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nothing away.
Malcolm rolled his shoulders and leaned against the car. "You know you re being played, don t you?"
"By Peter? No, I told him to call "
"I don t mean Peter. I m not a fool, boy. I know why you re doing all this. You think it ll help you
weasel in closer to Dominic, prove what a good Alpha you d make."
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"I "
"You think you re being clever, proving yourself to Dominic, taking over his duties. But the truth is,
you re being played and you don t even know it. Sure, Dominic might name you as his choice. In the
end, though, that doesn t mean piss-all and we both know it. Evenhe knows it. So why is he going
through all this trouble, making the Pack think he wants you to succeed him? Because it buys him time.
No one seriously considers you Alpha material, so no one s going to push for Dominic to step down and
let you take over. He trains you as Alpha, and he looks like he s doing his job, planning for the future, but
the truth is, he s just securing his place for another ten years."
"No one s playing me," Jeremy said softly.
Malcolm threw back his head and laughed. "Oh, but you re a fool. A fool twice in one night, too. That
must be a record. You know, I could have killed your boy out there. You led him right to me, and then
you couldn t even protect him."
Jeremy flinched. He tried to cover the reaction, but couldn t.
Malcolm smiled. "Piss-poor guardian you are. Hell, he protects you better than you protect him."
Jeremy saw me still standing beside him and waved me into the car.
"He s not moving until you re safe in that car," Malcolm said. "You should have seen him when I had you
down a regular little ball of rage, all fangs and fury. He s got it. Whatever you lack, boy, he s got in
spades. You know that?"
Jeremy met his father s gaze. "Yes, I do." He rumpled my hair, a rare show of affection, and nudged me
toward the car. "I m getting in now, Clay. Go on."
"I want to train him," Malcolm said.
Jeremy stopped, hand on the door, and slowly turned to his father. "You want . . .?"
"You heard me. I want to train the boy. Teach him how to fight."
Jeremy stood there, struggling to make sense of this request. I saw the sense, though. As much as I
loathed Malcolm, I saw the benefit in what he was offering. Jeremy and Antonio had taught me a lot, but
after that night, I knew it wasn t enough. If I wanted to protect Jeremy against Malcolm, there was only
one person who could teach me how to do it: Malcolm himself. As for why he was offering, even at that
age I knew he had to have an ulterior motive, probably to turn me against Jeremy, but that would
never couldnever happen.
"Let him train me," I said.
Jeremy blinked and, for a split second, I feared I d made a horrible mistake, that even accepting
Malcolm s offer would make Jeremy doubt my allegiance. But after that first blink of surprise, he gave a
slow nod.
"Let me take Peter back to Dominic," Jeremy said. "What happened here all of it is never mentioned
again. In return, I ll allow you to train Clayton. But only under my supervision."
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"Fine by me," Malcolm said. "Who knows, you might even learn something." He looked down at me.
"I ll see you back at Stonehaven then, Clay. Make sure you rest up. We have a lot of work ahead of us,
unlearning all those bad habits."
He smiled, clapped me on the back, then turned and strolled off into the night.
Angst
Malcolm kept his end of the bargain and we kept ours. Jeremy negotiated Peter s return to the Pack.
Dominic never found out what happened inLos Angeles, and if he ever suspected anything, he pretended
otherwise. As Jeremy had said, given the choice between reuniting a young werewolf with the Pack or
executing him, Dominic would pick the former any day.
So Malcolm taught me to fight. I still took the majority of my lessons from Jeremy and Antonio because
they were around more often, but when Malcolm was at Stonehaven, he trained me every afternoon,
from lunch until dinner. His motivation? Well, that wasn t immediately apparent. He didn t use the lessons
as an opportunity to mock Jeremy; although Jeremy was always present, Malcolm acted as if he wasn t
there. Nor did Malcolm use the lessons to woo me from Jeremy s side in any overt way. He was a harsh
taskmaster and I often left my lessons exhausted and covered in bruises, but every bruise was earned in
combat, and he never treated me in any way that could ever be interpreted as abusive.
One person who was never happy with the arrangement was Antonio. I m sure he was put out by the
insinuation that his teachings were less than perfect, but there was more to it than that. When Antonio had
been a teenager, Malcolm had made him the same offer: to train him. Antonio had flat out refused. When
Antonio found out Jeremy had agreed to let Malcolm train me, he hit the roof. Argued with Jeremy like [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]