Joshua always said that there was an art to fighting when grossly outnumbered. You had to plan ahead, like in a chess match. If I do x, opponent A will do y, while opponents B, C, and D will do z, allowing me to do something supremely badass and take them all down. Or something like that. Trouble is, I was never very good at chess.

Joshua also said that even the best battle plans never survive the first encounter with the enemy, although in this particular case it was an unexpected ally that threw my tentative plans out the heavily-reinforced window. Which is why I was on my feet and moving the moment that Mr. Tall, Dark, Handsome, and Idiotic sealed himself in the cage room.

Outnumbered by seven to (basically) one, trapped in a circular room with no cover, limited maneuverability, surrounded by vicious predators and an unarmed human who smelled of guilt all clued me into the fact that my original plan of 'trick them all into killing each other' wasn't going to cut it anymore.

And for the record, guilt is the last thing you want a potential ally smelling like right before you do battle. I know some people tell you that it's the smell of fear that sets creatures off, but at least a scared man can still fight. The guilty ones, they're likely not even to try. Which means my first order of business had to be to get my temporary companion off the sidelines and into the battle. I intended to get out of this room in one piece, and Mr. T-D-H-and-I wasn't going to ruin it for me. You see, I had to tell you how bad it was so you can properly appreciate the sheer brilliance of the next few minutes. Listen . . . and learn!

So, on to what Joshua calls the 'after-action report.'

Location - big round room. Participants: two velociraptors (hey, I saw Jurassic Park!), one saber-toothed cat, three crazy mutant bat thingys, one oversized mutant seal with fangs, one unarmed, guilty-smelling idiotic human male, and me.

If Mr. T-D-H-and-I was going to be of any use at all then he needed to be armed. And the only weapons in the room were the ones attached to me and the other creatures. I wasn't about to give up any body parts but, looking around, I figured a velociraptor would do. So I took a line of sight on the closest one, took a deep breath, prayed to any gods that may exist that I'd get through this, and struck.

I bit the raptor's hind leg straight through, just below the knee, and in the same motion flung the limb to land at the human's feet. Now I just had to hope he wasn't so Idiotic as to not pick it up and use it. The raptor fell, off-balance, and tried to bite me on the way down, but I twisted out of the way and tore out its throat.

Unfortunately while concentrating on that one, the other had got the drop on me. It landed on my back and there was a searing pain down my left flank. I rolled, which knocked it off me, and we came up facing each other.

The raptor leapt again, but this time I ducked, twisted, and tore out its throat as it passed over me. Two creatures down.

I spared a glance at the man, and found that he'd at least had the presence of mind to pick up the raptor claw, and was using it to fend off the seal thing, while scrambling one hand behind him. He'd also backed toward the wall, which he should have done from the start, but at least he was fighting back now.

The bat-things had climbed the walls to stalk from above, so they were out of my reach for now. They were quick, and could climb anything, but their biggest strength seemed to be their stealth. In this room, deprived of cover and room to maneuver, they were actually the least of my concern. That left the cat and the seal. Mr. T-D-H-and(maybe not so)-I seemed to be doing OK with the latter, so I turned my attention the cat.

I'd dealt with saber-toothed cats before. The cat was slightly more agile, but I was stronger and at least as quick. His agility was his main advantage here, so that needed to go, and fast. I circled, darting in to snap as his legs and flanks before jumping back. He tried to follow my movements, but I could tell he was getting frustrated. Which is exactly what I wanted. On my next dart, I crushed his left hind leg in my jaws. He fell, and tried to turn on me, but I'd already moved. Now lame, he couldn't move nearly as quickly. My next attack took out his right foreleg, and once he was on the floor I moved in for the kill.

I turned to see how the man was doing and was just in time to see him grabbed from above by a bat-thingy. As he flew up, something heavy dropped to the floor, but I didn't have time to look at it. I ran across the room and leapt after him. My injured leg almost gave out but I was able to snag his ankle with my teeth.

