The last year brought us a lot of new knowledge. A beast controlled balance doesn't necessarily mean rampage or losing the human soul forever for instance. This was hard to accept and I nearly killed one of my best friends, Ben, over it.
We also realized how many of us shifters struggle, how many beasts feel suppressed. Doctor Parker and our new friend Puck optimized an herbal mixture helping beasts and human souls to interact - some of us even named their beasts now that they could communicate better. I did too and we decided on Red.
It was hard at first - as a beast controlled shifter Puck was met with skepticism and fear - but slowly he gained our trust. He and two friends now even tour the world to supply other shifters with herbs and the recipe.
Unfortunately many of the others are wary about him and since it was us who welcomed him into our midst instead of killing him, we are considered responsible for him and are under watch. Are we weak? A danger to our community? We need to be careful not to antagonize anyone or risk an attack - we wouldn't fare well in a fight with another group.
On the non-supernatural side of my life I managed to finally find a second developer for my company who Ben not scared away - Anya. She swears as much and shares his humor which means she nearly gets into as much trouble with other coworkers as Ben. At least she is a bit more controlled so no customer complaints about her - besides Witting of course who complains about everyone and everything.
It is kind of exhausting with literally two Bens but she does him good so I won't complain. Since I know him he never had been into a relationship but here we are.
What worries me the most right now is a group called 'Peaceful Existence' - a shifter hostile group formed by humans who are scared of us and our beasts. The strength and health they give us. The enhanced senses… it freaks them out. They were responsible for some violence against shifters lately. It mostly ceased at the moment due to some arrests by the police lead by Detective Novac but I somehow fear this is just the calm before the storm.
"I do." He answered "Like the 30 times before… really do we need to do this every fucking time?" he asked while he sat in the chair.
The man who had operated and adjusted the camera on its tripod came around to restrain Connor "Yes we do." He just answered "Comfy?" he added and Connor nodded "Let's get this over with. My beast gets more restless and angry with every try. It knows what we plan." The bound man looked at the other one who added some pads for a cardiogram, turned the machine on which showed a steady heartbeat. When he was satisfied he walked away again and steered to his workbench.
On it he took something looking like a huge flashlight "I slightly edged the crystal and replaced the bulb…" he explained "You said the last time you felt a drag?" he wanted to know and Connor nodded.
"Hurt like fuck too but somehow the connection only weakened and gained the old strength afterwards."
The other men nodded "Ok, let's try this then. Here comes the light." He grinned and bathed Connor in light from the flashlight which was broken by the Crystal.
Connor screamed and fought against his restraints. After maybe half a Minute a light emerged from his chest, formed into a wolf-like shape and was dragged towards the man with the flashlight. "YES!" he was ecstatic but soon realized his problem "GERRY!" he yelled and another man came rushing in "The glass! Hurry!" he commanded and the man more or less stumbled to the workbench, throwing down some tools while getting a glass with a lid to screw on "Damnit Gerry! Be careful!" the man with the weapon scolded. "No get it here and get the beast inside it. Be careful not to block the light with anything else then the glass!" he ordered and Gerry did as he was told. When the lid was screwed on, the light was turned off and the men carefully placed the flashlight on his workbench then taking the glass from Gerry before the nervous man let it fall and freed the captive.
The beast inside the glass swirled around restless, crashing at the walls trying to break through or break the glass by tipping it over.
The man just laughed and held the glass up "Connor! We did it!" his happiness was replaced by worry. Connor sat slumped in the chair, his eyes open but not really responsive.
The monitor showed that he had a heartbeat but a quite fast one. The man put the glass onto his workbench, making sure it couldn't be tripped over and then went to release Connor from his restraints.
Connor started to groan and blabbing incoherent things which led the man bark out another command to Gerry and the recording stopped.
Isaac Robertson leant back in his char after he had watched the recording he had been mailed by Jonas Armitage. The e-mail also stated that Connor Russo, the man who had willingly agreed to this experiment, was better again. He had been in a kind of shock after the forceful removal of his beast. After about three days his condition had improved enough that he had went home and started his new life as a non-Shifter.
'Good Work. Go on with phase two.' He wrote back and added 'As soon as we can acquire more of that crystal build more weapons.'
A smile brightened his face when he re-watched the recording. 'Soon.' He thought 'Soon we can defend ourselves from those Shifters. No more bullying. No more we-are-better-than-you attitude.'
Ben and Anya had moved in together over the Christmas holidays after they officially had started dating after Septembers events and were living together for about four months now. Since Ben's place had been a single-room-bath-kitchenette thing they had chosen Anya's two room apartment to move in. Ben hadn't told Anya but one reason - besides the obvious space related one - he had immediately agreed to this had been if this wouldn't work out he could always rely on his parents to take him in until he found something new - Anya didn't have that luxury.
For both of them this was unknown territory. While Anya had been in a relationship once or twice, those had always been short-lived and never entered the moving in together stage. For Ben it was the first real relationship at all let alone living with someone he was romantically involved with. But they soon realized they were both on the same page with so many things and could be just themselves with each other that it worked out great and they enjoyed every second of it.
