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Ivy opened and closed her mouth a couple of times like an affronted poodle, and then whirled to do as he had bidden There was a woed exposure to Alexia Tarabotti

"Tunny!" she cal ed, trotting back down the hal way, and then with far greater sharpness, "Ormond Tunstel , wake up Do!"

Professor Lyal closed the door and turned back to his charge He reached into his waistcoat for one of his trusty handkerchiefs, only then rereatcoat, retrieved fro at his own teed a corner of it into the neolf’sto bite down upon and alsothe shuddering for about him tenderly It was partly Beta instinct, to protect a new member of the pack, but it was also syot any better, but because it was so unfamiliar an experience

Tunstel let hi on?"

"Too ht now, I’ot a new pup on my hands and no Alpha to handle him Do you have any raw meat in the house?"

"The wife ordered steak, delivered only yesterday" Tunstel left without needing to be pressed further

Lyal smiled The redhead fel so easily back into his old role of claviger, doing what needed to be done for the olves around hi to retreat up to the top of his head, showing skin now pale with i their yel ow hue in favor of blue Clutching that writhing for and re-for shift It would take the young man decades to master any level of competency Rapidity and se

Lyal held Biffy the entire tie raw steak and fussed about with varying degrees of helpfulness Held hi but naked Biffy, shivering and lookingdandy pushed weakly against the Beta’s arh he needed to sneeze "What is going on?"

Professor Lyal relaxed his embrace and sat back on his heels next to the couch

Tunstel came over with a blanket and a concerned expression Just before he covered the young man over, Lyal was pleased to notice that Biffy appeared to be entirely healed from the bul et wound, a true supernatural, indeed

"Who are you?" Biffy focused fuzzily on Tunstel ’s bright red hair

"I’er to Lord Maccon Now I’m mostly just an actor"

"He is our host and a friend We wil be safe here for the day" Professor Lyal kept his voice low and cal man

"Is there some reason we need to be? Safe, I mean"

"How much do you remember?" Lyal swept a lock of brown hair back behind Biffy’s ear in a motherly fashion Despite al his transfor man stil looked every inch the dandy He wouldmasculinity of the Woolsey Pack

Biffy jerked and fear flooded into his eyes "Extermination mandate! I found out that there is a… Oh, dear God, I was supposed to report in! I missed the appointment with my lord" He made as if to try and rise

Lyal held him back easily

Biffy turned on him frantical y "You don’t understand--he’l swar after the potentate How could I have gotten caught? I’m such an imbecile I know better than that Why, he’l …" He trailed off "How long was I down there?"

Lyal sighed "He did swarents pul ed out of covert place to be so very disappointed in me"

Lyal tried to distract hi trapped under the Tha I would never escape"

Biffy brushed one hand over his face "And that I real y needed a shave Then I re in the darkness to shouting and gunshots And then I re" Lyal paused, searching for the right words Here he was, hundreds of years old, and he could not explain to one boy why he had been changed against his wil

"Was I? well , good thing that didn’t take My lord would never forgiveper sestured to the plate of raw steak sitting nearby

Biffy tilted his head to see, then looked back at Lyal in confusion "But it’s not cooked Why does it sood?"

Lyal cleared his throat As a Beta, he’d never had to perform this particular task It was the Alpha’s job to acclimatize the newly turned, the Alpha’s job to explain and be there and be strong and be, well , Alphaish for a new pup But Lord Maccon was halfway to Dover by now, and Lyal was left to deal with thisissue I just mentioned? well , it did take, in its way"

At which juncture, Professor Lyal had to watch those beautiful blue eyes turn from dazed confusion to horrified realization It was one of the saddest things he had ever seen in al his long life

At a loss, Lyal handed Biffy the plate of raw steak

Unable to control hi it down in elegant, but very rapid, bites

For the sake of his dignity, both Professor Lyal and Tunstel pretended not to notice that Biffy was crying the entire time Tears dribbled down his nose and onto the steak while he chewed, and sed, and chewed, and sobbed

The preceptor’s picnic, as it turned out, was a little more elaborate than Alexia and Madame Lefoux had been led to believe They trundled a sizable distance into the countryside, away fro eventually at an archaeological excavation While the antiquated carriage attempted to park on a hil ock, their Teing in an Etruscan tomb picnic