Once Lorna was settled and out of the direct line of sight of the door, Jolen opened it only to see his father and Ishak standing there.  He stepped aside to let them in, but George refused to enter.

“Go get Fredrick, son.”

Jolen looked confused, but did as his father said.  He didn’t have far to go, as he practically turned around and ran into him.

Fredrick spoke softly but firmly, “Lorna, take Jolen to your room and keep him there while your mother and I speak to Mr. Tanley.”

“Yes papa.” Lorna got up and headed toward her room.  Jolen had been there a million times before, but this time he didn’t follow her, instead he just stood there between his father and hers.  She stood on stairs and watched them.  Goosebumps rose on her arms.

“I think I’d rather stay here.” Jolen said just as quietly and firmly to Fredrick, looking him in the eye.

Loki sighed. “They need to discuss the case, Jolen, I don’t think they want you to hear the details.”

Jolen looked right at Loki, “But it’s all right for you to?  She knows the details, she can tell me in her room if she wants to.  They aren’t going to be discussing the case.”

“Go with Lorna to her room, Jolen,” George spoke to his son.

“Not until someone explains to me what is going on here.”

“This is not the time nor the place,” George said softly with a hard edge to his voice.

Jolen felt something rise up within him, pushing at his skin from the inside trying to get out, but he shoved it back down yet again, so that he could deal with his father man to man.

Fredrick had stepped aside. Loki approached Jolen cautiously.  “I’ll come upstairs with you.  That way you can keep an eye on me and Ishak can keep an eye on those reporters.”

Jolen looked at him, then reached out to caress Loki’s cheek.  The anger in his belly flowed out and he smiled.  “All right.  Upstairs with you, where it’s safe.”  He looked at Lorna, “You too, upstairs.” And he shooed them ahead of him.

        

Both George and Fredrick watched Jolen ascend the staircase and once he was safely up and away, Fredrick invited George into his home properly.  George accepted the invitation and together the two pair entered the living room.  Claire excused herself immediately to return with four flutes of wine, but not the bottle.  George looked at Fredrick.

“We opened it earlier today, it’s been breathing since.”

“Ah, yes.  I wish I had been able to do this for Jolen, he’s missed so many of the traditions.”

“It’s not too late,” Claire said as she sat down. “Marry him off to a nice traditional girl after he’s awakened and she will know what to do, all he will have to do most the time is follow her directions or consent to it.”

“He’s not shown any particular interest in any one girl.  I had hoped that by now he would have had at least a sweetheart or three.” George shrugged, “But we are not here to discuss Jolen’s problems.  Tell me about Lorna.”

Fredrick looked at Claire and nodded, so she spoke, “Lorna was forcibly awakened last night.  She had been on the verge for weeks, but you know how it is with some kids — like walking, you think they are going to take a step and they fall on their behinds.”

George smiled and nodded for her to continue.

“Well she went to the Club V. with some friends, we thought that maybe it would be just the thing to bring her around.  The space was prepared for her to safely sleep it off and her friends were aware of what was going on. So everything was taken care of, or so we thought.  While there, she says she danced with several young men, one of them being Kryn, the young man who fought with Jolen.  Jolen left along with Loki and Ishak, and Kryn was asked to leave by the management, and given an escort to ensure he did.  Lorna says that is when it started happening.  She really couldn’t control it, and she couldn’t find her friends.  Someone, a male, took her to the second floor, they have rooms there, and he… while she continued to change.  She says the rest after that is confusing and foggy, which it would be.  She found a place that seemed safe enough to sleep and when she woke up she was naked in the park. An officer picked her up and took her to the police station.  She called us to get her out and bring her some clothes. After hearing her story, she reported a rape, but could not name who did it.  They took dna samples and gave her an injection against STD’s, then we brought her home. An hour later, they show up.” Claire indicates the reporters on the lawn. 

“I’m sure they have something more important to do.” George said to Ishak, “Go help them find it.”

Ishak bowed his head and headed out the door.

“Of course no one saw anything,” Claire said, “and the police, well, they were nice about it, but they say they have her ‘bare bottomed’.”

“I’ll see what can be turned up.  Are you going to be sending her on the usual quest?”

“Yes. It’s required, isn’t it?”

George laughed, “Yes, it is.”

“You should know,” Fredrick said, “she asked Jolen to go with her.”

George quirked an eyebrow. “Jolen can not go on her quest, he’s not had his own yet.”

“It would work out well if his were appropriately timed,” Fredrick suggested, “He seems to be on the verge.”

