "Have a good day, Percy."

"You, too."

He walks out feeling more reassured and also far more confused than he ever has.

The day goes by relatively quickly.

Ten minutes into first period he almost forgets about all his troubles back home because Rachel's tenth graders are actually sent from Satan and he spends most of the period shouting at them to shut up. And then at lunch Leo produces a plastic tub of fajitas Jason apparently guilt-bullied him into making for Percy, and Leo's fajitas are really good, and he has a spare last period, and he spends it with Beckendorf, one of the Maths teachers, in the teacher's lounge watching Masterchef on one of the computers. In fact, by the time Percy makes it home he's forgotten that he has four werewolves living under his roof.

Key word: almost.

As soon as he opens his front door, he remembers pretty damn fast.

Everything has been completely rearranged. His sofa is definitely not where it used to be, and not by a long shot. His table is on the other side of the room. Even the big squishy armchair that came with the apartment that probably has left actual indents in the carpet from how long it's been in the same place has been moved to the opposite corner. The single flowered cactus Rachel had given to him for his birthday has disappeared, and the (admittedly very few) trinkets on his shelves are all in the wrong places.

And in the middle of it, is Annabeth and her little pack.

Hazel spots him first. "Oh, hello, Percy!" she chirps, straightening, and the others turn around too, beaming. In her arms are his bedsheets. (His bedsheets.) "How was your day?"

"How..." He is in shock. He cannot believe this. "Are you kidding me?"

Her expression falters. "What?"

"You—" He can't believe this. "Are you purposely being stupid right now? Do you think this is some kind of joke?"

Piper frowns. "What are you talking about?"

"My sofa is on the other side of the room!"

"Geez, man, chill," Thalia says. "It's just a sofa."

He literally cannot take this any longer. He marches in and snatches the bedsheets out of Hazel's arms and she flinches like he's just struck her. "What the hell gives you the right to invade into my personal space and rearrange my house without my permission? How dare you?"

Thalia's eyes flicker. She seems to realise that he's not playing games here. "We'll move it back."

"It's not just the sofa. It's this. Everything. You manipulate my friend into giving you a key so you can forge my signature and get my landlord to allow you to live here completely without my permission. You just move in without a care in the world about how it's going to affect me or my life, and then I come back home and on top of all of that you have moved the entirety of my living room around and you are touching all of my things!" He throws the sheets onto the sofa and points at them. "Why did you even need this?"

"It's—scent," Hazel says, her eyes wide. "We—you were using scented detergent, and we've got a really strong sense of smell and our noses are really sensitive—"

"So you think that means you have permission to start washing all my things?"

"Percy," Annabeth says. "We can talk this through—"

"I am done with talking." He folds his arms. "By tomorrow morning, I want all four of you out."

Hazel's eyes are wide. "But—"

"Don't even think about trying to negotiate with me. This was the final straw. If you aren't out by tomorrow I'm going to call the police, and don't think I won't."

The entire room is silent. Percy grips his elbows, feeling his pulse hammer somewhere in his ears. He doesn't think he's ever been this angry before. Thalia, Piper and Hazel are stood like cornered animals in the centre of the room, and Annabeth—

Annabeth just watches him silently for a very long time.

Her expression is inscrutable. Percy can't read her face. For a few moments, he's genuinely afraid she's going to launch herself at him; she certainly looks like she wants to. But, after what feels like minutes, she sets her jaw, and says, in a very quiet, controlled voice, "Okay."

Behind her, Thalia's face hardens, but Hazel puts a hand on her shoulder. A warning.

Percy feels all his anger rush out of him, and suddenly, he just feels very tired. "Good," he says. He scrubs a hand over his face. "I'm—going to bed."

"It's six in the evening," Piper says.

He ignores her. When he gets to his room, he makes sure to slam his door especially hard.

Later that night, he gets up to get a glass of water. As he pads to the kitchen, he catches a glimpse of the living room – and it's empty.

He frowns.

On nothing but a pure whim, he peeps in the bathroom.

Hazel, Piper and Annabeth are tangled in the bathtub, each using a sweater as a blanket an each other as a pillow. (Thalia is lying flat on her back on the floor mat, a backpack under her head, and her hands folded over her chest like a corpse. He decides not to dwell on this.) They are all fast asleep, fingers twitching, bodies contorted so they can all fit. Something uncomfortable settles under his ribcage.

He doesn't know how long he's stood there. All he does know is when he heads back to his bedroom, he's suddenly feeling a lot less sure than he was a few hours ago.

He's woken up by his alarm at six in the morning.

He scrubs a hand through his hair and clambers out of bed, and then shuffles towards the kitchen. To his mild surprise, he realises that he's not alone; Annabeth is sat at the counter with two cups of coffee, staring at a picture of he and his mom that was taken on his eleventh birthday party.

"Hey," he says. "Couldn't sleep?"

Annabeth glances over her shoulder at him, her lips twitching in a sardonic little smile. "Something like that. Coffee?"

One of the mugs must be for him, then. He slides next to her at the counter, taking a hesitant sip of his coffee. To his surprise, it's exactly how he likes it – two sugars, a dollop of milk.

She must be able to see the surprise on his face. "I could smell it on you," she says, in lieu of an explanation.

He stares at her. "You could sm—okay." He takes another sip of his coffee. (It's good. It's really good.) "That's kind of weird."

Annabeth smiles a little, and then turns back to the photo. "Is that your mom?"

"Yeah."

"Is she...?"

"She's the best person in the world."

She smiles wryly. "Must be nice."

He glances at her. "Yours wasn't?"

"Don't know. She left right after I was born."

"Sucks."

"Yeah."

There's a pause.

"My dad, too," Percy says, and she glances at him. "He left. I was two, I think."

"He nice?"

"Mom loved him."

They both know that's not really an answer, but she must understand, so she doesn't press it. It's quiet for a while. Peaceful, almost. Percy can see into the living room from here – everything's been moved back to its original places. Even Rachel's cactus. His sheets are folded neatly at the end of the sofa.

"I'm sorry about last night," he says.

Annabeth snorts a little. "Don't be. We way overstepped."

"I overreacted."

"Maybe a bit." She sighs. "We've—we've been on the run for five years. This has been one of the first times we've stayed more than one night in a place."

Percy glances at her sharply. "Seriously?"

Annabeth lifts a shoulder. She looks relatively unbothered. He supposes she has to, though. After five years you must get used to it. "Werewolves aren't the same as humans," she says softly. "Some people think we're an abomination."

"Abomination?" That's a bit far.

"You weren't exactly thrilled by us."

"That was mainly because you tricked your way into moving into my apartment."

She grins. "Touché." She takes another sip of coffee. "Some people just—would rather we weren't around."

Percy can't even wrap his head around that. "So you've been running from these people for five years?"

"Pretty much."

"Do they have lives?"

"Hunting is their lives. Werewolves—we're kind of like aliens."

"Arguably real?"

"A government secret."

"I knew it."

Annabeth smirks a little. "We're not common knowledge. But people know we exist, and unfortunately most of them are purists in high-up places with lots of money who want to get rid of us. These hunters are being paid a lot of money to get us."

"You specifically, or werewolves generally?"

"Generally," Annabeth says. Percy can sense the lie, but he leaves it.

"If you told people I'm sure there'd be a lot on your side," he says instead. "They can't get away with that. That's basically like glorified murder. You should spread the word, get people protesting."

"And start World War Three? It wouldn't be worth it. Besides. We've lasted this long."

Percy watches her. She sits straight-backed, muscles tense. She's ready to run. It kind of makes him sad. "Is that why you came here?" he asks softly. "Safety?"

"To an extent. Artemis—she created the first werewolves. I thought—maybe if we were close to her, she'd be able to grant us asylum." She snorts, a little self-deprecatingly. "Clearly, that went well."

Percy stares out into the living room. In the early sunlight, his little cactus looks almost white. Dust particles float around it. He can't remember the last time he watered it. Do cacti even need watering?

If he had four more people living with him, it would probably get watered enough.

He thinks of them, curled up in his bathtub because he said they couldn't use the living room. Of Hazel, wide-eyed and frightened as she clutched his sheets, the way they stood together when he confronted them, the way after he went to bed they moved every piece of furniture back to where it was before. Even the cactus.

Especially the cactus.

Annabeth sits ramrod straight when he finally says, "You can—stay, if you want."

Her eyes flicker. She doesn't respond.

He sighs. "I—overreacted, last night," he says. "I have space. This apartment's paid off. My dad—well. I didn't know him, but he left it to me. I'm barely here as it is. And—you sound like you could use a home for a bit."

Her lips twitch. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. Just don't wash my sheets again."

She smiles. "Okay."

"And—you don't have to sleep in the bathroom."

Her smile twists a little, but there's still mirth in her eyes. "It's better than a lot of other places we've slept, I'll tell you that."

"Yeah, but—this is a chance for you not to live in a cave. And also I need the shower in the mornings. You can take the living room."

"What about the second bedroom?"

Her voice isn't accusatory. Percy squares his shoulders a little.

"I haven't opened that door since I moved in," he says quietly. "Like I said, Dad's apartment. I think that was his room. I don't know what's in it, but—I feel like if I keep it shut, then he can't really hurt me anymore."

She nods. "Living room it is, then."

"You can move the furniture around, if you want."

"You sure? I recall a pretty big hissy fit the last time that happened."

He rolls his eyes as she laughs, delighted at herself. "Whatever," he says. "It was just pent-up frustration from the day. I have this creep of a kid in my eleventh grade English class, Octavian... He drives me mad. Keeps insisting all five of the Bennet sisters are in a polyamorous relationship."

Annabeth's eyebrows almost disappear into her hairline. "I haven't read Pride and Prejudice in a while but I don't remember that happening."

"I have to mark his essays on this kind of thing. It's ridiculous." He downs the last of his coffee, and then stands up. "I should probably start getting ready. Don't want to be late, now that I have to start providing for people."

Annabeth's eyes sparkle. "We'll get jobs."

"I'll hold you to that," he promises as he heads towards the bathroom. However, just before he leaves the room, he pauses at the door. "Hey."

She looks back at him. "Mm?"

"Thank you. For the coffee."

She smiles, and his breath gets kicked out of his chest as he realises just how beautiful she is. "It's okay."

From there, it gets—easier.

Living with four werewolves was not something Percy ever really expected would happen, especially considering up until very recently he was not aware they existed, but it's—nice.

He will admit, before the girls, he was remarkably lonely. He's still not used to having a full, excited, welcoming home to return to every night. In a weird way, they've almost become family. Sure, sometimes a very stressful, uncontrollable family, because unlike regular girls they have not one but two certain periods of the month where they become unpredictable, and one involves them sprouting fur, and they go through his food ridiculously fast, and near the full moon sometimes they, like, lick him, which is just really weird, but he thinks he's growing to love them regardless. They're like his sisters – protective, slightly overbearing, and occasionally not-human sisters, but sisters nonetheless, and he's beginning to kind of really like them.

They all just sort of—fit into his life. Annabeth does the grocery shopping, Piper does the cooking, Hazel does the cleaning, and Thalia passive-aggressively orders throw pillows for his living room. (The only time Percy ever confronted her about that she glared at him very scarily and said, "Percy, your apartment is dismal, you can't expect to have four women move in with you and not have at least one of them do something about it," and thus decided not to put up a fuss.

Rachel's cactus had looked all alone on the windowsill, he supposes.)

Besides, it's not just that. Percy's getting used to other people in his space, used to a previously-empty apartment now permanently full of life. Hazel starts a garden in his fire escape, uses the flowers to make little perfumes, and when he introduces her to Etsy she suddenly starts running a business right from the floor of his living room. His fridge has suddenly exploded in photos and grocery lists and a piece of paper Piper calls the Note Forum, in which she and Thalia have a very prolonged game of dots and boxes going on. There are Post-Its left everywhere, usually covered in stupid things like REMEMBER MILK! and percy app. at 5 and buy stamps for H, and it's kind of just so endearingly domestic that on the way home from school he comes to the stark realisation I've become a married man before I'm thirty.

It's—weirdly enough, a nice feeling.

However, he knew it was only going to before their little bubble burst.

It comes in the form of a text from Leo on a Wednesday night. They're all sitting in the living room around the TV, watching The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (Annabeth insisted) when it comes through, and when Percy checks it, it says bro im outside ur house let me in.

"Hey, guys," he says, standing up. "Leo just texted me, he's outside."

Annabeth frowns, and pauses the movie. "Wait, where are you going?"

"To—let Leo in?"

"Who's Leo again?" Thalia asks.

"One of my co-workers. He's a good friend."

"He's the one you said gave you all his papers," Annabeth says. "The night we met."

Percy's kind of blocked that to the back of his memory just because of how traumatic it was and also because he was high on caffeine for most of it and can't remember, but he vaguely recalls something about Leo subbing for a Biology class and giving him all his papers that night. "Yeah, I think so. I think we might be doing that tonight as well. We were planning on getting together and doing a big paper binge."

Annabeth frowns. "So—he's coming here?"

"Is that a problem?"

"We need to hide," Annabeth tells the other girls. And, okay.

"Why are you doing that?" he asks. "Leo's chill. I think you'll like him."

"We're convicts, Percy."

"Not really," Thalia butts in.

"Sort of," Hazel says.

"Point is," Annabeth says, "what if he recognises us? What if he's a werewolf hunter?"

Percy almost bursts out laughing at the very idea of that. "Leo is definitely not a werewolf hunter. He can't weigh any more than one hundred and fifty pounds, wet."

"Looks can be deceiving," Annabeth says mysteriously.

"Seriously, he's a friend. It's not a big deal."

"She does kind of have a point," Piper says, and Percy glances at her. "What if he's able to tell we're werewolves?"

He almost rolls his eyes. "There is no way he'd be able to do that," he says. "Look, I'm just going to let him in, okay? You can keep watching the movie. We'll probably just be in the kitchen, doing some grading."

He starts to head to the door. Behind him, he hears Annabeth desperately shout out, "What if he thinks you're running a brothel? Four strange girls in your living room, that's bound to cause some concern!"

"I'm literally an English teacher who wears ties with turtles on them!" he calls back. "I think we're okay."

There isn't a response. He just laughs, and opens the door. "Hey, Leo."

From the doorstep, Leo beams. "Percy, my man!" he declares, stepping into the flat. "How are you feeling tonight? Like you're ready to kick some grading butt? I hope so, because I have seventy Biology papers that are ready for marking."

"I am not—"

"Hush," Leo says. "I know what you're going to say. Leo, I would love to mark your seventy papers, because I'm a good friend and I know you're going through a tough time since Calypso dumped you, and I'll understand if you just want to put on the TV and watch Jeopardy while I do all your work. And to that, I say thank you." He strides towards the living room and reaches towards the door handle.

"Wait, Leo—"

It's too late. Leo dramatically swings open the door, and then freezes.

Percy jogs up behind him. "Oh, sorry, dude, I forgot to say—"

"Uh?" Leo says, his voice suddenly very high-pitched.

His voice sounds—alarmingly questioning, considering there are four humans in there. Percy frowns. "Is everything—?"

"Percy, they're so cute! Why didn't you tell me you had dogs?"

Uh.

Percy frowns, and steps into the living room.

The girls are nowhere to be seen. In their places, however, are four massive wolves.

Oh, dear God.