My weight dragged him and the bat thingy back to the floor, and as they fell I backed out of the way and jumped over his body to snatch the bat-thing. It was neither as big as the cat nor as armored as a raptor and with one sharp shake of my head I was left holding its head while the rest of it slammed against the wall.

Two loud cracks behind me had me spinning around and I found that the man had retrieved what he'd dropped - a handgun. With two rounds he'd taken out the other two bat-thingys with perfectly placed head shots. Why he hadn't used the damn thing at first I have no idea, but at least the odds were in our favor now.

We turned our attention to the seal creature but unfortunately the handgun didn't have nearly as much effect against the massive beast. It advanced on the man, but we'd got this far and I'd be damned if I let some overgrown pinniped ruin things now.

My leg felt like it was on fire, and I was definitely flagging, but I pulled the last of my strength together and sprang upon the creatures back, digging my teeth as deep into its neck as I could, trying for the spinal cord. It reared back in pain, and the man took the opportunity to bury the raptor claw under its jaw and fire a bullet into its eye. With a groan, it collapsed.

I slipped off its back to the floor. I was dizzy with loss of blood, and my left hind leg wouldn't obey my commands. The man and I stared at each other, and I couldn't help but think that all he'd see when he looked at me was another monster.

Didn't I mention? You see, I'm a wolf. A dire wolf, to all outside appearances. Well, a were-dire wolf to be precise. And right now all I could think of was that I was injured and covered in blood, with blood and gore dripping from my jaws. I would hardly blame him if, after everything, he saw me as another threat. I lowered my head, as submissive as I could, even though it rankled. I let out a little involuntary whimper as the adrenaline of the fight faded and my injury caught up with me. I knew I wouldn't be able to muster up the energy to change forms even if the gash in my leg hadn't made it a dangerous prospect to try. All I could do was watch and wait for the verdict.

He seemed hesitant and wary, but after checking to make sure that nothing else was in sight and seeing that I wasn't attacking, at last he tucked the gun into the back of his jeans and came toward me, slowly. I didn't move. He started up the soothing nonsense people often use to calm a wild animal.

"Easy there. I won't hurt you. I just want to look at that leg." When I made no move to attack he came over and knelt down, placing a gentle hand on my flank. Despite his best efforts, the pain flared. I whined and clamped down on the instinct to snap.

"Well, that's not a small scratch, is it? But at least it's not bleeding too badly." He took off his shirt and tore it in two, wrapping the cloth tightly around my hip. I gritted my teeth and tried not to whimper too much. But once the pressure was on, it did feel much better. He came back up to my head and looked right into my eyes.

"OK then. We really need to get out of here and get that looked at but there's no way I can carry you. Do you think you can walk? Just a little bit?" He backed up to give me space and made a gesture like telling a dog to come.

"Come on. Up you get. You can do it." I was too tired and sore to even really resent being compared to a common pet, but I gathered myself up, leveraging as much of my weight onto my forelegs as I could. I pulled my hind end up, keeping the weight on the good right leg.

My legs trembled for a bit, but they held. Experimentally I moved forward - front right, front left, hind right and a little hop. I wouldn't be going far or fast, but at least I was semi-mobile. He grinned at me and reached up to reward me with a stroke to the head.

"Good girl. OK, let's get out of here." He headed toward the door through which he'd come, limping slightly on the ankle I'd grabbed him by, but otherwise seemingly unhurt apart from bruises and a few nasty scratches from where the bat thing had grabbed him.

I followed slowly and it finally hit me. Between the two of us we'd taken out seven of the deadliest creatures known on earth and, well, wherever those bat and seal things came from. And apart from what looked like a sprained ankle on him and a deep, but non-life threatening gash on me, we were in pretty good shape. Joshua would be proud.

He took a moment to struggle with the door, but finally it opened. Beyond was a hallway, and just outside the door another man was huddled against the wall, sobbing, his head buried against his bent knees.

