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The fine lines around bitter-chocolate eyes deepened, and for a ent Leslie Fisher looked exactly as doht be in her mid-forties, but the well-cut suit jacket she wore covered h like a junkyard dog - and not just physically If she were a wolf - and ed Not Alpha, she didn’t have the underlying aggressive territoriality that pushed dominant to the head of the pack, but near that How ent fooled with that cool exterior?

The frown in Special Agent Fisher’s eyes extended to her full lips as she said, "We are having thishere, with as few people as possible, because the man who set it up said it wouldn’t be sroomed eyebrow "You don’t look easily upset"

Scolded Anna fought not to grin in satisfaction No to tell her what she needed to knoithout scaring her "They’re not worried about upsetting me It’s my husband who’s the problem olf"

The other wo here Your husband?" She sounded faintly incredulous That Anna was married? That her spouse was a olf? That there were two of them? If Fisher kneolves well, she’d be most incredulous that Charles had left her alone

Anna was a bit incredulous about that herself - and it gave her a sht track with this business She hadn’t been as certain as he and Asil that it would be good for Charles to hunt down a serial killer rather than hunt down reed and so it was done

"Yes" Anna nodded "I’m a olf I’m married And my husband is a olf, too"

Fisher’s frown deepened "The word is that whoever we’re supposed to meet is up the line from Hauptman, who’s the Alpha of a full pack of wolves"

"Is that what the word is?" murmured Anna as she wondered who’d let the word out and if Bran knew about it - or if he’d engineered it If she kept wondering about how ineered, she’d end up in a funny far caps for ducks

"You are barely old enough to be out on your own and your husband is higher up in the olf power structure than Hauptent Fisher "What did they do? Make you marry him when you were twelve?"

Anna blinked at her In her little world built of religiously watched TV shows andthat personal to a person they had just radually - or insinuate soent Fisher’s face, it was the saa makes everyone a bit o Anna hadn’t really connected it to the hurinned and hid her sympathy "No They didn’t tie up poor, weak, innocent, little old me and force me to marry him" She considered it "He’s not weak or innocent, but if I’d had to, I ht have tied him up and forced him to marry me Thankfully, it wasn’t necessary"

The other woman had recovered herself "You said that he is the reason we couldn’t bring in ht," Anna said "But if you wait a moment, I’d rather just explain it once, and I think that - "

She let her voice linger while she timed the footsteps (not Charles’s) that she heard outside the conference roo the halls, but there were twowith purposeful speed that was just a little too fast to be co with each other sometimes do

The door popped open Leslie’s attention diverted fro the new additions to the room She took a couple of steps forward until she stood between Anna and the newcoent a tea the pair of Cantrip people - at least, that ho Anna assumed they were because there were two of them Two Cantrip, two FBI, and one Homeland Security hat Charles had told her She found it ent saw them as opponents - and Anna as an ally

"Ji boys now?" Leslie’s tone was dry Anna thought that the two men who cas friends e carefully told Anna that Leslie was very guarded, more so than she’d been around Anna after the first few er e said he liked the FBI agent, whatever she thought of hient Fisher," he corrected hi boys and have been for a long tih"

Leslie reached out and shook the hands that were offered her "And what does Homeland Security ith a serial killer? That’s for the local cops The only reason this one is FBI is because our killer’s been traveling across state lines for years"

Homeland Security There was supposed to be only one person fro to be happy about that He didn’t like surprises He probably had a file on everyone as co, just studied the FBI agent’s face beforeon to Anna’s She stared back at him, just to see what he’d do He frowned at her and tried to get her to look away, but even Bran couldn’t do that if she didn’t allow it, and he was nowhere near as doent Fisher, for that matter But Anna dropped her eyes anyway There was no sense starting a fight until it was iher up speaking for the olves on this," answered Ji contest his partner had engaged in with Anna "We decided that it would be a good idea if we kneho he was and what he had to say"

Only a subtle tightening in the FBI agent’s back told Anna that the unconscious arrogance in the man’s voice had ticked her off

"And why are there two of you?" Fisher asked "The request was for no more than five people Two of us, two froent had knohy Hoht She hadn’t been surprised that there were two of the a point of it for Anna’s sake By not introducing Anna first, she was leading the theenda in front of the enemy