After a long time, he nodded. “I just don’t want to cause you pain.”
“You gave me strength. Let me give you some peace.”
“When you put it like that, it sounds completely reasonable,” he said.
They held each other for a long time just breathing each other in, and then somehow their matching breaths turned into caressing and kissing, and then they were two entwined naked bodies making love.
“I can’t believe this is only your second time doing this,” she said.
Noah growled. “Hey!” But he wasn’t mad.
They spent the next couple of hours alternately exploring each other’s bodies and snuggling together in the bed.
He nipped over his mark as his hand slid down between her legs for what felt like the thousandth time that night. “We’re going to have to move the bedding back into the bathroom before the sun comes up.”
Sydney groaned and stretched. “That’s still so many hours away. And I can’t move. I think you broke me.”
He laughed. A real laugh. “Somehow I doubt that.” A beat passed, then he went very still.
“Noah?”
He raised a hand to silence her, then he got up and prowled to the door. He poked his head into the hallway, then came back inside. “Sydney, I need your help.”
She jumped up, thinking there was danger. But when she reached him, she saw the problem. It wasn’t danger. Outside in the hallway were freshly killed rabbits, wine that looked to be several decades old—probably from before the wars—and clothes for Noah. Most likely cobbled together from other pack members.
“I need to learn how to ride a motorcycle,” he said.
“Okay. I have no idea what that has to do with the pack paying tribute but…”
Sydney gathered up the clothes and wine, while Noah brought the rabbits inside.
“I was just thinking that I feel better, and I think I can handle it tonight. I wanted to know if you wanted to go with me.”
“Definitely.”
Noah shifted into his wolf form and demolished the rabbits in short order. Then he pounced on her and licked the side of her face like he had when they were kids and all she’d known was the wolf.
“Ewww, gross, Noah! Get off me. You have rabbit breath!”
He licked her one more time, then shifted back to his human form. “I’m going to grab a shower before we go. Come with me.”
“My legs don’t hold me up anymore.”
“I’ll hold you up.”
9
Sydney blushed when she and Noah reached the bar, and the wolves started howling at them. She didn’t think his original intent for taking her upstairs had been sex, but it had been the pack’s assumption. And she knew they smelled like it. Werewolf noses didn’t lie.
She stuck close to Noah because she didn’t want to be pulled away by the females for gossip. Their jealousy was barely contained. It had been much easier to gain acceptance with the male members of the pack. She wasn’t taking some spot they’d fantasized about having in the hierarchy. But the bitches could get over it because it wasn’t as if Noah had been a longstanding member. They’d just met the guy.
“Are you okay?” Noah asked.
“Yeah, why?” She looked up to find several of the wolves had taken several steps back.
“You’re growling. You look ready to attack.”
“Oh. Sorry. I was thinking.”
Noah went back to speaking with Milo. Sydney hadn’t heard an official announcement, but the pack had either been informed through gossip, or they’d simply intuited that Milo was the new beta. Or maybe he’d been Shira’s beta as well.
Noah’s feelings about trying to run a pack with his history were beginning to seem logical. How were a wolf who hadn’t been properly socialized in a pack for most of his life and a vampire going to successfully run a whole pack?
“Why can’t we just leave tonight?” the beta asked.
Noah pulled Milo and Sydney farther away from the others. “Motorcycle lesson?”
“Well, yeah, but I meant after that. Or tomorrow night. We could leave tomorrow night.”
Noah growled. “Why are you in such a hurry to leave your home?”
The beta glanced around to see if anyone was eavesdropping, then he turned back to Noah and Sydney. “I didn’t want to say anything, but the night Shira brought you guys here, one of our wolves didn’t come back from the hunt. He could have been killed by a vampire or in the fight when they were creating a diversion so you guys could get away, but he also could have been taken. We haven’t found a body. If they captured him, we’re sitting ducks. The den isn’t safe anymore. We have to leave.”
In Sydney’s opinion, this den had never been particularly safe. It was too close to the established city for her taste. She could understand why the vampires would troll outside the cities, waiting for a human to disobey the grand order and be thrown out to the monsters. But why wolves?
Unless the wolves were sometimes feeding on humans themselves.
“Why have you guys been this close to the city to begin with?” Sydney asked.
“We had an uneasy alliance with the vampires,” Milo said, “to keep more from being kidnapped. Some of us suspected Shira might have had a thing with their leader. Once they know she’s gone, our alliance might be gone with it. It may be why she didn’t take a mate from among the pack.”
Or she didn’t want to give her power away. But Sydney kept that thought to herself. They may have accepted Shira as the sole alpha as long as she was single, and as long as one of them might have a chance at alpha by becoming her mate, but the second she took someone, things would change. Wasn’t that how it had always been through history? Sydney hadn’t known her long, but Shira seemed like the type who enjoyed her power and wanted to maintain it. Not that Sydney could blame her. Power became quickly addictive. If told she could keep Noah but lose her strength or keep her strength but lose Noah, she’d choose Noah, but it wouldn’t be easy.
“You wouldn’t need so much protecting if you were farther from the city. This is still inside the radius of where they would go to take werewolves and other therians,” Noah said.
The vein in his neck had become more prominent as his muscles tensed. Sydney tried to ignore it. It would hardly be appropriate for her to launch herself at him and feed right now. Anyway, she’d just eaten.
“But being close to the city has its advantages. We can leech off their power grid and use the water infrastructure already in place. In case you weren’t aware, life is easier with hot running water and lights.”
Noah gave him a warning growl and Milo quickly remembered who he was speaking to.
“Sorry, sir. My mouth got away from me.”
“How many wolves can reclaim their human form under the full moon?” Noah asked.
“Only a couple of others besides myself. And of course, Shira could.”
“That’s why we aren’t leaving yet. Travel as a group would be impossible.”
The Beta glanced over at Sydney, a touch of resentment in his eyes. They’d have to ditch the motorcycles and any belongings they might otherwise want to take with them if they went now, but they could run as a pack of wolves if it weren’t for her.