Evan Buckley laughed as he stepped onto the scene and looked around at who was there. He could see that most of the victims were actually other firefighters who were all covered in various manners of paint and other things from the truck that had overturned near them and sprayed the entire scene. He looked back at Eddie to see that Eddie was smiling as well.

"We are going to have some fun," Buck said.

Eddie nodded, and he stepped forward. The growl that came from behind the open truck door had Buck reacting too slowly.

Eddie was taken down with a wolf on top of him. Before the cops on the scene could get their guns drawn, there was blood as Eddie's arms were bitten, and the wolf tried to drag him off.

Buck rushed forward and grabbed the werewolf by the neck and turned it around to hold it where it shouldn't bite him. he waited for the cops to rush him with a muzzle that would keep the wolf from biting anyone, but also the tranq would take it down and keep the person in that form.

Hen was the one to come running the fastest, but Buck held out his hand, and he waited for the cops to take the werewolf, and then he crouched at Eddie's side.

"Pain?"

"Fading fucking fast, Buck, what the hell?"

"Remember where we talked about that whole thing about why I was rejected out of my family and the family friend raised me?"

"Yes."

"It's because I was a shifter. You were just bitten by some kind of one, and with the pain fading, there is every chance you are going to become one as well. There is nothing to stop it. I'm going to clean this up."

"Why did you stop me?" Hen demanded."

Eddie growled as she got closer again. He stopped himself and looked at Buck in shock.

"Yeah, I thought so. Feral fucking alpha. Athena, take care of that. And find out how in the hell a werewolf was sitting here, and no one knew it."

"I'll take care of that. You take care of him."

"Buck, I need to go to him."

"No, you don't really need to at all," Buck said as he focused on Hen again. Buck grabbed Eddie's face, and he made the man's gaze focus on him. "Talk to me, Eddie. What do you feel?"

"A gaping hole. I can't...what the fuck is this?"

"That's the pack bond. This guy is feral as fuck, but he can be helped. Focus on me."

"Buck?" Bobby called out.

"Get the fuck back," Buck called when Eddie's eyes flash yellow and he growled. "You have a shifter in your line somewhere. That's the only reason you would be changing before the bite has even settled."

"Dad's family is lousy, but I never got it."

"Ah, recessive in you. I bet it's going to be in Chris. He'll have a hell of a puberty with that kind of thing. He's going to be happy to be in that form."

Eddie laughed, but his teeth were growing out and looking like he was going to freak the fuck out in a few seconds.

"I need this scene cleared, a new voice yelled out, and even Buck wanted to curl up and show his neck to that voice. He knew it, but he was so focused on Eddie that there was nothing there that he could figure out other than Alpha.

The hand on his shoulder, squeezing just this side of pain, made Buck focus on Eddie again because there was someone there who was going to make sure that no one was a threat to them.

"Eds?" Buck asked.

Eddie didn't answer with words; he tipped over into Buck, getting them both bloody while Eddie was healing up quickly; the wound on his shoulder was something out of a horror movie. Buck went back into the alpha's legs, and he also knew the scent there. Lou. The alpha who had been Buck's since Buck had arrived in LA. The man had allowed Buck to be as distant as he wanted to be since Buck had never had a pack before, and then Buck had gone and made himself a pack out of a human and his son. Lou would take them in with ease, and Buck knew that, but still, it was something that he wanted to be Eddie's choice, not something Edie just did before it was him.

"Sitrep," Lou demanded.

"An unknown werewolf on the scene, a feral alpha of some kind. He bit Eddie, and I held the wolf in place while he was in full shift. Athena's making sure he's secure. Eddie's shifting fast. Probably have recessive genes in him; his father's family is full of them, it seems, which is something I never knew."

"Abuela and her line aren't but her brother and everyone before him. Blamed Abuelo, but I think it was just so much else with Dad and Pepa." Eddie's words were soft, and Buck barely heard them, but he figured that Lou heard it all.

"He's nesting already...I told you that you made a pack with him and his son. I'll handle this and get someone to get your things from the station. Three weeks, we shall see if you need more."

Buck said nothing because the leave would be paid. Eddie was clinging to him like he would make getting them both the time off easy. Lou was going to be an asshole about things, and it was the thing that Buck loved about him most.

"Three weeks off for what?" Chim demanded.

"Eddie will need at least that to get grips with his new form. Buck will be needed as there needs to be trust in the person who helps someone through it, and Eddie doesn't know me from anyone else. If there was someone else in the family I thought could help, I would get them, so Buck's going to be it."

