{"sf1_id":854450,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Love and Lycanthropy - Chapter 17","author":"JakeXtraTall","words":13305,"posted_at":"2015-04-28T23:30:00.000Z","tags":["Human","Plot Development","Wolf"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/854450-love-and-lycanthropy-chapter-17","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/854450","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=854450\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"My massive wolf body barely fit through the doorway as I stepped\nfrom the blood splattered room out into the wide hallway of the hospital,\nand I immediately heard shrieks of terror coming from my right.I\nlooked to see a female patient who'd been making her way down the hall,\nwheeling her IV beside her.  She turned and ran back down the hall\naway from me.  She'd left the IV stand behind and as she reached\nthe limit of the plastic tubing that was feeding her body whatever\nfluid it was she needed, it went taught and the IV stand crashed over\njust as the needle was ripped from her arm.  She turned as if to\ntry to pick it up and bring it with her, but when she saw me still\nstanding there she screamed again, then looked to the side and slipped\ninto an open room and slammed the door shut.It was not my intent\nto scare anyone.  I hoped a nurse would attend to the woman soon.\n It was best to just get out and away from people.  I wasn't\nsure how much more time I had before I would change back to a human.I\nturned to the left to look down the hall.  I could see the exit at\nthe far end.  I began to walk towards it, sniffing at the air\nbriefly to assess my surroundings.Once again I was astonished at\nthe avalanche of detailed information that seemed like it might bury\nme, and I did as the wolf had shown me and tamed it all in an instant.\n Somehow, just by willing it, I was able to bring any information\nthat might be important to me to the surface while allowing all the\nrest to sink under it.As I thought about it more, I realized it would almost make more sense to use the word 'we', not I.  We\ntamed the flood of information.  It was like the wolf and I were\nworking together as a tightly knit team that functioned as one unit.\n He was able to extract every microscopic detail of all of the\ninformation that surrounded me and translate them to something my human\nmind could comprehend.  The wolf didn't know exactly what was\nimportant to me until my emotions and thoughts gave him the clues he\nneeded, and he then presented the details of the important parts for me\nto examine and make sense of.  Really, the process was at once\nmore complex than that, yet at the same time simpler.  It was\ndifficult to describe, but ultimately it allowed the vastly superior\nsensory abilities of the wolf to meld perfectly with the superior\nintellectual abilities of the human brain to create something that was\nfar more than the sum of its parts.I guess in that sense it\nreally should be 'I', but it was a much broader I than it had ever been\nbefore.  It was an I that was as wide as two whole beings.As I continued down the hall\nand passed the front desk, there were a couple of familiar scents that I\nlocked onto.  I looked over and saw the doctor near the back wall\nbehind the large 'L' shaped counter that was the front desk of the\nhospital.\n He was standing partly in front of the nurse who'd been attending\nto me, and he had his arm over her to keep her behind him in an effort\nto protect her from me, but both of them seemed\nfrozen in place by their fear.In the corner, another nurse\ncowered.  She was crouched down and covering her eyes with an arm as if hoping\nI wouldn't see her if she couldn't see me.  I didn't recognize her\nor her scent.  She had probably been the one manning the front\ndesk.I\nturned back to face the doctor and nurse.  I was curious.  I\nwanted to test\nmy new found abilities further, so I took a quick sniff in their\ndirection and immediately changed the sensory microscope's focus towards\nthese people.  I quickly dropped the non-pertinent\ninformation,\nwhich in this case was primarily made up of stark terror and thoughts of possibly never seeing their loved ones again.  I\nzeroed in\non the nurse who'd been assigned to me and found that she'd been\nworried and worn down by a struggle with someone.  Husband?\n I glanced\nat her hand and saw her wedding ring.  They'd been having a tough\ngo of it lately and their marriage was in trouble.  She'd been\ncheating on him.  I was sure of it.  I\ncould smell something dark in her.  Revenge.  She'd done it\nfor revenge.  He\nmust have been cheating on her and she was getting even.  I\nsniffed\nmore carefully and smelled something familiar on her.  It was the\ndoctor!  I could smell him on her face.  To my surprise I\nrealized it was his crotch sweat\nand precum, even tiny molecules of his urine.  She must have had her\nface\nburied in his crotch recently and everything that had been in his pubic\nhair had transferred onto her face.Out\nof curiosity, I turned my\nattention to the doctor.  He wasn't an exceptionally tall man, so\neven on all fours I was at eye level with him.  I gave another\nquick sniff.  Yes, there she was.  I\ncould smell the nurse's sweaty cunt in his goatee.  He'd been\neating her out.\n What were his motives?  Was he cheating on his own wife with\nher?  No, he wasn't\nmarried.  I smelled solitude.  Not loneliness, just a\npreference to be\nalone.  Still, I could see some darkness there, too.  He knew\nshe was\nmarried, yet he went ahead and did it anyhow.  I could see swirls\nand\neddies of darkness in a current that was primarily light and good.\n The\ndoctor was a good man, but he had his faults.  He knew full well\nhe\nshould not be pursuing the nurse.  She was a married woman.\n I moved\ntoward him and sniffed near his crotch.  She was there too.\n He'd\nfucked her without a condom and had cum inside her.  Naughty boy.I\nshook my head at him and lifted my massive front paw and moved it side to side\nas though wagging my finger in disapproval.  I tried to make a\n'tsk\ntsk' sound to let him know I knew he'd been bad, but it didn't come out\nquite right from the wolf's mouth and almost sounded more like I was\nsmacking my lips in preparation for a meal.Immediately my senses\npicked up the strong odor of urine and I saw the doctor was in the\nprocess of emptying his bladder into his pants.  A dark stain was spreading from his crotch and the hot yellow\nliquid ran down his\nleg and over his socks and shoes out onto the floor.  He must have\nassumed I'd been pointing at him to let him know he was the meal I was\ngetting ready to lay into.It wasn't my intent to give the man a\nheart attack.  I could smell that he really was a decent person,\njust a little weak in some areas.  I winked at him to let him know\nhe was in no danger, and I turned back down the\nhall to continue towards the exit.It\nwas amazing to have seen them so clearly and so easily just by the scent\nof the chemical signals they unconsciously gave off that told me so\nmuch about how they were feeling and where they'd been and what\nthey'd been doing, and I was rocked by\nthe implications of what this all meant for me.  There was no way\nanyone could hide what they truly were from me.  I no longer had\nto guess or deduce or try to divine what people thought about me, or\nwhat I should think about them.  Trusts could be formed or broken\nin a heartbeat with startling accuracy.  I would know almost in an\ninstant whether someone was good or bad, or something in between.\n I could see it all in the dense cloud of information that\nsurrounded them.Why had Elias never told me about all of this?\n Grace and Cole never mentioned anything like this either.\n Were they not as blown away as I was at suddenly being able to\nsee right into people's souls and learn so much about them in the\nshort time it takes to run a few breaths of air across their olfactory\nsystems?  Did they not recognize the power of this ability?As\nI walked toward the exit of the hospital I contemplated it more, and\nrealized I could use this new skill to my advantage right away.I\ntook another quick sniff at the air in search of something, and I\nimmediately recognized it and singled it out.  It was Jesse.  The one who'd\nsaved me from certain death.Not only had he saved me from the spook that tried to kill me with a chemical injection, but if I'd morphed into the wolf while\nstuck inside the heavy plaster casts, there was no telling what might\nhave happened to me.  The band around my head would likely have\nbeen the death of me.  The wolf would have expanded into it and it\nwould have destroyed its skull.  The pins would have been forced\ninto the wolf's brain and killed it.  Jesse had saved my life twice in the space of ten minutes and\nI was grateful to him for it, yet I still had no idea who he was.He\nhad run down this hallway just minutes ago.  He'd been a human\nthen, though he would be a wolf like me now while he waited in my RV\nfor me to join him.  