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PROLOGUE

Inside the kennel-that- was dark The pack leader could hear the scrabbling of claws and feel the sleek pelt of the dog next to hi scent filled his nostrils, and beyond that the smell of the burned forest

The pack leader sat unco floor until the kennel-that-moves bounced to a halt Outside, he could hear Man voices He understood sos”

The pack leader picked up the Men’s fear-scent, along with the bittersweet sht before, and the night before that, hts He had prowled the coh the scents for intruders, ready to drive them away

The dog snarled softly, his lips drawn back fro They could run, and kill They craved warm blood, and the terror-scent of prey before it died But instead they were penned up, they ate the food the Man threw to them, and they obeyed the Man’s orders

The dog rose to his powerful paws, rattling the doors as he butted them with his massive black-and-tan head He lifted his voice in a bark that sounded all the louder in the confined space “Out! Pack out! Out now!”

The rest of the pack added their voices “Pack out! Pack run!”

As if in answer, the doors of the kennel-that-ht the pack leader could see the Man standing there, barking an order

The leader jus stacked in the middle of the compound His paws threw up little puffs of ash and soot The rest of the pack followed in a stream of black-and-brown bodies “Pack follow! Pack follow!” they barked The leader padded restlessly along the fence that separated them from the forest Beyond the fence, burned-out tree trunks leaned against each other or lay on the ground Farther away a barrier of undaed trees rustled in the breeze

Scents flowed enticingly fro’s muscles tensed Out there, in the prey-filled forest, the pack could run free There would be no Man to chain or command them They would feed as often as they wanted, because they would be the strongest and e of all

“Free!” the lead dog barked “Pack free! Free soon!”

He walked up to the fence and pressed his nose against thethe ss Many of the scents he had never ser than the rest, the scent of his enemy and his prey

Cats!

Night had fallen; the leafless branches of the blackened trees were silhouetted against a full ed to and fro, deep shadows in the night Paws padded softly a coats Their eyes glea sharp teeth, and their tongues lolled

The pack leader sniffed along the botto for a special place on the opposite side of the coo the dog had discovered a narrow hole leading under the fence He knew at once that this would be the route to freedom for the pack

“Hole Where hole?” he growled

Then he spotted the place where the earth floor of the compound fell away into a hollow Oneraised his head to bark to his followers “Here Hole, hole Here”

He could feel their eagerness in his ownup to the lead dog, answering his bark “Hole Hole”

“Bigger, hole bigger,” the pack leader promised “Run soon”

He began scraping at the ground again with all the strength in his lean, powerful body Earth scattered as the hole under the chain-link fence greider and deeper The reht air that carried scents fro their teeth into the war prey

The pack leader stopped, ears pricked for the sound of the Man con of him, and his scent drifted from far away