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Chapter 5

A few hours later, ere descending the stairs (except for Cooper, who stayed behind to do whatever it is pilots do after passengers exit) to the Logan Airport tarht out and carefully laid down

For such a huge airport, I was surprised at how quiet Logan wasit seeured that was because ere at the part where they parked the private planes

Three people aiting for us on the tarmac, clustered around a vehicle that was a cross between a liht away Michael Wyndhah this wasn&039;t the tiolden brown hair and calm yellow eyes) His wife, Jeannie, a blonde with a head full of fluffy curls (must be hell in the humidity) And Derik, one of Michael&039;s olves, also yureen eyes Was being gorgeous written into the olf genetic code?

Well, wait Jeannie was huh the others weren&039;t We&039;d otten a bit of her history then I guess, for Michael and Jeannie, it had been love at first sight

As opposed to the loathe on first sight it had been for Sinclair andelse, I hoped that s over The woown, for heaven&039;s sake There was a bond there, dammit

I&039;d ave off "cool leader" vibes, Derik was a ball of good-hu, uncomfortable silence Finally, I clearedwhen Derik walked over to the coffin and started to-

Oh, man He wasn&039;t He wasn&039;t Hewas He was lifting the lid off

"I don&039;t think that&039;s a good idea," my husband said quietly, and I seized his hand and squeezed, which would have pulverized the bones in an ordinary human&039;s hand, but would have as much effect on Sinclair as a mosquito bite

He squeezed back, which hurt

"Derik, Eric&039;s right," Michael warned Under the fluorescent lights, he was as pale as uys I wasn&039;t sure who I pitiedPack meain The poor guy had pinned all his hopes on the chance that we&039;d gotten another olf mixed up with Antonia, which was so dumb I wanted to cry

The lid was all the way up Derik stared inside for a long moment and then, with infinite care, slowly lowered the lid

Then he started to howl

Chapter 6

We were all shocked, even his friends were shocked Derik, normally a man of sunny temperament (at least fro like a rabid bear Then he raised his fists over his head and brought theave way

Suddenly it was hard for me to s Suddenly I wanted a drink in the worst way Any drink A sasoline, Clorox, whatever

Derik was glaring at ht have washed her face, at least"

This was , except this tihtbut then, was I wrong in trying to show respect for whatever rituals they had?

Jessica coughed and spoke up, atte to save uys"

"Offend?" Derik spat And in a flash, I re me that her only real friend in the Pack was Derik "Offend?"

Crash! More fist-sized holes in the lid, which he seemed determined to convert into thousands of velvet-tipped toothpicks I took a step forwardonly to feel Sinclair&039;s hand close around ht, of course This wasn&039;t about rossly inappropriate And yet And still I couldn&039;t stand seeing anyone-even a bare acquaintance-in so much pain

My feet seemed determined to disobey my brain, because they took another slow stepand Sinclair tugged one!" Derik was yelling into the coffin "You stupid bitch! You left your Pack!"

Nobody said anything to that, big surprise Because, again, it was the truth

"All right, that&039;s enough," Michael said cale in the fluorescents "Let&039;s take her home, Derik"

So into the back Antonia went, the way back where there were no seat belts, because none were needed

Jeannie drove; Michael sat beside her in the front Derik sat across froh us, not at us

No one said a word during the entire ninety-asped, staring out theSinclair flinched, but I was used to his twitches "This is where you live?" I asked, feeling like I had straw in my hair and cow shit on my heels All I needed were a few "hyuk, hyuks!" to complete the picture "You live here?"

"Yes," Michael said shortly as he drove to the ainst theso hard en, I didn&039;t fog up the glass, at least

It was a castle

No, really A castle On Cape Cod! And I wasn&039;t the only impressed yokel: both Jessica (who&039;d napped all the way here, like BabyJon) and Sinclair (who&039;d grown up on a far out their s, too