As he'd run through the hospital, molecules\nof pheromones and microscopic droplets of his sweat and tiny scraps of\nthe dead skin cells and body hair and dust from his clothes that all\nhumans shed non-stop, all of\nthese things that carried his scent that contained reams of information\nabout him, had fallen from him in a steady invisible rain that had\nsettled onto the floor or clung to the walls as he passed by.\n There was so little of it that the most sensitive electronic\nequipment in the world would likely never be able to pick it out, yet\nsomehow, to the wolf, it was an embarrassment of riches.  I\nthought back about something I'd thought about long ago, that\nscientists couldn't be certain but they estimated that a canine's sense\nof smell was anywhere from two thousand to two million times more\nsensitive than a human's.  My own opinion was now leaning strongly\ntowards the latter possibility.There\nwas so much of Jesse in the complex conglomeration of scents that he'd\nleft behind that the wolf and I could see every detail of the man's\nmost recent past quite\neasily.  I wanted to know more about him so I brought the\nsensory microscope to bear on the details of the information presented\nby the pheromones that had been twisted and tweaked by his emotions and\nactions to show who he really was.  I was impressed by what I\nfound.  This man was good.  Very good.  Probably better\nthan me, even.  He was capable, confident, determined, courageous,\nintelligent, kind, selfless and many other things, all of them\npositive.  Under it all rode a current that held it all together\nand colored every aspect of who he was.  No, two things.  I\nhadn't recognized them as two because they were so tightly entwined\nthat they seemed as one.  It was honesty and loyalty.  It\ndefined him more than any other of his many positive traits.  He\nwould never lie to anyone he cared about.  He would never betray\nanyone who had not earned it.  He could be trusted.I\ncouldn't help but smile internally at who he was.  I liked him a\ngreat deal immediately, and I could sense the wolf's agreement.\n The wolf's instinct was indisputable, and it impressed upon me the\nfact that this man could be an invaluable friend and pack mate,\nand those were rare and important.In the flow of information the\nair fed me about Jesse I could sense none of the dark currents I'd\npicked up in the doctor and nurse before.  He seemed almost pure\nand without fault.  No, wait, there was something.  As I'd\nthought of the concept of 'fault' something suddenly rose up to the top\nof the flow of data.  It wasn't dark, but sort of grey.  It\nwas difficult to pinpoint and too complex to easily make sense of.\n He had reached a nexus of decision about something that was\nimportant to him.  His loyalty remained strong, but it was\nshifting.  He'd come to some conclusion that required him to\nchange his direction.  Something had been eating at him, and\nsomething in his very recent past had brought it to a head and forced\nhim to make a decision.  I followed the trail of it back to\nthe source of his sudden change of direction and I found something that surprised me.  It was Grace!  I could smell\nher on him.  He'd been near her.  I could sense his emotions\nfor her.  They were strong.  They were positive.  He'd\nbecome enamored of her on their first meeting.  I liked what I\nsmelled.  He was right for her.  I was sure of it.  His\nintentions for her were clear and they were positive.\n They were protective.  It felt good.I dug deeper,\nfocusing more on the scent of Grace that had transferred itself to\nJesse to be included in the information he'd left behind in the\nhall.  It was weak, but I could just make out a few details.\n She had been worried, but he had alleviated most of that for\nher.  She was grateful to him.  I could sense something more.\n Signals from her body that she might not even be aware of herself\nyet.  She found him extremely attractive and her body had reacted,\ngenerating subtle sexual pheromones as it became aroused by his\npresence.  She felt drawn to him.I\nsmiled again.\n There was no doubt in my mind that there were going to be some\nserious fireworks between\nthose two.  It seemed Grace's worry about never finding the sort\nof intimacy with someone special that she'd been craving might soon\ncome to an end.  I felt happy for them both.A\nthought crossed my mind and I changed the focus a\nlittle to search for someone else.  There he was.  Elias.\n Jesse had been somewhere near him.  The scent was very weak\nthough, and mixed with too many other weak scents of other people to\ntruly zero in on it.\n Their meeting must have been very fleeting and they hadn't even\nbeen in direct contact.  There wasn't enough there to get a feel\nfor Elias's mood during the encounter.The wolf and I then bent\nour wills back to the stream of scents in search of another, and\nultimately\nfound him.  It was Cole.  The scent was much stronger than\nElias's.  What did it mean?  Jesse had come in direct contact\nwith Cole.  The scent was almost as strong as it had been on the\nman who was now in shreds back in the room.  Jesse had been\nholding Cole at some point.  If that was the case, why was Cole\nnot safe?  I couldn't understand it.  The powerful sense of\nsmell of the wolf dove deeper into the scent of Cole and it found\nconfusion.  Cole had been scared of Jesse, then grateful, then\nsurprised, then angry, then disappointed.  It was a strange jumble\nof pheromone signals.  What the fuck did it all mean?\n What the hell had happened?I remembered the look of guilt\nthat had passed over Jesse's face when he'd mentioned Cole back in the\nroom.  Had he done something to Cole?No, it wasn't\npossible.  I saw the man in the intricate pattern of scents he'd\nleft right here in the hall and I knew him intimately already.  He\ncouldn't hide who he was from me.  He was an exceptionally good man.My\nrational brain took over and worked harder to process the possibilities\nand it came up with the logical conclusion.  Jesse must have tried\nto rescue Cole and had failed.  He must have come very close.\n He'd had Cole in his hands at some point, but the spook must have\nwon out in the end and got away with Cole.  That had to be the\nsource of the guilt.  Jesse had failed and it must have really\nbothered him a lot.  It had affected him deeply and I liked the man even more for it.He'd\nsaid he would bring me back to Grace and then we'd work on getting Cole\nback and he would need my help for that.  He must have some clue\nhow to proceed.I\nfelt uplifted as I thought of how lucky I was that Jesse had come\nalong.  I had an ally who must know more of what the hell was\ngoing on, and I could sense his concern for Cole's well-being.  He\nwould help me.  I could sense from his character that whatever\nmight be required of him, he would do it without hesitation, no matter\nthe risk to himself.I\nsuddenly realized I was wasting time and I could begin to change back to human at any moment.  I increased my\npace and headed out the automatic doors to the sidewalk beyond.  I\nlooked around and saw the massive Fleetwood RV parked way off to the\nside of a large parking area and I turned and began to lope towards it.There was a grassy area just beyond the parking lot with several trees and shrubs\nplanted along it.  It would be as good a place as any to go\nthrough the change back to human form.  I wasn't looking forward\nto it, but not because of the impending pain.  It was because of the fact\nthat this new shape was so much better, and I was not yet ready to give\nit up.  It was so much\nmore powerful and capable and effective.  I'd had so little time to learn what\nit was capable of, but I realized there would be all the time in the\nworld to get to know it.  For now I just needed to get back in the\nRV so we could hit the road and get started on our quest to rescue Cole.I\nwas suddenly hit with a powerful spasm that caused my muscles to lock\nup and I stumbled and crashed to the hard pavement.  As soon as the spasm\npassed I quickly got up and ran past the RV to the grassy area beyond\nand leaped across a line of shrubs to the open dirt beyond were\nthere were larger trees.  I found an open space large enough to\naccommodate my body and I lay down on my side to wait for the firestorm\nof pain that was about to inundate me.The process was much the same\nas it had been in the hospital room, but it was much easier to take\nthis time, simply because I now had a notion of just how bad it would\nget and I knew I could withstand it.  Knowing it would be short,\nand knowing that it would get to a certain intensity, but not beyond,\nhelped to make it simply an unpleasant reality that had to be endured.I stayed fairly calm internally, though I convulsed and\njerked and grunted and groaned with some of the worst of the volleys of\npain.I began to feel myself fading again as I approached the\npoint of unconsciousness, and I felt the wolf fading along with me, but\nalso away from me.Our bond to each other had been so tight that it almost felt like my soul was being torn in half.I\ncould sense the wolf's regret that it was losing something that had\nallowed it to see the world in a completely different light, and I\nsuddenly realized that it had been a two-way street all along.