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If he could have smiled in lion form, he would have as he remembered seeing just the top of her head and her eyes peeking over the top of the door. She’d been far from hidden in that moment, but it was better than her being completely visible. And he didn’t blame her for needing to watch. If their situation was reversed, he wouldn’t have been able to hide away and not know if she was okay or not.
She stirred and he turned his head, watching as she blinked several times, frowning with confusion. Glancing over, her eyes widened as she saw him. Almost like she’d forgotten for a moment that he was a lion. She smiled gently at him, her eyes starting to fall closed again, and then she sat up abruptly.
“Noah! Why are you still a lion? What’s going on?”
He glanced over at the human man and nodded toward him before looking back at her. She frowned as her gaze followed his.
“Because of him? You think he’s still a threat?” She sighed when he lifted a shoulder in his lion version of a shrug. “I like hanging out with your lion, but this not being able to talk thing can get old.”
She stood, stretching her neck and then her back as she walked back and forth. Rising, he blocked her path when it looked like she was going to move past him, and she swatted at him while wrinkling her brow, exasperation in her blue eyes.
That was his girl. Swatting at a fully grown, massive lion, with zero fear in her eyes. God, she was amazing.
“I wasn’t going to get close. Although, should he still be knocked out? It’s been a while now.” She glanced at her watch and then gasped, her eyes shooting back to him. “Noah! It’s been almost two hours since I got out of the truck. Why did you let me sleep that long? I get that we’re probably waiting for Blake, but I could have been working.”
Before he could lift his shoulder in a shrug, he heard the sound of a vehicle turning onto the road. Whirling to face that direction, he backed up, pushing Lily behind him, never taking his eyes off the road. He should have shifted enough to destroy the two men’s phones, because what someone had discovered where they were and why?
He was a fucking idiot. He was an ex-Marine, and now an Enforcer, for too many years to make such stupid mistakes. If there was one thing he’d learned, it was to leave nothing to chance.
That he’d forgotten that rule while his mate was present was unforgivable.
Lily put her hand on his hip and his growl cut off abruptly. He hadn’t even realized he’d been doing it, too focused on the road. It was taking the vehicle way too fucking long to reach them and—
A bright red truck came around the bend and he relaxed as he recognized it. It was Blake’s, and he had Luke with him. He watched as they pulled to a stop next to the car, both getting out. Lily walked up next to him, and they watched as Blake and Luke walked over to the human man.
“I’ll get a set of clothes out for you now that they’re here. I saw how your clothes shredded when you shifted.”
He dipped his head, turning to watch as she walked back to the truck. Nudity was a way of life for shifters, and he, Blake, and Luke wouldn’t be bothered by it. But Lily was a human and it might make her uncomfortable, so he’d get dressed as soon as he shifted.
She emerged about a minute later with clothes in her hand and he walked over to her, following her as she led him behind the truck. He’d explain later about shifters and being naked, but it far easier to just follow her instead of trying to convey somehow that he could shift in front of the guys.
Once he was back with her, he closed his eyes and focused on his human form. Loud pops echoed around them, bouncing off the trees, as his bones broke and reformed. With a blinding flash of pain, he was standing in his human form.
She held his clothes out to him, but he ignored them, using her wrist to pull her against him. Squeaking as she hit his chest, she laughed as she looked up and met his eyes.
“Hi,” she said softly, her striking blue eyes happy.
“Hi.”
Not saying anything else, he lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers. He kissed her softly and slowly, nipping on her bottom lip before he pulled back. He wanted to continue, to deepen the kiss, but he needed to get dressed and talk to the Enforcers. Besides, Blake and Luke had seen him naked plenty of times and it didn’t bother him, but he didn’t particularly want to walk around naked with a boner in front of them, either.
Easing away, he took the clothes from her and quickly pulled them on, giving her another quick kiss before walking to the driver’s side and getting his shoes off the floorboard and his hat from the seat. Once he was finished putting them on, he took Lily’s hand and walked to meet the guys.
“Lily, this is Luke. He’s Tarun’s husband.”
Before Luke could say anything, Lily let go of Noah’s hand and stepped forward, hugging him. Noah shrugged as Luke raised his eyebrows at him over her shoulder, not sure why she was hugging his friend.
“Thank you for taking Noah in when you guys were kids, and for being his friend,” he heard her whisper.
He felt his own eyebrows raise at her words. He hadn’t known why she was hugging Luke, but he never would have suspected that was the reason.
“He’s an easy man to be friends with,” Luke replied as she pulled away.
Blake stood as he glanced over at Noah. “This one’s a human?”
Lily looked over at him with surprise. “He is? Why didn’t you tell me that? I thought he was a shifter like the other one.”
“I couldn’t tell you. I’m sorry if you worried about him, though.”