The urge to roll his eyes is so strong he thinks he might have popped a blood vessel restraining himself. "Um," he says weakly. "I'm—dog-sitting?"

"Dude!" Leo is so excited. He doesn't seem to care that they're all literally the size of him. "They're so cool! I love dogs!" He reaches out towards one and rubs its head. Percy isn't quite sure who it is, but by the way the dog beams and nuzzles happily into his hand Percy's going to assume it isn't Thalia.

"Yeah," Percy says. "Yay, dogs."

"Whose are they?"

"Uh. My friend's. Brian. You don't know him."

Leo is apparently only half-listening. He's in love, and if Percy weren't so unimpressed he'd think it was almost funny. Leo squats down on his haunches and scrubs the dog on the back, and the dog preens. "Good girl!" he coos in a ridiculous baby voice. "Good girl!"

The wolf lying on the sofa makes a noise that sounds like a laugh.

"What are their names, Percy?" Leo asks.

Uh.

Percy stares at them. Which is which? They all look the same. Normally this wouldn't be a problem because he really doesn't care which is which except Leo is some kind of apparent Dog Whisperer who can get away with calling a werewolf a good girl and not get eaten and once Percy tells him who's who he's gonna remember. And then when Percy gets the name wrong he's gonna know and he's gonna call him out in his bluff and—

Okay, so he may not find out the whole werewolf thing. But still.

"Uh," Percy says. He's just going to have to guess. He points at the one that Leo's been petting. "That's Piper." He tries to look for the wolf that looks the least threatening. He thinks it's the one shyly approaching Leo from the side. "That's Hazel."

Both wolves nod at him. Phew. He got them right. He stares firmly at the last two. One is sitting primly on the floor and the other is obnoxiously stretched out on the sofa.

"Um," he says. "That's Annabeth," he says, pointing to the wolf on the floor. She nods. That means the one on the sofa is Thalia. "And that's Moomoo."

Thalia turns to him very slowly. Piper wheezes.

Leo is none the wiser. "They're all so adorable," he says. "Oh, I'm so not leaving now. You are not pulling me away from this." He turns to Thalia. "Hey, Moomoo! Come here, girl!"

Thalia looks furious. Percy knows he's gonna get it when Leo leaves. He just smirks a little. Serves them right, honestly. Such drama queens.

"What breed are they?" Leo asks.

"Uh," Percy says. "Huskies?"

"They look like wolves," Leo says, but he doesn't sound suspicious, he sounds awed. (Seriously. He's going to one day get kidnapped because he'll be so excited at the idea of being held hostage he'll forget to call 911.) "That's so cool! And they're huge, too. Do you think I should get a dog? I've been thinking about it for a while. Calypso was super anti-dog because she liked planting and she thought they'd eat them but we're not dating anymore, are we?" Suddenly he gets alarmingly misty-eyed. "Calypso..."

"Okay, dude," Percy says, steering him towards the sofa. "Let's just—sit down, okay?"

"I thought we were going to get married!" Leo wails, and Percy takes that as all the initiate to break out the alcohol. "We—we talked about it, and we talked about having kids, and how beautiful they'd be, 'cos they'd be mixed race, and mixed-race babies are always more attractive, and they would have had my genes and her genes and they would have been so beautiful and—Percy, why did she have to leave me?"

"That's it, buddy," Percy says encouragingly. "Let it all out." Under his breath, he mutters, "I hate you all so much, you have no idea."

Hazel and Piper don't appear to have heard him, but Thalia looks rather smug, and Annabeth gets kind of indignant. She pushes herself up from where she was sprawled on the floor and jumps deftly onto the sofa, so she's pressed up right against him, and wriggles under his arm. He lets her, and she curls up against his side, resting her head on her lap. He hovers his fingers over her head, and she nips gently at them.

Leo sniffs, and looks at her. "She's beautiful," he says, his voice thick.

"Yeah," Percy says. "She is."

And she is. He can appreciate her in human form – she's always been incredibly pretty, in a way that's almost intimidating to directly acknowledge, but he's never been close enough to a wolf to appreciate quite how stunning they are. Her coat is a sandy blonde, and so thick he can almost bury his entire hand in it, and she's huge. If he stood next to her, she'd probably come up to his waist, at least, and it should be terrifying to have such a huge animal so close to him, in such a position that she could kill him without even really trying, but he's not, because while everything else is different, her eyes are almost exactly the same, grey and endless and intelligent, and when she stares up at him he knows that he trusts her, so much so that her powerful flank is mere inches aware from his heart and he doesn't feel any fear at all.

"Can I have her?" Leo asks.

"No," Percy says. "This one's mine."

Annabeth rumbles happily. He rests his hand on her side and feels the beat of her heart, and something warms in his chest.

The obligatory roommate talk kind of becomes a little unavoidable after that.

After Leo left and the girls had come to their unnecessary revelation that he was, in fact, not a danger to them or their lives, they had suddenly all become kind of creepily invested in finding out about Percy's friends. It was like it was the switch suddenly just got turned on; for the first time, they realised that he actually friends outside of them.

"Shocking, I know," he says.

"Don't be sarcastic, it's not a good look on you," Thalia says. "Also, the fact that you said that like it was actually super obvious you had friends other than us is incredibly insulting. You're really lame, Percy. All you do is mark papers and cry about how sad your life is. It would make sense that no one puts up with you."

Percy blows a raspberry at her, and she blows a bigger one.

The turning point happens during the week when Percy's at work. He's got a spare, so he's in his office grading some papers (fricking Octavian's, too, ugh) when the door gets flung open.

"I need vodka," Leo announces as he breezes in. Jason lags behind him, unpeeling the wrapper off an iced fairy cake.

Percy doesn't look up Octavian's dumbass paper. "That's nice."

Leo collapses into a chair. He kind of looks like one of Percy's whiny students when they want an extension on an assignment. "Come on, don't be stingey. Gimme some."

Percy frowns. "What do you mean? I don't have any on me."

"You don't keep an emergency bottle in your desk?"

"You do?" Jason asks, scandalised.

"You do not teach woodshop," Leo says. "I have seen horrors."

"I teach English," Percy says. "And one of my students writes sex scenes for his essays. You have seen nothing compared to what I'm forced to suffer through."

"Is it Octavian?" Jason asks. When Percy nods, he makes a displeased noise and takes another bite of his cake. "I don't like him. He keeps trying to use his foot fungus to get out of PE."

Percy nods towards the cake. "Where'd you get that from?"

"I just found it on my desk," Jason says. "I think one of my students left it for me."

Leo and Percy glance at each other, alarmed.

"Dude," Leo says. "What if they poisoned it?"

"They wouldn't poison it," Jason says.

Percy hides his snigger behind the paper. PE teachers. So naïve.

However, just before Jason can call him out on it, there's a knock on the door. They all look towards it to see it get cracked open, and a very familiar head pop through.

Percy sits upright. "Annabeth?"

But Annabeth is scowling at the fairy cake in Jason's hand. "That wasn't for you," she says.

Jason is wide-eyed. Dazed, Leo says, "Percy, who's your friend?"

Percy stands up. "What are you doing here?"

"You forgot your lunch," Annabeth explains. "And you always get pissy when you're hungry and I decided I didn't want to let your students have to suffer through that, so I brought it for you. Piper's also started baking so I brought you a fairy cake. I left it on your desk." She gives Jason an evil look and he practically cowers.

"You must have got the wrong office," Percy says.

Annabeth's eyebrows furrow. "But I saw you," she says, which means but I smelled you.

"I'm in Jason's office most of the time," he says.

"That's because it's depressing to hang out here," Leo says. "It smells of doom and gloom and English papers." He stands up and holds out his hand, a smirk on his face. "Leo Valdez. Woodshop teacher and Percy's significantly better-looking friend. And your name is?"

"Annabeth," Annabeth says, and then she turns to Percy and hands him a brown paper bag. "Here you are."

Jason is glancing between them. "How do you guys know each other?"

Percy opens his mouth but Annabeth beats him to it. "We live with each other," she says.

Immediately, Leo gets a very suggestive look on his face. Percy recognises the beginnings of the eyebrow wiggle and before it can happen and taint his office he quickly clarifies, "With three other people."

Jason looks pacified. Leo's expression somehow gets even more suggestive.

"Four people?" he says, looking rather impressed.

Percy wants to throw Octavian's dumb porn paper at his face. "No. We're roommates."

"When did that happen?" Jason wonders. "I didn't realise you had people move in."

"It's quite recent," Annabeth says. "Percy put an ad on Craigslist."

"You don't look like the kind of girl to frequent Craigslist," Leo says.

Annabeth gives him a look.

"Or maybe you do," he quickly adds. "I wouldn't know because stereotyping girls on what they do based on how they look is very wrong and misogynistic in this patriarchal society."

"We should have dinner sometime," Jason says. "All seven of us. That way we get to meet your new roommates. We need to see if they're good for you."

That actually sounds—kind of nice. Besides, after the disaster that was Leo inviting himself to Percy's apartment, he'd been thinking about officially introducing them all in a way that wasn't treating them like dogs. He glances at Annabeth. "You good with that?"

Annabeth nods. "That sounds nice."

Jason beams. (Structured plans get him excited. He's adorable like that.) "Awesome! We'll work something out. Check our planners."

Leo snorts. "No one has planners, Jason."

"I do," Jason says, wounded.

"So do I," Annabeth says, narrowing her eyes.

Leo wisely recognises the threat. "And that's cool, and I respect that."

Annabeth smirks.

Percy checks his watch. "I need to be heading over now," he says. "Class starts in a few minutes." He looks at Annabeth. "You want to stick around? You might be able to help. We're studying Brian Stableford." She doesn't get it, so he elaborates. "Werewolves Of London."

She cuts her eyes at him, and he laughs.

"Yeah, me too," Jason says, oblivious. "I've got the tenth graders today for dodgeball, it's going to be terrifying." He stands up out of the chair and stretches, and then holds his hand out. "It's been very nice to meet you, Annabeth. I'm looking forward to dinner."

Annabeth shakes his hand. "You too, uh..."

"Jason."

"Jason." She smiles at him. "It's great to meet you."

There's a small pause. Leo says, "It's nice to meet you as well."

Percy laughs, and crams his papers into his side bag (the temptation to shove Octavian's dumbass paper in the wastepaper bin is so prominent that he thinks he crinkles it clenching his fist around it). "I'll see you guys later. Annabeth, come on, I'll walk you out."

Annabeth waves at them, and together they leave his office. The hallways are swarmed with students pushing and shoving to get where they need to go, and as soon as they step in they are surrounded. When Percy glances at Annabeth to check if she's okay she looks like she's just stepped in dog crap.

"You okay?" he says.

She wrinkles her nose. "Lots of smells," she says. "Just need to drown it out."

Percy doesn't envy her. He's pretty sure half these kids just came from Jason's PE class and he knows for a fact about ninety percent of them do not shower afterwards.

As they walk, he says, "Thanks."

"For what?"

"For bringing me my lunch."

"It's really the least I could do." She smiles, a little wryly. "Besides, that's my job. Taking care of everyone. I'm the alpha."

"Does that even count? Human, remember?"

"You're pack adjacent."

"Meaning...?"

"You're not in the pack. You're just—there. Which technically makes me your alpha, meaning that I need to look after you."

"I'm a fully-grown man. With health insurance and a job."

By now, they've reached the visitor doors, where they split. Softly, with a little teasing, Annabeth says, "A fully-grown man who forgets his lunch."

Percy feels his ears go red. "This is an exception."

"Somehow, I doubt that." To his surprise, she cups his face in her hand, her eyes soft, and after a few moments, pulls back, completely unselfconsciously. "I'll see you at home."

He doesn't think anyone except his mom has ever done that to him, and it's—nice. It's really nice. "Yeah," he says, his mouth suddenly dry. "Yeah, you too."

He watches her as she leaves.

You are not going to get some dumb crush on a werewolf who broke into your house, he tells himself sternly.

Somehow, he doesn't really believe that.

Thalia raises an eyebrow. "Dinner?"

"You'll have to meet them eventually," Percy says, smoothing out his shirt in the mirror. "Besides, you've already met Leo."

"Yeah, as a wolf called Moomoo."

"That was funny," Piper calls from the kitchen. "You can't deny that."

Thalia narrows her eyes, and points the remote threateningly at Percy. "The only thing that stopped me from eating you in front of him is that you pay for cable."

(They haven't had TV for a while. Thalia reaps from the benefit the most, he thinks.)

"They all seem perfectly nice," Annabeth says, coming into the living room. She's wearing a pair of jeans and a faded white T-shirt, and she simultaneously looks like a mom and a fifteen-year-old girl. Percy is kind of endeared, and then immediately rebukes himself for it. "Even Leo. Come on, Thalia. It'll be fun! We can expand our social circle."

"My social circle is plenty expanded, thank you very much."

"Your social circle is the four of us," Piper says, from the kitchen. "And the butcher."

Thalia glares very hard at the wall between them. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"It'll be good for us," Annabeth says. "Don't make me alpha you."

"You won't alpha me."

"No, I won't, but that's because you should have the capacity to do this without it!"

Thalia whines, and sinks further into the sofa. "It just sounds lame."

"I think it sounds nice," Hazel says. "It's a chance to meet Percy's friends."

Thalia only whines louder.

"Look," Percy says. "There are only two of them, and one you've met before. And Jason's harmless! He wears square glasses and keeps a diary and three goldfish and they're all named after presidents. You'll like him, I promise."

Thalia sighs heavily. "Do I have to?"

"Yes," Annabeth says emphatically.

"Ugh." She rolls off the sofa, and starts a sullen crawl towards the suitcase they keep all their clothes in. "Fine. Whatever. Permission to leave halfway through if it gets boring."

"Permission denied," Annabeth says.

"Three-quarters?"

"No less than an hour, and you have to pretend to get an urgent call." (Percy buffed them all up on etiquette. Annabeth took notes. Piper nodded. Thalia napped. Hazel wasn't needed there at all.) "Okay?"

Thalia makes a grumble, which Annabeth seems to take as an affirmative.

At that moment, Piper appears in the doorway, with a jar of peanut butter in one hand and a spoon in the other. "What time are we leaving?"

"Around twenty minutes," he says. "Why are you eating peanut butter?"

"In case they can't cook," she says, and bops his nose with the spoon. "You learn all sorts of valuable survival hacks when you're on the run for five years. Firstly – foods with lots of calories are your friends. Like peanut butter. A jar of this can sustain you for about a week, maybe two, if you push it."

"You realise you don't live in the wild anymore, right? There's this really great thing called actual food now."

She holds up the jar and spoon in defence. "I don't know what sort of environment we're walking into here. It could be very hostile."

"Leo's a great cook."

"That's for me to judge." She walks further around into the room and does a twirl. "Do I look all right?"

"You look fine," Annabeth says. She taps her foot. "Thalia, hurry up."

There's a muffled shout from the bathroom. Percy can't hear what she says, but Annabeth's ensuing eyeroll gives him a pretty good idea.

"Do we need to bring anything?" Hazel asks Percy. "I researched dinners online. Apparently it's considered good manners to bring a gift."

"It's just Jason and Leo," Percy says.

"I know, but I want to make a good first impression!"

Thalia comes out of the bathroom in a pair of ripped black jeans and a T-shirt that says DEATH TO BARBIE. To her credit, Annabeth only manages to look exasperated for about three seconds. Percy wants to say something but Thalia gives him a look that makes him swallow his words immediately.

