Chapter 53: The Pack's Call.

Ever since the experience on the mountain ridge, Chloe has felt even closer to her surroundings. She moved as one in possession of all her senses, each one straining at the bowstring, ready to snap in response to that one stimulus that would make them throb. So when the wolves materialized through the dusky treeline in front of her, their smoky-gray forms slipping between the shadowed trunks like drifting spirits, she felt their presence long before she saw them. A frisson of something caught between fear and exhilaration sparked along her nerve endings. She instinctively froze, realizing that any sudden movement she made would likely be considered a challenge by these apex predators Her heart pounded in her ears as she watched them come forward in that characteristic loping gait, packmates fanning out so that she was flanked in her position. Through her widened eyes, she realized there must have been nearly a dozen of them. A grizzled alpha led the way, scruffy coat mottled with