“Ready?” asked Anissa and tightened her muscles.

“No surprises?” Elzada clarified.

“None whatsoever!” Anissa grinned and tensed her muscles to the limit.

They were always like that. The first to slam their milk fangs down each other’s throats in the pits. The first to steal a boy’s kiss. Pouting, arguing, fighting, sulking, and always making peace and cheering at the end. Where the other cubs talked their minds out, Elzada and Anissa preferred a more direct solution. Oh, they chatted. Who doesn’t like to share the latest gossip when you’re lying on an overheated rock, the stars shining in the clear night sky, and you think this time will never end and you’ll live forever…

But words were cheap. Whether it be a stolen toy or a tasty insectoid drone, a fault is a fault, and blood is the best currency to show sincerity. After Mom’s lesson, Anissa dragged the “acting” wolf hag Elzada into a remote, cramped compartment in the crawler's rear. The constant grinding of the tracks made the place vibrate slightly, silencing any potential screams that might leave the compact space, and Anissa apologized for breaking Elzi’s wrist and making an implied threat about her little boy. It was necessary, but…

Elzada’s biological leg flashed, and her toes, forged into unyielding hooks by the agony of shattering and healing, stabbed Anissa in the solar plexus. She prided herself on growing stronger than her rival, even winning their last sparring match with a single arm. Clearly, her friend worked on a strategy to equalize the strength difference, and by focusing her attack on a vulnerable area, she’d bypassed the layer of toughened outer skin and subdermal hardened tissue that had calcified into a rudimentary exoskeleton, a faint precursor to a true shell she would have in a few years.

The wolf hag relaxed her muscles; this attack caught her off-guard, and Elzada stepped on Anissa’s poor midsection. The artificial limb exploded against the side of the wolf hag’s skull, flinging her off her feet and headfirst into a wall.

“Cheating!” Anissa complained, taking Elzada’s helping paw. “You tenderized me!”

“Hey, you’re the one who gave me a free kick with my new leg. Not my fault you didn’t specify that I couldn’t use my other leg beforehand.” Elzada jumped on her biological feet and raised her prosthetic high enough to kiss it. “Spirits, forgive this blasphemer, but I think this is the beginning of a beautiful coexistence.”

“As long as we’re even,” Anissa grumbled and spat on the floor. She took a rag, wiped the blood from her mouth, nose, and ears, and swallowed the rest. They didn’t hold back in apologizing for ass-kicking, as they called their method of bonding. You have to release all the bad energy, or the Spirit of Rage will get you. “Did you find out what your boy was wasting tokens on? Was it extortion?”

“Nope, a gift. It’s for a girl, but not for the reason I thought,” Elzada giggled, refusing to elaborate. She put a paw on her friend’s shoulder and helped Anissa to her feet. “And you? Who among the Oathtakers are Janine and Martyshkina writing letters to?”

“No idea.” Anissa shook her head and groaned from a fresh surge of pain. She accepted a hastily offered flask and drank water, pouring some on her scalp to banish the stars dancing in her eyes. “They guard that secret like a wyrm guards his credit card.”

“I bet it’s a male. A secret lover, even,” Elzada teased. “They probably hooked up with Lord Steward during their imprisonment and will soon run off to him.”

“And he probably uses majestic Wolfkin bodies to…” Anissa cringed at the vivid image and wrapped an arm around Elzada’s neck, joining her in laughter. “Eh, who am I kidding? They can do better than that.”

Dad. The words brought back painful memories. Colt wasn’t an absent or timid father like many males in the tribe. The old man entered their lives, chastising girls and boys alike, regardless of their social standing. Even Impatient One respected his antics when he convinced the entire family to join him for dinner at a Normie’s motel and later led them to show glowing crystals in a cave. Colt even gave them ice cream in secret from Mom and Impatient One. He was an awesome dad.

“My bad,” Elzada apologized, guessing what plagued Anissa’s mood. This wound was still too fresh. “You’re stalling, by the way.”

“True,” Anissa admitted, using her tongue to taste swollen lips. Elzi’s kick packed even more impact. “It’s just… it’s scary, okay? To have a machine nestling in your socket, its wires entering the brain, transmitting a lifeless, unnatural video feed to the lobes. Implants alone are freaky; this damn thing could well be a mind controller.”

“Then you have nothing to worry about!” Elzada smiled. “You never had any brains for it to take over.”

“Jerk!” Anissa joined Elzada’s laughter. “And…”

They stopped, startled by an unexpected scream. Thoughts raced through Anissa’s mind as she rushed to the door. Scream? In here? The tracks’ noise would’ve silenced anything, so the source had to be nearby. The voice belonged to a Normie; she could bet her life on it. Could this be another instance of a forceful sexual intrusion or a shady deal gone wrong? Lethal stabbings or physical violations among Normies were rare, but they did happen. The Investigation Bureau recently broke up a small smuggling ring after its members switched from sneaking in sweets and drinks to trying their hand at selling drugs.

