They shifted to human.
Lynn followed suit. There was a long moment where they all eyed each other.
“Well,” Ken said finally, “why don’t we go on around to the front of the house, where I guess your friends probably are. I’m sure we all want to have a nice talk.”
The two wolves exchanged glances. “How about we just get out of your hair?” one suggested.
“How about not,” said Lynn. Her tone was steely. When the wolves still didn’t move, she shifted back.
“Okay!” said the one who’d spoken before. “Okay, okay, fine, let’s go.”
Ken shifted too, and he and Lynn flanked the two men and herded them out of the yard. Working in tandem with his mate like this—well, the circumstances could’ve been better, but the experience was something Ken wanted to have again, for sure.
They emerged around the side of the house to find the rest of the pack facing two snow leopards and another lynx. There were four wolves to the three cats, and the wolves were still hesitating, not sure if they had the advantage or not.
Not, Ken could’ve told them. Definitely not.
At the sight of their buddies trudging, defeated, in human form, followed by another lynx and a big male lion, the pack startled. They fixed on Ken especially; he was as big as any two of them, and he let a low growl escape his throat, watching them size him up.
Finally, one of the wolves gave an exasperated twitch of his ears and shifted to human. This one was the pack leader for sure, Ken thought, and his suspicion was confirmed when the man said, “You guys were supposed to be backup. Stealth backup.”
“They were waiting for us,” one of them whined.
The other three wolves shifted back, too, and at that, so did Stella. Lynn stalked up to sit behind her, teeth bared.
“Who the hell are all of these guys?” Todd was saying to Stella, nasal and unhappy.
“None of your business who they all are,” Stella snapped back.
“Hey, boss,” one of the other wolves said in an undertone to the pack leader. “We should watch out for the snow leopards. I’ve been hearing some things about the snow leopards out here by Glacier. You don’t want to mess with them. There’s a whole lot of them, and they don’t like people threatening their friends.”
“You never mentioned any of these people before,” Todd kept on. He took a step forward—and Lynn snarled at him.
He took a step back.
“That’s my sister,” Stella told him. “I told you about her.”
“But you never said—” He looked around wildly. “You never said you had a pack.”
“So what?” Stella snapped. “So then it’s okay to run after me and harass me? It’s okay to make my daughter afraid to live in her home? Just because I don’t have a pack? That’s still not okay, Todd!”
“I just want you to come back,” Todd grumbled. “But not if you hang out with a bunch of assholes like this.”
“Todd…” Stella rubbed her eyes. “Please just…”
“I’m not going to just anything,” he said in a flare of temper. “Not if you’re going to hide behind all your friends like this. I guess we can’t talk to each other for real, if this is how you’re going to—”
Lynn shifted.
Todd broke off speaking, startled, as she took three quick steps forward, putting herself between him and Stella. “Shut up,” she said.
He frowned. “Hey—”
“Shut up. You showed up here with your pack like you had some right to be here, to harass my sister. If you found more than you bargained for, that’s your fault. Stella’s got a family, she has people who care about her, and we’re not going to put up with you hanging around like this. She’s worth a hundred of you. Of any of you,” she added, looking around at the pack.
Ken padded forward to take up a position next to her, looking around himself. None of the pack looked like they wanted to argue.
“So. I’m only going to say this once,” Lynn said. “Get out.”