Alarick whistled under his breath.
“Ho-ly shit,” Jose said.
“Are those all wolves?” Brooklyn asked, her eyes widening in shock.
A couple broke from the crowd and started toward us.
“If they’re hostile, we’re fucked,” Donovan said.
“Come on,” Alarick said, moving toward the people who were approaching.
We met them in the middle of the clearing. They stopped a few paces from us, watching with suspicion. I knew they were making themselves vulnerable right now, with only two people against our six. But they must have fifty to a hundred wolves to back them up, while we had none.
“You’re wolves,” said the male from the couple, a tall guy with black hair and strikingly pale blue eyes. The girl had stark white hair and a serene, watchful air as she looked us over.
“Yes,” Alarick said. “From the Ravenwood Pack.”
“How’d you find us?” the girl asked, cocking her head to one side like a curious cat. She wasn’t a wolf, I realized. She moved differently. She smelled different, too.
“She found you,” Alarick said, nodding toward me.
“How?” she asked.
The guy rested a hand on her lower back, and she gave him a deferential nod, letting him speak. “You’re an alpha,” he said to Alarick. “Where’s the rest of your pack?”
“This is my pack,” Alarick said. “There are two more wolves in Vancouver, but they cut ties with us. We thought we were the last of our kind.”
The guy’s eyes moved over us. I assumed he was their alpha, the one Cayenne had called Harmon. “Are you here to join us or fight us?”
“Neither,” Alarick said, drawing up. “I cannot submit to another alpha. But my wolves need mates. If anyone in your pack is without a mate, and you’d be willing to let them meet my brothers, my packmate, and this she-wolf we created, I’m willing to let them swear into your pack.”
“You’d give up one of your six members?” Harmon asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I’d give up four of them, if you have their mates,” Alarick said, his arm tightening around my waist. “What’s best for the wolf is best for the alpha.”
Harmon nodded, holding a hand in front of his heart, facing outward. “A strong alpha is always best for the wolf,” he said. “If you’re not here to fight us, let me introduce you to my mate, Stella, and the Three Valleys pack. We call ourselves the Lunessa Pack.”
“Thank you,” Alarick said with a nod. “We’re honored.”
“More like excited out of our fucking minds,” Adolf said. “We thought we were the last wolves in the world.”
The tension eased, and Harmon turned and motioned for us to follow him to his pack. “It’ll be nice to have some new faces around here,” he said. “I don’t know about other wolves in this world, but one of our shifters visits other worlds and has mentioned wolves in at least one of them.”
“You’ve been to other worlds?” I asked, excitement tightening inside me. Mr. Ravenwood had told me I could walk between worlds.
“We haven’t been there,” Stella said with a small laugh. “Probably the same reason we have no idea how many wolves are in this world. We don’t get out much.”
“I can see why,” Brooklyn said. “Managing a pack this big must be a full-time job.”
“For Harmon,” Stella said. “I’m the shifter queen, so I have my hands full with that.”
“You’re a shifter,” I said, nodding. “You didn’t smell like a wolf.”
“Neither do you,” she said, her nostrils flaring as she inhaled. “You’re… Human?”
“I’m a created wolf,” I said.
She kept scenting the air in a very inhuman way. Obviously staying secluded in their shifter world made them forget some of their shifter habits weren’t exactly normal to the rest of the world.
“No, a fae,” she said, still scenting. “And… Witch? No, mage. I can’t tell. I’m not getting any wolf, though.”
I was glad she wasn’t getting any vampire, either. If this pack was anything like ours, they wouldn’t be too happy with that part of my nature. As long as I stayed well fed, I wouldn’t be a danger to them, so I figured I should keep the bloodsucking under wraps. We were only here for a visit, after all.
“Lunessa wolves,” Harmon said, spreading his arm to gesture at all his dozens and dozens of wolves. “This is what remains of the Ravenwood Pack. They are here to search among us for mates. Let’s show them hospitality during their visit.”
He went to light the fire, and the wolves surrounded us, chattering with excitement. Obviously, they weren’t used to seeing other wolves, since none existed. I stood there feeling overwhelmed and dazed. I couldn’t believe it. We didn’t have to kidnap and kill girls. There were so many right here, right in front of us. It made my head swim.
“I guess none of us were going to be the savior of the wolf race after all,” I said to Brooklyn. “They apparently don’t need saving.”
Brooklyn didn’t answer. She was staring at a guy with a missing arm. As I looked around, I noticed lots of severe injuries. A few missing limbs or eyes, some with scars on their faces, more with a cane or a limp when they walked. Apparently having a lot of wolves didn’t mean life was easy. I started to say something to Brooklyn, but when I turned back, she hadn’t moved. She was still staring at the guy, a shortish Hispanic man who looked to be in his mid-twenties, and who apparently found Brooklyn as captivating as she found him.
“How’d you find us?” a voice asked from beside me. I turned to find Stella, the snowy-haired shifter queen,
