The next months pretended life was drama free. Since the incident with Anya's spiked drink, the two developers formed a real friendship with Ben reluctantly accepting that Anya was not playing mind games and was really just enjoying his company.

It started with them regularly playing table soccer in the break room. Anya was really bad at it but still had fun and her erratic pulling the sticks laughing and realizing she had no Idea what she was doing - and exclaiming it - led to surprising results.

One day in April, when Anya entered the Lair, a cup waited for her on her desk. It had a flowchart printed on it showing 'Problem' and 'Hot chocolate' going into 'Programmer' resulting in 'solution' with 'sarcasm' and 'swearing' as byproduct. A card leaned at it "I survived Ben longest." was written on it. A grinning Ben and Cian were watching her "What's going on?" she looked expectantly with a raised eyebrow towards them.

"Well, you now officially hold the record for the coworker bearing with Ben the longest." Cian announced "I thought about flowers but Ben was sure you'd like this better." He added and Anya grinned "You just know what makes me tick, ben. I love it. Thank you…"

Sometimes it happens that a coworker's child was in the office. Maybe just picking Mommy or Daddy up or childcare fucked up and they need to bridge up two or three hours. Sometimes those kids wandered around and became a sweet, little distraction.

Anya was just on her way from the kitchen back to her office when she saw a maybe six year old boy silently crying over a teddy bear whose arm was half ripped off. "Sweetheart… what happened?" she squatted down, carefully avoiding to spill her hot chocolate "That mean bully Darryl ripped my poor Mr. Snuggles arm off." he sobbed and Anya felt for him.

"How mean… what do you think, you take my hot chocolate and I'll see what I can do for Mr. Snuggles?" she smiled encouragingly and both entered the Lair

"New coworker?" Ben smirked when Anya sat the boy down on the couch with her cup and fetched her bag "No, the victim of a very mean bully." Anya explained while she dug out her small sewing kit and carefully sat the Teddy on her lap to examine the arm "Why did Darryl do this?" Anya wanted to know while she threaded the needle "Because I'm too old for stuffed animals." The boy answered with sad conviction "This is bu…" Anya started, fought the swear word down "wrong." She ended "Really?" the boy asked, suddenly his eyes twinkled and Anya nodded and set the first stitches. "Tell you a secret." She glanced around conspiratorial "I still sleep with a stuffed tiger." She winked and placed some stitches while the boy drank the hot chocolate and watched her stunned "But you are… a grown up." He finally said in disbelief and Anya shrugged while finishing the sewing "So?" she smiled and held out the Teddy to him "All done." The boy hugged the Teddy to him "Thank you…" he ran off calling for his dad to show him the repaired toy.

"All unexpected talents with you…" Ben gave her a smile "Is it true?" he asked "That you sleep with a stuffed tiger?" he clarified and Anya couldn't help blush a little bit "Yes, it is." She admitted "Don't you laugh!" she warned, grinning to herself when she picked up her cup "I guess I'll need another trip to the kitchen." She smirked

"You sacrificed it for the greater good…" he quoted a movie he loved and was stunned when Anya, in an eerie voice, answered "The greater goooood."

"YOU know hotfuzz?" Ben asked in disbelief and Anya laughed "One of my favorite movies." She admitted. So it happened that they had an impromptu movie night at the office after hours. He sat up the laptop in the conference room to make use of the large screen and Anya got Popcorn and drinks.

Movie nights became a thing with them. In the office after hours at first but slowly they spend time at each other's place watching movies or playing games. They even went to the theater once - TMNT Mutant Mayhem.

And even the things Ben disliked like company outings started to be fun. Usually he tried to just keep his mouth shut to not cause trouble - which gave him the reputation of a grouch. With Anya he had a partner in crime, someone he could talk to without fear to offend - even karaoke became fun.

One time a company outing ended with a water bomb fight, he couldn't remember how it started though - but he got the blame and Cian ordered him to clean up afterwards. So, when everyone was gone, he grumpily started to mop up when Anya came back in with trash bags and started on cleaning up the tables and sorting the dishes from the throw away stuff. On his questioning look she just shrugged "you may have started it but I had a loooot of fun too."