Instead, he says, "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be," she grouches.

"Oh, I know," Hazel says. "I can bring one of my plants. Would they like a geranium, do you think?"

"I don't think they know what that is," Piper says. She pauses. "I don't even know what that is."

"Let's just go," Percy says. "Come on."

It's a short journey to Leo and Jason's apartment, just a train ride, so they make it in under twenty minutes. There's a slight hiccup when a ticket inspector comes down the aisles of the subway and Thalia freezes because, "that's the one I punched in the face three months ago," she hisses frantically, and proceeds to try and hide in Percy's sweater, "quick, cover me, he'll probably fine you out of spite" but after he's passed with nothing but a weird look thrown at Percy who's trying to look like it's perfectly normal to have someone's head in his T-shirt it otherwise goes smoothly.

As they walk up the steps to the apartment, Percy says, "I have to ask—"

"He was being stupid," Thalia says.

"We snuck on," Piper says. "We went in our wolf form and curled up around some sleeping old dude to make it look like we belonged to him but Thalia didn't, for some reason, and he tried to fine her for not having a ticket, so she punched him in the face and bolted."

Percy glances at Thalia. She sniffs indignantly. "I was just trying to do what was best for the pack. Clearly, some people thought differently."

"You punched him in the face," Piper says.

"I was protecting you."

Annabeth just rolls her eyes. This is clearly an argument they've had a lot.

They get to the front door, and Percy knocks. From inside, someone shouts, "Coming!", and then there's a crash and a "Shi—Jason, the potatoes!". Thirty seconds later, the door opens to reveal Leo in a crumpled shirt with sauce in his hair.

Percy raises an eyebrow. "You all good there, buddy?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Leo says. He catches sight of the girls over his shoulder. "Oh, your roommates! Welcome to Casa De Valdez! I hope you enjoy your stay. Come inside!"

He beckons them in, and they all enter. It's nothing Percy hasn't seen before – when he's not here, Leo and Jason are probably at his place instead – but all the girls stare at everything like they've just walked into a treasure trove. Hazel is the only one who takes off her shoes, arranging them neatly by the front door. Percy almost tells her not to bother until he sees the proud look on her face for remembering, so he doesn't.

"You have a nice place," Piper says.

Leo beams. "Thanks! We're not here much but we make do, I think. Sorry if you see any wood shavings anywhere, I have to make a lot of birdhouses for school. I'm a woodshop teacher."

"Percy mentioned," Annabeth says. "We've met before."

"Yep! Annabeth, right?"

Annabeth actually smiles. "I'm surprised you remembered. Everyone thinks it's Annabelle."

"I'm very good with names," Leo says. "Trust me. These kids eat you alive if you don't get their names by the second day."

"It's true," Jason says, coming into the living room with an apron tied around his waist. "I accidentally called a girl Sophie instead of Sophia and when Rachel was on bathroom duty she reported that there was a long paragraph describing my death. It's very fun being a teacher." He wrings his hands out on the bottom of his apron – it's got KISS THE CHEF emblazoned across the front, because it's Jason, and of course it does – and then smiles at the girls. "You must be Percy's roommates! It's very lovely to meet you all. I'm Jason."

Percy turns to Piper, almost half-expecting her to introduce the group, but Piper is gone, staring at Jason like he just performed a magic trick. Thalia is still clearly content to do nothing but scowl so Hazel pipes up, "I'm Hazel, that's Piper and that's Thalia."

Leo frowns. "Aren't those the names of the dogs you look after?"

Percy's heart stops. "Um," he says.

This is it. This is the moment they find out he's living with four werewolves. They're going to call the cops and never speak to him ever again.

He braces for impact.

But as it turns out, he kind of overestimated Leo's skills. He just shrugs and says, "oh, that's cool, my aunt Rosa had twelve dogs and named them after her ex-husbands" and Jason says, "Dude, my dad named goldfish after all his business associates and flushed them down the toilet whenever he bankrupted them" and Leo says, "Dude" and that's quite that.

They all gather around the table in the living room whilst Jason finishes the food in the kitchen. At first, Percy is worried that it's going to be awkward, but somehow Leo charms the utter pants off everyone, even Thalia, who begins to look grudgingly interested in the conversation. Percy has absolutely no desire to know about physics – he's an English teacher, he has no need for rubbish like that – but he's perfectly content to sit on the side and just listen. However, just as Leo and Annabeth reach the apex of their debate on aerodynamics, Jason pops his head around the door.

"Hey, Perce?" he says. "Can I have some help?"

Percy stands up and heads into the kitchen, but as soon as he's (seemingly) out of earshot, Jason takes him to the side. "Dude," he whispers. "Isn't that the girl you said pretended to be your cousin to break into your house?"

Percy sees Piper tense through the door into the living room. Hazel stares at him, wide-eyed.

"As it turns out," Percy says slowly, "we actually are cousins."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Percy says, trying to sound flippant. "Long lost relatives, you know how it is."

"Dude, I get you," Jason says. "Last week I found out I have six more aunts. Like, what the heck, right? I totally understand the long-lost relatives thing. I know how to act, I've had loads of practice."

Percy loves Jason, but sometimes he really wonders. "Six aunts?"

"Yeah, man," Jason says. "Dad never told me about them. Then all six of them showed up on my doorstep. Turns out they'd all tried to like, murder each other a few times, and then moved to Spain? I don't know. I think four of them had been married to Dad at some point."

"Huh."

"Besides." Jason's face goes adorably bashful. "She is kind of cute, isn't she? I always thought it was a shame she ended up being a con artist."

Percy grins. "Well, she's definitely not. You should go for it."

"You think so?"

"Definitely."

"Yo, Jase!" Leo shouts from the living room. "Is it nearly done? I'm starving!"

"I think that's your cue," Percy says.

Jason grins, and switches off the stovetop. "I hope your roommates like curry."

Together, they carry the food into the living room. Leo makes inappropriate moaning noises when he smells it, and Percy doesn't miss the way the girls already have their forks in their fists from the way they managed to smell it from the kitchen. He smiles a little, and helps Jason serve everyone.

"This tastes amazing, Jason," Hazel says earnestly.

Jason laughs. "You haven't even tried it yet."

She looks a little embarrassed. "I mean—it looks like it would taste good."

Piper pats her shoulder. Percy thinks it's meant to be sympathetic, but she has still yet to unglue her eyes from Jason so he's not entirely sure.

They all help themselves to good-sized portions (Leo's plate is almost piled as tall as he is, and Perc doesn't doubt he can clean every crumb of it) and then dig in. It's admittedly really good. Out of the three of them, Percy was the one who wasn't blessed with any talents in the kitchen, so most of his dinners consist of pot noodles, or microwavable ready-meals, and with the newfound werewolf harboring his life has turned into he hasn't had much time to pop around for something actually good. His eyes practically roll into the back of his head when he has his first mouthful.

They eat in companionable silence for a few moments, before Jason breaks it. "So," he says, putting his fork down. "What is it you guys said you did again?"

Percy's breath gets caught in his throat. However, before he has time to panic, or knock over a glass of wine to create a diversion, Annabeth smoothly says, "I work in an architecture firm."

Jason smiles. "Really? How's that?"

"I love it," she says. "I'm not a very big deal at the moment, just one of the supervisors, but I'm hoping for a promotion soon."

"That's awesome!"

Annabeth shrugs modestly, and Percy is in awe. "It's pretty cool."

"I'd love for you to come to one of my lessons," Leo says. "In woodshop class we have to make sure everything is properly aligned and measured so it all fits together. It would be pretty cool if you could come in and give some insight about what it's like to be an architect."

Annabeth smiles properly. "I'd love that," she says, and Percy tries to give her mission abort eyes because she's already strung this along for far too long, but she's not looking at him, so he just squints despairingly down at his curry.

Jason turns to the others. "What about you guys?"

Hazel ducks her head, a little shyly. "I run a little online store," she admits.

Thalia nearly upturns her plate in excitement. "It's not just a store, it's a frigging business! She grows flowers and makes her own perfumes and bookmarks and candles out of them. She's a genius! She'll probably end up selling it to Vogue or something and make millions."

Hazel glows. "Thanks, Thalia."

"I work in a salon," Piper says. "And Thalia's just couch-surfing."

"Hazel's job is cool enough for the two of us," Thalia says, quite unbothered. "Besides, I kind of help, don't I? I come up with all the names for the perfumes."

"Yeah, and they're all crap, so she doesn't use them," Piper says.

"That's—not true," Hazel says lamely.

"It's very true. Not that I blame you. I mean, Angel Of Death? Who would buy that?"

"I would!" Thalia defends. "It's a great name. Very marketable."

Meekly, and to her curry, Hazel says, "the perfume was lavender scented."

"Yeah, and it was very appropriately named, because lavender is the angel of death, because it looks all very well and nice in the Pinterest photos, until you actually go try frolic in a field of it and almost end up hospitalised."

"That's because there was wolfsbane growing in it as well," Piper says. "That has nothing to do with the lavender."

Thalia just raises her chin imperiously and picks up her spoon. "My point still stands."

Jason laughs. "Do you have allergies, then?"

Thalia frowns. "What do you mean?"

"Oh—I mean, you had a reaction to the wolfsbane…"

Percy clocks exactly the moment Thalia does, and he watches her eyes widen. "Yes," she says, very fast. "I am terribly, deathly allergic to wolfsbane. We all are."

Leo frowns. "All of you? That's quite coincidental."

"We're related," Hazel blurts, and then looks like she wants to stab her fork through her eyes.

Leo, however, is intrigued. "Really?"

"Through a—distant aunt," Annabeth quickly cuts in. "We're all forth cousins, twice removed. On my, uh, father's side."

"That's why we came to live with Percy," Piper says. "Found out there was another forth cousin twice removed and just had to reunite."

"I thought you said you found him on Craigslist," Jason says.

All the girls turn to look at Annabeth. She says faintly, "I did say that, yes."

"We recognised him in the ad," Hazel says quickly. "We saw his face and recognised him from all the—family photos, and thought we should take the chance while we could."

Leo laughs, thrilled. "Talk about a small world!" he says, and Percy feels himself deflate with relief. "That's pretty crazy! You can tell that the next time you have an extended family reunion."

"We'll bear that in mind," Percy says, and then quickly changes the topic before they can cut it that close again. "Jason, how's the basketball team looking?"

Later that night, when they're all gone home with Tupperware filled with leftover curry and Leo and Jason have been gifted with a tiny sprig of lavender Hazel snuck in in her coat pocket, Percy says to Annabeth, "How did you do that so easily?"

"Do what?"

"Lie to them. About your jobs. Did you plan ahead?"

She gives him a look that's almost sad. "Percy," she says. "The wolf doesn't erase the human."

Afterwards, he asks Piper about it. "What did that mean?" he says.

Piper sighs. "Out of all of us," she says, "Annabeth was the one who was going to have the brightest future. She graduated valedictorian, always got straight As. If things had gone normally, what we said is probably what would have happened. Hazel would probably be in her home making perfumes like she is now, I'd be working in my mom's salon, and Thalia would be jobless somewhere. But Annabeth – she'd probably be the CEO of some big company somewhere. Out of all us, the hunters took the most of her."

Percy processes this. "Does she want to be an architect?" he asks.

Piper shrugs. "I don't know. She says something different every time."

Percy thinks about that a lot.

Three days later, Jason asks Piper out.

Percy doesn't hear about this from Jason, although looking back it does explain a lot, like the permanently dopey look on his face all throughout lunch that Percy had at first dismissed as a sugar coma from Leo's carrot cake. In fact, the way he finds out is actually through the girls, because when he arrives home the first thing that greets him is Piper strewn on the sofa, lying on her back, with her hands folded over her stomach like she's in a psychiatrist's office. Hazel is giving her a foot massage and Annabeth is pacing the room, and Thalia is sat on the floor, which is now just a mess of bedding, with a bag of crisps, sprinkling orange cheese dust everywhere.

"What do I say?" Piper laments, and all Percy wants is a glass is whiskey, is that too much to ask.

"I know," Thalia says. "Say you got kicked out and needed a place to stay."

Hazel brightens. "That's a good one!"

Piper nods, nibbling at her fingernail. "I need a reason why," she says.

"Because you're gay," Thalia says decisively. "That's why I got kicked out."

"But I'm going on a date with Jason."

"She has a point," Hazel points out.

"You're right." Thalia thinks for a few moments, and then clicks triumphantly. "I know, drugs!"

Percy decides to put an end to this. "Okay," he says. "What, exactly, is going on?"

"Jason asked Piper out," Hazel says. "We're trying to come up with a convincing backstory."

"I'm thinking drugs," Thalia says. "That's why we're living with you."

"You're putting too much thought into this," Percy says.

Piper sits up in outrage. It's a bit like Bridezilla, without the bride. Or the zilla, for that matter. Bridewolf? "How?" she demands. "I'm creating myself an alibi!"

"Your actual backstory isn't that suspicious."

"Uh, what about the fact that my best friend bit me to cure me from a terminal illness and that I'm on the run from a group of professional hunters for convinced murder isn't suspicious? Is it the convicted murder part?"

Percy resists the urge to roll his eyes. "Firstly," he says. "This is the first I'm hearing about a convicted murder."

"It's really quite irrelevant," Thalia says. "You're best off just forgetting we said anything."

He decides to ignore this. "Secondly, just don't say that part. It's not that hard. Just say you grew up somewhere else, and when you moved to New York because of, like, job opportunities, or whatever, and that you're just crashing with me for the time being."

"I need a reason why, though."

"Drugs is pretty foolproof," Hazel says.

"Money, Piper. New York is hella expensive. I inherited this apartment from my dad, completely paid off. Just say you're hanging with me because it's free lodging. Also, we're related, remember? Family is always family. I'm giving you a helping hand."

She gnaws at her thumbnail. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, dude. Jason doesn't really care. Like, what's the worst that'll happen?"

"He's secretly a werewolf hunter. He finds out we're werewolves, and kills us."

There's a pause. "Well," Percy says optimistically. "That probably won't happen."

Thalia snorts. "Probably."

"And hey." He pats her shoulder. "He asked you out! That's pretty cool, right?"

Piper nods. "Yeah." She smiles, a little shyly. "Do you know where he's taking me?"

Annabeth speaks for the first time. "Probably somewhere beautiful," she says. "Which is why I'm sending Thalia and Hazel with you."

Both Piper and Thalia do vicious double takes. "What?" Piper demands. "No!"

"I have plans!" Thalia says furiously, which is kind of contradicted by the fact that she's in her pajamas and is elbow-deep in her crisps.

But Annabeth is unchanged. "I just want to make sure that you're safe. We don't know we're out the woods yet. There may be hunters wandering the streets as we speak. And I want to make sure that Hazel and Thalia are with you in case they try striking."

"No way, Annabeth," Piper says. "I love you, but no way. I am not taking Thalia on a date with me. Hazel, I'll take, but not Thalia."

"Screw you too!" Thalia says, quite crossly.

"I'm not asking," Annabeth says coolly. "You can both go with her."

Thalia seethes. Piper looks extremely upset. Quietly, Hazel suggests, "We don't have to sit at your table. We can wear disguises and sit on the other end of the restaurant. You won't even know we're there."

"Yes you will," Thalia says sulkily. "When I poison your water."

