Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Project Hail Mary (2026), Iron Lung (2026) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung)/Ryland Grace, Ryland Grace & Rocky Characters: Ryland Grace, Rocky (Project Hail Mary), The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Werewolf Ryland Grace, Werewolf The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung), Werefox Ryland Grace, Fox Shifter Ryland Grace, Werefoxes, Painful transformations, Broken Bones, The Convict | Simon Needs a Hug (Iron Lung), Ryland Grace Needs a Hug, The Convict | Simon Has a Bad Time (Iron Lung), The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung) Thinks Ryland Grace is an Angel, The Convict | Simon Lives (Iron Lung), Amputee The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung), Mutated The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung), Werewolf Mates, Alternate Universe - Soulmates Series: Part 3 of Patron Shifters of One-Way Trips Summary:
Simon wakes up from his coma, and discovers his lovely new abilities by an even more painful forced Shift than Grace's.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/86206251
All Shifters had mates. It was an absolute certainty — there was not one who didn't have a mate, somewhere in the world. Grace knew that.
He knew that.
And yet.
"You don't have a girlfriend. You don't even have a dog."
And yet, where all Shifters felt a pull in their chest, he felt nothing. Nothing but a yawning void that stretched on and on no matter hard he tried to find the end, find the bond that would lead him to his mate. To his life-long partner.
To the one person that would love him, no matter what.
To the one person that could love him.
He knew all Shifters had mates.
And yet.
But it was fine. If Shifters could survive the deaths of their mates, then surely he could survive the absence of his.
Right?
"Grace have mate, question?"
Grace barely suppressed a flinch. Rocky didn't know the significance of that question. He couldn't. There wasn't the same intent behind it as the other Shifters always had when asking. But still, that familiar ache he tried to hard not to think about returned full-force, and he ducked his head.
"Ah… no." He swallowed. "I mean, I used to have a girlfriend. But she wasn't my mate. And she left me for this guy named Mark."
A pause, then, "Rocky hate Mark."
A slight smile tugged at Grace's lips. "Yeah, me too." But he couldn't blame her. Who would want a guy like him?
Maybe that was why he didn't get a mate.
Rocky didn't ask him about his mate again, and he almost forgot about it. It was easy, with everything they had to do on the Hail Mary. All the preparation for Tau Ceti and their fishing trip, all the flight training, all the little experiments he kept himself busy with in the times between.
Then he almost died.
Then Rocky almost died.
It was hard to think about the lack of a pull in his chest when his best friend wouldn't wake up.
It was only after they went their separate ways that the loneliness began to sink in again. Grace kept himself busy as much as he could, but he'd never been a solitary person, no matter how he avoided other Shifters like the plague. Shifters were pack creatures, even foxes like himself, and to not have anyone around...
Well, it was torture.
Maybe that was why he went after Rocky, even if it meant never going back to Earth. Rocky was his best friend, his pack, his home. Stratt was right that he didn't have anyone to miss him back on Earth. What could he lose by saving Rocky?
He certainly couldn't lose a mate he didn't have.
So he changed course with more certainty than he would have expected. He would save the only friend — the only pack — he had. He needed to.
(He still couldn't help but feel a tinge of regret, though. What if he'd been wrong? What if his mate was out there somewhere, waiting for him to find them? But it was unlikely. And Rocky... Rocky didn't deserve to die for such a tiny chance of finding one person back on Earth when he couldn't even feel them.)
(Who would want a coward like him anyway? He would have let them die by refusing to go on the Hail Mary.)
It took months to catch up to Rocky, but despite Grace's many fears, he was alive and healthy. Rocky moved back onto the Hail Mary, and they continued their journey to Erid together.
And for a little while, things continued as usual.
Then they found Leaf, as Grace had dubbed him. (He had a little plant pendant, and it was better than Blood Human — Rocky's idea.)
Leaf was… Grace didn't even know how to describe him. Injured was such a vast understatement. Burns and cuts littered his body, including a really nasty burn on his face, so nearly all of his visible skin was covered by bandages, and most of his left arm had been ripped off — because it was definitely not a clean cut. It was all very... horrific, to say the least. He'd lost a lot of blood, too.
But he was alive, somehow, and he was looking better by the day with Armando's help. He still never fully regained consciousness, though, just waking up in short, confusion-hazed bursts before passing out again.
When he did wake up, it wasn't the pleasant rise to consciousness Grace had been hoping for.
Rocky rolled into the room, trilling in panic. "Grace! Grace! Rocky hear Blood Human bone break! Something wrong!"
Grace's head snapped up, and he tugged off his goggles, nearly causing his glasses to tumble off his ear. "What?" He pushed his glasses back onto his ear and stood. "Why would he be breaking any bones?" He rushed to the room before Rocky could respond.
Leaf must be properly awake now, and if a bone broke, then that meant he was probably freaking out over being here and maybe he fell? Or he was struggling against Armando, and it's not like Grace knew what the guy had been through before they found him, so this was probably really freaky for him, there was no telling what he was thinking right now—
Grace skidded to a stop in the doorway and froze.
Leaf was writhing on his bed, Armando hovering above him but not touching. He let out a low, pained whine, and oh. Oh. This was familiar. Too familiar.
