By the time I came to, the battle was over. Backup had arrived, for real this time, and the remaning rogues had slunk back into the forest.

There was the usual parade. Spotlights. But with Thunder Falls oddly absent. They had sent out a message that there had been an unexpected delay and they would be here as soon as possible.

A sombre mood had settled by the time dawn broke. Salmon Creek had lost four wolves and Thurgood two. Brian was still missing, presumed kidnapped by the rogues.

The main hall of the pack house was packed; the crowd spilled out onto the village square outside. Pretty much all the packs in a 50-kilometre radius had come. Nobody seemed in the mood for a gathering. People were huddled in their own packs, speaking as quietly as possible, standing outside making phone calls, smoking.

What seemed like my entire pack had also come. Even Gerta had come. She was outside in the triage centre, treating the wounded.

Tim had also come. Now that Brian was missing he was the de facto beta. He had been on a training camp with Lister and so had missed out on the last few weeks; old man Anderson was filling him in. He had be surprisingly restrained towards me, considering what had unfolded last night. Maybe he was waiting for the right moment. That was definitely a possibility.

Laura was here. Her motorbike was propped against a tree outside. "Thank Monagh you're okay," she said, wrapping me in an embrace. "Evan says he wants to come back for the mid-sem holidays."

"Now is absolutely not the time," I looked outside, through the huddled, whispering masses, through the open front door, at the bodies of the rogues, laid out in rows in the square outside the pack house, next to the white tent of the triage centre. Their peculiar sweet smell was still strong in the air. It was getting more cloying now that the carcasses were starting to decompose. Something Kaden had said last night. Wolves that smelled like humans.

The sweet smell of human flesh.

I had only smelled it once before, a long time ago. The spoilt son of an Alpha whose name I had long forgotten had received a brand-new BMW M3 for his birthday. Naturally the first thing he did was wrap it around a tree while drag racing with his mates, just before the turn-off of our pack, at two in the morning. By the time we got to the scene there was little more to do than to put out the flames. The air had been filled with the stench of burning flesh.

I thought that the smell had been familiar. Now I knew why.

I suddenly had a moment of clarity. I dialled a number. The official number of my own pack. "Hello. This is the Shadow Bluff Pack. How can we help you?"

"Mike? You're the only one left, right?"

"Yes, Alpha."

"OK. Mike. Get Stone River to watch over the pack."

"But-"

"Don't worry about it. My orders. We've got fuck all worth stealing anyway. I have a mission for you."

"Yes, Alpha."

"I want you to drive to the bus depot as fast as you can. There's a packet of mince in the staff fridge. You know where that is?"

"I'm not allowed to go in the staff room."

"But you know where it is."

"Yes."

"Get the mince and get it here as fast as you can."

"Yes, Alpha."

I put down the phone and headed to the centre of the meeting hall, where Thurgood and a bunch of the other pack leadership were discussing the attack in hushed tones. It was obvious to them, too, that this was no ordinary rogue attack. These rogues were well-fed, even though they did not smell like pack wolves. and their aggression seemed no longer attributable this to the panacea of rogue discontent.

And then there was the armoured car that had come in. That suggested that the rogues were more organised than we thought, or they were getting help. Armoured vehicles weren't that common in the Independent Territories. Pickup trucks were enough for most packs' transport needs.

But they were still one step behind. They still thought that Thunder Falls was on their side. I still had no firm evidence I could present to them. All I could do was try and steer the conversation away from Thunder Falls as much as possible.

"We need a medical examiner," I announced, "We need to do an autopsy on the bodies. Check what was in their stomachs."

"That would be quite self-evident, wouldn't it?" Tim had joined us as well. The others looked at him awkwardly until I made a brief introduction of my new (acting) beta.

"I wasn't talking about right now," I continued. "I was talking about before. I have a hunch these weren't just rogues."

I noticed Tim visibly tense at that last statement.

"Thunder Falls is sending down a medic ASAP along with the rest of the people." Wethermore, sounding haggard. "ETA ninety minutes. I'm sorry, but that's as fast as the roads will allow."

Of course. They were sending their own people to clean things up. I had to stall them somehow. But that would have to come later.

"That's not fast enough. This is urgent. What happened to that medical examiner dude we had before? Where's he gone?"

There was one medical examiner for all of the packs, on the OPLU's payroll. I'd seen his coroner's van, sometimes, rushing from one case to the next. It was a heavy workload for one person.

"He's been on leave since early last month." Wethermore said, calmly. "His pack alpha signed the form. Why do you ask? The Thunder Falls medical examiner is perfectly qualified."

"Why do we have to involve Thunder Falls in this? We can handle this perfectly on our own." Alpha Cameron this time.

"They're better equipped," Tim quipped. "It's probably better to wait for them."

"Well, Thurber's pack is twenty minutes away." Thurgood was replying. "All we have to do is ask Ryder to release him."

Tim pulled me aside. "You seem to have a thing against Thunder Falls," he was looking at me strangely. "Why? Why the animosity?"

"I don't have a thing against Thunder Falls," I replied. "It's just that they're so far away. Why do we have to get them involved in this? We have a medical examiner 20 minutes away."

Tim fell silent. Something was niggling at my mind. Something Tim had said. I couldn't figure it out, so I pushed it to the back of my mind. The autopsy was more important.

