saw his words strike her like arrows. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes went glassy. He recalled his mother saying he was too blunt and that the truth, especially a hard truth, needed to be delivered with care.
“My father stayed to protect us, to give us time to flee.”
“Then he did his duty as a father, defending his young.”
“I want to go back for him.”
Alon’s expression was serious. “But did he not fight so you could live? To go back would be to throw away his sacrifice.”
Her eyes welled with glistening silver tears, and she dashed them away as they fell.
“He asked you to find my mother. That is what you should do.”
Her nostrils flared as she narrowed her dark eyes on him, but she nodded her consent. Perhaps she did not like him reminding her of her duty to her parents.
He brushed the hair from her face, the backs of his fingers grazing the high angle of her cheekbone. The rage caught him like a blow. Was that his anger or hers?
His claws emerged from his fingers and his skin tingled with energy. The change was coming. He released Samantha and took several steps back. He needed to calm himself or she’d see him change.
“The Thunderbirds might have saved him,” he offered, squeezing his hands to fists and willing himself to take slow, steady breaths. Each one brought the floral scent of her to him. The sharp claws retracted and he let his shoulders sag.
She blinked at him with those impossibly long lashes, and he was hit with another emotion—lust, deep and red. He was not touching her, so he knew that this reaction was all his. He tried to move away, but she reached out her hand. The only way to control his response was not to touch her, yet he found his arm lifting, his fingers lacing with hers. How could the simple pressing of palm to palm raise every hair on his body?
“Do you think so?”
The hope flickering in her russet-brown eyes did something to his insides. It felt as if she squeezed his heart instead of his hand. What was happening to him?
“They protect Skinwalkers. He is a Skinwalker. Therefore they protect him.” The logic that so annoyed his mother seemed to help Samantha, for a smile broke like the dawn across her lovely face.
She lunged at him, and he had time only to brace himself before her arms wrapped about his neck as she hugged him. He stiffened as she pressed to him. His body sprang to attention with a rush of blood and surging need.
What madness was this? Why would she hug him now that she knew what he was?
She seemed to come to her senses in slow degrees. Did she notice that he did not hug her back? That his hands stayed in fists at his sides and he held his body rigid as a corpse? She slid off him, her toes returning to the earth as she pushed away.
He found his breath again, but each time he inhaled, the air was full of her arousing, alluring scent. He growled.
“I’m sorry, Alon. I didn’t mean to upset you.” She stared up at him. “What’s wrong with your eyes?”
They were likely changing color, turning from icy blue to the sickly yellow of his first form. He spun, giving her his back, and stalked away.
This time she pursued him.
“Do you really think that he’s alive?”
He would do nothing to crush the hope he now heard in her musical voice. But neither did he want her joyful again. It was too dangerous for them both.
“It’s possible.”
She trotted behind him in silence for a shockingly short time. Then the questions began again.
“You don’t look like the ones that attacked my family. Why are you so different?”
He cast a glance back at her.
“Nothing personal, but I’m not inclined to answer your questions, either. Two-way street.”
Her brow wrinkled and she stopped again, pressing both hands to her hips in a posture that reminded him of his mother when she was on a tear.
“Fine. What do you want to know?”
What she looked like naked. He paused, weighing his options, knowing he should leave her, knowing he would not.
“Well?”
“Nothing. I don’t want to know anything about you except how to get rid of you.”
Her hands slid from her hips and dropped to her sides. Her chin trembled for a moment before she bit down on her lower lip with straight white upper teeth. Did she use the pain to