Werewolf's Humanity

Turn, Turn, Turn, Part 3

Odysseus was beaming proudly, and even Hatchet, standing there with his arms folded, gave Sammy a slow, low nod of respect.

"You-!" Night Sky said, reaching up and hovering her hands over his face. "I don't know whether to smack you for taking such risks, or hug you for being such a hero." She seemed to make up her mind as she spoke, though, grasping him by his jowls and pulling his head down for a kiss. "I'm so proud of you, Sammy Phoenix. Now don't even do anything that foolhardy again!"

"How's Fortune?" he asked, looking around for someone who could give him an answer. He didn't like having all this attention on him. Shifting the focus onto someone else felt like the safer alternative.

Odysseus patted his shoulder. "Marley shot her in the leg at almost point-blank range. Her kneecap was shattered. Her wounds aren't mortal and surgeons are doing what they can, but there's a chance this was her last mission."

Boss's rumbling voice had raised into a low roar. "Two agents dead and one severely injured. These bastards couldn't just go down without a fight. They knew their situation was hopeless but they still wanted to take as many agents down with them as they could. If Marley wasn't already dead, I'd kill him myself for what he did to my people." He clearly meant it, too. Ebony claws had already ruptured out of his fingertips and his face looked longer. He was barely keeping himself human, even though the fight was over.

An agent came running up carrying a white bottle of some kind and handed it Odysseus. "Sit back down," he ordered. Sammy complied, and felt lukewarm milk squirt all over his face. "That should neutralize the last of the tear gas," he claimed. Sammy just sputtered, but he did feel better.

Across the yard, the last rogue standing roared and reared up, smacking an agent with enough force to fling them into a van. Rage surged through the air like a shockwave, and every wolfside throat thundered with a growl. The Order had put up with enough foolhardy resistance. The wolfside agents, Hatchet and Odysseus included, descended upon the rogue, bearing fangs and claws down upon them with enough savagery to make Sammy wince. The flurry lasted only a few seconds, but when they came away from the rogue, he was a bloody, twisted mess, patches of fur and skin torn away, one of his arms nearly bitten off. Sammy couldn't be sure from this distance, but it also looked like one of his eyes had been gouged out. He was clawing the ground, weakly trying to drag himself away, but the fight had been torn out of him. He was quickly bound, hefted, and thrown into the van, at the feet of the still-barely-responsive woman.

One humanside agent came running up to Boss. "Sir. We found their drug stash. You name it, they had it. Uppers, downers, sideways-ers. Looks like they were making their own crack here, too."

Odysseus spat blood and wiped his muzzle with his forearm as he returned to Ruth's side. "That much was obvious from the amount of fight they had in them," he muttered. "They must have all taken a snort right before coming out to fight us. I was hoping I would never have to fight a werewolf on cocaine again."

"Probably how they were able to afford this place," Night Sky speculated. "Well, it looks like we did the local police a favor."

"That explains the woman," Boss said. "She's obviously high as a kite."

"Wait," Night Sky interjected. "'The' woman? As in the only one?"

"Yes," Boss confirmed.

"Oh, no," she said, "If she took drugs when she was pregnant with that baby..."

Sammy gasped. A fresh wave of fear wafted through the assembled circle of werewolves, and they all collectively turned their faces to the emergency van where a medic was examining the child. Sammy said nothing else, he just stood up and marched towards the van, packmates and agents trailing behind him. He needed to know for sure.

The medic sat on the floor of the back of the van, cradling the bundle but not looking directly into it. At the site of the approaching wolves, she hauled herself up. "No serious injuries from the gas," she said. "But this is... this baby is not healthy. Malnourishment aside, one of his hands is deformed and he's got a very, very weak heartbeat. I don't think... I don't think..."

By this point, the medic was in tears. Sammy reached for the bundle, relieving her of the child so that she could wipe her yes. "God, I'm so sorry. I've seen all kinds of awful shit on this job. I've seen people chewed up by vampires and still managed to eat lunch right after. You get desensitized to violence after ten years of bandaging up werewolves. But one deformed baby, and I lose it."

As Boss sat down beside the woman and handed her a handkerchief, Sammy lifted the blanket away to look down into the face of the life he thought he had rescued. The face he saw was tinier than any newborn he had seen, pale except for a dark splotch over his nose, which looked like a werewolf's nose halfway through the shifting process. But he was beautiful. The baby's eyes were scrunched shut and he moaned at the sudden assault of sunlight in his face, turning it towards Sammy's chest. The baby's miniscule nostrils flared, as if taking in Sammy's scent, and he instantly calmed down. A thin, handless arm emerged from the blanket, reaching out and resting itself in Sammy's fur.

Sammy would remember this moment for the rest of his life. It was this moment that he felt the strongest sense of love he had ever felt before in his life. He had held babies before. But he had never held one and felt the awe and responsibility of knowing that this was going to be his baby.

Night Sky, a matriarch of werewolves, knew what was happening. She came up beside Sammy and placed one hand on his shoulder, and the other slid under the bundle. Her gesture was an offer to relieve him of this burden, knowing full well he would not accept it. "A healthy baby is a lot of responsibility, Phoenix," she said. "A sickly one is ten times as much work. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Sammy could only manage to say one thing: "Jonathan."

"What?" Odysseus asked.

Sammy looked up, smiling blissfully at both of his alphas. "His name is gonna be Jonathan Phoenix."