he officers and the wet hiss of tires all dropping away, and the

am, this is a closed scene. W

le. "Nobody let me through. I walked. You should have a word with your two offi

ou once more.

ket and held it up, and Rolf took it and turned it over twice. "I got a tip about a dea

k. "You can confirm thin

cil official lie in the rain for an hour before anyone thought to cover him. Th

face was doing, but Rolf glanced at me and then bac

know ea

fore I could get my mouth working. "Four yea

the thread. I had arrested her brother once, for running a bond registration scam out of a back room in Wedding,

voice had gone

wolf's hearing and he knew it. "I do not care what she is to you. This is a

ing. She is standing in the

ou have gone the color of a fish b

he that spread up to my shoulder and down into my fingers. I put my hand in my

ard the body. "We have an hour before the press office gets here and turns this

ng too fast, and when I turned around Anya had already stepped past the tape and was crouche

from him

ls are clean. A man who fought for his life would have so

pendant at her throat, a crescent moon on a fine chain, and it caught the light from the Bureau van and threw i

died with a Severance mark on his neck, and the Bureau will file it as a robbery and forget it by Friday. I am here because I have spent four years building s

was not a word you said out loud on a public street

you hear

. You tell me what that mark on his neck is, and I will tell you what

s a mark like that, a pair of punctures where the chemical goes in, and the bond mark on his

ke it tasted of something spoiled.

her collar, and the ache in my arm was spreading into my chest now, and I could feel the wolf pushing

hed as if I had touched her. "I put you in the

bigger one, and an Alpha who thought the best way to protect a mate was to stop being near her." She looked down at me and her voice dropped. "I needed the Council to believe I

olf called my name, and I heard the click of a camera from so

hand on my chest and you told me to leave your pack, and then you walked away, and th

louder this time, and I heard the sharp edge in it that m

Beta, I do not care. But you should know this before you decide." She put her hand flat on my chest, exactly where she had put it four years ago, and the bond mark on my arm burned white hot. "The man on the