Thomas Durling escaped his small-town upbringing for over ten years, until a single phone call drew him back. Told his mother has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, he returns to the small northern Michigan town he once called home to find a mute stranger taking care of her in his stead.<br><br>On the surface, Andre seems harmless enough, but Thomas has enough problems trying to deal with his mother’s illness. He doesn’t need a gorgeous young man to distract him, especially in a town that drove him away once already with its homophobia.<br><br>But Andre has nowhere else to go. A wolf without a pack, he’s been on the run since witnessing his father’s murder, always looking over his shoulder, never looking ahead. Taking care of Thomas’s mother has given him a welcome sanctuary, as well as a place he can call home for a couple months. He wants to stay, but more importantly, he wants to help, even if Thomas isn’t ready to accept that they could actually be friends ...

Moon-Touched

Considering he’d already half-attacked the man, doing so was out of the question.


His silence had stretched too long. He said the only thing he could. “Yeah. Thank you for telling me.”


Andre shrugged in dismissal, but when he turned to set the notepad back onto the table, Thomas grabbed his arm to stop him.


“Does anybody else know? Did you tell Pastor Schmader?”


A slow lift of his eyes. The pale blue was back, just like the tenting was gone from both of their crotches. Thomas ached for Andre, but in a different way than he had before.


When he shook his head, Thomas nearly slumped in relief. “I won’t tell anyone,” he said. “I promise.”


Because as powerful as the mind was, it had its vulnerabilities, too. It could get hurt by a spiteful word, or decimated by a stray memory. Thomas wouldn’t be a part of that, no matter how little he actually knew about Andre. Enough pain abounded in the world already.


Chapter 13