MoonlightTemptation (2 page)

Because the first time she’d met him, she’d pulled so much
power she’d forced him to change into his wolf.

To call that disturbing would be an understatement.
Especially for a man who valued control as much as Dane.

“Oh, I definitely wouldn’t say that.”

Evie knew that tone. Cat wanted to talk about Dane.

She considered ignoring the girl, but she knew from
experience that once Cat latched on to something, she was like a dog with a
bone.

Which, given the fact Cat was also
lucani
, wasn’t
something she would ever say. She’d never say anything derogatory to Cat.

Putting the knife aside, she turned to look at the girl, who
had a grin a mile wide on her face and wasn’t attempting to hide it. It made
her even more beautiful, Evie decided.

Cat had a Julia Roberts smile. Julia Roberts lit up like
birthday cake full of glowing candles when she smiled. So did Cat. Her blue
eyes shone like sapphires and she just looked so damn pretty, it was no wonder
her dads, Kyle and Dan, threatened every other day to lock her away until she
was fifty.

Evie was pretty sure Dan was just teasing. Kyle… Well, let’s
just say Evie wouldn’t put it past Kyle to mean it.

Since those first tumultuous weeks with the Etruscans, when
Evie had been so damn terrified, both men had treated her like another
daughter. And Evie, who’d been without parents for too many years, had
immediately taken to them. Cat didn’t seem to mind sharing her dads or her mom
Margorie, for which Evie would be eternally grateful.

Evie would’ve cracked under the stress of the past few
months if not for the community that had adopted her and John.

But there were days she still wasn’t sure she wasn’t going
to break.

“Cat, the guy only touches me when he has no other choice.
He pawns me off on Dr. Gio or Tam whenever he can. He just doesn’t like me.”

And she’d developed a completely ridiculous crush on the
lucani
doctor, which she hoped like hell she’d been able to hide from him. Of course,
she hadn’t been able to hide it from Cat. Who wouldn’t stop smiling at her.

“Of course he likes you.” Cat filched another carrot. “He’s
just a guy and you know how weird they get about women.”

Evie bit back a smile at the absolute surety in Cat’s tone.
Coming from a girl who’d never had a boyfriend, Evie should’ve dismissed Cat’s
comment with a laugh.

But as she’d already discovered, Cat was wise beyond her
years. She wasn’t worldly in the sense that Evie was. Of course, a history of
substance abuse and depression didn’t exactly make you worldly. It just made
you pathetic. No wonder—

“Evie, hey, are you okay?”

Forcing a smile, she nodded and started back in on the
salad. “I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not,” Cat said. “But you seem to be coping okay
right now. I mean, considering what you’ve been going through, I understand why
you’re still weirded out occasionally.”

Evie sighed and gave Cat a wry smile. “Do you not have a
filter between your brain and your mouth?”

Cat lowered the carrot and stared wide-eyed at Evie. “Should
I? I didn’t think I had to with you.”

Damn it. Damn her stupid mouth.

Evie shook her head, her lips pulled into a rueful frown.
“Shit, Cat. Forget I said that. That was so stupid of me. You know I didn’t
mean anything. And you’re absolutely right. I’m still occasionally weirded out
by everything. It’s just…”

“Just what?”

A man she didn’t know had invited himself to dinner. A
gorgeous blond who’d told her he was there to seduce her. At the request of a
man she’d been lusting after for months. A man who could turn into a wolf.

Her best friend was a seventeen-year-old werewolf who made
magical healing potions from plants and trees. Her brother had fallen for
another
lucani
and pledged himself to the service of the
lucani
king.

A king, for Christ’s sake.

Weird did not
even
begin to cover it.

Setting the knife on the cutting board, Evie hopped up onto
the opposite counter to face Cat, who stared at her with those blue, blue eyes
and Dan’s smile.

Dan had definitely given his daughter her smile. Which was
another one of those weird things because Evie swore she saw Kyle in the shape
of Cat’s eyes. Of course, no one could have three biological parents and Cat
definitely took after her mother in every way, from the willowy body to the red
hair and blue eyes.

