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Sal hadn’t given up. “Paul, damn you! You’re going to get yourself killed!”
    Matthew heard more thrashing through the woods, and he threw a quick look around the tree to see the outline of Sal’s body under the light of the moon and in the faint glow of headlights.
    A flashlight bobbed behind him. Chen? El?
    “Come on, Sal, we’ve got to go. Didn’t you hear that?”
    Matthew saw the shadowy form of Chen grab at Sal’s shirt and watched Sal jerk free.
    “I’m not leaving him here.”
    “What the hell’s wrong with you, Sal. Can’t you tell he doesn’t want your help? Let’s go.” Chen sounded as if he meant to drag Sal out.
    But then the trees shook and something rushed out of the darkness with a roar, and Matthew threw himself away from the tree and toward Sal and Chen.
    He had no doubt in that moment that the wolf coming for them wasn’t Ash.
    “Get down!” he screamed at Sal and Chen and then he spun and faced the glowing alien eyes of the wolf bearing down on them and screamed, “We submit! We submit!”
    He dropped to the ground on his knees, gasping as the jolt of contact shuddered through him. He glanced over his shoulder to see that Sal stood frozen, and Chen made a jerky movement as if he wanted to run, as if he were just about to bolt.
    Sal moved then, just as Matthew was about to give up on him, grabbing Chen and throwing him to the ground. He followed quickly, dropping to his knees.
    Matthew turned back to face the wolf. “We submit,” he said again, slower, clearer. “We submit.”
    The wolf had stopped running. His shadowy head tilted to the side and his teeth gleamed as he spoke. “Who do you belong to?”
    Matthew had used the wolves’ learning technology many times over the last three years, practicing his understanding of the wolves’ language until he could understand better than most humans, with the exception of those humans who spent most of their time with the wolves. Even so, it took Matthew a moment to figure out what the wolf had asked in his thick accent.
    “No one,” Matthew answered, heart thundering, sweat soaking his underarms and trailing down his spine.
    “Fuck,” Sal said, so quietly Matthew almost didn’t hear it.
    The wolf turned his head toward Sal. “Who do you belong to?”
    “He doesn’t belong to anybody either,” Matthew said.
    The wolf turned his attention back to Matthew and slowly started stalking closer. Matthew shut up.
    “This isn’t right,” Chen said.
    “Quiet,” Matthew ground out through his teeth.
    “But—”
    “You should listen to your companion.” The wolf’s voice crawled down Matthew’s spine, deep and strong and terrifying. He had never been this close to a wolf during heat season and he was already sure he never wanted to experience this feeling of unsettled fear again.
    “Something smells different about you,” the wolf said, Matthew squarely in his sights. He leaned down, and Matthew fought the urge to recoil, knowing if he did, the wolf could go from calm to crazed in an instant.
    Human scent and heat season were a nasty combination. Wolves hadn’t yet found a way to control their reaction to the human scent trigger during their heat, except with the use of repression drugs that had unpredictable side-effects.
    Because of Brendan, Matthew knew more about wolves than most humans. That didn’t mean he understood them any better. Especially not the way Brendan had started to understand them.
    “I—”
    “No,” the wolf interrupted. “I want to smell you.” He stuck his nose against Matthew’s neck and sniffed, then dragged in a deep breath, skimming his face along the column of Matthew’s throat and forcing Matthew’s head back.
    The wolf reared back and growled, “Who are you?”
    Matthew threw a quick glance to his side, to see the shadow of Sal turned his way, watching him.
    The wolf’s claw-tipped fingers took a firm hold of Matthew’s chin, turning his head. “Answer my questions.”
    Matthew