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opinion, was the large nueon level Woolsey Castle had to house a goodly nuers, and servants

Lord Maccon jules and carnivorous urges only the full moon whipped into ra air, and the urge to hunt, and ers aiting for hiroup at the door to the castle

"You are cutting it a bit close for co the Alpha’s cloak

Lord Maccon grunted, shedding his hat and gloves onto a long hallway stand designed expressly for that purpose

He squinted into the asse for Tunstell Tunstell was his personal valet and default captain of the household clavigers Spotting the gangly redhead, Lord Maccon barked, "Tunstell, you dreadful young blunt, report"

Tunstell bounced up and flourished a bow His customary smile dimpled his freckled face "All the pack’s accounted for and locked down, sir Your cell is clean and waiting Best we get you down there right quick, I’ What have I told you?"

Tunstell only grinned wider

Lord Maccon held his wrists outward "Precautionary measures, Tunstell" Tunstell’s chipper smile diminished "Are you certain that is necessary, sir?"

The earl felt his bones beginning to self-fracture "Drat it, Tunstell, are you questioning orders?" The s was saddened by this lapse He had great affection for the boy, but every tiht be ready for the bite, he behaved like a fathead He seeh sense to becohtly If the redhead survived the change but continued with this cavalier attitude toward regulations, would anyone be secure?

Ruer He had no intention of bidding forhis job efficiently He had been butler to the pack for a long tiers present in that hallway Usually he exhibited ht Lord Maccon in exasperation It was one of the downsides of fleecing that particular profession Men of the stage were not always acity

The butler proffered a copper tray with a set of iron manacles atop it "Mr Tunstell, if you would be so kind," he said

The redheaded claviger already carried his own set of handcuffs, as all clavigers did He sighed resignedly, plucking the thehed in relief "Quickly," he insisted, already slurring his words as the change re-formed his jawbone away fro as well, the horrible bone-wrenching agony to which, in all his long life, Lord Maccon had never yet becoers surrounded hi stone staircase and into the castle dungeon Some, the earl noticed in relief, were sensibly armored and armed All wore sharp silver cravat pins A few carried silver knives sheathed at their waists These stayed to the outskirts of the crowd, carefully distanced froht make it necessary for theeon was full of snarling, slathering occupants The youngest pups of Lord Maccon’s pack could not resist change for several nights leading up to the full moon, let alone the moon itself These had been in residence for days The rest ith the sun as soon as it set on the actual night Only Lord Maccon was strong enough to still be outside of confine suavely on a s only his ridiculous glassicals and reading the evening paper He was struggling to slow the change Most of the pack simply let the as he could, testing his will against the inevitability of the h the heavy iron bars of his Beta’s cell, Lord Maccon could see that Lyall’s spine was curled forward inhumanly far, and he boasted considerably more hair than was acceptable for anypaper in the privacy of one’s own prison

The professor gave his Alpha a long look from yellow eyes over the tops of his spectacles Lord Maccon, holding his nored his Beta in a very pronouncede about Alexia if his Beta’s jaere not already changed well beyond hueway His pack settled down as he passed As each wolf caught sight and scent of the Alpha, he instinctively quieted Several flattened down their forelegs in a kind of bow, and one or two rolled over, presenting their stoed his doe He would brook no disobedience, on this of all nights, and they knew it

The earl stepped inside his oaiting cell It was the largest but also thewas safe when he changed No foot-stool or periodical was in residence, just stone and iron and eers slammed and triple bolted the iron door behind hieway, so as to be entirely out of reach In this, at least, they followed his orders isters of the pack began to howl

Lord Maccon felt his bones co and shrinking, his tendons realigning, his hair shifting doard and becoht a faint whiff of so an air current down from the castle above

Those few older members of the pack still partly hues with his of daylight disappeared Bodies always resisted the cursed change, ether only by the threads of what remained of their souls, all sensibility converted to frenzy The noise theydeath-lust cry of the da but fear: vahost, human, or animal, it mattered not Nor would it, in the end, for any olf freed of his fetters would kill indiscriht, the blood moon, it was not a matter of choice or necessity It simply was

However, when Lord Maccon raised his muzzle up to howl, his was not a mindless cry of wrath The low tones of the Alpha’s voice were inized the s in huers

Conall Maccon, Earl of Woolsey, crashed up against the bars of his cell, the last vestiges of his hu out: not to kill, not to be free, but to protect

Too late