“Not unusual, for him.”

“No, and yes. There’s something up, for sure, Gid, something eating at them both. I’m worried, and you know I hate to admit it. Not just for you, but for Dad.”

“You’ve told him, have you?”

Gabriel responded with a sharp snort. “Oh yes, and gotten a bloody earful about how he can take care of himself, how there must be some other explanation. God love him, he just doesn’t want to believe his baby sister wants to kill him, little as he likes her. And also, he’d like me to tell you to get your ass home so this can be sorted out on our own territory.”

Gideon rolled his eyes back into his head and leaned back into the pillows. “Typical.” For some reason, Duncan MacInnes saved the tiny part of his nature that was forgiving all for his damned psychotic sister, no matter how condescending, nasty, or outright unbalanced she became. It was, Gideon had always thought, part of the reason he hadn’t come down harder on Malachi when Gideon had nearly lost his eye. He thought the pair of them troubled, but his all-consuming family loyalty wouldn’t, without concrete proof, allow him to believe in the true, violent nature of either.

It might already have cost him, and dearly, if his sons hadn’t possessed a healthy dose of the suspicion Duncan lacked in that area.

“He’s nothing if not predictable,” Gabriel agreed. “On the one count, though, and much as it kills me to do it, I’m afraid I agree. You’re at a disadvantage there, on several levels. Get your ass home.”

Not feeling particularly accommodating, Gideon rolled to one side and inhaled the scents of freshly made coffee and sizzling bacon wafting from the kitchen. His rumbling stomach didn’t do much to diffuse his annoyance with his brother’s comment. “At what levels do you think I’m at such a disadvantage, may I ask?”

“Oh, are we going there now, then?” Gabriel’s voice indicated his temper could snap to just as quickly as Gideon’s. Gideon smirked. Good. It was useless being angry without reciprocation anyway.

“I’m afraid so.”

“Fine.” His voice was impatient, clipped. “For one thing, you’re sitting in some snowy, woodsy nowhere of a town in a completely different country, not to mention on another bloody continent. Where you’re being hunted, I might add, by a couple of unfamiliar werewolves who appear to have been given their marching orders to tear you limb from limb.”

“Brilliant. What else have you got?”

“You’re isolated, an ocean away from the Hunting Grounds, and let’s face it, Gid. You’re distracted. Normally, I’d be the first to congratulate you on finally finding someone who’ll put up with you, but you getting yourself all wrapped up in some woman right now is one of the worst things that could happen. Hell, you would have known about this yesterday otherwise! Go on, now. Tell me I’m wrong. I’d love to hear the reasoning.”

Gideon gritted his teeth. There were moments when Gabriel sounded uncannily like their father, and it never failed to get his back up. That, and the fact that, in this instance, Gabriel had a point. He had been a bit distracted trying to get himself back into Carly’s good graces. But then, what else was he to do? And if they’d both gotten a bit … carried away … with one another in the process, it was still no one’s business but theirs. He hadn’t let his guard down. Gabriel needed to know it.

“Gabriel,” he said, keeping his voice even, “I may have been unavailable, but I’m far from distracted.” He was hard pressed to ignore the disbelieving snort on the other end of the line, but he continued. “My being here has put Carly in danger. I won’t ignore my responsibility for that. I can’t, and you know it. You’d do the same. But beyond that, she’s not a part of this.”

“Isn’t she?”

“Sod off.”

Gabriel’s voice turned reasonable, and somehow, it was just as irritating as when he’d sounded angry. “Look, Gideon. I’m not disagreeing with you that you need to keep your … Carly, did you say her name was? Lovely, that … safe. Especially since it sounds like she’s my only chance at having nieces and nephews to spoil with candy and obnoxious toys. So that’s why I’m saying, bring yourself, and her, home. You’ve got family to watch your back here, and hers. When the Pack is threatened, we stand together.”

“I’m not bringing her anywhere. I’m going to kill whoever Malachi’s sent, and then I will be coming home. Alone.”

Gabriel huffed out an exasperated breath. “Still playing the martyr, are we then? It’s getting tiresome, Gideon.”

Gideon felt his hand tighten around the phone, and it took all of his willpower not to clench and crush it. He’d had about enough of his brother’s lectures. “Not nearly as tiresome as this conversation. I’ve got to go.”

“Have it your way, as usual. But now that they know we suspect them, things may happen quickly. Be careful. And if you get a moment, try and pull your head out of your ass, too. At this point, I’m beginning to worry you’ll never get it out.”

