The Wolf Experiments

Alex wished she had something wise or profound to say to Hawk. It hurt her to look into his eyes, to see the resentment building fast and furiously. Focusing on his retreating form, however, confounded her. His broad shoulders, the curvature of his spine as he walked, the book stuffed into the back pocket of his jeans, had imprinted on her memory now. He refused to face her.

She listened to the wind, to the horrible, lonely sound of it and wished she understood her emotions. The breeze carried the sweet aroma of alfalfa from the nearby field, and every once in a while, she caught a whiff of the manure pile. The spongy ground beneath her had soaked into her clothes and everywhere else, the heat pressed the fabric against her clammy skin.

It saddened Alex to have one more relationship to repair, when others had been resolved. Hawk meant a lot to her and therefore, the loss of his friendship smothered the other things she had accomplished.

Amandas sauntered over and she threw her arms around his neck, sighing deeply. His nose brushed away the tears on her face.

“Will you do me a favor? Go and bite Hawk on the seat of his pants.”

The wolf grinned, flashing his sharp, pointed teeth. It unnerved her when he did that. Rising, she wondered what to do about the rest of her afternoon. It seemed best to stay out of Hawk’s way.

Alex explored the valley to keep her thoughts controlled, absorbing the lovely, warm air. She crossed through fields of yellow, flowing grass, and gentle rivers. The morning faded to afternoon as she walked. If she had not stopped herself, she could have spent the rest of the day away from the complex, lost in the solitude of the natural bio-world. As it was, when she hurried back amid lengthening shadows, she heard a ship and felt certain the person Nick wanted her to meet had finally arrived. Nick hadn’t said much more about it despite his excitement.

She watched from the trees as the vehicle landed on the airstrip. When the hatch opened, a man in a leather jacket and dark sunglasses emerged. He was tall, dark, and lean, his face framed by short black curls. She could not make out his features at a distance, but something about him seemed familiar and vaguely menacing.

The man entered the complex and Alex quickly closed the distance, sprinting across the open field. She took a deep breath before entering the building and she realized suddenly how nervous she had become. She listened for his footsteps but all was silent. Amandas parked himself against her leg, keeping contact. He lifted his muzzle in the air and suddenly his eyes seemed to sharpen with recognition. The fur on his back bristled.

“I can’t remember,” she said with frustration. “But you do, don’t you?”

She moved slowly, listening to the sounds that drifted through the air vents and from behind closed doors. Amandas put his nose to the ground and then peered down into the darkness.

“Yes,” Alex said. “He’s gone to the laboratory.”

She moved carefully, feeling the need to be cautious. Amandas moved silently beside her, both of them flowing like ghosts over the floor. She finally stopped when she could make out the voices — Nick, Hawk, and Andy. She decided to wait for Adrian, but that chance ended the moment the doors sprang open.

“Here she is!” Nick said. “We were just talking about you.”

Alex stepped in the room and found the stranger resting comfortably in a dark corner. When their eyes met, explosions of thoughts coursed through her mind —a massive tide of disease and indignation. As best she could, she sorted through the emerging memories and focused on the man standing before her.

“Seth,” she said.

He frowned and looked questioningly at Nick.

“You thought it was safe because they told you my memory hadn’t returned,” Alex said. “But the mind is a tricky thing. You just wanted to see for yourself.”

Hawk and Nick both started at Seth, and at the same time, Amandas let out a low growl.

“I don’t remember when we first met, but I think you were in the laboratory when I was young.”

“Here?” Nick asked.

“No, the other laboratory in Madrid,” she said.

When she first came to the valley, she had dreamed of him and had called for him to help her. She just hadn’t put it all together.

“It is a little confusing now,” she admitted. “He was a lab assistant, I think.”

“I’m sure that can’t be right,” Seth remarked dryly.

His voice was deep and familiar. For years, she had heard him in her mind. The door opened and Adrian strolled in. Quickly assessing the situation, he leaned over her shoulder and brushed her temple with his fingers.

“Seth?” Nick stammered, “Did you know Pretorius? It isn’t true. Is it?”

The man’s gaze sharpened, his dark brows drawing together. She recognized his eyes—the same blue that had belonged to her mother.

“Who is that?” Seth demanded, pointing to Adrian.

“You orchestrated the medication,” Alex said suddenly. “I grew up knowing you as my keeper but you’re my real uncle.”

His face twisted and paled, his fists shaking with angry determination. If cornered like an animal, would he fight? She focused on Seth, her gaze piercing his while trying to isolate certain recollections like trying to remember a dream after waking. The air crackled like fire, rising and falling against the hum of machinery. She gripped Adrian’s arm with one hand and latched on to Seth’s with the other. He pulled violently back, unable to free his wrist. He never meant to hurt her, but he had done nothing to prevent it. His eyes and ears had always belonged to Pretorius. Without question, she knew he was here for a reason.

“Stop her!” Seth bellowed.

God he was afraid of her. But why?

Without warning, he sprang for the rear exit into the kennels, but Hawk grabbed his arm and secured him.

