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Lord Maccon shrugged "The neill probably make it back to London before we do"

"You believe they are headed there after Gretna Green?"

"Well, Tunstell is hardly likely to give up the stage Besides, all of his possessions are at Woolsey"

Lady Maccon sighed "Poor Ivy"

"Why poor Ivy?"

"Well, my dear, you must adgled his eyebrows "I always thought your friend had a flair for the dramatic, my dear"

Alexia winced "You suppose she will join hied

Felicity, who had been avidly listening in to their conversation, slapped her fork down on her empty plate with a clank "Well, I say! You mean she will not be completely ruined?"

Lord Maccon only slanced at her sister--"I think you ood actress She certainly has the looks for it"

Felicity stood up from the table and rins

Alexia figured this was as good a ti herself to another s the kippers Her sto never really recovered froible experience, but a body had to eat

"Aye?" Conall loaded his plate doithpresently, e not?"

"Aye"

"I ken it is tiair, then," she stated baldly into the quietof the dinner table

The pack was i at once

"You canna change a woot left," added Lachlan, as though Alpha were a cut of air did not say anything, looking pale but resolute

Alexia, rather boldly, took her husband’s chin in one gloved hand, turning hi hiardless of your pack laws and your olf pride Take ood sense"

He grumbled but did not jerk his head away "I married you for your body and to stop that otto say" Lady Maccon rolled her eyes and then kissed hiht there in front of the whole dinner table

It was the surest way to silence a pack--scandalize the slightly open

"Good news, Lady Kingair," said Alexia "My husband has agreed to change you"

The Kingair Beta laughed, breaking the du she is a proper Alpha for all she was born a curse-breaker Never thought I’d see you line up short to the petticoats, old wolf"

Lord Maccon stood up slowly and leaned forward, staring across at Dubh "Want to try ain, pup? I can beat you down just as soundly in wolf form as I could in hu his neck Apparently he agreed with the earl in this air sat, still and straight in her chair at the head of the table "You certain about this, lass? You ken ’tis probably death that’s facing you?"

"We need an Alpha, Graer without one I be the only option we’ve got left, and at least I’m Maccon You owe the pack"

Lord Maccon’s voice was a low ru But you, lass, you’re the last of my line And it’s tihed softly "Finally"

Conall nodded once ed Not entirely There was no full breaking of bone, no co of hair into fur--except about his head Only there did Lord Maccon transfor upward, and his eyes shifting from brown to full yellow and lupine The rest of hi

"Goodness ht here, right now?" She sed "At the dinner table?"

No one responded They all stopped eating--a serious business, indeed, to put a Scotser alike beca hard at Lord Maccon It was as though, by sheer strength of will, they could all see this h to a successful conclusion Either that, or they were about to regurgitate their reat-great-granddaughter

There was really no other way of putting it

Alexia watched in wide-eyed horror as her husband, wearing the head of a wolf, began to bite down on Lady Kingair’s neck and then kept on cho

And he was doing it right there, supper dishes not yet cleared away The blood leaking down froair’s throat seeped into the lace collar and silk bodice of her dress, a dark spreading stain

The Earl of Woolsey savaged Sidheag Maccon Not one of the pack stepped in to save her Sidheag flailed against the full bite Instinct would not deny such a reaction She clawed and hit at Conall, but he reth easily outles He si hands about her shoulders--and they were still si white teeth ripped through skin and ht down to the bone Blood covered histhe fur there

Lady Maccon could not pull her eyes away froht There seemed to be blood everywhere, and the copper sis and fried kipper She was beginning to discern the inner workings of the woh this were so stopped struggling, her eyes rolling far back, showing almost all the whites Her head, barely still attached to the rest of her body, lolled dangerously far to one side

Then, in soue, and like an excessively friendly dog, he began licking over all the flesh he had just butchered And he kept on licking, covering Sidheag’s face and her partly openwounds

I a to be able to perforht Alexia, her eyes wide and fixed on the repulsive sight Then, entirely unexpectedly and without even knowing it was about to happen, she actually fainted A real honest-to-goodness faint, right there, face forward into her half-eaten haggis