Disclaimer: Everything you recognise from the film series isn't mine.

Feedback: Always appreciated.

The Lone Wolf

It was strange for Selene to admit it even to herself, but she actually missed how she didn't have much of a choice in her current attire.

She would deny it if she had to explain it to anybody else, but she had enjoyed the chance to actually have something to do on her days off for a change. She acknowledged that she'd started out following Michael just because she wanted to find another lycan nest, but since she'd started talking to him, she'd been surprised to find herself genuinely enjoying his company. She'd never truly abandon the war so long as her people needed her, but with Michael to inspire her, she'd found herself expanding her interests and seeking out more human activities than she'd ever considered before.

Unfortunately, right now she was in the safehouse for a more practical and potentially dangerous purpose; Michael was going to transform tonight, and she had to be there to make sure he didn't break out and hurt anybody.

She had faith that Kahn's efforts would have made sure that the room could hold a transformed lycan, but with Michael's first transformation since the safehouse had become available, it would have been irresponsible not to take every precaution. Michael had managed to take the previous day off work, and Selene had been able to borrow one of the mansion's cars with specially-tinted windows to get here before sunset, but even with the delays caused by the afternoon traffic she'd forgotten to take into account, they'd still arrived here with time to spare before the moon rose.

"How is it the moon still affects me even when I'm inside?" Michael mused as they stood in the safehouse flat. "I mean, in most of the movies it only happens when the wolf sees the moon… or the moonlight hits the wolf, anyway…"

"The popular theory is that the rising of the moon triggers some side-effect in the water in the human body that causes certain chemicals to rise and shift inside the lycans to trigger the transformation," Selene explained. "Obviously it's not something we can easily analyse even if we managed to capture a lycan in time to study their body chemistry as they change, but it makes as much sense as anything."

"And the older ones can control that change to do it whenever they want," Michael nodded at her in understanding before his expression became less certain. "So I get that you have faith in the guy who made this room, but are you sure that you can't just… drug me or something to keep me human?"

"It wouldn't work," Selene shook her head. "Lycan physiology is too advanced to be affected by simple drugs; the amount we'd need to do anything to you would actually start threatening your life."

"And you're certain of that?"

"The… my associates have experimented with all possible means of taking down lycans as technology developed, and their reaction to silver is still the most consistent weakness they have," Selene affirmed. "There are rumours that the lycans themselves have been working on enzymes to help their new recruits retain their human sides if they risk transforming in a public location, but to be frank, we would never be able to hold any lycan prisoner long enough to test that theory ourselves."

"They wouldn't let you find a way to do something like that to them, huh?"

"To say the least. And before you ask, I'm not a scientist myself and I don't know anyone with the necessary biological expertise that I would trust enough to tell about you just yet, so we can't work out if there's actually a way to do that. Once we have more evidence that you're not dangerous, I will look into it, but right now anybody I might talk to would just see you as a useful specimen."

"Right," Michael said, an uncomfortable expression on his face before he looked more directly at Selene. "Is it harsh to say your group is a bit… obsessive?"

"Considering the potential danger of a rampaging lycan, we often have to be fast and decisive," Selene observed solemnly. "In any case, right now the best alternative I could offer to this room is shooting you in the arm or something else non-fatal that might retard your body's transformation, but there's the possibility of long-term damage to your system if we do that on a regular basis."

"…Yeah, let's not do that."

"Quite," Selene nodded, before she indicated the door to the secure room. "I appreciate that this is basically just trading one cell for another, but I can offer you my assurances that you won't break out of this one, and I'll be there to keep you contained if anything does go wrong."

"Without killing me, right?" Michael smiled tentatively at her.

"I know a trick or two to put you down at least until sunrise," Selene nodded back at him. She might prioritise killing lycans when she was in the field herself, but there had been a few occasions where she'd been forced to bring them in alive for questioning. "In the meantime, you should get inside; we might as well see if this will work."

Swallowing in apprehension, Michael shrugged off his shirt and kicked off his shoes before he walked into the secure room. Selene moved to close the door, but paused long enough to allow him to toss his trousers out before he closed the door behind him.

