It was Jabbar who finally summoned enough courage to visit her, nearly a week later. He stood a good distance away from the half-opened curtain, clearly hesitant and uncomfortable. His brown eyes were locked on the floor.

From the bed, where she sat with a book forgotten in her hand, Evey stared at him for a minute, wondering if he was going to say something. When he didn't, she sighed heavily. "Get in, Jab."

He complied, moving slowly, cautiously, as if not to bother her. He stopped as soon as he was inside the cell, obviously reluctant to get any closer to her. He was still silent.

Evey was becoming annoyed. He had come to her, yet he seemed to expect her to do the talking. "Sit down," she told him curtly. Again, he obeyed without hesitation, taking a seat on the only chair available.

It was all very confusing. When she'd tried to get out – to escape – a few days ago, Evey had ordered the guards to let her through, and at first they had complied, although with a perturbed look on their faces. When Scabior had come running and cursing, they had suddenly snapped out of their reverie and moved forward to bar the way. Scabior, of course, had had no problem with physically restraining her and returning her inside the perimeter. Evey hadn't protested, mainly because she felt oddly ashamed at the idea of humiliating Scabior in front of his men. He wasn't a bad bloke. Greyback had messed with his brain, but deep down he had a good heart. In fact, he would make a fine leader for this pack, if Evey managed to take out Greyback.

Still, she was curious. She commanded Jabbar to stand on one foot and to hop in place.

And he did it. His cheeks reddened in either embarrassment or anger – or both – but he did it, and he didn't stop until Evey told him to. Then he just stood there, glaring at the floor.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake, Jabbar!" Evey muttered. "Sit down, you twit. I'm sorry, alright? I just don't understand. Why is it working on you and not on the others?" She recounted what had happened the other day.

"It didn't work because your orders contradicted Fenrir's, love," he said softly. "He told us not to let you out under any circumstances, not unless he directly ordered it."

"Oh. Right. That makes sense, I guess." None of it made much sense, in truth, but she was getting used to that. At least it explained why the guards had looked so conflicted. "Does that mean that Greyback's word still prevails upon my own? Even though I kicked his arse?" Evey thought she'd figured out how their hierarchy was structured, but apparently there were subtleties she wasn't yet aware of. Was it because she was a girl? To be fair, packs were, in essence, patriarchies – they'd always been, for the simple reason that all werewolves were male. The few women who were accepted by the pack – wives, daughters, sisters, mothers – were not actually part of it. They existed outside of it, and were tolerated. That was what Walden had explained to her, anyway. Evey had never seen a woman at the prison.

"Well, um, it doesn't really work like that," Jabbar said. He was speaking very quietly, as they all did when addressing Greyback. Croyd had explained that it was a mark of respect, but Jabbar had laughed and admitted that they were just afraid that speaking too loudly would anger him. "Whether it's you or him, or Scabior, we still have to obey you all. It's hard to tell who's more dominant between you and the Alpha, though. You're too…different. No offence, but you're a tiny girl and he's…well, you know." A hulking monster, in both human and wolf forms; yes, Evey was aware of that. "And you did have the upper hand, that one time, but you must have caught Fenrir by surprise. Not only had you just turned into a werewolf, in broad daylight, but people rarely attack him like that, you see." Evey noted that he didn't seem particularly shocked that Greyback had also transformed in the middle of the day. Maybe she'd been wrong; maybe they did know that he was something more than what he appeared to be.

"But a person would have to defeat him if they wanted to become Alpha in his stead, right? Hasn't anyone ever tried?"

Jabbar laughed. He was beginning to relax, Evey could tell, though he still wasn't looking at her. "Funny you should mention it, but there was in fact some madman who attempted to take over, in October last year. Alexei wasn't too chuffed to learn that Fenrir would be siding with Voldemort again, so he challenged Fenrir to a fight to the death for leadership of the pack." Jabbar shook his head at the man's insanity. "Fenrir was reluctant to hurt him, but after letting the man carve a few strands of meat off of him, all the while asking him to give up, he didn't have much choice." He made a gesture indicating that Greyback had slit the man's throat.

Wait, did he say October? Evey thought suddenly. That was when she'd been awakened by phantom wounds! At least now she knew the truth of that. Though all that revelation accomplished at the moment was to remind her that she couldn't share it with Walden and Antonin. She banished all thoughts of them in a hurry; it was simply too painful.

And again, she was lost. "Couldn't Greyback simply order the bloke to stop?"

"When you defy your Alpha, it means that you don't consider him as such any longer. The man essentially became a lone wolf, one of the Packless, the moment he challenged Fenrir. There's always a fool with delusions of grandeur who will attempt such folly, I suppose," Jabbar went on with a shrug. "But Alexei was the first I actually witnessed. It's not a common occurrence, especially when your pack leader is someone like Fenrir. He could probably take on any other Alpha in the kingdom, if he put his mind to it. They're all weaklings, compared to him." He paused to consider his next words. "To put it concretely for you, I'm about in the middle of the dominance scale, if you can call it that, everyone here included. Croyd is just a step below me, which makes our relationship all the more interesting," he said with a small grin. "Scabior is a tad bit above us all," he continued, "but Fenrir...he's up through the roof and into the stratosphere." He scowled faintly. "It's like…he's more than a mere werewolf. Like he's part divine, or something."

