Chapter 4 - Sage
Noah was leaving Brokenclaw territory that night, and I was doing my best to pretend like he didn't even exist.
I didn't bother checking up on him at the healer's cabin today, knowing that it would just make everything more difficult if I had to see him again. His reappearance in my life was just a single blip, an unwelcome reminder of my past, and I was ready to get back to normal once he was gone.
Of course, a small part of me didn't want him to leave at all, but that was to be expected.
He was my mate, even if he'd rejected me.
It didn't mean the bond between us just disappeared.
But I was older and wiser, and despite his efforts to talk to me about what happened between us, I wasn't interested in being hurt again.
While I was trying to avoid Noah, the rest of the town had a lot of things to say about the 'strange, handsome Alpha'.
I tried not to let those comments irk me, but every time I heard someone call him handsome or hot or whatever else, I wanted to slap the words out of their mouths.
Instinctually, my body and parts of my mind were still possessive over my mate, even if we weren't together.
It was another reason I was glad he was leaving, so everything could go back to normal.
Well, most of me was glad. It was because of the other parts, the parts that were screaming for me to stop my mate from leaving me again, that I was two glasses of wine deep on my couch when the doorbell rang.
I considered ignoring it, but whoever was outside wasn't giving me the option, ringing it again just as the sound of the first attempt had faded. Finishing the glass of wine, I stood, already having a sinking feeling that I knew exactly who was behind the door. The timing just made too much sense.
It had to be Noah.
Pausing at the window nearest the door, I pulled the curtains aside just a bit to confirm my suspicions. Yup, there he was, looking way too good for how terribly he had been injured a week ago.
Noah was a big man, and seeing him on my front porch was an almost comical sight, his wide shoulders and massive height looking out of place on my small stoop.
His short, dark hair was combed back from his face, his gray eyes hidden by the nighttime shadows.
He'd always been good-looking, with a slightly too-large nose, square jaw, and easy smile, but he'd truly grown into himself over the past five years.
There was none of the teenage gangliness left. Now he was just 6 '3 of solid muscle.
I'd have to be dead to not be attracted to him. But attraction wasn't the problem.
I knew I had to speak to him if I had any chance of him leaving. Alphas weren't easy to shake, and Noah was stubborn as hell. Taking a deep breath, I opened the door.
"Sage."
I put my hands on my hips. "What in the hell are you doing here?"
Noah leaned on the doorframe, "You know I couldn't leave without telling you goodbye. Plus, I was hoping I could have an actual conversation with you instead of me talking and you just spouting off healer jargon until I leave you alone."
"There's nothing for us to talk about," I answered, and his smile faded.
"There's a lot that we have to talk about, Sage. Living in denial isn't going to change that."
My temper flared. "Dammit, Noah, I did everything right! I took care of you, I made sure you were completely healed, I sat by your bedside, and you can't even give me the single thing I've asked for!"
"What did you ask for?" "To be left alone!"
Noah ran a hand through his hair. "I'm not trying to annoy you, Sage. But how am I supposed to let you go when the bond between us is still burning just as bright as ever?"
"The same way you did before. It will be even easier this time, since we live in different territories."
"You really want me to leave." It was a statement and not a question, but his tone was disbelieving.
"Yes," I said, sighing.
Noah shook his head in denial. "No, Sage. You can't hide it from me. I know you feel the pull of the bond, too. We were best friends once. Why can't we try again?"
I snorted. "Because you rejected me, treated me like shit, and made me leave my entire life behind, but yeah. You really cared about me."
"I did care about you! You have no idea what it was like—"
"I'm sure it was really hard for you." My voice was dripping with sarcasm. "You became pack leader, and I was forced to leave because the only person I cared about in that entire stupid pack rejected me in the harshest way possible."
Noah growled. "Stop pretending like I didn't do it to protect you! That was the only way I could think of to keep you safe. To not put a target on your back."
"So why are you here now?"
"Because things are different. It's my pack now. You can be my Luna, and no one can say a damned thing about it." He took a step forward, towering over me. "You can come home, Sage."
"I am home."
He reached out, grabbing my chin, forcing me to look at him. "Is that what you tell yourself? Because your heart knows the truth. It always has."
I ripped myself away from him, stepping back into the doorway. "Noah, go away. This is the last time I'm going to ask nicely."
He was silent for a moment. Then, when he spoke again, his voice was totally under control. "I just want you to answer one question for me. Will you come back to the Silvervine pack as my mate?"
I scoffed. "No."
