Deep in the middle of the frozen north, sitting quietly in a sturdy house built to withstand such snow storms, Javier sat comfortably on the living couch drinking coffee from a sturdy plain mug. The ever present feeling of his pack in the back of his mind felt closer. He focused on that feeling and yes there was no doubt, his pack was moving towards him. He jumped up from his place on the couch and called out, “Huan Li, Yrsa! They’re moving! We have to go!”

  Yrsa crashed out of her room, slamming the door open at the sudden outburst from her house guests, “What you talking about? It still snowing outside. We can’t go out there, it be suicide!”

  Javier grabbed the broad-shouldered woman, “That’s why we have to go! They’re using me as a guide but they could die out there if we don’t help them!”

  “Wait what?” Yrsa looked very confused, “What you mean, using you as guide? You have cell phone I don’t know about?”

  Javier shook his head, “No, no I don’t have a cell phone. Look, we Shape shifters have a pack bond. Once we promise loyalty to our Alpha a link forms between each pack member that always lets us know where the others in our pack are. I can feel them moving, they are using that link to direct themselves. Look,” Javier pointed to the window that looked out over the forest. “The snow isn’t coming down hard and it’s getting light outside. Please, you have to help me get to them.”

  Yrsa looked out the window and she was a little embarrassed that she had panicked before. The snow was still coming down but it was a light drifting snow, the kind that she had hunted and foraged in since she was little.

  She nodded her head, “Fine we go, but we are not going dumb, we go smart.” Javier nodded, smiling gratefully.

  It took about half an hour to get prepared. They got dressed in clothes that they would be able to move in, but still protect them from the cold if the weather suddenly turned bad. They grabbed rope, emergency food and water rations, and snow shoes. Javier and Yrsa left Huan Li in the cabin and they headed out into the forest.

  The snow was deep and the drifts had piled high against the trees of the woods. Even though it was lighter outside than it had been in the last week, the heavy snow that had collected on the ground around them gave the forest an eerie darkness that felt more like late dusk after sunset than an early morning.

  Javier had recovered fully from his ordeal that brought him to be rescued by Yrsa but even still, his muscular legs just could not keep up with the conditioned power of Yrsa. She moved with a mixture of pure power and fluid grace, like she had been born wearing snow shoes. After only a few minutes Javier was already sweating.

  This was not lost on Yrsa. She stopped and studied the sky around them. Javier was given a small reprieve and Yrsa slowed her pace to better accommodate Javier. It was him who seemed to know exactly where he was going. Yrsa noted quite quickly that they were not going back to the spot where she had found him and Huan Li. Javier moved ahead and led her deeper into the forest.

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  A growing fear was slowly building in Yrsa. She was going to a place that she had never gone to before. There had been stories and whispers of what had happened and what still did happen this deep in the northern portion of the forest. She strained her ears for the smallest sound. She kept looking back and all around her, memorizing their surroundings so she could guide him and his friends back to her cabin.

  The quiet of the northern woods, usually a comfort to her, was now oppressive and she realized that a cold sweat was building and softly trickling down her back. The man-eating tribes to the far north. The cousins of the Bear Clan who had given way entirely to their bestial natures that feasted upon all forms of flesh including humans. The things they did to kidnapped women and the perversion of the old ways. All these thoughts kept running around inside her mind, whispering of all the horrible things that might happen to her if she was caught. Her eyes darted back and forth as she tried to stay calm. The blood of the Bear Clan ran through her veins, if they did get caught, she would not be taken easily and several of those fools, if they tried to take her, would find their way to Helheim before she was taken.

  She moved up very close to Javier and asked softly, “You sure this is right way? You sure your friends this way?”

  Javier nodded breathing heavily, “Yes, they’re this way just…just a bit further.”

  He thought about flooding his body with adrenaline to make the journey swifter and easier on himself. But he knew that was foolish. He would give up his long-term strength and endurance for a quick gain that would be just as quickly lost.

  He may need to use his Enforcer Bio-feedback gifts before this journey was through, but now was not that time.

  His pack was close, he could feel them. He didn’t know if they were in werewolf form or human. If they didn’t have snow shoes, it might well be that they were forced to shift into werewolf form, except for Hysminai and Soter, there wolf bodies were made for snow travel, they wouldn’t have any problems in this. It was Keva and Michelle that he was worried about.

  He swept over a drift in between two trees and he saw them. Sure enough, Keva and Michelle were in their werewolf form, while the two wolves moved in front of them, breaking through the snow to make it easier for the two female werewolves to walk through. Keva was carrying something big over her shoulders. Was that a deer? Why hadn’t they skinned and eaten it already, instead of dragging it all over the place.

  He turned around and motioned to Yrsa, “Stay here for a second, I’ll be right back.” Without waiting for a reply, he stepped over the steep drift and half slid down the other side. Yrsa had seen Huan Li shift into werewolf form, but after how she had reacted to that, he really didn’t want her first impressions of his pack to be in their ‘monster’ forms.

  He smiled broadly as he approached his pack. Hysminai and Soter ran up to either side of him while Keva dropped whatever it was she was carrying, and her and Michelle shifted back into human form. The three humans greeted each other with hugs.

  “What happened to you?” “Where have you been?” Javier and Michelle asked simultaneously.

  “What happened to Erato?” Javier asked looking around the woods.

  Keva looked down at the ground, “You know what happened Javier. That guy did it, trying to break and train Hysminai and Soter to be hunting dogs, or attack animals or something. You can ask him.”