Rain softly caressed Delphine's cheeks as she stood outside the front doors of the institute. Her hands clutched at the worn leather jacket hanging loosely from her shoulders as she tipped her head back and closed her eyes. Tony's jacket had been lying on the couch when she'd woken up. The wolf inside her had stirred violently once she was awake, immediately sending the filth that was starting to saturate the air. So she'd taken the jacket, gently maneuvered out of a still sleeping Cosima's arms and went outside to try to breathe past the air in the lab. The body down a few levels from their lab was tainting the air in the whole building according to her wolf senses.

The breeze outside had settled the beast in her bones, the rain cooling her heated skin down as the agitation died down slightly. The scent was still there, clinging to every single thing in the city, but there was enough fresh smells mixing outside to calm the wolf enough for Delphine to keep complete control.

Enough control that she could smell Cosima when she was getting close, the easy measure of her footsteps easily ringing through Delphine's ears. A smile twitched at her lips when her senses locked onto her tiny girlfriend, spreading into a lazy grin when warm hands settled on her hips and a kiss pressed against the back of her neck.

"You left me alone on the couch." Cosima's voice was scratchy, still heavy from sleep as she nuzzled her head between Delphine's shoulders and hugged her arms around her middle. "That wasn't very nice."

Delphine chuckled softly, turning in Cosima's hold so she could wrap her up completely, sighing contently when her head tucked into her neck. They shifted, subtly and completely in tune, until they were completely pressed together in each other's arms with Tony's jacket now wrapped partially around Cosima as well.

"I am sorry, Cherie. I needed to get some air." Delphine moved one hand to rub Cosima's back, eyes fluttering at the gentle exhalation of air against her skin when she hummed a sigh in response. "Tony called." Cosima peeked out from Delphine's neck enough to quirk an eyebrow, obviously telling her to continue. "He's leading a team out into the woods with Helena to recover a second body. He said it was, uhm…" She bit her lip, trying to find the correct term as to how Tony described it without using his language. "Disturbing, to say the least."

Cosima nodded slowly, settling her forehead against Delphine's neck while moving one hand up to grip at her shirt. "Did he give a time frame for this? Or are we just like waiting?"

"He said the trip back into the woods with a team would take quite a while. We are supposed to just wait but he also said to go home if we are not needed here. Rachel approved, she doesn't want us exposed to whatever this is for long. She has already gone home, Sarah as well."

The news that all the other clones that had been working that day had left already was a little startling to Cosima but she understood why they did. This was alarming; especially for those with hunters in them, and her clones all had predators in their souls.

"What would you like to do?"

With a tiny yawn and a resolute decision in her head, Cosima moved to hug her arms around Delphine's neck. Leaning back slightly, she caught the wolf's gaze and smiled softly. "Delphine," Standing on her toes, Cosima pressed a feather light kiss to Delphine's lips, smiling at the little whine that resulted from the touch. "Take me home."

Out in the forest, Tony was having less fun in the rain that was beginning to pick up into a rather heavy storm. He was drenched, his fur heavy on his body as he trudged along after a completely impatient Helena. She kept running ahead before circling back to growl at him to get him moving along, stomping her paws when he simply kept moving at the same speed.

It took a solid three hours for the team to haul their gear out into the woods, gather the body, haul their gear onto Tony's back so they could carry said body, and get everything back to the institute. By the time everything was settled back in the labs, Helena had shifted back and shot him a grin as she turned to leave the lab to go back to her room.

"I will see you, Брат." Her grin was too wide for his taste at that moment but he couldn't help but lean forward to pull her into a hug. When Helena finally wiggled around enough for him to let her go, he stuck his tongue out at her with a nod.

When Tony finally made it home, he could barely produce a smile for the tangled mess on the couch that was his girlfriends. Delphine was reclined back with Cosima laying on top of her, their limbs intertwined as Delphine's hand rubbed Cosima's back. Cosima's head was buried in her neck, seemingly too preoccupied to greet Tony, even as Delphine's movements stopped so she could smile and wave at him.

Tony spared her a twitch of a grin, shifting back with a grunt before stretching his arms up and back. He trudged off towards the bathroom with a mumble, running a hand through his tangled hair to let out the braids Delphine did for him after his last shower. The door was left open as he started the water, stepping into the shower once steam started to fog the mirror.

Delphine frowned softly from her spot on the couch, her hand moving to lightly squeeze the back of Cosima's neck. "Cherie," The soft call had Cosima lifting her head, a slight smirk on her lips at the redness of Delphine's skin where she had been. Settling her head instead on Delphine's chest, she peered up at her with a quirked eyebrow. "We should go see if he is alright. He seemed a little.." Delphine shrugged one shoulder, a sly grin starting to form. "Tense."