Gideon hung up, glared at the phone, then tossed it beside him onto the bed and shoved his hands into his hair. He was utterly disgusted, but he’d be a fool if he tried to insist it was with anyone but himself. It was getting too damned complicated, too close being here. How was a man supposed to think? Here, his senses were so full of Carly he could barely breathe, much less form any sort of workable strategy to get her out of danger so he could leave and deal with the source of the problem. And then there were her feelings to consider, the words she’d whispered to him when she’d thought he was asleep.

How could he keep touching her, Gideon wondered with a sick, sinking feeling. And yet how the hell could he stop? God knew he’d tried. He gritted his teeth. Bloodydamn impossible situation, and it wasn’t fair to either of them. He was already doomed to a lifetime of wanting only her. Condemning Carly to the same fate was needlessly cruel, even if the thought of her with any other man made his stomach clench, made him want to draw blood.

He knew that when he left her here, he would never be able to return.

And for all that he loved them, the images he carried within his memory that had always brought warmth … the moonlight glittering on the waters of the loch, the mist that rolled in over the hills to turn the Highlands into a playground for the Fae … left him cold, cold, cold.

Gideon stayed there, slumped slightly, lost in thought for a few minutes before he took a deep breath, straightened, and stood to go out into the kitchen where the woman of his dreams was making him breakfast in the nude. He smiled, but it was bitter. He had no business losing himself in this pretty fantasy any longer, not when he knew in his heart what sort of reality was waiting just out of sight to come crashing down on the both of them. Not when entertaining impossible things might very well cost him not only Carly, but his family, his home … everything.

Gideon closed his eyes, braced himself. Loving him would bring Carly Silver nothing but misery and death in the long run. He couldn’t stop wanting her, but maybe he could make her stop wanting him. It was high time she was told. Everything.

But later, Gideon decided, pushing away the black thoughts for just a little while longer. After they had this one last, lovely morning.

Then Carly’s high-pitched shriek echoed from the kitchen, and all coherent thought fled his mind.

Protect thy mate.

He broke into a run, dashing down the hallway and around the corner, barely registering it when Carly streaked past him and back into the bedroom, where she slammed the door. Good, he thought. She’ll be safer there …

But though he arrived charged with vicious energy, ready to attack, there were no bloodthirsty Wolves to be found in the kitchen.

Gideon stopped short, momentarily bewildered by the sight of the lone figure glaring at him from the edge of the kitchen. Hairy, but no Wolf, Gideon thought, trying to absorb the meaning of the short, dark-haired, stocky creature who, upon seeing him, pointed one meaty finger at him and wrinkled his snub nose.

And when he spoke, Gideon wondered if God had decided to put a curse on him, just for the hell of it. Because it was either that, or the Almighty had taken up drinking.

The man lowered his square head like a bull about to charge.

“What are you doing touching my sister, you son of a bitch?”

t t t

“Oh God, oh God, oh God …”

Carly dug frantically in her closet for her frayed terry cloth robe, pulling it on hurriedly when she found it. She knotted the belt as quickly as she could with her shaking hands before throwing open the door. She was heading back out into a bloodbath, if experience was any indication. And Carly honestly didn’t know who to be more afraid for: the overprotective brother whose bellicose reputation had effectively ended her high school dating career, or the legendary monster she was sleeping with whose every movement screamed “predator.” Luigi Silver versus The Wolfman.

They were going to kill each other.

“Oh God,” she groaned again as she got her first look at the natural enemies getting ready to face off in her living room. Luigi was spouting the usual invective upwards into a silent Gideon’s face, whose intense stillness alone should have sent her brother screaming out into the street if he’d known what was good for him. Which, Carly had to admit, he never had. They would have been nose to nose if Gideon hadn’t towered over Luigi, but that didn’t seem to be deterring her brother. God, no, Carly thought as her brows drew together.

Heaven forbid that any sister of Luigi Silver should do something as untoward as get laid.

Gideon, to his credit, had wrapped the red throw she usually kept on the couch around his waist and appeared to be trying, at least, not to chew Luigi up and spit him out. He was just silent. Deadly silent. As pissed off as she was at Luigi, Carly knew she’d never forgive herself if she let her brother get hurt. Probably. And, of course, Luigi picked that moment to put both hands against Gideon’s broad chest and shove. Gideon didn’t move a muscle, but the murder flashing in his eyes had Carly stepping right between them, pushing Luigi backwards. And she was just the right height to get in his face, which she did with no qualms whatsoever.