\n The wolf was gaining as much in all of this from me as I had been\ngaining from it.  The wolf was suddenly able to examine the world\nusing the powerful reasoning abilities of the human mind that a normal\nwolf would never have access to, and it had liked that new power.It\nhad seemed to me as though I was getting everything from the wolf with\nall of its strength and size and its amazing sensory abilities, but it\nhad been gaining something too.  It suddenly had access to\nlanguage and reasoning and intellectual capability it had never dreamed\nexisted before and it had been able to make logical sense of\ninformation that previously had been nothing more than ephemeral\nfeelings guiding its actions.There was much more to the world\nthan the wolf could possibly have imagined existed, and through me it\nhad gained access to all of that knowledge and the ability to process\nit in completely new ways.We had been a perfect team in tight symbiosis, and we were now being pulled apart again to each of our detriments.My\nfinal act as I drifted away into oblivion was to send a feeling of\ngratitude to the wolf and the thought that I would be looking forward\nto his return.I sensed something simpler, yet more important,\ncoming back from him.  Something that meant a great deal to wolves\nand, in their world, ultimately helped to determine who would be leader and\nwho would be follower.  I sensed deep and abiding respect....I heard myself cry out in pain as I came back to consciousness.I\nfelt more than just physical pain, though.  I felt an incredible\nsense of loss, of loneliness.  I felt as though I was half of what\nI should be.  I desperately wanted to go back to what I'd been\nmoments before.  I was confused and angry about what was happening\nto me.In time, as the change progressed, I became less confused\nand I settled into the realization that I was simply back to being\nmyself.  It would have to do for now.I was lying on my back\nby the time the change was complete and I was suddenly feeling\nincredibly good.  I felt strong and healthy and alive.  I\nfelt fantastic.I\nsat up and looked down at my body to make sure\neverything was in the right place.  I was amazingly muscular.\n Not in the way of a heavy duty body builder, more like someone\nwho'd been practicing martial arts day and night for his entire life.\n My muscles were larger than they'd been and far more defined and\nthey were dense and powerful and efficient looking.  My skin was\nsnapped tight against the rippling muscles along my abdomen with not\neven the smallest amount of subcutaneous fat obscuring the details.Just\nlike\nElias, I now had perfect\nskin.  My fingernails and toenails looked like they were perfectly\ncared for, but it was simply because they hadn't had time to grow much\nyet.  I felt my head to make sure my scalp had reattached\nproperly, and I found I had a thick, soft head of hair that hung to\nalmost shoulder length.  I felt my face and found a growth of\nbeard there.  I realized I'd never seen that on Elias\nbecause, even though he was seventeen, his body was still thirteen and\ntoo young to produce a beard.  Like Grace's armpit\nand leg hair, my beard had come out during my 'regrowth'.At the thought\nof regrowth my heart skipped a beat and I looked down at my penis.\n Sure enough, it now sported a generous amount of foreskin\ncovering the head.  I was absolutely thrilled.  I'd never\nbeen happy with the fact that I'd been robbed of it when I was a\nhelpless baby, and now I had it back.  I grinned as I examined\nmyself more closely and saw that even though I'd had fairly good sized\nfurry balls before, they were now even larger.  My penis was thick\nand long and impressive.  I wished I had time to play with it a\nbit, but I was completely naked outside a hospital and it seemed as\nthough being caught hiding in the bushes, naked and playing with myself\nmight not be the best thing ever.  I felt it would\nprobably be best to get inside the RV and get dressed.  Jesse\nwould\nbe waiting for me in there and I had a great many questions I needed\nhim to answer about many things.I got up and made my way through\nthe bushes and out onto the parking lot and I heard gasps.  I\nlooked over and saw the doctor and nurse near the entrance to the\nhospital.  They must have followed the massive wolf out, and now\nin its place they saw the man that had previously been broken into\npieces and lying in bed being cared for by them.  Only now he was naked,\nin perfect physical condition, and moving under his own power.  It\nhad to be a bit of a surprise, especially considering the shape I'd been in in the hospital bed.I smiled and waved at them, then I turned to the RV and pulled the door open and stepped inside.Jesse\nwas standing there waiting for me, and before I knew what was happening\nhe grabbed me into a tight hug and held on for a while.  I\nreflexively hugged him back, then as I thought of what I'd determined\nabout him back in the hallway of the hospital, I increased the force of\nthe hug.We pulled apart and he looked at me and put his hand on my shoulder and said, \"You're a good man, Jake.\"\"What\ndid I do?\" I asked, but even as I said it, I realized he had been a\nwolf\nin here.  He must have smelled me and determined I was OK, just as\nI'd learned so much about him by sniffing the scent of him in the\nhospital.He\nsmiled at me and said, \"All I could smell in here as a wolf was 'good'.\n It's everywhere.  I smelled you and your family.\n You're good folks.  There's no doubt in my mind.  This\nwas my first time as a wolf since the shit that went down at Nazas so\nit was my first chance to get a real good feel of what you all are\nlike.  I like it, Jake.\"I\ngrinned back at him and said, \"It's\namazing, isn't it?  I couldn't believe how much detail was in the\nscents that surround us all the time.  When I was walking down the\nhall of the hospital as a wolf I could see everything that had happened\nthere.  It was incredible.  So much detail.  I even knew\nthe doctor and nurse had been screwing around with each other.\n The nurse is married, but it's on the rocks.  The doctor\nknew he was taking advantage, but he went ahead and did it anyway.\n I could see it all clearly.  I\nsmelled everything about you, too.  You're a better man than me,\nJesse.  I could smell it.  You're honest and loyal and\nselfless and courageous.  You impressed the hell out of me.\n Grace really likes you, too.  I could tell she was grateful\nto you from the bit of her scent that you left behind.  She likes\nyou a lot, even if she doesn't really know it yet.  And\nCole,\nI know you tried to rescue him from that spook.  I know you\nfailed, but try not to let it get you down so much.  We'll work\ntogether to get him back.  We won't fail next time.  I\nsmelled so much about that guy back in the room too.  I could tell\nhe'd been with a hooker a couple days ago.  I could tell\neverything he'd done and eaten for days.  I smelled cordite, too.\n I smelled combat.  You got in a fire fight with them didn't\nyou?  When you tried to get Cole?  I could smell how Cole was\nafraid of that guy, and how he was afraid of you, too.  Then\ngrateful to you, then disappointed.  That's how I knew you'd tried\nto save him but it didn't work out.  There's so much information\nin the scents that were all around me, I couldn't believe it!\"While I was speaking his eyes began to widen more and more and now he stood slack-jawed and just stared at me.\"Something wrong, Jesse?\"He\nshook his head and sounded a bit in awe as he said, \"How in the great\ngoddamn did you get all of that?  It takes time for people to\nadjust to what the wolf can do, Jake, but most of us normally never get\nto the level of detail it sounds like you did on your first try!\n You're a kindred, cuz!  That's gotta be it!  I can't\nbelieve it!\"\"Huh?  What's a kindred?\"He seemed really excited and he ignored my question and asked, \"What color were you?  Was there a lot of black?\"I said, \"I couldn't see my head but the rest of my body that I could see was all black.  Even my underside.\"\"All black?  All the way to the tail?\"I nodded and asked, \"Why is that important?\"\"It's\none of the weird things about werewolves that we can't really explain.\n We come out all sorts of colors in our wolf forms and the color\nis sort of locked in the first time you change.  Most of us\nhave some black mixed in.  Thing is, some of us are more closely\nbonded to the wolves inside us than others.  For some strange\nreason, the color you become is determined by the closeness of that\nbond.  You and your wolf must have been right\non the same wavelength almost like you were twin brothers when you\nchanged in there for the first time.\n Samuel, our leader, is all black too, but he has a tiny white\npatch at his chest and the tip of his tail is white.  