She knew what she had to do, even though it scared her. She was dealing with things that she didn't fully understand and this feeling of guilt and fear and pain was paralyzing her. Resting her head against the back of the closet, she closed her eyes and breathed. Calming her mind, and settling her nerves, she stood up in the dark closet and opened the door.

Picking her way through the dark apartment, she found Furaha. The Bultungin alpha was also not sleeping, and Mary knew that she had been watching her approach from the second the closet door opened.

Mary didn't say anything, instead she forced her eyes to focus on the Bultungin's eyes and nodded to the balcony. Furaha regarded her without getting up. She slowly turned her head towards the sliding door that led to the balcony. She rose to her feet and walked to the balcony, opening the door, she stepped into the warm night air. Mary joined her and closed the door behind her.

Furaha didn't speak, and Mary felt very exposed here on the balcony. The apartment was several stories up. The moon was a bright waxing gibbous, and the night air brought a soft warm breeze that did nothing to relieve the desert heat.

"Why did you attack me?" Mary asked.

Furaha turned her head, "You attacked me first, jackal."

Mary didn't rise to the bait of the insult, "You know damn well what you had been doing to me. It would have served you right if I had ripped your face off."

Furaha folded her arms beneath her breasts, "I seem to recall you ending up with two shattered legs after your little outburst."

Mary felt her throat tighten at the memory, the searing burning pain of her legs, how she could barely feel her feet, the helpless blackness of the void as she passed out. And the agony of the night as her body pulled itself back together, bone chip by bone chip, sinew by sinew, ligament by ligament. She never wanted to experience that, or anything even close to that, ever again.

Forcing herself to hold the other woman's gaze, she pulled air into her lungs. "Yes, you hurt me, but you didn't break me."

"Sure could've fooled me," Furaha snorted.

Mary stood there trying to say something. Her mind was in a free spin. She couldn't grasp at anything. Her thoughts were jumbled and she probably couldn't answer what two plus two was at the moment.

Furaha was saying something, "Your kind are so arrogant it makes me sick. I'm here to see you fail. The proud Werewolf caste of us Shape shifters brought down by some vampires. Now you're so desperate you come crawling to us for help. I would see you dead or collared at my feet before I do anything to help you. It amuses me to see you so desperate to succeed. You never had a chance, and this is just one more example of how you'll fail. Good night, Mary. Maybe you'll actually be able to look me in the eye in a year or two." Patting Mary's stunned face, she reached up to open the sliding glass door.

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Mary's hand gripped the other woman's arm, just above the elbow. Furaha turned to look at Mary, who was staring directly into her eyes, "I'm not finished." Mary pulled the other woman's arm back from the door.

Furaha's lips held a smirk, "Oh goodie, you rediscovered how to look someone in the eye. I don't have time for this." She made to move around Mary towards the door again, and again Mary blocked her.

This time it was Furaha who was showing some agitation, "Alright, if you don't let me pass, I'll throw you off the balcony myself. I already beat you once."

"Tell me how you did it," Mary said.

"Did what?" Furaha spat.

Mary said, "You know what. And you know why I wanted to kill you. Tell me how you're blocking me."

Mary dodged backwards even before she fully comprehended the punch that Furaha threw at her face. A soft puff of air hit her cheek as Furaha's fist passed in front of her, missing by a fragment of an inch. Mary felt her arm shoot out in a counter punch to Furaha's midsection, and she followed up with a simple three punch combo that was meant to daze and stun, not really debilitate. It was something that Efraim had drilled into her and her packmates relentlessly for days. She was happy to learn that her body had not forgotten those lessons. Taking advantage of the stunned and gasping Furaha, Mary pushed her forearm under her chin, into her neck, and pressed her back against the iron railing of the balcony.

Mary only let up a little on the pressure on the other woman's neck as she said, "I want to know how you did it. I want you to teach me."

Mary surprised herself at how calm her voice was. What was even more surprising, is that the fear of this woman that she felt before she came out onto the balcony was now completely gone.

Furaha struggled against the surprising strength in Mary's arm. She was being bent backwards over the railing and it was all she could do to keep herself standing. Her dark eyes bored daggers into the other woman's eyes. Who in the hell did she think she was? She was an alpha, born to lead and have others follow. And yet here she was, being pushed up against death by falling a very long way down, and the only thing standing between her and that gruesome end, was a flimsy iron railing that could give way at any moment. She felt something for this woman that she hadn't felt before, it was something that might be described as respect, but that couldn't be it. She didn't give a rat's ass about these people, or their mission to see the Matriarch.

"Let me stand up and we'll talk," Furaha managed through gritted teeth and taught muscles.

Mary's arm didn't budge, "I have no intention in letting you go till I have your word. I won't kill you in exchange for you teaching me." She pressed harder against the almost helpless woman's throat, "Make your choice."

Furaha, could feel the iron at her back shifting in its brackets, it would come loose any second. She held Mary's eyes and could see the new determination there. There was no wavering, and in that moment, she knew that Mary would have no problem sending her over the edge.

"Alright," Furaha said.

"Alright, what?" Mary pressed her advantage. She knew that the agreement had to be made in plain words, she couldn't assume anything.

Furaha spared a look over her back and the long drop that was expecting her, "I'll teach you, you fucking bitch! Now let me go."

Mary continued to press against Furaha's neck for another moment. The look in Furaha's eyes wasn't one of panic, or resignation. Hatred was there but it was only a part of the look that she was giving Mary. Satisfied with the deal, Mary let up and pulled Furaha back to standing on the balcony.

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