Chapter 22: Cowlitz Massacre

Meanwhile in an underground bunker, Ulf were in a sturdy reinforced cell with their recently captured insane wolf. They had placed a metal helmet with a muzzle onto their captive's head and thick handcuffs that encased his hands while keeping him anchored to the wall. A circle was drawn around him marking the minimum safe distance, and nearby were different devices for torture including the sports horn that the wolf used in his escape attempt.

Ulf had the Gamma close the door behind, and he sat an audio recording device nearby. The wolf looked at the cart with the devices and snickered. "Well, aren't we in violation with the Geneva Convention..." he commented.

Ulf pulled up a chair and smirked. "If you've going to pull that sort of protection, then you should have thought twice on bio warfare" he said sternly. He pulled out ear plugs and put on some gloves before he patted the wolf on the shoulder. "I'm giving you the opportunity to speak now, and we won't have to lead to this" he said.

The wolf looked towards the cart and gritted his teeth. "Alright!" he shouted just before Ulf put the ear plugs into his ears. "I don't have a super detailed picture of what's going on, but I will help you with any questions about what you're up against" he said.

Ulf frowned before he turned the chair around. "What does Amarok and her kids have to do with all this?" he asked.

The wolf scowled at him. "Shouldn't you know about this? After all the shit that humans put her through, you bother to ask such a dumbass question?" he shouted before Ulf honked the horn. The wolf hissed and growled. "What the fuck!?" he shouted.

Ulf scowled at him. "How big of a part are they in your organization?" he raised his voice.

The wolf rolled his eyes. "They are not playing by the rules I can tell you that. They are doing their own thing...We are just a loose collective. There's no real leader as a whole, but if one of us makes a plan, we'll try to take advantage over the chaos it spawns. Amarok is just a leader of her own clan with her own agenda" he said.

Ulf frowned. "Do you know anything of her plans? What was her kids doing on Sauvie Island?" he asked.

The wolf shrugged. "Well, Amarok has some shipment of explosives coming in. She didn't really say what she was going to do with them, but she sent her boys over to safeguard Toby" he said.

Ulf raised an eyebrow. "Why did Ian allow this if you all knew about this?" he asked.

The wolf laughed. "Remember...Ian almost got his brains blown out. He's not quite right in the head right now. Amarok and Pete are running the show right now" he said.

Ulf's eye twitched and he stepped over the line grabbing the wolf by the neck. "Don't be playing me! Who is Pete?" he asked.

The wolf cringed as Ulf released him before he fell back against the wall. "You know which Pete I speak of. He's been in charge of gaining weapons and recruits for our cause. He broke me out of asylum and bestowed me his boon in fact" he said before he sat on the floor. "It's funny...I didn't feel any different. I was a werewolf all along. I just couldn't show my true self until he came" he said.

Ulf took in a deep breath and stepped back over the line. "Where was Amarok going to get these explosives?" he asked.

The wolf smirked. "Terminal 3" he said before Ulf stepped in to kick him in the ribs.

"Terminal 3 doesn't exist" he shouted.

The wolf winced as he collapsed onto his hands and knees. "They said something about using the Time Oil Company terminal" he said.

Ulf sighed heavily. "That'll be enough" he muttered before he picked up the recording device. The gamma began to unlock the door as he watched Ulf approach, and Ulf walked out looking over at the Gamma. "I'm going to verify his story..." he said before he headed down the corridor. As he stepped out into the warehouse, Bernie and the men in black were in a heated debate about the events that were unfolding. Ulf looked over at Bernie, but he shot the others an untrusting snarl. "I've gotten a tip of something big going on" he said.

"Bigger than raiding National Guard Armories?" Don interjected.

Ulf looked up at them and stared in confusion. "What?" he muttered.

Bernie sighed. "Forget it! What do you got?" he asked. Ulf shook his head before he played them back the recording. Bernie was quick to diagnose who was responsible for the armory raids. "So, Pete is responsible for that" he muttered before he looked towards Don. "Get your team ready" he said sternly before he looked over to Ulf. "Get a squad of four ready to meet up with us" he said with a big authoritative voice.

Ulf nodded and rushed back into the corridor. Don was busy with his phone contacting his back up. "Pull back! I need a parameter set up around the Time Oil Company terminal. Scout the area and report back to me. Expect four SNE's to assist you. I will be in shortly with the Alpha" he said.

•••

Fifteen minutes as they drove up to the site, Don got a phone call from an agent, and there was a long pause with beeping in the background. "Sir! We have secured the parameter, but when we were about to board the ship our radiation detection started going off. We've detected five hundred millisieverts fifty yards out from the vessel" he said.

Don looked over at Bernie sharing the same distressed grim reaction. "Five hundred?" he muttered.

