But in this moment, I want to choke the guy out for playing dumb with me.

“The girl — Ava. Did she leave?” I ask, my voice shaking with desperation.

“I did not catch her name, sir,” Henry replies calmly. “But yes. Your lady friend did depart quite early this morning.”

“Did Robert take her? Where did she go?”

“The young lady declined my offer to have Robert drive her. I do not know where she might have gone.”

“Fuck!” I whip around in a violent rage, planting my fist through the nearest door. It goes right through the wood, showering the rug in splinters and lodging several in my skin.

Henry doesn’t jump or appear even the slightest bit fazed. He almost looks bored.

“What’s the matter?” drawls Chaston from the drawing room. “Your little snow bunny run off, did she? I do hope she didn’t make off with the silver.”

The sound of his voice is like nails on a chalkboard, and I whip around to see Chaston’s mat of short blond curls protruding from the back of a chair.

Normally, my wolf doesn’t bother with my sniveling younger brother, but this morning, I’m in no fucking mood.

I cross from the dining room to the drawing room in three quick strides and grab Chaston by the front of his bathrobe. Hauling him out of his seat, I upend the steaming cup in his lap — coffee laced with bourbon. I slam my brother against the nearest wall, making the elk trophy above his head rattle.

“The fuck did you say to me?” I growl, allowing my wolf to shine through in my voice.

Chaston plasters on his signature look of haughty indifference, but I scent my brother’s fear.

“I was merely implying that there hardly seems any point in utilizing a home-security system if you insist on fucking every slutty service worker you meet on the mountain.”

I don’t think.

I don’t respond.

A feral howl escapes me as I turn and ram Chaston headfirst through the window. Glass showers the hardwood floor, and Chaston yelps in surprise. The iron tang of blood spurs on my wolf, and I narrow my eyes in cold satisfaction.

There’s a tense beat of silence as my brother braces one hand on the window frame and pulls himself through the Chaston-sized hole. More glass rains down, spilling over the front of his robe and onto the Persian rug.

Long rivulets of blood streak his face, and my brother’s eyes have lightened from their normal baby blue to a silver that nearly matches my own wolf’s eyes. He bares his teeth, shoulders tense, and I sense that he’s beginning to shift.

Perfect. I’m dying to sink my teeth into something, and Chaston has a rare gift for pissing me the fuck off.

My skin itches as my wolf rises to the surface, and my body succumbs to the familiar mix of pain and relief as I shed my human form.

My back bends as my bones start to break and muscles and sinew tear free from my joints. My jeans rip as I hit the rug on all fours, back arching as the change overtakes me. Feet and hands become paws, and I shake like a dog to ward off the last tingles of the shift.

Chaston, true to form, is quick to finish, and I find myself staring into the silver eyes of his white wolf.

My brother has always been overeager, and I let him make the first move.

He pounces, but I jerk out of the way. He crashes snout-first into the coffee table, upending a ceramic vase that dates back to the Yuan dynasty. It topples to the floor with a loud crash, and Chaston whips around.

I bound forward, aiming for his neck, and my brother lets out a high-pitched yelp as my fangs sink through his thick fur. The taste of blood excites my wolf, and I shake my head back and forth, whipping him around like a rag doll.

When I finally release my brother, he slides across the hardwood floor and careens into the grandfather clock. Chimes clang as it tips back on its legs, and my sister comes tearing into the room, dressed in nothing but a skimpy silk nightdress and matching silk robe.

“What the fuck?” Hyacinthe yells, her gaze snapping from the broken vase to the window. She’s got some weird blue patch things under her eyes and a mostly empty bottle of vodka in hand.

I barely have a second to register my sister’s fury before a large gray wolf bounds in out of nowhere, catapulting into my side.

Anders.