Charles looked at his father and waited for his judgment. Running around the Cabinets in the middle of winter wasn’t his favorite thing-those mountains didn’t like travelers much. Still, he could do it better than anyone else his father could call upon here, wounded or not, especially if it wasn’t just some rogue wolf but an attack on his father’s territory.

Finally, Bran nodded. “I need you more than I need speed. It’ll keep a week.”

“What are you going to do about Asil?” asked Charles. “Despite the best efforts of the Reverend Mitchell, Samuel, and Doc Wallace, himself-the pack is pretty ugly right now. If you have to kill him, there will be consequences with the pack.”

Bran smiled faintly. “I know. Asil came to me a month ago complaining about his dreams and started asking me to put him out of his misery again. Not something I’d normally worry about, but this is the Moor.”

“Who is he dreaming of?” Samuel asked.

“His dead mate,” Bran said. “She was tortured to death. He won’t speak of it, though I know he feels guilty because he’d been traveling when it happened. He told me he’d quit dreaming of it when he joined our pack-but it started again last month. He wakes up disoriented and…sometimes not where he went to sleep.”

Dangerous, thought Charles, to have a wolf of the Moor’s powers out and about under its own direction.

“You think his death can wait?” asked Samuel.

Bran smiled, a real smile. “I think it can wait. We have an Omega to help him.” His father looked at Charles, and the smile broadened to a grin. “She’s not going to leave you for him, Charles, no matter what Asil says to tweak your tail.”

Charles’s living room, though expensively decorated, was still warm and homey, Anna decided. It just wasn’t her home. She wandered restlessly through the rooms before she finally settled in the bedroom, sitting in a corner on the floor with her legs pulled up, hugging herself. She refused to cry. She was just being stupid: she didn’t even really know why she was so upset.

It had bothered her to be sent away-and at the same time she’d felt a rush of relief when she was alone in the truck.

Werewolves and violence, werewolves and death: they went together like bananas and peanut butter. It was better hidden here, perhaps, than it had been in Chicago, but they were all monsters.

It wasn’t their fault, the wolves here; they were just trying to live as best they could with this curse that turned them into ravening beasts. Even Charles. Even the Marrok. Even her. There were rules to being a werewolf: sometimes a man had to kill his best friend for the good of all. Human mates grew old while the werewolves stayed young. Wolves like Asil tried to force others to attack them because they wanted to die…or to kill.

She drew in a shaky breath. If someone had killed Leo and his mate years ago, a lot of people would still be alive- and she’d be a senior at Northwestern with most of a degree in music theory instead of a…a what?

She needed to find a job, something to give her a purpose and a life outside of being a werewolf. Waitressing at Scorci’s had saved her in more ways than just providing a paycheck. It’s hard to wallow in self-pity while you were working your socks off eight to ten hours a day. Somehow, though, she doubted there was a job here for a waitress.

The doorbell rang.

She hopped up and rubbed her cheeks briskly-but her face was dry. The doorbell rang again, so she hurried out to answer the front door. Contrary, she told herself. She’d been so glad to get a few minutes alone, and now all she wanted was a distraction.

She glimpsed a gunmetal gray Lexus before her attention was captured by the woman who stood on the porch. Her expression was good-natured and friendly. She had dark blond hair neatly French braided and nearly as long as Charles’s.

Werewolf, Anna’s nose told her.

The woman smiled and held out her hand, “I’m Leah,” she said. “The Marrok’s wife.”

Anna took her hand and released it quickly.

“Let’s go in and chat, shall we?” said the woman pleasantly.

Anna knew Charles didn’t like his stepmother-or airplanes, cars, or cell phones for that matter. Other than that, there was no reason for her unease. More to the point, there was no way to refuse her without giving offense.

“Come in,” she invited politely, stepping back.

The Marrok’s wife walked briskly past her and into the living room. Once inside, she slowed down, giving the room her entire attention, as if she hadn’t seen it before. Anna had the uncomfortable feeling that she was making a mistake, letting the woman in. Maybe Charles didn’t let her into his house-she couldn’t think of anything else that would account for Leah’s fascination with Charles’s furnishings.

Unless the whole examination was just a power play designed to make it clear that Anna wasn’t nearly as interesting as the room. As Leah explored, Anna settled on the latter explanation-it wasn’t a big enough room to demand so much time.

“You aren’t what I expected,” Leah murmured finally. She had stopped in front of a handmade guitar that hung on the wall far enough from the fireplace so that the wood would take no damage from the heat. It might have been an ornament, except the fretboard was worn with playing.

Anna didn’t say anything or move from her place near the door.

Leah turned to look at her, and there was nothing kind or friendly about her face now. “He had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for you, didn’t he? Had to go all the way to Chicago to find a baby, a woman who wouldn’t present any kind of challenge at all. Tell me, do you sit and stay when he tells you?”

The nastiness of the attack made it more personal than just a desire to put a lesser wolf in her place. Leah, for all that she was the Marrok’s mate, sounded jealous. Did she want Charles, too?

The door popped open, and a second woman came into the house with a wave of cold air and French perfume. She was tall and slender, like a runway model-she looked expensive. Her brown hair was streaked with gold highlights emphasized by gold glitter brushed across her cheekbones and, more heavily, over a pair of magnificent blue eyes.

Anna recognized her from the funeral-she was not only beautiful, but dramatic, as well, and the combination made her memorable. The other woman shut the door behind her and shed her ski jacket, tossing it casually on the nearest chair. She was still wearing the dark skirt and sweater she’d had on earlier.

“Oh, come now, Leah. ‘Sit and stay’? You can do better than that, darling.” Her voice was thick and purring with Southern charm. To Anna she said, “Sorry just to barge in like this, but it sounded like you might need rescuing from our queen bitch.”

“Leave, Sage. This has nothing to do with you,” commanded Leah sharply, though she didn’t seem inclined to take offense at the name-calling.

“Honey,” said the woman sweetly, “I’d just love to do that, but I’ve got my orders from the boss-a step higher than you.” Bright blue eyes slid over Anna. “You’d be Charles’s Anna. I’m Sage Carhardt. Sorry about the rough welcome, but whatever makes our Charlie happy is sure to get her tail in a twist because our Alpha loves his sons.”

“Shut up,” Leah snapped, and power swept through the room, knocking Sage back two steps.

Funny, Anna would have sworn that Sage was the more dominant of the two…then she realized the energy tasted of the Marrok. A woman takes her place from her mate, she thought. She knew that, but hadn’t understood that the power was real.

“You”-Leah had turned her attention to Anna-“go sit on the couch. I’ll deal with you in a minute.”

A prudent woman would have done it, Anna thought regretfully. The woman she had been a week ago would have cringed, sat, and waited for whatever hell would have followed. The Anna who was Charles’s mate, who was Omega and outside of the pack order, lifted her chin, and said, “No, thank you. I think you’d better leave and come back when my”-three years a werewolf but calling Charles her mate sounded wrong, and he wasn’t her husband- “when Charles is here.” The hesitation robbed her statement of much of its strength.