You're not sure if you really did smell anything. It's hard to pick up nuanced scents through the reek of burnt rubber and petrol fumes. But for a moment, you could have sworn there was something in the air besides the stench of pollution and people. Something wolf.
But... no. It must have been your imagination. Elma is standing on the other side of the road beside the Alpha's van, looking exactly as bored as she did a minute ago. Clearly, she hasn't smelt anything. Neither, you assume, have Sergi and Nikolas, who are parked further up the road. You can just make out their shapes through the gloom, passing a cigarette back and forth.
Next
But then, you hear it.
Hello?
The howl is soft, far away... but unmistakably there. The others hear it too. Marco cocks his head to the side, Vicky straightens in her seat, and Ed looks up from his phone. On the other side of the road, Addie climbs out of the van to stand with Elma.
It comes again. Hello? A gentle, almost playful, question.
The Alpha responds. Hello.
For a few seconds there is nothing...
Then...
hellohellohelloHelloHelloHELLOHELLOHELLOHELLO
You fight the urge to cover your ears. It wouldn't do any good. It's a psychic sound. The cries of ten, twenty, thirty, forty wolves, each harmonizing with each other, building on each other, until their greetings ring in your ears... HELLOHELLOHELLO... a pack, howling together, their call powerful, beautiful, hypnotic, yet also strangely terrifying.
Because as their voices reach a crescendo, it becomes painfully clear that this pack is bigger than yours... a lot bigger.
Ed's biting his bottom lip. Marco's eyes are wide. Vicky's fingers are tipped with claws where she grasps the steering wheel.