“Yeah, so?”
“So, if she hadn’t ended up a demon, their lifespans wouldn’t have matched up, and at some point they would have lost each other forever. I didn’t know at first, but while I was in that place, they ran some tests and found out I’d stopped aging. So I won’t get old, but in a few hundred years, you would. Maybe that sounds like forever to us now, but if you were right and you were going to mark me and tie us together, how would I feel when you died and left me? Shouldn’t we have the potential to have lifespans that match? You won’t age now. At all. If this was going to happen, I had to make sure that wouldn’t come back and bite us later like it did for your dad.”
Noah sighed. “But my mom was already dad’s mate when she later became a demon, and then because of their link he became immortal, too. And I heard that when Hadrian claimed Angeline, he got true immortality because guardians don’t die. So it might have happened anyway, even if I’d just marked you because of you being already immortal.”
“Maybe. But what if it didn’t? Or what if I couldn’t claim you after you marked me? If I’m your true mate, you should be happy about it, that we don’t have to worry about that later.”
“We should have talked about it first,” Noah said.
“Oh like you were going to just talk about marking me? I saw that look in your eyes. You weren’t gearing up for a reasoned conversation. You were intent on marking me right then. I had to do it then or never.”
Noah went to the sink. He gripped the edge of the counter and stared into the shattered mirror. Their eyes met in a fragment of the reflection.
“Sydney, I don’t think I can give you what you need. I’m not good for you. I’m not good for this pack. I can’t do all this.”
She growled from the pile of blankets in the tub. “Well now is a fucking great time for that after—”
Then everything went black.
Sydney opened her eyes, snuggled in the blankets in the tub, a large, warm furry body curled protectively around her. She glanced over to see animal bones near the sink, and blood on the tile floor. One of the other wolves must have brought him something to eat during the day.
She hadn’t even been in the tub when she was yelling at him. She imagined Noah catching her as she went down and wrapping her in the blankets. She wondered if he’d shifted to feed or because he was stronger in his wolf form and could better protect her. Either way, she knew he hadn’t left her side all day.
It was hard to stay angry at him under the circumstances. He couldn’t give her what she needed? Sydney thought maybe he could do a lot more than he thought he could. He’d done what needed to be done to get them out of there and find them shelter. He’d killed his own kind to protect her. When she’d smashed the mirror, he’d put aside anger and confusion to rush in there. And now, here he was guarding her.
Sydney ran her fingers through his fur. It reminded her of when they were kids, before he’d shifted for the first time. She’d woken up like this so often when they were young, with the wolf wrapped around her, guarding her. It was understandable why maybe she and Noah wouldn’t have understood there was something deeper in their connection, but had their parents not even seen it?
Or maybe they had seen it and had disapproved. Maybe that was why they’d been separated. And maybe there was still another reason she’d claimed him. When they got back they were going to have to deal with their families. Amidst happy reunions there could be disapproval from either or both sets of parents. Werewolves and vampires weren’t known to be very best friends, after all. There was the occasional odd alliance, but it wasn’t a normal way for them to interact.
If her father didn’t approve of this match, Sydney knew he’d try to separate them again. He wouldn’t care if Noah had marked her. But a claim was something different. He wouldn’t try to separate them with a claim in place no matter how much he might hate it. Even so, it would be better to keep that side of her reasons to herself. Noah wouldn’t appreciate hearing how to Anthony, her claim trumped his mark, not when they’d had their first fight over that same subject. With wolves, she was sure that the mark on her throat was enough. It was possible they wouldn’t realize there was also a vampire claim in play.
After all, Noah’s mark was pretty screamingly obvious—and not a gentle one. It was the one mark on her that wouldn’t ever heal. Her father would be livid when he saw it.
Sydney nudged the wolf. He yawned and stretched and buried his nose inside the blankets. She was hungry and she wasn’t about to sink fangs into fur. Gross.
“Noah!”
He made a snorting sound and snuggled some more.
“Hey! Wake up!” Seriously? If she were under attack, she wondered if he’d sleep right through it.
He stretched again and shifted into his human form. “Hey,” he said. He was over it, too. Maybe she should schedule all their fights for right before she fell dead for the day. It wasn’t the most healthy communication strategy, but it worked.
He kissed her over his mark and growled against her throat. “You hungry?”
For everything. Naked hot werewolf mate draped over her at the moment. There hadn’t exactly been time or mood to be amorous when they’d marked each other. There wasn’t time for fighting and make-up sex. There hadn’t even been time to finish fighting.
His erection pressed against her through the blankets.
“Let’s relocate,” she said. It was a huge tub, but with all the blankets and pillows, it was too cramped for anything but sleep.
Sydney watched as he stood and stretched. Oh, she could get used to this view every night. He reached down and helped her stand. She opened the door to go into the main room but leaped back out of the way and slammed it.
Noah moved in front of the door to stay between her and whatever was on the other side. She knew he hadn’t smelled anyone. There wasn’t anyone to smell.
“What is it?”
“The sun,” Sydney said. “It’s not down yet.” She didn’t even think vampires could wake up before the sun went down. Of course, she didn’t know any vampires mated to werewolves, either.
“Stay here, I’ll be right back.” Noah stepped out of the room for a few minutes and then came back in. “The sun is setting now. It should be safe in about twenty minutes or so.”
“Still, I shouldn’t be able to even wake up before it goes down. Normally I slept a few hours past sunset.” She’d always been the last vampire to rise.
Noah got the blankets and pillows out of the tub and started moving them into the other room. “I’ll let you know when it’s safe.”
Sydney peeled off her clothes and got in the shower. A few minutes later, she sensed Noah. She felt his eyes on her through the glass, but he didn’t make a move to join her.
“Sun’s down,” he said. “You can come out any time. There’s a bathrobe on the tub, and Shira’s got a ton of clothes in the closet that would probably fit you.”
Sydney wrinkled her nose at the idea of wearing the clothes of a dead woman, but it would be a lot better than the awful white clothes she’d had to wear since living in that glass cube. She’d looked like a cult member.