Andreas led Graeme through the medical wing of the pack house and down a modern corridor flooded with natural light. Offices and larger conference rooms lined both sides of the hall—their exterior walls floor to ceiling windows that brightened the whole floor despite each room being obscured from the hallway by frosted glass.

Andreas stopped and knocked on one such door before opening it to reveal a young girl sitting behind a large white desk, staring at a computer.

“Zosime, I present Graeme Hollowell. Please fill him in on what we discussed,” Andreas said and promptly left the way they had came. Surprise passed over Graeme’s expression for a moment upon finding this stray-turned-lead researcher to be no older than 14.

Zosime sprung from her chair and walked around her desk to grab Graeme’s hand. “I am so excited to meet you, Graeme. I’ve heard so much about you,” she said. “You can call me Zoe. Andre is so formal. He refuses to do it no matter how many times I ask.”

Andre? “Nice to meet you, Zoe,” Graeme replied.

“You need to be careful of that mate of yours, Graeme. I can’t wait to meet her though. Wow, an actual live subject from Eliade! What are the chances? I just can’t believe it. And that she survived! I wonder how many of subjects worldwide have survived the final process so far. There’s no data on that yet. Andre thinks the whole pandemic transmutation is doomed to failure, but he is definitely not a man of science, isn’t it so? Stupid fears of the alyko witches…” Zosime shook her head regretfully with wide childlike eyes.

“Alyko are actually quite wonderful with their manipulation of the elements, don’t you think? Oh I mean, apart from those responsible for your parent’s death, obviously. I’m so sorry. This pack has a gruesome history. That is part of the reason I was terrified when I was caught as a stray by Marius and brought to the elders. I was so thankful they gave me a chance. Of course I can understand the paranoia regarding strays and alyko with the history here, don’t get me wrong…” she continued to talk quickly while twirling a strand of hair around her finger and occasionally batting her lashes at Graeme before looking away shyly to the wall. Graeme, who felt that potentially useful information was coming at him in rapid-fire, stood slightly dumbstruck.

“Zoe, Zoe…” Graeme interrupted her. “Can you fill me in on what it is exactly you do here?”

“Of course! So we focus on maintaining an offensive front to what the council perceives as threats to the pack or to lycan kind in general mostly through data collection. Initially when I first got here, the elders simply wanted me to keep an eye on the global movement of creature communities, particularly the known alyko from other packs as they believed them to be a significant threat for obvious reasons. That’s how we discovered Penelope Winter was in the area and working as a prominent, though secret, figure in the research done at Eliade,” Zoe said, continuing to twirl her hair like a child rather than a lead researcher Andreas had entrusted pack information to.

“Anyway, the other thing we’ve done—or that I’ve done, it’s kind of a pet project of mine—is sequence alyko DNA and compare it to traditional lycan DNA,” she returned to her desk and clicked on a screen displaying what appeared to be a three dimensional DNA structure.

“Of course, Andreas is set on there being some kind of fundamental difference—as if the so-called witches were their own species, but they clearly aren’t. Instead, I proposed that rather than the genes themselves being significantly unique, it instead has to do with the way the DNA folds in the fourth dimension. A way of interacting with the universe and its energy in an entirely different way that also happens to impede lycanthrope activation. The folding isn’t something anyone can manipulate in a lab, of course. And it’s just a theory,” Zoe played a video simulation of this hypothetical four dimensional folding. “A theory that the elders don’t understand,” she mumbled to herself.

“Being able to test a subject that has undergone the viral and catalyst transformation would be huge,” she peeked excitedly at Graeme. “When can we meet your mysterious mate?”

Graeme met Zosime’s eager eyes. While her face was one of innocence, he sensed something sinister lurking beyond. Maybe it was just the intelligence that was in such stark contrast to her features and demeanor.

“Hmmm, I don’t know Zoe. We’ll have to see how August feels about it,” he replied carefully.

Zoe giggled. “Well, you can’t hide her forever, Alpha.” Her eyes went wide in apparent embarrassment. “Oh, don’t tell Andre I called you that.. Come, let me show you something.”