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"I love Seattle" Krissy folded her arms around herself and spun in a circle She looked up with a practiced little-girl grin, and her lover sold curl behind her ear "Shall we et you a condo that looks over the water"

She thought about it and finally shook her head "I&039;dlike New York"

"All right," he said, his voice an indulgent purr "But we can coain if you like it"

Krissy tilted her head and caught the rain in herout of the sky "Can we play now?"

"Work before play," said Hannah, the spoilsport She&039;d been Ivan&039;s playmate before Krissy Krissy had taken her place in his bed and in his heart, and ita hand on either side of his shirt and tugging hio play? We don&039;t have to work tonight, do we?"

He let her take his mouth, and when he raised his head, his eyes were hot "Hannah, take the others to our hotel and contact our employer Krissy and I will be there in a few hours"

It was raining again, but Jody had been raised in Eugene, where it only rained once a year-from January to December Besides, he was a Pisces; water was his element

He raised his face and let the rain wash down it Practice had run a little late and the sun had set before he&039;d gotten out The ht; they&039;d all felt it He pulled the sticks out of his back pocket and beat the air in a rhythe in that last measure

He took the shortcut to his aparth for a car and a half It wasn&039;t late, but there was no one around except for an older irl who looked about sixteen They were both drenched and hurried toward hi and seeotten turned around Do you knohere the nearest restaurant is?" The coat he as expensive-wool, Jody thought-and he had a bright gold watch on his wrist that looked like it cost a bundle The girl-as they got closer he was pretty sure that there was irl;four-inch heels thatand enjoyed his admiration He couldn&039;t help but smile back She put her hand on his wrist, and said, "We need to find sos

Strange, he thought, she didn&039;t look like she belonged in the groups his ex-girlfriend had hung out with, where they all wore fangs and played that stupid ga with vairl wore a ponytail and looked more like Brit ney Spears than Vampirella Her shoes were hot pink, and there wasn&039;t a piece of her clothing that was black

He didn&039;t like it that his throat tightened in fear because she earing acrylic fangs

"There&039;s a place a few blocks away," he told her, twisting his wrist gently to get her to let go "Serves Italian food They have a great red sauce"

She licked her lips and didn&039;t let go of his wrist "I love red sauce"

"Look," he said, jerking his wrist free, "cut it out That&039;s not funny"

"No," breathed the otten behind hiirl "Not funny at all" And there was a sharp pain in his neck

"Where is someplace private?" the old ether for a while without anyone seeing us?"

And Jody led his new friends a few miles away to a place on the Sound where he knew no one would coirl closed her eyes and smiled "The traffic will drown out the screams"

The man leaned over and put his mouth to Jody&039;s ear "You can be scared now"

Jody was scared for a very, very long time before they threw him into the water for the fish

"THE rocks will keep him underwater until they won&039;t be able to tell how he died," said Ivan

"I still think we should have left hiirl in Syracuse"

Ivan rubbed the top of her head "Dear child," he said, and sighed "That was a special case; she was a e to her father This one was just play, and if we let the silly humans knoe killed him, it would interfere with business"

She looked at the bloody dru the interferes with business"

"Business keeps a roof over our heads and lets us travel ant to," Ivan told her "You need to wash your face, princess, and put your clothes back on"

A great h the white mist and ruled in awesome splendor over the soft sky and Anna held her breath Mount Rainier, she thought, though her geography of the Cascades was shaky There were mountains spread out below theer than the lowly ripples in the land below it Gradually, other great peaks revealed the in clouds

"Hey, Charles?"

The mountains were on Charles&039;s side of the plane Anna leaned as far toward hi the plane, and she didn&039;t want to distract hi headsets that protected their sensitive ears froine and miked their voices to each other In her headphone, his voice was low enough to h it was turned to the lowest setting

"Just how many planes does the pack have?"

This was the second she&039;d been in

"Just the Learjet," he told her "If you lean any farther, you&039;re going to strangle yourself This Cessna isto think she knew hi else would come up She knew that he handled the pack finances-and that their pack was not in any danger of being penniless anytime soon She knew that he hih they hadn&039;t really talked about it ory of financially stable, like Mount Rainier was a whole different category of mountain from the hills she&039;d known in Illinois

"Aren&039;t we on pack business?" she asked "Why did we take this one?"

"The jet needs five thousand feet to land," he said "That overnovernment follows you?" She had a sudden picture of Charles strolling along with dark-suited ht and failing, with cartoonish exaggeration

He nodded "Wepeople knoe are"

And that hy the Marrok had decided it was ti people are following you?"

He smiled wolfishly "Only when I want them to"

She considered that s?"