"Get changed," Annabeth tells her. "Come on."

"Why can't you just go?"

"Because I need to be here in case someone tries to get to Percy. Go, shoo."

There is a very long scowl-off, in which Thalia and Annabeth lock eyes for about thirty seconds without blinking, and then Thalia huffs. "Fine," she spits. "I'll spit in your cereal tomorrow."

"I'd quite like to see you try," Annabeth says, and takes a seat next to Percy. "Piper, do you need any help with your hair?"

Thalia skulks out of the room like a furious teenager. Piper, a little begrudgingly, slides off the sofa, and sits in front of Annabeth's knees, and Annabeth smooths it down the side of her head, using her fingers to detangle some of the knots.

Percy feels a little struck. That just—all happened so fast, and they're all so relatively calm about it. Like yeah, Piper and Thalia still seem like they'll sulk about it until next year, but they're not actively going against Annabeth, like this is just something they're used to.

He's wondering, so he has to ask. "Was that—did you just alpha them?"

Annabeth looks up. "What do you mean?"

"Thalia. Did you just alpha her?"

She laughs. "When I alpha one of them, you'll know."

"So what was that?"

"Them knowing I have their safety at heart."

"That doesn't jolly well mean we're pleased," Piper grouches.

From where she's digging around in their suitcase, Hazel glances back, looking a little like a deer in highlights. "I mean, I don't mind," she says. "I like restaurant food."

"Shut up Hazel," Piper says with no bite.

"I'm just being cautious," Annabeth says. "You'll thank me."

"If they're the reason I don't get laid you'll regret it."

"I'll keep that in mind. Hold still."

Piper obediently sits still as Annabeth braids her hair. When she's done, she stands up and squeezes her hand, and then disappears into the bathroom with a bundle of clothes, Hazel quickly on her heels. Percy watches them go.

"You love them a lot," he says.

"They're my pack," Annabeth says, like it's obvious. "Of course I do."

He smiles.

A few minutes later, Thalia, Piper and Hazel come out, all dressed up. Piper, as always, looks gorgeous. Percy knows that Jason's going to probably fall over his feet with amazement when he sees her.

"You look great," he says.

"Thank you," Hazel says.

"I know," Thalia says.

He rolls his eyes.

"Where are you meeting him?" Annabeth asks the girls.

"By the plaza," Piper says. "He's taking me from there."

"We'll just blend into the crowd behind you," Hazel reassures her. "Don't worry."

Thalia just smirks.

Piper checks the time. "We should probably be heading off," she says. "We'll see you guys later, okay?"

"See you later," Annabeth confirms. "Have fun. Be safe."

"Always," Piper says, and then they're gone.

Percy looks at Annabeth. "You know," he says. "You're kind of like their mom."

"Piss off, Percy," Annabeth tells him, quite unbothered. "Don't you have essays to mark?"

He sighs, and then looks despairingly at the pile of papers on the table. "I forgot about those."

"I thought this was the fun essay."

"It is. They get to choose whatever they want to write about, which at least means I won't be reading the same things over and over again. But it also means they can write about anything, and I have some real creeps in my class, Annabeth. If Octavian can turn Pride and Prejudice into porn I'm afraid to see what he's done with no constraints."

"I'll leave you to it," Annabeth says. "I need to work on something, too, so we can do it together, at least."

Percy huffs, and pulls out his red marking pen. "If you ever get bored you can help me."

"Yeah, doubtful." She pulls a notepad from the drawer and then plops down next to him, and rests her legs over his thighs. "Come on, Mr Jackson. We'll work together."

And they do, for several hours, in peaceful silence. Annabeth is a really good person to work with, he realises. She's quiet and sensible and doesn't make too much noise, and whenever he glances at her eyes thoughtful and she's chewing on the edge of her pen, her eyes a million miles away. She looks extremely focused, and, absently, he wonders if she had to write an essay on whatever she wanted, what she would do.

It's maybe three hours later when he puts his pen down. He hasn't finished, not by a long shot, but he's tired, and the essay he just marked was the dumbest thing by far. He needs a break.

Annabeth senses the change in mood and glances up. "You all right?" she asks, amused.

"Tired," he says. "This essay was so stupid."

She shuffles closer, and Percy tries not to feel really endeared. "What's it about?"

"Where I'm from. It's not a bad idea but it was written—terribly. She talked about the squirrels in Central Park for two sides. There wasn't even any meaning behind them! She literally just liked squirrels that much."

Annabeth laughs softly, and turns back to her work. "Sounds like a riot."

"Where are you guys from, anyway?"

"Richmond, Virginia."

Percy laughs. Wow. "Of course you are."

She looks up. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Do you not get the joke?"

"What joke?"

"You're a wolf from Virginia. Virginia Woolf. It's a literature joke."

Annabeth looks incredibly unimpressed. "That's a terrible joke."

"It's kind of funny."

"Do you see me laughing?"

"Yeah, but your sense of humour is like, Math puns, and the death of small animals."

Annabeth bares her teeth lazily at him, and he grins. "You want a coffee?"

"Yes, please."

He gets up to put on the kettle. As he flicks it on, he leans against the counter and peers back into the living room over the island separating it from the kitchen. "What are you even doing, anyway?"

"I'm trying to brainstorm a resume," Annabeth says.

"How's it going?"

She just kind of makes a pathetic sound, and drops the notepad over her face. Percy infers what he can. "Not good, huh?"

"It's so hard. I don't have any actual qualifications aside from my high school diploma. No one's going to want to hire me." She peeks out from under the notepad. "You want to know the worst thing? I could have had insane qualifications. I got into Stanford."

Percy's eyes nearly bug out of his head. "Seriously? Why didn't you go?"

"The hunters started coming after us right after graduation. Literally, the night after. We got our diplomas, threw our caps, and then packed a bag and legged it."

"That's terrible."

"It doesn't really matter anymore. When a good day is a day you haven't had your arm blown off, you kind of forget about that kind of thing. It's just—" She sighs, and rolls onto her tummy, so she can look at him. "I feel safe here. For the first time in almost as long I can remember, I can live without fear of persecution. I have my pack, and I have you. I—I want to settle down here, Percy. Living with you has kind of made me want to start living, instead of just surviving. But I can't. They literally cut me from the stem. I'm not going to amount to anything at this rate."

"Hey," Percy says. "Don't be ridiculous. You know you can still apply to universities now?"

"It's too risky. If I put my name into a database of sorts the hunters could track me immediately."

Percy watches her for a long time. She's stretched out on his couch like she owns the place, her body completely relaxed, but her eyes are tired. She's exhausted, he realises, and probably to the bone, from running for so long. He can't imagine how hard that must be for her, to have dreams, and the capability to achieve them, but not being able to do anything about it in the fear of getting killed simply because of what she is.

"How did they come after you?" he asks. "The first time, I mean. After graduation."

She sighs, but it's almost resigned, like she knew this was coming. "I had a feeling," she says. "For a while. A few weeks before this family had moved in down the street. The Castellans. They were nice enough, but—I don't know, they unsettled me. As a werewolf you get quite good at trusting your gut, and my gut didn't feel right about them. But they seemed harmless, so I didn't really think much of it. I mean, graduation was soon, and that was a bit more important, right?

"Anyway, turns out they were hunters, and not just any hunters. Important hunters. Have you ever heard of them before?"

"Castellan?" Percy says, and she nods. "I mean, it's vaguely familiar, but I can't think why."

"They're one of the top gun traders in the country," she says. "Their family business is literally an empire. They have money. And they don't just sell guns, they use them. You know how I said that werewolves are kind of a government secret, like aliens? Well, someone had tipped them off that there were supposed werewolf sightings in the woods, and they sent reinforcement to find out. I think they knew my mom, or had encountered her before, because they kept a real close eye on me. I tried to be careful but they found out anyway. I'm not sure if they even realised I had a pack at that point, but they did know I was an alpha, and they were planning the best way to put me down."

Put me down. They're even derogatory in the way they talk about killing. Percy feels sick.

"They tried to get me at graduation," she continues, blithely ignorant to Percy's discomfort. "They failed, obviously, but it was enough to completely confirm my suspicions that there were people after me, and they were ready to kill. So after graduation, I told the girls, and we packed up, and left. Piper's dad is really rich, and he has a bunch of houses across the country, so we caught a bus into North Carolina and stayed in one of the houses there. They followed us and set it on fire."

Percy can't believe how nonchalantly she said that. "What?"

"It was pretty awful. We escaped, but barely, and all of our stuff was lost. We had no food, no nothing. I think Thalia might have had a pack of Peparamis in her pocket, and we had some bits and bobs, but nothing important. We realised we couldn't stay in any public places, like houses, and stuff, so we shifted and ran into the woods."

"They tracked you all across the country?"

"Several times around. It was kind of funny, coming back to New York. There's still the gunshot hole in the pavement from two years ago outside the Metro."

"Annabeth," he says, reasonably horrified.

"Sorry," she says, wincing. "I know that's a bit dark. But—" She sighs. "It's kind of hard not to be morbid, you know? Like, I'm still alive, but am I really? I'm kind of just surviving. I'm not living. I can't even get a job because I can't even write my dumb resume."

He watches her for a few moments, before coming back into the living room. He sits on the sofa next to her and pulls his bag into his lap, digging around in it before finding what he was looking for.

Annabeth frowns. "What's that?"

He hands her the pamphlet. "It's an architecture program," he says. "For high school students."

She stares down at it.

He gets a little nervous. "At dinner," he says. "With Jason and Leo. You said that you wanted to be an architect. And I asked Piper about it and she said that you always changed your career every time someone asked about it, but—they must still all be careers you want, right? And I was having a chat with the guidance counsellor and I saw these flyers. They barely even need a high school diploma. You just sign up and you can do night courses at the high school. It's free and it doesn't really give you any actual qualifications, but it's something to do, and you said that you liked architecture but you'd never be able to work at a firm, so." He shrugs. "I thought this might be the next best thing."

For a very long time, Annabeth is silent, and for a few moments Percy is afraid he did something wrong. But then she turns to him, and her eyes are wet.

"Percy," she breathes. "Thank you so much."

"You like it?"

"I love it." She clutches the pamphlet to her chest. "This is—the best thing I could have hoped for. You don't know how much this means to me."

"Of course," he says.

She looks at him properly then, and it's then that he realises how close they are. He can count the blue flecks in her eyes if he wanted. He can see all her freckles. If he leaned forward even two inches, their mouths would be touching.

Her eyes flicker down to his lips. He knows she's thinking about it.

He leans forward. So does she. And then—

The front door bursts open, and they both spring apart like they've been shocked with electricity. It's Piper, Hazel and Thalia, back from Piper's date – except something's wrong, because they all look like they've just seen a ghost.

Annabeth frowns. "What's going on? Are you guys okay?"

"They're here," Hazel says.

Percy has no idea who 'they' are, but Annabeth sits up. "What?" she demands. "How do you know? Did you see them?"

"Police station," Hazel says. "We were coming back, and then we took a shortcut, and—we passed the station, and I saw the van. They're here."

Annabeth pushes herself to her feet. "This is bad. This is really bad."

"What's going on?" Percy asks.

"Maybe they're just hunting regular wolves," Annabeth says. "Maybe we don't need to panic."

"It's New York," Piper says. "There aren't wolves in New York, Annabeth. And they don't hunt normal wolves even if there were."

"It was definitely them, Annabeth," Hazel says. "They must know we're here."

Annabeth looks visibly distressed. "I don't understand," she says faintly, half to herself. "We've been so—good, how did they find us—"

"Maybe there's another pack here," Hazel says. "New York's big, there have to be other packs."

"Yes, but not every pack is on the run," Piper says dryly.

"Piper," Annabeth snaps.

"Sorry."

"Maybe they're stopping through every state," Hazel says. "They know we can't have gotten out the country. They probably have security on lookout at every international airport. They know we're here somewhere. Maybe they're just passing through and asking if there have been any freak wolf sightings."

"About that," Thalia says.

Everyone glances at her. Annabeth takes a step forward. "What?"

Thalia raises her hands. "I just want to clarify," she says, "that it wasn't strictly my fault."

"Can someone please explain what's going on?" Percy says.

Annabeth ignores him. "You shifted in public?" she demands. "Thalia, we have rules!"

"It wasn't my fault!" Thalia says again. "This creep wouldn't leave me alone!"

"So you thought shifting into a wolf would scare him off?" Piper asks.

"I mean, it worked."

"So!" Annabeth screeches. "You can't turn in public! What do you not understand about we are on the run?"

"Wait, everyone, hold up," Percy says. "Someone, please tell me what's going on."

Piper looks at him. "The hunters are here," she says. "They're coming after us."

"And... who are the hunters again?"

"Bad guys," Hazel says. "Very, very bad guys."

"Who want us dead," Thalia says.

Annabeth scowls at her, and Thalia rolls her eyes.

"Why?" Percy says. "You guys haven't done anything wrong."

"Untrue," Piper says, crossing her ankles delicately over Percy's lap. She creases the Playboy paper but Percy was going to fail it anyway so he doesn't particularly care. "See, Percy, a long, long time ago, we were all human."

"Except Annabeth," Hazel says. "She's a born werewolf."

Annabeth doesn't say anything. She's still staring down at her hands.

"Anyway," Piper says. "We all knew Annabeth in high school. Me and her were best friends, and we were pretty civil with Hazel, and Thalia was just—being a freak somewhere."

"I was the resident badass," Thalia says smugly.

"We all hated you," Hazel tells her.

"And then," Piper says, "one day, freaky Thalia comes into school claiming she was mauled by a wolf, and naturally, no one believes her, because there's no bite mark, and also, there are no wolves in California. Everyone just thought she was on drugs. Turns out, wolf was Annabeth."

Percy frowns. "Annabeth attacked you?"

"Not intentionally," Annabeth says tightly. "Full moon does crazy things to you."

"I've noticed."

"Annabeth obviously knew she'd done it," Piper says.

"Yeah," Thalia says. "She cornered me in a closet. I thought we were gonna start making out or something, but actually she basically just told me that weird things were going to start happening to me and that I had to stick with her if I wanted to survive. So I did. I was her first beta."

"What's this got to do with the hunters?" Percy asks.

"I'm getting to that," Piper says. "Patience, child. Anyway, as I was saying. Thalia also turned into a werewolf. I had no idea about anything, even though Annabeth was my best friend. But – well, back in the hay day, I had epilepsy. It got pretty bad. I had an attack in Physics, and I had to be hospitalised. Annabeth found me in the hospital and offered me the bite."

"And you turned into a werewolf?"

"Exactly. So then we became a pack, the four of us. It was pretty neat. But the alpha who bit Hazel wasn't super happy that she was one of Annabeth's betas, and not his. Had some dumb ideology about creating the perfect pack, the 'pack of packs', or whatever."

"I was slightly miffed I wasn't asked to join," Thalia says. "I'm way better than Hazel."

"Hey," Hazel says mildly.

"Oh, shut up, Thalia," Piper says. "Anyway, so an angry alpha is already pretty bad, but an angry alpha with a motive is even worse. He went to the station demanding to know where Hazel was, and when they were like uh, who, and also who are you, he basically went starkers and killed almost every single policeman there in a single night. Thirty men down."

Percy stares at her. "What?"

