He’d had to be so strong. For the pack. For Sydney. Now that he had privacy, it all started to unravel. He felt himself like a tightly wound ball of twine, slowly coming undone.
“State your business!”
Noah backed up until he hit the other wall. The fear overwhelmed him, and he shifted and huddled his wolf body as far from the screaming computer as he could get.
The door slid open to reveal several members of the pack, armed. Noah howled, a long mournful howl, and a second later a black metal rectangle was jabbed into his side, and everything went dark.
When he woke, he was in a glass-enclosed room that was far too familiar for comfort, lying on a table, wrapped in a sheet. Then he smelled the salt and heard the quiet crying of his mother.
“Mom?”
Jane was as beautiful as ever. But then, not ever aging would do that for you.
“I can’t believe you’re alive. I hoped, but I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
He took another look around the room. It was the pack’s clinic—a glassed room at the back of the hive where pack members who needed medical care went. Werewolves healed so fast that it was rarely used, but if silver was involved in an attack, or if a wolf got sick, it came in handy. It was good to keep a sick wolf quarantined from the others. They rarely got sick, but when they did, it was impressively bad and dangerous.
“Where’s dad?”
“He’s hunting. Blake went out to find him. Sorry about the tazer. The guards grew up with you but they didn’t remember your scent. When you blacked out, you shifted back, and one of them thought you looked like Cole and brought you in. What happened? Tam and Dayne did spells for years, but we couldn’t find you.”
“I was in a city. They kept me in a glass cell and…”
Jane glanced around the room. “Oh. I’m so sorry. You know your dad and his tech aesthetic.” She looked down at her hands. “And the security at the front… we didn’t know. Cole… he’s gotten more paranoid since you were taken. I thought the security was ridiculous before, but now… It’s just a whole other level.”
Noah reached out and took her hand. “Mom. You’re rambling. I’m okay.” It was strange being here again. He’d been in captivity longer than he’d ever lived with his parents. Jane felt alien to him, but he would never say it. She was in too much pain, and he wouldn’t be able to properly explain what he meant without hurting her more.
She broke down into sobs. He’d been trying to make things lighter, not worse.
“It’s just… I lost you when you were a baby, and then we got you back and only had you for a few years before… And now… you’re all grown and I missed all that time. I missed all those years of your childhood. I missed your teens. I’m afraid if I close my eyes or look away you’ll be gone again, and I’ll miss something else.”
There was a growl from the doorway. Noah looked up to see his dad glaring at his throat.
“Who the fuck bit and claimed you?!”
Oh right. That.
“Cole!” Jane said. “He’s been held prisoner for years. It’s not his fault!” So his mom had noticed the claim, too. She’d just had the good sense to keep her mouth shut about it.
“I will kill the vampire that marked my child,” Cole said.
Noah growled. “You will not touch a hair on my mate’s head.”
A sick look came over the alpha. “You allowed a vampire to mark you? It wasn’t just some fucked-up experiment?”
“Well, allowed is a strong word,” Noah said. “I knew she was my true mate, but she marked me first before I could stop her. She wanted our lifespans to match.” When he said it out loud to explain it, it was sort of sweet and logical.
The alpha growled again, pacing the metallic floor. “There is no way that a vampire is your true mate. If you expect me to believe… Whatever happened to you when you were locked up must have messed with your mind. She must have done something to make you believe…”
A throat cleared. Jane had gotten control of her tears. “Umm, hi, Cole. Remember your mate, Jane? The one who started out human and was only mystically able to be your true mate because of the vampire blood that somehow was part of my genetic makeup? It’s a fun story. I could break out the slides.”
“That’s different. It’s different. You and I are… You weren’t a vampire!”
“It’s not from being locked up,” Noah said. “It’s Sydney.”
“Ha!” Jane said. “I told you. I told you when they were toddlers. I called it. You should have just let him feed her when they were small. There was no stopping this.”
Cole rounded on Noah again. “Are you feeding her? She’s weak and sick and… a vampire. And if you’re feeding her…”
“If I’m feeding her then what, Dad? I thought you’d be glad to see me. I thought you’d miss your fucking son and be glad I was all right. It’s been two decades. I wasn’t expecting balloons and streamers, but I thought you’d at least give a shit.”
The alpha spun on his heel and stormed out of the sick bay.
Jane’s eyes glowed red, and she partially shifted into the demon form: red scaled skin and black claws. Noah reached out and took her hand, and she melted back into her normal human visage.
“It’s okay,” he said.
“It really isn’t. But he’ll come around. You just have to give him time. He doesn’t deal well with reunions. He doesn’t know how to process it, so he lashes out at the first thing that doesn’t line up with what he’s used to.”
Under most circumstances, Cole was solid and dependable. But certain scenarios set off his less-than-reasonable side. This appeared to be one of them. If stories were true, his mom’s transition to demon had been another.
“I need you to get him to come to the Cary Town Luxury Apartments, to the roof,” Noah glanced at the wall clock, “in two hours. We’re going to have a meeting. Get Uncle Cain and Aunt Tam. And Uncle Dayne and Aunt Greta. We could all be in danger. Dad needs to put this stuff aside for a night or two, then he can hate me all he wants to.”
Jane brushed the hair out of his face. “Oh, honey, he doesn’t hate you. He’s just how he is. You’ll understand if you ever have your own pack.”
Noah cleared his throat. “I… um… sort of have my own pack. We’re staying at the apartments. When Dad gets over his snit, I need his help with electrical wiring and security if he’s not disowning me.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
Jane left Noah alone, and he scrambled back into his clothes, hoping his mate was having better luck.
14
Sydney had lurked outside the compound for over an hour. She couldn’t just walk in there. At some point someone had to come outside. As if the universe heard her thought, a side metal door swung open, and one of her dad’s guards stepped out. He carried a large human military-grade weapon. Despite vampire speed and fangs, sometimes a gun was still more menacing. It depended on what species the threat was.
Their primary enemy was human, and sometimes a bullet got to a magic user better. Fangs were too close, and if they’d ingested something as a vampire deterrent it was best not to have any of their blood. It was too easy for them to turn the tables on a cocky fang-happy vampire.