((**Violence warning** So glad I finally finished this story! I can't say this is my best work of art- but it was the first time I tried a chapter story. I hope everyone enjoys this last chapter and thanks for staying with it so long.))

Rick slowly awoke from his slumber, his muscles stiff as he stretched out as much as he could. It didn't take much effort, barely a glance, to find that he had been stuffed into a cage. Thinking back to what happened, he could only shake his head.

The thumping of feet against the hard, rocky, terrain was audible as Dell and Rick bounded through the trees and avoided the brush as much as they could. Behind them, three men followed close, at certain times taking aim and firing at them. The sound of the weapons either alerted Rick that either they had suppressors or it wasn't bullets that were being fired.

The two weaved through the trees and stumbled over the brush, Rick ran right by Dell's side, guiding him through. How did he know where to go? His nose was leading them back. The stench of exhaust and rubber was strong enough to show him the way. It wasn't until he was hit that he realized what they were firing. Within a few minutes, Rick was stumbling and struggling to keep up. Tranquillizers. Within a few minutes, he was in the dirt struggling to stay awake. A figure loomed above him. He was talking but Rick couldn't remember anything the man was saying.

Beyond the figure, he remembered seeing, he couldn't remember anything, including what the person had said. He couldn't think about that now. Rick did his best to scope out his surroundings, if he didn't know better, he would have thought he was in an animal control centre. Despite how he knew it would do nothing, he pressed his weight against the cage door. If he could he would have gotten a little bit of a thrusting start, but that would require more room than he had.

A clacking noise alerted Rick of another presence entering the room. Once more he laid down and pretended to be asleep as the clicking of shoes grew closer.

"And you are completely sure?" a man spoke, in a smooth voice "You know how all of that sounds, right?" he asked.

"You got your proof, did you not? I assure you, it's authentic. If I had not seen it for myself, I would have never believed it either. Yet here we are, looking at the possibility of this being your supposed... assassin." A rough french accent rang through the air. Rick knew the voice well, a voice he never wanted to hear again nor thought that he would.

Rick tried his best to rationalize everything, it was all he could do since he was locked in a cage. How would Marceau know to follow him? How would he know it would give him this information, convince him that it was possible to transform people into wolves? That was just it, there was no way he could have known.

It must have been Dell. Dell was a close friend of Lenore… who was… something to Marceau, possibly a lover. As Rick rationalized everything, he concluded that everything Marceau knew, he had come across by chance while snooping for more information on Dell. Frustration grew within him, he didn't know if that was true, but it was what he would choose to believe.

He could hear some shuffling around and clanking of the cage door before the footsteps slowly started to fade "We'll get to him later, then." he heard the large door close again.

After a few moments of silence, Rick once again opened his eyes. The door to his cage was opened for some reason. He crawled out into the white room, pristine from a recent cleaning, the chemicals still wafting in the air. To one end of the room, there was a large door, just by looking at it, he could tell it was made of metal. To the other side of the room, beyond all the dog kennels, there was a low hanging garage door. It was left open for a reason.

Slowly, Rick made his way down toward the exit, paws clicking against the concrete. When he reached the door, one of the many things he had been dreading became a reality.

On the other side of the building, tied to a chair, Dell's eyes rolled open. He groaned from a dull ache that pounded in his head, or perhaps the one that came from his spine, regardless, his head rose and eyes opened. The room he was in looked like it came out of a police television show. White walls, a table in front of him, three chairs in total, and a mirror upon the far wall next to a door. If Dell took anything away from watching television, in a room like this, the mirror would one-way glass.

Dell did his best to move, wriggling his wrists and examining his situation. The bindings were tight, tight enough to almost stop the blood flow to his hands. He spent several minutes realizing the futility of trying to wiggle out of his bindings. There was a panic that vibrated through him as the silence allowed him to think about everything that was happening and how it all came to pass. If he had just not taken Rick just a week ago, none of this would have happened.

