Werewolves: The Gravediggers Combined Parts 1-9 (Patreon)

I've compiled the previous 9 parts together here for ease of reading. Enjoy!

The new Haken story will begin on Friday, 1/17 and run for several weeks, then I'll return to see what Jaci and Delsin are up to in the Gravediggers. I've really been enjoying working on Haken--he's a very different character and getting into his head has been quite a trip! See you all then!

The Grave Diggers

It was storming again, wet torrents coming down in wind-swept sheets that drenched fur and left it slick, matted against skin and taught muscle. It was the kind of rain that blotted out the world with its fury—deafening and blinding all at once. A tempest of inconvenience. Freshly-turned earth transformed into a sucking, muddy mire pockmarked by small pools, their surfaces rippling with raindrops. It was a mess.

Delsin loathed the rain. He always had. He hated how it blotted out the moon and drained his will to do anything but slink indoors and hide away until the sun came out again, how the downpour ran through the deserted city streets in small tributaries, collecting into streambeds that once were roads. Trenches that had been alive with passing trains became slot canyons prone to flash floods. Haven was like that after the war—a purgatory where once-proud werewolves waited to die, washed away like they'd never been.

Most of all, he hated how difficult it was to dig a proper grave when the gods saw fit to rip open the heavens and take an almighty piss all over him.

He hated that he deserved it.

The shovel landed with a wet thud several feet away, quivering with the power of Delsin's throw. He wouldn't get anything done like this, not even in wolf form. Sahale's body would have to wait.

He retreated back to relatively dry comfort beneath the medical building's low-hanging eaves and leaned back against the wall, lighting a cigarette. He'd found a whole mess of the things in a warehouse past old Fairhaven and taken to smoking them when he was stressed. He was stressed all the time now, and so he also smoked all the time, much to the distress of his wife and son. He hated how they cringed at his smell when he came home at the end of the day almost as much as he hated this gods-damned rain.

"It's a nasty business."

Delsin jerked back hard enough to crack his head against the wall; fortunately his lupine skull was thick or he might have actually hurt himself. The pungent smoke had masked Jaci's scent as he approached. "Rain," he grunted, holding out his hand and soaking the pads of his fingers as if to demonstrate. "Can't finish the grave like this."

"Colonel will only give you so much time, you know," Jaci said. "Best get it done." He pointed a second shovel toward the half-dug grave. "I came out to help."

"Pointless," Delsin said. He breathed out a giant plume of smoke. He'd gotten quite good at talking while smoking in wolf form. The trick was to keep the cigarette to one side, nestled between his teeth while speaking out the other half of his muzzle. "The gods don't want us anymore. Every burial gets interrupted somehow. They've forsaken us, and for good reason."

"You don't mean that," Jaci said. "That's the weather talking. You'll feel better once this is behind us and the moon comes out again." He frowned as Delsin puffed out another gray plume. "You know Tama hates that stuff, right?"

"She's not the wolf burying one of her old friends. She doesn't even know he's dead."

"Chain smoking won't change any of that."

"Won't hurt either." Delsin tapped his chest with his knuckles. "Wolf side keeps the lungs clean."

Jaci shook his head. "We don't know that for sure."

Delsin's beast raged unexpectedly. He snarled and spit the cigarette to the ground. It landed, extinguished by the rain with a dull sizzle. "Maybe that cocksucker, Williams, can study me next, then!" he roared. "Cut open my chest! Check for cancers and black lung!"

"Easy, now."

"Or what?" Delsin asked. "The walls have ears?"

"Some of them do."

"Then I guess this gods-damned rain is good for something. Nobody's hearing shit over it!"

Jaci gave a half-hearted laugh. "See? You're already looking on the bright side."

They both leaned against the building for a minute, neither of them speaking as the rain pounded down insistently less than a foot away, demanding their undivided attention. Delsin soothed his beast with a fresh cigarette and the smoke lulled it back to sleep. Once he was sure it was down for good, he allowed himself to speak.

"Sorry," he grunted. "It's getting harder to keep myself in check."

"I know what you mean."

"I keep thinking about my pup." Delsin's paw shivered as he took the half-finished cigarette from his lips and tapped the ash off to the side. He told himself the shaking was because of the chill, but he knew it was his nerves getting the better of him. "One of these days, Jolon's going to find out about what's happening over here." he said. "So's your kid."

"I try not to think about Dena finding out about any of this," Jaci said.

"They'll hate us, you know."

Jaci shook his head. "Give them a little credit. They're smart kids. They'll know that we did this for them."

"And that's why they'll hate us."

Silence was Jaci's only reply. Maybe Delsin had gone too far mentioning his pup. The last thing he wanted was to lose him as a friend—he wasn't ready to dig another grave just yet.

The rain was starting to let up and a sliver of moon managed to peek its way out of the clouds. Delsin sighed and went to retrieve his shovel as Jaci followed. Between the two of them, they were able to finish off Sahale's grave in less than an hour. It was good work. Something about physical labor felt right in Delsin's mind. Just forget the details and throw yourself into the job. Feel the burn in your muscles and watch tangible progress unfold in front of you. No need to overthink things. Not at all like long nights staring into the fire, at war with himself over what he should do and what he shouldn't. There was just this hole, and for now that was all he needed to dwell on.

Until he stopped for a moment and remembered what the hole was for.

Jaci jammed the shovel into the earth beside the hole and Delsin followed his lead. Both of them stood quietly and regarded their work. The grave was deep—at least seven feet down as requested. Nobody but the grave diggers and their human handlers could know where the bodies were buried. The weather had calmed while they worked and the sudden silence weighed heavier on their shoulders than the rain had. Of course it didn't help that their fur was sopping wet and dripping on the ground. There was a time, not so long ago, when they might have found the sight of each other drenched to the bone amusing. But times change with the passing of years, as do men.

"You never told me how he died," Jaci said. He asked his question casually, even though he knew it was the one thing Delsin didn't want to hear.

Delsin thought about his answer while he fumbled in his pocket for another cigarette. What words to use. How to avoid the truth without actually lying to the man he'd known since he was a pup. He lit his cigarette and breathed the smoke in deep. Somehow that made him feel better. "Sahale went feral," he said between puffs. "Killed two privates and then went after the colonel, himself. They had to put him down." It was technically the truth, even if it left out some very important parts of the story, such as the notable fact that Sahale's beast had been purposefully provoked during the experiment, overstimulated to the point where he went berserk.

"We've seen a lot of death, here, my friend," Jaci said. He was looking out of the courtyard toward the medical building. "Dug a lot of graves. How can we keep doing this?"

Delsin shook his head. "It's slowed down since the scientists figured out what they were doing," he said. "Fewer accidents." He looked down at a long scar running its way along his forearm. The military doctors had cut him in human form several years ago, before they understood that the werewolves' much-vaunted healing ability only extended as far as their wolf forms. "That's why we volunteered. They won't make as many mistakes if we work with them and explain what they need to know."

"That didn't help Sahale," Jaci said.

