Alpha Omega 02 - Hunting Ground

after the First World War. You think he’s not old enough to pull the same tricks an old lobo like my father can get away with? Da says the secret is to convince yourself you aren’t lying.”
    â€œSo he might just be believing his own press as hard as he can?”
    â€œHe probably brought Excalibur with him,” Charles said. “He usually keeps it close. He might show you if you ask.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œReally.”
    She tucked her hand in his arm. “That might be fun.”
    â€œI’ll give him a call, then.” They walked another half a block in companionable silence. “I scared you,” he said.
    â€œI almost got you killed,” Anna returned flatly. “Thank you for stopping me before I ruined everything.”
    He stopped suddenly, jerking her to a halt. “You understood.”
    â€œNot then,” she admitted. “I reacted first—which really sucked. Every time I think I might not be a flaming coward, I find myself running away.”
    He started walking again. “You aren’t a coward. A coward would never have survived what you did.” But he said it absently, as if he were thinking about something else. “You know I wouldn’t hurt you.”
    He didn’t say it as if he believed it. She tightened her hold on his arm. “I do. My instincts sometimes are screwy, but I know you would never hurt me.”
    He looked at her, a long thoughtful look.
    She raised her chin. “I said I know you would never hurt me.” Then she had to modify it, so he would sense the utter truth of it. “On purpose.” That wasn’t strong enough. “And everything you do is on purpose.” That wasn’t quite right. “You are always careful of what you do. Of me.”
    â€œStop.” His shoulders were shaking and his eyes dancing. “Please. I believe you. But in a minute, you’re going to talk yourself around to distrusting me again.”
    After they’d walked a bit farther, he said, “It is beautiful tonight.”
    Anna glanced up at the rain and the city streets, still noisy with traffic. She liked the way the lights sparkled in the storm. The noises of the city were as familiar and welcome as her childhood home. Somehow, though, she didn’t think that Charles would normally think it beautiful. She smiled at the night.

FIVE

    â€œWE are worried about the innocents,” said the Russian wolf from the podium. Ostensibly, he was speaking to the crowd, but his words were for Charles. He spoke in English, which was well because Charles’s smattering of Russian wasn’t trustworthy on serious subjects, and he was distracted by Anna, who sat, very still, beside him.
    â€œWe are strong,” the Russian said, “and we can protect ourselves. But we have mates who are human, families who are human. They will suffer, and this cannot be tolerated.”
    There was something incongruous about the venue they were in: an elegant auditorium with oak accents, trimmed in fabrics of various brownish gray hues, understated and expensive. A place where Angus hunted the CEOs of large companies and captured them with images of the power his technology could give them. The men and women filling the seats this morning were a different kind of predator. Dressed in their best they might be, but the current occupants of those nice seats made the CEOs look like puppies by comparison.
    â€œIf you can’t protect your own, you deserve to lose them,” commented Chastel from the back quarter of the auditorium. He didn’t speak loudly, but in a room designed for sound and populated by sharp-eared werewolves, he didn’t have to.
    Charles waited. The Russian wolf, whose turn it was to speak, looked at him to enforce discipline. But it wasn’t Charles’s job. Not this time. Brother Wolf was confident that it would be theirs very soon. Then they would discipline Chastel, and blood would flow. But here, in this room, it was someone else’s job.
    The morning of the first day of the meeting was a very good time for a demonstration.
    â€œJean Chastel,” said Dana. “You will not speak again in this room until it is your turn to do so.”
    Charles was probably the only one in the auditorium who wasn’t surprised that, when the French wolf sneered and opened his mouth to say something to the fae, he couldn’t. In Chastel’s own territory, with his