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around here.”
    Anna’s smile faded. He had a point. “What else? Do you eat fruit and vegetables?”
    He gazed at the floor. “I’m not hungry. Don’t worry about it.”
    She leaned back and smiled again. “I’ll find you something. I don’t know what it will be, but I’ll find it for you.”
    His eyes shot to her face, but before he could answer, the bedroom door swung open and Aquilla strode into the room. He took one look at Anna squatting in front of his prisoner, and he frowned.
    “How many times do I have to tell you not to interfere with my prisoner?” he snapped. “I can’t trust you in my house any longer.”
    He slashed the rope tying Menlo’s wrists to the post and took hold of Menlo’s collar. He dragged him across the floor and out the back door. Menlo’s heavy body bumped over the balcony to a windowless store room behind the house. Aquilla flung him into it and barred the door.
    When he came back, he pointed a threatening finger at Anna. “Don’t let me catch you doing that again.”
    Anna stiffened. “I’ve always respected you, Aquilla. You were kind enough to offer me a place in your house until I found my own home here, and for that I’ll always be grateful. But don’t expect me to go along with your plan to interrogate this man to find your brother’s killer. People die in wars. Be a man and let it go. Your people will be much better off if you do.”
    “I’m the Alpha of this faction,” he returned. “I’ll decide what’s best for my people and what isn’t.”
    “If your brother died in the war, it couldn’t have been murder,” she told him. “How can I join this faction when the Alpha is obsessed with revenge for a crime that never occurred? What will your people will say when they find out what you’ve done?”
    “I’ll be a hero,” he replied. “Every family in this faction lost someone in the war. They’ve been dreaming of revenge ever since.”
    Anna shook her head. “If anything happens to that man, you could start another war with the Ursidreans. Your faction won’t make you a hero for that.”
    He turned away. “Only an Avitras could understand.”
    Anna crossed her arms over her chest. “Then I guess I’m not Avitras.”
    Aquilla strode out of the house. He leapt onto the balcony rail and spread his arms. The feathers stood out from his limbs, and he soared away into the rising sun.

Chapter 5
    Penelope Ann came up behind Anna, and they gazed over the railing where Aquilla flew away. “You can’t provoke him like that. He could make you pay for it.”
    Anna turned on her. “I don’t want to live anywhere in fear of what he might do to make me pay for it. I don’t want to live under tyrant like that. If this is what being Avitras means, then I don’t want to be Avitras. I’ll go back to the Lycaon. They’re sensible people.”
    Penelope Ann shook her head. “You don’t understand him. Aquilla is sensible. He’s just eaten up by grief about his brother. You can understand that, can’t you?”
    “You can’t seriously be supporting him in this, can you?” Anna shot back. “This is insanity.”
    “Well, what can I do about it?” Penelope Ann asked. “Aquilla is my mate. I have to support him.”
    “You don’t have to do anything,” Anna countered. “Maybe if you stood up to him, you could stop him.”
    “Well, what are you going to do?” Penelope Ann asked.
    “The first thing I’m going to do,” Anna replied, “is find Menlo something to eat.”
    “You can’t do that,” Penelope Ann told her. “What if Aquilla finds out? He already told you more than once not to interfere.”
    “Tell him, if you want to,” Anna replied. “I’ll tell him myself. I’m not going along with this. I won’t stand by and watch him torture an innocent man to feed his appetite for revenge, and neither should you.”
    Penelope Ann didn’t answer, and Anna turned her back. She balanced along a tree branch that acted as a bridge between their