Author's notes:

Sorry it took so long, but I had trouble writing this chapter. It just wouldn't come out how I wanted it too, but I'm pretty happy with it now. There are some parts that are nearly directly from Stolen in this chapter, so I'll say it again for this chapter: I don't own any of the characters, plot points, dialogues, or areas that you recognize from either Women of the Otherworld or Harry Potter. They belong to Kelley Armstrong and J.K. Rowling respectively.

This chapter is a little more Harri-centric. You get to see her ideas about what she told Elena and Elena in general.

Chapter 6: I sort of meet the biggest monster here

Harriet P.O.V.

When Elena was brought upstairs again, I was once more on my own. It may seem selfish, but I really did hope that they didn't move her up there permanently. Our best chance for escaping was by helping each other. What could have happened upstairs, that they needed her back up there though? She made it pretty clear that she was out of favor with the people running the compound. Apparently, everyone in power had either lost their mind, or they were just trying to blame her for what happened to Bauer.

She'd told me what had happened with her. One night, Sondra Bauer, the person that originally ran this place, came into Elena's cell accompanied by two guards. After Elena was tied to a chair, she had sent the guards out of the room, before pulling a syringe from her pocket and ranting that Elena was treated differently because she was the only female werewolf. Turns out Bauer had daddy issues, which caused her to go thrill-seeking, something about old money and a company run by a bunch of sexist idiots. This gave her the brilliant idea to turn herself into a werewolf. If female werewolves were treated differently, why wouldn't she want to be one right? Long story short, Bauer wanted Elena to bite her because she had enough common sense to know that you shouldn't jam a syringe filled with werewolf saliva into yourself. She didn't have enough common sense to not actually do it when Elena refused though.

Now she blamed Elena for turning her into a monster, and apparently, Matasumi was more than ready to believe her. He didn't like having her in the infirmary in the first place. She was too much of a security risk up there for his liking. Luckily for Bauer, he was also quite spineless, so Dr. Carmichael was able to convince him that she needed Elena. Which she definitely had.

I had taken a gamble, telling her about magic, but it had absolutely paid off. She trusted me, just like I trusted her. She also needed to know before we broke out, otherwise, she'd be thinking about what I was doing while we were trying to escape, and we needed her to be able to concentrate fully if we were going to pull this off. We hadn't been able to plan much yet before the guards had come to retrieve her, but I was certain we could do this. As long as we worked together.

I hadn't heard anyone walking through the hallway since Elena had been taken away, so whatever was happening up there, it was serious. The walls were soundproofed, but werewolves had that superior hearing that other people don't, so I could always hear when someone walked by, or if people were writing things down, probably taking notes of their observations.

From what Elena had been able to tell me, I had a basic understanding of the hierarchy in the compound. At the bottom, you had the guards, cooks, and probably janitors of some kind. The people that were here for the money. Then you had Carmichael, who was a little above them, but since Bauer had woken up. She probably didn't have much input anymore. Matasumi was above her again. That left four people that couldn't be placed in a definitive order, Tyrone Winsloe, the man that had sent her flowers this afternoon; Sondra, but it was unclear where she would end up after her little incident; Tucker, the head of security; and Katzen, a sorcerer that was helping them find the supernaturals.

From her description of Winsloe, I got the idea that he was a self-absorbed prick, who thought this was one big game. He organized 'hunts' where he would literally hunt down captives. She had been on one of these hunts with him. Apparently, he had taken her outside after making her dress in something that left nothing to the imagination, before showing her his toys, which he used to hunt down an old captive, Patrick Lake. He was a mutt that had a run-in with the pack a couple of years ago. Elena and her then ex-boyfriend Clay had visited him in Texas. Lake had apparently killed the daughter of a city official. Normally the pack doesn't do much if a mutt kills someone, but with things that risk exposure .like this, they step in. There are simply too many mutts that kill humans to keep up with them all. After Clay broke his arm in multiple places, Lake got made his way out of the state very quickly.

It turned out that Winsloe thought that this was one big video game. One where you could hunt the monsters without thinking about their lives. He was obviously crazy, but he was also extremely dangerous because of it. He shot a guard when the man killed Lake against his orders. Even if Lake had jumped at the guard. You never knew when he would get bored and think he would like to hunt another werewolf because apparently, all the other races didn't get him off enough.