"Yep. Tore them all to shreds. And hunters are very simple-minded people. They were aware that there was a teenage werewolf running around and that her name was Annabeth Chase and she attended the local high school, and somehow it never occurred to them that maybe she wasn't the only werewolf in California, and also why would she kill a bunch of police in the first place, like, duh, so now she was in their bad books. But the lead hunter's daughter? She went to school with us."

"She was one of my best friends," Hazel says softly.

"Yeah," Piper says. "This alpha thought, well, if I can't have Hazel willingly, I'll try and threaten her into my pack. Bam, another man down."

"He killed the daughter?"

"Clawed out her throat right in front of us," Piper says. "It was a fun day."

"You can say that again," Thalia says.

"Naturally," Piper continues, "the hunters went berserk. Thought Annabeth killed her in retaliation. They were gonna come kill us too. We had to flee."

"That doesn't understand why they'd chase the whole country for you," Percy says.

Thalia looks a little awkward. "Yes," she says. "Well, um. I'm not exactly what you'd call emotionally stable."

"I'm aware."

"And I had real bad anger management in high school," she says. "Like. Real bad."

Percy blinks. "Are you—trying to tell me something?"

"She killed most of the hunters," Hazel says.

"Ah."

"So they kind of hate us," Thalia says. "Have for years. It's been like a back-and-forth thing, you get me? I killed them, so they almost killed us, multiple times, so obviously I kill a few more, and then they literally put wolfsbane in our vents – which, just to remind you, is very, very, highly venomous, and if you think about even using that to your advantage I'll claw your throat out – and almost gassed us to death, so I killed a few more—"

"So they want you dead," Percy says. "And with good reason."

"Semi-good reason," Thalia says.

"Oh," Percy says. "That explains why you all just walked into my apartment in the middle of the night all those months ago, then."

"We didn't really have any other choice," Hazel says. "We had to."

"And this is all just because Thalia has rage."

"Not quite," Thalia says.

Percy tries to arrange his thoughts. He's gotten quite good at just going with the flow these days. Living with four werewolves can do that to a person. "So," he says. "Let me clear this up. The hunters who have been after you for years are chasing you because they made some dumb misconception about Annabeth being a killer, when actually it was Thalia."

Thalia says, "Uh, incorrect—"

"And now they're in New York."

"Pretty much," Hazel says.

"And these hunters. They do what, exactly?"

Piper rolls her eyes. "What do you think, Percy? Throw tea parties?"

Percy raises his hands. "Okay, okay, chill. So they hunt werewolves. Do they hunt anything else? Like—mermaids, or vampires, or—?"

Thalia shakes her head. "Not the vampires. They get off easy."

Percy laughs until he sees her face. "Oh, you're serious."

"Vampires have it simple, man. It's so easy for them to pretend to be human. They just need a bloodbag and boom, problems saved." She rolls her eyes. "Ungrateful bastards. I swear, eternity makes some of them so arrogant—"

Annabeth sighs. "Guys, we can't argue about this. We need to think of a solution."

"Well, that should be easy," Percy says. "Just don't turn into a wolf. It's not rocket science."

"They know what we look like," Hazel says.

"Ah."

"We need to be prepared to fight," Annabeth says. She pushes herself up from the couch and Percy frowns. Werewolves can get pretty toasty when they want to and without his human space heater he suddenly feels cold. Also Annabeth is very, very good at snuggling. "New York is big, but they've probably put out our description by now. They know we're here. Thalia."

"Sexual harassment is no laughing matter," Thalia says. "I did try to warn him that my vagina had teeth, but he didn't believe me."

"That doesn't mean you turn into a wolf."

Thalia just raises her hands.

"Uh," Percy says. "To clarify. By 'fight', you mean..."

"Potentially commit homicide," Thalia says. "But for a good cause."

"I'm not sure what cause is good enough to commit homicide."

"We have to, Percy," Annabeth says. "It's either us or them."

Percy frowns.

"You know," Hazel says hedgingly. "We could... leave."

"Leave New York?" Percy asks. Suddenly his chest feels like it's caving in. "No, you guys—you can't leave."

Annabeth looks unsettled. "We might have to," she says, and she looks around. Percy does too. The entire apartment is no longer just him. It's an amalgamation of the five of them, a space shared by multiple people and not just him alone. He's gotten so used to them in his space that the idea that they could just leave fills him with something akin to dread.

"We'll try and find another way," Piper says, but even she sounds uncertain. "Right, Annabeth?"

"Right," Annabeth says.

Percy doesn't believe her for a second. But the sadistic part of his brain that thinks if you pretend it won't happen makes him nod his head.

That night, Annabeth slips into his bed for the first time. They don't do anything, just curl up against each other.

He doesn't feel her leave, except for a cool pair of lips against his forehead.

They're there in the morning, but that evening Percy comes home and all the lights are switched off. At first, he thinks the girls having another one of their pack naps, because they do that, but it only takes a few moments to realise that something's off.

It takes a few moments more to realise what that something is.

All their stuff is gone, and so are they. In the kitchen, there's a note.

Percy, it begins.

I have no words to express how grateful and thankful I am towards you. Even though you owed us nothing you welcomed me and my pack into your home. You fed us and looked after us and I am forever indebted to you for that.

I hope you understand why we had to leave. The hunters were drawing in too close. I never wanted this to happen. I was certain we'd be able to stay under the radar long enough for the hunters to pass through, but I didn't realise how close on our trail they were. We had to leave, and I'm so, so sorry.

It has been my honour being your alpha, Percy. I love you.

- Annabeth, Piper, Thalia and Hazel xxx

And yeah. He cries a little.

It only takes an hour for something to settle uncomfortably under his skin.

The letter doesn't make any sense. He knows why they had to leave. Obviously, they didn't want to get caught by the hunters. But there's something else in it, something almost impersonal. They escaped to find safety – so why does he have such an acute feeling they're in danger?

He tries to make dinner, but he can't. Something about it just doesn't sit right with him. It's so unlikely that they'd leave without properly telling him. They're his best friends. They'd say goodbye. There wouldn't be any point except pure sadism for them to leave without notifying him. This doesn't feel like a goodbye note. It feels like we're in implicit danger and I don't want you to worry.

He stares at it for a very long time, before he grabs his keys.

He's on the train before he knows it. He doesn't know where he's going, or what he's going to once he's got there, but he needs to do something, or he's going to go out of his mind. As he sits, he tries to think where they could be going. Anywhere, frankly. They might not even still be in the States. They might have escaped into Canada, or gone down south into Mexico. They could be anywhere.

It's then that he begins to suddenly very, very small.

He wasn't planning to get off, but when the voiceover announces the arrival at the next stop he climbs off the train anywhere. He suddenly feels claustrophobic and he needs to just get off. Right outside the train station, he spies a grocery store, and, with nothing else to do, he pops in and uses he toilet. He doesn't even need it, not really. He just sits on the lid with his head in his hands.

What the hell is he going to do?

He comes out of bathroom, drying his hands on his trousers. He's just considering whether or not he should buy snacks for the long journey when suddenly he catches sight of a very familiar head of blond hair, and almost brains himself trying to duck behind the shelf.

"...thinking of turkey," Jason is saying. "I mean, we all like turkey, don't we?"

"Don't get turkey," says another voice, and Percy closes his eyes in frustration. Leo. "It's disgusting."

"What do you mean, disgusting? It's a staple!"

"That's because everyone lies to themselves. Turkey only tastes nice if it's covered in gravy. Get chicken, at least it tastes good by itself. Ooh, also get some apples, you know how much Percy loves his pie—"

"Leo? Jason?" another voice chimes in, and Percy wants to die.

"Oh, hey Rachel!" Jason says. "Fancy seeing you here!"

"You too! I'm just doing some last-minute grocery shopping. What are you guys doing? Stocking up early for Thanksgiving?"

"We have a tradition," Jason explains. "Every month, Leo, Percy and I get together for a dinner. I want to make a turkey because it's delicious but Leo's being a sourpuss."

Damn it. Percy had completely forgotten about their dinner. This really happened on the worst weekend.

"Turkey is bland, man," Leo says. "Stop trying to convince yourself."

Rachel laughs. "Where is Percy, by the way? I've been meaning to get hold of him, but he hasn't been picking up his phone."

"Yeah, he's been kind of MIA," Jason says. "I think he may just be watching television, I introduced him to Grey's Anatomy a while back and whenever he gets obsessed with something he gets completely unreachable. We're going to visit him afterwards, get him to help us cook."

"Sounds fun," Rachel says. "Well, tell him to call me once you bump into him, I need to talk to him."

That's all Percy has to hear. He loves his friends but he needs to get out of there before they can see him, because Annabeth is in trouble, and if everything goes to hell he can't risk them as well. He tries to pick his way as quickly and covertly through the aisles as he can so he doesn't get spotted. However, just as he's about to dart through the doors, he bumps into someone, and his phone goes clattering out of his hand. He reaches down to grab it, but someone else does instead, and when he looks up, he comes face to face with Leo.

Leo brightens. "Percy! Dude, hey! We were just heading to pick you up!"

Percy forces a smile, and straightens, shoving his phone in his pocket. "Yeah, uh, about that..."

"Leo?" Jason's head appears around the end of the shelf, and when he sees Percy, he smiles broadly. "Oh, hey, Percy!"

For the first time since bumping into each other, Leo seems to realise what Percy's wearing. "Whoa, dude," he says. "What's with the stuff? You going somewhere?"

"What about dinner?" Jason says.

Percy swallows. "I can't make tonight, guys. I'm really sorry."

Jason's face falls. "Why not? We're making apple pie!"

"Something's come up, and I really need to go deal with it."

Leo frowns. "Is that why you're dressed like you're about to rob a bank?"

Percy winces. "Uh... maybe?"

Jason's eyes are wide. "You're going to rob a bank?"

"What? No! Don't be stupid. I just need to head out of state for a while. It's just—"

"Out of state?" Jason repeats incredulously. "What the hell are you doing out of state? We've got work on Monday! Does Dionysus know?"

"Not exactly. It's—this is all really sudden, and I really need to go—"

"What's going on, Percy? You're dressed like you're about to commit a crime, you're heading out of state, and you're missing our dinner! You never miss our dinner! What's going on? Where are the girls?"

"I think they're in trouble," Percy blurts.

That shuts them up real quick. Leo demands, "What do you mean, in trouble?"

"I don't know. They left yesterday. They left me a note, and—it just doesn't add up. They—they mentioned other stuff, but it—something's wrong, I just know it is. I need to go find them."

Jason and Leo stare at him for what feels like a very long time. Jason's jaw works, and then, after what feels like minutes, he nods. "Okay," he says. "We'll come with you."

"What? No!"

"They're our friends, too," he argues. "And you don't have a car! If they're in trouble, we want to help."

Leo nods. "Right."

Percy tries to reason with them. Jason and Leo coming with him is a terrible idea. This is most definitely going to get him hurt, and he will be damned if they get hurt as well because of it. "Guys, you can't, it could be really dangerous—"

"I don't want to hear another word," Jason says, and Percy curses him. You can really tell he did debate when he was a kid. He's got that sensibleness about him. He also doesn't make demands often, so when he does you know he's probably right. "I'm going to go pay for our groceries. Leo, you go start the car." He tosses him his keys, and Leo catches them deftly with one hand.

"Right on, bossman," he says. "Come on, Perce."

Percy's mind is racing. Everything in him is telling him it's a terrible idea – in horror movies, it's always best to go alone on a rescue mission, because that way less people get hurt. But Jason's right. At this point, Annabeth and the girls are barely just his pack anymore. Jason and Leo are their friends – and it's safer travelling in numbers, right?

Besides. Jason's a PE teacher, which means muscle, and Leo probably carries around saws. It's not like they're badly equipped or anything.

He allows Leo to drag him out to the carpark to Jason's Hummer. The sunshine is warm and dazzling, and the car glints almost too brightly in the glare. As they approach, Percy catches sight of Rachel leaving the store, two plastic bags in her hands. When she catches sight of him, her face brightens, and she starts to head over.

Perfect. Just perfect.

Still. He waits as she approaches, letting Leo unlock the car and prop open the boot. When she's in earshot, he says, "Hey, Rach."

"Hey!" She smiles at him, a little grimly. "I've been calling you all morning."

He glances at his switched-off phone. "Sorry, it's been off."

"Don't worry, I caught you here, at least." She shifts her bags. "Listen, I need to talk to you."

"Can it wait? I've got somewhere I need to be. It's kind of urgent."

"This is urgent. I promise, it'll take, like, two minutes."

"Rachel—"

"Percy, Annabeth and her pack are in trouble."

That stops him completely. He stares at her. Suddenly, it's like looking at a stranger. "What?"

"They're in danger," she says. "They told me that there were hunters and—"

Percy waves his hands. "Wait, hold up. You—How do you know about Annabeth?"

"She's your roommate."

"You called them something."

"Did I?"

They eye each other suspiciously. And then it clicks.

"You know," he accuses.

She rolls her eyes. "That took you a very long time."

"Long time?" he repeats incredulously. "For what, to clock that you know about—" He looks around, and lowers his voice. "Werewolves?" he hisses.

"You called your 'nephew' the wrong thing three times, Percy. Besides, I've known about them for years, that isn't the point. They're in trouble, Percy, we need—"

"I know they're in trouble! That's why I'm here, I'm trying to find them!"

At that moment, Leo comes around from the back of the car, and spots Rachel. "Oh, Rachel!" he says. "Percy, she was just looking for you."

"I know," Percy says. To Rachel, he asks, "What do you mean? Do you know where they are?"

"I have a pretty good idea," she says. "Annabeth mentioned something about heading south, because they were tired of fighting. Do you know where she could be talking about?"

Leo frowns. "Wait, what's going on?"

"Virginia," Percy says. "Richmond. That's—that's where they're all from, they all grew up there. But why would they be going there? That would be the first place the hunters would think to look."

"Hunters?" Leo repeats. His voice has gone a little squeaky.

"I haven't got time to explain," Percy says. "I promise, I will, but—"

"All right, gang!" Jason calls, a few feet away and laden with grocery bags. "We ready to get this show on the road? Oh, hey, Rachel! Percy, she was just looking for you!"

"I know!" Percy snipes.

Jason comes a little closer, and then his face scrunches up when he reads the mood. "Wait, what's going on? Why does everyone look so serious?"

Leo holds up his hands. "They're talking about hunters. I have no idea what that's about."

Jason frowns. "Hunters?"

"I'll explain in the car," Percy says. "Rachel—"

Rachel raises an eyebrow. "I'm coming with you."

"Uh?" Jason says.

"No, you're not," Percy says. "It's too dangerous."

But Rachel holds her ground. "I'm their emissary. I am coming with you."

"Their what?"

"Emissary."

"What does that mean?"

"I'm their diplomatic representative. When the hunters came, they came to me for advice."

"What is all this talk about hunters?" Jason asks.

Percy waves him off. "Rachel, you can't come with us."

"Well, tough luck," she says, and with a rather Herculean effort she throws her two grocery bags in the opened boot. "They're my pack too. I'm coming with you. Now, come on, if we want to get there in time we're going to have to move fast."

Percy glances at Leo and Jason. They look just as dazed as he feels.

"Fine," he says, and opens one of the car doors. "Let's go."

"Werewolves," Leo says, an hour later, "are real."

Patiently, Percy says, "Yes."

"They have fangs. And claws."

"Yes."

"And they go all gaga around the full moon."

