Fan-flippin-tastic.

Sucking in a lungful of air, he tentatively opens the door.

All I see are wolves across the yard. Dozens of wolves. Brown, black, white, gray, tan, and all mixes in between, fighting and scrambling to get the upper hand over each other.

"Shift, and run home."

I look at him incredulously. "You mean my parents' place?"

"Yes," he shouts over his shoulder as he sprints forward. "Go fast! I'll cover ya!"

Swearing under my breath with Tamara running up behind me, I leap forward off the porch and shift as quickly as I can. Fuelled by adrenaline, I land on all fours with Tamara in her wolf form leaping next to me.

Catching her eye, she gives me a nod and we sprint forward after Evan. He's already disappeared ahead, but his scent lingers behind.

Most of the wolves are so preoccupied in their personal battles that they don't notice us until we're already in the forest. Even then, I can't tell who is on our side and who isn't. Staying close to Tamara and following Evan is my best option. They will know who's on our side and who isn't.

My muscles cramp, needing more time to morph and harden, but there is no time. We have to get out of there as fast as we can.

I glimpse Evan running ahead in the trees. With my senses are on high alert, I bark softly at Evan ahead, warning him that I smell a foreign wolf.

Yipping back at us, he kicks his speed up a notch and disappears into the wild overgrowth.

Tamara warns him to be careful and I whine in agreement.

Paws kicking up dirt, we run after him, trying to get as far away from the action behind us as possible. Soon, I'm aware of more wolves gaining up on us, but once I pick up their scents, I'm relieved when I recognize Marcus, Leah, and Brianna.

Where's Rick and Keith? I want to ask, but I'm too busy panting, pushing myself forward as fast as I can. I don't want my mate to get too far ahead, just in case someone attacks him.

The foreign wolf ahead turns out to be one of the Silver Star wolves. He looks us over, as if to make sure we're unharmed and then carries on with his mission.

We circle around the Mount Hood villages and slow down at a creek to wash away our scent, take a drink, and recuperate from the hard run.

Lying in the shallows of the creek, I let the gentle lapping of the water ease my tired muscles. While I enjoyed the run and feeling the wind whip through my fur, I really need to work on my endurance.

Evan trots up next to me and licks my muzzle affectionately. He whimpers in concern and I rise to my feet and shake my body free of water in response.

I lick him back. I'm fine.

We continue at a trot to Portland as the sun disappears under the horizon and darkness envelops the land.

Interrupting the chirps of crickets, we slip silently through backyards on the outskirts of town, looking for articles of clothing as we go. Marcus and Tamara find forgotten clothes hanging up on a clothesline that fit them at one house, but the rest of us have to hide in a small patch of trees while the two of them search in a donation bin at a small thrift store for clothes we can wear.

They come back to us with a shrug, holding out some articles for us. "These will have to do," Tamara says.

She hands a pair of shorts to Evan, that are too big and bulky on him, and sundresses that fit Leah and Brianna, but mine is clearly two sizes too large as well. Once dressed, we begin the long walk into Portland.

It would have been faster in wolf form, but we never would have made it more than a couple of miles without being spotted by someone. The last thing we need is animal control sent after us. Newspapers would have a field day if a wolf-shifter was caught.

"Ryan and his wolves are less likely to follow us into the city," Marcus tells me as we get dressed. "Our scents will mix with the high population of humans, and being unable to move undetected in wolf form will force them to change into their human forms, making it even more impossible for them to follow our trail. It's much safer to lay low in the city tonight."

"Not to mention he won't want to leave the territory now that he has it," Leah states as she looks around at our surroundings in the lamplight.

"Our territory ends at the city limits," Evan is quick to add to me.

Marcus nods. "Now that he finally has what he wants, the city is our best option until we can contact Rick and the others."

Brianna hisses under her breath, shifting our attention to her as she walks stiffly next to me. "Dammit, my stitches opened up. We need to catch a taxi."

A trickle of blood slowly oozes down her leg, and I grimace at the pain she must be in, even though just hours ago, I had watched four grown men get their butts whooped.

Not that they didn't deserve it.

Evan scowls. "And pay him with what?"

Brianna rolls her eyes at him. "I don't know. A credit card?"

Marcus interrupts the siblings with a silencing hand gesture. "Brianna has a point. We need to get off the streets and find shelter for the night. The question is how and where when we have no funds."

