her, skin on skin, once more. Brother Wolf wanted to drag her away from all of these strangers and find the nearest empty room so he could wrap himself around her and never let go. Charles wanted to say, "I'm sorry for hurting you," but that implied that he would do something differently if he had to do it again. He would never allow the ugliness of his life to stain her, not if he could help it.
So he said something stupid instead. "My wife is drinking the cocoa I brought her." He looked past her and into the room. Except for the two men he'd followed, everyone was sitting down around the table. It must have been her suggestion, because all of them looked tense and uncomfortable. Being seated when someone else is standing can be a position of power - a way of saying, "I am so confident that I can take you that I won't bother getting up." But when a monster comes into the room, everyone wants to be on their feet. Charles was a big monster.
Proof that Anna had been smart to do it, though, was the level of his irritation with the two men still standing behind Anna.
He met the younger Cantrip agent's eyes. The human dropped his gaze and stepped back involuntarily, pleasing Brother Wolf. Charles smiled at the agent with his teeth. "You invited yourself where you weren't asked. You can drink hotel coffee."
And now they'd think he really was stupid, because most humans wouldn't understand that he'd needed to establish who was in charge so that Brother Wolf would know that Anna was safe. Giving an order that they would obey had established the pecking order. It was okay they would think him stupid, he decided. He and Anna could engage in a little smart cop, dumb cop if they needed to. And playing with the federal agents was so much easier than trying to deal with what he was doing to Anna.
She should have picked someone else. Asil. Someone. But the thought of Anna with someone else sent Brother Wolf into a fit of jealous rage.
There is no one for me except you. Anna's quick response reminded him that he'd chosen to leave the bond between them open. He didn't know how much she was picking up, but it was more than time to control himself.
Charles moved past Anna and set the carriers down on the table. Pulling out the single non-coffee for Anna, he handed it to her as he watched everyone sit perfectly still and drop their eyes except for the Cantrip agents: Anna had been educating them.
Anna moved around to the back of the table, taking a chair with no one sitting next to her. The Cantrip agents took empty chairs on the other side of the table after he warned the younger one away from Anna with a lifted eyebrow. Charles stood behind Anna's chair.
"This is my husband, Charles," Anna told them, her hands folded. "Perhaps it would be a good thing to introduce ourselves again, now that we are all here. I'm Anna."
"Special Agent Leslie Fisher," said the other female in the room, a black woman with intelligent eyes and a firm voice. "Violent Crimes Unit, FBI."
"Special Agent Craig Goldstein," said a slender man in his fifties. "On assignment to the Boston Violent Crimes Unit because I have a background with this serial killer."
Charles nodded to the FBI agents. Fisher's background he knew, because he'd done background checks on all of the Boston VCU. Goldstein he'd find out more about.
"Jim Pierce," said the only man in the room who was smiling. He aimed it at Charles. "Homeland Security. They send me out to gather information."
He'd had a pretty good idea whom they'd send in from Homeland Security because they had only eight people specializing in preternatural matters, and he had files on them all.
Political climber, he told Anna silently, returning Pierce's smile. Pierce's face became a lot less happy and he pushed his chair back a few inches. On his way to public office. Do you think I should work on my smile?
Anna glanced back at him and frowned. Behave, said his mate, seriously enough. But he read her amusement in the little upturn of her lips.
"Dr. Steven Singh," said the second Homeland agent.
An old-fashioned patriot, Charles informed Anna after exchanging martial arts - style nods with the doctor. He's on record as personally classifying the fae and werewolves as domestic terrorists. Charles tended to