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I wasn't sure how long I'd napped before I finally woke.  I

was spooned against the wonderfully furry body of Ben.  At some

point while we'd slept he'd turned onto his side and now had Elias

wrapped up in his warm and powerful arms.  Elias was spooned

deeply into his new lover.  They were both still sleeping soundly.

 I'd had nearly eight hours already on the flight in and I felt

refreshed enough that I wouldn't be able to sleep any longer if I tried.I got out of bed carefully so as not to disturb them, then I found my clothes and got dressed.I exited the RV and had a long stretch, then I walked over towards the barracks.The

sun was much higher in the sky now.  It looked to be approaching

noon.  I wondered if Grace had got up yet.  It seemed

unlikely, because if she had, she would have been banging on the RV

door to see me.I entered the long hallway with the intent to

head to the mess hall to see if there was anything to eat.  I was

really hungry.As I was approaching the end of the hall, a door to

the side opened and I saw Grace rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she came out into

the hall.She saw me and a big grin split

her face as she shouted, "Jake!  Oh my God!"She raced towards me and jumped into my arms.I

held her tight and she said, "I was so worried!  Elias was beside

himself!  We didn't know what the hell happened to you!  We

were terrified!"She hugged me harder and I squeezed her tightly to let her know I was fine and I wasn't going anywhere.She

finally pulled back and wiped happy tears from her eyes as she grinned

at me and said, "You look amazing!  I like the beard.  It's

so manly.  I'm so glad you made it back safe.  I was scared

out of my wits when we lost Cole and you both."  I said, "I'm sorry I scared you.  I was so close to getting

back to you and Elias at Nazas.  I heard you shout to me, but things got out of hand really quick.  I

got hurt and I got attacked by one of the new werewolves and I got

taken to a hospital in Jalisco.  I was unconscious for two days.

 I would have been dead if it wasn't for you sending Jesse after

me.  He saved my life, Grace."She beamed and said, "I knew

he would!  He's gonna

bring Cole back to me too, I know it!  He's really something special, Jake."I smiled and nodded and

said, "Yes, he most definitely is.  He knows exactly where Cole's

located now.  He's right here in Alaska.  He's somewhere

north of us.  I guess that's why he sent you and Elias out here.  We're going after him this evening.  We'll be

pulling him out at sunset when we turn to wolves.""Oh, thank God!  I'm so relieved to hear that.  I knew I could count on Jesse.  Have

you seen him lately, Jake?  Do you know where he is?  I want

to talk to him and thank him for bringing you back to us."I

shook my head and said, "I don't know where

he is, sorry.  I haven't seen him since after we arrived this

morning.  He might be resting up for tonight.  Maybe he's in

the mess hall.  I'm starving and I was just gonna go in

there to get a bite to eat.  Care to join me?"She smiled and nodded and said, "Sure.  I could eat.  Where's Elias?""He's

still sleeping in the RV.  He was flat out bushed.  I guess

he stayed up the whole night pacing and waiting for me to get back."Her eyebrows went up.  "He's in the RV?  The RV's here?"I smiled and nodded.  "Jesse probably figured you wouldn't be

satisfied with a job half done.  He wanted to bring your home back

to you, too.  They have a big transport plane and he drove it

right up into the belly and it's parked outside now."She laughed and said, "Now that's how it's done!  I hope he's in the mess hall.  I really want to see him again."I

didn't need my wolf's senses to sniff out the fact that she was

actually physically excited by the idea of seeing him again.  Her

body language and the quality of her voice when she spoke of him said

it all.  She was obviously very much attracted to him and he'd

become important to her and was uppermost in her mind right now after

Cole.  I liked it.  She was feeling enthusiastic and positive

and it was because of Jesse.  I hoped he'd stick to what we'd agreed

and not tell her the truth about what he'd done to Cole until much

later on.  She was ebullient in the face the hardships she'd had

to deal with and the fact that Cole was still not back to her, and it was just because she had so much faith in Jesse.

 She needed this right now.  She needed him to be her knight

in shining armor.I smiled at her and said, "You really bet your

money on the right horse when you put your faith in him, Grace.  He's a

pretty amazing guy.  Let's go eat and I'll tell you all about what

happened to me and how my wolf told me all about Jesse and what he's

like."We turned to head towards the mess hall and she asked,

"Your wolf told you?  How exactly does that work?  My wolf

doesn't tell me much of anything."I started to explain what it

was like for me when I first changed into the wolf, but before I could

get far I felt her tense up and saw her become a bit flushed as she

grinned and said, "There he is!  It's Jesse!"I looked over

and saw him eating with several other of his men.  He looked over

and saw us and he grinned widely when he saw Grace.  He muttered

something to the men around him and they all got up to go find another

place to sit and they took their plates with them.He smiled and

waved us over.Grace was almost frozen in place next to me.

 It was like she was a school girl with a powerful crush and she

was almost afraid to approach him.I put my hand on the small of

her back and gently pushed her in his direction and said, "You go ahead

and say hi to Jesse.  I'll go get us some lunch and be right

there."She grinned at me and then turned to go and join Jesse.

 I watched as he stood up and she went right to him and without a

word she gave him a big hug.  I smiled as I saw her put her face

into his neck and he wrapped his arms around her protectively and just

held her while neither one said a word.New

love was such a

beautiful thing to see, and these two were clearly feeling it in a big

way.  I

began to wonder if Jesse should ever tell Grace the truth.  It

really was just one mistake in an otherwise stellar history of being

the perfect man.  He was the best possible guy I could ever hope

to see Grace hook up with and I would hate to see it fall apart for any

reason.  I suppose in the end honesty would be best, even it

caused problems for a while.  I'd have to think about it some more.I went to get

a couple of trays and meals for Grace and me, and then I went over to

join them.Grace had sidled up right beside Jesse and they were

holding hands while they spoke softly to each other.  I wondered

if I should maybe just drop Grace's tray off and make some excuse to go

eat somewhere else, but Jesse looked up and saw me and said, "Sit,

Jake.  Join us."Grace smiled and nodded, so I placed her

tray in front of her and went around to the other side of the table to

sit across from them.We set to eating and Grace asked for the

story of how Jesse found me and picked me up.  I let him do most

of the talking while I ate.  Grace was amazed at how close a thing

it was that I'd almost died, twice.  I could see her elevating

Jesse higher and higher in her esteem as he described the hospital rescue, and I smiled.  He was playing

the role of champion for her perfectly.  She was hanging on his

every word.  By the time the whole story was told and I'd added my

side of it she was almost dumbstruck.  She told us how she'd

simply heard that Jesse had located me in a hospital, that I'd been changed, and that

he was bringing me back.  She had no idea we'd had such an

adventure and that I'd been in such horrible shape in the hospital."He really saved my ass," I said.  "The

government agent actually thought he'd killed me.  He pushed the plunger and I

would be dead in minutes if Jesse hadn't beaned him with his trusty

wrench and pulled out the IV.  I was sure I was a goner.  I

wished he could have been a bit more delicate about getting me out of

my casts, but I guess there really wasn't time.  He was having a

bit too much fun wailing on me with that pipe wrench, though.  I

think it was half that he was in a hurry, and half that it was just

really entertaining for him."They both laughed.We

finished our meals and talked a bit more and finally Grace said, "So,

Jake told me you know exactly where Cole is, Jesse.  How did you

manage to find him?"Jesse

immediately started to go red and an uncomfortable look crossed his

face.  I was worried his conscience might cause him to blurt out

the truth of it, so before he could say anything I said,

"They've got resources you wouldn't believe, Grace.  It's a really

professional outfit.  They'd already tracked those government guys

to Nazas.  That's how they were there in such numbers already and

ready to help with the shit storm we accidentally caused.  It was a

fairly simple thing for them to keep tracking

the agents after they took Cole.  We've got a lot to thank them

for,

especially Jesse.  We'd be screwed if it wasn't for him."Grace

smiled and nodded and rubbed her other hand on Jesse's hand that she

was already holding.  I saw him smile sort of gratefully at me,

but at the same time he still looked a bit guilty.  I think he

wasn't comfortable keeping it a secret from her any longer, but I still

felt it was important for him to do just that, at least until we had Cole back, so I tried to change the

subject."So, Jesse, when you told Elias he couldn't come

with us tonight you said you didn't have any gear that would fit him.

 What sort of gear were you talking about?"He

smiled and

said, "I think you might be surprised by it.  Samuel made sure we

had a lot of really clever people converted to werewolves early on so

we could make the most of our small numbers.  He's been collecting

scientists and doctors and computer specialists and engineers and

offering them immortality in exchange for their expertise.

 For quite a few years some of them have been working on designs

to help us

do better in wolf form.  They've come up with some pretty neat

stuff."Grace said, "Maybe it's stuff like Jake was working on.

 He built masks that the boys could slip on when they're wolves

that let them tap at touch screens and communicate with each other and

with us.  They even had a tablet they could use to send us messages when they were out in the woods as wolves."Jesse nodded and said, "Yup, stuff exactly like that.

 That's how they started, anyhow.  They've made a fair bit of

progress on that front.  They developed a speech processor that

allows us to whine, growl and bark with certain patterns that are

converted to human speech by their gadget.  It's rudimentary but it

helps us when we're in wolf form and we need to communicate constantly

with each other while on the move, like tonight while we're coordinating the strike on

the facility.""That's incredible!  It must take a hell of a lot of practice to use it," I said.He

nodded.  "It does.  It takes intensive training, and so far

only our officers have gone through it all since we need to be able to literally

bark out orders while on the run.  We've been using the system for

years now, so we're fairly adept at it.  All of our men have

learned some of it

too, but they're not as fluent yet.  They primarily use it for

acknowledgment and for voice activation of other system.""I'm impressed," I said, "I would never have even thought of something like that.  What else have they developed?""Lots

of really cool toys.  We started to refer to the guys that are

developing it all as Geek Division, or G Division, which was sort of an

homage to the old 'Q Division' after the high-tech quartermasters from

the Bond movies.  Their stuff is just that good.  They're

geniuses.  I'm constantly amazed by what they come

up with.  Samuel

wanted us to be kitted out like full fledged soldiers.  He knew we

could ultimately need to defend ourselves against seriously armed

threats, and of course we might need to do armed incursions like when

we took out that first facility.  He values werewolf lives greatly

since we're effectively immortal and he wanted us as safe as we could

be if we had to fight.  One of the first things we knew

we'd need is some sort of body armor, so that's one of the first things

they developed, and it became the framework on which they were able to

hang all the other great shit they built.  The base for the armor

is made of a loose, super-stretchy multi-layered mesh of a lycra-like

material.

 If we had six inches of it between us with me holding one end and

you holding the other, we could stretch it out to a really thin two or

three feet of material, and it would snap right back.""I get it.  So you can actually wear it as a human, and when you change it stretches and conforms to the giant wolf!"He

nodded.  "Exactly right.  One bonus is that when it's

unstretched,

it's thicker and really warm and it insulates us thin-skinned hairless

apes against cold climates like here in Alaska.  When it

stretches right out it's really thin and the small holes in the mesh

are exposed, so we don't over heat too much as

wolves.  Anyhow, once they fully developed that and created suits

that allow for easy shifting from human to wolf and back to human

without having to deal with the clothing issue, they started adding on

to it.  They developed a way of tacking on small plates that are

made by covering

really thin and hard laminated carbon composite pieces with

stretched

Kevlar.  The plates make the suits into super light-weight

bullet-proof armor.  They sew them onto the lycra fabric in

overlapping patterns like scale mail armor.  We look absolutely

ridiculous with it on when we're in human form, but it works like a hot

damn in either shape.  We can move

comfortably enough in it as humans, but when we become wolves and the

whole thing stretches out, it's like we're wearing almost impenetrable

armor that covers the most vital areas like under the throat and the

back of our necks, our chest and our hind quarters, yet it doesn't impede our

movement at all.  We're not completely

covered by it, but any place where we might be seriously wounded or

potentially killed by a bullet is covered.""Holy shit, that sounds pretty cool.""It

sounds cool, yes, but like I said, it really doesn't look cool at all,

at least not when we're in human form.

