Something told her it had to be today, that she wouldn’t get a fourth opportunity. He was wary and disciplined-and if he hadn’t been so angry, surely his senses, werewolf sharp, would have discovered her hiding place in the snow beneath the fir trees lining his front yard.
She shook with the stress of what she planned. Ambush. Weak and cowardly, but it was the only way she could take him. 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. And when his control failed, people would die.
Dangerous. He could be so fast. If she screwed this up, he could kill her. She had to trust that her own werewolf reflexes were up to this. It needed to be done.
Resolution gave her strength. It would be today.
CHARLES heard the SUV, but he didn’t look up.
He’d turned off his cell and continued to ignore the cool voice of his father in his head until it went away. 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.
“Hey, Chief.”
It was a new wolf, Robert, sent here to the Aspen Creek Pack by his own Alpha because of his lack of control. Sometimes the Marrok could help; other times he just had to clean up the mess. If Robert couldn’t learn discipline, it would probably be Charles’s job to dispose of him. If Robert didn’t learn manners, the disposal job wouldn’t bother Charles as much as it should.
That Bran had sent Robert to deliver his message told Charles just how furious his da was.
“Chief!” The man didn’t even bother getting out of the car. There weren’t many people Charles extended the privilege of calling him anything but his given name, and this pup wasn’t one of them.
Charles stopped shoveling and looked at the other wolf, let him see just what he was messing with. The man lost his grin, paled, and dropped his eyes instantly, his heartbeat making the big blood vessel in his neck throb with sudden fear.