Wolf Pact - By Melissa de la Cruz Page 0,3

to steal from those who had so little, but he didn't yet know how else they would manage. And they had to survive. So that someday they could go back and save the rest of the wolves. So that someday everyone would be free. Lawson thought of the portal he had left open for the others. Marrok would not come until he had Romulus's chronolog - he had been adamant that they could not leave the underworld without the device - and Lawson hoped his friend knew what he was doing.

After their first week aboveground, they learned. To sleep in the parks, which was easier than sleeping in the woods. To scavenge from garbage cans. To filch a wallet from a back pocket, or a purse from behind a chair in a coffee shop. To steal from those who seemed like they could afford it, shiny people in handsome clothes, three-piece suits and well-cut dresses.

They learned the name of the place they had landed: Hunting Valley, Ohio. And how to adjust to the sun, the noise, the nighttime cold, the daytime heat. And that aboveground was an awful lot like hell; the underworld was just a darker version of the world above it. He was disappointed by this; he'd hoped for more. Tala teased him, told him he was thinking of Paradise, and the wonders of Elysium were not meant for the likes of them. They were lucky enough to have crossed into this world; he didn't have to go and get ambitious all of a sudden.

Like Tala, Mac seemed to have a better sense of what they'd gotten themselves into. In Hell, he'd discovered the secret library the masters kept, and had taught himself to read the books describing things they didn't have down there: art, music, poetry. "There's beauty up here," he told them. "We just have to find it."

But Lawson didn't know if they would ever find it. They were barely making it day by day. That there was no sign of hellhounds gave him little comfort. If he and his wolves had been able to cross Hell's Gate, then it was reasonable to expect that the hounds would be able to do so as well. There was also the matter of Edon's stubborn refusal to talk. Edon was mute, broken, and Lawson was starting to get impatient. "We'll go back for her," he told his brother again and again. "We won't leave her behind."

But Edon's silence said it all: they already had.

Thank god he had Rafe to help him there - Rafe had been especially strong as a wolf, and as a human he was large, dense with muscle. He flexed his biceps often, preening. "Can't keep up a body like this without food," he'd say, and poke Edon in his stomach, or pinch his arm. Edon never said a word, but finally, he snatched a sandwich out of Rafe's hands one day, and ever since he had been scavenging with them.

"I knew I'd get him eventually," Rafe confided in Lawson. "He never could stand it when I teased him."

"Well, keep going," Lawson said. "He'll have to talk at some point."

"Give him time," Tala said. "He's been through so much."

"We all have," Lawson reminded her. "And there is still so much to do."

"Be gentle with him," Tala said, and her eyes showed her own sadness. Lawson had almost forgotten that she and Ahramin were sisters - not just in spirit, not just because they were from the same den, but because they were from the same mother - and that Tala was mourning as well. "She was tough, and she didn't have much time for someone weak like me, but I loved her. I miss her. I wish she was here with us."

"We all do," he said.

"He'll come around eventually," Tala said, putting a hand on his arm.

Lawson hoped so. He felt guilty enough leaving Ahramin behind as it was, and with every day Edon passed in silence, he felt worse. But he had to worry about the pack; he didn't have time to focus on individual concerns.

That afternoon he gathered them together to strategize. "We have to start thinking about the future. We can't keep living like this, stealing and scrounging and never sure where we're going to sleep."

There was silence, then a surprising response, from a scratchy, low voice that resembled a familiar growl. "We can't stay in any one place too long," Edon said. "We have to keep moving, before the hounds catch