Hunting Ground

“So who do you think?”

Angus frowned irritably. “I don’t know most of them well enough. We could question them-if we wanted to start a war. The Europeans are twitchy about their honor. If they only wanted an Omega wolf-I’ll call the Italians and warn them to keep theirs close.”

Charles’s eyebrows raised. “I knew they had one, but not that they brought him here.” He looked at A

Angus turned his attention to A

“Turned him into a werewolf,” A

Charles nodded. “And the Germans were hotter than blazes when the Italians claimed him as theirs.”

“A custody battle, in fact,” said Angus. “I expect that’s why the Italians brought him-to rub it in the Germans’ noses that he chose to stay with them.”

Charles was watching the interest in A

“Maybe that’s it,” said Moira thoughtfully. “Everyone in the pack has been talking about it-sorry, A

“I met someone like that once,” said A

“Yes,” said Angus, with a little amused glance at Charles as A

“Don’t forget you have a di

Charles looked at the witch, and he wasn’t the only one. She smiled at them all. “We don’t know exactly what they were trying to do. Probably they were trying to kidnap A

“Besides,” said Angus, “why give them the power to change your plans when no permanent harm was done?”

Yes, Charles realized. That was logic he could wrap his head around. He had no desire to go out and do the social thing at the best of times-and this attack made him want to take his mate and barricade her in where she was safe.

“I’ll go get another room,” he said. “Tom and Moira can stay here until he’s healed-and order room service.”

“I’ll stay here, too,” said Angus. “Until Tom’s up to taking care of himself.”

Charles looked at the Alpha and realized that he wasn’t the only one feeling protective. “Good,” he told them, and left to do as he’d said.

A collective sigh of relief went through the room when Charles left, but no one said anything until the elevator ding was heard faintly through the walls.

A

“Well,” said Angus, and Tom whined. “There’s a reason Bran uses him to scare the bejeebers out of miscreants. I think we all saw it tonight.”

“Saw what?” asked Moira.

“Exactly,” said Alan Choo, who was repacking the bag he’d brought with him. “Angus pointed-and I didn’t even see him move. He just was. Standing between his mate and Angus.” And then he lapsed into Chinese for a few sentences.

A

Angus shook his head. “Did you see the faces on some of the wolves when he talked to them today? I suspect they didn’t even know he could talk-let alone make so much sense when he did. It was as if a shark started speaking the King’s English.”

Tom raised his head and looked at Angus, and Alan broke off his Chinese muttering to stare at his Alpha.

“Queen’s English,” said A

“Before God there’s not,” agreed Angus. “I thought to myself-well look at that, he’s conducting a meeting just like everyone else. Maybe the other rumors were exaggerated about him, too. And they weren’t. Not a bit of it. I don’t ever want to face that man fang and claw.”

“If you don’t shut up,” A

And Angus sat back in his chair and smiled at her with satisfaction. “Well, now,” he said in an entirely different voice. “Maybe I won’t.”

She’d missed it, she realized looking at Tom and Alan Choo. She’d mistaken Tom’s astonishment for agreement. Angus had been playing her.

“Why the test?” she asked.

Angus shrugged. “I’ve known Charles a long time. I saw him turn from a quiet boy into the weapon his father needed-that we needed. Just because I understood the need, it didn’t mean I couldn’t regret. I just wanted to make sure that you were able to see below the killer to the man beneath.”

“So you set him off on purpose?”

Angus’s smile widened into a grin. “With the pointing-finger thing? When he was already thirsting after fresh blood because you were endangered and he’d gone hunting with no results? Do I look that stupid? No, that was just an accident.”

A

“I knew people were afraid of him,” she said. “You really think they believe there’s something wrong with Charles?”

Angus tilted his head, but it was Alan who answered. “Something off, anyway. Not so much crazy as… different. His father’s soulless killer, loyal to the Marrok and no one else. Every word that comes out of his mouth put there by the Marrok, like a ventriloquist’s dummy only scarier.”

A

“Charles does it deliberately,” Angus told her, watching her closely. She hoped that she gave nothing away, but his words were so close to her thoughts that she must have. He tapped the arm of his chair with impatient fingers. “If the other wolves are all scared of him, they won’t be stupid and make him kill them. And they’re right, whether they know it or not. There is something off, haven’t you noticed? His wolf is completely out of control. It should have turned him into a mindless killer-but it hasn’t.”

Brother Wolf, thought A

“Why do you suppose that is?” asked Choo.

Angus raised an eyebrow and looked at her, as if he thought she might supply an explanation.

There was a wolf responsible for the attack on them tonight. She didn’t really believe Angus was the enemy either. He might even be Charles’s friend if she could believe her nose. But she wasn’t going to be sharing any insights about her mate-even if she had them-with Angus of the Emerald City Pack.

She gave him a look and relaxed on her seat on the arm of Charles’s chair and waited for him to return.

ANGER.

He was so angry.

Charles had been all right all the way down to the main desk. He’d focused on the task at hand, gotten a second room, and been fine until he got back into the elevator and considered the attack on A

The control that had always been at his fingertips seemed to be melting away. He watched the floor numbers rise, and they seemed to proceed at a viciously fast pace when he had so much thinking to do.