It was hard to hide her disappointment. When she heard her name called in this literal den of wolves she was expecting to see her friend but it was a stranger that approached. His blond shaggy hair and pale eyes gave him a distinctly Cali surfer dude look. At least it was an attractive stranger coming to meet her. Gabby righted herself, glancing at Mariah for some kind of cue but the woman gave her nothing to work with.

"Yes, I'm Gabby. I apologize I don't know your na-"

"Mariah, what the hell is this?" He had walked straight past her.

"Matt, keep your voice down. It's still early."

"Everyone is awake and you know it. Three pack members are dead and you come back here with a human? That's who you saved?"

Gabby hoped the look she gave Mariah to freaking do something was subtle enough. Whether or not Mariah got the message she was surprisingly nonchalant about half of the room beginning to actually growl.

"If you know her name, you'd know she's the one who saved my apprentice AND most recently almost every Roamer in the University Den. They were all notified to move out beforehand thanks to this-"

Gabby couldn't remember the last time she'd endured a noogie "-cute little creature. She tipped us off that the church was on the move."

Matt stepped back. "Is that true?"

Gabby chewed on how to respond. "As I said, I wish I was able to help everyone but its not always possible."

Matt still had his eyes narrowed when another person- or- wolf, came over. She looked to be in her mid fifties and her eye lids were puffy from crying.

"I d-didn't know we had a-any humans that didn't hate us. Thank you." The woman licked her on the cheek. Gabby did her best not to wince as she tried to absorb all of that information at once. Now they were surrounded, but only part of the group seemed to be of the same mindset of the first woman. Some of them felt like they were circling prey. Gabby was mumbling thank yous, your welcomes and condolences just as fast as she could feeling a little dizzy. It took Mariah much longer to become sick of the interaction than Gabby hoped it would.

"Back off back off! She's not here to see you all anyway! Who knows where Sheira is?"

"You're really going to take that thing to see Alpha Sheira." A woman wrinkled her nose. She had not gotten out of her seat.

Mariah stalked up to her. "I am. And as usual, you're going to sit there and mutter to yourself like old church ladies. Now, do you have an answer or were you just airing out your tongue again?"

Gabby was more worried about the young man sitting beside her. He at first seemed terrified but she was wrong. It was anger. Disgust. When their eyes met, she backed up to stay behind Mariah. She was alarmed to see Matt take a seat near the pair actively sending waves of hatred towards her. Then she noticed he wasn't sitting with them, but a group in front of the same fireplace. These ones looked more curious then angry. One of them with a round face and smile even gave her a quick wave. The guy and girl next to her studied her with an alarming intensity.

"I do!" The girl who waved raised her hand. The girl next to her rolled her eyes and mumbled something. Her hand went down and she stood up. "They are in the 5th conference room."

"Great. Lets go." Mariah headed out of the lobby to Gabby's incredible relief. She turned to say something and noticed the girl trailing just behind. "Annie... why are you following us."

"Oh well you said lets go..." she tucked her chin. To Gabby's surprise Mariah shrugged.

"Whatever but you probably can't come in."

"I just wanted to introduce myself." Annie explained as they walked. "Chris talks about you so much."

"He does?" Mariah and Gabby asked together.

Annie gave a guilty smile. "Matt and I haven't told anyone. I know he tries not to but I mean it doesn't really count since you..." her eyes got wide and she looked her up and down then turned to Mariah. "WAIT! Does he know-?"

"Nope. We don't talk about our spies unless they become compromised. So don't tell him she's here for a visit until I can... explain to him how first."

Annie's smile faltered. Gabby was becoming more confused by the second. This Annie person was kind enough to offer her shoulder for Gabby to lean on. It considerably improved her pain when she didn't have to use those muscles as much. Luckily the fifth conference room wasn't far once the got outside the lobby into the hotel proper. She leaned on the wall to help her hop down. Annie offered her another hand at the bottom but Mariah told her she looked hungry and should have breakfast. It wasn't a suggestion.

