The banging on the door downstairs caused her to bolt upright in bed, clutching the quilt to her chest. Sunlight streamed in through the window instead of the silver moon, and lay in heavy gold bars across the bed, heating up the small room. Jack was already swinging down the ladder to the ground floor.

She thrust her head over the railing as the hammering began again. “What’s going on?”

Jack spared her a quick glance. “I don’t know.” He didn’t even bother to find his clothes, but headed straight for the door.

With a squeak, Ellie realized all of her clothes were downstairs as well. She had a brief moment of regret for the red and black dress, but recognized it had been sacrificed for a worthy cause and thought no more about it. She scoured her surroundings hastily for something to wear and snatched up a bathrobe hanging on a nail. Tossing it on and quickly belting it, she hurried down the ladder to the ground floor, just as Jack opened the door.

Seth and his two henchmen, Randy and Dick, filled the doorway. Seth peeled his lips back from his face in a sneer full of nasty anticipation before speaking. “You two. Outside. Now.”

“What’s all this about?” Jack asked, seemingly completely at ease with both his nakedness and the situation.

Seth flicked a glance up and down Jack’s body, and apparently didn’t like what he saw. He spread his shoulders and hitched up his pants, sucking in his gut. His buddies shifted slightly as well, eyeing Jack with the tense posture of strange dogs sizing up a potential opponent. “Someone’s here to see you.”

“Let us get dressed then, and we’ll be right out.” Jack started to shut the door, but Seth blocked it with a booted foot.

“You won’t need to get dressed for these guests.”

Ellie didn’t know what was going on but she could read Jack’s body language. His muscles bunched at Seth’s words and the fingers of his right hand curved as though he had claws.

Involuntarily, Seth took a step back, and then barked, “Outside. Now.” He quickly regained his composure. “No use thinking you can slip out the back, either. You’re surrounded.”

Through the open door, Ellie could see a group of men and women dressed in black leather standing in a semi-circle outside the cabin.

“Jack?” Her voice cracked with uncertainty and, yes, just a little fear.

“Stay here, Ellie.” Jack spoke without looking at her. “I’ll take care of this.”

“Oh, she’ll need to come out too. Seems you forgot a few details when you introduced your mate to us last night.” Seth’s words sent a chill down Ellie’s spine. “These people are here for her.”

Frowning, Ellie stepped forward. “From my grandfather?”

“Don’t know. Don’t care. They showed up at the gate, demanding to see you. Wouldn’t have been polite to say no.” Seth’s leer did nothing to make her feel more comfortable. He was enjoying himself far too much. Whoever was waiting outside for them meant harm. They had to have been sent here to stop her from meeting her grandfather. But how had they found her?

“Don’t do this, Seth.” Jack moved protectively in front of Ellie, placing an arm in front of her as though she were a passenger in a car about to crash. “This is between you and me. Leave Ellie out of it.”

“Shut up. You lost the right to have any say in the matter when you brought this trouble to my clan.”

“Let us leave and take our chances on our own, away from the compound. No one has to get hurt here.”

Seth’s sneer contained spiteful glee. “You should have thought of that before you came back.  Hurry it up. If you don’t come out, they’re coming in. I don’t think your mother will take too kindly to blood all over her floor.”

“Stay in the cabin.” Jack ordered Ellie, and walked outside with every expectation she would obey.

Of all the stupid, brainless, heroic, asinine things to do… Ellie leapt at the pile of discarded clothes with the intent of putting on something before joining the others outside. If Jack thought he was going to face her enemies without her—something metallic hit the floor when she picked up his jeans, and she realized her pendant had fallen out of his pocket.

It lay on the floor at her feet. As she stared, it seemed to glow with a cold blue light. She should pick it up. She could slip it in her pocket and sneak out the back. She could go deep into the woods while Jack delayed her pursuers, and she would be safe from all harm, quiet and protected as she had always been.

Run. Hide. Jack is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice. Be safe.

As though it was a snake that suddenly struck at her, she recoiled from the insidious whispers in her mind. She grabbed a poker from the hearth and smashed it down on the pendant repeatedly, scoring the wooden floor even as she shattered the crystal amulet entirely. A sense of vicious satisfaction swept over her, and instead of tossing down the poker, she tightened her grip on it and stepped outside onto the porch.

The people in black went on full alert when they saw her, their bodies stiffening and their heads coming up as she came outside. A quiet part of Ellie’s mind noted most of them were women, and yet all radiated a kind of lethal athleticism that made her all too aware of her bare feet and her generous curves. The idea she and Jack might be able to make a run for it died at the way the newcomers exchanged smiling glances with each other, as though they were hoping for such an event.

Very well, then. If it was a fight they wanted…

“You promised the girl would come quietly.” A tall tawny-haired woman stepped forward from the semi-circle of strangers to address Seth.

“She will. You’ll see. The man’s nothing. A coward. He ran away once and he’ll do it again.” Seth shot a contemptuous glance at Jack. “You shouldn’t have come back here, boy.”

Even surrounded as he was by enemies intent on killing him should he make a move to protect her, Ellie felt a thrill of pride at Jack’s confident stance. He was Perseus preparing to take on Medusa. He was Theseus ready to battle the Minotaur.

No, he was her Jack, taking on a band of hired killers in order to defend her. And he wasn’t going to do it alone.

“You made a deal with these people?” Jack’s voice rose in the morning air. Around them, cabin doors opened and people peered out. One or two clan members hastily slammed their doors shut on seeing the tableau before them, but more stepped outside to find out what was going on. “You violated the clan rule of protection by agreeing to turn Ellie over to these people. Who’s the real coward, Seth?”

