Wolves and Men

He thought about that; maybe, an intercom system with a remote electrical switch that he could turn on and off from up here away from whatever trick she had tried to use on him before? That could work except he would have to have people install it and he wasn’t sure if she would be able to sway slaves that were already enthralled to him. It was too much of a risk in any case. He would have to keep that in mind though, for future interrogations.

If he couldn’t control her, and he couldn’t break her, maybe he could use her in other ways. Other Houses might pay a lot of money for a captive Elder. Who knows, she might even succeed with them in what she had tried to do with him. It was a captivating thought. He would elevate himself in the eyes of the other House Heads, while weakening another House. That could be a most fortuitous chain of events. He would have to put out delicate feelers. He knew that if he went to another House Head directly, somehow it would get back to Alessandro. Then he would die. There was no question. Alessandro would kill him just for having an Elder without telling him. With that in mind, he knew that she was an albatross that would sooner or later become his hanging noose. He needed to figure out what to do with her, the sooner the better.

He walked outside to find Michael and his car. “The zoo,” he stated simply. Michael drove out onto the busy freeway system of Los Angeles. The ride was longer than he would have liked. He consoled himself knowing that he was closing in on his goal. But the attacks two nights ago on the Farm and the club meant that the wolves were also up to something. He might have to work faster than he had originally supposed.

The zoo was an animal research facility. Or at least that’s what people passing by the outside of the place thought it was. Inside it was a little less formal.

He walked in through the double doors and the sounds of animals were muted but still there. This was a training facility that he had developed over the past few years. With Natalia’s help he had discovered some of the lost arts of the Vampires. One of which was the domination of nocturnal creatures, rats, bats, and wolves.

The art had been let go by the House Heads in favor of politics and hiding out in the open. Gone, were the days where their kind needed the advance scouting skills and early warning abilities afforded by wolves and rats. Alessandro hadn’t used this talent in front of him ever, if he even still possessed it.

But it had occurred to Kenneth that since the werewolves were part wolves themselves the more control vampires could exert over the four legged allies of their enemy would only serve to make the werewolves weaker and the vampires stronger. Thus, he had started this training facility.

It had been difficult at first. He only had one wolf at first, and even with Natalia’s help, some of the texts she had uncovered were maddeningly difficult to decipher. The process of dominating wolves was so alien to the way he had dominated humans. Getting inside the extremely disciplined mind of the wolf was like trying to crack computer code, which was absolutely lost on him as well.

He had been working for a little over two years. He only had four wolves to experiment on, but he was certain of his imminent success. The wolves were tired, but well fed. He didn’t need wolves that were suffering from malnutrition. An artificially weak-willed wolf was no real test for a strong one in the wild.

There were two animal handlers and two other people that took care of the facilities. The wolves were housed in separate enclosures, two males, two females. The floors of the enclosures were coated with dirt and wood chips. The place was power washed and hosed down every week. The wolves had a living enclosure and smaller enclosure where they were fed. It was usually around that time, before feeding, that Kenneth tried to apply what he had learned on them.

“Tony! Is it feeding time yet?” Kenneth yelled to one of the handlers. The man was sitting behind a metal desk, reading a magazine.

The man kicked himself up and stood up in a very rushed and comical fashion. The man shoved the magazine into a desk drawer and looker around wildly for a clock. “Um, yeah…I ..uhh…Yup! Yes, it is that time, Boss.” He started moving toward the cages pulling on a heavy glove and arm protector. “Should I go and move them out now?”

He looked out at one of the males. The wolf didn’t like him but he knew that Kenneth wasn’t going to harm permanently. The intelligence of the animal was what really fascinated him. Would tonight be the night?

“Yes, Tony. I want you to move that male, first” Kenneth said. “I will feed him myself. Get the others fed as well.”

Tony nodded and moved out to the cages. He was a tall man, gentle minded. That’s why he picked him, he would never dream of hurting the animals. He cared for them too much. Tony may even have had names for them. If he did Kenneth didn’t know them, or care.

“Come on Dutch. There’s a good boy. Come on, you know it’s time for food. Oh gimme the food?! Gimme the food?! Yes, here it is!”

“What are you doing?” Kenneth asked dryly.

“Well, you never said I couldn’t name them,” Tony said a little hurt. “He reminds me of Dutch, so that’s what I call him.”

“Do you always speak in that ridiculous baby tone with a 3-year-old male wolf that would rip you to shreds if he was ever hungry or angry enough?”

Tony laughed looking down at the male wolf in the enclosure in front of him. “No, Boss not Dutch. Wolves aren’t like that at all. I’m not part of his pack but he knows that he’s in my territory. That makes him the intruder and my subordinate. He wouldn’t ever attack me unless he started to get the idea that he owned this place which would never happen because we clean the place every week. He never gets a chance to leave his scent mark on anything for long.”

“I see,” Kenneth said dryly. “Just get the others fed. And keep the baby talk to a minimum. I have work to do.” Tony nodded with a sad look on his face. He looked down at Dutch and moved to the other enclosures to feed the other wolves.

Kenneth sat down in the feeding enclosure and stared at, ‘Dutch.’ Stupid name. The wolf stared back at him with a straight face and deep golden eyes. There was no malice there but perhaps boredom, instead. The wolf started to turn away but Kenneth lightly tapped the cage with his foot to bring the animal’s attention back to him.