Wedded to the Pack Ch. 03

In this chapter, Jessica and Gretchen continue their interviews with the media. They have contact with some of the people protesting outside of the Hilton. They find that Rene sent some old friends to help out. This chapter mostly talks about sex, as opposed to having sex, so it won't be as sexy as some of my stuff. My thanks to JohnnyGalt for his editorial assistance. This is a copyrighted piece of intellectual property. Do not alter, edit, or publish in either print or alternative formats without the express permission of the author. © Copyright, 2025

Wedded to the Pack, Ch 3

Getting the Word Out

Joshua's security driver arrived at nine the next morning to take us to our first interviews for the day. As requested, he drove our car. Our first interview was at 10 at the NBC offices. We left in time to get there and checked in with security when we got there. They gave us badges and led us to the interview room. We were going to be interviewed by the Today Show hosts, and put on tomorrow's broadcast.

The questions were very similar to those we'd already answered, although they tried to be a little creative. The primary female host was named Martina Hendrix. They were touching on the usual topics of the general promiscuity of wolves, and the obeisance that junior wolves had to offer to senior wolves.

Lots of free use sex was tittilating to the audience, and I knew that, but it was getting old.

"Martina, you're single, aren't you?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Do you enjoy sex?"

"Yes."

"I'm not trying to offend you or shock anyone, but my sense of smell is more highly developed than a human's, so I can tell you've had sex with at least two sexual partners in the last day, is that correct?"

Martina blushed. "I refuse to answer on the grounds it might incriminate me," she laughed.

"Now that's perhaps shocking to some people because we've been raised in a society that is still fairly puritanical. Men like Senator Jenkins still beat on the drum of 'Family Values', even though he's not the 'Family' man he'd have his constituents believe he is. Family to him is pretty much whoever he can lure to his bed. So, you felt a rush of embarrassment admitting that you've had more than one lover in the last day. Ignore that for a moment.

"Let's say that you've been raised in a society in which that doesn't matter. From when you first shifted at the age of seven or eight, you've had sex, both with other people your own age, to others much older than yourself, but still beautiful, virile, vibrant people. It's not prohibited, even encouraged. Everybody does it, and no one thinks it's wrong. The fact that you'd had sex with two, three or four other persons wouldn't be a shock or surprise to anyone. You'd look at sex in an entirely different way. That's shapeshifter society. It's like shaking hands, or two dogs meeting who then sniff each other's butts. No one is offended. Most of the time, when with others of your kind, you're naked. You see all of these well built, handsome flawless men and women around you, many of whom might be aroused for the same reason you are. You can scent their arousal, and they can scent yours. Chances are, you'd have sex fairly frequently, and no one cares. That's what it's like living among shapeshifters, even among non wolf shifters. Nudity is encouraged because it enables a faster shift. Big whoop.

"Now, you've been having sex with other wolves four, five and six times a day for the last hundred or so years. Like anything else you practice that often, you get good at it, like playing the piano or hitting curve balls. You become a concert pianist or major league baseball player. Wolves become superb lovers. The best you'll ever have. It's like having sex with Casanova every day and every night. You'll orgasm so often it will bring tears to your eyes. Now, why would I care if one of those handsome, good looking, extraordinary lovers want to have sex with me? I wouldn't. That's why I don't care if I have to, because I want to. It's not a hardship, nor would it be to most rational people. Would you like to have sex with a male wolf and find out?"

"Is that possible?"

"I don't know. I believe most wolves are in hiding right now, but I'm sure there are probably those who aren't for whatever reason. Why don't we do this? Any male wolf watching this broadcast who isn't in hiding, call the Today Show, and ask to speak to Martina Hendrix. She might like to see what wolf sex is like. You can discuss it with her and see if she's amenable. You might also tell her how you feel about the President's proclamation and whether you intend to register as a werewolf, once those policies are put into effect."

"Have you had sex with other male wolves since the President's Address?"

"No, only Gretchen and some humans, both male and female."

"Were you in your wolf shape at the time?"

"I licked a female as a wolf, and attempted intercourse with a male as a wolf. He was not attracted to a furry body with teeth, so couldn't maintain an erection. He wanted to try it as an exercise to see if he could. It's why almost one hundred percent of human/wolf breedings are male wolves and human females. Wolves are used to procreating with both human and wolf bodies. They're aroused either way. Men aren't attracted to our wolf shapes."

"Who?"

"That's beyond the purview on our interview. I want to talk about shifters, not humans."

"What's' a wolf breeding like, Gretchen?"

"If you've ever seen a dog mount another dog, you're familiar with what it looks like. It's different in the same way. The penis is roughly the same size, though differently shaped. The male wolf forms a knot, locking you together as the sex takes place, ensuring he remains mounted until insemination occurs. Most of it is done doggy style, for obvious reasons, although it doesn't have to be. It's just more familiar doing it that way, when you're mating with another shape. Wolves are tender lovers. They won't bite, scratch or claw you, and in fact are prohibited from biting you. It's not uncomfortable or painful, and I usually orgasmed from the sex. It's just different. For you, it might be the difference between using a vibrator or having sex with a person. Still feels good, but it's not the same."

"Jessica, how many women do you believe you've influenced to become shifter breeders?"

"Probably over a hundred?"

"Have they all done it for money?"

"No, in some cases, the money wasn't all that good. A friend from high school primarily did it so she could have children as her husband was infertile. They found it easier to deal with shifters than humans because shifters take a more pragmatic stance on sex. They knew there would be no emotional involvement on the part of the wolves. It was only sex, no love. Nothing to interfere with their own love and marriage."

"Jessica, Gretchen, thank you for joining us today. That's all we have time for. This is Martina Hendrix from the Today Show, signing off."

After the mics were removed and we were ready to leave, Martina asked, "Do you think anyone will call?"

"I can't be certain," I said, "but I think it likely someone would. If you do have sex with a wolf, I'd love knowing what you thought of it."

"It's really that good?"

"You wouldn't regret it from a sexual standpoint."

"Even if I fucked one in his wolf shape?"

"That's different enough it might throw you," I said, "but it will still be pleasurable. It helps if you first see it before doing it yourself. That's how I usually showed others it wouldn't be so bad, I did it while they watched. It lets you wrap your mind around the differences before you try it."

"Thanks."

******

Our next appointment was with the Good Morning America folks at ABC at 11:30. Our ride was waiting for us when we exited, after texting him we were done, and he took us to ABC. Our interviewer was a male this time, Chris Lambert.

He talked to us briefly about our prior interviews, and seeing what else had already been done, he wanted to do something different. To be honest, so did Gretchen and I.

"How about if you conduct the interview starting with both of us in our wolf shapes?" I asked. "No one has done that. All questions would have to be done in a yes or no format, but it would make your interview different."

"Wouldn't the audience think I might be working with some trained animals who are getting cues from a trainer to nod or shake their heads?"

"Put a big grid on the floor looking like a typewriter keyboard," Gretchen said. "We could answer some questions by touching our nose to the letters."

Chris asked the producer if that could be done. The producer suggested projecting it on a screen so it was vertical to the audience, and we agreed that was fine.

"To top it off, we could do a shift back to our human shapes at some point in the broadcast," Gretchen said. "Just be prepared to blur our lady bits and have robes ready to slip on immediately after the shift."

