“The Brocks are on a hunt,” he rasped.

“We’re looking for a lost girl,” said Tora.

Phelan nodded and did his best to smile. “I’ve watched you track her…in circles.”

“Are we close?” Tora gasped. “Where is she?”

Phelan pointed to their left. North. “But not alone.”

“The wolves!” said Argus.

Phelan nodded.

“How many?”

“Four,” said Harlan, almost like a question, as if testing his theory.

“Good,” Phelan smiled. “Very good.”

Even though his form was halfway between wolf and werewolf, there was no mistaking the pride on Harlan’s face.

“They’re a pack,” said Argus. “Like us.”

Phelan shook his head. “No,” he said. “Not like you.”

The three pack members looked curiously at Phelan. Like Tora, they were all wondering: if they were wolves, then how was it that they were not like them?

Phelan said just one word. “Wild.”

Tora thought about that, but didn’t quite understand. “Why are they following the girl?”

Phelan was silent for several moments, then said, “Winter. This one has been hard. Hunger is a ravenous beast. Humans can be dangerous, sometimes they have guns, but the girl…easy prey.”

Tora opened her mouth in surprise, but it was Argus who spoke first.

“You know they want to, to…eat her, and you’ve done nothing to stop them!” As he spoke, Argus’s body changed form, becoming more human with each word.

There was a look on Phelan’s face that suggested he didn’t understand. “They are my brothers, just as you are my brothers, and they are hungry.”

“But she’s a girl,” Argus cried. “An innocent little girl.”

The confused look on Phelan’s face turned to one of anger. “Not a girl,” he said. “An animal.”

Tora felt a chill run the length of her spine.

“She is an animal,” he said again. “She has strayed from her kind. She is alone and weak, an easy kill that will feed the entire pack.”

“No,” Argus gasped. “You can’t let that happen.”

Phelan’s eyes narrowed. “Not up to me. It is the way of Mother Earth.”

“But…” Argus began, but he was soon speechless. Perhaps now he better understood why Phelan had not allowed Argus to join him in the wild, as Argus had desperately wanted not so long ago. Living wild meant living in a world where the rules were so different from what they’d learned that they would never fit in, and never survive.

Argus wanted to say more, but Tora put a comforting arm on his shoulder and said, “We understand, but surely you understand why we must try to save her.”

“Yes,” Phelan said. “You are already halfway between worlds. You should be the ones to come between them.”

“Then let’s go!” said Argus angrily, as if much of the admiration and respect he’d had for Phelan was suddenly gone.