Her feet pounded against the dry earth. Run. They'll get you. Her breaths came out in wheezing gasps as the fingers of trees slashed against her arms. The world blurred around her. Run. Behind her, a sharp bark and burst of movement. She just had to go--away, anywhere but here. How long could she keep going? Already she tasted iron.

In the distance, the peak of her home stuck out from the canopy of trees. Her parents had it built near the edge of the territory by where the trees were thin. It made it easy to spot among the deep brush. Run. Get home. You'll be safe at home. Nothing can hurt you there.

A low growl, the creature behind her mirrored her frantic pace--too close. She didn't have much time. The wolf had the advantage--she only ran on two legs and had no extra speed. If she didn't get home now, she'd be dead soon. She pushed her feet faster.

Her house, a tiny brown and white cottage, grew bigger and bigger. She could see the rickety front porch where dad sat in the morning to drink his coffee, the half filled flower beds with mom's tools resting nearby, Mathias' bike abandoned next to a tree. She was going to make it. Relief swelled.

Then the house burst apart.

The panic hit her first, followed by horror and raw, gut-wrenching emotional pain. Screaming, she was screaming. Her parents were in there! They--They-- Tears slammed into her and ripped viciously through her chest. Her legs couldn't, wouldn't carry any longer and she fell to the ground. Let the monster rip her to shreds. She didn't care.

Screaming. Screaming. Her throat hurt, but God help her, she couldn't stop.

It wouldn't be until later that she'd realize the wolf chasing her disappeared with the explosion.

Harley woke. The foreign ceiling above her was tall--vaulted--unlike her room at the pack house. The surface holding her was not her bed but rather, a couch. A light blanket cocooned around her. The sun must've started to rise as it cast muted light over the room.

Will's house. She was at Will's. And only God knows what time it was.

In the kitchen, Will stood at the coffee pot, shoveling coffee into a paper filter. "Will? What are you doing up?" The clock on the wall said a little past five a.m.

He turned, though if she'd caught him by surprise he didn't show it. "I couldn't sleep." His voice was low, a bit husky from lack of use.

She imagined the terrors sweeping through his brain at night. Unlike her, his mental images would only keep appearing. It was a wonder the man slept at all.

"You look like you couldn't either," he said.

The sweat of the nightmare still stuck to her skin. She would need a shower to truly get past it--showers had a way of making her feel brand new, inside and out. Luckily for her, Will had opened the picture window above the sink, and the cool gentle breeze felt amazing against her clammy skin.

"Coffee?"

After a wide, jaw-stretching yawn, she nodded, then set herself up at the island. While the coffee percolated Will fiddled around with the contents of his fridge. "Is it always like this?" she asked.

"For me? Yes." He stuck his head in the fridge while poking around at stuff in the back. Harley tried not to stare at him--he looked good in navy track pants and a dark gray t-shirt. "When you're in my line of work you learn to live without sleep."

How could one person do that? She loved sleep. Loved. Truly, it was the gift from the gods. "Is it hard? Being a hunter?"

He pulled out half a gallon of milk, eggs, bacon, and butter. At the question, he peered over his shoulder. "It has its ups and downs I suppose. More ups."

That guy was born a protector, Cam had said, some wolves just are. Everything about Will was protection. She saw it now in the way he looked her over--as if he was deciding whether her lack of sleep involved something he could fight or not. It almost made her smile. What had made him this way? Maybe it was his parents, maybe they'd emphasized the importance of keeping others safe. He didn't have any siblings, so he'd never had someone in the family to watch out for.

"Do you ever get a break?"

He shrugged, then got to making whatever it was he'd decided he needed at five in the morning. "Sometimes. If we're ever in a peaceful time. But I didn't sign on for the salary, so--"

She snorted quite unattractively. "Your salary seems pretty nice though."

He mixed something in a bowl on the counter, then took out a pan to put on the stove. "I can't complain."

"It worries me," she admitted, "that you go out and risk your life like that." Harley wouldn't want anyone to have to go through the type of pain she had. If she'd known far enough in advance, if her parents had any idea of what would've happened that day, they'd have run. Escaped. Yet here Will was running toward that kind of danger. And he did it all the time.

Will's hands slowed. He turned, a resigned expression on his face. "Someone has to do it. If not me, probably Cam, or Bails. I'm a good fighter, Harley, trust me."

"I do a lot of work around here so that you and the pack can have a safe home." He leaned over the countertop, his face close enough that Harley could see the dark stubble along his jaw.

"Even so--" Movement flickered in the window. Her breath caught.. "Will."

Will's backyard wasn't much more than a large patch of grass sloping downhill. Tall trees with heaping trunks and wide branches lined the property. In the back, at the bottom of the hill, sat a tan and white wolf--the tan and white wolf from before. It was so still it looked like the kind of statue put in yards to scare critters away.