"The beast comes for us all." Delsin took another drag and he could almost see the smoke traveling through his lungs into the no-space where the beast lived. He could swear that if he closed his eyes he could watch as the beast inhaled and was placated. The smoke was an offering before the old gods. He should have given a pack of cigs to Sahale last week; then this whole regrettable business might never have happened.

Jaci took a few steps away from the grave toward the work shed. "You ever worry that we're too numb to this?"

"Course I do," Delsin said. "Every time I let myself think it nearly kills me. So I don't."

"You just dug your best friend's grave."

"I just…I don't know what else to do…" Delsin remembered the guilt, the anger, and the pain he'd felt as if those emotions had afflicted some other wolf. It all hurt a lot less when he visited med bay. "We're grave diggers, Jaci. We do this so the others don't have to." He pointed an accusing finger. "We made a blood-pact that we'd do this work together. We can't keep our families away from the humans' tests, but that little bit of hope they have left? Can't we let them have that?"

"It's gone too far," Jaci said. Delsin thought he could see tears welling up in the corner of his friend's eyes. So much for optimism. "We have to do something."

"Only thing you need to do is report to Nurse Shaw and get your gods-damned meds."

"The meds are making us into unfeeling monsters."

Delsin kicked a clod of dirt back into the hole where it landed with a wet splat. "We didn't kill him!"

"We might as well have."

"Take a cigarette," Delsin said. He held out the pack.

"What?" Jaci replied. "You know I don't—"

"Take a gods-damned cigarette before I put you in that hole!"

Jaci shivered, his deep brown fur sending water droplets every which way. He reached out a paw, taking a single cigarette and the lighter. "You feel that anger?" he said as he lit up and handed the lighter back. "Hear what you just said to me?"

Delsin grunted as he pocketed everything and got ready to head back indoors. Jaci was getting on his nerves. Not because he was wrong, but because his words betrayed him. The man was off his meds again. "Come with me," he said. "We're gonna visit med bay and fix you up, okay?"

For a moment it looked like Jaci was about to argue. Stubbornness flashed in his eyes that reminded Delsin of the early days. But the past was the past and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. He put an arm around his friend's shoulders and turned him around to look him in the eyes.

"You want a future with Dena?" Delsin asked. "A real future?" He slowly maneuvered Jaci toward med bay as he talked.

"More than anything."

"Then help me keep you alive."

Jaci shook his head. "They're going to kill us all," he said. "How can you not see that?"

"Williams took me aside last night," Delsin said. "They're close to a breakthrough. If we can just hold on, then they'll let us rest. We can live like we always wanted. In peace."

"We'd still be stuck here. In Haven."

"We knew that when we struck the deal at the end of the war."

Jaci stared off into the distance and nearly stumbled as he took another step. "Can a slave really consent to being a slave?"

Delsin groaned. "Leave the philosophy to people who can afford it," he said. "That's a rich man's game, and we're not even men. Wolves survive and protect our pack as best we can." He pointed outward, toward the wall that surrounded Haven. "The wolves who fought out there? They're dead. We made a call, and because of that decision we survived when they didn't. We endured."

"Endured is the right word for it." Jaci said as he sucked in a lung-full of smoke. He had absolutely no idea how to enjoy a cigarette through a wolf's muzzle. Delsin would have to show him sometime so he didn't make a fool out of himself in front of the pack. Assuming he survived this little crisis of conscience, of course.

"Damn it, man," Delsin muttered. "They hear you talking like that and they're gonna kill you. You understand me? We took an oath! We do what we do so our pack doesn't have to!" He reached out and took Jaci's muzzle in his hands and held him until he was looking directly into his eyes. "For Dena's sake, man. If for no one else's! Let's finish this together so your pup can grow up safe."

He looked into his friend's eyes and saw a flash of hope.

"Alright," Jaci said. "For Dena."

Delsin clapped him on the back. "That's it! I knew you still had a bit of that eternal optimism left in you!"

They walked together toward med bay, arms over each other's shoulders just like in the old days before Haven. Before the war. For the briefest of moments Delsin was happy again.

The beast within tried to remind him that there used to be three wolves doing this walk up from the graveyard, not only two. It tried to remind him of Sahale's warning. About the military's psychological experiments, turning wolves against each other—suppressing the empathy centers of the brain while stimulating their base survival instincts without the benefit of a conscience.

The wolf within breathed smoke as it withered. It knew what was happening even if Delsin, himself, did not.               

One day it would awaken again and there would be a reckoning.

Chapter 2

Delsin leaped down from the armored military transport, all three-hundred plus pounds of his werewolf form landing on the cracked asphalt with a heavy crunch. The man driving the vehicle didn't say a word before reversing into a three-point turn and taking off back toward his side of the divide. That was the way it had been for almost six months now—nobody from that side of the fence wanted anything to do with a wolf tainted by the mark of Colonel Williams. The humans wouldn't admit it, but they were afraid of the man and he couldn't blame them. He knew from discussions with the rest of the pack that the soldiers usually addressed other werewolves with moderate respect, provided they kept their claws to themselves and their language suitably subservient. No such courtesies were extended to Delsin, however. He'd resent it if he didn't loathe them so much.

              The worn white painted line he straddled was a clear demarcation between human and werewolf territory halfway across the so-called 'Q bridge' which spanned the distance from the walled prison of Haven to the outside world. Below him, the frothy waters of New Haven Harbor reached southward to Long Island Sound. Sometimes Delsin spent an unhealthy amount of time staring out over the water, wishing it were possible to simply dive in and swim his way to the other side. He fantasized about it regularly, although he'd never admitted it to anyone but his wife. His wife. She'd be waiting for him back home. He'd already spent far longer on this side of the bridge than planned thanks to the gods-damned rain turning Shahale's relatively simple burial into an ordeal. He wrinkled his nose and watched as the transport vehicle disappeared slowly over the apex of the bridge and began descending toward the base. The asshole could have at least have dropped him a little closer to home after all the overtime he'd put in today.

              "It's for the best," he muttered to himself. The less the humans involved themselves in wolf affairs, the better. He stood alone for a moment, allowing the chill night air to send ripples through his grey fur and cool him down. The rain had stopped about ten minutes ago, but he'd already been soaking wet when he took Jaci in to see Nurse Shaw. The heated offices dried him off somewhat, but the humidity and the resulting stench of 'wet dog' caused the nurse to dismiss him early. He didn't care all that much—to be honest, Nurse Shaw gave him the creeps. Her touch was always freezing cold and her pale white skin gave the impression of a dull glow under just the right light. Plus, she was just about as full of herself as a human could possibly be, and that was saying something.

              That said, she gave out some mighty fine drugs.