“He orchestrated all my medications,” Alex said. “Maybe he should tell us exactly what they were for and why he took the risk to come back here now.”

Nick punched Seth so hard, he sent the man sprawling to the ground. “Were you there when they killed my wife? She was your sister!”

Seth shook his head. “I became involved several years later, by accident. I didn’t know for some time that Alex was your daughter.”

“And yet you worked with that monster anyway!” Nick hissed.

“He would have killed me!” Seth said. “I didn’t have a choice.”

“We all have choices,” Nick snapped.

Andy stepped forward. “Let’s all calm down,” he said. “I need to analyze these vials from his pack.”

The importance of what she had remembered was beginning to sink in and yet, it was painful to recall that she had grown up caged. Biting her lip, she expressed the need to go for a walk to clear her head.

“Do you want me to go with you?” Adrian asked.

“No,” she said. “I’ll be safe out there. They may need your help here. Don’t trust Seth no matter how sincere he sounds.

“Alex,” Seth whispered, “please.”

Her voice softened. “You’ll never treat me as a specimen again. I’m a person now.”

“I never meant to hurt you.”

“I know,” she whispered. “But you allowed him to use your fascination for his research against you.”

She turned away as Andy escorted Seth off to a holding room.

“I didn’t know,” Nick said. “All of those years I searched, and he had the answers all along.”

After a sound from Amandas, she knelt down beside him and stared into his eyes. The wolf lifted a paw to rest on her shoulder.

They set off away from the complex, cutting through the woods to the river. As she watched the water tumble over the rocks, her mind attempted to partition and organize everything she had learned. They needed to be added to her outline.

A sharp, sudden sting against her arm made her jump and peering closer, she was shocked to see a small bee dangling from the stinger in her arm. But in doing so, the bee had committed suicide and she flicked it away. Nick had mentioned that he had reanimated some bee samples and then cloned them.

By the time she returned to her apartment, a vicious headache made her so nauseous she switched off the lights and staggered to the kitchen sink to splash water on her face. As the pain worsened, Adrian appeared, as he had been waiting for her to return, and guided her to the floor.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

More than anything, Alex wanted to answer, but something numbed her body and mind. Her words became jumbled and incoherent, her tongue thickening against the roof of her mouth. Adrian frantically paged Andy on the intercom as she clung to his neck.

“Don’t let this happen to me,” she whispered.

The wolf rose in her mind with ruthless intensity, fighting to control her—fighting to run free beneath the large, golden moon. The strange veiled sky taunted her, and the aurora of the holographic shield did nothing to quench the fire in her heart.

“I don’t know what happened,” Adrian said.

Alex assumed that Andy now leaned over her. She willed her body to respond to him and needed to tell him about the bee.

“She’s slipping away,” Adrian said.

She had no control of her mouth, and despairingly wondered if she had lost the power of speech again.

Andy gave her a slight shake, and Amandas growled.

“Don’t do that,” Adrian said quickly. “Amandas must know that it’s hurting her in some way.”

A terrible wave broke over her, a sea of blackness pierced by two fixed stars. Alex focused on those two objects, drawing them forward with all her strength until she realized they were the piercing blue eyes of a young man. He stood beneath the pale moonlight naked as his silver hair enhanced the glow.

He reached out his hand. “Come with me.”

Alex tried to cry out, emitting something between a whimper and moan. The sound of wolves exploded in her ears. As she looked at the man, his eyes became two yellow flames. Only then, did she realize that this was Amandas.

Someone scooped her up and the voice that shouted, “She’s going into shock!” was filled with uncharacteristic fear. She didn’t know that Andy could feel that way.

Amandas caught her attention with his desperation—caught her fingers in his talon-like grip. His face flickered, the white wolf appearing for only an instant. And she understood. He was trying to tow her back by throwing some kind of lifeline. A thin tapestry separated two worlds, and for some reason, Amandas appeared on both sides. On one side of the curtain, her friends gathered around her: touching her temple, pinching her arms. On the other, something grabbed her, a force closing over her throat. Amandas glimmered and shifted—eyes of the wolf—eyes of a man. His teeth lay close to her jugular, and his scent filled her nostrils. He dragged her back kicking and screaming because that path on the edge of darkness was the easiest to take, and he would not let her go that way. Amandas brought her across a meadow filled with violet flowers. A swift river flowed beside them. Then, the white wolf replaced the man, still moving beautifully beneath the vanishing sunlight. A burst of lightning through her body brought her some awareness, leaving her drenched beneath a heavy cloudburst. As she blinked and gasped for air, violently shivering beneath a thin, cold sheet that other world faded rapidly.

Through foggy vision, she recognized Andy leaning over her. A stethoscope hung about his neck. She asked, “Where’s Amandas? Did he change?”

“Change?” Andy said and then, “He is right here.”

Alex reached out blindly for the wolf, and he stepped beneath her hand.

“You had a severe allergic reaction to something and went into anaphylactic shock.”

“Bee sting,” she mumbled.

