FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Twenty minutes later I was sat in a large, open office and lounge combo. The deep, red carpets that lined the floors matched the thick, deep drapes that hung around the bay windows at either end of the office. Behind me and down a little step, the lounge resided, plush, leather couches, set around a glass, oriental coffee table. Pelts of all kinds hung from the walls around me in both rooms, while pale morning sunlight spilled across them through the windows.

I was sat in a straight-backed chair in front of the rich, dark wood desk that sat between me and the window. I had been dressed in a pair of white tracksuit bottoms and matching tank top, both embroidered with the Haven Institute's shield, the wolf that indicated what kind of wereanimal I was, emblazoned amongst the shield and the blade. My rugged hairstyle had been scraped back from my eyes and clipped into place, a few rogue strands had spilled free but at least I could see past my nose now.

A small, wooden plaque was set into the desk's surface on my side. Headmistress Havok carved into the oaken finish. I stared in disbelief at the woman who owned that name as she stood behind her side of the desk, gazing out of that bay window.

Havok was tall, for a woman, at almost six foot three. She was all slender and curves, but even under the pinstripe suit I could tell there was an ounce of muscle on her that made every muscle in my body scream; dangerous. Her hair fell in a silken, jet-black wave over one shoulder. Her eyes were an honest-to-God crimson colour, the colour of blood. Set in narrow eyes with the corners tilted up, I could tell there was a little Japanese heritage in her bloodline. Her lips were full and her skin almost translucent, it was that pale, paler than me, and I'd been locked away in the dark for six months.

And oh was I feeling those six months, every muscle in my body twitched, as it stirred and slowly woke up. Six months without being let down from that upside down position, six months without stretching my limbs. I ached for a decent walk or run, something, anything to get the blood flowing again.

_ It was bad to be this weak when confined inside Haven_, I thought.

Havok was beautiful, but there was something about her, her smell. Underneath the lavender perfume that radiated off of her body, there was something else, something...dark about her, for lack of a better word. She did work for Haven, so maybe that was what I was picking up. Something about her just made me not want to turn my back on her, plain and simple.

"I do apologise about the precautions, Jack." She gestured to the silver-imbued shackles still fastened around my wrists.

I shrugged, "Do what you gotta do to feel safe."

She smiled at that as she turned her attention on me. "I know you are not the biggest fan of the staff here at Haven, nor are you massively interested in the welfare of some of our students either. But precautions had to be taken, for your own sake," she explained with a teasing threat swimming amongst the pleasantries.

I shrugged again.

She stepped toward her desk and walked wide around it, a slender, dainty hand trailing along the smooth finish. "Do you have any questions, perhaps, Jack?" she asked.

"Not really...well, tell a lie. Where is Linus Eckhardt? I thought he was Headmaster here?"

"Linus has other duties elsewhere. Why do you concern yourself with him? Do you miss him? I thought you would have welcomed a better, kinder Headmistress in his place?"

"Haven's Initiations have taught me that when you encounter something terrible, there is always something worse lurking just around the corner, so no, you work for Haven, chances are your either equal to or greater in terms of madness and depravity."

Havok made a little gasping 'o' with her mouth and then grinned. "You think I could be worse than Linus?"

"You could be."

She laughed then, a rich, joyous sound that might have turned heads in a cafe or bar. "Schneider was right about you. You are an overly-cautious individual. A good nature to have considering where you are at this moment in time."

"At Haven?"

"Nope. In my presence," she teased.

I brushed off the underlining threat again and asked, "What did you want to see me about?"

I was done with being laughed at, being tormented and teased, being threatened. I hated Haven. I hated the people who worked for Haven. I hated Eckhardt. I hated Schneider. And now I hated Havok. Five minutes in and I could tell she was as depraved as the rest of them.

"Fine. Enough with the pleasantries. I merely wanted to meet you, get the introductions over with, one might say. And also to explain a few things that have changed here at Haven Institute."

"Then explain, so I can go find my friends."

"Fair enough. To business then. First and foremost, the Initiation."

I swallowed at the mention of that. Six months ago Eckhardt had suspended my Initiations while I was in Isolation, now I had been released, they would no doubt resume. It had been a pleasant six months, after all.

