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*****

~ ZEV ~

To his right, Sasha was becoming agitated. “No, we can’t wait. You don’t understand. Once Nick returns there might be no time left. The humans will likely learn that Zev was on his device, and once they come through, they’ll own the Gateway. We can’t afford to give them any time, any at all. You are to pack your people—focus on clothing, tools, and food rations for three days. No more. The place we’re going has plenty of resources. But it may take us some time to find a place to settle and hunt.”

She caught eyes with Zev and he nodded, encouraging her. But she only looked away, her jaw flexing.

Where the hell was Lhars!?

Jhon had gone to pack and perhaps rest for an hour when they reached the City. But Skhal stayed nearby, helping organize people and watching over Zev and Sasha.

Yhet, too, seemed agitated, staying close and not giving ground even when the Alphas entered his space.

It had almost caused a fight with Gheet, but Zev had asked the male to excuse Yhet’s stubbornness—he was watching over Sasha at a nervous time.

Gheet, a stickler for tradition, had scowled, but even he was showing the signs of excitement at what was to come.

Zev had pulled the massive male aside. “Yhet, you can’t create problems right now. We have to keep everyone focused and listening. What’s wrong?”

”I don’t know,” Yhet rumbled, glaring over Zev’s shoulder at the males behind him. “But I feel… itchy.”

Zev blinked, praying his friend wasn’t beginning to fall to the darkness of the mourning. He’d seen other males go through it, and a time of anger and stubborn agitation was a telltale sign that the male was on the downhill slide.

”Yhet, are you—”

”Zev, it’s Kyelle!” Sasha gasped, grabbing at his arm.

”Sorry, Yhet. We just need to check something that Kyelle’s been patrolling for us.”

The male waved him away but followed closely when they stepped nearer the center of the courtyard, where Kyelle’s owl was back-flapping to give her a moment to bring her feet under her from flight.

A moment later she stood in front of them—naked, which still made Sasha blink. But the pre-dawn was cold, and Kyelle took a fur that Zev handed her gratefully.

”Is he back?” Sasha asked before anyone could speak.

But Kyelle’s mouth dragged down and she shook her head. “I had to let you know that Nick is awake and talking about returning to the human world early. The guards are trying to talk him out of it. If they can’t… do we delay him forcibly if Lhars hasn’t shown up yet? Or should we just let him go as if nothing is happening?”

Sasha cursed and clawed both hands into her hair. She chewed at her lip and looked at Zev.

What do you recommend? she asked him in his head.

Zev wanted to smack something.

Let him go, he said sadly. We’ll just pray that Lhars doesn’t come through in the minutes that Nick’s there.

Pray that he comes through at all, Sasha sighed into his head, then turned back to Kyelle.

”Let him go,” Sasha said quietly. “And start praying.”

Kyelle’s face crumpled.

*****

~ LHARS ~

”It’s okay, I’ll make sure they understand.” The tallest female in the apartment was the only one who seemed to have recovered from his appearance. He’d been talking to them for almost an hour, everyone tense and watching the doorway out of his sightline behind the gateway that had opened.

”I mean no harm, but you’ll have to be ready. When we come for you, we can’t afford to use too much time. We’ll be taking all of you at once, we can’t let them raise the alarm.”

The female nodded and scanned him from head to toe. “I’ll get them ready. We’ll be ready.”

Thank you, he said, relieved. “What’s your name?”

”I’m Ehva,” she said and leaned forward awkwardly to share scents. Lhars didn’t let himself lean out of the gateway, but took her scent and let her take his.

”Ehva, thank you. But I have to go.”

She nodded again, her face blank. Then she scanned him from his toes to his crown. “Are they all like you?”

”All… who?”

”The males. You smell good,” she said simply.

Lhars blinked. “You’ve never met males before?”

”I did as a pup, but since they took all of us back here, no, only the humans,” Ehva said with a shrug. “I have been curious. Your appearance is… attractive. It feels strange to me. I never noticed that when I was a pup.”