I was thinking about all this when I heard Elena's cell open.

"Hey, you're back. What was the problem they needed you for?" When she didn't answer, I took a good look through the hole in our wall, "Oh shit! Are you okay?" Her leg was torn open, and it looked like something had happened to her foot, which was missing a shoe. A man entered her cell. He had brown hair, but the only distinguishing feature was a scar that went from his temple to his nose.

"They needed her to fix their mess. Again." Since that didn't really answer my question he added, "Bauer had her first Change," he looked over at Elena, "That's what they're called right? Of course, they didn't listen to her when she told them that they had to keep her restrained. She tore Carmichael apart before anyone noticed what was happening in the infirmary."

He put some glasses on her desk and filled them with a drink I couldn't identify, it was probably some form of alcohol though. "Sorry, I only brought two glasses. Didn't know she had a cellmate."

I didn't mind, I was only eighteen by a week and a half. Besides, alcohol never really called to me. "What did they need you to do, fight her? What would you be able to do to her while she is Changed and you're not? I doubt they'd let you change before you went in."

"They wanted me to sedate Bauer," Elena said from where she was standing next to her desk "They really do have a nice system going here, don't they? You help them, then you get sent back down to your cell, hoping Winsloe doesn't get bored."

"And your leg?" It looked pretty bad, especially her knee.

"According to Matasumi, the muscles in my knee may or may not have been torn."

"In other words, he doesn't know." I shook my head at how incompetent everyone here seemed to be. "How did Bauer even get free in the first place? Wouldn't they have kept a newly turned werewolf restrained, or at least have a couple of guards with her at all times?"

The man that was with Elena shook his head, "There weren't any guards with them when she changed. As to how she got out of her restraints, no one knows, but either she broke out, or Carmichael took them away. I'm Xavier by the way, heard you were the mystery teleporter Matasumi can't figure out."

I smiled at him, "Harri, and yeah that's me."

"Are you gonna tell me how you did it? I promise I won't tattle, we'll just keep it between the three of us." I shook my head, but he tried again, "Come on. It's just one teleporter to another, well there's also the werewolf, but she doesn't like them either."

"Sorry, but a magician never reveals her tricks. Do you have any tips on how to break out? You seem too nice to actually want to help these people."

Before he could answer, the door to Elena's cell opened again. Between two guards stood a man that seemed to be in his early thirties. He had dark red hair, which was tied up in a ponytail. I could appreciate this hairstyle on Bill Weasley, but this man was too old for it. It looked like he was trying to hide the fact that he was losing hair. He was overweight, and he looked like he wouldn't be able to walk up two flights of stairs without getting out of breath. He probably had some handsome features before, but now they were hidden behind his plump face. The man, which I assumed was Tyrone Winsloe, the self-absorbed ass that Elena had described as a maniac and probable psychopath, was standing in the doorway, looking at Xavier and Elena.

"See what I have to resort to? Jack Daniel's. Barely drinkable. You get me hooked on the good stuff, then keep hiding it on me. Sadistic bastard." I'd disillusioned myself so he wouldn't be able to see me, but I could still see them. The satisfaction on his face when he said that to Winsloe was obvious. Apparently, Elena wasn't the only one to dislike him. Then Xavier started talking again.

"You owe me a bottle of cognac anyway. I like the Remy Martin XO, not the VSOP. You can have someone drop it off at my room later."

Winsloe arched his eyebrows. "And how do you figure that?"

"I saved your girl. Twice now, actually." He took a moment to look at the guards besides Winsloe. "But we won't get into that first time, will we guys? I'm no tattletale. Besides wasn't a big deal. But upstairs there? Whew. Another minute and she'd have been a goner."

"You think?"

"Oh, yeah." He slapped Elena on the back. "No offense, Elena but you were in way over your head."

"Thanks," she almost sounded like she really meant it.

"So you owe me, Ty. Drop off that bottle anytime."

Winsloe laughed. "You've got balls, Reese." I had to agree with him there. If half of what Elena told me about him was true, Winsloe wasn't someone you wanted as an enemy. Not in here at least.