Before he could reflect more, the door opened. Through the said door, two men stepped through. One wore a mask, the other didn't bother. The man who wore no mask looked at his watch "Good morning, Dell." the man said with a smooth voice. There was a moment of confusion from the man "I hope you don't mind, I like knowing who I am talking to." The man held up a leather wallet that belonged to Dell. "Out of curiosity, do you remember who I am?" he continued, Dell remaining silent.

After a few moments of silence, the man sighed "I will take that as a no. We met formally last night, around 7. You certainly are faster than you look." The comment almost caused Dell to roll his eyes, but thankfully he was able to avoid that. No need to be sassy toward your captor.

Now that Dell thought about it, he didn't remember much after the sun went down, whether it was from the fear or whatever was in the darts. "Refresh my memory," Dell said, his tone less than grateful considering his situation.

"My name is Solomon, nice to make your acquaintance." Solomon crossed his arms "I am willing to be civilized about this unfortunate situation." he gestured to the man standing by him to stay put "I just need to know that you will cooperate with me. If you do so, you can return home like none of this ever happened." Solomon finished awaiting any response from Dell.

Without much of a choice, Dell nodded. He wasn't sure exactly what he could offer, but if he had a chance to gain feeling in his hands again, he would take it. Without a doubt, if Dell tried anything at all, the masked one was probably packing.

The chains fell to the floor, freeing Dell's hands and feet as the interrogation commenced. Solomon sat down across the table while the masked one continued to stand, and he pulled two photos from the inside of his jacket. Both photos were placed on the table, "Do you know this man?" Solomon asked.

Dell looked down at the picture, which looked like it was taken from a long distance. He took a look at the picture, a brunette, lengthy, looked about 30, sunglasses. This photo was slid toward Solomon "I can't say that I do." he told him simply and honestly.

Solomon smiled and nodded "What if I were to tell you that you did?"

Dell shook his head, raising his hands in an 'I-don't-know' gesture "How?" he asked, playing dumb.

Solomon held up the picture "This man's name is Rick Mundy, an accomplished sniper." he paused "Now, we happen to understand that your canine companion is more than what he seems to be." he tapped the picture "In case you were wondering what he is supposed to look like." Solomon tapped the picture as he finished with a smile, fake as they came.

Again, Dell decided to play dumb "You trying to tell me that my dog is a human?" Dell asked with a tilt of his head "You might need a little more evidence to convince me."

Without hesitating, the masked man that had been standing silently leaned forward, placing his hands upon the table, to stare down at Dell condescendingly. "Don't play stupid with us." the man said, an undeniable french accent...it sounded familiar. It couldn't be. For now, Dell would ignore it, but it bothered him.

"Was I the only one that heard the gallon of crazy in that sentence?" he asked looking between them both.

"Good thing I was there when you learned that it was the truth then." The Frenchman said smugly. "A pitbull turned human if you want proof that I was there." he finished before pushing himself back up.

Dell was quiet as he found himself caught in his act, but how on earth could he have been there? "You see," Solomon stated "At first, I was interested in you and that canine to see if it was true. We still have plans to test this. Then, when we finally caught you out in the woods last night, you were carrying an odd item for someone who works construction." Dell took slow deep breaths as he listened, but refused to speak. "This gun you were carrying, is the same gun carried by…" Solomon tapped the picture of the man again.

Solomon sighed, obviously running low on his patience. "Tell us, how is it that this 'Rick Mundy' came to be under your care and in his… condition."

Dell cleared his throat "I found him wandering the woods-"

"Dell, don't test my patience, this situation can get much worse." Solomon interrupted. Suddenly it became obvious. There was absolutely no way Dell could tell the truth and they would believe it. As far as these two understand, Dell was part of a plan of some sort. A planned accomplice or something. "Do you truly want to defend a killer? Or is your profile fake? Graduated with a major in mechanical engineering, working a job in construction since then. No criminal record, not even a late car payment."

