A Rock and a Hard Place

That night, Dante went to bed much earlier than usual. His body not used to drifting off so early, he tossed and turned in his bed until the sun set in spite of how tired he was.

He began wandering back toward consciousness when the sky was still dark, the sun still preparing its ascent over the horizon. As his subconsciousness parted the veil between sleep and awake, a howl pierced the air, and Dante jolted awake. He sat up and rubbed at his eyes before throwing off his covers and bolting to the window.

Outside his window, he saw a similar scene to the one the night before take place on the grounds below. The bipedal wolf emerged from the woods once more, though this time, it entered the supply building before it shifted. When the door next opened, Cloella emerged fully clothed and headed back toward the castle.

Dante returned to his bed, wrapping his blankets around his bare body. He wondered who else had bedroom windows that faced the same direction as his. He was pretty sure that Shandrin's did, just a floor below him. However, she was further down the castle from this spot and also blind, so even if she heard the howls, there was no way for her to visually confirm what he was seeing. He chewed his lower lip. A part of him still badly wanted to prove what he'd seen, but he was now torn. He had enjoyed his conversation with Cloella the night before and didn't want to get her in trouble. Though, if she were really a werewolf and not one of the shifters from the Wastes that Shandrin and Diego were so worried about, nothing bad would probably happen to her.

He continued his pondering until the sun was up, and then, still undecided on what he should do, he threw on some clothes and went downstairs for breakfast.

Diego was the first one down there, which was fairly typical. The man was way more punctual than Dante was and probably had an internal clock that was accurate to the second.

Diego looked up from his food as Dante came in, but quickly returned his focus to the more important task of buttering some bread.

Dante took a seat across the table from him, a few chairs down, and began filling his plate with breakfast fare.

"Any news on your little shapeshifter?" Diego asked without raising his eyes.

"She's a werewolf," Dante blurted out without thinking.

Diego looked up at that, one brow raising. "Oh? Is she now?"

Dante nodded.

"Is that confirmed?"

"As close to confirmed as possible," Dante replied.

"Well, that's important information," Diego said. He cut into some fried eggs on his plate, letting the golden yolk pour out onto his plate so he could sop it up with his buttered bread. "Anything else interesting you've found out?"

"I think I told you everything yesterday," Dante said quickly. He paused. "Wait, do you believe me now?"

Diego scoffed. "Of course not. I told my father about it yesterday and we both had a good laugh about how stupid the new foundling is. But as I mentioned, if there's even the tiniest chance that there's a threat out there, I'm going to investigate it until I'm certain one way or the other. So, tell me exactly what you thought you saw the other night."

Dante sighed and poked at the food on his plate. From what she'd said the day before, he figured that Cloella was still asleep so there was little chance of her walking in on his conversation, but he was still worried of the details getting out. "There was this wolf walking on two legs, and it went into a building and then, a while later, a woman came out." It was only after he'd finished telling the story that he realized he was sharing last night's events, not the night before's.

"And that's why you think we have a shapeshifter problem?" Diego's gaze was harsh and judging. "There are countless other explanations for that. For example, I have a pack of hunting dogs that I keep in a building near the forest, and servants regularly go out to feed them. If one of my dogs had gotten loose or needed emergency care and a servant was carrying it back for some reason, that could easily look like some sort of bipedal dog-person from a distance."

"I don't think that's what I saw."

"Dante, you admitted yourself that you were half asleep."

Dante sighed.

"I rode through the forest last night," Diego continued after swallowing a bite of egg and bread. "I patrolled for three hours later than usual and doubled my men out there to keep watch through the night. They didn't see anything unusual, and other than a lupine howl near daybreak, they didn't hear anything strange either." He jabbed his bread back into the puddle of yolk. "And yes, they followed the sound of the howl and found nothing. I imagine it was from one of my dogs, or one of the completely ordinary wolves we have out in the woods there."

"Hrm." Dante took a bite from his plate, but his appetite was waning fast.

"But of course, I won't give up so easily," Diego said. He downed the rest of the egg, breadless, in two bites. "I'll keep up my patrols until I'm certain that you're wrong." He stood. "Good day, Dante." And with that, he was gone.

Dante sucked in a deep breath and let it back out slowly. He still wasn't even sure what he wanted, but he was pretty sure that, whatever it was, it wasn't this.