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He leapt atand I rolled to the side on the soft sand just in tiain His haunches tensed and he tried to feint left but the tension in his body had given hi hihtly before staggering back to his feet I paused for a second, just to check, but his tail gave a brief wag Good, I wasn’t ready to go ho to flicker
He manoeuvred around so that I ended up with round He rose up on his hind legs and snapped at my face so I was forced to take a step back Then, without warning, he barrelled intoon top of lint in his eye
"Tom, if this is when you decide to shift back to a naked ly warned He was a friend, but most definitely without those kind of benefits
He licked my cheek and went for my throat His canines scraped the skin on ed to twist and pull outthe staff to knock him to the sand and pin hin of defeat, so I let hio He shook hi to beat you at this, Mack"
"I have no doubt," I ive his soet dressed "You need to watch your left side before you shift though You keep leaving yourself open and you need to work on your body tension I knohatto pull five ain?"
"I don’t need to, your body does all the talking"
"I’ll practise in the gylint in his eye
"To to try to talk one, there’s no reason to stay"
"It’s because John is gone that you have to stay," I snapped "We need shifters who can guard against whatever got him"
"Mack, if you couldn’t track it and John couldn’t survive it, I don’t think I’ll do ood do you think you’ll do you in London, then? You’re my friend, I need you here," I said softly
He jerked "I asked you not to try to changein this world can be done to suit you, Mack I want to go and if they’ll take " He walked off away up the dunes
I frowned after hione better I probably shouldn’t have tried to guilt him with the whole ‘I’m your friend, don’t leave me’ part - that wasn’t fair I just didn’t want to lose hi bad because I wasn’t sure that he’d be able to hold his own Perhaps I was just being patronising and over-protective, but he probably wasto look after his best interests, then ould?
I sighed and picked up the other discarded staff As I stood back up I felt a prickle on the back of , I searched the line of trees Way Directive 3: All shifter activityout this far, especially at this tiht, but it would be just ht stroll would decide to headfor a hint of anything sentient, but caed atthe Brethren here was clearly playing tricks with azed out at its expanse, eentle swish of the waves rhythainst the beach and I closeddeeply Then I turned back towards the heavy dunes and headed for hoot back and the keep was quiet Some floorboards on the third floor where the Brethren were housed creaked, but everyone else seemed to be asleep I slipped into the doro for a shower in a minute before I remembered that I wasn’t allowed to Ick Soft snores cairls - I was pretty certain that with all of the heartache and worry of the last few days I personally wasn’t going to get any sleep any tih shifters would stay awake for the entire full ave them, they tended to keep a fairly normal sleep pattern the rest of the time Usually it suited me perfectly because I truly lovedthat everyone else was in drea would be the best I could hope for
I closed my eyes and almost immediately slept a drea into the dor the pillow overIt was a blessed relief to hear some normality after the hushed tones of the last twenty-four hours
"Is he single?" Lynda wanted to know
Ally giggled "He’d better be! Oooh, that body, wouldn’t you just love to feel it wrapped around you"
One of theher than most human ones but they definitely loved their cuddly toys "Mack, what do you think of the alpha?" It was Betsy Whatever I said to her would be round the pack before I’d brushed my teeth I didn’t answer and kept the pillow firmly closed overlast night – that was Staines, the Brethren’s Head of Strategic Deployeous one with the black hair" Ally laughed again
"Did you clock those muscles?" One of the others loudly shrieked I winced at the noise
"I heard that when he took over as Lord Alpha, he had sixteen challenges to the leadership, and that he beat each one without even breaking a sweat And that he’s really shaking things up in London – wants to stop a lot of the old traditional ways and bring the Brethren into the twenty-first century"