The afternoon after her first date with Hunter, Sasha found herself picking up a prescription for her grandfather, the drug store a small little building just off Main Street. She was waiting for the order to be filled when she heard the door ding behind her and spun from the magazine rack she had been perusing.

A man stood there, staring right at her. He was handsome (something Sasha had noticed about Tall Tree. A lot of the population seemed to be made up of handsome young men, as though she had stepped into some sort of Abercrombie and Fitch catalog or something.) but off-putting, his skin deeply tanned, his hair black except for a streak of white along one side.

“Hi there,” he said, coming toward her. Sasha glanced around nervously. The pharmacist was a man who looked even older than her grandfather, and he had disappeared into a small back room to count and bottle the pills she needed. No one else was in the store.

“Hi,” she said, trying to keep any sense of unease from her voice. She wasn’t sure why the man with was making her feel so uncomfortable, she just knew he was.

He was wearing a leather jacket and dark jeans with holes in them, his large feet clad in black motorcycle boots, and indeed, looking at the man, Sasha could see a Harley parked in front of the door.

“I’m Kurt,” the man said, stopping a foot or so away from her and extending his hand. “I heard we had a new resident.”

She shook his hand, his grip strong.

“Yeah,” she said.

“I wanted to say hi. I like to be the welcome wagon around these parts.

The door dinged again. “I’ve already welcomed her,” Hunter said, standing in the doorway. Kurt turned.

“Ah, Hunter, new blood and you come running, huh?”

Sasha didn’t like what she was hearing. It sounded as if the men were fighting over her. She had enjoyed her time with Hunter the night before, but she wasn’t property to be fought over the way dogs would fight over a bone.

“Skunk, why don’t you leave the girl alone?”

“Don’t call me that,” Kurt said, anger flaring in his eyes.

“Miss, here you are,” a voice said from behind Sasha, and she turned to see the pharmacist holding a small white paper bag.

“Thank you,” she said, taking the bag quickly and then hurrying out of the store.

“Hey, I came to see you, I stopped by your grandfather’s house,” Hunter called after her, stepping outside behind her.

“Come by later, okay?” She was in a hurry to leave, Kurt made her very uncomfortable, and the testosterone show was too much for her.

Sasha expected Hunter to come see her, but the day wore on, and the evening came on, and then night proper, and he never did, and Sasha found herself feeling rather disappointed.

Her grandfather retired to his bedroom earlier than usual that evening, leaving her alone in the rest of the house by nine. She sat in the living room for some time, channel surfing, but the old man didn’t have cable, and only a few channels came in, so it wasn’t much of a surf. She turned off the TV and stood, stretching her arms above her head.

That’s when she heard it. A deep growl. There was nothing else the sound could be, she knew that it was a growl, like a dog warning that he’s about to attack, raspy and husky and frightening.

Sasha moved to the nearest window and looked out, but she could see nothing but the forest nearby. She squinted her eyes, trying to see in the darkness, the growl constant and growing louder. She was scared, and she turned away from the window and hurried to the front door, double checking that it was locked. Here the growling was even louder, and Sasha stood on her tips of her toes to look out of the square of glass near the top of the door. She could just see the porch in front of the door, and there, coming up the stairs, was a massive dog.

No, not a dog, she realized as she watched it near the door until it passed beneath her field of view. It was a wolf. A wolf with pitch black fur, a wolf that, as Sasha slunk back from the door with growing horror, began to scratch at the door.

“Go away!” she called, not loud enough to wake her grandfather, perhaps doing that subconsciously, feeling foolish for being so frightened by a wolf. Of course, there were wolves here in the forest in Alaska, and no doubt there were any number of other animals that were just as dangerous, or more dangerous, like bears. She was in a house, safe and secure, and the wolf was outside. Being so frightened was ridiculous.

And yet, she was terrified. She had an unrealistic image in her mind of the wolf pouncing, busting through the front door, rushing at her with jaws wide, shrieking as they closed tightly around her throat.

In reality, the wolf scratched at the door for some time, and then she heard it’s heavy footsteps as it turned away from the door and padded along to the left, towards the living room. Sasha followed the wolf’s steps from the safety of the house, and she saw it pass in front of one window in the living room, shocked at the size of the thing. Not that she had ever seen a wolf in real life, but this one, the black one on the porch, with a streak of white running down the side of it’s head to about its mid back was absolutely huge. Surely larger than a wolf was meant to be.

