Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Aster
Noah’s eyes flash gold. He normally feels safe to me, but a sense of violence blasts from him, reminding me he’s a dangerous alpha. He’s more of an alpha than Aiden, and I know what Aiden is capable of.
I freeze. We haven’t really discussed what we are to each other. Noah said I was his mate, but I didn’t acknowledge it even though I know it must be true. I haven’t unpacked what that means. We certainly haven’t agreed on what we’re going to do about it.
Now, I suddenly realize I may not have a choice in the matter. Noah may not let me go.
“That’s not going to happen,” he snarls. Again, I feel the blast of violent power, but when I jerk back, he cups my face, showing me a tenderness I never experienced from an alpha male.
I’m still shaken from the hike. I wish I could sag back in my seat and sleep forever.
But I can’t. The scent of Liora’s fear clings to me, along with the older, heavier energy from the ritual site.
The visions clawed at me, blinding me, but I held onto Noah and refused to let them in.
They weren’t visions so much as memories of the terrible past, all the psychic shock of the females and males sacrificed to the greater good. Ritual rape and murder.
I want to puke.
Touching me seems to subdue his violence. His eyes change back to blue, and he recovers that steadiness that makes me feel safe. He has incredible self-control for an alpha.
“He wants to claim you?”
I shake my head. “Not claim. I must remain a virgin to keep my power. It’s a ritual to bind me as the Seeress, to him as the alpha of the pack.
I will share in his alpha power, and it will enable me to receive visions for the highest good of the pack.
Seeress is a sacred position.” I repeat to him the words that have been drilled into my head by Oma.
“You want this?” Noah is careful, like he’s holding back all the ferocity of his power to hear my answer.
What if I said yes? Would he let me go?
That’s when I’m sure: I will have a choice. Noah may have kidnapped me, but he respects my will. He’s not a tyrant like Aiden and Odin.
Do I want to be bound to Aiden? The need to retch wells again. “No,” I admit, wondering if the Grandmothers will strike me down for the blasphemy.
I want to be Seeress, but I don’t want to serve Aiden. I don’t want to go back. That’s when I realize that I already made my choice. I made my choice the moment I snuck Noah into sacred Moonborn land.
I’d made the choice without a second of deliberation. Mate first. Over all else.
“Then I won’t let him touch you. None of them. I’ll kill them before I let that happen.”
I believe him, but I feel so weak right now.
“The Alpha Rites are only a week away. Aiden and the Warden will do everything to make sure both rites happen, no matter the cost.”
“I won’t let them have you. And we’ll get Liora and Oriana out. Both of them. Got it?”
“Got it,” I say and make the fist nodding sign yes. And I do sag back and rest while Noah turns on the car and gets us the hell away from Adalwulf land.
Noah is silent on the ride back to the cabin. I’m sure he has a lot to process about seeing his mom. Learning his sister is scheduled to be bred.
When we arrive, I get out, but Noah walks around and sweeps me up to carry me inside. “You’re weary,” he says.
I tuck my face into his neck. I’ve grown stronger these past few days, but the trip took everything out of me.
He carries me into the bedroom and lays me gently in the center of the bed, pulling off my moccasins, then kicks his shoes off and stretches out on his back beside me. I roll into him, resting my hand on his chest. He covers it with his.
“Was it hard to see your mother?” I ask then realize he didn’t hear me. I push up on my elbow to show him my face and repeat the question.
That wooden expression takes over his face again, and I sense his chaotic thoughts. Feel his struggle to contain them.
I send love through my palm on his chest, trying to soothe him the way only a mate can. “Do you hate her for giving you away?”
I see a flash of grief before he hides it again. He scrubs a hand over his face.
“You didn’t tell me I had a sister.”
“Oh! I’m sorry! I thought you knew. I should have.”
“Is she deaf?”
“No.”
“How does Liora know ASL?”
My eyes fill with tears. “She must’ve studied it on her own in hopes of meeting you.”
Noah’s eyes redden, and grief creases his face.
“She must have suffered being apart from you.”
Noah’s pain washes across me. I lay my cheek on his chest until I feel it pass.
“It must be hard to not know her.”
“I understand it. She wanted to save me. I just don’t understand why she stayed. Why would she stay?” His forehead screws up with fresh pain.
I hesitate.
Noah sees I’m holding something back and immediately jumps on it. “What? For power?”
