“No one should want to kill you at all,” he said.
“Don’t you?” she asked, then she strode up the steps and into the house.
Julian was left staring after her, wondering when in hell the answer had become no.
He parked the snowmobile at the back of Ella’s house, covered it with a tarp, then went searching for his brother.
Dawn was fast approaching. Cade would either be hard at work in the lab or—
Julian frowned and glanced into the night. Out there somewhere, like the others.
If he was honest, any one of his people could have taken those shots at Alex. But why would they? The only ones who knew who she really was, what she’d done, were Julian and Ella. And probably Jorund now, too.
They’d already established that Ella didn’t need to shoot Alex. There were easier, less dangerous ways to get rid of her.
Besides, Ella thought Alex was the victim. She’d be more likely to take a shot at Julian.
Jorund hadn’t done it. He’d been channeling Hugh Hefner at the time.
Julian hadn’t done it, so—
He opened the door to the lab and stepped inside, pausing to rub at his eyes. None of this made any sort of sense.
Julian glanced into Cade’s room. He wasn’t in bed.
He wasn’t in the lab, either, and he wasn’t in the bathroom that Julian checked on his way out.
Julian stood in the yard between his building and his brother’s, watching the moon die. Then he walked to Ella’s, and he sat on the porch until the murky light of the sun tinted the sky and his werewolves began to trickle into town.
“I’ve been looking for you.”
Julian blinked. Where had his brother come from?
Cade was dressed. So either he hadn’t been out running, or he’d already gone home to change.
“She kick you out?” Cade jerked his head at the house.
“Ella?”
Cade rolled his eyes. “Ella’s taken.”
Was Julian the only one who hadn’t known about Ella and Jorund? What else was going on in his village that he didn’t know about?
“I was looking for you, too.” Julian stood. “Where’d you go?”
“There’s something you need to see.”
Julian opened his mouth to point out that Cade hadn’t answered the question, then paused. His brother was—
Julian wasn’t sure. He’d never seen that expression on Cade’s face. He didn’t like it.
“Okay.” He stood. “Show me.”
“Back at the lab.” Cade glanced at Ella’s house. “You’d better bring her along too.”
Alex had known the exact moment Julian arrived. The connection between them appeared to be getting worse.
She’d been in bed, sound asleep; then suddenly she was wide awake and smelling him. She’d trailed through the house, gone to the window, then lost several minutes watching the silver rays of the moon play over his face.
How could she have smelled him? The doors and windows were tightly shut against the bitter cold. Yet his distinct scent of fresh snow on evergreens was everywhere. It had followed her back to sleep, playing across her dreams, making her yearn.
When the sun’s muted rays had just begun to lighten the Arctic skies, his voice had drawn her awake. She’d thrown on more of Ella’s clothes—she still hadn’t managed to buy any of her own—and gone to ask him in for coffee. She opened the door just as he was lifting his hand to knock.
“Morning.”
“Uh,” he returned.
“Morning!” Cade stood at the bottom of the steps.
“Come on in,” she said. “You want coffee?”
But as she turned, Julian caught her hand. Suddenly Alex couldn’t breathe. Her fingers clenched around his; she stared into his face. He didn’t appear to be breathing, either.
“Are you going to bring her along or aren’t you?” Cade asked.
He sounded like a petulant little brother, and Alex laughed, which allowed her to breathe again.
“Where are we going?”
“The lab.” Julian was staring at her as if she’d just sprouted horns; then he dropped her hand and spun away.
Why did she feel as if she’d done something wrong?
She glanced at Cade, who shrugged as Julian pushed past and left them behind. “You need more blood?” she asked.
His face took on a strange expression, and suddenly Alex was worried. What had he found in the last batch?
She put on her boots and followed. Julian stalked ahead, refusing to look back. He knew they were coming.
Alex felt a strange urge to hurry after him, almost as if he’d ordered her to, except he hadn’t.
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.”
&n
bsp; “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.
Chapter 23
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.
“You’re mates,” Rose said, then turned her adoring gaze to Joe. “Like us.”
Alex stiffened. Julian did the same. Each studiously avoided looking in the other’s direction.
“Explain,” Julian demanded.
“You know, Julian.” Rose patted his hand fondly. “You were there.”
“He was where?” Alex asked.
“He was there when Joe almost died.”
Now Alex did glance at him, but Julian refused to return the favor. Mates? This sounded bad.
“Go on,” Alex said.