The man who'd been in the feeding room with me stopped abruptly with a shocked look on his face that immediately turned stricken. And there went the guilt again. He moved out of the doorway and knelt by the other man.

"Nick." The man on the floor shuddered, but didn't look up. My man put his hand on Nick's knee.

"Nick, look at me. Nick!" The other man finally looked up. The look on his face made me catch my breath. I'd seen it only once before - the look of a man who'd just had everything he thought he'd lost handed back to him and didn't dare believe it yet.

"Stephen?"

My man, Stephen, managed a shaky smile and reached out to touch the other man's face. "Yeah, Nick. It's OK. It's over. I'm OK."

Nick gave another sob and suddenly lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Stephen. Stephen brought his own arms up and they held each other tight. After all the terror and death of the last few minutes, hell for me the last few weeks, the sight warmed my heart and if I could cry in this form I'm sure I would have. Didn't last very long though, because Nick raised his head slightly and I could see the horror in his eyes as he caught sight of me.

"Stephen!" He shoved the other man off and to the side and started feeling around, presumably for a weapon. I just stood there - I didn't have the energy for anything else. Stephen grabbed his arm.

"Nick! Nick! It's OK." Stephen finally manged to stop Nick's frantic motions with the effective method of practically sitting on him.

"She saved me in there. I don't know exactly what she is or where she's from, but she saved my life. She helped me kill the other creatures in there, which is how we made it out. And she's injured. She won't hurt us, Nick."

Nick stared at me, dazed. "Dire wolf," he said.

"What?"

"She's a dire wolf," Nick said absently, still staring at me. "Late Pleistocene, native to the Americas."

"Well, whatever she is, I owe her my life. Help me get her back to the ARC? That gash on her flank really needs to be looked at."

I wasn't entirely sure what an ark was (or at least, what it meant in this context) but it was pretty clear I wasn't going to be able to get far on my own, and I realised I really had no choice but to trust Stephen and hope whatever he had planned didn't involve me being a lab rat. Stephen stood up and pulled Nick to his feet before walking over to me. He reached up to rub my ears.

"You're a mess," he said fondly, and I had to wuff a laugh. Yeah that about summed it up. Suddenly Stephen looked around the hallway, as if looking for something.

"Where's Helen?" he asked.

Nick looked grim. "Gone."

Stephen nodded. "Good riddance."

He looked down, rubbing the back of his neck and damn it, there was that guilt again. "Look, Cutter, I'm sorry, I should have . . ." Whatever it was he should have done I may never know because Nick stepped forward and pulled his hand down and held it.

"It's OK. It's not like I haven't been acting like an arsehole lately myself. You've more than made up for it. Just . . . don't do it again."

Stephen smiled slightly. "You can count on that. I've let her trick me twice now, but even I do learn eventually. I see so much as a hint of Helen again I'm calling in reinforcements."

Nick smiled. "Good enough."

Now it was his turn to look uncomfortable. He looked down, and then back up again.

"Stephen . . ." He shook his head, as if to clear it, and then stepped forward and pulled Stephen into another tight hug. Stephen looked startled, but returned it. "Don't you ever do that to me again," Nick said, fiercely. "When you locked yourself in there with those . . things . . I thought . . . . Just, don't, OK?"

Stephen held him tighter. "I'll do my best, I promise."

Now I'm a sappy as the next girl, but I could tell my feet weren't going to stay under me much longer, so I whined. The men started, and pulled apart, and Stephen looked guilty again.

"God, I'm sorry. We're standing here blathering and you're still bleeding. Come on, let's go get you fixed up." With Stephen and Nick on either side of me, ready to steady me if I stumbled, we made it out of the hallway and halfway across the next room before I heard voices and the pounding of many feet. I whined again, and tried to shrink back. Stephen and Nick I trusted, but a large number of unknowns were heading our way and I couldn't even fool myself into thinking there was any fight left in me. Stephen and Nick both looked down as I'd stopped, concern on their faces.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked.

