Haken: A Capacity for Violence Part 9

This story features forge master Haken and takes place between the events of 'Werewolves: Haven Rising' and 'Werewolves 3: Evolution's End.' 

[If you haven't read part 8, click on the Collections tab and select 'Werewolves' to find the previous chapter of this story.]

"Son of a bitch!" Haken roared as he pounded on the steel wall of his cell where he knew the hidden door was. "You had no right to do that to me!" His fur-covered knuckles rang against the metal, sending echoing booms rebounding through the enclosed room loudly enough to hurt his ears. His claws had left deep scoring in the surface, but he didn't even seem close to breaking free.

Silence. 

No matter what he said, no matter how violent he became, the humans gave him nothing. No reaction at all. In the back of his mind he knew why–they were letting his temper run its course and waiting until he could no longer maintain his wolf form. Nobody would be foolish enough to walk in and try to talk him down until then. Still, though, he desperately wished there was someone in here to maul. 

He stepped over to sit on the chair before remembering that he'd reduced it to a thousand shards of cheap plastic several minutes ago. The table had joined it on the road to ruin seconds later, leaving only the bed, so he sat down on that and tried to ease his mind. 

In her own way, Dr. Lim was trying to help him–he didn't sense any genuine malice from her–but she appeared to have no moral compass to speak of when it came to experimentation and the consent of her subjects. She saw her enhancements as a positive and couldn't comprehend why he might not share that opinion. He wondered if it ever occurred to her that asking his permission before jabbing him in the groin with multiple needles might have resulted in a more positive response. It was no worse than the years of torture he'd faced at the hands of Haven's butchers, but somehow the fact that Dr. Lim was so open with him made her actions feel more personal, thus his inflamed sense of betrayal and rage.  

He breathed in deeply and tried to clear his mind of thoughts of revenge. There would be time for that in the future, but for now he needed to focus on the present. If the doctor was telling him the truth, she may have done him a favor whether he wanted to admit it or not–but he'd be damned if he ever thanked her for doing it without asking first.

Relaxation had a gradual effect on his body; fur slowly receded and bones shifted back into a more human formation. He'd tried to teach this technique to some of his work partners back in his days as a forgemaster, but mindfulness had always been a hard sell to wolves who saw him as little more than a walking bad temper. No one ever listened to him unless he raised his voice–that was the problem. They never wanted to think that maybe beneath all those muscles there was a semblance of wisdom and sensitivity to spirituality.

The door slid open several minutes after he was fully reverted to human form. He looked up just as Alice walked through, an expression of what he hoped was sympathy on her face as she approached him. She was trying to project calm, but he could tell that she was unsure what to expect and was ready to launch into action at a moment's notice. He tried not to think of the pictures Dr. Lim had shown him of her without clothing. Her hair, he thought. Focus on how the bright ceiling light turned her flowing red hair into a crown of flame. 

She must have noticed him watching, because her lips perked up into a slight smile and her defensiveness vanished almost instantly. "Hello, Haken," she greeted him.

Two human workers carrying a large black plastic bag and a broom stepped through behind her, quietly rushing over to the remains of his table and chair to sweep them up. They didn't want to leave him with any potential weapons, not even a thin shard of plastic. He supposed he couldn't blame them–after all, he'd assaulted Alice with nothing more than the tiny nub of a dull pencil only a day ago.

"That was quite the temper tantrum you had there," Alice said. She looked back over her shoulder and crooked a finger. One of the humans brought in a new chair exactly the same as the last one and placed it beside her. She sat down directly across from his bed. "Can't say I blame you, though. When the doctor told me what she did, I thought you'd have this reaction when you woke up. Good thing i said something, too, because she had no idea you were going to be so pissed. She thinks you're being 'irrational.' Didn't want to hear it when I told her that guys aren't all that into the idea of needles in their nether regions."

Haken grunted. "She's not stupid. She had to know it would piss me off."

"Social graces aren't Dr. Lim's strong suit." Alice leaned forward in the chair until she was only a couple of feet away from him. "So, how you feeling?"

Haken swallowed hard, suddenly more embarrassed than angry. Alice knew exactly what had been done to him and what that entailed. "Doctor-patient confidentiality isn't really a thing in here, is it?" he asked.

