Greg followed David and Lane up to the makeshift bridge across the Lour. He waved them goodbye and watched as they led their horses over the ramshackle construction. Neither David’s gelding nor Lane’s mare seemed too happy about this. Or maybe it was the proximity of the pack that made them nervous. Greg could feel Bernadette’s presence, so she had to be very close, probably watching from the forest. Fleur and Boris were sure to be with her.

It was time to get it over with. He had told Bernadette that they could talk about the matter after full moon, and that had been over three days ago. The pack hadn’t come close to the worksite or into camp while David and Lane had been around.

Some of the bites Greg had earned in the fight with the mad ones still ached when he moved. He had been incredibly lucky that neither of the three had managed more than flesh wounds.

David and Lane were long out of sight when finally, three figures walked out of the forest. Bernadette, Fleur, and Boris were in their human form and dressed, too, which surprised Greg a little. As Bernadette had said, the human body just wasn’t very practical, when staying in the forest for more than a night. And the pack hadn’t come into camp since Greg had told Bernadette he didn’t want her apology.

He wondered if they were now expecting him to apologize for his behaviour then.

He suddenly felt very alone, standing here at the bridge, facing the other three. Thoko and Nathan both had offered to come with him, but he’d thought that this conversation would probably go better if no humans were there.

He regretted that now.

Greg was a little surprised when the other three came close enough that he could see their faces, and they looked just as worried as he felt.

“They’re not coming back, are they?” Bernadette asked, glancing across the bridge.

“They will return sooner or later,” Greg said. “But for now, they’re on their way to talk to the Morgulon.”

“Why?” Bernadette asked, looking even more scared.

Greg wondered if he should tell them the truth, that they wanted to ask her about elder werewolves, but then decided against it.

“Duke George Louis wants the Morgulon to try what you tried,” he said instead. Which was also true, but not really why David and Lane wanted to talk to her. And then, because Bernadette looked still very nervous, he added: “Lane and the Morgulon are friends, too, so she wants to see how she’s doing, anyway.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Boris grumbled. “Why would the Morgulon of all people be friends with the Mad Butcher?”

Greg shrugged. “You’ll have to ask her yourself, I only know what I’ve been told. They did save each other’s lives, I’m pretty sure.”

Boris spat onto the ground in disgust.

“I still cannot believe that David the Relentless is really your brother,” Fleur said quietly. “That the Feleke Four are your family.”

Greg hadn’t heard that one yet. He wondered how David would feel about that epithet.

“I cannot believe that I spent full moon no ten yards away from him and lived,” Boris growled. “If they do come back, someone else can take that cage.”

Greg rolled his eyes. “You did survive,” he pointed out. “So what’s the matter?”

Boris stared at him, his mouth actually falling open. “You-“ he started, but stopped and shook his head.

“You do not know what it’s like for us, Greg,” Bernadette said. “For us, who have spent years living as werewolves. Think of it like this, perhaps,” she added slowly: “It is one thing to be falsely accused of some worldly crime. Even if you feel you have no chance of defending yourself against the accusation levelled against you, at least you can run. Flee to the next county, the next city, and if all else fails, take to sea. But if you face charges of heresy? It does not matter where you run to. There is no place in the whole world that is safe, once the Inquisition is after you. It’s like that for us. It’s one thing, to run from an angry mob of farmers, or some small-time hunters. But if the Mad Butcher is on your tail? Or the Feleke Four? There is no escape. There is only death.”

Greg frowned. His family was hardly the Inquisition.

But then he had to think of David, going after the two “sheepkillers” in the forests of Duke Desmarais’s. Lee and Marianne had had a head start of several days, and still, David and Lane had tracked them down. Sure, it had taken them a month, but that almost made it more scary.

“That’s why we didn’t tell you,” Bernadette said after a few seconds. “And I’m sorry you got hurt. We didn’t mean for that to happen. But we didn’t think your brother would approve. And we were scared.”

Greg didn’t know what to say to that. Nathan would probably think this was funny, that the three of them were scared of him, all on his own.

And this wasn’t about Nathan, anyway.

“I can keep a secret,” he said, still a little hurt about that. “But I guess it’s a moot point now, anyway.”

Bernadette looked at him in surprise, like that possibility never occurred to her. “You would keep something like that from your brother?” she asked.

Greg shrugged. “If I thought there was a good reason? Sure.”

The other three werewolves eyed him with different degrees of disbelief. “You would lie. To a hunter.”

“Probably wouldn’t have to lie,” Greg said. “Nathan’s not exactly the most observant. And even if he had - I mean, he’s rash, and reckless and all that, but he’s not stupid, you know? I bet he’d have seen the advantage it would have meant if your plan had worked. At worst, he’d have insisted on being there while you try, and let’s face it, that wouldn’t have been all that bad, would it? If there had been a hunter present when you got attacked, Bernadette?”

Greg paused, and added: “He wouldn’t have killed either of you, even if he hadn’t agreed.”

“Easy for you to say,” Boris growled.