              He tore his gaze from the water and turned toward home. Ruins had been all that remained of the former city when the government decided to wall if off and dump his pack here to rot. He'd hoped for better treatment when his group of 'conscientious objectors' surrendered to the humans rather than join in the Werewolf War. He should have known better. Packleader Ahote was always the first to point out that at least they were still alive—the rest of his species had been slaughtered after their last stand, backs up against the shoreline—but in recent days Delsin had begun to wonder whether the wolves who had fought to their last breaths were the lucky ones, spared this hellish purgatory. He didn't like to admit it, but if it wasn't for his family, he'd probably have taken his life within a year or two. What was there to look forward to anymore? Why even bother? There was nothing to aspire to, no better days ahead. Half the pack no longer even believed in the old gods anymore. Spirits of forest and sky would never have tested their children this way, at least not the loving entities he'd been brought up to believe in. He looked back over the glittering water again, dappled curves lit enticingly by the light of the moon. It would be so easy to just dive in and swim until he found his freedom. Peace at long last…

              "Jolon," he muttered as he walked westward toward the base of the bridge. "Just think about the kid." His son was turning out well in his opinion, adapting to life in the 'refuge' far better than the wolves who could remember what a proper forest looked like. You probably couldn't miss true freedom if you'd never experienced it. He didn't know whether he felt glad for the boy's ignorance or ashamed of it. Regardless of his feelings on the matter, Jolon was thriving, and in the end that was all that really mattered. It proved there was hope left in his world and that gave him a reason to keep living, even if living meant dulling his senses to the harsh realities of his servitude.

              Gods. He kicked a jagged hunk of concrete into a puddle of water and it tumbled through with a splash. His thoughts were starting to sound like Jaci running his mouth. He shouldn't have let his friend talk his ear off like that; it was never good for his peace of mind.

              He breathed in deep, pleased that the scent of rain still lingered, covering up the smell of refuse and neglect. The humans had been late for garbage pickup. Again. If Delsin had any pull with the Alpha Assembly, he'd get on their asses about it, but it seemed like the wolves elected by the pack to represent them to the human government had all had their spines surgically removed to make space for the extra rations they were slipped under the table.

              Hulks of long-abandoned buildings passed by to his right as he marched through streets pock-marked by artillery fire. What had it been like, he wondered, when the rage of so many werewolf revolutionaries had been so thoroughly snuffed out on this very spot ten years ago? He skirted the edge of a particularly deep hole. For that matter, how many bodies littered this place before the military sent their contractors in to clean it all up in preparation for their new guests? It was pointless to think about—all official records of the battle were forbidden to the Haven wolves.

              "Hey, Delsin!" someone called out through the night, nearly causing him to jump out of his fur. He hadn't been paying proper attention to his surroundings. "Getting back late, again? Tama sent me to look for you."

              Delsin groaned. "Gods damn it, Tuari," he replied. "I told her I'd probably be back late."

              "She said it's a wife's duty to worry about her man."

              "So she came to you?" Delsin approached Tuari. He was in human form, huddled beside one of the many trash barrels the pack burned in the evenings to keep warm when they were on patrol in the streets.

              "I'm on watch, tonight," he replied. "So, yeah. She came to me. Apparently it's my job to relay messages between spouses who aren't talking enough to each other. Not sure when I signed on for that job, but it is what it is."

              "Give me a damn break," Delsin said. "You think I wanted to be over there a second more than necessary? Look at my fur—it's a mess!"

              Tuari leaned away from the snapping fire to get a better look. "You're not kidding," he said with a disapproving cluck of his tongue. "You look like hell. Just shift back to human form if the matted fur is bothering you so much. What's the problem?"

              Delsin grunted. He was about to reply when he realized he had no idea why he was still in wolf form. It was quicker to get around in what he considered his natural state, but he'd already burned through his last meal, leaving him with a hollow feeling in his stomach that he'd been trying to ignore. Not for the first time he wondered why werewolves were created this way. Fueling the fire of the beast consumed an incredible amount of calories, and maintaining the bestial form became quite difficult to manage after a day's labor. One of the injections the nurse had been giving him helped to balance out his body's needs, but it couldn't alleviate them entirely.

              "You're right," Delsin said. "I wasn't thinking clearly. It's been a hell of a day." He closed his eyes and initiated the change. Bones writhed underneath his taught skin, snapping and rearranging themselves as his fur receded and eventually disappeared entirely. In less than a minute he was human again, at least in appearance.

              How many times had the human scientists asked him to explain the shift to them over the last few years? Dozens at least. The best he could do was to ask them how they moved their arms or blinked their eyes—it's just something that comes naturally. A wolf doesn't have to think about the mechanics of the change—they just do it. The white-coats hadn't been all that happy with that lack of information, but he couldn't tell them anything about physical mechanics under the hood that he didn't understand, himself. He tightened the belt barely holding up his suddenly too-wide pants before he exposed himself to the world.

              Tuari grinned. "Letting that human modesty get to you, eh?" he asked.

              "Meh," Delsin replied. "I was never big on the casual nudity thing back in Yellowstone, anyway." He snapped the waistband of his pants. "At least the humans developed some decent clothes for us that would survive the shift. Better than what we had before."

              "About the only thing that's better."

              Delsin shrugged and stepped up to the barrel fire to warm himself. It was always a bit of a shock to go from fur covered to smooth skin, especially when the wind was blowing and you were still damp. "I'll take what I can get at this point."

              "So is Jaci with you?" Tuari asked.

              "What?" Delsin arched an eyebrow. "Why? His wife ask after him, too?"

              Tuari laughed. "Not at all. She's been keeping it together pretty well over the last few weeks. If anything, I'd say she's the one who's keeping him from cracking up."

              "Huh," Delsin grunted. "Interesting."

              "I don't mean anything by it. Just that he's been having a rough time. You must have seen it by now. He's your friend."

              "Yeah." Delsin stifled a frown and stepped back from the fire, looking toward home. He didn't want to talk about Jaci right now, not after the discussion they had back at the gravesite. The poor idiot was gonna get himself into trouble, and if he did, he might just take Delsin down with him. It was bad enough what happened to Sahale—if he had to bury Jaci next, Delsin might as well throw himself in the grave too and be done with the whole business. "I should get back. Especially if Tama's worried."

              "So you're leaving me all alone out here?"

              "Gods damn it, Tuari," Delsin grumped. "You said Tama was asking after me."

              Tuari waved him off. "I'm just playing, man. It's been a long night. Just be glad you still have a wife to go home to. We don't all have what you have."

              Delsin sighed. "Yeah. I know," he said. "But you gotta understand—having a family in a place like this isn't all it's cracked up to be."

              "Yeah? How's that?"

              "Every week, my wife goes over that bridge along with the rest of you to get picked at by those human doctors—tortured trying to figure out what makes her tick. Every time she comes home to me, crying her eyes out, and every time I have to tell her that it's gonna be all right. We both know it's a lie but we keep telling it to each other anyway. So I got something from the doctors to make me feel better about the whole thing. Little cocktail to numb the beast. "

              "A present from the boss man for doing his dirty work?" Tuari narrowed his eyes.

              "Thankless job, more like."

              "And what's that? What do you and Jaci do over there?"

