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."It s not important.If Malcolm says they acted alone, then we have to take hisword for it.However, that leaves us with a problem." He turned to look at Andrew."Conspiring to kill aPack brother is a capital offense."Andrew paled."No, I "At a glare from Malcolm, Andrew closed his mouth.Jeremy continued."If Andrew acted on orders from someone he considered to be in an Alpha position,then he can t be held responsible.However, if he acted on his own, or along with his uncle and brother,the punishment is death.That s the Law."Raymond glanced up.His gaze went first to his son, then to Malcolm, and a look passed between them.Raymond turned to his son and gave a small nod, telling him everything would be okay. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html"Are you Alpha?" Malcolm asked quietly."No," Jeremy said."Then you can t make that decision, can you?""It s not a decision," Jeremy said."I will abide by the Law.If Andrew acted on your command, he lives.If not, he dies.The only person who can decide anything is you.Tell us what happened and, ifnecessary, the punishment will be carried out.""By you?" Malcolm said, walking over to stand behind Andrew."That is the Law, you know.He tried tokill you, therefore it s your right and duty to kill him yourself." He met Jeremy s gaze."Can you dothat.son ?"Jeremy looked into Malcolm s eyes."The question isn t how far I ll go, but how far you will.father."They locked gazes for a moment.Then Malcolm snarled, reached up.and broke Andrew s neck."That s how far I ll go," he said as Andrew s body fell to the floor.The room went silent.Jeremy paled, as shocked as the rest of us.I glanced over at Raymond.He staredat his son s body, face contorting with pain.Then he glanced up at Malcolm and, for a second, ragereplaced the grief.Malcolm tensed.Then Raymond dropped his gaze, got to his feet, put his arm aroundDaniel and led him from the room.A few moments later, the front door clicked shut behind them.Malcolm launched himself at Jeremy, facetwisted in a snarl.I lunged into his path, grabbed him and threw him against the wall.He recovered andshot back toward me.I braced myself, but he veered past, heading for Jeremy again.I grabbed Malcolmby the shoulders.He twisted and knocked my feet out from under me, but I kept my hold and we bothwent down.Once down, and fighting, it should have been a fair match.Yet instead of trying to incapacitate me,Malcolm just kept trying to throw me off, his attention still fixed on Jeremy.Within minutes, I had himpinned, my forearm jammed against his throat.As I pressed down, he barely struggled and, for amoment, I thought this was what he wanted a wolf s death.But then he looked into my eyes and, as hiswidened in disbelief, I realized he hadn t struggled because he hadn t really thought I d kill him.But whenhe looked into my face, he saw his mistake.Whatever bond he thought we shared only went one way.And when he saw that, a look passed over his face, something akin to grief."Clayton," Jeremy said sharply."Let him up."I stopped pressing down on Malcolm s windpipe and looked up at Jeremy."We can t trust him, Jer.You know we can t.""Let him up and he ll leave.There s nothing here for him." When I hesitated, he added a soft, "Please."As much as I wanted to finish what I d begun, I knew Jeremy was right.With the Santoses gone, thefight for Alpha was over.Jeremy had won.To begin his reign by condoning the death of his defeatedopponent would taint his Alphahood forever.I grabbed Malcolm by the arm and yanked him to his feet.As I did, I leaned over him and whispered in Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlhis ear, too low for Jeremy to hear."I ll be waiting for an excuse," I said."Remember that."Without waiting for a response or a reaction, I twisted him around, grabbed him by the shoulders andescorted him to the door.Then, with Jeremy behind me, we stood and watched Malcolm leave.He didn t look back.We never saw Malcolm again.We expected him to call for his things, but he never did.Over the nextyear we heard rumors that he d been sighted here and there, tracking down the mutts with the bestreputations and challenging them.Antonio thought that was his way of doing the "honorable"thing suicide by mutt.And, eventually, he did meet one he couldn t beat.By the time the story got tous, it was six months old.Antonio went in search of the mutt who d killed Malcolm, to confirm it.BeforeAntonio caught up with him, Malcolm s killer became a victim of his own success his victory havingbrought him a slew of challenges, including one ambitious mutt who didn t play by the rules, and hadkilled him.For a few years after that, we waited, half-expecting to return from a run one night and find Malcolmalive and well, stretched out on the sofa, beer in one hand, sandwich in the other.Finally, we packed upMalcolm s things and hauled them to the attic.Jeremy gutted Malcolm s room and made it into anotherguest room.Soon, there was no sign that Malcolm had ever lived at Stonehaven.For me, that exorcisedhim from our lives.For Jeremy, it wasn t that easy, but he had other things to occupy his attention, andkeep him from dwelling on his father s fate.As we d feared, the fight for Alpha had indeed split the Pack in two.Only we six were left.A fewmonths later, Ross Werner returned, and Jeremy accepted him back without comment.When anotheryear passed with no word from Dennis and Joey, Jeremy sent me and Nick to search for them in westernCanada, but it was hopeless.As Joey had said, there was plenty of room to lose yourself in up there, andhe and his father had done just that.Under Jeremy, the Pack reinvented itself, a slow but steady process that took years.We paid moreattention to mutts, keeping them off our territory but at the same time watching them, and acting if theydid anything to call attention to themselves and werewolves in general.In this, I became Jeremy senforcer, along with Antonio.Before the next decade ended, Antonio would bow out of this job, and I dhave a new partner, one that would turn the Pack upside-down yet again, fill the void in my life.andnearly end it, on multiple occasions.But that s another story [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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."It s not important.If Malcolm says they acted alone, then we have to take hisword for it.However, that leaves us with a problem." He turned to look at Andrew."Conspiring to kill aPack brother is a capital offense."Andrew paled."No, I "At a glare from Malcolm, Andrew closed his mouth.Jeremy continued."If Andrew acted on orders from someone he considered to be in an Alpha position,then he can t be held responsible.However, if he acted on his own, or along with his uncle and brother,the punishment is death.That s the Law."Raymond glanced up.His gaze went first to his son, then to Malcolm, and a look passed between them.Raymond turned to his son and gave a small nod, telling him everything would be okay. