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That hat her wolf sensed This woman had slept with Charles Anna supposed that in two hundred odd years he’d had sex with a lot of wo another deep breath, Anna leaned her forehead against Charles’s arht of the way his scent hter and the ruht She wasn’t looking for the passion, though there was plenty of that, but for the deeply centered clarity that he brought to her-and she returned to hiive hiainst her forehead, and his lips came down to brush the top of her head She opened her eyes and ave her a slow smile "I see that" She looked at Charles "You understand the i her I’ve heard soin her trap"

"Careful," warned Charles "That strays perilously close to a lie"

The fae raised an eyebrow in offense

"You don’t want er"

She turned up her nose and started painting again, all but turning her back to the for Tristan and Isolde, Ro up that dry old Greek"

"I suppose if Dana is occupied, we can give her the Marrok’s gift to a hed "You knohat I like best about you-and hate the most-is that you never have kno to play properly I aer, prettier woman You are supposed to be embarrassed that your new love knows about us" She looked at Anna "And you I expected better frory with hiave her a cool look, remembered that they had come here to make nice with someone ould help them accoetting angry about" Instead, she siht just do, after all I was afraid he’d found soive him his oay, and that would be dreadfully bad for hi mated to that whiny fashion plate has done to his father" The fae started to put out a hand, but then gave it a rueful look "I would shake your hand, but I’d get paint all over you I am known here as Dana Shea and you must be Charles’s o" Anna, re what Charles had told her about True Names, was a little uneasy with how precise the fae wo her

"I’m not the only one," Dana continued, "who has been curious about the woed to tame our old wolf So be prepared for a lot of rudeness fro note as she looked at Charles-"and flirting fro?" Charles asked her

Dana shook her head "No But I know h to face you directly-but they’ll see her as a weakness When your father chose to stay hoe You are not an Alpha-and they’ll resent having to listen to you" She took up a turpentine-soaked rag and cleaned her hands "Now I’ll quit lecturing you, and you can come around here and take a look at what I’ve done instead"

Chapter THREE

BRAVE woonize us, then show us so in Dana’s face to show that their opinion was ie

Anna didn’t knohat to expect, but she drew in her breath when she got her first view of the painting It was skillfully executed, exquisite in detail, color, and texture A robust young woainst a plastered wall and stared out of the painting at so or someone There was a yelloer, delicate and fine-textured, held in hands that were neither