Laura rode back alone. I had decided to go in the ambulance with the medics and Thurber, as did Wethermore. I needed to think.

Wethermore was sitting in the front passenger seat. I was sitting with my back to him in the rear compartment, with a perfect front-row seat to the rapidly unfolding argument between Gerta and Sabine, a pack medic from the Ebony Oak pack, over which type of ointment was the most effective for silver burns.

"I refuse to be associated with any of that artificial stuff. No patient under my care is getting any of that nasty stuff! Only natural remedies. Only the best."

"What about this?" Sabine pulled out another ointment from the first aid pack.

"Clomidal? Have you seen what happens when they test that on animals? I've seen the results. Horrifying. Never. Never under my watch." She wrested the tube away.

"Arsenic isn't artificial, either, you know." Sabine wasn't even bothering to hide the sarcasm anymore. Gerta chose to ignore her.

Beneath their hands, the patient lay on his belly, his back red with lacerations. He'd stayed silent for the trip so far, apart from pained moaning now and then, mainly because he was teetering on the edge of consciousness.

Wethermore turned around, breaking his silence. "Cut the bickering, will you? He needs your help urgently."

Poor old Thurber chose that moment to speak up. "I... don't care if it's artificial or not. Just stop the pain..." he drifted off into incoherence.

I breathed in and forced myself to ignore the drama playing out next to me. My mind was racing. I had to get to Brian. What the hell were Thunder Falls up to?

A good third of the packs were here. The other packs would be on tenterhooks after news of the rogue attack; everything in the Industrial Zone would be suspended. It was the perfect time for them to make their move.

I dialled the number for the hotel. The receptionist put me to the right suite.

"Jim. It's seven in the morning." Catriona sounded like she'd just woken up.

"Did you hear the news?"

"What news?"

"There's been another rogue attack. I was there when it happened. That's where I am right now."

"That's - please tell me you're okay, Jim."

"I'm fine. Cuts and bruises, but nothing major. We managed to head it off. Few casualties, though. How's the photographer thing going?"

"Nothing. No leads. It's like he vanished into thin air."

"What do you see outside?"

I heard the sound of a curtain being opened. "What do you mean? It's just a normal day. Lots of rogue beggars outside, because they know we we're in the hotel, and we give generously-" she stopped dead in the middle of her sentence.

"What is it?"

"There's a line of APVs going past. Armoured Personnel Carriers. Unmarked, black. That's not a good sign anywhere."

"Stay in your hotel room," I replied. "If someone knocks, don't come out. Don't even answer the door."

"Jim, do you think I've never been in a warzone before? This is nothing. You know, in the grand scheme of things, you alphas are a bunch of pussycats. They're just going right past us. Oh wait. They're stopping at the building down the street."

"Which building?"

"Your typical office block. Plate glass. Fancy courtyard, got the name written in a big fuck-off slab of marble at the front. The"- I could almost hear her squinting- "Organisation of...

The OPLU headquarters. Shit.

She continued. "Never mind. They've blocked off the front entrance and they're streaming in."

I lowered my voice slightly. "Are you filming this?"

"What do you think I've been doing for the last minute and a half? Why? Do you need it?"

"You wouldn't believe it," I replied, thankful that the road noise and the bickering of the medics was preventing Wethermore from hearing what I was about to say. "But I've got Wethermore right next to me right now."

"I'd better get it to you right away, then. Email address, please."

I gave it to her.

"This is just so brazen." She sounded like her mind was somewhere else already. "They're doing this in front of a hotel full of people with phones. This is going to be all over social media in 15 minutes flat."

"Maybe we don't think your precious opinions matter that much," I replied. "You know, in the grand scheme of things. Anyway. Send me the video."

We said our goodbyes. I waited. The file arrived in my inbox. I opened it up.

I tapped Wethermore's shoulder. "I've got something you need to see." 

***

When we got back it seemed like everybody had turned out for us in the courtyard. The medics spared no hesitation in getting Thurber to the pack clinic, forcing the crowd to part around them. Then Wethermore stepped out, summoning the other Alphas after him. The rest of the people dispersed after that.

