Page 10 of Marked By Moonlight

Pressing a hand to her pounding heart, her gaze darted wildly in search of a nearby weapon. Despite his marble-like stillness, an energy emanated from him that only heightened her agitation. He sat there like a deadly snake, frozen and still before the attack.

“Who are you?” She plucked a curling iron from the basket of rarely used hair products next to her sink.

“Gideon March.” Accompanying that less-than-enlightening introduction, something flew through the air to land on her bed, making her flinch. “You forgot that.”

Certain she detected amusement in his deep voice, she glanced at the object on her bed. Her purse. She looked back to the intruder’s shadowed features. “It was you in the alley,” she said slowly. “You saved me from that dog.”

Still brandishing the curling iron in her hand, she inched closer to flip on the bedside lamp. A soft glow filled the room, reaching its corners and granting her a better view of the man sitting so casually, so relaxed, in her bedroom—as if he had every right to be there. His large frame dwarfed the chair and she worried it might collapse beneath his weight. The muted haze of light did nothing to soften the hard planes of his face. Even as she acknowledged his arresting good looks, she had the distinct impression he rarely smiled. Lean bodied, stone faced with pale eyes—the exact color she couldn’t yet detect.

Gideon March nodded at the curling iron in her hand. “Planning to curl my hair?”

“What are you doing here?” Her fingers flexed around the curling iron’s steel grip, ready to club him over the head if he moved her way. “I don’t think you broke in to my apartment to return my purse.”

“How’s your shoulder?”

She ignored his question. “I don’t have any money. Whatever I had was in that purse.”

“I’m not here to rob you.”

“Then what do you want?”

He sighed. “Someone’s got to explain what’s happening to you.”

She scowled at his cryptic answer, then rushed on as if she hadn’t heard him. “Listen, if you leave now, I won’t call the police. You brought my purse back, now—”

“Don’t you want to know what’s happening to you?” He leaned forward, his hands—large like the rest of him—dangling off his knees. “You’re one of them now,” he continued, “and more has changed than your eye color.”

She knew she should concentrate on getting this intruder out of her home, but what he said resonated within her. How had he known about her eyes? She couldn’t resist asking, “One of who?”

“Remember the kid you followed into the alley?”

“Lenny?”

“Your student, right?”

She could only nod, wondering how he knew she was a teacher and then remembering her school identification was in her wallet.

“He was one of them. He attacked you. Bit you. And now you’re one of them, too.” He spoke as if he were explaining something very basic. As if she were a child. As if she were stupid.

“A dog attacked me. Not Lenny,” she said in a voice that left no doubt which of them she considered mentally deficient.

“It was Lenny,” he said with quiet certainty, then repeated as vaguely as before, “and now you’re one of them.”

What on earth was that supposed to mean? Had she been involved in some sort of gang initiation and didn’t know it?

“What are you talking about?” She shook her head, trying to clear it. “One of who?”

“Lycans,” he said as though the term might ring a bell. When she didn’t respond, he explained, “Sort of like a werewolf. Only not like in the movies. Werewolves are Hollywood. Lycans are the real deal.”

“Werewolves,” she echoed, her gaze darting about again, renewing her search for a weapon, something better than a curling iron.

“You’re a lycan,” he said blandly, lacking the passion such a declaration might warrant—especially shouted from the padded room of the asylum where he must normally reside.

She didn’t move, didn’t speak, afraid anything she chose to say might set him off.

“You’re a lycan,” he repeated in the same mild tone. For all the emotion in his voice he could have been the anonymous person taking her order at a drive-through. “In a very short time you’ll be a perfect killing machine.”

“I see.” Her tongue darted out to moisten dry lips. With the utmost care, she adopted a slow, placating tone and said, “Let me get this straight. I’m a werewolf. And Lenny—” She stopped cold, recalling his exact words.Was.All need to placate fled.

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