Agent Alpha Ch. 06

After he left the room, Rhys quickly convened the pack and reported the news; that he had successfully talked the werewolf hunter down from pursuing the pack, and in fact, she was interested in helping to protect them to a certain degree. It was something of an exaggeration, of course, but Rhys hadn't seen so much relief since thirty years prior when the omega males heard the news that they would be able to find mates. Rhys was actually a bit surprised by it all. He had been so busy trying to resolve these issues that he hadn't been around to experience the anxiety in the pack. All around him were announcements that they were safe, that the scare was over, that things would be even better now. He had frowned slightly at this. He wasn't sure that the worst hadn't yet come.

Analise was barely conscious for long enough to hold any sort of conversation in the days that followed and Rhys decided it was best to give her some space to cope with everything that had happened. In truth, he wasn't sure if it was her or him who needed the space more. And so, Harvey's return from France couldn't have been better timed and he handed the issue off to his younger brother, hoping that it would help him focus more on his work. Of course, it hadn't. Harvey had been hinting that things weren't going well and that he was having to give her drugs to help her sleep.

While this had disturbed Rhys, he hadn't fully considered it. His mind was busy elsewhere. Something she had said to him truly bothered him. It was her comment about the people she had killed. They had all been in self defense, but if he had understood her correctly, Analise did not believe that they deserved death. She honestly preferred a trial to the fate she had administered.

At first, Rhys thought this was foolish. Anyone who was stupid enough to attack him was asking for death. It was a given. If Analise was to become some super werewolf type, then this would be the same for her. Analise had even confirmed what Isa had said; that she would show her enemies no mercy.

Why then did it bother him that her ideas of justice impacted her this way? The more he thought, the more distracted he became by it. He had never once even questioned the deaths of the people he had killed. Analise was correct in her assumptions. Rhys had killed many times in his life, but it had always been in defense of his pack. If it had not been werewolf related, he would have reported it and handled it appropriately.

But to question whether they should have died? That had never occurred to him. A werewolf truly was a superposition of a wolf and a man. The wolf was just that; an animal, or so Rhys believed. Animals did not question the act of killing prey or even threats to their territory and Rhys's wolf was particularly brutal at times.

Analise's wolf was yet to be seen, but it would be an animal all the same. Animals didn't have regret. There was no concept of justice. That was a human concept.

And so, Rhys sat at his temporary desk staring at the wall as he pondered thoughts that were much deeper than anything he had considered in decades. This certainly wasn't the time for distractions, either. The attack on the precinct meant loads of paper work and the obvious media misdirection. There were mourning coworkers to deal with, and worse, the FBI was constantly demanding information on the retrieval of the girls, the cult, and Analise's condition.

Two days after the woman was hospitalized, a pair of agents showed up and set up shop in the conference room on the second floor of City Hall, sifting through Analise's notes and generally making themselves a nuisance. If he had thought Analise was arrogant, it was nothing compared to these two. Agent Peters, the taller of the two men, refused to talk to anyone but Rhys, and even then, it was only ever to send him on some demeaning errand, like making copies or fetching coffee. Agent Carter, on the other hand, was constantly explaining basic law enforcement knowledge to Rhys as if he didn't have a clue.

There was no doubt that Analise thought herself an expert, but at least she made an effort to include Rhys on her findings from the start rather than talking to him like a servant. He had to wonder, given what he knew now about her, if some of her previous behavior wasn't due to training rather than inherent snobbery.

Carter was irritating, but it was Peters who was the one that had Rhys worried. He rarely spoke, but when he did, he asked questions that obviously implied Peters had more intimate knowledge of weres than Analise did. Rhys found himself hoping her change would happen soon so she could take care of these men and get out of his hair. All of this interaction with the Bureau was decidedly bad for his pack, High Alpha potential aside.

"NO!" Came the impassioned protest of Harvey from down the hall. Rhys had nearly forgotten that his brother had returned the same day Analise was admitted to the hospital. Rhys let out a short sigh. This was probably going to push him over the edge. If Harvey was here it meant things at the Hospital were bad and that Harvey was about to let him down. Nothing was ever easy. "Now get the hell outta my way! Where is- damn it Rhys!" He let out in complete frustration as he burst into Rhys's make-shift office in City Hall.