That left my own pack members, standing by themselves outside the pack house. They appeared to be in heated argument. Unsurprisingly, old man Anderson appeared to be the main instigator.

"He did the best he could!" Laura was yelling. "They were going to be so much dead meat! He didn't have a choice!"

"And what good did it do them? They got attacked."

"Everybody, calm down," Lister was trying to mediate the row. "We can't afford this at this moment. Jim is here now."

"What we can't afford is an alpha who deserts his own pack and goes gallivanting off to try and save another one!" Old man Anderson finally noticed I'd arrived. He strode towards me. He jabbed an accusing finger on my chest. "You. What the hell did you think you were doing? Dragging our pack into this. Just because that bunch of crybabies turned up and told you their sob story. You should had let them sort it out themselves."

"They were kids," I replied. "They were barely old enough to run a pack, and neither was their Alpha. We had to do something."

He gestured around him. "Is this the something you had to do? My son is missing, six other wolves are dead, dozens are wounded. It's a complete and unmitigated disaster. It's a disgrace, Jim."

I was walking on thin ice here, but I pressed forward. "And what would you suppose have happened if we hadn't stepped in? This pack would be gone now. There would have been no survivors."

"How can you say that when my son is missing?!" Old man Anderson moved even closer to me. I forced myself to ignore the flecks of spittle on my face.

"I think I know where he is," I replied, staring straight at him.

"The East Side? Thunder Falls is one step ahead of you. They've got them surrounded. It'll be like shooting fish in a barrel. They'll have Brian out alive by nightfall."

"Don't you realise? I looked around at the pack. Hostile eyes all round. "Thunder Falls is trying to take over us."

"Nonsense." Another voice. Tim. "Thunder Falls is currently helping to secure the Industrial Zone. You never know where these rogues might attack next."

"I played them the video on my phone. "They just stormed the OPLU headquarters." 

Old Man Anderson shrugged. "May as well. What have they done for us?"

"That's not where Brian is." I looked into his eyes. "He's somewhere else, and I have to go this alone."

"Well, go off alone, then. But first I want you to take some responsibility for this mess." He gestured around him again.

I understood his drift immediately. "Just cut to the chase. Who's the challenger? Keith? Is that what all this is for? You want to install Keith as your puppet."

"Not Keith." For a moment Old Man Anderson's steely façade dropped and he just looked like an old man. "That boy doesn't have it in him. Best he'll ever do is a half-decent beta." Then he was back to his old self. "Come on, Tim."

Tim walked forward, staying silent. Trying not to meet my eyes. I could see in his eyes that his heart wasn't in it. Old man Anderson had dragged him into it. But formalities were formalities.

The other packs, realising that something was afoot, were starting to come back out of the pack house and into the square, skirting the bodies of the rogues. Good old werewolf instincts coming into play.

"You know the rules." Old man Anderson was clearing a circle for us in the crowd with outstretched arms. The crowd was starting to get quite large.

Tim was starting to take his shirt off when we were interrupted by a rumbling noise from the road. A rusty old pickup truck hove into sight. The crowd parted around it, as it came to a halt in front of us with a screech of brakes.

The spell was broken. Ignoring the others, I ran to the truck. Mike had the sheaf of papers sitting on the passenger seat, next to the mince. They were slightly damp, but intact.

I picked up the first page. I marched back over to Tim and held it in his face. "What the hell is this, Tim?"

Tim's face blanched. "I've never seen that before." Then he looked past me, at Mike, the pickup truck, the sheaf of documents.

He charged at Mike with a howl. They collapsed on the ground in a tangle of arms and legs. Bad decision. A lifetime of doing pack chores, wrenching under cars and abuse from other pack members meant that Mike was, despite his appearance, stronger than the average werewolf and well-versed in the art of bare-knuckle scrapping. Within ten seconds he had Tim tightly bound in a headlock.