Still…

“Do you ever wonder what your life would’ve been like if
you’d been born—” She was about to say normal but caught herself in time.
Normal totally depended on where you were sitting. And right now, her
definition of normal was a hell of a lot different than it had been six months
ago. “If you’d been born without power?”

Cat tilted her head to the side, her eyes narrowing as if
trying to read between the lines of what Evie was saying. “You mean if I’d been
born like you? Honestly?” She shrugged. “No. Growing up, I thought everyone was
like me. Then again, I didn’t know a lot of people my age. Leese is the closest
strega
to me and she was already nine when I was born. There are a
couple of
lucani
kids around my age but I didn’t see them much growing
up. Mostly I was here.”

“And you were content here.” It wasn’t a question. Evie had
never met anyone more content than Cat. “I was never content. I was always
looking for something else.”

“Why?”

Simple question with no easy answer. “I don’t honestly know.
My dad used to say I was always looking ahead and never saw what was right in
front of me.”

“So you missed stuff.”

“More like I was never happy with where I was. I was always
looking for something better. Then when my dad died…”

She’d looked for something to take away the pain. And found
relief in drugs. At least temporarily.

She’d kicked that habit but, lately, she’d felt her resolve
failing.

Even though she’d promised herself she’d never fall back into
that black hole, she had to fight its pull with everything she had.

“You know you can talk about the drugs with me.” Cat’s voice
was low, kind. “I won’t judge.”

Evie smiled, nodding. “I know. It’s just…” She sighed.
“Embarrassing isn’t strong enough. I failed, Cat. I failed at life.”

“No.” Cat shook her head. “You’re still here. You didn’t
fail.”

Evie wished she could agree. “Anyway, I’m afraid I’ll never
be content.”

And Dane certainly did not make her feel content.

Dane made her feel so far from content, it wasn’t funny.

Which was why this whole thing with Ryan was making her
crazy.

She didn’t even know the guy, for Christ’s sake. Why would
Dane want him to seduce her?

“So what exactly did Dane say when you called him?” Cat
asked.

“Nothing. The coward had a patient.”

Cat laughed, lightening Evie’s heart just enough. “I don’t
think seeing a patient qualifies as cowardice.”

Evie jumped back down and attacked the lettuce again. “It
does when he knew I’d be calling to find out what the hell was going on.”

Cat’s head cocked to the side in a way Evie was beginning to
know all too well. “Well, I guess you don’t have to wait much longer. Ryan’s
here.” Then she smiled. “And so is Dane.”

Hopping off the counter, Cat smiled and gave a little wave
as she headed for the back door. “See ya later, Evie. And try to have a good
time.”

* * * * *

“This is a mistake.”

Dane Dimitriou had said the exact same thing at least three
times already and his so-called friend had laughed at him every fucking time.

This time, though, Ryan sighed as he gave his hybrid Toyota
Highlander a little more gas. “Then why the hell did you get in the car?”

Damn good question.

One Dane couldn’t come up with an answer to. Which rubbed
him in so many different directions, he didn’t know which way was up.

Vaffanculo
, why the hell had he ever thought calling
Ryan was the perfect solution to this particular problem?

The second Ryan had shown up, Dane had been torn between
wanting him to go the hell back to Philadelphia and pushing forward with his
idea.

It’d been a stupid idea to begin with. Wrong in so many
ways.

And Dane wasn’t used to being wrong, damn it.

As a matter of fact, he was never wrong. He couldn’t be. He
held people’s lives in his hands on a daily basis.

As one of only two—well, three if you counted the king’s
physician—
lucani
doctors with degrees in both veterinary and human
medicine, he was on call every day, all day, for the
lucani
community.

Nearly three thousand people in the tri-state area counted
on him and his mentor, Dr. Giorgio Marone, to take care of them. To deliver
their babies, stitch their wounds, set their broken bones, treat their
illnesses, their diseases. There wasn’t one day he could remember since
completing his medical residency at Reading Hospital that he hadn’t seen at
least one patient. Most days it was more like ten.

