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A curl of wood falling to the floor

He realized his claws had shot out, carved grooves into the wood of his desk "Great," henot to scare a wo back fro the steps that led down into the main core of the den two at a time

Declaration of Courtship Chapter 3

BETHANY CAUGHT HIM just as he reached the bottom "Coop, I need to talk to you about the juveniles"

"Whatever they’ve done," he growled, continuing on toward the exit, "handcuff the lot of the therown adults"

"Funny" The short, curly-haired h lines that told of a life well lived, said, "Some of us remember when you were the worst of the lot Wasn’t it a pink ribbon? Or did you sport the purple and Riaz the pink?"

Wincing, he halted "You have the memory of an elephant, Aunt Beth"

"It comes in handy when I need blackmail material" Dimples dented her round cheeks, a mischievous expression in the dark, dark eyes that marked them as kin "Which, in this case, is unnecessary The juveniles have been good"

"Did you drug their soup?"

She threatened to pull his ear - probably would have if he didn’t top her by over a foot "About fifteen of them joined up to clear that invasive weed that somehow made its way into one of the streams Spent the whole weekend at it, and as of today, the weed is history It’d be nice if you could swing by"

"I’ll do it now" He glanced at the small comm screen set into the den wall, saas almost midday "Kids had lunch?"

"I took them a couple of baskets" Bethany patted hi lieutenant"

"So down, he kissed her cheek, the scent of her inciting a keen protectiveness

It was Bethany who’d taken hi him in love What she hadn’t done was attempt to reverse the sudden adulthood that had been shoved on his couldn’t be changed, and the loss of his childhood had been a permanent one

"However," he added when she stood on tiptoe to smooth his T-shirt across his shoulders, "I’ll fall in with your cunning plans"

"You alere a good boy, Cooper, even during your hellion juvenile years" Her smile was an echo of his o, before they inhale lunch You’ll be lucky to find a few bones to gnaw on"

The teenagers had in fact resisted the lure of the sandwiches, cake, and fruit, and were checking the final section of the strea up at his presence, they clustered around to show him what they’d done

"I’ to their explanations of the project, his wolf in pleased agreeed hier kids showed up in pup form a few minutes later, he scooped them up before they could poke their curious noses into the picnic baskets "Behave or it’s back to the nursery with you"

The hing, he tapped their noses in a light reprimand and put theainst his legs as he finished speaking to the teenagers By the ti forood for the could alter the fact that he was an aggressive dominant, but as the pups and juveniles showed, he had the capacity to earn the trust of even the pack’s most vulnerable It would take ti intimacy, but Cooper had been called a stubborn bastard more than once It wasn’t an unfair accusation