Darius’s dark brows drew tight over his pewter gaze as he stared at the female lycan he wanted to kill. “For almost a thousand years the beast ruled me. I lived to feed. Then, one day, I met a girl—a woman. The daughter of a shaman. She had her father’s gift. Though she was still young, untried, she used her powers to try to break my curse.” He shook his dark head, a tinge of awe in his voice as he murmured, “She was not afraid of me. Even invited me in among her people. Can you imagine that? She knew me for what I was and was not afraid. She wanted to help me.”

“You loved her?”

“I could have,” he allowed, jaw clenching. “The pack never let me.”

“They killed her?”

“No.” Darius turned silver eyes on him. “But they forced me to.” Turning, he faced forward again.

Gideon stared at the lycan for a long moment, seeing him perhaps for the first time and realizing that they had something in common. The curse had cost them. Something more precious than their own lives. The lives of people close to them, loved ones who died horrible, undeserving deaths while Gideon and Darius remained behind to suffer the memories.

A blue conversion van with tinted windows pulled up in front of the house then, drawing his attention. Doors slammed. Three lycans exited the van and walked to the back, opening the rear doors. The two on the porch joined them. Although they moved slowly, calmly, an air of eagerness simmered just beneath the surface. One by one, they hefted several unconscious bodies into their arms. Gideon counted a total of five. Three girls and two boys.

“Looks like they’re dining in tonight,” Gideon pronounced grimly.

“With only five bodies to feed on, they can’t have more than half a dozen lycans inside. The rest probably ventured out to hunt, leaving the others behind to keep an eye on Claire.”

Darius grimaced as if struck by a troubling thought.

“What?” Gideon prodded.

“The first time—” Darius paused, clearly uncomfortable. “The first few times a lycan shifts, things can get out of hand. They can wreak a lot of damage, lose control. It’s often pack custom to mate with the initiate after they feed.”

Gideon’s hands dug into the earth in front of him, the moist soil slipping underneath his nails and filling his palms. The thought of Claire shifting, turning into one of them and enduring orgy sex filled his throat with bile.