(For @shadeofazmeinya and the Werewolf AU. I don't know who sent the original ask, but I have fallen in love with this AU and have decided to take an idea I had for it and run.)
Rumors of werewolves were not a new thing. Geoff had been all over the states and everywhere he went, he heard the tales of them. Beasts, as tall as cars, twice as big when they stood on their back legs, with paws that could crush a human skull just by stepping on it, rows and rows of razor sharp teeth in their massive jaws, and eyes as red as blood that could see right into your soul. Geoff would just shake his head and move on his way, they weren't that big.
Still, as the years went on, he started hearing the stories less and less. They were written off as old wives tales, nothing more than little stories you tell at the campfire to get a rouse out of your friends. The rumors disappeared all together once he arrived in Los Santos, people were too busy worrying about getting shot to care about werewolves. That was just fine by Geoff, he came out here searching for a legacy to create, not one to retell.
Werewolves hadn't cross his mind in ages until they showed up in town, The Hellhounds of Los Santos. That's what the locals called them. There was no way to determine how many there were, as no one had ever seen them. The CEO of All-Nighter, a popular club in down town, said there was ten of them, normal looking enough, but with massive scars all over their faces to make it impossible for the FBI to track them. The old homeless man who sat on the corner of Connelly and Fifth claimed there was at least a hundred of them, fists the size of your head and thundering footsteps that could be heard from miles away. They didn't seem to want to cause a ruckus, but these supposed werewolves had created quite the stir in the people. All anyone knew was not to go by the docks at night, especially during a full moon.
So, of course, as soon as the reports of dead bodies popping up on the docks once every month started coming in, Geoff had Gavin install a security camera outside the old fish packing building, right across from the suspected place. Gav thought Geoff was going looney, people find dead bodies everywhere in Los Santos, this wasn't a new occurrence. Geoff assured him that he just wanted to check, make sure it wasn't some little gang hiding out down there. Gavin shrugged and it as he was asked.
Nothing came out of it under two weeks later, around midnight.
"Oi, Geoffrey, you might wanna come see this!". Gavin called from his desk, his face lit up by the glow of his monitors. It was late into the night when he noticed it.
"Gav, I swear to God if this is another video of a cat getting its head stuck in a fucking tissue box, I'm going to turn off the wifi.". Geoff sighed as he came in the room, cup of coffee in his hand.
"Not quite.". Gavin trailed off, pulling up a camera feed. Geoff plopped himself down into the chair beside him, looking at the monitors. "I was check over all the feeds and, well, look.". He pointed to the video.
It was of the docks, Geoff had almost forgotten that he asked Gavin to set one up there. About fifteen seconds into the video, the rolling door of the warehouse was slowly pushed open, as if someone was having a hard time with it, and a figure stepped out.
It was a little hard to make one the features of the person, the camera's quality was only so so, but they looked it be a young man, around Gavin's age and slightly shorter, with a mop of messy hair. Geoff quickly took notice of the huge scar on his left bicep, it looked like it was pretty recent. The figure looked around for a second, then rolled the door closed and took off.
"That was around five pm, yeah? And then this happened a couple hours later.". Gavin dragging his mouse, moving the feed to about six am, if the timestamp was correct. The rolling door was opened again, this time whoever it was was out of the camera's view, and a blur of motion shot through the opening, moving much faster than any human, and the door closed quickly behind them.
Geoff leaned back in his chair and blew out the breath he didn't realize he was holding. So the rumors were true. Werewolves, or at least something of that nature, were in Los Santos. He never thought he'd live to see the day.
"Thanks, Gav, you did good work.". He ruffled the younger's messy hair and stood up. Gavin looked at him, sliding his headphones off.
"What are you going to do, Geoff?".
"Right now? Going to go bed. In the morning? I'm heading to the docks.".
Geoff woke up bright and early that morning. Well, not exactly woke up, insomnia was a bit of a bitch, but as soon as the sun was up, he was out of bed. He went to check on Gav before he left, to tell him what he was doing, but he found the lad at his desk, hunched over and snoring. Geoff smiled fondly, what a lovable idiot. Instead of waking the Brit up, he quickly jotted down a note telling him where he'd be and to come find him if he wasn't back by noon, and hurried out the door.
It was a quiet drive to the docks, the apartment they were currently staying at was only fifteen minutes anyway and no one in their right mind was up this early in the morning. Well, nobody but Geoff, but it was debatable if he was in his right mind considering that he was looking for werewolves.
