k in a loose ponytail that left carefree strands of hair dangling on the sides. He had expected any relative of Ellis to be older and pasty white. This was a you

as he thought about much of his isl

re intently watching as it

ack and he had to restrain himsel

u to come so soon,"

me? Did you know Mr.

No, not r

e two of them. Her coloring was much the same but she was older. Probably her mother. Nathan wondered just how they

ked as if she were waiting for him to say more but words failed him. All he could do was

s," she said to his

from his pocket a

just m

as if he were under the ho

n," Nathan sa

Brooke

next o

there in t

*

and her fiancé when Marcus made it over. He pushed back the flash of jealousy that invaded h

han handed him the phone stopped on an up cl

mself flinch a

let him know that

nd he could kiss goodbye any credibility that Cole and Marcus siding with him might get him. It was a line that no shifter crossed

inted out and navigated to her on

as stopped short by a series of wolves she'd taken, m

woman?" Natha

tact Nathan could tell he was reading his mind. "Thirty minutes. I'll watch the shop until

he land had reclaimed so much of what had once been his home. He'd been so young but he could still remember and feel vivid flashes from his former childhood

s fangs thinking about the times he spent tearing into tender sweet meat with his brothers and cousins. He even remembered his first

d. The last thing he remembered of them, in the dark of night, his mother had encouraged all of them to shift and run into the woods

ushing his terrified legs faster beyond the falling forms of his brothers until he was in the rive

away that the connection between him and his father had been severed. H

ed. A pain that he knew could only be appeased if every last person who'

adness that seemed to wash over her. He hadn't meant to, but he focused his hearing on her breath and soon he could sense her heartbeat. Steady and strong, braving the sadness of death, isolation, loneliness and abandonment and suddenly he found his own heartbeat matching hers. She turned

of her and ready to break into a run to get back to the station when the ground beneath his paws snapped, and he felt the