"Really?" Nina asked as she cast a skeptical eye at the thick, iron bars of the cage sitting atop the motel room bed. "Wouldn't padlocking me to the radiator have been easier?"

Oz shrugged, then finished removing his jacket. He laid the coat on the dresser upon which a small, flat-screen television sat, then looked about the room. "I don't see a radiator, and you're the one who said you were worried about not being able to control yourself."

Nina continued to stare with a concerned expression at the cage. "I know that's what I said, but … really?" She gestured at a circular opening set in the side of the contraption. "Let me guess, I poke my head through that hole, then the frame gets closed and locked around my neck so I can't pull my head back through?"

"I mean, that seems like the safest way to do this," he replied, "although we don't have to bother with the cage if you're sure that you won't lose it when you taste blood."

Nina shook her head and began to unbutton her blouse. "No, this is for the best. I've never bitten anyone since I learned to manage the change, and I have no idea how I'll react to the taste of human flesh."

Oz whirled away as she pulled off her blouse to reveal the sports bra beneath.

Nina laughed as she sat down on the bed, slipped off her sneakers, and then started to slide her jeans down her legs. "You've seen me naked more than once, Oz."

"That was a long time ago," Oz replied in a half-strangled, hoarse manner. "I wasn't married then, and also, that was work. We were trying to help you get control of the wolf."

"Relax, I was only teasing." Nina stood, kicked away her jeans, and then yanked free the scrunchie that fixed her golden tresses into a ponytail. "You know, you don't have to do this." As she spoke the words, the room became claustrophobic and Oz felt beads of sweat build upon the skin of his forehead. "I mean it," she continued. "Your daughter has plenty of folks ready to step up and be her protector … including your wife. If Ellie was old enough to understand, she'd beg you to stop. Are you sure you want to go through with it?"

Oz thought of the bandages, antiseptic, and gauze neatly lining the bathroom sink next to the medical shears, and fixed his resolve on the task ahead. "I'm sure."

The rustling sounds of Nina removing her socks and undergarments stopped and the volume of her voice dropped lower still. "Honestly, I was tempted to call this off the entire drive here … and I'm still tempted."

"Nina, I'm her father, and Ellie will always be a target," he explained. "I'm not a young man anymore, and I'm not getting any younger. I don't have any talent for magic, guns usually aren't enough, and this is the only way I can help keep her safe."

"I'm telling you, this is a mistake."

"It's my mistake to make," Oz replied, and his voice had a sharpness to it that Nina … that anyone … hardly ever heard. "You owe me, Nina. Do I have to remind you of what I stopped you from doing?"

"No, you don't have to remind me," Nina hastily replied. "I know that I owe you … big time." Oz heard the rustling of the blankets as she climbed onto the bed, and then the sound of grinding metal as she opened the cage doors. "But we're even after this, right?"

Oz nodded.

Nina's voice had its own hardness to it when she spoke next. "I want to hear you say it, Oz."

"After this, we're even," he assured her.

There was a faint squeak of padding as Nina crawled on her hands and knees into the cage, then more grinding as she closed the door. A faint snick was heard, and Oz surmised that it was the locking of the padlock he'd left dangling from the cage door.

"So I've got a question," Nina said in a hushed, worried tone, "am I going to be able to lock and unlock this gizmo that goes around my neck without your help? I know I pretended to be cavalier about casual nudity a few seconds ago, but I really don't want you seeing me crouched inside this thing."

Oz nodded and replied, "You can set yourself up without my help. I won't need to look."

"Good." He heard more squeaks as Nina repositioned herself. "You kind of seem like your mind is made up, but you're the first werewolf ever who was able to leave it all behind. I'm going to ask you one last time, are you sure this is something you want? Are you sure this is something that Willow can accept?"

"I am sure," he told her again, "and to my surprise, my wife and I apparently have the sort of marriage in which we can feel free to make permanent alterations to our bodies without talking to the other person first."

"Ouch," Nina replied, and her face twisted into a sympathetic wince as she spoke. "I don't want to pry, but I do have to ask, is Willow going to be mad at me?"

"You might spend a few years as a rat," Oz replied as he grinned to himself, "but my wife will get over it. Eventually."

"Oz …" Nina said in a low, worried tone.

Oz laughed for a moment. "I'm kidding. Besides, I don't even plan to tell her that you were involved."

"And Angel?" she asked. "You've got a right to call in your marker, but I need to know if I'm burning bridges here. What about Buffy, how pissed is she gonna be?"

"Buffy and Angel will understand," Oz assured her. "More than anyone, I think they'll get why I had to do this."

"Buffy might live a long time," Nina reminded him. "Your daughter may never become a slayer."

"Maybe," Oz conceded, "but Potentials aren't always safe, either. Besides, Willow isn't sure that the slayer magic works like it used to."