I blink, surprised. “No. Not at all. Liora holds very limited power. She’s honored for being the most devout. But…” How do I explain? It’s the same thing that makes me reluctant to give up my role as Seeress although, if I’m honest, there may be some enjoyment of power mixed in there for me.
“The draw of the Moonborn is the magic. Not the Alpha Rites magic–that’s been twisted and corrupted.
But the communing with the earth. Living in harmony with nature.
Feeling her gifts and returning our reverence.
Running naked with the moon and feeling the Moon Goddess’ answering pulse of power.
And for me, it’s hearing the Grandmothers. ”
Noah cocks his head. “Grandmothers?”
“Two hundred years ago, when the Adalwulfs first came to the New World to settle it, they bonded with a coven of witches. The wolves provided physical protection, allowing them to self-govern and avoid the Puritans who wished to burn them. The witches offered their command of nature and their gift of Sight. They made sacred vows that forever bound the pack to the witches. The rite that binds me to Aiden was developed by them. It’s a way of bolstering the witches’ power and benefitting the pack.
I am a descendant of both witch and wolf.
The Grandmothers are my foremothers. They provide me with constant guidance. ”
“The Grandmothers led me to the tunnel to find you,” Noah says, and goosebumps race across my arms.
“They must have.” I nod. “And they led me to the tunnel to find you.”
But why? Because they wanted me to find my fated mate? It doesn’t make sense. I would forever lose my connection to them if I let him claim me.
Or do they want me to help Noah take his rightful throne? Do they want me to be bound to him as Alpha of the Adalwulfs–not Aiden?
It’s true that my visions and the chatter from the Grandmothers was blindingly loud the first few times I came in contact with Noah.
Even the visions in the museum might have been set off by his presence rather than the moonstone tiara.
The tiara!
“Did you steal the moonstone tiara from the museum?”
Noah gives me the fist-nodding sign for yes.
“Why?”
My heart pounds. Did the Grandmothers guide him to secure it for his own alpha bonding ritual to me?
The idea doesn’t frighten me the way being bound to Aiden does, but for some reason, I don’t like it.
He shrugs. “I figured if it was important to Aiden, I should keep it from him.”
Relief trickles in. It was only revenge motivated for him.
But why should I be relieved that he’s not aiming for the throne? If I truly cared about and served my pack, I would do everything in my power to help him win it.
But these last twenty-four hours have been the best of my life. I feel free here. Safe. Excited by the male I’m with. I don’t know if I want to go back to the pack.
Not yet anyway.
He studies me. “Is it important to you?”
No. I make the sign, wanting to learn and practice to speak with my hands like he does. “Aiden wanted it to enhance the Alpha Bonding ritual.”
Noah’s eyes flash gold again. “Then I’m glad I kept it from him.” In a sudden motion, he rolls our bodies to flip me on my back, pinning me beneath him. “You will never be bound to that wolf.”
Noah
I’ve wanted to end the Adalwulf reign for all my life, but it was from a place of cold, calculated revenge. Now, I want to tear Aiden Adalwulf apart with my claws. I want to rip his head from his shoulders and smash it—
I force the rage back down into the tight box in my chest and put a lock and chain on it. I scared Aster earlier by showing my wolf’s possessiveness over her.
I stare down at my luminescent mate, my swollen cock pressing against the zipper of my jeans in the notch between her parted legs.
The need to claim her is excruciating.
But we haven’t even talked about a future. I don’t know if she’ll accept my claim on her. She wants to keep her virginity to maintain her power.
That may kill my wolf, but if that’s her decision, I’d accept it. But that doesn’t mean I will ever let another male near her.
Fuck, I don’t know what it would mean. I can’t imagine ever letting her go.
No.
Hell no.
I won’t let her go.
It’s impossible.
If she won’t let me claim her, I will still dedicate my life–however short that may prove to be before moon madness overtakes me–to protecting my beautiful mate.
She will never be locked in another tower.
She will never be starved again.
Never fall to the floor blinded by her visions without my arms around her.
She’s mine, whether she wants me or not.
“You’re mine, starshine,” I tell her. “If you want to keep your powers, I will respect that, but no other male will ever touch you.” I know my wolf shows in my eyes, but Aster doesn’t seem afraid. She reaches for my face and pulls my mouth down to hers, kissing me boldly.
My cock surges painfully against my zipper. Her sweet tongue tentatively tastes my lips then parts them. I let her lead for a moment, but my wolf can’t take it. Can’t wait any longer to taste her.
I kiss her hard, devouring her mouth, scraping teeth across her lips. I pull back to see her eyes. “I love you.”