be invited to sit. Lorcan had chosen the chair nearest the fire, the one with the good cushion

ast on it. No salt, no rain, no dog hair. Beside him stood a man I

d mine a moment longer than politeness asks. "I am Lorcan, envoy of the Council of Alphas. I have been

aid. "That's

mples, and the smile was the sort that a man practises in a mirror. "Sit, please.

ms folded. He did not sit. Lorcan noticed, and his smile widened a f

d you tra

s a healer before me. B

harming. And you

obh

his paper, a small neat st

e i

rs now, i

ix

my hands in my lap and thought about the contra

lieve. Which you have kindly agreed to settle by service. That is a gen

most ch

page. "What do you make

. "I'll know more wh

ess. Betwe

e door. Ronan said nothing, wh

nd his healing is slow and there's a mark on his chest tha

Lorcan's pen stopped. "Th

N

n did not move at all. Lorcan set his pen down and looked at me with his head tilted, and for the fir

sor

patient. Council procedure or no Council procedure." I smiled at

ssional." He wrote something, though I could not see what. "

changed. It was a small thing

d the term

he

e about a rite that ties two wolves together by force. She told me it

did not like what was in them. "Your mother was a careful woman, I thin

on the grey coat with two precise movem

emind you that the Council's patience is not endless, and the summons for your health assessment stands. Six weeks. If you are not fit

ed. Nobody in the room breat

and his voice came out fl

out the summ

stood with his back to me. "I did not

had been sitting on, because it annoyed me to leave it as he had left it. "He knows something ab

kno

lking in and out of your

not seen before, and there was something under the hardn

and an Alpha who cannot shift without falling over. And then Lorcan is not the problem any more. He is the man who writes the report." He came away from the window. "I do not need

ith no number on it and a Council envoy who wrote everything down, and

oll up your sleeve. I'm

ed at m

ame back with my bowl and my knife, and when I returned Ronan was sitting on the chair by the fire

ll hurt,

lways

should have, and it was dark, and when I spread it on the glass slid

es. Ronan's blood was full of tiny black grains, like san

s it?"

ed my hands, and my voice ca

yours, and it's eating you from the inside. And I have seen those grai

orearm, faint as a watermark, there was a se

that appea

ged to someone else. "This morning," he said