First Moon

[Existentially Odd]

Tau arrived at the warehouse before sundown on the night of the full moon, as had been the agreement between he and Dominik.  His son, Arik, drove his car, because Tau still didn't like driving, even though he'd managed to obtain his licence.  In the back seat was his daughter, Nebi and an elephant shifter named Louie.  As a human, he was huge and quiet and Tau could only suppose he'd be similar in animal form.  Another two shifters had been contacted by the Werewolf Oligarch (or ex, as the case technically was) after Tau had forwarded their details but they were coming in their own car.  They were a couple of grizzly bear sisters with the temperament to match their animal form.  Tau had had a lot of cases featuring them when he was an Oligarch, they were forever being brought before him for growling - literally, growling - at people who pissed them off in shopping centres or the like.  Generally it was little old ladies who didn't move fast enough for Ria and Bella's liking.

The light was fading as they pulled up outside the warehouse and Arik found a place to park.  On edge, Tau bounded out of the car as soon as it stopped, slamming the door and sniffing the air as he looked around.  He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, nothing fancy and nothing difficult to pull off if he needed to change and chase down some errant werewolf.  He was in two minds about whether that should happen or not, considering his age - it was far more a gig for his three year old cubs and the other trio of shifters he was bringing... but he really despised wolves.  He'd love an excuse to sink his claws into one.  He was planning to stay out of it if he could, though; his thumbs were hooked in his pockets, fingers tapping agitatedly against his pelvis as he looked for other cars and Dominik to come out of the warehouse to meet them.

With a little more dignity, the rest of the people in his car disembarked.  Louie walked towards the entrance but Nebi and Arik came to him.  Arik had his mother's disposition (but his father's colouring), he was far more relaxed than his littermate or sire were, looking up at the sky with his fists shoved into the pockets of his jeans, also wearing a shirt and no shoes.  He was as tall, broad and well-sculpted as his father and his button-down shirt clung to his young, muscular frame lovingly as he watched the sun throw a last splash of colour across the sky.  Nebi had auburn hair, pale skin and was smaller than her brother (though still larger than her snake littermates), though she had her father's disposition.  She was edgy and her feet wouldn't stop moving as she waited, her attire much the same as her brother's (though his shirt was white and hers was dark green).  She took a lot of dance classes and it seemed she was working through a routine as her attention switched from one male to the other, her smooth, shoulder blade-length hair flicking in such a way that Tau was often drawn to look at it.

"Stop it," her father growled at her.

"Where are the wolves?" she fired back excitedly.

Tau scowled.  "Where's Dominik?" he countered, having expected to meet the bear shifter immediately.  As Tau took a step towards the entryway that Louie had disappeared inside of by now, a car pulled into the driveway nearby.  The eldest cougar looked and saw that Dominik was in the driver's seat, his mate in the passenger seat beside him.  It reminded him starkly of the shifter's weird ideas about mating, for he'd bred with a werewolf.  Tau didn't understand it but he was doing his best to put nature aside tonight, in order to foster better relations with beings closely related to his own nature.  With the city the way it was, the shifters could use as many allies as they could get.

With a deep breath, he headed for Dom's car, his daughter alongside him and his son dawdling behind.

[pinkroses]

Dom had been at the warehouse all day and had been so relieved when at 4pm everything was finished. The cages were not as comfortable looking as the ones at the Chambers had been, but they were definitely comfortable, with beanbags, cushions, beds – none expensive (as they would probably need to be replaced monthly) but decent and would serve their purpose. He’d taken Carrie the day before and hoped that the others would be as accepting of the change. There were a few names which came to mind of werewolves who would not be pleased by any of this – they’d never been pleased by the arrangement in the first place.

He had also explained to Carrie why he wouldn’t be touching her after his shower and although she had been surprised she had accepted it and reminded him whenever he had almost reached out to touch her or any number of reasons. Just being in the car with her might be enough to put Tau off though, especially since there were two werewolves in the car – Carrie had insisted on giving Sable a lift to make sure the youth got to the new location.

Using Tau’s list of contacts Dominik and Carrie had finally found a suitable babysitter for Hannah. A slender young woman named Juliet who could turn into a kudu was now curled up on their sofa as Hannah slept peacefully upstairs. There was no way Dom or Carrie would bring Hannah here, even when she grew up to her full size. This was dangerous, bringing her here would be stupid.

