[1st September]

When the Beastlord came back home he had realized the PI who had supported the police to solve the killings of his friends, was still looking for him. Intrigued he had started to follow and watch her while his herbs started to grow in his little greenhouse.

He knew she was a shifter – he saw the tattoo escaping her attempts to conceal it. The way it flowed showed him how suppressed the beast felt. From all that he deducted the PI wasn't comfortable being a shifter. He had to help her. Help the poor beast. Today was the day he would approach the woman. While she was distracted, he put a note on her windshield.

Tamara went back to her car, eyes on her camera while looking through pictures she just made. The night was a mild, late summer night and she had been observing a maybe unfaithful husband and who he met in a hotel - trivial, every day PI work.

She noticed the note immediately. When she unfolded the paper there was only an address scribbled on it together with the words 'two hours' and 'Beastlord'.

Tamara looks around but couldn't see anyone. She played with the note in her hand. There was no question that she was going. Should she bring backup? No. If this turned out to be a kind of scavenger hunt he would be alarmed and maybe she would lose him again.

She dug out her phone and dialed Aaron, her partner "Aaron, meet me at the Chrystal's parking lot. I have a new lead for the Beastlord and need you to finish up the Alton case."

"You have been looking for me." the low, slightly growling voice, cut through the silence of the abandoned warehouse the Beastlord called home. Tamara had felt the presence a second before the person spoke so she wasn't as startled as a human would have been but she was uneasy because not many could sneak upon her that way.

When she turned, she knew who that figure standing in the shadow produced by the candle light was - even before he took off the hood.

His appearance, demeanor… the way he fixed her with his eyes froze her. In front of her stood a beast - but not how she remembered from awakenings. This one was not out of control rampaging. It was nothing Tamara had ever seen. Her tattoo swirled restless.

"Now you have found me… what do you want to do?" he continued when Tamara didn't speak.

"Stop you!" Tamara answered not as fierce and determined as she had hoped, her beast openly disagreeing with her.

"Go on then…" he stood there, inviting her to attack, which Tamara did. The Beastlord easily evaded her punches, kicks and everything else she packed.

"You hate to be a shifter." He just stated as a fact "You fight as a human even though your beast would have a better chance and I see how your beast moves around your skin - unhappy, angry." He didn't sound patronizing or boastful about it - just sad. At her next attack, he gripped her wrists when she went past him and held them behind her back with one hand. The other arm wound around her chest and pressed her to him. He held a kind of water skin he pulled from his belt in his free hand, filled with tea from his herbs and forced Tamara to drink before she managed to pull away from him. The water skin fell to the ground with a thud when Tamara slapped it out of his hands but it was already too late.

The PI looked at him, spitting and whipping over her mouth "I can help you." The Beastlord continued.

"I don't need help!" Tamara snarled and charged again.

"I was not speaking to you." The Beastlord made clear, evading her attacks again and steered her to a wall, turned during her latest attack, sending her against the wall. He grabbed for her arms, turning Tamara around to face him, her back against the wall. "I'll free you!" he announced and put his hands on Tamara's temples. Her eyes grew wide and she couldn't move. "Let her sleep, my friend but not drown." He spoke to the beast again

Tamara found herself on a bare plane together with a large light gray wolf - her beast. The last time she had seen this was at her awakening.

The wolf looked at her angry "I did everything I could and you only gave me hate and distrust in return." It growled, the voice radiating in the 'room' without the wolf moving its muzzle.

Tamara felt a heavy sleepiness settle on her. That's why she thought her mind was playing tricks on her when the wolf started to change his form. "No one should trust us… We are a danger… You are…" her tongue felt heavy "I must contain you, don't you understand this?" she asked the beast who just shook its more human head

"You could have benefitted from me…" the beast was sure "If you just had accepted me… embraced me…" she sighed "Juliet could still be with us…" she added. The beast had liked Juliet too… a lot. But contrary to Tamara it never blamed Ben.

"Juliet left me because of Ben…" Tamara started but she grew so tired.

"No. Juliet left because she wanted to be with a shifter and you hated being one. She went to Ben because he embraces what he is. He even named his beast. You never thought of me as a partner or a friend, right?"

"He just wants into his coworker's pants, fool." She snarled tiredly and had to lie down now but the wolf - more and more resembling the mid change appearance the Beastlord had too - didn't agree "You envy Ben for being in peace with himself. That's why you hate him."

"Help me… Please." Tamara pleaded now, realizing what was about to happen. She fought to keep her eyes open and started to sink into the ground but the wolf just continued "No, Tamara. I saved you twenty years ago. And you just subdued me, contained me and enslaved me. How often have I wished to never have been awakened…" the wolf beast shook his head "How many beasts have the same fate I have? No… had…" a smile crept on her face.

Tamara closed her eyes and fell asleep. "How much I just want to let you drown…" she squatted down and looked at Tamara sinking some more before she started to steady the floating form until she was sure the human soul was fast asleep and not drowning anymore "But I would probably go insane and on a Rampage so you will be my anchor like I was yours all those years."

The Beastlord watched as the body of the women in his grip started to change into the overly lanky form of a shifter caught in mid-change. The tattoo steadied itself in a somewhat fractured but stable way. The eyes which had been wide in shock and showing fear from when Tamara was in control, regained their normal size and a smile spread out. The whole body relaxed in the Beastlords grip "Thank you…" she whispered.

The Beastlord released her from his grip only one hand still resting on her shoulder "Welcome… Lu." He gave her the first name he could think of. Lu… from Lupus, the Latin word for wolf. He needed to come up with more names.