His paws\nhave some lighter grey in them, too.  The stronger your bond with\nthe wolf, the more black you have.  Someone who's all black like\nyou or Samuel sort of had a wolf's soul to begin with, even before you\nbecame a werewolf, so you bond with the wolf almost like you were two\nsides of the same coin.  If someone has a weak bond, or resists\nthe change, they usually turn out to be mostly white.\"\"That sort\nof makes sense from my experience.  Elias and Cole have a lot of\nblack in their coats.  They make awesome wolves.  Grace is\nalmost all white, except for some light grey on top of her back and\nalong her tail.  She never wanted to be a wolf and didn't think\nshe'd make a good one.  She had a bit of trouble controlling hers at the start.  She turned away from it.\"He nodded, \"She wasn't into it.  It\nwasn't in her soul.  Even folks like that still get by just fine,\nbut they have to let the wolf do all the wolf stuff and they're never\nvery tuned in to the whole thing.  If she wants to track a scent or make a kill,\nshe has to let the wolf loose so he can do it for her.  She has to\nsort of hang back to let it do its thing or she'll just get in the way\nof the process.  She wouldn't understand what the wolf is smelling\nor how to pick out any detail from it, but the wolf can still handle it\nfor her, so she gets by just fine with a little practice.  It's more than that for someone\nlike me, or Elias or Cole by the sound of it.  We're a bit more in\ntune with it all and it helps us do a bit better in wolf shape.\n For someone like you, or Samuel, it's completely different.\n When you do something wolf-like you're doing it right along with\nthem and helping them with the process as much as they're helping you.\n It's a closer sort of teamwork.  The result is something\nbeyond what most of us can accomplish.  We call it being kindred with the wolf.  It's sort of why Samuel\nbecame our leader.  He's the best example of us, he's the strongest kindred we had, so he floated to\nthe top as alpha of us all.\"\"So you don't get all of those details like I did from the scents you pick up?\" I asked.He\nshook his head.  \"No, not that much.  When I was in here\nsniffing around as the wolf, I sort of got the feeling of good and of\nlove, and I\ncouldn't pick up any feeling of 'bad'.  That's how I knew you were\ngood folks.  I can sort of understand how love smells, or hate,\nbut there's no way I could figure out who had the love for who else, or\nwhy, or any of that.  I can easily pick out tons of normal scents\nof course and I can understand what they are.\n In here I could smell your foot odor even though it's too weak\nfor me to smell as a human.  I smelled the incredible scents from\nGrace's body, the stuff you guys ate in here, your dirty laundry in a\nhamper somewhere, simple physical things\nlike that.  There's no way on God's green Earth I could ever hope\nto get as much detail as you could out of that mess of smells in the\nhospital, though.  It sounds like you almost get a whole detailed\nstory out of it.  You're obviously completely in tune with the\nwolf.  You two are a perfect match.  It's fantastic!\n Strong kindreds are a rare thing.  Even\namong the kindred, there's different levels.  Samuel was the\nstrongest kindred I ever knew, but it seems like you might be just a\nbit stronger than him.  The all black color gives it away.\n I'm guessing Samuel ain't gonna be too happy when he sees you in\nwolf form.  He'll see you as competition for position of alpha.\n He's only around six foot one, so you'd be a hell of a lot bigger\nand stronger than him, too.\"\"He's\ngot nothing to worry about from me.  I have no interest in being\nalpha of all the werewolves.  I have no reason to go against him,\nunless he tries to get in my way I guess.\"Jesse chuckled and said, \"Don't\nyou get it?  That's exactly how alphas are made.  You'll\nfollow the leader, unless the leader does something you don't like,\nthen you take him down a peg, which makes you the new leader.  It's the\nway of the wolves, Jake.  Nobody's ever challenged Samuel before,\nthough.  There's never been any need.  He's been a terrific\nleader up until now.  He's done so much to get us organized and stronger.\"\"I can't wait to meet him.  So just how big is the werewolf population anyhow?\"\"I'll\ntell you all about it when we're on the road,\" he said, \"We're both as\nnaked as jay birds and we need to get dressed and get going.\"He\nturned and started gathering up his clothes from the table where he'd\nput them when he stripped down, and he started getting dressed.I\ncouldn't resist looking him over now that his back was turned and he\nwouldn't see me doing it.  He was incredibly hot looking.  He\nwas muscular and shapely and tight.  His butt was a beautiful\nmuscular bubble and I could see his big furry balls hanging between his\nlegs as he lifted one up to step into his underwear.  He was\nincredibly attractive.I supposed I would have to get used to\nthis.  By the sound of it there was a whole society of werewolves out\nthere.  All of them would be in perfect physical condition,\njust like Jesse.  Just like me now, too, and Grace and Elias, and even\nCole.  I wondered how many there might be of these supernaturally\nperfect humans running around out there.Jesse\nwould be able to\ntell me that and a lot more.  I needed to get dressed so we could\nget on the road and I could hit him with the ton of questions that have\nbeen on my mind.I turned and went to one of the closets near the back of the RV where I kept my clothes and I began to get dressed.By\nthe time I was fully clothed the motorhome was already started up and\nmoving out of the parking lot and onto the street.  I slid into\nthe passenger seat and buckled up.\"Hope you don't mind me drivin', cuz.  It's quicker.  I know the way.\"\"Where are we going?\"\"There's\nan airfield just outside of town.  It's pretty close.  Won't\nbe a very long drive at all.  I love this beast of yours.\n She's got power to spare.\"I smiled and said, \"Yeah, it'll be a shame to leave it behind.  I assume we're getting on a plane?\"\"Yep, we are.  Don't worry though.  We ain't leavin' this beauty behind.  There'll be plenty of room.\"\"Room? For the RV?  On the plane?\"He grinned and nodded and said, \"Yup.  You'll see.\"\"So where are we headed?\" I asked.\"I'm taking you to Grace, like I promised.\"\"OK, but where is Grace?\"\"She's at our compound.  Well, one of our compounds.\"I sighed and asked, \"OK, so where is this compound?\"Jesse\nchuckled and said, \"Sorry, Jake.  I guess I'm so used to keepin'\nsecrets it's become a habit.  You're one of us now, so no need to\nkeep secrets from you.  We're going to Alaska.\"\"Grace is in Alaska?\" I asked.He\nnodded again and said, \"Yup.  Elias should be there with her too\nby now.  They got split up when they were picked up by two\ndifferent groups of ours after Nazas.  I was with the group that\ngot Grace.\"\"How did you know to pick them up?\"\"Samuel\nknew there was a solid chance that something bad would go down at\nNazas.  He's got a lot of resources at hand and he likes to look\nout for anything that might affect werewolves.  He'd been tracking\nthose government asshats like he likes to do and he knew they\nwere headed that way.  Wherever they go, there are werewolves\nsomewhere close by that those fuckers are trying to catch.  Samuel\nhad an idea what would happen if a werewolf were out in a crowd when\nthe eclipse happened and didn't know that they would change, so he got\nnervous.  He sent a bunch of us out\nthere to stay out on the fringes of town so we would be ready for\nanything.\"We had no idea how crazy it was gonna get.  We\nspread out after the disaster and tried to get as many people as we\ncould who were running around naked.  We knew those would be the\nones that had changed and they would need our help.  There were a\nhell of a lot of them.  Almost more than we could handle, so\nthings got real busy.  I wasn't\nthere helping right at first, but after a bunch had been rounded up I\nhelped transport them, and Grace was in that group.\n On the trip to the airfield we were shipping them out\nfrom, Grace and I talked a lot.  She told me\nabout you and that she'd lost Cole and Elias.  Once we got to the\nairfield she started freaking out and said there was no way she was\nleaving without you.  I promised her I'd get Elias, then I'd get\nyou, then you and I would go after Cole.  She gave me her set of\nkeys for your RV and I headed back to\nNazas to start searching for you.\"I found out Elias had already\nbeen picked up by another group so I contacted Grace and told her.\n  She told me to keep looking for you and to let you know she and\nElias would be fine so you could focus on Cole.  By the time I\nfinally found out where you\nwere from one of the other hospitals, I contacted someone to come pick\nus up at the airfield and I drove\nthe RV to come get you.  I made it just in the nick of time.\"\"What about Cole?  Did Grace ask you to try to rescue him?  Is that how you ended up in the fight with the spooks?