Thomas felt the cart come to an abrupt halt, as if something had broken. Then he caught a very familiar scent; even while chained and underfed, his heightened wolf senses recognized those smells—Leon, Derek, Dimitri, and another, more delicate scent: that of a woman.

They weren’t far from the cart. He began to listen closely to the sounds outside. Someone was complaining about a broken wheel. Suddenly, he heard a woman’s voice and felt her scent growing closer; she was ...