Cosima broke the façade first, snorting as she broke down into giggles and smacked Delphine's shoulder. Delphine tried to look insulted but her own grin was threatening to consume her. Leaning her head down, she pressed a kiss to Cosima's forehead, nearly melting at the hum she was rewarded with.

"Really though, we should go make sure he is alright." The gentle worry in Delphine's eyes had Cosima convinced. Nodding, she slipped off of the blonde below her before giving her a hand to help her stand

"Let's make sure wolfboy is alright then."

The open door gave the girls easy access to peek in on Tony behind the shower door, giving each other a worried glance when they noticed he was leaned against the far wall with the water hitting at the base of his neck. Every few seconds his shoulders would roll, trying to get rid of the tension, and he would sigh when it didn't go anywhere.

Cosima frowned slightly, eyes shading with worry as Tony closed his eyes with another long sigh, a short grunt slipping past his lips when he shifted forward.

"He's been working a lot lately," Delphine's voice whispered against Cosima's skin as she leaned close to her ear, an obvious worried tone tinting her words. "with those bodies being carried and the uh lune folie."

Leaning back into Delphine's warmth, Cosima's nodded with a gentle sigh. Her hands came to rest on Delphine's when they linked on her stomach. "He needs to relax. Maybe we should just like have a night in. Tomorrow we can just get the labs ready but other than that we have to wait until those bodies are deemed safe to handle." Shrugging one shoulder, she peeked up at the blonde wolf. "We could go in and get everything set up then come home and relax."

The answering grin Delphine gave her in response was enough to get Cosima's heart fluttering and a light blush splashing across her cheeks. She was enamored with the light happy spark in Delphine's eyes and jumped slightly when she kissed her cheek.

"That sounds perfect, Cosima." Delphine pressed into Cosima's back, squeezing her gently before pulling back a little. "Why don't you go order some food for us and I'll get him out of the shower, yes?"

Cosima smirked, her eyes taking in Delphine's expression as she nodded. "I'll get a little party set up too. Tony would probs appreciate a little high time."

Delphine grinned, nodding with a soft laugh as she backed off enough to let Cosima past her. "We'll be out in a few minutes." The answering wink was all Delphine needed to flush pleasurably, a light pink dusting her cheeks.

As she stepped into the room, Delphine saw Tony sigh slightly, her presence growing slowly closer calming him more than his shower had. He didn't stop her when she opened the shower door and shut the water off, her hand finding his shoulder a moment later.

"Come here."

Tony stepped out of the shower and straight into Delphine's arms, soaking her clothes as he tucked his head into her neck. He took deep breaths, taking in her scent and listening to her heart beat as it pulsed beneath her skin. His wolf called, a wild sort of instinct and need clawing at him from deep inside. Not the shift he controlled but the wolf itself, the beast so normally controlled.

Delphine could sense it, the way his muscles seemed to twitch beneath her hold and his haggard breathing. Her wolf stirred, responding to his emotions. Nuzzling his head, Delphine ran her hands along his back, making soft circles with her nails to try to soothe him. Slowly, she backed up until she could reach a towel, her hands finding purchase and throwing the material around Tony's shoulders.

Looking up at her, Tony tilted his head, his eyes shimmering gold. A low growl rumbled through him at the feel of the towel against his skin and Delphine shushed him, responding with a gentle bark of her own. Her hands ran through his hair, brushing out the tangles already settling in and she fought a smile when he pressed into the touch.

She spent the next few minutes drying him off as best she could, letting him shake his hair out in the shower before she tugged on it a bit.

"Let's get this braided, shall we?"

Tony seemed a little more in control, his eyes showing his human reflection even through the golden color. He nodded, giving her a small smile as he slid on a pair of boxers and an oversized tank top. That felt a little more normal, a little more like he had a hold over his wolf.

Taking his hand, Delphine led him into the living room where Cosima stood looking quite proud of what she'd turned it into. The other two laughed, Delphine's a bright giggle and Tony's a rough bark as he put one hand over his stomach.

The entire couch had been turned into a mass of pillows and blankets while the coffee table held a variety of snacks, movies, and Cosima's box of wonders. Shaking his head slightly, Tony rushed forward and picked Cosima up in a hug, pressing a kiss to her cheek as she shrieked in delight as he spun her around in a small circle.

"Thank you."