Alone in front of the door Mariah whirled on Gabby.

"I think a lot of the pack is scared of me."

Gabby forced her drug-heavy eyebrows up. "You don't say."

"Yeah, its weird. My point is you need to be careful about moving far from me. Annie isn't dangerous but others might not be offering you favors or protection."

"Protection? Whoa whoa I though you said spies are generally liked."

"Well they might be... since you are the first one I'm not sure."

Gabby thought she might actually pass out now. "Oh." Was all that came out.

"So here's the plan we are gonna bust in that door, just like earlier."

Gabby raised her hand and Mariah pointed to her. "Yes, Gabby?"

"If I mess up how likely is it going to be that I'm actually killed."

Mariah gave a nervous chuckle. "Pretty high. So follow my lead."

"Mariah- Mariah what does that mean-"

She wasn't kidding about the 'bust' part. Gabby was almost hit in the face when the door bounced back.

"Sorry we're late!" Mariah strode in, and, not knowing what else to do, Gabby limped after her doing her best to look nonchalant as well. The conference room was more like a small auditorium with rows and rows of chairs facing a center podium. Currently two people seemed to be changing as speakers. So at least they didn't technically interrupt.

The floor was hard-packed clay, with a few areas that had a shine of opaque, pearl-toned protrusions, rounded at first with little claws curling out and up. The room was shaped in a dome. Above her she could see arches of stone, burning bright candles and she realized where the little mounds on the floor came from as hot wax sprinkled and slid from above like hot syrup. There was something in the air like spices- or evergreen. It gave her the sensation of a dreaming about a campfire right before snow fall and the eeriness of her eyes telling her otherwise made her shiver. This was not a place for humans. It felt like she'd stepped off a hiking trail to stomp her ungainly boots all over the newly growing earth.

Mariah walked straight to a pair of seats and sat down. Like she hadn't just led an injured human into a wolf den. Like she wasn't wearing said human's coat without anything but dried blood covering up the rest of her body. Mariah crossed her legs and put her temple against her knuckles as thought bored already. Gabby took a more relaxed approached but didn't dare look up at any of the faces. The silence that followed pressed down on her. It was difficult not to slump in her seat. She had to pretend this was normal. She tried to picture any spy movies she's ever watched but all that came up were the bumbling ones who tripped the trip wires and used their actual names. Not off the mark for my abilities but not helpful right now, brain.

The still was broken by a small woman with a pristine shaved head by the podium. She was rolling something in her hand. It looked like she had just finished speaking. She gestured toward Gabby.

"I believe that is a human."

A simple statement of fact finally released the energy in the room. Growling and tutting, laughter both derisive and confused.

Mariah turned around, appearing annoyed. "One of our spies was compromised- what you expect me to let her burn in the fire after she saved almost everyone?" Sticking with that lie.

"Sheira. What is happening. You never mentioned you were employing human spies."

Gabby craned her neck to see who spoke but only could see the woman who answered. She had a feminine face and short cut of silver hair and extremely green eyes.

"Well they wouldn't well be spies if we did, now would they?"

Gabby turned to Mariah in confusion. Didn't she say she just made this up? Mariah gave her a dirty look. Follow everyone's lead apparently.

"This seems like a secret that should be shared with the Committee." Someone snapped. "Involving humans when you yourself have seen-"

"I think Mariah can better explain her benefit. And the tight, tight leash she has her on."

If Mariah was worried about this she played it off well with a sigh. "We basically had this one tailing the church. Now of course she doesn't know much about it. And she has a specific use- pretty good at drawing which is much less obvious than a camera. And she blends."

"That makes no sense."

"Yes it does." Mariah snapped, standing abruptly so the coat whipped around. It would have looked epic if her ass weren't now completely visible. "I field tested her long before. Try chasing around people with a camera- wasting another betern's time with that kinda shit. Now this here."