Its lips curled back from long white teeth, it’s fur seemed to stand on end along its neck and back. It paused there, at the window and turned, and she was sure the yellow eyes were staring right at her. The thing growled again, and it pressed its nose against the glass of the window. Again, Sasha had the idea that the wolf was going to come in for her. This time it didn’t seem like a silly notion, she was sure it was going to happen. She watched the beast bend down and back, gathering its power in its legs, preparing to jump forward, through the glass.

Sasha turned, intent on rushing to get her grandfather, on waking an old, sick man, thinking that he would be able to help her, a foolish thought to be sure. The old man had cancer! He was dying! What would he do?

Behind Sasha, the window shattered. She screamed and turned. The massive black wolf was inside, it’s head dipped, its teeth bared. Frothy white saliva dripped from its jaws as it stalked forward.

“Grandpa!” Sasha yelled, turning to run again but tripping and falling to the floor. Upstairs there was a loud bang, and Sasha figured it was her grandfather coming to see what was wrong. Instead, another wolf bounded down the stairs and into the living room. I was pure white, the same color as snow. It was also clearly older than the black wolf with the white streak. It was thinner, it’s fur stragglier.

The black wolf leaped towards Sasha. She threw her arms up to protect herself, jamming her eyes shut and waiting for the blow to come. It never did. Instead, there was a yelp, and when she opened her eyes, she saw the white wolf had intercepted the black, and they were rolling along the floor back towards the broken window, jaws snapping at one another.

The white wolf rolled onto its feet and latched its teeth around the black wolf’s leg. With a great jerk of its head, it whipped the younger wolf out through the broken window and onto the wrap around porch. Then it glanced back at Sasha, as though it was making sure she was okay, and somehow the young woman knew that was exactly what the wolf was doing, and then it turned and leaped out at her attacker.

Sasha quickly came to her senses. She pushed herself up and ran upstairs to her grandfather’s room. The door was open, it had indeed been the loud banging she had heard moments before. The old man’s room was empty, the blanket on the bed shoved aside, his pajama bottoms nearer the door, discarded with a long rip down one leg.

Sasha didn’t know what to do. Her grandfather was missing, a wolf had tried to kill her, and she had been saved by another. She could hear the beasts battling outside, having knocked one another off the porch, they were now in the front yard, yelping and snapping their jaws.

She knew she should call the police, but something kept her from doing so. She felt as though something was going on, something the police wouldn’t understand, but she didn’t know exactly what. It had to do with her grandfather, his room being empty, the pajama bottoms on the floor. She was piecing it together, of course, she was a smart girl, but the rational part of her brain just wouldn’t allow it.

Sasha hurried back downstairs. She looked out of the broken window, couldn’t see the wolves, but she could hear them, somewhere, snarling.

A pounding on the door jerked her away from the window. She turned towards the door but didn’t make any movement towards it. “Sasha!” she heard, a familiar voice.

“Hunter!” she called loudly as she ran to the door and unlocked it, jerking it open. The man she was falling for stood there, concern etched into his handsome face. He wrapped his arms around her. She wanted to ask what he was doing here, had he known she needed him? But he was faster, pushing her gently away, his hands on her shoulders so he could look her in the eye.

“Where is Connor?”

“He’s out there,” Sasha said, pointing to the yard beyond them. “He’s a wolf I think.”

“Lock the door and wait for us,” Hunter said, and he stepped back and shut the door for her. She locked it and ran for the broken window, looking carefully through it to the porch. Hunter was gone, in his place stood a wolf, its fur a deep chestnut brown, the same color as Hunter’s hair. His clothes were scattered on the porch around the massive paws of the large wolf, and then it was bounding into the yard, leaping down the stairs in one go, and it paused there for a moment, it’s head tilted to one side, then it turned into the woods and ran into them.

Sasha had no idea how much time passed from the moment the wolf that she understood was somehow Hunter went into the woods, and the moment when she saw him again, still as a wolf with the naked and human figure of her grandfather draped over his back re-emerge from the trees. It felt somehow like no time, just minutes, and hours all at once. She had stayed by the window the whole time, her eyes on the woods, and when she saw them, she ran to the door, unlocked it, and flung it wide.

