"Please don't make me do this." The man looked up to the stranger clad in black, a knife dripping with blood still in his hand.

"You wished to be initiated? This is your task, failure is death." The voice was dark and booming.

"I can't."

"Then you die and another takes your place." He raised the knife ready to drive it into the whimpering man's throat.

"Wait." He held a hand up trembling. "Alright, I'll do it. I'll do it." He looked down, trembling at the body on the ground, it's throat slit. Bending over it he gulped hard picking up the arm and pausing a moment, trying to gather up the strength for his next move. Bringing it up to his mouth he bit down upon the arm hardly breaking the skin and pulling back as he gagged. Holding it in he bit down again, this time harder, shaking his head until he could taste blood. Again he gagged, swallowing what he'd gotten with a heavy gulp and another gag. Again he bit down into the arm finding it a little easier this time as he bit off another chunk of flesh and choked. The man dressed in black started to walk away, silently vanishing behind him as he took another bite.

Once he could see the bone of the arm he dropped it, throwing his hand over his mouth as he gagged and sobbed. "What have I done? What have I done?" His whole body was shaking now, pain ripping into his stomach. Grabbing his gut he cried out in pain, instantly throwing up everything he'd just gotten down. "Help." He cried out, a pathetic tone. Spitting upon the ground he could see one of his teeth sitting in the small pool of blood. Still trembling he reached up pulling out another tooth and being hit with another bolt of pain ripping through his stomach. It forced him down on all fours choking, drool trailing from his mouth and dripping with a bloody hue as he spit up more teeth.

His nails shed off, falling from the nail beds as his spine cracked and elongated. Two bumps rose from his head, skin splitting open and bleeding as bone forced itself through the pale flesh. He dug his fingers into the soil, skin sloughing off and leaving behind his boney fingertips, stretching and cracking to appear more and more claw like. Where teeth had fallen from his mouth were now long fangs, each one growing at a different length and thickness causing his jaw to crack and dislocate. He tried to scream but his throat collapsed pulling closer against his spin making him gargle and groan. Finally feeling his ribcage crack and snap he threw his head back, a loud howling elk scream escaping his lungs.

Alejandro started up the blender watching the combination of fruits and spinach whirl together to make a thick red slush for his smoothie. Looking up he glanced over to the swing to be certain it hadn't shut off. It was pretty peaceful now that Theo was sleeping. Things hadn't started out that great after Hamish and Vera had left, everything was great for the baby girl until she realized either primary caregiver was around. After that it was just screaming and crying until only recently. How had Alejandro managed to get the baby to finally quiet down? Easy, first step was putting one of Vera's dirty shirts in the swing with her, second was a little harder to pull off. It had been one of Vera's voicemails to him, a call he couldn't even remember some time after they had shared drinks together and told him to meet her in the reliquary to discuss Kepler.

Alejandro wasn't going to admit he'd known she had a thing with Hamish back then already because he'd smelled the wolf all over her. Not in the same way as the other wolves, their scent was just around but Hamish's had been everywhere. It permeated the reliquary and it was attached to her clothes as if she spent a lot of time with the wolf. Despite knowing his chances with the pretty brunette Grand Magnus were slim to none at least the voicemail on repeat was helping him deal with her little offspring with the wolf.

Pouring his smoothie into a glass he looked back to Theo before raising it up. "Want some?" Of course she didn't, she was a baby, she didn't even know what a smoothie was. Walking over to the napping newborn he looked down at her trying not to like her too much but it was hard when she looked so precious passed out like that. Alejandro had never been one for children, they were loud and messy, things he never liked. "So you are what the Gnostic Council had such a big fuss over." He smirked, taking a sip from his drink. "The Blue Roses wolf, you don't look like much there whelp." Once his phone started to ring he startled watching Theo's eyes open up, her head wobbling around as she tried to find where the noise was coming from.

Quickly he picked up his phone seeing the call coming in was from 'Spicy'. At least that was what he had her down under in his contacts. Answering the phone he put her on speakerphone so he didn't break the illusion for Theo. "Vera, hello?"

"Alejandro, we are on our way back, we think we are dealing with a wendigo."

"Wendigo?" He paused and looked back at Theo who was looking at him with a furrowed brow. Oh no, what was she doing? Theo made a little grunt sound which made him all the more concerned, don't do that.

"How is Theo, is she alright?"

"Yeah, she's been sleeping mostly." He paused and kept looking at the baby. "She's making strange faces though and grunting."

"Oh." Vera replied, trying to hold in a laugh. "You'll have to change her diaper then."

This, this wasn't what he'd signed up for. Hamish said watch the baby, not interact with and change it's diapers. Over the phone he could hear Hamish in the background. "Don't let her get too cold, she pees everywhere when you do."

"What?" Alejandro shook his head and looked back at the child. That made no sense.

"It's alright Alejandro, you got this." He could hear Hamish over the phone from the background again.