 We look like dorks dressed in some sort of lame B movie monster

costumes

for a sci-fi convention or something.  You'll see.  Anyhow,

once they had a base they could hang stuff on, they designed a small

pack to

hold things in for when we're human, like survival kits and water,

along with holsters and scabbards

for side arms and knives.  They also designed bigger, heavier

framed packs for other gadgets and weapons like shotguns or machine

guns.  They made

it possible for us to go in and fight as humans, and shift to wolves in

the middle of it.  Or even go in as wolves, and then shift to

humans, and we'd still be fully clothed with all of our gear attached

to us.  That's a critical feature, since it means part way

through the fight, when several might have been injured, they change

and are completely healed and ready to continue, while still carrying

all of their gear and not just being naked and vulnerable.""How

do you deal with the transition phase?  You'd be vulnerable and

easily taken out if the enemy realizes you're in the middle of

changing."He

nodded, "We always bring along a few like Benjamin.

 He's a pilot so he's never on the ground with us, but there are

others who are heavy commandos.  They're covered in regular flak

gear and carry big machine guns.  They stay back and watch our

flanks and our rear mostly.  They stay out of the fight for the

most part to conserve

their ammo, but when the change hits they watch over us and lay down

heavy suppressing fire to keep the enemy at bay if necessary.

 These guys are

big and their strength lets them carry chain guns that can rip apart

pretty much anything.  Having them with us lets us utilize the

shift in form if we need to, with less risk.  Usually we don't

actually use the shift itself during the battle, but rather go in in

one form or the other and use the shift back to heal up after it's all

over.  It's always an option to do it mid-fight if necessary,

though.""That's brilliant.

 You could do a lot with a small force with that sort of ability.

 Go in as wolves to take out the enemy outside while in the most

deadly form, lots of casualties likely happen right at the start, then

heal completely while switching to humans in order to use the guns and to have

better access to the environment like getting through locked doors and

stuff."He

nodded, "We don't have to rely on the human shape for that sort of

thing,

though.  Whole missions can be carried out as wolves if necessary

or if desirable.  We were wolves the whole time when we destroyed

that first facility and we'll be wolves for the whole thing tonight.

 Some of the coolest stuff was designed strictly for use as a

wolf, and those are the really James Bond-like gadgets that would be

sort of

pointless as humans, but invaluable as wolves.  We have clusters

of tubes that can be mounted on the bigger pack frame that launch

small unguided, high explosive

rockets.  We've got bigger tube launchers for RPGs.  We have

other types of  launchers that throw satchel charges or sticky

bombs or grenades.  We've got something they call a 'door knocker'

that's based on the pneumatic captive bolt devices that are used to

stun cattle for slaughter, but on a bigger scale.  The wolf can

press it against any sort of door knob, hinge or latch and it blasts a

heavy steel bolt into it with so much force it literally blows it

apart.

 It can be reset and reused a lot of times before they run out of

pressure.  They developed robotic systems that can swing night

vision or targeting systems into place in front of the wolf's eyes,

then swing it back away when it's not needed.  Just about anything

you could imagine that might be useful they either developed already or

are actively working on."I laughed and said, "It really does sound like James

Bond.  I bet it's a fun job developing all that stuff.  I'd

love to check out their labs some day.  Robotics and electronics

are major hobbies for me.  It must be cool to think of a problem,

like how to open a door with a round handle as a wolf, and then sit

down and come up with a solution like the door knocker.  That

would be a job I could dedicate my entire days to and never get tired

of it."He

grinned and said, "They're always looking for more

geeks for G Division.  It's a pretty exclusive club and they're

fairly selective, but I could put in a good word.  You're

welcome to join it if it interests you, Jake.""I

might just do

that.  I'll need something to keep myself occupied when this is all

over."He nodded and said, "A man's gotta stay busy."I said, "So, I would think a major issue when you're a wolf would be

the

weapons.  The wolf shape isn't great for aiming and firing with

accuracy and you obviously have no hands to operate anything intricate.

 How do they handle that for up close work?  Is it just all

teeth when you're a

wolf and guns when you're human?"He shook his head and said,

"No, like I said, we knew we might need to fight whole battles as wolves, so

they developed a lot of weapons for us.  Mostly just things that

don't require extreme accuracy, like the grenade launchers and rocket

launchers I mentioned earlier.  The high explosive rockets can do

a lot of damage to a vehicle, or a door that's blocking your way or

something.  It can even blast holes in thick walls.  They

also made us shot guns for close work.  Ranged combat is

better left to the human shape and rifles for better accuracy, but for close in strikes like the one

we'll be doing tonight, the wolf form can be really effective, and

there's a certain level of psychological warfare built in that works in our favor.

 Nothing causes a group of humans to wet themselves quicker than a

horde of well armed and armored gigantic wolves coming right at them."I laughed and said, "I'll bet.  It sounds awesome."Grace

chuckled and said, "You boys and your need for all the coolest toys.

 To me it sounds horrible, and really dangerous.  How the

hell do you keep from accidentally killing each other with all that

stuff?  How do you control a gun that's strapped to your back when you're a wolf?""It

can be

dangerous, Grace, you're right.  We have to train a lot to use the

gear.

 Jake won't be using any of our weapons, but he'll have the

armor and a pack with some weapons he can use in human form if

necessary.

 The trained wolves will be handling the real weapons.  The

only safe way the geeks could find to control firing a weapon was a

combination of voice and muscle control.  They didn't want us

accidentally launching a rocket or shooting one of our own in the face.

 I don't know if you've ever watched a dog really close when you

scratched at it, but they have the surprising ability of bunching up

their skin really tightly.  It's like they have muscle control of

several areas of their skin.  The wolves are the same.  Our

geeks took advantage of that to develop sensor pads on the inside of

the body armor that can detect the bunching of the muscles in several

different key spots.  They also had already developed the speech

devices for use with voice commands, like I said before.  It was a

simple thing to combine them both to control firing a weapon.  You

have to really concentrate to bunch up the right muscles and hold it,

then you bark the specific command to fire the weapon.  Think of

it like cocking the hammer using your muscles while you aim, and

pulling the trigger

using your voice.  It lets us keep moving while shooting

once we've practiced enough to get good at it.  There's no way it

can be triggered accidentally because of how much focus it takes to

pull it off.""That all sounds so amazing," I said, "Man, I wish

Elias was here right now.  He loves cool gadgets as much as I do.

 He'd be creaming himself over all of this."Jesse laughed

and said, "What guy doesn't love cool gadgets?  I should arrange a

demo for him some time in the future.  I bet he'd like that.""He'd love it!  So would I!  That would be great, Jesse."He

chuckled and said, "Well, you won't be needing a demo.  You'll be

seeing it all in action tonight, but we have to be in wolf form so I

can't show it to Elias today.  I'll arrange to have someone demo

it for him tomorrow maybe.  I bet Cole would like to see it all

too."Grace said, "He sure would.  It's so good to think of

him being here tomorrow to see it.  I can't thank you enough for

all you're doing for us, Jesse, especially what you're doing for Cole."Once

again he got a guilty look on his face and he said, "You don't need to

thank me, Grace, it's the least I can do.  We look after our own.

 You're all part of our bigger family now.  The werewolves

and lupines have to stick together.  We don't have a very big

community yet so we're all pretty close.""Lupines?" she asked, "What's a lupine?"I

grinned and said, "You probably thought your days of ever being a mommy

again were gone when you changed to a werewolf, but that doesn't have

to be the case if you don't want it to be."Her

eyebrows went up,

and Jesse and I explained to her about lupines, and I told her all

about Benjamin.  She was amazed

and thrilled by the idea of meeting one later when I would introduce

her to Ben.  Jesse told us we'd see several others, too, that

he'd called up from another of their compounds and should be arriving

soon.  They would be helping out with the incursion tonight.We stayed in the mess hall and talked for hours.

 Jesse had all sorts of questions about how we all became werewolves

and how we managed to get by with no help from the established

community.  We told him our whole story right up until our paths

crossed with his at Nazas, and he was impressed with how well we'd gotten by on

our own.  We peppered him with questions about the werewolf

community and he explained that they were very well setup with schools

and doctors and everything a community needed to get by comfortably.

 They were in several large compounds scattered about in remote areas with environments

that were fitting for the wolves and obviously well away from normal

people.He

gave us a bit of the history of it all, and told us how he

was one of those who had been a werewolf for the longest, that they

knew of anyhow, along with

Samuel and several others.  Nobody really knew how it all began or

exactly how long ago it had started.  Jesse had been in the

military before he was approached by Samuel and asked to join and help

them build up a defensive force.  He'd been a werewolf for more

than

thirty years and had been Samuel's right hand most of that time.

 He'd never had time to settle down with anyone himself, which

seemed of particular interest to Grace, so he'd never started a family

of his own.  He hoped to do so soon, which I was happy to notice

also seemed of great interest to Grace.Later in the afternoon,

Benjamin and Elias came into the mess hall.  I introduced Ben to

Grace and, needless to say, she was utterly blown away by him.

 Jesse excused himself and said he needed to go take care of some

more details for tonight's mission, and that he'd get some rest after

that.The rest of us stayed and continued our talk

for a while.  Grace had lots of questions for Ben.  She

seemed intrigued by the idea that she might create such an incredibly

beautiful person herself some day.  I could only imagine what

beautiful lupine babies she and Jesse might make together, and I'm sure

she was already thinking the same thing.It felt so good to be

sitting there talking to the ones I loved and thinking bright thoughts

about the future.  I wished Cole was there to complete the

picture, but it wouldn't be much longer now before he would be.The time flew by as we got to know each other better and before

we knew it supper time rolled around and we were still in the mess hall

talking, so we simply got up and went to get meals for ourselves and

continued our visit while we ate.  Jesse had come back to join us

and we enjoyed our meal with all of us in an animated conversation the

whole time.After our meals we sort of slowly began to split off

into two naturally exclusive lines of discussion.  Grace and Jesse

had moved a bit away and were sitting closely and smiling and talking

to each other and Ben and Elias and I were beginning to think about

maybe going back to the RV to enjoy each other some more.Jesse

suddenly stood and turned to me and said, "Grace has agreed to go for a

walk with me so I can show her the beautiful landscape out here.

 We're off for a bit, guys.  I'll come get you later on,

Jake.  Try not to let these two wear you out too much before the

mission tonight."He winked and turned to escort a grinning Grace out into the hall.Ben

was smiling as he watched them leave, and he said, "She's awesome!

 I wish those two would get together for real.  I'd love to

be a godfather to one of Jesse's pups some day.""I'd say there's a fairly strong chance of that happening from what I could see," Elias said."Me

too.  I hope it happens.  I've already forgiven Jesse

completely.  He's a great guy.  Grace is walking on air.

 I've never seen her feeling so good.  I think he's perfect

for her.""Yeah," Elias agreed, "I guess I was a bit hard on him

before.  He really does seem like a hell of a nice guy.  I

think I owe him an apology.  He made a mistake, but in the end I

guess he made it for the right reasons.  I can't hold it against

him for one desperate act to try to protect Ben and his kind, and all that the werewolves have built."Ben grinned and said, "You both are great guys.  I

can't believe my luck.  I was so lonely before.  Now I'm

attached to two of the best people I've ever met.  Can we go back

to the RV now?"He didn't need to ask twice.  We all jumped up and hustled out to the motorhome.We

crawled all over each other and got to know each other better

physically for a while, then settled in afterward to talk softly some

more about our futures together as we got to know each other more

emotionally.The

time finally arrived for me to get ready for the strike against the

facility and Jesse came and knocked at the door of the RV to get me so we all quickly dressed.Elias asked if he could come along and Jesse agreed.  Ben

went off by himself to get ready for the mission.  I assumed that must mean we were going out in the Hercules."You

should strip down completely before we go out of the RV, Jake.

