Chapter 27

Noah:

“Oops,” Reagan giggled against my mouth when she heard glass breaking. She pulled me closer again, doing her best to get comfortable not only on a desk, but under all my weight.

“Not sure how much longer I can do this,” I breathed against her neck, feeling her hand around me under my pants. “I’m going to want to do a hell of a lot more than we have time for.”

She smirked up at me. “We can stop any time you want.”

“That’s the problem,” I said before kissing her throat. I stopped, groaning too close to her ear when she stroked me. My claws came out, carving deep gashes in the oak desk. Too bad we wouldn’t have the budget to get a new one. All that money needed to go to better causes.

Something else fell from the desk. It sounded like one of those file holders. Sure enough, papers scattered everywhere. That sure would be a pain in the ass to clean up.

Reagan’s hand moved along my length again, and that was it. “Okay, okay,” I breathed. “We have to stop.”

I got off her, rubbing my eyes so I could see the world again. She sat up, her dress pushed up almost all the way to the top of her thighs. I’d broken one of the straps at her shoulder, and left teeth marks all along her skin. She swore she didn’t mind it, and I hadn’t broken the skin. I wasn’t proud of the fact that I liked the idea of her walking around with my marks on her. I would have been glad to let her do the same thing to me.

“Later?” my mate asked, that smirk on her face again. I saw power there. She knew how much she had over me, wearing it with grace and using it for fun. A strange concept.

“Later,” I agreed before clearing my throat.

I went to sit on the couch, getting some distance from her so I wouldn’t pounce again. I hadn’t intended on attacking her, but… Mate bonds were strong. They tended to keep mates locked up in a bedroom for the first week or so, I’d heard. We hadn’t actually slept together yet though. We enjoyed the build up too much, and we had the rest of our lives.

“Look at this mess,” Reagan said, staring down at the desk she’d just stood from. Her hands went to her hips as she shook her head. “I think this calls for a complete reorganization.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

She took a seat at the chair, her nose wrinkling in a smile as she started moving things around. She picked up nothing from the floor, didn’t try and fix the broken things, and only stared at the carved marks I’d made.

Reagan worked on the pens, testing each of them out on the notebook left on the desk. If she didn’t like the pen, she threw it over to me. I caught it, then chucked it out the window. Surely someone would find them. And after the pens had been tested, she laid them out in a way we both liked. Next came the drawers. And Reagan most certainly didn’t wash her hands before she started organizing. Our scents soaked into the room.

“Who keeps office supplies in the top desk?” she asked. “Madness. I think they belong in the bathroom under the sink.”

I nodded. “You’re so fucking on top of it that I don’t understand how I survived without you.”

She blew me a kiss before getting back to work. By the time she finished, the whole desk was unrecognizable.

“Shit,” she said after accidentally knocking down the burning candle. The fire didn’t spread, but wax spilled all over the carpet. She looked at me, sheepish expression on her face. “And I was trying to be nice, making sure my scent wasn’t all over the room. I was only trying to be nice.”

“You did good, honey. I’m sure it’s fine.”

She blew the flame out, setting the jar back on the edge of the desk. It was the only thing in the same place at the end that it had been in the beginning.

Reagan propped herself up on the chair with her feet on the desk, snacking on the contents of the mini fridge when Leon walked in. He paused.

Reagan waved at him, her fingers fluttering. “Hello,” she said.

Leon looked at his office, eyes falling on everything broken and the moved things that he could see. Given how red his face got, I thought he would literally explode when he found we had rearranged the stuff in his drawers too.

“What the hell are you doing in here?” he growled.

I waggled my finger at him. “Is that any way to talk to your new alpha?”

He had to balance his anger with the fact that he knew he couldn’t do anything. He controlled himself, which was wise, since he had another wrist.

“And after I cleaned up for you,” Reagan said, gesturing to the desk. She threw a chip into her mouth then set the bag down. “You are the rudest.”

She stood up and offered me a drink. She then tossed it to me, and we both took great joy in watching Leon impotently fume.

“Sorry about the claw marks,” Reagan said as Leon ran his fingers over it. “Noah gets a little excited. Personally, I’m into it.”

Leon’s jaw tensed. “Why are the two of you in my office?”

Reagan leaned against the desk, the humor gone from her face.

“You didn’t bow,” Reagan said. “Which is fine, I just think it was petty. Noah told me how you blamed him for Alex challenging me. I’d like to hear more about that. Oh, and I’m keeping that pen with the gold trim. It’s cute.”

The man stared at her, looking halfway caught between thinking she was some random kid, and trying to accept she was his alpha now. “He should have had the pack more under control.”

Reagan lifted an eyebrow. “Alex is under your care. If anyone failed, I think it was you.”

“Is that so?”