Anissa opened the door and glanced out, concealing herself in the room, while Elzada quietly released her claws, falling in line. Thick, almost oily darkness greeted them, swirling in the corridor, dimming the lamps. Two people stood in the middle of the hallway. Anissa recognized one of them. Keon of the auxiliary forces, a recent recruit who’s been training to join the engineering crews. Next to him stood the Iternian, a pale-skinned bastard who had begged his way on the trip to Houstad to film a story.

She had thought that the vile foreign scum had used some advanced technology to ambush the boy, but it was Keon who stood before the Iternian, his hands outstretched as if shielding him from something. Her eyes caught a movement in the darkness, and Warlord Onyxia’s head appeared briefly on the ceiling. She swam around the frightened couple, moving in bursts of speed and softly grabbing lamps and rails to maintain the balance. Even Anissa’s eyes had trouble keeping up with the warlord’s movements; to the Normies, it must have looked like teleportation.

“Jacob…” Onyxia spoke in a bland, unemotional tone, but some words came out screeching. “Makarevich. I overheard your date of birth. It checks out. You are the son of Csenia Makarevich.”

“You knew my mother?” Jacob inquired, oblivious to the threat.

Onyxia wasn’t the one to bully Normies. She pulled a rank on those who disrespected her, forcing them into the most humiliating tasks at unexpected times, and when they often failed, the warlord would then drag them and their entire unit through soul-crushing field training. Tired and angry, the soldiers squeezed an apology from the unfortunate idiot. But stalking down the hallway and dancing around an allied Normie, instilling a sense of helplessness while staring at wide-open arteries as if he was a raider…

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

It never happened.

“Warlord!” Anissa leapt to the Normies and Elzada joined her. Together, they pressed the males together, shielding them with their backs. “Cease this act!” She bared her throat. “Not the tribe’s member! They can’t endure a bit! Whatever the insult the reporter has committed, take it on me…”

“Why would I kill you?” Onyxia, blindingly fast, appeared over Anissa. “Yes, Jacob, I heard of the bitch who spawned you. Your words imply she is no longer in this world…” The warlord’s voice changed. She roared in pure rage, shaking the walls harder than moving tracks. “Twice fate has handed you to me on a silver platter. Do the Spirits really ask for the settlement of the old blood debt?” Onyxia hissed, baring her fangs, and retreated, merging with the darkness covering the wall. Anissa saw the dark shape splattering against a solid metal, and then she leapt like an insectoid, reaching the ceiling and soundlessly disappearing.

“Dammit, Keon, what did you do? What is this moron asking the warlord about?” Elzada asked through stuttering fangs.

“I don’t know!” the man replied, nearly crying from horror. “I was assigned to show Jacob the lower decks, so he wouldn’t get lost! He kept asking questions…”

“Interviewing,” Jacob corrected him.

“Whatever! He pestered everyone we met until we stumbled upon the warlord, and then all hell broke loose! We’ve done nothing to warrant such aggression!”

“Iterna knows preciously little about the Wolf Tribe,” Jacob said. “Understanding is the first step in building bridges between people. Iterna hides nothing, and since Commander Ravager refused an interview, I tried to find the second-best person to help my country understand…”

“Haven’t you understood us enough?” Onyxia asked from above the group. She hung, grasping the protective shell of the lamp, somehow not crumpling it or tearing it with her weight. “Bridging people? How dare you? How dare you?!” Her echoing voices merged into one.

A dark paw with seeping black streaks approached the reporter’s head, and Anissa grabbed it, trying to push it aside. It mattered not, warlord, respect, or anything else; the Blessed teachings about protecting the weak meant everything to her. But try as she might, Onyxia easily prevailed, slowly preparing to grab Jacob’s head.

“Desist.” Warlord Predaig emerged from the darkness, bedecked in the full plate aside, carrying her weapon in her paws. “Desist sister. We deny fate, staying true to our principles.”

The paw stopped over the reporter’s head, and Onyxia hissed again—a noise rarely heard in the Wolf Tribe. She let go of the lamp, landed nimbly beside the group, and darted away from Predaig, disappearing in the thinning veil of darkness. Light returned to the corridor, illuminating it brightly, and Anissa couldn’t even detect a faint scent of Onyxia. The shadow warlord was gone.

“Phew!” Elzada exhaled. “Did the warlord really attack a Normie?”

“Of course not,” Predaig said as she hoisted her weapon onto her shoulder.

“Thank you for your aid, warlord,” Jacob thanked Predaig. Anissa wanted to strangle the bastard after seeing how calm he was. He almost died! “May I inquire as to the reason for such hostility? My mother never served in the military; she was a professor at Redlands University, teaching anthropology. To my knowledge, she never left Iterna’s borders and chose to age normally…”

“It’s not what she taught; it’s who she taught and what she did. I suggest you do some reporting and dig deeper into your family history,” Predaig growled. She whirled and faced Anissa.

“Explanation, warlord,” the wolf hag demanded. “Bite me, dominate me, but I need to know if Warlord Onyxia is on the verge on…”

“She is not,” Predaig interrupted. She opened her jaws, closed them, and examined Anissa. “Why are you bleeding, Anissa?”

