Chapter 21 - Noah
I don't know what Sage thought she was doing when she fled directly back to the house we shared, as if I wouldn't follow hot on her heels.
Maybe that had been the plan all along, and I had just fallen for it.
She wanted me away from Joe, and to halt the inevitable fight that was brewing, so she dangled the only bait that I would jump for—herself.
She was sitting on the guest room bed when I found her, half-heartedly packing clothes, her eyes obviously wet from tears. Sage didn't even bother to look up when I entered, as if our confrontation was inevitable and she couldn't even be bothered to acknowledge me.
If she wanted me to take the lead, fine, I'd do it. My mate had made it clear that she wasn't concerned with me or what I wanted for our future, but that didn't mean I was finished with her.
I didn't waste time pulling punches, either. "You went behind my back, knowing how much shit I've got on my plate. All you cared about was getting an audience with Joe and begging him to get you out of here, right? Away from me?"
"I didn't beg," she snapped, "The offer was there, so I took it."
"But why?" As much as I tried to control my voice, it still came out anguished. "I thought things were different. I thought you were settling in, making this your home...accepting me as your mate."
"You tainted everything from the very beginning by kidnapping me." Sage was trying to keep her voice angry, but I could tell she was just as tired as I was. "I can't build a life on a lie, Noah.'
"What part of this has been a lie?"
"...I don't know," she admitted after a beat, "You forced so much on me—leaving my pack, marrying you right away—that things are so screwed up in my head I can make heads or tails of them. All I know is that coming here wasn't my choice. You made it for me."
"I made that call for us, Sage. Not just myself. I wasn't letting you slip away again. Not when fate all but handed you to me."
She finally looked up at me from her seat on the bed, and her dark, honey eyes were bright with tears, "I just want to go home."
When she didn't try to run, I sat next to her, moving slowly so I didn't spook her. "You are home."
Her lips parted like she wanted to speak, but Sage couldn't find the words, so I pushed forward, "And what about your heat, Sage?
Now that I've helped you through one, your body is going to need me next time.
Trying to get through it without your mate once you've spent your heat with them is suicide, and you're insane if you think I'm going to let you put yourself in harm's way like that. "
Her expression went softer for a heartbeat, but the thrill at the thought of getting through to her was dashed when it hardened again. "That's my burden to bear, Noah. Not yours."
"Look inside yourself, at how strong our bond is, at how deeply we're connected, and tell me again how what happens to you isn't my burden, mate."
That shut her up, her jaw snapping closed, and she didn't have any argument for that point.
While I wanted to get through to her so damned badly, I didn't take joy in making her close in on herself.
I wanted this thing to be a conversation so she could understand why letting her leave with Joe was never an option. Why, I would kill to keep her near me.
I dragged a hand down my face, feeling the weight of five years pressing down on me.
"Fucking fine, Sage. If you that determined to push, let me put it all on the table for you.
I didn't say all that shit when our mate bond snapped into place because I didn't want you.
I've always, always wanted you. I will die wanting you! "
She stiffened like she was bracing for impact, totally caught off guard.
“The only reason I pushed you away was because my father threatened you.
He said if I didn't cut you off, he'd make your life a living hell. He would have destroyed you, mate. He even said he'd contact other packs to tell them that you were tainted goods. And I couldn’t—fuck, I couldn’t let that happen.
So I rejected you and made myself the villain to protect you.
I thought you'd hate me for a few years until I was able to take over the pack and could come clean and openly claim you as my mate.
But you ran. I fucked it all up, but I swear to you that my intentions were to keep you safe, even if I did it all wrong. "
The silence that followed was deafening, and my mate's eyes were wide as saucers.
Then, my soft, beautiful mate let her rage rise to the surface, her wolf shining through.
She was on her feet in an instant, and I swore I could feel her magic crackling in the air.
“You decided that for me?” Her voice shook, furious and raw.