But Dom was here, and he’d managed to get Tau to come and bring his own cubs as well as a few other shifters.

“You should go inside and get signed in, you know where to go,” Dom said to Carrie, resisting the urge to kiss her goodbye, but giving her a warm smile and a nod to Sable who had stepped out of the back of the car and was already heading to the front door. He was a little worried about the teenager who seemed to have retreated back into his shell a lot since he’d had to move out of the Oligarchy building. They had let him move back in and Dom knew Carrie was trying to help him find a flat but without his job and going to work every day with the people he’d got used to Sable didn’t seem to be doing well. Sable had been horrified to find the books he’d been so carefully recording gone, almost as upset as Sam and now he was lost. At least he had one proper job to write on his CV since there was scarce little else on there to help him find another place. Until then he was working at Carrie’s coffee shop, but that wouldn’t do for him for long.

Sable shoved his hands into his jeans pockets, shooting a scowl at the boisterous looking shifters as he headed past them towards the door of the warehouse. Carrie followed at a distance as Dom headed towards Tau.

“Thank you for coming,” Dom said with a nod at the shifter before letting his gaze drift towards his cubs. Their scents would have made it obvious to Dom that they were their father’s even if their appearance hadn’t.

“Will you come and see inside? I’ll show you around, we have some time,” Dom said, gesturing towards the entrance of the warehouse.

[Existentially Odd]

Tau noticed Dominik eyeing off his progeny and pride filled him.  They were healthy, powerful cubs.  In their human form they looked like teenagers of sixteen or so years.  Arik was strong and taller than his father, his body equally as shaped with muscle for they'd reached the limits of their growth as cougars, sexual maturity was all that was left (and there'd been some increasingly disturbing wrestles between the two of them lately because of it).  Nebi was shorter than the two males but just as leanly muscled.  Her breasts were filling out, her hips widening by the day and she'd had enough fight in her since the day she was born to convince anyone she was hormonal and - at times - unbalanced.  Now it was a reality.

His cougar daughter baffled Tau a great deal but he also felt like he could talk to her on a level that was easily understood, whereas Arik made him think they were in complete agreement, everything would go smoothly and then the cub would do something inexplicable.  Tau secretly preferred Nebi's up-front manner, because they could fight and move beyond frustration, instead of getting lost in agreement as he and Arik tended to do.  Fatherhood was likely never easy but it was downright hazardous when it came in litters of four.

Tau's gaze skittered towards the entry of the warehouse and then back to Dom.  His fingers were freeting madly against the legs of his jeans and he gritted his teeth at the thought of walking in there amongst the stench of werewolves.  Likely, it wouldn't be too bad yet because many of them were still arriving and it was early - plus, the building wasn't initiated yet and the scent wouldn't be hanging heavily in the air - but it still made him nervous.  He'd resolved to do his best to develop a good relationship with Dom, though, in case he needed his help in return, so he couldn't refuse it outright.

"I want to see," Nebi smiled, appearing between the bear shifter and her father quite suddenly.  She was looking cutely at Dom - a habit she'd cultured as she approached full maturity and became aware of how males of all species reacted to having a beautiful young woman look encouragingly at them, brushing her breasts against their arm and tilting her head just so.  It was a good thing Dom's mate wasn't here to witness it.

Tau growled at the cub and shoved her away, behind him.  She skipped nimbly out of his reach with a laugh and cosied up to her brother instead while her father spoke to his ex-Oligarchy associate.  "Is it important I go in there, do you think?" he appealed seriously to the bear shifter.  If Dominik said it was necessary for him to know the layout in case they needed to herd a wolf in there later, he'd go, but it would take a lot for it to happen and he wouldn't agree to it lightly.

[pinkroses]

Dom raised an eyebrow as Nebi suddenly appeared in front of him, obviously flirting and Dom had no idea how to react to this youngster who looked like she was still a child to Dom and knowing how fast shifters aged he knew she couldn’t be too old. It had been a long time since he’d had such a young woman showing him attention since he was aging quickly and in his human form he looked to be approaching his mid-thirties.

His grey eyes flickered over her head to Tau, raising an eyebrow slightly before the shifter growled and forced his daughter out of the way. God, was Hannah going to be so forward when she grew up? Hopefully not.