I turned back to Thurgood, ignoring Tim, who had melted into the crowd. "Hang on, he's part of Ryder's pack? Shouldn't he be here right now, helping?"

"He was." Thurgood looked over his shoulder. "Ryder, I mean. He left about an hour ago. He said he had some kind of function to attend. Don't know about med examiner guy."

I muttered something unprintable under my breath. "Can you call him now? Tell him it's urgent."Thurgood dialled Ryder's number and held the phone to his ear. There was a pause. "It's going to voicemail."

"Try again."

"Voicemail. Again. Dunno." He put his phone on speaker. The dulcet tones of Ryder's secretary's voice filled the air. "Thank you for contacting the Early Orchid Pack. Unfortunately, Alpha Ryder is currently busy with an important pack event. Please call again at a more convenient time."

Thurgood stared at his phone for a long moment after the call ended. "What, is there some kind of festival they've got on? It's August the 14th. What the fuck happened on August the 14th? It's probably the day he took a really good shit or something."

August 14th. That date seemed rather familiar.

I suddenly remembered that little detour Brian and I had taken on the way to Congress. Alpha Ryder. The prisoner. August 14th. It all made sense.

I suddenly felt the urge to throw up.

Thurgood looked at me. "Is there something wrong?" 

***

"Why?" Thurgood looked like he was on the verge of spontaneous combustion. "I just want to know why."

"I think he called him short or something."

"Sonofabitch." Thurgood kicked a folding chair that was placed nearby, sending it flying. "The thin-skinned motherfucker. Of course he'd do something like this. Fuck our lives up at just the right fucking moment. Fucking hell."

"By the way, I am not implying in any way that I have sympathy for that guy, just so you know." He elaborated. "Those doctors types are all nutters."

***

Laura shifted up a gear. I felt her kick the shifter. I could barely hear anything over the roar of the engine and the wind.

There was an ambulance behind us, commandeered by the pack medics, and several other vehicles carrying the VIPs behind that. We had left them in the dust some time ago.

I couldn't see the speedo from my position behind Laura, but from the way the trees were just blurring past, I knew we were going at a ridiculous pace. At least a hundred miles an hour, maybe more.

We passed a car like it was standing still, banking sharply as we made a turn, the last one until the access road to the Early Orchid pack. I felt my stomach turn inside out.

We roared up the long gravel drive. The pack sentries didn't even have time to stop us. They just kind of stared at us like we were aliens.

The entire pack had turned out, filling the courtyard in front of the pack house. Alpha Ryder was in the middle, presiding over everything. The guy we had briefly met on the way to Congress - Thurber - was naked except for a set of briefs, and tied securely to a wooden post set in the middle of the

Everything froze as we burst onto the scene, almost tumbling off the motorcycle.

"Stop! Now!" I yelled, undoing my helmet.

"Why should I?" Ryder's face was severe, not changing a bit as he turned to face me. "He has committed a grave offense against the entire pack," he stated matter-of-factly. "He must face the consequences."

"He made a light-hearted joke about your height, Ryder. Can't you just take a joke for once?"

"I have zero tolerance for defiance," he deadpanned. "He must be punished for his crimes."

"Have you ever heard of the concept of freedom of speech?"

Ryder shrugged at me. "Whatever that is, there is no place for it in my pack."

There was the sound of a diesel engine. Heads turned as the ambulance careered into sight sideways with a violent screech of brakes, sending dirt and grass flying everywhere and nearly hitting several people, followed closely by the rest of the motorcade. Dozens of doors slammed as people got out.

"You have gravely disappointed me, Ryder." Wethermore boomed, as he opened the car door. "We are facing one of the biggest crises of our times and you persist in these petty and barbaric games."

"You haven't heard my side of the story. He mocked me publicly..."

Wethermore drove his cane into the ground with an thunk that reverberated around the open square. The crowd fell silent. "Release him. Now."

"You have to understand that I cannot let him go unpunished for his crimes!" Ryder yelled "You are going to be on the wrong side of history!"

Wethermore stood his ground. "Release him, you pathetic creature. You are but a mere shadow of your father." He diverted his attention to the people who had the poor guy chained to the post. "Cut him down. Now." As if by magic, a saw appeared in the hands of one of Ryder's underlings. and he began sawing away at the bloodied ropes.

Ryder continued to spew vitriol. We ignored him as we headed for the stake. The crowd parted listlessly, still stunned by Wethermore's outburst. They didn't know who to believe.

As I watched as the medics bundle the blood-covered Thurber onto a stretcher, I suddenly remembered what had been niggling me all this time.

I rang Mike. He picked up immediately.

"Alpha Jim. I've just left the depot. I've got the mince."

"Mike. Willow Security uses the same garbage collection service as we do, right?"

"Yes, Alpha."

"So something someone put there a week ago would still be there, right?" 

"Yes, Alpha."

"Mike. I want you to drive to the Willow Security headquarters. Go round the back to the dumpster. There should be a bundle of documents in there somewhere."

"Yes, Alpha. Anything you want me to look out for, specifically?"

I told him the name.

"Yes, Alpha. Anyone else?"

"No. That's the only one. 

"Okay. Will do, Alpha."

"Thanks, Mike. I owe you one." I hung up.