Dell was starting to feel the panic settle in again. He did not have a good feeling about this.

Rick let out a groan as he exited the cement prison to find himself out in the dark yard lit only by electric lights above and the moon that shone as red as a moon can be. Seeing the crimson moon for himself brought his mind back to the dream he had the other night. This was his last night, with the sunrise he knew that something would happen. Would he remain a wolf or would the curse release him?

Rick let out a huff as he took a few steps out, the door nearly hit him in the ass as it closed. He was getting a good feeling from all of this, definitely no dread about what could be in this cage with him.

He moved further away from the cement building, examining his surroundings. Along the ground he could see dog toys, off to the other side there were dog houses, surrounding them a giant fence. Of course, he was placed in a dog pen, though he could not see any dogs. There was a chance something could be around the corner of the building as it seemed like the enclosure went in that direction, but Rick wasn't going to explore, he was going to get out. The fence was quite secure, three feet of cement with an added five feet of wire fence. Too high to jump, but if he had the ability, it was surmountable.

As Rick stood, looking at every inch of the fence, he came across an interesting sight. It seems that something else was in his cage at some point, seeing as there was a small portion of the fence broken near the corner of the enclosure. Surprisingly the hole might be big enough for him to squeeze through…. A tight fit but better than nothing.

As he neared the break in the fence, about to make his grand escape, he should have guessed that it wouldn't be that easy. A growl behind him, made him stop and spin around. He just wasn't quick enough to avoid meeting those that lived in the enclosure. Standing behind him, and above him by a good three inches, were three Dobermans.

"Look, Duke, lunch." The largest Doberman spoke as the other two started to stalk around him. To keep the Dobermans from getting behind him, Rick started to back up which spurred all of them to start heading closer to the fence.

"I was thinking of a chew toy. What about you, Ruby?" Duke snickered, none of them losing eye contact on Rick. Ruby's response wasn't quite in words rather a snarl and a bark… wait- why couldn't he understand what she was saying? Not what he should be worrying about at this moment.

It's not like Rick hasn't been in a similar situation, three sizable guys against one of him. Seeing as he was smaller than these canines, and all of them on four paws, there was only one thing Rick could think of doing. Since he was smaller, he had to use that to his advantage.

Using the cement wall behind him as a platform, he jumped up, springing off it to catch enough air to get behind the leader of the Doberman pack. After that, he sprinted as fast as his legs could carry. Close on his tail, the three Dobermans were gaining ground on him. Once again he used the cement wall just below the fencing to help him quickly change direction.

The size of the Dobermans was their downfall and the one time Rick was glad he was small. The largest of them smacked right into the wall while the other two stumbled to change their direction and follow him. Regardless of anything else that happened behind him, he had a large lead.

Without wasting time, Rick jumped up onto the small cement ledge and dived nose-first through the hole in the fence. As he thought, it was a tight fit, but he managed to struggle through in time to get out of the jaws of death, and when he did, he didn't stop to look behind him. He had bigger problems to deal with aside from three dogs that wanted to eat him.

It was easy enough to find a door inside, but getting inside the building wasn't working in his favour. If he had thumbs or even the ability to twist his paws enough he may have managed to open the door. When all of that failed, he thought he might as well try another trick. He used his head to knock on the door and waited. As Rick would have hoped, someone did come to the door, and when they did he made damn sure they didn't have enough time to shut him out.

Rick took off down the hall, leaving behind an unconscious woman. Turn by turn, he started to slow his pace warily. Not only was this building huge, but it was way too empty for Rick to feel at ease. He continued down a hall, now at a wandering pace, what would be useful at this moment would be a map or a sign.

It wasn't long until he came to a few doors, voices accompanied by a strange smell coming from the other side. The curiosity overpowered his judgement and pushed him to snoop. As quietly as he could, only the clacking of his paws, he approached one of the doors where the smells were coming from. Luckily the door was open so he wouldn't be left to struggle or continue wondering what he was smelling. Aware of the voices that were approaching, Rick slipped through the crack and into the room, well, more like nearly fell downstairs he didn't realize were there.

