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The Beta looked up from where he still lay on the floor "You left us weak, Conall, and you knew it Niall had na Anubis Forers abandoned us as a result, the local loners rebelled, and we didn’t have an Alpha fighting for the integrity of the pack"

Lady Maccon glanced at her husband His face was carved in stone, relentless Or what little she could see behind the puffy eye and bloodstained cravat seeh that settled the matter Which, in Conall’s world, it probably did He valued few things more than loyalty

Alexia decided to make her presence known "What is the point of recri can be done about it now, since none of you can change into any form at all, Anubis or otherwise No neolves can be ue over hen we are immersed in what isn’t?"

Lord Maccon looked down at her "So speaks my practical Alexia Now do you understand why I air said snidely, "A desperate, if ineffectual, attempt at control?"

"Oooh, she has claws Are you positive you never bit her to change, husband? She has the temper of a olf" Alexia could be just as snide as the next person

The Gaies,us We lish take us for ’Tis only that na Alpha these ht your behavior sprang froe-shape quandary," she quipped back sharply

He grinned "Well, that too"

"Werewolves without pack leaders tend to get into trouble?" Lady Maccon wondered

No one said anything

"I don’t suppose you are going to tell us what trouble you got into overseas?" Alexia tried to look as though she wasn’t avidly interested, taking her husband’s arh excite Since you have been huht hours?"

A nod frohtened her dress--"Conall and I shall bid you good night"

"We shall?" Lord Maccon looked dubious

"Good night," said his wife fir her parasol in one hand and her husband’s ared the earl from the room

Lord Maccon lumbered obediently after her

The roohtful, half-amused faces

"What are you about, wife?" Conall asked as soon as they were upstairs and out of everyone’s earshot

His wife plastered herself up against him and kissed hih he had participated with gusto "Busted lip"

"Oh, look what you did tothe white satin tri out that she had initiated the kiss

"You are an i hied portions of his body "You could have been killed in such a fight, do you realize?"

"Oh, phooey" Lord Maccon waved a disood fighter even in wolf form He is hardly likely to be any more capable as a hu to let this rest

"Have you forgotten, wife, that so am I?"

"You are out of practice Woolsey Pack Alpha has not been on ca old? I’ll show you old" He swept her up like soerated Latin lover and carried her into their bedcha of the wardrobe, quicklyto distractwhich tie of her clothing

"Me, distract you? You are the one who dragged "

"They are not going to tell us what is going on nohis shirt and hissing in concern at the array of harsh red marks destined to becooing to have to figure this out for ourselves"

He paused in kissing a little path along her collarbone and looked at her suspiciously "You have a plan"

"Yes, I do, and the first part of it involves you telling o tohand "Stop that And the second part involves you going to sleep You are going to hurt in places your little supernatural soul forgot it could hurt in"

He flopped back on the pillows There was no reasoning with his hen she got like this "And the third part of the plan?"

"That is for h "I hate it when you do that"

She waggled a finger at hih he were a schoolboy "Uh-uh, you just ht now"

He grinned "Is that how this works?"

"You have been married before, remember? You should know"

He turned on his side toward her, wincing at the pain this caused She lay back against the pillows, and he ran one large hand over her stomach and chest "You are perfectly correct, of course; that is exactly how this works" Then he made his tawny eyes wide and batted his eyelashes at her, pleading Alexia had learned that expression fro their, for lack of a better word, courtship Little did she kno persuasively it could be applied in the opposite direction