The full moon was coming. I had eaten as well as I could, but I felt that the silver and aconitum were far from all gone from my system. I knew I was on the escape as soon as possible. The transformation hurt as much as ever, and I had to work for a while to relax.
Eventually, I was in Mimosa form. Mimosa, now let me take control first. I'd managed to cut a crack earlier, a bit like cutting a diamond, but I'd found a screw I'd been using and had a sort of weakened one of the windowpanes, so my idea was to jump through the glass straight out.
So I was on the ground floor; this window was behind the building, and you could see the forest in the distance. The goal was to jump through the window and run into the woods as fast as possible. The room was elongated, and this window was on the narrower side in a way, so I had room to take a little bit of at least momentum; Mimosa was so big that we probably wouldn't have broken the window otherwise unless I had weakened it when Mimosa ran across the room in a couple of gallops.
The hardest part had been a couple of days before the full moon, and Mimosa said it was as normal as can be; all werewolves are cranky around a full moon. Well, with my rage, let's just say I was particularly furious with all the treatments and examinations.
I heard that the corridor was silent. The nurses or some of the examiners had gone home, and only guards on the night shift did not come into the room. My room door was thick, so the sound would not be heard so well, and when I lifted the mattress against the door to muffle the sound even more.
"It's now or never," I thought determinedly as I started running as fast as possible and then jumped. The window shattered surprisingly neatly, and we flew into a snowbank. There was no time to wait, and we started running towards the forest's edge as fast as possible.
Mimosa had long legs and was big, so we ran and ran hard. I wasn't even paying attention to how fast we were running, but I enjoyed the freedom that running gave me. I let Mimosa be on the reins as we ran away. She controlled her body better than me.
We were almost into the woods when the floodlights started sweeping the ground. Soon, men in overalls began pouring out of the facility and starting snowmobiles. There wasn't much snow in the forest, so Mimosa ran like a whirlwind. It was snowing and windy, and it covered our tracks. We ran over rocks and small hills; Mimosa ran unmistakably and fast; she didn't stumble or hesitate at all.
The wind blew in the trees; it was dark, but we could still see. The winter forest was eerily silent when we stopped. I don't know how long we ran, but we didn't hear snowmobiles when we stopped. We must have listened for another 10 minutes, just silence.
Mimosa said: "Let's find some food, and then we'll keep going."
We started walking, now quietly, sniffing the forest. Soon, Mimosa caught the scent—a moose. We padded and saw a huge bull deer eating lichen and moss from a tree. We crept closer and then charged. Mimosa was fast and relentless. Mimosa bit down on the moose's throat and bit as hard as she could. The moose struggled for a few minutes, and then it was dead.
We didn't delay as Mimosa rushed to the moose's belly and started tearing open the soft belly skin.
I don't know which of us was in charge, actually. We ate the fat under the hide, the liver, heart, spleen, and pancreas. We didn't touch the intestines. We started eating meat. I also tasted meat in my mouth, but it wasn't bad. I felt like we could eat as much as we wanted. Suddenly, I smelled an unfamiliar smell. This was another wolf. A male. I didn't know how I knew, but I said, "We're about to have company, smell."
Mimosa growled, "Yep, and the male is still strong, probably alpha."
I thought we'd better sneak away, but Mimosa disagreed. "This is our prey, and we're not giving it away willingly. Mimi, we are also dominant, and it may be that the male will get bored when he sees that the best bits have already been eaten. We will defend our food; as you know, we are big. "
Adam had given the moon an invocation to come and was now running in wolf form. Suddenly, he smelled blood, a moose. Hmm, someone's got the prey, Adam thought. "I think I'll go for the dividends. I'm in a lazy mood."
He smelled in the air of a strange werewolf, a female. This was going to be interesting.
The night was already turning to morning, and Adam figured he didn't have to change form if he didn't want to. A moose roast would be just the yummy thing. He moved closer and sniffed—a female werewolf, alone. Female werewolves are rare, and they're always in a pack.
Adam moved closer. Is this some kind of rebellious teenage wolf that's run away, or what? Female wolves are usually smaller and flimsier than males, and even when females do catch prey, it's usually rabbits or deer.
"Moose, well, that's rare," Adam thought." It's easy to steal from this female what's mine; I'm an alpha, after all."
We were plowing the meat when the moon began to set, and I felt my first cramp. "Oh no," I thought, realizing how thoughtless an escape plan this was. I didn't take any warming material with me and hadn't thought about where I'd end up before I changed shape.
"Well, at least the end will probably come quickly."
I knew I wouldn't last many minutes in this freezing weather with no clothes on. Then I saw the carcass of a moose. I could wrap myself up in it. It wasn't ideal, but it was still steaming warm, and we'd eaten quite a bit of offal. But then I remembered the male wolf. Let's see what happens here as the transformation takes over, and I succumb to its power.
Adam watched in amusement as the big tricolored she-wolf flopped to the ground and began to change shape, the teenager though.