\"He\ngot a look of pained guilt on his face again and said, \"No, that\nhappened before I met her.  That's sort of why I wasn't in Nazas\nright after the event, rounding up people.  I was with a different\ngroup that was going after Cole.  We know those men who took him,\nsee.  We've been getting in scrapes with them off and on for\nyears, so Samuel set things up so we could sometimes track them.\n They keep trying to capture one of us, but we're careful\nand we've managed to stay out of their clutches.  They started\ngettin' really active so we followed them into Mexico.  They were\nwalking around Nazas with pictures of a kid named Cole that they were\nlooking for, showing it to folks in case anyone recognized him.\n We knew if they were there, and they wanted Cole, it had to be\nbecause he was a werewolf, so when we realized they'd caught him, we\nwent after him.  I didn't know then that he was attached to Grace\nin any way because I hadn't met her yet.  I was upset when I found\nout.  When she told me\nlater.  Things would have gone different if I'd known.  I\ncould have got him back to her but I didn't.  I'll never forgive\nmyself for that.\"I could see how upset he was by it and I was reminded about what a good man the wolf had revealed him to be.He\nwas gripping the wheel so tightly as he drove that I could see his\nknuckles turning white, and he got a determined look on his face as he\nturned to look me in the eye and said, \"I swear to\nyou, Jake, no matter what it takes we're gonna get that little guy back\nto her.  It might take my whole army, but if that's what it takes,\nthat's what we'll do.\"\"Army?\"He turned back to look at\nthe road and he nodded and said, \"Army.  I guess maybe I should\nexplain some things to you.  It would help.  There's a\nlot of shit goin' on out there in the world concerning werewolves,\nJake, and now that you're one of us you should know all about it.\"\"I\nwas starting to get a glimpse of it already,\" I said, \"We had a couple\nof run-ins ourselves.  There was a hunter that tried to shoot and\nkill Elias and Cole.  That was the first time I found out\nsomething bigger was going on out there.  I tried to get\ninformation out of him, but he died.  Cole killed him.\"Jesse got an angry look on\nhis face and grunted and said, \"I like that little guy more already.  Fuckin' werewolf hunters.  Pieces\nof shit is what they are.  Don't worry too much about them.\n They're survivors of the first facility that was holding\nwerewolves and studying them.  Those guys think the best thing to\ndo with us is just kill us all 'till there ain't a werewolf left alive\nanywhere.  They see us as a threat to all humanity.\"\"What\ndo you mean by 'survivors'.  What's this facility you're talking\nabout?  He did say something about not letting those government\nspooks get their hands on another one.  Did he mean another\nwerewolf?\"\"Yup, he did.  The government was doing tests on us.\"\"For what purpose?\"\"Think\nabout it for a minute, Jake.  Imagine if you had an army of\nphysically perfect soldiers.  Soldiers who could be torn to shreds\nand be at death's door one minute, then completely regenerated and\nready to fight again the next minute when the sun goes down or comes\nup.  When they're in human form your soldiers could handle all of\nthe equipment you throw at them.  When they're in wolf form they\ncan track anything or anyone.  They'd be the perfect covert strike\nteam.  They're deadly killing machines even without any weapons in\nthat shape.  Need more perfect soldiers?  Infect more men.\n If they're lucky or skilled they live forever and gain all of\nthose years of experience getting to be better and better soldiers.\n A country with that sort of army would be hard to stop.\"I\ncouldn't believe what I was hearing, but I should have seen the\npossibilities myself.  Of course the government would take an\ninterest in werewolves if they knew they existed, and of course it\nwould be primarily a military interest.\"So what were the experiments about then?  Were they just trying to see how much damage these soldiers could take?\"He\nnodded and said, \"That's a big part of it, yes.  They wanted to\nknow how much would regenerate.  If I cut off your arms and legs,\nwould you grow them back?  Turns out you would.  Almost\nanything I could do to you that doesn't kill you gets wiped out on the\nnext change.  Anyhow, they\nwanted to know just how reliably the werewolves would grow back if they\nwere busted up badly.  They wanted to learn exactly what the limits\nwere, and a lot of werewolves were killed, but there was a lot more than\njust that.  The\nbiggest thing they wanted was control, and that's the biggest reason\nwhy they kept it all tightly under wraps.  It wouldn't do them no\ngood to have a werewolf army if the other side could have one just as\neasily.  They needed to keep it secret from the rest of the world until\nthey could control it.  It's not just soldiers they wanted,\neither.  Imagine if you could make your best and brightest leaders\nand your smartest scientists live forever?  They\ncould give anyone they wanted to immortality, but they wanted to be\nable to withhold it from everyone else.\"The\nimplications of what he was saying sunk in quickly and I realized what\nthey were really after.  \"You're saying they wanted to be able to\nblock it!  They wanted a cure!  They desperately need a werewolf to work on a way to stop the infection!\"He nodded and said, \"You\nguessed it, cuz.  They wanted to be able to pick and choose who\ncould be a werewolf, and block anyone else from it.  If they\nmanaged to develop that control and they found a way to spread it all over the world, it would be the end of us.\n They could easily 'cure' us and we wouldn't be werewolves\nanymore.  They wanted to be the only ones who could make\nwerewolves, and they got real close before things went south for them\nand we managed to find their facility in Colorado and we attacked it with everything we had.\n We already have the sort of army they were hoping to build, see?\n Though it ain't real big yet.  Samuel likes to tightly\ncontrol who gets to be a progenitor, so we were building our numbers\nslowly.  We managed to free all the ones they were\nexperimenting on that they hadn't killed, but we learned that they were getting close to the cure.\"\"What do you mean by 'progenitor'?\" I asked.He shook his head and said, \"I'll get to that in a bit.  Anyhow, once Samuel found\nout exactly what had been going on in that facility and how close\nthey'd got to finding the cure that would give them complete control\nover us, he made it our priority to make sure they could never get\ntheir hands on another werewolf again, no matter what.  When we\nattacked that lab we got most of their work, but we don't have the\nexpertise to do much of anything with it.  There was one thing,\nthough, that scared the bejesus out of us.  They were working on\nthe perfect delivery vehicle for their cure and it was nearly done, and\nwhen Samuel realized what it was, he wanted every trace of it\ndestroyed.\"\"How were they gonna do it?  How could they be sure it would reach everyone in the world?\"\"I\nain't no scientist, but what he called it was a 'viral vector'.\n They were building a virus that would infect and spread to\neveryone in the world.  Samuel says it would be a perfect virus\naccording to their data.  They just had a few more mutations to go\nto get there.  It would be one hundred percent effective.  If\nyou were exposed to it, you would get sick immediately and there was no\nway to stop it.  If anyone was exposed to you while you were sick, they would catch\nit, and so on.  Thing is, the virus ain't deadly.  The government ain't quite that crazy.  It's\nnothing more than a bad flu.  Lots of people all over the world\nwould die, but only if they were sick already or really old or\nvulnerable for some reason, just like the normal flu.  Healthy\npeople would beat it no problem in time.  The virus is just a tool\nthough.  A way to deliver a package.  It would carry a genetic\nbomb that would go off in each person's system and modify their genes in some of their cells\nto include whatever change was necessary to block the werewolf\ninfection from taking hold in them.  Because it used genes, the 'cure'\nwould be passed on to everyone's kids, and their kids, and so on, so\nnobody could ever become a werewolf again.\"I\nthought about Cole and his ALS.  Grace had asked me if a genetic\nproblem would be wiped out by the change and I told her it didn't seem\nlike there was any way it could.  It makes sense.  If\nanything at all about his genes had changed he just wouldn't look like\nCole anymore.  The genes stay exactly the same and rebuild his\nbody from scratch following the pattern they contain.  If the\ngenes the government introduced through the viral vector survived the\nchange, then a person bit by a werewolf or who already was a werewolf\nmight change to a wolf because only some of their cells would have the\nblocking gene, but when they changed back to human and were completely\nregrown, their body would follow their new genetic pattern and the\nblocking gene would be added to every single cell in their body!