 You can't be wearing any civilian clothes at all under your

armor."I nodded and stripped back down."Christ

you're sexy!  If I was gay I'd be all over you, Jake!  You're

almost as furry as a lupine, cuz!" Jesse joked, "You are one lucky guy,

Elias."Elias grinned and nodded.Jesse turned to go out the door and said, "Follow me, boys."Elias

and I followed him out.  He led us around to the entrance of a

long, large supply tent that was right next to the RV on the other

side.  Inside were long rows of large, dark green, vertical

storage enclosures that looked like really big lockers.Jesse

opened one of them and said, "Our body

armor is pretty much one size fits all, but you've got to be bigger

than you are, Elias, sorry.  That's why I said it wouldn't be safe

for you.  Jake will likely be stretching it close to the limit in

wolf form, but he'll be fine."He

pulled out a big, strange looking bundle of thin,

diamond shaped, hard black plates that were all tied together and

hanging off a sort of stiff frame made of some dark looking, shiny

material with a sort of woven pattern almost like fiber glass or

something under it's glossy surface.  He moved it around until he

had it right side up and facing the right way, and he said, "You're so

tall, cuz.  Maybe you

should get on your knees for this.  I need to slip it over your

head and you need to hold your arms up.  I can't reach if you're

standing up."I dropped to my knees with my hands up like I was

surrendering to him.  He smiled and worked the large opening at

the bottom of the armor over my arms and down, with the stiff frame at

my back.  He made sure my hands went though the holes at the

shoulders and then pulled it the rest of the way down until my head

popped through the neck hole, which actually went up a bit to cover my neck like a turtle neck sweater.I stood back up, and Elias

immediately started laughing."You look like you're half way into

dressing like a crow for Halloween," he said, "It looks like you're

covered in black feathers."Jesse

chuckled and said, "The frame is made of carbon fiber.  It's super

rigid but super light weight.  Those two curved braces that stick

straight up past your shoulders are designed to hold snuggly against

the wolf's shoulders once you change shapes.  It lets him fire

weapons or use the door knockers without the pack wanting to slide

backwards when he does.  There are several mount points on the

frame that various pack configurations can be locked onto.  The

little plates all over the suit are made of laminated carbon composite

with Kevlar stretched over them to be light weight and bullet proof."I looked down to check it out.

 It looked absurd, but was actually fairly impressive.  The

black diamond shaped plates of

very thin but incredibly rigid carbon composite were laid out in an

overlapping pattern like scale mail or leaf mail armor.  The armor covered my

shoulders and upper arms to a bit past my elbows, with a bare part of lycra on

the inside of each arm to allow them to swing freely without clashing with the leaves hanging on my sides.  It covered

the rest of my torso all the way down past my waist.  It seemed as

if it was far too long and it actually hung down past my butt to the tops of my

thighs, but I realized that would likely be so that when I changed to

the larger wolf, it would cover me right to my waist.  I would

still be able to move comfortably and freely enough with the armor on

as a human, yet it would likely still protect me perfectly right back to my vital organs when I was a

wolf.  The whole thing felt like it couldn't weight much more than a few

pounds, yet seemed like it could likely stop a high caliber bullet.

 The plates seemed appropriately spaced in the vertical plane, but

were crowded a fair bit in the horizontal."Check this out," Jesse said, "Grab that other side and pull, Elias."He

took one side under my arm and Elias took the other and they pulled.

 The underlying lycra fabric stretched easily and by the time they

had pulled it quite wide, the thin plates were still slightly

overlapped, but no longer crowded.  It was clearly designed to

easily stretch into the wolf's much larger body.  The design of

small overlapped plates made it flexible so it could conform to any

body shape.  The unstretched, multi-layered lycra felt warm and

comfortable even in the fairly cool air, yet stretched out it felt like

it might breath a lot better."That's so cool!" Elias exclaimed.Jesse

nodded and said, "There's another piece.  This is where you really

start to look a bit ridiculous, but it can't be helped."He

dipped back into the storage enclosure and pulled out the lower half

and he turned it around in his hands to find the front, and then held them open in front

of my knees.  "Step on into these."I lifted a leg and

stepped into the trousers, then I put a hand on his shoulder for balance

and stepped into the other side.  He stood and slid them up my

legs and he pulled the front of it out as he slipped it up over my cock

and balls and then wiggled it into its final position, which covered me all the way up to my waist.Elias chuckled,

then moved around to the back and lifted the back of the upper shirt

and I felt a sudden breeze back there as Elias started to laugh hard.  "They're like assless chaps!"Jesse

chuckled and said, "They couldn't figure out anything that would work

for the tail that would be growing in when you change, other than to

leave a big hole at the back around your tail bone for it to come out

through.  It's a good thing the shirt is

extra long to compensate for body growth, or we'd be walking around

with our butt cracks exposed all the time when we're human.  They originally had a

big flap there that would hang over the exposed part, and it could lift

up when your tail grows, but everyone found it really uncomfortable and

distracting to have that thing on the top of their tail when they're a

wolf, so we decided to cut them off.  It also gives us the freedom

to relieve ourselves if we need to number 2 while we're dressed in the

armor and we're a wolf and can't pull our pants down.  If you look close at the front there you'll see there's a

big flap held in place by a wide section of Velcro.  You can peel it

back easy with your teeth to let your big fat sheath out if you need to

take a whiz while you're a wolf, and then close it back up when you're done."I

looked down and saw that

the trousers only covered down to about the tops of my calves with the

scale mail armor.  They

must be designed to cover only the larger haunches of the wolf, while

leaving the lower legs exposed.  The area between my thighs was

devoid of plates similar to the insides of my arms.   The arms on

the shirt also

covered only the upper arms just past the elbows which would cover the

upper part of my forelegs when I'm the wolf, but leave the lower half

exposed.  I imagined it was to aid with cooling and overall

comfort and to allow the joints to flex more freely."Bet you ain't never wore a suit of armor before, eh?" Jesse asked."Actually,

it so happens I have.  It was chain mail though.  It was a lot

heavier than this, even though I thought it was pretty light for full

armor.  This stuff weighs nothing.""Well, this shit's

pretty high tech.  I won't even tell you how much it costs us to

make one of these suits," Jesse said, "Now come the boots."He

held out a pair of lycra booties that had an almost circular, wide,

hard rubber grip at the front part on the bottom, and a smaller one at the

back for the heel.  I slipped them on.  They fit snugly up

past my ankles, but they felt really odd."It will take a bit to

get used to the way those feel.  You need something to protect

your soft feet from the ground, but it can't be too restrictive for the

wolf.  These are designed to give you protection, traction and stability under the ball of

your foot and your toes, like a platform.  There's another rubber part under your heel, but it's separate so you

have no real arch support.  When you change, the front part will

be the perfect shape to cover the bottom of the wolf's back paws and

the part under your heel will be just up behind his paw and won't

bother him at all.  He doesn't really need the protection for his

feet as much as you do, but we found it's handy anyhow in some cases.

 It gives him a lot of extra traction at the back for pushing

against things when we're on smooth or slippery surfaces.  They

actually fit the wolf a bit better than they fit you, but you'll find

you get used to walking on them fairly quickly."I

moved around a bit

and didn't actually find it to be too bad.  The round, hard rubber

pads on the front under the balls of my feet and toes were about

six inches wide.  If I stood straight with my feet the normal

distance apart there was still a gap

between them and they weren't touching each other, so I found I could

walk easily and naturally without them banging together.  It felt

sort of like having a really small pair of snowshoes strapped to my

bare feet or something.

 It didn't take long at all to get used to the feel of them."Some

of the guys prefer not to wear them, but I thought I'd let you try them

out.  I like to wear mine.  I don't like running around bare

foot in the forest.  There's lots of sharp twigs and rocks and

shit out there."I nodded and said, "They feel fine.  I think I'll keep them on."He

reached into the locker again and pulled out another piece and said,

"This is by far my favorite part, not.  Elias will love how you

look with this on.  Lean down."I bent over and he reached up and slid it down over my head.  Elias immediately busted out laughing as I stood back up."Holy shit!  Where's my camera?!  We need to go get Grace so she can see this, Jake!""Shut up, you," I said, chuckling.The

helmet for the suit composed of a sort of  'neck sock' made of the same

lightweight leaf mail all around with an extra, hard, curved piece of carbon composite

that ran up under and just past my chin, and a hard top piece that

curved up the back of my head and stuck out a ways over the top.

 It must look as though my head was sticking out of a giant crow's

open beak as he tried to swallow me feet first.  Clearly it was

designed such that I could easily see and hear and talk and move around

as a human, but when I became the wolf it would stretch to perfectly cover the

top of his head, under his throat, and all around his neck, and leave

his ears free.  No vital area of the wolf would be left exposed to

gunfire.  It was fairly impressive, but looked absolutely

ludicrous."Remember

what I said about psychological warfare,

Jake?" Jesse asked, "This shit conforms best to the shape of the wolf

and it looks pretty awesome.  When a giant wolf comes running

towards the enemy

dressed in this shit, he looks like a sleek, black, terrifying killing

machine.  Like something out of their worst nightmares.  It

scares the crap out of them and their natural

reaction is to turn and run.  On the other hand, when a human

comes at them dressed this way they fall over laughing, so we've got

the upper hand again, see?"I laughed and said, "I wish I couldn't see.  I wish nobody would see me this way, but thanks.""That

narrow bar coming up and forward at an angle on your right is a

microphone.  It's used for the voice commands and communication.

 There's little speakers on either side pointing downward that

will be just ahead of where your ears will be when you're the wolf,

too, so you can hear radio comms.  There's a port on the back

that's used to connect the helmet to the electronics in the backpack.

 Come on over here," he said.We followed him further back and he grabbed a pack from a long table that had dozens of them stacked on it."Turn around."I

turned and he fiddled at my back.  I heard several snapping sounds

as he anchored the pack to the stiff frame at the back of the shirt.

 It didn't weigh much and wasn't very big."This

here

contains some survival stuff, just in case.  There's water and

basic first aid.  The upper section is reserved for electronic

gear.  It

controls the weapons systems and voice activation and translation

system.  I connected yours up, but you'll only be using it as a

radio receiver so you can hear any commands being broadcast to the

team."He showed me one of the packs that was still on the

table and pointed at various spots around it and said, "Your sidearm is

in the holster here, only of any use when you change back to human of

course.  It's loaded.  Have you used one before?"I nodded and said, "I spent a lot of time at a shooting range.  I can handle one just fine.""Perfect.

 There's a survival knife in a scabbard on the other side."

 He flipped the bottom half of the pack open to show me the

contents.  "Field rations, water, first aid, field radio are all

in here."I nodded."So, will you be OK dressed like this?  Are you comfortable enough?"I nodded again.  "Yeah, I'll be fine.  It's not as uncomfortable as I would have thought.""Good.  There's just one more thing.  Move on to the back of the tent, there."We

moved to the back and he followed.  There were more packs back

here.  He picked one up and strapped it onto me, but this time it

was in front, at my midsection.  It attached

separately with wide straps that came from behind to wrap around my waist, and over my shoulders, and

even between my legs on each side of my groin.  It all buckled

together just under the pack in front.  There was a red D shaped ring

at the center in the front of the pack."What's this?" I asked."That's yer chute.""Chute, as in parachute?  You mean you're gonna chuck me right out of the plane?"Jesse

laughed and said, "We wouldn't chuck you right out, Jake.  We'd

just give you a gentle nudge is all, and only if you don't have the

guts to chuck yerself out.  We'll be

doing a HALO jump.""A what now?""A

high altitude, low

open jump.  Really, it won't be a true HALO jump.  That would

be closer to thirty thousand feet, we'll only be jumping at twenty

thousand feet.  We do it lower to avoid the need for oxygen and

the risk of getting the bends really bad.

 We'll be going up high enough and flying at a tangent to the

facility so they can't hear us coming.  We need to free fall as

far as possible so they won't see the chutes.  The LZ is well back

behind the big hill the facility is built into, and we'll be coming

down with the setting sun to our backs so there's no way they'll spot

us.""What

the hell?  You do

realize I've never jumped from a plane before in my life, right?

 How the hell do you expect me to be able to get it right on my

first try with no training?  From what I understand, jumping out

of an airplane isn't one of those 'if at first you don't succeed, try,

try again' type deals.  There is no try again if you go splat the

first time.""Don't

worry, Jake.  Your chute

is just an emergency reserve.  See that big handle hanging right

at your breast bone?  Don't pull it unless you hear a blaring

alarm that comes from the pack.  It's got a sensor that detects if

your velocity it too great for the altitude you're at and it identifies

your last chance to open the reserve.  You're gonna be attached to

me and we'll be jumping tandem.

 We'll both be riding the same chute down, so if everything goes

right you won't hear the alarm.  If anything goes wrong I'll cut

you loose and you'll have to pull that handle to open your reserve.

 Don't worry if you bounce real hard and break every bone in your

body.  It's one of the reasons we time things the way we do.

 We'll be in human form when we jump.  We won't change to

wolves until ten minutes or so after we land.  You can be pretty

badly mangled and still come out as a perfectly ready to fight wolf

when the time comes to advance.""That's reassuring.""It is!  Many's the

time someone broke a leg or twisted an ankle real bad.  None of us

are parachuting pros.  As soon as you go through the change, it's

all better.  You'll be fine."My shoulders slumped and I sighed and said, "I guess."Jesse

chuckled

and said, "Now that's the kind of enthusiasm we like to see around

here!  We'd just use the choppers if we could, but they'd hear

those coming from a mile away and they're fat and slow targets for

shoulder launched missiles.  We need to go in quiet and fast,

so we need to jump.  The chute's not designed for the change.

