Caledonian Forest, Scottish Highlands, 2003

"Lon Chaney, eat your heart out."

The quiet murmur from her eighteen year old daughter made Helen Magnus sigh and rue the day she had allowed Brian, her current protégé to introduce the girl to the classics of horror cinema. For his part, the man chuckled softly over the comms in their ears, safe at their base of operations some 10 miles away.

Nearing his fifties, Helen knew she'd soon have to insist he step back from field missions, as this sort of work was truly for the young…except herself of course, but that was an entirely different situation. Finding a new protégé was never an easy task, as their specialized field was not one for which you could set up a recruiting booth at college job fairs.

"Remember, silence is a virtue when dealing with class nine hyper-accelerated protean live forms," she all but whispered, keeping her gaze focused through a pair of high powered binoculars.

While on a supervisory trip to the London Sanctuary, Helen had gotten word from contacts in Lachcarron that there had been some attacks on livestock in the Highlands. From their investigation, they had determined the involvement of Werewolves and Helen had been intrigued. She hadn't seen any signs of the rare Abnormals since she'd found two unfortunate souls dead in the moors some 18 years ago.

Unable to pass up the opportunity to observe and possibly contact these rare creatures, Helen had packed up Ashley and headed off to Scotland. Of course, they would have to ascertain the intentions the pack before indulging her scientific curiosity.

Needless to say, they would also have to find a way to encourage the weres not to slaughter any more of the local farm animals. Depending on whose report you read, Werewolves were believed to be either as sentient as any man or, conversely, barely capable of verbal communication. Helen herself hadn't had the opportunity to do a definitive study of her own.

Operating under the assumption that, like many Abnormals, the Werewolf pack would be more active at night ( a hypothesis supported by the nocturnal attacks upon livestock), Helen and Ashley had set out into the depths of the Caledonian Forest just after dark. The forest, which once covered the majority of Scotland, now only a fraction of its former size but was still home to a wide variety of wildlife, much of which was not found elsewhere in the British Isles.

After several hours, they saw a large creature descend upon a red deer, executing a swift, if bloody, kill. Making certain to keep at a good distance and far downwind, they tracked the gray furred Abnormal as it carried its spoils deeper into the woods. Their equipment allowed them to continue their surveillance without alerting the Werewolf to their presence.

Reaching the crest of the hill, both Helen and Ashley flattened themselves to the ground, peering over and receiving quite a shock. Amongst the trees were nestled a small cluster of cabins. They were all small and not all that impressive, but as the Werewolf approached, a man emerged from one, showing no signs of fear. The Werewolf dropped its kill and, before their eyes, morphed into the form of another human male.

This went against everything documented about werewolf behavior and society. Helen expected to be led to a cave, like where one would find a wolf den, not to cottages. True, there didn't seem to be any electricity, but this showed a level of cultural advancement not even considered by previous scholars.

Now she was even more determined to make contact with this pack.

"So werewolves are nudists. Who knew?" Ashley joked and Helen had to restrain her maternal urge to cover the girl's eyes. Even at the distance, it was clear that the transformed were was not wearing a stitch of clothing. Fortunately, they were too far for the view to be very scandalous.

But it would not be prudent for Ashley to look away simply because of a little flesh on display. Bad habits like that could get her killed in the field.

Down by the houses several other people have emerged, both men and women. They all possessed slim, wiry builds and dressed in coarse looking attire. In the darkness, not much else was clear and Helen murmured, "Brian, we're moving in for closer look."

"Be careful," he asked, knowing careful was a term she was only loosely familiar with. In this business risk taking was all par for the course.

Slowly, they made their way down the hill, taking cover behind rock formations and trees. They had closed the distance between themselves and pack by nearly half when the wind shifted. At once, every Werewolf in the clearing below stiffened, and turned sharp eyes in the direction of Ashley and Helen.

"Crap," Ashley murmured as the majority of the men and women shed their clothes rapidly before morphing into wolf form. An analytical part of Helen's mind noted that every one of them, save one, had a lush, grey coat. The lone outlier's fur was a tawny brown.

The wolves fanned out, moving with a speed Helen and Ashley had no hopes of outrunning. They would simply have to make a stand where they were if the wolves attacked.

In moments, they were surrounded on all sides by the large Abnormals. The sight was both terrifying and impressive. Beside her, Ashley stood her ground, weapon at the ready. Despite her youth, Helen knew she was well trained and would follow her lead…unless she got impetuous.

The tawny Were prowled closest to them, an almost speculative look in his golden eyes. Sinewy muscles shifted under his coat and Helen watched, fascinated, as a larger gray wolf let out a low growl. Big Gray's teeth were bared and his eyes openly hostile, but Tawny let out a low whine, not sounding upset, but more…questioning, almost like when Ashley requested permission to do something she knew Helen would not like.

"We're not here to harm you," Helen said, unsure how well developed their language skills were, in wolf form or human, but she hoped they'd pick up on her tone.

Big Grey snarled and again Tawny responded. After a brief moment, Grey huffed and let out a short bark before turning and trotting back towards the houses. Only Tawny remained, sitting on the dewy grass and regarding Helen and Ashley with intense golden eyes…which shifted to an arresting shade of green when he transformed back into a man.