"We can put you on a five second delay so we can do that," the producer said. "Sounds like a winner to me."

So that's what we did. Gretchen and I both shifted in the ladies room in front of one of the aides, who held on to our clothes for us. They got a couple of robes for the switch back, and we trotted out to the stage where Chris waited. There was a screen set up with a keyboard projected on to it from the back so we couldn't block the letters.

Chris didn't know which was which in our wolf shapes, so he established which one he was talking to first. He pointed to Gretchen. "Are you Jessica?"

She shook her head, then he asked Gretchen, "Gretchen, what's your profession?"

She touched her nose to ARTIST.

"Where do you reside?" MAINE.

"Where were you born?" WISCONSIN

"Who is the President of the United States?" DUNCAN

"Are you a werewolf?" IF THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE CALLING WOLF SHAPESHIFTERS, THEN YES.

Chris turned to me. "What's your name?" JESSICA

"What do you do for a living?" NAVAL ENGINEER AT BATH IRON WORKS, BATH, MAINE

"Do you have any children?" ONE HUMAN, THREE SHAPESHIFTERS.

"I think we've established that you're not trained animals. Let's get down to business with the meat of this interview. Gretchen, you're agreeing to these interviews because based upon the President's Press Conference, people might think you're some kind of monster. Is that right?" Nod

"Are you a monster?" Shake.

"Have you ever killed anyone?" Nod, SELF DEFENSE WHEN HOME ATTACKED. NO ONE ELSE.

"I understand you have four shapeshifter children?" Nod

"In Wisconsin?" Nod

"Where they're being raised by a Wisconsin pack?" Nod

"If I understand correctly from previous interviews, this pack is led by Jessica's grandfather?" Nod

"Do you know who the fathers of those children are?" Shake

"Why?" MANY SENIOR WOLVES WERE GIVEN OPPORTUNITY FOR CHILD. IT WAS RANDOM. THEY KNOW, I DON'T.

"Jessica, you're shapeshifter breedings occurred in Maine?" Nod

"Because you lived there?" Nod

"Do you know the fathers of your children?" FOR ALL, ALTHOUGH EXCEPT FOR ONE HUMAN, ONE SHAPESHIFTER, DNA TESTING SHOWED FATHERS FOR ALL.

"You were married?" Nod

"Did you love him?" Nod

"He was killed by rogue shapeshifters?" Nod

"What happened to them, the rogues?" OTHER WOLVES KILLED FOR HURTING HUMANS

"Do you believe most werewolves pose a threat to humans?" Shake

"Why not?" RESPECT TREATY. NO CHAOS.

"Do you agree with President Duncan's proposal?" Shake

"Why not?" POSSIBLE WAR BETWEEN HUMANS, SHIFTERS. BAD FOR BOTH SIDES

"How would it be bad for humans?" SHIFTERS BITE, CREATE MORE SHIFTERS. LOSE FRIENDS, LOVED ONES

"Why can't we all be shapeshifters?" NEED HUMANS TO REPRODUCE. ALL DIE IF ALL SHAPESHIFTERS

"I understand you're going to shift back to your human shapes on stage for us today, Gretchen?" Nod

"It's very painful to shift?" Nod, then nosed, FIFTEEN SECONDS OF HELL

"Bring those robes out for us now," Chris said.

The intern came out with the robes and Gretchen and I shifted. Slight howls turning to light screams as we shifted. I beat Gretchen by about a second. We both slipped our robes on and sat down.

"That was pretty amazing. Does it hurt at all once the shift is complete?"

"Not at all," I said. "Once our bones and muscles are realigned, we feel great. It's only the shift itself that's painful."

"How do you do it?"

"You kind of remember the way you looked and felt in your other form, and your body moves to comply with your memory. That's why we get faster doing the shift. Our memory of our prior form gets better and better with practice."

"You first shift took how long?"

"Over ten minutes."

"How fast can it become?"

"Older wolves can do it in less than a second. I saw a dance once where the human shapes and wolf shapes were leaping. They'd leap as a human and come down as a wolf, and vice versa. Most incredible dance I ever saw. Most erotic too, since they had to be naked doing it, and because the females watching were so aroused, the males, scenting our arousal, all had erections, so their penises weren't flopping about. A lot of sex occurred after the dance."

"Other than your own sad story, what's the worst behavior you ever witnessed a wolf doing?"

"After I first learned about wolf shifters, I was assigned two wolf bodyguards. Once you agreed to have sex with a shifter, other shifters could scent your agreement to breed with shifters, and you could be taken by another pack or even other animal shifters. They would all refuse to rape humans, but if you've already agreed to breeding, you were considered fair game for any shifter. They'd also protect me from any other dangers, such as muggers, etc.

"The female assigned to me had been mated, and her mate killed by the primary hunter/tracker for the New England pack when they were fighting for their standing in the pack. The hunter was forced to kill his rival when the rival was given a weapon that could kill him, so, he ripped his throat out. The bitch didn't know why they were fighting. She thought it was because the wolf wanted to mate with her, taking her from her mate. She was the one who gave the weapon to her mate causing her mate to be killed.

"In reality, her mate had been a coward, who hadn't fought when they were tracking a rogue werebear who'd killed a human. His cowardice had led to the chief hunter's woman, his potential mate, being killed by the bear, and others of the party to be severely wounded. While he hadn't witnessed the fight himself, the chief hunter/tracker was able to read the signs and realized the coward hadn't joined the fight.

"He told the alpha about the cowardice, hoping to get the wolf thrown from the pack, but the wolf was handsome and charming, and already seduced three women into having puppies, so he wasn't banned because of that usefulness. From that point on, the chief hunter sought out the coward's mate and demanded sex of her. That's the reason she thought he wanted her as his mate, when what he was doing, was trying to force her mate into a battle, to fight for his honor, since he was having sex with her more often than her mate was.

"Normally, these fights for pecking order end as soon as one wolf submits to the other wolf. Her mate challenged because he would look more and more like the coward he was if he didn't, but surrendered almost immediately. The chief hunter continued to tear and maul her mate which is when she provided the weapon, causing her mate to be killed for the survival of the chief hunter.

"This is where the blind obedience of the packs was at a disadvantage. The chief hunter didn't stop the fight when the wolf surrendered because he wanted to prove to the coward that no matter how badly he was hurt, he could keep fighting and survive, so he wouldn't have reason for his cowardice. No one knew this. The chief hunter resented the bitch for giving her mate the weapon, and his own alphas for not kicking the coward out of the pack. This made him surly, grumpy, and generally a pain in the ass to be around.

"He constantly demanded obeisance in the form of sex from both of my bodyguards, the other one because he was a son of the pack alpha, and he was damn rough in the process, nothing that wouldn't heal, but painful and brutal. He was going to breed the bitch when she was my bodyguard, and that would have prevented her from shifting if needed. I finally got the story out of all of them, and they quickly became friends again, and the chief hunter repaired his relationship to the rest of the pack. That's it. That's the worst I saw. It was more emotionally painful to all concerned than being out and out rape, because it was all within his rights as a senior wolf, and they willingly allowed it. Mostly, it was a misunderstanding on everyone's part, because they blindly obeyed instead of asking questions, that I wasn't unwilling to ask because I wasn't a pack member."