"Fair enough then. I owe you. You'll get your cognac. Stop by my room in about an hour and pick it up. Maybe I can rustle up a few glasses of the Louis XIII for us, make that XO taste like bad moonshine."

"Sounds like a plan."

From the tension between the two men it was clear they were both bullshitting each other, they could pretend like neither of them knew with their easygoing attitude, but it was clear that Xavier was no longer appreciated, and if what he told me about Bauer was true, that meant he should skip town while he still could. Fortunately, Xavier seemed like a smart man. It was obvious he had no intention to go to Winsloe's room for that cognac.

Eventually, Xavier stood up, said a final goodbye to Elena, looked to me seemingly surprised that he didn't see me sitting there, and teleported away.

When he was gone, Winsloe's attention went back to Elena. I got uncomfortable from the way he was looking at her, and he wasn't even looking at me. It was clear what kind of man he was. Eventually, he opened his mouth.

"That's the same clothing you arrived in. They've given you other stuff to wear, haven't they? What about that shirt I brought you?"

From what Elena told me about 'that shirt' I wouldn't be caught dead wearing it, and while Elena didn't seem like she cared too much about her appearance to me, she did have some standards. She couldn't tell this to Winsloe though, he probably wouldn't appreciate it.

Luckily, she seemed to realize this too, because she actually managed to sound like she was sorry when she answered. "It's a werewolf thing. Laundry soaps, fabric softeners, the smell is too strong."

He seemed to accept this, "You should have said so. I'll tell the staff to get unscented detergent. Don't bother with the clothes Sondra supplied. I'll order new things for you."

She was going to be happy with that. Absolutely.

Winsloe sat down on her bed, back to the bookshelf at the end of it. He seemed nearly happy which seemed strange if you think about the fact that he saw one of his colleagues being ripped apart less than an hour ago.

"Can you believe what Sondra did to the doc?" His eyes were actually glinting like it really was all a game to him, and he wasn't talking about a person being brutally murdered.

"It… happens."

"You ever do stuff like that?" I have to say he showed some nerve just asking that. He wouldn't have liked the way I answered him, even if the answer was no.

"I'm a Pack werewolf," Elena answered him. Acting Like it wasn't an incredibly rude question.

He hesitated before answering, "But you could do it. Obviously. You're much stronger and much younger." When she didn't answer he jumped up from the bed. "You did a helluva job evading Sondra. Better than the doc, that's for sure."

He actually laughed at that, which turned my blood to ice. This man had no regard for human life, and he was one of the richest people on the planet.

"Too bad Xavier interfered. I'd hoped you'd fight Sondra."

"Sorry." I was impressed she was able to say this. I'd have lost my cool way before this. Then again it's probably a good thing she didn't. There were still two trigger happy guards in the room with her.

"You should have fought her. I would have liked it if you'd fought her." When she didn't answer he repeated himself. "I would have liked that, Elena."

That's when she snapped, "Why didn't you say so?" She seemed to realize her mistake because she immediately added, "I guess I got the impression you guys wanted Bauer alive. I should have asked."

When they didn't answer her, she tried something else. "I'm sorry, Ty. I'm so tired."

"You didn't look tired when I walked in. Standing around, chatting it up with Xavier. You two seem pretty tight."

"I was just thanking him. He did me a big favor, jumping in—"

Winsloe snapped his fingers, "Favor. That reminds me, there's something I need to ask you about. Hold on and I'll be right back."

Before she could answer, he was already out of her cell.

"I get the impression Xavier isn't the only one out of favor in this place. I think we should make our move a little earlier than we expected," I said.

"I think you might be right. Neat trick, by the way, that'll come in handy."

When Winsloe came back, Elena was already half asleep. He came in waving around an envelope. "Devil of a time finding these buggers. Larry had already filed them in his to-do box. Way too efficient."

Elena sat up straighter and looked somewhat interested, which was quite an achievement when she just woke up and was clearly exhausted. Sadly she did let out a yawn.

"Am I boring you, Elena."

Something in his voice set my teeth on edge, making the grin that accompanied the words look malicious.

"No, no. Of course not. What do you have there?"