Dom forced himself to focus on Tau not wanting to go inside and a flicker of a frown crossed his face, but then he gave a small shrug. Hopefully there would be no problems and the shifter wouldn’t need to be inside, he could just patrol outside if anything managed to get that far. Although with the way Nebi had just been acting Dom had hoped Tau would be there to keep her in check. Maybe her brother would do the same job.

“No, if it makes you uncomfortable you can stay out here. Hopefully you won’t be needed, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Just keep an eye out.” His gaze flickered to the youngsters and he tilted his head slightly towards the door.

“I need to go in, come in when you’re ready,” he said, happy for them to follow him now or after anything their father might have to say to them before he let them go.

As Dom headed for the door another vehicle drove into the parking lot, this time a werewolf riding a motorbike which gave a final satisfying rumble before it was shut off and Caden climbed smoothly off the bike, pulling off his helmet as he moved. He was wearing tatty jeans and a black leather jacket with a pair of black boots. He pulled a rucksack out of one of the bike’s side bags as he shot a scowl in Dom’s direction. His face had already looked like thunder but the frown deepened at the sight of the shifter. At this distance he couldn’t smell the group of cougar shifters, but he didn’t recognise them as belonging to the usual group of werewolves who came along.

He headed slowly towards the entrance, shaking his head slightly at Dominik. His rucksack was slung over one shoulder and under his other arm was tucked his helmet.

“This is shit, Lowe. You’ve got us in a fucking warehouse. We’re not dogs to shut up in a kennel,” Caden snapped at Dom who gazed steadily at the werewolf. Caden had never been happy with any of this – but Dom knew very well how he’d spent the first ten years of his life as a werewolf – being shut up in a basement every month so he tried to give the young man some leeway.

“It’s not that bad Caden. We’re doing what we can to make the most of the change. This place is safer than the Chambers in regards to location,” Dom said, stepping back to let Caden go in first. He knew a lot of the werewolves would have issues with the change, but he would give them as much information as he could without panicking them.

Once inside the warehouse they first came into a clean looking lobby area which was comfortably lit as smelt strongly of new paint. There was a human sat behind the desk who was tapping away on the laptop and she looked up with a smile at the entrance of the newcomers. She was wearing a smart trouser suit, her jacket removed and his blouse open at the collar showing off a silver necklace underneath. Her long brown hair was pulled back in a high ponytail which hung straight down her back. Lucy had been one of Dom’s assistants for over a year now – since her (now ex) boyfriend had been bitten and she’d found out about this world. She had taken to it well, organising the logging in of the werewolves at the full moon and organising the breakfasts the next morning as well as a hundred other details Dom had shown her were needed.

“Mr Lowe, Carrie and Sable have gone through already to look around before the lock down. Caden, nice to see you, here’s a map of the new building and a leafet about what is expected of you and those looking after you tonight,” she said politely with a warm smile at the young man as she pushed a leaflet and sheet of paper across the desk gestured for Caden to find his name on the checksheet which sat on the desk before her as she brought up Caden’s file on the laptop.

“Yeah, great to be here,” Caden growled as he picked up the pen and looked for his name, ignoring Dom who was watching the back of his head warily. There were a couple of people he thought might cause trouble tonight and Caden was one of them.

He glanced back over his shoulder at the shifters if they had followed him, ready to lead them through into the next room.

There were a few more welcoming rooms, designed like living rooms where people could wait until lock down, or relax afterwards. Off of one of these rooms there was a large canteen where the buffet breakfast would be served. Another doorway off the living rooms led into a larger open area which was brightly lit… but as much as Dom has tried it still looked a little like a prison. Comfortable cells with lined the walls, reinforced glass made up the front of the cells so that the watchers could keep an eye on what was going on inside the cells. Each had a box in the wall so that items could be passed into the cells and each had a shoot at the back where meat would be dropped in to satisfy the hunger of the beasts.

The walls between the cells were made of concrete rather than glass so that the werewolves wouldn’t be able to see each other and get themselves worked up more. Along the centre of the large room there was a concrete wall which serves the same purpose and stopped the weres from being able to see those on the other side of the building, as well as supporting the metal staircases which lead up to the second floor which was much the same.