"Well—kind of. They can shift anytime. The moon just makes them antsy."

"And you've been harbouring them for months."

"Yes."

"All four of them."

"Yes."

There's a pause. "Yo," he says, awestruck. "This is so cool."

Percy glances to the side, where, in the passenger seat, Jason is sitting rather calmly. He doesn't think he's moved even an inch since he told them that werewolves were real and that four of their closest friends were. Carefully, he says, "Jase? You—all right, bud?"

"I'm processing," Jason says. "Just give me a bit."

"This is so cool, my dudes," Leo says, leaning forward so his head is in between the two front seats. Percy almost rebukes him for not putting on his seatbelt, but it's been a bit of turbulent day so he excuses him. "I can't believe this. What are we doing now, then? Fighting bad guys?"

"Not if we can help it," Rachel says darkly.

"We just need to grab the girls and get out of there," Percy says. "Because otherwise we're up against trained professionals who hunt for a living."

"Who would kill us without a second thought," Rachel adds.

"Yes, thank you, Rachel."

Leo's eyes are almost as wide as dinner plates. "This is so cool," he says, his voice hushed.

"Is that where we're going?" Jason asks. "To rescue them?"

Percy's hands tighten on the steering wheel. "Hopefully."

"And you think they're in Virginia?"

"I mean, I think so? Rachel said they said they were heading down south, and that's the only place I could think that they were going."

Jason shifts so he can see into the back seats at Rachel. "How do you even know about this all, anyway?"

"I've known about werewolves almost my whole life," Rachel says. "I grew up with them."

"Are you a werewolf, too?" Leo asks.

"Witch, actually."

Percy almost drives into a tree. "What? Since when?"

"Since I was born. My parents started cultivating my skills when I was around nine, though."

"And you never thought to tell any of us?"

"It's a secret, Percy. I don't tell people about this kind of thing."

In the rear-view mirror, Percy can see Leo staring at her like she's just sprouted horns. "Can you do magic?" he asks, voice awed.

"A little."

He looks like he's going to pee himself. "Oh my God."

"We can't focus on this, though," Rachel says. She pushes herself against the edge of the seat so she can peer over Percy's shoulder at the road. "We need to suss out a game plan about what we're going to do once we get to Richmond. How much longer?"

Jason checks the SatNav. "Uh, about four hours."

"Well, that's easy," Percy says. "Rescue them."

He doesn't need to look in the rear-view mirror to know that she's just rolled her eyes. "Obviously. But where do you start? They're not going to be tied up out in the open. These hunters are smart."

"You said they all grew up there, didn't you?" Jason asks, and they all glance at him. "Maybe they had people living there that they trusted. Like, other werewolves."

Percy shakes his head. "Annabeth always said she didn't know of any others."

"That doesn't make any sense," Rachel says. "She's a born wolf, isn't she?" When Percy nods, she continues. "Someone had to have taught her about control, or werewolves would have been public news a long time ago."

"Maybe it was her parents," Jason suggests. "That would have made hiding it a lot easier."

"Her mom left when she was younger," Percy says. "It must have been her dad, then."

Rachel nods. "So, that's our plan, then. We track down Annabeth's dad, and see if he knows anything."

"Yeah, but, slight problem," Percy says. "We don't know where he lives."

"I can help with that!" Leo chirps, and they all turn to look at him. "I was a very experienced hacker in high school. Couldn't let mis padres find out about all my hookies, could I? I just need to get into the Richmond Census and look up her dad's name, and bingo. Do you know what it could be?"

"I think she said it was Frederick," Percy says.

"Does anyone have a laptop?"

"I think I have mine," Jason says, and produces his messenger bag from where his feet are resting. He smirks a little. "I told you guys that having this would be important someday."

"Just because it's important doesn't mean it's not a purse," Leo says, but he takes the laptop anyway. "Okay, give me about half an hour. I'll be in soon."

Thirty-five minutes later, they have the address of a one Frederick Chase, and a few hours after that they're pulling in front of a small, beige house off the main street. There's a large black van parked a few feet down, and all the lights are off except for what Percy presumes to be the living room.

"Okay," Rachel says. "Percy, you remember the plan?"

"Yep," Percy says. He gives his hands a good shake, to work off the numbness from sitting down for so long, and then cracks his fingers, just to make sure. Next to him, Jason winces. "I'll be quick."

He climbs out the car and approaches the front door, wracked with apprehension. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he thinks this isn't how I imagined meeting Annabeth's dad, and a hysterical laugh bubbles somewhere in his throat. He takes a deep breath, and before he can lose his nerve, rings the doorbell.

From inside, a gruff voice calls, "Coming!", and a few moments later the door opens. A man stands in the way, and if Percy was uncertain before, he's definitely certain now.

This is Annabeth's dad, through and through. He recognises the hair, the nose, the way he holds himself. It's a defensive stance. He's seen Annabeth use it lots. Something unsettling flutters at the sight of Frederick using it now.

The almost deranged look in his eyes isn't exactly encouraging, either.

"Uh," he says. "Hello."

"What do you want?" Frederick demands.

"Oh." Percy tries for his best smile. "Well, actually, I was hoping to ask..."

His words effectively die in his throat when he catches sight of the figure lurking over Frederick's shoulder.

To put it lightly, it looks like a gladiator. It – he – has biceps the size of a football and cruel, hard eyes, and he stands a good few inches taller than Percy, too. That, the scowl he's giving right now, also combined with the fact that he's still half-concealed in the shadows, is not sending him good vibes in the slightest.

But the thing that really stops Percy in his tracks is the long, jagged scar down the side of his face.

He realises he's fallen silent when Frederick's face creases with confusion. "Well?" he demands. "What do you want? I'm busy!"

Percy tries to keep his expression even. "Actually," he says lightly, "I think I might have gotten the wrong house. You wouldn't happen to know a Bella, would you?"

"No."

"Silly me." Percy shoves his hands in his pockets so they won't see them trembling. "iPhones, am I right. Always leading you astray. In that case, I suppose I'll be on my way. It was nice to meet you."

Frederick's eyes flicker with wariness. "You, too," he says, his voice guarded, and then he slams the door shut.

Percy heads back down the driveway as fast as he can. He can see all his friends' confused faces through the windows, but he has no time to explain. As soon as he's back in the car, he shoves his keys back in the ignition and revs the engine. "We need to get out of here," he says. "Now."

"What happened?" Rachel demands.

He doesn't answer her, and instead pulls off the side of the street. He doesn't speak until he knows they're a safe distance away, and then he collapses against his seat, hands trembling.

"Percy?" Jason asks, concerned. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"Was that not Annabeth's dad?" Leo says.

"No, it was. I—" Percy sucks in a shuddery breath, and scrubs a hand over his face. "There was another man with him. I think he was a hunter."

"What?"

"He had this long scar down his face. It's too big of a coincidence, it must have been given to him by a werewolf. And Frederick – there was almost something wrong with him. He looked deranged, almost. Wild."

"So what?" Rachel says. "You think he's working with the hunters?"

"Why would he do that?" Jason asks.

Percy's mind is whirring. He leans back in the seat, stretches his hands from where they're rested against the steering wheel. He was there for all of three minutes, and yet his heart is racing like he just came face to face with a hungry lion. "I don't know," he admits. "It doesn't—none of it makes sense."

"Maybe it does, though," Leo says, and they all turn to look at him. "No, think about it. You said her mom left when she was younger, right? And Frederick obviously can't be a werewolf. Otherwise he wouldn't be working with the hunters. But one of her parents must have been a werewolf for her to be one. Maybe her mom left because of that."

Percy meets Rachel's eyes in the rear-view mirror. "You think it was Annabeth's mom that was the werewolf?" he says.

Leo shrugs. "It makes sense. I mean, if you were a werewolf, and it turned out your husband was totally anti-werewolf, you'd get the hell out of there too, wouldn't you?"

"But she must have known there was a chance Annabeth would be a werewolf too," Jason says. "Why would she leave and risk that?"

But Rachel has a contemplative look on her face. "Maybe she didn't, though," she says. "Annabeth was a born werewolf. We've already established that someone has to have had taught her control, or she'd be locked up. And if her dad was anti-werewolf, it couldn't have been him, so it must have been someone else."

"But Annabeth said she didn't know any other werewolves," Percy says.

"Then maybe it wasn't a werewolf. Maybe it was a human in the know. Maybe her mom helped set that up before she left. I mean, if Frederick is really so anti-werewolf that he'd be working with hunters to catch his own daughter, we have to assume he didn't know about her being a werewolf until after she ran away, or she'd already be dead. She must have done it in secret."

"Poor Annabeth," Leo says. "I mean, imagine trying to hide something like that from your own dad."

"Who could it be, then?" Jason asks. "There's no way we'd be able to find out about that."

"We can go to the local library," Percy suggests. "See if there are any old newspapers we can look through. If Annabeth was being trained in secret there must have been some articles about a wolf or two being spotted in the woods, right? Maybe there'll be someone who keeps popping up to defend that claim, like, nah, it was just my dog, or something."

Rachel nods. "That's a good start."

Jason opens Maps on his phone, and searches for a library. After a few moments, he holds up the screen. "There's a library maybe about five minutes from here. We can go there."

Percy starts the engine again. "To the library we go."

The library is only a short drive away, and by the time they pull up in front of it Percy's stomach is in knots. It's a pretty non-threatening building – red brick, with childcare ads in the windows and a gentle stream of people wandering in and out the front door – but as he stares at it he begins to feel sick. This is by far the furthest reach they've made all day. What are they thinking? They're not going to find anything by trawling through old newspapers!

He doesn't know how late is too late, but they can't afford to waste any time.

Annabeth can't die.

"Percy?" Rachel prompts, and when he glances at her he notices she's already halfway out the car, Leo and Jason already waiting on the pavement. "You okay?"

He shakes his head. "Yeah, I'm—yeah."

She looks at him hard for a few moments, and then reaches over and squeezes his arm. "We'll find them," she promises. "I swear."

A lump forms in his throat, and he nods gratefully at her. "Thanks," he says quietly. He clears his throat. "Let's go inside."

Going inside is a little calming, he thinks, like a balm to his frantic brain. Everyone is quiet and the only sounds are the occasional page turn and the caustic tick of the clock. He glances at it, absently. It's twenty past eleven. Almost a full day since he found the note.

...On second thoughts, maybe not so calming.

It's clear none of them have any clear where to go from here, but being in a familiar environment settles him, and he starts acting on instinct. He's lost track of the amount of times he's been in a library, and after having to write so many research papers for his degree, and then proof-reading his students' research papers, this kind of thing is almost ingrained into his DNA. He heads towards the front desk where an older man is sitting, reading a book.

"Hey," he says, once he's near enough, and the older man looks up. His name tag reads CHIRON. "I was wondering if you had any old newspapers we could have a look at?"

Chiron smiles at him. Percy kind of likes him. He's got a grandfatherly appeal about him that he almost instinctually trusts. "Of course," he says. "What time period?"

"Maybe from around twenty years ago?"

Chiron types something into his computer, and then presses the enter key. As his screen loads, he says, "I haven't seen you around before. New around the area?"

"Just visiting," Percy says.

And maybe it's because he feels so tense and wound-up, but as he speaks, he spots Chiron square up like he's just declared war. Something clicks in the back of his mind.

Chiron glances at his computer screen, and then says, in a much colder tone than before, "They're in the non-fiction aisle, filing cabinet. Look through section H."

Leo, Rachel and Jason seem quite content to go and do just that, but Percy hesitates at the desk enough for them to pause before they can completely turn around. He drums his fingers against the top of it. "Say," he says, in a slightly lower voice, "you wouldn't happen to know Annabeth Chase, would you?"

It works like a charm. Chiron goes as rigid as stone, and his smile is flint cold. "I've seen her around before," he says. "I knew her father."

"Do you know where she is?"

"Last I heard, she was travelling."

Percy leans closer. "Please, if you know anything, you need to tell us. She's in danger."

Chiron's eyes flicker. "I don't know what you're talking about," he says, but it sounds unconvincing even to Percy's ears.

He doesn't let up. "My name's Percy Jackson," he says. "This is Rachel, Leo and Jason. We know Annabeth, and Thalia and Hazel and Piper. We're their friends, and we think they're in danger. If you know anything you need to tell us."

"It's true," Rachel says, speaking for the first time. Percy glances at her, but she's looking at Chiron. "I'm the Chase pack emissary, and Percy gave them housing. They lived with him for almost six months."

Chiron's eyes shift to Jason and Leo.

"We're just—along for the ride," Leo says.

Chiron looks at them for a long time. To Percy, he says, "Percy Jackson, you say?"

"Yes, sir."

His eyes dart to behind them, before he jerks his head. "Follow me."

They hurry behind him as he wheels through a door behind him. Leo is the last to come in, and as he does Chiron says, "Close the door." Leo does, quickly.

"Do you know where they are?" Percy asks.

Instead of answering, Chiron just looks at him. "Annabeth has mentioned your name a few times," he says. "You're very important to her."

"How do you know Annabeth?" Jason asks.

"You shouldn't have come here," Chiron says. "It's far too dangerous for you to be here."

"They are our friends," Percy says firmly. "And they are in trouble. I would walk through hell if it meant rescuing them."

"And I appreciate that. But this place is crawling with hunters. If they find out you're here you'll be dead before you even have time to run."

"But we're not werewolves," Leo says.

Chiron gives him an urgent look. "Don't say it out loud! You never know who could be listening!"

"Oh, sorry," Leo says. "I meant... but, we're not—menstruating."

"We are not using that," Rachel says.

"That won't matter," Chiron says. "Do you know how long they've been chasing the Chase pack? They are valuable. If they know that you're sniffing around these parts asking after them then it's over for you. You need to be careful."

"You still haven't answered my question," Percy says. "Where are they?"

Chiron sighs. He looks very troubled. "I don't know. But I have my suspicions."

He feels his hackles rise. "Suspicions? What do you mean?"

"Annabeth sent me a crypted letter. She said that she would be stopping in Richmond in three days' time and she would come to visit, and if I could prepare some food supplies for her and her pack. So I did. But—they never showed up."

"When did they send it?" Jason asks.

"A week ago."

Percy's stomach falls through the floor.

Rachel looks a little sick. "You don't think... the hunters have them, do you?"

"I wouldn't be surprised."

"Why haven't you done anything?" Surprisingly, that's Leo. He's gripping his elbows tightly, like he's trying to refrain from punching him. "If you think they're in trouble why are you still sitting here running your dumb library when they could be getting tortured?"

"Why do you think I'm in this wheelchair?" Chiron demands, and Leo flinches back. Chiron sighs, and runs a hand across his face. "I'm sorry," he amends, softer. "I didn't mean to shout. But they don't know I know about werewolves still. I used to be a werewolf rights activist back in the day, you know. I knew Annabeth's mother. Athena. She was a werewolf, too, and a force to be reckoned with. I was protecting her from a terrorist attack when they set off a bomb. It blew off my legs, and they captured me. I thought they would torture me, but they injected me with a serum designed to make me forget. But it was still in its early stages, so it didn't work. My amnesia lasted a week."

He turns to Leo. "I understand your frustrations, I do. But it is crucial I keep quiet. With poor Frederick being groomed into a fanatic and the hunters setting up their bases here, more and more werewolves are having to flee with fear, leaving behind their small children with their spouses who don't know anything. I need to be here to help teach the children control."

