For a few minutes, Dawn just sat in her car, staring blankly at the view of her half-built house through the dusty windshield. Once the last sounds of trucks making their way on the dirt path had disappeared down the road behind her, nothing but pervasive silence accompanied her.

Without Garrett and the others here, this place felt oddly lonely. She’d gotten so used to having them here from sunup to sundown that their absence made everything feel that much more silent and desolate.

She hit the palm of her hand on her steering wheel in frustration, but the old car didn’t complain. Instead, Dawn got out and began to pace, entirely unsure what to do next.

She missed Garrett. She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t hoped for more. Hadn’t fantasized more than once about something long term with the all-too-perfect man that had materialized from seemingly nowhere.

Now that she was here, all alone, things felt safer in some ways. She was finally in control, with nobody else to change her fate. But that didn’t change how sad it felt, too.

Dawn walked past a mostly removed warning she’d seen earlier that morning. One of the guys had scratched the dirt out, trying to erase it, and had mostly succeeded. That was nice of them…

Yet Garrett had told her she was in danger from wolf-people. And that he was somehow a bear-man. Hell, he’d even brought Grayson and Hunter into his delusion in an attempt to make it sound credible.

Granted, Garrett had never lied to her, at least not openly like that. It was one of the things she liked about him. His honesty. His sincerity.

Which made the whole shifter thing all the stranger.

The white and tan shape of her modest home loomed in front of her, no longer feeling as exciting as it had before. Just a cobbled-together structure of wood and cement and drywall now. Just pieces of building material.

How much did this house actually matter if everyone who’d made building it special was gone?

Setting aside the whole bear issue, was her obsession with trying to honor her grandfather’s legacy by building out here perhaps a bit misguided if it meant putting herself in danger or creating rifts with her friends?

The house, unable to read her thoughts, or talk for that matter, just stood there. A bird chirped eagerly from a corner of the roof, then flitted off to parts unknown.

Family isn’t about blood. It’s about how people treat you, her grandpa had always said whenever she became re-traumatized by seeing the shell of her mother, someone who’d tried to hurt and have power over her in the past.

Her grandpa was always trying to give her hope when she was young and felt like there was none to be had.

Dawn swiped a rogue tear from the corner of her eye, the dusty land soaking it up beneath her feet.

Looking back, her grandfather’s legacy wasn’t the hope of retiring to some sleepy town in the middle of nowhere. Nor was it his career, which paid the bills but never gave him more than a modest living. No, it was his love. Making a family just out of the two of them. He took the broken pieces of her life and set aside his own grief over the loss of the love of his life and made them fit together. Made her feel like she had a place to belong. Sacrificed everything so she could have a shot at something more normal than the destiny that would have doomed her from the start.

She noticed her foot was tapping the ground nervously.

What the hell was she supposed to do now? Was she supposed to call Garrett? Listen to him? But how to deal with all the complicated lies he had told?

Dawn’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of something disturbing the nearby brush, and she turned to look in the direction of the noise, expecting to see a passing deer or maybe a raccoon scrounging for scraps.

Instead, a gigantic gray wolf, almost four feet tall at the shoulders, emerged, walking in a straight line toward her. Like a rock, Dawn’s heart fell from her chest to her toes, pure fear making it feel like the blood in her veins was draining out of her.

Wolves didn’t get that big, did they?

The wolf looked at her, bluish-brown eyes focused on her, and Dawn bolted for her car. If she could just make it inside, maybe she could be safe. After all, wolves couldn’t open doors, right?

Adrenaline raced through her as she made for the car, but before she could reach it, two more wolves materialized from behind the blue Toyota, blocking off the doors and striding toward her like the first. When Dawn whirled around to look at the first wolf gaining on her, a dozen more filled her vision, encircling her from every direction, all pacing forward in a wide, horrifying circle.

She looked over her shoulder and realized she was trapped against the side of the house. Nowhere to run.

“Get out of here! Scram!” Dawn waved her arms frantically, remembering once on a nature documentary the advice to be loud and make yourself as big as possible to scare off wildlife. But something about these giant wolves gave her the impression they were not “typical” wildlife.

Dawn heard a surprisingly human-sounding chuckle, and she turned to see one wolf laughing to itself. It was actually laughing.

What the hell was going on?

“Shut up, Kent,” Dawn heard someone say from her right, and Dawn spun again on her heels, trying to trace the sound. But nothing but huge wolves with rows of white fangs surrounded her.

“Hello? Is anyone out there?” she called out desperately. There were people out here somewhere. Maybe they could help.

