Sydney was doubtful. Wolves tended to respect the marks of other wolves, but it wasn’t as if they had to, particularly when a stranger was among a pack that wasn’t his. Under ordinary circumstances it was respected, but if the pack’s alpha had ordered an execution, it wouldn’t have kept her safe. Noah had to know that.
Even among vampires, while a vampire physically couldn’t feed on a claimed mate because of the mystical protection it placed upon the other, it didn’t mean a vampire wouldn’t just separate the human’s head from his or her body if they felt like it.
Sydney’s eyes went to Noah’s throat. She licked her lips at the pounding, surging warm blood that hummed just beneath the surface of his skin. In the years that followed, she would likely rewind to this day and try to pick apart her motivations to figure out why exactly she’d done what she did next, but the only answer that would likely ever come to her was… instinct.
Without thinking, she launched herself at him and sank her fangs into his throat. She took a couple of pulls of his blood, then pricked her own tongue with her fang and quickly, before his wound could close, mixed their blood.
She pulled back and felt the fierce red glow in her eyes, and she said: “Mine.”
The second the word was out of her mouth, Noah’s eyes glowed yellow and he growled at her. Growled. At her. She would have punched him in the jaw, except she wasn’t fast enough. He tackled her, and before she could think, his fangs were in her throat.
He growled again, and she felt the control he was trying to gain. That growl was angry. It wasn’t excited or even possessive. It was rage, and she was possibly about two seconds from getting her throat ripped out.
“Noah,” she said quietly.
His tongue trailed over her neck, then he pulled back, his eyes glowing golden. “Mine,” he snarled, still half-angry.
Well. Okay then. At least he’d gotten control of himself and hadn’t ripped her throat out. But the confrontation wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.
He struggled to his feet and glared at her for a second, then he went outside on the balcony. Sydney glanced at the clock. It was about an hour until the sun came up, but she wasn’t even tired yet. Normally she’d already be asleep, the soon-approaching sun already draining her well before it could peak over the horizon and start its ascent into the sky. A few vampires out there were so strong that they could, from a sheltered and shaded place, watch the first red hints of dawn climb into the sky before falling dead for the day. Sydney had always believed she’d never be that strong, that the only sunrise she’d ever see was a manufactured or pre-recorded one playing on a screen. Now she had her doubts.
This had been the longest night of her life, and she was very aware of how close it had been to being her last. Twice. It hurt that the biggest threat to her that second time had been the man who’d claimed she was his true mate. What did he know about true mates after being locked up like that? He hadn’t even been raised by wolves properly.
She didn’t follow him outside. She didn’t even want to see him right now. For better or worse they were tied together. Instead, she went to the bathroom. She wasn’t sure how long she’d manage to stay awake, but the clock was ticking down and if she had any hope of making it until sunset, she had to be in the safety of the bathroom when she fell dead for the day.
Sydney wasn’t even sure she’d be safe like that, so vulnerable with Noah right there. She resented that he was her only protection, and he was behaving like some rabid animal she couldn’t trust. She ran her fingers over the mark he’d left on her throat as she looked at it in the mirror. She could see the vampiric demon rippling under the surface in her reflection. The image had never been this strong before. It had been the tiniest ghost of a thing before when she’d looked in a mirror, nothing like her dad’s reflection which was strong and looked to be more demon than human half the time.
She could already see the vampire side of her growing stronger. If she’d somehow fed from Noah before they’d escaped the city, she had a feeling the barrier would have recognized her as a preternatural and wouldn’t have let her pass.
The place where Noah had bitten her glowed in the mirror. He’d marked her as his mate. There was no doubt about that. So she should be safe when she went to sleep. Right? The rage rose up again, and she smashed the mirror. She watched as her bleeding hand healed before her eyes. Yes, she was definitely different now.
The bathroom door flew open as Noah raced inside. “What happened? Are you okay?”
“You almost ripped my throat out, and now you’re asking if I’m okay? I’m fine. Please leave me alone.” She climbed into the tub and propped up all her pillows. “And shut that door when you leave. We can’t let any sunlight in.”
Noah shut the bathroom door and sat on the closed toilet lid. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here until you rise for the night.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. When was the last time you ate something? You need to hunt.”
Something flickered over his face, and then she realized… he hadn’t hunted anything since he was a pup. And back then he’d just been learning. Literally everything had to be so hard for him right now. What else had he not experienced that most others his age would have?
“I’ll be fine. I’m sure I can get one of my new underlings to bring me something.” He crossed his arms stubbornly over his chest.
Several minutes passed in silence, and then he said, “Sydney, why would you do that? A pack just surrendered to me, and you claimed me! In the first place, you’re a vampire. No wolf pack is going to accept a vampire as the alpha. And in the second place, you might be stronger now than you started out, but you aren’t strong enough to hold a pack, and if it looks like you control me, they won’t accept me, either. Not that I care, but it’s better that they want to follow us than kill us. Don’t you think?”
This may have been more words than he’d ever strung together at one time since they’d been reunited.
“And you marked me back,” Sydney said. “So it’s okay. Your mark took. And I know my claim did.”
He put his head in his hands, then looked up. “Again, Sydney, why? Why would you claim me? Do you know how close I came to ripping your throat out before I marked you? The wolf saw that as a challenge. Why would you do that? You’ve been around wolves enough to know better. Or maybe it’s been so long you’ve forgotten.”
Sydney wasn’t sure why she’d done it. It had been instinct. It wasn’t like she’d had a pro/con list or some grand plan, but reasons that made sense began to crystallize in her mind now that everything had settled. She wasn’t entirely sure that any of these reasons were why she’d done it, since she hadn’t planned it, but she could throw it out there and see if any of it made sense to Noah—if any of it could smooth this out.
“How much do you remember about your parents?” she asked.
“Huh?”
She took a deep breath and plunged in. “I know your mom’s a demon, but she was human in the beginning. Do you remember when your dad talked about how when he marked your mom it didn’t extend her life past a human life span because wolf marks don’t work that way?”