“I sure did,” Argus said proudly. “And I won.”

“You should have seen him, Noble,” Harlan chimed in. “That pack’s alpha male was huge…and mean, and Argus managed to send him away with his tail between his legs.”

Noble said nothing for the longest time, thinking. Finally, he said, “So you wounded it?”

Argus nodded.

“And it survived?”

Again Argus nodded.

Noble was silent, seeming to consider what had happened in the woods. “You know…there’s a good chance that the wolf could become a lycanthrope, just like us.”

Tora nodded, as did Argus and Harlan.

“You made another werewolf!” he said. “And not just any werewolf, but an alpha male who is going to wake up one day and realize he’s part wolf, part man…possessing more strength than he can imagine, and without any idea about what it means to be human.”

No one said a word for the longest time.

Tora had to admit that it sounded pretty serious the way Noble put it. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that it was easy for Noble to say these things now, in the warmth and comfort of his bedroom. Out there, in the forest, there hadn’t been any time to think, only time enough to save a girl from being eaten by a pack of starving wolves. Who wouldn’t have done everything they could to save the girl from such a fate? And even if the tables had been turned and it had been an angry mob of men hunting down a lone, defenseless wolf cub, Tora knew she would have done the very same thing to save the innocent.

“We did what we thought was right,” she said sharply, her voice rising in volume and the hair at the back of her neck standing up on end. “Argus had to fight the wolf, even though we knew what might happen if he did. We had to do something to save the girl’s life. We weren’t going to stand around and watch her get eaten alive…” Tora paused a moment, breathing deeply, then said, “We did the right thing—”

“Tora, relax!” Noble said, putting his hands up in surrender. “I would have done exactly what you did in that situation.”

Suddenly, all of Tora’s fight was gone. “Really?”

“Yes, really,” Noble said. “You did do the right thing.”

Tora smiled, happy to have Noble’s approval.

“He’s right, Tora,” Harlan said. “You did really well as leader.”

Argus gave her a playful punch in the arm. “Yeah, the thing with these clothes…” He paused to pull on the frayed wool of his sweater. “That’s the sort of thing Noble usually comes up with.”

Noble nodded in appreciation. “Very clever,” he said. “In fact, I’m a bit worried I might be on the way out as leader—”