Hunting Human - Amanda E. Alvarez [102]
“What about all of the people they’ve bitten? Are they tied into this?” Was she? The thought unsettled her enough to pull her hand away from him. Was she considered an enemy? Someone destined to fight with Braden and his family? The thought sickened her.
“No. It doesn’t work like that. The lineage only passes down through bite and blood. So in your case…” He pulled her hand back and squeezed her fingers reassuringly, “…you couldn’t pass on the lineage because you aren’t genetically related, though you do bear the Prime marking.”
“Marking?”
“Yeah, the mantle. We all have it. Everyone related to one of the original descendants by bite or by blood bears the Prime Mantle.” He lifted his hands and let his fingers trail over the top of her head and around her ears. “It’s a patch of darker fur that drapes like this.” When his fingers hit her shoulders he laid his palms flat against her and stroked her arms until he found her wrists. “Sort of like a cloak. You’ve never noticed? Yours is a slate gray.”
“I’ve never looked.”
“Never?” He sounded genuinely shocked.
She shook her head. “I never wanted to see. But I noticed the same marking on you and your family. I just didn’t realize it was significant.”
“Yeah. It’s just a marker.” His hands trailed back up her arms, coaxing the breath from her lungs in short, quick bursts. “And since it appears if you were either bitten by a Prime wolf, or if you’re related to one, it isn’t a good means of identification.”
“Oh.” His words faded into the background as he threaded a hand through her hair and used the other to stroke a thumb across her upper arm.
“Any other questions?”
“Yes…” She answered, leaning into the palm that cupped her cheek. “But I can’t remember what they are now.” She could smell him against her, strong and potent and so very enticing.
“I’m sure they’ll come back to you,” he murmured, his voice a whisper that slid over her sensitized skin like a caress. “Let me know when they do.”
She caught his hand as he pulled away. “Don’t.” She leaned toward him and allowed herself to press her lips to his, fascinated by the feel of him dropping his hands, fists clenching the sheets as though they could anchor him.
“Don’t go,” she repeated as she pulled him against her, controlling their descent against the pillows stacked behind her. “Stay.”
He braced himself above her, holding his body a scant few inches above hers. “Beth…” He groaned when she reached for the waistband of his jeans.
“Stay,” she said again, and tilted her mouth to follow the statement with a kiss. She let her tongue dart against his lips. Reveled in the taste of him. In the texture of his lips as they came alive under her own.
He collapsed and rolled, pulling her with him until their bodies were flush, the strength of his need clear against her thigh.
As he brought his lips to hers, Lucy’s screaming pierced the air.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Braden placed the last of the deer’s remains in the tarp and bent to help Chase and his father load it into the back of their truck. This morning, when Lucy had stepped out onto the back porch, she’d slipped on the dismembered remains of a deer, screaming as she’d taken in the carnage. It had taken Braden, Chase and their father most of the morning to clean up the mess. Even now, as they loaded up the remains of the deer and washed off the porch, Braden knew that no matter how clean they got things, it would take a long time before any of them could relax on the back porch. He’d never seen his sister that ashen or Beth that grim.
“How the hell did Markko accomplish this?” Braden’s anger tightened his voice. “How did he get this close without our knowledge?”
“I don’t know,” Chase answered quietly as he slammed the truck’s tailgate closed.
“I thought you were checking the woods? How could he have gotten all the way up to our house without leaving some sort of sign behind? A trace of smell, footprints, something.”
Chase set his jaw and dropped his eyes. “They must have been