              Delsin shook his head. "I'm not supposed to talk about it. Part of the rules. We all gotta play by 'em and you know that. It's what we signed on for when we came to this dump. Let's just say that you and the rest of the pack aren't the only ones doing things you don't wanna do for the doctors over there."

              Tuari's expression sobered. "Yeah," he said softly. "I get it."

              "Anyway, I tried to get Tama to take the shot—make things mellower for her, right? But thing is, she won't take them. So she worries. And she hurts. It's starting to affect our son."

              "Jolon's a good boy," Tuari said. "We need to protect him from this stuff—all the Haven pups."

              "That's what I'm trying to do," Delsin replied. "But he's getting older, and sooner or later he's going to realize that his mom cries herself to sleep on the same night of the week every time."

              "Better get back to her, then."

              Delsin nodded and stepped away from the fire. "Sooner or later those assholes are gonna learn everything they can from us," he said as he walked deeper into the ruined city. "And then this nightmare will be over. Even Jaci believes that."

              "Yeah," Tuari said before muttering to himself. "I'm sure everything will get better the moment we're not useful to them anymore."

***

"He's so beautiful," Tama said. She was standing in the open doorframe to Jolon's room. The boy was lying on his side, half-lit by the light of the moon peeking in through the window. "Sometimes I sit here and watch him sleep. I wonder what he dreams about."

              "He's practically a teenager," Delsin said. "It's not healthy to baby the boy."

              "He's asleep. He can't hear us."

              Delsin laughed under his breath. "You never give him credit for how sneaky he is." He raised his voice. "I know you're awake."

              Jolon rolled over and glared at his father across the room. "You ruined it, Dad! I totally had her!"

              Delsin stepped in and sat down on the bed beside him. "You really did. Were you practicing that breathing technique I taught you?"

              "Yup," the boy replied with a grin. "Concentrate on my heartbeat, slow it down, calm my body. Lie still."

              "Good boy," Delsin said, ruffling his pup's hair. "You'd have made a great hunter."

              "I am a great hunter!"

              "Hunting rats isn't the same as hunting deer."

              Jolon rolled his eyes. "Rats have to be harder than deer. You said they're a lot bigger. Rats can hide places I can't get to. Deer can't run into a hole."

              Delsin sighed. "What I wouldn't give to take you on a real hunt. Maybe someday."

              Tama put her hand on Delsin's shoulder. "That's enough for right now. Your son needs his sleep. It's a work day tomorrow."

              "Mooom," Jolon wailed. "That's child exploitation!"

              "Where did you hear such a thing?"

              The boy pointed at the window. "Up north in the movie theater. Dena figured out how to make the old projector work!"

              Tama eyed Delsin. "Jaci's passing his big brain down to the next generation."

              Delsin grunted. "Yeah. And his way of attracting trouble." He got off the bed and joined Tama at the door. "Get to bed, Jolon. We'll see you in the morning."

*****

"He gets it from you, you know," Tama said. She sat down tenderly on the front porch chair and exhaled a pained hiss of breath. "He shouldn't be here. He deserves to be out in the wild."

              "Something's in the air tonight," Delsin said as he stood behind her and rubbed her shoulders. He knew what she needed even if she didn't outright ask for it. They'd been married long enough that they could read each other's cues without even thinking. "Everyone's unhappy. It's like they've forgotten that we're the only werewolves left alive. We should be thankful that Jolon's even here—we'd never have met our son if it weren't for this place. He'd have died before he could even be born. I couldn't let that happen. Neither could you."

              "It was worth it, wasn't it?" Tama said. "I have to believe that."

              "Every time I start to question our decision to surrender, I think of him," Delsin replied. "Watching him grow into the hunter he was born to be. I've never felt proud of anything like that in my life, and all he was doing was chasing fucking rats."

              "Language!"

              Delsin barked a quick laugh. "He's asleep for real this time. It's not like words can really hurt him, anyway. There are scarier things out there." He pressed down on her back with both palms, scouring the tension away. She was feeling better now, he could tell. She'd been so worried when he finally arrived home, but he'd put things right within moments. Tama was always the forgiving sort, and she didn't ask him questions about his work this time. He was grateful for that. He hated lying to her, hated it almost as much as putting Sahale in the ground.

              "Gods, that's nice," she said with a soft moan.

              "You're still in pain?" Delsin asked as he worked out a particularly tenacious knot above her left shoulder blade.

              "The doctors did a number on me the other day," she replied. "There was a new one; he didn't know how to treat a wolf properly."

              "None of them know how to treat wolves properly."

              "You know what I mean."

              "Yeah," Delsin said. "I do." He slipped around her and leaned against the railing, looking out over the abandoned train yard as he slipped a cigarette from his shirt pocket. He was just about to light it when something hit him in the back. Tama had thrown a slipper at him.

              "Don't you do it," she said. "Bad enough you smoke those filthy things when you're out gallivanting around human territory with Jaci and Sahale." He flinched at the mention of his dead friend's name. "What?" she asked. "What is it?"

              He shook his head and put the cigarette away. "Nothing. I'm just tired."

              "They're working you to the bone over there. It's not fair."

              "We all do what we have to do to keep ourselves alive." He leaned down and kissed her, trying desperately not to think of Sahale's dead eyes staring up at him. Would it be her next? Jaci? He needed to make sure they didn't ask the wrong questions. Knock on the wrong doors. Gods, he was glad that Sahale had never settled down with another wolf. No one would start asking questions for a few days—long enough for him to think up a convincing cover story.

              Tama wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into the chair with her. It groaned under their combined weight. "You carry so much on those shoulders of yours." She ran the tips of her fingers over his neck and all the way down his arm, causing his skin to prick up into gooseflesh. "What can I do to help?"

              "Just…" Delsin paused for a moment, considering what to say. "Just trust me. As long as we keep our heads down, we'll be fine. But if we make trouble it's going to get worse before it gets better."

              "I don't like the sound of that."

              "You shouldn't," he said. "The military's not kidding around over there. The guy in charge now is a sadistic prick, and I've caught his eye, somehow."

              "He's new?"

              "New-ish. His name's Williams—had something to do with the Haven project before he came here, but now he's managing it hands-on. As long as things go smoothly, he mostly keeps to himself. That's why I wanted you to take those meds I got from Nurse Shaw. We keep everything calm and eventually he'll go away."

              Tama looked him in the eyes. "You really want me to take those things, don't you?"

              "Only until that bastard is out of here and we're back to normal."

              "They're not addictive?"

              He shook his head. "Nurse says they aren't. They just calm the beast."

              She kept quiet for almost a minute, looking in the direction of the bridge that led to the military base. They couldn't see it from this far away, but its presence was felt in every corner of the refuge. "I'll take them," she said finally, so low that he could barely hear her. "Just promise me it won't be forever."

              He leaned in and nuzzled her cheek. "I promise," he lied. "Someday this will all be behind us."