"At an airstrip maintained by the Emerald City Pack It&039;s about thirtyfast and tickling her stoht the plane back to level "I really like flying"

He dipped his head and looked at her over the top of his dark lenses for a moment Then his mouth quirked up, and he turned his attention back to his instrument panel The plane tilted to the left

Anna waited for hi all the way upside down and continued sain

Over her laughter, he said, "This plane isn&039;t rated for aerobatics, but a roll is only a one-gee maneuver" He tilted the plane over the other way, and said, "Properly done" And then he danced the plane through the sky

She was breathless, and her diaphrag by the tilanced at Charles, asn&039;t even s patterns over a grain field

He hated planes just as he hated y He&039;d told her so But he owned one-and by golly he kne to fly it When he drove his truck, he was cautious and controlled So why had he decided to play barnstor her, or was he enjoying himself?

A woman should know more about her mate When the mate bond had first settled in, she&039;d believed she would But her initial ability to feel him had faded, buried under his self-control and her defenses She could feel the bond between the and impenetrable She wondered if it felt the sah it whenever he chose

"This is Station Air Nove permission to land," he said, and it took her ato soht three Victor," said a stranger&039;s voice "Welcome to Emerald City Pack territory, sir"

Charles dropped theh the scattered clouds, past white-coated reen valley below Before she realized there was a landing strip, the wheels touched doith a gentle bump

The place where they landed looked nearly as reh there was snow a hundred feet or so up the foothills, dohere they had landed it was as green as if it were suar, the land ash in trees and bushes

People jogged up to the plane froar as Charles pulled his headset off and unbuckled

He withdrew fro the bond between them painfully If he&039;d warned her beforehand, she would have kept quiet: three years in her first pack had given her power over her pain It was surprise that forced the whine out of her throat

Charles pulled his sunglasses off his face and looked at her with a frown Sudden coht" He turned his head and said, not to her, "All right All right" And the painful collapse of their bond ceased

Wolf-eyed, he leaned toward her and touched her face

"I&039;m sorry," he told her "I didn&039;t mean to shut you out I just"

He stopped, apparently at a loss for words

"Donning your arested "It&039;s okay, I just wasn&039;t expecting it Do what you have to"

But he didn&039;t Instead, he said, looking out at the approaching men, "These are not the enemy Not this time, anyway"

He was out of his seat before she could say anything And ould I have said? He closed himself up so that he could kill if he had to, so that he wouldn&039;t like any of the out whatever had to be done

She did know so about herhie wolves, still trying to decide if it should reassure her or worry her

"Glad you e It still freaked her out soe by the subtle cues of body motion and position Real people-normal humans-didn&039;t need to knoas first and as last

"We were following you on our radar, and Jiht have had some trouble because your speed seeave them a neutral face, and Anna wondered what his aerobatics had looked like on radar

"No trouble," he said

The other wolf cleared his throat and dropped his gaze "Good I&039;m Ian Garner of the Emerald City Pack, and I&039;m to help you in any way that I can"

As Charles and the other wolves unloaded the luggage and discussed how the plane was to be cared for and stored, Anna stood a little apart She wasn&039;t as nervous with the strangers as she expected to be-and it took her a minute to pinpoint why

Ian was roup was not the Alpha&039;s top tier of wolves, nowhere near the most dominant; they olves ouldn&039;t spark a dous Hopper, the Emerald City Pack Alpha, was a smart man Not that he had to worry about Charles&039;s control, but playing it safe was always a se dorateful nonetheless

There would be enough dos took place The wolves co from Europe each ruled their own territories; some of them had been in power for centuries No one would hurt her, not while she ith Charles She knew it, but her fear of male wolves had taken a few years to beat into her and would take more than a month or two to free herself from

"They&039;ll take care of the airplane," said Ian He picked up the nearest piece of luggage and, with a dropped shoulder and a deferential swing of his head instead of words, invited theh the trees Charles took his own suitcase and waited for Anna to precede hi, the E in a rapid all-business voice that ht have masked his anxiety from someone as purely human Charles did that to people, even in his own pack, and she didn&039;t think even his father kne us is at work," the wolf said "He says you&039;re to have free access to the house" Anna reliround, it ell hidden by the trees That must be where they were headed toward "You&039;re welco any of us have, but the pack itself has a newish Land Cruiser and a Corolla that has seen better days Angus says you can use his BMW if you&039;d rather"

"We&039;ll take the Corolla," Charles told hi in a hotel don This is too far for an easy coht you would feel that way Angus invites you to stay with him at his condo in the city"

"Not necessary," said Charles Anna wasn&039;t sure he noticed the other man&039;s mouth flatten More probably he just didn&039;t care

The E, and for Charles to refuse housingthem as allies Charles preferred to be independent-separate froht be called upon to kill Charles was his father&039;s assassin and justice dealer, and that grio out of his way tothe olves, not even in his own pack He would feel more comfortable on his own

