“You do remember.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Noah. I’m Noah.”
Before she’d thought she might drop from exhaustion, but now she hurled herself into his arms with renewed energy. “Noah?” She looked hard into his eyes, the planes of his face, his smile, his hair. He was only a boy the last time she’d seen him, but he looked a bit like his dad now that she thought about it.
Why hadn’t she realized that before? Maybe because he’d looked so angry all the time.
“Noah? It’s really you? We thought you were dead!”
He held her while she cried. She couldn’t believe it had been him in the cube next to hers.
“It’s my twenty-eighth birth moon. I was planning to break out tonight. I’ve been planning it for months. I didn’t know it would be a blood moon, though. When it was, it was just that much luckier. I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to get you out of there. I couldn’t take any chances that they might separate you into another group before it was time. I almost lost my mind when they burned you, but I couldn’t let it show.”
Noah. She’d spent years trying to push the memory of him into the background of her mind. She’d spent an equal amount of time pretending that not being able to feel love for Jacob before had nothing to do with her little girl crush on the werewolf.
“Sydney, you’re my mate.”
She searched his face. “What do you mean, mate? You mean… like a friend?” Was this the, I like you but not that way, speech—just in case she was getting ideas in her head after his big “she’s mine” thing out in the train lobby?
Then his impossibly warm lips were moving over hers, his large hands tangled in her hair. Her brain decided at that point to tell her about forty times that Noah was kissing her, just in case she was having a black-out/out-of-body experience combo and had missed the memo.
After a couple of minutes, she pulled away first. “So… n-not a friend?”
He smirked. “Not a friend.”
Noah didn’t ask how she felt about it. He didn’t need to. She was smiling so hard her face hurt.
Then he let out an angry growl. He turned her face toward the light. “Look at what those bastards did to you. It still hasn’t healed. I need you to feed from me.”
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to. The idea of drinking from Noah was about the best menu offer she could ever remember receiving. It was just that she wasn’t sure if she was quite ready to move things that fast. If she fed on him she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to keep her clothes on, and what if he was wrong? What if she wasn’t his true mate?
What if he hooked up with that alpha bitch and realized he’d just missed Sydney because she’d been familiar and had reminded him of home?
He ran his fingers through her hair. “What is it, Sydney?” He’d never called her Syd. Even when they were kids.
“How do you know I’m her? I mean you were locked up in that horrible place for so long. It’s only natural that someone from your past might make you feel a certain way and…”
“Sydney, no. It’s you. Don’t you remember how we were when we were kids? I guarded you half the time when you slept. For hours. That’s not normal. And I would have watched over you every day if the adults had let me. I knew when we were kids, I just couldn’t articulate it. But I’m not a kid anymore. I know you’re my true mate.”
“My father will never allow us…”
Noah snorted. “Anthony has no say in this. You’re an adult. It only matters what you want.”
“Oh, so if I said, ‘You’re a nice guy, Noah, but I just like you as a friend,’ that would be it?”
He rolled his eyes. “You feel it, too. Maybe not as strong because you’re not a wolf, but you know it’s always been you and me.”
He pulled her back into his arms and gently pressed her face against his neck. Her fangs obligingly came out.
“Feed,” he whispered. “And just a friendly warning… you can do whatever you want, but if clothes come off, I will mark you, so be sure you’re ready to commit to me before you try to seduce me.”
His voice rumbled against her when he spoke.
She sank her fangs into his throat in response because she didn’t trust her voice, and she might say something stupid enough for him to reconsider this true mate business.
He was her favorite flavor, uncomplicated desire. It was an emotional bouquet that she’d felt strange savoring before because it had always come from someone she didn’t want in equal measure. It was like reading the diary of someone who had a crush on her. It had felt dirty and like violating someone’s privacy. But Noah had already let her in.
It was the taste of his blood that took away her doubts. At least in his own mind, he was completely sure she was his mate. And for now, that had to be enough. It wasn’t as if there was a way one could prove a true mate. There was no lab test that could be done. There was no potion they could drink that would reveal all. You just had to take the leap and trust it.
The flavor was intoxicating, but the strength of the blood was hard to take. She only drank a little before pulling away.
“You need more,” he said gently, to get her to keep feeding. “I don’t mind.” He took her hand and pressed it against the front of his pants. “I like it.”
If any other guy had done something like that, she would have had a panic attack and fantasized about drop kicking him, but as far as she was concerned, Noah could put her hand anywhere he liked.
“Just let me get used to it,” she said. “I’ve only drank regular humans before.” It was like going from watered down wine to 100-proof whiskey. Or like trying to consume an entire chocolate cake in one go.
He chuckled. “You do wonderful things for my ego, Sydney.”
She looked down at her arm. The burn marks from the UV laser were gone.
6
Noah still couldn’t believe they’d made it out, that she was in his arms now, and that she seemed on board with the mate thing. He would have understood if she’d argued more. Of if she hadn’t seemed as into it. If it took her feelings a while to catch up to what his blood had always known, it was the price he would have gladly paid. He would have given her time, but the way it was going, he may have her marked before the sun came up.
That would be his preference given how defenseless she’d be during the day. But he’d guard her from the moment she fell dead for the day until she woke again. She made another effort at drinking from him, taking more this time.
He shivered when her tongue ran over his neck to lap up the drops that had spilled. He felt himself heal as she pulled away and got a funny look on her face.
“That doesn’t usually happen,” she said.
“What doesn’t?”
“T-the healing. I can’t heal my umm… meals… after biting like other vampires can.”
It was so adorable the way she struggled for a word as if he didn’t understand she was using him as a food source.
Noah kissed her on the cheek. “That was my healing. I heal fast.” Faster now that he’d come into his full powers.