That seemed to pique Nina's curiosity. "What do you mean?"

"My daughter is the only Potential," Oz explained, "when there should be hundreds. Willow and the Council, though we don't talk to them much, are trying to figure out if slayers will still be called like they used to, or if the magic has changed. In any event, this is all on me, nobody is going to blame you."

His words seemed to mollify Nina, as Oz heard her resume crawling about. He again heard the grinding of metal, and finally a second snick as Nina locked the circular opening around her neck.

"This is some truly kinky shit," Nina remarked as he listened to her twist within the metal loop locked around her neck. "You hefted this through the motel lobby? I can't imagine the stares you got."

"It's easy to disassemble and carry around," Oz explained, "and it doesn't look like a cage when it's in parts and covered in a blanket." A thought occurred to him. "I meant to leave the keys on the bed … are they there?"

In response, he heard a soft jingling sound. "They're right here, and let me tell you, once we're done I will be using them in a hurry to get the fuck out of this thing."

He chuckled for a moment, then a grim expression settled over his face. "I'm ready when you are."

"Let's do this," Nina said in a low voice that sounded almost like a growl.

Oz had transformed, and seen the transformation of others, countless times, but it was still unnerving to hear. Even though he did not watch, he could hear skin ripping, flesh tearing free to slough into new positions, and a musky, feral smell filled the room as the human Nina disappeared.

When he heard a series of loud, sharp yips, he knew that the process had been completed.

He turned and found that the slim, human woman that he'd shared the room with only seconds ago was gone. In her place, a grey-haired, vaguely humanoid looking wolf with glowing green eyes, thick, yellowed teeth, and protruding claws crouched within the cage set upon the bed. The bristled hair moved with every flex of the thick muscles beneath, the tail slowly swung from side to side, and the werewolf eyed him as he stepped next to the mattress. The cage was perfect for its intended purpose, as the entirety of the creature was trapped within the bars except for the head protruding through the locked, circular opening.

He wasn't quite sure, but he thought he could detect a hint of nervous embarrassment in the werewolf's glowing eyes as it squirmed against the metal.

"Ready?" he asked as he bent his elbow and held aloft his left arm.

There wasn't much room for Nina to nod her head, but she did her best. She opened her mouth, saliva dangled from the tips of the canines to drip upon the blankets, and Oz steeled himself for the pain to come and placed his forearm between her jaws.

Nina didn't make him wait. The teeth closed, the edges sunk deep, and he didn't even have time to scream before Nina opened them again. For just an instant he thought he detected the faintest tremble of her head and a hint of blood lust in her eyes, but Nina shook her muzzle and the impression vanished. The pain was excruciating and the walls of the room spun and danced while he put his right hand on the end table and tried to keep from falling.

When the room had stabilized he took a deep breath, stood upright, and looked at Nina. "Thank you."

Nina once again did her best to nod, then she eyed the keys sitting near her paws on the outside of the cage.

"I'm going to go bandage this up," he told her. "I'm sure you want out of there."

He turned around, did his best not to drip blood onto the threadbare, beige carpet, and trod over to the bandages, gauze, antiseptic, and shears already laid out in the dingy yellow bathroom. Spots of blood spattered upon the faded, yellow wallpaper as he cleaned the wound, gritted his teeth against the pain of the antiseptic, and then carefully wrapped the bite marks first in padding, then bandages, and finally gauze. He didn't feel any different, not yet. That would come later.

When he'd finished, he tapped the frame of the bathroom door and waited for a response.

"I'm dressed," Nina replied.

Oz stepped out of the bathroom to find Nina clothed and slipping sneakers onto her small, pale feet. She'd done her best to wipe blood from her face, but specks of crimson liquid glistened at the corners of her mouth and on her neck. He moved out of the way so she could step past him and rinse her mouth out in the sink.

Blood … it always comes down to blood.

He opened the blinds and stared at the asphalt of the motel parking lot. The sun was setting and the black surface rippled with deep red hues. When Nina emerged from the bathroom, he turned to look at her.

"I can't tell you how much I appreciate this," he said. "Thank you again, really."

She nodded in return, then a shy smile crept over her face. "I'm sure this motel has rented rooms to all kinds of folks, but that nothing like this has ever happened here."

They both laughed for a while..

"It's a long drive back," Nina informed him as she slid the strap of her purse over her shoulder. "I hope you don't mind if …"

Oz shook his head and interrupted her with a wave of his hand. "No, I don't mind. Go ahead. I'll clean up here."

Nina opened the door, lingered at the edge of the hallway, then looked at him with sad eyes. "I hope that someday your daughter appreciates that you gave up your happy ending so that you could be there for her."

Oz turned to stare out the window, his face a mask of pensive thought as he replied, "I don't believe in happy endings. Not anymore."

THE END