Marked by the Moon (Nightcreature 9)

Liar, liar, pants on fire, his mind taunted.

“What happened to the no-more-werewolves rule?”

“That isn’t the rule,” Julian said.

“Fine. You didn’t ask permission.” His voice twisted sarcastically on the final word.

“Since I’m the one who gives permission, I figured I’d save a step.”

Cade rolled his eyes, and Julian stifled a smile. His brother was the only one who dared stand up to him—although not often or very well—the only one with whom Julian could be truly himself.

Alex’s face flitted through his mind. She stood up to him. And if he wasn’t being himself with her—evil, murderous beast that he was—then who was he being?

“You’re growling,” Cade observed.

Alex seemed to have that effect on him, even when she wasn’t around.

“You said it’s dangerous to create a new wolf,” Cade pointed out. “That it should only be done by one who’s done it before, for a damn good reason, with the new wolf’s consent and preferably here.” Cade jabbed a finger at the floor.

“I say a lot of things,” Julian muttered.

“Besides, the village is packed. Where is this woman going to stay?” His eyes widened. “With you?”

“Hell no!” Julian erupted before he could stop himself.

His brother’s expression became contemplative. “Who is she?”

“Just some woman.” Julian put his hands in his pockets and became vastly interested in the ceiling. “She was lying there bleeding. What was I supposed to do?”

“You said yourself that we can’t save everyone.”

“I suppose, but there was something about her—”

That little matter of murdering my wife.

“Wait a second,” Cade began. “You were in LA?”

“So?”

“You made a wolf in LA? A place with the population of mainland China shoved into a shoe box. You know how a new wolf is the first time they change.” He walked away muttering. “Kill anything. Everything. Anywhere. Doesn’t matter.”

Cade booted up his laptop, typed a few quick commands, then peered at the screen. “No mass murders by unknown perpetrators. No wild dog packs loose in the suburbs. No rogue coyotes down from the hills munching on unsuspecting preschoolers.”

Julian lifted his eyebrow and let his brother rant on. Sometimes that was best.

Cade continued to scroll and click, Google and search, his mutterings lapsing into Norwegian now and then.

“Ah-ha!” Cade pointed at the screen. “Known child molester found with his throat torn out in a nasty area of LA. No suspects.” He cast Julian a glance. “That has you written all over it.”

Julian didn’t answer. Cade was right.

“Except…” Cade tapped his fingernail against the keyboard. “If you found this woman and she was dying, then you bit her and she shifted, she’d be ravenous. So how did you have time to find a child molester and take him for lunch?”

Good question.

Cade’s eyes narrowed. “It’s almost as if you’d planned it.”

His brother was too smart for anyone’s good. Especially Julian’s.