Something beeped next to her ear and Adrian said, “She’s warming up.”

“Her pulse is returning to normal,” Andy added. “Alex, you have mastered the art of near death experiences.”

“Maybe she’s part cat,” said Adrian. “She’s mastered the nine lives thing, too.”

Alex felt fuzzy. A strange sensation settled over her and a bitter taste against her tongue made her fumble for a nearby glass of water. She spilled it down the front of her shirt. Adrian immediately departed and returned a few minutes later with a fresh change of clothes. Alex attempted to rise, but her arms and legs flailed sporadically. She flopped down on the bed. Andy chased everyone out of the medical suite, including Amandas to give her a little privacy.

Alex felt disoriented and tired. “Don’t peek.”

Andy smiled. “I’m a doctor.”

Her soft scratchy voice replied, “I don’t care.”

He chuckled as he shrugged off her damp shirt. She curled her fingers over his shoulder for support.

“If given a choice, is there someone else you would rather help you?” Andy asked.

“Is that a trick question?”

“No,” he said. “I promise it isn’t.”

He suddenly smiled so infectiously that she smiled back in immediate response before realizing what an odd gesture it was.

“That’s different,” Alex said.

“I have been practicing.”

“Practicing a smile?”

He shrugged.

“There…what was that?”

“I am merely answering your question as you frequently answer mine.”

“What a dirty trick. Did you practice that, too?”

He combated her question with another. “So, would you rather have someone else here?”

“It’s a little late now. I’m almost dressed.”

He dropped a towel over her head.

“Why is everyone alone here? Why doesn’t Nick, Hawk, or even you, for that matter, take a wife? Certainly, the biosphere…the valley…can be explained in terms and details to protect what we do.”

“Have you ever noticed how difficult it is for a woman to keep a secret?”

“I have no trouble keeping a secret, thank you.”

“Sweetheart,” Andy said. “You are one of the secrets.”

Alex remained silent for a moment. “It’s awfully prejudiced to think that men keep secrets better than women.”

“Men aren’t as conversational. Words just don’t slip out.”

“I guess I wouldn’t know,” Alex said. “I’ve never conversed with another woman.”

Andy patted her knee. “You haven’t had much conversation at all, actually.”

He inclined the top half of the bed so she could watch a movie on the monitor. Her body still felt awkward, as if one foot remained in that other world where Amandas, as a man, still lingered.

Later, Alex had only a vague, dreamy memory of what had happened. She asked Adrian about it when she found him to fill in some of the details.

Alex dropped into a nearby chair in his apartment. “Did I say anything?”

“You asked about Amandas changing which is something we really should discuss, Alex.”

She thought for a moment, seeing the moon in her mind, the way heaven and earth had collided, the golden light, and a man. “I remember him a little. He was beautiful.”

“Amandas is a wolf, Alex,” Adrian said softly. “I do understand why you want him to be your brother but there isn’t any gene manipulation that would do that.”

Disappointed that he didn’t understand, Alex frowned. Sometimes she wondered if people put less faith in what she said because she was young. She didn’t know what to say to Adrian to make him understand. “But I saw him.”

“You were in shock, Alex. The mind does unexplainable things sometimes. You were dreaming.”

“It wasn’t a dream,” she whispered firmly.

“Oh Alex,” he said. “Let’s not turn this into a disagreement when I’m just about to leave.”

“Leave? Where are you going?”

“Just a supply run,” he said.

“Don’t we have plenty of supplies?”

“There’s a lot of bad stuff going on out there in the world. Not just the radiation. Most the nations are on the brink of nuclear war and for once, it looks like it might actually happen.”

“Maybe you should stay here because of the danger.”

“It would only be for a day or two.”

She suddenly felt like a small child. Uncertain. “Andy isn’t completely repaired yet. There are still some minor malfunctions. What if someone needs a doctor?”

He sighed. “You don’t need me as badly as you once did. You have no trouble communicating now.”

“I need you just as much as I did before,” she insisted.

“I only meant that I no longer need to be your translator.”

“Have you already discussed this with Andy?”

“I’ve spoken to Andy and Hawk. They’ll keep a good eye on you.”

“Can I go with you?”

“I’m sorry. No.” Adrian took her hands, pressing his lips against her cheek. “I’m not trying to make things more difficult. I’m merely pointing out what I think should be obvious.”

“I know,” she responded softly.”

“You do trust the others now, don’t you?”

“Mostly.”

“This will be good practice,” Adrian said. “I know you don’t like being alone at night but truthfully, I make a terrible security blanket and when I’m back, we need to work on a list of things for you to overcome.”

“Like what?”

He sighed, “You’re trying to delay the inevitable. There isn’t time for this discussion right now. I’m sorry.”

But she knew what he wanted her to work on: being a bit of a touch-me-not and feeling like someone always needed to be nearby to wake her at night from her terrifying dreams. Even learning the some of the truth hadn’t completely taken them away. “I’m afraid.”

“Nothing will happen,” he said.

But the feeling was there again and she hoped that this time, it was wrong.