He was young, probably somewhere in his early to mid twenties, with a strong but wiry build and hair several shades darker than his wolf coat had been. Crossing his arms across his scarred chest, he seemed unselfconscious about his state of undress, which seemed reasonable enough considering what he was and what he could do.

"Hello," Helen said again. "My name is Helen Magnus, with the Sanctuary. We attempt to help Abnormals co-exist peacefully with others. There have been some attacks on livestock…cows…locally and…"

"How much of that do you think naked guy is gonna understand, Mom?" Ashley asked, making sure to keep her own tone light and friendly so as not to startle the werewolf.

His eyes slid over to Ashley when she spoke and she gave him a little wave. Helen watched as he returned the gesture. That was promising.

"The cows," Helen insisted, contemplating how to get her point across and resigning herself to a bit of indignity. "Mooo…, cows."

"I know what a cow is."

Heavily and oddly accent though the words were, they were clearly English. Apparently, the sound effects were unnecessary. "Oh, thank heavens, this makes things markedly easier. As I said, we're from the Sanctuary…Have you heard of the Sanctuary?"

"No."

Clearly, he wasn't much for idle chit chat. From her spot, Ashley said, "I'm Ashley. What's your name or am I gonna have to keep calling you Naked Guy?"

Helen sighed, wishing Ashley had been born with tact, but saw a hint of amusement on the face of their new acquaintance. He met her gaze and said, "We don't share your kinds obsession with names."

"How do you tell everyone apart then? Identify them?" Ashley persisted, in her curiosity seeming to forget the fact that she was having a conversation with a sky clad man.

"How would I not know who they are? Everyone is different."

True enough. "What we'd like to do is speak with you about the recent cattle deaths," Helen persisted, but he shook his head sharply.

"Not us. Another pack…one that refuses to accept change."

"How so?" She couldn't help but indulge her curiosity.

The young man sighed and said, "Look around. Once this forest covered this whole land. Now, more dies every year. The cities grow and our ways must adapt. Two generations ago, we didn't live like your kind, didn't speak as you do, wear clothes…."

"Still having an issue with that last bit," Ashley murmured, causing Helen to shoot her a quelling look. But Ashley was not one to be quelled. "Also, Naked Guy just isn't working for a name. Hmmm…."

Now Helen was certain he looked amused. "What would you like to call me?"

The smile that crossed Ashley's face spoke of nothing but trouble, so Helen quickly interceded, "Perhaps, if you're willing, we could select something to call you, for our sake."

He nodded agreeably enough and Ashley bounced on her toes. "Ooh, Johnny…No, Dylan…Ewan's a Scottish name, right…."

"Henry," Helen said with a note of finality. If allowed, Ashley would continue like that indefinitely and eventually come up with some truly terrible name. Back at the Sanctuary, they had a resident (whose true name was unpronounceable by the human tongue) called Mr. Potato Head, the result of allowing a younger Ashley to select his name. They no longer did that. "Is that acceptable?"

"Yes," he said, then gave a downward glance. "Perhaps I should retrieve my clothes."

Without waiting for a response, he transformed back into a wolf and loped back to the cabins, shifting back to a man and pulling on the clothes he had left crumpled on the ground. One of the other Weres appeared and there was a short exchange, the other stepping into Henry's space, but he refused to back down. In the end, the other stalked away in a huff.

The trek back to Helen and Ashley was slower as a man, but he soon joined them, settling into the grass.

"What was that?" Helen asked, nodding back to the cabins and the scene of the confrontation.

Henry sighed. "Some still don't understand the need to adapt. Because I'm not blood to them, they take issue with their Alpha listening when I suggested we speak with you instead of taking defensive action."

"So, you're from another pack," Ashley clarified, "Like the one kicking it old school and ganking the cows."

He seemed puzzled by her slang, but was able to infer meaning from context. "I suppose that's possible. My parents were killed when I was very young. If I hadn't been taken in, I probably would have died down on the moors."

Helen wondered if his parents were the pair she'd found all those years ago. The timeline seemed to fit. "We'll need to make contact with the other pack you mentioned," she said, pondering their options, "Where can we find them?"

Henry looked up at the sky. "Sunrise is near. They'll sleep through the day. Best to begin travel shortly before dusk. I can take you."

"We're staying over in Lachcarron." Ashley pointed in the direction of the town where their hotel was located. "Should we meet back here or….?"

"No," He shook his head. "I'll walk with you to the edge of the forest and meet you there later tonight."

"Or you could hang with us for the day," Ashley offered. "I know mom has like a billion questions and the hotel is pretty nice. Pool, cable TV and ohh, hot showers! Do you have those out here?"

What Helen knew was the fact that Ashley would simply prefer to spend the day around someone closer to her own age, rather than with Helen or Brian. Also, she was fairly certain her daughter found young Henry attractive. The Werewolf was a bit harder to read, but then he smiled, white teeth flashing in the moonlight.

"I'd like that."

Ashley grinned, a slight flush flooding her cheeks and Helen gave a mental shrug. She supposed a pleasant Werewolf was more suitable than an unsavory arms dealer as the object of her daughter's affections.

With her own dating history, Helen figured she really couldn't sit in judgment of anyone, now could she?

TBC….

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