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"Surrender?" Haken asks incredulously. "After all the work we've done on our defenses?"

"We'll take down the soldiers that come in to march us off, but there will be more still out there. I'm sure the defenses will do their part."

Haken grunts. "I don't like it. It's cowardly. Weak."

"It's war," you say. "A war you started. And war doesn't care about honor, only victors."

Haken nods curtly, his features businesslike, the rage seeping out of him, replaced with a glow of something that you've never seen from him before. You think it may be respect. "When did you grow up into this cold, calculating wolf?"

"I don't know," you say honestly. You have no idea how to answer him. As far as you can tell, you're still the same as you always were, if a little wiser to the ways of the world around you. "But we only have a few seconds. You with me on this?"

He nods and rushes off to spread word of the false surrender, and you mirror him along the other side of the front. Before long each and every wolf is down on their bellies, poised to spring when the right moment comes.

Next

The man who comes to handcuff you is tall for a human and lean, as though all body fat has been sucked clean from him. He wrinkles his nose at the smell of you, and it turns his gaunt face into a monster's. Somehow it helps you justify to yourself what you're about to do next. You eye the wolves nearest you and look across the way to Haken, his profile small along the opposite barrier. He nods. You return the gesture. And then all hell breaks loose just as you planned.

We all attack in a violent show of force as we're being taken into custody. Whoever survives the initial strike should run in fear.

We turn the tables on the soldiers, capturing and restraining them with their own handcuffs.

We cut off their escape and kill every last one of them. No mercy for werewolf-killers.

Next

As the soldier leans down to pull your arms back, you jerk your head up into his chin. His haggard face is no match for the thick bone of a werewolf skull, and he falls to the ground in a daze at the unexpected attack.

All around you each of the wolves mirror your example, disarming and restraining the humans who would dare handcuff a werewolf for a lifetime of torture and slavery. Some of Haken's disciples don't seem to be able to restrain themselves, and their targets go down in a mess of blood and guts, but you can't think about that now. You've done your best to get out of the situation with as little bloodshed as possible.

"Son of a bitch!" the soldier gasps from the ground.

"Werewolf," you say with a shrug and a raised bushy eyebrow. "You'll need to come up with better insults."

You bring your fist down on the back of your soldier's head and he drops, limp and unconscious.

Before long each of the humans sent to take you in have been dealt with, and while several of your number have been injured in the process, their accelerated healing is already taking care of it, healing their wounds in time to meet the humans' retaliation.

"A well-executed plan," Haken says, nodding with approval as he steps up to your side. "You're making quite an impression with my army here for a wolf that didn't seem willing or able to fight just a day ago."

You start to respond, but Haken waves it off. "Force of habit, I meant no offense."

You're so stunned by his deference that you're not sure how to respond.

The roar of the soldiers' fury shakes the ground as they charge your position by foot and in their armored vehicles. They may be tasked with taking you in alive, but you don't doubt that the rank and file will have no problem attributing some casualties to 'happy accidents'.

Next

First comes a rain of gas cannisters from the sky, bathing the battlefield in a smoky haze. You tense and prepare yourself, grateful for the masks and goggles so recently distributed among the defenders. Soon after, charging soldiers clad in their own air filtration masks break along the barrier like a foaming wave, their number diminished during their charge by the offensive mortars the Yale masterminds worked up at your request. The devices breathe flame and rain ruin on your enemies, tearing whole squads apart as they rush in toward you. Unfortunately, for every shot that hits its intended target, two more go wide. The weapons may be deadly, but their accuracy needs some work.

Then they are among you, pressing your wall of fur and muscle back with the weight of superior numbers. The air reeks with toxins mixed with the metallic stench of blood, most of it human, but the ratio is slowly turning in the military's favor as they press you hard and without mercy.

But you haven't run out of tricks yet. The pit traps that were dug in preparation for the attack devour their victims by the dozen as the pack withdraws tactically, leaving the disguised covers of the large pits the only open ground for the humans to follow over. Whole squads propel themselves into the pits as they charge, impaling themselves on the machined hooks and spikes that Razor's crew created from your gift of metal rods from the scrapyard.

The beast inside revels at the bloody slaughter. You've been having more and more trouble quieting the feral beast within, and now it threatens to tear apart what little restraint you have left. You push the slavering jaws away for now. You'll need your wits about you as the fight grows desperate.

"Holstein!" Haken calls over to you as he casually cleaves a soldier's head from his shoulders. "It's do or die time!"

Right before the humans sent the transports against you, you discussed battle tactics with Haken. In the end, you chose to…

Stand against overwhelming odds. Fighting for our freedom is worth killing and contending with the threat of death.

Make a slow, tactical retreat. We might get overwhelmed, but I'd rather we not show our backs.

Scatter in several directions, splitting the humans into smaller, more manageable groups. Of course that will split our forces, too.

Next