Chapter Text
Talia hoped the extra lap around the territory perimeter would exhaust her enough to clear her mind. It didn't. Nothing erased the bitter taste of loss, grief, guilt, and fury over the murder of her pack mates. Her sister-in-law and her niece, they were innocent and good and she can't believe she will never get to see their faces again. And Alec, her beloved mate. He was so strong and quietly supportive, a wonderful father and Alpha Mate. The absence of his love has left a void in her chest. How is Peter hanging on? Losing a mate has been devastating for her, and she can't even imagine losing a child as well.
She isn't even that surprised when a wolfsbane-coated arrow pierces her shoulder. It seems the Argents are still intent on annihilating the Hale Pack. It’s an expert shot, dangerously close to her heart. She doesn’t have much time before she joins her mate in death. She shouldn’t have been patrolling alone, her mind was too raw with emotion making her easy prey. Laura is too young to become an alpha, Talia thinks morosely, and now she has orphaned her child with such emotional stupidity.
The wolfsbane is like a brand of acid working its way through her body; her shoulder feels like it is burning from the inside out. It forces her beta shift which only antagonizes the circle of hunters even more. She realizes they have done something to suppress their scents, so at least she wasn’t completely oblivious to their presence, but it’s a bitter consolation to her pride.
“Alpha Hale, how embarrassingly easy it was to catch you. Are you going to cry and beg like that bitch of a mate did when we sent him to hell?”
Talia growls through her elongated fangs, knows her eyes are blazing red in fury and frustration. She has no less than 5 additional crossbows aimed at her, giving her no chance to take out the hunters and escape. She is fast, but not that fast.
“We’ve not hurt any humans, Gerard. Why are you doing this? When will it end?”
“It will end when your kind is nothing more than a memory. There is no room for monsters to walk freely among humans.”
At this point Talia feels almost resigned to her fate, and inordinately sad that this is her reality. “I think you and I have very different definitions of monster.”
“I don’t give a shit what you think about anything, you mongrel. Once we have you taken care of, we will easily be able to take out the rest of your pack. There is no way your little bitch daughter will be able to properly handle the alpha power once we kill you, so it will be a piece of cake.”
“Don’t you dare touch my daughter! My pack are honest and caring people. You are the monster.s Your hatred toward my kind is the real tragedy.”
Talia does her best to stand tall in the face of such hatred and with the pain searing its way through her body, knowing it is only minutes before it reaches her heart. Gerard looked like he was going to say something else when she catches a strange sound, high pitched and airy, like a whistle perhaps, and there isn’t enough time for her to even process what it might be or where it is coming from before the group of hunters are swept away into a pile, followed by a blur of motion that tosses their weapons into another pile in the opposite direction.
Talia isn’t aware of hallucinogenic side effects of this type of wolfsbane poisoning. It takes her several stunned moments to process that she just had the privilege to see Superman in action.
Then it dawns on her that he not only saved her, but that she is still in her beta shift. Even with her less-than-human appearance, he chose to save her. Wow.
She doesn’t get to enjoy the shock for long because she falls to her knees, weakened as the poison continues to spread. She is unable to withhold a pained moan as she falls to the ground.
Superman appears before her, also on his knees and cupping her face in clear concern. “How do I help you? What do you need?”
Talia tries to focus through the pain. “Wolfsbane poisoning.” She pants. “Need to burn wolfsbane. Need the ashes in my wound.”
He stands up with an extreme focus on his face. “What does it look like? How will I find it.”
“An.. herb. Dried flowers. Usually in bags. Burn it, please.”
She has barely any energy left but tries to keep her eyes open. Her breathing struggles as the aconite gets closer to her sensitive organs. Thankfully Superman is back in a flash, literally, and she feels a sense of relief when she recognizes the bag he holds up to her as aconite. “Need to burn it, rub ashes in my wound. Please hurry.”
She is grateful to keep her eyes open this time as she watches Superman dump the wolfsbane on a nearby stone and immediately incinerate it with his terrifying red laser eyes. That is far more intimidating than alpha red eyes, she thinks.
He looks at her, focused as he has been this entire time and uses a calm, steady voice. “This is going to hurt.”
She nods weakly and closes her eyes. The pain of the arrow being pulled through her inflamed flesh is excruciating.
She must have passed out, but sometime later she wakes up panting, in the best kind of agony as she recognizes that her body is healing from the poison.
She reaches a hand to where the arrow was lodged in her left shoulder and is happy to find it healed. She also notices that she has shifted back to her human form, no claws protruding from her fingers, so her healing must be nearly complete.
As she sits up and starts to take in her surroundings, she sees the residue of wolfsbane ash on a stone beside her, a pile of weapons about 10 feet away, and nothing else. Her skin prickles in apprehension because the hunters were masked from her before, what if they are still here?
She stands and feels her alpha eyes begin to glow as she takes in as much information about her surroundings as she can. She doesn’t hear or smell any other creatures near aside from those normally in the forest.
She decides to head to the lake a few miles away to wash away the smell of blood and wolfsbane before returning to her home. She jogs there quickly and strips out of her clothes as she starts to wade into the cool, refreshing water. When she is waist-deep, she hears that same airy whistle and turns toward the noise. She looks into the woods but doesn’t see anything. “Hello? Is that you?” She almost called out the name Superman, but it feels silly to say out loud.
