“And don’t you forget it.” She climbed into bed beside him and pillowed her head on his shoulder. “So,” she asked, a smile evident in her voice, “if we decide to share your blood with the pack, do you have enough to go around? I mean, we never discussed that part of it.”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got enough.” He stroked the side of her neck. “But if you’re offering …”

“Anytime,” she murmured, and closed her eyes when his fangs skated lightly over her skin. Hard to believe she had once thought such a thing repulsive.

She was sorry when he lifted his head. “I’ll never understand why that feels so amazing.”

“I can make it hurt if you want.”

“Are you always so gentle with your prey? Does it feel as good to them as it does to me?”

Gideon dragged his hand over his jaw. Women. They sure asked a lot of difficult questions.

Kay poked him in the side. “Well?”

“In the beginning, I took what I wanted any way I could get it. I didn’t worry about those I fed on, or what they were feeling. Later, as I got older, I guess you could say I refined my eating habits. I never thought of myself as being gentle, but …” He shrugged. “A lot of vampires get off on causing fear. I did, too, in the beginning. There’s a certain thrill in the hunt—you probably know what I mean—but eventually I learned it could be just as satisfying to seduce my prey as it was to scare the crap out of them.”

“Go on.”

“I don’t know if it feels the same to everyone, Kiya. All I know is it’s not the same for me. No one’s ever made me feel the way you do.”

His words filled her with a soft, radiant glow. A glow that quickly sparked to flame when he covered her mouth with his in a long, searing kiss that robbed her of every coherent thought save the burning desire to feel the weight of his body on hers.

He lifted his head, his dark eyes tinged with red, his smile revealing a hint of fang. “There’s no hurry, love,” he whispered. “We have until dawn.”

Her hands moved over him. “I can’t wait that long,” she replied breathlessly. “Gideon …”

“All right,” he said, positioning her body beneath his. “A quickie for now.”

“And later?” she asked, gasping with pleasure as their bodies became one.

He laughed softly. “I’ll surprise you.”

* * *

Chapter 40

After a late breakfast, Kay decided it was time to tackle a chore she had been putting off—packing up her mother’s things. She would have to go through her father’s things, too. Not only his personal effects, but pack business, as well. But that could wait for another day.

She paused outside her mother’s sitting room, her hand on the knob. Although her parents had shared a bedroom, her mother had insisted on turning the adjoining bedroom into her own private place. It was only fair, she’d once told Kay, since Russell claimed the den as his own. It had been years since Kay had been inside her mother’s room.

She took a deep breath, let it out in a long shuddering sigh, and opened the door.

The scent of her mother’s favorite perfume lingered in the air. Standing inside the doorway, Kay glanced around the room. A lovely Queen Anne desk and matching chair made of gleaming cherrywood stood before the window that overlooked the backyard. A small bookcase held her mother’s favorite books; a curio cabinet held a collection of Royal Doulton figurines. An old-fashioned record player and an iPod sat side by side on a small table beside an antique fainting couch. Another table held a number of framed photographs. All the pictures were of Kay and her mother, Kay and Mark, or the three of them together. There were no photos of her father.

Murmuring, “Oh, Mom,” Kay picked up a photo of herself and Mark. It had been taken in front of the fireplace one Christmas morning. Kay wore a red flannel nightgown and cradled a beautiful ballerina doll in her arms. Mark was strumming a guitar, a huge grin on his face. They had been so happy then, innocent, certain that life would only get better.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Kay replaced the photograph. She quickly folded up most of her mother’s clothes, then left the room to get some boxes.

She wished Gideon was there. She needed to see him, to be near him, even if he was asleep. But, ever cautious, he had refused to spend the day in the house. She supposed she couldn’t blame him. Hopefully, when this trouble with the Green Mountain Pack was over, they could have some kind of normal life together, she thought, and then laughed ruefully. There was no way for an Alpha werewolf and a three-hundred-year-old vampire to ever have a normal life, but she would take whatever she could get.

It was near sundown when Kay called the pack together. Briefly, she explained her plan. As expected, not everyone was thrilled at the idea of drinking vampire blood, even if it was just a little. Deciding a picture was worth a thousand words—or, in this case, a demonstration—she asked Brett to shift.

