FREYA
They do not kill us. That is the first surprise.
They take the few things we carry and they bind our wrists, and they march us through the forest at gunpoint without a single word, and the silence of them is worse than any shouting would be.
They walk us down out of the trees and through a compound and into a low stone hall, and they stand us in front of their Alpha.
He is young. Younger than Eli, even. But there is nothing soft anywhere in him, and the way his warriors hold themselves around him, careful and quick to his smallest movement, tells me everything I need to know about how he keeps this pack.
He looks at the two of us for a long, unhurried moment. Then his eyes settle on Eli, and something sharpens in his face.
"Well, now." His voice is quiet and pleasant, which is
