Stand his ground

Duncan realizes that any attempt to run will be doomed to failure before it begins. There’s no way he could outrun these wolves on his best day, let alone in his current state. He takes a deep breath and faces the savage wolves, realizing it may be the last breath he ever draws.

“Thank goodness we finally caught up with you!”

The sound of a female voice startles the prince so completely that he stands in rigid unbelief as the black wolf approaches him.

“Are you at all injured, Your Highness?”

There was no mistaking it this time. The voice clearly came from the mouth of the wolf.

“Am I —? What?” Duncan struggled to make sense of all of this as the wolf closed the space between them and sniffed his body with concern.

“My daughters and I have been in pursuit of you for days, ever since your absence was felt at the palace. We lost your trail for a while, but picked it up near the home of a family of Gratiri. We tried to stop you before the spider woman could get hold of you, and we feared the worst until you managed to escape. Are you sure she did not bite you?”

The wolf resumes her sniffing of Duncan’s body. Having a female voice in the proximity of his crotch while it is being prodded by a nose would ordinarily fall under Duncan’s idea of foreplay, but under the circumstances, for one of the very few times in the past six years, sex is the last thing on his mind.

“You can speak,” he finally manages to say.

“And apparently you can, as well,” replies the wolf. “Well, at least the spider woman did not dissolve your tongue with her venom, and I see no signs of any other injuries.”

A slightly smaller wolf with brown fur approaches. “The spider bitch is dead, and there is no sign of any of her hatchlings. They must have remained behind.”

“Thank you, Katania,” says the first wolf. “Get your sister and bring her here. We will leave the widow where she is. We must get the prince out of here before her children come looking for her.”

As Katania departs to follow her mother’s instructions, the first wolf says, “My name is Lupina. Lord MacTavish sent word to me that you and a Felechon were missing, and he feared you might get yourself in trouble. He asked if we could attempt to locate you.”

“You know MacTavish?” Duncan asks in surprise. His old tutor seemed far too uninteresting to possibly run in the same circles as talking wolves.

“Let us just say that Lord MacTavish knows of us,” she responds, as Katania returns, accompanied by a red-coated wolf.

“These are my daughters, Katania and Luxia,” she says. “But there will be time for better introductions later. For now, we must put distance between ourselves and this place.”

“My clothes,” says Duncan. “They are back at the barn.”

Lupina gives a low growl as she looks in that direction. “And that is where they will remain. The black widow’s daughters are back there, awaiting their dinner. You were supposed to be that meal.”

Duncan shudders — in part from the thought, and in part from the chill of the night air over his sweaty, naked skin.

“We will find coverings for you, but for now, we must depart from here,” says the wolf. She turns to her daughters and says, “Luxia, you will scout ahead and make sure the way is clear. Katania, you will bring up the rear and watch for pursuers. I will remain at the prince’s side. Now, let us make haste!”

The younger wolves immediately spring into action. As they do so, and Duncan’s adrenaline level begins to approach normal, he finally is able to take better stock of his situation, and he can’t quite get past the fact that he is naked. Granted, so are the wolves, but it’s more than just a tad offputting that they speak with humanlike intelligence and female voices, while he is gadding about, naked as a jaybird.