“Yes I have noticed that he is getting a little mouthy lately.  But I’m not so sure he should be pushed.  Most of the wolfkin who present themselves have been awakened naturally, those who have been pushed tend to reject the pack.  I don’t want him to reject the pack.”

“How old were you?”

“Me?”

“Yes, it is generally a good indicator.”

“I was in my mid twenties.”

“How about your father? Brothers?”

“I don’t know about my father being he didn’t stick around.  I was his genetic insurance policy, so while my mother had excellent lines she didn’t know those things about my father.”

“Well then, you can wait him out or you can force him out, but the boy needs to come to terms with what he is.”

“I know,” George sighed, “I just don’t know what to do about it.”

“Let Loki have free reign, he seems to handle him pretty well.”

“Yes, he does,” George smirked, “and I’m glad to see that both boys are getting along so well.”

Ishak took that moment to return.  “They are gone.  I do not think any but the most courageous of them will be returning.”

George didn’t say anything else about Jolen, moving the topics of conversation to safer topics.

 

Once upstairs in her bedroom, Lorna flopped across the bed.  “You are wolfkin Jolen.”

Jolen flopped down beside her and patted the bed for Loki to lay beside him. “No I”m not.”

“Yes, you are.  You just stood up to your father.  When have you ever stood up to your father before?” she asked.

“I did just this morning thank you very much.”

“And before that?”

Jolen looked at her oddly, “I don’t know but I know I have.  I’m not wolfkin.”

“So what you are telling me is that you would have a problem if we continued doing up here what we were doing down stairs… you know because Loki is here.”

Jolen looked at Loki, then he looked at Lorna.  “I would have a problem,” he gritted out.

“And you would have a problem if I did some of the things I did downstairs with you with Loki?” Lorna pressed up against Jolen so that he could feel the heat of her body through their clothing.

“I would have a problem,” Jolen stated firmly.

“Would you fight Loki for me, Jolen?”

He looked between them then shook his head. “I can’t.  I have to protect Loki, that means I can’t fight him.”

“But if you didn’t have to protect him, would you?”

“I…” he looked at Loki, and took a deep breath then swallowed before looking back at Lorna, “If that is what needed be done.”

“But I’m wolfkin, you would still want me?”

“I don’t abandon my friends over things like this,” he stated firmly.

“I’m not talking about abandoning friends, Jolen, I’m talking about fucking my brains out, right here, right now.”

Jolen blushed scarlet.  “I can’t.”

“Why not? I want you to.” She reached over and grabbed his crotch, “you want to.  So why can’t we?”

“Loki…”

“Loki is wolfkin.  We will see each other nude quite a bit before we die, I’m sure.  There are things he can do, he don’t have to watch.”

“I wouldn’t want him to watch.”

“What would you want me to do, Jolen?” Loki asked softly, having remained silent up to this point to see if Lorna could crack Jolen’s wall.

“I…” Jolen gulped, “don’t know.”

“Yes, you do, Jolen,” Loki coaxed.

Jolen covered his face with his arms.  His whole body was tense.  That something was stirring inside him again.  He had shoved it down so many times in the past year, now it wasn’t staying where it belonged for long, and it was since he met Loki.  He felt a hand on his stomach.  He wasn’t sure which one it belonged to, and he frankly didn’t care.  He just couldn’t make himself admit it.  The hand slipped inside the waistband of his jeans and he tightened his abs to give them more room.  His pants came undone by another set of hands, then there were lips on his, familiar lips.  Jolen allowed the kiss to deepen and gave in to them.  He wrapped his arms around the one kissing him about the same time something wet engulfed his penis.  He was kissing Loki.  Then there was nothing but skin, sensation, and a clawing need he could not explain. 

 

George was the first to sense the building of power upstairs, he turned to Fredrick and asked flat out, “Where is the nearest safe room to here?”

“I have one in my basement, why?”

“Can’t you feel it?  I think it’s Jolen…”

Claire looked at George puzzled, “How?” then she blushed, “Oh my, you mean he… and Lorna… are… now?”

“Apparently they are, but Loki is in the room too.”

“All three of them together, maybe?”

George gave her an amused look, then turned to Ishak, “Go upstairs and stand near the door where they are.  Do not go in until Loki says it is safe to do so or until he requests help.”

Ishak inclined his head and headed off to obey.

“This would make things considerably easier,” George admitted.

From above they heard a terrified scream, but couldn’t make out whose it was.  George had complete faith that Loki could hold his own against Jolen, but he hadn’t really considered Lorna.  The three parents jockeyed for position to see who would climb the stairs first. Claire won out, and George let Fredrick follow his wife. Jolen would be fine, he had to be.

