Marked by the Moon by Lori Handeland Read Free Book Online

him. Then they ran until they were far enough away for their presence not to matter. When he slowed, he immediately dropped all contact. Together they wiped their palms against their pants.
    â€œWhy are you coming with me?” he repeated.
    â€œI—” Her gaze dropped to her feet. “I don’t know how to live like this.”
    â€œAnd you think I’ll teach you?”
    She met his eyes. “Won’t you?”
    Of course.
    The words whispered through his brain. The combination of fear and hope in her eyes pulled at him. The scent of her enticed him.
    â€œI should leave you here,” he ground out. “Let you run wild until the cops lock you up. If you’re lucky, Mandenauer will arrive before the next full moon.”
    She blinked. “Who?”
    â€œI’m not a moron,” Julian snapped. “I checked you out.” Though he hadn’t come up with much. “You were born. You lived for a while in Nebraska, even started kindergarten. Then your mother disappeared—”
    He lifted a brow, waiting for her to explain, but she didn’t.He figured disappeared meant “death by monster,” especially considering what happened next.
    â€œYou and your father fell off the grid. Since only Edward has the connections to make someone disappear like that, either one or both of you was a Jäger-Sucher once upon a time.”
    She shrugged, giving up the pretense. “I don’t work for him anymore.”
    â€œI know.”
    The Jäger-Suchers had rules, and Alexandra Trevalyn did not follow them. One of those rules was: Wait until they shift to shoot them .
    As Alex had proved with Jorge, she didn’t believe in rules.
    â€œWhat else do you know?” she asked. “About me? About them?”
    â€œNot as much as I’d like,” he murmured. He and his kind stayed isolated from the world. It was the only way to live the way that they wanted to. Which meant information was hard to come by. Not that he didn’t come by it. It was just hard. And expensive.
    â€œThe Jäger-Suchers are in disarray,” he continued. “There was a—” Julian paused, searching for the word. “A purge. Many of them died; the rest are in hiding.”
    Her brow creased. “When did this happen?”
    â€œNearly a year ago. The werewolves banded together and began hunting the hunters.”
    â€œThey never cared before.”
    Most werewolves only cared about themselves, which was how the Jäger-Suchers had so much success.
    â€œThere were whispers of a cure,” Julian continued. “But werewolves don’t want to be cured. They like what they are.”
    â€œDo you?” she asked.
    â€œYes.”
    She appeared to think about that for a minute, then nodded. “So the werewolves went on the offensive.”
    â€œIn more ways than one,” Julian agreed. “Not only have they gone after the Jäger-Suchers instead of waiting for the Jäger-Suchers to come to them, but they’ve made a concerted effort to replace what’s been lost and purposely increase the number fighting on their side.”
    â€œA werewolf army,” Alex said faintly.
    â€œIt’s happened before.”
    Â 
    Barlow knew about the werewolf army. However, according to him, he wasn’t the one behind it.
    Except he was a werewolf. Killing? Lying? Both came as easily to him as eating.
    Why hadn’t Edward told her he’d been losing agents? That he was on the defensive rather than the offensive for the first time in more than half a century?
    He was a big believer in imparting info on a need-to-know basis, and he’d no doubt say if questioned that Alex hadn’t needed to know. She was no longer one of them.
    Maybe Edward thought Barlow was behind the whole thing. Although if that was the case, it was something she definitely needed to know.
    However, she’d learned in the few years she’d worked for