Patricia Briggs

“Don’t fuss. I love you just as you are, Mercy. I don’t need to swallow you whole, I don’t need to be in your head at all times. I just need to know that you’re there.”

“There are big bad wolves all over the world who tremble at the sound of his name, yet a little puny coyote girl peanut-buttered the seat of Bran Cornick’s car because he told her that she should wear a dress to perform for the pack.”

“Warren made a noise, the first one I'd heard out of him since we'd come into the room. I'd have been happier if he hadn't sounded scared."Easy, Warren," Adam told him. "You're safe here.”"If you die on us, you won't be," said Kyle with a growl that would have done credit to any of the werewolves in the room.”

“I jerked my chin toward Frost’s body. ‘All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.’Hao said, “Life is not safe. A man might spend his whole time on earth staying safe in a basement, and in the end, he still dies like everyone else.” Half-naked, covered with the same filth we all were, he still gave the impression of being in control of himself and his environment.”

“I was going to have to come up with a rank for myself besides Alpha's mate. In the pack, I was just Mercy- but if ten more people called me the Alpha's mate, I was going to hit someone. It sounded like a chess move.”

“Staying in that house alone didn't appeal to me - some ghost hunter I was. Nothing had happened, and I was already jumpy.”

“Obstreperous, ‘huh,” said Tad. “I see you’ve been using that Big Word of the Day calendar I got you last Christmas.” “That is irrefragable,” I told him solemnly.”

“Sometimes broken people stay broken.”

“Paranoia: the gift of the survivor and the burden of the overtired, stressed, and terrified...”

“She was his and he hers.”

“She was on the far side, leaving two cold feet of mattress between them. He knew that she'd fall asleep like that... and then gradually move over until she was plastered against him. Then he could go to sleep, too.”

“Then he'd come back home and found out that war didn't cause fear—love did.”

“She understood his passion because she felt the same way: as if nothing was more important than the touch of her skin to his, as if she'd die if he left her.”

“I was going to fight vampires, and my name wasn't Buffy--I was so screwed.”

“Werewolf games," Mercy said solemnly, "play for keeps, or go home." She was so cute sometimes it made Adam's heart hurt.”

“Yes," he said sincerely. "Such a one deserves peanut butter on the seat of his pants.”

“Coyote never loses. Because I change the rules of the games my enemies play. What are the rules of your game?”

“Silvia was tough, smart, and could survive on herown - she didn't need a handsome prince to ride up and rescue her. But that didn't mean such a man might not want to protect her from everything he could, anyway.”

“In this dream, I wasn’t a coyote shapeshifter trying to hold a werewolf, I was Coyote’s almost daughter, and I had all the strength of the world in my arms.”

“Do they always flirt with biblical quotes?" Asil asked Tad.In long-suffering tones, Tad said, "They can flirt with the periodic table or a restaurant menu. We've learned to live with it. Get a room you guys.”

“You will eat this and go to sleep, so your pronouns get their antecedents back.”

“Ben rubbed his muzzle over Kyle’s shoulder in a way that I think was supposed to be reassuring. Kyle sucked in a breath. Either it hurt, or the reminder that the werewolf was big enough to rub his shoulder without much effort wasn’t exactly reassuring. “Ben, when was the last time you brushed your teeth?” asked Kyle. Or else Ben’s breath was really bad.”

“...had just apologized to me. Hell must have been experiencing some climate change.”

“Even after all this time, I keep forgetting that heroes can be found in unlikely places and persons -- like mechanics who can turn into coyotes.”

“He put his chin on the top of my head. "I know." He wrapped both arms around me just above my chest and pulled me against him. - Stefan (Bone Crossed)”

“He knows about sacrificing himself for the good of the whole.That's what soldiers do.It's not the torture he can't forgive me for. Nor deceiving him about his people. It's because I put you in harm's way he is so angry" Then she said, very calmly, "If I could kill you, I would" - Mrsilia”

“She crawled on top of him, naked and warm and soft, smelling like a miracle that had saved him from a lifetime of aloneness.”

