I pointed at him.

“Okay.” Ascanio took a step back. “I understand you need a moment.”

“Would you like me to beat him?” Derek asked.

“Personally, I don’t think this is a good time to be fighting among ourselves,” Ascanio said. “But if Mr. McBroodypants would like to see how much I’ve learned in the past year, I’d be happy to show him. It would make a lot of noise and draw a lot of attention with all the blood flying around.”

Mr. McBroodypants took a step forward.

“No,” I said.

Derek growled quietly under his breath.

Ascanio shot me another brilliant smile. “I’m sorry for all this trouble. I honestly was just trying to help. But now that I’m here, I couldn’t possibly go back all alone and defenseless. Unless you want to condemn me to certain death. Alone. In the night. In the freezing rain.”

Desandra laughed.

“It’s not raining,” I told him.

“How old are you?” Robert asked.

“Sixteen,” Ascanio said, suddenly dropping the plaintive tone. “Not old enough to drink or sign a contract, but old enough to be tried as an adult if I kill a human. Also old enough to fight for the Pack.”

Robert’s eyebrows crept up. “Old enough to accept the consequences of your decisions?”

“Yes,” Ascanio said.

Robert glanced at me.

That was exactly what I needed. A hundred forty pounds of teenage crazy in a pressure cooker. “Fine.”

Derek glanced at me. “Really?”

“Yes.”

He stared at me, incredulous. “So he gets what he wants?”

“Yes. We’re too close to the People’s territory. If we chase him off, he’ll just keep following us and walk himself into something he wouldn’t get out of. And if the People get hold of him, they’ll use him as leverage against us.”

Ascanio beamed.

“Look at me,” I squeezed through my teeth. “You will obey me. If I say ‘stop,’ you stop. If I say ‘jump,’ you jump. If I say ‘hold your breath,’ you’d better pass out before you start breathing again.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“This isn’t over. If we survive this and get back to the Keep, I’ll have a talk with your alphas. You think the Beast Lord is scary, wait until we get back to the Keep. I promise you, after I am through with you, you’ll regret this.”

“I’m regretting it already,” he promised.

I turned Cuddles. Ascanio trotted over next to Derek. Derek snapped his teeth. Ascanio winked at him. “You know you missed me.”

We turned up the street.

Now I had two of my personal bodyguards. Too bad their average age was seventeen and a half. That reminded me . . . “Desandra?”

“Hmm?”

“The blond curly-haired guy with Jennifer. What’s his story?”