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"Are you going to at least see ravelly

"I ht be persuaded You would, of course, have to be very very nice to reed to be nice, in the best nonverbal way possible

Afterward, he lay staring fixedly up at the ceiling and told her why he had left the Kingair Pack He told her all of it, from what it was like for the of Queen Victoria’s rule, to the assassination atteair Beta, his old and trusted friend, without his knowledge

He did not once look at her while he talked Instead his eyes re above them

"They were all in on it Every last one of theers And not a one told me Oh, not because I was all that loyal to the queen; surely you know packs and hives better than that by now Our loyalty to a daylight ruler is never unreserved No, they lied to me because I was loyal to the cause, always have been"

"What cause?" wondered his wife She held his big hand in both of hers as she lay curled toward him, but otherwise she did not touch hiine ould have happened if they had succeeded? A Scottish pack, attached to one of the best Highland regi Queen Victoria It would have thrown over the whole government, but not only that, it would have taken us back to the Dark Ages Those daylight conservatives who have always been against integration would call it a nationally supported supernatural plot, the church would regain its foothold on British soil, and ould be back to the Inquisition quicker than you could shake a tail"

"Husband"--Alexia was iven Conall’s political views ht! I couldna believe my pack would put all olves into such a position And for what? Old resentments and Scottish pride? A weak alliance with Irish dissidents? And the worst of it was, not a one had told me of the plot Not even Lachlan"

"Then how did you find out about it in the end?"

He huffed in disgust "I caught the the poison Poison, rounds or in pack business It isna an honest way to kill anyone, let alone a monarch"

Alexia suppressed a smile This would appear to be the aspect of the conspiracy that upset him the most

"We olves are not known for our subtlety I had realized they were plotting so for weeks When I found the poison, I forced a confession out of Lachlan"

"And you ended up having to fight and kill your own Beta over it Then what, you si them without leadership?"

He finally turned and looked at her, propping hihtly "There is no pack protocol to cover this kind of situation A large-scale betrayal of an Alpha with no qualified reason or ready replaceonized "My Beta! They deserved to be without metamorphosis I could have killed them all, and not a one would have objected, least of all the dewan, save that they were not plotting against ht queen"

He looked to her and his eyes were sad

She tried to distill the story down into onewas a point of pride, honor, and politics?"

"Essentially"

"I suppose it could have been worse" She s his forehead

"They could have succeeded"

"You realize, as ain, do you think? After two decades? Could that explain thememories"

"In the interest of Queen Victoria’s safety, is there a way for us to provide a surety against this?"

He sighed softly "I dinna know"

"And that’s why you came back? If it’s true, you’ll have to kill them all, won’t you, sundowner?"

He turned away from her words, his broad back stiff, but he did not deny the the information Lord Akelda man the vampire referred to only as Biffy, Professor Lyall set up an operation "A regied scotch--a warrate and a pluht it was sial trade, but now I believe it to be so its va any common soldier Even the ill-dressed It’s horrible" The vaave a delicate little shudder "I cannot discern what it is they are buying up so greedily You want to find out what Westminster is up to? Tap into those olf , and set up an offer Biffy can take you to the preferred venue"

And so it was, on the information provided by a rove vampire, that Professor Lyall now sat in a very seedy pub, the Pickled Crumpet, accompanied by a spectacularly well-dressed drone and Major Channing A feobbly tables away sat one of Major Channing’s es and looking nervous

Professor Lyall slouched down and nursed his beer He hated beer, a vile co legs, jostling the table and sloshing their drinks

"Stop that," his Beta instructed "No one’s colared at him

Biffy offered them a pinch of snuff Both olves declined in thinly veiled horror I about with one’s sense of smell! Such a vampiric kind of affectation