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html"Are you Alpha?" Malcolm asked quietly."No," Jeremy said."Then you can t make that decision, can you?""It s not a decision," Jeremy said."I will abide by the Law.If Andrew acted on your command, he lives.If not, he dies.The only person who can decide anything is you.Tell us what happened and, ifnecessary, the punishment will be carried out.""By you?" Malcolm said, walking over to stand behind Andrew."That is the Law, you know.He tried tokill you, therefore it s your right and duty to kill him yourself." He met Jeremy s gaze."Can you dothat.son ?"Jeremy looked into Malcolm s eyes."The question isn t how far I ll go, but how far you will.father."They locked gazes for a moment.Then Malcolm snarled, reached up.and broke Andrew s neck."That s how far I ll go," he said as Andrew s body fell to the floor.The room went silent.Jeremy paled, as shocked as the rest of us.I glanced over at Raymond.He staredat his son s body, face contorting with pain.Then he glanced up at Malcolm and, for a second, ragereplaced the grief.Malcolm tensed.Then Raymond dropped his gaze, got to his feet, put his arm aroundDaniel and led him from the room.A few moments later, the front door clicked shut behind them.Malcolm launched himself at Jeremy, facetwisted in a snarl.I lunged into his path, grabbed him and threw him against the wall.He recovered andshot back toward me.I braced myself, but he veered past, heading for Jeremy again.I grabbed Malcolmby the shoulders.He twisted and knocked my feet out from under me, but I kept my hold and we bothwent down.Once down, and fighting, it should have been a fair match.Yet instead of trying to incapacitate me,Malcolm just kept trying to throw me off, his attention still fixed on Jeremy.Within minutes, I had himpinned, my forearm jammed against his throat.As I pressed down, he barely struggled and, for amoment, I thought this was what he wanted a wolf s death.But then he looked into my eyes and, as hiswidened in disbelief, I realized he hadn t struggled because he hadn t really thought I d kill him.But whenhe looked into my face, he saw his mistake.Whatever bond he thought we shared only went one way.And when he saw that, a look passed over his face, something akin to grief."Clayton," Jeremy said sharply."Let him up."I stopped pressing down on Malcolm s windpipe and looked up at Jeremy."We can t trust him, Jer.You know we can t.""Let him up and he ll leave.There s nothing here for him." When I hesitated, he added a soft, "Please."As much as I wanted to finish what I d begun, I knew Jeremy was right.With the Santoses gone, thefight for Alpha was over.Jeremy had won.To begin his reign by condoning the death of his defeatedopponent would taint his Alphahood forever.I grabbed Malcolm by the arm and yanked him to his feet.As I did, I leaned over him and whispered in Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlhis ear, too low for Jeremy to hear."I ll be waiting for an excuse," I said."Remember that."Without waiting for a response or a reaction, I twisted him around, grabbed him by the shoulders andescorted him to the door.Then, with Jeremy behind me, we stood and watched Malcolm leave.He didn t look back.We never saw Malcolm again.We expected him to call for his things, but he never did.Over the nextyear we heard rumors that he d been sighted here and there, tracking down the mutts with the bestreputations and challenging them.Antonio thought that was his way of doing the "honorable"thing suicide by mutt.And, eventually, he did meet one he couldn t beat.By the time the story got tous, it was six months old.Antonio went in search of the mutt who d killed Malcolm, to confirm it.BeforeAntonio caught up with him, Malcolm s killer became a victim of his own success his victory havingbrought him a slew of challenges, including one ambitious mutt who didn t play by the rules, and hadkilled him.For a few years after that, we waited, half-expecting to return from a run one night and find Malcolmalive and well, stretched out on the sofa, beer in one hand, sandwich in the other.Finally, we packed upMalcolm s things and hauled them to the attic.Jeremy gutted Malcolm s room and made it into anotherguest room.Soon, there was no sign that Malcolm had ever lived at Stonehaven.For me, that exorcisedhim from our lives.For Jeremy, it wasn t that easy, but he had other things to occupy his attention, andkeep him from dwelling on his father s fate.As we d feared, the fight for Alpha had indeed split the Pack in two.Only we six were left.A fewmonths later, Ross Werner returned, and Jeremy accepted him back without comment.When anotheryear passed with no word from Dennis and Joey, Jeremy sent me and Nick to search for them in westernCanada, but it was hopeless.As Joey had said, there was plenty of room to lose yourself in up there, andhe and his father had done just that.Under Jeremy, the Pack reinvented itself, a slow but steady process that took years.We paid moreattention to mutts, keeping them off our territory but at the same time watching them, and acting if theydid anything to call attention to themselves and werewolves in general.In this, I became Jeremy senforcer, along with Antonio.Before the next decade ended, Antonio would bow out of this job, and I dhave a new partner, one that would turn the Pack upside-down yet again, fill the void in my life.andnearly end it, on multiple occasions.But that s another story [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]