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Chapter One

I ran steadily along the length of the beach, just on the edge of the salt foa overhead and the sky was a cloudless azure blue with the light gaze of the round My feet pounded into the soft sand, ht indentations that would soon be swept away by the unstoppable force of the sea It was just the ele the exhilaration of theMy heartbeat thudded at a fast yet steady beat and I sucked in the salty air, fillingloudly

Mack

Go away

Mack

Piss off

MACKENZIE!

I finally slowed and answered What?

I’ to check on the eastern perie about soe noises Will you come with me?

I hesitated, considering whether to put John off or not It had been quiet lately and the few incidents we’d investigated had turned out to be nothing more than harmless local wildlife I debated internally for a short moment; I could always stay out here and finish ave ?

Mackenzie?

I grue

Way Directive 22, Mack

Totalitarian dictatorship more like, I snorted mentally back at him I’m on my way

The alpha’s word is law There was more than hint of self-deprecation apparent in his Voice before he broke off the mental link

Thinking to myself that John was lucky that I was always a stickler for the rules – well, some of them at least - Ithrough the trees Dry pine needles crunched satisfyingly under my feet I leapt over a few h the keep’s grounds were officially around just ten acres, we considered all of Cornwall our playing ground, at least up until the border with Devon where another pack took over The eastern perimeter he had referred to wasn’t that far away, however, just the far side of Bodo we’d been in a bit of trouble around the ital camera had snapped Alexander in his animal form He was just a kid so fortunately hadn’t h to cause doubt and dissension autter press had had a field day waving it around and extravagantly spreading tales about the ‘Beast’

They’d had a si Exmoor Apparently, when the Marines were initially sent in to track it down, the coht was just a dumb anience’ Hah! Still, with Alexander, we’d been lucky that there had been a particularly thorny problehts terrorising pleasure boats on the Thames or the Brethren, the shapeshifters’ equivalent to the Royal Faovern down Instead they sent down so everyone that if the very public rumours continued then Cornish heads would roll Or so I heard John had me hide in the base, however I suspected that Cornas considered too parochial for the Brethren to bother the breach of protocol Although as that when they went to Exs there, they had ripped the offending shifter apart, scattering his body parts across the whole of the United Kingdo

I jogged along a small brook until it curved upstream towards the hills, then hopped over it and headed towards where I knew John would be I finally found hies of the moor

“You sound like an elephant running through those trees,” he complained

I put my hands onfor interrupting etic dalliances of some bunny rabbits?”

“That was one tihtened up His salt and pepper beard and bald head, along with the laughter lines around his eyes, hinted at the wisdom and experience contained within that smart mind of his John had been alpha in Cornwall for thirty-two years, and was universally liked and respected by the pack, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t still have a little fun

“So what is it this tiotten lost on thethe farmers”

He held out his pal in the rimly “Take a look at this”

I picked it up froers It was alhtless, and very s else I held it up tosound

John looked at me sharply “You can hear it?”

“Sure,” I said surprised

“Describe it to me”