The two words were whispered but held more emotion than the girls knew what to do with. So they let it be. Instead of pushing for more, they simply curled up on the couch. Delphine sat behind Tony, brushing his hair as she readied it for her to braid as Cosima settled right in his lap with a freshly packed bowl in hand.

The night was spent in comfort, a mass of three bodies tangled together, and a high that lasted well into the morning hours. The apartment filled with love and affection battled away the darkness and demons that waited for them in the labs.

Outside of their world, back in Dyad, Alison was pacing her room as Sarah tried to calm her down. Hood still on her head, she was standing in the doorway completely confused as she tried to decipher what Alison was trying to tell her.

"She should be home, Sarah! It's four in the morning!"

"Yea, I'm well aware of the time, Alison." Rubbing her eyes, Sarah let out a large yawn, trying to wake herself up a bit. "Did you try callin' her? Or seein if the boys saw her leave her station?" The responding glare Alison gave her shut her up as she tried to think of where Beth could have gone. Putting her hands up in surrender, Sarah sighed. "Alright, look, I can get Helena to help me look for her if you really want."

Alison's shoulders relaxed somewhat, a low breath escaping her lips quickly. "I would appreciate it. Thank you."

They didn't hear the approach of heavy paws just outside the door, splashing through the muddy puddles spotted around the yard. Blood dripped down with the rain, a red river in the beasts wake. Wide pale yellow eyes scanned the surrounding area as she panted, chest heaving wildly. Rounding the corner, a loud roar immediately erupted from her muzzle, startling the two before her.

Sarah's eyes shot wide, jaw dropping when she saw Beth loping toward her with a wild look in her eyes. The lioness was bathed in blood and viscera, fangs still dripping as she stalked forward quickly.

"Beth! Stop!" Alison's voice seemed to jolt the lion, paws freezing mid-stride as she turned to look at her. Stepping forward slowly, Alison put a hand out and let out a soft sob when Beth immediately pressed her head into her palm. A low rumble of something close to a purr rang out into the night air as Beth stepped into Alison's space.

"What happened to her?" Sarah was stunned, her heart squeezing in her chest as she watched Alison fall to her knees to hug Beth around the neck. "Why is she all.. Why won't she stand up? She just keeps.. walking like a feral lion." She didn't expect answers, her words were whispered and rough. In all their years together, growing up, Beth had never taken a life. Never had the lioness been covered in blood. Even when on the hunt, Beth only went after small kills or fed off of what Tony and Helena took down. She rarely gave into the lioness inside of her and the sight of her covered in gore was more startling than Sarah ever wanted to admit.

"Take her inside and clean her up, Alison. I'm gonna go find Art." Sarah swallowed thick at the way Alison nodded almost mechanically. She slowly led Beth inside as Sarah watched, her jaw clenching when the door closed behind them. Something was very wrong.

Rolling her shoulders, Sarah let her own animal out of its cage. The shift overtook her easily, the bark of the hyenas laugh escaping her lips as soon as she fell to all fours in the last trembles of the change. As she shook her head, Sarah let the feeling of the air through her short fur settle.

Then she was running, nimble paws carrying her faster than her human legs ever could. Her eyes scanned the paths wildly, her body following the trail Beth had left behind without needing much direction. The red grew thicker as she went, pieces of meat strewn along the grass. A low panicked pull in her stomach hit when she spotted what was part of a human heart, bitten in half and tossed to the side.

The next few feet were splattered with blood and bone, Sarah's paws slowing as she spotted a broken lump just outside the building Beth normally worked in. Scenting the air, her heart stuttered when she smelled something oddly familiar. Slowly, she walked closer to the form, swallowing as she reigned in her beast. The smell of blood called to her, the predatory need to feed always settled just under her skin. She shook it off, instead rushing inside the building.

Inside was just as bad. The walls were splattered with blood, claws marks dug into the equipment on the walls. A chair was shredded, teeth marks as obvious in the leather as the deep scratches in the wood floor.

Sarah dug around until she found a radio that wasn't shredded, a deep sigh escaping her when she realized it still worked. Clumsily putting it to Art's frequency, she pressed the button with her claw and hoped.

"Art? Art, it's Sarah, I need you to answer." Panting into the air as she waited, Sarah groaned when there wasn't an answer right away. Pushing the button again, she let out a loud vocalization followed by a bit of a shout. "Art!"

When she let go, the response was almost immediate.

"Damn, Manning, I'm here. I'm awake. What do you need?" He sounded tired, she obviously woke him up but he also sounded like she had his attention.

"I need you to get down to Beth's station. Something happened, something bad, and I need to see the security tapes."

