Lori Handeland - Marked by the Moon

“Did,” he muttered.

“Just because you made me one, too, doesn’t mean I lost the ability to track them. You should let me help.”

“Help?” he echoed as if he didn’t know the word.

“I’ll find the rogue for you, Barlow. You can count on it.”

She sounded sincere, and for an instant Julian felt something like hope. She was one of the best hunters Edward had ever had, second only to the man himself now that Leigh Tyler had gotten pregnant and retired. Although that rumor was so bizarre Julian had a hard time believing it. Still, there’d been no whispers lately of Leigh blasting her way through more than her share of werewolves. So something strange had definitely happened.

Julian had never understood why Edward allowed Alex to leave his agency and run rogue. He thought the old man was up to something there; he just couldn’t figure out what.

“You never answered my question,” Julian said. “Why do you care?”

“I live here now. Sounds like I could be living here for the foreseeable future.”

Julian stifled a growl. Not if he could help it.

“I don’t want to find myself in the middle of a Barlow family civil war.”

Might it come to that? Would his Inuit relatives begin to hunt his werewolf offspring? Could the peace he’d found here deteriorate into another war?

Julian sighed. Yeah.

Despite her obvious skill at the job, and his need for it, Julian just couldn’t set Alex loose on his people. There was no telling what she might do to get her answers.

“We’ll search together,” he said.

“What?” The slight smile on her lips froze. “No. I work alone.”

“Not anymore.”

Julian nearly laughed as Alex sputtered and stomped. She couldn’t seem to find her words, and that suited him just fine. He liked her best when she wasn’t talking.

An image of what she was usually doing when she wasn’t talking— him —flitted through his mind, and for the first time that he could remember, it didn’t make him angry and horny. It just made him horny.

The woman was the best lay he’d ever had.

Julian’s heart seemed to stop as he heard his own thoughts. What was the matter with him?

He took several deep gulps of the clear, icy air. Unfortunately, the air didn’t smell clear—it smelled like her.

“He’s really your brother, right?” Alex murmured.

Julian, whose face had been tilted to the graying sky, now glared down at her. “What the hell kind of question is that?”

“You don’t look that much alike.” She lifted a brow. “You certainly don’t share a personality.”

“What’s your point?”

“When you call him your brother do you mean brother in arms, blood brother—” She made a strange gesture with her hands that reminded him of something done by an LA gang member on the only episode of Cops he’d ever seen, and muttered, “Bro!” in a voice that was very LA. “My brotha from anotha motha.”

At his continuing blank expression she sighed, dropped her arms and continued, “Did you have the same mother, the same father? Did you grow up together? Is he really your brother or is it some kind of honorary title?”

“He’s my brother,” Julian said. They had not had the same mother, but back in the days of the Vikings, that wasn’t uncommon. Life was hard, and women did not live long, which meant Vikings often had more than one wife.

“You still think he’s the rogue?” Julian laughed. “All Cade ever cared about was healing. He wouldn’t hurt anyone—then or now. He definitely couldn’t kill them.”

Alex’s gaze went to the door that separated them from Cade. “I’ll have to take your word for it since I wasn’t around when he was completely human.”

“You weren’t around when any of us were completely human,” Julian pointed out.

Which was going to make it damn difficult for her to discover who’d enjoyed spilling human blood even before he’d grown fangs.

“If someone were a crazed killer,” Barlow continued, “wouldn’t he have killed before now?”

“You’d think,” Alex agreed. “Maybe he went somewhere else to do his dirty deeds. Anyone leave the village periodically?”

“Everyone leaves now and then. They aren’t prisoners.”

“ They aren’t,” she muttered.

Julian sighed. “If that were the case, why start killing the Inuit when they were doing just fine somewhere else?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You’re the expert.”

“I don’t deal in theories, I deal in…” Alex’s voice trailed off and she frowned, seeming to search for a word.

Julian supplied one. “Death?”

Her eyes narrowed; then she shrugged. “Okay. I deal in death. I find them; then I kill them.”

“Find us, ” he corrected. “Kill us .”

“Whatever. Do you want me to help you or not?”

Julian was very tempted to say not . But he wasn’t stupid. The quicker they discovered, then eliminated, the rogue, the fewer people would die. If it meant sleeping with the enemy, literally and figuratively, then…

“So be it.”

“We need bait,” Alex muttered.

“Like…” Barlow’s brow creased. “Meat?”

Meat . Wasn’t that just like a werewolf?

“You call them meat,” she said. “I call them people.”

“You want to use a person as bait?”

“What would you suggest? We’re talking were, not wolf.”

“That would mean sacrificing at least one more life.”

“I didn’t say we were going to let them get killed for the greater good. I’m not you.”

His teeth ground together again, and Alex resisted the urge to smirk. Why did she enjoy annoying him so much?

“Maybe you’d better tell me exactly what you have planned,” Barlow said.

“Person strolling in the moonlight.” Alex walked the fingers of one hand through the air. “Rogue werewolf.” She used her other hand to mimic creeping behind. Then she flipped both palms up. “Voilà!”

“Dead person.”

Alex rubbed her eyes. Amateur .

“It takes a wolf to catch a wolf. Luckily we have two.”

Understanding bloomed across his face. “What do you want me to do?”

They met in the village square, seemingly by accident.

Julian grabbed her arm, holding tight when she struggled. “Where have you been?”

“None of your business.” Alex managed to pull free, but only because he let her.

“Everyone here is my business.”

“Not me.” She turned away.

He growled and snatched her hand, twirling her back and into his arms. “Anyone watching?” he whispered.

“Anyone not?” she returned, then kicked him in the shin.

He was so surprised he let her go, then had to scramble to catch her again. Wary of her boots, he hoisted her over his shoulder without further ado and headed for his house.

“Already?” she murmured, flailing both arms and legs.

He didn’t answer, just carted her out of the square— ignoring the knowing grins of three-quarters of the village—down the street and into his house, where he dumped her onto her feet in front of the large picture window.

“You told me to make it believable.” He ducked when she took a swing at him.

“By arguing in front of everyone!” She threw up her hands, as if they really were arguing. Julian wasn’t certain they weren’t. His blood pressure was definitely on the rise. “That wasn’t much of an argument.”

“I’m the alpha.” He took a determined step closer, smirking when she took a quick step back. “There’s never much of an argument with me.”

She snorted, but when he took another step in her direction—a big one that nearly brushed them together —the laughter died, and she shoved at his chest. “You manhandle everyone who defies you?”