Bernie gulped. "Is it a bomb?" he asked.

Don looked over at him and shook his head. "Don't even speak of that! We need to get suited up before we can go farther!" he raised his voice. A large dark truck pulled up with more dark vehicles behind. Men in yellow radiological hazmat suits appeared bearing Geiger counters, which they scanned everyone and ordered some of the men in black to be decontaminated.

They entered the ship and their voices crackled over the radio. "We have found the source. It looks to be a warhead of some sort. Looks to it's got a sickle and hammer emblem with a hollow star above it" he muttered before it cut out.

"Sir, we have a survivor! It doesn't look like he's going to make it!" another shouted.

Don frowned and put the radio up to his mouth. "Record everything that he has to say, and I need someone who speaks Russian to suit up and interrogate the victim!" he said.

•••

Thirty minutes later, a Russian translator in a suit went onboard, and they finished their interrogation of the victim. "This man says he was given instruction to deliver this cargo from Transnistria, and to not look in the cargo hold. He did not know it was nukes until the wolves in suits came to take it away. He didn't get sick until they dropped one. I'm guessing that it knocked the shielding loose" he said.

Don gritted his teeth and looked over at Bernie. "If these are nukes, they are over 50 years old. They probably are duds...the fuel is still fissile. We have some time before they can get it rewired" he said.

Bernie gulped. "How many nukes got unloaded?" he asked.

Don clicked the radio transmitter. "How many nukes were unloaded?" he asked.

There was a pause before the translator replied, "Thirteen"

Don stared out into space. "We need to figure out what they plan to do with those nukes" he said before he started rubbing his forehead vigorously as it was drenched with sweat. "I don't have much information on Amarok, but I did not consider her much of a threat until now" he said.

Bernie glared at him. "This is what happens when you do not go after the hunters. This isn't like the good old days where we have pea shooters. I can't believe you of all people are surprised that we've gotten to this point" he said.

Don clenched his fist and growled lowly. "Believe me; it could have happened sooner if SAD didn't exist! The head of the department wanted us to start hunting you all down. I just had no idea that it could lead to nuclear warfare" he said before he looked back at him worried. "So she's working on her own?" he asked. Bernie remained quiet before Don pulled out a cigarette and lit it up. "Your tax dollars at work" he said sarcastically.

•••

Meanwhile back at the Wolfgang residence, Zoe and Lilian both were munching on hamburgers while in their anthro forms. Toby appeared lethargic and pale, but he still was able to move on his own down the stairs. Sasha helped him onto the couch, where his mother handed him a plate full of hamburgers and told him, "Eat up kid!"

Sasha sat beside him and with her own plate of burgers, which she popped one into her mouth and struggled to eat it. They watched her oddly as bread and bits of meat felt out from her mouth. Lilian smiled as the memories came flooding back to her. "Sasha, you have you ever watched how a wolf eats?" she asked.

She cocked her head cutely and her ears pinned back. "Yea, but I never focused on it before" she said.

Zoe snickered at her. "We don't chew our food in this form. Just eat like Toby eats in his human form and you should be good" she said.

Toby looked up at her slightly annoyed and confused, and they all laughed at his mixed reaction. "It's true..." his mother replied.

Sasha blushed as she attempted to try eating her hamburgers like a wolf would. With only several bites, she had consumed all of the hamburgers. She whimpered lowly still feeling very hungry, and she looked towards Toby worried as he had nearly finished his plate. She took his plate along with hers, and she left for the kitchen.

Lilian got up quickly and cut her off giving a friendly smile. "Here, I'll get them for you" she said as she took the plates from her, which she stared at her timidly backing up. Lilian rushed off humming to herself as Sasha returned back to sit next to Toby.

Sasha looked around the home noting at how orderly and organized it was. "They sure got this place cleaned up. You can't even tell that there was a home invasion" she commented.

"Yup, Tai made sure everything was placed exactly as it were. Toby's probably going to be looking for his things for thirty minutes anyway. He never keeps his things in one place" Lilian commented before they all chuckled at Toby's expense.

"So how's Olivia doing?" Sasha asked.

Zoe leaned back and relaxed. "Yea, she's fine...her hubris just knocked down a few pegs" she said.

Toby looked up at her annoyed. "What do you mean by that? Does she have brain damage?" he asked.

She looked back over at him. "She's always had brain damage. There's nothing wrong with teaching someone humbleness, Nuff said" she said before she sighed heavily. "For real, she's doing a lot better than we could hope for" she said.

He scowled at her. "Can you quit being vague!" he raised his voice.

She rolled her eyes and smirked. "Why don't you ask her how's she's doing? She's conscious now! Do I look like a doctor turdball?" she teased him.