"When you say that you needed bodyguards because other shifters could take you for breeding, why was that?"

"A breeder isn't in love with a particular shifter, and having procreative sex with a number of different males. The wolves assumed that the strongest sperm would inseminate a female leaving them with stronger puppies. Once another non-pack shifter could smell you'd been having sex with shifters, they would try to breed you themselves. It was still propagation of shifter populations, but the puppy would belong to another pack, the pack of the male who bred it, so your pack wanted to ensure it was their puppy you had. I would have been paid either way, but it would have been the loss of pack resources for a puppy belonging to another pack. Of course, they also protected us from harm from humans too. My Wisconsin attempted rapists were dealt with by my bodyguards. They wanted to protect their investment."

"Gretchen, what can you tell us about the various packs around the US?" Chris asked.

"Packs are usually formed within geographic areas, where one strong alpha holds sway. He might have under Alphas. For instance, the pack that I was bred by was a northern Wisconsin sub pack led by Jessica's grandfather, of an Upper Peninsula Michigan Pack. My sub pack owed allegiance and obeisance to the UP pack leader. They would meet to discuss pack business, within their pack. Even after I moved to Maine, because I'd contractually agreed to provide puppies for the UP pack, I'd return to Wisconsin for my breeding, and the puppy would be raised by that pack. The packs prefer wooded areas for living like natural wolves do, although they will take jobs in the larger cities depending on their skills.

"Generally, when wolves from foreign packs travelled through another pack's territory, they would meet with the pack leader from that territory and offer obeisance, and agree not to interfere in their business. There's usually some mixture on the edges of pack territories where some wolves would belong to either pack, and the territories could shift slightly based upon the strength of the Alpha of the more powerful pack, although never much because it might involve a war which nobody wanted. The New England pack I'm a member of now controls most of New England with the exception of western Connecticut, which is affiliated with the Eastern New York Pack. Some of New Jersey is with the Eastern New York pack, some with the Eastern Pennsylvania pack, and some with the Maryland/Northern Virginia pack."

"Jessica, Is there an overall pack leader for say the US?" Chris asked me.

"No, although with the changes being discussed to the treaty, they were considering a rotating leadership position lasting for a year to deal with the government and make permanent changes based upon tele-meetings held, to prevent all pack Alphas from having to show up as had been necessary for the first treaty. Considering the Government's current stance, I'm unsure we'd like the government to know who our Alphas are."

"What about packs in other countries?"

"We can only speculate about packs outside of the US and Canada, because we've never had dealings with them. We can say that the Canadian wolves generally abided by the guidelines set by the US treaty. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had originally been created to deal with Canadian wolves, but once they started abiding along the lines of the US treaty and quit biting humans to create new wolves, the RCMP took the national police roll they have now. The Canadian government didn't provide the same support to the packs that the US government did under the treaty, but they pretty much ignored them as long as they behaved. The Canadian wolves had a lot of skilled forgers to provide Canadian documents that the US government provided to US wolves.

"We did have some discussions with some members of Canadian packs while discussing treaty changes. It was felt that if the US packs were going to be recognized by the US government exposing the existence of shapeshifters, perhaps other governments around the world would start doing the same with their own shifter populations. There was some hope by all that recognition of all shifters might be good. The current stance of the US government makes that more unlikely. Treating us as monsters doesn't make other shifters want to come out of the woodwork.

"I do know that jaguars in Mexico all operated independently, and kept themselves hidden from the government. I'm sure some within the government knew they existed, but not who they were. I know the ones I met were attempting to breed with human women to procreate, by seducing them as the wolves had been doing, but on the fringes of civilization, they might still have been biting humans as well. They didn't really have leadership the way the wolves practiced it, but operated independently, or in very small family groups."

"Where did you meet these jaguars?" Chris asked.

"On a cruise vacation in Cozumel, although I believe they normally resided in the Yucatan. It was a brief meeting."

"Why have a meeting at all?"

"The shifters scented each other. There were no wolves on Cozumel. They wondered what our wolves were doing there."

"Did they fight?"

"We convinced them not to, by telling them they might do better with their breeding if they offered to pay for services like the wolves did, especially when dealing with the impoverished. We met with three of the women they'd seduced but hadn't converted to breeders, agreed on a price to be paid, and one of the jaguars demonstrated what the sex would look like with their animal shapes, with me as the human demonstrator. Two of the women became jaguar breeders, one actually became a wolf breeder instead."

"Have you had sex with any other shifters?" Chris asked.

"A werebear, again for the same purpose, a demonstration to show another seduced female the feasibility of it. She became a bear breeder."

"Why have sex with other shifters?" Chris asked.

"I don't want them slowly dying out either," I said. "Shifters have been part of history for millennia. Why die out now when it can be prevented? If I can show some woman that she'll be treated well by her breeders and can safely have shifter cubs or kittens, it's not hurting me. I'm having lots of sex anyway."

"Was your husband aware of your demonstrations?"

"With the jaguars, yes. He was deceased before the bear, but he wouldn't have objected even if he was still alive. He agreed with me on the necessity for shifters to remain viable."

"Gretchen, have you ever had sex with other shifters?"

"No, as a lesbian, I tried to limit my contact with other dicks. During my breeding and after my conversion, I had to provide my obeisance, and that's as far as I wanted to go."

"What do wolf shifters eat?" Chris asked.

"Finally, a new question," I laughed. "We can eat all human food, including fruits and vegetables, but we tend to eat less of that, and more meat, the redder and rawer the better. It just tastes better to us now, and we need lots of protein to shift. You don't have to worry about gourmet cooking with us; just slap a pound of ribeye on a plate and be done with it. We do like to capture and kill our own game, so we eat a lot of deer."

"Do you need a hunting permit?"

"Do real wolves need a hunting permit?" Gretchen replied. "We're not hunting with guns or bows and arrows. We have to kill it like any other wolf. It satisfies the hunting instinct we gained after our shift."

"Ladies, it's been fascinating. I'm hoping we can have you on the show in the future."

"May I just say something, Chris. Beth Wilson-Hafeez was wondering if she could run psyche tests on any wolves that aren't in hiding. She's a famous shrink here in New York. Look her up on the internet and give her a call. She'd love to hear from you, and I think it will help our cause if she's telling everyone that we're not psychotic or sociopathic and that we're not a danger to humans."

"I would second that," Chris said. "I truly feel I've learned a lot about wolf shifters and other Weres. I'd like to know more. I also wouldn't mind having some male wolf shifters, or anyone born a Were and been so since their birth. Have a Good Morning America."

The producer cut the cameras. "Chris, this was great stuff. We've got things no one else has. This should be gold."

"Glad to be of help," Gretchen said. "I'm starving. We need lunch."

"Do you want to eat in our cafeteria?" Chris asked.

"Can we eat our meat raw, or extra bloody?" Gretchen asked.

"I don't see why not?" The producer said. "Can we film it?"

"Sure, we'll be eating with knives and forks, so not much different, but go ahead," I said.

We got dressed in the ladies room again, notified our driver that we were having lunch in the ABC cafeteria and to get something to eat himself. Our next interview wasn't until three with CBS News Morning. Obviously, we weren't going to be on live in the morning, but taped for broadcast with the CBS news crew.