Another large doorway off the cell block lead through into the changing rooms where there were showers and lockers available for those who wanted to use them.

It was amazing how much work had been done in the past two weeks. Contractors with links at the Oligarchy had been working night and day to get it all finished and up to scratch in time. Dom was pleased with what had been accomplished, although there was more he wanted to do. To make it perfect.

[Existentially Odd]

Nebi had followed Dominik inside the warehouse, unperturbed by the smells that assaulted her nostrils.  Her brother was still gazing mildly at the sky while her father was pacing, glowering at her as she left his company but not stopping her from going.  Tau wanted her to stay with him, it was true, but if she looked inside and they did need to go in there later, her sighting the place would make everything more efficient.  Ultimately, her volunteering to understand the warehouse's layout could prove a benefit to him, because there was no way he'd do it until he was forced to.  He walked back and forth nervously, watching another vehicle approach with a scowl.

She'd been wide-eyed at the motorbike's appearance and the angry exchange between the rider and the man in charge, slowing her approach so that she could fall into place behind them without getting involved.  It piqued her curiosity, though... but then, so did everything!  Her hands were clasped obediently behind her back and she frequently swung her shoulders from side to side, not doing this as a way to attract attention to her breasts (though it was) so much as release tension while she was lacking a tail to flick.  Anytime she was looked at she beamed prettily, able to listen without giving input until she had a question.  "How do they get in there?" she piped up, observing the smooth glass of the front panel and the concrete everywhere else.

Again, as soon as they looked at her, she smiled, her golden brown eyes twinkling mischievously above her full, pink lips.

[pinkroses]

Since he wanted to know more about the building Caden had idly followed Dom as the bear showed the young woman the main sights of the warehouse. He had shoved the leaflet into his rucksack without bothering to look at it and the scowl remained on his face. Instead of a kennel this place felt like some space prison – everything clinical and new. The stench of paint was everywhere and Caden couldn’t wait until the next morning when he’d be allowed to go.

He almost hadn’t come tonight, but curiosity had won out in the end. And knowing what had dragged him in front of Dom and the previous Oligarch on several occasions.

He glanced back over his shoulder as Dom did as Nebi spoke, asking a sensible question.  She was a pretty young thing, but Caden knew there had to be more to her than met the eye. She didn’t smell like a werewolf, but not human either. Animalistic, but a scent Caden didn’t recognise. He’d never been around Tau so had no way to place the smell.

“Like this,” Dom said, leading Nebi to a control panel which had been placed in one of the walls. There were several different options, a large red button for lock down, a screen, and a key pad which Dom tapped a code into now.

The glass wall of the nearest call moved smoothly, sliding upwards and pivoting before sliding into the ceiling of the cell. Dom was proud of this set up – each door could move separately or they could go as one. A smaller door in the glass would have been a spot of weakness, but these reinforced glass panels would be locked in firmly. Only a few people knew the codes and there were keys which had to be used as well in order to make the control panels work. They were all in place at the moment but after lock down they would be removed so that the doors couldn’t be opened without the correct precautions. And if the worst did happen and all of the people here who knew how to open the doors were lost, Lucy and another of Dom’s human assistants who would not be here when the moon rose would be back in the morning to release the werewolves who might be trapped.

Dom hoped there was nothing he had forgotten, he’d run over it all so many times in his head and vocally to his assistants and Carrie, getting their input and additions, trying to compare it to how the Oligarchy had been set up – having to factor in the loss of the mimic’s magic and defences.

“You fancy being locked up in one of them?” Caden asked with a snarl, nodding towards the open door as he glanced between the two shifters (which he guessed Nebi had to be).

[Existentially Odd]

"You fancy running wild through the streets and tearing everything to shreds instead?" she retorted pertly, skipping blithely past them and into the cell once it was opened.  If they didn't stop her, she would prod and poke and smell at everything in the space, casting thoughtful glances back at the wolf.

She didn't find his smell to be as bad as she'd been warned (by her father) it would be and she was wondering exactly what it was like to have no control over a shift.  Did he remember it?  Were there thoughts enough in his mind at the time to find this room unstimulating or was it just a cage that he'd forget once he shifted back to human in the morning?

She was desperate to know but would only ask, "What's it like?" if she was given continued eye contact and not turfed immediatey out of the cell.