He scowled. "I can't get up..." he grumbled.

His mother came back in with plates with more hamburgers, and she gave Zoe a stern look. "Zoe, please don't get him excited. His chest is going to be a pin cushion if I have to poke more holes in it" she said.

Toby looked at them annoyed before the phone started to ring. Lilian sat the food down before she grabbed her phone to answer the phone call from Bernie. "Hey, What up?" she asked.

"Have you been online at all?" he asked in a more than usual serious tone.

She gulped and looked at them before she left the room. "No, what's going on?" she asked.

"A lot is happening, and I would suggest you share it with Toby once he's better. It's plastered all over online. I can't talk for long, I have to make other phone calls" he said before he hung up.

She looked at her phone before she turned the TV on using a feed from her phone. "...And now an update on some breaking news we want to bring to you on the unrest in St. Helens, and the Longview/Kelso area. Drone 2 cannot get a view of the destruction due to an air space restriction. All roads in and out of the cities of Rainer, St. Helens, Longview, and Kelso are shut down including I-5 are closed 'til further notice..." the news anchor said.

Toby growled looking at the TV with confusion. "What's going on!?" he yelled.

"What we do know was at exactly 9:30 pm local time three National Guard Armories have been raided and all the soldiers have gone missing. At 9:45, a gun battle with the residents and terrorists started up. The battle has been ongoing ever since, there have been inconsistent reports on how many casualties there are, but there is a heavy military presence in the surrounding area. The FBI has confirmed that this is the work of the Ragnarok terrorists" the news anchor said before the news director came in before the news anchor's face went white.

The anchor tried to hold his composure. "We have ground crews setting up, but Greg can you put up the pictures from that YouNews reporter?" he asked. They put up a picture of a garage door of a home that said, "Time's up" and it had a crudely drawn picture of a mushroom cloud.

Lilian looked at the TV in horror. "That's...the Silbergiftzahn's house" she said.

Toby stared at the screen in disbelief and he could feel this unrelenting rage building up inside of him. "That bastard...I'll make him pay dearly!!" he said starting to shutter from his anger.

"...We aren't sure what the identity of these attackers were, but most witnesses say they weren't human...They describe manner of these murders were as if a bear had mauled them. The cases are so horrific that the corpses cannot be identified. I've seen body parts scattered all over the place. It's absolute hysteria here. The air space restriction and cell tower cut off is to keep the public from seeing the graphic nature of this Terrorist attack" said a voice on TV.

They got someone on the phone with the picture of burning houses was being fed onto the screen. "Did you see the attackers? What did they look like?" The news anchor asked.

"Yes...They looked like a pack of huge Wolves that could walk upright ...they were heavily armed and raided some houses. I don't know why they attacked some and not the others, but we managed to get out when others like them shot at them" The caller said.

"Just how big were these wolves? And did you mean to say that the citizens fought back?" The news anchor asked.

"Oh god, I'd say they were larger then Grizzly bears...I'm not sure if the ones fighting back were citizens, but they were wolves too" the caller said. There was some window knocking in the background. "I gotta go! There's some FBI agents outside" the caller said.

"Thank you for your time, and stay safe" The news anchor said.

"Alright..." the caller said before hanging up.

Lilian sighed. "This is bad..." she said.

"If you're just tuning in just there has been a massive coordinated Terrorist attack in towns of Longview, Washington and St. Helens, Oregon. We have gotten reports that the killings have spilled into Kelso and Kalama by what some people say were by...a pack of Giant Wolves. What we do know is that 9,000 people were killed and 30% structures are severely damaged or destroyed. Two National Guard Armories have been raided, and more messages have been written in the victim's blood" the news anchor said.

Sasha looked at the screen and gasped. "Oh my god...9...thousand?" she muttered in horror.

Lilian looked towards them sternly. "Take everything with a grain of salt. These are just the initial reports...it sounds way too high" she said before she looked at Zoe intensely. "Don't be doing anything stupid right now. You're not an Alpha!" she scolded her. She looked over at Toby and glared at him. "And you're still in High School! Let Bernie handle this and let that hole in your chest heal properly!" she lectured him before he could speak.

Sasha stared at them not having touched her plate, and she whimpered softly. "What's going to happen now?" she asked.

Lilian sighed heavily as she pulled out her phone. "I don't know..." she said before she muttered, "Nothing good that's for sure"

"Now just in, we have just received and confirmed reports that 300 are dead in Rainier, and that Amtrak and freight services have halted while the FBI investigates a body struck by a southbound Amtrak train in Kalama..." The news anchor said before Lilian turned the TV off.

Toby was very upset and had begun to transform into his anthro form. "That bastard..." he yelled.

