Xander took an exhausted Loree back to her room while I followed Ronan into the corridor and waited until his brothers had moved on to their assignments.

Ronan moved away from me and I brushed his arm. "Can we talk?"

“I don't think there's anything to talk about right now. You’ve made it pretty clear you won’t stay here where it’s safe.”

“How am I supposed to do that?” My pitch climbed, but right now I couldn’t do anything about it.

His hand cut through the air. “Let someone else go. You said you didn’t want to get involved in the fighting. So don’t.”

“Do you think you, any of you, have the skills to remove that thing?”

“You could show us. Walk us through, like Loree will on the comms.”

“She’s not walking you through how to reprogram the doors, she can do her work from here. I need to see what I’m doing. Are you sure the cameras won’t cut out halfway through? Do we know the angles are sufficient?”

I wrapped my arms around my waist, trying to stop shaking with anger. “Do you really think I want to go?”

The stubborn expression didn’t leave his face. “There're things to prep before we roll out.”

A small tendril of ice crept up my back at his distant tone. "What else needs to get ready? I saw that we already had weapons, we have the schematic and the comms. Your brothers found four fully charged laser scalpels for me. You’re the one that said we should rest."

"You should. I'll see you when it's time to go." He headed out of the secure area and I'd be damned if I would follow him.

Eventually I forced my feet to listen to orders. I retreated back towards our quarters, but, instead, turned in at the clinic and closed the door. If I were alone, this bed would do as well as any other.

* * *

When we left, I didn't feel particularly rested, but nothing to be done for it but to go through and get it done.

Quinn and Lorcan stayed with Loree, Quinn assisting her on the comms while Lorcan guarded the hatch.

They’d track us with the earcomms, and, with luck, be able to open the doors as we got to them without giving the Hunters within too much notice of our arrival at what they thought of as their stronghold.

Geir led us, followed by Aeden and Ronan. I stayed behind him, watching the rigid line of his shoulders moving before me. It would be so easy to put my hand on his side, try to wipe away the distance that had come between us. This probably wasn't the time. I’d just have to hope there was time later.

Xander followed me, for once all business, and gruff Hakon guarded the rear.

The brothers carried an assortment of small blasters, though I noticed several had knives strapped to their legs, as well.

My throat felt dry. I've never actually been around when a gun was fired. Not sure if I knew anyone who had.

I looked at the company I kept now and laughed at myself.

There was no question these men were as comfortable with the blasters in their hands as I was with the laser scalpels I’d packed.

In the belly of the ship, we emerged into a narrow hall, dark and tight.

“The first of the sealed doors will be in front of you shortly,” Loree's voice came through my ear. The link was uncomfortable, but Ronan had insisted I wear one, shoving it at me before we left.

“Yeah,” Ronan answered. “I’ve followed them this far, but never could get through.”

“Let’s see what we can do about that,” Quinn responded.

The men arranged themselves in some order that was logical to them. What didn’t change was my position behind them.

“There we go,” Loree murmured.

The door slid open and I winced at the wave of cold that rolled out.

Geir slipped ahead into the darkness while we waited. He came back with a quick nod to indicate that it was clear.

“We’re going in,” I whispered. Loree, in theory, could see every place we went by tracking the signal between her earcomm and ours. It couldn't hurt for her to have verbal confirmation, as well.

The first room lay empty in the dim light.

I shivered, wishing I'd found more layers in my scavenging. Or a coat, a long, full-length coat that would wrap around twice and cover my hands. I patted the pouch carrying the laser scalpels slung over my shoulder.

I had gloves, but only a thin, membranous pair for surgery. I wasn't sure what tissue comprised the creature in the auxiliary control room. I had a disturbing theory, and the laser scalpels should cauterize any fluids as I cut.

Still, I'd rather none of it got on me.

Hakon stood by me while the rest of the Pack did a thorough sweep of the room.

Nothing, just another door leading on.

The second room was the same. Empty and, if possible, even colder. I tucked my hands into my armpits, thought about warm blankets, roaring fires.

Snuggling with Ronan.

Nope. Not going there.

“What do you think is up with the temperature?” Xander asked as he stood watch and the others inspected the empty room.

