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CHARLES stood where he was, the icy water covering his paws and a few inches beyond He&039;d been waiting for the goon squad and gotten the beauty instead, and it left hi the shoreline, herin the water that covered the rocks Above them, beyond them, and to both sides, docks stretched out into the black water Four or five docks down there was a ship being loaded, and he could hear theh away that they would not see a woe

He decided she was getting too far fro behind her to make sure she was safe He hadn&039;t killed the Beast who threatened her a growl rose in his chest at the thought He should have killed hier hurt the weak and helpless ones Not hurt his Anna Noto be neither weak nor helpless

Brother Wolf scented the air, but the scent of the other wolves was distant Ahead of hi that had washed ashore, now a throne for his lady But first she had to cli sure it would stay stable-and found it difficult to close the distance between them

She had seen him in action before, had seen him kill, and she had not flinched from him But this had been different, Charles knew it This had been not unprovoked, but certainly not necessary either

Chastel thought toowhile in the middle of a pack of eneht then None of that had s buried in Anna&039;s throat and hi slow

He looked at her, just to make sure his vision hadn&039;t happened She&039;d found a comfortable spot and stretched out on it, her face tilted toward hi on her extended ars She hadn&039;t sounded angry or, worse, disappointed

And there were things he needed to know Like why there weren&039;t dozens of wolves bringing him in-he&039;d heard Dana call for his hide, had expected theh he expected that it had so to do with the pull he&039;d felt from her shortly after he&039;d left the warehouse

If Brother Wolf hadn&039;t been foremost, he&039;d have si for Dana, to attack him in the warehouse But Brother Wolf had deround That meant down to the shore, so the deep water at his back kept hi flanked-olves don&039;t swim, they sink

And Dana&039;s ele out fro after hie Anna, as all alone on her log, watching him out of the corner of her eye while he paced

He kept his distance for a while longer While he olf and Anna a good distance away frousted by his attack on Chastel? That he&039;d scared her? Or, possibly even worse, she enjoyed watching? She wouldn&039;t say any of it, and he knew her well enough to understand that

So he didn&039;t knohy he ca in front of her He hopped up and she hugged hi with his ears and the sensitive spots on his face

She leaned against him "Love you," she said

That hat he&039;d needed He took a deep breath and changed She backed away, giving him space

"How come you don&039;t have four dozen red or blue T-shirts and fifty pairs of boots?" Anna asked when he was finished "And do you think this e back to hulanced down at himself, fully clothed as usual No other olf he&039;d ever heard of could clothe hie He didn&039;t know if it olf randfather He only knew that it had started happening when he was fourteen or fifteen and being naked was considered shameful in his mother&039;s tribe Then it had been buckskins-he could still do those if he thought about it

Charles turned around so he was facing her, looked hard at her grinning face, and took it in his hands and kissed her as if he could fill hi hiether long enough for even the most basic touches to become routine-but he didn&039;t think he could ever take her kisses for granted, the touch of her tongue, teeth, and lips

When he pulled away, he left his face against hers as he said, "I don&039;t know We&039;ll just have to see-keep a count of the red T-shirts, reen or blue this tihed, needing this, small intimacies he&039;d never had before Anna "I don&039;t know No one ever asked, and I never paid attention"

She put her ainst his ear, and the feel of her breath in his ear certainly h Too scared of the big bad wolf to ask"

He laughed again, the relief of her presence-not just Ohter necessary, whatever the excuse

She pulled back, her eyes still s "Dana is a water fae, isn&039;t she? The ones who lure men into the water and drown them"

"Yes"

"How did she do it? Was it compulsion-or was it so in her face "I don&039;t know Why are you asking?"

"It&039;s not like you to freak out like that-not without planning it better And Chastel He is how old? His ht? He takes out little kids and human women in front of people too weak to hurt hionize like that, not where you would be justified in attacking him face-to-face"

With Anna here, Brother Wolf settled down into a contented presence Charles could think ht&039;s oddities

"Not quite true He is reckless soae at you that would have been fatal if he&039;d wanted it to be-that is very ht in that the Frenchman&039;s behavior had been odd "But that , his prize, at your feet, that was unusual" He thought a moment "Romantic, even I don&039;t know that I&039;ve ever heard Chastel had a partner Women, ility calls out the worst in hia All the violence, none of the protective spirit"

Charles felt his eyebrows go up "That&039;s perceptive," he said "I would have just called him a sociopath My father calls him evil"

" &039;Evil&039; works for me," Anna muttered She played with the bark of the tree: mostly rotted from its iers

"But the thing with the bag wasn&039;t typical of Chastel," Charles said "And what I did wasn&039;t usual either Not like that It felt like he had done it, ripped your throat out-even though I knew very well that he hadn&039;t touched you You think the fae had so to do with it?"

