35

Ahote barges through the halls of the Alpha Assembly, his face a thundercloud and his strides long and purposeful. Several wolves open their mouths to address him before thinking better of it, returning to their tasks and conversations, glancing back when they think the elder isn't looking.

For your part, you attempt to maintain an assured demeanor, although your heart is doing backflips. You've rarely been allowed into the Assembly Hall before, and now you're speeding through it by the side of one of the most powerful wolves in the pack. This visit will cause gossip for weeks, and you're sure that everyone in the pack will hear about it.

You stay behind Ahote to his right, a position where the fewest wolves in the office will be able to see and identify you. You aren't invisible of course, but Ahote will be the topic of the day with you as a mere afterthought. Word of your involvement might not spread far from the offices if your luck holds out.

Reaching his destination at last, Ahote looks to you and whispers, "We'll get a confession from him," before pulling open a door labeled Naalnish.

A middle-aged wolf whom you recognize as one of the more influential members of the Assembly springs to his feet behind his desk as Ahote slams the door closed behind him.

"Assembly-wolf Naalnish," Ahote intones, "you stand accused of treason against the Haven pack, colluding with the United States military, and providing aid and comfort to war criminals engaged in illegal interrogations against the werewolves of Haven."

Naalnish sputters indignance, but you can see it in his eyes. He's guilty. It's just a matter of wringing a confession out of him.

Ahote steps back, giving you the floor.

Fighting a bureaucrat like Naalnish on an intellectual level could prove difficult, but you've spent quite a lot of time studying for just such a battle of wits. That said, you should never underestimate the power of manipulation, or when all else fails, a display of violence might just scare the paper-pusher into submission.

The pages of your textbook appear before your eyes as clear as crystal. You decide that a little irony is in order and shut down the corrupt assembly-wolf with the text of a bill he himself cosponsored.

"'The Haven Anti-Corruption Act—'" You speak up over Naalnish's desperate gibbering. "—clearly states that when a member of the Council of Elders has reason to believe that any member of the pack has done harm to another werewolf, or has given aid and comfort to one who has done so, that elder may order an immediate investigation of the accused, including but not limited to temporary incarceration as the investigation proceeds."

Naalnish stares hate-filled daggers at you.

"That is the letter of your own law, is it not?"

"You know well enough that it is. Pup," Naalnish spits, carefully controlled feral anger in his voice. Naalnish walks with you out of the Assembly Hall, coming quietly and looking for all the world like he was leading you out into the street to share a quick lunch together. He may be guilty as sin, but he knows how to make people see what he wants them to see, that's for sure.

Once Naalnish is locked in protective custody, you return with Ahote to his office. The old wolf sinks into his chair with a contented sigh. "Now it's just up to Bly to procure the proof of Naalnish's guilt."

"Bly is working for you?" you ask incredulously.

"I've passed word through Jolon to Bly. She doesn't know that the intelligence is coming from me, but she'll be running a raid on Naalnish's house tonight. When she comes to us with her findings, we'll have all the proof we need."

You raise an eyebrow. The sly old bastard is working angles on angles. You'll have to keep your guard up, even though you're on his side. You have the feeling that Ahote may have favored wolves, but in the end you're all just pieces on his chessboard.

Ahote nods, a smile on his face as though he knows exactly what you're thinking. "Class dismissed."

Next

You return from the memory with a sharp shiver, a bitter wind rising up through the alley beside your perch. The wind brings with it the ripe scent of decay as bags of rubbish and waste slowly rot, tucked away in far corners and heaped within the confines of uninhabitable buildings.

The elders have often referred to Haven as the rotting corpse of a city, and now it smells the part. You can't be sure, but the last time the sanitation crew swept through the streets has to have been weeks ago; every adult wolf is now forced into one step of production or another, cogs in the gears of the human machine.

At first the Builders, wolves of manufacturing and metal, were grateful for the extra help in their labors, but as egos clashed and the wolves of the Alpha Assembly slowly accustomed themselves to working with their hands, production of the humans' goods barely peaked over the old standard.

It's whispered that the consolidation of the pack's workforce actually has less to do with productivity and more to do with control and cataloguing the location of each adult at all times. The days are for working, and the nights strictly for recovering for the next day's work.

Despite the military's curfew, the pack's youth chafed at being confined indoors during the late evening, and many risked reprisal by sneaking out to secret gatherings. There was a certain thrill to skulking about beneath the military's proverbial nose, and it almost felt like a game until one of your classmates was caught trying to steal a soldier's dagger.

The boy was rushed to the pack's doctor after being shot twice in the chest. The elders said he might never recover. The games stopped after that; reality finally sank in. The meetings continue, but there is a solemn quality to them now, absent the muffled laughter and merriment of the earlier gatherings.

Like most of your friends, you couldn't stay cooped up in your apartment for long, and soon you were breaking curfew with the rest of them. Who do you spend most of your time with during these secretive nights out?