“It’s useless, human,” the same voice from before said. And if she wasn’t crazy, she could swear she saw the gray wolf’s mouth move as the words reached her ears, followed by a ferocious-sounding growl.

“This isn’t happening. I’m dreaming,” Dawn said to herself, not believing her own eyes even as her brain told her that what she was seeing was, in fact, happening.

“As if that’s going to help,” a jovial voice said from behind the silver one, a light-tan wolf that seemed to be practically grinning as the wolves came to a stop less than ten feet around her.

Werewolves.

Garrett had told her, but Dawn hadn’t believed it. Couldn’t have believed it even if she’d wanted to.

“You’re trespassing, human. And our patience has run out. Either you leave, or we’re going to do something about it right now.” The wolf lowered its head, baring long canines that looked like they could impale a deer or even a moose with one bite.

“What are you talking about?” She felt her face tighten and the hair on her arms rise. She was talking to a wolf, for a crying out loud!

Another wolf spoke this time, chiming in. “This is our ancestral pack territory. You have no right to claim this land and defile it with your trucks and your building here.”

Dawn looked to the left and right, hoping for any escape. But aside from the fact that she was totally and completely surrounded, she had no doubt in her mind that these wolves could catch her in a single bound.

And as much as she felt like she was still dreaming, the sound of snarls as the sight of narrowed wolf eyes laser-focused on her felt all too real at the moment to want to test her hypothesis.

“We tried to warn you, human. But you wouldn’t listen,” another wolf said dismissively. And did it… shrug?

Could wolves shrug?

She heard scratching at the back of the house and felt it shaking. Was someone already trying to damage it?

Dawn mustered her courage, straightening slightly. “I’ll tell the authorities. I’ll tell them about you, and they’ll come after you,” she warned, trying to sound decisive and brave.

Several of the pack laughed in response. But the head wolf just stared ominously.

“As if anyone would believe you,” one wolf said.

“Yeah. A lone woman out here by herself. They’d just assume you got drunk and saw something crazy,” another added jovially.

“Or maybe tried some of the mushrooms, ha-ha-ha,” a third joked.

“That’s assuming we let you live to tell the tale.” The gray one’s body was tensed as he spoke, taking one step forward, then another. “Which doesn’t make your odds very good.”

Primal horror gripped at Dawn’s innards like a metal vise from within. She had no options, no way out.

“Not if I have a say in it.”

A familiar voice, but deeper, more booming, vibrated the air around her. A second later, a deafening roar resounded through the clearing like a cannon, and Dawn looked up at the sound to see a gigantic bear on top of the house, long white teeth glinting in the late-morning sun, black claws gripping at the corners of the roof. All around her, the wolves looked up at the sound in surprise.

Then, to her complete and utter shock, the bear leapt from the roof of the house and plummeted to the earth in front of her. The wolves, caught completely off guard, backed up. And when the bear landed, the ground shook with such incredible force that Dawn felt her body lift off for a fraction of a second, her stomach lurching and her joints all vibrating from the energy of it before coming back onto her feet.

But before Dawn could even begin to process what was going on, the bear, which looked so much larger than any bear she’d ever seen on TV before, looked over its shoulder at her. Instantly, she noticed soulful, amber eyes, orange with gold flecks in them, watching her carefully.

Garrett?

“You all right, Dawn?” It was Garrett’s voice. Just different. Lower. Gruffer. But still the same.

Through an almost impermeable haze of confusion and terror, Dawn’s heart leapt with joy and relief. Even if she couldn’t comprehend all the implications of what Garrett had told her only a short while ago, she knew it was him she was looking at. His thick, brown fur looked warm and soft in the sun, and his shoulders and paws were so large he resembled more of a giant monster than a typical bear.

Garrett had said he was a bear. She just hadn’t known that was possible or that he would be so freakin’ huge.

“I… I’m all right.” Talking had never been more difficult in her entire life.

“Who the hell is this guy?” one wolf exclaimed incredulously, breaking the heavy silence following Garrett’s landing.

“I think it’s the construction guy,” another wolf whispered, responding to the first one’s question.

“I told you she had shifters working for her,” another said secretively, trying to not attract attention to itself.

“I’ll take care of this. Just stay behind me,” Garrett said calmly, and he turned to face the wolves, squaring off with the nearest one. The wolf snarled, and Garrett growled back, making the earth rumble with deep vibrations.

“Just leave, bear. This doesn’t concern you,” the wolf said through gritted fangs.

