White-gray fur slick with frost-burn and his own blood rolled under my knee. A snarl snapped off his fangs as he surged up, ramming his shoulder into my chest hard enough to knock my breath loose.

I stumbled back, but my paws lashed out, trying to catch his haunch. He yelped, more man than wolf in that half-scream, but kept bolting sideways through the street that led to the shopping mall.

“You’re not getting away!” I hissed, but before I could rip him back, a wrongness prickled through ...