Its eyes looked right through the window at them.

"It's just standing there." She said in a breathy whisper. "Why is it just standing there?"

"I don't know."

"What do we do?"

Will frowned. "For now? Nothing. He hasn't given us any threat. See his eyes? He's aware-not feral. I wouldn't doubt he can hear us."

Something about the wolf had Harley's skin itching. Strangely not in a bad way. "I don't think he wants to hurt anyone. If he's still in his right mind, why is he watching us?"

Will's frown deepened. He didn't know. Harley had no doubt he'd never experienced this before. Will was often sent out after the danger made itself known to others. Not before whatever this was.

"Hello." Harley said at a normal volume. Maybe it wanted something. Maybe it was lost. She supposed wolves could get lost like any other animal.

The wolf cocked his head, and the light caught on a scar along his neck she missed before. A long line ran from his jaw to where his shoulder started. The fur barely grew around it so it couldn't be covered up.

"Harley, let's not talk to--"

"You don't mean to hurt anyone, do you?" She asked over Will. "Are you lost?"

The wolf shook out his fur in response. "I think he wants us to go out there." Harley told Will.

"That's a terrible idea."

As much as strange wolves scared her--and the way her heart pounded, they definitely scared her--she didn't think this one would do anything. He hadn't the last time. Once he'd shook himself from scary wolf mode, he looked...ashamed? As if he didn't mean to scare her and Cam.

"Are you sure he's not feral?"

"He's not." Will said. "A feral wolf wouldn't sit like that for so long."

How long had he sat there before they noticed? "Then maybe--" The wolf shook his head again, almost wildly, like he had something on his head. As they watched, the wolf looked around, his fur raising, teeth exposed at something near the side of the house, and bolted. "Will."

"He's in attack mode now." He picked up a landline on the wall and put in some numbers. "We've got a foreign on the territory. Yes. No, I just saw it in my backyard, heading toward the pack house. Grab Oliver and I'll meet you there in fifteen."

"Are you going to catch it?" She asked once he hung up.

Will flipped off the stove and started rapidly putting stuff away. "If necessary. I want to track it--see where it goes and if it has a routine."

"Wouldn't it be best to go now?" As much as Harley hated the idea, it would make sense for Will to follow it on foot as soon as possible.

"If the trail settles a bit, I'll be able to track him to wherever he's staying. Obviously he's hanging out somewhere close. We have to figure out where that is."

"You're not going to hurt him though." She needed confirmation that he wasn't just going to kill it because it might pose a threat. She liked to think all wolves were innocent until proven guilty.

In the middle of rinsing out a cup, he stopped. Staring at the running water, he said, "Not unless I have to. But he can't stay here on pack land." He put the cup on the drying rack. "I'll drop you off at the pack house. Can you be ready in ten minutes?"

All she had were the jeans and t-shirt she wore yesterday and her crossbody purse. "No problem."

While Will went off to get ready, Harley went to the bathroom, did her business, and rinsed her mouth out with water. She'd have to wait to do more until she got back to the pack house. Lucky for her it was only 5:30 in the morning--the sun was just rising and there wouldn't be many people walking around the pack house that early. No one would see her rumpled clothes and disheveled hair. Even so, she combed through her brown locks with her fingers. It would have to be enough.

"Please don't let anyone get hurt." She whispered to the mirror, then left to find Will.

~

Later that day...

Jamie

Kensington was an averaged sized town with a mediocre shopping center. The mall struggled to keep shops open and customers filing in. If anyone wanted to do any real shopping besides the department stores, they had to go down the road to the plaza three blocks over.

Since Jamie didn't much care for the department stores, she often visited the plaza. Her favorite boutique rested there, nuzzled between a bakery and Kensington's only frozen yogurt shop.

With her phone tight to her ear, she stepped into Selena's boutique. Air conditioning raced over her in a cool, intense wave. She sighed in relief. With the end of June fast approaching, the humidity steadily rose. The town wouldn't expect the temperatures to mellow out until mid-August. Even with the overcast sky, the air was hot and sticky. At least the heat gave her a reason to wear her favorite pair of daisy dukes with the lace along the edges.

"I thought you said Harley was a quiet nobody," Beth, her best friend, said in her ear.

Jamie could throttle Harley. Ever since she'd moved in, nothing had been the same. Instead of being concerned for her, her dad had asked nothing but "how's Harley?" or, "have you checked up on Harley?" and "are you and Harley getting along?" As if she spent much time with the girl in the first place. She was sick of it. The pack seemed to go out of their way for the damn girl. Natalie always saved breakfast for her, Cam couldn't stop trying to suggest they bring her along on things, and even Bailey talked about her incessantly.

Just to get out of the house, Jamie decided to head into town to do some shopping therapy. All she knew was if she didn't get out soon, she'd have an aneurysm.

