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She got out of reach quickly and turned back to look at hi in his face He knew it He had tooall of his expressions

But she saw so her front half down to a crouch and loosening her lower jaw in a wolfish grin-a universal invitation to play He rolled forward, and she took off with a yip of excite athe pristine snow into a battleground of foot-and-body prints He stayed huhed her by sixty or eighty pounds and his huht She didn’t use her claws or teeth against his vulnerable skin

He laughed at her ot hiain at the icy nose she shoved under his coat and shirt, ers in the sensitive spots on the sides of his belly

He was careful never to pin her down, never to hurt her, even by accident That she’d risk this was a statement of trust that waret that she didn’t know them well and had more reason than most to fear him and what he was: male and dominant and wolf

He heard the car drive up He could have stopped their play, but Brother Wolf had no desire to take up a real battle yet So he grabbed her hind foot and tugged it as he rolled out of reach of gleanored the rich scent of his father’s anger-a scent that faded abruptly

Anna was oblivious to his father’s presence Bran could do that, fade into the shadows as if he were just another man and not the Marrok All of her attention was on Charles-and it made Brother Wolf preen that even the Marrok was second to them in her attentions It worried the ht not notice soet her killed Brother Wolf was sure that they could protect her and shook off Charles’s worry, dragging hih and strip out of his clothing as Anna made a run for it and Charles chased her all the way around the house She used the trees in the back as barriers to keep hiave her et around the trees faster

At last he chased her out of the trees, and she bolted back around the house with him hot on her trail She rounded the corner to the front yard and froze at the sight of his father in wolf shape, waiting for theh her like a running back As it was, he took her legs right out froed his run into a slide

Before he could check to see if she was okay, a silver ed abruptly Charles had been mostly in control of the action when it was just he and Anna, but with the addition of his father, he was forced to an earnest application of muscle, speed, and brain to keep the tolves, black and silver, fro him eat snow

At last he lay flat on his back, with Anna on his legs and his father’s fangs touching the sides of his throat inhis body in surrender "Okay I give up"

The words were more than just an end to play He’d tried But in the end, the Alpha’s as law Whatever folloould follow So he submitted as easily as any pup in the pack to his father’s dominance

The Marrok lifted his head and removed himself from Charles’s chest He sneezed and shook off snow as Charles sat up and pulled his legs out froave hiathered up the clothes from the hood of his father’s car and opened the door to the house Anna bounced into the living room and trotted down the hall to the bedroom He tossed his father’s clothes into the bathroom, and when his father followed them, shut the door behind the white-tipped tail

He had hot chocolate and soup ready when his father ee, his eyes hazel and human once more

He and his da didn’t look much alike Charles took after his Salish h, with sandy hair and prominent features that usually wore a deceptively earnest expression, which was currently nowhere in evidence Despite the play, Bran didn’t look particularly happy