We ate in the cafeteria, raw hamburger, eating it with a fork. The cameras attracted some attention, and those who didn't know who we were already, quickly learned and we had a lot of people asking us questions, crowded around us. We answered them as best we could. Since they weren't professional question askers, a lot of them were more personal, but we did what we could to answer them.

We showed them pictures of my Matthew, plus Lenore's and Sean's child, Elizabeth.

"Who is the other child?" Someone asked.

"My husband had a child with another woman who lived with us."

"What?"

"At the time we were married, I was still contractually providing puppies for the shifters, and I was pregnant all the time. I told him he could have a woman who wasn't pregnant and have sex with her on occasion. He chose an old girlfriend, and she lived with us. She wanted to have her own children and he gave her one. You also need to realize that I was a submissive to his Dominant, and so was she, so it really felt more like a cuckqueaning."

"What's cuckqueaning? Is that a wolf thing?" A woman asked.

"No, it's a Dominant/submissive thing. Search cuckolding or female cuckolds on the net and you can learn all about that."

She pulled out her phone.

"You also have to realize that we were all pretty relaxed about sex due to our continuous exposure to wolf shifters. Nobody was really exclusive to anyone else, except when we were trying to have a particular person's child. No one had sex with me but my husband, Sean, when I was having Matthew, and for the one shapeshifter child I had whose father I did know, I only had sex with him during my ovulation until they could scent I was pregnant."

"Jessica," Chris said. "I'd really like to explore some of the relationships you're describing in more detail for another show. When can we have another interview?"

Gretchen and I checked our schedules, and informed him I could give him two hours on Monday morning at nine.

"We can do it at the hotel in our room," I said, "before we begin another round with the others on our schedule."

"Thanks. That would be amazing."

*****

On the way to our next appointment, I told Gretchen that I wanted to try getting hold of some wolves myself.

"Do you have anyone in mind?"

"I was thinking of the attorney who handled Quinn's case. Due to his position, he may not be able to hide. He might also be filing lawsuits regarding the President's actions. I think we should start with him."

"Do you remember his name?"

"I've got it in here someplace," I said, scrolling through my contacts. "Here it is. Stanley Livingstone. I'm going to call now."

"Do it," Gretchen said.

I hit the dial button.

"Law Offices of Stanley Livingstone. How may I help you?"

"My name is Jessica Hagerty, fiancé to former client, Quinn Whelan. Is Mr. Livingstone available?"

"He is for you, Jessica. Hold, Wolf Daughter."

It took a couple minutes but Stanley's voice boomed out. "Jessica Hagerty, as I live and breathe. How are you?"

"I could be better, sir. How about yourself?"

"I could be better as well. I've seen a couple of news articles about what you and Gretchen are doing. I'm proud of you, Wolf Daughter. How can I help you?"

"Is there any chance you can have the Magistrate cancel the warrant on Quinn issued by the Senator?"

"Probably not without a hearing, which would require turning himself in. We're a little hesitant to do so without the treaty as a safeguard."

"Are you keeping your practice open?"

"For now. I don't know how much longer."

"Do you intend to register?"

"I'm not sure. They haven't posted the requirements yet. I'll have to see what they say. If it looks like the Nazi/Jewish thing, probably not. We'll see. At the moment, very few people know that I'm a shifter."

"Have you talked to Magistrate Paul Kennedy at all?"

"Not since the abrogation of the treaty."

"Are you fling lawsuits against the President's new measures?"

"I'm not personally filing them, but human attorneys are with my help. I'm still trying to stay a little under the radar."

"Do you have contact with our Alpha?"

"Rene and I have ways of getting in contact with each other. Why?" Stanley asked.

"One of the things that we did was have a psychological evaluation with world renowned and highly respected psychologist Beth Wilson-Hafeez, saying we're essentially no crazier than normal humans are, but she wanted to do the testing on life long wolves, and a larger sample size than us. I think we'd also like at least one male and one female lifelong wolf around for sexual reasons. We'd like to make some arrangements along those lines."

"I saw the first press conference. That was good. Having her on our side does have an impact. Smart thinking on your part."

"Gretchen's idea. She thought no one could claim Stockholm Syndrome as a reason we'd stick up for wolves if we were tested first, and since we were coming to New York anyway, it seemed like Beth was our best bet."

"A great bet. It's hard to argue with her success. I'll contact Rene and see what he has to say. I can reach you at this number?"

"Yes." I also gave him my hotel and room number.

"I'll be in touch."

"Thank you, Stanley."

The next couple of interviews were pretty much like the last few. Other than getting our story out to an even wider audience, there wasn't much new there.

******

After finishing with the CBS and Fox interviews, on our way back to the hotel, I checked my messages. There was a message from an unlisted number asking me to call when I had the opportunity.

Stanley answered when I called.

"You should have a couple of old friends show up on your doorstep tomorrow. They're willing to come out in the open. Most will not. If Beth is going to test the rest of us, she'll need to figure out a way to do it without wolves having to expose themselves."

"She gave us our testing on an iPad. Perhaps we could get some of those out to the wolves and do the testing that way, then send the answers or return the devices to get the results that way."

"That sounds like a possibility. See if she can do that?"

"I will. Thanks, Stanley."

I made a call to Beth's personal number she'd provided during our time at the shelter.

"Hey, Jess, what's up?" Beth asked when she answered.

"I've got a couple of lifelong wolves who are arriving that you can start testing on. But if you want to do a larger population sample than that, we need a way to get the tests to them, rather than having them come in for testing. I thought maybe sending some iPads out to us, if that would work?"

"I can do that. How many?"

"There are around sixty packs in the continental US, and more in Canada. If you can arrange for say a hundred devices, I think it's possible that all pack members could take your tests over the next couple of months. The only ones who couldn't would be those not attached to a pack, like lobos. If there's contact between the wolves and other Weres, we may be able to get some of them tested as well."

"It might take a couple of days to arrange that, but it can be done."

"Can the results be sent back electronically, or would the devices need to be returned?"

"Electronic transfer can be arranged. That wouldn't take any longer than getting all of the devices set up for all of the testing needed."

"Great. I'll send the other two to you after they get here."

"Male or female?"

"One of each."

"Excellent. We probably don't want the testing done at the shelter because so many of the women have been traumatized by men, but I'll set something up and let you know."

"Thanks for the help."

"Don't mention it."

We went back to the hotel, had some very rare steaks, then Gretchen and I enjoyed a very pleasurable couple of hours having sex before going to sleep.

******

We were ready for Chris Lambert and his crew at nine the next morning, dressed in casual clothes. They went with two cameras, one on Gretchen and me, and one on Chris. They had a sound guy who put the mics on us, and a make-up lady who powdered our faces.

"This is Chris Lambert with Good Morning America, and we're back with Jessica Hagerty and Gretchen Shriver, following up on an earlier interview. Gretchen, let's start with you. Where did you meet Jessica?"

"Junior High is where we first met. Rhinelander isn't very big, but it did have three elementary schools, and we went to different ones."

"You're in love with Jessica?"

"That would be true. I've loved Jessica since I realized I was a lesbian in high school."

