Sharp teeth and a warm mouth touched his neck and were gone as quickly as the weight that had dropped him. He focused on the snow and took a deep breath of cold air-and something heavy landed on his shoulders, dropping him facedown in the snow. This time, Charles knew his father was wrong.Īnd now he'd worked himself up into a fine mood. His brother could sometimes change the Marrok's mind-but he never had. Not for the first time, he wished for a more facile tongue. He needed real control that would allow him to lay out his argument logically and explain why the Marrok was wrongheaded-instead of simply bashing heads with him the way they had the last four times Charles had spoken to him. He had to be in better control of himself before he faced the Marrok again. Charles knew he shouldn't bait his father by defying his orders-especially not in front of a wolf who needed guidance, as Robert did. Brother Wolf was smugly satisfied Charles tried not to be. The vehicle spun out, then grabbed traction and headed back to the Marrok's, fish-tailing with Robert's urgent desire to get away. "Tell him I'll come after my walk is cleared." And he went back to work.Īfter a few scrapes of his shovel, he heard the SUV turn around in the narrow road. That "sir" was a far cry from "Hey, Chief."
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Usually, he and Brother Wolf were in better harmony-or maybe the real problem was that he wanted to kill someone, too.Ĭharles waited a full minute, knowing how long that time would seem to his father's message boy. The scent of his fear pleased Brother Wolf-and made Charles feel a little sick at the same time.
He lowered his eyelids and watched the man squirm some more. Robert's would do.Ĭharles didn't say anything. The stress of defying the Marrok, his Alpha, had left Brother Wolf wanting blood. Inside him Brother Wolf smelled Robert's weakness and liked it. And he resented it, resented his pettiness and the roiling anger that caused it. The man lost his grin, paled, and dropped his eyes instantly, his heartbeat making the big blood vessel in his neck throb with sudden fear.Ĭharles felt petty. There weren't many people Charles extended the privilege of calling him anything but his given name, and this pup wasn't one of them.Ĭharles stopped shoveling and looked at the other wolf, let him see just what he was messing with. "Chief!" The man didn't even bother getting out of the car. That Bran had sent Robert to deliver his message told Charles just how furious his da was. If Robert didn't learn manners, the disposal job wouldn't bother Charles as much as it should. If Robert couldn't learn discipline, it would probably be Charles's job to dispose of him. Sometimes the Marrok could help other times he just had to clean up the mess.
It was a new wolf, Robert, sent here to the Aspen Creek Pack by his own Alpha because of his lack of control. There was no one who lived near him on the snow-packed mountain road-so the SUV was just the next step in his father's determination to make him toe the line. He'd turned off his cell and continued to ignore the cool voice of his father in his head until it went away. It would be today.ĬHARLES heard the SUV, but he didn't look up. She had to trust that her own werewolf reflexes were up to this. If she screwed this up, he could kill her. And when his control failed, people would die.ĭangerous. And it needed to be done, because it was only a matter of time before he lost the control that kept him shoveling to a steady beat while the wolf raged inside him.
Weak and cowardly, but it was the only way she could take him. She shook with the stress of what she planned. He was wary and disciplined-and if he hadn't been so angry, surely his senses, werewolf sharp, would have discovered her hiding place in the snow beneath the fir trees lining his front yard. Something told her it had to be today, that she wouldn't get a fourth opportunity. One quick movement and it would all be over-if she didn't lose her courage, as she had the first two times. From behind, she thought, as fast as possible, to give him no time to react. And in his fierce control, she saw his rage, tamped and contained by will alone-like a pipe bomb.įlattening herself and breathing lightly so he wouldn't see her, she considered how she would do it. Each slide of the shovel was strictly parallel to previous marks. Every movement was exactly the same as the one before. Heart in her mouth, she watched as he cleared the snow with carefully controlled violence. The first two times he'd been chopping wood, but today, after a heavy snowfall appropriate for the middle of December, he was shoveling the sidewalk. SHE observed him from her chosen cover, as she'd done twice before.