"You did that with Annabeth," Percy says.

"Yes," Chiron says softly. "Except in her case her mother was killed."

He feels his eyes grow to the size of saucers. "What?"

"Did Frederick kill her?" Leo asks, hushed in awe.

Rachel hits his shoulder. "Don't be insensitive!"

"It's not a far reach! You heard them. He's, like, off the rails."

But Chiron shakes his head. "Frederick didn't kill her. I doubt he even knew about werewolves at the time. But the Castellans – they're one of the most infamous hunting families in the country. I think they had been hunting Athena for a very long time."

"Frederick must have found out then," Jason says.

"The hospital marked her death as a hit and run car accident." Chiron sighs. "They are powerful, these people. They have influence, and enough to turn a murder into a street accident. Do you now see how dangerous they are? You need to turn back now."

"Are you crazy?" Percy demands. "You just said they're in trouble! Of course we're not turning back."

"Young man—"

"No, listen to me. They are our friends. And it's not like we're badly equipped. I—" His throat suddenly closes up, and he swallows. "I need to find them. It's urgent."

"I'm a witch," Rachel says. "I've been training for over fifteen years. I can protect them."

Chiron's eyes flick to Leo and Jason. "And you?"

"Us?" Leo says. When Chiron nods, he says, "Well. I—am pretty good with a saw."

"And I have equipment in my car," Jason says, nodding seriously.

Chiron nods slowly. "Then I wish you the best," he says. "Good luck. You'll need it."

"You know," Leo says, as they stare down into the boot of Jason's car, "when someone says they have 'equipment' in the context of a conversation about kicking a bunch of well-trained professional hunter's asses, many people would get the idea you were talking about, oh, I don't know, actual weapons."

"Have you ever been hit on the head with a lacrosse stick, Leo?" Jason says quite firmly. "Because it hurts. Besides, what were you expecting?"

"Knives! Machetes! Guns!"

"Our country is corrupt enough without me carrying around guns."

Leo looks a little wounded. "But—dude, you're ruining it! In action movies they always carry around guns!"

"Well, that's irresponsible, and I don't conform to that norm. I'm a teacher. I have no need to be carrying around guns."

"We're literally facing off bad guys!"

"I didn't know that when I packed my car this morning!"

"Lacrosse sticks work just fine," Percy interrupts, before they start properly arguing. "We haven't got time for this, anyway, we need to find them before it's too late."

"Slight problem," Leo says. "We haven't a clue where they are."

Percy purses his lips. "Yeah, I hadn't—really thought this far ahead."

"I can perform a tracking spell," Rachel suggests.

They all jump. Percy had kind of forgotten she was there.

"What?" Jason says.

"A tracking spell," Rachel says, like it's obvious.

Percy takes the bait. "Which does... what, exactly?"

"Makes me a cup of tea. Tracks someone, God, what do you think? How any of you graduated university is beyond me."

Percy is suitably wounded. Jason says, "If you cold track someone all along why didn't we just do that in the first place? Why did we have to go to all that effort finding Annabeth's dad and then Chiron?"

"Because I need to be in a presence of the person we're tracking," Rachel says. She's still talking like they're all stupid, which Percy finds incredibly rude, considering up until about four hours ago he wasn't even aware magic existed. "I need to be in a place or in contact with something they have a close bond to, and it can't be another person, because that messes up the spell. Being here, I can form a proper connection to Annabeth. I also need something that they touched."

They all glance at each other. Jason says, "I think Piper left her scarf in my car a while back. Would that work?"

"Probably," Rachel says. "We'll need to do this in the car, anyway, we'll get too many weird looks doing it outside."

"Doing what?" Leo asks. "Are you going to start chanting in Latin or something?"

Rachel fixes him with a look. "Yes, Leo," she says, in a voice that Percy really can't decipher. "I am going to start chanting in Latin. And I can't do it outside. Let's get back in the car."

They all climb back inside Jason's car, and Jason digs around in his glove compartment for a few seconds before producing a long, lopsided purple scarf. Percy smiles a little at the sight of it. He thinks Thalia may have knit that for her for her birthday.

Rachel takes it and rests it in her lap, hovering her hands above it. Hesitantly, Leo asks, "Don't you need a map or something?"

"I'm not a hundred years old, Leo," she says. She pulls her phone out of her pocket, and opens up her Maps app. "Phones do exist."

He eyes it, a little uncertainly. "But—isn't magic, like—" He stops when her sees her face. "You know what, I'll just leave it."

Rachel nods, satisfied with his silence, rests her phone screen-up on her thigh, and then takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. She hovers her hands over the scarf, and, in a low voice, she starts murmuring in a language that sounds alarmingly like Latin.

Leo's eyes almost grow as wide as plates. "Oh, she was serious," he breathes.

They watch as she speaks. It's so quiet that if it weren't for her lips moving he almost wouldn't realise that she was talking in the first place. For a few moments, it seems like nothing's happening, but then next to him he feels Jason inhale sharply, and when he looks at Rachel's phone the screen is flickering.

He holds his breath. The screen flashes on, off, once, twice, and then it stays on – and the map starts shifting.

Leo almost crushes his hand in excitement.

They watch with baited breath as the map slowly zooms out. The little pin icon that was previously on the library is creeping across the map, past a school, down a street, around a corner. There's a pause, and then it slides forward, and then stops.

Suddenly, Rachel's eyes shoot open. She gasps like she's just surfaced from being underwater for a long time, and scrabbles around in her seat. Immediately, Jason and his First Aid training is there to grip her securely around the shoulders, and she clings to his arm. "I saw them," she gasps, eyes clouded. "Basement. They're in a basement."

Leo grabs her phone, and peers at the screen. "It says they're at a brewery," he says. "You think they're in the basement of a brewery?"

"What are they doing in a basement?" Jason wonders.

Percy grits his teeth. "I have a pretty good idea," he says, and revs the engine. "We need to get there. Now."

Adam's Brewery is a small pub on a big street, and, unfortunately, it's teeming.

As they pull up on the kerb, Percy looks through the windows of it in despair. It's completely packed. There is absolutely no way they're going to get to the basement in time, not through all these people. It's just reached twenty past midnight on a Saturday night, which is probably the worst time to visit a pub. These hunters planned ahead, and they planned well.

Leo voices his thoughts. "Well, damn," he says.

"We can't get through that," Jason says, sounding reasonably horrified. "Not with the lacrosse sticks."

"There must be another way," Percy says. "Like—a window we can bust through or something."

"Percy," Leo says, "while I admire your tenacity, do you really think four teachers are capable of pulling off a breaking and entering through a window."

"Absolutely," Rachel says, who has since recovered from her minor fit, although Percy notices she hasn't let go of Piper's scarf once. "Did you forget the part where I'm a witch?"

"And I'm a PE teacher!" Jason says, which is absolutely not the same thing, but Percy appreciates his enthusiasm. "I am very capable of getting through a window. I can bench-press two hundred pounds, and you really underestimate the amount of trauma I can cause with a lacrosse stick."

Leo rolls his eyes. "Okay, well, that's fab, but what about us? You think Percy's going to be able to pass through the walls with the power of Jane Austen?"

"We'll also have lacrosse sticks," Percy points out.

"A lacrosse stick is not a feasible weapon!"

"For non-believers, maybe." Percy unbuckles his belt and opens his car door. "Come on, let's get out. We need to be quick about this."

They all clamber out and gather around the rear of the car. Percy stands with his hands in his pockets, watching as Jason quickly pops open the trunk and unzips a sports bag, producing around six lacrosse sticks. He hands one to Leo, one to Rachel, and another to Percy. Percy grips it hard, feeling the grooves beneath his hands. This isn't Jason's stick; it has a nametag along the bottom that says Ben Parker. He traces over it with his thumb.

"So, what's the plan, then?" Leo says. "We charge in?"

"No," Rachel says. "There must be a window around the back. Beer needs to be stored in a cool dry place with light, so there must be a window leading into the basement. I'm thinking that's where the girls are being held, so if we can get in we can get them out."

"And how exactly are we going to do that?"

"By looking for it," Rachel says, like he's stupid. "Don't be idiotic. Come on, let's try find one."

They creep across the street and then around the back of the brewery. It's too dark to see anything in the night, especially because there aren't any lampposts this deep into an alleyway, so Percy pulls out his phone and switches on the flashlight, searching for any openings. They're wandering around for a few minutes before Jason hisses, "Guys! I think I found it!"

They all quickly gather around. He's pointing down at a small barred window at the base of the building that stretches maybe a metre long, with thick black bars across it, and concrete filled in between each one so no one can see in between. Percy feels his heart begin to thrum rapidly in his chest. This is it, he thinks. We've nearly got them.

Rachel confirms his thoughts. "This must be it," she whispers. "Hold on, let me just check if I can sense them."

"Is this more witch stuff?" Leo says excitedly.

She doesn't even dignify him with a response, just closes her eyes and holds her hand out towards the window. Leo leans closer to Percy and says, "It so is."

"Serious time, Valdez," Percy says back.

"Sorry, sorry. It's just quite cool, isn't it?"

"Leo."

"Okay, I'll shut up."

He anxiously watches Rachel as she moves her hand to and fro, her eyes fluttering beneath her eyelids. Under the harsh light of his phone flashlight, she looks almost ethereal, like a ghost, and her hair flames red. After what feels like hours, she opens her eyes. "There's definitely people down there," she says. "I couldn't sense any movement but they're there."

Jason pales. "You don't think..."

"No," she says. "That spell searches for a living presence. Maybe if they were killed recently, but that seems unlikely and a little coincidental. I think it's them."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Leo hisses. "Let's get them!"

"We need to plan what's going to happen," Rachel says. "What if there are hunters down there as well?"

"Then we brain them!"

"They'll shoot us before we get the chance."

"Listen, Rach," Leo says. "They are my friends down there. We've gotten this far, and we're armed with our stupid lacrosse sticks. You've got your magic witchy powers and Percy has the power of love. We've come this far. The longer we wait, the closer they get to becoming werewolf chow. Okay? I say we just go down there, and get them the hell out."

"I agree," Percy says, when Rachel doesn't say anything. "Waiting's just making it worse. Let's get this over with. Can you bust the concrete?"

Doubtfully, she chews her lip. "I'm not sure," she says dubiously, but nonetheless she stretches out her hand. "I mean, I can try..."

"Oh, screw this," Jason says, and unexpectedly slams the butt of his lacrosse stick into the concrete. Beneath it, cracks sprout, as if it were made of ice.

Percy feels his eyes grow huge. "Oh, damn."

"Told you I bench press two hundred."

"It must be a really thin sheet of concrete," Leo says. "Come on, if we all have a bash at it, it'll fall eventually."

"What if they're underneath it, though?" Percy says. "We don't want it to drop on them."

"Werewolf healing," Leo says, but he crouches down anyway. "We'll try and pull the pieces out as Jason breaks it, stop the really big pieces. Come on, Jase, give it another whack."

Jason does, and debris sprays up at Percy's face. He keeps hitting it, and gradually the cracks grow bigger and bigger, until the first piece falls inward, and Percy gets a glimpse into the room. A strange smell hits him – not a bad smell, but a weird one, like the kind of smell he gets in the toilets at school when some kid has been smoking weed at the same time as another kid has just really aggressively washed his hands with hand sanitiser. He dismisses it and pulls at the concrete, pulling and pulling and pulling at it until his hands are grazed and bleeding and he can see properly into the room. It takes a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, but when he does he blanches.

"Annabeth!"

Without really thinking, he pushes down into the room. It's a further drop than he expected, and when he lands he jars both his ankles, and then from above Leo shouts, "Incoming!" and the lacrosse stick falls on his head, but aside from that and some mild grazing he's relatively unharmed. He scrambles to his feet, and then his eyes land on what's in the corner.

It's Annabeth, Piper, Thalia and Hazel, all of them, chained up with their hands above their heads, completely unconscious.

He runs over, falling on his knees in front of them. "Annabeth? Annabeth, can you hear me?"

Annabeth doesn't move. Panicked, he takes her hand in both his hands. She's almost completely limp, like a doll, but when his fingers press into her neck, he feels the barest hint of a pulse. She's still alive, but barely.

"Annabeth?" he demands. "Come on, Annabeth, wake up."

She doesn't move, and, on a pure whim, he smacks her straight across the face. Her eyes flutter, and she lets out a low, pained moan. "Wha..."

"Annabeth, it's me. It's Percy. Can you hear me? Annabeth?"

Slowly, she blinks her eyes open. His heart sinks at the sight. Her eyes, usually so sharp and intelligent, are fogged and hazed over. "Percy?" she says tiredly. "What...?"

"Annabeth, what's going on? Are you okay?"

She lets out a pained cough that racks at her lungs, and his heart stutters. "Wolfsbane," she manages. "They're... air..."

"They're burning it?" he asks. "It's in the air?"

She nods, and coughs. "Percy..."

He is already on his feet. "Where is it," he mutters. "Come on, come on, where is it?"

"Percy?" Rachel calls from above. "Have you found them?"

"They're all here!" he shouts back. "But—there's wolfsbane in the air, I think they're burning it somewhere, they're all—"

There's a thud, and then Jason's in front of him, his face grey with dust and his hair matted to one side of his head. He catches sight of the girls over his shoulder and goes almost as white as the dust. "Oh, God—"

"We need to find where they're burning this wolfsbane," Percy says. "It's killing them. Come on, quick."

They both start searching every inch of the room, trying to find where it's being kept. Distantly, he becomes aware of two more thuds, like Leo and Rachel have just dropped in, but he doesn't even spare them a glance. He searches high and low, trying to find out where it's coming from. After a few moments, he stumbles across a grail in the wall, where the smell becomes especially poignant, even to his human nose. He's on his knees in an instant, peering into it, flashing the light from his phone into it – and sure enough, there it is, a bundle of wolfsbane slowly being smoked away.

His fingers tighten around the butt of the lacrosse stick, and before he can really comprehend what's going on he's smashing the stick into the grate. Rachel shouts, "Percy!" but he ignores her and does it again. It dents, so he does it again, and again, until one side comes off the wall enough for him to wriggle his fingers behind it and prise it off. He feels the skin around his nails rip but he keeps pulling until it's come completely off, and then reaches inside, grabbing the wolfsbane, and throws it as hard as he can out the window.

"Percy!" Rachel says in horror. "Your hands!"

He glances down, only barely processing the blood. "I'm fine," he says, brushing her off. "Are the girls okay?"

Leo has his fingers pressed against Hazel's pulse, and then Thalia's. "They're alive," he says. "Barely, but they're alive. A minute later and I think we might have lost them."

Percy almost collapses in relief. Instead, he staggers over to where Annabeth is, and scrabbles at her handcuffs. "Annabeth? Annabeth, can you hear me? Are you okay?"

Her eyes flutter open again. "Percy?"

"I'm here, I'm here, it's okay." He pulls at her handcuffs, hard. "Come on, why aren't they coming off?"

Annabeth coughs weakly. "Key... Lock..."

"There must be a key," Leo says.

Percy wants to slam his fist into the wall. "There must be a way we can get them out."

Rachel leans in close, and then goes pale. "Oh, God," she says. "Look. The cuffs are made of silver. It's hurting them."

Annabeth shakes her head. "It's... okay," she manages. "Not... bad..."

"Shut up, Annabeth," Percy says. "Leo, can't you pick the lock?"

