I kept my expression carved from stone.
"She is under Hanging Rock protection," I said. "She has been sheltered by this pack, fed by this pack, healed by this pack. Sheis a guest under my roof, and guest-right is older than any claim you could manufacture."
"Guest-right." Karik tasted the word like it amused him. "Guest-right applies to wolves, Rivik. She is human.”
“Then why do you want her?” I enquired, desperately trying to keep my own rage from boiling over. “She is no use to you. Wolves do not mate humans.”
“We do not. But wolves do not need to mate in order to breed.”
The implication hung in the cold air between us, obscene and deliberate. Behind me, I heard the sharp intake of breath that told me Ellie had understood every word. Karik wasn't talking about mating. He was talking about using her. Breeding her like livestock, passing her between his wolves like she was nothing more than a vessel, a tool, a thing to be used and discarded when it broke.
My vision narrowed. The edges of the world went dark, and for one terrible, suspended moment, the only thing I could see was Karik's face and the only thing I could feel was the white-hot certainty that I could close the distance between us in three strides and tear his throat out before his wolves had time to react.
I didn't move. I couldn't. Because behind me stood eighty people who needed me to think, not feel. To lead, not lunge.
"You speak of a woman," I said, and my voice came out quiet. Dangerously quiet. The kind of quiet that made the wolves on my own line shift nervously. "A living, breathing person under my protection. And you stand on my ground and speak of her as though she is a brood mare to be passed among your males.""
"I would provide my pack with every advantage available to them." Karik's tone was mild, reasonable, as though we were discussing trade routes or hunting rights. "The breeding crisis affects all of us, Rivik. You know this. Your own females struggle to carry to term. Mine are no different. But humans breed easily.Prolifically. The offspring may not shift, but those that do not can still serve. They can—"
"Enough-"
The growl that came from behind me was not mine. It was deeper, rougher, a sound that belonged to something far larger than a wolf.
Daska had moved, shifting position and placing himself between Karik's line of sight and the cluster of noncombatants behind us. Between Karik and Ellie. He stood with his feet planted, shoulders squared, hands loose at his sides in the deceptive stillness of a man who could break bones with his bare hands and was currently calculating which ones to start with.
He didn't speak. Didn't growl again. Just stood there, a wall of muscle and quiet fury, and the message was as clear as if he'd carved it into stone. I admired his self control. I barely had mine under control and I’d been careful not to be around her, touch her. Daska had not. His bond would be stronger.
Karik noticed immediately. His gaze shifted from Ellie to Daska, and surprise flickered across his face quickly replaced by a sharp, calculating interest that made the hair on the back of my neck rise.
"Ah," Karik said softly. "The bear."
The way he said it made my skin crawl. His eyes moving over Daska's frame with the cool appraisal of a man sizing up an obstacle and already thinking about how to get around it. Daska may be large and in a fight, there was not one wolf who could come close to outmatching him, but Karik had twenty wolves at his back.
"I had heard rumours," Karik continued, that conversational tone back in place, the one that made everything sound reasonable and nothing sound safe. "That Hanging Rock kept a bear. I assumed it was exaggeration. A story told to frighten lesser packs." He paused, letting his gaze travel the full breadthof Daska's shoulders, down to his hands, back up to his face. "Until I encountered him in the foothills, and now here he stands. Guarding my human female."
Daska didn't react. Not a twitch, not a flicker. He held his position with the absolute stillness of a man who had decided exactly what he would do if Karik took one more step, and was simply waiting to see if it became necessary.
Karik's smile sharpened. "The wolf female may be mated to the weak male. I will grant that claim, thin as it is. But the human?" He shook his head slowly, almost pitying. “There is no claim. She belongs to me.”
"Pack law is clear," Karik said. "An unclaimed female—"
"Pack law also recognises guest-right, territorial sovereignty, and the authority of an alpha to protect those within his borders." I held his gaze, despite knowing my arguments were thin. Karik was right, by law, Ellie should belong to him. It was an ancient law that applied to males and females, and had been meant for their protection, requiring a pack to take in vulnerable travellers and provide a home. It was why I’d brought them home to Hanging Rock, or at least, what I’d told the elders. Right now though, I was hoping confidence would get me further than accuracy. I glared hard at Karik. "You want to argue law? We can argue law. At the summer gathering, before the council of alphas, where your recent activities at Birch Lake can also be discussed in detail."
The first crack appeared. It was subtle, a tightening around his eyes, a fractional shift in his posture, but I caught it.
Karik snapped. “I expect you to return my property to me, Rivik. Or there will be consequences.”
My mind raced through the calculations even as I kept my expression locked in place. I needed more time. "A moon cycle," I said. "You give us a full moon cycle to settle our affairs andprepare the... transfer. Even you must recognise that simply dragging a human from a pack camp requires—"
Karik laughed. The sound was sharp and short, cracking through the cold air like a branch snapping. Several of his wolves shifted their weight, ears pricking forward, and I saw teeth flash in more than one muzzle.
"A full moon cycle," Karik repeated, still laughing, shaking his head with the theatrical disbelief of a man who wanted his audience to share the joke. "You think me a fool, Rivik? A moon cycle, and by the time I return, the strangers will be gone.”
"Then they will not leave."
The words left my mouth before I'd fully thought them through, but the moment they hit the air, I knew they were right. The only card I had left to play.
Karik's laughter died. His eyes narrowed, and for the first time since he'd walked into my territory with his wall of wolves and his predator's smile, I saw genuine surprise flicker across his face.
