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Prologue

The as co

Lander Morton knew this because he’d invited the wolf into his home His body man, Sheldon, had coone to fetch hi back, but Lander only heard one set of footsteps echo through the house

He shifted in his wheelchair and took a long s of his bourbon Fire rolled down his throat His old guts would make him pay for it later, but he didn’t care Some men were men, and others olves in huet one

For the first ti other than crushing grief This new enized it as anticipation No, it was more than that It was a heady ed with fear He used to feel like this years ago, when he was on the verge of closing a huge deal It had been decades since he’d experienced this splash of adrenaline, and for a ain

Sheldon appeared in the doorway of the study and stood aside, letting the other uest took three steps inside and stopped, letting hi, and he , tall, handsome in that Mediterranean way, shaped by sun and salt water When Felix’s boy grew up, he ht look like that

Pain lashed hiled with it

His guest waited

Lander looked at his face There it was, in the eyes, the wolf looking back at hiry

About tiot here No, he couldn’t say that He had to be civil He couldn’t fuck this up “Thank you for co to see me on such short notice”

Sheldon stepped back into the hall and closed the doors He would wait by them to make sure they wouldn’t be interrupted

“Please think nothing of it,” the guest said “My condolences”

Lander nodded to the bottle of Blood Oath Pact bourbon waiting on a corner of the desk “A drink?”

The guest shook his head “I don’t drink on the job”

“Slass He wasn’t sure if he was drowning his grief or building up liquid courage If he failed to state his case and the man walked awayHe couldn’t let him walk away

“I knew your father,” Lander said “Ia deal for Carrara marble for the Castle Hotel It was expensive as hell, but I wanted the best”

The ed

Panic squir out “They killed e and connections, and then they murdered him, and I don’t knohy”

“Do you care why?”

“Yes, but I’ve already hired someone for that”

“So, what do you want from me?”

“I loved my son He was smart, sharp, sharper than I ever was, and honest People hate ood o, and he took care of their kids by hihters The boy is the oldest, fourteen years old I’ve had a stroke, and there’s cancer eating at ot to hold on until the boy is old enough to take over I want those bastards to die!”

Lander clenched his fists His voice had gone hoarse and soed But the hurt was too raw, and it bled out of him

“I want them to suffer, and I want them to knohy They took my son from me and from his children They’ve ruinedhe built, they think they can just rip it all away froh and dripping pain “Kill them Kill them for me”

Silence filled the study

Worry drowned Lander Had he said too much? Did he sound too crazy?

“My uest said “There is a photo of the three of you on the yacht She was pregnant withsickness was unbearable and you told her that ginger ale was the best for upset stoer ale to be had so you ordered a case of it from Milan by courier”

The guest stepped up to the desk, splashed a finger of bourbon into the second glass, and raised it “To your son”

He drained the glass in one s and Lander saw the wolf again, staring at him from within the man’s soul

“Does this mean you’ll take the job?”