The last of the adults left the lab, their thanks echoing down the hall. The fluorescent hum filled the silence, broken only by the rhythmic whirr of floppy drives and the faint click of a screen saver bouncing across a monitor.

Mark gathered up his notes, clearly thinking we’d be heading out too. But Gabriel swung a chair around backward and dropped into it.
“Not so fast, maestro. We want the private show.”

Mark blinked. “Private show?”

I grinned. “Yeah. We saw you running circles around those grown-ups. Now you’ve got two of the dumb jocks in the back row. Teach us something.”

Mark’s face pinked, but he nodded. “Okay… um… sure.”

He pulled up to one of the terminals and waved us closer.
“Computers are just… logic,” he began, fingers flying over the keyboard. The screen filled with green letters:

10 PRINT “HELLO”

20 GOTO 10

“Now watch.” He hit Enter. The word HELLO began flooding the screen, line after line until it blurred into a wall of text.

Gabriel let out a low whistle. “Endless hellos. Kind of poetic.”

Mark smiled shyly. “It’s a loop. The computer does exactly what you tell it, over and over. Even if it’s nonsense. Even if it’s dangerous. It’ll follow you.”

I leaned on the desk, watching the letters race. “Loyal without question. Like a packmate.”

He tilted his head at that, clearly intrigued but not sure what I meant.

“Try one,” Mark urged, sliding the keyboard toward Gabriel. “Anything you want.”

Gabriel typed carefully, tongue between his teeth:

10 PRINT “FERAL RULES”

20 GOTO 10

The monitor erupted with green FERAL RULES. He barked out a laugh. “Oh yeah. That’s more like it.”

Even I chuckled. Mark’s eyes lit up — it was the first time we’d seen real pride on his face outside of music class.

When the laughter faded, he sat back, studying us. “You two are… different. Not just because you’re tall and scary. I saw it today with the bullies. And… there’s something in your eyes.”

Gabriel glanced at me. My turn.

I leaned in, let my focus narrow, and with just a thought, let the wolf show through — not fully, not enough to scare him, but enough that my eyes glowed faintly, amber fire catching in the lab’s dim light.

Mark froze. His mouth opened slightly. “What… what was that?”

Gabriel joined me, just for a heartbeat, his own eyes catching with the same unnatural glint. Then we both blinked it away, casual as shutting a door.

Mark whispered, “That wasn’t the monitor reflection.”

“No,” I said, keeping my voice calm. “But it’s not something we can explain yet. Just… call it a family secret.”

He leaned back, staring at us like we’d pulled the rug out from under everything he thought he knew. His fingers hovered over the keyboard, forgotten.

“You two are…” He didn’t even finish.

Gabriel smiled, low and quiet. “Different, yeah. But so are you, Mark. Don’t sell yourself short. What you did in here tonight? That was power. Maybe not fists or growls, but power all the same.”

Mark sat in silence, processing. Then, very softly, he said, “I want to know more. About… whatever that was.”

I nodded. “You will. In time. For now, keep shining where you shine. We’ll have your back everywhere else.”