Chapter 3

Jaci leaned back against the medical building's wall and watched Delsin get into the transport with his military escort. He had reverted to human form and his face was well hidden in the shadows of his camo-patterned poncho. The weather hadn't quite decided yet if it wanted to have pity on the soldiers laboring beneath its downpour, and while it showed signs of abating, there was still more than enough rain to explain his lack of a proper uniform if he were seen and interrogated.

              He breathed a sigh of relief once Delsin was away. The wolf was his friend, yes, but lately he'd seen less and less of the packmate he'd known for so many years. He could still taste the lingering bitterness from the shell of the pill Nurse Shaw had given him. It was easy enough to wedge it between his muzzle's back teeth until he had an opportunity to palm it and hide it away deep in his coat pocket. Unfortunately by that point a portion of it had dissolved and been washed down by his wolf form's saliva, but the effect was minimal and his mind still felt sharp, his vision clear. He had a mission and he needed to be in his right mind if he wanted to be successful.

              Delsin knew what happened to Sahale; Jaci was sure of that much. His friend was lying to him, but no matter what tack he used to probe for weakness in the wolf's story, he couldn't quite budge the walls built up to spare himself from the truth. The mere fact that Delsin was doping up his inner beast to numb the pain was more than enough proof for him that whatever happened to their companion had been too horrible for him to deal with in any other way. The wolf that Jaci knew before their imprisonment would never have indulged in mind-altering substances so recklessly. The abuse was so egregious that for a while he'd believed it was an unspoken message meant for him to unravel. Today's conversation had proved otherwise—Delsin's true self was gone, replaced by something alien that knew it was angry but couldn't seem to put the pieces together as to why. There were glimmers of his fiery personality still in there—no pills could suppress the inner beast's rage for long—but his moments of lucidity were fleeting at best. His wife always managed to bring out the best in him, so Jaci decided to let him get home to Tama and go about this thing he needed to do alone.

              He peeked out again from beneath his hood. No soldiers in sight. Good. He started walking, just fast enough to get where he needed to be quickly while avoiding the overt appearance of haste. He only encountered one other person before he reached the administration wing, and the man was dressed much the same as he was. The soldier offered a cursory nod before scurrying on to reach his destination, more interested in avoiding a thorough soaking than he was in idle conversation that might have revealed Jaci's true identity.

              The lanyard he'd lifted from the nurse's desk drawer felt like it was burning a hole through his palm when he pulled it out and swiped the card clipped to it against a black plastic pad beside the entry door. The panel issued a beep and the small light beside it turned green. A second later he heard a sharp click as the door unlocked. He opened it and stepped hurriedly into the entryway beyond before anyone else could notice him.

              The administration wing wasn't an area of the base that Jaci was intimately familiar with like the medical building or the waste disposal facility, but he'd been sent here on errands often enough to know the basic layout. He slipped through the main hall and into the smaller corridor leading to the IT department. If there were records about Sahale's death anywhere on the base, they'd be here. He paused for a moment before opening the door to the server room. At this late hour it was unlikely that the area would be staffed, but after coming this far there was no sense in abandoning caution entirely. A deep breath filled his lungs and he held it there while he closed his eyes and focused on listening. The sound of soft-soled steps were barely discernable followed by a sigh as whoever was walking settled into a chair that creaked under their weight. Moments later he caught the clatter of a keyboard. These sounds would have been impossible for human ears to detect from behind the tightly closed security door—it wasn't only the werewolves' strength and healing capabilities that the humans coveted after all, his pack's senses were second to none and that always gave him the advantage over all but the most adept humans.

              Jaci opened his eyes, remaining still as he focused on the sound of the human working into the night on what he assumed must be an important or overdue project. That could work out to his advantage—someone with their eyes focused on a computer screen was easy enough for him to avoid, the tricky part would be getting through the door without making too much noise. He gave a preemptive wince as he held the key card against the reader panel next to the doorknob. Much like the outside door, this lock gave a gentle beep and the LED turned green as the lock clicked open. He twisted the knob and froze as he heard a creak of the chair through the door.

              "I'm almost done," a thin female voice dripping with barely-concealed irritation called through the crack in the door. "You don't need to check in on me every few minutes; I told you I was taking the situation seriously. I'm clipping the footage and sharing it with DC right now. There's nothing to worry about. I'll keep working 'till it's done."

              The tech sounded exhausted and frustrated beyond belief, and Jaci had no inclination to reply. With luck, she'd assume that the lack of response meant that her overbearing supervisor had decided to let her work in peace. Instead, Jaci pushed the door open ever-so-slightly and peered through the crack into the server room. He was just able to make out a desk on the left-hand side of the room where the industrious IT worker was busy editing a video. She grumbled to herself but didn't look back over her shoulder. He decided to push his luck and open the door just wide enough for him to slip through. Success! He eased the door closed behind him as quickly as he dared before ducking down and creeping between two tall racks of servers.

              What to do now, though? Accessing the information he needed would almost certainly draw attention—the room was dead quiet aside from the clattering keyboard and the clicks and whirs of server fans. He slinked through tight spaces between dozens of rack-mounted computers until he was on the other side of the room, far closer to the worker than he felt comfortable with. As far as he could tell, all of the workstations were in that area and it would be impossible for him to get there without being discovered. He ground his teeth as he resolved himself to wait patiently for the woman to finish her work and leave for the night. In the meantime, he focused his attention on her video editing.

              Jaci could see the computer screen clearly from where he was crouched, only partially obscured by the back of the human's head and tightly pulled back ponytail. She was wearing light blue button-down shirt that was obviously not any form of military uniform. Probably a civilian contractor, then. That was good to know. He resisted the urge to lean too far to the side while remaining hidden behind the servers. At first he wasn't sure exactly what he was looking at. The screen showed a security cam feed depicting a white room that could have been any one of two dozen generic accommodations in the medical wing. The woman dragged the bar at the bottom of the video to the right, fast-forwarding through the clip until several figures walked in, wheeling a gurney bearing a distressingly familiar corpse into the room. Sahale. A click of the mouse paused the frame and left Jaci's friend's dead eyes staring directly at him through the screen.

              Before he realized what he was doing, a rumble of anger formed in the back of his throat. The inner beast churned in his guts, making him feel sick. For once he was thankful for Delsin's drugs; without that partial dosage he'd swallowed, he might have inadvertently attacked the woman sitting with her back to him, unaware of the danger. Well, unaware until he blew his cover with a growl. Crap. He wanted to swear at himself for allowing the vision of his dead friend to rattle him so badly, but in truth there was still a part of him that wanted to believe the body bag he buried had contained someone else—some other unidentified corpse that would have had far less of a profound effect on his life. The humans had made mistakes before. But not this time. Sahale was dead and he was in deep shit.

              "What the hell?" the tech mumbled to herself as she swiveled the chair in place to look directly at Jaci. Her eyes widened when she saw him standing there, clearly out of place despite being in human form. He realized belatedly that he had never taken off the rain-slick poncho. "What are you doing creeping around like that? You have to be the worst babysitter I've ever had on this job!" The front of her shirt had a small name badge pinned to it, labeling her 'Kaylen S.' of Nova Corp.