"We can go to Zara's parents' house. I'm sure they will let us spend the night and use their credit card to pay the driver, right?" Evan says, turning to me.

"Nothing like a family meeting at midnight," Brianna grumbles under her breath as she leans down a bit to wipe the blood away with her fingers.

Leah removes the satin sash from her dress and hands it to her younger sister. "Here. You need to wrap that up. It'll give away our scent."

Brianna nods, taking the ribbon into her bloodstained hand, and gets to work on her tourniquet.

We duck under a tree to try and keep ourselves hidden from passing cars while Brianna looks after her wound.

I hesitate at the thought of them all going to my parents' place. It's one thing if Evan and me to go there, but all of us? Where are they all going to get the space to lie down and sleep? My parents' two-bedroom house is small, not to mention how late it is at night. They'll be sleeping now, and I don't have a key to get in.

Being all shifters as well will not put my mother's nerves at ease. She's gotten better accepting me as a shifter, but she's still edgy around Evan. His family? Now that's all whole new ball game.

There's no way around it though. Without cash or a credit card, we can't spend the night at a hotel, and I didn't want to bother my parents with a large hotel charge on their credit card. They can barely get by financially as it is.

Then, there's the explanation of why we all need to crash at their house tonight. Running away from dangerous wolves does not sound like an encouraging answer to a human, especially one terrified of canines.

And what if Ryan sends men to search for us? We could put my parents' lives in jeopardy.

A curse tumbles out of my mouth, earning me a few quizzical looks from Evan's family in the faint light.

"Sorry," I mumble, twisting the hem of my donated sundress. "Mama is... Mama's still not completely on board with the whole wolf bit. And what if Ryan sends wolves to come searching for us and finds them? They can't defend themselves against a pack of wolves."

"I understand your concern," Marcus says, stepping up to me and placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder, "but we're not doing anyone any favors by standing around out here either. It's harder for them to find us in the city than out in the forest, and they are less likely to attack anyone when there are humans around. We have strict rules about our behavior around humans."

I nod, but I doubt any kind of "strict rules" were followed when Ryan killed Megan. Now is not the best time to bring that up, though.

"I'm not sure how Ryan will react if he finds us staying with humans," Leah says. "He might just leave us alone, or, like you're worried about, he might try to use them against us, be it kidnapping or a hostage situation."

Kidnapping? Hostages? My heart rate starts to increase as she speaks. She's really not helping me feel any better about this whole ordeal.

Marcus nods. "It is a tough call."

"Blah, blah, blah," Brianna says as she straightens back up. "Let's keep walking and talking until we find a taxi that we can flag down. Standing around here at the edge of Portland isn't going to get us any closer to the city center."

"We're going to need more than one cab to get us all there," Evan says as we start to walk.

"Unless we can flag down one of those vans."

Evan rolls his eyes at Brianna. "Yeah, and how often do you see those driving around without passengers already inside?"

She shrugs, nonchalantly. "I don't hear you coming up with any better ideas."

"We'll flag down a taxi and request that either a second car be sent or that they send us a van. There, problem solved," Leah interjects, her voice laced with exasperation as she brushes her hair away from her face.

Leah's gait is stiff and she looks tired. The creases in Tamara's face are deeper in the lamplight, making her look ten years older than she ought to be. Marcus' face is smooth, too smooth, like a statute, but his eyes reveal his hidden emotions. Brianna's jaw is clenched tightly, and Evan...

My heart aches when I look at him. He looks so broken. He holds my hand tightly in his, and I get a sense that he does so more as a source of comfort to himself. I can't blame him. He's been through a lot today, much of it he thought he had left behind him.

Digging up the past can't be an easy feat. I've never lost someone close to me, unless you counted my birth mother and unknown father. I never knew them, so that hardly seems comparable. Still, she died giving birth to me, and I'll never be able to know her as a result.

Brianna interrupts my train of thought. "Well, where are we exactly?"

All eyes turn to me and I pause in my tracks. "Woah, hold on a sec here. I have no idea where we are."

Brianna groans loudly and gets shushed by Leah, making her roll her eyes.

"I'm certain that we're in Gresham," Marcus says.

I gape at him.

Seriously?

Looking around, I try to see if anything looks familiar, but I've never been to Gresham at night, and nothing stands out to me from the handful of times I've been to Gresham-the last of which being two months ago.

