Lori Handeland - Marked by the Moon

“Wouldn’t it be more productive to cure the disease itself and not just one symptom of it?”

Cade glanced up, and his gaze had gone shrewd. “You sound like you don’t want to be a werewolf, Alex.”

“I d—”

Julian’s hand twitched. Several empty beakers flew off the table and crashed onto the floor. Cade’s attention turned to the mess. Alex glanced at Julian, who drew his finger across his throat. Dramatic, but it got the point across.

“Do,” she said. “I do want to be a werewolf.”

Her mind mocked, I do. I do. I dooo! in the voice of the Cowardly Lion.

“Mmm,” Cade said noncommittally. “From what I hear I don’t need to waste my time. The Jäger-Suchers have a cure.”

So he did know. Since Julian had, she shouldn’t be surprised.

“Not sure what it is, though.” Cade swept the glass into a dustpan with a tiny, handheld broom, then straightened and dumped the mess into the trash. The tinkling of the broken pieces sounded like distant church bells.

“If it were a serum or a pill, there’d be a lot less werewolves. Makes me think it’s some kind of spell that only one person can do. It takes a long time to rid the world of werewolves if you have to visit each and every one in order to do it.”

“What’s a Jäger-Sucher ?” Alex asked.

Cade sighed and let his head drop between his shoulders. Which was good since Julian rolled his eyes, along with his head, to indicate his total disbelief at her gall. But Cade was suspicious, and if she wanted to prove she was here because she wanted to be, not because she had to be—for more reasons than one— Alex thought she should at least pretend to be as much of a nube as Julian said she was.

“Julian.” Cade’s voice was exasperated. “If you’re going to make a new wolf, the least you can do is be certain she’s prepared.”

“He isn’t going to come here,” Julian said.

Cade lifted his gaze. “She needs to know.”

“Know what?” she asked. “And he, who?”

Cade put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side. Alex was so startled she let him. Then it felt so nice, she didn’t move away. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone had touched her with anything but violence or lust.

Or in the case of Barlow—violence and lust.

“There’s a secret society,” he began.

“That’s enough.”

Alex glanced over her shoulder. Barlow’s nostrils flared, his eyes, fixed on Cade’s arm, blazed. What was he so mad about?

“I’ll tell her,” he said.

“I don’t mind.” Cade smiled, and Alex smiled back. She felt so much more at ease with Cade than she could ever feel with his brother. “Besides, you’ve got places to go, Inuit to see.”

“Just find out what’s wrong with her.” Julian plucked his brother’s arm off Alex’s shoulder, snatched her by the wrist, and yanked her with him toward the door.

“Keep your skin on!” she said, hanging back.

Fury flashed, and for an instant she thought he might grab her by the throat. Instead, he bent, hitting her in the gut with his shoulder and effectively stifling any further protest before he lifted her over his back and headed down the corridor.

By the time she recovered her breath, he’d kicked open the rear door and fresh air wafted across her overheated face. “What is wrong with you?”

He unceremoniously dumped her to the ground. The only reason she didn’t land on her ass in the snow was that she was getting more lithe on her feet with each passing hour.

His eyes still blazed; his voice now rumbled between wolf and man. “What we’re concerned with here is what’s wrong with you.”

“There’s nothing wrong with me that you didn’t make wrong with me.”

Barlow turned away, presenting her with his back as he leaned against the white building. “You need to leave Cade alone,” he said. “He has work to do. You can’t…fuck with him like you fuck with me.”

Alex stiffened. “Excuse me?”

Obviously Barlow didn’t hear the danger in her voice, because he just kept talking.

“He’s innocent. A bit of a doofus. He’s spent his life trying to heal people. All he cares about is helping others.”

“I bet I could make him care about me.”

Barlow spun so fast she didn’t have time to move away. Not that she would have. She’d meant to poke the beast. He’d poked her.

“Leave him alone.” His skin rippled. He was losing control.

Good. So was she.

Alex stepped in close; then she lowered her voice so that even super-wolf had to lean in to hear what she said. “You think I just bang anyone who comes along?” She lifted her eyes and showed him her fury. “Like you?”

He snapped, grabbing her by the shoulders and dragging her against him. Despite her sweater and his flannel shirt, she could feel the heat wafting off him like the waves of the sun across the asphalt in August.

“You’ll bang no one,” he said between gritted teeth. “Except me.”

Julian wanted to kiss her. He wanted to throw her on the ground and do a helluva lot more than kiss. Ever since he’d walked into his brother’s lab and seen them together, so comfortable, so at ease, he’d been itching to remind her to whom she belonged.

He shook his head. What was he thinking? She didn’t belong to him. He didn’t want her to.

As if she’d read his mind, Alex snapped, “You don’t own me, Barlow.”

“No?” he murmured, and lowered his mouth to the pale skin visible above the sweater and below her ear.

She stiffened, straining to get away, but he was stronger than she was; he always would be. She kicked him; he barely felt it, the scent of her calling him home.

He took a fold into his mouth and suckled, tongue pressing against the pulsing vein, and she stilled, going pliant in his arms. His hands slid around her back, then down her pants. He cupped her cheeks, warming himself before he slid his thumb along the crevice.

“Ahem.”

Julian registered the sound of throat clearing like the buzz of a fly—annoying but it could be ignored.

“Ahem!”

Or not.

He kept his hands right where they were and raised his head. The mark left by his mouth resembled a full moon. Even as he admired it, the hickey began to fade. He grit his teeth against the nearly overwhelming urge to put it there again.

Julian lifted his gaze a bit more and met his brother’s.

“I wanted to talk to Alex,” Cade said. “I’ll come back when you’re finished.”

Alex tensed as if to pull away, but with his palms still cupping her ass…wasn’t happening.

“Shh,” Julian murmured, tugging her closer, pressing a kiss to her brow.

She jerked away. “What are you doing ?”

He blinked. What had he been doing? Comforting her, cuddling her, as if what he felt for her was more than lust, as if what he felt for her was—

Julian yanked his hands out of her pants and took one giant step backward, even as she tried to move away, snagged her clumpy rubber heel on the snow, and began to windmill her arms so she wouldn’t fall.

Cade smoothly stepped up, caught her around the waist, and set her on her feet. Alex peered over her shoulder and smiled at him in a way she’d never once smiled at Julian.

“Stop growling,” she said without even glancing in Julian’s direction. Then she covered Cade’s hands, which still rested on her hips, with her own. “Thanks.”

Julian had never seen her behave so gently, or speak the same. He hadn’t believed that she could. What he really couldn’t believe was that he yearned to have her speak like that to him.

And because he did, Julian turned and walked away.