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“You mean you can’t hear it?” I was puzzled Co, John could hear a leaf drop from fifty paces away “It’s like bells Only not, it’secho of a chime”
He pursed his lips, clearly unhappy “It’s a wichtlein’s stone”
“A mine fairy’s? They knock three times and a miner drops dead?”
“You’ve been reading tooaround old mines and tease the men that work there, but ers of evil I don’t think one has been seen in the British Isles for more than a century”
“What do you er of evil’? What kind of evil? Vampire evil? Shadow men evil?’
“Try large scale death and destruction evil”
“Oh” I paused “So not bunny rabbits then” I felt a brief shiver of heat inside me
John held out his hand and I dropped the stone back into his lined palm
“So what’s next?”
His brow furrowed further and he looked atI knehat he was going to say next and felt a brief nervous tremor
He sighed heavily “I’ll have to file a report with the Brethren”
Dah to be aware of how the pack was run, any reports John had sent to the Brethren had been after any otherworldly messes had already been cleared up, and the details had been purely infor no further action This reeked of a in instead – and forto gallop on down to ‘save’ us
I eyeballed John with hopeful skepticism “Really? We can deal with death and destruction without them”
Unfortunately his voice was flat “No So they need to know about”
“Will they co my nails painfully into my palms
He didn’t pause before answering, which I suppose was slightly reassuring “I shouldn’t think you’ll need to Even if they arrive to see our little pack with a delegation, we canas you’re not in a position where you’d be expected to shift Julia’s been iation were here last autumn With that on even the Lord Alpha himself won’t be able to smell a hint of your humanity”
I felt an immense wave of relief As far as I was concerned, this was ree And probably su to think otherwise Because I was human - and humans were not permitted to even know about the Brethren or the mere existence of shapeshifters, let alone live with them for seventeen years
As for the lotion, shifters have an animalistic sense of smell The first time that another pack’s members had visited us, years before when I was just a kid, Julia had set to work creating the potion that now, on occasion, we used to hidebetter and better at it Fortunately the fact that I spent all my time with my pack meant that the worst of my so-called human stench was already covered from just sheer transference, whilst the lotion did all the rest I had beento ask as in it for years but had always then thought better of it Sonorance was bliss
John looked at er”
I forced a laugh “I can look after myself More than most shifters can”
“The Brethren aren’t like enerally an aht off the odd wild bunny”
I smiled despite myself
He continued, “Don’t dismiss what you’ve already heard about theet that they’re strong and unforgiving because they have to be Without the Brethren keeping the local packs like us in check then there are those shifters ould,” he paused for a heartbeat, “cause trouble”
Actually I knew of a feho’d cause more than trouble “But you’re the alpha here Can’t the local alphas keep the trouble-makers in their packs in check?” I are that there was an irritating whiny note to my voice but seemed unable to prevent it John’s voice, in return, remained calm and steady
“A lot of my power comes from the fact that I can draw on the Brethren when I need to And alphas can be trouble-ht smile
I nodded slightly, trying not to let the nervous panic rise up any further I usually tried to forget that there were big bad things out there like the Brethren It wasn’t good for my health to think about the what ifs What if the Brethren discovered who I was and killedme? What if my mother hadn’t ever compelled the Cornish pack to take me in? What if she was still alive? What if…