"No idea. If Loree’s right about tracking the Hunters by their heat signatures, maybe they need the cold to prevent overheating?" I scowled up at him. "If somebody had saved me a corpse to dissect I might have a better notion."

He didn't even grin. "After this, I'll try to make sure to save you one. But if we really can track them, maybe we can just kill them all and you won't need to know how they work."

Ronan signaled and we lined up again by the next door.

"Lousy plan. If you guys have run into these things before, it’d be stupid to assume you won't again. Killing them all here, doesn't mean they’re exterminated everywhere."

Ronan turned back and glared at us both for silence.

Fine. Whatever.

The third door opened, Geir went in for his patrol.

But this time it seemed to take longer. I strained my ears, but could hear nothing.

Glancing at the men, they didn't seem disturbed or concerned. Just intense.

Finally Geir’s voice came over the comm. “Ronan. You should see this.”

This compartment wasn't empty. But I wished it was.

The path through the room was clear, but, on either side, tossed like broken, discarded dolls, were bodies.

Tumbled piles of arms and legs.

I blinked then rushed for a closer look.

“This man, he was in the lab with us.”

I reached to turn him over, but Xander pulled me away. “Sorry, I don’t think you should touch them. We don't know what's been done here.”

But I did. Once they'd been tested, poked and prodded, injected, cut and burned beyond endurance, this is where the empty shells of the Hunter's victims were thrown. I shook, not from the cold now but from rage.

“Never mind what I said before. Kill them all. Every last one of them.”

A low growl from the back corner of the room cut off Xander’s reply.

We hurried over and found the others standing in a circle, staring down at another row of bodies, neatly laid out, five men, side by side.

One glance, and I knew.

These weren’t fully human. This was the rest of Ronan's pack.

I slipped my arm around his waist and he pulled me to him, everything gone now but the need to be together.

Ronan’s face was blank, as empty as it had been when he first found us in the cage in the lab, fixed on something I couldn’t see, locked in the past.

I looked at the bodies again. All had wounds that seemed inconsequential, especially knowing their regenerative abilities.

But all bore deep gashes across their necks.

The shock of realization hit me. The angle of the scar on Ronan's neck that had always bothered me.

This was the same. Beginning at one side, across but slightly down. If they'd been cut from behind, it would have pulled up. If the opponent had been to the front, the wound would have been straighter, not level, but close.

But these. These were all self-inflicted. Through some unimaginable nightmare, they had all chosen to cut their throats.

Just like Ronan.

The Pack waited, silent and tense.

“They told us to fight each other. They killed a human for every minute we refused.” The rasp of Ronan’s voice was so low I could feel it where my back pressed against his chest.

“The pit was fielded, we couldn't get out, just watched the humans drop, one by one, while we waited.”

He stepped forward, still holding my hand like a drowning man desperate for a rope, and paused by each of the bodies in turn.

“Vinor. Tarkal. Javik. Lin.”

He stopped at the last one, a tall man with a tangle of dark blond hair falling over his face. “Erich.”

His hand had gone to ice in mine, and I studied the man who’d been such a part of Ronan’s life that, even when dead, his memory had served as companion, conscience.

Across the circle, Aeden met my eyes, while Ronan spoke.

“We didn't discuss it, make any plan. There wasn't any way to stop the Hunters, other than to refuse to be a part of their sick games. They couldn’t believe we wouldn’t take their orders. That's all they did.”

I stepped closer, but he still didn’t see me, only ghosts.

“I failed. I didn't cut deeply enough. When I woke up, the force field was down, the Hunters were gone. And everyone was dead except me.”

There wasn't anything to say. ‘I'm sorry’ would've been pathetically inadequate.

Grief would have to wait.

Ronan looked around at his surviving brothers. "We'll be back to take care of them."

They flowed around the bodies without a second look, not out of callousness, their stricken faces at Ronan’s story were enough. Focus cut through the freezing air like a knife.

I didn't need to look back, either. I would never forget what had happened, not to the human victims of experimentation, nor to the Wolves who had been so cruelly toyed with.

By the time we re-formed at the next door, cool resolution had spread through the group.