"I think I read bloodlust on her body when you attacked Chastel The first thing out of her lips was an accusation-of so you actually hadn&039;t done Stupid fae hadn&039;t remembered that once the bells sounded, the hunt was over" Anna&039;s nails dug into the tree as if she had claws, and her voice was hard "She wanted you as her prey"

And he knew, suddenly, that the reason Dana hadn&039;t gotten hi She didn&039;t look tough, his Anna, with her freckled face and body that could still stand to gain ten pounds even though it was considerably more sturdy than it had been the first tiher than old shoe leather, and as hers, she took care of

"Dana didn&039;t knoho she waswith," he ht," Anna said "She was hunting tonight I don&039;t knoas her initial prey it ht be like when a dominant comes into a new pack and looks for the nastiest brute around to fight and so establish his place I don&039;t know if it was a planned thing or if it just happened"

Charles caught a scent and turned his head "Angus," he said, as the other alked up to theus said, a little defensively

"Thank you" Charles decided that wasn&039;t enough as Angus still looked uneasy about interrupting them "I appreciate it What do you know?" Because the wolf had been there a little while, and likely would have ghosted back up the hill without saying anything if he didn&039;t have sous "Anna&039;s right I tasted fae ic at work, but I didn&039;t realize what she&039;d done until you attacked Chastel She atteht they couldn&039;t do that," Anna said

"Obviously it&039;s not impossible," said Charles "And I don&039;t knohy they don&039;t Just that they don&039;t Ever They don&039;t break their word, and they don&039;t lie Can&039;t is how I&039;ve always heard it Always But she did"

"Ask the Marrok," suggested Angus

Charles reached for his cell phone, then stopped "No cell phone," he told theled "All those red T-shirts and no cell phone? I don&039;t have us handed his over to Charles "Red T-shirts? Do I want to know?"

"Probably not," Charles told him as he dialed and put the phone to his ear Then his da answered and he busied hi the whole story before the old bard Bran listened all the way through without comment When Charles was done, there was a small pause as his father sorted out what he wanted to discuss

"Six vaether," he said finally

It wasn&039;t a question, but Charles answered it anyway "Yes"

"I&039;ll look into it There&039;ve been a few stories-I&039;ll check thehly They sound like us hasn&039;t had trouble with the Seattle vanized them if they were local Vampires in a minivan says rental to me-"

"I have the plate numbers," said Anna "But it looked like a rental car to me, too American minivan less than five years old" She rattled off three letters and three numbers

The joy of phone calls with sharp-eared olves was that all phone calls ended up being conference calls whether he wanted them to or not At least Charles didn&039;t have to repeat everything anyone said

He could hear pen running across paper as his da wrote the license-plate number on a piece of paper "I&039;ll check it out," he said when he was finished writing, "but I suspect she&039;s right We&039;ll find them faster by other methods You think they&039;re trained by a olf?"

"They fought like a pack," Anna said "Made their choices like a wolf pack would Brought in ic"

"That was Tous said "Toic with the best of us"

There was another pause, then the Marrok said in that light pleasant tone that warned everyone who knew him that all hell was about to break loose "Can you prove Dana caused the fight?"

Charles looked at Anna

She shook her head "No You had to have been there"

"That&039;s so," said Angus "I saw it, but I doubt anyone else was looking ould recognize what they saw She would have sent o Bespelled me with h on a hundred years-and a hundred years ago I was no one Not Alpha at the ti to kno she found out what my birth name was I doubt there are ten people who&039;d know after all this tius threw his head back and laughed " &039;For God Al little thing that is your daughter-in-law quaking in her boots in an auditoriuht your son had found a wererabbit"

"Thank you," said Anna with a nasty edge to her voice

Not intirinned at her But when he talked it was directed at Bran "I thought she wasn&039;t up to his weight But that was before she killed a vampire and set that old fairy on her heel Here&039;s me bespelled by that fae-&039;Stop,&039; Anna told me And damned if I didn&039;t have to listen to her, fae compulsion or no fae compulsion Broke Dana&039;s hold just as certain as if you had broken it your own self"

"You should have seen her kill the witch a couple of weeks ago," Bran said affably "Asil had been fleeing from this one for two hundred years, and my son&039;s little &039;rabbit&039; killed her while in hu us, suitably taken aback "Asil the Moor?"