"Once I find out whose pack this stray is from, that girl will know she's alive." Adam rarely intervened in such matters, but it might be suitable for the pack if he took this teenage rebel back and saw what the hell kind of pack was so careless with females. He could even tell Bran about it.
He had been angry with Bran for a long time because he felt nothing about Mimi's fate. Bran was so old that he was sometimes quite cold and distant, able to keep his emotions out of the equation, and Adam was hot-headed again, hot-tempered, but his military background had given him a bit of a way to get some self-restraint.
Adam knew that this sort of expedition was sadly common among young people and was frowned upon harshly. This girl might even end up in a cage. Adam waited patiently. Usually, the wolf's shape is in proportion to the human form. A tall human, a giant wolf, and a smaller, slender human, a small wolf. That wasn't always true, but Adam watched in fascination as this female's transformation progressed and her paws became thin and delicate hands.
Eventually, a skinny, skeletal girl or woman lay in the snow, her face hidden from view by dirty hair. She was panting heavily as if this was a great deed, and as Adam looked at her body, a skeleton or so, he had no doubt. He wondered if she had escaped from the supposed institution, what pack she belonged to, and how Bran would see it.
Bran was keen on werewolf self-control, and if this woman had been tortured, it could be that she would have to prove herself to Bran, or else Bran might send Charles to take the woman out of the equation if she didn't control her wolf. Adam's train of thought was suddenly interrupted when the woman raised her head, and Adam was shocked.
Finally, my transformation was over. I knew I had to crawl into the moose carcass quickly. I lay in the snow and panted for a moment. I hoped the strange male had left. I wasn't paying that much attention to my surroundings during the transformation. I lifted my head wearily and swung my hair back.
Two golden eyes watched me out of the darkness, and I knew the male wolf was watching me. He stood up and came closer. The wolf walked towards me silently. The wolf was big, almost black; its muzzle and paws were blacker than its body, and this was a giant wolf. It nudged me with its muzzle and looked at the moose.
I looked down and said, "Go ahead and eat. I'm not a threat."
Mimosa had told me a bit about dominant gestures, eye contact, and such. I had known nothing about it on the ship, and I couldn't even remember if I had challenged the men involuntarily when I had looked them in the eye.
The wolf gave a soft growl, then grabbed the moose hide with his teeth and started pulling it towards me. It wanted me to go inside the hide, fine I did. We had removed the guts out of it, and I crawled into the hide. The wolf crawled over to my side to lie down and warm me up.
Adam hadn't been able to believe his eyes when Mimi had raised her head and looked at him. Adam cursed in his mind, as Mimi didn't know what his wolf form looked like. He could smell Mimi's fear and uncertainty. The strange she-wolf was Mimi. Mimi was even slimmer and more slender, and now she was a werewolf. Somehow, the satanic doctor had turned Mimi into a werewolf. This meant there was a facility here somewhere, but that wasn't Adam's priority right now. Adam tried to get Mimi to go inside the moose and eventually grabbed the moose and pulled it towards Mimi.
Mimi crawled in to hide, and Adam went straight to Mimi, warming her up as best he could. Adam concentrated and talked in his mind. Mimi was really skinny, probably just 30 or so kilos, and now Adam wouldn't let anything happen to her. He would see if Bran was any help, and if not, he would try to drag her wrapped in deerskin; maybe he could find some more game to keep her warm. Adam had a little cabin about 20 miles from this spot.
"Bran, it's Adam. I have some news for you. I think you'll want to hear this. It's quite a shock then, and I'm here on the spot, so I need to know then if you can act now or if I have to start acting."
Bran replied: "I'm here. What do you want?"
Adam said, "Well, as you know what the vampires and I were doing, and they left a couple of days ago to deal with some family crisis, I investigated a rumored facility here on the Alaskan/Canadian border. I have a cabin about 20 miles north of here, and I smelled earlier that someone had taken a kill, a moose, and I thought I'd go share. It was a large, Tri colored female wolf. Young."
Bran replied, " I don't know of any females of that color. Tell me more. Is this female still there?"
Adam said, "Well, the moon started to set, and this one started to change shape in the middle of the forest, so this one didn't have an alpha on it, and then I stayed to see who this female was, and it was Mimi. Somehow, Mimi had been made into a werewolf. She's really skinny, and I got her to go inside a moose hide, and I'm warming her up, but can you get anyone here and fast? Or do I need to get busy, find more warmth for the poor girl, and then try to get her to my cabin?"
Adam told Bran all about how he had run into Mimi and how he was now trying to keep her warm inside the moose.
Bran said: "Unbelievable, alive... how, how?"
Adam replied firmly, " She won't be alive for long if you don't get someone in here to help. Now you tell me straight if you can get someone in here, and quick. Otherwise, I'll start acting. Mimi is tired, but she has escaped from the facility. There's one around here somewhere. I heard rumors about it months ago."