Chim made a noise, and Buck figured that Chim would try to throw a wrench into the plans, but there would be nothing to be done about it. Chim would lose that fight when it came to him and Lou.

"How are you feeling?" Buck asked.

"Sleepy."

"Good. That's good. We can get you asleep in the back of Lou's car. He's going to take us to the pack house."

"Home," Eddie said.

Buck looked up, trying to get his eyes on Lou.

"That's fine. You can take him to his place. It doesn't matter where we are as long as he's okay with it. You've probably already nested there and didn't realize it."

"Oh, Buck knew he had been. That feeling had been there from the moment that he met Eddie, which had felt like a punch to the gut, probably also why he was an asshole about things. They had worked it all out, and then Buck had just glomped into the family.

"Sir, your car is close," another person said. The smell was one that Buck knew from smelling her on Lou.

Buck's sole focus now was getting Eddie out of there without setting him off. Eddie wouldn't be an alpha unless that alpha were put down, but even then, there was every chance it would go to someone else in the same pack who deserved it better. Lou would figure things out from there.

---

Buck heard the movement just seconds before Eddie was in bed with him. The man had been unable to sleep alone since the change four days ago. Of course, part of that was the massive fucking rant that Chim had gone on after they had been forced to take Eddie to the hospital because of Chim and not liking that they were not able to touch Eddie after seeing his arm nearly ripped off. Buck understood part of that, but the biggest was that Chim refused to get the certs to work on shifters. Eddie had them because of Buck, which Buck had been shocked to know when the bombing happened, and his leg had gotten stuck under the fire truck.

The sound of Chris turning in his bed had Buck wait to see if he also woke up. He was still sleeping, which was good as things had been hectic around the house that day. Buck hadn't been sure that Eddie wouldn't go and flip out on his parents. The doctor who had been kind enough to go to Eddie's house to see him when some of the bloodwork that Buck had taken from Eddie before they had even left the scene and given to Lou that had been sent to the local testing center had turned up a few weird things.

Eddie should have shifted when he was a teenager, like all shifters did. There were suppression drugs still in him, the kind that modified cells, which was why Eddie had shifted so fucking fast; it had been there underneath it all. That was probably why Buck had made a pack with him and Chris. It was such shit, and there was no way that Eddie would ever talk to his parents again. Testing was already being done on Chris to make sure that he wasn't that way as well. That Ramon and Helena Diaz hadn't fucked up Chris as well. It was easy to fix after parents had done this shit for years to kids, but it was still something that BUck hoped was found out that Eddie didn't have to deal with.

"Sleep," Eddie said.

"I will. You woke me up," Buck said.

Eddie snorted and buried his face in Buck's neck as Buck tried to calm down a little more. Having Eddie in his bed like this wouldn't be good for his brain. He was pretty sure that he would end up half hard, and Eddie would smell that. Despite little training in the whole thing, Eddie had learned scents really well. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Scenes were going to be hard as fuck, but they were going to put Eddie through the shifter training course as soon as possible to make sure that they had time to work him through any issues.

Buck wasn't prepared for Eddie to move again, like he wasn't touching enough of Buck at first and was draped mostly over Buck, their legs tangled. The half-there erection pressing to Buck's leg had him groaning in want, and he needed to keep control of that. Eddie might be hard, but that didn't mean that he was awake enough or educated enough to consent. He would need to keep Eddie at bay if the man did anything else.

A few minutes passed, and Eddie just passed the hell out again. Buck reached for his phone and sighed, thinking about what this would mean for everything. He wanted it. He had wanted it for a long time, but he wasn't going even to touch getting this until Eddie was even. That would be the fastest way to fuck up everything was to make it seem like he was allowing this to get him what he wanted before Eddie knew what everything was.

Buck: We need to work on the whole pack stuff soon. Very happy to see Eddie in bed with me; I just hope he doesn't start to hump my leg.

Lou: Sleep

Buck: Of course, Alpha, My Alpha

There was no response, but Buck didn't figure there would be. Lou was coming over for breakfast, and that was going to be interesting if Lou brought up what was happening right now. Buck didn't care if he did, but he hoped Eddie didn't care about it.

He dropped his phone to the bed after making sure that there were no other texts from anyone else. Before he let himself start to drift off again.

---

Eddie wasn't shocked to find himself alone in Buck's bed. It had happened each morning that Eddie ended up in bed with Buck. He didn't care that anyone knew it either. Buck's house was perfect for them.

Eddie hadn't wanted to stay at his place that long before he wanted to be where the place smelled more of Buck. It hadn't been a shock to Eddie, but it had been for Buck. Eddie and Chris were at Buck's more than Buck was at Eddie's. Buck just hadn't realized that over the last while.

