Free Wolf’s Glory by Maddy Barone

had “chosen” her for his mate. She was probably the only single woman he knew. “The plane? Already? Cool.” A thought occurred to her. “Uh-oh. Do they know yet about the war and the time change?”
    Jill shrugged narrow bony shoulders. “We"ll find out. Pick up the bowls and put them by the fire for now.”
    Glory did, then stood beside Jill, looking at the Clan women hurrying to the edge of camp. Emma Two Birds and Stands Tall Woman were tall and stately. They didn"t actually seem to hurry. But Tara was tiny, so just to keep up she had to trot. Sandra was in between them in height, and she lagged behind a little bit.
    “So what"s up with Sandra?” Glory asked. “She doesn"t like me, does she?”
    Jill shrugged thin bony shoulders. “She"s married to Shadow"s black-sheep brother. That boy courted her for a year, begging her to marry him. But once she did, he lost interest.”
    “Great.” Glory snorted her disgust. “I thought wolves mated for life.”
    “Wolves do. Our men who have wolves inside them are called wolf-born. Jimmy"s not wolf-born, just plain old fickle human.”
    “What"s that got to do with her not liking me?”
    “She"s jealous,” Jill said simply. “She grew up the acknowledged beauty of her
    hometown. When she married Jimmy she lost status. Not being number one any longer must have hurt her self-image. Like any wolf pack, we have a pecking order. I"m the head woman here, being Lupa and the oldest. Emma is second, with Stands Tall and Tara third. Sandra is last. You will probably be second until I"m gone, then you"ll be the head woman.”
    Glory gaped. “What am I supposed to do? Fight for dominance? Duke it out with
    Emma?”
    “Silly. Didn"t you hear Emma? She accepted you as the next Lupa. We haven"t had a dominance challenge in two decades, not since Muddy Wolf was challenged.”
    Whatever. It wasn"t like she was planning on sticking around and becoming den mother to a bunch of werewolf groupies. Glory thought about Sandra"s bitterness. Shadow"s brother had charmed her into living in a tent on the prairie, then left her? “So, why doesn"t Sandra just dump her husband"s ass and go back home?”
    Jill looked sad. “She loves him. He comes back often enough to suck her back in and get her pregnant. You know, the world has changed since 2014, but human nature hasn"t.”
    Shouts signaled the approach of the strangers. They were survivors from the plane crash, the ones who hadn"t been badly injured or who had stayed behind with injured loved ones.
    There were about twenty women, only about half of the survivors. Some were walking and some were up on horses that the Clan men led. Glory knew these women shouldn"t be strangers to her. They had spent some of the most horrific hours of their lives together. But she recognized only some of the faces. The expressions of numb exhaustion were more familiar. That was the exact expression she had felt on her own face last night. Jill stood watching while the men helped the women down from the horses and brought them over to her.
    One of the men, almost as handsome as Shadow, spoke to Jill. “Grandmother, these are some of the women from the airplane. They are not hurt as badly as some others, so we brought them first. The others will have to wait until travois can be made to bring them.”
    “Ladies,” said Jill gently. “You"ve been through a terrible ordeal. I am Jill Lampett, and this is the camp of the Wolf Clan. We will help you as much as we can. Stands Tall, add water to the stew. Tara, collect bowls so the ladies can eat. Sandra, have your boys move into your lodge so we can have places for the ladies to stay. Boys, make room for these ladies and collect as many blankets and robes as can be spared. Ladies, follow Emma to the cook fire.
    She will get you something to eat.”
    The bedraggled women from 2014 straggled past Glory. One managed to have fairly
    clean clothes, and her red hair was artistically disheveled, and unlike the