“Fell means died.”
“In what dictionary?” he asked.
She made an impatient sound. “If he wasn’t dead, then what pissed you off enough to make you furry?”
Julian was becoming pissed off enough right now to become furry. What was it about the woman that both infuriated and aroused him? Or was it only that her arousing him, infuriated him?
He pulled his eyes from the lips he’d so recently kissed, and pathetically wanted to kiss again, only to meet his brother’s considering gaze. “What didn’t you tell her, Julian?”
“Bite me,” Julian growled, and Cade’s lips twitched. Despite all the centuries of their existence, his little brother still enjoyed baiting him.
Cade glanced back and forth between Julian and Alex, then murmured, “Ah.”
Both Alex and Julian snapped, “Ah, what?”
Cade lifted his hands in surrender. “Nothing,” he said, but inside he was laughing.
Julian didn’t find any of this funny. He’d just spent hours agonizing over the past, over the reason Alex was here, what she had done. Then a single instant in her presence and all he could think of was the texture of her skin, the smell of it, that taste.
“Knull mæ i øret,” he cursed.
“You keep saying that,” Alex murmured. “What does it mean?”
“Fuck my ear,” Cade supplied helpfully, the laughter still bubbling in his voice.
Julian shot him a look, but while Cade did as he was told just like everyone else in town, he wasn’t afraid of Julian. Never had been, never would be. Cade knew his big brother would never hurt him.
“I think I’ll pass,” Alex said.
“It’s a Norwegian curse,” Cade continued. “The Norse version of ‘fuck me.’”
Alex studiously avoided glancing at Julian. Nevertheless he knew exactly what she was thinking.
Already did.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded.
“According to Cade, you promised him my blood.” Alex indicated the needle and vial his brother still held in his hand. “Why didn’t you tell me I’m not only a werewolf freak but, apparently, a freaky werewolf?”
Julian slapped himself in the forehead. He’d completely forgotten to bring her here. “Give him your arm.”
“No,” she said, then grabbed her own wrist, which had begun to lift in response to the order, and held it down. “Answer my question.”
His teeth ground together so loudly, it sounded as if he had gravel in his mouth. “I planned to tell you when I brought you to have the blood drawn.” He frowned, glancing between her and Cade. “Why did you come here if not for that?”
“I didn’t know about that. Or him. I followed a lone wolf through town.”
Julian tensed. The rogue had dared to walk into his domain? He’d tear the beast into pieces. “Where did it go?”
She lifted her chin in Cade’s direction. “Right there.”
Julian let out the breath he’d taken. Not the rogue. Just Cade. Cade liked to run alone. He always had.
“And when he came inside, you decided to come in for…” Julian waited.
“I decided to come in and ask, What the hell?” Alex said. “But he took a swing at my head with his Viking sword—”
“You did?” Julian glanced at his brother in surprise, squelching the desire to mutter too bad you missed, which would only arouse more suspicion. The wolves in Barlowsville were family. One didn’t wish any of them dead.