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The sensation of being watched soon began to grow, untilfroaze swept the barren landscape, looking for watchers that Evin htn’t have known about After all, Blake would more than likely have introduced stricter security ainst h to realize the Directorate would retaliate the minute they found any connection

It’s just a shaer and need for revenge to hi upon it

We started up the long slope that was the final division between us and the place we’d grown up My sto nine to the dozen We reached the top and, as one, slowed

Below us lay the valley of our childhood In e ranch with lots of outbuildings than a city like Dunedan The old, wood-shingled buildings blended in with the red of the surrounding countryside and contrasted sharply against the bright pockets of green - the football oval, the ce the darew up here

There were people out and about but, as yet, it didn’t appear that we’d been noticed My gaze went almost with a will of its own to the ramshackle but beautiful old house that sat one behind - and slightly to the side - of the rown up It had been our grandfather’s place, but never really our home, as randfather had tolerated us, he’d fed us, and he’d educated us, but he’d never really loved us We were half-breeds and, in his eyes, a tarnish on the Jenson name

Maybe that hy he’d turned a blind eye to so much of what Blake and his family had done to us over the years He’d always stopped it fro too far, but I think that had been more for Mom’s sake than from any real need to protect us

Moun, I actually began to think about her Neither of us had seen her for well over ten years We didn’t communicate, didn’t share birthdays or Christmas or Easter

And yet I knew she’d loved us

Hoas she going to react when she saw us? When she realized ere going to do?

How the hell e going to reacther?

I shivered and rubbeda word, he wrapped his fingers around mine and started off down the hill

We were spotted about halfway down Initially it was nothingon hatever they were doing, but word of ere otten around fairly quickly By the time we’d hit the valley bottom, we’d drawn quite a crowd

But it was a silent one, and that eird

Rhoan released s, but he kept close, our ar each other as alked The tension that had been riding hione, and he walked with the loose-liet away

I wished I could imitate him, but it simply wasn’t possible

Scents swirled around us, rich with familiarity andon the silent figures watching us, wondering what they were thinking but not daring to find out Their expressions were closed, unreadable, and for one uneasy ed the pack Wondered if we’d bitten off ht incline, heading toward thehall Blake could have been anywhere, but the hall was the seat of power for the pack It’s where business was handled, where justice was meted out, and where- and he surely did by now - then this is where he’d be

Of course, our confrontation would not happen in the hall itself, but rather in the arena behind it It was here where the blood disputes were handled and where the challengers to leadership were heard and decided

Blake had killed randfather and taken over the leadership there, and nohere he would roeeping in behind us and effectively cutting off our exit The scent of wolf and hos and twisting ers, but it didn’t do ures appeared out of the building above us Both wereof build Both wore contelanced at my watch It was after six Jack’s half of the operation had already swung into action If Blake had any suspicion that his e around his ears, he wouldn’t be standing there so calmly

We stopped when there were still ten feet or so between us, with Rhoan slightly behind e He was here as hter than me And he’d need to be to take out Tyson, as alain

"You trespass, wolf," Blake said, his voice boo out across the ept silence

"And you, Blake Jenson, stand accused of fraud, kidnap, and murder" I took a piece of paper out of es if you wish"

He didn’t bother looking at the paper, just left it fluttering at his feet "So you’re here to arrestConteive you no such power"

"Pack land rights give the police no power," I corrected "But we’re not police And we’re not here to arrest you"

"Then what are you here for?"

"To carry out the sentence"

Alike a tide Neither Blake nor Tyson seeives me protection Kill me, and my family will see to it that you, the Directorate, and everyone in your faally and monetarily"

I smiled thinly, ht now, both your fahter, brother, and sister - are being rounded up by Directorate personnel Their fate very much depends on just how deeply they’ve been involved in your schemes Personally, I wouldn’t care if they wiped out every last trace of your DNA from this earth"

That wiped the smiles off their faces Blake clenched his fists and took a step forward "You wouldn’t dare"

I stepped forward, lare "I warned you ould happen if you ca"

"What do you mean?" Tyson said, and just for a moment, there was doubt and uncertainty in his expression But Tyson, for all his size, had never been half the powerhouse that his brother was

"Ifroe you to ad vitam aeternam" Which was an old Latin phrase that ht to the death

His eyes widened ever so briefly, then he threw his head back and laughed

Laughed

The ht

No one else seemed to find it funny Not even his brother, whose expression noavered between uncertainty and fear Tyson obviously had some sense of the trouble they were in Blake didn’t

"Riley, Riley, Riley," Blake said, wiping at his eyes as if there were tears of mirth there "I couldn’t have asked for a better solution to our problem"