There was no running. No hiding. These wolves were here for me and Noah, and there was no way out. I took another step back and ran into a solid wall of muscle. Noah moved behind me, and his hand landed on the small of my back.
"What are you doing here?" he said, voice loud and commanding.
The crowd seemed to part, and an older man, with dark, silver-streaked hair and a thick mustache, pushed forward and sneered at the two of us.
"We're here to see the witch," the man said, "We thought the Council might have been lying about you taking her as your mate."
My mouth went dry, and the anxiety rose. Noah's grip tightened, and I could sense him bristling at the comment.
"Sage is my mate. She is also a witch, a healer, and your Luna. You will address her with the respect she deserves."
A few of the people in the crowd shifted nervously, but the man only crossed his arms. "I was under the impression we didn't welcome magic users around here."
"If you are talking about my father," Noah replied, his voice still loud and steady, "then he had no place speaking on behalf of the pack. You should have asked me. But since you're all here now, everyone can listen up. Sage was a member of this pack, and she returned. She is not a criminal or an outsider, and she is now your Luna."
"Where did she go after she left the pack before?" another voice called out, and Noah shifted himself in front of me fully, giving me a slight push back towards the house. The messagewas clear—go back inside, and he'd deal with the crowd and their questions.
For the first time that day, I agreed with him. While Noah continued to deal with his agitated pack, I slipped back inside the house and closed the door behind me, exhaling in relief. Noah and the draw I felt towards him was hell on my psyche, but I'd rather deal with him a thousand times over than face the entirety of the Silvervine pack on my own.
He might have been the one to force me into this situation, but for the moment, he was going to be my only refuge, my only point of safety, too.
It was a thought I'd have to get used to, sooner rather than later. I'd have to let things calm down before I could even consider running away and making it back to the Brokenclaw pack. The residents of the town would need to be used to me before I could slip away, and for the moment, it looked like I was going to be the center of attention for a few days at least.
That was okay, I told myself over and over, it won't last forever. I just had to hold out, resist Noah's charms, and wait for the pack to lose interest in me. Then I could make my grand escape. And once I made it home, I'd never let my guard down again.
Chapter 7 - Noah
Two weeks. That was how long Sage and I had been orbiting each other in my home that suddenly felt too large and too small at the same time. I wanted her closer anytime she was away, but as soon as she was near me, the restlessness became almost too much to bear.
We didn't fight or argue, but by the second week, those kinds of interactions would have been a welcome change from the bland, cold attitude my mate was leveling at me. She wasn't outright hostile, and we didn't avoid each other completely, but she'd made it clear that she didn't want to interact with me unless absolutely necessary.
I couldn't say that I blamed her, but I did wish that she would give me a chance. We'd gone from being best friends to strangers, and even though I could feel our bond humming between us, Sage wasn't having it.
She slept in the guest room—her choice, not mine. I'd tried to get her to stay with me, but she made it abundantly clear that she'd rather sleep outside on the ground than share a bed with me. I told myself that I was fine letting her sleep elsewhere, but every night it was like I could hear her breathing through the wall, and my wolf paced inside of me, ready at any second to burst forth and claim what was ours if only I'd give him a chance.
I was stronger than that, but her scent, sweet and warm, and her nearness were wearing on my self-control. Every time I walked into a room and she was there, or every time she brushed against me as we passed each other, the hold I had on myself grew weaker and weaker.
It was both a blessing and a curse that I was swamped with pack business. I knew that those early days with Sagewere important if I wanted to make her relax around me and eventually accept our bond, but I was also thankful for an excuse to be away from her and the constant temptation that she offered.
But it wasn't just convenient. The pack business was real, and it had to be dealt with. After being gone for so long, things had stacked up, waiting for me to return. Disputes, supply issues, dealings with other local packs, and, of course, the slow, steady decline of our pack land. That last one terrified me and made me feel helpless, but it also wasn't something I could ignore. It was a mystery I had to solve, even if it felt impossible.
Crops were dying, rivers were running dry, and no one knew why. And then, of course, there was the issue of my missing memory.
Cal was the only one I told about it, and I trusted my Beta to keep things quiet. Some of the pack were already on edge because of my choice in mate, and the fact that their Alpha had forgotten a significant amount of time would put them on the edge of revolt. I didn't blame them, of course, because their fears were founded in reality. An Alpha that was mentally unsteady was dangerous.
Something told me that my Beta knew more than he was letting on. When I pressed him, asking him if he knew why I was so far away from our territory when I was attacked, he said he wasn't sure, but that he'd look into it.
As the days passed, I'd get bits and pieces of memories—running through the forest, chasing something that I was desperate to catch, and then, strangest of all, feelings of hesitation to fight back when I was attacked.
Something was missing not just from my memory, but from my life, and those who knew what it was were unwilling totell me. I was getting sick of waiting, and soon I was just going to force the answer out of Cal, even if it tainted the necessary trust that existed between an Alpha and his Beta. I couldn't keep living without all of my memories, not when I was also fighting with the overwhelming desire for a mate that wanted nothing to do with me.
Then there was the issue with my father.
I hadn't dared to take Sage to see him, but as soon as she fell asleep on our first night back in pack territory, I left the house to go and confront him myself. I knew that some of his old cronies had undoubtedly already broken the news of my marriage to him, but I also knew if I didn't tell him myself that he'd call me a coward.
I'd made my way to my childhood home that night in the dark, entering without even knocking. I hadn't thought about the house's other resident, my cousin Summer, because I'd been so wrapped up in thoughts about Sage and how Dad was going to react, and I'd scared the hell out of her by just barging in.
She'd scolded me for not inviting her to the quick wedding ceremony, but her usual bright attitude had been subdued. She knew what I was there to do, and she wasn't going to hold me up for too long.