 Just

remember to unbuckle it in the middle here and slip it off as soon as

you're on the ground or it'll cause you serious problems when you

change to the wolf."I nodded.  "Got it.""Alright then, you're

set to go.  Go over to the Herc and get aboard.  I need to

gear up and get ready, and I'll be right out to join you.  The

others are already out there and probably aboard the plane."I

nodded and Elias and I went outside.  We walked over to the big

plane and several men were pulling the netting off of it already.

 The back ramp was down and we could see more men similarly

dressed in their black scale mail armor with much larger backpacks on

them.  Several had large pressurized cannisters attached to long,

straight tubes sticking straight upwards, well past the tops of their

heads.  Those must be the door knockers Jesse had mentioned.

 Some had what looked like clusters of narrow tubes.  Those

must be the rocket launchers.  Some had a couple of larger, longer hollow

tubes, probably RPG launchers.  Those with launchers had wide

solid boxes near the top part of the pack that must contain any

additional equipment that was needed to support the launchers.

 Most had machine guns attached to

the sides of their packs as well, likely there just in case the mission

isn't over yet by the time we switch back to human form.Ben was

near the back of plane at the top of the ramp.  He was talking to two other lupines.

 One was mostly black colored with some brown mixed in and the other was a mix of white,

grey and black.  They were heavily muscled and wearing thick,

plated flack jackets and heavy combat gear.  Hanging down at their

right fronts was a large looking chain gun that appeared to be attached

to a rig that would allow them to swing the weapon out in front of them

to start shooting.  It had a flexible looking rectangular tube leading up and

over their backs to a hard pack that must contain a long coil of

chained ammo to feed the gun.  They looked incredibly imposing.Ben saw us at the bottom of the ramp and waved us up.  We walked up and he introduced the other lupines as Joshua and Jeb."These

guys are the best, Jake.  They can mow down a whole forest with

those big ass guns if they have to.  They'll have your back when you're changing," Ben

said, then he leaned in close to me so nobody else on the plane could

hear and he said, "We've been friends since we were kids.  I asked Jesse to call them in.  You can

trust them, Jake."I nodded and shook their hands.  Ben

introduced me to a few other men who were in a cluster together.

 He wanted to make sure I was familiar with all of the ones that

Jesse had selected as his most trusted.  They would all make it

their priority to get Cole safely out, even if Samuel decided to turn

his attention strictly to destroying the research and dealing with the

scientists.  The men all smiled and shook my hand and let me know

that Jesse had told them a lot about me and they were happy to have me

along.  They let me know to stick with them and I'd be just fine.I

thanked them and looked around at the rest of the men.  I

recognized several of them as the ones who'd been casting disparaging

glances at us earlier in the morning when they'd seen me and Elias

kissing and hugging.  These might be the bad eggs Jesse had

mentioned.  They were all segregated from the others and strapped

into the jump seats near the front of the plane.Someone shouted up that the netting was all removed and we were clear to take off, and the four big engines started firing up.Ben told me it was time for him to get ready for work and he turned to walk down the ramp."Wait, Ben, aren't you flying us out?" I asked."Nope.

 There's another lupine up there.  Me and one other lupine

will be coming later in behind you guys with the Huey choppers.

 We'll be the extraction team.  We use lupines as pilots

because we stay the same shape always.  We can't have a human pilot

suddenly turn into a wolf mid-flight.  It's sort of hard to fly a

helicopter with no hands.  I'll be coming to get you at the end of

the mission, Jake.  I'll see you then.  Good luck.  Be careful out there.  Stick close to Jesse."I nodded and he turned and exited the plane.Elias

and I were about to hug so he could go back out and go find Grace, but

I heard my name being called and we turned to see Jesse, fully geared

up, walking up the ramp with another man who's face looked familiar.

 He was older looking.  At least fifty or so.  He was

extremely healthy but had streaks of grey in his hair and older looking

features.After a moment I recognized who he was and said, "Holy shit, that's Samuel Butler!"Elias asked, "Who's he?""He's a billionaire who became a recluse close to thirty years

ago.  He built a media and transportation empire from nothing.

 I know you must have heard of Butler Transworld and Butler

Communications.  They belong to him.  I remember seeing his

face on TV a lot when I was a kid.  Mostly to do with stories of

his sudden disappearance from the public eye and speculation about why

it might have happened.  He basically put others in charge of all

of his holdings and faded away.  There were all sorts of theories

about him becoming terminally ill or catching some weird disease, or

going insane, or breaking some law and hiding from justice, or being gay

and having found a partner he wanted to settle down with in a time when

that just wasn't done openly.  Looks like all the theories were

wrong."Suddenly the werewolves' ability to organize and equip

themselves so well made more sense.  He must be using his fortune

to fund them.  No wonder he became alpha.  He didn't look a

day older than he did when he disappeared from the spotlight.  He

must be over eighty years old by now.  It was believed that he was

still alive but nobody knew where.  The media simply assumed he'd

decided to retire from public life entirely to be left alone and they'd

given up on trying to find him long ago.  I guess his biggest

reason for disappearing must have been the fact that he couldn't be

seen not aging as the years went by.Jesse smiled as they

approached us and he said, "Jake, Elias, I want you to meet Samuel.

 He's our leader.  Alpha of all of the werewolves and the one

most responsible for getting us to where we are today."I reached

out to shake his hand.The look on his face was neutral as he took

my hand in a firm grip and he nodded and said, "A pleasure to have new

progenitors among us.  My men informed me earlier that you were a

kindred, Jake.  Is that correct?""I suppose so.  That's what I'm told."He

looked me up and down as if to assess my physical size and then he

said, "I was surprised that Jesse himself didn't inform me of it.

 It's a rare enough thing that I should have thought he would

consider it important."Jesse cleared his throat uncomfortably and I said nothing.Samuel

shrugged and said, "Well, it's no matter.  I trust you'll make

sure not to get in our way, Jake.  I feel it would have been best

for you to stay behind, but I suppose if Jesse's men are willing to

keep you safe it shouldn't be a problem.  Our mission to take this

facility is of the utmost importance to me, and I wouldn't want anything to

jeopardize that.""The mission to rescue Cole is important to you too, I'm sure," I said.His

jaw tightened briefly, then he smiled and said, "Yes, of course.

 The boy will be removed safely, I assure you.  Now, if

you'll excuse me, I'll be joining my men."He turned to Jesse and

said, "Please ensure Jake stays back with your team.  Take the

lead on locating the boy.  My group can deal with the scientists

and their research once we're inside."Jesse nodded and Samuel turned and went further into the plane to sit with his men.Jesse

rolled his eyes and said, "I wish I hadn't shouted out about you being

a kindred this morning with all the other men around.  He's pissed

that I kept it from him.  He really doesn't trust me now, I think.

 I guess it'll work out alright, though.  The men I picked

for the mission are completely loyal to me.  We'll get the job

done more easily now since he's

given us the clearance to focus on getting Cole out.  We won't

have to support him in his efforts to murder all those scientists and

destroy their work.  I hate that sort of shit anyhow and I have no

problem leaving it all to him.  When this is all done I think I'll

be retiring my command.  That should make him happy.  Don't

worry Jake.  This is gonna be a quick in and out.  We'll have

Cole home safe before you know it."I smiled and nodded.He

turned to Elias and said, "I guess you'd better skedaddle.  Take

care of Grace for us.  She was starting to be a nervous wreck

again when I left her a while ago.  Try to keep her mind off it if

you can.  Let her know we'll be back with Cole in a few hours

tops."Elias nodded and said, "Good luck, General.  Please be careful, Jake.  I love you."We kissed and hugged and I said, "I love you too.  I'll see you in a bit."He chuckled and said, "I've never hugged a big black turkey before.  I wish Grace could see you."He

turned and walked back down the ramp.  One of the men punched the

button to bring it up and Jesse and I took jump seats along side the

group of his other men.The engines spooled up and the big airplane lumbered forward and turned sharply to begin to get lined up for takeoff.Jesse

turned to me and said, "You'll want to hang on tight and brace yerself,

Jake.  There's really no runway here and the trees are not far

away.  We'll be doing a JATO.""What's that?""Jet

assisted take off.  More specifically for us it's rocket assisted, but

JATO is still the general term for it.  It's one of the tricks a

properly kitted Hercules can do.  Did you notice the big bulges near

the back of

the plane on each side?  They're rocket boosters.  We have to use them

here

because there's just no room to build up speed the normal way.  I

don't know if you've ever seen it at an air show or anything but it's

impressive as hell.  Just be ready for some serious acceleration."I nodded and braced myself.The

engines spooled up fully and we began to move forward at a faster and

faster pace, bumping and jostling and getting our bones jarred harder

and harder.  Suddenly, there was what sounded like a small

explosion followed by a deep roar that vibrated the entire airframe and

quickly ramped up to nearly deafening proportions as the plane lurched

forward at a dramatic increase in acceleration.  We were pulled

hard sideways as quite suddenly the plane tilted and was rising into

the air at an incredibly steep angle for such a large aircraft.

 The rockets continued to roar as we quickly gained altitude and built

sufficient speed to maintain lift, and then the plane came

nearly level but continued to climb as the sound of the rockets died

away.Jesse

began to explain what I should expect with the upcoming mission.

 "The flight won't be very long.  Less than an hour.

 They'll bring us up to twenty thousand feet.  See the red

light above the ramp there?  The pilot will turn it on when we're

approaching the jump point.  I'll be hooking you up right in front

of me facing forward.  You'll be tied to me snug and safe while we

go down.  They'll keep the plane pressurized while we head out.

 They'll depressurize just before we approach the jump point so we

don't get sucked out when we open the cargo ramp.  We'll be in low

pressure for such a short time on the way down that we won't get the

bends or

anything.  It'll be a little hard to breathe at first but that

won't last long at all as we drop into the thicker air.  Your ears

might start to hurt as we go down and the

pressure rises, so work your jaw and do whatever you can to try to keep

them from building too much pressure.  The best thing is to hold

your nose and blow gently until your ears pop and you can feel the

pressure equalize.  We'll be falling a long way so that our chutes

won't open until we're low enough that they won't see us past the big

hill behind them and the tall trees all around.  We'll be to their

west so the setting sun will blind them, too, even if they happen to be

looking in that direction.  I'll be steering us down and we won't be

going

too fast when we reach the ground.  Just make sure when we're

getting close you bring your knees up high and hold your feet up so my

feet hit the ground first, then you can bring yours down."I nodded.  "Got it.""Once

we're safe on the ground I'll unclip you.  Take your reserve chute

off right away.  We'll assemble and start making our way towards

the facility in human form to get as close as we can.  We'll

gather at the ingress point and wait for the change to hit.  Josh

and Jeb will watch over us while we become wolves.  As soon as

we're ready, we'll run the rest of the way.  Samuel's team will

deal with getting us inside. They'll take out the guards outside and bust down the door.

 We'll follow them in.  Stick with me, but stay back enough

to keep safe.  Watch our flanks and our rear.  My guys will

open the doors as we go.""Do we have any idea what we're facing?  Do we know how big the complex is?"He

nodded and said, "We managed to dig up some intel about

the layout from when it was first built back at the start of the cold

war.  It has two main sections

on the same level.  One was the living area for the men stationed

there and the other housed the computer equipment and radio and

satellite communications gear.  It was built so long ago that the

computers and comms gear took up whole rooms.  Samuel figures the comms

and

computing section will have been converted to the lab area where the

virus research was done and where they'll be working on the cure.

 The living section will likely still be where the scientists and

guards stay.  The lower level is made up of the mechanical and

electric, food storage and kitchen, and an oversized supply area at the

very back meant to keep them supplied for a year or more back when it

was a secret listening post.  That's most likely where they'll be

keeping Cole.  There's a

set of stairs leading down to it right at the entrance to the main

building at the end of a long hallway.  We'll be

splitting from Samuel's team right as we go in and we'll be heading

down."I nodded again."It's gonna be a cakewalk, Jake.

 We're probably over dressed for the job.  There won't be much of an

armed presence there.  We'll want to be well away from the site before

Samuel's

demolition guys blow it to hell.  Half that hillside will be

vaporized if they do their usual thorough job.  Ben and another

lupine will be coming in to extract us.  Stick to Ben's chopper.