She hears the clearing of a throat somewhere in the thicket but can’t see him. “I’m sorry. I was going to give you privacy while you bathe, I don’t mean any disrespect.”
Talia chuckled. “I see, it is alright. My kind aren’t as prudish about nudity as humans.”
At that, he walks out from the trees with just a slight blush to his cheeks. “I understand. One of my traits is that I can see through almost anything, so clothed or not, the human form is not anything new to me, but I know humans have different sensibilities. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
Talia feels a small smile creep across her face, an astounding achievement given what has happened in the last hours and days. “What do you like to be called? I see they use the name Superman in the news, but is that your preference?”
Now a small smile finds its way to his face. “People don’t often ask me that. You can call me Kal-El.”
“Well, thank you Kal-El. You saved my life tonight, and probably that of my pack. We are in your debt.”
“I am happy to have been here. Tell me, and please I mean no offense, but what is your kind?”
“We are werewolves. We can shift from human to more wolf-like appearance.”
“Amazing. I have of course heard about the lore, but never knew that werewolves were real.”
She laughs at that. “I think your existence is much more amazing than mine.”
“Perhaps.” He smiles at her, and she decides to move more into the water to begin washing away all the filth. She pauses and looks back. “You are welcome to join me in the water, it’s a sticky night and the lake is cool.”
He hesitates and seems to look right through her before nodding. She smiles then focuses on running her fingers through her long brown hair and across her body, washing away all the grime and ash and blood, letting Kal-El join her in the water without an audience. Once she feels much refreshed and hears him quietly splashing in the water, she glances up.
“What brought you here? Beacon Hills is not a large city nor known for frequent crime.”
He is floating in the water, his golden skin nearly glowing in the light of the half moon. He has a lighter complexion than Alec did, but the strong jawline and dark hair are so very similar. She bites her lip with a sudden pang of sorrow.
“I was actually here looking for Gerard Argent in honor of my wife. She was investigating a series of fires and murders that traced back to him.”
Talia has become very sensitive to the use of the past tense. Quietly she asks, “She was an investigative reporter?”
He sighs and moves to stand in the lake to face her. “She was assassinated 1 months ago. I was out of town dealing with a personal matter. And I wasn’t. I.” His head is bowed down toward the water, shoulders tense. Talia understands this painfully well, so she goes to him.
She cups his face in her hands and looks into his blue eyes. “I am so sorry. I understand. My mate Alec was murdered by Gerard just days ago. I am the alpha of our pack, I was responsible for his safety and I failed. They also murdered my sister-in-law and young niece. I understand.”
She watches as moisture pools in his eyes and one tear begins to streak down his right cheek. She just nods and continues to hold his face, relieved to share this pain with someone who understands exactly what it is. He pulls her into a tight embrace, burying his face in her neck as he weeps and she finds herself doing the same into his chest, gripping on to him and finally begins to let go of the anguish she bottled up inside.
She isn’t sure how long they stand there, holding and comforting one another, but she feels cleansed in more ways than can be attributed to the water. By the time they pull apart, the understanding they have for one another is profound.
“What is your name?”
She laughs at the absurdity that she hasn’t shared it with him. “Talia. Talia Hale. Alpha of the Hale Pack.”
“Well, thank you Talia. I have been swimming in this pain for weeks, only focused on figuring out what happened to Lois and trying to bring her justice. Being able to save you and finally bring Argent’s people to the authorities might be enough to help me move passed this.”
Talia smiles sadly. “I can only hope for the same. But thank you, from the bottom of my heart.” She grabs his hand and places it over her chest so he can feel the truth of her words. “I believe you saved me in many ways tonight. My pack and I owe you our lives. Thank you.”
His breath catches and his eyes keep moving between where his hand is on her chest and back up to her eyes. “Talia, I. I don’t have the words.”
He may not be human, but he still is a man, and Talia can smell the shift in them both. In part her heart breaks at the attraction. But another part of her needs this, after all the recent trauma, to have something good. Something to make her feel alive. With more tears in her eyes, she grabs his face in her hands and pulls him in. “I know. I do. It’s okay.” And she pulls him more fully into her, pressing her lips to his.
He groans and wraps his arms around her back to pull her even more tightly to him as he laps into her mouth with his tongue. After a minute he pulls back, panting as he looks at her.
“Is this wrong? Are we wrong to do this?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. I just.” She pauses, trying to find the words. “I have been living in nothing but sadness and anger and regret. You are the only one who I have met who not only understands, but has also made me feel sparks of life, and I don’t think chasing that is bad. I don’t think Alec would begrudge me for that.”
“Talia, as lovely as you are and as fascinating as I find your kind, I can’t stay here. I have more work to do. And I don’t think, after losing Lois, that I’ll be able to fully give my heart to anyone else.”
She smiles sadly at him. “I have no expectations beyond tonight, Kal-El. I feel like you belong to the world and I would never expect to keep you from helping others as you have helped me tonight.”
He flashes his bright white teeth in a captivating smile, tears still welling in his beautiful blue eyes, and pulls her to him.