“I bit my lip!”

“And why is your side swollen?”

“I bit it really bad!” Anissa panicked. She was never good at lying.

“Sure…” Predaig glanced at Elzada and shook her head. “Not my problem. As for your question… Understand this. Everything you’ll hear is strictly private. Spill it to anyone and you’ll learn that old people aren’t as afraid of the law as young people.”

“I swear on my life. If I ever reveal the knowledge you are about to give me, I will rip my heart out,” Anissa vowed.

“Yeah, the same!” Elzada supported her.

“Not a talker, but…” Keon gulped, turning almost as pale as the Iternian. “I am curious. You have my word.”

“Forty-five seconds!” Jacob held up a hand, stopping Predaig. The man reached into his pants, into the back of his molded boots, then under the gloves formed by his armor. He pulled out recording devices, turned them off, and finally pressed something on his helmet. The visor opened and the inside of the helm went dark. “There, everything is offline. Now, explanation, please.”

“The Culling,” Predaig said, as if it explained everything. She continued, answering the confused looks. “Iterna’s crimes are not limited solely to the president’s loyalists. When the convoys arrived in Redlands, it was the teachers and professors who handed over the students…”

“They merely obeyed the law; no one expected the bitch to be this crazy,” the reporter argued. “The government told the people that the kids would be safely resting in five-star hotels until…”

“Silence, Iternian,” Predaig interrupted Jacob. “Onyxia had a daughter. Not biological; she simply took in a girl whose mother was killed under her leadership. Few know of it today. The girl perished, cut in two by the sand reaper, when Iterna drove out the students. But it wasn’t the end of it. Not every corpse was recovered, but Onyxia and I spent plenty of time interrogating raiders, opening the bellies of the beasts. We even wrote to Iterna’s government, against Ravager’s wishes.” She closed her eyes wearily. “Sometimes I wish we had done that. Some secrets are too painful.”

“I get the gist of the idea,” Anissa said hurriedly. “This Csenia Makarevich, a teacher, must have given Onyxia’s cub to the police, right? There is no need to elaborate if this is so hard for you.”

“Oh, please, are we so soft to be broken under the deaths of our cubs?” Predaig chuckles. “They would’ve kicked our asses in the Great Beyond if this were so. No, Anissa, the betrayal went deeper than that. Iterna, too, searched for bodies, contacted families, did what she could to mend the irreparable. Some bodies were unrecognizable. And Csenia, that trust-busting bitch, had performed an autopsy on the poor cub’s body.” Predaig’s grip on the weapon tightened. “It wasn’t enough to kill her; they had to desecrate the poor baby too. There is a stall, or auditorium, as they call it in Redlands. Students come in there to learn about the various New Breeds. Onyxia and I received a video about it.”

Predaig opened her eyes. “The girl exists after a fashion. They turned her into a hologram, who cheerfully greets students and explains well-known facts about the Wolf Tribe. It’s not her; it’s just her faint image. Even the girl’s voice is distorted, too clear, too happy. A phantom on invisible strings, dancing for Iterna’s amusement while her bones are on display.”

Anissa slowed her breathing, fighting against an urge to wrest away Jacob’s head. Savages. The Iternians are a little better than savages. No, they’re even worse! At least savages have the dignity of eventually killing you. But these scums abused the trust, murdered the best generation, and then dared to use their souls? When will it be enough for them?

“I…” Jacob stumbled. His composure vanished, and the man was visibly shocked. “We didn’t know. Mother always blamed herself for what had transpired. She made it her goal to prove to the citizens that abnormals and humans were not so different. To that end, she performed autopsies, linking human evolution to the Glow, and the history holograms are meant to show students that people outside of Iterna are no different from us. That they too have their cultures, lives, and hopes. They are meant to illustrate the true horror of our deed, so we would never again repeat it!” He desperately met Predaig’s eyes.

“We wear trophies to boast of our victories,” Predaig said mercilessly. “But... I suppose we also wear bone totems to remember those who left before us,” she added, a little softer.

“As soon as I tell everyone back home, they will remove the hologram…” Jacob stopped as Predaig’s blade touched the neck of his suit.

“No. Onyxia and her poor daughter were humiliated enough. There will be no more dishonor to their names. It is better to let the hologram remain nameless. Let the dead rest and the grieving mourn. Onyxia has found another whom she considers family. There is no one left to blame, punish, or forgive. We just have to learn how to move on. Don’t stir the pot and ruin her life again, Iternian,” Predaig stated. “Come, Keon. I’ll assist you in escorting our guest. And as for you two,” the warlord addressed the Wolfkins. “Don’t bite your lips in strange places again.”

“You can’t trust Iternians,” Elzada said as the group left her. Then she hiccupped and turned. “You didn’t think that the warlord thought us…”

“What… No!” Anissa shouted. “Spirits, no! You have a son! I had males and intend to have cubs. It… Elzi, it’s all your fault! Your bad influence always gets me into trouble!”

“My bad influence?! You broke my freaking arm!”

“Well, I apologized for that!”