Title: Skye's Barely

Author: MissAnnThropic

Spoilers: set in the Skyeverse (surrounding my fic "Wild by Skye")

LiveJournal: miss_annthropic(dot)livejournal(dot)com

Summary: Skye felt, down to her bones, that Dean was born to the wrong family. He should have been in hers.

Timeline: See the last chapter of "Wild by Skye" for a chronological listing of Skyeverse fics to know where exactly this falls in the timeline. Or, you know, just read the fic and figure it out! Or eat pie. I know which one Dean would vote for.

Disclaimer: None of it's mine. I'm just a sad little fangirl that spends her days writing fanfic and watching DVDs of her favorite shows :(

To a lycanthrope, there was no such thing as being completely alone. The day and the night were each their own presence, each like a companion. At that moment, it was the night seeing her along on her way. The taste of the air, the smell of Nocturne, the voice of the wind as it made trees and grass talk, the animals (all so different from the creatures during the day), they all filled the world with so much to sense and feel and discover that numbness, unawareness, oblivion… they didn't exist. The sky above and the earth below were ever demanding to be known and spoken to… a lycanthrope could not be alone.

But sometimes even the familial and constant presence of nature could not salve the wounds of a suffering lycan pack.

Trey was sick. He'd gone feral. He was killing Barelys, and he had to be stopped. The sky and earth wouldn't sing again until he was stopped and the pack safe from exposure.

Though many in her pack would say they had already been exposed to the enemy.

To Dean.

Skye didn't believe it, didn't consider him the enemy, but it seemed she was the only one who felt that way about the young hunter in their midst.

Hunter… even the word was disturbing. And he was a hunter, there was no denying that… Dean professed himself one, without hesitation or shame. It was who he was, what he was… and yet, Skye sensed more. So much more.

Skye looked up at the moon, a pale fingernail in the star-studded sky, and she longed for the days before. When she wasn't tracking – for all intents and purposes hunting – one of her childhood friends. When it had been the three of them, her and Trey and Jeremy, thick as littermates and owning the woods as if they existed only for the three of them to make their playground.

Before everything went so wrong.

Trey should never have left Eclipse River, but even when they were young he had been the one to venture farthest into the forest, to stay gone longer than anyone else on the nights when the pack ran under the full moon. He had always wanted to outpace his pack. When he joined the military, the pack was apoplectic with worry. How could a lycan ever exist in such a structured, scrutinized setting without having its secret exposed?

But Trey had done it. He was so determined to prove the impossible possible that he did it. He'd found the bigger world beyond the woods of Eclipse River that he'd always longed for.

Then he'd gone into combat. He had buffaloed his fellow soldiers in the barracks, but he could not fake out himself. Not when he was being shot at… like a hunted animal.

It didn't really surprise anyone when he broke. Wolves had gone mad for far less, but to see it happen to Trey…

Skye remembered curling up in a meadow with him, Jeremy sprawled across her legs, all of them breathless from trying to outrace the wind.

And now she hunted him.

But she wouldn't kill him. She couldn't.

He had to be taken alive. There was no other option.

A breeze stirred, lifting locks of Skye's dark hair like a caress. Skye turned her face up into the wind, breathing in deeply the scent of the world. For a moment, it was like the air went through her, made her nothing more than a thought conjured thinly by the air. She smelled pre-dawn, the bite of the night before it relinquished its hold to day. Diurne.

Skye smiled brokenly to herself. Trey used to tease her about naming the day and night, as if they were companions who ran alongside her, Trey, and Jeremy when they were little. Skye always thought they had.

Skye breathed in deeply again and paused when she caught a familiar scent on the wind. She turned into the darkness. "Jeremy?"

Her old friend emerged from the shadows, silent and sure.

Skye frowned at him. "Why were you stalking around like that?" Jeremy would never before have failed to announce his arrival.

"I wanted to make sure he wasn't with you."

Skye sighed, her shoulders feeling heavier than they had only a second before. "Dean's sleeping at my place. We were both exhausted. We covered a lot of ground today."

Jeremy just looked hard at her. Had she been the wolf, her hackles would have gone up. She felt every stare now, every gaze, every thought of disapproval from the community she had seen as family for so long. They all thought she was nearly as far gone as Trey to trust Dean, the Barely, the way she had.

"You shouldn't involve him, Skye," Jeremy scolded, his voice lacking the tone that would let her know he spoke as a friend. When it came to a threat to the whole pack, there were no friends. "He's a damn hunter!"

"I know what he is," Skye countered.

"You're endangering us all. He has no business here. He should not be going after Trey. He has no right." Jeremy rounded on Skye. "It's an insult to Trey to sic a Barely hunter on him!"

"Please, Jeremy. I don't want to fight with you."

"Then get rid of the hunter."

Skye met Jeremy's eyes resolutely, refusing to feel the ache of having such an old friend attack her. "No."

