The intake process into the werewolf prison known as the Nail was far from simple. You were herded through a small hallway lined with "murder holes" through which soldiers aimed their rifles at you. One of the younger members of Sonoma's pack, a boy named Wilu, grew nervous as he walked deeper and deeper into the bowels of the Nail. He began to panic, and you knew that if you didn't act to calm him, he'd be set upon by the guards and likely killed.
Worrying about others when you need to keep your own inner beast in check is a good way to get killed. You held steady in line, and within minutes Wilu lost control. By the time the soldiers were done with him, the boy was little more than a bloodied carcass that needed to be dragged off the floor. Oh well. It wasn't your problem, right? At least that's what you told yourself.
Next
Once the induction procedures were finished, you and the other new prisoners were led to a small cafeteria where you were ambushed by a small group of wolves who had been prisoners in the Nail for years. They challenged you to a brawl. Inferi and her group of "Metalheads" treated the event as a hazing ritual, a fact which went rather unappreciated by its unwilling participants. It didn't take long for the wolves to make their apologies, but for many of the newcomers, the damage was already done. Inferi, her partner Augury, and their friends seemed sincere, but it was difficult to consider forgiving them for adding to the misery that the Warden had already inflicted on you.
Once your time in the mess hall was over and you'd managed to choke down a terrible meal of something that barely passed for food, you were taken to the prison cells, arranged roughly in what you would later learn was called a panopticon. Each room was a small wedge placed along the circumference of the Nail's rounded walls. It left you feeling naked and exposed, but you supposed that was the point, after all. A central guard could watch every cell at once without relying on cameras or patrols.
Sonoma was pulled aside by the leader of the prisoners—an elder named Hanska. He seemed disturbed by the presence of your pack, but you were certain that Sonoma would soon explain the plan to him.
The plan: Several of the wolves Sonoma and General Rivera had smuggled into the Nail were equipped with subdermal devices meant to release a powerful stimulant into their bloodstreams, designed to provoke the beast and grant your wolf form incredibly increased strength and dexterity for a limited period of time. Unfortunately, such augmentation came with the drawback of reduced mental capacity. The breakout would begin when Rivera's undercover operatives transmitted an electronic signal to activate the drug.
During the chaotic frenzy of the escape, your job as an assassin was to track down a civilian working in the Nail's third-floor labs. Caroline Bodner was the human responsible for creating and updating the tracking systems used to monitor werewolves back in Haven. Rumor had it that she was developing new screening techniques to update the old tech that the werewolf operatives in the government and military had long since found exploits for. If she were allowed to continue her work unimpeded, the revolution would be over before it even had the chance to truly begin. Your new teacher, Nawat, believed that Caroline needed to die for her sins against werewolf-kind.
You were about to get settled in when Bly ran over to greet you. She'd been transported in a different truck and you hadn't been certain when you would be able to contact her. It would be a while before the plan was enacted—Sonoma would need to explain the ins and outs to Hanska and his pack after all—so you and Bly decided that you should get to know some of the other wolves better in the time you had left before you were forced back to your cells for lights out.
When she first laid eyes on the enormous wolf, Inferi, Bly had grown cold, her expression furious. She intended to retaliate and beat some sense into the precocious wolf despite her size. Inferi and her partner Augury insisted that the "greeting" had merely been a joke, but Bly was having none of it.