              Jaci paused to think before replying. Babysitter? What the hell did she mean by that? He thought back to what the woman said when he got to the door, complaining about being checked in on too often. He could work with that. "They told me not to interrupt you," he said in what he hoped was a nonchalant voice. He twitched uncomfortably, trying not to think of Sahale's dead eyes. The beast really wasn't dealing well with that.

              "So you decided to just stand behind me, breathing hard like some kind of lunatic? Am I going to have to make a formal complaint?"

              "I'm sorry," Jaci said, looking down at the floor. "I'm new here. Just transferred."

              "Wonderful," Kaylen said, her nose wrinkled with distaste. "So you have no idea what you're doing. Don't think I haven't noticed that every soldier transferred to this place has something wrong with them." She leaned forward in her chair, eyeballing him. "You stink, you know that? Like you haven't had a bath in days. What did you do to get yourself assigned here? Kill someone you weren't supposed to? Leak classified information? War crimes?"

              "That's…" He had to think fast. "That's classified, ma'am."

              "Great. Just great." She threw her hands in the air theatrically. "Now I get to work on this creepy-ass video while the world's most awkward guy stands behind my desk and breathes hard as a pug in a CPAP like he's getting off to it. Have I told you yet how much I love this job?" She gestured to a desk on the other side of the room. "Take off your coat and go sit over there. Play on the internet or something." She paused. "No porn. I already heard enough grunting out of you."

              Before he had time to think about what he was doing, Jaci found himself halfway across the room, about to sit down. Gods, what was he doing? He couldn't stick around for long, not if this tech was being checked in on as frequently as she was suggesting. It was just a matter of time before her real handler stepped in and discovered him. If he was going to uncover anything about what happened to Sahale, he'd have to do it fast. Luckily for him, he'd stumbled upon someone who was literally browsing through all the answers to his questions.

              "So…what are you working on?" Subtlety didn't seem to be Jaci's strong suit, today.

              Kaylen threw head back and groaned. "You saw what I was working on—dead werewolf video. It's kinda messed, up, honestly. Last time I worked on one of these I had nightmares for weeks. Does that get you off, Mr. Creep?

              "Um, no," Jaci replied, a bit taken aback. "It bothers me, too."

              That seemed to relax the tech a bit. "Good to know there's someone stationed in this place that actually knows how to feel feelings. Sometimes it seems like everyone I interact with here is a freaking psychopath. The few wolves I've met seemed more human than…" She cut herself off as if she realized she'd spoken a bit more of her mind than she originally intended. "No offence to any of your friends back in the barracks."

              Jaci shook his head as he pretended to play with the computer. It had been years since he used one of the things and this PC was completely different from the interface he was used to. If he had sufficient time, he could figure it out—he was good at stuff like that—but he had to use his time wisely. "I haven't been here long enough to make any friends," he said. "I'm hoping to get stationed somewhere else as quickly as I can." He decided to push his luck and play on her sympathies. "I don't like what the scientists are doing to those werewolves."

              "Seriously," Kaylen replied. "I'm about one gig away from asking Nova Corp to station me anywhere else."

              "What happened with the wolf in the video?" Jaci asked.

              The tech shook her head. "Don't know the whole story and portions of the feed were redacted before I was allowed to see them. They don't have me working with the original footage, but they need it edited down even more for the more squeamish suits working outside this place. I wouldn't normally talk about it to anyone, but you've probably seen worse than I have. Worst they can do to me at this point is fire me and the thought of that doesn't bother me as much as it probably should. "

              Jaci nodded. "That's probably a safe bet," he said. "That I've seen worse than you, I mean. Haven is a bit of a nightmare."

              She gave him a funny look. "Sorry for calling you a creep; you seem like a decent enough guy. Just try to cut back on the whole standing behind people and heavy breathing thing, okay?"

              "Done." Jaci forced a laugh and was pleased that it felt almost genuine. He hadn't talked to a sympathetic human in ages, but he didn't want her to feel like he was pushing. "Should I let you get back to work?"

              Kaylen rolled her chair back and forth and looked up at the ceiling. "It's all good. I'm just about done anyway. Whole thing's messed up, though. This werewolf went after the guy in charge, right? Just popped up out of his restraints like it was nothing. Zero to one-hundred in about three seconds, practically foaming at the mouth, too. That's weird, right? They usually don't do that from what I've seen."

              "Yeah," Jaci said. He chewed his lip. Why on earth would Sahale do something that stupid? "That's pretty unusual, all right." He paused, trying to make his inquiry sound as casual as possible. "You sure it was the guy in charge that the wolf went after? The colonel, himself?"

              "Hard to mistake Colonel Williams for anyone else. The guy has a serious attitude problem, but that doesn't make it okay to come at him like a freight train with claws." She sighed and leaned back in toward the desk again, clicking and dragging her mouse. "Come here for a sec. I want to ask you something."

              Jaci held his breath; he was so nervous he could feel the individual hairs standing up on his arms. It felt so strange sometimes—those tiny human hairs, so different from his natural brown fur. He stood up and walked over, careful not to stand to her side and not accidentally make her uncomfortable again. The more talkative she was, the more he'd learn about what happened.

              "See this?" Kaylen pointed at the monitor. She tried to hide a disgusted grimace at the smell of him. The scene was paused sometime before Sahale had been shot. Two men in white coats were standing around their captive.

              "What are they doing to him?"

              She dragged a square marque around one of the doctor's hands and pressed a combination on the keyboard, blowing up the selection for a better look. "He's holding a needle," she said. "They injected the wolf with something and a few minutes later he went berserk."

              "Why would they do that?" Now that he had context for the incident, Jaci knew exactly why, but he wasn't about to let on. The humans were testing out a drug to stimulate the inner beast and Sahale had been unlucky enough to be their first test subject for the new batch.

              Kaylen zoomed back out again and hit the play button. The doctor knelt down beside his captive and jabbed the needle into the werewolf's exposed chest. Sahale howled and arched his back, pulling at the restraints. He settled down again a moment later and Colonel Williams walked into the frame. It looked like he was saying something, but the volume was too low for the cameras to pick up. Two seconds later, Sahale lunged toward him, tearing through the metal shackles like they were made of paper.

              "You see that?" the tech said. "Something he said set the werewolf off like a loaded gun. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear he did all of this on purpose." She resumed the video and the doctors—now armed with sedatives—leapt toward Sahale, as Williams drew a massive handgun. The enraged werewolf lashed out with his claws, tearing out both of the doctors' throats before the colonel could pull the trigger.

              Three flashes momentarily lit the camera so brightly that the picture was lost. When the image focused again, Williams was standing over Sahale and the bodies of the two dead men. The wolf was clawing at the floor in a chaos of twisting limbs, leaving jagged tears in the concrete. The weapon was impressive. Not many guns could put a wolf down that fast; Jaci knew that from experience. The colonel watched Sahale writhe in agony for several seconds before stepping closer and pulling the trigger again at almost point-blank range, putting Jaci's friend out of his misery. There was blood everywhere.