\n It would completely stop the change from that point forward and\nthey could never be a wolf again!  Obviously any children they had\nwould inherit the gene, too, so they would only have to deliver the\npackage once.  It was an effective approach, but what if something\nwent wrong with the virus?\"Holy fuck!\n They designed a disease with perfect transmissibility and they\nplanned on unleashing it on the world?  Did they not see how\nfucking dangerous that would be?\"\"They almost\nbuilt it.  We\ndestroyed it before they could finish.  Samuel thinks they're\nrepeating their work in a new location though, and he's been desperate\nto find it.  It's been our highest priority.  They've been keeping the new location so secret we haven't been able to find it.  I don't think\nthe scientists are too concerned about what they're doing,\nmainly because the disease they're creating isn't meant to kill\nanyone, so they don't see it as dangerous.  It was the only way they\ncould\ndo it.  They needed a perfect way to spread the cure once they had\nit ready, and the virus would be it.\"They were the ones building\nthe virus, so they would easily be able to build a vaccine for it too\nbefore they launched the disease.\n They would add it to one of the normal vaccinations that are part\nof the standard American vaccination program so that nobody in the\ncountry would get sick.  They would want to be sure everyone in\nthe US could still\nbe made into werewolves if\nthey wanted to, so they would have an endless source of material for\nsoldiers, but the rest of the world would be cut off forever from\nit.  As soon as they got the genetic payload ready and saw that\neverything would work right, they would put it all out there.  It\nwas a race, but we reached them before they could finish their first attempt.\n We\nstopped them just in time.\"Samuel destroyed all of their data,\nbut most likely they had backups of it off-site.  He had the whole\nplace firebombed to make sure nothing was left behind that they could\never use.  We became way more vigilant after that.  If they\nget their hands on another one of us they would be able to finish their\nwork and that wouldn't be a good thing at all, for anyone.  We're\ncertain they have another lab up and running.  Samuel has reason\nto believe they've already finished their work on the virus delivery\nsystem and it's ready to go.  They just need a payload now.\n Cole might be the one to help them get that, so that's another\nreason why we have to get him back.\"I couldn't believe what I\nwas hearing.  Just days ago, as far as I knew, I had the only\nthree\nwerewolves in existence and we were headed towards a nice, quiet,\nanonymous life.  Now I find out that not only was there a whole\norganized society of werewolves out there all this time,\nthey had an army and they were at war with their own country and trying\nto save the whole world from\nthem, and we somehow managed to get sucked right into the heart of it\nall!\"So how many werewolves are there?\" I asked.\"There were\nhundreds by the time we destroyed their lab that last time.  We don't know for\nsure when the whole werewolf thing started but it was really slow to get off the ground\nand we tightly controlled our numbers.  Samuel figures around\nthirty-five or forty years ago something happened that started it all,\nbut we have no idea what.  After Samuel realized what the\ngovernment was up to he started pushing to create more of us faster.\n We need a bigger army to defend ourselves.  There are closer\nto a thousand now, but you almost doubled that number by what you\nunintentionally did at Nazas.\"\"Was this Samuel guy pissed at that?  You said he likes to control the process.\"Jesse\nshrugged and said, \"He wasn't happy, but he wasn't too pissed off\neither.  He knows we need a lot of progenitors to make the gene\npool as diverse as possible so it's not that big a deal that you\naccelerated that process and made a whole bunch more.  It\nstretched our resources thin trying to round as many up as we could,\nthough.  It exposed the fact that we exist to the rest of the\nworld, too.  But he didn't seem too concerned about that.\n I've been trying to figure out why.  I would have thought\nhe'd go ballistic.\"There was that word 'progenitors' again.  Why did he call werewolves that?Before I could ask, he pulled off the highway we'd got onto and he said, \"Here we are.\"I\nlooked ahead down the dusty dirt road we'd turned onto and I could see\na small airstrip ahead.  At one end of it was a massive airplane.\n I remembered it from when I was a kid and had built a plastic\nmodel of one.  It was a C-130 Hercules.  A big, four-engine\nturbo-prop transport plane designed for short takeoff and landing on\nrough dirt strips.  It could load men, tanks, tractors or troop\nvehicles up a ramp and into its belly and deliver them almost anywhere.\n The engines had already been started up and the big props were\nspinning.Jesse drove around to the back of the plane and I saw\nits ramp was already down.  He drove the RV right up inside of it\nand stopped.He turned to me and said, \"Let's get out and get strapped in.  We'll be taking off pronto.\"We\ngot out of the RV and moved around in front of it.  There were\nseveral jump seats that fold up against the wall along the sides of the\nplane and he pointed me to one.  I pulled it down and sat in it\nand pulled the belt around me and snapped it in place.A\nman who'd been waiting by the side of\nthe ramp entrance as we drove in punched a control and the ramp started\nto rise back up.  He quickly went around to each wheel of the RV\nand pulled up heavy straps from the floor and cinched the vehicle into\nplace so it couldn't roll.  He then moved forward to where we were\nand\nsaluted Jesse.  Jesse returned the salute and turned to me and\nsaid, \"This is Greg.  He's our copilot and coordinates all the\nground work so nobody has to see our pilot.\"I wondered why the\npilot needed to stay out of sight.  Was he a known criminal or\nsomething?  Was he someone people would recognize?I smiled at the copilot and nodded, and he nodded\nback, then he moved further up and went through a small open doorway to the\ncockpit at the front of the plane.  I could see that he was just\nas muscular and perfect as Jesse and myself.  He was obviously a\nwerewolf, too.It suddenly occurred to me that the man had saluted, so Jesse must be high up in the ranks of their army.Before\nI could ask him about it, Jesse shouted, \"Benjamin!  Is this piece of\nshit ready to go or not?  How come we ain't movin' yet?  You\njust sittin' around strokin' yerself up there again?!\"I\nsmiled.  It seemed like any time Jesse got animated or excited\nabout anything his heavy Texas accent would really assert itself.A\nvoice from the cockpit area that seemed almost to be mockingly mimicking Jesse's accent shouted, \"Keep yer shirt on, ya prick!\n Of course I'm strokin' myself, and I ain't done yet!  You\nknow how big this thing is.  It takes me twice as long to stroke\nit as it takes you to stroke yours!\"Jesse\nsnickered and said, \"I love that guy!  That's our pilot, Benjamin.\n I want you to meet him as soon as he gets us in the air.  I\nthink you'll be a bit surprised.\"He strapped himself into the\nseat next to me and in moments we began to move slowly forward and the\nplane turned to face down the runway, then there was a deep roar as the\nengines spooled up to maximum and the lumbering beast began to bump and\nbounce as it made its way down the dirt runway faster and faster.\n Just as the ride was starting to become almost unbearably\nbone-jarring, it suddenly smoothed out and we were climbing at a steep rate into the sky.Nothing\nwas said for a while as we continued to climb, and after a while we\ntilted as the aircraft turned towards it's final heading.Jesse\nunstrapped himself and shouted, \"Benji, as soon as you get this bucket\nof bolts pointed in the right direction, hand over the controls to Greg\nand get yer ass back here.  I want to introduce you to someone.\"\"Yeah,\nyeah,\" Benjamin said, \"And I told you never to call me Benji, you ass!\n I wasn't named after that stupid little dog in the movies!\n Don't make me kick your ass when I come back there!\"\"Fine, whatever, you're Benjamin, I get it!\" Jesse shouted back, then he\nsmiled at me and said, \"He's one of my favorite people in the world.\n I can't wait to see the look on your face when you meet him.\"I\nbegan to wonder what the hell the big deal could be.  I unbuckled my seat belt as I waited to find out.The plane\nleveled off and after a short time I saw a shadow at the entrance to\nthe cockpit.  The pilot was coming out to be introduced.\n What I saw when he came through the doorway nearly stopped my\nheart.  I couldn't believe my eyes at first.  I briefly wondered if\nthis was some sort of elaborate joke.Jesse began to guffaw and slap at his\nthigh and I looked over at him as he said through tears of laughter,\n\"You oughta see yer face, Jake!  