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territory?”
    “Damn it, what part of I don’t know do you not understand?” A hard shiver shook Blaine again and the feeling of being watched was back. He glanced nervously over his shoulder. “I’m freezing—we’ll talk about this when we get back down the mountain. We’ll try to figure it out.”
    He fell to the ground and shifted back to his wolf, aware that Colby was doing the same beside him. As soon as his vision cleared again, he sprang out of the clearing and back down the trail. All the way down the mountain the feeling of being spied on persisted, but it felt almost as if he were being watched over this time. It was an intense and possessive observation, and he couldn’t help but glance back over his shoulder from time to time. There was nothing there, only long, dark shadows gathering and closing in on the trail behind him.
    ****
    “I say they’re here for a reason, and we need to find out what it is,” Colby said, pacing back and forth in front of Blaine’s desk. “They want something from us, and I think it has to be our territory!”
    It had been two long days since the encounter with the big wolf in the forest above the lodge and they were no closer to finding out who he was and why he and his pack were in their territory. Colby had insisted on a meeting to discuss the situation, and Blaine sat now across from his cousin, along with a few of the gamma leaders who had shown good judgment in the past. Colby was enflaming them with his words, however, and Blaine needed to put a stop to it.
    “I’m worried, Blaine.” Colby was saying. “Michael, tell him about the campsite you saw on the other side of the mountain.
    “Well, it was yesterday afternoon,” one of the gammas said. “And I was coming back from town. I was driving my old Jeep, and I’d made a side trip to go see a mechanic who’d been recommended to me. He was supposed to have some parts I needed. Anyway, he lived way out of town, near the edge of our property, and on the way I noticed an old campground called Mountain View by the side of the road. There was like twenty motorcycles pulled up in there with tents all down to the stream. Musta been twenty or more of them too—those little ones, you know, the ones they call pup tents. Anyway, this one huge guy came out of one of them and looked over at me as I passed by. I was going kinda slow, you know. Just lookin’. I caught a strong scent of wolves, Blaine. Like nothing I ever smelled before, though. They weren’t our kind, anyway.”
    “Not our kind? Not shifter, you mean? I don’t understand.”
    “No, they were shifters. I’m sure of it. But not Grays. Nor Reds either. Some different kind of wolf, I think, but I didn’t know what to make of it. That big guy just stood there and stared at me and then a couple more came out to stand beside him. They were just as big as he was. They looked mean, so I took off.”
    “I don’t like this, Blaine.” Colby said. “Who are these guys and what are they doing on our land? They’re up to no good. I know it.”
    “Calm down, Colby. We don’t know anything yet. They weren’t on our land at the campsite, obviously, even if they were close. Maybe they’re just passing through—went out for a run on the mountain and got curious. It may be nothing more than that.”
    “And it might be that they want to take over our territory. I have a family to defend now, and I want answers.”
    As if on cue, the loud rumble of motorcycles coming down the road to the lodge began to filter into the room. They all stared at each other in stunned surprise for a moment before jumping to their feet. Blaine almost leaped for the door, but Colby beat him to it and raced down the steps in the lead.
    The main part of the house was very old, dating from the original cabin built in the late seventeen hundreds, when the threat from the various Indian tribes was a real one. That was before the local tribes realized what they were dealing with, of course,