"Did you know Gretchen loved you, Jessica?"

"I knew she liked me, because she told me in no uncertain terms, but I was into guys, not girls. I might have experimented with her a little, since I was curious, but she took so much crap from the other kids for being adamantly lesbian, it scared me away from trying anything."

"How many girlfriends did you have in high school, Gretchen?"

"I had three, but none of them were open relationships. They were afraid of their own exposure. I had to go to Junior and Senior Proms alone and then meet up with them afterwards."

"How many boyfriends did you have in high school, Jessica."

"Three."

"Is that where you lost your virginity?"

"Yes, after my senior prom."

"Gretchen, I understand you came to New York after high school?"

"I did, trying to make it as an artist, at a location that was more tolerant of gays. It's where I had three openly gay girlfriends, plus a lot of other hook-ups, before I ran out of money and had to head home to Wisconsin."

"You went to college, Jessica, where?"

"Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine. It's how I ended up in Maine and got the job at Bath Iron Works. It had one of the best Maritime Engineering Schools in the nation."

"Did you have boyfriends in college?" Chris asked.

"Four, generally one per year. We broke up during the summers when I went home."

"You've said that you're a submissive, Jessica. When did you discover that, in college?"

"No, not until I met a true Dominant, Quinn Whelan, the shifter I was supposed to marry this past Saturday, before we found out there was a warrant issued for his arrest, and he had to go into hiding."

"Why didn't you marry Quinn earlier?"

"I was human, and I didn't want to marry someone who wasn't going to age and die like I was, even though I did love him. He would still look much like he does now when I was old and gray. Plus, we couldn't remain in one place. We would have had to move constantly due to our aging differences. Eventually, I would have looked like an extreme cradle robber, creeping around in a walker with hearing aids and wrinkled baggy skin, while he still looked like someone in his early forties."

"When did you meet your husband, Sean?"

"Quinn introduced me to him. The female alpha of our pack was raped by a rogue wolf and had a child that she had to give up for adoption, since shifters couldn't raise human children. Sean was her offspring. Quinn, through his contacts in the government as a hunter/tracker for our pack and working with the US Marshall's Office, found out who had adopted Sean, and he made contact with him and introduced us. He told Sean that I might have information, or be able to learn about his mother, because I'd learned about my mother's father, because she was adopted through the same adoption agency. Sean was dying to meet his birth parents. I actually introduced them, though at first, she was introduced as a friend of mine, not his mother. Sean was a wonderful man. I loved him dearly."

"That was Tender Mercies Adoption Agency, wasn't it?"

"Yes, they're actually an agency of the government who helped place children who couldn't be raised by wolves. So the government has been complicit with hiding wolves for all this time, but now we're some kind of monster? How does a brave, young American woman turn into a monster overnight because she was saved from death by a bite. How can anyone say I'm different than I was a few short months ago. They don't know me.

"Senator Jenkins doesn't know squat about me except for what I told him in secret hearings, yet he's deciding that I've been raped and my fiancé should be arrested because we have sex, both with each other and other wolves? What kind of bigot is he, to deny me my freedom to have sex with whoever I want. Is anyone deciding he shouldn't be having sex with his interns? No. Maybe we should. Maybe I should be deciding that he can't have sex with anyone but a woman he's married to. That should keep his dick in his pants since he's currently a widower."

"How would you describe your relationship to Gretchen?"

"I care a great deal for Gretchen. I always have. I was happy that by the time I met her again as a breeder, I had already begun having sex with females, and it allowed me to explore sex with her. But I'm too attached to men's dicks and too submissive to Dominant Alpha males to consider more than a close casual relationship to Gretchen or any female, especially one who isn't Dominant. I'm just glad that the men in my life who could have ordered me to stay away from her, instead chose to share me with the other important people in my life."

"Why do you think that they did?" Chris asked.

"I think they recognized the feelings that Gretchen had for me, and that she was miserable when she wasn't around me, and secure enough in their own masculinity and the way I loved them to accept that she didn't take away anything from them, but that she added something to all of our lives."

"How did you feel when your husband and later, your fiancé had sex with other women?"

"It didn't bother me. I think some of it is my submissiveness. That I should defer to my Master on things related to sex. After all, he had the ability to limit my orgasms or punish me for them. Since I was providing puppies for the packs, and was often pregnant, I felt that Sean should be able to have sex with others as well. When I entered a breeding cycle, if sex was limited to me, he'd have to wear a condom to prevent conception, which wasn't particularly fair for him. It started with my wolf bodyguards, who didn't mind having sex with anyone, and he was the only male around most of the time."

"Gretchen, did you feel like a second class citizen in Jessica's life?"

"As opposed to a woman without a country, Chris? A little bit of something is a whole lot better than a lot of nothing. I got to spend time with the woman I loved, make love to her. If we hadn't had a rather casual attitude about sex, that could never have happened. I'll gladly take second class citizenship rather than being alone any day. And it wasn't just about sex. I got to live with her. Sure, she had to spend most of her time in her husband's bed, but often spent time in mine. That's a miracle right there."

"When did you decide to marry Sean, Jessica?"

"Well, he accepted that I was contractually obligated to provide surrogate services to infertile couples, and was willing to accept that, which made more than dating possible. He sort of realized that those surrogate services weren't for normal people on his own, which is when he signed the NDA and learned about shifters. Then he could be told the woman he'd been introduced to as my friend, was actually his mother, who didn't look much older than he did, while she was actually over a hundred years older. That led to him finding out about his own heritage, and to accept that this is something that had to occur, if his mother's people didn't want to become extinct. He actually proposed to me while I was in the window of being bred for my second puppy, which breeding rights were actually given entirely to Quinn because he'd found Sean for his female Alpha. My husband was an amazing man."

"He watched you get bred?"

"By the wolf, not the man. I don't think he could have accepted Quinn as a man in my bed, but he could accept the wolf. It made it less, shall I say, competitive. Sean knew I had a sexual history with Quinn. At the beginning of our marriage, he couldn't have accepted other men, but a wolf was a different story. Gradually, even that competitiveness went away when he realized I would never leave him for Quinn, just because he was a shifter, and I wanted to be married to a man."

"Gretchen, back to you for a moment. You claim that any sex you have with male shifters is consensual, despite being a lesbian."

"That's right."

"Why is that?"

"Sex is very casual among shifters, Chris. When we met, did I not shake your hand?"

"Yes, of course."

"Sex among shifters isn't much different than shaking a hand, Chris. It's like two dogs sniffing each other. You're introducing yourself, allowing them to get your scent and you getting theirs, and to understand your place in the hierarchy. It's like curtsying when you meed royalty. It's just natural. And it's not like I'm immediately having sex with everyone around me in some big orgy. About once a week, I'd have to show some sort of obeisance to a senior wolf. While it was usually in the form of a sexual act, it was rarely to completion. It could be. I often licked the females to an orgasm, but I might only kiss the cock of a male, or give him a little bit of a suck. All they are asking for is some recognition by me, that they are higher on the totem pole than I am, and I know they're my superior unless someone more senior takes charge. We're establishing our pecking order.