 

“Stop screaming Jolen, it’s not helping,” Loki said from behind him as he held Jolen’s arms pinned up so he couldn’t hurt himself or Lorna.  “You’ll hyperventilate and pass out on us and we don’t want that now do we?”

Jolen took a breath, and managed not to scream.  Lorna had retreated to a far corner of the room, now in wolf form she stood hackles raised and teeth barred, growling.

“She won’t hurt you so long as you keep calm.  Right now she’s as confused as you are.”

“Why did that happen?”

“Seems you did it right,” Loki teased.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“She’s just awakened, sometimes newly awakened wolfkin change when they climax,” Loki noticed that Jolen had also climaxed, but had not changed.

“I didn’t change.”

“I noticed.”

“So I’m not wolfkin.”

“So you keep saying.” Loki eased up on Jolen’s arms a little now that he seemed a little calmer on the outside, but only Jolen knew what hell he was going through on the inside.  The boy was rolling in power, enough to almost force Loki himself to change if he were a young wolf.  “Remember what I told you about greetings?”

“Yes.”

“She needs to know who is in charge between the two of us,” Loki stated firmly.

Jolen’s power rolled up again as if to answer that simple challenge and Loki immediately leaned in and bit Jolen’s lower lip. Jolen groaned, then grabbed Loki and kissed him fully on the mouth, the fear and anger draining from him as he did.  Loki thought he had come across what was holding Jolen back — fear more than the anger, but the anger had been there every time the wolf had.  He would have to find a way to work around it or with it or he feared Jolen would never completely change.

As Jolen calmed down so did Lorna, and things were soon under control.  “We should sit on the bed so you can get to know her better in this form too,” Loki suggested, careful to not make it sound like a directive, “She is in there, just not in as good control yet.  Be

aware she will stick her nose in your crotch, and she may lick you there.”

“Why?”

“You are dirty, she may want to clean you,” Loki shrugged, he didn’t really know why it was done, only that it often was.  “Please sit by me.”

Jolen sat, but he crossed his legs.  Then Loki went through the process of calming and coaxing Lorna over to them.  She came slowly and cautiously.  She did stick her nose in their crotches and she did lick Jolen clean.  He tolerated it, barely.  Then with Loki’s urging, he petted her, feeling her fur and scratching her ears.

“Jolen, you have to do something like the greeting to her to let her know you are in charge.  Where I submitted to you, you have to dominate her.  What you have to do is place your hand over her here and grasp her like so.” Loki demonstrated in the air above Lorna then helped place Loki’s hand correctly.  “Squeeze gently, and command her to follow you, then let go.”

Jolen did as commanded and Lorna tucked her tail and followed Jolen.

Loki opened the door to face everyone.  “Someone needs to guide Jolen to the cage so Lorna can sleep this one off, and she should be fed while she’s down there.”

The adults said nothing about their state of undress, or that it was Jolen who was leading Lorna not Loki.  The task should have been given to the most dominant wolf in the room.

Fredrick led Jolen down the stairs and through the house to another stairwell.  At the top of the second set of stairs Lorna balked, but Jolen turned on her, and while not quite growling, as the human throat isn’t made for it, the sound he made raised the small hairs on Fredrick’s neck rise.  Lorna whined and descended the stairs.  Along with the usual things one would find in a basement, there was a cage about eight foot square with steel bars that reached nearly to the ceiling.  It was there that Fredrick led Jolen.

“Put her in here Jolen.”

Jolen led her in the cage and looked around at the cold place then shook his head.  “She’s not staying, not like this.  Can’t she have a blanket or something?”

“She’s warm enough.”

“For when she changes back, she’ll be naked and cold.”

“And she will learn control,” Fredrick said calmly, “Now come out and let’s go upstairs so you can get dressed.”

Jolen shook his head and sat down beside her.  The floor was very cold, so cold in fact it made him shiver, “Then get me a blanket because I’m not leaving her here alone to wake up cold.”

“Jolen those cages are designed to protect humans from wolfkin who can not control themselves.  You can not stay in there.” Fredrick was firm with Jolen.

Jolen shook his head and simply stated, “I’m not leaving her like this.”

Lorna whined, and Jolen stroked her fur, murmuring gentle things to her. Fredrick sighed, then turned and left, throwing a blanket between the bars before he left.  When he was halfway up the stairs, Jolen called out, “You forgot to feed her.”  But all he he heard was a slamming door.