 I don't have a good feeling about the other pilot.  I think

he's more loyal to Samuel.  Ben will be more inclined to get us

the hell out as soon as we have Cole safely aboard.  We're not

sure how long it will be before the government sends in a response to

our attack.  We should have plenty of time, though.""Sounds good.  I'll just follow your lead, Jesse."He nodded and we both sat quietly for the rest of the flight.I started to reflect on what we were about to do, and everything we'd gone through to get here and I chuckled."What's funny?" Jesse asked."I

was just thinking about the day Elias told me the truth about him.  It

seems like such a long time ago.  My life was so boring before he

came along, Jesse, I wasn't sure how much longer I could take it.

 I realized when I'd learned he was a werewolf that it would

likely never be boring again.  I could never have imagined I'd end

up running from government agents, trigger a small scale werewolf apocalypse, and

one day be dressed like a giant crow, about to HALO jump into an

incursion mission on a secret government installation with a team of

heavily armed werewolves and lupines with chain guns.  I'd say

that's just about the most extreme possible opposite of boring."He laughed and said, "I guess it is, but it's not that unusual for us, Jake.  Trust that we'll get the job done."Suddenly

the red light came on at the back of the plane and a loud hissing began

as the cargo area started to depressurize.  Jesse and the

others unbuckled, so I did the same.We

all stood and Jesse grabbed a couple of pairs of clear goggles that

were hanging on the wall and then he turned

to me and said, "Put these on.  We get to jump first.  It'll be harder

for me to

accurately steer our free fall with you attached to me, so we'll go

first and the others can adjust their flight to stay close to us.

 Don't worry about keeping your arms and legs out like you might

have seen skydivers do.  I need to be the only one doing that so I

can steer us.  Keep your legs tight together and your arms tight

against you if you can to present as little resistance as possible.

 It's probably gonna be a bit scary for you but it won't be a long drop

at all."He

waved me to follow and I put on the goggles he'd given me and we walked

to the back.  He went around behind

me and I heard a loud clicking sound as he secured himself tightly to

the rig of my reserve chute.  He

twisted the lever and punched the button to drop the ramp and we were

assaulted by the roar of the engines and the massive propellers driving

us forward and the rush of wind around the edges of the ramp.  He

lowered it until it was

down straight and level and he stopped it.He began to hustle me

forward along

the platform towards the open sky beyond.  I instinctively reached out

to grab at anything to keep myself from falling to the Earth as more

and more of it came into view, but there was nothing there to hold

onto.  I was hesitant to go forward but Jesse just kept pushing at me

so began to take small steps along with him until we approached the end

of the platform.I

felt my nuts begin to

tighten up and it seemed like my sphincter could likely snap a pencil

it was so clenched as I saw the world so far below us with nothing in

between me and it.  I could see beautiful snow-capped mountains and

massive tracts of deep green forests interspersed with small open

sections of tundra.  There were blue glacial lakes and rivers and

streams criss-crossing the landscape and at the edge of it all was the

setting sun, washing everything in a warm yellow glow and casting long

shadows everywhere.  It was beautiful, breathtaking, exhilarating, and

absolutely heart-poundingly terrifying.I hesitated when my feet reached the end of the platform and I

looked down and my heart began to race faster and faster.  I wasn't sure I could go

through with this.  It seemed insane to think of hurling ourselves down from this height.Jesse was snuggly

against me in behind and I could feel the ramp bouncing lightly as the

others lined up behind us.  Suddenly the red light began to flash

repeatedly and a klaxon sounded.  It must have been indicating we

were at the drop point.  I wasn't sure if I should just go over or

what, but Jesse let me know by simply leaning against me and we

both fell over the edge.I'd used the toilet just before Jesse

had come to get me in the RV and I was now glad of it because if

there'd been anything in me, I'd have crapped myself for sure.The sudden sensation of free fall made my bowels and bladder feel like they were about to release and I

immediately wanted to scream for my life, but I managed to contain it.Jesse

already had us under control as I tried to resist the urge to flail my

arms and legs and I just held them tight together.  He leaned so

we were head down and he brought his own arms back more as we began to

dive faster and faster and the roar of the wind as we accelerated grew louder and louder.The terrifying feeling began to fade after a few moments as we

kept falling and my body began to acclimate to the lack of gravity.

 It started to become more exciting than scary and I couldn't help but grin widely.The air was incredibly frigid and was a little hard to breathe, but not too bad.We

fell for

what felt like about a minute or two with the wind rushing deafeningly

past us

before I finally noticed the tiny features way down there on the ground

were getting much larger.  Small bumps were becoming large hills and

green patches were resolving into individual trees.  I felt myself

slowing a bit as Jesse pulled back so we were a bit flatter as he

tried to control our decent.  The ground quickly got closer and

closer and the excitement began to be replaced more and more by the

fear that something must be wrong.  We were going to hit the ground at

over a hundred miles an hour at any moment.  Then I felt Jesse tap me

on the shoulder to warn me he was

about to deploy.  I braced myself and quite suddenly I was yanked

hard to a vertical orientation by the heavy straps of my chute as

Jesse's chute snapped open and

quite suddenly arrested our rapid descent.  We began to slow

dramatically as the trees got closer and closer, but we also began to

turn

and move forward as Jesse guided the parachute towards an open patch of

land slightly ahead of us.As we quickly approached the ground I

brought my knees up to keep my feet well above the level of Jesse's

just as he flared the chute to slow us down almost to a standstill and

we hit the ground roughly, but in control.  He took a couple of

stumbling steps but quickly gained his balance as I dropped my feet

back onto solid ground.Jesse quickly unbuckled himself from me

and he undid the fasteners for his chute and dropped it to the ground.

 I did the same for my reserve chute.  We both took off our goggles and dropped them with the chutes. Jesse said, "Let's go over

by the trees to get out of their way so they don't come down on our

heads.  I looked up and saw several chutes already opened and

several more unfurling as I turned to follow Jesse.While he waited for all of the others to land he asked me, "So what did you think of the trip, Jake?  Did you enjoy it?"I

grinned and said, "I've never done anything that butthole clenchingly

exciting in my whole life!  I almost wish it was a longer trip.

 I never thought we'd get down so fast."He nodded and said,

"It doesn't take long in free fall if you dive to offer as little resistance as possible.  If we did a high open

instead, it would probably take a good ten minutes or more to get all

the way down."Before long all of the others were down and out of

their chutes and already forming into two groups, one with Jesse and

the larger group with Samuel.I

noticed Jesse and several of the others had a massive looking

watch with a stretchy strap on it.  It looked sort of like one of

those sports watches with GPS, compass and altimeter on it.  He

brought his up and fiddled

with it a bit, then moved his arm out to indicate our heading and he

took the lead.  We moved as quickly as we could through the trees

following him for nearly ten minutes before he stopped us."Comms and electronics on, settle in for the change," he ordered.He

reached behind me and fiddled with my pack at the top right and I heard

a brief electronic crackle come from the speakers on my helmet, then he

reached behind himself over his right shoulder and flipped the same

switch on his pack.  I saw the others all doing the same.Everyone

then fanned out and began to lie down on the ground on their sides and

I suddenly realized this could be a problem.  My wolf didn't know

any of these people.  They were strangers to me even in human

form.  How the hell could I stop my wolf from going into a rage

and attacking?"Jesse, this might not work for me.  You guys

must all be used to each other if you're able to change together like

this.  I don't know what will happen if I change in the middle of

this crowd of strangers.  My wolf might attack.  Maybe I

should go off into the bushes somewhere."He smiled and said,

"Sorry, Jake.  It never occurred to me that nobody ever explained

it to you.  If you go into the change feeling calm and safe and

nothing happens to change that in the middle of it, the wolf won't

rage.  There's a moment when the two of you cross each other when

you're on the way out and he's on the way in.  Just send him happy

thoughts and I promise he won't fly into a rage.  That must be why

things got so out of hand at Nazas.  If Grace and Elias didn't

know that simple trick, and they were already stressed out from losing

Cole and you, and terrified about what would happen, their wolves would

be in a panic too and completely out of control.  I suppose Grace

might still have had a problem since her link to the wolf would be so

weak, but Elias should be able to control it if he really tries.

 You're a kindred so you'll have no problem at all.  Just

tell it we're with you and everything is OK and it will understand.

 So long as we're not surprised by anyone or anything it will go

smoothly for all of us.  Trust me."I thought about what had

happened the first time I changed and it made sense.  I'd been

focusing on my hatred of the government agent and I was full of anger

and the pain was all new to me.  The wolf flew into a rage and

shredded him as a result.  If I thought good thoughts about these

men and how they were here for Cole, then the wolf should respond by

remaining calm.I nodded and said, "OK.  I'll give it a try."Jesse and I chose our spots and lay down on our sides to wait.Josh

and Jeb pulled their huge chain guns around and stood guard, ready to

cut down anyone who might try to approach while we were vulnerable.In

just a short while I heard several beeping watches.  Seconds

following that the first spasm hit and I hung on tight for the incoming

storm of convulsions.It was even easier to take this time and I

realized it would likely only get easier each time for the next

while.  Even severe pain can be fairly easily ignored when you

know it's brief and doesn't actually mean anything bad, like you're

dying or something.I

soon began to sense the awakening of the

wolf again and my heart swelled as though I was being reunited with a

long lost twin brother.  His presence grew as mine began to fade

and I

could sense his happiness at being given access once again to this new

power.As I slipped further down and the wolf

asserted more strongly I tried to think of the others as pack.

 They were here to help us.  We needed them.  They were

not the enemy.As the wolf become more aware I sensed his

understanding.  The pain was less of a concern this time and he

also seemed to know what to expect and he was not in a rage.  He watched my emotions and thoughts and he

understood.  These were the pack.  They were not to be

harmed.  He acknowledged what I'd tried to impress upon him.

 I felt relieved, and even that was noted by him as I faded into

the depths of unconsciousness while the shape of our brain became more

his than mine.The last of my ability to focus faded and I sank completely into the depths of oblivion.Eventually the brain took its final shape leaving

room for me to return and I began to resolve back into consciousness.

 I felt the wolf watching and waiting.  Without me he was

still just a wolf.  I felt his anticipation at gaining access to

this new intelligence once more.  To understand so much more about

the world than he ever could have done as only wolf.  I felt a

sort of sense of him greeting me and releasing control to me as he

turned to watch from the background.I

was already standing on

all fours.  I looked back and saw that indeed the suit had

stretched to perfectly cover the much larger shape of the wolf.  My

tail was

sticking out through the hole at the back but my haunches were covered

down to just above the first joint of my big back legs.  I was

covered from around my shoulders all the way to my waist just in front

of my hips.  I could feel that the helmet fit much better, though

I couldn't see it.  The large upper arms of the pack frame now hooked

firmly over my shoulders with the curved parts hooking slightly inward

to secure the pack from sliding backwards.I

looked over to where Jesse had been and saw

him standing and looking over at me.  He looked fantastic.

 He was so much bigger than Elias and Grace had been.  All of

them were.  I could see their scale next to Joshua and Jeb, who

were stowing their chain guns and moving among the pack to make sure

everyone had all of their gear still in place.  The muscular lupines

who

had both looked to be a little over six feet tall now looked much less

imposing as they walked among the gigantic wolves whose heads came

nearly to the lupines' shoulders.The

armor was impressive looking.  Now the leaves were all aligned

with the length of the wolves' bodies and it looked black and sleek and

deadly.

 They looked like serious killing machines.  The helmets

perfectly rested on top of their heads and conformed to the shape of their skulls to a point just behind the eyes

and the solid piece underneath protected the throat up to just at the

back of the jaw.Now all of those who had weaponry on their

packs had it horizontal and aiming forward well over their heads.  They could launch rockets ahead of

them or shoot their shotguns or launch their grenades forward.

 The door knockers on those who had them had stood up high above

the heads of the humans, but now they were horizontal and extended just

past the end of the wolves' snouts above their heads so they could look up to see the business end clearly.  The

knockers had large air tanks on either side and a fatter tube at the

back that likely contained a geared motor to pull the

tethered captive heavy steel bolt back into the chamber to reload the device for

another shot.They all looked like a pack of giant, black, deadly, cybernetic wolves.  It was awesome to behold.The

wolves had various colors of fur on their lower legs, snouts and tails

where they were exposed, with mixes of browns and blacks and greys and

whites.  I looked over towards Samuel and saw

that, just as Jesse had said, he had dark black fur in all of the

exposed areas except the very tip of his tail, which was white, and his

paws, which were a sort of dappled dark and light grey.  I noticed

him looking back at me, at my tail, then at my feet.  Clearly he

was seeing now that I was completely black, assuming my muzzle was.

