I rolled under the other wolf's swipe, narrowly avoiding having my ear vented by the wolf's claws. As I finished my roll, I leaned heavily on my front limbs and kicked him in the side of the face. He staggered back as I pivoted on my forelegs. As he recovered, I lunged to tackle him, but he rolled with the impact and kicked me off. That wouldn't have been so bad except for the fact that I landed on a rather sharp rock, cutting open my hip. Despite the pain, I pulled myself back to my feet.

The reason we were both so unwilling to give up was that ours was one of the last combats to determine the final five wolves who would be defending our territorial claim against the Northern wolves. The system that had been agreed on was to have one-on-one combats to whittle the number of candidates to four, thus filling the first four slots, and then there would be a Battle Royale for the fifth slot. None of the wolves had wanted to be one of the combatants in that final battle.

So far, three of the first four slots had been filled, all by Jasper Park wolves. They were Garth (highly expected), Hutch, and (surprisingly) Humphrey.

I and another Northeast Glacier Bay wolf, named Kraig, were fighting for the fourth slot. We had been fighting for the past half an hour, and still there seemed to be no clear advantage between us. However, I could tell that we were both beginning to tire. "Give up?" I asked, panting.

"Don't bet on it."

Before we could strike each other again, a howl demanded that all wolves of the pack assemble near the northern border of the territory. "We'll finish this later, Kraig," I muttered as I took off to answer the call.

"You bet we will," he replied as he began to follow.

However, when we arrived, all thoughts of the battle were blown from my mind. "Dad!"

He was limping along, using his body to hold up Eve's, which had been ravaged. While most of her wounds were minor and already healing, there was one that would not heal ever again: her front right paw was torn away. While the stump wasn't bleeding, it appeared that she had lost a lot of blood, as she was barely responsive enough to keep her remaining paws moving.

My father was in better shape, marginally, with wounds all over his body that would leave scars, but he wasn't maimed in any way. Janice, Reba, and a few of the other healers rushed to carry Eve somewhere where they could tend to her injuries and attempt to nurse her back to health.

He sat down heavily and winced as pain clearly shot through his entire body. "Dad? Who did this to you?" I asked.

"I don't know. Some kind of super-wolf or something. It was fast, strong. More so than any wolf I've ever seen. Bigger, too. Had paws like yours."

I gulped, having a sneaking suspicion of what it was that the two elder wolves had encountered. "Dad, were you bitten?"

"No. Neither of us was. It just batted us around like we were squirrels. I've never been beaten that badly. Eve caught the worst of it; she's a tough scrapper."

"Yeah. We saw the paw…"

"No. The paw was the least of what she caught. Strange thing was, after it beat us, the wolf sliced one of its own forepaws open and let the blood drip onto her wounds. I will tell you, that wolf is not from this Earth, for, where its blood touched, her claw wounds began closing, like this," he replied as he pressed his paws together, slowly. "Seconds later, the worst of them were simply gone. Same with the paw the wolf had cut."

"Oh, no."

"What is it, Jer?" Garth asked.

"This might sound a little crazy, but I am positive that what Dad and Eve fought was a werewolf."

"A what?" my father asked.

"You mean those human-wolf creatures you mentioned your human friend was interested in?" Lilly asked.

"The very same," I replied with a nod. I paced for a moment while I pondered what I knew. Finally, I sighed and said, "I'll go and take care of the beast."

"Why?" Heather demanded.

"When the werewolf's territory runs dry of prey, it will search for new prey. Having fought Dad and Eve, it will track your scent when that time comes. It will come for us."

"So why you?"

"Because I know how to kill a werewolf. No one else in the pack does."

"Teach us then."

"No," I growled. Then my shoulders and head slumped. "I'm sorry, but, if I fail, you will need to get the pack out of Jasper. Also, if I fail, it will only be my life that is wasted, and my body will stall the werewolf for-"

"Don't say another word," Heather growled. "I, at least, am going with you and nothing will change that.

"As am I," Garth pledged. One by one, practically every wolf in the pack who was in fighting shape had demanded to assist me in hunting the werewolf.

The response was something I had never expected, and my jaw dropped open in shock.