"Surveillance photos of a werewolf I'd like you to identify." He answered.

"Sure, if I can, but my memory for faces is pretty bad."

"That's okay. This one doesn't have a face. Not a human face I mean. He's a wolf. If you ask me, all wolves look the same, which is why Larry didn't bother asking you for an ID. But then I thought, maybe that kind of thinking is too race-centered. You know, like those witnesses who get on the stand and finger the wrong black guy because all black men look the same to them?

"Uh-huh."

You could see she was fighting to stay awake at this point, making it almost cruel from Winsloe to keep dragging this out. Then again, that was probably the point, judging from what I knew about him. He didn't make any effort to get to his question though.

"So, I thought, maybe all wolf faces don't look the same to a wolf. Or to a part-time wolf." He made a chortling sound, making me dread what he was about to ask her.

"I'll do my best," Elena answered. "But if I've seen this mutt before, I've probably only seen him as a human. A scent would be better."

"Scent." He snapped his fingers. "Now why didn't I think of that. See? Race-centered again. I think I'm sharp if I can identify the smell of pepperoni pizza."

Elena tried to snatch the envelope, probably fed up with his bullshit, but he jumped back onto the bed and tossed it beside him. Acting like he hadn't seen her grabbing for it. I had only known this man for an hour, and I could already tell that he was something special. This petty and childish act around her. The way he went around like people should kiss his feet. His utter lack of empathy, and the way he looked at Elena. It was uncomfortable to even be in the same room as him. if only because you knew that whatever he was going to do, was meant to hurt you in some way. Possibly to make himself feel powerful, maybe just out of spite.

"Could I see-?" Elena started to say, but he cut her off.

"A team spotted this guy late last night. No, I guess that'd be early this morning. The wee hours anyway."

Elena nodded in answer.

"Very bizarre circumstances. Ever since we snatched you and the old witch, we've had a team trying to find the rest of your group. We could always use another werewolf, and Larry's pretty keen on getting that fire-demon guy. We lost track of them after we grabbed you two. That's not exactly a secret, though I'd rather you didn't tell Larry I told you so. He's not too pleased about the whole thing, but I'm sure it makes you feel better, knowing your friends got away."

He paused there. Seemingly waiting for something. The narcissistic ass.

"Thanks, for telling me."

"You're welcome. So, we've had this team scouting the area, picking up tips, most of them useless. Yesterday Tucker recalled that group and sent a fresh one to replace them. keeping up morale and all that. The first team was heading back and spent the night in some backwater motel. Next morning, they get up for a pre-dawn start, go outside and what do you think they see there? On the edge of the woods?"

"A—uh. A—umm, a wolf?"

"Glad to see you're paying attention, Elena. Yes, it was a wolf. A big fucker of a wolf. Standing right there, watching them. now either this is the biggest coincidence in the universe or this werewolf had been following them. Searching for the search party."

That seemed to wake her up. "Where was this?"

"Does it matter?"

"All werewolves are territorial. Technically mutts can't hold territory, but most stick to a familiar piece of ground, like a state, just moving from city to city. If I knew where this took place, it would help me figure out who it might have been."

"And help you figure out where you are. None of that, Elena. Now let me tell my story. So, the guards see this wolf and they figure out that it's a werewolf. One grabs a camera and snaps some photos. The other two go for the tranquilizer guns. Before they can unpack them, though, the wolf vanishes. So they gear up and head into the woods. And do you know what? He's right there, like he's waiting. They get close, he runs, then stops and waits. Luring them in. can you believe that?"

"Werewolves retain human intelligence. It's not that strange." Something in her voice told me she thought it was, but she didn't add anything else.

"Wait, it gets weirder. You know what this wolf does next? He separates them. takes a commando team, including a former Navy Seal, and figures out how to separate them. Then he starts picking them off. Killing them! Can you believe that?" He shook his head while laughing. "Man, I wish I'd been there. One werewolf turning those military goons into blithering idiots, wandering around the woods, getting picked off like blonds in a horror flick. The wolf kills two and goes after the third. And what do you think he does?"

"Kills him?" She said, sounding almost desperate, like she didn't believe it herself.