I almost rolled my eyes - like I could answer like this. But I didn't need to, because now the sounds I'd heard were audible to their duller ears. Nick had his hand resting on my back, and Stephen moved to stand in front of me, pulling out his gun. I was actually quite touched by the gesture, useless as it may be for him to try to shield something as tall as his shoulder and twice as wide as he was. The door in front of us opened and a dozen soldiers poured in, guns drawn. Nick and Stephen smiled and relaxed, so I assume that meant they were good guys.

The soldiers had their guns pointed at me, but with Nick's hand resting casually on my back and the both of them acting like I was no threat, no one made a move to shoot.

"Glad you could make it," Nick said, only slightly sarcastically.

The lead soldier relaxed a little as well. "Stephen, Professor, are you two all right?"

"We're OK," answered Nick. "Helen got away again, but Leek is dead and the creatures he collected are all dead or contained. Well, except for this one, but she's friendly."

The soldiers looked skeptical.

"Really," Stephen said. "I know we don't get a lot of that around here, especially if it has teeth, but she saved my life. She's not going to attack anyone. I want to get her back to the ARC - she's injured and she's lost a lot of blood."

As if on cue, the trembling in my legs increased and my right hind leg, which had been holding most of my weight, collapsed. I went down, and not gently either, but Nick helped support me and caught my head before it could hit the floor. I looked up at him and whined again, and he petted my head and murmured low reassuring words that I couldn't quite make out.

I heard Stephen calling some of the soldiers over and between them they managed to fashion a sort of stretcher. I rolled over onto it on my own when they put it down and found myself being carried out to a military vehicle. Stephen and Nick stayed with me. I closed my eyes and drifted a bit, while they peppered the soldiers with questions, mainly about people named Abby, Connor, and Jenny. Whatever the soldiers said made Stephen and Nick relax and fall silent for awhile.

I pulled my attention back when I heard Stephen and Nick start talking about me. I kept my eyes closed, pretending to be asleep, too muddled to realize I probably needn't have bothered, as they had no reason to think I could understand English.

"What do you think?" Stephen asked Nick.

"I don't know. Physically, I'd swear she's a dire wolf. We've got pretty good specimens, and she fits perfectly. But behavior-wise, I have no idea. A dire wolf is exactly the kind of creature Leek would have wanted in his menagerie, but it doesn't explain why she defended you in there instead of attacking, or why she's not shying away from us. She's exhibited a much higher level of intelligence than is usually credited to dire wolves as well."

"Perhaps the area was populated where she comes from? Could she have been domesticated?"

"It's possible, I suppose. There were humans living in North America in the Late Pleistocene, but there's never before been evidence that dire wolves were domesticated. The people who migrated from Asia brought their own dogs with them, so there would have been no need to attempt domesticating the native species. And even then, I'd've thought the smaller grey wolf would have been a more logical candidate for domestication and they were coexistent at the time. So yes, it's possible, but not likely."

"What do you think Lester will do with her?"

"I won't let him hurt her, Stephen, I promise. I owe her a lot too. Once we get that leg healed I think all we can do is take care of her at the ARC and hope an anomaly opens up to her time so we can send her back. Whichever one Leek got her from is long gone." Someone, probably Stephen, started stroking my back. I couldn't see Nick's face, but when he next spoke I could hear the amusement in his voice.

"Unlike Rex, I don't think she'd really fit in your flat."

"She deserves better than to be kept in a cage. I know there's nowhere she can be let loose, but . . "

"We'll figure something out, Stephen."

"We? Last time I checked I don't really have a job anymore." Although the words seemed bitter, Stephen's tone was more defeated than anything.

"You do. If you want it. We've both done a lot of stupid things lately. Can we just call it even and move on?" There was a hint of desperation in Nick's voice.

"Yeah, I'd like that."

Nick breathed a sigh of relief. "Good."

After that they fell silent, and, with Stephen still stroking my back, I fell asleep.