“You thought you had the right to choose my fate, to throw me away without even letting me fight for myself?”
My hand shot out in a desperate bid to grab her,“Sage, please—"
Her laugh was sharp and devoid of any shred of humor.
“Protecting me? If I hadn't found the ad in the paper for a healer position with Joe's pack, I would have likely lived the rest of my life as a fucking rogue!
And now you steal me away, put me in your house, marry me, as if once more you know what's better for me than I do! It's bullshit!"
Sage's words were snarled, digging deeper than her claws ever could.
“Well, guess what!?" She poked her finger into my chest, breathing hard with emotion. "You're too late, Noah. I'm leaving!"
"You're not," I told her, gritting my teeth.
"Oh yes, I am." She moved, trying to step around me.
I reached for her, but before I could get a hold of her, Sage slapped my hand away, hard enough that my fingers stung.
"Don't touch me!" she cried, and the words were so filled with pain and anger that my heart shattered. "Don't touch me, don't look at me, don't follow me. You lost that privilege when you decided my future without letting me have a say."
She was going to be the death of me. She was going to rip out my heart and tear me into pieces. I had never felt so helpless in my entire life.
"Don't do this."
"What are you going to do?" she challenged, "Force me to stay?" "It would be within my rights as your mate and Alpha."
"Try it," Sage dared, her eyes blazing. "You aren't the only one with teeth and claws.
Then, I felt something shift. The energy between us changed. Deep beneath the rage and sadness coursing through Sage, there was the repressed desire that told me she wanted me to try, to touch her, to show her how powerfully I wanted to keep her close.
It was a chance to redo that awful moment from five years ago, when I pushed her away. I wasn't going to fuck it up again.
Sage was like a wildcat when I grabbed her around the waist, hauling her against me and crashing my mouth against hers.
She fought, her teeth clashing with mine, her tongue lashing against mine, but her scent was filling my nose and my brain, and soon the fighting shifted.
She wrapped her arms around my neck and dragged her nails down the back of my scalp.
It was a claiming. She was claiming me. Fuck, I needed her.
"Sage," I whispered against her lips, and I was shaking with need. "Shut up, Noah."
We tore at each other's clothes, not caring if we ripped anything. When I had her naked and bare beneath me on the bed, the world felt like it had righted itself. I had my mate under me, and I had her undivided attention. I was going to make the most of it.
"You're mine, Sage," I growled, kissing a hot trail down her throat until I could suck one taut nipple into my mouth. "No matter how far you go, or how many years pass, you're mine."
"Then prove it," she challenged, her fingers tugging at my hair. So I did.
I worshipped her breasts, licking and sucking at her nipples, drawing the sensitive buds into my mouth and flicking them with my tongue. She writhed beneath me, panting, her legs falling open as she begged wordlessly for more.
I was all too happy to oblige, and I trailed my lips down her stomach, kissing every inch of her.
Sage was soft and supple, and I loved the way she fit against my body, like we had been carved to complement one another.
Like all shifters, though, there was an underlying strength to her that made it easy for her to change things when she grew impatient with how slowly I was moving, wrapping one leg around my waist and rolling up over so she was on top, staddling my waist.
"You're thinking too much, Noah," she chastised, and her voice was rough.
"You drive me crazy, woman," I replied, reaching for her and dragging my hands up her hips.
She leaned down, kissing me again, her hips rocking against my cock, pussy lips spreading. I groaned, and she grinned into the kiss, clearly taking great pleasure in my desperation.
"Mm, you want inside me, Alpha?"
"I'd kill for it," I told her, meaning every word of it.
She didn't reply, instead rising up, and I watched in awe as she wrapped a hand around my shaft and guided me inside her. She was so wet that she had no problem sinking down onto my cock, her head falling back as a low, guttural moan spilled past her lips.
Fuck, she was beautiful. An impossible, perfect goddess that I didn't fucking deserve, but I certainly wasn't going to give up.