But the moment when Ben was sold to Anya as a friend was, when one day Cian burst into the Lair, looking angry. "Irina just came to me because she is convinced you put up cameras in the kitchen." He looked sternly at Ben who groaned in defeat "For fucks sake, what have I done or said now?" Ben let himself fall back in his chair, turned it to face Cian and let his arms fall to the side on his armrests in defeat.

Cian held up a yellow Post-It 'This is MY lunch. Touch it and your Browser History will be published.' it read, making Ben grin "I love it but it wasn't me." he shrugged

"Cian? That's…" Anya tried to get his attention but Cian held a hand in her direction one finger raised to tell her to wait while he continued to chew out Ben. "Don't play dumb!" He growled at Ben.

"Cian…" Anya started again louder, hating to be silenced like a school kid, but was completely ignored this time "You will…" Cian continued to reprimand Ben.

"Bloody fucking hell, Cian!" Anya now shouting at her boss and finally got his attention

"This is mine, not Bens." She bluntly told him looking in two suddenly very confused faces. "Yours?" Cian finally asked and Anya sighed "Yes. Once or twice my lunch vanished." Anya shrugged "Frankly? I thought it was funny..." She explained

"Stolen lunch…?" Cian asked "…no cameras?" he wanted to make sure.

"What the… NO!" Anya looked at him "Which sane person would come to this conclusion?" she looked at her boss in disbelief.

"Go and explain it to Irina… without the 'sane person' comment!" he ordered and with an annoyed grunt Anya got up, snatched the post-it from Cian's hand and went to look for Irina.

Ben, meanwhile, still couldn't belief that Anya stood up for him. She could have just kept her mouth shut and let Ben take the blame - no one would have believed him anyways.

The friendship between the developers led to Anya being involved with others of Cian's Tribe too and Ben even became comfortable enough to ask her for help - like today.

"Frankly? I don't even know what I'm looking at." Ben exaggerated smirking letting Anya have a look on the screen. After a minute of up and down scrolling she sighed "That's a block style simulation language. Reminds me of GPSSH." She looked at Ben who looked back puzzled "Sounds like a fucking disease… you know how to modify this?" he asked drawing a laugh from Anya "At least I'll try." She promised and looked at Peter Carlson, the event manager they were helping out "Just for the rules: This is the amount of drones we have?" the blond, tanned man, who looked like he would grab a surfboard any second, nodded "…what about the constellation order? Can we rearrange it or change the timing in general?" she wanted to know

"Timing is a bit tricky but it we could change the order. I only need to change it in the presentation too." Peter looked at her "Thanks for helping out, I owe you one." He added.

Anya waved it of "I don't do this owing bullshit…" she winked "Just hope the weather holds up and it's not getting cloudy. Clouds and stargazing doesn't mix… or shooting stars for the matter."

Peter nodded "True. Not even with my jackal eyes I could see the pegasids through clouds." He sighed.

Anya tabbed away on the keyboard while she used the chance getting to expand her knowledge of the Tribe a bit more "I'm curious…" she looked at both Ben and Peter "I heard of wolf packs or cat clowders before but never of something like the Tribe … foxes, snow leopards, wolves… jackals…" with the last she looked at Peter who smiled nodding

"The Tribe is unique, indeed." He confirmed and traded a glance with Ben who added "It started with Cian helping out unaffiliated Shifters of all kinds if he could. Just having an open ear… or knowing someone who knows someone who could help… that kind of thing."

"Right," Peter nodded "and somehow this led to us sticking as a group somewhen calling it Tribe and electing Cian as Chief… welcoming everyone." he grinned shrugging.

"So no dominance games but democracy." Anya smiled and Ben confirmed "Exactly. I mean could you imagine me in a strict pack hierarch?" he laughed and Anya snorted "I'd take some popcorn and watch you tank it." She hit a final key and set the simulation in motion. It ran for a while but still three drones crashed while transitioning from Ursa Major to Draco "Whoops…" Anya made "But progress…" she saw the positive and grinned "I can't wait for the show." she smiled confidentially "Looking forward to this for days" she smiled confidentially.

"Great!" Peter nodded "We will even have some rafts so you can watch while floating on the lake, taking a swim maybe… and afterwards watching the pegasids and hope we see some." The jackal Shifter gushed but Anya felt Ben stiffen for a second before he caught himself and took the focus back on the task at hand and said, "But we need to solve this first… otherwise no show."