              "So much blood…" Jaci said under his breath.

              "Are you...crying?" Kaylen asked, looking up at him from her chair. "You're not really military, are you?"

              He didn't bother responding. If she knew enough to ask, then she'd know if he lied. Sometimes it was better to say nothing.

              "Christ." The tech closed out the video and got out of her chair. She took a quick look toward the only door out of the room. "You're not gonna kill me, are you?"

              "What?" Jaci mumbled. He looked up at her, embarrassed by his display of emotion. She was only a human. How could she ever understand the pain of losing a packmate? "No. I'm not going to kill you. I just needed to know what happened to him."

              "So you're one of them?"

              He nodded sullenly, confirming what he was sure she already knew. Gods damn it! He thought. She'd seen his face! She could identify him! He couldn't let her leave, but he also couldn't kill her. It wasn't his way—that's why he surrendered with the rest of the pack back in Yellowstone. That's why he was here in this gods-forsaken place instead of dead and buried with the rest of his kin. His convictions left him in one hell of a conundrum, though. He suddenly wished Delsin were here; he was always able to make the tough decisions when he was caught between a rock and a hard place. Jaci was a keen hand at survival and logic puzzles, but Delsin had a unique talent for reading people, at least when he wasn't stoned out of his mind on Nurse Shaw's drugs. It must have been in his blood—his son was already turning into one hell of an empath.

              He gave himself a shake. He was just sitting there when he needed to be doing something, but he couldn't get the image of Sahale's body lying on the floor surrounded by a widening pool of blood out of his mind. Maybe it would be better if the pack all went to join him. He held back a sob. No. He had to be strong. How many times had his friends told him that without his optimism they'd already have given into despair? But what had it gotten them in the end? Four bullets in the brain and an ocean of—

              "—you listening?"

              Jaci jerked his head back up. "What?"

              "I said you need to get the hell out of here before my supervisor realizes you're talking to me."

              "You're just going to let me go?"

              Kaylen gave an exaggerated sigh. "You said you weren't going to kill me, right?"

              "Yeah."

              "Well then why would I do that to you? I know what they do to werewolves who step out of line in this place. I literally just watched the evidence with you. If I tell them that you were here and that you saw what you saw, what do you think they're going to do to you?"

              Jaci took a deep breath and tried to get his emotions under control. "You're right," he said. "They'll either kill me or use me in their next experiment."

              The tech nodded. "Come on. I'll head out first to make sure the way is clear."

              He could barely feel his legs when he started following her, but somehow he managed to keep himself upright. "All the bodies I've had to bury," he muttered. "Why didn't they make me feel this way?"

              Kaylen looked back at him as she wove her way through the racks of servers toward the exit. She was taking a circuitous route, making sure to keep the line of sight from the door at least partially obscured until they were ready to leave. "They make you bury them?" she asked. She sounded horrified. "They experiment on you and then make you clean up their mess?"

              "That's about the size of it," Jaci said. They were almost to the door. Just a few more feet now. "I think it's just another experiment. They want to see how we can handle psychological stress. Delsin says I'm crazy—that they're just lazy and can't be bothered digging the holes—but I can see that kind of stuff clearer than him. The scientists want to know how far we can be pushed before we break. That's what they did to Sahale."

              "Sahale…" Kaylen said. "The werewolf in the video?"

              "Yeah," Jaci said. "He was one of my best friends. Part of my pack."

              A sharp knock came from the door, startling both of them into silence. Kaylen waved Jaci back and the wolf complied immediately, ducking behind a shelf loaded with discarded scrap tech pushed up against the wall. The door opened a second later, admitting a tall man in a pristine army uniform. For a second he thought it was the colonel, but getting a closer look through the small gaps between stacked PCs, he realized he was mistaken. This man was much younger, but he had a certain air about him, like a thundercloud laced with crackling electricity. He noticed Kaylen immediately.

              "You're done with your work?" he asked with a voice that matched his appearance, a calculated calm that somehow managed to suggest the promise of an immediate violent shift if the winds were to change.

              The tech froze uncomfortably, twisting her fingers through her long, dark hair with nervous energy. "Not quite yet," she said.

              "What's going on," the soldier asked, stepping into the room. He looked back and forth, taking in the portions of the room he could see from his vantage point. "The job was supposed to be done half an hour ago. They're going to have a fit if they think Nova's double billing them again. Finish up so I can escort you off the base."

              "I need to use the bathroom, Jones," Kaylen said, working an angry note into her voice that may not have been entirely for show. "I'd rather not need to waste time filing harassment charges against you, but I will if you make me."

              The soldier looked like he was going to argue for a moment, but he quickly relented and stepped back toward the door. "I'll be at the front desk when you're finished." He grabbed the doorknob and then paused again, nostrils flaring. "What's that rancid smell?"

              "What did I just say about harassment charges?" Kaylen replied, stepping into the space between the soldier and Jaci's hiding spot. "You're really going to stand there and comment on a woman's hygiene after harassing her on the job site? Really? That's your play, here?"

              Jones seemed to deflate and his shoulders sagged as he turned back to the door and let himself out. "Just get it done," he said before the door slammed shut behind him.

              "That was close," Kaylen said as she stepped back around the shelf where Jaci was doubled over in a crouch. "You really do smell like hell, you know. Do you have showers in Haven?"

              "Yeah," he said. "But the water pressure is low. I hate the things."

              The tech groaned. "Well the next time you plan to come snooping around the base, you might want to wash up a bit first. If I hadn't thought fast, that guy would have sniffed you out like a bloodhound." She bit her lip and offered a hand to help him up. It probably wasn't necessary, but he took the gesture of good will for what it was. "I'm sorry," she said. "Your friend is gone and I'm lecturing you about your smell."

              "It's okay," he replied. "I probably needed to hear it. I had no idea I was ripe enough for that guy to smell me from around the corner. Sahale would have thought that was funny."

              "Funny?" the tech asked as she opened the door a few inches and took a peek outside. The hall was empty but she lowered her voice to a whisper just in case. "I didn’t think anyone stuck in a place like Haven would have much of a sense of humor. You're not what I expected at all."

              "Humans only saw one side of us during the war. At the beginning we were only trying to defend ourselves. Things…got out of hand."

              "That's an understatement."

              He ground his teeth. "I need to get out of here. Will we be able to sneak around him to the exit?"

              Kaylen nodded. "As long as nobody else is still working. But it should be safe—there normally aren't many soldiers in the building this late. It's pretty quiet, too, so you'll need to be extra careful. I have no idea how you walked in here without getting caught, and I don’t think I want to know. You weren't exactly acting like a master spy when you were in the server room." She opened the door all the way and held it as Jaci slipped through. She pointed across the hall at a small door marked as a bathroom and lowered her voice so he could barely hear her. "I'm going to head in there and I'll make sure I clunk around quite a bit. Leave a faucet running, run the electric hand dryer—that kind of thing. Jones will be expecting that kind of noise; it should cover whatever sound you make as long as your heavy breathing doesn't tip him off like it did me. Can werewolves breathe through their noses? Is that a thing?"