He stopped, ears flicking back as he listened to the voices getting closer. "What a waste." a woman spoke with a huff.

"He's the boss, if he says blow it up, we blow it up. No questions asked." a man responded.

"I know, I know. We all know what happens when the boss doesn't get what he wants." the woman agreed "I'm just saying, this place must've costed a small fortune to make-"

"Let's just finish setting up the last room and hit the bar." The man interrupted the woman's sentence. Rick could hear the agreement the strangers came to before their voices faded completely.

Once he was left in silence, Rick hopped down the stairs and followed his nose. His nose led up the wall where bricks of something were stuck to the wall. It didn't take long for Rick to identify what it was. Each brick was wired to one another. This room was lined with C4. All of a sudden that conversation between those two workers made a lot of sense, the reason behind the whole demolition did not, but the conversation did. He needed to find Dell and get a move on as quickly as possible.

He ascended the stairs and slipped out of the room. Navigating still wasn't easy, but when Rick caught a faint scent trail that smelled like Dell, he followed it. It led him to the other side of the building from where he had started, and when he arrived, there were more people in this area than any others he had passed by.

The trail led to a hall, at the end of this hall was a door. No doubt that Dell must be in there somewhere, he just had to figure out how to get in. There wasn't a lot he could do, slamming a door would do very little for him, he couldn't blow the building up. He walked at a wandering pace as he looked every which way for something that could help him.

He wandered only a few halls before he came across an idea. Upon a wall, not too far away, there was a fire alarm. As juvenile as it made him feel, it was the only idea he has had so far.

He trotted to the fire alarm and got onto his back feet, using his paw to try and pull the lever. This was just about the hardest thing he had faced since becoming a canine, that included the Doberman fiasco not too long ago.

Footsteps once again caught Rick's attention creating a reason for urgency in his struggling. He just had to hook one of his nails on the handle and it should allow him to pull it. As the footsteps got closer, a small fluke allowed him to hook a nail firmly enough to pull the fire alarm and cause a moment of awe in how Rick actually pulled that off. With the alarm now going off, Rick bolted for the first open door to hide from anyone who may be rushing by to see why there were alarms.

He crouched down close to the door, looking through the crack he had left himself and waited to see who came walking down the hall. As he could have hoped, about four people came walking down the hall, their voices drowned out by the alarms. He made sure Dell was not among them as they went by. Seeing that he wasn't was both a relief and not surprising, of course, they would leave him in the case of a fire. Once they passed, he snuck through the crack in the door and headed straight for Dell.

He was cautious as he went, but it seemed as though only one guy was left in the three rooms that were near Dell's cell. The room he was in had a large glass window that looked into the room Dell was being held in, a glance to where the guy was sitting told him that there was a button that unlocked the door. He needed that guy out of the room and, without much of a choice, he decided it would play on fear and hope for the right reaction.

With a deep breath, Rick entered through the open door. He bared his teeth as he entered and let loose a deep rumbling growl from deep within his chest. The man seemed to freeze when he heard the growl and slowly turned to look at Rick. It didn't take long for the man to get out of his seat and slowly ease himself around Rick before bolting out the door. At least it worked.

Now that the man was no longer in the way, Rick was free to check out the panel. There were only so many things to press, one of which included light switches as he soon found out when he used one of his paws to press the button. At the very least, Rick's experimentation with buttons got Dell's attention. Dell lifted his head when the lights flashed on and off. There was a spark of guilt when he saw Dell's face. It was obvious that he had gotten smacked around a little by the growing bruise on his right cheek and slight cut just above his eyebrow. Rick let out a sigh as he flipped the light switch again in hopes he wouldn't think it was just a fluke.

