Read Luna Junction 1 Feasts with Wolves (W) for Free Online Page A

was drawn by the feel of heat and the faint glow of
fire. Cade was seated in the large living room as if he were
awaiting me. A comfortable fire roared in the stone hearth and I
moved closer to it, holding out my icy fingers. “I thought you
didn’t get cold.”
    “ Not easily. But I still
make some attempt to see to the comfort of guests in my
home.”
    It was impossible not to stare at him.
He wore an open flannel shirt and the broad lines of his chest
beckoned. His posture was lazy but he watched me intently behind
tented fingers.
    I swallowed thickly. “You said you’d
answer questions.”
    “ So ask some.”
    I crossed my arms in front of my
chest, feeling the robe did little to clothe me when confronted by
the scrutiny of Cade’s dark gaze. “You’re all
werewolves?”
    “ Yes.”
    I searched my memory for knowledge of
all things werewolf. The list was remarkably short. “Did someone,
you know, bite you or something?”
    He shook his head, smiling faintly.
“Lycanthropy is genetic. My father was a werewolf as am I and my
three boys.”
    “ That’s not how Hollywood
tells it.”
    “ Well, no one from
Hollywood asked a real werewolf.” He paused, choosing his words
carefully. “It’s possible. To turn a healthy human with one bite
under a full moon. But it’s forbidden in our communities. The
results are…unpredictable.”
    I tried to allow this information to
penetrate. It was proving to be a trying process. “And your wife?
She was one too? And Claire? All of Luna Junction?”
    I jumped when Cade suddenly stood. He
moved to a dark corner of the room and I heard the clink of
glassware. He tossed back a shot of dark liquid and then turned to
face me. “Interrupt me if I’m not making any sense. I’ve never had
to explain all this to an outsider. There are five werewolf
families of Luna Junction. Besides the Landons there is Claire’s
family, the Casteels. My deceased wife was a Hoffman. The Bellinis
are the most numerous and the Ivanovs are a wild bunch who carve
out an existence deep in the woods.” He gave me an appraising
glance as I settled on the edge of an overstuffed chair. “We are a
very private community and don’t often welcome outsiders. We do
what we have to and won’t hesitate to dispense justice among our
own kind.” His face darkened as he stared deep into the dancing
flames and he seemed to be speaking to himself. “Though the hunters
still believe we need to be controlled.”
    I recalled Claire’s strange comment
about the hunters who had been responsible for Anna Landon’s death.
I wanted to ask him more, but understood the pain of the topic. His
face had collapsed into bewildered hurt as he pondered the
tragedies he saw in the fire. I felt the strong urge to caress his
distressed brow and nestle his head between the soft pillows of my
breasts…and then…
    I cleared my throat and gripped the
edges of the chair. I was really some piece of work. Here I was in
the dark talking to a guy about his dead wife and all I could think
about was the rasp of his hot tongue over my nipples. So I did what
any reasonable person would do. I changed the subject. “Do you eat
people?”
    His eyes were amused. “Not me,
personally. Though I can’t vouch for everyone, I’ve always found
human flesh to quite stringy with a garlicky aftertaste.” The look
on my face much have been something to behold because Cade laughed
outright. “Damn, Tatum. I’m only teasing. No, no wolf in Luna
Junction indulges in a taste for fair young maidens so your flesh
is quite safe here.” When he’d finished his moment of mirth, he
grew serious again. “My mother was human.”
    The information surprised me. “Oh, so
it’s possible for a werewolf and a human to, um…” My voice trailed
off. I could think it, I could dream it, I could even come close to
doing it in his sunny kitchen, but just then I couldn’t talk about
it.
    “ Mate?” he finished and
nodded. “Yes, a werewolf and a human can