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"Oh, hey, you’re here," Geoff’s dad said, relieved "I fell waiting for you and they got "

Lenny, a male about Sean’s size--five-eleven or so--with short wiry li hued when he looked at Lara, and couldn’t stop his lip fro back "You This would have been on you"

"Would have been?" Sean looked down at Geoff’s dad "Do you knohat he’s talking about, Geoff’s dad?"

"I have a na to help me up?"

"Oh Sorry We should explain" Lara shook her head; how thoughtless "Yeah, Lenny here was going to kill Geoff’s dad He really was supposed to be the dead hu, which we probably wouldn’t have been able to hide like the bat and the fish Outside law enforce at best, and potentially lethal for a bunch of us at worst"

"What?" Geoff’s dad yelped "Stage two lung cancer’s not getting rid of otta speed it along?"

"What do you care?" Lenny’s brown eyes snapped with fury "You’re a dead monkey too dumb to know it When you’re all the way dead, you’ll be one of billions Who’ll care?"

"Plotting his , but watch your mouth," Lara warned

"Huh?" Geoff’s dad huh’ed

"Monkey is to huer is to African American: the polar opposite of cool"

"But soinning to doubt the uy, Lenny, who’d started that very week Who hung around the kitchen She’d spoken to hi Kara about the mess she and Jack made He’d helped clean it up!

"So use Geoff’s dad--"

"I have a naerial hints, then kill the e"

"Dude" Geoff’s dad was shaking his head "Not cool"

Why are they all talking like it’s 1995? She shook off the wondering Lenny was not especially bright, his plan was idiotic, and he’d do so stupid(er) any moment She just had to pick her ht to the death now, but I ondering if you’d tell me why first"

Jack looked a little startled at her matter-of-fact prediction of how events would unfold, but she kneas unwavering in his support He wouldn’t interfere when she killed Lenny If Lenny see the upper hand, Jack would pitch in If Lenny won, Jack would lose his sanity and eat Lenny’s heart, fur or no fur

Sean, who knew her best, dropped his eyes and ot stuck with the alpha card It so sucks that you have to do this your first week"

She was sorry, too, but wishing it was otheras no solution and a tihtly and she knew it; most leaders came into their Packs after a s; she dared not complain

Worse: she wasn’t at all sorry for Lenny Just herself She supposed she wasn’t a very nice woman

But she wanted answers, dammit She didn’t think that was tooshe ias fros, his body, his self "You’re that er on the detail"

"Can’t you just tell us and quit with the sarcasm?" Sean asked "And even as I asked you that, I becahed in spite of herself

"This is why my son never liked you," Geoff’s dad said with odd piety "Nobody ever knohat you’re talking about"

"Because you and yours are freaks!" Lenny burst out Lara had the impression he’d wanted to eneration, your sire tore through centuries of tradition! We used to keep to ourselves; we used to let the et," Lara said mildly, "I’m half monkey"

"We both are" Sean stepped up, then leaned over and whispered to Geoff’s dad, "I’ the M-word, we don’t approve at all, but I can’t let et? None of us can forget! Your sire is due, fucks your s her ho with the natural order of things, a way of life that went just fine for thousands of years without her input, thanks

"And if all that wasn’t treacherous enough--"