Sasha looked at him before her eyes drifted to the patch over his chest. She wondered over to him and sat on the floor beside him. "Toby...your mom is right. You aren't going to do anything with a hole in your chest" she said.

Zoe looked up at Lilian and looked away timidly. She got up and started to walk towards the door before Lilian cleared her throat aggressively. "Where do you think you're going?!" she shouted. Zoe looked back and gulped as she was being stared down intensely. "Don't think that I was born yesterday! We've already gone through this tonight!" she shouted.

Zoe quietly walked back to her seat feeling like a little pup. Sasha looked between them and gulped before she went back to eating her meal. Lilian looked at Sasha and smiled at her. "Can you do me a favor and make sure Toby doesn't try to escape tonight?" she asked.

Sasha cocked her head and thought about the scenario before she started to snicker to herself. "Aren't you worried about me escaping?" she asked.

Lilian shook her head and laughed. "Nah, I know you have better control than Toby and Zoe do" she said before she shot the others with an angry leer. "They just don't know when to let things go!" she raised her voice. Toby and Zoe gulped, while Lilian sat down. Her phone gave a text alert, and she looked to her phone. She smiled and walked over to them showing the picture of her newborn pups hoping it would serve as a distraction.

Sasha stared at the picture and felt hollow inside. "Oh my gosh! They are so cute!" she commented.

Toby looked over at Sasha carefully as she placed her hand over her stomach. He looked away pretending not to notice, but she reached up to touch the lower part of his back trying to get closer with him. Zoe looked at the pups who looked like jelly beans behind a glass casing, and she cringed looking over at Sasha oddly. "Wow..." she muttered.

Lilian pulled her phone away and smirked. "They are doing much better" she said. Her mood had quickly shifted for the better, but Sasha became more depressed and mournful of the potential family she lost.

As Toby finished, she looked at him intensely and grabbed his arm. "Toby...can I be with you alone for a moment?" she asked. He stared at her before he sat his plate on the coffee table, and he followed her upstairs into his room. She waited for him to close the door before she wrapped her arms around him whimpering. "I really wanted to have this puppy" she said lowly. She gripped onto his back tightly and buried her face into his chest.

He froze and reached around rubbing her back gingerly, but he could not find anything to say. He sighed heavily as she began to cry into his chest, which he moved them onto his bed where she calmed herself down and clutched onto him falling in a trance. He ran his fingers through her cape, and he turned off the lights. "I promise we'll have one eventually" he said as he looked down at her golden wolf eyes.

She was extremely exhausted and wanted to do nothing else but hide from the world. She turned into a powerful majestic killing machine, but when she looked up at her mate, which to her surprise; he was about the same size in his anthro form as she was in her therian form. She shook off the thought of what could have been by rationalizing the fact that she did not even know for sure if she was with child to begin with. "I know we will...I know we will" she said.

•••

Meanwhile in the living room, Lilian looked at Zoe and sighed. "You're a good friend" she told her. Zoe raised an eyebrow before Lilian sat beside her and rested her hands onto her lap. "You know that he would be a whole different person without you" she said.

Zoe could not figure out where this was all coming from, but Lilian continued on. "You two continue to get stronger, you hear me? Keep pushing him. I want him to be as strong as...no stronger than Steele" she told her.

Yvonne barged in the door while holding her son's hand. Haley and Percy followed her inside, which they were all in their anthro forms; he gawked at the sight of so many werewolves in their transformed state behaving like normal sociable humans. He stepped in and immediately sat next to Zoe and suddenly leaned up against her. Yvonne sat in Toby's chair and focused her attention on Lilian. "How's Olivia and Todd doing?" she asked.

Lilian sighed heavily. "They are fine. They are resting. I'm going to try to get a therapist to help them with walking again" she said.

Haley smiled with optimism as she sat on the ledge of the fireplace. "Can you believe that a couple decades ago those injuries would either be fatal or take a year to recover from?" she asked.

Lilian nodded. "I remember when we first started 3D printing a liver...now we can print new limbs and print skin back onto burn victims! We're pretty lucky to be living in this day and age" she said with agreement.

Yvonne giggled to herself. "So did you inject stem cells to speed up Toby's healing then?" she asked.

Lilian held up her hand emulating a pinching motion signaling that she may have influenced his healing. "I only did it for his bones. He pretty much reattached his arm all by himself" she said proudly.

Yvonne shook her head while smiling. "Wow, he must have learned a few things with how much you've been patching him up" she said.

"Heh, Yea, Well he's never had a severed limb until now...I honestly thought that it would take a lot more than just pressing the limb up against the stub. That's just real freaky how he got it all aligned perfectly" Lilian mentioned.

Yvonne cocked her head to the side. "What? Do you think that, it'll heal properly?" she asked.