 

Loki had gotten himself dressed and was descending the stairs in preparation of presenting himself to George in the living room when he saw Fredrick pass by the bottom of the stairs without Jolen.  A million thoughts flashed though his mind as he considered what might be happening to his charge right then, and he made a decision.  George would have to wait.  He calmly walked down the rest of the stairs and turned away from the living room toward the back stairs.  The door was shut, and locked.  Reinforced steel most likely designed to keep whacked out wolves contained until they died of starvation or were calmed down enough to revert to human form.  It wasn’t something he could handle if he had to, however, there was always the wall and the floor, and he wasn’t against a little home improvement when it came to following orders.  He sat down with his back to the door and turned his head to lean it against the cold metal hoping to hear them, at least hear if Jolen started to scream.

 

Fredrick continued in to speak with George, to see how he handled the obvious, if unwitnessed, act of submission of Loki to Jolen. George was sitting in a chair with Ishak standing to one side.  Claire had seated herself on the couch and when Fredrick entered, George indicated he was to sit with his wife. 

“And if I choose to stand?”

“You will die.”

Fredrick looked at him. “Would I?”

“Do you really want to test me today, Fredrick?”

“Not really, but I’m afraid it may come to that.”

“Sit down,” George growled.

Fredrick sat.

“I assume you sent Jolen to get dressed.”

“Not exactly.”

“Then where is he?”

“He chose to stay with Lorna.”

“He did what?” George asked somewhat surprised.

“He went in the cage and refused to get out.”

“And you left him there?”

“What would you have me do, George? Drag him kicking and screaming in front of Lorna? Or maybe I should have challenged him, shown him what it feels like to really face an alpha.”

“He’s not ready.”

“You can’t protect him forever, George.  He’s acting as if he is wolfkin, maybe we should begin to treat him like one of us.”

“He is lambkin,” Ishak spoke interrupting the two men, both of which looked at him oddly.

“What?” George and Fredrick asked at the same time.

“Lambkin,” Ishak said again, “where I grew up we called boys like him lambkin.  There is power there, it can be felt by everyone.  He appears to be awake, yet he sleeps, a wolf in sheepskin — lambkin.  Iskender was lambkin at one time.”

“And what did your people do to help these lambkin?”

Ishak grinned, “Sheered them.”

Claire gasped, “You don’t mean… literally?”

“Well, yes and no,” Ishak answered her, but looked at George, “he has to be stripped of his humanity so that the wolf can be allowed to emerge.  Right now, he’s too human.  Sometimes that means a little blood must be shed.” Ishak shrugged. “It does not mean it has to be his.”

“That’s what you suggested to Loki earlier, to blood him,” Fredrick said to Claire.

“Loki sought your advice?” George asked them, not quite believing his ears.

“Yes, he said he had certain permissions.”

“He does,” George laughed, “he does.  I wonder what is taking him so long.”

“I could go find out,” Ishak offered.

“Please do.”

Ishak left the room and headed upstairs, a moments he returned.  “He is not up there.”

“Then where could he be?” George looked at the others as he stood up to go look for his missing enforcer.

 

Iskender had not heard anything from the door in several long minutes.  There was no reason for him to believe Jolen was dead.  Jolen would have screamed; he knew his lambkin would have. Slowly, he forced himself to stand up and examine the situation again.  It was a door, just a door — a solid plate of steel between him and the one he was supposed to be protecting and right now, Iskender hated it.  He ran his hands over the smooth surface and his fingers stubbed against the hinges. Hope fluttered in his belly for a brief second before he saw the heavy gage deadbolt.  Even if he did pry the hinges there was no way he would be able to get that lock out from the wall.  Iskender leaned his forehead against the door, rested his hands on the door frame, and shook in his impotence in getting to Jolen when he most needed him.  It was all his fault too, he should have been the one to lead Lorna out of the room, not Jolen. 

Not Jolen, Iskender sighed as he examined his actions in the bedroom.  He had never intended to seduce the boy, but Lorna had cornered Jolen and in the process had cornered him as well.  Seeing him laying there so vulnerable, so innocent, so willing… He was an alpha, damn it.  He had fought his way through the ranks before Jolen entered puberty.  Hell, he had two sons of his own that he was aware of and who knows how many he wasn’t, yet with this one assignment, this one lambkin, he could not control himself.