"She did it again last night, Beth."

"Butted in?"

"Yes!" She wanted to scream the word. "I was all set to hang out at Will's when she just showed up."

"Whoa, not cool. Did she invite herself along?"

"Might as well have. She showed up with Ben." Jamie scoured the racks as she spoke, flipping through dress after dress. Ew, this green one looked like ruffled snot.

"I thought you said you were hanging out with Will alone." Beth said, confused. The best thing about Beth was her ability to take everything Jamie said at face value and not question it. That was in the best friend code after all--even when your friend is wrong, she's right.

"Well, Cam was there, and Bailey. Cam is just a wing man--"

"A very sexy wing man."

Jamie rolled her eyes. "--and Bailey might as well be a boy." She pulled out a baby blue halter dress, scowled at it, and put it back. Red was her color. If she could find that dress in red--

"Bailey is one of the guys." Beth said, "I feel bad. You can tell she likes Cam. I don't think she knows what to do about it. Not that he'd see her that way anyway, Cam's a block when it comes to those things."

"Beth, focus."

"Sorry."

Frustrated, Jamie decided her grand shopping adventure would have to be another day. She left the store. The gray clouds outside looked threatening. If the sky opened up while she was out, that'd just be another wonderful thing to happen this week. "She had Ben practically wrapped around her finger too."

"What about Will?"

"I got him away from her, mostly. That didn't stop him from ogling her across the room. Beth, I have worked too hard to get Will to like me to have little miss "poor me, I lost my family" to ruin it."

Jamie parked her car down the block. She balanced her phone between her ear and shoulder to snag her keys from her white leather purse.

"She's gotta have some kind of weakness," Beth said.

Where were her effing keys? She tried to focus on the sidewalk so as not to trip on the jutting cracks here and there while also blindly feeling around for the blocky key fob. "Harley isn't even interesting." She growled into the phone. "She's one of the most boring people I've met. All she does is read."

"Then what is it Will likes about her?"

There. She pulled out her black key fob and clicked the unlock button. A few yards away, her silver sedan beeped. "I don't effing know. The girl is latent--she can't even go wolf--" Something slammed into her shoulder. Her phone clattered to the ground.

Great. Just great. "Watch where you're going."

Some average looking middle aged man reached down for her phone and handed it back. "My apologies, miss."

Jamie snatched it up and gave him a look. "Yeah, whatever."

"Beth, you still there?" She walked off.

~

Blackthorne marched his way to the center of the camp and the large tent there. His breath came out in gasps and sweat dripped down his back but he'd be damned if he let that stop him. He stomped to the tent and yanked open the flaps of the door.

"Honey, I'm home!" He called out, grinning especially as Selene threw him an irritated glance.

She sat at her work table, going over once again those damn papers. She was wasting her time, and pure glee bubbled up in him because he was the one that got to break it to her.

"Blackthorne, don't you have any semblance of respect?" She shuffled the papers together and stuffed them into a file folder, then clasped her hands together. God, this woman irritated him. Always so damn proper when she wasn't looking like an avenging angel.

The fact that the woman had a face and body to die for only pissed him off more.

"Why have respect when you can have a breakthrough instead?"

"The last breakthrough you had was shit and you know it."

Yeah, he wasn't too proud of his storm the place idea either. No matter, he'd actually done something great this time. "Guess who has two thumbs and knows something you don't?"

"Finish that joke and you'll have no thumbs and no physical way to continue reproducing." Ouch. Right for the 'nads then? Looked like Little Miss Sunshine wasn't in a sunny mood today. "Spit it out, Blackthorne."

He sighed. He just didn't get people who didn't like a little humor. "Fine. I'll tell you the boring version. I was doing some recon--"

"I told you that lead was dead." She cut him off and stood up, telling him through tight teeth that, "If you can't start listening to directions, I'll have you cut loose so fast you'll--"

"I'm all for following rules," not really, "but this time it was worth it."

After a moment in which Selene silently seethed, she spit out. "Continue."

"I spent some time in the town near Dr. Pierce's home and found out, by a stroke of luck really, that little Ms. Pierce had a smelly secret."

"And how pray tell did you find that out?"

He waved a hand, as if shooing the question away. "Just some skinny pack girl talking on the phone, thinking no one's listening. That's not important, but get this--Harley Pierce is latent."

"Latent?"

"It means, Oh Great And Powerful One, that Harley Pierce doesn't shift."

His smug smile continued to grow as Selene practically fell back into her chair. He waited while it sunk in. Surprise highlighted her face. "She doesn't shift?" She whispered more to herself.

"Nope. An honest-to-God wolf girl without a wolf."

"He did it." She muttered. "That bastard actually did it." Then, she snapped into the Commander role. "Get Morgan. We've got much work to do."