She ran down the stairs to meet the wolf, her slight embarrassment of seeing her grandfather naked disappearing in a flash when she noticed he was covered in bite marks and scratches and blood.

“Is he okay?” she asked the wolf, but the animal simply knelt so she could ease her grandfather off of its back. The wolf then went to the porch and as she watched it changed, the hair fading away somehow, the legs straightening, the feet growing until Hunter was there, naked and turned away from her, pulling his clothes back on quickly. When he was dressed, he turned and rushed back down the porch stairs, bending and lifting Connor’s broken and battered body in his arms, turning and taking him into the old man’s home.

Sasha followed along, a million questions swirling around her mind, but knowing that just then wasn’t the time. Hunter laid Connor down upon the couch.

“I can’t believe he would be so brazen,” Hunter said, fury in his voice.

“Who?” she asked.

“Kurt. He’s gone past the point of no return, he’s had problems with the way the pack was headed, he wants… more from us, he wants violence, but this, attacking you and your grandfather? There’s no turning back from this. He’s declared war.”

“I don’t understand any of this,” the girl said. “You… you’re a wolf.”

“A shifter.”

“A werewolf,” she said, almost hysterical, and it made Hunter smile.

“No, a shifter,” he said.

“My grandfather,” Sasha went on.

“He’s hurt.”

“We should take him to the hospital,” she said.

Hunter was shaking his head, surprising the young woman.

“No,” he said.

“Why not?”

“There is nothing they can do for him there, not about this. Cancer, that is what they can help him with, but this it’s different.”

“What do you mean it’s different?” Sasha asked. “Tell me what the hell is going on.”

Hunter sighed, knowing that though they didn’t have the time, he would need to explain, at least partially. “Let me make a call first, and then I’ll explain this all to you.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, pressing the screen quickly and then moving off into another room, leaving Sasha to pull an afghan blanket from the back of the couch and cover her grandfather’s nude frame with it. He was unconscious but living, his hairy chest rising and falling in a slow, steady rhythm.

Hunter was not gone for long. He returned to Sasha, stood beside her as she straightened up.

“What are you?” she asked.

“I told you, I, and Connor, and a lot of others in this town, are shifters.”

“I don’t know what the hell that means,” Sasha complained.

“It’s ancient and magical. That’s why the doctor couldn't do anything for your grandfather. We aren’t many, but we are everywhere, all across the globe. Your grandfather, he’s our leader, we have a pack here.”

Sasha held up her hand. “Why can’t a doctor help him?”

“Wolf bites and scratches, from one of us, it’s not like a normal bite or scratch. It’s got power behind it. Power I can’t even begin to guess at, but without the proper help, it won’t heal.”

“What’s the proper help?”

“Damien,” Hunter said, using a name Sasha was unfamiliar with. “He’s coming now.”

“That was Kurt?”

“It was.”

“Why?”

“With your grandfather being sick, there’s been a push from certain people, certain shifter’s, wanting to take control of the pack when Connor… well, when he passes. Kurt is one of them. Right now, we live in peace. Not every pack is like that, and Kurt wants us to change. There’s a war going on, right under your nose, not just your nose, the whole world’s nose. The packs, some of them, are fighting for a piece in the new world being built.”

“New world?” Sasha asked.

“It would take all night to explain it, and I promise I will at some point, but it’s not the time. Damien is coming, and he’ll need my help.”

“How did you become… how did my grandfather become… a shifter?”

“I don’t know about Connor, someone had to make him one, someone has made all of us. I was with a girl, she had the gift, and she passed it to me, and well, she’s long gone, but the gift is here to stay.”

Sasha was surprised to find that talk about another girl stung her, it wasn’t the time or place for her crush to rear its head, but there it was anyway. She shoved the feeling aside.

“I’m so confused,” she said.

“I know,” Hunter said. “It’s hard to take in, but just know that I’m sorry you found out like this, if I thought there was any chance Kurt would do this, I would have been here, I would have been watching you.”

“How did you know to come tonight?”

“I didn’t, I just got lucky. I wanted to speak with you, I got caught up at work, and I got out late. I’m glad I came when I did, Kurt was going to kill your grandfather.”

