Desertion meant getting hunted. I was standing near the showers, waiting for Bruna so we could go get dinner. That is when they brought him in. He was in a cage.

Wolf Hunt wore hard body armor and masks and were heavily armed. One of them looked at me through the visor of their combat mask. I felt a chill, sensing this person was not afraid of lycans, but rather, lycans had known fear of them.

"Sit, stay." I heard them tell me through the filter of their mask. "Good boy."

The members of Wolf Hunt that were bringing in another lycan in a cage laughed at my expense. I looked at the man in the cage, his eyes, his hair, every aspect of him a kind of darkness. Something about him seemed free and wild like he was the living embodiment of the all-concealing night. I somehow envied him, although he was in a cage, and I was waiting to go to dinner with my best friend.

I followed them, overwhelmed by curiosity. They took him to the lower levels and two technicians were waiting down there with a canister ready to put him into CHILLS. Lieutenant Colonel Rose and Doctor Imbrium were there also.

"Welcome back, Halo. I'm sorry to do this, but you are a deserter. Under the circumstances, there is a protocol that states Wolf Hunt was to put you down. I am glad my recommendation was adhered to. I am glad you are back. I am ashamed of what you did in order to escape. Those men had families." Lieutenant Colonel Rose sentenced a pack member to the ice. I watched with a mixture of horror and curiosity.

"Killing this one would be too easy." The leader of Wolf Hunt said. "Just another mad dog."

"Thank you, Captain, that will be all." Lieutenant Colonel Rose dismissed Wolf Hunt. As they shuffled past me the captain looked at me and said "Down boy. Sit." and shoulder-checked me before I could get out of their way.

I walked over to the lieutenant colonel as he stared in disapproval of the prisoner.

"Are you going to put him on ice?" I asked, worried.

"Not if Doctor Imbrium is willing to recommend rehabilitation." He looked at me and then at Doctor Imbrium. "An official recommendation from the battalion psychiatrist is the only way I am offering a reprieve."

"I've read your file. You were before my time, after all. What do you think Halo, what is best for the pack, letting you out of that cage or freezing you?" Doctor Imbrium asked Halo.

"Who's this?" He ignored the good doctor and looked at me instead. "You smell like Major Hazel."

"They spend all their time together. He's her best friend." Doctor Imbrium tried again for Halo's attention.

"I'm Atanarjuat. Why would you leave?" I addressed him.

"What are we doing down here? Who would ever have need of our service? Think about it Atanarjuat. This is where they planted a seed of evil, deep within an ancient rock, far from the sunlight. What do you suppose will grow from this?" Halo looked deep into my eyes, mesmerizing me. I knew he was right, somehow, his words felt real, like a cold splash of truth.

"You think this is evil down here? I made a home for our people and gave us a purpose, and you call my path evil. You are the one who murdered two soldiers and left. If it wasn't for your special designation in this battalion and the possibility you might be needed still, they'd have killed you when they found you." Lieutenant Colonel Rose growled.

"You made a mistake, Chief. We're on the wrong side. I tried to tell you what I learned, but you did not listen. They have plans for us. I saw it all."

"In a vision. You imagined all of that." Lieutenant Colonel Rose was not swayed by Halo's demonstration of defiance.

"I'm sorry about the two men I killed. It was unintended. If I had known my escape would cost lives I would have stayed." Halo changed his approach, as he glanced at the waiting canister for CHILLS.

"I don't think putting this man in CHILLS would serve any purpose. I am officially recommending his full pardon and rehabilitation." Doctor Imbrium had a flat screened device in their hands and was filling out the form. "That's all from me, Lieutenant Colonel."

We all watched Doctor Imbrium leave and I looked back at Halo and the lieutenant colonel with surprise. "That's it?"

"You have a lot to learn, cub." Halo told me. Lieutenant Colonel Rose said nothing but indicated that the cage was to be opened. One of the technicians opened the cage and stood back nervously. They knew he was dangerous.

"Cryogenics Team, stop the prep." Lieutenant Colonel Rose told the technicians.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Do I have to go through the procedure all over again?" Halo stretched. Something about the way he moved looked more like a dog stretching than a man.

Lieutenant Colonel Rose removed a dustcloth from a large thick black donut on a cart near the cage. He made a gesture over it and a hologrammatic control panel hovered from the bracelet he wore under his rolled back sleeve. There was an audible beep as the black donut responded and he opened it and placed it on Halo's shoulders and closed it around his neck.

"If you make one mistake, I will put you down personally." Lieutenant Colonel Rose swore.

"I'll be a good boy. It won't be long before you take this thing off of me and tell me I was right. I can wait." Halo looked his chief in the eyes and defied him. I shuddered.

"Atanarjuat, would you please escort Halo to the mess, and after he has eaten, please escort him to his quarters, 206, and make sure he is tucked in for a good night's sleep." Lieutenant Colonel Rose asked me.

"Yes sir." I agreed. I indicated with a head gesture to go, and Halo rubbed his wrists like they had worn handcuffs, pretending to be free from bondage. He acted like there wasn't a collar around his neck that could kill him instantly.