"That&039;s the one," said Charles

"Suddenly I don&039;t feel so bad at being rescued by a rabbit," Angus said cheerfully

Anna narrowed her eyes at hiret it"

The Marrok spoke into the silence that followed Anna&039;s threat "If I come now-"

"No," said Charles in instant rejection

His father sighed "You did note the &039;if,&039; didn&039;t you?"

There was no good answer to that, so Charles just waited

Satisfied that his son had been properly brought to order, Bran said, "I do not think it would help at this stage It certainly wouldn&039;t otiations Chastel did exactly as he intended-and we&039;ll work around him"

"I am sorry, sir," said Charles

"Not at all It would not have mattered if I had been there Until one of the Europeans decides to rid the world of Chastel, we&039;ll all have to work around him It would have been very unexpected had he played ball with us"

"He&039;s not an anti-Oa," said Anna "He&039;s an anti-Marrok"

Charles explained the reference, and his father laughed easily Sory-they&039;d be wrong "I suppose both are correct"

"Why don&039;t you take hius suddenly

"Nothe&039;d thought of it, "And then I&039;d have Europe to take care of, too I can assure you thatus?"

"Hell, no" The Erinned appreciatively "Not that I could take on Chastel, anyway Your son is a nasty, infighting, rat-bastard I&039;ve seen hiht cold before-you should have seen it when he&039;s enraged Took hiround"

"Charles&039;s fights are always fast," said Bran "Most serious fights are We aren&039;t cats to play with our food"

Charles heard his father draw in a deep breath as he changed the subject "So Your job, Charles, as I see it, is to find the vampires who killed our poor Sunny Eliminate them and find out who hired them Conduct business as usual toree to accept help, but they will listen to what you have to say And we&039;ll help them as we can This is the only e can let the you kill anyone you don&039;t intend to"

"She&039;s broken her word," Anna said

"We can&039;t prove it," Bran answered

"What happens when a fae breaks her word?" Charles asked his father "All I&039;ve ever heard is that they don&039;t"

"I haven&039;t the faintest idea," said his father "I&039; secrets I&039;ve never known a fae to break his or her word-bend it, twist it into a pretzel, yes Break it, no I would have expected lightning to strike her down frouess is the saht consider wearing your crucifix and finding so that would work for Anna It&039;s not foolproof, but it is helpful when you&039;re dealing with vahtfully, "I&039;"

"Not everything," ad that ih I&039;ve never really caught hiht be that lightning bolt Hope I&039;m there to see it"

Charles yawned "So, to I&039;ll pull out sos Da kept for last, then perhaps an early end to the negotiations, which are useless now"

"Sunny&039;s death," Anna said "It see to let her death be useful to us, but Sunny&039;s death would be a good reason to close the us nodded "No one will be fooled-they knohat Chastel has done-but it will allow us to save face"

ANNA burrowed under hihed as cold toes made it to places cold toes should never hit an adult hed happily, her eyes slitting open and glittering blue in the darkness of the hotel room

"Well, hello," he murmured to Anna&039;s wolf "Werewolves," he informed her soleet cold and stick frigid toes and fingers into places cold things shouldn&039;t go"

She blinked at him a couple of times "Warm," she said, her voice husky

"Yes," he answered "But you could have pulled up the blanket before you got that cold"

She arched up off thehis jaw in her hands

While he kissed her, he rolled over until she was on top Anna&039;s wolf sos that Anna wasn&039;t comfortable with He&039;d learned to s was to ot the top If she woke up underneath him, she had a tendency to panic

He couldn&039;t communicate with Anna&039;s wolf the way he-and Anna-could talk to Brother Wolf She tended to come out when Anna was asleep and usually spoke in one-word sentences

She nipped his ear, tugging on the aotten for his"

He ran his hands up the small of her back, and she arched into him with a happy sound He let her play as she would for a while before catching her hands

"Hey, lady wolf," he said breathlessly "We need to wake up your other half before we take this any farther" He didn&039;t actually kno much Anna knew about what her wolf did at ti for the ride or still asleep But it didn&039;t see serious unless he was certain Anna knehat her wolf had been up to

She stared at hie happen, just in her eyes Blindingly blue eyes warmed to root-beer brown in a few heartbeats She didn&039;t seem surprised to find herself braced on top of him, just sht?" he asked

In answer, she wriggled her hips and pushed herself down He groaned at the unexpectedly aggressive s like that-Anna was usually more temperate She set a hard and rapid pace, and he let her do as she would

"I&039;ll just lie back and think of England," he huffed to h