There was fuzz on the radio, a rustling, and then Art's frantic voice. "Is Beth okay? What happened? Is she okay?"

Sarah sighed, rubbing the side of her muzzle with her paw. Art and Beth had been close ever since they met in high school. They went through training together and she knew Art would do anything to protect Beth. Even if it meant covering up a murder. Dyad would help her, figure out what was wrong, but some of the others inside wouldn't be too keen on helping her if they saw just how badly she'd mauled that body.

"Beth's not hurt." She didn't know how else to put it, remembering the feral glint in the lion's eyes. "Just get down here, Art."

By the time Art arrived, looking ill at the surrounding gore, Sarah was pacing outside the building. She let out a little sound of relief when he approached her, the fur along her spine settling back down.

"I can't tell who this is but I think it might be Paul." Sarah waved a paw at the body crumpled a few feet away. "The face is chewed completely off and most of him is scattered down the path a bit. He smells familiar though, not in a good way." Stepping up to Art, she settled her hands on his shoulders, shaking him a bit to get his eyes to focus. "Beth was covered in blood when she got home to Alison, she looked insane. I need to see the tapes to see what happened here, Art. Then you and me, we gotta clean this mess up. All of it, most of it, I don't care. We gotta get rid of the body parts at least. If we hide the human, we can lie and say Beth went a little wild on a deer we got her and that's why there's so much blood."

Art let out a shaky breath as he nodded, face hardening a moment later. "Lets do this then."

Sarah followed him inside and watched as he fiddled with the equipment, the only sound around them his tinkering and cursing when he saw the wrecked equipment. When he finally turned around to face her, Sarah had shifted back and tossed on some workout clothes she found in Beth's bag still tossed in the back locker.

"I can get two monitors working. The cameras are still up so we have the film but I can't get the audio to work."

"That's fine, I don't think this is something we'll want to hear." Settling in on the floor next to Art, Sarah watched as he backed the film up. They skipped around a bit, Sarah growing worried each time she spotted Beth twitching uneasily at something Paul said or how she seemed to be snarling more and more as time went on.

When they reached the attack, neither of them could believe the carnage happening before them. Paul had been trying to get Beth's attention. She was slumped over in her chair, obviously breathing hard as he spoke. Then he went to grab her shoulder and she exploded. Her body lept off the chair and shifted as she moved, limbs flying out in a flurry of motion. Sarah could almost hear the resounding whisper of a roar when she saw Beth's jaws open on the screen, the terror on Paul's face clear as day in the wake of the sound.

They watched as Beth tore the building apart, watched as she took a bite out of Paul and followed him out the door. She had him pinned on the ground before he made it ten feet out the door, her claws ripping him to shreds as she chewed at his face.

Sarah hoped he died quick as she saw just how much damage Beth did, though the steady twitch of his body never stopped until she had taken off down the path with his heart held between her teeth.

Art turned the video off as soon as Beth was off screen, his hands trembling as he turned to Sarah.

"What do we do?"

"Well she's with Alison right now and she turned into a kitten when she saw her so I think we're safe for the time bein."Sarah let out a long sigh, closing her eyes as she steeled herself. "We need to clean up all the parts that look human and try to get rid of as much blood as possible. I'll talk to the guys and tell them that somethins wrong with Beth. We can explain the blood and the damage in here away but we can't explain Paul. We need to hide all evidence of her being the cause of his death."

"They'll look for him won't they?" Art was worried, rightfully so, and Sarah looked at him with a shrug.

"I don't know. He came here cause no one else would hire him. I don't think he has anyone outside of the security crew and even then, no one really liked the bastard. We can always say that he stole somethin and took off. No one would be surprised, we can worry about that later really." Sarah didn't really care how they explained Paul away. The boy had gone through the end year of training with the others then disappeared for a while. When he returned the previous year, Leekie had agreed to hire him on the security team. No one here would worry too much if he ran off again.

They both jumped when Beth's phone sounded from her bag, loud in the sudden quiet of the room. Sarah scrambled over to grab it, immediately answering when she saw Alison was calling.

"Alison? Are you okay? Is Beth okay?" Her voice was a little frantic, her anxiety impossible to completely hide.

"Sarah, I need you to get back here." Alison's voice trembled softly, a little sniffle sounding a moment later. "She won't change back, I can't get her to change back. I remember you got Helena to change back when she came home, I need your help with this." Sarah could hear the impending breakdown in Alison's voice and her heart broke a little when she realized how brave she was being for Beth. The need to protect rose up violently in her, her eyes slowly glowing red as she looked at Art. "Just get here, please."