Rhys offered Harvey a frown. Harv still had his lab coat on. The messy hair and tired eyes looked about the same way Rhys felt. Harvey's jaw was tight as he pushed his way into the office without being invited. Normally Rhys would have tolerated it, but things were far too hectic for this. "Get out," He ordered his brother.

"Absolutely not!" Harvey returned. "That woman is a nightmare. You are going to listen to me and stop ignoring my calls or we-"

Rhys had thrown the punch before Harvey could finish the thought. It landed perfectly on Harvey's jaw, tossing the man backward into the wall. "I told you to get out," he stated, barely able to keep himself from shifting due to anger. "You have a job to do now get out and go do it."

Harv's eyes flared as his own rage surfaced. Harvey leaped forward, barreling into Rhys like a linebacker, sending the two of them backward into Rhys's desk. Rhys turned mid air and slammed Harvey face first into the papers that were scattered across the surface. "I can't do it!" Harvey shouted furiously. "She's resisting and it's too painful for her. She's been trying to shift for a week and won't let it out."

"You told me it would be fast and painless you son of a bitch," Rhys hissed at his brother. "What the fuck am I supposed to tell those dicks on the second floor, huh? Oh excuse me, agent, while me and the other werewolves keep your injured agent drugged so she doesn't scream herself to sleep from the pain of turning into one of us?!"

"I'm doing everything I can!" Harvey protested as Rhys held him furiously down to the desk. He was morbidly curious if Rhys was going to kill him. He'd never seen his brother this furious before.

Rhys tossed him to the floor, glowering over him. "Bullshit," He hissed.

Harvey rubbed his jaw, but didn't try to get up. Rhys would likely not hold back and Harvey knew he couldn't take him even if his heart was in it. "Last I checked, I was the one with the medical degree, dick face," he answered hotly. "She won't listen to anyone. I want to put her down. This is sick. As a doctor, I can't put her through this pain and if she won't listen to me..."

Rhys's expression told Harvey that his timing was bad. Rhys clenched his fists as he bared down on his brother. His expression had darkened. "Do I need to go down there." He more stated than asked. His voice was gravelly with anger.

"Yes." Harvey answered firmly. He wasn't about to let Rhys see how intimidated he was in that moment. "You're the only one she'll listen to. Half the nurses are ready to quit on me. I can't keep her sedated any more. She's about to change but she won't listen..."

Rhys grabbed his coat furiously and slammed the door behind him, leaving Harvey on the floor in his office. The glass in the window shattered from the force of he delivered to the door. He was silently grateful it was the door and not his brother. This absolutely wasn't what he needed. Harvey had one job. One job. He just had to see Analise through the change and he was probably the best qualified for it in the whole pack. Rhys really didn't think he was asking that much and in all honesty, Brody and Isa were supposed to be helping too. Rhys had even assigned Harvey's poodle to the situation once he got wind that things weren't going well but from what he had heard, Clarise (the French woman's real name), was so offended she was threatening to return to France just days after arriving.

He needed them to keep things quiet so he could keep the two new Agents busy long enough for Analise to heal up. It was all they had to do and between the four of them, their solution was to send Harvey to him threatening to put her down? Rhys's anger was fully justified. It was a transparent ploy. Rhys wouldn't kill Harvey, but the others weren't guaranteed that sort of familial safety net. That, and Harvey could take the beating Rhys had in store for him.

"You had one fucking job," He muttered in anger as he hopped into the beat up old pick up, slamming the door. He didn't even care who saw him in that moment. Sure, he was over reacting, but the outlet for the stress was actually welcomed.

Rhys tried to calm down as he pulled into the parking lot of Riverton Medical. It wasn't a very big hospital, but the Healing Center was an isolated ward all the same. Sometimes people had trouble with their change or someone in the pack would develop a rather Lichen related illness and it was best to keep these things out of view from the humans. The two federal agents sitting in the vacant office down town were testimony enough to support the wisdom in that choice.