That didn&039;t s over

"We appreciate the offer," Anna told Ian "But we&039;re newly mated and" It didn&039;t require any effort on her part to blush as her voice trailed off And whatever offense he&039;d felt was overshadowed by interest

"So it&039;s true?" Ian glanced at Charles, then quickly away "I had heard that"

"Shocking, I know," ave Charles a worried look, too wary of Charles to hear the hu to help

The Emerald City wolf&039;s face loosened in utter disbelief

Charles saw it and grinned at her It was too bad Ian didn&039;t see her ranite facade was back before the other wolf glanced his way

"Right," Ian said He cleared his throat and changed the subject "Well Angus askedfor are the Russians and the French He thought you ht also be interested to know that the British Alpha caet here-they&039;re staying in the apartus&039;s company?" asked Anna-they&039;d packed in a hurry, and she hadn&039;t asked hius runs a high-tech cora his facilities this week-he&039;s given his staff an early vacation for Christer the French wolves have arrived already Chastel ant to check out his hunting grounds before the prey arrives"

"They haven&039;t checked into the hotel they booked"

Charles shook his head "Tell Angus that Chastel would never stay in a hotel Too public He&039;ll have rented a house, so nice He&039;s here, probably has been here for a week or two"

Charles claiood with people, not to understand them and maybe that was true But he understood predators just fine

The trees thinned, and a house eed from the forest Like Bran&039;s house, it had been built to take advantage of the natural topography, and the surrounding trees effectively hid a good deal of its bulk Angus&039;s cous says it is the Frenchman ill cause the most trouble," said Ian

"Don&039;t underestiht Jean is powerful, scary, and , especially if his prey is weak and frightened-his life wouldn&039;t hold up to the kind of scrutiny we&039;re inviting by introducing ourselves to the world"

"Angus says that Jean Chastel will carry the vote because everyone else is scared of him"

Charles smiled wolfishly, his eyes cold and clear "This is not a democracy: there is no vote Not on this The Europeans have no say in whether or not we tell the world about ourselves I&039;m here to listen to their concerns and decide e can do to help the public"

"That doesn&039;t sound like what I&039;ve picked up froations who&039;ve arrived" Ian was careful not to sound as if he were disagreeing with Charles

"What about the Asian olves?" Anna asked "Or African and Australian? And South American?"

"They don&039;t matter" Ian dismissed her question

"They matter," said Charles softly "They have been dealt with differently"

The sharp scent of fear coiled around Anna&039;s nose; there had been a threat in Charles&039;s voice when he thought the other wolf had overstepped hiave Charles a frown "Stop terrorizing hiht to have known Tell me about the non-European olves"

Charles raised an eyebrow at her but answered her readily enough "Werewolves are a European monster, and we&039;ve done pretty well here in this part of the New World, too There are a few of us in Africa and even fewer in Asia, where there are other monsters who don&039;t like us very well There are two packs in Australia, about forty wolves Both of their Alphas have been informed of our plans, and neither voiced objections Bran has also discussed his intentions with the South American wolves They were less happy-but, like the Europeans, they have no say in what my father does or does not do Unlike the Europeans, they know it We&039;ve offered the the Europeans, and they are happy with that They were invited but chose not to come"

THE battered and abused Corolla was a four-speed stick shift with a touchy clutch, and it kept Anna&039;s attention fir until they were on the interstate headed for the city

"Okay," she said "I need to understand more I should have asked more questions, but this caanyone can send after him?"

Charles nodded "There&039;s sous" He paused "Actually, I think there&039;s some bad blood between Arthur and my father, too If it looks like an issue, I&039;ll call Da and see what it was about Da says that Arthur&039;s the only Alpha ill stand up to Chastel-and that&039;s a good thing to have We&039;ll need every advantage we can get"

He sounded not worried Intrigued It was, Anna thought, going to be a different s and blood but a battle of wits All those do Maybe it wasn&039;t going to be a different way of fighting But for now, she was driving and had absolutely no idea where they were headed

"Are we going to the hotel?"

"Yes" And he gave her directions But as they turned off the highway and onto the streets of don Seattle, he said, "Let&039;s do soo see Dana, the fae who&039;s agreed to moderate thisso "She&039;s not just a stand-in for a UN aus She&039;s the one who&039;s going to keep this civilized and keep us frous&039;s carpets cleaned of bloodstains I have a gift to give her fro her a small fortune for"

"I didn&039;t hear about the fae" Anna had never seen a fae before, not one she kneas a fae anyway She felt a frisson of excite wheel "Bran brought a fae into olf business?"

"It&039;s necessary to have a neutral party to et out of hand"

Anna thought about the wolves she had known: the violence that had always gotten out of hand She tried to iine someone who could put a stop to it Bran, Charles-but they would have to do it with more violence "She can do that?"

"Yes And more importantly, everyone knows it"