"Does it hurt me to do that? No, Chris. It was like shaking your hand. We had to touch, to recognize our friendliness to each other. It's not like I even had to remove mine or someone else's clothes to do so. We're naked most of the time to allow for shifts between our different forms, so when it was necessary, there was no special ceremony attached to it. I'd bow down and kiss my Alpha's cock, then perhaps his mate's pussy, and I'd be done. Big whoop. It could be more than that, but most often it wasn't. Except for my breeding, I never had sexual intercourse with a male shifter unless I wanted to. I've done it maybe five times of my own volition. I also had sex with Sean once or twice because I wanted to share something with Jessica. I would have had a child with him. I was thankful to Sean that he was willing to share his wife with me.

"I enjoy the sex with wolves, even the males. They're good at sex and I orgasm despite being a lesbian. I'm not raped. Let's make that clear to everyone. I'm not raped. It's all consensual. If I did more, it would be like hugging you in addition to shaking your hand. I'm still not doing anything against my will."

"Jessica, do you have more to add?"

"Very little, Chris. That's pretty much it. I would say most of the sex I had was more due to my submission to the two alpha males in my life, than anything having to do with shifter sex, other than my actual puppy breeding. I enjoyed being their pet. In fact, Sean called me his pussycat. I've been very happy in my life, enjoying the love of two strong males. Only this ridiculous fabrication of Senator Jenkins is moving my misery meter at all. I want my life back, and the sooner this is resolved, the better I'll like it."

"Thank you, Jessica, Gretchen, for taking your time to talk to us again. This is Chris Lambert, have a Good Morning America."

The taping ended and Chris thanked us for our time. "You're really opening up, and I hope it's helping," he said.

"I hope so," Gretchen said.

As soon as they were gone, we got dressed in our more formal clothing. We had two more interviews this afternoon, with CNN and MSNBC. We called our driver after another bloody steak.

*******

The afternoon interviews were pretty much like the previous ones. We weren't really covering new ground. When we got back to the hotel, we found two protest groups outside. One was pro-shifter, the other one anti.

The pro-shifter signs were like, 'LEAVE SHIFTERS ALONE,' 'CANCEL QUINN'S WARRANT', and 'WE LOVE JESSICA AND GRETCHEN'. The anti's signs said, "MONSTER GO HOME', 'WHORES AND PROSTITUTES', and 'WOLVES DON'T DESERVE TO LIVE'. Yeah, right. We didn't deserve to live.

We didn't have a limo or anything, so we were pretty much ignored when we went into the parking garage.

"You want me to arrange with Joshua for more security?" Jim, our driver today, asked.

"No." I said. "The police out there seem to be doing okay keeping the two sides apart. It seems peaceful."

"That could change."

"We'll face that when we come to it. Come on, Gretch. Let's check out the protests."

We walked out the front door and towards the Pro people. They started cheering when they saw us. Gretchen and I walked around, saying thank you for being there and for their support. We shook hands, gave autographs, had selfies taken, spending about twenty minutes with our supporters. At that point, I headed for the opposition side. Gretchen stayed where she was, watching.

"Go home, bitch." An aggressive male said.

"I am home. I was born here, in this country anyway," I said.

"Go back to Maine." He said.

"I can't. This is where the news organizations are. People want to know about us."

"We don't."

"Why not?"

"Because you're a monster," another woman said.

"Am I? I look pretty much like you at the moment."

"Yeah, until you change into a wolf."

"And then I'll look like a big dog. I'm sure some of you have dogs at home. Are you afraid of them?"

"You're not a dog."

"No, I'm not. I guess I'm another species. So would you be protesting if it were a deer or lamb out here talking to you, or is it because I'm a wolf shapeshifter?"

"You're unnatural," another person said, "an abomination to God."

"Didn't God create everything on Earth?" I asked. "How can I be an abomination if He created shapeshifters? Isn't everything in the Universe His creation? That's what I was taught. I doubt you were taught differently. You're not thinking logically. If everything was destroyed in the Great Flood but those that Noah saved, Noah had to have saved shapeshifters as well as cows and horses."

"Why doesn't the Bible talk about shapeshifters?"

"Why doesn't it talk about cars and airplanes. Maybe shapeshifters weren't important to His message. It didn't talk about Chinese or Japanese either. Just because I'm somewhere in between human and canine. That doesn't make me a monster. I was changed to save my life, so my child wouldn't have to grow up as an orphan. Surely wanting to help raise a human child as his mother doesn't make me a monster, does it? Don't you want to help raise your own children? Am I that much different than you are?"

The aggressive male punched me. I let him. I could have stopped it. The news crews were there covering the protests, and I thought it put them in the wrong. The cops started drifting over, expecting trouble. I raised my hand, waving them back. "It's okay," I said.

"Aren't you going to change to a wolf?" A woman asked.

"Why, because he hit me?"

"Well, yeah."

"First of all, I'd have to remove my clothes, and I don't really feel like getting naked in front of all of you, or anyone else for that matter. Second of all, he's scared, because I'm an unknown. The unknown scares all of us, even me. I won't become a known until I tell my story, get it out there where you begin to know who I am, and who other shifters are. That's why I'm in New York, so you can learn who I am, and whether or not I'm an actual danger to you, or someone is stirring the pot, trying to make trouble for everyone. He can't really hurt me, so if he slugs me a couple of times, he's only proving that he's the dangerous one, not me. I'm just here to talk to you. Talk show hosts have interviewed me, and maybe they haven't asked the right questions that you want the answers to, so why don't you interview me now. That way, you can make up your own minds if I'm a threat."

"Have you ever killed anyone?"

"As a human, I killed the shifters attacking my home, and no humans. I've never killed anyone as a werewolf."

"Have you seen other shifters kill humans?"

"The rogue shifters who attacked my home killed my human husband. I've never known of another attack killing humans, although I do know of a couple instances where humans were turned into a shifter by a bite. One of those was before the treaty, where the Navajos were hunting shifters, and the other one was by another rogue who was then killed by a shifter in order to enforce the treaty."

"Do you expect us to believe that?" Aggressive male said.

"I don't know what to expect that you'd believe. I'm not even sure why you're here. Have you personally been harmed in some way by a shifter?"

"Well, no."

"Have any of you?"

Dead silence.

"So the only thing you're going by is some hysteria raised by others about what a danger I am?"

Some shrugged shoulders and looking around at each other, like they didn't know what to say.

"I would think that if I or other shifters were truly dangerous to humans, you would have known about us before the President's Address. I don't believe the government could hide it if we had been a real danger. They couldn't hide the news about the Pentagon Papers, or Watergate, or anything else that people wanted to hide, and those didn't involve a danger to the public except the secrets they kept. That information came out. If shifters were dangerous, that information would have come out. It didn't, so either they did a much better job of hiding the danger than they did keeping Watergate a secret, or we aren't a danger after all. Unless anyone experiences a real threat from a shifter, you're just making a lot of useless noise about nothing. That's my opinion. Maybe I'm wrong, but if I am, you'll need to prove it to me, and not by yelling at each other across the street. Have a pleasant day."

I strolled back to the other group, collected Gretchen and went back into the hotel. The protests broke up soon afterwards, losing all of the steam, just as I wanted them to. Gretchen kissed me and asked what I said. I told her, then we took a shower and got ready for another meal.