"Was that a joke, Haken?" Alice asked, the smile returning to her lips.

"Yeah," he replied. "I know it wasn't funny."

"More than you think, actually. Sarcasm doesn't survive long in places like this for most wolves. Not many of us pretend to be witty, anymore."

"I thought you said this facility was better than most?"

Alice shrugged. "It is, and that's saying something." She drummed her fingers on the chair's arm. "Oh, I almost forgot. Lim did a little digging by way of apologizing to you. Found out about what happened to your friend–the one who got picked up same time you did near Rivera's detention building."

"Lapu?"

"Yeah, that was his name. Blond kid. I saw his profile."

"That's the one," Haken said. "He still alive?"

Alice nodded. "The system said he was picked up by a woman who works at another werewolf detention facility called the Nail."

"It as bad as the name makes it sound?"

"Probably worse," Alice replied. "I mean, if I'm being totally honest with you, yeah. He was snagged for special processing by a scientist who calls herself 'Maker.' But at least he's still alive."

Haken grunted, trying to mask his true reaction. Maker…that was the weird name the kid had given him for the scientist who he claimed was working to free werewolves from the inside. Then again, her faulty breakout plan had directly led to his current predicament, so he wasn't sure if he should pin any bets on that particular horse. Still, though, it might be a good sign. "Maybe it will be good for him in the long run," he said. "Toughen him up."

"I guess," Alice said skeptically. "Anyway, I just thought you'd want to know. It's not like there's all that many of us left."

Haken slowly got up off the bed and began to pace across the cell's cold floor, immediately wishing he hadn't torn his footwear to ribbons by transforming in a rage. He tried to move slowly, so neither Alice or the guards thought he was going to pull something. He just needed to move for a bit and stretch his legs, that was all.

"Lapu betrayed the Haven pack," he said. "Colonel Williams sold him on the idea that he could save himself and his girlfriend from the doctors' knives if he ratted on us on a regular basis."

Alice winced. "Yikes."

"Yeah. Yikes." Haken breathed out until his lungs were empty and then filled them again. Breathing techniques like that were a good way for keeping himself calm. "When I found out, I wanted to kill him. Might never have even known who the rat was if it weren't for Williams's own kid. You know about that?"

"It was in the files Dr. Lim let me read, yeah. Williams was a werewolf. Not a colonel anymore from what I've seen."

Haken cracked his knuckles. "Serves the bastard right. He escaped when I did, by the way. From Rivera's cells."

"Damn," Alice grunted. "That part I didn't know." She watched his movements carefully. "So if this kid, Lapu, screwed your pack over that badly, why didn't you kill him? Seems like that would be kinda on-brand for you, what with the whole rage-monster thing."

 "I wanted to," Haken replied. "I had the chance but I let him go. Like everyone's been saying lately–there are too few of us left to just start killing, even if there's a good reason. I'm not the monster you people think I am." He stopped pacing and looked back at her, trying to gauge her reaction.

"Do I need to remind you of who you almost killed with a pencil the other day?"

"I wouldn't have done it."

Alice smirked. "Damn right–because I didn't let you."

"It was some impressive work, taking me down like that," he said. "Sure, I was in human form and I'd been sedated as hell a few hours before, and I'd barely eaten, but still, pretty impressive."

"I take it back," Alice said.

"What?"

"When I told you that you were funny," she replied. "I take it back."

"You never meant it to begin with."

Alice stood up and pushed her chair into the corner where the old one had been. "You wanna test out some of that male bravado on me?"

"Right…right here?" The shift in tone caught Haken completely off guard.

She shook her head. "We'll spare chair number two from what happened to chair one. Want to go out to the yard?"

"You… have a yard?"

"Yup. Proper sparring equipment, too. Dr. Lim wants us to stay in shape, not wither away and die. As she puts it, there's no point keeping the species alive if she's going to keep us locked up in the dark like mushrooms."

Haken was pleasantly surprised for the first time since coming here, breeding program notwithstanding. At least exercise and sparring was free from the weird ethical hangups that were still gnawing at the back of his brain like ravenous termites. "You sure you want to give me another chance to knock you on your ass?"

Alice grinned as she led him to the door. "I'm counting on it."