Lilian shook her head. "It'll be fine. I'm just thinking about the scaffolding principle right now" she said.

"Your thesis?" Yvonne asked.

"Yea, I only did the research for the nervous system. I did not think about it working for the cardiovascular system" Lilian said before she paused as another thought crept up in her head. "I'm beginning to think this may be why you guys hardly get scars" Lilian muttered before Zoe stared at them.

"Scaffolding principle?" she muttered.

Lilian grinned widely. "You never heard of my dissertation paper? I basically changed the game in dealing with trauma patients. Though, I was working with werewolf and human patients. I was able to observe the healing processes, and one big difference was werewolves formed temporary filaments to bridge the nerves I called it scaffolding, and these filaments shortened closing the distance to the nerve endings. Once they were a couple microns from each other, the filaments were replaced with nerve tissue. I think that's what happened to Toby's arm...only it was on a massive scale. It would make sense as the filaments were mostly stem cells anyway" she said.

Zoe stared at her confused, but she nodded slowly. She was not so sure with why Lilian was getting so excited over this, but her mother and sister looked at her with a smile. "Lilian was only researching nerve cells...Now we know that her research goes beyond nerve cells" she said.

Zoe sighed heavily. "So why are you all excited?" she asked.

Lilian sighed heavily. "If I can isolate the filaments, then I could maybe use them on non-supernatural patients and shorten therapy time when we reattach a body part back on" she said.

Zoe stared at her oddly. "You don't think could spread the virus around would it?" she asked.

Haley snickered at her comment. "Well, what do you think isolate means?" she asked.

Lilian sighed happily. "The one thing that we can't do yet is directly 3D print a limb onto someone's stump. It would take days with our tech now, but this could boost healing and reduce fibrosis. Do you know how many diseases we could possibly cure with this!?" she asked.

Zoe quickly shook her head and looked towards her mother unsure about how it would all work out, and her mother looked back amused. "Don't worry, she's a doctor" she said.

Lilian smiled evilly. "I'm Dr. Wolfgang, thank you very much!" she said as she pulled out her phone to call Dr. Lovejoy. Haley shook her head at her best friend going into a caffeine fueled frenzy, but she glanced over at Percy who had gone quiet wondering if he had some insights with the conversation.

Dr. Lovejoy answered the phone before letting it go to voicemail. Lilian quickly spoke up with extreme enthusiasm and vigor. "Hey, I have a new research proposal with scaffolding" she shouted with excitement.

Dr. Lovejoy was completely caught off guard with this seemingly off topic conversation. "I'm listening" she said with intrigue.

"Okay, so you heard about Toby reattaching his arm without any medical help?" Lilian asked.

"Uh no...I've been distracted with everything else going on" Dr. Lovejoy muttered before she sighed wearily. "What are you thinking about doing exactly? You aren't planning on cutting off an arm and watch it reattach itself are you?" she asked.

Lilian paused and her guests looked at her oddly before she gulped. "Oh, no...of course not, I was just saying, that if you ever get a patient who has a severed limb, please let me in to watch. Heh, I wasn't going to cut off any body part...that's just crazy" she said.

Dr. Lovejoy sighed heavily. "I'll see what I can do. Since we're on the topic of Toby, I'm going to need him to come in tomorrow morning for a physical. I would bring Sasha along also, and please bring her along, it's very important" she said.

"What's going on? Is it about her parents?" she asked.

"Is she there?" Dr. Lovejoy asked.

"She's mating with Toby at the moment" she answered.

Dr. Lovejoy sighed. "We just got her body cleansed from the toxins they pumped in her body. Her father will be taken to the Canby Rehab Clinic for a while as a protocol, but he's not the same person that he was. They didn't get the noose off his neck fast enough sadly. He does recognize his family members, but he has difficulty speaking, and he does not remember the past three years. On a side note...when we did a brain scan, we found a tumor pressed up against his amygdala. We removed it as quick as possible" she said.

"I see...well, good thing you caught that before we had another hyper aggressive werewolf running around" Lilian said before she looked towards Zoe who was very irritated.

"Are you just going to give him a pass? He got a tumor removed, so what! It ain't going to undo the damage he has done! Nuff Said!" she spoke harshly at her.

Her mother looked at her sternly. "Even though he's caused damage, we aren't going to make him the scapegoat for something that has been brewing for Lord knows how long. Everyone else responsible is dead anyway. How much more blood do you need?" she asked.

Zoe gritted her teeth and growled lowly. "He tried to kill my best friends!" she shouted.

Lilian cleared her throat. "You know about those fungi that turns insects into zombies?" she asked using her best Steele impersonation. Zoe stared at her confused, but she nodded slowly. "Well, think of the mind control fungus as a mind control tumor, and instead of making the host climb to the highest point and biting into something, it is making the host angry at everything and want to kill" she said.