The wolf within responded to his anger and rolled beneath his skin, but Iskender shook it off. He had to get past this door.  If he didn’t George was going to kill him if anything happened to Jolen.  As it stood, George might just kill him anyway.  He would deserve it, if Lorna harmed Jolen, he would deserve it. But before he submitted to George, Fredrick would die by his hand, a slow and miserable death.  He swore it.

Iskender stared at the door one last time with a determined look then began to consider other options.  He had to get in the basement, and Fredrick couldn’t have a completely steel reinforced home.

 

 

Jolen sat in the dark as he leaned against the bars wrapped in the blanket and kept up a steady monologue.  He couldn’t even remember what he had already talked about, nor did he have any idea what might next come out of his mouth, but he knew he had to keep talking otherwise he would go mad.  Lorna lay next to him with her head on his thigh and his hand lay across her neck where he occasionally scratched her ear.  He could feel her hunger, her need to hunt, and he often reminded her that she promised not to eat him.  He could see intelligence in the amber eyes, and he knew she understood him, and there were times when he almost thought she were trying to speak to him.  Only it was different, not words but images, images of the happy times they shared.  So he talked about those, and plenty other things.  He didn’t know when someone would be down to check on them.  He hoped it would be soon, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep up the words, and if the words stopped, he was sure the clawing would start again.  And if it started this time… he wasn’t sure if he would be able to stop it.

“I’m afraid, Lorna, of this thing inside of me. I don’t know what it is, but it aches to be free.  Except, I fear if I let it free I will lose me, you know, who I am, and it will control my life.  I don’t want to loose that control, so I shove it back down and keep it penned up, pretty much like we’re penned up here.  But it prowls and pushes at its cage so much here lately it hurts. I don’t know what to do anymore.  I never thought we would… well do what we did.  And I never thought I would actually like being around any wolfkin.  It would be so much easier if I were one you know.  But I’m not, and there’s not much of a chance I could be according to what they tell me because then that would mean that my parents would have to be wolfkin and you think a person would know something like that about his parents, don’t you?” Jolen sighed, he knew she wouldn’t answer, “You knew your parents were wolfkin didn’t you, I mean you had to have.  It’s not something that can be easily hidden.  I mean you have a cage in your basement.  I know we don’t have a cage in our basement.  We have a game room down there.  I just wish… ah hell… I don’t know what I wish.  I’m just glad that you were my first… well you and Loki.” Jolen chuckled. “Two wolfkin for my first, that’s one for the journal.  Do you think that maybe we could do it again when you have learned a bit more control?  I really didn’t like that part of it.”

Lorna raised her head and licked his arm.  He smiled, then rubbed her head, “No eating me, you promised.  I can’t help they didn’t feed you, I told them to.”

She whined and looked upward toward the stairs. He turned his head as well to see what might be attracting her attention, but he didn’t see anything.  “I know they bring the food from up there, lets not think about it.  What do you want to talk about next?” he began just as the door opened.

Loki was the first down the stairs followed quickly by Ishak, then someone flipped on a light as George and Lorna’s parents descended. 

“About time someone showed up,” Jolen said, “did you bring Lorna something to eat, she’s starving.  Come to think about it, so am I.”

Loki looked at him as if he could not believe what he was seeing and George laughed.

“It seems the worry was for naught.  He appears to be in one piece. Come on Jolen, she will be like that for several more hours and must eat and sleep before she will change back.  The longer you stay down here to distract her from what she must do, the longer it will take her to return to her other self.” George told his son as Fredrick unlocked the cage. 

“She will still wake up alone and cold,” Jolen said, “which is what I was protesting when I was locked in here.”

George looked around, then he turned to Fredrick.  “It seems your safe area is missing a few essential items.  Where is the call button?  water? and what do you expect her to eat off of — the floor?  I don’t even see drainage for waste.” He became more angry with each infraction listed. “Fix it, and until it is fixed, one of you will stay with her so she is not alone when she wakes up.  Give her several blankets and put some paper down at the very minimum.”

Claire nodded her head and went for the blankets.  When she returned with them, Jolen stepped out of the cage and stopped in front of his father.  “Will you tell me the truth now?” he asked softly.

“The truth about what?” George asked, his voice even.

“The truth about this thing inside of me that wants out.”

“You know the truth.” George told him.

“No,” Jolen stated calmly, then again more fearfully.  “No! I am not wolfkin.” Panic welled up with in him choking him and with it the clawing monster that now had a name. “NO!” Jolen lashed out at his father with all the force of the anger and hurt he felt at this betrayal and was astonished as George flew backwards and cracked against the bars of the cage.

Now truly frightened, Jolen fled up the stairs Loki on his heels.