He exhaled, closing his eyes for a moment as he gathered himself. "Then I hope one day soon you'll forgive me for this."
Before I could ask what he meant, Noah was grabbing me and throwing me over his shoulder in one smooth, effortless movement. My entire body locked up, my mind unable to process what the hell was happening.
"What are you doing!?"
"Taking you home. To your real home."
Noah was already heading towards the driveway, where the car Joe had rented for him to drive home in was waiting. I pounded my fists against his back, struggling to get away from him, but the Alpha's grip on me was like iron.
"Put me down! Noah, this isn't funny!" "It's not supposed to be."
I didn't have any close neighbors, but I thought if I yelled loudly enough, someone might hear me. Just as I opened my mouth, I felt the tiniest prick in the side of my neck, and suddenly I didn't have the strength to make a single sound.
"I'm sorry, Sage. I'm so damn sorry." Noah said, opening the passenger door to place my limp body in the seat. The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was one of the preloaded syringes of sedatives that I kept in the healer's cabin falling to the ground outside the car.
Then I was unconscious, only distantly aware of the car door shutting and the vehicle beginning to roll out into the road.
***
It was the steady hum of car wheels on the road that woke me up, head pounding from the sedative and mouth bone dry. My neck ached from the awkward angle, and when I went to raise my left hand to massage it, I found that I was tethered to the metal bar beneath the seat.
Completely and utterly trapped.
That was all it took to bring me back to full, panicked consciousness, and my eyes shot open. "Noah," I croaked, and while he didn't look over at me right away, he did hand me a bottle of water.
"Drink this. You're probably dehydrated."
I took the bottle, drinking half of it before speaking again. "Why are you doing this?"
He sighed, his knuckles going white on the steering wheel. "Because it's the only thing I can do. I'm not letting you run away from me again."
I yanked at the tether, but he had secured the knot tight. "It's not too late to undo this. Let me out. Right now."
He ignored me, the same way I'd ignored him back at the healer's cabin. "There's aspirin in the glove box if you're sore."
"I'm not just going to ignore the fact that you drugged me and are kidnapping me!"
"It's not kidnapping if your mate is the one taking you," Noah said, his tone matter-of-fact.
I gaped at him. "Oh, so that's what we're going with. Mating. This isn't the fucking 1800s, Noah."
That made his mouth quirk up. "You're delusional if you think mate kidnapping isn't still a thing in a lot of packs. You know as well as I do that wolves don't exactly abide by the same rules humans do."
"That's not a justification! You can't force me to mate you just because it's legal."
"It's not something I've decided on a whim. You're my mate, Sage. Always have been. And I've thought about how to approach the issue with you since you first told me no. It's time for you to come home, and this is the only way."
I felt hot, humiliated, tears gathering in the corners of my eyes. "But I told you no. After all I did to heal you, how could you do this to me?"
Noah's gaze softened, and he reached over, brushing a tear off my cheek. "I know you don't understand it yet, but you will. I'm sorry it has to be like this, but it's the only way."
I turned my head away, refusing to let him comfort me after all the pain he had caused. "Fuck you, Noah."
Unable to look at him, I stared out the window instead, the scenery going by eerily familiar. But it wasn't until I saw a sign that read 'White Pines National Forest' that I knew my suspicions were correct. I'd been knocked out long enough that we were nearly in Silvervine territory.
No. No! It was like a nightmare.
"Please," I begged. "It's not too late. Please let me out."
"Not a chance in hell, mate."
Rage warred with grief inside me. "But why!? I have a life! A pack!"
"The only reason I had to take you the way I did was because you didn't cooperate. If you had just listened to me, it wouldn't have to be like this."
Disbelief hit me. "So now I have to go back to a pack that hates me? Who thinks I'm a magic-wielding freak? All because I dared to deny you? How can I ever feel anything towards you but hate after that?"
Noah looked at me briefly before fixing his eyes back on the road. "It isn't like that anymore now that I'm the Alpha. You have nothing to fear, and I swear on my life that you are safe with me. And even if some of my wolves have a problem with you, it won't matter, because you will outrank them."
Cold gripped my chest. "What do you mean?"
Noah flexed his hands on the steering wheel, but didn't bother to look at me again as he dropped the bombshell, "I mean, you will be my Luna. My wife."
His mate. His Luna. His wife. It was all unthinkable.
If Noah had meant to silence me with that declaration, it worked, because my words died on my tongue, and I was quickly drowned by a fresh wave of tears.