“This is my mate. And this is her land. So nobody is allowed here without my permission. Unless, of course, you want to try going through me.” Garrett’s threat made several wolves back up, tails between their legs, but not ready to run.

The head wolf stood his ground.

“I’ll only warn you once.” He seemed so small compared to Garrett’s bear, despite the fact he was a couple times larger than any normal wolf.

“No, I’ll only warn you once.” Garrett stepped forward, and most of the pack went back a pace.

“Heh, I’ve never tasted bear before,” one of the wolves behind the leader said gleefully, licking his lips.

Suddenly, another familiar voice chimed in, and a long cougar that stood almost shoulder height to Dawn strode up beside her, its short, sandy fur looking almost golden blond in the light.

“Don’t try it. It’s gamey and tastes like dirt mixed with ground beef,” the cougar said.

“Hunter?” Dawn asked incredulously.

“Is Hunter talking about that one time he ate bear meat again?” It was Grayson’s voice from behind her this time, and a large black wolf with piercing silver eyes flanked her on the other side.

“Thanks for the late backup, guys,” Garrett said over his shoulder before facing the wolves once again.

“We wanted to make an entrance.” Hunter stretched like a giant cat, and for a second, Dawn saw long, razor-sharp claws extend before disappearing into the thick paws once again.

“I don’t care what kind of fucked-up, ragtag group you three may pretend to have, but it’s nothing compared to the strength of a wolf pack,” the gray wolf said gruffly. A few others nodded or growled in assent.

“That’s where you’d be wrong. We’re not just co-workers, not just friends. We’re family, and Dawn is our family, too,” Grayson said, stepping forward, looking much more intimidating than the rest of the other wolves just by himself, let alone the giant bear and cougar who also stood next to her. It made her feel surrounded by caring people she hardly felt she deserved.

The whole “human shifting into an animal” was still pretty hard to swallow, though.

The lead wolf looked left and right and saw that some of his pack mates were starting to step back, moving away from the tight semicircle they’d once held. His face showed rage, and he stepped forward, howling into the noonday sky.

At that, a handful of the wolves leapt forward, charging toward them like lightning. Garrett let out another incredible roar and held his ground as a half dozen wolves descended on him at once.

With awful grace and speed, Garrett swiped his paw in a wide arc, knocking two wolves back and throwing them onto their sides. Another wolf leapt onto Garrett’s back, and he did a full body shake, throwing it free and onto the ground with a thud.

“Aren’t you guys going to help?” Dawn asked, surprised Grayson and Hunter were just standing there, guarding both sides of her.

“He’s fine,” Hunter said casually, appraising his claws extended from one paw as if examining a manicure. Seemingly satisfied, he checked out the other side.

“We’re just here to make sure no one gets past him. He’s fighting for his mate, so I’m pretty sure he’s got this covered,” Grayson said more helpfully.

A wolf jumped out of the bushes to their left where Grayson stood watch, and he whirled on it, snarling so ferociously that the hairs on his back stood straight up. The other wolf, which only a second ago had been ready to pounce, crouched down, whimpering with its tail between its legs, and disappeared back into the bushes from where it came.

How Grayson makes most of us feel, Dawn thought to herself.

But her eyes were locked on the melee before her as wolves attacked Garrett in twos and threes, only to be knocked back by such incredible strength that it felt like the earth could shatter beneath their feet.

But each time they leapt at him, he was there, countering their actions. And as he threw them or slashed with his long, black claws, more and more wolves backed away from the fight, afraid of getting too close to the rampaging monster that also happened to be the only man Dawn had ever loved.

Crap, he really was the one for her, wasn’t he?

A wolf ducked behind Garrett and tried to nip at his back leg, but he just threw his meaty back claw in a quick swipe, catching it in the side and sending them rolling.

Suddenly, there was a lull in the fight as the wolves recovered for a moment. And even though Garrett was making this look easy, she couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to him on her behalf. She’d give up her home, her land, before she let anything happen.

“We’ll fight you to the death to protect what’s rightfully ours,” the gray wolf threatened, sounding winded. But even as he stepped forward, the rest of his pack didn’t join him this time, instead looking to and fro amongst themselves as if unsure about their position on the matter.

“Then get ready to meet an early grave,” Garrett said. Just a growl emanating from his throat made the wolves look wary.

Dawn appraised the wolves and saw for the first time that most of them looked dirty, their coats patchy and their faces wan. She couldn’t stand the idea of more violence.

“No! Stop!” Dawn called out, taking advantage of the relative silence as both sides looked poised for round two.