Page 47 of The Enforcers: NOAH

Flynn sighed, running his hand tiredly through his hair. “At least until we know if he can change back this time,” he said. “What the hell else are we going to do? None of the other buildings will hold him if he goes rogue, and he already tore up your room that one time without even shifting. Plus, I was going to ask you if the woman and the kid could stay in your quarters. You’ve got the biggest bed.”

Tank looked down at Brock, who was steadying himself with a hand on Flynn’s leg. He shifted the white wolf’s weight, then reached out a huge pawlike hand and touched Brock’s head lightly.

Mina moved slightly, as if she wanted to snatch up her son, but she seemed hesitant to go that close to the other shifters.

Tank nodded to Mina. “Sure,” he said. “Use my room. I’m gonna stay up with Tris anyway.”

He heaved a sigh and walked over to one of the outbuildings, carrying the wolf carefully. There was a big iron hasp across the door, with an open iron padlock hooked into it.

Tank unhooked the padlock, opened the door and laid the wolf inside, on what looked like a thick bed of fresh straw.

At least the “crazy shed” was comfortable, Noah thought. Good to know, in case he ended up in it.

Tank put his hand on the wolf’s shoulder for a moment, as if comforting a friend. Then he moved back and lowered his huge hulk to sit down across the open doorway, slumping as though he were very weary.

Flynn watched him get settled. “You okay?” he called. “Need somebody to dig those bullets out?”

The big man shrugged, glancing at a wound in his side, black with dried blood. “Jasmin will do it.”

Flynn nodded. “Okay.” He turned to Noah and Mina. “Let’s get you all into the house and straighten out this cluster fu—” He glanced at Mina, then Brock. “Mess,” he amended.

Mina reached for Brock, but he grabbed onto the big man’s hand and tugged it.

“Why is the bear-man sad?” he asked.

Flynn gave a tired sigh. “Because Tristan—the white wolf—is his best friend. Tank is afraid he can’t shift back to human. And that’s not good, because if he’s a wolf too long it makes him crazy.”

Brock nodded. “He forgot how to be a person.”

Flynn looked down at the little boy. “Yeah. He forgot how to be a person. That’s why we put him in the shed. Come on inside now.”

He turned and trudged toward the cabin, his shoulders bowed.

Brock hesitated a minute, then ran forward and slipped his hand into Flynn’s. “Don’t be sad, Mr. Roary Lion,” he said. “We’ll help him remember.”

Flynn stopped dead and stared down at Brock. “I didn’t tell you I was a lion,” he said. “How did you know?”

Brock shrugged slowly, his little shoulders coming up almost to his ears. “I didn’t know first, but then when you carried me I listened inside you and I heard a big roary lion.”

Flynn gave Noah a sharp look. “He can sense people’s animals?”

Noah spread his hands. “No clue.”

Brock nodded. “I heard Mr. Gray Woof inside Mr. Noah. And I heard Mr. Tristan inside Mr. White Woof, but he’s confused and scared and mad and he doesn’t know how to come out.”

Flynn and Noah stared at each other. Noah had never heard of anyone who could not only sense an animal inside a human, but who could sense the human inside the animal.

Where the hell had Brock come from? Who was his father?

Mina came up beside him. “Noah, what’s going on here?” she murmured, sounding scared.

He put his hand on her back, trying to reassure her, but all he could think of to say was, “I have no fucking idea.”

Flynn walked up the steps to the cabin, still holding Brock’s hand. Mina followed, feeling like everything was out of control. People who turned into animals, who locked people in sheds and dug bullets out of each other on a regular basis, and who looked at her like she was invisible, or at best, an afterthought.

Because she was human. She was the only human person here. And her son was walking off with a naked man like he was perfectly at home with him.

And Noah was part of their world, not hers.