Next, he pressed a button located just to the left. A click echoed through the mostly empty room, the source sounded to be the door. It was in that moment of confusion that he realized the door was only unlockable from the outside while the button was being pushed. Of course, this wouldn't be easy.

Rick looked through the glass, Dell was looking at the door expectantly. In these short moments, he had an idea, though how well it would work out was questionable. He started to click the button several times in a row, each time the door made a click followed by a clunk. He stopped after three consecutive clicks and waited.

Dell started to stand up, his hands bound behind him but for some reason not chained to the chair. Rick should be thankful that he wasn't chained to the chair. As Dell neared the door, Rick pressed the button to unlock it. Somehow his plan had gone exactly as he wanted it to, maybe a little slower than he was hoping, but it worked.

Dell opened the door and entered the room, which Rick responded to by jumping down from the chair. There was a moment of silence as Dell realized who saved him and he took a deep breath. It almost seemed as though Dell was disappointed that Rick was there.

Rick wasn't going to dwell on it, there were more important matters to deal with. "We gotta get moving," Rick spoke under his breath, his words coming out as a small whine as he started toward Dell. Their reunion wasn't as warm as Rick was hoping, in fact, Dell instead seemed almost anxious. Something must have gotten to Dell during his interrogation. Despite this, Rick continued to approach and help Dell out of the ropes that bound his wrists. His wrists were raw from the rope being tight and rubbing against his skin. With that, it was time to get the hell out of dodge.

Dell continued to act warily around Rick for some time while they wound through the halls in search of the exit. In the process, the distance between Dell and Rick grew, almost as if Dell was being slow on purpose. As they passed a four hall intersection, the owner of the establishment himself made an appearance.

Dell stumbled backward from the sudden appearance of Solomon from the hall between him and Rick. "Neither of you are going anywhere!" Solomon yelled furiously, a wild gleam in his eye. Rick turned around the moment he heard the voice. Though, right as he turned around, Solomon pulled a gun.

It was almost like time slowed down as Rick saw the impending danger. As Solomon's gun rose to shoot Dell, Rick felt as though he were back in that crazy dream the other night. The image of Dell still made him sick, but to think that the eight-night dream could have been prophetic was terrifying. He could still recall Dell's dead stare and was not willing to witness it happen right in front of him.

Rick's ears pinned back as he took an inhale, a disembodied voice whispering and urging him to go faster. Once or twice he felt as though he had seen his old friend standing where Dell was, his black hair covering those eyes that haunted him all the while his lips moved, silent words departing him.

Rick maneuvered himself between Solomon and Dell, a deep and menacing growl vibrating from his chest and a mouth full of teeth ready to tear into something. Dell no longer became the target as Solomon aimed his gun for the wolf that stood against him.

Rick put all of his power into a lunge and Solomon pulled the trigger.

As the bullet sliced through the air and toward Rick it was engulfed in light which soon surrounded him. When he emerged from the light, two hands grabbed onto Solomon's pristine shirt and following that a naked body emerged unaware of their exposed state. Rick's face was contorted in anger as he threw the man against the wall, the gun falling to the ground.

It was in these moments that Rick realized that he had his own body back. He had no idea as to how Dell reacted to seeing all of this happen in front of him. Sadly, he couldn't dwell on it for long now because they had to focus on getting the hell out so they could live to fight another day. From the corner of his eyes, Rick could see Dell making his decision on whose side he was on. He made a fast approach to where the gun was, swiftly taking it and passing to the other side. Rick held his hand out for the gun which Dell gave him after a slight hesitation.

Before this whole situation he would not have even thought to spare someone who had attacked him, but yet he didn't pull the trigger on Solomon as he aimed his weapon. The look on Rick's face was waiting, asking for Solomon to make a move so he could pull the trigger. He got exactly what he wanted. "Kill me! Kill me or I swear I will spare no expense to find you!" he started to laugh "When I do, I will make you beg for mercy!"