"That was a pretty good Steele impression. Sounds like something he would say too" Dr. Lovejoy said over the phone.

Zoe stared at them in disbelief imagining a child being told such dark and macabre references. "You mean he actually spoke to pups like this? And I thought my dad was scary" she muttered.

Yvonne sighed. "He was scary when it was needed...just like your father" she corrected her.

Lilian nodded. "Trust me; he's very good at going into every detail in his stories. All the pups loved to hear his gory stories. I remember you loved to hear them yourself" she said.

Zoe tried to think back to when she was much younger, which she got past the kids bullying her for her size and choice in clothing style before she remembered the tales that Steele told her about kids jumping off a bridge over a river and into a mist. Everyone was doing it, but one kid decided to do something else. When the kid came back over the bridge, the mist cleared and exposed the lifeless bodies of the kids who dove into the dried up riverbed. She remembers this story most of all, and she thought about the moral not the graphic depiction of mangled corpses. "I don't remember them that much" she lied.

Lilian and Yvonne both rolled their eyes before Dr. Lovejoy cleared her throat. "So...does 10 o'clock sound like a good time?" she asked.

"Yea, I'll bring them over and show them my babies" she said.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea. Well, see you then" Dr. Lovejoy said.

"Auf wiedersehen" She said before she hung up.

Yvonne looked towards her daughter who seemed lost in thought and smirked. "Your father told me you kicked Ian's ass!" she said before she pumped her fist. "Atta girl!" she shouted before she nudged her shoulder lightly. Zoe snapped out of her daze, and she looked back at her mother flashing a faint smile.

Zoe looked over at the other side of her shoulder where Percy fell asleep beginning to drool on her arm just as her little brother was drooling onto her mother's arm. "Well, I think I should put him to bed" she said before her mother snickered.

Lilian got up and dusted herself off. "Well, you all make yourselves comfortable for the night. I'm going to check on my patients" she said as she walked to the guest bedroom to see two werewolves in anthro from resting comfortably in a cold room. They were both awake, but when Lilian turned the light on, Olivia started to panic when she saw a werewolf approach her.

She struggled to move, but all she could manage was to cry out until Lilian touched the side of her face shushing her. "It's okay...you're safe..." she spoke softly as she took her hand. Olivia was shocked looking at a transformed hand that she did not believe was hers, but she could feel everything in that limb. "Can you move your fingers and toes for me?" she asked.

Olivia tried to do what she was told, but she could not make them budge. She gave a light whimper, but she continued to struggle trying to make them move. She finally was able to move her thumb slightly at first before she wiggled her big toe. "What happened?" she struggled to say.

Lilian shrugged. "I don't know, but you're lucky to be alive" she said before she pulled out a flash light to check her pupils. "You just get rest now...I'll bring you and Todd some food" she said.

"When was I a werewolf?" she asked.

Lilian stood up and shook her head. "I don't know...but just be grateful that you are one. So many things went right for you" she said before she got interrupted.

"Does my mom know? Where is my mom?" she raised her voice.

Lilian growled to herself. "Listen, I don't know that much about you only that you are a cheerleader and not that nice to my son and his friends" she shouted.

Her eyes widened and tears welled up in the corner of her eyes. "What? But how? I was never mean to anyone!" she shouted before she looked at her feet. "This can't be real!" she mumbled to herself.

"Get some rest" Lilian said abruptly. Todd flinched and looked towards Olivia worried, before Lilian reached over to grab onto his foot. "How's your back feeling?" she asked as she rubbed his foot.

Todd looked back over at her nervously. "It's sore...really sore" he said. He grimaced and looked at her feet. "Are my mom and dad going to be okay?" he asked.

She nodded and shook his foot. "Everything is going to be alright" she said softly.

•••

Meanwhile upstairs Toby looked out his bedroom window smiling with satisfaction. The cool winter breeze passed through curtains as well as the bright moonlight. Sasha started licking at his neck affectionately as she wrapped her furry arms around him "Toby, do I really look attractive to you?" she asked.

Toby sighed with content before he looked back at her with a toothy grin. "Are you not as satisfied with your looks as I am?" he asked before he reached around to feel her hip.

She nibbled on his neck before she crawled up on top of him. "I'm a bit underwhelmed with all this" she said as she waved her hand over her body. She had a feminine hourglass and slim build that complemented Toby's bulky and masculine therian form. Her large mammaries were furred over and her child bearing hips. He looked her over, and she wagged her tail with appreciation. "Well, I'm glad you like it..." she said happily as she caressed his jawline.