 I still didn't know.He

turned to move towards Jesse and I heard him whining and barking in a

strange pattern, then a bland and low pitched computerized voice said,

"Take the lead, General."Jesse

nodded, then he turned and came over to me.  He looked me up and down

and front to back.  I noticed now that he was closer that I was a fair

bit higher than him and had to look down a bit to look him in the eye.

 I also noticed

the thin microphone I'd seen sticking up beside his head was now

perfectly

positioned beside the wolf's mouth.He nodded his head at me and whined and barked and huffed for a moment and then a slightly higher pitched

computerized voice came over the comm system and said,

"You're huge.  All black. Impressive."He winked and I nodded.I

heard Samuel growl and bark loudly and I waited for the robotic

translation, but there was none.  I guess he was just indicating his

impatience.  He was the alpha and had given the order to move and had

expected it to be followed immediately.At the thought of 'alpha' I sensed my wolf take note and begin to appraise Samuel more closely.Jesse

looked back at the leader, then back to me, and as if petulantly trying

to irritate Samuel just a bit by ignoring his growl to get moving, he

whined and barked some more and the voice said, "Ready to go, J-A-K-E?"The

voice system was fascinating.  It must be almost like learning a new language.  It had to take a lot of practice to

learn to use it.  Clearly it wasn't able to handle the myriad of

proper names it might have to deal with so they had to spell them out.I

nodded my readiness.As

Jesse turned to take the lead again I sniffed at him,

half expecting to see an aura around him just as Ben could do, but I

saw nothing with my eyes of course.  I smelled a great deal though, and

as I looked

inward I felt that I could see in my mind's eye what I smelled, just

like before.

 It was all white and all good.  I could smell Jesse from

before the change all over his armor, and I could smell Jesse the wolf.

 They were both just as good as the scents in the hospital had shown

Jesse to be

before, and the wolf took careful note and once again sent me his deep

approval of this pack mate.  The hint of grey I'd seen before had faded

almost completely to be

replaced by a sort of assurance that he would redeem himself.  I

could feel his loyalty and it was strong and sure now, but

it had indeed shifted.  I followed its source to a scent that was

strong on him too, Grace.  He was now completely devoted to her

and his loyalty went to her, and by extension to Cole and even to me and Elias.  He was loyal to her above even his alpha and the wolf took note of that and used it to further adjust its appraisal of Samuel as leader.As

we formed up to follow

Jesse I sniffed around at the others, trying to let superfluous

information slip by and focus just on their overall character.

 There was an unsurprising mixture of greys and whites, with some

darker streaks mixed in.  These were fighting men so it wasn't a

shock to see some darkness there.  Those clustered more closely to

Samuel had very little white in them.  They were more dark, muddy greys

mixed with black and only small traces of light.  The more surprising

was Samuel.

 He had a completely contrasting mix of dark black and bright

white in equal parts.  I wasn't sure exactly what it meant but I

assumed it had

to do with the fact that he was about to murder a bunch of scientists,

but that he felt that it was completely the right thing to do for his

people.  There were no grey areas for him.  It was all black

and white.I

thought about the fact that Samuel was a kindred

too.  Could he see these traits of character so easily?  Could he see

mine?

 Could he see Jesse's shift in loyalty and did he know what it

meant?  It must be easier as alpha to keep the ones most loyal to

you close, while keeping a closer watch on those who were not.

 That was likely the other reason Samuel floated to the top to

lead all of the werewolves.  Since he was kindred and likely had the

same skill my wolf gave me, it was easier for him to know who to

trust and who to exclude from leadership roles beneath him, thus

strengthening his position of power.I

remembered what I'd discovered about how important context was.

 Without it I couldn't really know what the meaning of the colors

really was.  It would likely take a lot of practice to get better

at reading it right.  He's had decades to practice it.  It was pointless for me to spend too much time

doing it now.  The time to hone the skill would have to come later.  Right now we had business to attend to.I put away the ability to read feelings and instead turned my focus back to paying attention to what was going on.The

pack seemed to be naturally spreading out into a sort of phalanx

formation with Jesse at the head of it.  He started out slowly,

likely thinking of me and the fact that I was still new at being a

wolf, but he quickly began to ramp up the pace.  I could sense the

joy in the wolf at working his body and running with the pack and I shared in it.We flew

across the landscape at astonishing speed and I felt the ground begin

to slope upward.  Jesse began to turn more and more to the side

and we followed him around the massive hill towards the other side of

it where the entrance to the facility was hidden.As we

approached the location he'd been working towards we slowed and stopped.  He turned to the

group and his right front paw came up and he made some odd patterns in

the air and then pointed to one of the wolves from Samuel's team.  The wolf nodded

and turned to the rest of the pack and pointed at four

others, who immediately moved in behind him.  He then quietly whined in an

unusual pattern and suddenly I heard the sound of small geared motors and I saw the side panel of the upper part of

his big backpack pop open and a sort of hinged arm unfolded and moved

a set of dark goggles forward and into place in front of the wolf's

eyes.  I could see a sort of greenish glow coming from inside the

goggles against the wolf's face as he went low and moved swiftly

forward to disappear into the forest followed closely by the four he'd chosen.As

I thought of the robotic night vision and looked around at the

interesting assortment of gear attached to the large packs of all of

the wolves around me and wondered what other goodies might be hidden

inside them, I resolved to remind Jesse later on to put in a good word

for me with G Division.  I absolutely had to get involved in the group

that got to design stuff like this.Jesse

then turned to the rest of us and indicated a new heading, and we moved further down the slope of

the hill and away from the direction the other wolves had gone, then we

began to turn again with the hill somewhere off to our left through the

trees.  Eventually Jesse stopped us again and checked his watch as

if to confirm his location.  He looked at us and brought his paw

up and sort of brought it down a couple of times and everyone crouched

low, so I did the same.  He began to slink forward very slowly and

we all followed.The

dusk was steadily fading towards complete darkness, so the low wolves

all dressed in black armor would be extremely difficult to see hidden

in the trees, but the wolves could see everything clearly.  One of the

things humans had traded for their improved color vision, was a greater

concentration of color sensing cones on their retinas at the cost of

light sensing rods.  Canines have a much larger density of rods than

humans, along with larger pupils to let in much more light.  I could

see so much more detail in the low light than I could ever hope to do

as a human that it was surprisingly like seeing as much in the dark as

wolf as I could previously see on a grey cloudy day as a human.  Before long we approached a tree line and off in

the distance at the back of the clearing beyond I could see a guard standing in

front of a large, solid looking metal door that was recessed a fair bit

into the hillside.  The guard was holding a

machine gun and leaning against the wall.This was it.  Cole was somewhere beyond that door.Jesse

observed the

area, and as he looked further up the hill he paused.  He then

turned to one of the other wolves from Samuel's group and raised a paw

to indicate him,

then turned and pointed up the hill.  I looked up where he'd

indicated and high up in a tree I could see what looked like a small

satellite dish and next to it was a large, metal, high frequency radio

antenna.

 They were mounted directly to a tall pine tree.  I saw the

other wolf nod and move off to the side as if looking for a better

location, then he whined quietly in an odd pattern like the other had

done earlier, and once again a set of goggles popped out on a hinged

arm and moved to slide into place in front of his eyes and he was

faintly lit with a dull reddish glow from the back of the goggles.  I

then

saw him begin to reposition his body so that it was angled up towards

the communications antennas in the tree and then he held steady.

 On his back were several of the small tubes that I'd assumed must

be the high explosive rockets.  The pack must also be emitting an

infrared laser beam that was painting the spot the rockets would hit,

and his

goggles were showing him the mark so he could aim more accurately by

placing the mark on his target.We all waited and suddenly the

radio crackled to life and a slightly higher pitched version of the

bland robotic voice I'd heard Jesse use earlier said simply, "Set."Jesse whined into his mic and I heard his deeper robotic voice say, "Go."Right

at that moment I heard a loud hiss and a swoosh followed quickly by

another and I saw two small rockets shooting up towards the

communication array.  One hit the satellite dish directly and it

exploded into a million pieces as the next rocket hit the tree's trunk

squarely and blasted it apart.  The top half of the tree fell and

took the radio antenna down with it.  It looked as though the

facility was not going to be able to call for help.Jesse

and the

other wolves all rushed forward into the open and straight at

the guard standing at the door, while I heard snarls and screams of

pain

coming from all around.  Off to the side I saw another guard come

out from the trees, staggering, and one of the wolves who'd split off

earlier followed him out and fell upon him to finish him off.  I

realized immediately that the other wolf with the goggles must have led

all of the others he'd taken with him to the locations of the guards

who were hidden out in

the trees, and set one wolf on each of them, ready to take them out

when the

word was given.  They would have sniffed them out to get a general

location, then used thermal imaging to pinpoint them from a distance in the trees.

 All of the other wolves who'd broken from the pack earlier ran in

towards us to join back up after dealing with the guards hidden in the

trees.The

guard at the door had already raised his

machine gun when he saw the rockets shooting out of the tree line, but

as the pack advanced there was another swoosh and I saw the smoke trail

of another rocket headed right at the door.  The guard moved to

dive out of the way, but it was too late.  The rocket hit the door

and the explosion killed the guard instantly as it blasted him out into

the clearing.When the smoke cleared the door was still mostly

intact.  It was damaged on the side where the locking mechanism

was, but it still appeared to be secured shut.  It must be made of solid metal.The pack came to a

stop and without a word another wolf came forward and his goggles came

out.  There were two longer tubes on his pack.  He was about to launch an RPG.  The wolves all went

very low and I copied them.The

wolf tensed and barked and a

rocket propelled grenade shot forward across the clearing toward the

heavy door and the wolf ducked low to avoid any debris from the coming blast.  I

remembered seeing how these deadly anti-tank weapons work on the

Discovery channel in a

program that was describing the weapons of war.  They're designed

to pierce the metal of armored vehicles with superheated molten

copper from an inverted cone in the warhead.  A small explosive

charge heats the cone to melting while forcing it to turn inside out

while stretching and expanding forward.  The molten metal slices

through armor like a hot needle and continues to expand to create a

hole right through the armor

for a much larger, delayed shaped charge to go through when it

detonates.  The business part of the explosion in effect happens

on the other side of the armor to utterly destroy everything and

everyone inside the tank.  Sure

enough as the warhead hit, the heavy door deformed and exploded outward and fell to

the ground with a smoking hole at its center.The wolves

immediately stood and began to move forward again and I followed. As the smoke cleared we could see into the entryway.  A

short way behind it was a set of double doors.  They weren't as

heavy and they'd already been blasted inward by the force of the

explosion.One

of the wolves

shoved at the inner set of doors and one opened widely while the other

fell off its hinges to the floor.  He went into the wide hallway

beyond and the rest of the pack moved to follow him in.

 Jesse looked back to see where I was and he seemed satisfied that

I was staying at the back, but still following.Just before I

entered I saw Jeb and Joshua taking positions on either side of the

entrance with their chain guns ready, to stand guard and protect our

rear.  I realized they were likely under standing orders not to

engage in combat if unnecessary.  The lupines couldn't self

regenerate so they were in greater danger than any of the wolves.

 They needed to hold onto their ammo as well for the important

task of protecting the pack when it changes back to human form.Beyond

the inner set of doors was a fairly long and wide hallway that led to yet

another set of doors.  This was likely to insulate the inner part

of the facility from the extreme cold of an Alaskan winter.  It had

been dug deep into the hill.One

of the wolves with a door knocker

moved to the front.  The double set of doors had a latch that

locked them together, and a round handle on each door.  He placed

the device against one of the round handles and leaned against it while

tensing slightly, then he barked and there was a deafening bang as door

shuddered.  Immediately I heard a whirring sound as the motor wound the

steel cable tethering the heavy captive bolt back into the chamber to

reload it.  The wolf stepped back and I saw a hole where the door

handle had been.  It had been blown right through the door into

the hallway beyond.  I heard shouts coming from the other side and

then I heard gunfire and all the wolves ahead dropped down.  One

who had a shotgun mounted to his pack that stuck out well past and

above his head moved forward and placed the barrel into the hole.

 He tensed and then began

to bark repeatedly while his semi-automatic shotgun blasted over and

over again sending

spent shells flying out from it to bounce of the wall.  In the middle

of it all I heard more

shouting and people crying out in pain and eventually the gunfire

coming from the other side stopped.He

pulled his shotgun from the hole and stepped back and

the wolf with the knocker stepped forward again and placed the device

against the latch that connected the two doors.  Another loud bang

and the doors both shuddered and swung loose on their hinges.  Even as they opened,

two wolves from Samuel's team who were armed with shotguns advanced

through them and I heard gunshots and shouting once more, then silence.