Grace had barely managed to wiggle out of the sack thing he was trapped in before the bone in his forearm snapped. A scream tore from his throat as his other arm followed suit, then his left leg, then his right. They twisted and contorted out of his control, and he screamed again, sobbing and begging for someone to hear him, to help him, to please just make it stop, it hurt, he didn't want to die—
Somehow, the guy they'd picked up from the middle of space was Shifting, for the first time in a while from the looks of it.
What were the odds?
As another sharp crack resounded through the room, Leaf turned just a little too far and tumbled off the bed. He didn't seem to notice. He was in too much pain anyway.
Grace winced and crouched down next to him. "Hey, look at me."
Leaf jerked, his eyes flying open and landing on Grace. One of his eyes was a deep, bright red, with a black sclera, and Grace recalled briefly seeing that earlier and brushing it off as a weird trick of the light. Guess it wasn't, but he could think about that later.
"Take a deep breath," Grace said, keeping his voice steady and calm. "I know it hurts, but it won't last forever. Just stay calm. Don't fight it."
Leaf looked terrified. Did he not remember anything? It was possible. Grace recalled the terror he felt when he Shifted for the first time on the Hail Mary — he hadn't known what was happening, and he'd thought he was dying.
"It'll be over before you know it," he continued. "Just breathe with me. Okay?"
Leaf still gave no response, but Grace couldn't blame him.
Grace took an exaggerated breath, hoping Leaf would follow along. After a few breaths, he did, albeit much more shakily. Every time a bone broke, his breath would hitch, and occasionally he let out a whine, but he was doing surprisingly well with the pain. He must have had a really high pain tolerance.
Grace continued to guide him through taking deep breaths, talking to him gently throughout. He hoped it helped.
Grace's first Dhift here took minutes. They were very long and painful minutes, but no more than that.
Leaf's Shift took hours.
When the Shift finally stopped, Leaf laid on the floor, panting heavily and not moving an inch.
The wolf in front of Grace was huge — he had to be at least five feet tall, and over twice as long. His long fur was a mix of black and gray, and as he opened his eyes, Grace noticed that one eye was amber, and the other was that same strange red. His left front leg was missing, too, which made sense. Shifting didn't magically bring back missing limbs.
He was beautiful.
Grace had the sudden urge to reach out and touch Leaf's fur. He just looked so... soft.
No, he chided himself. Bad Grace. Do not touch a stranger's fur after he just Shifted. That would not be appreciated. That would be very, very bad—
His fingers brushed against the fluff, and immediately, an electrifying shock spread from his fingertips to his very soul. The bond he hadn't noticed had formed in his focus on Leaf suddenly pulled taut, drawing him closer to the wolf in front of him. His breath hitched, and his eyes burned with tears.
His mate.
After all this time. All the years he'd spent dodging other Shifters with prying eyes and probing questions. All the years spent mourning a bond he could never feel. All the years spent burying himself in his work to not think about what he was missing.
All the years spent thinking he didn't deserve to have a mate.
And his mate was right here.
He barely registered the tears slipping down his cheeks, nor did he register the familiar pain of bones breaking as he Shifted into his fox form willingly for the first time in a while. He curled up against Leaf's stomach and rested his snout on Leaf's side, just watching him and relishing in the painless little sparks of electricity where they touched. It felt better than anything Grace had ever experienced before, and even though he knew he should, he couldn't pull away.
His mate was here. He couldn't leave.
Because if he did, he was certain that all of this would disappear.
~*~
Something was wrong.
Every inch of his body ached with a dull, throbbing pain — which was much better than the sharp stabbing pain from earlier, but it still wasn't pleasant — and he couldn't make his body work, no matter how hard he tried. And he just felt... off. Very, very off. His skin prickled, and his entire body didn't feel the way it should, and smells and sounds and feelings were assaulting his senses and it was just too much but he couldn't stop it—
He shut his eyes and focused on what he could recall about the man that had been talking to him earlier. His mind was still hazy, and he hadn't been able to focus on much aside from the pain, but he remembered the man's face and voice. He remembered them from before, when he was first being lifted from what he'd thought would be his grave.
It was his Angel.
His Angel had stayed with him the entire time. His Angel didn't stop the pain — he probably couldn't stop a punishment like this, because it had to be a punishment. But he stayed anyway, offering gentle words of comfort Simon wished he could have paid more attention to. His Angel deserved to be listened to when he spoke.
The more he focused on the soothing voice of his Angel, the more he was able to calm himself. He didn't know what was happening, but his Angel was near. He would be okay.
He laid there for a while before he managed to lift his head. He immediately noticed why he had felt so wrong — instead of a human, he was some weird furry creature he had never even seen before.
Panic made his chest tighten, and he tried to get up. But his limbs still wouldn't cooperate — no wonder. His body wasn't his body — and all he managed to do was move his legs a little. He drew in a sharp breath and looked around quickly, searching for his Angel. Maybe he could help, maybe he could fix it or at least tell him what was happening—
Something brushed against him, and he turned his head to see something orange and absolutely tiny pressed against his stomach (probably his stomach. He figured it had to be in the same general area, right?). And he... stopped. The panic began to ebb away, and he finally took notice of the weird feeling where the orange ball was touching him. It was like he was being shocked, but in a somehow painless way. And there was this weird feeling in his chest, too, like something deep inside him was being pulled on.
Had that been there earlier? He didn't think so, but it was comforting in the way only familiar and safe things were.
Something was definitely wrong.
…But he had to admit, this didn't feel half bad.