Being in Gresham isn't a bad thing at all. The MAX light rail runs through it to Portland.

"Hey," I say, feeling hopeful, "if we're in Gresham, and it's not too late, we can take the MAX into Portland. It operates via the honor system. They don't check to see if you've paid to get on or not, so we can just hop on and take it downtown."

Grins break out on everyone's faces.

"Breaking the honor system, and getting a free ride? Works for me," Brianna says with the biggest grin of all. She swings her arms now, with an added bounce in her step.

Tamara scowls at Brianna's eagerness to perform a deviant act, but Marcus wraps an arm around her shoulder in an attempt to relax her.

"It's not like we have much of a choice," he reminds her in a soft voice, making her sigh.

"So where do we get on this thing? It's a train, right?" Brianna says, her eyes scanning the streets.

I shrug. "I only know that the last stop for the MAX is Cleveland. If we find Cleveland Avenue, it should be around there somewhere."

We walk around the foreign streets for a while until we come across a twenty-four-hour fast-food restaurant. Marcus tells us to wait outside, while he goes inside to ask for directions.

Three teenage guys are hanging out at the other end of the building, trading shady looks at us in our bare feet and unkempt appearances.

I turn my back to them, rubbing my arms self-consciously under their scrutinizing gazes.

Seeing the boys, Evan wraps a protective arm around my shoulders. "Ignore them," he whispers. "You're stronger than them, anyway."

Hmm, true. I never really thought about it that way.

Holding my head higher, a newfound self-confidence takes hold of me. I may appear to be a scrawny and weak girl, but appearances can be deceiving.

Still, I can't let my wolf out to play with them. Too bad, she would have enjoyed the chase.

Marcus steps out then, looking relieved. We gather around him for the good news.

"It's really close, actually."

Reassured, we all sigh in unison.

As we turn to head toward the station, I look over my shoulder at the gawking teenagers and shoot them a dirty look. Just try and mess with us.

We walk about five minutes and find the MAX station. We hoot softly in triumph when we discover that we haven't missed the last run and the next one will arrive in another ten minutes.

"Well, that's good news," Leah murmurs, her eyes scanning the well-lit station.

We disperse in pairs to the dark edges of the platform in hopes of drawing less attention to ourselves until the light rail train pulls up. Leaving our anxiety behind, we climb into the same car but spread out once again in pairs. Luckily, we're the only ones to get on when the train pulls out of the station.

Sitting next to the window, I rest my head on Evan's shoulder as I stare out into the darkness, watching the city slip by.

Evan kisses the top of my head. "We got lucky, huh?"

I look up to see him looking out the window as well. Snuggling into his side, I turn my gaze back to the window. "Yeah."

"I mean, we could've wound up somewhere else and be miles away from the MAX. This is actually quite convenient."

"Uh huh."

I close my eyes and exhale slowly. Exhaustion starts to catch up with me after a long and challenging day. So much has happened that I can hardly wrap my head around it. Just twelve hours ago, we were at the Silver Star Pack's village in Washington and now we're going to Portland with so much that took place in between.

I swallow as my mind fills with memories. Rick running into the nursery and scaring us half to death. Running out to the SUV to take us back to our land. Rick telling us that Ryan stole our territory while we were gone. Meeting with Evan's aunts and leaving Alicia and Emily in their care. Keith finding his mate with the enemy. Facing Ryan. Having guns pointed at us. Evan's family kicking butt before we escape with Silver Star wolves attacking the rogues. Running through the wilderness and into the city.

With the day coming to an end, I'm grateful that the MAX is taking us to the place I've called home for eighteen years.

However, as the train pulls up to our stop, I can't help worrying over how my parents, particularly Mama, are going to react to our unexpected arrival.

Dread builds up inside me as I silently lead our group from the train station, across the well-lit intersection, and down several blocks to the narrow, tree-lined street that my parents live on. As we get close, I warn them to be as quiet as possible.

"If my neighbor's dog hears us, he'll wake up the entire neighborhood."

I hold my breath as we walk passed King's house and up the path to the front door.

Exhaling, I press the doorbell and wait.

The door swings open to reveal my dishevelled mother on the other side holding a baseball bat.

"What in the..." She trails off when she sees us. She looks from me, to Evan, and then to his family behind me before training her gaze back on me. "You can't be serious."