Sasha pressed her palms to her eyes, and she groaned. “I can’t believe any of this. I saw it with my own eyes, and I still can’t believe it.”

Hunter nodded, and then he turned his head and sniffed at the air. “Damien,” he explained, before jogging to the front door and opening it.

Coming up the long drive was another pickup truck, this one silver and glinting in the moonlight. It parked, and Sasha, who had joined Hunter at the door watched as an older man with graying hair swept back in a long ponytail climbed out. He held a small case in one hand, like an old-fashioned doctor’s case.

“Where is he?” he asked as he moved up the stairs.

“Living room,” Hunter said, letting the man in. Damien didn’t greet Hunter, nor even acknowledge Sasha, he just hurried inside and set himself upon his knees by her grandfather. He pulled the blanket back, exposing Connor down to his pelvis, keeping his privates covered.

“My God,” Damien said. “This was Kurt you say?”

“Yes,” Hunter said, having come into the living room as well, Sasha on his heels.

“He’s too far gone then,” Damien said. “We will have to...” he trailed off.

“Yes,” Hunter agreed, nodding.

Damien turned to his bag and opened it. He pulled out a small white crystal. As Sasha watched with wide eyes, the man held the crystal between his thumb and forefinger and passed it over Connor’s chest, inches from his skin and the wounds which crisscrossed his body. The crystal began to glow, and then it slowly turned red.

“I don’t understand,” Sasha murmured.

“I will be some time,” Damien said without turning. “Leave me to it, I will need you later Hunter, do not go far.”

“Okay,” Hunter said, turning and taking Sasha by the hand, leading her into the kitchen. There he parked her at the small round table and then set about making a pot of coffee. Neither of them spoke, at least not until they were both at the table, steaming mugs set out before them.

“This feels like a dream,” Sasha said, shaking her head slowly.

“If only it were,” Hunter replied. “There will be much to discuss with my pack. Something like this has never happened here.”

“You’ll kill Kurt?” she asked.

“Yes, we will have to. This cannot stand, your grandfather is our leader, the alpha.”

“Good,” Sasha said, surprising herself. It seemed as though she surprised Hunter as well, but the man did not comment on it, only looked at her with wide eyes and then busied himself sipping from his cup.

Sasha set her half empty cup aside and groaned. “What the hell is going on?” she asked. “I have to be dreaming, right?”

“Afraid not,” Hunter said. “It’s a lot to take in.”

Sasha only nodded at that, and then they fell into silence once more and stayed that way until Damien called for Hunter from the living room.

“Stay back,” Hunter said as he stood and moved from the kitchen, knowing Sasha would follow him. She stood in the doorway, watching as Hunter moved forward and knelt down beside Damien. The two men thoroughly blocked her view of her grandfather, and she couldn't make out any of the words Damien was saying, his voice hardly even a whisper. At intervals, and at Damien’s urging, Hunter placed his hands upon Connor’s chest.

An hour passed, and then another, the two men quiet and chanting. Then, it seemed as though it was all over, and Hunter stood and moved away from the couch on unsteady feet until he collapsed into a nearby chair. Sasha started towards him.

“He is tired, drained,” Damien said, turning at last to acknowledge Sasha. “I’m Damien, and I’m sorry we had to meet like this,” he held his hand out as he spoke and Sasha shook it.

“Is my grandfather going to be okay?”

Damien put a sad smile on his face. “Yes, from this attack at least. From what I understand of his cancer, it’s aggressive. That’s beyond my abilities.”

“What were you doing to him?”

“What allows us to change, to shift, is an ancient magic. And so, an ancient magic is needed to fully heal from our attacks. Of course, most of us do not attack anyone. We are protectors, and that is how we like it. We keep this land safe, and have for some time.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Sasha asked, motioning to Hunter, who was sitting on the chair with his eyes closed.

“The woman who made him a shifter was made such herself by your grandfather. Hunter is in his bloodline as we call it. As such, he could use his life force to help your grandfather.”

Sasha’s head was spinning. Damien gave her a moment and then spoke.

“They both need rest. I’m going to have two men come here to guard the place. We can’t know what Kurt will try next. They’ll stay outside, but I must insist that they be here.”

Sasha could tell it would do no good to argue.

“Okay,” she said, still trying to wrap her head around everything that had happened so far that night.