“Joe volunteered for the army. He was a bit old, but he felt like he should serve his adopted country.” She paused and beamed at her husband. “He loves America so much.”
“I do,” Joe said in a thick Italian accent. “It’s-a true.”
Alex’s eyes widened. She’d probably never heard Joe speak, only sing, and when he sang, not much of an accent.
“He was hit at Gettysburg—”
“Whoa!” Alex held up a hand. “He was a soldier in the Civil War?”
Rose shrugged and spread her hands.
Alex turned to Julian. “What in hell were you doing there?”
“I’m a warrior,” he said. “It’s the only thing I’ve ever been good at.”
She opened her mouth, then snapped it shut again and stared at the floor as her cheeks flushed.
Well, he was good at that, too.
Rose gave a strangled cough that sounded very much like a stifled laugh, and Alex’s head came up, eyes snapping. “What did you do, Barlow? Hire yourself out to the highest bidder?”
“I don’t fight for money.”
“Then what do you fight for?”
“Whatever is worth fighting for.” Julian glanced at Rose, needing to shift the subject back to what they’d come here to learn. “I’m not seeing how my saving Joe from dying on the battlefield leads to—” He couldn’t say it, so he just twirled a finger to indicate that she should go on.
“Joe was dying and you—”
“Why Joe?” Alex interrupted. “Why not one of the thousands of other guys who died there? Or why not thousands of the guys who died there?”
“What would I do with a thousand werewolves?” Julian muttered.
“Make an army.”
He narrowed his eyes. “And what would I do with an army?”
“Rule more than Barlowsville. You could rule the whole damn world.”
“Ruling the world is highly overrated,” he said. “All I’ve ever wanted is my own little corner.” He turned again to Rose. “Continue.”
“You saved him; then you came to see me.”
Julian’s mind drifted to that long-ago day. The heat. The blood and smoke. The scent of gunpowder and death. Why had he volunteered to fight again?
Oh, yeah, because he was good at it. And he hadn’t wanted to see the Union die. Before Gettysburg, it had been.
He could have told the Yankees that when you invaded someone’s homeland, the invadees fought so much harder than the invaders. Unless you were a Viking. They just kicked ass all over the place.
The Yankees definitely weren’t Vikings—except for him and Knut. Speaking of which—
“Has anyone seen Neil?” The name Knut was using these days.
Rose and Alex stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. Joe, who had
met Neil the same day he’d met Julian and Cade, understood the connection.
“He’s fishing,” Joe said. “Or maybe it was hunting.”
“Has been for a few weeks now,” Cade murmured.
The question was: Had Neil been hunting elk? Or Inuit?
It hadn’t occurred to Julian to tally the village and discover who was missing. Werewolves came and went. They weren’t prisoners. But he didn’t like it that Neil was away. He didn’t like it at all.
“I took Joe to see Cade first,” Julian said.
“But gut-shot is no good.” Joe shook his head sadly as if he was talking about someone else’s gut and not his own.
“Cade was there, too?” Alex glanced at Julian’s brother, who nodded but continued to stare out the window.
“Neil also,” Joe said.
“Who in hell is Neil?”
“The only other Viking, besides Cade, that I made like us.”
Neil and Julian had joined the Northern forces to fight. Cade had joined to heal.
“Cade was an army doctor,” Julian said. “That day he’d just gotten back from visiting an Iroquois woman. He always talked to the healers in every culture we…visited.”
“Sometimes it helped,” Cade said. “They knew local herbs. Back then, that was all we had.”
Julian waited for Cade to take over the tale, but when he turned again to his window—what was so blasted interesting out there anyway?—Julian continued. He felt better when he was talking. When he was talking about the past he wasn’t thinking about the present.
“Like Joe said, gut-shot is gut-shot.”
“Why didn’t you magic him back to health?”
“The only way I can heal a human is with a bite.”
“So you bit him.”
“He wanted me to.”
Julian had liked Joe. Hell, he still did. He’d never regretted saving the man’s life, and he couldn’t say that about every werewolf he’d made. Anyone could become damn annoying after a few centuries.
“I don’t see how this is explaining…” Alex moved her hands in a semicircle to indicate Joe and Rose, her and him.
Julian didn’t, either. He wasn’t sure he wanted it to.
“Once Julian saved Joe’s life,” Rose continued, “Joe brought him to me.”
“Why?” Alex asked.
“We’re soul mates. Joe wasn’t going to leave me behind.”
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