Page 51 of Marked By Moonlight

His heart thumped harder beneath her ear and she felt his stomach muscles dance and ripple under her palm. A long moment passed. Claire bit her lip and waited.

“I’m not sure. She never showed any signs of being attacked or bitten.” The rich rumble of his voice vibrated against her ear. She felt him shrug. “Sometimes I wonder if Cooper knows more than he’s telling. He said an anonymous tip brought him to our house that night. It’s all very suspicious, but I don’t know.” He paused before adding, a note of bitter finality to his voice, “I’ll never know.”

That pregnant pause told her so much. It told her how badly he wanted to know. It told her how he had devoted his life to searching for the truth, for answers to a mystery that had robbed him of his family.

“You’ve killed a lot of lycans,” she guessed.

“Hundreds,” he confirmed, voice flat, without remorse.

“You could have already killed the one responsible,” she pointed out.

“Believe me, I’ve thought the same thing. I’ve never killed a lycan without asking myself that very thing.Is this the one?”

“After your parents died, where did you go?”

“My grandmother took us in. Although I can’t say she wanted to. It was all very hard on Kit. A little girl needs love. More than what I could give. A woman’s touch, you know. My grandmother was finished raising children.” He laughed dryly. “I’m not sure she even wanted my mother. They were never very close. My parents, my sister, and me. We were it. We were everything. Until that night, I couldn’t have asked for a happier life.”

She closed her eyes, saddened at what he and his sister suffered, what they lost. His mother had killed the man she loved, the father of her children. Gideon knew firsthand about savagery and death.

“That’s why you joined NODEAL?”

Vengeance. She could understand such a motive. Which is why she couldn’t understand his willingness to let her live. She was only grateful for it.

He nodded. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

“Destroy lycans?”

Again, he nodded.

“But not me?” she questioned, her confusion clear. How could he even stand to be with her, much less hold and touch her?

He said nothing. His hand moved over her hair, caressing the strands. “I want to give you the chance my mother never had.”

“How old were you when your parents died?”

“Sixteen.”

“My God,” she breathed against his chest.

“My sister was only eight,” he continued in a hollow voice. “Ialways felt guilty that she didn’t have more time with our parents. That she only had eight years to remember.”

Claire propped her chin on his chest and looked up at him. He traced her eyebrows lightly.

Her heart clenched as she thought of the boy who lost both parents in one night, about the allegiance he must feel to the man that saved him and his little sister. “Must be hard to go against Cooper like this.”

“It is and it isn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s hard to accept that I’m breaking policy and betraying Cooper. He saved my life. And he gave me a goal, something to live for when I wanted to die right alongside my parents. I needed a purpose in life.” He cupped the side of her face with one hand, his voice velvet smooth as he murmured, “But it would be harder to destroy you.”

Her throat muscles tightened suddenly, so much that it hurt to breathe. And in that moment, she knew she might be in love with him—this man who had already given her so much. Given his past, he should have wanted nothing to do with her. Unable to speak past the emotion clogging her throat, she climbed her way up his chest and did the only thing she could. She kissed him. Like her soul depended on it. Like it was the final kiss she would ever have from him.

He rolled her onto her back. Claire closed her eyes and concentrated on what his mouth was doing to her and not the ever-increasing moon outside the window.

“Hello—who are you?”

The question sent Claire lurching up in bed, tearing her fromdisturbing dreams filled with threatening shadows and silver-eyed creatures that both terrified and tempted her.

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