Ryan didn’t, of course. He circled around Carlos, watching him with cold, calculating eyes.
Carlos caught his breath, watching not Ryan’s eyes, but his chest muscles, looking for the tightening that would precede another strike.
He saw it a split-second before the attack happened, and he was ready. But Ryan’s second was attacking at the same moment, and as Carlos met Ryan with a vicious snap of his teeth, the second wolf lunged for his throat.
This must have emboldened the smallest one, because Carlos felt a third set of teeth close on his already-injured flank.
Come on, Sheriff, he thought grimly. Come on...pack.
He’d go down protecting Pauline and the kids if he had to. But he didn’t want to have to. He wanted the life he’d seen stretching out before him, and he was damned if these pathetic excuses for men were going to take it from him.
Then he heard a window break inside the house.
***
Pauline
Nate had assured Pauline that he, Ken, Lynn, and even Stella—who Pauline hadn’t thought was much of a fighter—were on their way, driving as quickly as was safe through the back forest roads to get to Pauline’s house.
So Pauline was left with nothing to do but wait. While Carlos fought for her and the kids.
She’d never wished so hard for a different shifted form. A lioness, or even a lynx like Lynn and Stella. Something with substance, with powerful jaws to protect her kids with.
But no, she was stuck inside, with nothing for her owl form to do. While Carlos roared and growled, and she caught glimpses of his orange fur mingled with gray wolves as they clashed and rolled and bit.
Then she heard Drew make a startled noise, inside the kids’ room. Pauline darted in just in time to see Drew stumbling back from the window—and the wolf on the other side.
“What’s happening?” Troy’s tiny voice piped up.
“Nothing, honey,” Pauline said, determined. The wolf had seen them, and its mouth was open in a terrifying approximation of a grin.
He backed up, aiming for the window. Pauline’s eyes narrowed.
“Pauline, you should take the kids and stay back,” Drew said, nervousness filling his voice. “I’ll—I can—”
“No, Drew.” Pauline made her voice absolutely firm, allowing no wavering. “Put the kids in the closet, stand in front of it, and shift. Okay?”
Drew was already hauling Troy and Val out of bed. “What is it?” Troy’s voice spiraled up, “Drew, what—”
Drew shoved them both in the closet, hissed, “Stay quiet and keep still,” and then shifted.
The wolf was running for the window, picking up speed. Pauline shifted.
The wolf hit the window with a crash. Broken glass went everywhere.
But now, of course, there was a problem. The wolf had to get through the window, which wasn’t huge, without tearing himself to pieces on the shards of glass still hanging onto the window frame.
As he backed up to consider the situation, Pauline fluttered up and out the window, her smaller form making it through without a problem.
The second she was out in the night air, she beat her wings as hard as she could. Gaining height, gaining, gaining—
She could see that below her, the wolf had tilted his head up to see what she was doing. Good. Very, very good.
She went as high as she could in as short a time as she could manage.
Then she lifted her wings and dove.
The wind whistled through her feathers as she fell like a rock. The wolf pulled back, startled at