Fair Game Read Online Free PDF

case and want a werewolf to consult with. The local Alpha isn’t qualified—and he’s too young to be good at diplomacy when his own people are dying.”
    “If they want to fly out here, that will be fine,” Adam said. “But Mercy’s legs aren’t healed and she can’t get around in the wheelchair without help because her hands were burned.”
    “Your pack won’t help her?” Icy rage froze his voice. Mercy might be mated to Adam, but to his wolf she would always belong to Bran. Would always be his little coyote, who was tough and defiant, raised by a good friend because Bran couldn’t trust his mate with someone he cared about who was more fragile than his grown sons.
    Adam gave a huff of laughter that eased Bran’s ire. “It’s not that. She’s grumpy and embarrassed at being helpless. I had to leave last week on business. By the time I got back, the vampire had to come take care of her because she’d driven everyone else off.
I
don’t have to listen when she tells
me
to leave her alone, but everyone else does.”
    Pleased at the thought of Mercy ordering around a bunch of werewolves, Bran settled back in his chair.
    “Bran? Are you all right?”
    “Don’t worry,” Bran said. “I’ll get David Christiansen to do it. The FBI will just have to wait a week or so until he gets back from Burma.”
    “That’s not what I was asking,” Adam said. “‘Volatile’ is not a word I’d normally apply to you—but you aren’t yourself today. Are you all right?”
    Bran pinched his nose. He should just keep it to himself. But Adam…He couldn’t talk to Samuel about this; the only thing that would do would be to make his oldest son feel guilty.
    Adam knew all the players and he was an Alpha; he’d understand without Bran having to explain everything.
    Adam listened without comment—except a snort when he heard how neatly Asil had turned the tables on Bran.
    “You need to keep Asil around,” he said. “The rest of them are too intimidated to play games with you—and you need that now and again to keep you sharp.”
    “Yes,” said Bran. “And the rest?”
    “You have to back off on the death sentences,” Adam said with certainty. “I heard about Minnesota. Three wolves took out a pedophile stalking a third grader with a rope in his hand and a stun gun in his pocket.”
    Bran growled. “I wouldn’t have objected except they got carried away and then left his half-eaten body to be discovered the next day before they told their Alpha what happened. If they’d just snapped his neck, I could have let it go.” He pinched his nose again. “As it is, the coroner is speculating all over the papers.”
    “If you backed off, Charles wouldn’t have to go out and kill so often, because you wouldn’t have so many Alphas refusing to take care of discipline.”
    “I can’t,” Bran said tiredly. “Have you seen the new commercials Bright Future has sponsored? The endangered species hearings are beginning next month. If they classify us as animals, it won’t be just the problem wolves being hunted.”
    “We are what we are, Bran. We’re not civilized or tame, and if you force that upon us, it won’t be only Charles who loses it.” Adam let out a breath and in a less passionate voice he said, “In any case, maybe giving Charles a break on other fronts will give him more rest.”
    “I’ve freed him entirely from his business obligations,” said Bran. “It hasn’t worked.”
    There was a pause. “What?” said Adam carefully. “The business? You’ve turned pack finances over to someone else?”
    “He’d already backed away from most of the daily chores of running the corporation, put it in the hands of five or six different people, only one of whom knows that it’s owned by Charles’s family. He does that every twenty years or so, to keep people from noticing that he doesn’t age. I brought in a finance firm to take over the pack’s other holdings, and what they aren’t handling, Leah