******

We had a relatively quiet day planned for the next, after several days of interviews. Gretchen and I were relaxing after some particularly good sex together when there was a knock on our door around ten.

I got up and checked the peephole. Oh, my God, it was Conor and Brigitte. I immediately opened the door and let them in. Conor looked like he'd added another ten pounds of muscle. Brigitte looked even fiercer and more dangerous than she had before. Her time as the primary hunter/tracker for the pack during Quinn's incarceration and house arrest having toughened her substantially.

"Here we are, together again," Brigitte said, giving me a huge hug. "God, it's good to see you two."

"What are you doing here?"

"Stanley said you were getting two visitors. We're it."

"I thought they'd send someone more junior," I said, "not you two."

"Yeah, I think Rene hoped for someone else to volunteer, but we couldn't let you two get into trouble without us. We know you, and to be honest, Quinn was hoping we'd volunteer. I think he's worried you're pissing some people off."

"If we have, there hasn't been much sign of it except for the demonstrations today. It seemed like it was made up. The opposition didn't really know why they were there. Just noise against the supporters, I think."

"Yeah, maybe. We brought some body armor. I think you should start wearing it. Demonstrations may turn into something more. The word is getting out. A lot of the people who've been breeders, or been helped by wolves are starting to speak out - write letters to the editor, give interviews, that sort of thing. You sort of started a new movement. We saw that first press conference you did. Great piece of work, that. Did the President and Jenkins really buy biotech stocks?"

"According to Joshua Greenbriar they did."

"Exactly the kind of thing we hoped wouldn't happen," Brigitte said.

"I know. I was hoping to keep my children close, not have this turn into the clusterfuck it has. Abrogating the entire treaty. I hope the President was getting bad advice and he isn't the asshole he seems to be now."

"Would you two like a cuddle?" Conor said, stripping off.

I looked at his ready erection. "Yeah, I could definitely use some dick," I said. "Gretchen might be interested in getting her pussy licked by a pro. I'm a rank amateur compared to you two."

Brigitte was now around 73 years old. Still looked like she was in her twenties. Conor had been 13 when I first met him, was 24 now, probably matching his DL age pretty close. We welcomed them into our bed and I felt a nice cock for the first time since Joshua tried fucking me. I loved it. Connor was a better lover now than he used to be. More practice with more bitches. He still cleaned up after himself like a good puppy too.

******

In the morning, we exchanged rooms, going from one king to two queens and adding Brigitte and Conor to our room. Both wolves were so damn good looking, they got a lot of glances from the peeps. By now, the other guests were figuring out who the hell we were. We'd been on the news often enough. I wondered if they assumed the other two were wolves or some sort of security, given the protests outside yesterday.

After breakfast, I called Martina Hendrix and told her we had a male wolf in town if she wanted to experience how good wolf sex was. She said she was interested and would call later. I also called Beth and informed her we had the two born wolves who could start taking the tests. Since we had the time today, she told us to come straight over to her offices, near the shelter. Conor drove the vehicle they arrived in, being used to driving safely for his normal bodyguard duties. He even told me he'd worked a few gigs in the Big Apple before.

On the way, I warned the two wolves that Sahar had bad experiences with animals when she was a slave, and to always warn her before doing any shifting.

"She's very, very good at combat, both armed and unarmed," I said. "If she had wolf abilities, she'd be like Quinn. I believe they trust us, but don't be surprised if there's some silver about. Sahar is very protective of her wife, even more so than of herself. I've fought her, and she could beat me armed with silver. Plus, there's other ex-military special ops types. They've had some run-ins with human traffickers, so they're always alert and ready for trouble."

"We'll be careful, and polite," Brigitte said. "It sounds as if they're trying to help us."

"I believe they are," I said.

There was more security than the last time I'd seen Beth, but less than the first time, so more cautious, but not paranoid. Sahar was more alert, but not on high alert. There was definitely the metallic tang of silver in the air.

Conor and Brigitte caused a slight stir, both because they looked dangerous, but also because they were so striking. Brigitte almost six foot tall and red haired, Conor, dark, buff, and even taller.

I introduced the two wolves to everyone present, including Edgar again. Joshua and Miranda were absent.

"Pleased to meet you," Brigitte said. "Thanks for any assistance you can give us."

"Are all life long werewolves so tall?" Beth asked.

"Statistically, I'd say we're taller than the normal human, but only slightly so," Brigitte said. "Conor and I are above average for wolves."

Beth looked to me for confirmation. "Most of the males I know are six foot or over, Brigitte is the tallest female. Most are around my height."

"What about racial make-up?" Beth asked.

"Since nearly all born wolves have a human mother, we're generally of every type of racial background in the area where we were born," Brigitte said. "Our female alpha is Native American. There are a lot of Amerindian genotypes in Canada, where most of the females bred are from the more remote areas, which tends to make more of them Indian."

"Do you notice any racial bigotry in Wolf relations?" Beth asked.

"None. Our rule tends to be merit based, to some extent based on seniority, and then on leadership ability, and I suppose fighting ability, since we're always challenging for seniority, which isn't just based on age, For instance, Conor is only 24, and is already ranked in the middle for seniority. I'm 73, and only a little bit higher."

"You're 73?" Edgar said. "No fucking way."

"Think of it, Edgar," Beth said. "If she lives to be three hundred, she hasn't even lived a third of her lifespan yet. If most of us humans lived to ninety, thirty would be a third of our lifespan. She almost has to look younger than thirty."

"But the gent is 24?" Edgar said.

"And he looked like that when he was 13 and already an experienced adult shifter, which is when I first met him, Edgar," I said. "Wolves mature very rapidly, and decline very slowly compared to humans. Conor's father is over 160, and he still looks like he's in his early forties. Most of what would be considered a wolf's old age occurs in the last four to five years of his life. Shifting is constantly refreshing our DNA. Our minds remain sharp, no disease, no degeneration, fewer wrinkles, less gray hair."

"No wonder you're in fucking trouble. If they could figure you out, you're a fucking gold mine."

"We know," Brigitte said.

"Why did you come out of hiding?" Beth asked.

"I guess that Wolf Daughter started her journey with wolves with Conor and me, and we wanted to make sure she was safe. Quinn worries about her putting herself out there for the rest of us. Makes her a target. We'll see."

"You both work as bodyguards?" Sahar asked.

"We're both trained for it, but Conor does it more than I do," Brigitte said. "More recently, I've been working with hunter/trackers, tracking rogue Weres. That's been pretty quiet too. Jessica's taking caused wolves to hunt down the worst offenders of real rogues. No one gives a shit if a wolf gives himself away to humans anymore. That went out the window with the President's address. Makes things pretty quiet."

"Let's get you started on the testing," Beth said, pulling out two iPads and handing them to the two wolves. "The only thing that's on there is the testing I need to do, around six standard mental health diagnostic tests. The instructions are before each test. You can't finish all of it before lunch so we'll take a break after the third test for food. Somebody is bringing in some fresh hamburger, if that's okay?"

"That's fine," Brigitte said.

The wolves started on the testing. Gretchen pulled out a sketchbook and started sketching. Sahar pulled me away to a private room.

"Is she as dangerous as she looks?" Sahar asked.