"My favourite thing about Haven," I murmured back.

Havok smiled. "I understand that during your past Initiations you have been subjected to constant drug-induced sexual assaults and even rapes. Correct?" she asked.

I nodded slowly.

"Your Initiation is ongoing, that much is certain, but I have replaced the Elite with my own brand of cohorts. Some of them are indeed sexual deviants, but the majority will be testing you in the proper Initiation method."

"And those would be?"

"Speed, strength, willpower. Not just sexual appetites that Linus seemed to take an obsessive interest in."

"So instead of being sexually abused, I should look forward to a beating or two instead?"

She smiled and nodded. "Something like that."

"Awesome," I replied, tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Next criteria on the agenda; SD. You remember it, don't you? What that drug did to you?"

"SD will still be used then, I take it?" I asked.

"On occassion," she teased. She rounded the corner of her desk and sat, perched on the edge, legs folded at the knee, her hands smoothed out upon the desk as she gazed down at me with her blood-red eyes. "Do you know what it means?"

"SD? No."

"SD stands for Sex Drive, a crude, but applicable term for the after-effects when taking an SD tablet."

"W-What?" I stammered.

"Think of it as a hyped-up viagra that targets the beast that dwells inside all of us. Not your human desires, but the more feral ones. That is why you always transform during a SD induction. Seeing as having a constant erection, however, would not benefit you in a fight, it will be used in specific cases, not all. So...congrats on that one."

I blinked back at her and felt heat creeping up my face.

"Are you disappointed?" she teased in a gentle whisper. She leaned over, her ample bosom flaring alot of cleavage as the jacket was only buttoned halfway up.

I looked away and wouldn't give her the satisfaction I had noticed her offering.

She grinned wider and continued, "Next. You are now the only werewolf who inhabits this particular Institution."

"E-Excuse me? What about the others? There was a whole pack here divided between three alphas!"

"Six months ago you killed Broderic, one of those alphas, and befriended the other two in some despicable unison to try and best Haven. When you killed the alpha, Broderic, you inadvertedly inherited his third of the pack. You became their alpha. And with the death of the bitch and the disappearance of Luis Strong, you inadvertedly inherited the other two as well. For a minute, you owned an entire pack of werewolves that might have become a problem at a later date. As you can tell, having that threat looming was bad for business, so the pack was divided and scattered across the European branches of Haven Institute."

"W-Wait a minute? Luis Strong disappeared?"

"In the follow-up to your little rebellion, all of you were isolated. The bitch died within a week, and Luis vanished three months into his Isolation. He has been spotted here and there throughout America, but he will be found, you have my word on that one," she reached across her desk and plucked a grape from a bunch that was sitting in a small bowl. She popped it in her mouth and bit down. "The Retrieval Squad has been sent to hunt Luis down."

"Retrieval Squad?" I repeated.

Havok nodded. "You think Eckhardt and I are bad. The Retrieval Squad has two methods of capture, dead or alive, and they hardly ever bring anyone back alive."

"Luis is exactly what his name states, strong, not to mention fucking fast. I've seen him in a fight. Good luck finding him."

"Like I said, dead or alive works for the Squad."

Luis Strong. The right-hand werewolf to Linus Eckhardt and for a time a common ally. He stepped in and helped me in the follow up to the death of Rat King Zeke. I had thought Eckhardt would have had him killed, but to have him isolated? I couldn't help but smile at the thought of Luis evading capture. Good for him.

"You will, of course, be the first to know when Luis returns to Haven, be it in a body bag or not."

"Whatever," I murmured.

"But, back to the matter at hand. You are now alone her as far as being a werewolf is concerned."

"Goody."

She suddenly spilled from her desk and stood before me, arms folded underneath her chest as she gazed down at me. "I'm glad we had this time to get to know one another, Jack. It has been an absolute pleasure."

"What now? Are we done here?" I frowned back at her.

"Almost. There is one more thing you need to know. Do you know what the prison you were held in is called?"

I shook my head slowly.

She grinned maliciously. "It is known as an Arcane-Splicer Tank, or AST. Its tank is filled with two or more species of wereanimal and the liquid forces their genetic codes and physical forms to mould and become one sentiant being. Their form is maintained through the liquid as well, otherwise they would fall apart, due to the fact the process takes quite a while to achieve success."