This was why Rhys's frown intensified as he walked into the hospital to be greeted to the muted sounds of Analise screaming in agony. The receptionist sitting at the admissions desk was white faced. Apparently this had been going on for a while. Rhys didn't bother explaining himself, nor did he have to. Everyone, it seemed, knew that the Chief of Medicine had gone to fetch his brother for this one and given the situation, no one was going to question the Captain of the police force running toward the sound of the screams.

And that was precisely what Rhys did. He was running toward the Healing Center before he even stopped to think. The horrified faces only grew more intense as he approached. Brody was waiting outside Analise's room and he jumped to his feet as Rhys came into the hallway. He was healing quickly from the attack, though his leg was now in a walking brace. "Now Rhys-" he started, trying to intercept the larger man who was obviously on a war path.

Rhys's patience was shot and his fist found Brody's nose before the beta stood a chance of slowing him down. Brody recoiled slightly and stepped away as Rhys burst into the room. Clarise and Isa were trying desperately to hold Analise still while her body contorted with sickening sounds of cracking bones that shifted to and from human form into the hybrid form of the wolf. It was surprising that the woman was still conscious, given the pain she was almost certainly enduring.

Rhys did not pause as he took the scene in, though it would haunt him for the rest of his life. Analise was resisting the change at great physical pain. It was best to let the shift happen as quickly as possible. The first change was always the worst, and even moreso for humans who were unaccustomed. Still, they had always been educated on what would happen and embraced this as something to be desired. Analise's change had not been consensual, and, she was too strong willed for her own good.

Isa turned as Rhys entered and opened her mouth to speak, but Rhys interrupted her. "GET OUT NOW!" He bellowed at the women, who both would have tucked their tails and retreated if they were in wolf form. They didn't require further instruction and were out of the room in a heart beat.

Rhys's sense of propriety was lost and he jumped onto the bed pinning Analise down and firmly grasping her head in his hands, forcing her eyes to look into his. She was terrified, that much was obvious. In great panic, her green eyes darted back and forth between his, searching for some measure of comfort.

"Let it happen," he ordered her firmly. That he wasn't shouting at her was about as much comfort as he could offer her. "Stop resisting it, Analise!"

"Nnnnoooo," she managed to get out in a voice that couldn't decide between human or wolf. She struggled to break free of his grip, but her body was essentially convulsing as it embodied the confusion of forms.

"Why?" He demanded. "You can't stop this from happening! You're only going to hurt yourself."

"I don't want to be an animal," she let out as tears spilled out of her eyes.

Rhys paused only momentarily from surprise. That was a new one. Analise was terrified of her inner wolf and was violently fighting for control. What she refused to understand was that fighting the wolf was only making the wolf fight harder. Apparently they were both incredibly stubborn and the battle being waged for control over their shared body was probably the most epic war he had ever witnessed.

Rhys himself started to panic for a brief moment when he realized that Analise wasn't going to back down and the two of them were going to end up self-destructing. It was like a scary story werewolves told their children to keep them obedient about shifting. No one resisted a shift; it meant the most painful and agonizing death imaginable. "No fucking shit," he answered in exasperated surprise. "God damn it, Analise, you're gonna kill yourself."

Her eyes widened slightly in momentary terror. He didn't think anything could scare that woman, though, this ordeal was certainly frightening him. The pack wouldn't turn any humans for a few decades after news of this one got around. Rhys tightened his grip on her hair and pulled her face forward to only an inch or two away from his. He used his strength to hold her as firmly as possible, though it was obvious that her inner wolf was quite powerful. "Listen to me," he told her, panic starting to surface in his voice. "You're still Analise, you understand me? You're still Analise and nothing is going to change that. I'm right here. I'm no going anywhere. You've gotta let this wolf out, Analise, or she's going to kill you."

"I don... I dunwanna eatyo," her speech was slurring between growls and intelligible words.

"You aren't," he assured her. "I'm gonna shift as soon as you do, ok? My wolf is bigger than yours; I won't let you hurt anyone but you gotta let her out or she'll rip you apart." He was bluffing. He had no idea how big Analise's wolf would be and judging by the power that was seeping through, it may very well be a close match; something that was only serving to intimidate him.

"Bettrme thanyo," she gurgled out.