“[C]hildren were a much more difficult audience than adults because no on had yet had a chance to teach them that it was better to be polite than honest.”

“Maybe I should go back to teaching school about crazy people instead of being one. (Jim Alvin)”

“I narrowed my eyes at him. "Stuff that. I'll write a doctoral thesis. Then I can go do what most of the other people with doctoral degrees in anthropology do." "What's that?" asked Calvin."You don't need to encourage her," said Adam seriously, but his eyes laughed at me."The same thing that people with degrees in history do," I said. "Fix cars or serve frnech fries and bad hamburgers.”

“He stepped back with exaggerated courtesy. But when I walked past him, he swatted my rump. Hard enough to sting.“You need to be more careful,” he growled. “Keep interfering in my business and you might get hurt.”I said sweetly as I continued to Jesse's room, “The last man who swatted me like that is rotting in his grave.”“I have no doubt about it.” His voice was more satisfied then contrite.”

“I'm a coyote shapeshifter playing in a world of werewolves and vampires--outmatched is an understatement.”

“Apparently deciding Charles’s brief introduction wasn’t good enough, his brother reintroduced himself. “Dr. Samuel Cornick, elder brother and tormentor. Very nice to meet you, Anna—”

“He loved her beyond all reason and didn't expect her to love him back. He was just waiting for her to wise up.”

“She tried to imagine what Charles would do if another man came up to him and said, "You bring me joy.”

“New rules. If you are smart enough to live, you won’t hit Charles’s mate in front of his father.”

“Illegitimis nil carborundum.”

“Charles was most comfortable by himself or, if that wasn't possible, with his pack in the wild. Talking for hours in a crowded auditorium was not on any list of things he enjoyed—or things he was good at. At least no one had died. Yet.”

“You don’t have the courage of a half-bred mongrel.”

“People as old and powerful as he should never be given someone to love. For Anna he would destroy the world.”

“He had lived a very long time, and only since he gained Anna had he learned to fear. He’d discovered that he had never been brave before—just indifferent. She had taught him that to be brave, you have to fear losing something.”

“Asil has appointed himself my guardian?" asked Charles softly. Asil was overstepping himself. "He was bored, he told me," said his father. He gave Charles a small smile. "I have given him a job so he doesn’t get bored again.”

“Asil left Bran alone with his thoughts then, because if he stayed, Bran would argue with him. This way, Bran would have no one to argue with but himself. And Asil had always credited Bran with the ability to be persuasive.”

“Your woman tells me you will hunt me down and eat my marrow while I live.""Did she?" Charles looked at her, and she saw the approval in his face. She doubted anyone else would have read anything at all. His voice was a caress, just for her. "Would you like that, love?”

“She gave him a happy look as he followed her out on the water-soaked wooden walk. "This could be fun," she said, then turned, took a running step, and did a couple of back flips—like a middle-school kid at recess. He stopped where he was, lust and love and fear rising up in a surge of emotion he did not, for all his years, have any idea how to deal with. "What?" she asked, a little breathless from her gymnastics. She brushed her wavy hair out of her face and gave him a serious look. "Is there something wrong?" He could hardly tell her that he was afraid because he didn’t know what he’d do if something happened to her. That his sudden, unexpected reaction had brought Brother Wolf to the fore. She threw his balance off; his control—which had become almost effortless over the years—was erratic at best.”

“Most of the pack would rather have Darryl mad at them than Auriele.”

“Don’t try threatening an Alpha. They don’t like it.”

“When we got to the moron who was sitting in the only path to the stairway, Adam caught my waist and lifted me over before stepping over the man himself.“Scott?” Adam said as we headed upstairs. “Yeah?”“Unless someone shoots you, skins you, and throws the results on the floor, I don’t want to see you lying in the walkway again.”“Yessir!”

“If it looks like a hallway, feels like a hallway, and acts like a hallway—is it important to figure out that it isn’t a hallway?”

“Pack is for comfort when you hurt, I thought, putting my head back down. And for the first time in a long time, maybe the first time ever, I appreciated being a part of one.”