FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sleep evaded me altogether that night. I tried and tried, but even on a full stomach my body still refused to switch off. I lay there in bed, sheets spilled across my lower abdomen as I gazed at the pale moon, eerily hanging in the night's dark blue skies, half full, promising, threatening to be filled to the brim in a matter of days.

I sat upright and huddled around my knees. A sigh escaped my lips.

Fine. I wouldn't sleep.

Maybe the next night I'd be so exhausted that I'd simply black out. I spilled out of bed and pulled on a pair of black pyjama bottoms. The Haven Institution's logo was branded on the lower hip.

Each logo was similiar, all sporting the same shield in the background, with a broadsword lying across the surface. But the emblem upon the shield differed depending on the animal, as if scents and such weren't enough to reveal our inner beast's species, Linus had come up with a way of cataloguing us.

Mine held the head of a wolf, baying at an unseen moon plastered across its shield's front.

I padded barefoot and shirtless across the room and stopped at the windows. I could glimpse the lake in the distance, the moon's reflection danced across its glacial surface.

It was then that I noticed someone, someone stood on the small, wooden docks that stretched out over the lake.

_ Leave them be_, I pleaded with myself, please, just go back to bed.

Needless to say I was crossing the lawn toward the lake in a matter of minutes. They say cats are the most curious of animals, try being a wereanimal, curiosities tend to intrigue each and every animal, although the more submissive are more susceptable to avoiding new things in case of danger, the more carnivorous species' tend to investigate new and interesting things.

I figured I wasn't sleeping anyway, and chances were it wasn't Linus, or the werewolves. Something told me the snake and the likes of Broderic weren't the star gazing types. It might have been Luis, but regardless of Lian's warning about him I still didn't think Luis was the violent sadist that the lion had painted him as.

When I got closer I could smell reptile in the air. I froze where I stood. For a heartbeat my mind screamed snake, but my senses composed themselves as they made out the moonlit form of the stranger at the docks.

He was too tall and too broad to be Linus.

Isaiah Kaplan of the bullet wounds stood, staring up at the moon and the star-strewn skies that overlooked Haven. He was dressed in the same pyjama bottoms I was wearing, with the difference being his catered to the length of leg and sheer muscle that fit snug inside the soft, supple material.

"Are you alright?" I called out. I padded across the wooden dock slowly, not sure if Isaiah even wanted company.

He turned and gazed at me with pale green eyes. His voice came deep and gravelly, "I'm fine thanks."

"You sure about that?" I asked, I indicated to the wounds that had been scattered across his body. In the moonlight I saw that although the wounds were healing, they still pock-marked his naked torso and forehead. The latter looked worse, the skin whitened against his deep, dark tan.

He raised a hand to touch the wound absent-mindedly and suddenly looked paler. He staggered and would have fallen had I not had heightened werewolf speed. I closed the distance between us in a blur of pale skin and black material. I held him up by the back of his bottoms and a hand on his bared stomach. His muscles still twitched, I could see. SD still cracking in his blood every once in a while. Had I been this bad after the SD induction? Maybe some handled it better than others? His stomach muscles bunched as he huddled that taller frame over me.

"Thank you," he winced.

"You should be in bed, Isaiah, not out here in the cold," I explained.

"No. The meds Linus has me on is messing with my healing factor. I need...water," he growled under his breath. He coughed hard like his throat was sore. I glimpsed another bullet wound in his neck. He was still healing the damage done by Linus' onslaught earlier that night.

"You need water? Like a drink?" I questioned.

"No," he replied hoarsely, "Just help me to the lake."

"You can't seriously want to go in there?" I demanded.

Isaiah nodded. "It'll help bolster my healing factor. Your a wolf, right?"

I nodded this time.

"Have you never noticed how much more energised you feel when your in a land native to your animal, the woods maybe?"

I thought about that and realised that on the odd occassion I had ever ventured into a woodland area or a forest, I had felt stronger, faster...happier.

Maybe the hulking tanned student was right.

"Fine."

I helped him to the very edge of the dock and stopped suddenly.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Take off your bottoms," I said.

He looked down at me.

"That way you'll have something to wear when you get out," I hastily added.

Isaiah actually blushed a little.

I reminded him, "I've already seen you naked, Isaiah."