The only hesitation Rick had was Dell standing right behind him. Weakness showed as Rick shot Solomon in the foot and leg. Before Dell could say anything Rick had them moving down the hall. Solomon's screaming drew a lot of attention as expected, several times causing the duo to duck into a room. One of those lucky rooms they hid in just so happened to be a control room with a convenient long coat.

Upon closer inspection of the control panel within the room, there were several sticky notes with passwords and codes. Conveniently there was a particular sticky note that had a code labelled "C4 Detonation". Dell was quick to throw the coat at Rick as this observation was made. While putting on the long coat he even managed to spot an ID left on the desk.

A snicker left him as he finished buttoning the jacket before tossing the ID at Dell who barely caught it. "Joe Dean needs to learn not to leave all these sticky notes lying around." Rick snickered before inputting the code onto the keypad that had been beneath the note. Just moments after he finished a new alarm started to screech a voice rang through the speakers.

"Three minutes until detonation." Rick glanced at Dell who looked at him with murderous intent. By now he could only imagine that Dell was struggling to keep up with no time to process anything he had seen.

"What in the world made you think that was a good idea?" Dell's face scrunched as he rubbed his temples to fight a possible oncoming migraine.

"We can have a long talk about all this later, but for now we should make a break for the exit." Rick gestured, waiting the few moments it took Dell to get his ass out the door. Rick kept the gun close as they maneuvered through the halls, the voice giving off frequent warnings on the little time they had left.

They soon found the exit, behind them the sounds of plenty of others trying to get out of the building possibly heading for this exit, but by now it may be too late for them. They exited the building at a fast pace, Rick looking through the trees. Gracing them with rays of warmth, the morning sun was just barely peeking over the horizon. Both of the men fled further from the building that was still counting down the seconds until the C4 went off. "Pick up the pace!" Rick yelled, pulling Dell along with him.

Though the forest seemed so peaceful, soon it was all disrupted with the deafening explosion that destroyed the entire facility and everything inside. Dell and Rick were lucky they were outside the danger zone, but not far enough to avoid stumbling over with the force that followed. Rick was the first to get back up, ears ringing and a bit dizzy from stumbling over. Dell remained on the ground in a dazed state until Rick came over and offered him a hand.

"I forgot to ask- why in the hell was that place rigged to explode?" Dell asked, his voice louder than he was expecting. He took Rick's extended hand and groaned as he got up.

"Didn't stop to ask," Rick responded as he looked back at the facility.

As Rick pulled Dell to his feet a voice cut through the air just loud enough for the two to hear. It seemed as though Solomon had not only survived the explosion but was not giving up. "No one makes a fool out of me…" the man spoke as he hobbled from the wreckage. Rick took a step forward, getting prepared to fight before gunshots caused him to flinch as Solomon was downed with a few curse words.

As surprising as it was to see, Dell had been the one to pull the trigger on the man. After the man was dead Rick warily approached him. Taking the gun from his hands was met with no resistance.

For a moment both of them stood there in silence as they looked from Solomon to the destruction behind him, anything that hadn't gone up with the explosion was burning away in the aftermath. After a good while, Rick gave a good signal that it was time to go as he started toward the tree line.

"Now what?" Dell asked a hand coming up to his face to wipe some dirt away.

There was a moment of silence before Rick shrugged "You go home and try to forget any of this happened." Rick said

"Forget?" Dell repeated thinking about everything that happened in the past few hours. It was enough action for a lifetime yet it all fit in 11 hours, granted about six of them were spent unconscious, but there was no way he would be able to forget any of this. Rick looked back at Dell who was staring off into the woods instead of walking. He could only imagine what the other was feeling after all that had happened within the day.

"It's in our best interest to be as far from here as possible," Rick mentioned, as he waited for Dell a short distance away. Dell nodded as he jogged to catch up. Rick only spared a glance behind him as they both disappeared into the trees alongside Dell.

"You know, you got a lot of explainin' to do while we hike our asses out of here," Dell said as he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down from everything he had just been through "and I want the entire story."