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Footsteps thumped overhead, and a roar came froht, though direction e

"So froht, trying to place where the scream had come from

Several sets of footsteps thundered overhead A howl rose, loud and chilling and vibrating the wood-paneled walls of their room And then came another scream, this one of pain

"No one survives unless the wolves allow it," Sabine said "We should eat, Jack And have soht"

Jack went to the door and stood close, though not close enough to touch He was afraid that contact would co could be waiting out there Maybe they stand guard, he thought, Sabine’s ht behind him

After a few quiet moments, broken only by the creak of the ship and the crash of the sea upon the hull, the night filled with a baleful howling Frowning, Jack turned to Sabine for an explanation

"They’re still hungry," she said quietly, voice breaking with the horror of the words "They wanted ers from your ship, but Ghost hurried them And then he wouldn’t let them have you"

"I still don’t understand that," Jack replied

"I think he sees you as a test," Sabine said "They’re wolves, but they are also men, and Ghost sees men as weak He wants to scour any trace of humanity from his soul"

"So he’s kept me alive as, what, a reminder?"

"I suspect that’s a part of it"

"I thought he meant to persuade me of his philosophy," Jack said "That he looked at e"

"It may be that as well But if he only wanted you to be like him, there are swifter and surer ways he could accomplish that," Sabine said

Jack felt a trickle of ice along his spine at the suggestion He would rather die than live as a beast And if he was going to survive long enough to find a way out of his predicament, he would need to learn all he could of the wolves, and of Ghost

"You said they were still hungry We’re after another target, aren’t we? A ship to ransack and rob"

"Yes"

He turned away fro at hi He wanted to kno she saw hiht reveal all this and more But Sabine’s mystery remained, and she looked at Jack froned; her wretched situation was a terrible weight upon her

"We have to get off this ship"

"Do you believe I have never tried?"

"I don’t know," he said

"Jack … sweet Jack" She shook her head "Coet this ti to Japan from San Francisco There are several rich Americans on board, and a Japanese business and newspapers He’s returning hos He has…" She frowned "I saw gold, and dias? They’re not just looking for … victi about stories of ships like the Mary Celeste, found adrift with no one aboard, or island colonies like Roanoke, whose population simply vanished

"Make no reat importance to them But they are also pirates It is not some masquerade to hide the wolf beneath the human mask They are both Ghost has accumulated his crew--his pack--with care and purpose From what I have been able to discover, all of them were thieves and hard men even before he marked them with his bite and old is their true motive Their true love"

"To what end?" Jack asked "What do such creatures need money for?"

Sabine’s expression darkened "Shore leave They hoard the spoils of their piracy and murder, and when they are in port, they spend it in bouts of utter debauchery, if the stories I’ve heard theh the split isn’t even"

Surprised, Jack glanced up at her "It isn’t? Doesn’t that create resentment?"

"Of course But as in any pack, there is a hierarchy"

Jack thought of the sled dogs he had seen fighting in the Yukon, and he understood what she meant Every pack had a leader, to whom the rest would offer their throats in subservience, and there was a rank, or order, aet only scraps He had a feeling that, after today, Finn had fallen to the botto fallen to the last rung on the ladder, he would also get the smallest share of their current hoard, which was sure to rankle him

Ghost had made them all, tainted them with the curse of the olf He was captain and the leader of the pack, and Jack had seen with his own eyes how much the men feared him But he had sensed the fierce loyalty in them as well, to the pack as a whole All of them seemed dedicated to the hierarchy of the pack, except perhaps for Finn All the punishuish his fury and resentment Jack would have to be wary of him at all times

"And what about this new ship?" he asked "How many will they kill?"

Pained, and perhaps ashalanced away "Please, Jack"

"Men, wo killed by one of them"

"Jack!" She was desperate now, her voice pleading "You have no idea what it’s like forto do this But I can’t refuse him"

"You love him"

"No!" Sabine cried "I see the way he looks atyou’re not tellingthehter"

"You don’t understand," she said, her voice tre with emotion

"So tell me!"