Greg rubbed his face with his hands. “You need a crown warrant now,” he said. “Any hunter who wants to kill a werewolf needs a crown warrant. If a werewolf is killed without such a warrant, the guilty hunter will immediately be turned into a werewolf himself. And I bet if someone kills an elder werewolf like Bernadette, they don’t even bother with turning them werewolf. I bet they’ll just execute the hunter.”

He looked into three blank faces and shook his head. “Do you guys have any idea how important, how vital werewolves like Bernadette are to – to everybody in this whole bloody country? We’re at war with the freaking Empire! In a few months, our coasts will likely be crawling with Valoisian soldiers, with sorcerers, with Rot. They need you guys!”

“What’s a crown warrant?” Fleur asked, quietly.

Greg sighed. “It’s like – it’s a special warrant, that basically says that the King himself – or the Queen – wants to see you dead. It means – it’s like what Bernadette said, with the Inquisition, only it was invented before the Valoise came here. A normal warrant ended at the border of whatever duchy, or county, or barony, or other place it was issued by, and it was pretty much only courtesy if it was accepted elsewhere. Every free city was literally free to ignore a warrant issued by some noble, no matter what rank.

A crown warrant can’t be ignored – like the general warrant of the Valoise. It stretches across the whole kingdom, it’s valid in every county, and every servant of the state is honour-bound to do everything within their power to see someone who’s wanted under a crown warrant brought to justice. Most importantly for you: it’s really, really hard to get one. Only the King himself and handpicked representatives can issue one. Like, right now? Only George Louis and probably Duke Desmarais can put a crown warrant on you, and Captain Reed has been authorized. Otherwise, Nathan wouldn’t have been able to bring in that last mad werewolf.”

“So the king has to say he wants us dead. Big deal,” Boris growled.

Greg laughed. “Yes, it’s a big deal! Like – you could go to a city like Northwold right now and just start killing people, and they wouldn’t be allowed to do as much as lock you up!”

“Until Duke George Louis puts such a warrant up.”

“Yes,” Greg said. “Once he has done so, every single hunter of all of Loegrion would pretty much have to go after you. But without that warrant, you’re untouchable.”

“Untouchable,” Bernadette repeated.

“Yes.”

“Never going to happen,” Boris growled.

“I believe him,” Fleur said quietly. “I saw his brother, right after Greg fought the mad ones. He was seriously mad when I told them that we had known. But he only glared.”

“She’s right,” Bernadette said. “When do you think they’ll put a – a crown warrant on a werewolf?”

Greg shrugged. “Don’t go around killing people,” he said. “Though, honestly? If it’s full moon and an accident, I bet they’ll let it slide, especially if it’s you, Bernadette. Just don’t - don’t flaunt it. Don’t take the piss, I mean. If people start thinking werewolves are – are putting humans at risk on purpose, cause they feel untouchable, that’ll force George Louis’s hand.”

“What about after the war?” Boris asked, clearly wary.

“I don’t know,” Greg said honestly. “But think about it – George Louis wants to rule all of Loegrion. Including the whole range of the central mountains, everything between the west and the east coast. And all the lands up north, too, all the way to the Ice Mountains and the Northwest Passage, should it even exist.”

“All the way to the north pole?” Bernadette asked, sceptical.

“As far as humans can survive,” Greg said. “Probably not all the way to the pole. But if werewolves can survive there, he might send some. Just so he can say Loegrion was first to get there.”

“I’ve read about that race in a paper,” Bernadette said, thoughtful.

“Hah,” Boris growled. “I bet a werewolf could do it. If they can avoid getting turned around on full moon, that is.”

“The thing is,” Greg said, “a country that has enough werewolves wouldn’t even have to control magic so much. That would mean a lot of advantages over other nations. Just think about the next plague, how much easier it would be to deal with if healers didn’t have to worry about raising the Rot. I wouldn’t be surprised if Duke George Louis is thinking in that direction.”

Bernadette nodded slowly. “And your family,” she said slowly. “They’re friends with the duke? Allies?”

“Allies, yes,” Greg said. “Even if they weren’t, they wouldn’t hunt you without good reason.”

But he could see how hard that was to believe for the pack, all three of them.

“Look,” he sighed. “I’ll go back to the camp now, okay? Nathan is the only hunter there again, so it’s perfectly safe for you guys to come, too.”

He wasn’t surprised when neither of them moved, so he sighed inwardly, and raised a hand to wave at them, before turning his back on the pack and the bridge. It was harder than it should have been. The wolf didn’t want to leave them behind, but he ignored that empty feeling in his chest. Werewolf or not, he wasn’t going to let some animal instinct dictate his life.

The pack did come a lot closer to the building site the next day, all three in their human form, and hesitantly talked to Mr. Higgins, who was watching the engineering team with Greg. Of course, then it didn’t take long for the rest of the scientists to show up. Bernadette, Fleur, and Boris had very little interest in talking to them, even after Greg had explained that they were not working for the hunters.

Prof. Audenne, of course, was persistent. He also wasn’t stupid, so the next day, he brought cake, and when that only drew in Fleur, he tried chocolate another day, until eventually all three of them were comfortable enough around him to answer his endless questions. They even allowed him to follow them into the forest when they were in their wolf form, and once half-moon was over, they started coming into camp again.

Thoko wasn’t too happy, Greg could tell.