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“She is my pet, and my mate. I will never abandon her,” Order is saying.
“She was bitten, Order. She has to be put down. She’ll turn. Lycanthropy is incredibly contagious for humans. You know she has to be ended.” That’s Stealth. He never liked me.
“I am not going to harm a hair on her head.”
“Then you choose to harbor the enemy,” Stealth hisses.
“Shut the fuck up,” Justice snaps. “You don’t understand what these humans mean to us.”
“More than your brethren, apparently,” Stealth replies. “She’ll never be one of us. She was always human, and now she’ll never bear your spawn or lay your eggs. She’s useless. Don’t you understand? She has no purpose.”
“You are so very wrong,” Order replies. “She’s going to be a puppy. My good little puppy.”
“Don’t be so certain,” Justice says. “She’ll be a lot more than a puppy. She’ll be a ravenous she-wolf. She’ll have instincts you can’t control. And she might turn on you.”
“I’m not worried,” Order growls. I think he’s worried. I can feel his worry all the way through the wall.
“You should be,” Stealth says. “Why do you think the wolf bit her? He wanted to turn her. He stamped his claim on her soul. She’ll never truly be yours now.”
“She was mine from the moment I met her,” Order says. “I laid eyes on her and knew she was meant for me.”
He’s so sweet. I’d cry if I could, but I don’t want them to hear me and know that I can hear them. I want them to think that I am still passed out. There are a lot of conversations happening now revealing a great deal about this world and my place in it. Before being bitten, I was just another human amusement. Now, I am a potential enemy.
“Justice?” I hear Sally’s voice, somewhat distant, but easily audible to me. My senses have never been so keen before. She takes him into another room and begins to speak to him in lowered tones. What she says crushes me.
“I don’t think we should have her around the children. You, me, Stealth, we can protect ourselves. But the kids are vulnerable. The cocoon stage is just… we have to guard them.”
“You are such a good mother,” Justice praises her. “I’m so proud of you.”
“I would do anything for Tessie,” Sally says. “But the kids have to come first. If anything happened to them, I would never forgive myself.”
“Yes,” Justice says. “They do.”
I hear Stealth talking again, much closer. I prefer his voice to Sally’s. There’s less betrayal in it. He’s never owed me anything, so how can he disappoint me?
“Order,” Stealth says. “It’s a full moon.”
He says that like it matters. There’s a brief moment in which Order is silent and all I can hear are Justice and Sally saying smug parent things to one another.
“Nobody turns on their first full moon. We have at least a month to find a cure,” Order says.
“Find a cure for lycanthropy, a disease that has stalked the human species since it made the bargain that turned some wolves to dogs? I don’t think so, Order. What is happening to her is irreversible. That means it can’t be changed.”
“Yes. Stealth. I am familiar with what irreversible means. Thank you.”
That’s the last thing I hear before darkness and pain overwhelm me again.
10
Iwake up in pain. Not the kind of pain I experienced after my surgery for the gunshots. That pain was like a picnic on a tropical beach compared to this agony. I feel like every part of my body is on fire and being crushed at the same time.
Last time I woke up in a hospital. I am definitely not in hospital now. It is the dead of night, and there is a bright moon shining through old, warped barn planks. I am alone. I am alive. I am free?
I am definitely not in the vault anymore. I have been placed outside it while unconscious. I don’t feel like I am wounded anymore. I feel like I am suffering something much worse than plain injury.
I emit a sob. It is the only sound I can make besides a whine. I am not myself. I may never be myself again. When I try to move, I find that my body is no longer in the configuration I am familiar with. My hands are gone, replaced with paws. My human mouth and tongue have been replaced with a snout and an organ with no powers of speech. I open and close my mouth a few times, feeling much more powerful jaws.
I remember the conversation they had about me. So this is why I am no longer in the vault. They can’t trust me. Order must have put me up here. To do what? To set me free? To abandon me? None of the powerful creatures who swore to protect me as a human are here anymore, but I am not alone. I feel something small, something old, and something loyal.