Jeremy's eyes flashed gold in the night. He glowered. "How can you trust him? Hasn't the history of our people taught you anything?"

"I'm not stupid," Skye said lowly.

"I didn't use to think so, but I'm starting to wonder." Jeremy came closer, and nearer she could still see the worry in his face. "Barelys knowing about lycans mean death… someone will die when you mix the two together."

"Not necessarily. Lycans have mated with Barelys before." Abruptly, but too late, Skye clamped her mouth shut. She shouldn't have said that.

Jeremy pounced on her slip of the tongue. He narrowed his eyes, expression torn between accusation and horror. "Is that what you're doing?! God, Skye, don't tell me you're having sex with him!" Without warning, Jeremy stepped into her personal space. If it were anyone but a pack mate, Skye would have flinched back. But it was Jeremy, with whom she used to tussle when she was but a pup. She wasn't afraid of him.

But Skye stiffened for the onslaught, because she knew what Jeremy would discover.

He drew back, aghast. "His smell is all over you."

Skye lifted her chin, gazed up firmly at the man who, as a boy, had been shorter than her. It wouldn't do any good to explain to Jeremy that she had been working closely with Dean for a week but earlier, tonight, was the first time they had given in to the attraction between them. She wouldn't bother trying to make him understand that her body, her soul, answered to Dean as they had to no other.

She wouldn't tell Jeremy that she loved Dean, because he wouldn't believe her.

"How could you?" Jeremy asked, and he didn't sound mad anymore… more shattered. "I thought I knew you, Skye. Our whole lives, you mocked the Barelys. Pitied them. How they barely see, barely smell, barely hear, barely live. I would never believe you could… could…"

She wasn't embarrassed or ashamed or regretful. She loved Dean. She loved touching him, being with him, listening to him breathe… she loved every aspect of him, even the fact he was a hunter. Maybe she was a little dumbstruck by how strong her feelings were for him, but her wolf trusted Dean. Skye had complete, unwavering faith in that.

"He's not like other Barelys, Jeremy," Skye said patiently.

"He's worse," Jeremy agreed. "He's a hunter."

"According to the Barelys, so are we."

"Stories told by the scared and ignorant," Jeremy spat.

"Isn't that what you are? What the entire town is when it comes to Dean?"

Jeremy didn't respond right away, but she could see he was agitated. It made her feel sorry for him. "If you just got to know him…"

"I want nothing to do with your Barely!"

Skye looked down at the leaf-strewn ground, sorry for Jeremy. Sorry he wouldn't see Dean the way she did. None of them would… none of them would look.

After a silence, Jeremy sighed in defeat. "He better not hurt you."

Skye smiled to herself, thinking of the bruises on her thighs, the teeth marks on her shoulder. For a Barely, Dean Winchester had quite a wild side to him. "He won't."

"Because I'll kill him," Jeremy promised.

"You won't harm him," Skye proclaimed firmly. "If you ever loved me, Jeremy, you won't hurt him."

Jeremy paused and regarded Skye critically. He didn't care for what he found, apparently. "Shit… you're his, aren't you?"

It was the nearest confession of Skye loving a Barely he could stomach. It was the same thing to a lycan.

And she was… after only one time together, in his arms, moving with him, bodies as one… she knew he'd claimed her. Felt it the moment his hands touched her.

"Yeah," Skye whispered in awe, filled with joy at the notion. "Yeah, I am… and he's mine." She liked the sound of that, the feel of it… Dean Winchester belonged to her. She reveled in it, just as much as she wallowed in belonging to Dean.

Jeremy looked like he might crumple to the ground. He kept his feet, it seemed, with effort. He shook his head, "Damn, Skye… I never thought you'd mate with a Barely."

Not just any Barely. "Only Dean."

Jeremy nodded, looking sickly, then he sighed in resignation, "What's the latest on Trey?"

As Trey's closest friends before he went berserk, they had taken on the responsibility of finding him and saving him. Others in the pack pitched in, but it was mostly Jeremy and Skye. They were like a brother and sister to him, and that made them best suited to finding him. No one would know Trey like they did.

They took turns keeping track of him, following him, trying to outwit him into a humane trap that wouldn't hurt him… but Trey was smart. Always had been. That fact was thwarting them now.

"Dean and I followed him up Beaver Creek most of yesterday and half of today before we lost him. He'll probably stick to the bend then double back to the old oak where we used to crash after a run."

Jeremy nodded agreement. "I'll try to head him off there in the morning." He moved to start toward the forest heavy around Eclipse River but stopped, looked haltingly at Skye, then said, "I really want to be able to say nothing matters but your happiness, Skye… I really wish that were true."

"You still wouldn't like Dean," Skye teased.

Jeremy smiled. "No, I wouldn't, but I could learn to loathe him in private."

Skye smirked, her expression bittersweet. "But it's about the pack."

