Nathan seemed to arrive at the same conclusion. He stepped forward, one hand raised in what I supposed was meant to be a universal gesture of peace. "I'm the leader," he said, pointing to himself. "Leader."
The dark-haired man studied him for a long moment, then grinned—a wide, wolfish expression that showed too manyteeth. Nathan said nothing. His jaw was tight, his posture rigid. I could see the calculation behind his eyes, the rapid assessment of threat versus opportunity.
The man circled Nathan slowly, examining him like a curiosity then barked something at his wolves that might have been laughter, and two of them shifted.
They rose from four legs to two with the same fluid speed as their alpha, becoming men. One was lean and rangy with a shock of red-brown hair; the other was stockier, built like a battering ram. They moved through our camp with casual disregard, kicking through the debris, picking up items and discarding them. The stocky one found Nathan's equipment bag and upended it.
The source scanner hit the ground with a sickening crack, followed by the navigation unit, spare batteries, and the leather case Nathan had wrapped the backup instruments in. The stocky man picked up the scanner, turned it over in his thick hands, shook it, then tossed it aside when it didn't do anything he understood. It landed face-down in the mud, and I heard the display crunch.
Nathan's face went white. I saw his hands clench at his sides, saw the muscle in his jaw jump, but he didn't move. Didn't react. Smart, probably. The wolves could have torn us apart without breaking a sweat.
The red-haired one had found Megan's food pack. He tore it open, sniffed at a protein bar, bit into the wrapper and all, then spat it out with a look of disgust and a string of words that needed no translation. He tossed the pack to the ground and said something to his alpha, shaking his head.
Nothing worth taking. That was clear enough from the dismissive way they moved through our wreckage. Our modern equipment was meaningless to them—plastic and metal and synthetic fabric that served no purpose they could recognise.The food was alien. The clothing was strange but useless, soaked through and caked with mud. They weren't finding anything they wanted. For a brief, stupid moment, I thought they might just leave.
The dark-haired alpha actually paused, his amber eyes flicking over Megan, then he smiled. It was the worst smile I'd ever seen. Slow and deliberate, spreading across his scarred face like a crack in ice. He said something to his wolves and the two shifted men laughed. The sound raised every hair on my body.
The alpha's gaze moved from Megan to me. His head tilted again, that same predatory assessment, and his gaze tracked slowly down my body and back up. Not with lust, exactly. More like a butcher evaluating a cut of meat. Back to Megan. Then he spoke again, and this time the meaning was unmistakable. He pointed at Megan. Then at me. Then he thumped his chest and made a sweeping gesture that encompassed his wolves.
Females.
They didn't want our supplies. They wantedus.
The alpha turned back to Nathan and spoke again, gesturing first at Megan, then at me, then making a sweeping motion with his hand that was unmistakable.
"No." Nathan's voice was sharp.
The alpha's expression didn't change. He spoke again, slower, as if Nathan were particularly stupid, and gestured more emphatically. Two females. His pack. Done.
Nathan said something back but I could see his hands shaking. The alpha cut him off with a bark of laughter and turned away, clearly done negotiating. He snapped his fingers and the two shifted men moved.
The stocky one grabbed Megan.
She fought, twisting in his grip, driving her elbow back into his ribs hard enough that he grunted. But he was twice her size andimpossibly strong, his arms locking around her waist and lifting her clean off her feet like she weighed nothing.
"Nathan!" she screamed.
The red-haired one came for me.
I saw him closing in from my left and tried to run, but my injured leg buckled on the first step and I stumbled. His hand closed around my upper arm, wrenching me back, and pain exploded through my thigh as my weight twisted wrong.
"Nathan!" I screamed, finding my voice. "Nathan, do something!"
Nathan shifted. It happened fast, his body blurring, clothes shredding as the wolf burst free. But even as his paws hit the ground, the difference was devastating. Nathan's wolf was lean, built for speed. A modern grey wolf, evolved for a modern world.
The alpha looked down at him with something close to amusement, then he shifted too. The dire wolf that replaced him was enormous, easily twice Nathan's size, with jaws that could have closed around Nathan's entire skull. He didn't even need to attack. He just stood there, radiating dominance like heat from a forge, and let the sheer physical reality of the size difference speak for itself.
Nathan's wolf froze. I watched it happen, watched the fight drain out of him. His ears flattened. His tail tucked. And then, with a whimper that made my stomach turn to acid, he rolled onto his back and bared his throat. Submitted. Our alpha, our leader, the man who'd just lectured me about hard choices and sacrifice and the greater good… he'd rolled over like a kicked dog without so much as a snap of his jaws.
The dire wolf alpha didn't even bother acknowledging the submission. He'd already turned away, shifting back to human form with that same liquid ease, a satisfied smirk pulling at his scarred mouth. Nathan lay on the ground in wolf form, belly up, shaking.
Megan saw it too. She growled, shifting in the stocky man's grip, her body blurring into a wolf that was smaller even than Nathan's, sleek and dark-furred. She twisted free for half a second, snapping at the man's forearm, drawing blood. He snarled and grabbed her by the scruff, hauling her up with one massive hand while she thrashed and growled.
The red-haired man holding me laughed. I twisted, kicking at his shins with my good leg, but it was like kicking a tree trunk. He said something and shifted his hold, getting both arms around me from behind, pinning my arms to my sides.
"Let me go!" I screamed, thrashing uselessly against the iron band of his arms. "Let us go!"
He said something over my shoulder to the alpha, laughing, like this was sport. Like I was nothing. The alpha huffed back and started toward Megan, who was still fighting in wolf form, her jaws snapping at anything she could reach. The stocky man had blood running freely down his forearm now, but he held her like she was a misbehaving pup, his grip on her scruff unshakeable.