Ben sauntered out of the bathroom with just a towel around his hips, kissing her cheek "Fresh clothes are still in the basket." Anya said as she enjoyed the gentle touch and anticipated the question "I did laundry two days ago but haven't put it in the wardrobe yet." She explained.
"Not taking me along like that? And here I thought I'd give nude a try." he teased grinning. Anya looked him up and down smirking "So you won't need this then…" she grabbed the towel and made a run with it laughing leaving Ben butt naked.
"Hey…" surprised by that, it took Ben a second to react "… Oh wait…" he laughed, changing into his snow leopard form, caught up to her and playfully bringing her down on the floor.
Anya giggled. One second a huge snow leopard stood over her pinning her down, the next Ben was back to human.
"Got you…" he smiled and then gently kissed her. Anya, returning the kiss, hugged him to her "And stuck with me…" she smiled at him making him give a little laugh "God, I love you so much for being you…" this was met by Anya caressing his cheek, losing herself in his eyes "I Love you too…" he would probably never fully understand how much this statement meant to her - the feeling of being enough the way she was.
"You think Cian will buy it, if we both call in sick now?" Ben had put his forehead against hers, grinning and was clearly joking. Anya laughed "He would buy me being sick but you with your nifty Shifter health Snow gives you?"
Sighing Ben stood and helped Anya up "Well fuck… Thought so…" he smirked and went to get dressed. Anya was right behind him already losing her shirt. She threw it on the bed standing before him bare breasted and only in her panties.
"Love, now this is outright mean…" he laughed at his mate who collected some clothes for herself and a shirt for him out of the basket of fresh clothes she knew he would want to wear today. She handed the shirt to him laughing "Just to get you over this day, Benji." She winked and went for the bathroom when Ben groaned. "I successfully forgot about the Tribe gathering after work…"
Anya giggled, poking her head back through the bedrooms door, seeing his frustration "Come on… could be a company outing… thought those are worse?" she looked at him but he just shrugged "Usually yes… but we have some bloody visitors from out of town… so Cian already told me very sternly to behave."
Anya now came back into the bedroom and gave Ben another hug and kiss "He is such a spoilsport sometimes… and you are always nice as long no one is behaving like an ass." She winked leaving Ben in a happier mood again.
While she took a quick shower and got dressed Ben, after dressing himself, took the bread rolls out of the oven when the timer Anya had set went off. Afterwards he threw some eggs and bacon into a pan, seasoning it, so they could have breakfast when she was done. After she reminded him of the day ahead he needed comfort breakfast. His mom always made this for him back when he was living with his parents - she still did when he visited and was upset. This made him think of an unrelated topic and he didn't even hear Anya come back.
He must have made a face because Anya smiled in sympathy at him "Like every other day, this one only lasts for twenty four hours." she tried to cheer him up because she thought he still sulked about the Tribe gathering. "Yeah… you are right…" he sat down next to her and fidgeted with his fork and Anya's small smile froze for a second.
"Tell me what's wrong?" she wanted to know. It couldn't be just the Tribe gathering bothering him, could it? He seemed suddenly nervous.
Ben always had a hard time trusting a woman - ever since he was played by his first girlfriend in high school who only dated him to get to another guy she fancied, was dumped by the second when he was no more use to her helping her in college and the third outright robbed him after her lover knocked him out… and those where only the highlights. That the police at the time laughed at him didn’t help at all. But usually he was just being used or taken advantage of. He finally left it with insignificant one-night-stands and met any female with skepticism, suspicion and distrust - and a good amount of being snarky if he was honest.
When Anya had come into his life, trusting her came so naturally after a while, that it had scared him into closing off on more than one occasion: every time he became aware they got closer once again to be precise.
Anya knew the basics of what he went through and still just embraced him with all his baggage. She gave him all the space and time he needed. Even now she just waited patiently for him to answer or tell her something evasive she would accept for now.
"My mom invited us over for Sunday's lunch…" he stated "Whenever we want." He took a deep breath and shook his head "Sorry, I won't push you to do this if you are not ready. Forget I said something… I just had to think of my mom when I made the eggs." He gave her a slight smile.
Anya needed a second to answer and bought the time hiding behind her hot chocolate which had cooled down to a drinking temperature.
Family was a sore point for her. She never got to know the concept of loving and supportive parents or family in general. She had been no contact with hers for about a decade now. Ben didn't know all the details but a good part of her story like she had been always considered a failure for not fitting the family's line and how they tried to force her into a role and even a relationship she didn't wanted. She was scared to be pushed into someone else's image of how she should be to fit Ben or to lose him.
But the last months she had realized how important his family was to Ben though. Ben had taken a leap of faith in trusting and open up to her and finally in being with her. She realized she had to do the same now. "No, you are right." She gave him a small smile "I should meet your family. They probably already think I'm kind of weird for not doing this earlier and evading…" she hid her face in her hands "God, they will hate me…" she groaned which made Ben give a short laugh.
"No they won't…" Ben took one of her hands gently in his, for one to meet her eyes again and second to kiss it. "Trust me, love. They will like you." He smiled at her and Anya nodded slowly. "So… Sunday…" she gave him a small smile which grew in confidence when she saw how happy this made him.
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