Lori Handeland - Marked by the Moon

She’d been doing so well ignoring his alpha orders. The more she did so, the easier it got. But this morning she felt connected to him in a way she never had before. Was it because Julian had saved her life last night? And was he behaving strangely because he was sorry that he had?

He entered the building ahead of them, not pausing to hold the door, instead letting it slap closed. Annoyance flared, and Alex relished it. When she was annoyed with him, she wasn’t in lust with him.

Much.

Julian waited in the main room. His hair was a mess and the dark circles under his eyes made him seem very pale. He still wore the same clothes George had given him last night.

“You never went to bed,” she said.

He flicked her a glance before switching his gaze to Cade. “Show us what was so important.”

Cade beckoned them to join him at one of the high-topped tables where he had several petri dishes spread out. “I was trying to discover why Alex could touch the others without the serum, and I got nowhere. So I thought about the other—” He glanced up and caught Julian’s scowl. “—problem,” he finished.

“You mean the one where he pukes if he gets too far away from me?”

“Uh, yeah,” Cade said. “That problem I thought I wouldn’t mention since it makes the alpha a little—” He wiggled his hands next to his head.

“Ape-shit?” Alex murmured.

Cade choked. Barlow growled. Alex grinned. When she poked him with the proverbial stick she felt so much more like herself.

“What did you find?” Julian demanded.

“I…Well, it’s…” Cade took a deep breath, let it out, then reached for two clean petri dishes. “I’d better show you.”

He set the glass circlets next to each other, then went to the refrigerator in the corner and returned with two test tubes of blood. Alex read her name on one and Barlow’s on the other.

Her chest hurt, and she realized she was holding her breath. She wasn’t going to like this.

Cade set the tubes in a stand, uncorked them, then took an eyedropper in each hand and filled it with blood. He dripped a few drops of hers into the petri dish on the right; then he met her gaze and Julian’s. “Ready?”

Neither of them answered.

Cade sighed and squeezed the rubber on the other eyedropper. A bead of Julian’s blood seemed to fall in slow motion toward the petri dish on the left. Alex had enough time to wonder what experiment Cade could possibly have done with their blood in different dishes; then the drop hit the glass.

And immediately leaped into the other one.

Utter silence reigned. Alex glanced at the left dish. Not a mark on it. The right dish held a tiny puddle of blood, all the drops merged into one.

Maybe she’d been mistaken. Maybe Cade had dropped Julian’s blood into the right petri dish and not the left at all. Her eyes deceiving her made a lot more sense than blood hopping through the air.

“Do it again,” Julian said.

Cade nodded and pressed his first finger and his thumb together around the rubber bulb. This time, two drops of blood fell.

And two drops of blood arced from one petri dish to another.

“That’s impossible,” Alex said.

“I thought so, too,” Cade replied. “Until it happened.”

“What does it mean?” Barlow asked.

“I’m not sure. But—”

“You’d damn straight better find out,” Barlow snapped.

Cade’s eyes narrowed. “What do you think I’ve been doing?”

“Not confiding in me, obviously.”

“You weren’t here, ” Cade ground out. “Or if you were, you weren’t answering your door.”

“Why didn’t you walk right in? It’s always open.”

“After the two of you were doing your mating dance in the center square, then making out in the front window? I draw the line at walking in on that.”

At least their plan had worked. Everyone thought they’d been horizontal bopping all night.

Except for the rogue. Who’d somehow known they’d be in Awanitok.

“One problem at a time,” she murmured.

Cade and Julian ignored her. They were too busy staring into each other’s eyes like alpha wolves ready to fight.

“Hey!” She grabbed their shoulders. They both jerked away and snarled at her. She let them go, holding her hands up in surrender. “We all want the same thing.” She pointed to the petri dish. “An explanation for that.”

Julian rubbed a hand over his face. He seemed so tired. Cade went back to the table and pulled out two more clean glass dishes.

“I got to thinking that I’d never compared anyone’s blood before I compared yours. And that maybe this reaction was common.” He lifted one shoulder. “Maybe it has to do with the fact that Julian made us all.”

“That would make sense,” Alex agreed.

“You’d think.” Cade went to the refrigerator and brought back several more test tubes filled with blood. He dropped the blood of someone named Barclay into the right dish and Julian’s into the left.

Nothing happened.

“Faet!” Julian said without any real heat.

“Yeah,” Alex agreed.

Cade looked at them both and lifted a brow before he reached for two more dishes and shoved the others out of the way. He dropped the blood of another werewolf onto the right and the blood from a completely different test tube than Julian’s into the left.

The one on the left boogied through the air and splashed on top of the quivering drop on the right, turning the two separate droplets into a puddle of one. Cade lifted the two mystery donors and turned the labels front and center.

“I thought you’d want to talk to them yourself,” he said.

“You thought right,” Julian agreed.

Julian didn’t wait for Alex to join him. He knew that she would. Cade came along, too. Julian didn’t try to stop him.

They made their way to the EAT Café. The place was already packed with customers.

“You,” he pointed to Rose. “And you.” He pointed to Joe. “Come with me.”

Julian tramped up the steps that led to the apartment over the café, going through the unlocked door in front of Alex and Cade. The three of them waited in silence for Rose and Joe to turn over the register and grill to their employees, then join them.

They appeared scared witless. Julian had been a little harsh. Before Alex had shown up he never would have noticed.

“Sit,” he ordered.

Alex made an impatient noise to accompany the scowl she aimed in his direction. “Don’t worry,” she said to the older couple. “He won’t bite you. Again.”

Rose smiled without her usual spark. Joe didn’t bother.

“What have we done?” Rose asked.

Julian opened his mouth, then shut it again. How was he supposed to explain this? He glanced at Cade, but his brother had never been very good at explaining things so anyone could understand them.

“If one of you goes on a trip,” Alex began. “Does the other one feel…strange?”

The worried expressions on both their faces smoothed out. Rose laughed a little. “Oh, that,” she said.

“What?” Julian said between clenched teeth. The worried expressions returned.

“Quit scaring them!” Alex ordered.

If possible, Rose and Joe appeared more concerned. Rose put her hand on Alex’s arm. “Don’t yell at the alpha, child.”

“Yeah,” Julian said. “Don’t yell at the alpha.”

“Bite me,” she muttered.

“Again?” Julian drawled.

“Oh!” Rose lifted her hands to her cheeks, then stared back and forth between Julian and Alex. “I see.”

“See what?” Alex and Julian demanded at the same time. Cade had retreated to the window, staring out at the street, and while he was obviously listening, he was pretending not to.