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Then his thoughts returned to the here and now, where the alpha wolf was standing beside the beta. He too wore only pajama pants, and his bare torso sported multiple obvious bullet scars. Eight of them. This wolf had been critically wounded at some point in his life. Had he attacked someone? Maybe in his feral form?

The curiosity tingling in Ryker’s thoughts proved he was emerging from the rage. The alpha wolf did not move, did not show his teeth, simply stood there in all his power while his eyes burned like fire and he waited…waited. For Ryker to make a move. Or for Ryker to control himself.

“Okay,” he said, and the velvet in his voice wasn’t something he could help right now. As long as he wasn’t allowing his body to attack, its other dominance strategies would kick in. “It’s okay, Leslie.”

The beta wolf, Rhett, growled low in his throat, and his chest heaved once. The alpha’s broad hand settled onto Rhett’s shoulder and stayed there, and he seemed to breathe easier after a moment. Something more was going on with Rhett. Something more than Ryker would ever be privy to.

“Leslie,” the alpha wolf said. His voice was like sandpaper in Ryker’s ears.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m sorry. We really didn’t mean any harm. We were just on a walk.”

“I know that.”

“Ryker hasn’t known wolves, hasn’t lived near y’all. He doesn’t know how not to fight you. I apologize on his behalf.”

“You’ve done no harm,” the alpha said. “You’re free to go.”

“Thank you,” Leslie said.

“Wait,” Ryker said. “I can speak for myself.”

The alpha nodded.

“Can I know your name?”

“Malachi,” the alpha said.

“If I’ve caused offense, Malachi, I’m sorry. We didn’t come here for that.”

The alpha wolf nodded. “Apology accepted.”

Turning his back on the wolves was one of the most physically difficult things Ryker had ever done. Leslie looped one arm around his waist as they retreated toward town. When they’d made half a mile of distance, the wolves at the head of the road turned toward their homes, and Ryker’s body began to relax.

Leslie tugged Ryker’s hand and broke into a jog. They made another quarter-mile of distance before she stopped.

“I’m not sure of their exact sensory range,” she said. “Generally speaking, our hearing is slightly better than theirs, and their sense of smell is slightly better than ours. But we’re definitely out of range now.”

“Thanks for intervening for me.” He had to say this first, though it rankled that she’d had to step in on his behalf even for a moment. His control was better than that. Or it ought to be.

“I can’t believe you asked his name.” She shuddered.

“Why? Is it some guarded secret?”

“No, but under the circumstances…”

“He knew mine. I had the right to ask his.”

She shook her head. “You’re too brave, Ryker.”

“No. I was mad, not scared. Do you know what happened to him?”

“The scars, you mean?” She looked back the way they’d come as if she might catch another glimpse from here. “I have no idea. All I know is he scares me. The other wolves don’t—well, sometimes Rhett can be unsettling.”

“If we’d trespassed, the alpha might have killed us.” Ryker knew this all the way to his bones. In fairness, though… “But I don’t think he’d kill us for no reason.”

“No, he wouldn’t. I’ve talked a lot to Ezra, and he’s clear that the wolves live by a moral code.”

He cocked his head, trying to parse her contradictions. “Yet you’re scared of the alpha?”