He parked several buildings away from the warehouse, too close and whoever was in there would hear him. As he approached the concrete structure, he counted at least six bloody spots on the ground from bodies, one was still fresh.
The warehouse used to be used for making and storing fishing gear, but fisherman hadn't lived in Los Santos for years, so they were mostly used by squatters, drug dealer, and supposed werewolves. Most of the glass windows of the three story building were still intact, albeit cracked, and some of the other corners were crumpled. The perfect place to hide out if you didn't want to be found.
Now that he's at the rolling door, Geoff does not blame the guy for having a hard time getting it open, the thing's like seven feet tall and fucking heavy. Once it's open big enough for him to squeeze through, he's in the warehouse.
It's not quite what he was expecting; it was definitely run down and in need of several repairs, and the concrete made the whole building a lot cooler than outside, but it had protection from the elements, mostly, so that was something. Droplets of water hit Geoff's head as he walked under a rusty exposed pipe, making him jump. He ran his hand through his hair as he scowled at the pipe, like that was going to do something.
After walking around for a minute, he found the stairs that led up to the second story, footprints and what looked to be massive paw prints were left on the stairs by someone before him; he spotted at least three different shoe sizes and two different paw shapes. There definitely had to be something going on here.
To the left of the top of the stairs was a beat up old couch that had definitely seen better days, two large dog beds, and a claw-scratched coffee table in the middle, barely standing on three legs. The air reeked of wet dog and blood, making Geoff wrinkle up his nose. "So, there's at least three werewolves living here. Weird, I thought there weren't any packs left in North America.".
"There aren't.". A voice growled behind him.
Geoff froze. To be honest, he did not thing this plan through; like what was he going to do if and when he came face to face with a werewolf. An angry one at that, of the tone of the voice was anything to go off of. He slowly put his hands and turned around, ready to have his face mauled off.
In front of him was a woman, not a wolf. She was about five foot ten, well built with strong arms and broad shoulders, ginger hair that fell to about her shoulders, and murder in her golden eyes. She growled at him, in a hunched defensive stance, ready to tear him apart if he made one wrong move.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?".
"I'm Geoff Ramsey, and I was just looking.". That made her falter for a second, eyes wide as her breath caught. She looked at him with something akin to fear and something else, something far deep that he could see.
"Ah, so I take it the Ramsey name still carries on. Should have guessed as much, it's hard to forget a family like mine.". He joked, hoping to lighten the mood a bit. Sure, his family was pretty well known, but they didn't exactly have the best history to go with it, so it's not surprise that it caught her off guard.
She snared at him, eyes a blaze, and stocked closer to him. "Give me one good reason not to rip your throat out right now.". She bared her teeth, sharp canines ready to bite into his jugular.
"I mean you no harm, I just wanted to help you.". He tried to explain, but she didn't look like she was interested in listening to his plea.
The ginger barked out a laugh, harsh and sharp, like a knife cutting right through what little confidence he had in that second. "Help? What help could you be to me?".
Geoff dropped his hands, who was going to take him serious with his arms in the air like an idiot. "Look, I know what you are and I know how to help you. You aren't the first werewolf I've met, and judging my the dog beds, you won't be the last.".
She locked him up and down, clearly skeptical of what he was saying, but slowly straighten up out of her attack pose. The ginger raised her eyebrow at him and nodded her head, showing she was listening.
"You guys were had to find, just as elusive as the Vagabond, but everyone knows he's just a myth. Anyway, if I was able to find you, others will be able to find you, and trust me, they won't be a friendly as I am. They'll come in with guns, ready to tear your pack apart and torture you, either to find out what you are or just for the hell of it.". She looked at him, afraid, not for herself, but for her family.
"I don't want that, and you sure as hell don't want that, so let me help you.". Her mood changed; her shoulders slumped, her face dropped, she looked exhausted. Like this wasn't the first time she had moved her pack somewhere she thought was safe for them to inevitably get found out.
"I promise I just want to help you, and I would never break a pack, I know the importance of a family. But I need you to trust me.". Geoff offered his hand to her.
She looked at him, thinking for a moment. She slowly placed her warm hand in his, not closing hers, ready to pull away if need be. "Jack.". She said.
Geoff stood there, grinning at her. "Alrighty, Jack, looks like you've got yourself a partner. Let's keep your pack safe.".
