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“It’s not just us. Most of the clan has had enough. But no one is stupid enough to challenge him.”
“Why’s that?” Noah barked.
“He’sinsane.”
A silence grew between the shifters, as did that sickening sensation in Noah’s gut. But he didn’t have any other choice. Fleeing was no longer viable.
“Well, I don’t think he’s stupid enough,” Lev said, breaking the tension. “But Noah is most certainly strong enough to take him on. We want you to spread the word that this man right here is looking for him. And when he beats this maniac, you will have a new alpha.”
Noah didn’t like their expressions. The color had drained from their faces, and their stares had gone from amused to somber. It was clear that they had little hope for his victory.
“Spread the word, and it will be your reality,” Lev said, rising from the booth proudly. “Make no mistake about it.”
All four of the shifters left the bar after having one more drink, not wanting to look too dubious. When they exited into the cold night air, Noah felt like he had to catch his breath.
“Just wait in the car. I’ll be a second.”
Noah doubled over as Chris and Simon walked ahead. Lev remained, of course, as always.
“I know what you’re thinking. But I know you, Noah. You were made to be an alpha, the same way Becca was made to be your mate.”
Acid rose from Noah’s gut and up through his throat. It rested there, lodged like a tasteless memory.
He wanted to believe Lev. He had to believe him if he wanted to make the life he had seen a sneak preview of at the lake house.
It would all be worth it.
SIXTEEN
BECCA
Becca felt like her heart was breaking all over again.
She knew that Noah and the clan had no better options. She thought about what it might be like for the two of them to run away, and as romantic a fantasy as it was, it really wasn’t realistic. Dustin would come after them no matter where they went.
He was a delusional alpha shifter who enjoyed the thrill of the hunt, likely more than the capture itself. She had to respect what Noah was going to do, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t terrified.
She had gotten a taste of the dream life she had always longed for with Noah, and she wanted more of it. It felt like torture to have something so wonderful snatched away in the blink of an eye, so much like the way their budding courtship had been when all of the confusion with Mitch had first erupted.
Noah had asked her to stay away from her job and her regular haunts until he came back with the word on what the rest of the plan would entail. That meant keeping away from her own home and staying within the home of his parents, guarded by several enforcers.
She bristled a bit at the implication that she couldn’t handle herself. Becca wasn’t some dainty, fragile teacup like most men thought of human women. She was as much of a shifter as Noah was. He had experienced her strength firsthand. They had many playful wrestling matches, along with the profound passion of their sex that destroyed a good handful of bed frames and walls along the way.
But she also knew that all of that was his way of telling her that he was scared too. When it came down to the wire, he knew she could defend herself in a physical fight. His concern for her was just as palpable as the mere idea of a simple bruise on him sent her rage to the moon and back.
So she had accepted it, promising him that she wouldn’t go anywhere near her frequented spots before he gave word that it was safe. Noah left on the Sunday they were supposed to still be up at the lake house, saying that it would only be a few days before he came back to her.
She didn’t know exactly what that meant. But his parents reassured her that Noah, despite all of his mistakes and foibles, was a man of his word.
“He has never stopped loving you,” his mother, Sherri, informed Becca one night during dinner. “It nearly killed him to have to leave. There is no way he isn’t going to fight tooth and nail to keep you now.”
That warmed Becca’s heart. But it didn’t stop the tension that moved around ragged like barbed wire through her blood, encouraging whispers of what-ifs.
The second night he was away, Becca needed to get out of the four walls imprisoning her. The clan site wasn’t exactly massive … only a few acres that Lev owned from his lineage … so she wouldn't be able to go very far, anyway. She snuck out as the grasshoppers sang their crestfallen tunes, jumping softly out the back window and into the garden like she was a teenager again.
Becca didn’t have any idea where she was going. All she knew was that she needed to get out into the air. It was stifling inside, and she was swimming in worry. She had turned her phone off just as Noah had instructed, as had he. There was no way for her to know where he was or what he was doing until he came back.
And between that silence was only space and time for unimaginable horrors acting like a play in her mind.
