Lori Handeland - Marked by the Moon

“Barlow’s a lot of things. Chatty isn’t one of them.”

“Yet you know about Awanitok and our agreement with them after being in town for barely a day.”

“I’m easy to talk to.” And a really good liar. “If no one here would dare defy him…” Except Alex, and she hadn’t eaten anyone lately. “…then whatever’s doing it is a rogue.”

“Must be.”

“But a rogue, by definition, is…” Alex cast about for a word.

“A scoundrel?”

“If you live in the seventeenth century.” Alex narrowed her eyes. “ Did you live in the seventeenth century?”

“Among others.”

“Where were you born?” she asked, suddenly curious.

“Norse land.”

“Never heard of it.”

“The land of the Vikings.”

Alex looked him up and down. “ You were a Viking?”

His face became distant. “I wasn’t a very good one.”

“Let me guess. You were from Norway. Like him.” Cade nodded, and Alex flicked a finger to indicate his eyes. “Did he boink your mama, too?”

Cade jerked, mouth pulling into an expression of horror. “Why would you say such a disgusting thing?”

“Your eyes,” Alex said. “They’re like his.”

The scuff of a shoe had them both glancing toward the doorway where Barlow leaned, the nonchalance of his posture belied by the flare of fury in his all-too-familiar blue gaze.

“He’s my brother,” Julian said, and stalked across the room.

Alex’s hand tightened around the hilt of Cade’s sword, but she didn’t take it up. Smart move. He’d disarm her quicker than she could say boink your mama.

How had she gotten the weapon away from Cade in the first place? His brother might have been a bad Viking, but he was a Viking . You’d think that would be good for something.

“Your brother,” Alex murmured. “The dead one?”

Julian swung his gaze in her direction. “As you can see, he’s not dead.”

“You said he fell in battle, and that in your fury you shifted into a wolf.”

“I did.”

“Fell means died.”

“In what dictionary?” he asked.

She made an impatient sound. “If he wasn’t dead, then what pissed you off enough to make you furry?”

Julian was becoming pissed off enough right now to become furry. What was it about the woman that both infuriated and aroused him? Or was it only that her arousing him, infuriated him?

He pulled his eyes from the lips he’d so recently kissed, and pathetically wanted to kiss again, only to meet his brother’s considering gaze. “What didn’t you tell her, Julian?”

“Bite me,” Julian growled, and Cade’s lips twitched. Despite all the centuries of their existence, his little brother still enjoyed baiting him.

Cade glanced back and forth between Julian and Alex, then murmured, “Ah.”

Both Alex and Julian snapped, “Ah, what?”

Cade lifted his hands in surrender. “Nothing,” he said, but inside he was laughing.

Julian didn’t find any of this funny. He’d just spent hours agonizing over the past, over the reason Alex was here, what she had done. Then a single instant in her presence and all he could think of was the texture of her skin, the smell of it, that taste.

“Knull mæ i øret,” he cursed.

“You keep saying that,” Alex murmured. “What does it mean?”

“Fuck my ear,” Cade supplied helpfully, the laughter still bubbling in his voice.

Julian shot him a look, but while Cade did as he was told just like everyone else in town, he wasn’t afraid of Julian. Never had been, never would be. Cade knew his big brother would never hurt him.

“I think I’ll pass,” Alex said.

“It’s a Norwegian curse,” Cade continued. “The Norse version of ‘fuck me.’”

Alex studiously avoided glancing at Julian. Nevertheless he knew exactly what she was thinking.

Already did.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded.

“According to Cade, you promised him my blood.” Alex indicated the needle and vial his brother still held in his hand. “Why didn’t you tell me I’m not only a werewolf freak but, apparently, a freaky werewolf?”

Julian slapped himself in the forehead. He’d completely forgotten to bring her here. “Give him your arm.”

“No,” she said, then grabbed her own wrist, which had begun to lift in response to the order, and held it down. “Answer my question.”

His teeth ground together so loudly, it sounded as if he had gravel in his mouth. “I planned to tell you when I brought you to have the blood drawn.” He frowned, glancing between her and Cade. “Why did you come here if not for that?”

“I didn’t know about that. Or him. I followed a lone wolf through town.”

Julian tensed. The rogue had dared to walk into his domain? He’d tear the beast into pieces. “Where did it go?”

She lifted her chin in Cade’s direction. “Right there.”

Julian let out the breath he’d taken. Not the rogue. Just Cade. Cade liked to run alone. He always had.

“And when he came inside, you decided to come in for…” Julian waited.

“I decided to come in and ask, What the hell? ” Alex said. “But he took a swing at my head with his Viking sword—”

“You did?” Julian glanced at his brother in surprise, squelching the desire to mutter too bad you missed, which would only arouse more suspicion. The wolves in Barlowsville were family. One didn’t wish any of them dead.

Cade shrugged. “I didn’t know who she was. I thought everyone was out with you.”

Julian let Cade believe he’d been running with the others. He certainly didn’t want to discuss why he hadn’t been.

“You wanna explain this, too, while you’re at it?” Alex stood next to Cade’s laptop. “Thought you were off the grid.”

“We are.” Cade crossed over, picked up the computer, and brought it back to the center island where he stood within arm’s reach of his toy. He never had liked anyone else touching it.

Cade quickly gave Alex a rundown on how he had Internet when no one else did. She didn’t appear to understand the explanation any better than Julian did. She opened her mouth, no doubt to spew forth more questions, and the back door banged—open, then shut. Footsteps hurried down the hall.

George burst in, face flushed, chest heaving.

“Ah, hell,” Julian muttered an instant before the boy announced, “We found another body.”

“One a night,” Alex drawled. “Someone’s hungry.”

Julian ignored her. “Who was it?”

“Dr. Cosgrove.”

“Doctor?” Alex asked.

“Veterinarian.”

“Maybe someone didn’t care for the way he was sticking them with needles,” she muttered.

“We don’t see the veterinarian,” he snapped. “We don’t see any doctor at all. We don’t get sick.”

“Except in the head.”

He shot her a glare.

“What?” She rounded her eyes with false innocence. “You don’t think someone in the village has snapped?”

George was listening wide-eyed. He’d no doubt report every word to Jorund as soon as he got back.

“I’ll come within the hour,” Julian said.

The boy nodded and went out the way he’d come in. Silence settled over them. It didn’t last long.

“Aren’t you going to ask your brother what he’s been doing out there alone in the night?” Alex demanded.

“Why?”

Alex rubbed her nose as if she had a sudden headache. “Rogue wolf killing Inuit nightly. Remember?”

“You think Cade is a murdering, rogue werewolf?”

Julian asked. “Look at him.”

“Hey!” Cade exclaimed. “I’m right here.”