She moved, bracing her hands against my chest, her fingers curling against me as she rocked her hips.
She started slow, but as she found the perfect rhythm, she chased her pleasure with abandon.
Sage dug her nails into my skin, riding me like a woman possessed.
Her head was tilted back, the graceful line of her neck exposed, gorgeous tits bouncing.
I reached up to drag a thumb over her nipples, and she hummed in approval.
Being inside of her was heaven, and each movement of her body against mine drove away the doubts and pain that had plagued me since the day I'd walked away from her. This was where we belonged. Together.
"Noah," she chanted my name, her pussy walls fluttering around my cock the closer she got, "Noah, I'm so close."
Instinct took over, and I moved quickly, sitting up and flipping her onto her back.
Sage cried out in surprise, and then she was gasping as I pistoned into her with single-minded intensity.
When my hand moved between us to find her clit, swollen and begging for attention, her muscles went taut, back arching.
"That's it, beautiful," I murmured, leaning down and kissing the side of her neck, "Come for me, mate."
Her climax took her over, and I could feel the waves of it washing over her. Sage's cries were muffled by my lips, but it was the best damn thing I'd ever heard. Sage was a wild thing, uncontained, and I loved it.
I didn't realize just how close I was until she clenched around me, her pussy fluttering around my cock. My balls were aching, and then I was spilling deep inside her, coating her inner walls and marking her once more as mine. My woman. My mate.
"Fuck, Sage," I wanted to stay inside of her, but I carefully pulled out to avoid knotting her and rendering us both frozen in place until my knot went down. Instead, I gathered her body, glistening with sweat, against mine, savoring the simple victory of having her there with me.
Reality eventually settled back over us like a dark cloud, even as I pulled the blanket up to cover us, reluctant to let the moment end. I spoke before I could really think about it, the beast inside of me desperate to know what happened next.
"Stay," I breathed, kissing her cheeks, her hair, "Tonight. Always."
Sage went rigid, and for a moment, I was sure I'd fucked things up. But she continued to caress my chest as she spoke, "Don't pressure me. Not now."
Fuck. That wasn't the answer I wanted, not by a long shot. "Sage. Mate. Fate—"
"I know, Noah! Fate this, fate that," she snapped, then softened, "Look, I...care for you, Noah. Part of me wants to stay. A big part. But you have to let me make my own decisions."
In my head, I knew there was no way I was letting her go.
I'd lock her in the house if I had to. Hell, I'd take her and run somewhere far away to keep her at my side.
But as long as she wasn't going to leave immediately, there was no harm in giving her the words she wanted to hear at that moment. "Okay. Okay. I'll give you time."
"And cancel the fight with Joe."
That, I couldn't give her, "I can't. I can't back down without looking weak."
"But—"
I kissed her, swallowing the rest of her plea. "We're not talking about this anymore." "This isn't over," she warned.
"Oh, believe me," I replied, "I have no doubt."
There were a lot of things unsaid between us, but I didn't care. She was with me, in my bed, and that was all that mattered.
The rest would fall into place, one way or another.
***
Long after Sage fell asleep, I slid from the bed and found my phone in the pocket of my jeans, which had been thrown across the room in our desperation to get undressed. Fucking my mate, and then holding her in the afterglow, had made me sure of a few things.
First, I loved Sage.
Second, I needed to remove Joe from the equation as soon as possible. If he were gone, there would be no one to take her back to her old pack. I didn't care if he returned to Brokenclaw territory battered and bruised or in a coffin, as long as he was far away from Sage.
After checking the clock, I text Cal, "Tell Joe we'll have our fight at the sparring grounds tomorrow morning. 6 am. Don't tell anyone else."
If everything went the way I hoped, Joe would be defeated and gone by the time Sage woke up. She'd be undoubtedly pissed, but after the night we spent together, I knew our bond was strong enough to weather the storm.
All I had to do was win.