Page 25 of The Enforcers: NOAH

Mina smirked at Noah and turned toward the kitchen. He grabbed her hand.

“Still trying to scare me?” he murmured in her ear.

“Of course not,” she said innocently. “You love kids.” She pulled away and left him in the family room.

Noah hadn’t been lying about liking kids; he just hadn’t spent much time around them since he stopped being one.

But he’d always dreamed of having cubs of his own one day. He’d about given up on that dream when Selina fucked him up so bad, but Brock’s sweetness and enthusiasm tugged unexpectedly at his heartstrings.

The kid also wasn’t afraid of wolves, and he had good taste in cartoons. Both pluses in Noah’s book.

Noah went over to where Brock was sitting on the floor, surrounded by animals.

“Hey buddy,” he said, lowering himself to the floor. “Excellent animals, dude. Which one is your favorite?”

Brock dug into the pile. “This one. It’s a woof, see?” He held up a stuffed wolf.

“I met a woof before,” Brock added. “In Mommy’s office. It was really big and it looked scary, but it was a nice woof. Mommy said it was hurt and it might not like to be bothered, but it licked my hand and it let me pet its ears and it was awesome.”

Noah had to smile at the description of their encounter. It had been pretty awesome.

“That does sound cool,” he said. He scooched closer. “I like wolves too. They’re my favorite.”

“Here,” the boy said, handing over the wolf. “You be Mr. Gray Woof. I be the other one.”

Noah felt goosebumps on his arms. He knew it probably didn’t mean anything—it made sense for the kid to name his toy after the only wolf he’d ever seen in person.

But it still freaked him out a little, as if Brock could see the animal inside him.

Brock pulled a brown and cream wolf out of the pile, and then made it chase after a stuffed rabbit, making growly noises.

“The wolf sounds hungry,” Noah said. Pissed off, too. He wondered how Brock could mimic the sound of an angry baby wolf so accurately.

“Very hungry,” Brock said. And then, as if he’d heard Noah’s thoughts, “And he’s mad too. When he’s mad he wants to eat things.” He made the wolf pounce on the rabbit and made chomping noises, like the wolf was eating the rabbit.

“I can understand that,” Noah said. His wolf needed to hunt when it was angry. He’d eaten more than his fair share of rabbits and little forest creatures in the time since he’d been in Nashville.

But it was interesting that Brock’s toy wolf was angry. He wondered of Brock was angrier at his dad than he wanted to admit. Or at his mom.

“Mommy says it’s okay that woofs eat bunnies and things,” Brock said, frowning. “She says it’s how they are. But my friends at preschool say it’s bad.”

Yeah. Noah could imagine how well the idea of dead bunnies went over with other suburban four-year-olds.

“Well, your mom’s right,” Noah said. “Wolves are hunters, and it’s okay for them to be the way they are. But people have to make sure they keep their pets safe too. Like, if one of your friends had a pet that was a rabbit, he’d be very sad if it was eaten by a wolf.”

Brock nodded. “Woofs shouldn’t eat things that people care about.”

Well, that was one way of putting it. “Right,” Noah said.

He started examining his own wolf toy. It had Velcro down the center of its belly, and when he opened it up, there was fuzzy wool inside. He turned the thing inside out and stared.

“It turns into a sheep?” he said, looking at Brock. Who the fuck would make a wolf that turned into a sheep?

“It’s apposed to be a woof in sheep clothing. A secret woof,” Brock explained.

Yeah. Like any wolf would ever pretend to be prey. “No offense, but I think that’s kind of silly,” he said to Brock.

Brock nodded vigorously. “I know,” he said. “In real life, the woof doesn’t turn into a sheep. It turns into a person, and then back into a woof.”