Eric had been relieved to realize Gecko didn't seem to know very much about the shifters that they couldn't have gained through reading popular fiction about werewolves. Sure, fiction got all kinds of things wrong, but they'd been able to figure out about packs and that they could shift. Dr. J hadn't mentioned it, but Dr. Delaney had indicated to Alpha Williams that they knew that some men could carry young, though they hadn't seemed to figure out the designation differences. From what Dr. J had said, Eric gathered that for the most part, they'd been trying to pin point what exactly gave them the ability to shift, and how it happened. Thinking about what kind of experiments they'd probably run to force shifts made Eric cringe, but he couldn't shy away from it. It was one of the things he needed to keep in mind as he continued on this mission, both to push him forward, to keep him dedicated, and to remind him of the consequences of failing.

But Eric had lain awake all last night, thinking of his omega. Pulling himself out of the building at the end of his shift was like trying to wade through wet cement. He knew his mate was there, trapped, and he could do nothing about it. And the look on his mate's face as he'd lunged toward Eric, the betrayal in his eyes...  Around three in the morning, Eric had finally given up and pulled his laptop out of bed. Keeping Alpha Williams's advice to be cautious, even in his own home, on his own computer, he pulled up a browser and pondered what to search. He needed a way to communicate with his omega without revealing himself to their enemies. Nothing permanent, like a note or anything. Eric would stoop to that if he had too, but it was better for his omega to hate him than to put them both in danger. But maybe... 

Back when he'd been a kid, Eric had been briefly interested in secret codes. Morse code wasn't exactly secret, but it could be subtle. He pulled up the news. He didn't care what it was, but in case someone was watching him, he needed to make his browsing history look random, aimless. After reading through a few articles, he copied a name he didn't know and searched it, then went to the Wikipedia page. Back in college, he and his roommates had been obsessed with wikiracing; they'd chose an end goal page, and then each hit random. Whoever was able to click through inter-wiki links and end up on the end page fast enough, won. It was the crazy kind of stuff nerdy college kids did, and he'd been a bit of a champion at it. He didn't want to get to the page on Morse code quickly, he just wanted to get there, in a random way that looked like someone with insomnia just following a rabbit trail. He took over an hour, spending time reading through several of the pages his path brought him to, impatient to refresh himself on Morse code, but to paranoid to go directly there. Eric did his best to refresh the code in his mind without taking too much time, and then he clicked through more pages for the next fifteen minutes before lying down and pretending to sleep. In reality, he practiced the message he wanted to give his omega the next time they saw each other. There was no guarantee the omega would know Morse code, but he wouldn't know until he tried. If that didn't work, he'd try something else. He had all weekend to practice.

*** [Uh, maybe throw a report to White Falls in here?]

"I want to know more," Eric said to Dr. J the next Monday. Along with practicing Morse code, he'd developed a plan that would put him in contact with his omega sooner, rather than later. He hoped.

Dr. J pushed back from his keyboard and gestured for Eric to sit down. "About the... creatures?"

Eric hid his distaste for that word and nodded. "Where did they come from? How long have they existed? Are they a relatively new mutation of the human genome? It's their DNA samples that you've been having me look at, right? We share large portions of our DNA models, but they've clearly unlocked something, some potential inside us."

Dr. J was nodding excitedly to Eric's questions. It had taken him a while to practice saying them in his mind without grimacing. But he was a scientist, and it had been all too easy to put himself in the place of someone who knew nothing about shifters and create a list of questions that would be burning for answers.

"Yes, yes. Exactly. That's exactly why I wanted you on the team. Those are exactly the kinds of questions we've been asking." Dr. J stood. "Come with me."

Dr. J took Eric's facade of enthusiasm and run with it. "We've only been studying the creatures for two years now. The original team had originally thought they'd discovered an isolated group who had developed this mutation. A family." 

Eric's gut churned at the possible implications of that. Had they studied children?

"But they started following stories. Crazy stories about werewolves, all over the country. And they started wondering, what if the stories are true?" Dr. J led him through door after door, down corridors he'd never ventured before. "And they found more and more samples of the same mutation, which begs the question, how long had this mutation been around?" Dr. J finally stopped in front of a larger than normal metal door, guarded by two men. He nodded to the guard, and the guard tapped his access card, and then Dr. J. The door clicked open and slid sideways. Eric tapped his card on the access pad before following the men in. The second guard stepped in the door frame, but no further, keeping the door open.

The hallway was white, and would have looked like nearly every other hallway they had passed through if it hadn't been for the metal gates over each doorway instead of actual doors. There were nine of them, four on either side, and one at the end of the hallway. Dr. J stepped in front of the first set of doors and stopped, and Eric joined him, peeking in the rooms. The room on his left held four men sitting and standing, dark and dangerous glares on each face. Eric could see the moment they scented he was an alpha as anger suffused their faces. He crossed his arms and started tapping his message on either side with one finger. If his mate didn't understand Morse code, maybe someone else here would.

I am here to help. I am here to help. I am here to help.

Growls rose on either side of him, and the four mend in the room on his left began to prowl to the door. One snarled, his shift beginning. Faces pressed against the gates further down. It wouldn't be long before his scent permeated the area enough for them to smell soon, and soon, the entire group of them would be making enough racket to drown out Dr. J's words.

Eric looked to his right. At first glance, he thought the room held only one man, a tall man slumped against the back wall, and Eric recognized him at once: his omega. But then a movement in his peripheral vision revealed another form on the top bed on the left, and yet another movement a flash of fur under the bunks. Look up, Eric willed the omega. Understand me.

"Fascinating, aren't they?" Dr. J said, with twisted wonder. Eric followed his gaze to the room on the left, as the first man completed his full transformation, his long teeth snapping at the bars, at Eric. "Never in my life would I have imagined that I would be so privileged as to be able to study such a marvel."

"How many... specimens do you have on site?" Eric asked. He needed to keep Dr. J interested in staying until he was able to see if his omega got his message or not.

I am here to help. I am here to help. I am here to help.

Just look at me, damn it!

Eric couldn't help but shiver underneath the weight of the hatred the other shifters were directing on him. Someone, anyone, needed to look at his hands, to see his message!

He glanced back at the cell on his right and nearly jumped. His omega was looking at him, alright, and his flashing yellow eyes said he was not pleased.