On July 11th the lake and the area around was crowded with people wanting to see the pegasids and the little drone show before highlighting some constellations and another guy Anya didn't know giving little fun facts about them.

Most tried to get a place on a raft. Anya just had spotted Peter who had reserved a spot for her but she couldn't see Ben "Where is Ben?" she wanted to know "Over there… didn't want to come on the raft." Peter shrugged and offered her a selection of drinks ranging from beer, coke and lemonade to alcopops out of a cooler. Anya glanced over where Ben was sitting alone looking a bit lost "I'll join Ben. He looks so lost." She took out a beer for Ben and something for herself "If you are sure?" Peter looked confused but smiled.

"Hey… you ok with some company?" Anya asked Ben holding out the beer to him. Her coworker looked up and reluctantly took the bottle, shuffling aside a bit so she could sit too "You sure? You put in all the work and now you sit at the sidelines?" he asked and taking a sip.

Anya mirrored him "You do too…" she pointed out and made herself comfortable on the ground. Ben was quiet for a second, both watching the start of the drone show "I can't swim." He finally admitted and Anya nodded "Ah… that explains…" she looked at Ben who was clearly uncomfortable - no… ashamed for being a non-swimmer.

"That's nothing to be embarrassed for." Anya said but Ben still averted his eyes "Maybe… but I am." He sighed "No one knows beside Cian." He added.

Anya sat in silence for a second. "I can't drive." She gave up a secret of her own no one knew about and it worked because Ben looked at her again "Wait, you don't have a license?" he asked in disbelief and Anya shrugged "Nope. No one knows this but you." She smirked and Ben realized she shared this secret to make him - a friend - feel better.

"I'm curious." Ben started still watching the sky "Shoot." Anya encouraged and Ben prompted "What you told Peter about 'not doing owing bullshit'… what's up with that?" he wanted to know.

Anya was silent for a second when she watched the transition between two constellations and let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "Close call…" she commented then focused on Ben again "The owing nonsense… My genitors were like that. Every time I didn't want to do things they want it always was 'You owe me' to pressure me into obeying…" she shrugged "I'm more the 'paying forward' kind of guy. If I can help you, great. But I don't want to be owed… maybe you can help someone else in turn somewhen in the future." She added.

"Huh, interesting… I only know it the other way. I hate asking someone for a favor because I never know what I have to pay in return." He chuckled "On your first day when you pretended not remember me splashing you I only thought 'What will she want in return covering for me.'"

Anya laughed "God, we are both so fucked up and clearly involved with the wrong kind of people." Ben and Anya clinked their bottles "Yeah… Good thing we changed that." Ben stated and gave her a side eyed smirk which Anya returned.

While Ben and Anya enjoyed their lives Tamara grew more and more frustrated. More than six month had gone by since she had found the diary and she had nothing to show. This was half a year ago!

The Beastlord seemed to have vanished. On the plus side there had been no more dead shifters had turned up and no raging beasts flooded the streets. But this didn't ease Tamara's mind much. They had to find this Beastlord and stop him before he turned out to be successful - he had to be somewhere because no one disappeared into thin air.

Tamara had gone to Novac when she realized she was at a dead end and together they had started to look into similar deaths within the last decade. Maybe this Beastlord went somewhere else? Or he had tried before? But until now they had no lead.

While Tamara's frustration rose Cian grew more worried about Tamara. Since that phone call he had kept a closer eye on what she said and how she was. He never noticed her dislike of shifters - or being one.

And while Tamara was still looking for him back at home, the Beastlord was still in the jungle - and he had slipped. This had not happened to him since he was awakened. He tumbled down the gravel, scraping himself in various places. He lay still when he finally came to a halt, eyes closed. If he hadn't been a shifter he would have seriously hurt himself and probably died here in the jungle alone.

He waited until his wounds had closed before he got up slowly. He immediately wanted to find his way back out without another look when something made him turn around.

Before him, growing between the rocks in the cave was the herb he was looking for so desperately. He kneeled down to verify his finding and was beyond excited when he realized those indeed where the herbs.

Carefully he started to dig out some of the plants including roots and, together with some earth, he put them in his bag. He needed to cultivate them to secure his supply.