              "Very funny."

              "One other thing I should tell you before you go," she said, pulling him to a small alcove lined with janitorial equipment. It wasn't a perfect hiding place, but it wouldn't be necessary for long. Her expression looked conflicted and her lips twisted slightly as she spoke, like she wasn't sure if she was doing the right thing. "There was another werewolf in the room with your friend Sahale. He wasn't in-frame in the clip that I cut, but I saw him in the original reel."

              Jaci froze with shock. "Another wolf? Are you sure?"

              Kaylen nodded. "He was transformed and everything."

              "What did he look like?"

              She hesitated. "I feel really uncomfortable saying this, but you guys mostly look alike to me in wolf form. No offense. Seriously; I don't mean anything by it."

              He held back a growl of irritation. It wasn't her fault—all humans seemed blind to the glaring differences between wolves. If he got angry every time one of them brought it up he'd never have a moment's peace. At least the tech had the presence of mind to apologize for her failings. "You said the wolf was a male?" he asked. "What color was his fur? Distinguishing marks? Clothing?"

              "Umm. His fur was grey." She paused for a moment to think. "And he was a pretty big guy, too. No shirt, and the pants were nondescript—the stretchy type they usually put on werewolves so they don't have all their dangly bits flopping around after they rip off normal clothes like the Hulk. His pants were dark, but they were badly stained. I remember because I was surprised the cameras were high quality enough to pick up that level of detail."

              Jaci took a deep breath. It couldn't be…did Delsin know the truth about what happened the whole time? He knew that his friend was hiding something from him, but if Delsin had been there when Sahale was given the injections that made him go crazy and kill those doctors… "I know him," he whispered. "He told me that Sahale went feral and they put him down, but I didn't know about the experiment."

              Kaylen gave him a pitying look that somehow managed to make him feel angrier. "Look, I sympathize," she said. "I wasn't sure if I should tell you or not, but I figured that if it were my friend getting shot on that tape, I'd want to know who was in the room."

              "Yeah…" Jaci said. He was having difficulty holding back the tears. All he could picture was the colonel standing over Sahale's bleeding and broken body before putting him down like a dog with a bullet to the skull. "I haven't had a human talk honestly with me in a long time. Thank you. Some of the others can't remember how things used to be when we didn't all hate each other. Being kept in isolation does that to a person—wrings all the hope out of you until all that's left is bitterness."

              The tech put a hand on his shoulder. "Just don't do anything stupid, okay? I don't want to find out that I was responsible for getting you or anyone else killed." She bit her lip as she looked him over. "You look like hell. Are you gonna be able to get out of here on your own?"

              Jaci gave himself a shake. "Yeah," he said. "I'll be okay. I won't forget what you did for me, tonight. Hopefully you'll do the same—remember we're not monsters. We have feelings just like you do. We love and we fear." He took a deep breath. "We hurt."

              "You also feel anger," Kaylen said. "Don't be too harsh on that other guy when you see him, okay?" She popped her head out of the alcove and looked back and forth in the hallway. "I don’t think there's anything he could have done to stop what was happening. That Colonel Williams guy is a monster."

              "He could have told me what really happened," Jaci muttered. "But don't worry; I'll give him a chance to explain." He gave her a quick pat on the back before wondering if she'd consider it appropriate. Fortunately, she didn't seem to mind. "You'd better go. That soldier is going to start wondering why you haven't used the bathroom, yet."

              Kaylen stepped out into the hall and swept her fingers through her long hair nervously. "Guy already thinks I'm slow and lazy. He's just pissed because he's stuck here watching me and he'd rather be in the barracks with his buddies doing whatever gross stuff they do together in the off hours. Don't worry about me; I'll be fine. Just take care of yourself." She headed toward the bathroom and pulled the door open far louder than necessary, slamming it against the opposite wall. A moment later the metallic sound of a toilet stall door closing was followed by a theatrical sigh of relief.

              Any other time, Jaci would be amused by the woman's commitment to the bit, but his mind was awash with raw emotion. He needed to put all that aside for now and focus or he'd never have the chance to confront Delsin and find out why his friend lied to him about Sahale's death.

              The hallway felt colder than he remembered it as he slinked through, taking his time while Kaylen continued to make a racket in the bathroom. He was starting to wonder if she may be overdoing the act, but that would only matter if he stuck around long enough for the irritated soldier to work up his nerve and get off his butt to ask the tech if she was okay. He cinched up his poncho and shivered as the rain-slick coat brushed up against the exposed skin of his neck, leaving a small pool of droplets on the floor as it shifted. He peeked around the corner into the main hall where he'd entered. Jones was sitting at what looked like a reception desk, reclined with his back to him, studiously ignoring his duties. Jaci was starting to see why the man had been reassigned to Haven—anger issues and discipline problems seemed to be the prime reasons for this kind of 'punishment.'

              The access card beeped as Jaci pressed it up against the reader. He held his breath and pulled open the door just as the soldier started to turn around in his chair.

              "Hey!" Jones called out. "That you, Rob? I'm stuck here waiting for this idiot tech to—"

              Jaci closed the door, cutting the man off mid-complaint. It would seem suspicious, but it was better than allowing himself to be seen. The rain had slowed to a drizzle and there were far more people going about their duties than there had been during the downpour. Fortunately, none of them seemed inclined to ask him who he was or where he was going as he walked briskly back to the medical building. From there it was easy enough to stash his uniform and shift into his wolf. No one ever asked questions about wolves coming back and forth from this area of the base, it was only once he strayed outside closer to administration that he'd be questioned.

              It came as a relief when all four paws hit the pavement and he could finally stretch out in his favored form. He'd head back by foot across the bridge into Haven territory. There was no need to bother one of the drivers to escort him; they hated being dispatched this late anyway, and the fewer people he interacted with the better. He had a lot to think about during the half hour it would take to cross the span. He'd already decided to leave Delsin alone for the moment; there was no reason to invade the privacy of his home and disturb his wife and kid. For all he knew, Tama didn't even know that Sahale was dead, yet. The last thing she needed was to find out by witnessing a shouting match between him and her husband.

              Jaci could wait for answers, and besides, his wife would be missing him. He'd have to come up with a convincing cover story for staying out this late. Aiyana could be quite shrewd when she put her mind to it—he hated lying to her and he was worried that he wasn't nearly as good at doing it as he originally thought. She knew something was up, and sooner or later he'd need to come clean.

              He heaved a cavernous sigh and started running, covering ground with incredible speed on all four legs. Before long he settled into a regular rhythm. It was comforting, somehow. Tomorrow on the way to work, Jaci would give Delsin an ultimatum. Either his friend came clean about what happened with the colonel and Sahale, or Jaci would blow the whole operation wide open. No more lies. No more deception.