“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”
He pulls me onto his lap, and I twine my arms around his neck. “I’m just making a plan for getting back in.” He takes the drone higher and lifts it up above the treetops, then sweeps it over the entire compound.
“So this is the tower where Oriana is being kept?” He points at a tower and raises his brows.
I nod.
“Do you know how I can get in?”
My stomach tightens. “It will be heavily guarded. We’d need some kind of distraction.”
Noah shakes his head. “No we. I go alone. I don’t want you in danger.” He lands the drone in a tree to give me his full attention.
“No. I know the land, the buildings, and the people. You need me.”
A stubborn look comes over his face. “I won’t put you in danger again.”
I bare my teeth, gathering the power of the Grandmothers to me as I show him my wolf and my magic. “I will go with you.”
Fascination coats his stare as the corners of his lips twitch. He seems to drink me in, long enough that my fierceness starts to fade, and I blush.
“You’re so beautiful it hurts,” he says.
“I’m going with you.”
He frowns. “I don’t like it.”
I kiss his temple. “I know you don’t.” I try to think of how we might pull this off. The best thing would be if they believed Oriana and Liora escaped on their own. That way nothing would be traced back to Noah or the Blackthroats.
“Noah, what is your relationship with the Blackthroats? You said you aren’t one of them, but my visions showed me you near them.”
“I work for Moon Co.”
That tracks. “Brick Blackthroat’s company.”
“Yes.”
“But you didn’t join their pack?”
“Right. I’m a lone wolf. I came to New York to take down the Moonborn, and I didn’t want to involve them in that.”
“And they were okay with you not pledging your loyalty?”
He flicks his eyebrows. “No. Not really. Brick took offense. And I’m in deep shit with them right now over the tiara heist. I’m supposed to present myself by tonight, or I assume I will lose my job or maybe worse.”
I stare at Noah, shocked by the stress he’s been silently carrying. “Are you going to go?”
He frowns. “No. It was nice while it lasted, but it’s over now. I found the Moonborn.” His expression softens, and he reaches for my cheek. “I found you.”
“You’re not sorry? You didn’t like your job?”
He hesitates, and I know he does. I’m hit with a flash of Noah at a wedding, and he seems happy.
“Are they your friends?”
His expression closes off again, and he shrugs. “I thought we might be friends. They learned ASL.”
I blink in surprise. “That sounds like they care about you. I didn’t think the Blackthroats cared about anyone but the Blackthroats.”