I swallowed. "W-What are you saying?" I stammered, eyes a little wide now.

"Did you notice anything different about yourself when you woke up? Schneider thinks you did."

I did. Those amber eyes I had been staring at myself with.

She smoothed a hand through my hair and lowered her face to mine, so that our jawlines brushed one another. She whispered in my ear, "You are as normal as can be following an experiment of that magnitude, but don't be alarmed if you start to notice anything...unnusual, its all part of the process."

"W-What did you d-d-do to me?" I breathed.

"We made you better. For Haven, of course."

"What did you do!?" I snarled suddenly.

She straightened up and moved around me until I could feel her hands rubbing my shoulders and her breasts brushing the back of my head.

"Amber eyes," she whispered.

"W-What?"

"You noticed it when you woke up, Jack. You didn't go into that tank alone. Who had amber eyes? Think about it."

I knew the answer long before she explained it to me. Broderic!

I felt numb, a cold chill spilled over me as I started to tremble and shake.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you do this to me?" I growled.

"Haven strives to defend this world with whatever weapons it can grasp. A single wereanimal is equivalent to that of fifty soldiers on the battlefield. Our troops could come home, if we sacrificed one or two wereanimals to the wars that spring up here and there throughout the world. Imagine. World War I and II finished with only half a dozen or so casualties on our side, instead of hundreds. Iraq, the constant conflicts that arise, all of it could be finished and secured if we only had...volunteers."

"But we didn't volunteer...no one volunteered. The soldiers nowadays choose their path in life. I don't want that. I'm sick of conflict and fighting and violence!"

"But your kind is so, so good at it, Jack Whyatt. And after the events six months ago, you've become our poster boy."

"Your...insane. Kidnapping wereanimals and torturing them, breaking their minds so that you can make them your own personal weapons. Wars aren't fought through brainwashing and this notion of who-has-the-better-weapon! Wars are fought by those who want to defend their homeland, their families!"

"Do you not have a family to defend, Jack?"

I stopped then. Emma.

"Jack, just accept your purpose here. You and your friends are nothing more than puppets, puppets to be played with and broken, puppets to be tormented and shaped into the perfect weapons that we can then sell to the highest bidder."

"W-Wait! Highest bidder? What happened to bringing home the troops!"

"I didn't say they had to be our troops, now did I?" she massaged my shoulders as she spoke. "In time, everyone who works under Haven will understand that resisting is as futile as it could be. And when the times comes to march into battle against the enemy, you will lead the charge, Jack." She suddenly leaned over, her hair spilled around me as I looked up into her crimson eyes. "You are ours, Jack."

"You said the splicing between two entities takes time. How much time?" I asked, growing colder and colder as realisation smothered me. This was what it had all been for? To make perfect weapons that could then be sold on like mindless puppets? No. I wouldn't have it.

"It takes around six months for the initial process to finalise."

"And six months Isolation was perfect for the experimentation, then?"

She nodded. "It will get better, Jack." She stood up and waved me off as she walked back to her desk, "Now go, go and see your friends, and relish in what you have learned here today. Your croc should be being released from his prison by now."

I laughed suddenly, a croaking sound that didn't resemble me whatsoever. Havok turned slowly, but remained stoic as she looked into my eyes. The blue faded and in its place a deep, amber bled to the surface. I grinned wide and shook with untold anger and violence, aching, burning to spill out. "I...will...kill...you!" I sneered at her with a voice that was not my own.

No sooner had I been overcome, I snapped free of it. I was breathless and could feel my eyes bleed back to their normal pale blue. "W-What?" was all I managed to choke out as I stared up at Havok.

The door opened suddenly and in walked two men, both tall, both thin, and both dressed in tailored suits of black. One blonde, one brunette. Both looked as stoic as Havok did.

"Get going, pup. Your crocodile awaits your arrival," Havok breathed with a vicious smile playing on her lips.

I stood and trembled as the two men placed a hand each on my shoulders and lead me out.

Havok plucked another grape and called, "Give Isaiah my best, won't you."

"Enjoy your grapes, bitch," I snarled back under my breath as I walked out, stuck between the two suits.