Gabby felt Mariah's arm around her. "No one suspects her and her time isn't important. She can speed draw- you can send her into any public place and if someone got mad she were drawing them-" Mariah's voice lifted into a sweet high-pitch warble. "I'm so sorry I'm just an art student its an assignment."

That was a terrible impression of Gabby. It was a very good one of her trying to fit in with Claire's friends though.

"See?" The silver-haired woman- Sheira she supposed now, was smiling placidly. "Its useful to have a skilled human sometimes. Golden retrievers were meant to go pick up dead ducks. Would you rather go wade in the swampy water, Sean, or let the dog do it?"

None of this was easy to stomach. Gabby half turned so she now see the entire group. She had to swallow a shudder when she realized that not all of them had such human looking features as before. That couldn't be good. This also didn't seem like the place it was safe to talk out of turn.

Haha- look! A talking dog!

"The point remains." Another voice now. "It's dangerous to have them around at all. We let one human live before and-"

"I remember." Sheira's voice was steady and made Gabby feel desperately cold. "Thank you for your concern. This is a newer program we are starting, which is why I put Mariah in charge of her."

The group was split between murmurs of thankfulness and whispers of increased agitation. Good to know she was as controversial to them as Gabby found her.

"You all want to know why we picked this one?" Gabby saw a tall shadow behind Sheira reposition himself. The scarecrow. She remembered him. He was with Mariah. His expression was mild but she recognized the flickering of gold and yellow behind his glasses. Oh good. Another one that hated her.

Sheira raised her eyebrows and nodded towards Mariah, apparently having the same question that they all were pretended to be in on.

"Stand." Mariah commanded.

Gabby winced when she got to her feet. She wasn't sure how much eye contact was appropriate so she kept her vision moving. "You all know had a difficult chase. For about half a year. One of our youngest sapian born members. You probably have heard of him. This human managed to keep him safe from those monster cult members. Not knowing our rules of course, he told her what he was, as young males tend to do for pretty faces-" Mariah squeezed her cheek, "and she even let him stay with her. One of the taken Libraries was raided and he escaped because of her."

The library? Gabby kept her face still. So much of what she was spinning was false- was that true as well? Was it raided?

"-so we decided if she already put her life on the line for us once, any was willing-" Willing? HA! "-to continue to help we could use her. And as I said before. She left me a voicemail about an emergency yesterday. I wouldn't have gotten there in time to get as many beterni out as I did without her alarm. So. Do any of you have more whining about Alpha Sheira continuing to develop safety measures for the pack or do you want to continue with the briefing and I can go over what happened at the U den?"

"I want to know why you brought her back."

Gabby tried to figure out where the voices were coming from.

"What?"

"You said she was compromised. So putting her back out isn't an option- why bring her back her instead of somewhere else? Better yet, why not discard her if she is no longer useful."

"Jasmine you need to use your imagination."

This time Gabby could find the speaker. She was tall with long braids of hair piled coiled behind a grease speckled headband and seemed to be more interested in rubbing something over her callused hands than making eye contact with Jasmine.

"Enlighten us then, Stephanie." Gabby found Jasmine now. A flimsy, beautiful woman whose expression was flirting with fury.

"As Mariah says, our little doggie here can draw. Why don't we put her to use drawing us, then."

For some reason the room became raucous. Gabby caught pieces of conversation

"-don't have anything like it-"

"-disgusting! Digusting!"

"-could be useful is-"

"-always making a scene why-"

Mariah cackled horribly as the Scarecrow attempted to shut everyone up, finally managing when he made a horrible, pounding sort of roar and hurled what looked like a handful of teeth into the candles above. "ENOUGH. We have until the forth one falls to conclude what we need to discuss and have much more important things to worry about then a human toy. Sheira, as merciful as we-" Gabby noted the smallest of jaw twitches. "planned to be, clearly we should not have done this without reviewing it first. Lets kill her and move on to more pressing matters."

