eyes and saw the moon reflected back at me.
Outside, a long, high howl sounds through the night. Carys’ eyes widen. There’s snuffling, snarling and scratching from outside. They’ll keep coming until they take her, or I do something to them.
I get up off the bed. They can have one warning, which I shout through the door. “Get off my mountain before I come out there and rip your mangy hides from your backs.”
There’s an answering snarl, which goes on and on, elongating strangely. A crunching noise, a groan, and then the snarl becomes a laugh. A human laugh.
“Come out, come out, pretty girl,” taunts a voice. “You and the pup. We don’t want to hurt you.” This statement is followed by a snigger from what sounds like two other wolfskins.
I grip the door handle. “Last chance. If I come out there, none of you are walking off this mountain.”
“She’s not yours, bearskin,” yaps a different voice. “She’s ours. We claimed her first.”
All over my body, hairs shoot through my pores like needles, and my canines bulge and ache. The muscles in my back bunch and ripple. Behind me, I hear Carys gasp at the first signs of the change.
They think she’s theirs. They’re claiming my mate.
I tear the front door open. Outside in the snow, there are wolfskins in their human forms, dirty and ragged, their black hair in greasy tangles. Frozen air whips against my bare chest, and I bare my teeth at them. “You dare step paws in my territory and hound my mate?”
I hear a sharp intake of breath behind me. Carys needs to understand what I am, what she is, and why I’ll fight every last wolfskin, mountain lionskin and bearskin in the land to protect her and the baby.
The biggest wolfskin has a scar over one eye and the iris is milky white. “That’s my mate, and my cub, you dozy fuck.”
As he whines, I size them up. I can fight three at once. Wolfskins are fast and vicious, but I can crush their skulls in one blow. I come down the steps toward them, and their backs arch and they bare their teeth at me.
“She ran to me. Now leave, before I make you bleed.”
Their eyes snap to something behind me. Carys is framed in the doorway, Finley clutched to her chest as she stares, face paper-white, at the one-eyed wolfskin.
“You,” she whispers.
He calls to her, “He’ll dash that pup’s head on the rocks as soon as we leave. A bearskin won’t protect a wolf brat. It’s not in his blood.”
“You’d call your own child a brat?” I growl through my teeth.
The milky iris and the golden eye swing back to me. “I’ll call it what I want. Stand down, bearskin, before we make you.”
“Leave me alone!” Carys’ voice is ragged and tear-streaked. “Just go away and leave me alone.”
“Shut your face. I’ll deal with you in a minute,” the wolfskin snarls.
I’m still wearing pants and boots, but that has never mattered. The beast within envelops every human thing about me including my clothes as it bursts forth, roaring and snarling.
Behind me, Carys screams.
My front paws hit the ground and snow flies into the air. I open my mouth and roar. Full-throated. Deep-bellied. A roar so powerful that it could knock a human off their feet. The wolfskins are changing, their snouts lengthening and fur bubbling over their skin. Before the closest wolfskin can open its yellow eyes, I pull back my paw and strike, putting the full weight of my nearly half-ton body into the blow. A fifth of my size, the wolf doesn’t stand a chance. His head snaps to one side with a crunch of bones. He crumples to the snow and lays there, without moving, tongue lolling out.
The other two snarl, teeth bared and fully changed.
I run and shoulder charge them aside, then turn as fast as I can. Not fast enough, though. A wolfskin leaps onto my back and starts snapping at my eyes with his teeth. The other makes repeated lunges at my face and throat. There’s blood in my eyes and growling fills my ears. I rise up onto my back legs and slam down, over and over, trying to dislodge the wolf from my back and crush the other beneath me.
Behind me, I can hear Carys screaming and Finley crying.
My face and neck are on fire and fur is flying all around me. I can barely see.
My paws land on something solid and I attack it