Despite what they were about to do, Selene smiled at that particular touch. Michael had taken to buying new trousers from a charity shop before his last few transformations so that he would only lose something relatively cheap when he changed, but clearly he didn't want to lose his better trousers in this situation.

Moving back to the observation room, Selene smiled as she saw Michael crouching in the middle of the room; he evidently recognised the need for this room to be under observation, but he still didn't feel entirely comfortable putting himself on display. It was a funny example of human modesty, but Selene wasn't going to tease Michael about it when he had so many other issues to deal with right now.

Besides, he looks rather good…

Selene put that thought out of her mind as Michael let out an agonised roar and his body began to twist and change; whatever her thoughts about his human body, they weren't going to apply in the next few minutes. Selene could recall some of the biology lessons she'd received about lycan transformation as their understanding of the condition developed, and she tried not to get distracted by the thought of the pain Michael must be experiencing right now. Even as the transformation became more natural for older lycans, they would still experience agonies such as their bones breaking and re-shaping themselves, their skin being torn away as fur emerged, their muscles and skeletal structure twisting and growing…

In an academic way, it was fascinating to have the opportunity to see a lycan transform and know that she was relatively safe. Most transformed lycans basically treated their wolf as something they could point and aim at their enemy, but this was a rare occasion where she could be certain that the transformed lycan wouldn't attack her the moment she let her guard down. Watching Michael scream and roar in pain as his body twisted into its new shape, Selene suddenly wondered how much of what she'd always taken as lycans' feral roars was actually them trying to hide the pain of their transformation, but put that thought to the side; they were always transforming with the intent to kill, where Michael was only changing now because his body was making him do it.

It took a couple of minutes, but eventually the screams of pain were replaced by the more familiar feral roar of an enraged wolf, all trace of Michael's human form replaced by a large lycan that howled in rage and slammed itself against the nearest wall. Selene allowed herself a moment to be impressed at how Kahn's work stood up to Michael's assault despite how little time he'd had to put this place together, the walls barely bending beneath his attack, but when he turned to charge towards the window, she shifted to prepare for an attack.

"Michael, stop!" she yelled, slamming her hand against the button that activated the room's internal communicator; it was instinct more than anything else, but she had to assure herself that she'd tried everything-

Michael stopped.

It wasn't a quick stop, and he was looking at the window with a feral edge to his expression that made it clear he wasn't entirely sure why he'd done it, but the fact remained that after she had spoken, he'd scrambled to halt his charge towards the window, and was now looking at it with a curious expression that she'd never seen on a lycan before.

"…Michael?" she said at last, her tone cautious. "Is… is that you?"

The lycan let out a curious growl that Selene wasn't sure how to interpret, but she wouldn't worry about the finer details of how to communicate with Michael in this state when something bigger was going on right now. For the first time in as long as she could recall, she was facing a transformed lycan that genuinely looked as though it wasn't about to try and tear through her and anyone and anything between them both.

Granted, the transformed Michael still looked tense and uncomfortable as he paced around the room, but every time he looked at the mirrored glass… even if he couldn't see her directly, he seemed to calm down as though taking comfort in the knowledge that she was there.

"I… I don't think I've told you about my family, have I?" she said at last, feeling a need to say something as Michael looked at the window separating them. When the lycan simply looked at her in silence, Selene steeled herself and continued. "We lived on a farm that was basically run by my brother-in-law, but my father worked as an architect for a wide range of clients, renowned for his unique design ideas. My mother enjoyed the status we got from his work, but she always spared the time to take my nieces for horseriding lessons each day…"

As the lycan sat and watched the window, Selene wasn't sure if he would remember any of this when he returned to human form, but she was surprised to find that it didn't matter to her either way. If he remembered, she trusted him with that information, and if he didn't remember, she would tell him again later.

She didn't know when she'd get around to telling him this when he could ask her questions about it in turn, but it felt… good… to know that she trusted him with it.

She was suddenly struck by the thought that her father would approved of Michael if they'd had the chance to meet, but pushed that thought down; as much as she'd loved her father, he was long gone, and she and Michael didn't have that kind of relationship…