My ear crackled. "Everyone, if you can still hear me, you're right next to where I see the red dots." Loree said. "They haven't moved. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's something else. But it's weird."

Hard glances passed between the brothers.

"Weird we can handle." Ronan said.

"I'm leaning towards we burn it all," Xander replied.

My chest constricted as we waited for Loree to work around the seal of the door.

"Here we go," came her voice finally. "Three, two, one, go!"

Geir and Aeden slipped through before the door was all the way open, peeling off to opposite corners to cover the compartment.

But the sounds of the firefight I dreaded didn't come.

"Is it clear?" Ronan sent.

"No. But they’re sleeping or something. I don't know." Geir answered

"When he talks, he could use enough words to make sense," Ronan muttered and stepped through the door to check it out himself.

In a moment I heard him over the comm. “Everyone come in, but move slowly.”

Aedan before me and Xander behind, we stole into the room.

After the bodies tossed away like so much trash, I didn't think anything would surprise me.

But the rows of Hunters standing stock still, spread in a grid across the floor, knocked that assumption aside.

“Are they sleeping?” Xander wondered.

I shook my head. Despite my fear, I was curious to get closer. "I wonder if they're recharging. Look at the disks they're standing on. And I think some are missing."

If you figured they were charging, and if you figured there'd be one charging stand per Hunter, you could count the number of Hunters the brothers had killed by the empty gray disks.

Less than half of what must've been the original group of Hunters assigned to the ship remained.

Still, more than forty remained. And while Ronan and his brothers were talented, I didn't like those odds.

"They're not responding." I whispered. "If we snuck through, would we have to deal with them at all?"

"Can't leave them at our backs." Ronan answered. "Besides, we may never get another chance this good."

He nodded to everyone.

"Fan out slowly. See how many we can take down."

Ronan and Hakon slipped further along the side walls

I could see what they were planning. It should have worked.

But, as the first shots fired, the room erupted.

In all the time I'd been on board, I'd never seen the Hunters fight, just carry out their orders, move methodically through the operations.

Any doubts I had that they really were meant as combat drones was gone between the space of one heartbeat and another.

Hunters twisted and spun from their stations and, even as the Wolves kept firing into the seething mass, they lashed out.

One knocked Aeden's weapon from his grip. He didn't seem to mind, just dove into the battle, knives in his hands.

I watched, pressed into my corner, with Xander in front of me firing at any of the domed heads that came too near.

No wonder Ronan came back bloody and beaten. The Hunters were streaks of black, relentless power and speed.

But as the fight wore on, I could see the Wolves were a match for them.

They took them apart in twos and threes, separated lone Hunters from the rest, divided them so that no massed onslaught could happen.

I stayed pressed into my corner, clutching the instrument pouch to my chest, hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. It wouldn't do any good. But the fight wore on and on.

Hakon took a bone crunching blow to the spine that left him staggering. Geir whirled in front of him, ripping the arm off the opposing Hunter with a snarl until Hakon regained his balance.

Ronan and Aeden fought back to back in the center of the room, the Hunters’ twitching bodies piling before them.

I could tell it would happen before it did.

Aeden stepped back and tripped on a Hunter’s sprawled leg. He twisted, rolling to the side, then popping up again, but leaving Ronan’s back exposed.

Ronan fought in a blind fury, unaware of his vulnerability.

Two Hunters attacked, knocking him down in a rain of blows, more piling on until I couldn’t see him anymore.

“Help him!” I shouted to Xander.

“I can’t get a clean shot from here.”

“Then go where you can!”

“Keeping you safe is my assignment. He’d never forgive me if-”

He broke off at the point of the warming laser scalpel pressing into his back.

“He’ll forgive you a lot sooner than I will if he’s killed. Go.”

Xander shook his head, a flicker of his normal grin breaking through. “And we always thought he was the tough one.”

He darted off, and together, he and Aedan tore through the attackers.

The Hunters were defeated. There was no escaping it, they just hadn’t stopped fighting yet.

But what sort of losses would we take?

I’d become so involved in watching the fight, I’d stepped out of my corner, towards where Ronan still struggled under a diminishing pile of Hunters.

Then I froze, as a black-gloved hand wrapped around my ankle.