"Arizona?" Sammy repeated. "Arizona's way too hot for werewolves, why would you want to spend your vacation there?" "Well, besides some old cowboy towns and the Grand Canyon, there's the trails," Fenton answered. "Roxanne and I met hiking, and we used to pick a new trail every anniversary before the kids came along." He reached over and rubbed his wife's knee. He must have forgotten she was wolfside, because he glanced down at the dark fur pushing up between his fingers. His wife rumbled in pleasure. "I've got a cousin out there, and he says early March is the perfect time of year to visit. Not too hot, not too cold, and all the desert flowers are in bloom. I've always wanted to smell that." She tilted her head back and inhaled deeply as if imagining it now, though all she would smell in the pack's meeting room in late winter was the musty concentrated traces of almost a dozen werewolves and a handful of humans. It was a large room in the House's second story, but one of the most

Christmas Day marked a whole week since Jonathan had come home--a whole week of being a father. He had brought Jonathan downstairs, exhausted but invigorated with excitement for what the day held. There were almost a dozen new presents under the tree, all with Jonathan's name on them and filled with brand-new baby clothing and shoes and toys and even a massive stuffed wolf from Patience. After breakfast, Night Sky and Odysseus took turns holding the baby as Sammy opened his presents and held each soft thing up to Jonathan to feel as he described them. Once they were through the pile, they barely had time to dress Jonathan in the warmest onesie, a powder-blue number from Reilly, before they piled into the Prius and drove into town for the Christmas sermon. Odysseus and Night Sky only attended church sporadically, but they always made a point to attend on the holidays, and this year Reilly joined them. She had traded in her crutch for a cane, walking with a slight limp. A couple other

Once she was sure her niece would be all right, Night Sky had one more thing to do before they left. While Order agents were packing up their wounded and fresh agents were driving in for the clean-up work, as well as bringing a mobile shower unit so the werewolves could shower and shift, she tore herself away from her brand-new grandchild to have a word with his mother. She had been fighting back the urge to go wolfside since driving into this battlefield, and now she welcomed the change, barely breaking stride towards the van to pull off her shoes. She loomed over the two armed agents standing guard. "I'd like a moment alone with one of the prisoners," she said. "Please." They glanced at each other. Her request was unusual, but also within one of her rights as an alpha of the aggrieved pack that had called them in. They stepped aside. Night Sky opened the doors, reached in, and pulled the woman out, throwing her into the bloody mud where her packmate had been mauled. She fell

A dark brown shadow in the white-gray environment lurched from tree to tree. One thing was for certain, Sammy wasn't going to make it back to the House. The snowfall had escalated into a full-fledged blizzard, and he cursed himself for not heading home earlier. His back was throbbing now, a dull ache that was seeping through the rest of the body. He could almost feel his vertebrae grinding with every motion. The only way he would survive this night was to get to one of the shelters and stay the night there. Not long after settling here, his Argo forerunners had constructed emergency shelters scattered and hidden throughout the property, and they had been maintained since. They ranged in size from cubby holes equipped with a lantern, a sleeping bag, and snacks, to a full-blown fallout bunker built in the 50s when those were all the craze. A werewolf never knew when they might need to hide or grab a clean set of clothing. Sammy knew he was close to one of the smaller dens, and he had to