Divine, my ass. Evey scoffed internally. He's the human equivalent of a demon, that's for certain, but he's not the Fenrir demon. He said so himself – though he did seem to think of himself as a godly being. Perhaps that's how he sees the Wolves, as beings superior to humans, and therefore godly. Alexei wasn't the only one with delusions of grandeur, it seemed.

But the fact remained that Jabbar clearly didn't know about the Wolves. Perhaps Greyback had made up some clever lie to explain his ability to shift at all times. The question was, should Evey let them know who their Alpha really was? Well, she couldn't think of a reason not to. She wasn't bound by the Wolves' secrecy, if such a thing even existed, considering Greyback's apparent lack of caring. "He is more."

Jabbar frowned at the floor. "What do you mean?"

Evey explained what little she knew of the Wolves, of their abilities. She didn't mention how she knew as much as she did, however, and said nothing of the Ancients. It was bad enough that she'd betrayed Antonin. She still felt terrible about it. She hoped that she hadn't signed his death warrant. He was supposed to be invincible, but so was Greyback, apparently.

"Damn, I had no idea." Jabbar looked genuinely flabbergasted.

"There's a lot Greyback hasn't told you," Evey said. "It's crazy, really. You know next to nothing about the bloke and yet you follow him blindly." She hadn't mentioned Greyback's past. It wouldn't serve her purpose, on the contrary; it would likely make him look like a martyr, and would strengthen his pack's belief in the righteousness of their cause. In fact, for that very reason, it was strange that Greyback hadn't revealed it himself.

Evey felt a twinge of guilt for lying to Jabbar, but it was ridiculous. Whatever she did, she was certain that Greyback had done worse.

"To be fair, we've never had any reason to question or doubt him," Jabbar was saying. "I mean, we're not too happy about the whole Voldemort business, but it's only a means to an end. We all know that."

"But how can you expect that sort of things to help?" It felt like the same argument all over again. Evey had already debated the matter with Croyd and several others afterward. "At the risk of repeating myself, violence is not the answer. If the public sees you as Voldemort's lackeys, it will only make it worse. For you specifically, but also for all werewolves, across the country, possibly worldwide. It will most certainly not help the 'cause', as you call it." Maybe it was too obvious, and that was why they couldn't see it? "You need a leader who can give you better living conditions by discussing, negotiating, compromising…by being reasonable and diplomatic. If you put Scabior in charge... But I already told him that. Wasting my breath on that one," she muttered sourly. "He's too attached to Greyback. He wouldn't act behind his back or openly defy him. Hell, he damn near worships the bloody man."

"For good reason," Jabbar pointed out. "V, he owes him. We all do. In most cases, it was a matter of taking us off the streets, away from the drugs, away from trouble in general. But some of us owe him their lives, Scabior included."

"I'm perfectly aware of that," Evey said with a grimace. Greyback was a lot of things, but he was far from stupid. Everything he did was carefully thought through, and he must have been planning this for years, if not decades. "That's how he operates. Don't you see? He appears like a saviour, makes sure you feel indebted to him, and once you join the pack, you must obey him, do whatever he says. Once you're in, there's no way out." Cunning, evil bastard.

"But he doesn't abuse his power," Jabbar protested. "We do obey him, but because we choose to. He's fair. He'd never ask anyone to do something that made them feel uncomfortable, and we don't work for Voldemort. He does, sure, but he would never ask that of us."

"But if he did demand it of you, as your Alpha, would you be able to refuse him?" Evey asked softly. "If he commanded you to?"

Jabbar didn't seem to have an answer to that question.

Better to change the subject. He'd made an effort to visit her; she shouldn't bother him with these things, not now. "What happens if you look me in the eyes?" she wondered with unconcealed curiosity. "Will you explode or something?" It was making her feel uneasy and self-conscious that he wouldn't meet her eyes. As though she was too monstrous to behold.

Jabbar shifted uncomfortably and grumbled something she didn't catch. He seemed to think that her hearing was as sharp as Greyback's, but it wasn't. Evey knew that not drinking Wolfsbane on a monthly basis allowed Greyback's spawns to retain some of their werewolf abilities, to an extent, even in human form, but she possessed nothing of the sort while human. Her sense of smell was as dull as it had ever been, and the rest remained unchanged from the time prior to her first transformation.

"Alright, alright. Never mind. I'll get used to it, I guess." She would have to, by the looks of it.

Jabbar shrugged, then smiled as if remembering something. "Anyway," he said with some of his usual cheerfulness, "my original intention was to tell you that you're welcome to eat with us in the dining hall. It might be a bit awkward at first, but I'm sure they'll get used to it. Eventually." Evey nodded gratefully. She'd been feeling left out, and a bit lonely. "And, um…" Jabbar cleared his throat. "Tonight's the full moon. Fenrir's gone, and…" He paused again, and briefly glanced at Evey's face for the first time. "Well, would you like to run with us, wolf girl?"