[pinkroses]

“I’ve never bit anyone,” Caden growled, following Nebi as she bounced into the cell, but he paused at the entrance, watching her explore the area. She was so interested it all, sniffing and touching everything, like a puppy exploring a new area and Caden felt a swell of jealousy. She was so lucky, she could choose when, where, why. She didn’t have to fight down her anger when she felt it swelling, or be locked up like a monster. He didn’t think he’d ever hurt anyone… but he didn’t know. He didn’t remember hurting anyone and had never been called to account for it if he had so he could only assumed he hadn’t.

Dom paused for a few seconds, watching the two before turning and heading away. He had things to see to and he trusted that Caden and Nebi could both handle themselves with one another and there was no harm in Nebi exploring.

The werewolf folded his arms across his chest, then raised an eyebrow at her question. What the Hell? Who had they brought in to guard them overnight? He’d noticed the lack of demons hanging around (they had a distinctive smell which he’d learnt in his many years of visiting the Oligarchy) but apparently they had brought in children who knew nothing about werewolves to replace them. It was insulting. But it wasn’t her fault, this was all Dom’s mess.

“It’s like a living nightmare,” Caden said, his dark green eyes fixed on the shifter. “It hurts. And there’s a rage you can’t control… then you wake up knowing that something’s wrong, with flashes of memory, but… you’re not sure of anything.” He’d tried to explain it before, but it was difficult when the person you were explaining it too had no real clue. They might think they did, they might have witnessed a shift, but they really had no idea.

“What are you?” he asked, deciding if she was going to ask blunt questions he would too.

[Existentially Odd]

Nebi gave some thought to how horrid his predicament with shifting was but then he asked her a question about herself and she was quickly distracted.  "I'm a cougar!" she said, dragging out her words for effect until she had completed an energetic (and completely unsolicited) pirhouette in the middle of the cell, finishing her excited announcement much like a cheerleader finishing a routine might - body tilted, arms in the air and grinning like the proverbial.  She dropped the pose almost as soon as she adopted it, though, and looked a little more seriously at him.

"Cats and wolves... we don't get along," she pouted, stepping precisely around him, hands balled behind her back again.  She brushed against him as she circled him, leaning in to brush her nose against his arm as she came to a stop right in front of him - sideways, so her shoulder was touching his folded arms - and smiled, her head tilted to look up at him.  He was very tall, considering she was five feet ten and she didn't look up to a great deal of people.  "Though I don't mind the way you smell at all," she grinned.

[pinkroses]

A cougar? Caden couldn’t help but be impressed by that – he’d seen Dom as a bear, but he hadn’t really been that close to any other shifters (most of whom avoided werewolves). When he did see them at the Oligarchy they had got that look on their face, like they were smelling something they wouldn’t want to step in and they would make a quick exit. So Caden hadn’t really thought about how people might be able to turn into all sorts of creatures. What caused it? Did origins have anything to do with it? In Africa were there more shifters who could turn into lions or giraffes? In Australia could shifters turn into kangaroos?

Without thinking about it Caden move back instinctively as Nebi leant in to smell him, but resisted the urge to turn in a circle to watch her as she moved around him. He gazed at her silently for a few seconds after her declaration about his smell. He knew she smelt of a kind of animal, but it would take a lot of practise and re-smelling her scent for him to be able to pick it out clearly. He had focused on trying to improve his skills, but it took a lot of effort and work for him.

“I thought all werewolves smelt like shit to all shifters,” Caden said, unsure of whether or not to trust this youngster. “What’s your name? Were you with the others outside?” he’d glanced at the others hanging around outside but hadn’t paid them too much thought until now. If werewolves smelt like something different to different shifters then why hadn’t he known that before? And if they were cougars too would he not smell so bad to them?

[Existentially Odd]

"I'm Nebi," she beamed, resisting the urge to rub against him and instead doing the human trick of holding out her hand to be shaken.  She didn't like it, she'd have preferred to scent him up instead, but he was a little... cranky and she didn't want to antagonise him on one of the biggest nights of his month.  "And I didn't say you smelled wonderful, just that I can stand it fine," she corrected cheekily.

