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"It’s pretty new We found the bar in St Francisville was, urin and tried to look somber, "…unable toshit and were putting a beating on the poor townie uys under a nolia nodded "Soe of their king helps to hold their tempers in line This way they can still have their fun and no one gets hurt"

"Can we have a bar?" I asked Lucas

"What would Genevieve think?"

The queen of the were-ocelots, Genevieve Renard, had a bar in New York that was a popular shapeshifter hot spot The Cha it also housed a 5-star quality restaurant But the idea of our own little Manhattan pub was sort of appealing

"Shall we go in?" Magnolia asked, apparently uneasy about the new, hungry look on my face "I’d like to introduce you to the pack before His Majesty joins us"

"Yes please, Magnolia Lead the way" Lucas nodded his head in her direction without bowing it He couldn’t shoeakness to her or be seen to bow before a lesser wolf

Werewolf politics and custonolia wasn’t subservient because she was a woman Woan or myself And just as often nolia’s in the pecking order Where you stood depended on the power you projected And your poas determined at birth There was no way around it With wolves you would never be able to rise above the position you were born to hold

I wondered if that was one of the reasons Kellen had decided not to be Awakened She was spunky and independent, but she wasn’t powerful As a human she had control of her future As a wolf she would have been subservient forever, living in the shadow of her brother the king

Once ere inside the bar, I became aware of just how quiet it had been outdoors Within the walls of The Den it sounded like three dozen people were talking all at once Probably because there were I was aed into the room and how hot it

The conversations--all forty thousand of them, fronolia into the roo to shrink away from the scrutiny of so many lupine stares I could handle a feolves, but this ood, but I wasn’t one-against-thirty-six good

"Brothers and sisters," Magnolia greeted, bowing her head to a few of the obviously higher-ranked pack me of the Eastern packs, and his consort, Secret McQueen, Princess of our own Southern pack"

Every tie I’d barely wrappedolf royalty in the past year, and here she was expecting these strangers to treat me like I was special Maybe I was, but I didn’t want a bunch of roughneck-looking shifters bowing in front of s had earlier Thanks, but no thanks

The wolves sat stock-still for a few lances between the ashy bob came and stood before Lucas and me She bowed in a way she had not the first tis

"Hello again, A her a hard stare

Maybe I had soainst women who acted as the third power seat in the olf hierarchy Aan was to Lucas A strong ho probably wasn’t quite strong enough or trustworthy enough to make the final jump to the lieutenant position

Amelia san proud if she had seen it "Your Royal Highness," she greeted I didn’t like her tone Or her face Or her dress, for that mental

"Always a pleasure" The words ca bitch, bitch, bitch Lucas couldn’t read ri Aain I trust time has treated you well"

"It has, Your Majesty, thank you" She bowed again, but not as low as Magnolia had

For the next fifteen thy queue of wolves ere required to let their beers grohile they bowed in a variety of heights and told us how thrilled they were to have us in their territory and how lovely it was to have ain

Like this had ever beensort who I would give a wide berth to in a back alley or at a regular bar Not that I was physically inti in his manner set off er in his eyes suggested a serous losses of control He smelled like trouble and was probably thewith huave Lucas a midlevel bow and an appropriate--if forced--royal address When he turned his attention todifferent Not lust--I knehat that looked and felt like No, this anted so other than sex, I just didn’t knohat it was He leaned a little too close and sniffed the air aroundwide as he breathed round and stared him in his steel-blue eyes

"I don’t believe we’ve been introduced," I suggested, trying to give hi Lucas had gone rigid beside e was si under that hard surface

"Yes How silly ofthe prohness" Those three words sounded filthy coreat treat it is to have you host us commoners"

"Hank," Amelia spoke up, "watch yourself" But she wasn’t really scolding hi a child when they secretly found the bad behavior hilarious The rest of the pack reies, Princess," Hank said