[ Even if all of these feelings Vrenille's getting are closer to the truth than he prefers, his expression doesn't change except for a soft wince when the bandages are pressed to his skin. ] That was a botched job. [ He's normally good at feeling out his surroundings and reading people to an acceptable extent, but this time he'd chased his mark straight into the wrong people. ] I normally just follow the orders given to me. Sometimes they're standard. Sometimes they're something else. [ And the something else is the reason he's seen as a traitor to his own kind. It raises his hackles every time he hears it, but he's gotten good at controlling it. Trying to explain would be futile, and trying to escape would end up with him wishing that they would put him out of his misery.

He breathes in slowly, relaxing his shoulder and speaking softly. ] I haven't shifted outside of the moon in a long time. If you saw it, you'd understand perfectly why I don't. [ It's a harrowing, gruesome process, hardly worth the payoff except in dire matters of life and death. Keeping control of the beast is difficult enough, and impossible on the full moon. ] I'm not a pure wolf. The toll it takes on my body is too much of a liability. Take now, for instance. Even without the injury, I wouldn't be at full strength after what I pulled yesterday, and that's a dangerous weakness to have.

[ And despite this, he hadn't thought twice before confessing to it. He stops himself there, blinking unseeingly at some point in the far wall. He's being careless, and he has too much training to act this way, yet for some reason all that comes to mind is how despite the pain and restless exhaustion, last night had been the most comfortable bed he's been in for too long. ]

My work is not interesting. [ It's a pathetic attempt to shift the conversation. ] It's not what I'd really be doing, as I'm sure you'd rather be doing anything but looking at my shoulder again.