"You're new. How are things, though?" Halo spoke after we had walked in silence for part of the way.

"Things were fine until you got here." I heard myself say honestly. I had a terrible feeling about Halo. He felt like a harbinger, an evil omen. I wished he hadn't come back from wherever he had gone.

"Atanarjuat!" I heard Bruna and looked, and she came running up to me and hugged me. "Where'd you go? I had a bad feeling." And then she turned and saw Halo.

"They brought him in. I was curious why he was in a cage. They were going to put him on ice, said he'd killed people, and then Doctor Imbrium said, 'hold the ice' basically."

"That is basically what he saw happen down there. How are you doing, Major?" Halo asked Bruna, staring intently at her. I didn't like the way he was looking at her.

"It's bittersweet, that you're back." She said and looked at the collar on him. "But at least I know I can trust you now, with that cone of shame around your neck."

"You didn't trust me? But we are so alike, you and me. Just gotta say, I find it odd you chose this puppy instead of me." Halo snickered.

"He's my equal. You are loner. What would I ever do with you?" Bruna chastised him.

"I'm your type - I'm your equal. He's not even really one of us. You could have at least acknowledged my claim to you." Halo sounded hurt, but it was an act. He just wanted to cause problems.

Bruna stopped walking and I halted. Halo turned around and looked at her, realizing he had made her angry. "How dare you remind me you claimed me. You left us. I might have submitted to you, and you are a traitor!"

Halo took a step back from her. I felt a wash of hot blood. Bruna's moods affected me, and the intensity of them filtered into my own mood. I was growing hostile and angry by proximity. Both of us were facing Halo and growling.

"I can see the two of you have a strong bond. I have made a mistake." Halo's confidence and bravado was suddenly gone, facing two angry wolves.

We were stepping towards him and the thought of helping Bruna kill him right then and there was on my mind. The thought invaded my head, and I couldn't resist the urge to assist her. We were closing in on him and it seemed at any moment Halo would break and run from us. If he did, we would hunt him. There was an ache in my bones, my body felt hot, and my muscles all began to cramp. There was visible steam coming off of Bruna and I could smell a depletion in the air. A nearby carbon monoxide detector sounded an alarm.

"Wait - wait. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left; I shouldn't have said that. I've provoked you. Just wait!" Halo was backing away, his hands outstretched defensively.

"Stand down, Major!" Lieutenant Colonel Rose bellowed an order. Bruna fell to the ground, on her hands and knees and a large amount of yellow bile poured out of her mouth. "Get to your quarters, now, Halo!"

Lieutenant Colonel Rose caught up to us and took an injector from his lapel pocket. Bruna's body was twisting and shriveling and bulging already when he stabbed it into her neck. She snapped at his hand, but he was quick and had pulled back from her bite. He looked at me and took out a second injector, watching me.

As Bruna collapsed and groaned and convulsed, he visibly relaxed. "Help me with her."

We got her on her feet with an arm over each of us and helped her walk. We took Bruna to her quarters and helped her lay down on her bed. She smiled weakly and said:

"Stay here, it hurts. I want to look at you."

I nodded and got a chair.

"I'm sorry about that. Halo is a troublemaker. He believes our restraint is futile and weak. He'd live as a wolf if he could survive that way." Lieutenant Colonel Rose told me. "I am going to go make sure he is confined to quarters."

"What was that, what did you do to her?" I asked him.

He handed me the empty injector. The tip of it smelled like Bruna, had some of her blood on it. It also had a smell that cooled my blood and made me shiver. It was in contrast to the pain I was feeling, from beginning to transform. My whole body ached, like I had worked out too hard and become dehydrated and hadn't slept or eaten in days. Everything hurt.

"Wolfbane. It can halt the transformation, sometimes, but only if there is no moonlight." Lieutenant Colonel Rose told me. "Too much of it can kill us. This is what is loaded into the collars."

"They don't explode?"

"Heavens no." Lieutenant Colonel Rose smiled a little, finding it amusing I'd thought the collars would explode. He left us there and I set the empty injector aside. Bruna was resting, her eyes closed, and her breathing was shuddering like someone who had fallen asleep crying and sobbing.

I looked around her quarters, where I was seated on a chair, watching over her. She had hung several of her posters on the cold concrete walls. I saw her latest work, a partially finished copy of a postcard, and her paints and pens.

Then my eyes beheld an image of me she had created, where she had hung it facing her bed, watching over her with a sad and strong gaze. She'd somehow made the horror of my facial scars into something beautiful. She'd obviously put a lot of work into the art, and I could tell she was proud of it by where it was, so she saw me when she closed her eyes to sleep and when she opened them again.

Something in me had changed when we started to transform together. I wasn't sure how her anger had triggered the beginning of my transformation. When she had stopped, I was fine, all my killer instincts left as soon as she was unconscious. So, this was what it meant to be in such a close bond with her.

Wherever she would go, I would follow.