You're white as a ghost!  I\nknew you'd be surprised!\"He laughed until he got most of it out of his system, and when he finally got himself under control, he stood up and said, \"Jake, this is\nBenjamin.  Benjamin, meet Jake, our newest progenitor and all\naround great guy.\"I\nstood up to face the pilot and he grinned at me warmly, exposing his\nbrilliant white canine teeth.  He held out his hand and said,\n\"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Jake.  You can call me Ben.\"I shook the proffered hand while simply staring at him, slack-jawed.Ben was about six foot two or so in height and was extremely well built.  He had wonderfully broad shoulders, big arms, narrow firm hips, and a rippling washboard abdomen.  He had a rounded, muscular butt with thick, powerful, muscular thighs, and big, manly feet.  He\nhad a strong and confident grip, too.What was most surprising about\nhim, though, was that he was an upright, walking, talking wolf.He\nwas dressed only in a heavy pair of black, military style boots with\nthick wool socks, and athletic shorts with a very full crotch.\n The shorts had been modified to allow him to stick his thickly\nfurred tail through the back.  Other than that, the only other\naccessory he was wearing was a military looking watch on his left\nwrist.He\nwas covered in thick fur that looked exactly like a\nwolf's.  He was a wonderful chocolate brown from head to toe\nhighlighted here and there with lighter shades of brown and tan, and\nthere was a patch covering a good part of his chest of slightly longer\nfur that was\na rich cream color.  There was a light trail of the same cream\ncolored fur leading down his hard, furry belly to the line of his\nover-stuffed shorts.  He had a patch of slightly longer cream\ncolored fur right under his chin, too.\n His armpits had a longer bit of fur that was also much lighter,\nalmost the same cream color as the fur on his chest.I briefly\nwondered if he had 'pubic fur' and if it would be the same rich, cream\ncolor.He\nhad the muzzle of a wolf and a wolf's ears.  He had deep brown\neyes that shone with intelligence and a mischievous looking grin on his\nwolfish face.It\nwas literally as though someone had taken a muscular human male, cut\noff his head and replaced it with that of a wolf, and then covered him\nfrom head to toe with wolf fur and added a long, bushy tail.The hand I was still holding was shaped\nlike an extra thick and heavy version of a human hand.  It was\nfurry on the back but in the palm and the inside of the fingers it was\nlike the pads of a paw.  Instead of fingernails he had short,\nstubby claws that grew out of the ends of his fingers.He\nwas truly stunning to behold.  I couldn't believe my eyes.\n He was all wolf, and all man at the same time.  He was\namazingly attractive.\"Excuse\nthe lack of professional attire on him, Jake.  Ben and his kind\nget a bit warm in climates like this so they don't like to wear much.\"Ben said,\n\"Yeah, I'd wear nothing if I could get away with it.  I have to\nwear shorts to cover up my junk, or I know for sure its\nmagnificence would eventually turn Jesse gay, and he wouldn't like\nthat.\"Jesse laughed and Ben continued, \"I wear socks and boots to lock away my rich foot odor so it won't offend anyone.\"My\neyes immediately and involuntarily went straight down to his big feet,\ncovered in his thick wool socks and big, black leather boots, and my\nmind wandered to how wonderful they would probably smell to me.  I\nstarted to feel my new, fleshier penis begin to wake up and pay attention.I looked back up at Ben's face and I saw he was smiling like he might have guessed what I'd\nbeen thinking.Jesse grimaced and said, \"Yeah, after the amount of time I've spent cooped up with this guy, I can attest to the fact that one\nthing Ben's kind inherited from humans is the huge number of sweat\nglands in their feet, pits and groin.  I think they even have double\nwhat we do, poor SOBs.\"I said, \"I don't see that as anything but a bonus.  It so happens I really like that sort of thing.  I'm sure it's not as bad as you make it out, Jesse.\"Benjamin chuckled and said, \"You'll have to get a bit closer to the right spots on me to really find out\nfor yourself, Jake,\" and I noticed he was checking me out now from head to\ntoe.He looked back into my face, increased the grip on my hand, and he winked suggestively.Jesse\nchuckled and said, \"You'll want to watch out for Benjamin, Jake.  He\nlikes guys, and the lupines have sort of a thing for the progenitors.\n I can see he's developing a crush on you already.\"The beautiful looking creature turned to Jesse and while once again mimicking his accent, he\nsaid, \"Shut yer hole, you!  Mind yer own business!\"  Then he\nlooked back at me and winked again and he grinned at me.I smiled back and said, \"It really is a pleasure to meet you, Ben.  Can I ask, um, where you come from?\"\"Benjamin\nis one of the first of the new breed, Jake.  There's only a few\nolder than him, and not by much.  Samuel calls them canis sapiens\nidaltu.  I'm sure you can figure out what canis\nsapiens means, but in case your wondering, idaltu means 'first born'.\n We just call them lupines.  You're what, now, Ben,\ntwenty-eight years old?\"Ben nodded, but he just kept staring at me and smiling.\"How did this happen?\" I asked, \"How many more like Ben are there?\"\"There\nare well over a hundred by now I think.  We've been keeping them a\nsecret.  I don't think even the spooks from the government know\nthey exist yet.  I'm guessing if they did it would be quite a big\ndeal for them.  Ben doesn't normally come along on missions to\npopulated areas, but he was the only pilot available and I had to get\nsomeone over here in a hurry to come get you.  Benjamin is my\nfavorite and most trusted pilot.  Anywhere I go I like to have him take me there.\"\"But, how?\" I asked, \"How did he end up like he is?  He looks incredible!\"Ben smiled at me and said, \"So do you, Jake.\"Jesse\nlaughed and said, \"Uh oh.  I hope I ain't started something that\nmight get me into trouble.  I just remembered Grace told me you\nlike guys, too, Jake.\"Ben's face suddenly lit up and he was grinning from ear to ear.I grinned back at him and said, \"Yeah, I do.  Has Elias met Ben yet?  I think he might like him a lot.\"\"No,\nJake, none of the new progenitors from Nazas have as far as I know.\n Grace hasn't met Ben yet either.  There aren't any other\nlupines at the Alaska compound.  We keep them all at a different\nlocation that's more secret and safe.  Ben is one of the few\nwho were trained as pilots and I love to work with him so he's never far from me.\n Anyhow, let's sit back down and I'll explain a bit about Ben\nand his kind.\"The three of us each took a jump seat and Jesse continued,\n\"Have you ever wondered what might happen if you were straight and you\ngot busy with Grace?\"I\nhonestly never had, but I was beginning to get an idea of just what\nmight result.  \"I suppose she might eventually get pregnant.\n But I can't even imagine what might happen when she changes to a\nwolf while she is.\"\"You're\ngetting warm, but it's\nnot quite as straightforward as you might think,\" Jesse said, \"See, a\nhuman\nwoman's estrus period is on a timed cycle.  You could say that\nroughly one month from when her timer starts up, her body will\ndrop an egg into place and she'll be ready to get pregnant.\"Thing\nis, once a woman\nbecomes a werewolf, something interesting happens.  Every time she\nchanges back to a human, her timer starts up, so that it will be a\nmonth before she goes into estrus.  That means she basically never\nwill again.  Not for the rest of her life.  A human shaped\nwerewolf can never get pregnant because each time they change to wolf,\nand then back to human, the timer resets and starts over again, so it\nwill never tick all the way down.\"It\nmade sense.  If the timer is always just starting up, the most it\ncould ever run is four days at the phase of the new moon and then it\nwould be reset again.  A female werewolf would never have a period again.\"On the other hand,\" he continued, \"it's a bit different\nfor a wolf.  The wolf side of werewolves seems to follow most\nclosely to the gray wolf.  I don't know how much you know about\nthem, but a female gray wolf goes into estrus only once each year.\n The most important thing is that it ain't on a timed cycle.\n It's driven by the seasons.  Gray wolves come into estrus at a certain time in\nthe winter months and will stay in 'heat' for seven days.  That\nmeans that when the right time of year comes, as soon as the female werewolf changes\ninto wolf\nform at the right part of winter, she will be in estrus and ready to\nget pregnant.  Because it lasts for seven days, even the new moon\nphase can't block it completely.  She'll still have a few nights\nof estrus left.\"Bottom line is, once a female becomes a werewolf,\nshe can only get pregnant while she's in wolf form and has sex with a\nmale werewolf at the right time of the winter season, when she's in\nheat.  