Page 89 of Marked By Moonlight

Gideon stopped again and looked impatiently over his shoulder at Darius. “What?”

Darius stared intently into one of the large frames. “You ever see this guy before?”

Gideon moved beside Darius to stare at a district championship photograph of the school orchestra.

Darius tapped the glass above Cyril’s face. “Know him?”

“I’ve met him. Claire introduced me. Cyril Jenkins.”

“He’s a lycan.”

Gideon looked back and forth between Darius and the photograph, his chest constricting, suddenly painfully tight. “It’s just a photograph. How can you tell?”

“I know him.” Darius’s expression grew strained. “It’s been a while, and his name wasn’t Cyril then, but I would never forget his face.”

Gideon could only stare at the bland, unassuming features of Cyril Jenkins and fight the urge to fling back his head and howl in rage. He’d met the man and had never even suspected. All this time the alpha they sought had been under their noses. And now he had Claire.

“You couldn’t have known. He’s very old—wise enough to know how to disguise himself from agents.”

Claire had dated him—sat across from him at a restaurant. Worked with him every day. The thought made his fists clenchtighter. Apparently his hunch that the geeky band director had been interested in Claire wasn’t far off. Damn straight he was interested in her. She was a member of his pack.

“There’s your alpha,” Darius pronounced, reading Gideon’s mind. “At least we know who has Claire now.”

“Yeah, but not where,” Gideon clarified, looking toward the office and nodding at the secretary talking on the phone behind her desk. “Think she can be persuaded to give us his address?”

“Never question a lycan’s ability to enthrall.” With a tiny salute, Darius pushed through the glass door.

Gideon paced outside the office, trying to keep his thoughts from Claire and what Cyril could be doing to her. Those thoughts would drive him mad and make him useless. Darius soon emerged, a slip of paper in hand. “Got it.”

Gideon nodded, grim determination filling him.Claire, baby, I’m coming.

CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE

When a dog is hungry enough, it will eat anything to survive.

—Man’s Best Friend: An Essential Guide to Dogs

Gideon watched the double doors of the gray two-story building impatiently. He understood Cooper was angry. But their history alone should have guaranteed him an audience instead of the desk sergeant’s curt “Yeah, he’s in, but said if it was you not to bother him.”

“He caught you in bed with a lycan,” Darius’s rich, clipped tones rumbled from beside him. “You’re a lycan hunter. Somewhat flies in the face of what you do, doesn’t it?”

“I’m aware of that,” he snapped, not bothering to explain that he and Cooper went way back. Far enough back to make certain allowances.

“Yet you expect him to overlook that? How is he going to react with me by your side?”

Gideon didn’t care what Cooper thought. He would team up with the devil himself if it helped save Claire. Jenkins lived north of Houston on forty acres. They had already cased the property that afternoon. With its thick foliage, the house was undetectablefrom the road. An ideal setup, a virtual compound for Jenkins’s pack. Who knew how many numbers they were pitting themselves against? It was beyond risky, even with Gideon’s experience and Darius at his side. Their combined skills wouldn’t be enough. They needed Cooper.

“There he is.” Gideon leaned forward in his seat as Cooper made his way to the employee parking lot on the side of the building.

He shifted into drive and rolled out of the parking lot several cars behind Cooper. Cooper lived close to work, preferring a short drive, and that appeared to be where he was headed. A few minutes later, Gideon pulled into the driveway behind Cooper.

“Wait here,” he instructed Darius, swinging out of the Jeep with one hand gripping the door frame.

Cooper stopped and braced his legs apart in the driveway when he spotted Gideon. “You’re suspended, Gid. Go home.”

“I know where she is.”

At this announcement, Cooper lifted an eyebrow, asking flatly, “Where?”

---