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Jayden pulled the long white fur coat protecting her from the elements tighter around her slender form. She had been following Ella’s tracks for the past half-hour. She was going to bring her supplies, even though such help was forbidden. If the elders wanted to banish Jayden too, they could. It was no less than what she deserved.

She glided effortlessly along the snow-covered ground, her movements as graceful as a dancer. In their quest for concealment, her dwindling clan had sought refuge in the remote mountains, venturing further into their secluded heights. It was the last place to hide.

Because of me…

She paused before the river Ella had crossed. The bark of one of the trees was rough beneath her fingertips and her heart raced with fear as she looked on, seeing her best friend wrap her arms tightly around the neck of a towering grizzly.

Instead of tearing Ella apart, the beast emitted a series of contented grunts and affectionately nuzzled its massive head against her, nearly knocking her off balance.

Ella’s grizzly shifter had found her.

Pain and disillusionment coursed through Jayden. Her fingers tightened on the lance in her hand. She should have killed Ty Bearclaw when she had the chance, then none of this would be happening.

What did the beast do to enchant my friend?

Jayden shifted her attention to the two wolves maintaining a protective stance nearby. She had come across their tracks while on her reconnaissance missions earlier in the week, but this was the first time she actually saw them.

The wolf to the right was the color of midnight. The second wolf was the color of the burnt fall leaves. The black wolf released a sneeze, as if pleased with Ella’s embrace of the grizzly. A low, rumbling growl pulled Jayden’s attention back to the red wolf, who was staring in her direction.

Jayden remained still. She knew that any movement would draw the wolves’ attention to her position. Her white coat, the thickly falling snow, and the massive tree trunk she was standing behind would conceal her—as long as she didn’t bolt. Her breath caught when the black wolf suddenly shifted into his two-legged form.

The red wolf’s body shimmered as well and then a second man stood next to the first. Neither wore clothes. The grizzly snarled at the men and blocked Ella’s view of them with its massive body.

Oh mercy, but they are beautiful!

She recoiled internally from the surprising thought. Yet, even more disturbing, was the sudden desire to reveal herself. Had the creatures cast a spell on her? Did they have some strange pheromone that captivated human women?

A shudder of fear coursed through Jayden at the thought of losing control to a shifter, even as she drank in the sight before her. She was so absorbed in their beauty and strength that she didn’t realize at first that Ella and the grizzly had moved further into the forest on the far side of the river. The two shifters conversed for another minute by the shore, scanning the forest in her direction, before they shifted again and followed her friend and the beast.

It wasn’t until they too were hidden by the trees that she released a shuddering breath. Fear and the instinct for survival was so engrained in her that she lifted her hand without thinking to hide the fog of her breath. She waited for another five minutes before finally mustering the strength to move her heavy limbs.

“I will use your hide as my winter coat if you try to enchant me,” she vowed in a low voice, staring at the empty shoreline across from her. “I will wrap it around my body and show you that you have no hold on me.”

Bolstered by the threat, she turned and retraced the path through the forest back to her clan’s encampment. She would have to tell the elders what she had seen. They would be forced to move deeper into the mountains.

Grief filled her. They were dying. Her clan, the last humans she was aware of, were a dying species. The Others were about to win the battle they had started centuries before.

One they thought they had already won, she bitterly thought.

Van grabbed the clothes out of his pack and pulled them on. Despite being unfazed by the weather as a wolf, it could be a little uncomfortable when he changed back. It wasn’t the weather that was bothering him, though.

“You sensed something, too, didn’t you?”

Van grunted in response to his friend’s astute observation as he pulled on his pants. He had been wondering if Peterson had felt the same thing as well.

They hadn’t been alone. Someone or something had been watching them. It could have been another shifter, which worried him, but his wolf hadn’t reacted as though whoever had been there was a threat.

Peterson sat down on the log near the firepit in their camp. In the background, Tracy was fussing over Ella while Ty got dressed. Tracy Bearclaw was an anthropologist who happened to be the niece of Michaela Bearclaw-Kodiak, President of the United Species of North America. Van and Peterson often worked with Tracy when she needed exceptional trackers. Ty was her brother. He was the curator of the Washington State Animal Sanctuary, Research, and Observation Center. Ella was Ty’s human mate. Van glanced over his shoulder. Through the gap in the tent, he could see the human woman.

“It’s hard to believe that a human still exists. Do you think there are more?” Peterson continued.

Van scowled. He didn’t really know if he was scowling at Peterson, at the cold, at his wolf, or just at everything. He felt… a nameless, urgent something. He pulled a forest green sweater over his head and tugged it down. He sat down next to Peterson, focusing on drying his feet so he could put his socks and boots on. What was it that Peterson had even asked him? Did he think there were more humans?

“Yeah, I think there are more. Ella had to come from somewhere and there is no way she could have survived this long on her own. The million-dollar question is: how many more humans are there, and where in the world have they been hiding?” he replied.

“That’s two questions. And the ‘where’ is obvious. The question I have is how? I mean, how could they stay hidden? It’s been centuries since the last one was seen.”

“I know. I took the same classes as you in school, remember?” Van said with a wry grin, elbowing Peterson and almost knocking him off the log.