Keith had found the documents and was leafing through them. "Dad. Come and look at this." While the rest of my pack converged around the documents. I knelt down where Mike still had Tim pinned to the ground. I gestured to Mike for him to step away.

"Start talking," I said simply. "The more the better."

"How the hell did you know?" He asked.

"I saw you," I explained. "I was in Thurgood's office. I didn't think much of it at the time, I thought that you were just throwing out some old documents because it was your last day there. But then it seemed a bit weird. They've got a brand new shredder. Thurgood was showing it to me just last month. You would have passed it on the way from your office to the dumpster. Why wouldn't you have just chucked it in the shredder? It wasn't until earlier today when I realised. You were hiding them there, right? In the last place anyone would think to look."

"They're going to win, Jim," he said. "You don't know what's coming. You don't know the half of it."

"Maybe they will," I replied calmly. "How did they find you?"

"Four or five months ago. They stopped my car while I was driving home after work. They wanted to have a chat with me."

"Who?"

"He never told me his name."

They were smart, these Thunder Falls people.

"I liked their ideas about rogues. The current situation is untenable, Jim. It's not going to hold. I can feel it, Jim. Every time I go to the Industrial Zone for work I can feel their eyes boring into my skin. Something has to change, Jim. And I thought that if I was a part of that change...""So you just told them that you wanted to be beta."

He just nodded. "They promised me Brian would not get hurt."

"But Anderson had better plans for you."

"He had nothing to do with this."

"In the corner of my eye, I could see Keith and Lister using every last ounce of their strength to restrain Keith's father. "They just gave you a bunch of documents and told you to hide them. That's all they asked for in return."

"Yes." There was something else in his eyes. Fear.

"I don't believe you."

"It's the truth."

I sighed. "How long until they come for us?"

"I don't know." I could see by the look in his eyes that he was telling the truth. "But they are coming."

"And they're just going to kill everybody except you and take you with them? Are you that stupid?"

"They said everything would be taken care of peacefully," Tim replied. "Once they'd finished what they needed to do, we would be free to go back to our packs."

I shook my head and got up. There was more that I would have liked to know, but time was of the essence here. Behind me, Keith was still sitting on his old man. I motioned for him that he could stop.

Wethermore and the other leaders were just coming out of the pack house. Thurgood was looking for me. "So my hunch about Thunder Falls was right, eh? Fucking hell. These people are pure evil."

"We need to evacuate right now," I declared. "They're coming in to clean us up any minute now."

"I'll get it arranged." Thurgood lit a cigarette. He never smoked. "We'll go to the Lake Galt hydro plant. The plant room has blast-proof doors. Even if that doesn't stop them, it's at least a diversion." 

"What's the word on Thurber?" Thurber and the autopsies was the last thing I needed to worry about right now, but it might come in handy in the inevitable mountain of paperwork that was going to come after all this was over.

"He's doing well. He can sit up now."

"Photograph as much of this as possible. Take one of the dead rogues with you, if you can." I handed him the mince.

Thurgood looked at it incredulously. "What-"

I whispered in his ear. He nodded and took it.

The other pack members were taking care of Tim. Except for Mike, standing alone next to his truck.

I hurried over to him. "Mike! Your truck isn't out of fuel, by any chance?"

"Half full," Mike replied. "Are you going to find Brian?"

"Yes." I slung myself into the driver's seat and started it up.

"Jim! Where are you going?" It was Laura, running towards me. She embraced me through the open window of the pickup. "It's dangerous out there."

"I need to save Brian." I looked into her eyes. We both knew this might be the last time we saw each other. Our lips met. It was only for a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity.

"Take care, Jim!" she called after me, as I drove away.

My hands were shaking as they gripped the wheel, and my mind was still spinning. Why had Thunder Falls chosen to wait until now to get rid of us? Why hadn't they just picked us off during the 'rogue attack'? Why not in the early morning, just after all the packs had come here? Unless...

I slammed on the brakes, pulled the handbrake, got out and ran back towards the others. "Tim!" I yelled.