"Brigitte?" I asked. Sahar nodded. "You can't beat her with a silver knife. You'd have to go for silver bullets and hoped you hit a vital spot immediately."

"She's not a risk to us?"

"Under normal circumstances, no. She'd probably help protect all of you from other sorts of danger. I keep saying that we're not monsters. You need to really listen to that. She's a good person, Sahar. She had a child named Kathleen, with my father. A wolf accident. She can't raise Kathleen, so my parents are, but she's a loving mother. Threaten Kathleen, you'd be in a world of hurt. I know you wouldn't, so treat her like a friend, and you'll never have to worry. She was a friend to me and my family before I became a wolf. We're not blaming all humans for the risks we face now."

"And how fast can she shift?"

"Less than a second. Conor is probably around a second now. When I first met him, it was around two seconds."

We rejoined the others, and I saw the way Sahar kept looking at Brigitte. I hoped things would stay calm. I went to my phone and started reading some of the stories floating around about werewolves. It might give me an idea of the other things I might want to cover in the interviews scheduled for the next couple of days. I'd say that over eighty percent of the articles and opinions were in our favor. Five percent was neutral, and the rest pretty hateful. The hateful stuff didn't have any facts or figures to back anything up. No one saying anyone was attacked by Weres or the like, just vitriol of the worst kind. It felt like some people were doing chest thumping or beating a drum. 'Weres are monsters.' 'They're evil.' 'They're not Christian.'

Actually, from what I could tell, the last might be somewhat true, at least for the lifelong Weres. They weren't raised around humans and didn't have much to do with them except using them as breeders, so other human habits or cultural things, such as religion were like the wolf attitudes towards sex. Fine for humans, not important to us. If anything, I suppose most of them were naturists. Mother Nature was probably worshipped more than any other deity.

When Conor and Brigitte finished their first three tests, Joshua, Miranda and a couple more women brought in five pounds of raw hamburger, and sandwiches for everyone else. The wolves divided up the hamburger, eaten off plastic plates with plastic forks. After lunch, the wolves went back to their testing. Gretchen was back to sketching, and I was back to twiddling my thumbs.

"Sahar, do you have a treadmill or something here I can run on?" I asked.

"Not here. These are mostly just offices, but we've got a Hogan's Alley thing if you'd like to try that? I need to keep up my skills, as do some of the other people here."

"Not sure what that is, but sure, anything."

She took me into a room in the back and turned on a light. There seemed to be a large movie type screen about eight feet in front of a what looked like a shooting bench, with an opening right in front of the screen.

There were several mock weapons on the bench and Sahar told me to pick one that I was familiar with. They had one like the Ruger automatic I'd first learned to shoot on, so I picked that one. Sahar turned on the equipment and a bullseye target appeared on the screen.

She adjusted it and the bullseye got smaller, about half as large.

"That target is relatively twice as far as it was when I turned it on, twenty feet away as opposed to ten. Pick up your weapon, which is identical to the real weapon, and what it shoots like, except for the noise. It will kick in your hand like you're firing real bullets. That particular weapon normally carries ten rounds. When you've fired it ten times, it won't fire again until you hit the magazine release, then slap the bottom of the grip, like you were loading a new magazine, then release the slide to 'charge' it. Then it will fire again. It helps to train muscle memory as well as improve your marksmanship. Shoot ten times, then stop and we'll see how you did."

I wasn't an expert by any means, but I got everything in the nine, ten, or bullseye ring.

"Not bad," she said.

Sahar took the same gun, "reloaded" it like she said I had to, and put ten shots in the bullseye. I swear she barely aimed and pulled the trigger as fast as she could. Damned impressive.

She handed it back and I "reloaded" it and got all of my next ten in the ten and X ring.

"Okay, you can handle a gun competently. Now, the amazing part of what this thing does."

She reset the controls, and I was looking at pictures of what looked like the offices we were in.

"If you stand right behind this post, the picture doesn't move, but you'll see people starting to come towards you. Those that don't have one of our uniforms on are the bad guys. Don't shoot the good guys, who will also appear on occasion, wearing my clothes." She pointed to her own polo shirt. "It's like you're holed up in a room and there are people coming after you. You stay in the room, and wait to be rescued. If you see a bad guy, you either need to shoot them once in the head, or double tap them in the body. You can get shot too. Don't let them shoot you first. The game is designed so that fifty percent of their bullets will hit you. If you get shot twice, you're dead, and you lose. If you shoot a good guy twice in the body, they're dead, and you lose. Their are fifteen bad guys programmed into this scenario at the moment. If you can kill all fifteen without dying, you win."

"What if you don't stay behind the post?" I asked.

"Then it appears you're creeping through the halls looking for the bad guys, kind of a building clearing exercise. The bad guys show up faster because you're both moving, and you're not behind a barrier, so they can shoot you easier. Their targeting increases to eighty percent effectiveness. It helps to be the fastest on the trigger."

"Show me."

Sahar stood behind the barrier, a post on the bench, and shot anyone who appeared, then she stepped out from behind the barrier, and it looked like she was moving through the hallways and rooms. She shot all the bad guys, and none of the good guys. Impressive.

She handed me the gun, I reloaded and started. I did fairly well standing still, I got shot once and shot the wrong person once, but neither of us died. The bad guys did. When I stepped out from behind the barrier, it was another story. I got five of the bad guys, and I died.

"You can step back behind the barrier to reload, try again."

This time, I got eight before I died. Things happened a lot faster once you stepped beyond the barrier.

"Can this be programmed to reflect Weres?" I asked.

"It already has been," Sahar said. "It takes a head shot or ten lead bullets in the chest to kill the bad guys, assuming one of the ten will hit the heart, or five silver, which you specify ahead of time. No other shot has much impact."

She adjusted the controls again, and there were both wolves and humans in the game, all requiring the adjusted targeting. Sahar still got all fifteen, all with head shots. I noticed that the wolves were moving at human pacing, not running like a wolf, but damn.

"Planning ahead?" I asked.

"I hope not. I really like you and Gretchen. The others seem nice too, but I can't be complacent."

There would come a time when I would appreciate that Sahar never let herself get complacent. That moment, not so much. She scared the shit out of me. I knew Brigitte and Conor weren't her peers with a gun. I'm not sure anyone was.

We'd managed to kill a couple of hours on the equipment so rejoined the others. Conor and Brigitte were finishing up, and then Beth analyzed them.

"Not much difference between them and you, or other humans. A bit more aggressive, but not much more, and that could be their respective careers as much as anything," Beth said. "Brigitte is a Dominant, which isn't surprising since she has her own sub. Conor scores like most American men."

"That's good, right? More info to give to the general public."

"I think so. Four does not a population make, though. I need a lot more data before I can claim anything with certainty."

"When can we get the others tested?" Gretchen asked.

"They're being programmed now. It's a lot of devices, and we want them clean of anything else. How are you going to get the devices out?"

"Conor will meet another wolf, who will take them to the closest pack," Brigitte said. "They'll ensure the rest get to where they need to go."

"Great," I said. "This is terrific. We'll get out of your hair."

We said our goodbyes, and got ready to leave.

As we left the building, it felt like somebody whacked me in the chest with a baseball bat. I crashed backward through the window behind me. I felt arms dragging me, and the sound of gunfire before everything went black.

******