'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 weren't 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 that 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 third week of December, he was shoveling the sidewalk. She observed him from her chosen cover, as she'd done twice before.

Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs