Chapter 28

Reagan:

I didn’t want the younger kids to notice that I was stressed beyond words. It didn’t help that Noah didn’t seem worried at all. Well, it helped a little bit. He felt sure he would win, and that made me almost sure. Most of the time. The other times, I kept picturing that asshole killing Noah in front of me.

“You should sleep,” Noah told me, playing with my hair as we sat on the couch in the sunroom. “You were up all night.”

“So were you.” I looked straight ahead, staring at a toy on the floor.

“Then we can take a nap together.”

I said nothing.

Noah put his hands on my shoulders, pulling me back so I laid with my head on his lap. His fingers traced lines on my forearm. “I swear that this challenge is going to be perfectly fine. Leon is injured and I’m stronger than him. There’s no losing.”

“Do a lot of wolves think that same thing before they die?”

Noah brought my hand to his lips, grazing my knuckles. “Trust me.”

“I do trust you, but I’m mad that after everything, that little bitch challenged you. What’s it with people and not letting us have our celebration days?”

“It sounds like it’s just that family.”

“Something should be done about that.” It seemed like a bad idea to have people in the pack who hated the alphas. It was the kind of thing that could start a revolution. I just wanted a little time to settle. Did everyone have to get nuts the second I showed up?

“They’ll get knocked down a peg after the challenge,” Noah said, playing with my curls.

I smiled up at him. “Can I beat Leon up? I wanna.”

“Oh, and I want you to. I think I might like seeing you do some damage.”

Would I have been no better than my captors then? The ones who hit me when I got out of line? I told myself it wasn’t the same, and I knew in my heart it wasn’t. Leon would try and murder my mate tomorrow, and the people who hurt me had beat a girl with no power. If Noah’s father wasn’t already dead, I would have wanted to hurt him too. I would hurt anyone who threatened the people I loved, and that didn’t make me as terrible a person as my captors. I only wished I didn’t feel echoes of it.

“So, let’s change the subject,” Noah decided. His fingers paused in my hair. I felt the tension in his body when he stopped looking at me. It seemed like he had something to say, but couldn’t.

“You okay?”

He smiled, laughing nervously as I felt that light tug on my hair again. “You don’t have to do this…” he started. “Keep that in mind.”

“Okay…”

“It’s kind of an old tradition. A lot of mates don’t think it’s even needed, since once you’re mated, it’s legally the same. It’s kind of from olden times where what humans thought started to affect what even the wolves thought. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Noah,” I cut him off. “If you have something to say, then say it.”

He still didn’t look at me. “It’s really soon. I know that. We’ve known each other for a month. I still feel like a predator for being with you at all, but—”

“Noah!” I laughed. “Spit it out.”

“We could get married,” he said.

It might have been the stupidest thing in the world, but getting married hadn’t occurred to me. Having kids did, and our future in general had. When I thought about us in ten years, I pictured still being in this house, and maybe with a kid or two running around. I felt as if we were already married.

I sat up, not looking away from Noah for a moment. I saw fear, and the voice in my head clawed at me to fix it.

“You want to marry me?” I asked.

Tentatively, Noah nodded. “Of course I do. You’re my mate.”

I blinked, unsure of what to say next. Since I didn’t have the words, I followed what my body wanted to do. I moved to straddle Noah, locking my legs on either side of him before I brought my mouth down on his. He responded instantly, flooding me with heat when his hands dug under my shirt and took hold of my hips. The whole world narrowed down to the feel of Noah.

Words vanished, leaving me with only sensations. When Noah’s fingers pressed hard against my skin, when his teeth grazed my jaw, when he ground me against his lap. I’d forgotten why I’d even kissed him in the first place.

Then I remembered.

I pulled back, feeling my eyes burn from the air when I couldn’t seem to shut them. “You want to marry me,” I said again.

“I do,” Noah said with that same worry from before. “I would understand if you didn’t. We haven’t been together very long.”

My eyes narrowed. “We’re mated.”

“I know. I know that that should be enough.”

I shook my head. “I mean, we’re mated. Inherently, that’s way more permanent than a marriage. We’ve already done that, so why do you think getting married would spook me? Being married is literally less than what we already are. I didn’t even know why you want it.”

“I want to be bound to you in all the ways I can be. And I like the idea of you being my wife.”

I kissed him again, giving him my answer.

***

The day had become as lazy as could be. Noah and I cuddled on the couch while the kids played. I might have dozed off for a nap if the moon sacrifice didn’t worry me. The challenge would happen, and then the sacrifice a few hours later. For all I knew, we would fail. My magic wouldn’t be enough, and I would never know how close I came to fixing everything. It landed on my shoulders, no matter what Noah might have thought. If we failed, then it would have been because of what I lacked.

Made of power, I heard in my head. It was what you were meant for. What Elena died for. The time has come.

Feelings that didn’t seem like my own accompanied the voice. As if the voice had a tone all its own. That voice always screamed power. Today, it felt tense with anticipation. There was peace with it. Like it had been waiting. Waiting to wrap its hands around something that belonged to it, but had been kept just out of reach.

“I want to go for a walk,” I said, feeling ants under my skin as I laid in Noah’s arms. Something felt off. I wanted out of the house. It was more than wanting to move, or wanting to inhale fresh air and feel sun heat my skin. I needed to be outside, and I needed it right then.

Noah patted my hip, agreeing before he called out to tell Pippa we’d be gone for a bit.. I nearly dragged Noah outside.

I could breathe once we left, but I still wanted to keep moving. I took Noah by the hand and we started walking with no destination. The more we walked, the more I relaxed. It still felt strange.

“Hold your breath,” Noah said, letting go of my arm. Before I could even ask, he had tossed me into the air. Not too high, but high enough to see the tips of the gates at eye level. He caught me just as easily, putting me over his shoulder. I felt his hand on my butt when he adjusted me.

“How would you like it if I did that to you?” I asked, my voice warbling with the steps Noah took.

“Touch my ass any time, honey.”

“I meant the throwing!” I definitely didn’t mind the touching. I wouldn’t have minded it if Noah felt like pushing me against a wall or shoving me onto a bed either. I just didn’t know how to find a good way to tell him stuff like that. We still hadn’t slept together, so telling him to bend me over the dresser would have been weird. Or… good. I didn’t know yet.

“You can throw me if you want,” Noah offered, setting me down again. He presented himself, his arms out so I could get a better hold. “Go for it.”

I gave him a fake frown. “As if I could.”

“You never know. You kicked Alex’s ass with little effort. She should have broken your bones, and you didn’t have a scratch on you.”

The light feeling in my chest dulled as I repeated his words in my head. Yeah, I’d thought it was strange too. I shouldn’t have won against Alex. We all knew that. I still didn’t know how that had happened. I might have spent more time questioning it if I thought I could find some kind of answer.

“I threw her,” I said, half to myself. “Like it was nothing.”

“Yeah, I remember.” Noah had a smile on his face. I didn’t.

“Hold your breath,” I told him before I did something that I hadn’t even been planning.

Noah’s still had his arms out, and I used that to my advantage. I snagged him under his pits and put all my strength into lifting him up. And I did. Two feet.

It felt like nothing, lifting him up. Even holding him was easy. Noah had a shocked look on his face when I set him down again, and neither of us knew what to say. For a while at least.

“Maybe Elena gave you more than you thought,” Noah said. “More than the light and the darkness.”

“She must have. I feel like something is boiling inside of me. Like I have something shouting constantly for me to look and see something too blurry to make out. Am I making sense?”

“No,” Noah said weakly.

I might have said something else, but we both stiffened as the wind changed directions. Something was off. I couldn’t place what. Noah must have too, because he started moving without another word. I followed close, everything we’d been talking about being forgotten.

We moved through the trees, the edges of the gate visible the whole time. I thought we would have drifted a little farther away, but we’d gotten lost out there in our walk. Now, I felt like I had a destination.

I heard metal bending, breaking. Noah and I picked up our speed to find the source, but he pulled ahead of me. Then I spotted two figures hunched down and crawling through a new hole in the gates. Warped metal rested in the grass, and two unwelcomed men stood in the exact same spot I’d stood on when the wolves first swarmed me.

“And who the fuck are you?” Noah asked, making the men look up. They didn’t even flinch.

“Oh, hey, real werewolves,” the shorter, older looking one said. They appeared to be in their thirties, possibly. Both men shared the same blond hair and similar colored eyes, making me think they were related. “Look, Jimmy. They were right.”

Noah remained patient, standing beside me as he watched the men. “You have one minute to tell me why you thought you could break into my home and live to tell the tale.”

The other man laughed. “Whoa, you’re grouchy. Are all wolves like that? I’ve really only met a handful.”

“Why are you here?” I asked, already done with the conversation.

“They aren’t human,” Noah observed. “Alium.”

“You can tell that just by looking?” one of them asked us.

Noah cocked his head at the man. His stare wasn’t a hard one, but it could send terror into the heart of someone stupid enough to think a wolf was to be played with.

“Noah…” I said.

“Ten seconds,” Noah said.

The two men looked at each other. The taller one said, “I hear you guys have been around here for a while. We didn’t even know about you.”

“Good,” I said through my teeth.

He didn’t seem worried. “I wondered why we didn’t notice you guys before. But then my friend here—” The man stopped, pointing to the other man. “Eric can sense magic. It’s a neat trick, and super useful to the boss. We thought we’d come check you all out..”

My fuse was a lot shorter than I thought. Magic bubbled up in me, ready to be pulled on the second I needed it. “I think the smartest thing the two of you can do is leave,” I said. “And pretend like you didn’t find us.”

The man smiled at me. “Now, why would we do something like that. Our boss has been looking for something new and exciting. I think a little bitty baby wolf pack would be interesting enough.”

Kill them, the voice in my head commanded. Now.

I knew I could have, both with my abilities, and how I would take it emotionally. They came into our territory, threatening to bring more people.

“You guys are really, really stupid,” Noah said, almost sounding amused. “If you knew anything about wolf packs, then it should be that we don’t just let people come in and th—”

“Noah!” Pippa called out. “Where are you! The kids want a bath and I can’t watch half and not the others!”

The taller man grinned, taking a step toward Noah as he looked in the direction Pippa’s voice had come. “Kids? I love kids. You wanna introduce us to your kids?”

Noah moved fast, his hand darting out so he could take the man by the throat. I thought he’d break the idiot’s neck. This would be finished quick and easy. Instead, I felt power pushing its way out of Noah, focused fury on his eyes as his fingers tightened on the man’s throat.

The skin around Noah’s hand started darkening as the man screamed out in pain. Me and the other man stood there, both frozen. I couldn’t tell why he didn’t move, but I was trying to figure out where that awful smell came from.

Then the darkness started to spread, skin breaking apart and wrinkling. The smell suddenly became clear. I knew what scent came with death. The man’s skin had started to rot.

The rot spread across the entirety of the man’s throat, climbing up his face as the scream stopped. Noah didn’t let go, still with that look in his eyes.

The other man was walking backward, horror on his face before he eyed the exit. The mistake had clearly settled in, and I knew he wanted to run. I also knew I couldn’t let him.

I let my power rise, aiming it at the man making his way toward the gates. The lights burned my fingertips when it left me to soak into his skin. I held my breath, not minding the pain as I pushed for even more, needing it to break through his body and wrap around his heart. I didn’t know what I was doing, but the magic carried me. I heard Elena in my head, and she told me what to do. I knew then that no matter what, I could carry her in me. This magic she’d given to me as the saddest gift of my life, that was her. She didn’t have to stay dead. Not all of her.

In seconds, two dead men laid on the ground and Pippa still called for us. I looked at Noah, who already stared at me with pain in his eyes.

Even now, Noah shoved his hands into his pockets, waiting for me to say something. I didn’t know what to say. He should have known already.

I stepped over a corpse to get to him, wishing Noah didn’t flinch when I put my hands in his pockets with his. I laced our fingers together in the small space, making sure I touched him as much as I possibly could. I didn’t say anything, but I pressed my lips to his.