“We hid in the brambles, the black kind with red thorns. He was circling around the bramble bushes, but he couldn’t get to us, because he was too big. He would have gotten bored and gone away, but Ascanio showed up. Again.”

I put my hands over my face.

“As I have pointed out before,” Christopher said, “this was less about hunting a minotaur and more about hiding from a minotaur, trapped, with no escape route, while your parents frantically searched the entire city for you since the lot of you left a note that said, ‘Gone on a monster hunt.’”

“Did he kill the loup?” I asked.

“Yes,” Christopher said. “Eventually. Ascanio suffered a broken femur in his left leg, two broken ribs, and a collapsed lung, but he did kill the loup. My guess is, he thought the children would die if he failed.”

“We helped! Towards the end. Well, Conlan helped the most.” Sophia grit her teeth. “Do you know what he did after? He cursed at us. An adult man. And then, when I told him that we could run away from him because of his broken leg and he should be nicer, he put us in loup manacles.”

“He what?”

“He’s part of the Pack’s loup rapid response unit. He always has loup manacles in his SUV,” Christopher said. “He manacled the children to one another and led them out of the woods like that.”

Sophia flushed. “Everybody saw. Everybody. I’ll never forgive him. He’ll get what’s coming to him.”

Oh my gods. He had to walk them out on a broken leg. And the ribs. Every breath would be fire.

“And now you know why my daughter isn’t a fan of the man who constantly saves her and her friends from themselves.”

Sophia opened her mouth.

Christopher looked at her. “It’s time for you to return home. Be careful, the roads are muddy.”

“Yes, Father.” Sophia rose. “Thank you for the tea. And for giving me another chance with Marten. I promise there won’t be any more escapes.”

“You’re welcome.”

She left.

“Ms. Ryder, if I could offer a word of advice?”

“Of course.”

“The situation in the Pack is delicate. Jim Shrapshire, the current Beast Lord, wants to retire. Leading the Pack is an exhausting, high-pressure position, and he gets little thanks but shoulders all the blame. He’s missing the childhood of his children and it’s wearing on him. He will, however, continue until a worthy successor presents themselves. Such a successor must have support from the majority of the clans. Ascanio Ferara is sizing up the Beast Lord’s throne, and he thinks it will fit him. He may be right, but he has a long way to go. He has the brains, money, and the drive, but he lacks experience and the sheer physicality required for the role.”

“He took on a loup buffalo.”

“He’s a superb fighter. The question is, can he inspire people to follow him? Can he walk onto a battlefield and lead the charge? That remains to be seen. Whatever you and he are involved in, and I’m not insinuating anything by that remark, keep in mind that if you put yourself in the path of his ambition, he will bulldoze over you.”

“Thank you.”

He turned to Marten. “Ready?”

She gazed at him, her face serene. “Are we going to fly?”

“We are. The only question is, how high would you like to go?”

“Wait.” I ran to the back of the house and came back with a thick sweatshirt and pulled it over Marten. It swallowed her. “It will be cold up there.”

Marten hugged me and held out her arms to Christopher. He picked her up and carried her out the front door. For a moment they stood poised in the moonlight. Then two enormous blood-red wings burst from Christopher’s back, beat once, and he streaked into the sky, taking Marten with him. The theophage who had devoured Deimos, the Greek god of terror, was flying away with the little girl I cared about, and I was totally okay with that.

A pair of ruby eyes caught the light in the shadows across the street. A bouda. Ascanio must have left someone to watch my house, and they had just given themselves away. Sloppy. Or they wanted me to know I was being watched.

My phone rang. Looked like my night wasn’t over yet.

I went inside and picked it up.

“I found Darren Argent.” All humor was gone from Stella’s voice.

“I have a feeling I’m not going to like this.”

“Do you know what Ice Fury is?”

“The largest shapeshifter pack in the United States. They’re based in Alaska, half of them have gone wild, and they don’t like outsiders.”

“Darren Argent is the beta of Ice Fury.”

Cold washed over me. I remembered where I had heard the name.

There was no way. It couldn’t be Derek.

“There are more warnings on his file than I have ever seen. This guy is death on legs.”

“Is there a description?” Maybe he just used the name.

“Male, white, early thirties, dark hair. He’s kind of hard to misidentify. He’s got scars all over his face.”

The world stood on its hands and kicked me in the face.

“You said you ran into him.” Urgency vibrated in Stella’s voice. “Tell me he isn’t in Atlanta right now. Because if he is, the Knight-Protector has to know. I can’t know this and not tell him.”

Of course. A prominent member of the largest shapeshifter pack entered Atlanta’s Pack territory and didn’t announce himself. Nick would expect a shapeshifter war.

“Go ahead and tell him.”

“I already did.”

“Then why the hell did you ask me?”

“I wanted to know what you would say.”

“Stella!”

“Feldman wasn’t happy. He wants you to come in.”

“Let him know I’ll be there first thing in the morning.”

“No, he wants you to come in right now.”

Right now wouldn’t be happening. I had to figure out how to handle this situation, and I was so exhausted, I could barely stand. “I’ll be there in the morning. Tell him that it’s not a shapeshifter war.”

Stella exhaled into the phone. “Aurelia…”

“In the morning. I have to go.”

I hung up.

A few years ago, a family of wererats joined the New Shinar, husband, wife, and their two children. They were originally from California but had had a falling out with the rest of their extended family and had gone up to Alaska to join Ice Fury. Things didn’t work out, and once the husband’s father died, they packed up and moved back south to take care of the husband’s mother.