Gabby felt her Chinese food moving in her stomach. This sounded like the most pressing thing to her, personally.

"I feel this is very pressing, Scott." The woman who first pointed her out was standing near to the door looking down at whatever she held in her hand. Her voice was firm. "Henry, I believe you had something to show us- correct?"

Gabby heard an anxious throat clear. "That is correct, Krystal. Perhaps maybe on a less, intense occasion."

Krystal shrugged her shoulders. "A matter for later anyway, some of us our late for interviews. My vote is to keep her as a pet. I'm curious what she can be taught." Gabby watched a number of people come down from the seats including the large angry man who had to be convinced she was a dog. By the time the group left only about half of the stone seats were still full. A pointed 'click' let them know a tooth had fallen with some candle wax.

"What do you got?" Mariah demanded of the nervous looking Henry who started to explain it wasn't related.

Sheira cocked her head. "Krystal seems to think they two are related."

"Well we did find, that book- play actually with the picture-"

"A photo? Forbidden for a reason!"

"No- no. An illustration. Of Rose. It's beautiful actually and the play even has comedic parts-" he coughed as the expression on Scarecrow's face went more foul. "That is what I was going to announce if not for our terrible news but since Krystal left I'm afraid I'm not understanding what she meant."

"Krystal was just explaining what I was." Stephanie pointed to her. "If the girl can draw, put her to use until we can have her do something else. It's a waste of a perfectly good pet with all the time and training put into her to just throw her away when it's a little inconvenient." She gave her a look up and down. "And she won't eat nearly as much as a betern so she won't be a burden."

There was rumble of agreement and less dissent as another tooth 'plinked' to the floor. Mariah was grinning but Gabby's mouth felt sour. She wanted to object to being referred to as a 'pet' and a 'dog' but at the same time knew this truly was about her staying alive. And she had to watch, helpless and weak, for them to decide.

"I still think you should have discussed this with us earlier, Sheira, but I am willing to see the results of your experiment. I'm just hesitant seeing what I have. Young lady, are you scared of us?"

For once she didn't think to lie. "I'd say in awe is more appropriate."

The woman- the creature, chuckled. She had the rounded wrinkles of a good-tempered granny. "I'd say why not give her a shot then. Let's take it to a discussion."

Sheira gave her a broad smile. "Agreed. Then we can more on to the next topic. Such a strange, sorrowful day we've had. Mariah." Sheira turned her green eyed stare on them. "Please escort... Gabby, to your room and have Lucy wrap her leg better. I will need to speak with you after we are done here to make preparations. I'd like to hear that voicemail as well."

"Of course, Alpha Sheira."

To what should not have been Gabby' great surprise, Mariah stuck out her tongue at Scott the scarecrow as she passed. Another tooth clinked to the floor.

She felt dizzy as the pushed out of the paleolithic room back into the rustic modern lodge. Annie was back, smiling hesitantly as she popped up from her seat on the ground. "They grabbed all my friends so breakfast got boring. I'm so glad to see you're still alive!"

"I-I am." Gabby tried to straighten up and not look so relieved. "It was nice to see Alpha in person even if Mariah was a little rude about the entry."

Mariah looked hurt. "When was I rude?"

------

Gabby was hopping toward Mariah's room with what she hoped included a bed when a door pushed open behind them. Annie inhaled sharply. "You want to say hi??" Annie urged in a whisper.

To say hi? Her raisin brain took a second to catch up.

Chris. Finally.

And he looked exactly like she expected him to. No longer were his cheeks sunken in or were there deep circles under his eyes, cuts over his lips and nothing but bones under his shirt. The color she'd seen from the poster had returned to his face and he appeared athletic, his curls were darker with sweat but not greasy like before and she noted the rough line of facial hair across his jaw with the expected blemishes for his age. He looked so healthy!

She was disappointed to see not only did he not look happy to see her, when she awkwardly saluted him he even backed away. His copper eyes were wide, almost like with fear, until they turned to Mariah. She heard Annie whimper as Mariah shoved something into her hand and pushed them both backward.

