“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.”

“When is the last time you were a tourist?” she asked archly.He just looked at her. Charles, she had to agree, was not tourist material.“Right,” Anna told him. “Buck up. You might even enjoy it.”“You might as well have ‘hapless victim’ tattooed across your forehead,” he muttered.”

“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.”

“I don’t fool you, do I? Those others”—he waved a vague hand to indicate theirmissing comrades—“they think I’m all that—but you know better, don’t you.”“Know what?” she’d asked.He leaned forward, smelling of beer and cigarettes. “You know I’m a fraud. I canfeel the beast inside me, screaming to get out. And if I loose it, it will pull me up to greatness despite myself.”“So why not let it free?” She hadn’t been a werewolf then. The world had been a gentler place, the monsters safely in their closets, and she had been brave in her ignorance.His eyes were old and weary, his voice slurring a bit. “Because then everyone wouldsee,” he told her.“See what?”“Me.”

“Yes, well," said his da with a hint of a grow that told him just how worried Bran had been about him, "that'll teach you to dodge a bit quicker next time.""Sorry," he apologized meekly as he sat in the passenger seat."Good," said Bran, shutting the door gently. "Don't let it happen again."-Bran and Charles”

“And that's when Anna realized that what the wolf had been asking Bran for was death.Impulsively, Anna stepped away from Charles. She put a knee on the bench she'd been sitting on and reached over the back to close her hand on Asil's wrist, which was lying across the back of the pew.He hissed in shock but didn't pull away. As she held him the scent of wilderness, of sickness, faded. He stared at her, the whites of his eyes showing brightly while his irises narrowed to small bands around his black pupil."Omega," he whispered, his breath coming harshly.”

“His brother maintained that what sent people backing away was neither his size nor his mother's blood, but solely the expression on his face. To test Samuel's theory, Charles had tried smiling - and then solemnly reported to Samuel that he had been mistaken. When Charles smiled, he told Samuel, people just ran faster.”