"Damn it woman please for once just listen to me," he pleaded with her. "You gotta keep it together! I've got two agents who won't leave until they see you alive and well. So just let it out! We'll deal with how to fix it later."

"WHAT?" She answered in horrified surprise. "Pertres?" It was as close to Peters as she could say. Rhys nodded once, now having trouble holding her still.

Analise's panic grew into complete chaos. That response did nothing to instill confidence in Rhys. He was already worried that Peters was the sharp one and a terrified Analise only served to confirm that hunch. The tears were freely streaming from her eyes at this point. There was nothing she wouldn't have done to avoid this fate, but unfortunately for her, it was inevitable. "Plss hlp eme," she stammered out.

"LET IT OUT ANALISE!" He all but screamed at her. "I swear to god I'll keep you safe just let it out before you rip yourself to shreds."

She couldn't hold out any longer. All it took was a moment for her to consider Rhys's request and the wolf took hold. The force of the wolf bursting into control was sufficient to send Rhys hurling backward as a large brown wolf exploded into existence, tearing through the hospital gown and bed sheets with a loud and agonized howl.

Rhys collided with the wall behind him, but scarcely missed a beat. The wolf was utterly disoriented and her unsure paws slid along the floor like a dog on slippery ice. In terror, the wolf pushed herself under the hospital bed, looking more like a cornered cat than the great wolf that she was.

Rhys didn't even pause as Analise skid to an awkward landing beneath the bed, trembling from the horrible pain she had been enduring. Rhys ripped off his clothes as fast as he could, shifting in an instant as he had promised.

Not that Analise would have known, but Rhys avoided shifting as much as possible. This was one rare occasion when his human form demanded the services of the beast for something other than killing an opponent. Rhys slowly trotted up to the bed, crouching down to make eye contact with Analise. She was whining from the pain and offered Rhys a mild yelp as he came into view. It would take her a while to learn how to retain some of her human faculties in wolf form. For now, the Analise he knew would be buried in there, watching helplessly from the wolf's eyes, just as the wolf had been forced to do when Analise was in charge. The two of them were going to have to work out some sort of arrangement to share their body.

That was one argument Rhys was quite glad to not be involved in.

Two green eyes found his from the safety of her haven. He eased forward slightly, causing Analise to back a bit into the wall. She was still whimpering and trembling terribly from the pain. He inched forward again, taking in as much of her scent as he could and examining her new form.

Analise was an enormous wolf. She was just as tall as Rhys and possibly longer than he was, though rather than the bulk that he carried in wolf form, she was lean and sleek. Her legs were long and her torso was far more narrow than his. If he had to guess, what she lacked in strength she would more than make up for in speed and agility. In a fair fight, they would be evenly matched. As it presently stood, she didn't have sufficient space for her speed to counter his strength.

Rhys would be able to hold true to his promise. In this setting, he could dominate her and keep her isolated here until Analise was able to re-conquer the wolf and shift back. Rhys's wolf was in control of this situation in more ways than this, however. From behind his wolf eyes, Rhys was shocked to realize that his wolf was intent on mating with Analise once she was recovered. His wolf saw her as an equal, something he almost never experienced, and this was the first time he saw an equal in someone other than an opponent. The kinship the wolf felt for her was instant and deep. As a wolf, she was striking. Her fur was a deep chestnut color, gradually blending into mahogany socks and a deep mahogany muzzle. Her tail was bushier than most, almost like a fox, and her fir was sleek.

Rhys couldn't hold the wolf back as he inched forward to nuzzle against her snout with his own maw in a surprisingly affectionate way. Much to his surprise, Analise's wolf did not try to nip or attack. Instead, she nuzzled back, seeking comfort from a friendly wolf in her moment of great pain. She was hesitant and confused, but receptive to Rhys's presence. Slowly, he moved forward until he had wrapped himself around her, spooning along beside her as she rested and drifted to sleep. Rhys didn't move and wouldn't. He and his wolf were in agreement that they would stay by her side, though obviously for entirely different reasons. Once this had calmed down, he and Isa were going to have to have some words. For now, the wolf was thoroughly enjoying a rare moment of intimacy, rather than only being let out to kill.