Yes, the
lucani
could heal most wounds by shifting.
But not everything. And for some reason,
lucani
were more susceptible to
certain diseases, mainly muscular.

He wasn’t complaining. He would never complain. Gio never
did and he’d served for years as the only
lucani
general practitioner.

But Gio was starting to slow down. Not mentally. His brain
was still sharp as a scalpel and his hands as solid as granite.

But the man was almost seventy years old. He couldn’t be
expected to be on call as he’d been for his entire working career.

Dane was only thirty-one. He could handle it. It was his
turn.

“You’re a stuck-up ass, you know that, right?”

The dry tone of Ryan’s voice cut through Dane’s thoughts and
he turned to his friend with his eyebrows raised. “And you’re the one who came
running when I asked.”

“Hey, I’m here because you want my help. What you need to
ask yourself is why you thought you needed my help in the first place. I mean,
it’s not like you don’t have other
eteri
around to help your pretty new
resident cope.”

True. But Dane had thought— No, Dane
knew
Ryan could
help Evie with her transition into the Etruscan community.

Because Ryan and Evie had something more in common than just
being thrown into a situation they’d never imagined possible.

“You know why, Ryan.”

When Dane turned to look at Ryan, he saw the other man
nodding, his mouth pulled into a tight line.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Then why the hell did you tell her I wanted you to seduce
her? I never said that, you dick.”

In a flash, the smile returned to his friend’s mouth and his
laugh reminded Dane of late nights studying in Ryan’s apartment in Philadelphia
for their first-year exams.

Before Ryan had known anything about the
lucani
. Or
magic.

“Because you need a little discord in your perfect little
world, dickwad.”

Dane snorted. “Fuck you.”

“You know I love you, bro, but you’re not my type. Evie,
now…”

Yeah, Evie was exactly Ryan’s type.

Because she was exactly Dane’s type, as well.

Light brown curls framed her pretty face with its pointed
chin, tipped-up nose and rounded cheeks.

Petite and slight, she didn’t have an overabundance of
curves but still managed to be feminine in all the right ways.

He knew because he’d seen her naked. He’d been the first to examine
her when John had brought her to Kyle’s. After her captivity. She’d had bruises
on her wrists and ankles from the restraints used by her captors and track
marks on the inside of her slim arms.

Not all of those were from her recent ordeal.

After that first conversation when she’d come out of the
coma, he hadn’t said a word about them and she’d never mentioned them again.
There was something in her cool gray eyes that warned him away from the painful
subject.

He knew she wasn’t using now. He would’ve smelled it on her.

Her brother John treated her like a porcelain doll. Fragile
and easily broken and, when John looked at her, Dane sensed the man’s guilt.
Her brother thought he’d failed her.

She’d been kidnapped and tested like a lab rat by a woman
the
sicarii
were holding in a secure cell in a secret holding facility
in the woods around the
lucani
den.

Evie was scarred, yes, but Dane thought she was stronger
than her brother gave her credit for. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking.

“Dane.”

Ryan’s quiet tone drew him out of his thoughts and back to
the present. He took stock of their surroundings and realized they’d almost
reached New Tarquin. And Evie.

“I thought…” He sighed, shaking his head as he tried to put
his feelings into words. “Look, she needs someone to talk to. I thought having
someone who’s been through the same process of discovery would help her realize
she’s not as alone as she thinks she is.”

“And then there’s the drug addiction.”

He took a deep breath. “Yeah.” Then there was the drug addiction.

“All right, I get your reasoning.”

Ryan took the turn into New Tarquin on two wheels, making
Dane nearly grab for the holy-shit handle above the door. He caught himself at
the last minute, not wanting to give Ryan the satisfaction of rattling him. He
loved the guy like family but that also meant he wanted to strangle him
sometimes too.

Ryan never passed up the chance to needle him.

“But that doesn’t tell me why you’re here in the car with
me.”

Because I couldn’t stay home.

Dane had had every intention of staying the hell home
tonight. But when Ryan had walked toward the door, Dane had felt his lungs
constrict as if someone had reached into his chest and mashed them in their
fists.