He wanted to scream at the world that this was unfair.

Yet, there was something else that was inside of him that he hadn't found what he needed yet. Lou was coming over for breakfast to help Eddiei settle more since Eddie still wasn't sleeping well.

Chris thought it was cool that Eddie was a shifter now, and to everyone who might be in the know about the change, no one was going to know that Eddi had been suppressed. The court case would be private if it came to the level of the government stepping in and filing something against his parents. It was going to make sure that no one ever got their hands on Chris, which was something that Eddie was happy about. Eddie needed to get things figured out. He had made Buck the person that Chris went to as soon as Eddie had figured out that he wanted Buck to be more than a friend, but Buck hadn't ever shown him a single thought that he wanted more. Not until last night, and Buck hadn't done anything when Eddie had pressed his erection into Buck's leg. Then, how they had woken up tangled together even more with Buck's own erection pressing into Eddie, Eddie had just slipped off into sleep again and then woke up alone. There was little to do but figure out where Buck was, and Eddie figured that it was going to be the kitchen.

He found Buck looking out the window into the backyard. Eddie had never understood before why Bck wanted a house until he found Buck in the backyard one evening and flopped on his side with his fur out, as Buck liked to call it. There was nothing to do but look at him and how at peace Buck was. The backyard made a lot of sense then. It was also the easiest thing in the world to watch him now. He was holding a cup of coffee that did nothing for him, but he liked the taste with his fancy-flavored creamer. Eddie stayed where he was until he figured Buck knew he was there and waiting on something.

Only when Eddie stepped forward, Buck jerked his head to the side to look at Eddie in shock.

"What's up?" Eddie asked.

"Lou's here early." Buck nodded toward the backyard, where there was a yoga mat on the grass, and Lou was shirtless and doing some kind of stretches. Lou was a beautiful man, and Eddie wasn't sure what he should do about the pull to the man. He knew Lou would find him a good alpha if he didn't want him. Buck was only loosely connected to him. There was no reason to think that Buck wouldn't follow Eddie to whatever alpha he picked, and yet Buck didn't trust easily, and he seemed to trust Lou.

The day of the change had been stuck in his mind. Buck had never allowed an alpha on a scene that close to him, especially when Buck was protecting someone. Yet, Lou had made it all the way up where the scent of him and Buck merged into something that made Eddie want.

Until that day, Eddie had never thought that he would be the kind of person to want more than a single lover at a time. He wasn't sure what he felt for Lou, but it wasn't nearly as deep as what he felt for Buck. And yet, there was something there. But it wasn't just Lou. It was Lou and Buck.

"He said he needed to talk to us before Chris got up, and he's still deeply asleep, so we have about an hour. He needed to center himself. I'm not sure what fuckery he's going to tell us this early. El Paso isn't quite that far ahead of us that it would have been enough time for something unless the people worked on it all night long.

The packs in El Paso were working on things on their end, and Edie wanted to make sure that his sisters were fine, so Lou had pushed that.

As if hearing them talking, when Lou came out of a stretch, he was looking at the pair of them with a smile on his face.

"Well, I think that it's not fuckery," Buck said.

Eddie laughed, and he walked over to get a cup of coffee. He liked coffee as well and was kind of pissed that he didn't have to drink it anymore.

Buck's collection of teas was nicer now for him as well. Tea was less bitter most of the time but also just flavorful. Buck wasn't in the mood for them, or he would have made a cup of that. Edde hadn't gotten down how to make the tea yet. He was good for regular black sweet tea, but most of Buck's teas had weird temperatures and times and then other things on top of that to make them palatable for the werewolves they were. Eddie added a touch of cream and then a little more sugar and took a sip. It was good. He didn't need to add anything more, and he was happy about finally finding the kind of ratio he needed.

Lou left the mat where it was, and he grabbed the towel to wipe the sweat off his face, which was a shock as Eddie wouldn't think that the man would sweat just from that.

"OH, he's been going since before I Woke up. I have that stuff in the bin out there, and he helped himself to it. He was already doing stuff when I stumbled into the kitchen to get breakfast started."

"Speaking of, what is it?"

"Casserole, mostly potatoes, but I used chorizo instead of my normal sausage. Lou likes it, and Chris would live off it if we let him. You...if you let him."

"We are fine." Eddie looked at Buyck to see he was blushing. It looked like the whole conversation wouldn't be put off for that long if Eddie could get Lou out of the house. "Good morning," Lou said as he came inside.