"My father was one of the guys outside and he hates the smell, so he didn't come in here.  He's the reason we came, to help out Dominik if there's trouble but we don't really know what we're doing.  The other one was my littermate, Arik, but I don't think he even knows what's going on, let alone care about how you smell.  Do werewolves have werewolf babies?" she enquired, batting her eyelashes curiously.

[pinkroses]

Caden hesitated for a moment before responding to her handshake, looking wary as though he expected her to try to lick his hand or something like that. He couldn’t help but let the corner of his mouth quirk upwards in a half smile at her cheeky reply about his smell. Hell, he knew he smelt bad to shifters, but if she could stand it then that was better than most.

He raised an eyebrow as she explained that the shifters here didn’t really know what was going on tonight. Reassuring.

“No, it doesn’t get passed on that way. You have to get bitten or scratched by a werewolf,” Caden explained, wondering if Nebi knew Dom’s mate had given birth less than a month ago. “It’s a good thing too, children definitely shouldn’t have to go through it. They wouldn’t understand, and kids have tantrums and crap like that all the time, it would be Hell trying to keep them from changing midmonth,” Caden said, glancing away from Nebi as he spoke, a frown on his face. He’d been five and he hadn’t understood it then, even as the werewolf who had attacked him tried to explain. His mother had dealt with it as best she could for so long, but if he’d been born that way he thought she probably would have killed herself, and him as well most likely, when he’d still been a baby.

“Can shifters change from when they’re born?” he asked, turning his gaze back to her as he undid the zip of his leather jacket, revealing a close fitting black t-shirt underneath which gave off an impression of the body underneath without being too tight.

[Existentially Odd]

"Yes!" she declared happily, spinning away from him and leaping onto the bed smoothly, falling into a crouch once she was there to grin at him.  "I used to try to eat my sister all the time when I was little, apparently - my mother's a rattlesnake shifter," she explained, casually draping her arm over her most prominent knee as she watched him unzip his jacket with interest.  "She had two cougar shifter cubs and two snake babies and when we were little we used to shift whenever we felt like it.  Mama tells me I used to like chasing down and pouncing on my sister and she even had to grab her out of my mouth a few times, before I ate her," she laughed, her golden eyes dancing.

"I don't remember it, of course, but Cas's fine now," she assured him with a dismissive flick of her hand, interpreting the look on his face as concern (whether it was or not).  "Are you going to get undressed for when you shift?  Do you want me to leave the room?" she enquired, sounding like she was far more interested in staying there and watching him get naked instead (which she was).  It wouldn't matter, of course, because the front panel was glass, so she'd be able to get a good view of him anyway.  She was very eager to see what a werewolf shift was like, imagining it as far more violent than what she saw happen to her family.

[pinkroses]

Caden watched her with a small frown as she explained about her siblings. It seemed like such a weird idea, having children who could change into different animals. He would have thought a shifter would give birth to the same kind of shifter… but then that didn’t really take into account what the father was. It was all so peculiar… thought the young man who turned into a monster every month.

“Not yet,” Caden said at her query about whether or not to leave. He glanced over his shoulder to see a few other faces he recognised were arriving, some heading to bagsy rooms, some going towards the changing rooms. Lockdown was half an hour before the full moon came out so there wasn’t much more time, but she didn’t need to go quite yet. It was refreshing to talk to someone here who didn’t know it all, and who had other things to talk about to the norm. Usually Caden tried to avoid making conversation with the people here. The ones who made him come made him angry and those who just went along with it without question were frustrating.

He’d have to go to the lockers soon to put his stuff away, but for now he put his helmet on the small bedside table and dropped his rucksack so he could slip off his jacket.

“So you’ve never seen a werewolf change? Are you gonna stick around to watch or go out with your dad?” he asked, thinking he knew what the answer would be, but wanting to check. The idea of having someone standing and watching him shift was a little embarrassing, but he’d changed often enough and there wasn’t much he could do to stop her watching.

[Existentially Odd]

"Oh, I'm gonna' watch!" she enthused, dropping gracefully onto the bed on her back, hands folded behind her head.  Her bare feet twitched incessantly as she attempted to look relaxed, uninspired by her view of the ceiling.  "You won't even use this, will you?" she asked, then almost immediately changed tacks as she leaned up on her elbows, looking over at him slyly.  "I can shift for you, if you want.  To make it fair," she offered blithely.