 They

continued to move forward and Samuel and his other men followed them.Jesse

hung back as the rest of us passed through the doors.

 To the right was another door.  Just a single one with

another round handle but no lock.  Jesse turned to one of his

wolves that had a knocker and nodded towards it.  The wolf turned

and placed the device against the handle and fired it.  The handle

blew apart, once again leaving a gaping hole in the door and it swung

easily open to reveal a stairway leading down.  Jesse nodded his

head to another of his wolves who had a shotgun and he led the way

down the stairs as the others followed.  I was last, and just before I

turned to enter the stairwell I looked down the hall and saw several

corpses of men who'd been killed by the shotgun blasts.  Most were

guards but at least one looked like a civilian, probably a scientist.

 I heard more gunshots and a great deal of shouting coming from

further down past the end of the hall.My

wolf smelled death in the air and I could almost sense it pacing and

anticipating the chance to get involved.  It knew why we were here.  It

knew these were the ones who held Cole.  These were its prey and it

wanted blood.  It did not seem to appreciate the idea of following.  It

wanted to take the lead.  It wanted to make these insignificant

creatures pay for what they'd done to Cole.I forced it to maintain its control and I turned to go down the

stairs and rejoin with Jesse's team.The stairs went down to a fairly large and open area with a bare concrete floor and walls.  There was

machinery all around that looked like generators and water heaters and boilers for

heating the building.  There was an open sort of hallway that

passed through the middle of it.  At the back end was another

set of double doors that was easily dealt with by the door knockers.Beyond

those doors was a shorter hallway with doors along either side

labeled for cold storage, kitchen, utility and maintenance, and

supplies.  At the end of the hallway was another set of double

doors with an electronic keypad beside it.  The doors looked

heavy, but once again there was only a single latching mechanism that

secured them both.  The knocker had to be used twice before it

finally broke the doors apart.  We continued on through and on the

other side we found a long row of cages to the left, separated by concrete walls.  It looked

almost like prison cells.On

the right was an enclosed area with thick glass windows in the upper

sections of the walls.  Inside the enclosure was a man who's eyes quite

suddenly went wide at the site of this group of gigantic, armed and

armored wolves barging in.I

muscled my way past all of the wolves and moved down the hallway

looking into each cell as I went.  Cole had to be here somewhere.The first couple of cells were empty but the next two were occupied by large wolves that were mostly grey and white.As

I moved further along to try to find Cole's cell I saw an open section

to the right beyond the windowed enclosure and what I saw there made my

wolf suddenly lunge forward to assume control.  At last here was

something it understood well and knew best how to deal with.  Prey.There

was a large metal table and splayed out on it, legs tightly strapped at

the four corners, was Cole!  He had several electrodes stuck to his

head at various points and the bundle of cables from the sensors

connected to various machines on the other side of the table that were

likely taking readings of his body's response to whatever was about to

happen to it.  He was conscious and snarling and snapping as he pulled

at the restraints to try to free himself.A man in a lab coat

with a long rubber apron and a full-face acrylic shield to protect

against any splatter was hovering near him.  He had large heavy rubber

gloves on.  His back was to us so he didn't see me.  He was wearing

headphones and he was bobbing up and down to whatever loud music he was

listening to.  In his gloved hands he held what looked like a large

bone saw.  He was powering it up and getting ready to saw at one of

Cole's legs.I snarled in rage as lunged forward and my jaws

closed on the upper part of the arm that was holding the saw and I gave

the wolf complete control to do what he felt was best.  I heard the man

cry out in surprised agony as the wolf lifted him into the air and

flipped him over and smashed him face first onto the floor.  The wolf

placed his massive paw on the man's back and pulled hard, and the man

screamed in pain until he passed out as his arm was torn from its

socket and ripped from his body.  The bone saw fell from the arm's dead

hand to the floor as the wolf tossed the arm to the side.The

wolf then grabbed the man's leg and swung him around fully around and

flung him at the enclosure with the glass windows and the terrified man

inside watched as the other man's head hit the thick glass and exploded

against it in a spray of blood and brain matter.I took back

control and I turned back to Cole and I tore at the straps that held

him.  I ripped them loose one after the other and he pulled his legs in

and wiggled backwards away from me on the table until his back end fell

off onto the floor and his front end followed.  He was wobbly from

being tied in the awkward position but he managed to find his legs and

stand.  He seemed confused and frightened by this massive, strange wolf

who was facing him, and his hackles went up and his ears went back as

he backed away from me uncertainly.I didn't know how to tell him

who I was.  I wanted so badly to let him know he was safe and we were

here for him and he had nothing to be afraid of anymore.I turned back to Jesse and barked desperately at him, and he loped over beside me.Jesse

lifted a paw and pointed at Cole, then he put his paw on my shoulder

while he began to bark and whine and huff in a long sequence of

sounds.  Before long his speakers started emitting his

bland robotic voice and it said, "C-O-L-E, this is J-A-K-E.  We're here

to take you home to your mom."Suddenly

Cole stood up straight and his ears came forward and he cocked his head

to the side as he looked more closely at me.  His tail came up and

began to wag so hard that his rump was moving side to side along with

it as he began to yip and bark and then he ran towards me put his

muzzle against mine and began to rub it up and down as he whined his

joy.  I whined back and I rubbed at his face with mine and licked

at his nose and my own tail began wagging like mad.  Cole jumped up on

his hind legs and hopped a couple of times, then came back down and

moved underneath me and rubbed his back up against my belly, then ran

back out in front and began to lick at my nose.My

heart soared at finally being with him again.  He knew who I was and he

knew he was safe.  The wolf smiled and understood as he watched the

reunion play out.  This was love.  This was mate.Jesse then barked and whined several times and the voice said, "We need to go."I barked and nodded and Cole nuzzled me one last time and then nodded to Jesse.The

general turned and walked up to the cells where the two other wolves

were being held and looked over into the windowed enclosure at the man

still in there, staring wide-eyed back out at us.  Clearly they'd

wanted to take no chances and must have used Cole's blood to create two

more test subjects yesterday during the first change Cole would have

gone through while in their custody.  That must have been their first

order of business before they started their experiments during today's

change that might put their valuable guinea pig at risk.Jesse

nodded to the wolf with the door knocker and indicated the enclosure.

 The wolf approached the door and placed the knocker against it and

fired it.  The man yelled and jumped to the side as the loud bang drove

the door handle through the door and into the room to hit the wall

right beside him.The wolf advanced into the room and the man began to beg, "Please, don't kill me!  I'll release them.  Look!"He

turned and began slapping at buttons on a control panel and we heard

the electronic locks on the cells release one after another all along

the opposite wall.  The two wolves who'd been held pushed out to join

us and sniffed at us.Jesse whined and barked and huffed and then the robotic voice said, "Come with us."They both nodded.Jesse nodded to the wolf with the shotgun, who led the way back out to the maintenance area and up the stairs.I kept Cole in

front of me where I could see him and Jesse was just in front of Cole

with all of the other men ahead.Before

long we came up the

stairs to the main floor and I could hear shouts of fear and pain and

general mayhem still coming from further in where the labs and

living area must be.We turned away from it and went down the

long

hallway, back through the destroyed doors, and out into the darkening

night.Jeb and Josh were still

standing guard outside.  It was only the second night of the new

lunar cycle so we would not be wolves for much longer.  Jesse had

been right.  It was a quick in and out.  The heavily armed

wolves seriously outclassed the limited guard presence.  Just as

he'd said, it looked as though the facility's only real defense had been

the extreme secrecy of its remote location.As

we emerged I saw Cole turn and he began to bark at Joshua over and over

again, then he turned to me and cocked his head, then turned back to

look at the large lupine.Joshua smiled and said, "What's wrong little guy?  Never seen a lupine with a chain gun before?"The

small wolf shook his head and Josh chuckled and said, "Well, don't worry.

 We're pretty harmless if you don't cross us.  We're here with Jake and we'll watch

over you and keep you safe when you go through the change."Cole

whined and barked at him once more and then walked around him as he

looked him over from head to toe.  I could imagine just how surprised

he might be at seeing Joshua.  I couldn't wait to introduce him to Ben.As though Ben was answering my thoughts I suddenly noticed the thwapping sound of helicopters off

in the distance and our radios crackled to life and I heard his voice

say, "Extraction incoming.  We're one minute out."Joshua

turned to the two new wolves and said, "You two need to go well into

the trees and change away from us and each other.  If you're new at

this you won't have proper control and you'll rage when you change

back.  Come back and join us when you're done.  If you don't, we'll

leave without you."The wolves nodded and split up as they ran off into the trees.Joshua then approached me and said, "Come on, Jake.  You and Cole should change

a little ways away from the others.  Cole might lose it if he's among

all these strangers when the change hits.  It's coming real quick."He headed out back towards the tree line and Cole and I

followed him.  We went a little ways into the trees and Josh said,

"I'll watch over you, but I'll keep my distance.  Cole, think

happy thoughts when you change.  You're gonna see your mom in a little more

than an hour.  Think of that.  Everyone is here to help you.

 Stay calm."The small wolf nodded and Joshua turned to head

back out of the trees and then he stopped a little ways away and stood

his ground  as he tilted his chain gun to level and swung it out in front of him on its support arm to hold it ready.Just

then the radio crackled again and I heard the low-pitched robotic voice

of Samuel's computer say, "Jeb, I need you.  Main floor at the

back.  Everyone else stay out there."Jeb

immediately disappeared into the facility.  Jesse and the others didn't

move from the position they'd taken near the center of the clearing.

 Jesse looked over to where I was, then back at the door.

 Then he barked and whined a bit and his robotic voice said,

"Settle in for the change."Everyone spread out again like before

and the wolves lay down on their sides.  There was no sign of

Samuel or his men.  They must have decided to go through the

change inside.Joshua moved a little closer to the rest of the pack to guard over everyone.The

sound of the helicopters had been growing steadily louder and just as

the first spasm hit I saw them clear the trees and settle into a hover

and then begin to descend to land at the far side of the clearing.

 The two Hueys were armed with chain guns and rocket launchers.

 It looked like we really didn't need Jeb and Joshua out here to

watch over us.  The two large gunships would make short work of any unexpected

threats that might appear.I

moved in closer to Cole before the next spasm hit and I lay right next

to him as the convulsions began.  He was on his side and facing me

as he began to tense and jerk.  The change went smoothly once

again and before long I was regaining consciousness, still lying on my

side, and there in front of me was Cole, naked and grinning at

me.  We waited as the last bit of squirming finished and our

spasms quieted.I sat up and pulled my helmet off and tossed it

to the ground as Cole got up and jumped into my arms."You

came for me!  I knew you'd come!  I knew you'd find a way!

 You came so quick!  I told those guys what would happen to

them if you found me!"We

both laughed and cried at the same time as we hugged each other hard."I was so scared for you, Cole.  I'm so glad you're safe.

 I love you.""I

love you too, Jake.  I love you so much.  How did you find me?  Who are

all the other wolves?  Who are those big guys who look like wolves and

men at the same time?  They can talk!  They look so cool!""It's

a long story," I said, "I'll tell you all about it a bit later.  Let's get

moving.  We're gonna go back to your mom and Elias in those

helicopters.  They're waiting for us.  It won't be long now."He grinned and said, "I get to ride in a helicopter?  Awesome!"I picked up my helmet and we stood and he grabbed my hand as we walked out into the clearing.Jesse

and the others were standing in the middle of the clearing and facing

the entrance to the facility.  I saw two naked men emerging from the

trees and moving to join them.I came up beside Jesse with Cole in tow and I asked, "What's going

on?  Where's Samuel?""They

must still be placing the

charges in there.  I don't know what's taking so long.  I

don't know why he called Jeb in there.  I don't really like the

feel of this.  Maybe you should get Cole into Ben's chopper and

get ready to bug out."I noticed Cole looking up at Jesse's face while he spoke, and he asked, "Do I know you, mister?  You look sort of familiar."Jesse began to turn red with shame, but before he could respond Samuel emerged

with several of his men and they stood right outside the entrance to

the facility.  They were holding their machine guns out

and ready.Jesse turned his attention to the alpha and asked, "Are we ready to

go?  Where's Jeb?"Samuel said, "Jeb will be staying, along with me and my team.""What do you mean, staying?  Why did you need Jeb?" Jesse asked."We

needed him to watch over us while we changed back, and to put down any

of the remaining scientists that might cause trouble.  They're our prisoners now.  We need them for a little

longer.  We'll

be holding this facility until we can get the research and the delivery

system secured to move them safely to another location along with the scientists.""Move them?  That was never the plan.  You were gonna destroy them!"Samuel

shook his head and said, "No, Jesse, I had no intention of destroying

them

this time.  If we did, we would only be causing the humans a minor

set back, just like the last time.

