The still of the early morning hours was broken by a barking dog. It was a sound that Donatello was accustomed to hearing often, but this time it struck him as strange. The bark was forceful and demanding, taking a more vicious tone than the turtle had ever heard one of the border collies use. Though he'd been lying drowsily with his wife, he was wide awake in an instant.

Donatello got to his feet and moved toward the screen door that led to the second-level deck. They'd been leaving the door open on some of the warmer nights. A snarl from the ground got his attention. I've never heard those dogs fight before. I hope they're just playing.

An alarmed shout that sounded like Caleb's voice had the turtle wrestling with the door knob to get outside. It was still dark, and he had to squint to see through the faint light that spilled over the land behind the house from the porch. As he searched for some sign of the man or the canines, he heard a howl come from nearby that made time stand still. In the span of seconds that it took him to react, the howl was being answered from further away.

The way he dashed back into the house to snatch his bo from the corner in which it was resting woke Jenna up.

"Don? What are you doing?"

"I think there's something wrong down there. Stay here, Jen, and don't go outside!"

He didn't hear her reply, because he was already moving. The purple-masked turtle took a short running leap and vaulted off the deck. The blind jump in the darkness was a bit unnerving, but he have time to think about it. Donatello opened up out of the flip in time to land on his feet, and sprinted toward the treeline that he thought was the source of the commotion with the dogs.

A rapid scan of the surroundings didn't reveal Molly or Noah, but he quickly latched on to the familiar form of Caleb, who had a flashlight in one hand, and part of a broken tree branch in the other. The man was wildly swinging at two creatures that were advancing toward him, and Don took a wild guess that they weren't the border collies.

The turtle expected to find coyotes that were no larger than the dogs, so he was stunned to see what looked like full grown wolves.

They're not supposed to be here! He snapped out of surprise in an instant. Now wasn't the time to argue with the logic of the wolves' existence.

"Caleb, drop the light and use both hands with the branch!" he ordered.

The man's head jerked in his direction as he joined him, and it was the wrong moment to look away from the wolves. One of them lunged toward Caleb, and Donatello's feet left the ground in a split second. The turtle used his bo to close the distance between himself and the animal, striking the wolf across the skull as it snapped dangerously close to Caleb's neck.

He spun with his staff in hand, but the other wolf had ducked out of immediate reach. The animal stood its ground with a low growl as Donatello kept his bo extended, in case the wolf was going to charge.

"Caleb, get behind me," he urged. I don't want him to run - that will only induce more predatory behavior. Darn it, where are Molly and Noah?

As he focused on the aggressive wolf in front of him, he heard the man's breathing quicken. "Its okay, Caleb." Donatello tried to sound reassuring. "I've got him."

"No, Donatello, it's..."

The purple-masked turtle sensed the real reason for Caleb's growing nerves as he felt like the trees were beginning to close in on them. "How many, Caleb?" He was afraid to look away from the nearest threat.

"Um...maybe...I don't know," he faltered. "At least seven."

"Do you still have that branch?"

"Yes."

"Use both hands," he told him again. "Turn around slowly, and put your back against mine. Stay on your feet and protect your throat."

"They shouldn't be attacking us," Caleb murmured.

"But it looks like they want to. Do you see any rocks?"

"I already tried rocks to scare off the first two. They weren't impressed."

Donatello's eyes flicked to the unmoving wolf he'd already struck, and back on the bristling animal in front of him. The stand-off felt like it had been going on forever. One of the wolves from the outside circle was the first to move; Don noticed the animal out of the corner of his eye, with sizeable canines fully exposed.

When he was distracted by the large male to his right, the creature in front of him lunged toward the turtle. Donatello sensed the wind of the wolf's approach and lashed out a muscled leg to catch the animal squarely in the chest. He heard the wolf's whine as he cast it backwards several feet, but he didn't have a chance to see if it could rise.

Donatello's head turned right and left to face the rest of the oncoming pack. It looked like at least ten heads were bearing down on them, and the animals weren't interested in taking turns attacking. He heard the crack of Caleb's makeshift weapon, but he couldn't see what the man was doing. It was physically impossible to face forward and backward at the same time.

Don used his bo to maintain a slight distance from the animals, striking out with powerful blows when they ventured in too closely. He didn't want to kill the wolves unnecessarily. Confusion reigned in his mind as he did his best to beat the animals back from Caleb and himself. A particularly loud snarl caught his ear from behind, and he looked back to see Caleb's branch in the mouth of the largest wolf, whose grey hair was practically standing on end.

The turtle leaped toward the man as the wolf snapped the branch. Donatello swung his bo hard, lashing out at what he assumed was the alpha male to separate him from Caleb. He wasn't sure if the blow had fractured the wolf's skull, but he hoped that taking down the leader would be enough incentive for the others to retreat. As he reached out to steady Caleb on his feet, it was clear that wasn't going to be the case. The wolves were now one in their combined attack, and it was all Donatello could do to create a small barrier the animals couldn't cross.

The man was all but defenseless, and Donny had no choice but to expose his flank as he pounded another that was trying to capture Caleb's throat. He felt teeth close on his ankle from behind, threatening to drag him down. Heedless of the pain, he continued focusing on the wolves trying to overwhelm Caleb, and keeping his legs under him. There was a moment of panic when he saw the man hit the ground, and he felt another set of teeth glance across his own thigh.

