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"Loyalty I understand that" And he did

Hawke angled his head "One of the scouts is returning"

Judd didn’t bother to waste words He just walked around the cabin and jogged into the trees He had three hours at h the forest, he nonetheless set a slow enough speed that he could keep an eye on his surroundings Without his Psy senses, he wasn’t hu that aspect of theirwas already coh as if blocked by a wall of water, while his sight was no longer as acute as it should have been But it was enough to drive

Reaching the vehicle Brenna had forgotten in her anger, he punched in the code, slid back the door, and entered Given his destabilized state, he would have normally set it on automatic, but that was impossible in this territory The roads were less than tracks in s needed by the vehicle’s navigation processor

Falling back once more on the lessons he’d learned in the bleak emptiness of Old Sapporo, he arrowed his concentration to a fine point He’d barely reached his destination when the physical crash hit full on His mind blinked out - to all intents and purposes, he was now in an unbreakable coma

Brenna pushed herself to the limit on the run back to the den and was exhausted by the ti off from the other two, she headed toward her room Unfortunately, since Andrew lived in the saet rid of him

"That was some pace, Bren Where did that come from?"

She spun around "I don’t know I don’t knohere anything in my head or body comes from anymore Even if you ask me a thousand times, I still won’t know!"

"What’s got your tail in a twist?" He scowled "Your new boyfriend didn’t kiss you right? Oh, I forgot He’s a fucking robot who doesn’t kno to kiss"

Drew had always had the ability to push her buttons, but she was not in the ames today She was mad, so damn mad At Judd, at her brothers, at Hawke, at the whole bloody universe "Maybe I’over "Why don’t you find Madeline and get laid?" The pack’s young fe perilously close to crossing the line into slutty "Maybe a good rut will get you off my back"

Drew’s expression was pure thunder "You’re not too old for me to wash out your mouth with soap" Quiet, lethal, a re was also a high-ranking soldier

"Try it" It was almost a hiss

Her brother blinked, visibly taken aback by the venom in her voice She had always been the sweetest of the three of them, the one who could talk both Drew and Riley into al They’d babied her, protected her, loved her But that didn’t give theht to stick their noses into her business "You seeotten that I’m an adult female, not a juvenile," she said when he remained silent "Touchfroue as her nized the horror This spiteful, violent woman isn’t me Even when he pissed her off, even when he acted suffocatingly arrogant, she adored Drew But if it wasn’t her, then who else could it be? This wasn’t a drea hatred

Ither mouth with her hand, she ran the rest of the way to her room and slammed the door shut When Drew pounded for entrance, she told him to leave her alone

"Damn it, Bren You’re in no shape to be alone Come out, baby sister"

Tears filled her eyes at his unflinching affection "Please, Drew I need to think Just let me think"

A small silence "I’ll always be here if you need ht?"

"Yes I know" But he couldn’t help as happening to her iven her trust to had turned on her

She heard Drew’s footsteps as he padded to his own roo sweaty and dirty, she stripped off her own clothes with such haste she tore holes in them It didn’t matter She had to wash off the filth, scrub away the stench of evil and that of her own ugliness

The water smelled like rain, fresh and pure After use, it would flow back out, purified by an ah-tech filters regulated by precision computronic processors A perfect, peaceful cycle that stole nothing from the Earth and put no pollutants into it So brilliant that even the Psy used it Not because they cared about the Earth, but because thisat her skin till it reddened, she tried to keep heras her brain was busy, she’d be safe from the putrid evil he’d planted inside of her, the rot eating away at her insides