Annie tugged Gabby away. "We are going to go straight to the infirmary- actually-"

"What- but why-? I want to talk to-"

With surprisingly strength for such a little thing she threw Gabby over her shoulder and took off leaving Gabby to wonder just want happened to cause the gust of heat to blow over her.

It was hard to act like a badass spy after being carried away and then doted on. Annie was gently brushing out her hair in what Gabby was told was Mariah's room. She would have believed it no matter who said so. It was a dump. But a fascinating one. Gabby wondered what Mariah would say if she told her that was how she thought of her too.

"I can do that, you know, its my leg that was injured not my arm."

Annie puffed herself up. "No. Mariah said to take care of you."

She'd already done that ten times over. She helped the two ladies in the medic area clean and rewrap her wound. She'd found her some clothes that would fit, clean towels, even cleaned off the second bed Gabby didn't realized existed under all of the junk.

"Annie. I get the feeling you would be this nice to me even if you weren't told to be. Mariah said most werewolves don't like humans."

"Well first off we aren't werewolves- we are betern."

Gabby considered hearing this word before. "Is it rude to ask the difference..."

Annie grinned and put the brush down. "I personally don't have an issue with it, but the idea of werewolf is a human that can turn into a wolf or some human-wolf intermediate. A human concoction. Were-wolf, man-wolf- is kind of reductionist."

"Right."

"But I'm not a human. I never was. And although I can change shape its not like being human is my 'real' form. I can look three different ways, two of which seem to mimic other species. Its just... for some reason we can only be born of humans and wolves currently. But again, I don't care. Other betern will be angry though. Mostly because humans depict them as monsters."

"I guess... I could understand that. Is that why ya'll don't like us even if you had human parents?"

"Humans probably destroyed most of us. The history is spotty still so its mostly just a guess. But then I think some of us aren't even mad. They just miss their old lives. Done- you like it?"

Gabby turned her hand over the plaited braid and almost felt her eyes water. She thought of Claire's insistence on clothing her and doing her hair. Her hands had been kind too but this felt different. This was kindness only for the sake of kindness. She'd been thinking of all of them like Mariah this whole time. But they were different. She knew that. But still... it was good to be reminded.

Her voice started to crack and she caught herself. She was supposed to be a spy. Unflappable. "Thank you, Annie."

Annie flashed her a grin made extra cute by a small gap in her front teeth. She was about to speak again when there was a commotion at the door, a thump and then the handle started to turn. It clicked back into place. Gabby and Annie looked at each other as a polite knock followed.

"Um, come in?" Gabby invited, realizing a moment after she probably should have asked who it was but too late now.

Chris pushed the door open a little too hard, panting like he'd been running. He looked like he'd been running, sweat dripping down into his eyes. There was a blood stain on his shirt, a mark on his neck like a freshly healed cut. He looked distinctly more worn out then an hour ago. His bright copper eyes met hers with an intensity she didn't expect, shimmering near orange. "I need..."

"Did you and Mariah have disagreement or something? You look a little rough."

Chris only stared at her, mouth open a little.

"Chris? Is something wrong?"

He jumped over the bed, dodging Annie's attempt to stop him and stood in front of her, breathing hard, jaw tight. "I need..." he mumbled again.

She felt afraid but kept her chin tipped up toward him. "What? What's on your mind? Are you not happy to-"

His arm shot forward and his fingers wrapped around her throat.

*******************

Yikes!! Who knows what will happen next? Oh right. Me.

So the last few chapters were pretty dense with plot and excitement. I hope it didn't get too confusing. Let me know if it was. I feel like since I know what happens its hard to tell when I skip important pieces of information.

 The next couple will have different excitement ;)

So far I'm keeping pace writing and I HOPE that I won't have to skip a week. Wish me luck focusing on homework please. ugh.

-Andi