Her throat muscles tightened suddenly, so much that it hurt to breathe. And in that moment, she knew she might be in love with him—this man who had already given her so much. Given his past, he should have wanted nothing to do with her. Unable to speak past the emotion clogging her throat, she climbed her way up his chest and did the only thing she could. She kissed him. Like her soul depended on it. Like it was the final kiss she would ever have from him.

He rolled her onto her back. Claire closed her eyes and concentrated on what his mouth was doing to her and not the ever-increasing moon outside the window.

“Hello—who are you?”

The question sent Claire lurching up in bed, tearing her from disturbing dreams filled with threatening shadows and silver-eyed creatures that both terrified and tempted her.

Through the tangle of hair shielding her face, she eyed the young woman standing at the foot of the bed—a Krispy Kreme box balanced on one palm, one chocolate glazed doughnut in the other hand. She was small, slim, almost girlish in appearance except for the keen, world-wise green eyes beneath high-arching eyebrows.

“Kit,” Gideon groaned next to her, his muscled arm warm and solid beside hers.

Kit took a dainty bite of her doughnut, casually surveying her brother in bed with Claire. “I thought you liked brunettes, Gid.”

“Christ,” he cursed, adjusting the covers around his waist. “Just walk right in.”

His sister paused to take another bite. Her tone faintly accusing, she cocked her head and gave him a coy look as she reminded him, “You gave me a key.”

The smell of chocolate made Claire’s stomach rumble.

“Hungry?” The blonde clamped her doughnut between pearly white teeth and poked through the contents of the box with her free hand. Stepping forward, she sat on the edge of the bed and extended a doughnut to Claire as if she visited her brother in bed with strange women all the time.

Pushing back the hair from her face, Claire reached for the offering, but Kit’s sudden scream made her jerk back. Falling on the bed, she looked around, half expecting to see a giant rat or snake slither across the floor.

Gideon cursed beside her.

A chocolate doughnut smacked Claire in the face, snapping her head back in surprise.

“Kit!” Gideon scolded as Claire wiped the sticky chocolate from her face.

“Are you crazy?” His sister charged, flinging the box of doughnuts on the floor, sending them tumbling in all directions. “You’re in bed with a lycan!”

“She’s only infected. She hasn’t fed yet.”

“Yet,” she snarled, the baby-smooth lines of her face tightening.

“Kit,” Gideon said, sitting up. “You’re going to have to trust me. I know what I’m doing.”

“How could you forget?” she demanded, her voice thick with emotion, green eyes so like Gideon’s sparkling with fury.