Unleash The Moon (The Preternaturals Book 6) (10 page)

Was she their leader? Sydney wasn’t sure. Maybe she
was part of an alpha pair, but she was obviously strong to be able
to reclaim her human form under a blood moon. A full moon by itself
would have been impressive enough.

“
If
she’s
his
then why hasn’t he marked her?”

The sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed off the
walls of the old train station lobby as she slapped him. “That’s
enough, Rafe. I said they stay. Unless you want to challenge
me?”

He dropped to one knee and offered his throat. “No,
Ma’am.”

Shit, she
was
the leader.

“
That’s
better.”

Sydney’s wolf spoke up, then. “Can I borrow some
clothes, and I’d like some privacy. I haven’t had a chance to
explain things to her. I just found her.”

“
Of course. We
have a few rooms built against the original structure that don’t
have windows. That would be safest.”

“
Thanks.”

The look she gave him made Sydney wonder if the
alpha wanted Noah leading beside her, but the female wolf seemed to
shake herself out of it. “No problem.” She barely spared a glance
to Sydney.

A pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt sailed through
the air, and he snatched the clothing and put it on.

When they reached the windowless room, the alpha
said, “I’m Shira, by the way. You never told me your name.”

Was she flirting with him?

“
Later,” he
said. “I need to talk with her first.”

Her smile was tight. “Sure, no problem.”

When she’d disappeared down the
hallway he shut and locked the door, then shoved a chair under
it.

Sydney took a step back. “Ummm.” He’d better start
explaining something fast.

He put his hands in the air. “Relax. Without a
window, we don’t have an alternate exit. I need a warning if they
decide to come in guns blazing. I think she’s only helping us
because she didn’t want me to challenge her for her pack. I have no
interest in her pack. I just want to go home.”

“
I’m sorry, but
who the hell
are
you? And why did you take me out of there? You
made it pretty clear you hated me. I can’t figure out why you’d
bust me out with you if you find my very existence so
vile.”

He kept staring at her mouth. She didn’t like the
way he kept staring at her mouth. Or maybe she did. No she didn’t.
She didn’t know. If he turned out to be only moderately crazy,
maybe she did.

“
I’m Sorry.
Everything I said to you, everything you think you saw was only to
protect you. There was surveillance everywhere, and I couldn’t risk
them thinking I cared what happened to you. I had to wait on the
moon. When everything started happening, there wasn’t time to
explain, and then once we were here, I preferred privacy to tell
you.”

“
Tell me
what?”

“
Sydney, do you
not remember me at all?” He looked almost hurt.

She shook her head slowly, but a hope started to
bloom in her chest. She wouldn’t let the name form in her mind. If
she thought it and then it wasn’t true… And it couldn’t be true,
anyway. He couldn’t have survived this long.

“
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.

Chapter Six

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.

“
Oh.”

He examined the places where she’d been burned
again. It was fresh, clean skin, no scars, no evidence it had ever
happened. Good.

Sydney looked down at her arms where the marks had
been. “I didn’t think they would heal at all. Usually if I don’t
feed right after an incident, I can’t heal properly. It’s part of
why my dad has been so protective.”

She bent her arm. “Like this place on my elbow…”

“
What place on
your elbow?”

She twisted to look. “Maybe it’s the other one. It
was a long time ago.” She checked the other one. “It’s gone.”

Noah smiled. They should have let her feed from him
when they were kids. Who cared what anybody thought? It would have
made her healthy and strong. It still might.

She spent the next five minutes twisting and
turning, checking for all the scars that had piled up in her
existence. “They’re all gone. All of them.”

“
I need to go
talk to the pack alpha. I’ll be back here before the sun comes up,
but lock the door behind me and block it with the chair. Don’t open
it for anyone but me. As soon as the sun sets again, we’ll
leave.”

She nodded, a serious expression on her face. He was
glad she seemed to grasp the danger of being in another pack’s den.
But then Sydney’s life had probably been nothing but caution.

When he’d closed the door behind him, he waited to
hear the deadbolt snap into place and the sound of the chair
jamming against the door handle, then he made his way down the
elevator and back into the main lobby.

In the corner was a baby grand piano that had
obviously been there when the place was a hotel. To one side was a
bar that also looked like it had been there for a while. The bar
had been brought back into service, and several of the wolves were
in there, tossing back a few. Others sprawled on old sofas and
chairs with the stuffing coming out while metal played over the
sound system. More than half of them were lying around sans
clothing because it was the full moon. They would shift and hunt or
run then come back for a while and drink.

It looked like a Bacchanalia down
here, and Noah was glad he’d left Sydney in the room. He smelled
sex on the air. He worried he wouldn’t have been able to keep
Sydney safe in this and was thankful when they’d arrived that most
of the wolves were out on their initial full moon run or hadn’t
been outside yet.

Piles of clothing littered the floor. Most of the
wolves probably wouldn’t dig through the pile to find their clothes
until the next morning.