The odds were against her. Lenny had been alone. With no clues to go on, it would be hard enough to locate the lycan responsible for infecting the kid—and next to impossible to track his alpha. But it was a chance. A chance Gideon’s parents never had.

His gaze drifted to her mouth, instantly distracted, instantly reminded that Claire was not like the others he had destroyed in one very big way. He’d never kissed the others. Never felt such a bone-deep want for them, not even when the females had turned their considerable wiles on him in an effort to save their wretched lives.

She was a lycan now, without control. Soon to be without conscience. He should have known better. He had succumbed to that soft mouth, to those breasts, to her hands on his cock, before reason asserted itself and he slapped the handcuffs on her wrists. A moment of weakness. That’s all. What sane man could resist a taste? Hell, she was one ball of raging hormones right now. No man was safe from her. A point he wouldn’t forget again.

She must have felt his stare. She ceased shoving garments into her bag and looked up at him.

“What?” she asked, her voice whisper soft. Her eyes reminded him of a wounded animal’s.

“Nothing.” Looking out the window at their two vehicles, he drew a deep breath and willed a return to the cold practicality that had ruled him.

He had killed hundreds of lycans in his life. Sometimes two, three in a single week. Only he had never hunted a particular one before. Never had to. But then it had never been necessary.

“We’ll leave your car here,” he announced. “On the drive back you can go over everything you remember about Lenny. Starting with his family.”

“No problem,” she muttered, pulling her suitcase off the bed and dropping it to the floor with a thud. “He didn’t have one.”

Claire leaned across his lap and yelled into the intercom, “A bacon triple cheeseburger and large fry and—”

“And?” Gideon echoed.

A warm flush crept up her face. She could have pretended she wasn’t hungry and ordered a fast-food salad of wilted lettuce and dry, prepackaged chicken, but she had missed lunch and couldn’t deny her rumbling stomach.

Her gaze scanned the menu. Swallowing her pride for the sake of her hunger, she finished her order. “And a large order of onion rings, a large chocolate shake… and a large Diet Coke.”

“Diet?” He lifted an eyebrow, his voice mocking as he asked, “You sure about that?”

“Yeah.” She sat back in her seat, her tone daring him to comment further as he drove up to the window. She might be seriously hungry, but she still liked her Diet Coke.

“Diet Coke,” he muttered, shaking his head as he passed her drink and shake to her.