Cry Wolf

Bran’s voice was clean and dead on pitch, but it was the rich timbre that made the hair on her neck stir in awed appreciation.

As he sang the last note, the man who was sitting on the bench behind her leaned forward until his mouth was almost against her neck.

“So Charles brought a toy home, eh? I wonder if he’ll share.” The voice was lightly accented.

She slid forward on the bench as far as she could and stared fixedly at Charles, but he was closing the cover over the keys to the piano and had his back toward her.

“So he leaves you like a lamb among wolves,” the wolf murmured. “Someone so soft and tender would do better with another man. Someone who likes being touched.” He put his hands on her shoulders and tried to pull her back toward him.

A

A

He looked her age, twenty-three or -four, but for some reason she was absolutely certain he was very, very old. And there was a hint of wildness, of some sickness, about him that made her wary.

“Leave her alone, Asil,” Charles said, and his hands settled on her shoulders where the other man’s had been. “She’ll gut you and leave you for the crows if you bother her.”

She leaned back against his warmth, more than a little surprised that he was right-or at least that her first reaction hadn’t been fear, it had been anger.

The other wolf laughed, his shoulders jerking harshly. “Good.” He said. “Good. Someone should.” Then the odd humor left his face, and he rubbed it tiredly. “Not long now.” He looked past A

“All right, Asil.” Bran’s voice sounded flat and tired. “But not today. Not tomorrow. You can hold out a little longer.”

Asil turned to look at the congregation, who had been a silent witness to it all, and spoke in a clear, ringing voice. “A gift you have, someone who knows what needs to be done and will do it. You have a place to come home to, a safe place, because of him. I had to leave my Alpha to come here because he’d have let me rot in madness out of love.” He turned his head and symbolically spat over his left shoulder. “A weak love that betrays. If you knew what I feel, what Carter Wallace felt, you’d know what a blessing you have in Bran Cornick, who will kill those who need killing.”

And that’s when A

Impulsively, A

He hissed in shock but didn’t pull away. As she held him, the scent of wildness, of sickness, faded. He stared at her, the whites of his eyes showing brightly while his irises narrowed to small bands around his black pupil.

“Omega,” he whispered, his breath coming harshly.

Behind her, Charles stepped closer, but he didn’t touch her as the cool flesh under her fingertips warmed. They all stood frozen in place. A

The shock on Asil’s face faded, and skin around his eyes and mouth softened into sorrow that grew and deepened before tucking itself away, where all private thoughts hid from too-keen observers. He reached out and touched her face lightly, ignoring Charles’s warning growl.

“More gifts here than I’d believed.” He smiled tightly at A

He freed himself with a twist of his wrist, captured her hand in his and, with a sly look at Charles, kissed her palm. Then he let her go and slipped out of the church. Not hurrying, but not dawdling, either.

“Be careful around that one,” Charles cautioned her, but he didn’t sound displeased.

Someone cleared his throat, and A

“It is time to bring this to a close,” the minister said. “Our mourning is done here, and when we leave, we must remember a life well lived and a heart open to all. If you would all bow your heads for a final prayer.”

FOUR

Northwestern Montana,

Cabinet Wilderness

Walter didn’t know why he’d survived the beast’s attack, any more than he understood how he’d survived three tours of ’ Nam when so many of his friends, his comrades, had not. Maybe his survival both times was just luck-or maybe fate had other things in store for him.

Like another thirty years wandering alone in the woods.

If his survival after the beast’s attack had been unlikely, the rest of it was just plain weird. The first thing he’d noticed was that the aching arthritis that had haunted his shoulders and knees, the throb of an old wound in his hip, had all disappeared. The cold no longer bothered him.

It took him a lot longer to realize that his hair and beard had regained the color of his youth-he didn’t carry around a mirror.

That’s when he began paying attention to the oddities. He was faster and stronger than he’d ever been. The only wounds that hadn’t healed with the same remarkable speed as his belly were the ones on his battered soul.

He didn’t really understand what had happened until the morning after the first full moon when he woke up with blood in his mouth, under his nails, and on his naked body: the memory of what he’d done, what he’d become, clear as diamonds. Only then did he know he had become the enemy, and he wept at the loss of the last of his humanity.

Aspen Creek, Montana

With Charles’s arm around her shoulder, A

When they stood mostly alone, A

“So you’re the stray pup my brother decided to bring home? You’re shorter than I expected.”

Impossible to take offense when clearly none was meant; at least he didn’t call her a bitch.

“Yes,” she said, careful to resist the urge to squirm under his gaze or to babble endlessly as she sometimes did when she was nervous.

“Samuel, this is A

Apparently deciding Charles’s brief introduction wasn’t good enough, his brother reintroduced himself. “Dr. Samuel Cornick, elder brother and tormentor. Very nice to meet you, A