"Morning," Buck said back, and he smiled.

Louy walked over to Eddie first, and he held out his hand. Eddie looked at Buck with a little shock on his face. He wasn't sure what the hell to do. It wasn't like I wanted to shake his hand since that wasn't the way that he was holding his hand out. Eddie3had never paid attention to the kinds of things that packs did since he wasn't part of one and only had a few people who he wasn't close to in his life who were part of a pack. Buck didn't count, as he didn't act like he was in a pack. There was so much in that one look that Buck softened a little, and he walked over to Eddie and stood behind him. Buck wrapped his arms around Eddie's shoulders and held him tight.

"He's asking for a scent mark on your face. Or neck."

Eddie remembered seeing Lou pass his hand over Buck's neck before but never saw his face. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do. He knew what he wanted, but admitting that wasn't the biggest thing he wanted to do at that moment.

He was being taken over by the feeling of having Buck behind him and Lou in front of him. That pull to Lou was strong, and the pull to Buck was just as strong.

Lou dropped his hand and stepped back, which made Eddie growl. He could feel his claws growing, and he tried to stop it. It would take a while before Eddie could control the shift fully, and it would come when he could finally shift in the form of a wolf.

There was a feeling that Eddi needed to chase him, not to catch him and keep him but just to keep him. It was the strangest feeling in the world. Eddie stepped forward, and Lou had a look on his face.

"What's that look, Lou?" Buck asked as he pulled Eddie back to him.

"Well, I think we are having a little bit of an issue with Eddie at war with his two halves right now."

"That's a thing?" Eddie asked.

"Oh, very much so. Buck and I were born with this. We know what we feel and how to pull our basest self out of the running for our emotions and when to let that side take over."

"Like when Buck went after that one guy in the store that time he was about to shoot it up?"

"Yes, his baser side knew the guy was a threat, and he knew he could get him before he did worse shit. You want Buck as the human, but the wolf wants him too, but the wolf wants me as well."

Eddie swallowed because the words sounded right; the wolf in him calmed down and made a sound that Eddie knew well as want. He had heard it from Buck before when Eddie did things, but he had never been able to put a name to that sound. Now he had.

Lou stepped closer again and smiled before stepping up to where he was close enough that Eddie could feel his heat. He had no idea what it would feel like with both of them around him like that, but for once, being trapped didn't come to mind. Eddie had never liked being trapped anywhere, which started long before he had been in war.

"What do you want?" Lou asked.

"I have no fucking clue," Eddie said. He owed them both honesty, and he wanted to make sure that they gave that to him as well. "What do you want?"

"I've wanted Buck from the moment I met him, but he wasn't ready for anything close to a pack at all. It happens with those who are kicked out of the pack they made growing up. I was waiting for him to settle down, then you came into his life, and I thought I had lost him."

"You never said." Buck actually sounded affronted.

"You have a streak a mile wide of doing shit for other people. I wanted you to want me without a single string."

Buck snorted. He pressed his head into Eddie's and just stayed like that.

"And me?" Eddie asked.

"I do have to say that my wolf wants you as well. I knew it as soon as I arrived on the scene to help Athena take care of it since I was close, and they sent a whole bunch of newbies to her. I think that maybe this would be best if we were all just honest. BUck, what do you want?"

"I've wanted Eddie since I met him, but I've had a pull to you that I have never felt for another alpha. I just assumed it was because you were an alpha that I could actually join the pack of. I never gave it any more thought than that. I never thought that I needed to. Now, I'm thinking that maybe I should have been thinking about it more."

"Hmm," Lou said. He reached out and pulled Eddie to him.

Buck made a wounded sound, but then Eddie was being turned to face him, and Lou took the same stance that Buck had with him. Eddie looked at his best friend, and he smiled. Buck smiled back and stepped up, cupping Eddie's cheeks before pressing their lips together. Eddie stumbled back into Lou a little more, feeling the warmth of his skin.

Edie had never become so turned on from a single kiss in his life. He wanted this forever and needed to keep it like it was. He just wanted, and he ached. There was so much that they wanted to do right now, but they had to talk about things.

Buck broke the kiss and looked to the side, where Eddie could feel the puffs of air from Lou's breathing. He kept Eddie sandwiched between them as Buck kissed Lou. It was hotter than it had any right to be. Eddie held onto Buck by the loops on his jeans, keeping him right there even as Buck broke the kiss.

Lou buried his face in Eddie's neck and kissed up there before using a hand to turn Eddie enough to face him so that they could kiss as well.

"Tha's fucking hot," Buck said.