"No! that's the topper. He doesn't kill him. He runs him ragged. Like he's trying to exhaust him, like he wants to keep him alive but too weak to fight. Okay, maybe I'm reading too much into this, attributing human motivations to an animal. Anthro—what do they call that?"

"Anthropomorphism." She whispered, sounding like she had trouble breathing. She had obviously realized something. Probably the thing that Winsloe was working towards.

"Right. Anthropomorphism. Hey, That's what your boyfriend studies, right? Anthropomorphic religions. Boring as hell if you ask me, but people say that about computers, too. Each to his own. Now where was I?"

I understood why Elena looked so scared now. It wasn't an accident that the conversation went to her boyfriend.

"The wolf. Running down the last survivor."

"You don't look so good. Maybe you should come over here and lie down. Plenty of room. No? Suit yourself. So the wolf is running circles around the last guy. Only something goes wrong. Somehow the canny fucker screwed up. Miscalculated a turn or a distance maybe. He got too close. The guard fired. Pow! Dead wolf."

"Let—let me see the photos." She nearly demanded.

He tossed the envelope at her and she scrambled after it. After she ripped it open, I could hear a whimper coming from her, confirming my suspicions.

"You know him?"

She crouched down, holding the photos in her hands.

"No? Well, you're tired. Keep them. Get some rest and give it some thought. Xavier's probably waiting for me upstairs. I'll come back in the morning."

He left, but I don't think she even noticed it. She just sat there staring at the photos, another whimper escaping her, but just like the last one, it was nearly inaudible. I think she even stopped breathing at one point.

Suddenly, her body spasmed, toppling her over, and letting go of the photos. Then she started screaming. I knew she was going through the Change, Remus had told me that fear, anger, or another strong emotion could trigger it. Her limbs started flailing around, getting into the right positions.

I looked away when I saw fur sprout on her arms and legs. I may be new to all this, but I knew that Changing wasn't pretty, and I respected Elena enough not to watch her while she was going through it. No matter how much I trusted Remus and Sirius, I didn't want them to see me while I was changing either. I wasn't vain, but this was something personal, something that no one should watch if they could help it.

Eventually, it was over, and I could hear her heavy breathing and panting, signaling that I could look again. She must have smelled or heard something in the hallway, because I could smell the anger start radiating off her, before being overwhelmed by her grief. I realized that Winsloe was probably still watching her, which meant that I couldn't talk to her. Not that it would have helped much, fortunately, I didn't have any experiences with the kind of loss Elena just suffered. I had lost people, of course, Fred, and Dumbledore were both heavy losses, which caused me a lot of grief, and I'd liked Cedric, even if I didn't know him very well. But what she was going through right now was something else.

While I was thinking this, Elena had moved from her place on the floor to me, wedged between her bed and the wall. Hidden in the only corner Winsloe wouldn't be able to see her. I tried to comfort her for a little while, but eventually, my own need for sleep caught up with me and I went to bed.

Author's notes:

I know that a big part of this chapter was almost directly copied from the book, but that's because Harri was disillusioned. Winsloe didn't even know he was there. I had thought of having him visit her personally, but I thought that would bring too many similarities between Elena and Harriet. That and the fact that I'm not that good at channeling my inner asshole, so I probably wouldn't do him justice (not that he deserves any praise, but Armstrong made him an enormously despicable character, that somewhat reminds me of Umbitch, in the way that he abuses his power and thinks the rules don't apply to him. I'm not good at being mean, so I don't want to ruin that effect by making him nicer than he is. Which is way too easy to do).

Again, sorry that it took me longer than usual, but it was a combination of a hard chapter for me to write, wanting to watch Avengers Endgame and studying that made it difficult to finish the chapter and be happy with it.

I already addressed this in the chapter, but the reason Harri told Elena about magic immediately, was that she needed someone she could trust, and Elena already knew she was a werewolf anyway. She is also the most useful ally, both because she is the only one Harri can contact, and because they're both werewolves, which means they can both do the same things, and one person won't get left behind because they can't get past a certain obstacle, combine that with Harri's magic and you've got a team I wouldn't wanna go up against.

Please leave a review, that lets me know what you want and what you think about the story so far.