An angry muttering rippled around the compound as more people came into the clearing, some still tugging on shirts as they joined the others. The intruders didn’t seem fazed, even though they were rapidly becoming outnumbered. One of the leather-clad women yawned pointedly, and inspected her blood-red nail polish.

“As clan leader,” Seth placed heavy emphasis on the word, “I have every right to settle disputes any way I see fit. And you ain’t a member of my clan.”

“He’s still my son,” Helena snapped, coming forward from the crowd. “The law of hospitality applies.”

Several people nodded at her statement. Ellie scanned the faces in the crowd. Many were frightened, but more seemed outraged. She guessed that as a visitor to the community, she was under the clan’s protection, but for some reason, Seth was pretending this wasn’t the case.

“We have no beef with you.” The presumed leader of the intruders spoke to the group at large. “Our business is with the de Winter girl. Hand her over, and we’ll leave your clan in peace.”

The de Winter name caused more muttering and uneasy shuffling amongst the clan.

Helena turned to face her community. “What does it matter who she is? Ellie came as a guest into our compound. Seth has no right to ignore the law of hospitality and turn her over to people who want to kill her.”

“No one’s going to harm Ellie. She’s not going anywhere.” Jack’s growl made the small hairs on the back of Ellie’s neck rise.

“You’re welcome to try and defend her.” Seth bared yellowed teeth in a nasty smile. “You too, Helena. You’ve been a thorn in my backside for quite a while.”

“No!” All heads turned toward Ellie. “Can’t you see he’s doing this to get rid of Jack? Your precious clan leader is so afraid Jack will take over that he’ll do anything, even if it’s against all clan rules, to see that Jack won’t challenge him.”

“Well, he can try.” June spat on the ground, then walked over to stand beside Ellie and Helena.

“Damn straight.” Lucinda tugged the front of her dress down and marched up to join the others.

“You idiots,” the woman in black snarled. “Look at you. A bunch of pathetic shifters—what are you? Squirrels, birds, and beavers? Do you really think you can take on a pride of lions? Your leader made a deal with us. Break it at your own peril.”

The sound of a shotgun being primed behind her made Ellie jump.

“Now, who said anything about fighting you as shifters?” Billy Bob’s drawl as he stepped forward caused hope and joy to bubble up fiercely in Ellie’s heart. He casually held a double-barreled shotgun. Others from the clan moved to form a wall of solidarity alongside her as well.

“You’ll be the first one I kill,” the pride leader growled, making a promise with her eyes to Billy Bob.

The exultant surge of pride Ellie had felt at the clan’s willingness to defend her receded in a wave of nausea at the realization they were going to get themselves killed on her behalf. Ellie couldn’t let them do it. None of them. They barely knew her, and because she loved them already, she couldn’t ask them to sacrifice themselves—not for her. She raised her hands in a show of peace. “No one needs to die here today. I’ll go with these people.”

“Like hell you will.” Jack snapped his head around to glare at her. “Not happening.”

“I can’t let anyone here get hurt because of me. You said it yourself last night, Jack. We made choices—some of which we don’t like—to keep peace among the clan and to protect it from harm.”

“Sensible woman. You should listen to her, Leopard.”

The look Jack gave the pride leader could have melted steel. They held eye contact for a long moment, one predator assessing another, and then Jack turned to his uncle. “There’s an easier way to solve this. I challenge you for clan title.”

“What?” Seth reared back like a startled horse. “You can’t do that!”

“I can and I have. And if you lose, any deals you made with this—pack—are null and void.”

“I thought you said if we let them lions in, they’d take care of Jack once and for all.” The skinny man, Randy—the alligator shifter, if Ellie remembered it right—suddenly whined.

“You shut up!” Seth roared at him. Randy shrank away. Seth lowered his head and growled at Jack. “You’re gonna regret this, boy. If you had the balls to be clan leader, you’d have done it already. I’ll—I’ll kill you and then turn over the girl to these people. Should’ve done it years ago.”

“Like you killed my father?”

A collective gasp ran like lightening through the clan.

“You got nothing on me.” Despite his posturing, Seth’s eyes sought a break in the crowd, and his shirt was soaked in sweat now.

“Pretty damning statement, uncle.” The word dripped with scorn. “I’ve made my challenge. Do you accept or forfeit?”

For an answer, Seth spat on the ground, wiping his mouth with the back of his arm and glaring defiantly at Jack.

The pride leader looked at her pack and shrugged. They fell back to the edge of the circle, leaving Jack and Seth alone in the center of the clearing.

Ellie flinched at someone’s touch on her arm. She was startled to see Helena’s hand on her elbow to lead her out of the way.

“I don’t understand. What’s happening?” She stumbled as she followed Helena, looking back over her shoulder. The scene about to play itself out was straight out of Hamlet, that is, if Shakespeare had been a drunken horror novelist.

Helena gently escorted her to the side of the clearing, where the rest of the clan had gathered. “A challenge has been made. Shifter rules are inviolate for that: everything stops for a challenge until it’s been settled. Jack and Seth are going to fight for clan control. If Seth wins, he’ll give you up to the pride without so much as a backward glance and there won’t be much the clan can do about it unless we fight to protect you—as a guest in our clan, you’re considered an honorary member, if only temporarily. Seth knows that, but it’s pretty clear he agreed to turn you over in order to avoid having to take on the pride. We’d better pray Jack wins—for all our sakes.”

Ellie dropped the poker to cover her face with her hands. “I never should’ve come here. I’ve put you all in danger.” She lifted a tear-streaked face to look at Helena. “Jack wouldn’t have challenged Seth if it weren’t for me. Seth will kill him.”

“It wasn’t just you, honey.” Helena’s voice was sympathetic despite her own fear for her son. “This has been a long time coming. This is Jack’s fight now, and we have to stay out of it until it’s over.”