Lou laughed into the kiss and kept it going longer than the kiss Buck had with Eddie, but it was a tease. Eddie could smell the scents coming off him.

"Ugh, too early," Chris said.

That broke them all apart. Lou let go and stepped back, grabbing his shirt from where he had draped it over the chair at some point. Eddie had been so focused on everything else that he hadn't noticed that part. Buck was blushing so red that Eddie thought he might have a sunburn. There was so much going on in his face at that moment that Eddie wondered for a few seconds if he regretted it. Then, the scent of happiness made Eddie relax.

"Abuelita said that you two would be kissing a lot, but she didn't say anything about Alpha Lou."

Eddie started to blush because he wasn't sure what the hell was going on. His Abuela knew he wanted Buck and would give into that want now. The frank discussion he had with her about it all was something that he felt like he had to do. Now, she wasn't talking to Eddie's father at all and wanted to hunt him for sport, which was only marginally better than the way that Pepa was acting when it came to it. He wanted to help calm them down when it came to it, but there was nothing for it. They had to own their own emotions and work through them.

"Come here, mijo," Eddie said as he stepped over to sit down in a chair and waited for Chris to come to him. "I'm never going to leave you behind."

"I know. My Bucky would never allow that anyway."

Eddie laughed before kissing the top of Chris' head as he thought about how much Buck would never let Eddie hurt Chris when it came to that.

"But we will have adult time where you aren't allowed."

"You can call it dates, Dad. I know what a date it is."

"It's actually more than that," Lou said as he walked over to sit down in a chair that put him on the other side of Eddie but kept the table between him and Chris. "Shifters, especially alphas like myself, are very tactile, and there will be times, even outside of dates and locked bedroom times, when we will want to be alone together. Without the adult stuff that you are thinking of. Even if it's just cuddling in bed, but just the three of us."

"Your baser needs. I know. I learned all about it in the book that Buck got me. I wanted to know everything about what was happening with him when he told me he was a shifter. I talked about it with him as I was reading it, and he helped me understand some of the more advanced things."

"Well, that's good. There are a lot of kids who don't like not being able to have access to their parents all the time. Especially since there are actually four relationships in this kind of relationship. We are going to make sire that you have as much time with your father as possible."

"Four?" Chris wrinkled his nose and looked at Eddie.

"There are three of us, but also the pairs, me and Buck, Buck and Lou, and then Lou and I. Each of the four needs to be strong for us to make it. It's a harder relationship to balance, but it's not always going to be that each set gets twenty-five percent of the things. I'm going to be the one getting a lot of attention from the two of them, but they will make time for themselves as well."

"I thought that today we could head to the zoo. We could get a little date out of the way but have Chris with us as well. It's a place I know you all go a lot and should make a good place to try to make sure your senses are not going to go haywire. If you do get overwhelmed, I can take you somewhere quiet, and these two and go elsewhere in the zoo to give us space."

"I like that. We need to get ready," Chris said. He started to back away.

"Ah, breakfast."

As if by magic, the timer went off in the oven. Chris' stomach growled.

"Yeah, I thought so," Eddie said. He shook Chris by his hips a little, making him laugh.

Eddie looked at Buck to see him moving around the table to get the food, which was a sight that Eddie didn't want to be without.

"How would this work? Like if this went someplace as fast as we think it will, given how shifter relationships work, where would we live?"

"Here. I have an apartment in a building close to here with most of the pack, but Buck's house has always worked well when we wanted a place to meet. The pack wouldn't mind at all, and the backyard is more than big enough for dinner, which we will be doing just before you go back to work. There is no need to push more of the pack in before you are settled. Today will help you figure out what else you need."

Eddie thought that it sounded really good. He wanted to have a normal life again, and the thought of going out with just Buck hadn't been good, but with Lou, there was a lot that made it feel like it was something that he could do. He wanted to be happy again; he wanted to be settled again. There was a lot of shit that was going to come his way, and while the new reality he was facing was daunting, he was pretty happy with it.

"No one is going to care about the new guy bagging the alpha?"

"Most of them are well aware that I've had my eye on someone, but no one could figure out who or why I was unwilling just to move forward. I didn't see this coming, but I was working on moving on. It's hard to make the wolf move on when it wants something. You'll learn to understand that part of you."

Buck set the casserole on the table, and then Lou got up to head to the fridge. Eddie knew Lou had been around a lot more than he thought since Lou grabbed the juices in there and pulled out the ones that Buck liked the most and that Chris loved.

Maybe, for once, Eddie could have everything he wanted, and what he wanted was this.

The End