"Always is and always will be, and a Barely – and a hunter, no less – will never be safe to have around."

"He's not what you think he is. There's something about him. It's almost something…"

"What?"

"Something lycan about him."

Jeremy laughed. "A Barely like a lycan! Skye," Jeremy looked almost tenderly at her, as though she were still a fanciful child. "The hint of lycan you think you see when you look in his eyes is only your reflection."

Skye wanted to say 'you're wrong' but there was no point. Jeremy would never see it.

Before setting off, Jeremy added, "Be careful."

"You too." They were talking about two entirely different matters, and they both knew it.

And then Skye was alone, but not alone. Accompanied by Nocturne in all her soothing glory.

But Diurne was coming to move Nocturne along to rest.

Skye started walking home to find rest herself, alongside Dean.

Skye smiled at the sight of the 1967 Chevrolet Impala parked in her driveway beside her 1985 CJ7 Jeep. It seemed so natural, so normal, two beautiful cars of a completely different breed side by side. Not unlike her and Dean.

Her house was quiet when she eased in the front door, but the smell of Dean hit her immediately like a woodland scent after too long trapped in the world of Barelys. She paused to breathe in his smell suffusing her home, permeating it with the musky aroma of sweat, gun cleaning oil, and that clean smell uniquely Dean's.

She padded to her bedroom without a sound, moving with the quiet grace of a lycan. She saw, in the encroaching daylight coming through the blinds, Dean asleep in her bed. He was lying naked on his stomach, head buried in one of her pillows and hands curled near his face under the pillow.

He looked oblivious to the world, but Skye knew Dean better.

She went to the bed and reached out for him. She let the fingers of one hand dance on the skin of the small of his back while her other hand curled softly around his tensing forearm.

"Shhhh… it's me," she whispered.

Dean sighed and his muscles relaxed. His hand slipped out from under the pillow where he'd been gripping the handle of his knife. He cracked open an eye and looked over at her.

Skye sat down on the bed next to him and began to take off her shoes.

"You snuck out on me," Dean accused.

"Just had some things to do." She looked playfully at him. "Do I need your permission for that, Mr. Winchester?"

Dean rolled on to his side to lay facing her, one arm curled and pulling the pillow under his head. "No… I'm just freaked out being with a chick that can actually sneak past me without me knowing it."

"It's not the part where the chick turns into a wolf that freaks you out?" Skye asked as she kicked off her shoes then peeled out of her socks.

Dean watched her casual stripping with a heated gaze as he said, "You'd think, right? But no… now, that whole wolf thing is…"

Skye stood to shed her pants, turning to face Dean as she waited for him to continue. Dean lost his train of thought seeing her going for the fly of her jeans. "The whole wolf thing is…?" she prompted.

"Hot," Dean supplied.

Skye grinned and shimmied out of her jeans. She lifted her shirt over her head and was surprised when, in the next second, Dean was on his knees and across the bed to the edge of the mattress. His arms came up around her hips and he buried his face in her stomach, kissing and nipping his way steadily upward.

Skye giggled and raked her fingers through his already mussed hair. She looked down at him and saw a ring of red marks on his bare shoulder. She winced, touching them gently. "I'm sorry I bit you."

Dean drew back to look up at her, his eyes twinkling. "If I remember, I got you back for that." He grinned.

Skye smiled down at him. "I wish they could see you right now," she said on impulse.

"Who?" Dean asked, puzzled.

"The pack."

Dean's eyebrows rose. "I kind of outgrew my public streaking phase when I was three."

Skye laughed and bent down to kiss him. She made it a quick one, but he tried to chase her down for a deeper, longer one. She pulled out of range, to his chagrin, and said, "Of course with your clothes on, I just mean…"

Dean cocked his head as he tightened his arms around her, tugging her closer while he waited for her to finish her thought.

"Never mind," Skye said. She wouldn't bring the pack and their inability to see Dean as he really was into the bedroom. It was their loss, because Dean was beautiful.

Dean's hold on her loosened and his fingers found their way to her underwear, inching them down her hips as though she wouldn't notice.

Skye cast off her bra, stepped out of her panties that Dean had so graciously been helping with, and then Dean was staring at her like a hungry wolf. So much like one. Skye felt, down to her bones, that Dean was born to the wrong family. He should have been in hers. He should have been born pack.

Then he was pulling her down gently on top of him. Skye came to rest pressed against him, her legs naturally straddling his hips, her fingers twining absently in the cord around his neck that held the gold amulet.

"You know," Dean said gruffly into her hair as she rested her head on his chest, "I can do sex without involving teeth."

Skye smiled against his bare skin. "Show me."

END

A/N: You guys all know that I'm a little bit addicted to writing in the Skyeverse (because, honestly, what's hotter than lycan Dean?), but I'm running out of ideas for one shots in the 'verse! So… you guys have any requests?