Alex didn’t listen to me, but threw himself into the fray, snarling and snapping. Berget and Faris were there, breaking necks like they were brittle twigs. From the corner of my eye, I saw Berget feed on one of the werewolves, drinking him down. A massive, brindled wolf leapt at me, claws and mouth extended. I fell backward as I shot the last bolt. It caught the werewolf through the lower jaw and slammed into his brain. The wolf jerked in mid-flight and fell to the ground at my feet.

I scrambled up and looked around. They were all dead. Every last one of the pack was killed. A sick, horrible feeling rolled through me. If the supernaturals kept coming after me, I would be forced to kill them. The only ones who might be able to stand with me in the last showdown with Orion. And the bastard demon knew it. I was effectively killing off my own potential allies in order to survive, yet the paradox was that it could kill me in the end.

I didn’t have time to think more on that. In the distance, another set of howls made the hair rise along the back of my neck.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” I swung my bow onto my back and looked around. The Great Wolf was closer, which meant he was coming our way.

“Alex, howl for the Great Wolf.”

“You gots it.” He tipped his head back. “Greeeaaaaaaat Woooooolf. Coooooome.”

Berget raised her eyebrows. “That is not what I thought he would do.” Beside her, Faris burst out laughing, the gold rim back around the edge of his eyes. Once more I decided not to point it out to him. No need to provoke him.

Alex panted slowly, his head swiveling first to one side, then the other. “Great Wolf is close. He says so.”

A chill danced across my shoulders. I turned slowly in a full circle, Tracking the Great Wolf. He was close, as in I-should-be-seeing-his-furry-ass close.

“Hey, wolf boy. You want to show yourself?” I turned and found myself staring down into the face of a rather large, black wolf. The scar down his shoulder drew my eye. At least I had the right wolf. His dark eyes were bottomless and there was no mercy in them.

I didn’t flinch. Just stared. “I need your help.”

He pressed his muzzle against the hollow of my throat, then turned to look at Faris who gave a low growl that was not a vampire’s. The Great Wolf looked over my shoulder and for just a minute, I thought I heard him say grandson?

I blinked several times. “Did you say grandson?”

The Great Wolf’s eyes shot to mine, narrowing, lips pulling up over teeth big enough to do some serious damage. I held my ground. “I’ll ask again. I need your help. Please.”

He stepped back, his jet-black fur and eyes making him difficult to see. If it hadn’t been for that scar on his shoulder, I would have lost him in the trees. No wonder I hadn’t seen him sneaking up on me.

The second werewolf pack skidded to a stop. A series of whimpers leaked from their lips as they went from snarling maniacs, to whimpering puppies.

Alex shook a fist at them and snarled. “Yes, that’s right, scaredy cats!”

I shushed him. “Alex, don’t tempt fate.”

The Great Wolf let out a low chuckle and shook his head. Again, I heard a single word said with a strange mixture of sarcasm and laughter. Submissive.

“Yeah, well, that’s what you get when a submissive isn’t so doormat-like any longer,” I said, hoping to get a reaction. I did.

The Great Wolf leapt at me, knocking me to the ground. His huge paws were on my shoulders, keeping my hands pinned. His back feet dug into my ankles, locking me to the ground. Fuck, I’d just been owned by an oversized dog.

A blur of blond hair and golden eyes was all I caught as Faris sent the Great Wolf flying. “She’s mine, don’t you forget it, old man,” he snarled in a voice not quite his.

“Liam, ease up. We have to play nice when we want someone’s help.”

“Easy for you to say, you never play nice.” His eyes flicked to mine, golden and oh-so-beautiful. I shrugged. No point in denying it. That was a hard truth about me. Around us the other wolves whimpered and shifted, like they didn’t know what to do. Attack or run. I felt the same way.

“Great Wolf, or whatever the fuck your name is, are you helping us? We’re going to save the world with or without your help, but it will be a hell of a lot easier with.”

The Great Wolf seemed to grow and I realized he was shifting. “I hope to hell you can keep clothes on when you do that,” I said before I thought better of it.

His body morphed in a fluid spell of shifting bones and flesh, not unlike the way Liam shifted.

He lifted his head, and those dark eyes and hair struck me to the core of my guts. It wasn’t Liam, I knew that. But the similarities were so strong I wanted to run my hands over his face to feel the lines of his jaw, the edge of his brow. He wore a button down shirt that could have been a dark blue, and something like khaki pants but his feet were bare.

“You’re related to Liam, aren’t you?”

He nodded and that one word came back to me.

“You’re his fucking grandfather?”

The Great Wolf shrugged, a wry smile on his lips that was so like Liam’s it tore at my heart. “I wouldn’t say fucking, yeah? I haven’t had the pleasure of that in a damn long time. But yeah, your wolf was my grandpup. Pity I didn’t get to meet him before he offed himself.” I stood and Faris, or I should say Liam, stayed one step in front of me. The Great Wolf narrowed his eyes. “You can call me Griffin, Tracker. But that one there”—he pointed at Liam—“Who in the name of the mother goddess is that?”