“It is,” she said in a low growl. “And if you blame my mate for bullshit like that again, then you’re going to see exactly how petty I can get. What you see here today, that’s nothing. I promise.”

He took a long breath, shutting his eyes. “I’m trying my best.”

“Are you?” Reagan asked. “Because Noah also told me that your grand plan was to challenge him, but that he would throw the fight so you could be alpha. And you would kill him. So your best is trying to have a twenty-year-old killed? Is that what you wanted?”

“It’s complicated.”

“It’s not. I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me how you wanted my mate to let you kill him.”

I could only watch Reagan, so full of pride and joy to see this. It was a thing of beauty really, how Leon couldn’t even look at her. This girl he’d tried to keep in a cage. My mate, who’d showed up scared and broken. She could tear him to pieces if she wanted.

“You don’t understand,” Leon said, his eyes on the floor still.

“Look at me,” Reagan calmly commanded. When he did, she said, “Facts are facts. You presented the idea of killing your alpha so you can steal his power. Doing it to his face makes it no less shameful or noble. It was a vile act of disrespect and I bet that would get you killed in a lot of packs. Noah, darling, would you like to tell him what we’ve decided?”

I got up from the couch and walked over to my mate. Leon stared daggers at me. It didn’t upset me. It satisfied me to know how much we’d upset him.

“We’ve come to a decision,” I said. “Instead of kicking your ass out, I’m firing you from the council.”

His control over the fury faltered. “Excuse me?”

I shrugged. “With two alphas, we really don’t need any of you. I’m keeping everyone else on as backup, but you won’t be needed. I suggest you find a new job soon so you can contribute. I hear Safeway is looking for custodians.”

Leon snarled at me. Before even two seconds could pass, Reagan had her hand around his broken wrist. He screamed, but she didn’t let go.

“Do not threaten him,” she said as she backed Leon up against a wall. “Not with words. Not with fucking growling. You’ve already threatened a challenge, which tells me you’re a danger. I don’t think you want to see what I would do if I thought my mate was in danger.”

Every time she used the word mate, something in me would light up. It could have made me immortal for how much it filled me with magic.

“You can keep the office,” I told Leon as Reagan let up her hold on him. “You’ll do the proofreading for all the paperwork that comes in. Catharine is going to be in charge of you.”

He stared at me for only a second before his gaze went to the safe floor. “You’re making my mate my boss?”

“Yeah,” Reagan said, satisfaction in her voice. “We’re hoping she can keep your ass in check. If not, then I guess Noah would probably be better than me at coming up with something to do to you. I’ve spent too much of my life under the thumb of people who also thought they were doing the right thing, with the same lack of care that it was hurting someone. I don’t have a lot of kindness left.”

Leon shook his head. “You don’t know how a pack works,” he told Reagan. “And it was meant to be a last resort, a challenge. Noah promised that he would find a mate before the sacrifice, and I would have preferred that than to have to kill him.”

Have to kill me. He said it so casually that it told me my life really didn’t matter to him. I was a leader, a protector, and some people would always see me as disposable.

“I found my mate,” I reminded Leon. “It’s over. I did what I promised.”

“You didn’t do what you promised,” Leon said. “You were supposed to find a wolf. A wolf is what it would take to give us the power we need, and you went and found something else. You failed, and now it’s too late.”

Reagan crossed her arms, exhaling. “We don’t know it won’t be enough. It’s not like I’m human. I have my own magic.”

“And nothing to offer the moon.”

“I’ll give everything I have.”

“Which is nothing. We are out of time and there’s one way to fix what Noah’s done.” Leon turned to me. “Noah Kell, I challenge you for the role of alpha.”

I knew he would do it, and yet I was still just as angry as I would have been if he’d surprised me. I saw that on Reagan’s face too. Her jaw tightened at the same time as her fists.

“I accept,” I said, knowing full well that Reagan would worry. I didn’t have a choice. Denying a challenge would have looked ten times worse for me than it would have for Reagan, and even she accepted hers.

“Good,” Leon said. “Then we’ll fight as wolves. There’s no need to waste time in human form.”

“Fine,” I said. “This is the one and only challenge you’ll give me. We’ll do it the afternoon of the sacrifice. After the sacrifice, you’ll at least have a reason to shut your mouth about my mate.”

“After the sacrifice?” Leon said. “This is a fight to the death, Noah. Only one of us is going to be there.”

“Not to the death,” Reagan said through her teeth.

“That’s the point,” Leon said. “So I can kill him.”

I didn’t worry about the challenge, even when I should have.

Reagan leaned in, her voice steady and deadly. “If you kill my mate, I’m going to make sure you die. Politics or not. There are children at home who need their brother. Remember that,” she said as her hand darted out, grasping Leon’s wrist again. This time, she bent it. Leon’s screams followed us out of his office.