Bran said: " We escaped about eight months ago, and she's been alive the whole time. She's tough. I'll get you some help soon enough. Charles is on the ground here, and it won't be long before he flies to where you are. Keep Mimi safe and sound. Samuel and Charles are on their way."
Bran then informed Charles, who took Samuel on the plane with him.
Charles said, " Okay, we'll be ready in a minute. Just as soon as Samuel gets his gear together."
Adam gave the coordinates of his cabin exactly, and Mimi could be taken there first.
Charles said to his father. " You tried to kill Mimi, didn't you? That's why you feel guilty. And that's why you're so damn surprised Mimi's alive. "
Bran nodded. "I was only trying to help. She was suffering so much. Samuel told me what was going to happen to Mimi, and I was just trying to save her from suffering. Keep me informed; don't tell Samuel about that. It will be a hell of a fight with the Hauptmann, but I remember Mimi's rage, and if she still has it, then it might be best that she lives with me, at least for now."
The voice from the doorway was poisonously quiet. "I heard everything, Dad, don't worry. You won't be getting near Mimi for a while. I think I'll go to Adam's in Chicago to help Mimi. Mimi won't come near you, you murderer. I fucking trusted you, and you tried to kill Mimi. What's to stop you from trying again? You'll fight me if you try to take Mimi away."
Bran sighed. It was true. The road to hell was paved with good intentions. He had done what he had seen fit, and, well, Mimi had miraculously survived. Something inside Bran was triumphant that Mimi had survived, and Bran thought it must be his conscience.
Charles and Samuel left as soon as Samuel had finished loading the plane full of supplies. The flight took a couple of hours, and they reached Adam's cabin in an hour on the snowmobile they'd brought with them. Then, they packed up everything in the cottage: clothes, food, medicine, and a bed, and set off in search of Adam. They had a good sense of smell, and then they heard the first howl as Bran kept telling Adam where help was coming.
It wasn't the most comfortable place in the world to be inside a moose, but at least I was somewhat warm. The wolf next to me was hairy and big, and I dug my fingers into its plush fur to keep them warm. Sometimes, I buried my face in its neck, too. I don't know how long we were there when suddenly the wolf raised its snout and howled. After a moment, it howled again.
I pulled away from the wolf, thinking that if it was distressed by my advances, this was a werewolf after all, not a dog, and perhaps I had been too familiar with it... I wrapped the now-cooled moose around me and tried to stay still. It was some sort of protection against the outside air, but again, I didn't think about what was going to happen next. I just went with the flow and also realized that I was so fucking tired.
I noticed Mimosa in my mind, in her wolf form, and she had also curled up on the bed to sleep. I hadn't noticed it before, but now I knew we were different beings sharing the same body. Suddenly, I heard the sound of a snowmobile, and I thought I was caught. If this wolf was the bad guy, and this is how he kept me in place before the others came.
I couldn't rule anything out because the bloody, chubby one had turned me into a werewolf, and he could have had werewolves on his payroll or as brainwashed soldiers. I tried to get up, and the wolf changed position slightly and came to lie on top of me. The sound of the sleds came closer.
Eventually, I saw the headlights sweeping me, and the sleds stopped. The footsteps came closer. The wolf got off of me, and I looked up. It took me a moment to realize what I was seeing, and that this wasn't another fatigue-induced hallucination or nightmare, but it was Samuel.
With him was this half-Indian-American and his half-brother Charles. This was the guy who had rescued me from that facility before we got on the boat. Both men were dressed warmly and had some equipment with them.
Samuel said to the wolf. "Quite a find, Hauptmann, quite a find."
The wolf was Adam!?
"A-Adam? Really? " I said cautiously, and the wolf licked my nose. He snorted and was very close to me, touching me almost all the time.
"You saved me." I managed to say.
Then Adam stepped back, and powerful hands lifted me off the ground. Charles came to me and dug me out of the moose hide and acted quickly. Samuel had taken some sort of sleeping bag from his sled and put it on the ground. Charles very carefully placed me in it. Samuel took some packing out of the bag and bent it sharply a couple of times, shook it, and placed it against me. I could feel the heat starting to build up in the packing, so these were heat packs.
Charles zipped up the sleeping bag while Samuel put probably six more packs on my body. Then he zipped up the bag and pulled the hood off the back of the sleeping bag, which he tied so that my head was almost completely inside the hood. Charles lifted me onto his sled. Adam was already running when the men wrapped me in the sleeping bag. Charles tied me up so I wouldn't fall off.
It was getting warm in the bag, and I was getting tired. The warmth helped, but most of all, it helped that I was rescued; now I had someone who cared and helped me. I didn't have to think about everything all the time, and I was feeling quite unsafe. Adam ran ahead, and Samuel followed. Charles rode with me last and very carefully.
I don't know how long it was, how long it took. I kept my eyes closed for part of the journey. I felt the vibration of the sled's engine beneath me, the heat of the heat packs slowly creeping into me, I felt safe in that I could now trust others; I didn't have to be fierce all the time, ready to act, desperate, weak.