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The wolves sang around him.
The humans tilted their faces toward the sky.
Mark’s shoulder brushed against mine.
Ox was right.
Let them come.
We would tear the earth beneath their feet.
THE NEXT morning Pappas was shifted. His wolf was black and gray and white. His coat was thick. His tail swished. His paws were massive. He snarled at the sight of me. His eyes glowed violet.
ROBBIE CALLED back East.
There was no answer.
THE SHOP was closed that Monday. Most of the businesses were, ahead of the storm. The schools too.
We were in the clearing.
The air smelled of snow. It stung my nose and made my eyes water.
I moved swiftly as a shifted wolf came at me. My skin was slick with sweat. I was breathing heavily. The wolf’s jaw was opened wide, but the ground split beneath its paws before it could jump, a column of rock shooting up and knocking it off its feet. It landed with a crash on the ground, skidding through grass and dirt. It pushed itself up, shaking its head as if dazed.
“Good,” Joe said, standing near my side. “Kelly, shift back. Carter, you’re next.”
Jessie bounced on her feet in front of Tanner, her hands wrapped with white tape, as she waited for Tanner to make his move. He feinted left, then went right, broadcasting his intent in the movement on his body. He was quick, but Jessie was quicker. She stepped to the side, spinning around, fist outstretched. She knocked him in the back of the neck, sending him stumbling and falling to his knees.
“Maybe it’s someone else’s turn to get beat up by Jessie,” he mumbled, rubbing his neck as he winced.
Rico and Chris took a step away from them.
We moved as one. We were a pack. We’d done this again and again and again. Robbie was quick on his feet. Carter was a wall of strength. Kelly could move in the shadows. Elizabeth coiled like a snake, teeth bared. Jessie could face down a wolf on her own and win. Rico and Chris could unload a single clip in seconds. Tanner’s knives could pierce the flesh of even the toughest wolf.
Joe and Ox were the Alphas, and we moved in sync with them.
And then there was Mark.
The brown wolf.
He was fluid, dodging anything that came at him. He was grace and art, the muscles underneath his skin shifting as he moved. I watched as Ox came for him half-shifted. He waited, crouched, until Ox was only a few feet away before he leapt up and over him, back legs hitting the Alpha’s shoulders, knocking him off-balance. He landed on his feet on the other side of Ox, whirling around, ready for when Ox came for him again.
We had trained for this.
Some of us our whole lives.
We were the Bennett pack.
Which is why it was startling when Kelly snuck up on Carter, who was distracted by Robbie’s twitching tail. Kelly pounced on him, teeth bared.
And Carter responded by knocking his brother halfway across the clearing, roaring in pure fury. Kelly landed hard, dirt and grass piling up around him as he came to a stop. He groaned as he shifted back to human. “Carter, what the hell, man. I was just—”
But Carter didn’t stop. He ran toward his brother, a glint in his eyes that I’d never seen before.
I shouted, “Ox!”
Ox moved, clothes shredding as his wolf burst forward. Kelly scrabbled backward, eyes wide at the sight of his brother barreling toward him. Carter’s neck stretched outward, fangs aimed for Kelly’s bare leg, and—