"With what?" Leo says, holding up his hands. "I've got a paperclip but that lock looks far too big. It won't work."

"Percy," Annabeth croaks. "Use... stick."

"What?"

"Use... stick. Break... cuffs... with..."

"You want me to break the cuffs—with the stick? Annabeth, no, your wrists will shatter."

"Werewolf... healing." She sucks in a shaky breath that seems to rattle at her lungs. "I'll... be okay."

"Percy," Jason says. "We have to. There's no way we can get them out any other way."

Next to him, Thalia starts to stir. Tiredly, she blinks her eyes open. "Wha..."

Percy looks Annabeth in the eyes. "Are you sure?"

She nods. "Sure."

"Okay," he says. He picks up his stick, and he sees Leo and Jason tighten their fists around theirs. "Three, two, one..."

At the same time, they slam the butt of the lacrosse sticks into the handcuffs. Piper jerks awake with a gasp at the pain, but Percy is only vaguely aware of that, can only focus on Annabeth. As soon as the stick hits the handcuffs and lodges it further into her skin, her face pinches, eyes tearing, and her legs spasm, and when he hits it again he has to look away. He feels the cuff dent, so he hits it again, and again, and again, until it's finally it's lying in pieces on the ground. Annabeth's hands fall, and she pitches forward, but Percy's there to catch her, and she collapses against his chest, shivering, shaking, crying, her poor hands bent in unwholly unnatural ways, and he lets her, takes her full weight, wraps his arms around her and presses his nose into her hair. He's shaking too, he thinks.

"You're here," she says into his throat. "You're here, you're here, you're here."

He fists her hair, presses her face further into his chest, and she lets out a sob. She's never felt so breakable to him, even as the shattered bones in her wrist knit back together as they speak, never felt so human. He doesn't think he'll be able to let her go ever again.

"Percy?" Rachel says, and he looks up, his arms tightening. "I don't mean to cut this short but we need to get out of here. I don't know when the hunters will be back and we need to get out of here."

From where she's propped up against the wall, cradling her rapidly healing wrists in her lap, Thalia says, "How did you assholes even know where to find us?"

"We'll tell you in the car," Percy promises. He staggers to his feet, Annabeth still in his grasp. Her fingers tighten in his shirt, and briefly presses his lips against the side of her head. "For now, we just need to get out of h—"

And then suddenly Rachel screams, "Percy, look out!"

Before Percy even has time to react, the door flies open, and around half a dozen men pour into the room, guns clutched in their hands. There's the sound of a gunshot, and from where she's buried in Percy's arms he feels Annabeth stiffen, and then go limp.

"Annabeth!" he shouts, but then there's a gun pointed at his heart and suddenly he's face to face with the scar-faced hunter from Frederick Chase's house all those hours ago.

"One move," he says lightly, "and you'll be next." He gestures to the floor with his head. "Put her down. Slowly. Keep your hands where I can see them."

Trembling, Percy rests Annabeth against the ground, and then straightens, holding his hands above his head. On the floor, Annabeth's eyes flash and she growls, her hand clutched around her bicep. To Percy's horror, he sees the skin around the bullet wound start to go black.

"What the hell was that?" he demands.

"Wolfsbane," the hunter says. "Something even they can't heal from."

Thalia bares her teeth and takes a step forward, but before she can even get close another hunter has their gun pointed at her head. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," the scar-faced one says. He tilts his head. "See you still haven't done anything about your anger management."

"I will rip you limb from limb," Thalia hisses. "And then I will shove every single one of them up your arms. Let her go."

"Still as creative with your insults as always," the hunter says, unbothered. "And you know I can't do that. We've done this so many times, Thalia. Don't you know the drill by now?"

Jason looks two seconds from throwing up. "You know him?" he asks, his voice shaking.

"Unfortunately," Thalia says.

"Don't be like that, Thalia," the hunter says. "I thought we were friends."

"Go rot in hell."

The hunter just shrugs. "Well, if it pleases you." He turns to them. "Sorry, did I not introduce myself? Luke. I'm an old friend."

"You're no friend of ours," Hazel says. "Just leave us alone."

"Oh, Hazel. Sweet, innocent, naïve little Hazel. You know I can't do that. You know why I'm doing this."

"Because you're a racist, specisist bastard?" Piper suggests, voice ice.

"I'm just doing the world a service."

Percy can't believe this. "A service?" he repeats. "Are you serious?"

For the first time, the hunter – Luke's – seems to realise who he is. "Oh," he says, his voice dripping in too much recognition to make Percy feel safe. "So this must be the little mate."

"I think the correct term is boyfriend," Leo says. "Mate is used for anima—oh."

"I'm not her mate," Percy says. "Or her boyfriend."

"Well, she obviously means a lot to you," Luke says. "Or you wouldn't have come here."

"The power of friendship is also a thing," Percy says, throat dry. "Maybe that's just it."

"Is it, though?"

"Leave them out of this, Luke," Annabeth manages, through gritted teeth. She's pushed herself so she's sitting, but she's still gripping her arm like it's a lifeline, and the black lines from the bullet wound have spread alarmingly far up under her skin. "This has nothing to do with them. Let them go and you can have us."

"No," Percy says. "No, that's definitely not happening. We did not come all this way to let you get hurt now."

Luke tilts his head. "Hold on," he says. "You came to Frederick's house earlier, didn't you?"

"What?" Annabeth says.

"I don't see what that has to do with anything," Percy says.

"How did you find them?" Luke stalks forward, his eyes glimmering with something unsettling. "When you walked away we thought you were on a wild goose chase. There's no way you could have found them from that lead."

"We didn't," Percy says.

"So, how did you?"

Percy holds his gaze. "Lucky guess."

Luke's eyes narrow. "I'm not in the mood for games." He cocks his gun, and points it down at Annabeth. "If you don't tell me I'll blow her brains out, how's that?"

Annabeth's eyes shift. Percy licks his lips. "Luke—"

"It was me," Rachel says.

Luke pauses. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Chase pack emissary," she says, sounding a hell of lot more confident than Percy feels. (He means. He's a teacher. This doesn't happen to him.) "I was able to track them."

"Why?" Luke's lip curls. "Are you also a werewolf?"

"Close," Rachel says. "I'll give you a hint." And then suddenly there's a terrible resounding snap, and every single hunter buckles with a pained scream, clutching at their legs, including Luke.

"Witch!" Luke hisses.

Percy swallows his bile at the sound of five legs literally breaking at the same time, and takes the opportunity that Luke's momentarily out of commission to crouch and see if Anabeth's all right.

"Are you okay?" he demands. "Is your arm healing?"

They both look at it. The black lines have reached her shoulder, and are spiralling down her back like roots of a tree underground. Percy almost throws up looking at it.

"That's not good," Annabeth says, and then hisses. "Oh, damn, that hurts."

"What can I do? There must be something."

"You need another bullet."

"What?"

"The powder, inside the bullets. If you crack it open and light it on fire, it creates an anti-toxin, which reverses the effects, and you just shove that in the wound."

Percy looks at where all the hunters are on the ground. The only way he's going to get hold of a bullet is if he gets one of their guns. "Okay," he says. And then he lunges.

Now, here's the thing. Percy's just a teacher. Your regular, average, run of the mill teacher. He has no special talents except cramming seventeen Maltesers in his mouth at the same time and reciting the first chapter of Lord Of The Flies off by heart, neither of which are particularly life-bettering. One thing especially he has no talent for is extreme physical activity, which is not to say he's unfit, but is to say the next time he is presented with the opportunity of wrestling with a trained assassin he's going to give it a hard pass.

Because – who knew – but launching yourself at said trained assassin who also has a gun full of highly lethal bullets when you're nothing but a lowly teacher isn't going to work out in your favour. Even if they do have a broken leg.

Percy realises this as soon as he lands on top of Luke, because as soon as he does Luke turns into a machine. He's on the floor in seconds, head pressed against the stone, hard, with the barrel of a gun pressed under his jaw, and before he can think too hard about it he bucks his hips so viciously he just knows he jarred the broken leg. Luke hisses and folds, like a deckchair, and Percy takes the chance to knee him in the face and make a wild grab for the gun. He's just skidded it across the floor to where Annabeth and Hazel are anxiously waiting when Luke grabs his arm again and twists, and oh look, like he needed another disadvantage.

Percy's broken his arm a few times before, and when he hears a snap he knows he's done it again. His entire arm is aflame with pain, but somewhere in the insane part of his mind he thinks, I can still fight with this thing, and with his uninjured arm lands the hardest punch he's probably ever thrown straight into Luke's face.

Luke's head snaps back. That by itself wouldn't be enough, because Percy is pretty sure his hand suffered more damage than Luke's face did, but then suddenly Rachel lets out an ungodly scream and the entire room flashes purple, and Luke goes sailing off him like a bomb has just detonated. Percy takes the opportunity to scramble to his feet, his broken arm hanging uselessly by his side, but then there's the sound of a gunshot and a scream, and then he becomes very starkly aware of the distinct feeling of his shirt becoming wet.

When he looks down, he sees that there's a large red stain spreading across it like a flower. It's then that he realises he's just been shot in the stomach.

"Oh," he says.

"Percy!" Annabeth shouts. "Watch out!"

On pure instinct, he drops (and yes, it was instinct, and not collapsing from blood loss, he will be heralded a hero in this story okay) just in time to stop himself getting brained as, like a very elegant, gangly pair of gazelles, Leo and Jason leap over him, swinging their lacrosse sticks like baseball bats. They make contact with a pair of hunters who crumple like paper, and then suddenly they're advancing on Luke, and Percy feels his vision begin to get blurry, and he struggles to stay awake because no, he has to see how this ends—

He's out before he knows it.

He wakes in hospital.

He doesn't know what time of day it is, or even what day it is, because the curtains are drawn, and there are no calendars around. It takes a few moments after he's opened his eyes to remember what happened, and when he does it all comes rushing back to him like a flood.

The girls, kidnapped, and slowly choking to death on wolfsbane. Annabeth, as fragile as a baby bird in his arms. Luke, like an evil villain.

He tries to sit up, but he finds when he tries his abdomen screams at him. He glances down and prods past the scratchy blanket and the paper-thin hospital gown to find a piece of gauze the size of a small country taped over his stomach that's about as thick as a stack of paper. Experimentally, he pokes as it, and immediately regrets it when a wave of nausea suddenly hits him.

"Oh, you're awake!"

He glances up to find a cheery looking nurse standing at his bedside. She's wearing scrubs and has a clipboard, and she's got dimples when she smiles. He likes her.

"How long have I been out?" he manages.

"Three days," she says, and Percy almost throws up again. "You have your friends and family quite worried. I don't think your girlfriend has left the room once."

He try to say I don't have a girlfriend, but his mouth has somehow stopped working, so he just nods silently.

"I know that you probably feel very tired, but I have to ask you some questions first," she says. "Just to make sure that you're still functioning as normal. Do you remember what happened?"

"I got shot. In the stomach."

"When was that?"

"Uh." He tries to think back. "Friday. I... I didn't want to miss work."

"Do you remember who you were with?"

"Annabeth."

She smiles at that, for some reason. "What's your name?"

"Percy."

"What year is it?"

"2019."

"Who's the President?"

He squints at her, and she just laughs. "Okay, good," she says. "It seems like everything's working fine. You're going to have to stay in the hospital for a bit longer so we can do check-ups on you – you are a very lucky young man. That bullet missed all your vital organs, just a clean path straight through the body."

Percy wouldn't exactly call himself lucky, but considering his eventful Friday was he supposes he's lucky to be alive.

"I suppose you want to see some people," she says. "Do you want me to let someone in? Your girlfriend's been here all weekend."

They're talking about Annabeth, his mind tells him. It takes his mouth a bit of time to catch up. "Yeah."

"I'll let her in. You just get comfortable, okay?"

He nods, and she takes off through the door. He stares up at the ceiling. It's stained. He wonders how some of the stains got up there. They look like coffee stains. Did someone throw coffee at the ceiling?

His thoughts get interrupted by the door to his room banging open. He jerks upwards, to see Annabeth standing there, and she looks furious.

"You IDIOT!" she shouts, and then marches right up to his bed. "You are so stupid, I hate you!"

"Uh," he says.

"I am so glad you're alive," she says, and then she kisses him.

If he wasn't thinking coherently before, he's spiralled into spaghetti now. His brain kind of short-circuits. He doesn't think he's ever been happier, even if his stomach hurts and he can't really move his arms properly.

When she pulls away, her lips are spit-slick and her eyes are wet. "You idiot," she says tearfully. "Why did you do that?"

"Protecting your virtue," he says. "It's cool."

"Percy, you're in hospital!"

"And it's kind of been worth it. It's Monday, right? I had a double period with Octavian's class. This is a great day."

"Percy," she says.

"Sorry." And he is, a little.

"I thought you died," she says. "I—you're not like us, Percy. You can't do that."

"In my defence, I didn't know he was going to shoot me." His hand reaches out, unbidden, but he lets it because he thinks they can do that now, and he touches her hair. "How is—everything? Are you all okay?"

"Everyone's good. A bit shaken, but—good. Jason, Rachel and Leo have been granted a week's leave of school for trauma. You've been given about a month. Paid, too."

He sighs with relief. "Awesome."

"Luke got arrested," Annabeth says. She leans into him touching her face, and he smiles. Her skin is so soft. "Not for—hunting. But he shot you in the stomach, and me, too, so he's in prison."

"The others?"

"Ran. But—" She sucks in a breath, so beautifully hopeful. "The government had only given Luke the hunting licence. It said that his party could be as big as he wanted, but without a licence all the others are technically poaching. And I think with all the hunters in hiding and us surviving again they've kind of given up on finding us." She smiles, eyes shining. "We're free."

Percy takes her hand. "That's amazing."

She nods, and tears spill down her cheeks. "I can go to college. I can start a life for myself. I—" She chokes a little. "I can even get married. I can have kids without worrying about them growing up on the run."

"Annabeth, that's amazing."

She smiles at him. "I don't think I've ever been happier. And—it's all down to you."

"I wouldn't go that far."

"I would." She traces the rise and fall of his knuckles with her thumb. "Why—did you come after us?"

"What do you mean?"

"You had no indication to believe we were in trouble. And yet you still came after us."

"Of course I did," Percy says. "You hadn't done your architecture course yet."

Annabeth lets out a wet laugh and rolls her eyes. "That's why? The dumb architecture course?"

"And," he says, "because the night before, you—nearly kissed me. And—you said something, about wolves and commitment. How when you know, you know. And I knew. And I wasn't going to let something like you slip away without a fighting chance."

She stares at him in amazement. "I love you," she says. "I—I didn't say it before, because I was a coward, but I love you. I love you so much."

"I love you, too," he says, and he means it. Before him is a woman he's in love with who is also a powerful predator and an incredible nerd, who he'd risk his life for eight more times if it meant having this with her.

And lying in the hospital with her by his side and a hole in his stomach, he's never felt happier.

A/N it is nearly midnight on a school night and yet I am finished with this BEAST

I really hope you enjoy! if there's any bits that I completely forgot to fill in just tell me and I'll do it tomorrow (also that line about beer needing to be stored in light is absolutely false beer actually needs to be stored away from light or it goes bad but if werewolves can exist in this universe so can beer that exists peacefully in light) also HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL! have a splendid 17th ily xxx