Before he had a chance to react he heard a startled yelp as one of the wolves behind him flew head over tail, and he saw his older brother lashing out at the animal that still had him by the ankle. Relief surged as the blue-masked turtle caught him by the arm.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," Don shot back through gritted teeth. "I'm great."

He shifted the weight off his bleeding ankle and maintained a ready stance as Leonardo bulled forward against the wolf that was on top of Caleb. Donatello was back inside a rhythm of raining blows on the persistent wolves as his brother grabbed for a piece of Caleb's branch, which now was acting more like a club. The purple-masked turtle's eyes narrowed at the next animal that tried to go for his throat, and he caught the wolf out of a mid-air leap. He used his bo to fling the creature over his shoulder, grunting with exertion over the wolf's weight. It almost felt like he'd thrown an adult human.

Donatello heard the metallic sound of a sword being drawn, followed by a cry from his oldest brother as he drove his blade through one of the wolves. He jerked his head around in time to see Leonardo pulling his blade out of the alpha male. The other wolves came to a dramatic halt, and the two turtles remained tense back-to-back, with weapons ready. Leonardo still had the club in one hand, but he kept a katana raised now as well.

They waited, breath heaving slightly from the exercise and adrenaline that had been surging. On some hidden signal, the wolves that were still standing or limping retreated into the trees, and Donatello exhaled deeply.

"Oh shell." Leonardo's proclamation filled the silence the wolves left behind, as he dropped to the earth beside the man. "Caleb, please be all right."

Donatello hurried over, ignoring the pain of his ankle.

"It isn't lethal, at least, not yet." The man sounded surprisingly calm. "That one took a good chunk out of my shoulder, but that wasn't going to satisfy him." He glanced at the large grey wolf Leonardo had impaled and shook his head. "It's a pity, but it wasn't going to stop until it took my head off."

Leonardo nodded gravely. "I didn't want to kill it, but I wasn't going to let it kill you either." He nudged the form of the prone wolf, staring at it.

Caleb took a shuddering breath as Donatello examined him more closely. He found several simple lacerations on the man, but nothing was bleeding as badly as his left shoulder.

"I think your shoulder is the worst of it," Donatello affirmed. "Leo, can you help him get to the house?"

As the blue-masked turtle supported him from the side, Caleb actually stood on his own feet.

"What blood type are you?" Don asked.

"A+."

The purple-masked turtle nodded. "No problem. You and Greg match up, so if we need to pull a pint from him, that's what we'll do." He glanced at Leonardo as he felt his brother studying him.

"Are you okay?" Leonardo asked. "I know they had their teeth on you."

Donatello flexed both legs experimentally. "My thigh is superficial - that wolf didn't get a grip on me. The other one twisted my ankle, feels like his teeth punctured it pretty deeply, but it's not life threatening. You got here at the right time, Leo."

The blue-masked turtle shook his head in frustration. "Jen came and got me, then I went the wrong direction. I had to backtrack, but it wasn't hard to find you after the entire pack jumped in."

A chorus of shouts greeted them from the direction of the house, and Donatello waved at the men as they continued in that direction. "We're over here! Caleb's hurt - we need help!" he called.

The sight of Greg with his service weapon drawn and Luke toting a baseball bat was almost enough to make Donatello laugh.

"Is everyone in one piece?" Luke was characteristically in control. "What happened out here?"

Donatello lit the display on his watch, and was shocked to realize that the entire attack had lasted less than five minutes from start to finish. "There were wolves," he explained. "Caleb's shoulder needs attention, and he's got some chest lacerations too."

"And Donny had two wolves trying to take him down by the legs," Leonardo added.

"My left leg was barely punctured," Don said quickly. "My ankle could definitely take some stitches. You can add it to the 'to do' list."

"I killed a wolf that was wearing a collar of some kind," Leonardo added.

"It's a radio transmitter," Caleb offered. "Some of those animals must be part of the program to reintroduce grey wolves to the Blue Ridge Mountains."

"You mean people put them here?" Leo sounded incredulous.

"Can we talk about this inside?" Luke asked with the first hint of nerves. "Donny, are you sure you're okay to walk?"

The turtle nodded. "Yeah, it's fine," he insisted. "But the dogs-"

"You're not chasing them down when you're already hurt, Donny," Greg cut in. "You're going back to the house."

Luke waited until they were behind closed doors and Caleb was sitting down before continuing the line of questioning. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure," the older man replied. "I let the dogs out early, and they took off. They headed for the trees, and I figured they were chasing a raccoon off the property. The next thing I knew, they were barking up a storm like something was wrong. I didn't see it happen, so I don't know if they attacked the wolves for infringing on the property, or if the wolves started it. There were only two wolves to start, but then there were more..."

"Twelve total," Donny filled in. "But where are the dogs?"

No one answered.

"It doesn't make sense," Caleb said finally. "Wolves are shy of humans. They don't attack people this way. There are so few recorded cases..."

"But they did," Leonardo said evenly. "Why?"

Caleb shook his head. "Familiarity breeds contempt. When wolves lose their fear of humans, they're more likely to attack. If some of these animals were part of the original released group, they were probably in captivity for awhile first. Anything from a tolerance for humans to a perceived threat on their territory by the dogs could have set them off. No one's been in this house for months. The wolves could have easily taken up residence in the vicinity. But this is highly unusual behavior for them."

As Donatello limped inside, he suddenly felt heavier. He cast a glance through the window at the empty forest, and was disappointed by the silence. What I wouldn't give to hear some barking right now.