The man thought about that, and then slowly nodded. He reached for the waistband of his bottoms and pushed down slowly. When he was nude once more I helped him to the edge and then stepped back.

He gave in to gravity and let himself fall into the waters below. His body sank like a stone, as the surface rippled with triumph. Had the water claimed him? Come to think of it, I didn't even know what kind of animal he was. I had scented reptile on him though.

The water suddenly bubbled and Isaiah burst from underneath. He took in a great gulp of air. He began to float there, already looking much more...awake than what he had looked a moment beforehand.

"What are you?" I asked.

"Werecroc," he replied simply.

Made sense, I suppose. Scales, reptilian scent and a love for water.

I sat perched on the edge of the dock, as Isaiah swam.

He dove beneath the waters and resurfaced a solid ten feet away from where he'd disappeared. He spilled water over his face and relished in the sensation of it all as I watched him.

Ten minutes of silence stretched between me and the werecroc. Not once did it feel awkward or like it needed to be filled with useless sentiment and conversation.

Eventually Isaiah swam for the dock and leaned back against one of the large, wooden posts that kept the whole structure above water. Half-submerged, he raised his muscular arms over his hand and gripped the post, achoring himself as he floated there. He gazed out across the lake as his voice spilled deep and sound through the night air. He sounded more solid than before now as well.

"What's your name, wolf?" he asked.

"Jack Whyatt," I replied.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Jack. Your Linus' newest conquest, right?"

"Yeah."

Isaiah sighed. "We're all Linus' conquests here."

"Ain't that the truth."

"So what do you think of Haven so far?"

"Honestly? It's fucking insane."

"Nice language."

"Thanks."

That earned me a smile. "I heard whispers about you from the Benefactors. They have great interest in you, because of your submissive reaction to their wonder drug. Not a lot of wolves are susceptible to SD, it seems."

"I'm not the only one in the spotlight," I replied, "You must have fucked Linus over big time for him to take a gun to your head?"

Isaiah laughed then, a deep, gravelly sound. "Yeah. I burst in on his meeting with the Benefactors."

"Do you mind me asking why?"

"Because he cancelled my contract." He fell silent for a heartbeat, then added, "My whole family is dead now, because of him."

I stared down at Isaiah, unable to comprehend having a family and then having them killed. I could see Isaiah tremble as tears glistened down his cheeks.

"Why did Linus do that?" I asked cautiously, worried I might upset the bigger werecroc.

"Because I disobeyed an order. He wanted me to assist and Elite in raping one of the newest initiates."

His words were full of defiance but sent chills down my spine. Had the initiate been me? It was possible. Linus could have been working on my initiation plans while I slept before our encounter in his office.

"I don't like rape, whether it be consentual with SD's influence or not. I refused and I was punished."

I thought about what he'd said, and tried to look on the bright side. "Your free now though, right?"

"In a way."

"What's stopping you from leaving?" I asked.

"Linus will find me again. He'll make my life miserable if I leave. That and I...don't think I could leave. How could I?" he asked, looking up at me with tear-filled, green eyes.

"Isaiah, your a good man. I can see that, but you have to think of yourself in this situation."

"I couldn't. It would eat me up alive for the rest of my days on this planet."

"So what now then? You live the rest of your days imprisoned here?"

"In comparison to what, Jack? Living somewhere else, scared that Linus will show up and bring me back here?" Isaiah snapped back.

This was bad. Isaiah was strong and defiant, but even he had been whipped by Linus' regime. It was...heart-breaking. No. Linus would not do this. Not to me.

"So what happens now?" I asked.

I never got an answer. Isaiah suddenly slumped. He passed out and his shoulders sank beneath the glassy surface of the water.

_ Fuck!_

I dove across the dock, and lay with my shoulders hanging over the edge. I plunged my hands into the icy-cold water and gripped him under his muscular arms. Thank God for my heightened strength, or Isaiah may have drowned. Then again, could werecrocs drown?

I struggled to pull Isaiah free of the water, and then pulled him into a piggyback. His naked wet body soaked mine as I gripped him firmly under the legs. His discarded bottoms clenched between my teeth, I carried him as I headed back for the manor house.

I realised as I walked that I hadn't found out where Isaiah was set up in his own room. Where was I going to put the unconscious giant of a man?

_ Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!_