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"Sonoma will be so pissed off she'll have puppies," Ahote says with a smirk. "But I agree; I'll give it a shot. It's good to know you'll have my back, Holstein." He pushes the button by the microphone again. "I'll do it."

You can imagine Anna squealing in delight on the other end of the conversation and waiting for herself to calm down before replying.

"That's great!" she finally replies. "I'll call you back later tomorrow with the details. In the meantime you should work on a couple talking points and monologues. Inspirational, but not too pompous. You know?"

"I have a few ideas already," Ahote says, and you can already see the cogs turning in his head. He mutters something under his breath that you can't quite make out. "When should I expect your return call?"

"Would four in the afternoon tomorrow work for you? I should have a few bites by then and we can make the arrangements."

Ahote glances over at a clock on the wall. "Sounds good. That should give me some time to get my thoughts in order. Besides…it's not like I have anywhere else to go." He releases the button and looks over to you. "I could use some help, Holstein. What do you say?"

I suggest that I could help Ahote with preparing his talking points. Winning over the humans will take finesse.

I could help Ahote by working with him to craft a cohesive campaign plan.

I could help with the research. We should know who he'll be talking to and how to avoid common pitfalls.

It's best if I don't get too directly involved.

Next

"I'll take all the help I can get," Ahote says. "Come by my quarters this afternoon and we'll get to work. Glad to have you on board! I'll finish up a few details with Anna here. You should go about your day; I think Sonoma wanted to see you for something or other."

Kotori nods toward the door. "Come on, Holstein, I'll walk you out."

The sun glares as you exit the tech building, and you shade your eyes under your hand as you adjust to the increased brightness. The scent of fallen and decaying leaves tickles your sensitive nose, and you find yourself wondering what the camp is like during the winter. You give voice to your concerns; Kotori was here before you and he's likely experienced winter in Sonoma's camp.

"It's not as bad as you might think," he says as he hobbles along beside you. His leg looks like it's really bothering him. "I'm okay," he says, noticing your concern. "Old injury; not getting better any time soon. Anyway, we do okay during the winter as long as food keeps coming in through Sonoma's suppliers. In other seasons we supplement the supplies by hunting, but winter's slim pickings. One time the supply convoy got delayed—security concerns—and we almost ran out of food. Ever see a large group of werewolves living on a few hundred calories a day? It's not pretty."

"Were you able to keep in contact with General Rivera? So you could at least be able to tell the wolves when the food would be coming?"

"Did it cause any fights over food rationing?"

"That almost makes Haven sound good by comparison. At least we weren't starving."

Next

"True," Kotori says. "You were well-fed slaves, experimental subjects that half the politicians wanted to kill and the other half wanted to forget existed. I'd take my chances out here, personally. In either case, there's no going back to Haven now. That ship has sailed.

"Anyway," he continues, "the funny part about it was that the only real supplies we had left were hundreds of bottles of bootleg liquor. We'd been making it in a basement under the dormitories to hide from Sonoma. When everyone started to starve, the whole camp got drunk out of their minds—even the big boss herself. When Rivera came with the supply train she thought we'd all gone mad—almost wiped out the entire camp on the spot. Fortunately for us, one or two wolves were sober enough to start explaining after the general ordered her troops to unload their rifles."

"Gods," you reply. "That's one hell of a narrowly-avoided disaster."

"Yeah. It's one of the only times I've ever heard Sonoma apologize. Twice, actually; the second was when she threw up all over one of the offloaded crates of food. Mortified doesn't even begin to describe it."

"She probably wouldn't be happy that you shared—"

You're startled out of the conversation when a shout echoes up from the south end of the camp, chased by several others of varying intensity. You look at Kotori and he shrugs.

"No one ever said it would be dull around here."

Next

Madness! How could this be happening again? The feral scent of bloodlust wafts up to greet you as three of the former prisoners attack each other viciously in the sparring pit, the fur of their wolf forms matted with free-flowing blood. The ferocity of their battle has attracted the attention of dozens of other wolves, some of them cheering the fight on while others watch with concern as the battle gets bloodier by the second.

"They're going feral!" Kotori says. "We have to stop this!" He lurches forward, almost falling when his bad leg buckles beneath him. He looks back at you pleadingly.

Your eyes scan the onlookers, but half of them seem on the verge of a feral break themselves—all but foaming at the mouth—and the rest of them are slowly slinking away, clearly sensing that the mood has deteriorated dangerously. Curiously, you notice Maker amongst the observers, cloaked in the same dark hood you saw her wearing during the escape from the Nail, but she quickly loses herself in the field of pressing bodies.

Like any werewolf, you're a force to be reckoned with, but breaking up a deadly fight to the death by three wolves gone feral might be too much for even the most seasoned of warriors. Kotori is right, though—something has to be done before they kill each other!

I should find Bly or Inferi—they're rarely far from the sparring pit. If anyone can stop these wolves from killing each other it's them!

There's no time to waste! I'll try to separate the wolves and save their lives myself.

I'm not sure I could handle them on my own, but if I can convince the onlookers to help break them up, we should be able to overpower them together!

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