She won't have a litter like wolves do.  She'll normally only have one baby at a time which, it turns out, is an equal mix of human and\nwolf, creating a beautiful person just like Benjamin here.\"Ben smiled and said, \"Aww, shucks, General.  I knew you really loved me even though you're always such an asshole.\"General?\n It seemed my guess was right.  Jesse is high up in the ranks indeed.\n It seemed they had a fairly relaxed army though, judging by the way\nthey jab at each other in fun.Jesse\nchuckled and added, \"There's something really special about Ben and\nhis kind, and it's the biggest reason why we've kept them secret.\n They're immune to the change, and they can't be made into\nwerewolves.  Something in their genes blocks it.\"My eyes opened wide as I realized the implication of that, \"That means, if the spooks got hold of them...\"Jesse\nnodded and said, \"They're the missing piece they need to more easily\nget the result they're after.  Up till now their work at coming up\nwith a cure was mostly trial and error based on educated guesses.\n They're gettin' closer, but it ain't easy.  They're trying\nto build something from nothing.  The lupines are just what\nthose bastards need in order to develop the cure.  If they\ncould get hold of a lupine's genes and figure out which part blocks the\nwerewolf infection, they'd have their cure and they could deliver it\nthrough the viral vector to the whole world and they'd control it all.\"\"I\ndon't get it though,\" I said, \"If they're immune to the change, then\nwhat's happening to them while they're in the womb and their mother is\nchanging back and forth almost every night?\"\"They're\nsafe inside the\nwomb, not changing.  That's what happens.  They come out as\ntiny babies, Jake, just like humans.  Cutest damn things I ever\nseen.  Honestly, we don't\nquite understand the whole thing.  When werewolves are in wolf\nform, we're just really gigantic wolves.  It should follow that\ntheir babies should be pure wolves too.  Samuel figures it's the\nfact that the mother is changing back and forth that pushes the fetus\ninto this in-between state while the cells are first dividing in the\nearly stages.  It somehow bends itself to accommodate both forms the\nmother will switch between, so that it can survive her change back and\nforth while in her womb even though it's not a werewolf.  It's\nboth\nhuman and wolf, so the mother can take either form and the baby\ncontinues to grow inside her.\"\"Can lupines breed and make babies?\" I asked.Benjamin shook his head and said, \"I sure as hell can't, no.\"Jesse laughed and said, \"You mean you don't want to, dummy, and that's just because you're gay.\"Ben chuckled and I laughed.Jesse\ncontinued, \"They can breed.  They're a completely viable species,\neven if the progenitors stopped making them.  We need more genetic\ndiversity though, for the species to stay viable.  We need more\nprogenitors making babies to add variety to the gene pool.  I\nguess by now you figured out why we call ourselves progenitors.\n It means ancestor or parent.  We, the werewolves, created\nthis incredible new species from ourselves.  They descended from\nus.  We love them fiercely and we'll do anything to keep them\nsafe.\"\"So,\nif you can't change or be a werewolf, Ben, does that mean you're\nphysically aging?  You must be if you were born as a baby and grew\nup to be this incredible manly male before me.\"Ben smiled and nodded and said, \"Yeah, that's right.  We\nwon't live forever.  We don't know for sure how long we'll live\nyet.  I'm one of the oldest.  Samuel figures we'll live to be\nat least a hundred or so based on how we've developed from babies till\nnow.  Can't be sure, though.\"\"This is incredible!\"  I said, \"A whole new intelligent species!  It's fantastic!\"Jesse\nsaid, \"Yup, it is.  They've got the best of both human and wolf.\n Super sharp senses, incredible speed and strength, intelligence,\nlanguage, and the sexiness of both species combined.  We think of\nthem as the next stage in evolution.  They've got humans beat by a\ncountry mile as far as I'm concerned.  That's another reason why\nwe keep them so secret.  The world would see them as a threat to\nhuman existence.  They'd see lupines as competition for humans and\nwhen they find out how superior they are, the human governments would\nlikely want to wipe them out eventually.\"\"This is a hell of a lot of information to take in.  It's mind-boggling,\" I said.Jesse smiled and said, \"Yeah, I'll bet it's all a bit of a shocker.\n Listen, I'm getting a bit beat.  I was driving for a long\ntime to get to you in the hospital and I ain't rested in a while.\n I think I'll take a bit of a snooze while we fly to Alaska.\n You should do the same, Jake.  We're gonna be busy when we\nget there.  The clock's ticking on Cole, and we'll need to get\norganized.\"I nodded and said, \"There's plenty of room in the RV.  I can set the beds up for us.\"\"That\nwould be real sweet of you, cuz.  I was just gonna nod off right\nhere in the jump seat, but I always get a sore neck when I do that.\n It never even occurred to me we got a luxury hotel back here with\nus,\" Jesse said.Ben smiled at me and said, \"Could I join you,\nJake?  I could use a bit of sack time too.  If we're quiet we\nwon't disturb the general here.\"Jesse rolled his eyes and said,\n\"You've got a job to do, pooch.  You need to get back up there and\nkeep Glenn from falling asleep at the stick.  You're the pilot,\nremember?\"Benjamin looked disappointed and said, \"Well, I hope\nto see a lot more of you, Jake.\"  He turned to Jesse and asked,\n\"Is Jake gonna be taking his orders from you from now on?  Will he\nbe with us all the time now?\"Jesse chuckled and said, \"I think I might be taking my orders from him before too long, my furry friend.  Jake's a kindred.  A real strong one.\"Ben's\neyes went wide and he said, \"No way!  Big as he is, and a kindred,\ntoo?  Holy shit!  Did you get a look at him, Jesse?\n Does he have a lot of black?\"Jesse said, \"I didn't see him\nfor myself, but Jake says the parts he could see were all black.\n Not a trace of any other color.\"Ben said, \"Holy geez!\n He's blacker than Samuel, then!  I can't wait to see you\nwith my own eyes, Jake.  You look so hot right now, but when\nyou're a wolf...  Hot damn!  I think I need to get back to\nthe pilot's seat so I can get back to strokin' for a bit while I think about it.\"Jesse\nlaughed and said, \"You do that.  We gotta get some rest.  And\nabout Samuel, let's just keep Jake's color to ourselves for now, OK?\n Samuel's got enough on his plate without starting to worry about\nany competition.\"Ben nodded and said, \"Yeah, that's probably a\ngood idea.  He's been in a real mood, lately.  I doubt we'd\nbump into him any time soon anyhow.  He's been busy with something\nlately and hasn't shown his face.  Anyhow, I guess I'll get back\nto work then, Generalissimo.\"  He saluted Jesse, then turned to me\nand said, \"I'll see you when we land, Jake, OK?  Please don't let\nthis punk drag you off someplace without me.\"I smiled and nodded and said, \"You bet.  We won't take off without you.  There's someone I really want you to meet.\"He grinned and nodded, then he turned and went back through the doorway into the cockpit.Jesse\nturned to me and said, \"He's a real sweet guy, Jake.  He gets real\nlonely though.  None of the other lupines have turned out to be\ngay so far.  Not many of the werewolves are either and he's fairly\nparticular anyhow.  I can tell he's head over heels for you\nalready.  You should try to get to know him better.  I think\nyou'd be great for him.\"\"I think he'd be pretty great for me.  I can't wait to introduce him to Elias.  He's gonna flip.\"Jesse smiled and nodded.I\nled the way into the RV and pulled out the two large beds.  Jesse\nwas so tired he didn't bother undressing.  He just crashed on top\nof the blankets and he was snoring loudly within minutes.I lay\ndown on the other bed, thinking there was no way I could possibly get any\nsleep after spending so much time unconscious over the last three days.\n Not to mention the information that was now zipping around in my\nbrain.I couldn't believe so much was going on that we hadn't\nbeen aware of.  We thought our werewolf lives would be so secret\nand quiet.  Now, we would be part of a large and growing\ncommunity.  It felt good to know we were not going to be outsiders\nafter all.  We would be part of society again and we would be as\nnormal as all the other werewolves.Elias and Grace were safe and\nI would be with them in several hours.  The only thing I had to\nworry about now was getting Cole back.  With luck, the general's\narmy would make that possible.As I contemplated the new reality\nwe were facing, the heavy thrum of the plane's engines and the gentle\nbobbing and rocking on the air currents eventually lulled me off to\nsleep.","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/852464-love-and-lycanthropy-chapter-16.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/855820-love-and-lycanthropy-chapter-18.json"}