Marked by the Moon (Nightcreature 9)

Alex waved the sword in a faster, wider arc. “Since it ain’t happening, you’re right.”

“Don’t you want to know why you’re different?”

The sword stopped mid-arc. “What?”

“Julian said that you could touch the others and they could touch you.”

“So?”

“Unless you were inoculated with my serum, your head should threaten to split open if you do that.”

“But he said—” Alex paused. Barlow had said that he could touch the wolves he’d made and they could touch him. He’d never said that they could all play patty-cake together. “What else did Barlow say?”

“That he wanted me to find out why.”

“And you always do what he says?”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

“Not me.”

Cade tilted his head. “I should probably find out why that is, too.”

“Because I’m a bitch, he’s an ass, and I don’t wanna?”

Cade choked; then his laughter spilled free. “This is going to be so much fun to watch. No one’s defied him in centuries. I think the last wolf that did woke up one day without a throat.”

“I see now where the fun comes in,” Alex said drily.

Cade, who’d finally stopped laughing, snorted. “If he hasn’t killed you yet, he isn’t going to.”

“I wouldn’t count on that.”

The sword was getting heavy. Not that she couldn’t manage it but Alex saw no reason to continue holding the thing in front of her as if she were auditioning for the movie version of Xena: Warrior Werewolf. So she set the weapon on the nearest tabletop that wasn’t cluttered with books and papers and glass, but she kept her hand on the hilt.

“How do you resist his…?” Cade made a circle in the air with the needle.

Alex’s mouth tightened. She hadn’t resisted him very well at all—at least when it came to sex. She could tell Barlow to blow off, but when it came right down to it, all she really wanted to do was blow him.

“Commands,” Cade finished.

Alex had to scramble for the question. Resisting his commands? It wasn’t easy. But the more she did it, the easier it got. Maybe if she refrained from doing him a few times, she’d be able to resist him for good.

And why did the thought of never feeling his skin beneath her palms, his mouth on hers, his body deep within make her twitchy? She didn’t know, and she didn’t want to.

“I just say nuh-uh,” Alex answered. “You should try it sometime.”

“I have. It makes me…” Cade shifted his thin shoulders beneath the starched white coat. “Squirrelly.”

Alex nodded. That was as good a word as any. “Me too. But I’d rather feel squirrelly than…owned.”

“He doesn’t own us.”

“Close enough,” Alex muttered. Then, since she didn’t want to argue a point she wouldn’t win—not with one of the ownees—Alex moved on. “Why were you out alone in the night?” she asked.

“Alone?” he repeated.

“There’s a rogue wolf picking off the Inuit villagers one by one.”