 It took them only a few years to do it all again.  If we

destroy it now they'll get to work on repeating all of their work yet

again, but next time we may not be so lucky as to find out where

they're doing it.

 This time, thanks to your friend here and the mess he caused at

Nazas, they'll have all of the werewolves they could ever want to do

research on, so we'll never have another opportunity to use one as bait

to track them.  It's time to end this once and for all.

 Nazas was a disaster and it exposed us completely to the world, but it

did

have one good outcome.  It enlightened me to a better possible

course of action for us.  I realized what we did last time was a

mistake.  We should never have destroyed their work, we should have

kept what they'd created and used it.""What the hell would you want a cure for?" Jesse asked."Not the cure, the delivery system.  I want the virus, and they've finished it.  It's perfect.""For what?  If you don't want the cure, then why do you want the delivery mechanism?""To

deliver a payload.  The opposite of what they'd intended.

 The researchers in there think they've isolated the cause of the

werewolf infection.  They needed to do it in order to try to find the

cure to completely control it all.  Instead of using the cure, we're going to use the cause

of the werewolf infection as the payload for their wonderfully effective little

virus.  It will spread the werewolf infection to the entire world in a matter of weeks.

 A true, global werewolf apocalypse.  Your friend's antics in Nasas made me realize this is the best

solution.  His small werewolf outbreak showed me the way.  I realized

the only way to beat the humans was to convert them to our side as

quickly as possible.  The

humans will no longer be a threat to us if there are none left.

 Everyone left standing will be a werewolf, and immortal.  It

will completely level the playing field so no one country can have any

advantage over any other.""That's crazy," I shouted, "You'd be

wiping out the human race!  There would only be werewolves and

they can only ever create lupines.  The human species would be

gone forever!"Samuel shrugged and said, "It would be no great

loss.  The lupine species is far superior.  The humans have

had their chance and squandered it.  They're destroying the world

they were given.  It's time to give it to the lupines instead."Jesse

said, "That can't be sustainable!  Think about it Samuel!

 All of the billions of people in the world will suddenly be

immortal!  None of them would ever die, but the lupine species

would continue what was previously the human expansion when all of

those werewolves begin to breed."Samuel smiled and said, "I've thought of that, too.

 There were many fatalities when the new wolves raged in Nazas.

 There will be tens of millions of times that many when the whole

world rages at once.  The weak will all succumb to the stronger

wolves, just as it should be.  The virus causes a very

debilitating flu and it will spread like wildfire through the world.

 The elderly and the infirm will die from the virus itself.

 The healthy ones will continue to sicken and the hospitals will

become overcrowded.  The sick will begin to fill schools and

churches and emergency shelters worldwide.  When the disease

reaches its climax and begins to be die off inside the hosts, the

payload it carries will be released into their systems.  Think of it.

 Massive crowds of people with the disease who are all lying in

close quarters will suddenly start to change when the next moon rises,

and all of those new wolves will be in a rage and completely out of control, fighting each other to

the death before their change is complete.  In one fell swoop all

of the weakest will be wiped out, and only the strongest will survive, to

be completely healed by the change back to human form later on.  The world

will be instantly purified by the basic law of evolution.  Only

the fittest will survive the first nights of the apocalypse.  I would estimate the world's population

would be reduced by at least sixty to eighty percent all told.  There would

be plenty of room and resources left for the lupines to claim, and

there will be a massive gene pool of progenitors to ensure their

viability as a species going forward.  It's the perfect solution.""I

can't let you do this, Samuel," Jesse said, "You'd be murdering billions!  Besides, it's too dangerous.

 What if it doesn't work quite right?  What if the virus kills everyone?

 The risk is too high!  It isn't right to just

eliminate the whole human species!  Who are you to make

that call?""I am your alpha!" Samuel shouted at the top of his lungs, "You will do as I command or I will end you here and now!"Samuel's

men all raised their rifles.  Jesse's men moved beside him and

raised there's as well.  The two sides were suddenly in a standoff.Samuel

asked, "What's happened to you, Jesse?  You were my right hand.

 My most trusted.  We saw eye to eye on everything.  I smelled you

earlier when we changed.

 It was the first chance I've had to do it since before Nazas.  I

likely would not have even brought you along on this mission if I'd had

a chance to smell you before.

 Something's changed in you.  Your loyalty has shifted.  You used to

follow me without question.  It's why I

gave you the position you now hold.  You used to follow your

instincts and trust in your alpha."Jesse said nothing, and

Samuel's eyes narrowed and his voice lowered as he looked over at

me, and then back at Jesse and said, "Or is it that you've been looking

for a new alpha?"Jesse turned to me and said, "Get Cole to the helicopter.  Get out of here.  Let me deal with this.""Do

not take one step!" Samuel warned.  He turned to his men and said,

"If they make for the helicopter.  Kill the boy first."The men responded by aiming their weapons right at Cole.Jesse moved to block them and protect Cole and I stood next to him."Let

us go, Samuel.  You can do whatever you want here.  I doubt

we could stop you.  There's no reason to harm the boy.  There

are two helicopters.  You only need one.  Let us take the

other and bring Cole home to his mother."Samuel said, "No.

 I think not.  You've commanded my army too long, Jesse.

 I don't know how many might be more loyal to you than to me.

 I do know of a few that I can trust though.  Jeb is one, for

instance.  Many of the lupines see things the way I do.  They

don't like the humans.  They have no qualms about replacing them

with progenitors.  You're right though, we do need only one

helicopter."Samuel

raised his hand and motioned at the Huey

being flown by the other lupine.  Both helicopters still had their

engines spooled up and rotors spinning while they waited for everyone

to get aboard.

 They must have heard everything Samuel was saying over their radios.Suddenly I heard the engine whine on the helicopter Samuel had motioned to as the pilot added torque to

the collective and the helicopter began to lift off and turn to face

Ben's chopper.Ben saw what was happening and reacted fast.

 I heard the turbine engines strain as he added collective to his

own Huey and it began to lift off the ground.The pilot of the

first helicopter squeezed the trigger and I saw the chain gun mounted

on the side begin to spin and it spewed fire as it began to shoot at

Ben's Huey.  Ben was already on his way up so he avoided most of

the gunfire, but I heard the staccato clang of bullets hitting the armor

just as he popped up out of the line of fire.Ben deftly maneuvered his Huey as he kicked the

rudder and the tail of the chopper suddenly swung around as he nosed it

over to face the first helicopter.  There was a hiss and a swoosh and a pair of rockets shot

out towards the other chopper.  There was no time for the pilot to

react and one of the rockets impacted just below the rotor while the

other went into the cockpit.  The Huey exploded into a fireball as

it's own fuel tanks detonated and the rotor was blown apart as the chopper crashed to the ground.  I

saw a piece of it  zoom out and ricochet off of Ben's chopper and

I saw a puff of smoke go up, but it didn't seem to do any serious

damage as Ben was able to maintain control and he kicked the rudder

again to bring the tail back and face the helicopter towards Samuel and

his men.Samuel roared and his men brought their rifles around to

shoot down the Huey, but I heard a loud whirring and suddenly there was

a different and much louder roar as Joshua's chain gun began to unleash

a hail of bullets that swept towards Samuel and his men.  One of

them dove to the ground and began shooting at Josh and he was hit in

the neck and went down, blood spewing from the wound.Several

of

Samuel's remaining men began to fire on us and everyone hit the deck

and Jesse dove right on top of Cole as several bullets ricocheted off

his armor and I heard him cry out in pain.Samuel's other men quickly dragged him back into the facility to protect him.Jesse's men

began to return fire, but it was too late.  The last of Samuel's

men lunged into the facility as we heard Samuel's voice shout over the

radio, "Jeb, we need you at the entrance!"Jesse

stood back up and I saw him bleeding from a wound on his leg as he

shouted to me, "We've got to get Cole out of here before Jeb gets here

with that chain gun!"Ben

was already bringing the chopper to the ground as everyone stood back

up, and I hustled Cole along

as we all ran towards it and began to pile aboard.  Jesse was limping

as he followed us in and he moved to the front and hopped into the

gunner's seat next to Ben.  I secured Cole in one of the seats in the

middle of the large helicopter and then I moved up between the two

seats at the front.Just as Ben

was beginning to lift off we saw Jeb emerging and his chain gun began

to spin up.  Before he could get a shot off Ben thumbed the weapons release and I heard the familiar

hiss and swoosh and Jeb suddenly dove back inside as a pair of rockets

rushed towards the entrance of the facility.   They impacted just

short of the entrance and they blew a crater in the ground.

 Before Ben could get another shot off Jeb emerged again, but this

time he was running at an angle toward the tree line at top speed."Get us the hell out of here!" Jesse shouted, "If he finds a good position he'll be able to shoot us down!"Ben

nodded and he pulled the collective higher as he pushed the stick

forward and the engines roared to compensate for the sudden increase in

load as the chopper began to rise and slide forward towards the hill at a faster and

faster rate.  Down below I saw Jeb stop and turn and his chain gun

began to spin up again, but it was too late.  Just as the flash of

fire erupted and the first few bullets hit underneath us at the back we passed over the tops

of the trees and out of his line of fire behind the hill.  I suddenly heard the

engines change tone, then they recovered."Shit!  He hit a fuel line!" Ben shouted."How bad is it?  Can we make it back?" Jesse shouted.Ben

looked at his panels and nodded and said, "I think so.  We're

loaded down heavy, but I think at the rate we're using it we should have enough to make it back.

 It'll be close."Jesse said, "Radio to base.  I need

to talk to someone out there I can trust.  We need to lock down

the armory and the vehicles."Ben shook his head and said, "Can't

do it.  I got hit by a piece of that other Huey's rotor.  It

took out the radio transceiver."Jesse shook his head and said, "Shit.  Well, we'll be back soon enough."He

turned to me and said, "That fucking crazy bastard!  I told you he

was starting to get flaky, Jake.  I had no idea he'd gone right

over the edge.""What now?" I asked.Jesse thought about it

and said, "He won't be able to use the short range comms to get help.

 We destroyed the communications array for the facility, so he

can't call out for help that way unless they can get it working again.

 The satellite dish is toast but they might be able to repair the

high frequency antenna.  We need to get Cole back safe first, then

we need to head back here and finish what we started.  We need to

destroy that facility before Samuel can get that shit secured and transported out of there.""What if he manages to get that radio fixed?  What if he calls out for help before we can get back there?" I asked."We

just have to hope that doesn't happen before we get back to base.

 Nobody else will know what's happening

yet.  I'm still the general of our militia as far as they're

concerned.  I'll need to get on the horn and try to secure all of

our other compounds before we head back out here.  I need to get

those who are loyal to me to lock out everyone else.  We can't let

anyone get hold of an aircraft that could carry Samuel out of there

before we can get back to finish them off.  It'll all come down to how

many are with him in his crazy plan, and how many will follow me,

instead."Ben

said, "I can't

believe they killed Joshua.  I can't believe Jeb sided with them!  He's

always had bad feelings about the humans, but I didn't know it was that

bad.

 I'm not a big fan of the humans, but I don't see any need to

destroy the whole species!  Whatever progenitors Samuel makes, that's

all there'd ever be!  There could never be any more, because there

would never be any more human babies!"I nodded and said, "The

werewolf numbers could only ever go down from that point on.  I

think his biggest concern is the lupines, though.  He just wants

to give his children their best chance.  It's insane to do it at

the cost of the whole human race, though."Jesse said, "We'll

stop him, Jake.  Don't worry.  He's the alpha, but I've been

the commander of our army for a lot of years.  In a way I've got

more power than he does, but It'll be hard to figure out exactly who to

trust from now on.  We'll need to be careful."We settled in

for the flight back.  It would take longer to get back in the

slower Huey than it did to come out in the Hercules but at last I'd have my whole family back together again.With any

luck, Jesse would be able to send someone back to destroy the facility

before Samuel could slip away with the research and the scientists.If not, the whole world might be in for a very sudden, and very dramatic change.