"Tell Hamish I thank him for his vote of confidence." He paused a moment. "I should go take care of this situation then." Looking away from the phone and out towards the window he hoped for a miracle, perhaps in the form of that plucky wolf and the bitchy one. "I'll be going then Vera, see you soon I hope." Hanging up the phone Alejandro looked back down to Theo who was looking so pleased with herself. "I can't help but feel this is your father's attempt to punish me for taking your mother out for drinks." It likely was, Hamish was a good guy, he meant well, but he also knew he'd raised Hamish's hackles at first with his interactions towards Vera and he could not blame him. His intentions had not been wholly just business with Vera either. If given the opportunity perhaps this little spunk would be his only, not really. Being older than Hamish meant he was also wiser and he wouldn't have stood for having an accident like this on his hands.

"Don't smirk at me like Hamish." Was it smirking? He couldn't tell but the corner of her mouth had gone up as if she was taunting him. Awkwardly Alejandro reached out for her, picking her up and trying to remember to support her head. It felt awkward walking into Vera and Hamish's room but that was where they had put the changing table so what other option did he have? Setting Theo on the changing table he noticed the room was pretty much spotless, bed was made, not even one shirt on the ground. It was clear Vera ran Hamish a little like a pet. Either that or Hamish was just as neat and tidy as she was which was possible having noticed the male had a bit of a feminine side to him.

"Alright, let's do this." It took him a little time to figure out the buttons on her onesies but honestly that was the most difficult part out of the way. Having five nephews and nieces he'd also changed enough diapers to know he wasn't a fan of it but not enough to be any sort of expert. "Don't do anything disgusting." As if the baby girl knew what he was saying at all. Instead she just looked up at him with her eyes squinted and brow furrowed like she didn't trust him. Alejandro was quick about it, opening up her diaper and gagging a bit at the crime scene. Why did people have these things again? Washing her up he got a clean diaper on as quickly as possible and stood there feeling slightly accomplished that he hadn't nearly vomited on the baby over this whole ordeal.

"There, let's call that even today. I tried to kill you and you just tried to kill me." He brought his pinky over to her for a sensible handshake in their agreement that they were now on even ground. What he hadn't expected was for Theo to actually grab his pinky finger and hold it looking up at him as she gurgled. Alright, maybe he could see a little why people had kids, she was cute when she wanted to be. He wouldn't admit that the baby made his heart melt a little, that would be total surrender but he'd admit she was pretty alright. The sweet little moment was broken however at the sound of glass shattering downstairs. Almost instantly Theo started crying and Alejandro picked her up holding her close. "I'll take an educated guess and say that's not your parents."

Alejandro tried to hush the baby up, bouncing her slightly as he crept down the hall. The sliding glass door had been shattered, glass all over the floor where whatever had been outside had found its way inside. Alejandro could head a slight growl, something knocking over the baby swing in the corner. "Alright Theo, you need to stay quiet." He told the baby as he set her down on the bed. "Don't go anywhere. I'll be right back." He took off his shirt and turned towards the door, his claws protruding through his nails as a low growl escaped his chest.

Downstairs the skeletal humanoid sniffed around, it's forehead still bloody from where two small horns had come through the thin pale skin. Its face was pale, skin laid flat over the bone and making it look more like a moving skeleton than a living thing. Eyes were sunken in and clouded over white making its eyesight poor but it made up for it with superior smell and hearing. The being was emaciated, walking on all fours with its four thin sickly looking limbs. It's claws were bloody long bone shards coming from the end of its fingers, flesh still hanging off its hands from the transformation. From the stairs the Jaguare crawled down, as silent as the beast for which it was made. The only way for the wendigo to spot it was when Theo started crying again, its attention falling upon the stairs and then the jaguar.

Leaping at Alejandro the wendigo hissed and tried to sink its teeth down into his shoulder but the jaguar was fast. Digging its claws into the wendigo Alejandro pulled it free from his pelt and slammed it down hard into the ground. Sharp fangs gnashed at him as the jaguar bit down on the creatures head listening to it scream in pain before it was silenced. From behind him the door flung open, Hamish huffing from his mad dash to the house. Vera pushed by him, running up to the stairs to get Theo. Jack followed in last looking down at Alejandro as he started shifting back into his human form. "You killed that thing. So, this whole thing is over now?"

"No." Alejandro stepped back. "This one is very new, maybe a few hours old.

"I'm going to check on Theo." Hamish pushed past Jack and stepped around Alejandro with his kill before following Vera up the steps. Vera already had the baby in her arms calming her down. "Is she alright?"

"Aside from being frightened?" She looked back at Theo. "She's fine." Vera looked like she was close to tears, the terror of losing their baby had been too real today and Vera had made it very clear to him that if something happened to Theo she'd never recover from that.

"Listen Vera, we can stay at my apartment until this whole thing gets resolved. It's safe there, you guys would be on the penthouse level. Nothing can get her up there."

"I shouldn't have left her today Hamish." She kissed the top of Theo's head never wanting to put her down again.

"If you had stayed back home then both of you might have died. Alejandro handled the situation. He kept her safe. Besides we needed you down there." Hamish put his arms around Vera and held her tight. "This isn't going to be our life with her Vera. It won't always be like this. You don't have to fear for her safety every day like this."