Murmurs ran around the room as several of those gathered thought she was kidding and others scoffed, saying it was impossible for Brett or any of them who weren’t Alphas to shift when the moon wasn’t full. When it wasn’t even fully dark outside.

“Brett.” Kay nodded in his direction.

There were gasps of surprise and exclamations of disbelief as Brett shifted, then glanced around the room with a wolfish grin.

Kay looked at Greta. “Wow, I’ve never seen him shift that fast before!”

“I know. Do you think a little vampire blood would enable me to shift faster, too?”

“I don’t know.” Kay smiled as she overheard the comments of those closest to her. “But I think the pack’s convinced it works.”

Tyler and a werewolf named Hatten Red Shirt, scheduled to patrol the outside of the fence line that night, were the first pack members to drink Gideon’s blood. The rest of the men came next, then went out two by two to take their places on the outside of the fence. It was decided that the women, who were even less thrilled about drinking Gideon’s blood than the men had been, would wait until the following night.

Kay paced the floor. The house seemed too quiet. Brett and Gideon had gone out with the men. Greta was in the kitchen, making coffee. Isaac was in the living room, playing a video game with one of his friends.

Needing someone to talk to, Kay went into the kitchen. “I hate waiting! How long do you think it’ll be before Rinaldi’s men make their move?”

Greta shrugged one shoulder. “These things are usually done in the wee hours of the morning, you know.”

“I know.” Kay tapped her fingers on the tabletop. “I should be out there.”

“If they need you, I’m sure they’ll send for you.”

“That’s not the point. I’m the Alpha now. My father wouldn’t be hiding out in the house.”

“You’re not ‘hiding out,’” Greta said. “You’re keeping an eye on the home place in case they decide to try and sneak in here.”

“Right.”

“The other women and kids are gathered in the clubhouse watching a movie. Do you want to go over there?”

“No, I don’t feel like a lot of company.” She huffed a sigh. “I wish I knew what was going on out there.”

Gideon moved quietly through the night, his feet making no sound as he followed the fence line, checking on the wolves who were lurking in the shadows.

He had circled the perimeter four times when he picked up the scent of a trio of Green Mountain Pack members stealthily approaching from the north.

A thought took him toward that end of the property. Brett was patrolling that section of the fence on the inside; Tyler and Hatten were hidden in the brush on the outside of the fence.

Gideon dissolved into mist, hovering near the branches of a tree. It would have been easy for him to take out the three intruders, but it wasn’t his fight. The Shadow Pack hadn’t asked for his help, only his blood. Coldhearted as that sounded, he knew this was something Kay’s pack needed to handle on their own. If the fight turned against them, then, for Kay’s sake, he would interfere.

As it turned out, they didn’t need his help. As soon as the intruders approached the fence, Brett shifted and vaulted over the wire.

Taken by surprise, the three men reeled backward.

Brett killed the first one.

On silent feet, Hatten ghosted up from behind and took out the second one, while Tyler finished off the third.

It was over in less than a minute.

Gideon assumed his own form as Brett shifted.

Brett and the other two men grinned at each other.

“All too easy,” Brett said, wiping his bloody hands on the dead man’s shirt.

Hatten nodded. “Wish I could have seen the looks on their faces when you shifted!”

“It was priceless,” Brett said, laughing. He clapped Gideon on the back. “Let’s go dump these bodies outside the Green Mountain compound and then go home.”

Kay had just poured herself a third cup of coffee when she heard Gideon’s voice in her mind, assuring her that the fight, short as it had been, was over and no one had been hurt.

Greta looked at her and frowned. “What are you grinning about?”

“It’s over! Our men are dumping the bodies outside the Green Mountain compound and then they’ll be home.”

“Brett?”

“He’s fine.”

“Oh, thank goodness.” Greta sagged in her chair.

Kay nodded, her relief short-lived as she realized that they’d only won a battle, not the war.

Greta looked up, her expression suddenly grim. “It isn’t really over, is it?”

“No. It won’t truly be over until Rinaldi calls a truce. Or …”

“Or you defeat him,” Greta said, finishing Kay’s thought.

“Or he defeats me,” she said, and saw the truth of it in her aunt’s eyes.