He smiled warmly. "You like to cuddle with me some more? It actually was helping me get better" he asked.

She lay on top of him with her arms crossed over his chest. "I can't believe you're still bigger than me almost" she said before she nuzzled her muzzle into his neck letting off a heavy sigh. "I guess I can't be Zoe can I?" she asked.

He let out a huge guffaw as he reached around to stroke the side of her face. "Nope, I'm not going to be Percy any more than you are going to be her, I'm afraid" he said.

She giggled softly. "Well, I thought I would at least be seven feet" she said.

He smirked as he rubbed her shoulders. "I think you are close to it, but you wouldn't know that would yea?" he asked.

"Heh, that's still not fair. I grew a foot and a half, and you grew like three inches" she said before she looked over at his arm. "So how long will it take for your arm to heal completely?" she asked.

He shrugged as he reached over to scratch underneath the stretchy material and around the metal rods. "I'm really not sure if transforming is going to help it that much to be honest. Not that I could help it any" he muttered.

She grabbed his hand and pulled it away. "Then don't mess with it any...Your mom put a lot of effort into setting your arm" she scolded him.

He kept reaching for his arm, and she growled at him baring her teeth at him. "Leave 'em alone! Or I'll break your other arm!" she raised her voice as she gave him an aggressive glance. He stared to her in shock, but he stopped resisting her as she placed his arm aside. She looked away and her ears flattened against her head. "Sorry...I don't know what came over me" she said.

He continued to stare at her, but he chuckled at her reaction while he reached up to scratch behind her ear. She began to feel all tingly all over, and she turned her neck groaning. "Oh man...that feels so good" she said as she lost control of one of her legs. "Don't think that I'm going to let you off easily!" she scolded him.

He smirked at her sadistically. "Why not? I gotta scratch something. Might as well do something constructive" he muttered.

She wagged her tail before she flipped onto his good side and exchanged his ear scratch service with her belly scratching service. "That's a pretty good idea then" she agreed.

His mother opened the door slowly, and she flipped the light on. Sasha squeaked and reached for the blanket to cover her chest up. She did not hear her approach with the music playing in the background, and his mother smiled at them. "You're looking much better...those stem cells really did the trick" she said before she ripped the seal off from Toby's chest.

Toby made a face and winced as he immediately grabbed for his chest. "...OWW!" Toby yelled in a girly voice before he moved his hand away. "You gave me a bald spot on my chest" he whined.

"Oh come on...you grow hair faster than someone with Hypertrichosis" she said.

"It still hurt..." he muttered rubbing the bald spot.

His mother looked over at Sasha and frowned. "So, I have some good news if you want to call it that much and some bad news" she said before they both focused on her intensely. "The tests they've ran concluded that you were not pregnant. The bad news is your hormone levels are still higher than normal...especially for a werewolf. I suspect you were having a pseudopragnancy" she said.

Sasha went quiet thinking about her family history, and she forced a knot free from her throat. "Can werewolves get cancer?" she asked.

His mother nodded. "Yes, werewolves can get cancer" she said before she thought for a moment. "However, if you eat right and get plenty of exercise, you'll have a much lower likelihood of getting that form of cancer. Yes, werewolves can still have Aromatase Excess Syndrome, but instead of stressing out about being stuck with it, I would suggest you meditate or take yoga" she said.

Sasha looked down at her chest disappointed. "Man, if only I could give Zoe half of these boulders, then she'd be looking like the real Shehulk" she said.

Zoe poked her head in and laughed. "It won't work, I'd just burn it up anyway" she said before she leaned up against the door threshold. "I'm going in for my procedure tomorrow...now that the game's been called off" she said before she ran her hand through her hair. "Well, this sucks...I guess we'll never get to put our rankings to the test" she said.

Toby sat up and looked over at his phone, which it was turned off. He looked over at his mother annoyed knowing this was her doing, but he let it pass and looked back at Zoe. "Did he say cancelled or postponed?" he asked.

She glared at him. "This is High School, Toby! Nuff said!" she grumbled. She looked over at Haley who was standing behind her. "What's up?" she asked.

Haley passed her and entered the room, which Sasha hid out of embarrassment. "Hey, Can you come outside for a second?" she asked Lilian. She left the room quietly and Lilian trailed behind, and Zoe lagged thereafter. Haley stopped and looked back towards her sister irritated. "Stay here...I don't need any drama right now!" she said firmly.

Zoe glared at her, and she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not!" she said as she closed Toby's door. "What am I going to do up here? Listen to those two knocking the bed posts around?" she asked.

Haley sighed heavily. "Alright, but just stay inside. I mean it!" she spoke harshly.

"Fine!" she muttered as they walked back down stairs.