Lhars almost spluttered a laugh but made himself keep a straight face. “Thank you,” he said. “I’m one of a huge wolf pack, and many of the others also. I’m certain there will be a… male for you among them.”

Ehva nodded and Lhars frowned and looked at her again, confused.

”Were you brought here when you were young?” he said.

Ehva nodded. “When they took all the females, I was with my mother.”

Lhars went still. That didn’t make sense. “How old are you now?” he asked.

Ehva frowned and looked at the others. “I think… I think I’ve had ten summers.”

Lhars’ head snapped back. She was almost as tall as him and fully developed. But she was only ten? She shouldn’t even have reached sexual maturity, yet she looked almost as old as him, and he could scent her cycle… How was that possible?

”Ehva,” he said quickly, then stopped. How did he even ask this? “How many summers have you been here?”

Ehva tilted her head. “Three. I think. It can be hard because we’re inside all the time. But I believe that’s right.”

Lhars raked a hand through his hair. “You were seven three years ago?”

She smiled. “Yes. That is how it works.”

Lhars felt ill. “Have they… done things to bring you to this place? You should still be a pup, Ehva, do you know that?”

She looked down and her cheeks pinked. “They grow me,” she said, squirming, and her body language was the body language of a ten-year-old.

”They… what?”

”They grow me. They say that pups are too difficult to care for. They grow us to adults quickly so that we can be self-sufficient.”

His head spun. She was a child. A pup. Who presented as an adult.

Holy **.

Holy **ing **.

He opened his mouth to ask her more, when there was a ding, and all the females who had been very quiet to that point, panicked. “They’re coming! The humans!”

”We’ll be back, be ready! The prophecy, don’t forget!” Lhars hissed, then leaped back into the gateway so it closed behind him just as the sound of a door opening reached his ears.

Lhars made himself pause and think before he moved out of the side tunnel to that door.

Shaking and sickened by what he’d just seen and knowing he’d been far longer than he was supposed to be, the temptation was to simply return to Thana. But he knew it would be safer for the females he saved if he could describe the new land. And he was curious.

Quickly, he thought to the Gateway. I need to see the safe place quickly—the place where no humans can interfere with us.

Thankfully, the lights appeared under his feet and curled over his head, leading him on.

*****

He wasn’t sure how long it took, time didn’t seem to shift normally in the Gateway. But when he stepped to the doorway the gate showed him, it was with a rapidly beating heart. Would this be his new home?

Would he share it with Kyelle?

When he made it to the doorway and gripped the edge of it, the rippling surface disappeared and Lhars found himself standing high above a panorama so beautiful it stole his breath.

In the far distance to the left and curving around in front of him, a long range of mountains, some spaced apart, sprawled purple and blue in front of a pink, dawn sky. Beneath him a forest that seemed almost endless spread left and right and all the way to the foothills of the mountains ahead. Only to his right and ahead was the sky clear and the horizon visible.

Lhars’ eyes went wide and he inhaled deeply, almost weeping with the sheer beauty of the place—green trees, purple mountains, pink sky, and a gold sun rising slowly behind the mountains directly to his right.

The wind blew up from the horizon line and on it the slightest hint of salt, of water, but it was quickly washed away the thick scents of the trees and pollens of the vast forest below. The forest, and creatures… and absolutely no hints of humans, or their technology.

This place called to his heart. Lhars wanted to simply step out of the gate and float to it—though he knew he’d only plummet to his death from this height.

But with a smile on his face, he took one last, long look from left to right and laughed.

This would be their home. This would be their safety.

He could hardly wait.

His stomach clenched when he stepped back and the doorway rippled back into place, closing him in. But he understood now why Sasha had wanted all of them to see it.

Thank you for her, he prayed. Thank you for this.

And he turned, with no hesitation, his heart buoyed and mind full of the joy that would come to all of them when they could escape, he told the Gateway in no uncertain terms to take him home.

The home that he wouldn’t need for long. He laughed with disbelieving joy.