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SHE observed him from her chosen cover, as she&039;d done twice before The first two ti wood, but today, after a heavy snowfall appropriate for thethe sidewalk Today was the day she&039;d take him

Heart in her mouth, she watched as he cleared the snoith carefully controlled violence Every movement was exactly the same as the one before Each slide of the shovel was strictly parallel to previous e, tamped and contained by will alone-like a pipe bohtly so he wouldn&039;t see her, she considered how she would do it Froive him no time to react One quick movement and it would all be over-if she didn&039;t lose her courage, as she had the first two ti told her it had to be today, that she wouldn&039;t get a fourth opportunity He ary and disciplined-and if he hadn&039;t been so angry, surely his senses, olf sharp, would have discovered her hiding place in the snow beneath the fir trees lining his front yard

She shook with the stress of what she planned Ambush Weak and cowardly, but it was the only way she could take him And it needed to be done, because it was only a matter of ti to a steady beat while the wolf raged inside hierous He could be so fast If she screwed this up, he could kill her She had to trust that her oolf reflexes were up to this It needed to be done

Resolution gave her strength It would be today

CHARLES heard the SUV, but he didn&039;t look up

He&039;d turned off his cell and continued to ignore the cool voice of his father in his head until it went away There was no one who lived near him on the snow-packed mountain road-so the SUV was just the next step in his father&039;s determination to make him toe the line

"Hey, Chief"

It was a neolf, Robert, sent here to the Aspen Creek Pack by his own Alpha because of his lack of control Sometimes the Marrok could help; other times he just had to clean up the mess If Robert couldn&039;t learn discipline, it would probably be Charles&039;s job to dispose of him If Robert didn&039;t learn manners, the disposal job wouldn&039;t bother Charles as much as it should

That Bran had sent Robert to deliver his e told Charles just how furious his da was

"Chief!" Theout of the car There weren&039;thiiven name, and this pup wasn&039;t one of the and looked at the other wolf, let hirin, paled, and dropped his eyes instantly, his heartbeatblood vessel in his neck throb with sudden fear

Charles felt petty And he resented it, resented his pettiness and the roiling anger that caused it Inside him Brother Wolf smelled Robert&039;s weakness and liked it The stress of defying the Marrok, his Alpha, had left Brother Wolf wanting blood Robert&039;s would do

"I ah"

Charles didn&039;t say anything Let the fool work for it He lowered his eyelids and watched the man squirm some more The scent of his fear pleased Brother Wolf-and made Charles feel a little sick at the same time Usually, he and Brother Wolf were in better harmony-or maybe the real problem was that he wanted to kill someone, too

"The Marrok wants to see you"

Charles waited a fullthat tie boy "That&039;s it?"

"Yes, sir"

That "sir" was a far cry from "Hey, Chief"

"Tell him I&039;ll come after my walk is cleared" And he went back to work

After a few scrapes of his shovel, he heard the SUV turn around in the narrow road The vehicle spun out, then grabbed traction and headed back to the Marrok&039;s, fish-tailing with Robert&039;s urgent desire to get away Brother Wolf was sly satisfied; Charles tried not to be Charles knew he shouldn&039;t bait his father by defying his orders-especially not in front of a ho needed guidance, as Robert did But Charles needed the time

He had to be in better control of hiain He needed real control that would allow hiically and explain why the Marrok rongheaded-instead of si heads with him the way they had the last four times Charles had spoken to hiue His brother could soe the Marrok&039;s mind-but he never had This ti

And now he&039;d worked himself up into a fine mood

He focused on the snow and took a deep breath of cold air-and so him facedown in the snow Sharp teeth and a warht that had dropped hi, he opened his eyes to slits, and frolanced at the sky-eyed black wolf facing him warily with a tail that waved tentatively and paws that danced in the snow, claws extending and retracting like a cat&039;s with nervous excite clicked inside Brother Wolf, turning off the fierce anger that had been churning in Charles&039;s gut for the past couple of weeks The relief of that was enough to drop his head back into the snow Only with her, only ever with her, did Brother Wolf settle doholly And a feeeks were not enough ti too stupid to ask for her help

Which hy she&039;d planned this ambush, of course

When he was up to it, he&039;d explain to her how dangerous it was for her to attack hih Brother Wolf had apparently known exactly who it ho&039;d attacked: he&039;d let theainst his face

The frozen stuff squeaked under her paws, and she made an anxious sound, proof that she hadn&039;t noticed when he&039;d looked at her Her nose was cold as it touched his ear and he steeled hi dead with his face buried in the snow, his srow

The cold nose retreated, and he waited for it to come back within reach, his body limp and lifeless She pawed at him, and he let his body rock-but when she nipped his backside, he couldn&039;t help but jerk aith a sharp sound

Faking dead was useless after that, so he rolled over and rose to a crouch

She got out of reach quickly and turned back to look at hi in his face He knew it He had tooall of his expressions

But she saw so her front half down to a crouch and loosening her lower jaw in a wolfish grin-a universal invitation to play He rolled forward, and she took off with a yip of excite athe pristine snow into a battleground of foot-and-body prints He stayed huhed her by sixty or eighty pounds and his huht She didn&039;t use her claws or teeth against his vulnerable skin

He laughed at her ot hiain at the icy nose she shoved under his coat and shirt, ers in the sensitive spots on the sides of his belly

He was careful never to pin her down, never to hurt her, even by accident That she&039;d risk this was a statement of trust that waret that she didn&039;t know them well and had more reason than most to fear him and what he was: male and dominant and wolf

He heard the car drive up He could have stopped their play, but Brother Wolf had no desire to take up a real battle yet So he grabbed her hind foot and tugged it as he rolled out of reach of gleanored the rich scent of his father&039;s anger-a scent that faded abruptly

Anna was oblivious to his father&039;s presence Bran could do that, fade into the shadows as if he were just another man and not the Marrok All of her attention was on Charles-and it made Brother Wolf preen that even the Marrok was second to them in her attentions It worried the ht not notice soet her killed Brother Wolf was sure that they could protect her and shook off Charles&039;s worry, dragging hih and strip out of his clothing as Anna made a run for it and Charles chased her all the way around the house She used the trees in the back as barriers to keep hiave her et around the trees faster

At last he chased her out of the trees, and she bolted back around the house with him hot on her trail She rounded the corner to the front yard and froze at the sight of his father in wolf shape, waiting for theh her like a running back As it was, he took her legs right out froed his run into a slide

Before he could check to see if she was okay, a silver ed abruptly Charles had been mostly in control of the action when it was just he and Anna, but with the addition of his father, he was forced to an earnest application of muscle, speed, and brain to keep the tolves, black and silver, fro him eat snow

At last he lay flat on his back, with Anna on his legs and his father&039;s fangs touching the sides of his throat inhis body in surrender "Okay I give up"

The words were more than just an end to play He&039;d tried But in the end, the Alpha&039;s as law Whatever folloould follow So he submitted as easily as any pup in the pack to his father&039;s dominance

The Marrok lifted his head and removed himself from Charles&039;s chest He sneezed and shook off snow as Charles sat up and pulled his legs out froave hiathered up the clothes from the hood of his father&039;s car and opened the door to the house Anna bounced into the living room and trotted down the hall to the bedroom He tossed his father&039;s clothes into the bathroom, and when his father followed them, shut the door behind the white-tipped tail