•••

Someone in a brown fur cloak and tribal mask different to their clan stood beside Tai, and the stranger lifted his mask revealing he was a boy who looked to be Todd's age. Percy sat next to twins around the age of four or five. Yvonne was busy consoling and comforting them. Lilian immediately recognized their scents, and she jumped the banister to and the cloak was actually stained with blood. "Are you hurt?" she asked.

The boy looked away and shook his head slowly. Zoe quietly walked over to Percy which the twins immediately huddle up to her. One forced their way under her armpit, and the other clung to her arm seeking protection. Yvonne looked towards Tai worried. "So are there more alive?" she asked.

The pups lowered their heads and grimaced in pain. Tai nodded before he pulled out a chair from the dining room into the living room and sat down. "They're three out of twenty that are walking wounded. We've managed to recover maybe twelve more" Tai said before he grabbed his mate's arm to pull her outside.

Lilian crossed her arms over her chest and Tai ran his hands through his hair. "Their parents were blue tagged. We don't have enough stem cells to treat everyone. The medical techs said it's going to take a couple weeks to replenish" he said.

Lilian sighed looking over at Makita lying on her belly on the patio. "Stem Cells aren't the magical cure of death for us. I just brought back a black tagger not too long ago. Even though they can function independently, they are not the same person. I don't think those pups in there could deal with parents who don't remember them. If we got a war on our hands, we have to use our stem cells wisely" she said.

He sighed heavily. "They aren't black tagged yet" he said before she glared at him.

"I know what blue tagged means! Don't think that because we are werewolves mean that the outcome is always going to be different! There's still a limit to how much trauma our bodies can endure at once before we too are overwhelmed. I've been a trauma surgeon for almost ten years. Is it ethical to let them endure more pain and suffering when you can't ensure that when they wake up they are still the same person?" she raised her voice.

He shook his head before he looked inside. "So, what am I going to tell them?" he muttered.

She looked inside and sighed. "I think they have it figured out. Pups are a lot smarter than you think" she said before she looked at him intensely. "Are you alright?" she asked.

He looked towards the fountain and grimaced. "I've never seen so much senselessness. And now they've got WMDs?" he muttered.

Her eyes widened before she huddled up against him. "Where did you find this out?" she asked in a whisper.

He gritted his teeth and looked up at Toby's window hearing the music playing. "I overheard it when Ulf was interrogating our detainee" he said before he looked back at her sternly. "Listen, if this gets as bad as I think it is. I would rather have Toby and Zoe stay out of this fight. They'll just be more moths drawn into the flame at this point" he said.

She took in a deep breath and rubbed Tai's back. "Let's just hope that SAD gets their shit together" she said before she closed her eyes. "If not, I'm going to have to go with a backup plan" she said.

He looked at her oddly. "What do you mean?" he asked.

She took in a deep breath and sat down on the patio. "Steele and Bernie both elected to have their spermatozoa cells collected and frozen. I'm going to ask Toby if he wants to donate his later, and Haley is going to ask Zoe if she would like to donate her ova for our back up plan. We also have been asking others for their samples for their desirable traits. We also have a list of surrogates, who wish to partake in this program" she said.

He stared at her in shock and awe. "So you're fine with this?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I'm fine with it...this is just in case something like this would happen. Chances are that we'll both be dead, so my feelings about whoever gets Steele's genetic material is irrelevant. All I care is that we have as much genetic diversity as possible after the bottleneck event" she said.

His eye twitched. "So this is the Bottleneck Program?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yea...you can understand why you don't have the credentials" she said.

He nodded and gulped. "Does Pete know about this?" he asked.

She hesitated and nodded. "Yea, he knows of it, but we've moved the samples once Jean had his talk to Toby about removing Pete" she said.

He looked back into her eyes intensely. "Did you...use some of Steele's samples?" he asked.

She smirked and laughed at him. "Psh, No...they are yours silly! They are as tan as you, Zoe, and Yvonne" she teased.

He blushed. "No, no! I mean, has Steele's samples been used?" she asked.

Yvonne opened up the sliding glass door. "You know you should speak a little quieter" she said as she held her little boy.

He looked at the pup and looked back up at his mate wide eyed. "Naw! That's too obvious!" he muttered.

Yvonne smiled at him. "Bernie did want to honor his best friend...and I was a surrogate" she said.

His jaw hit the floor, and Lilian looked over at Zoe who stared at them confused, but Haley grinned at them amused that no one picked this up. Yvonne patted her pup's back and smiled before he finally grasped at what had been going on. "So...Steele is actually from..." he said whispered, which Haley and Yvonne both nodded.

"Wow! That just blows me away!" he muttered before he shrugged. "Well, at least we got a backup plan...when it comes to nuclear war" he said nervously.